ADavidB
Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001
From: Toronto, Canada
Status: offline
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June 20 -
The flyboys of the Lex, Sara and even of their escorts came through in grand style against the fleeing ships of the Baker Island Invasion force. The first attack:
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Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 14
SBD Dauntless x 34
TBD Devastator x 15
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless: 1 damaged
TBD Devastator: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Horai Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 1
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The second attack:
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Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
SBD Dauntless x 34
TBD Devastator x 15
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Horai Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gotake Maru
AP Gyoko Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PC Sonan Maru #5, on fire, heavy damage
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Even the Seagulls get into the act:
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Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 4
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Igasa Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
And:
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 6
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
PC Sonan Maru #5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Gotake Maru
AP Igasa Maru, on fire, heavy damage
And finally:
Day Air attack on TF at 91, 90
Allied aircraft
SOC-3 Seagull x 2
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Igasa Maru, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x SOC-3 Seagull bombing at 2000 feet
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Two Japanese APs sank by the end of the day. But there are still stragglers left, so the Task Force will remain around one more day to see if they can pick off some more.
I also sent B-17s out of Canton to hit the airfield at Baker. It turns out that Tophat did put some Zeros there and the somewhat "virginal" B-17 pilots in this air group had some difficulties against the Zeros and didn't get to drop their bombs. But they will be back, as will other US forces.
Meanwhile, in China the weather again kept most of the bombers on the ground but the fighters came out again over Sian where my Brits came close to fighting the Zeros to a standstill. And my veteran Chinese pilots in those IL-4cs got off despite the weather and hit Changsha airfield hard.
At the same time in Java Japanese Army bombers came in again over Soerabaja only to meet the usual heavy flak and thus to suffer their usual heavy casualties while inflicting negligible damage on the Dutch. Then a strange thing occurred - a bunch of Japanese Tabby transports attempted to fly something - maybe supplies, maybe troops - into Soerabaja. Half of the Tabbys were damaged while the other half were shot down by the flak. Then Tophat tried a shock attack with his troops:
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Ground combat at Soerabaja
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 100967 troops, 987 guns, 78 vehicles
Defending force 52165 troops, 327 guns, 44 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)
Japanese ground losses:
1811 casualties reported
Guns lost 62
Vehicles lost 3
Allied ground losses:
838 casualties reported
Guns lost 39
Vehicles lost 1
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The Dutch Assault Strength dropped only marginally and there is still plenty of supply there, so this wasn't a good day overall for the Japanese in Java.
The final big area under contention, Timor, had two things happen. First off, I sent in my B-17s again, and again they hammered the Zeros and the air base. But Tophat has yet another transport TF in harbor and is undoubtedly unloading more troops and supplies. And this time I don't have the Brit CVs nearby while Tophat does have Japanese CVs lurking a short ways away, so I can't really do much to interfere with this latest delivery. Oh well, it just means more troops to be trapped there. BTW - Tophat doesn't know it but I have C-47s bringing supplies to Dili and Lautem, so once he decides to go after those two bases the troops there won't be total pushovers.
Dave Baranyi
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