Bring me the head of Diego Garcia...and the Mayor of Addu Atoll too!

[Cap Mandrake]

10:00

The carrier planes from about 160 mi to the west. Yeah baby!

Morning Air attack on TF, near Port Hedland at 57,129

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 36 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 7



Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 5
F4F-4 Wildcat x 34
SBD-3 Dauntless x 45
TBF-1 Avenger x 17


Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Albacore I: 1 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 2 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak
TBF-1 Avenger: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 12, on fire
BB Hyuga, Torpedo hits 3
CL Isuzu, Bomb hits 1
CL Jintsu
CL Oi
DD Yugao

[Cap Mandrake]

10:30

Nice raid over PH

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 32 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes


Allied aircraft
Mitchell II x 3
Bolingbroke IV x 6
B-17E Fortress x 26
B-24D Liberator x 42
B-26B Marauder x 12


Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 3 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 3 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
478 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 33 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

[Cap Mandrake]

10:40

B-17's over Broome. Recon was wrong. They have fighters up.

Morning Air attack on Broome , at 62,127

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 37 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 21



Allied aircraft
B-17F Fortress x 15
LB-30 Liberator x 6


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17F Fortress: 3 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 9

[Cap Mandrake]

10:45

More AK's about 80 WNW of PH. F4F's from the carriers try to help out. Evidently Broome is out of torps.



Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 47 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 18 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G3M2 Nell x 9



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 30


No Japanese losses

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
xAKL Selma City
xAKL Anakan, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

[Cap Mandrake]

11:00

Hyuga in for more punishment. Unescorted SBD's. LYB CAP over PH is now depleted.

Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 21


Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CL Oi, Bomb hits 1
CL Kiso

[Cap Mandrake]

12:10

I may have misundersetimated the torpedo supply at Broome (or they might be coming from Timor). The P-38's are AWOL.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Hedland at 57,128

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 14 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 12



Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
xAK Elmdale
xAK Deslock, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
xAK Pardo, on fire, heavy damage

[Cap Mandrake]

12:40

Carpender zigs when he should have zagged. F4F's from the carriers try to help out. Again the P-38's are AWOL.

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid detected at 58 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 24 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 36
B5N2 Kate x 24



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 37


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed

Allied Ships
BB Valiant, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CA Canberra, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Decoy, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Fortune

[Cap Mandrake]

02:10

ASW group that was leading some of the tranpsorts is hit by more carrier planes.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Port Hedland at 56,128

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 6
B5N2 Kate x 20



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 10


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
AM Colac, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
KV Vancouver, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
KV Dawson, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AM Deloraine, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

[Cap Mandrake]

17:00-18:00

I-155 is sunk by the carriers ASW group and I-165 is hurt badly. Then JJ attacks again at PH, again managing a 2:1 attack.

We lose more infantry squads but they have heavy disruption of their infantry as well.

Ground combat at Port Hedland (57,129)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 41699 troops, 447 guns, 206 vehicles, Assault Value = 1051

Defending force 19559 troops, 547 guns, 395 vehicles, Assault Value = 391

Japanese adjusted assault: 460

Allied adjusted defense: 218

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1727 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 146 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 16 disabled


Allied ground losses:
649 casualties reported
Squads: 26 destroyed, 24 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 48 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 32 (4 destroyed, 28 disabled)
Vehicles lost 18 (1 destroyed, 17 disabled)

[Chickenboy]

Holding tight. Tenacious defense. "Give up, Allied dogs", says Tokyo Rose. "You don't want to die tired."

Did you unload any supply with the few ships that got in?

[Cap Mandrake]

I have my doubts about how much supply got in. Certainly almost none from HMIS Cornwallis group.

But we do have more to the West perhaps one day out and 5 undamaged BB's will full ammo that can reach PH tonight. In addition, the Jap carriers will be low on torps and I think they will have suffered more fighter losses. We also have fresh SBD's and some fresh F4F's and Sea Hurricanes ashore.

[sprior]

Hopefully we have more BBs than they have torps...

Lucky we ordered up those extra supply convoys. Or was that skill? let's put it down to skill.

Looks like we swapped Valiant for Hyuga and 1 very badly damged other BB.

[zuluhour]

Hopefully we have more BBs than they have torps...

[:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: sprior

Hopefully we have more BBs than they have torps...

Lucky we ordered up those extra supply convoys. Or was that skill? let's put it down to skill.

Looks like we swapped Valiant for Hyuga and 1 very badly damged other BB.

Yes, I think you are right +/- Hawkins.

Yamashiro has to be hurt pretty badly.

We lost 2 x DD, 2 x KV and 2 x AM, they lost Nagara and 1 DD and a sub with a few CA's damaged.

Yamato is still a threat.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

Hopefully we have more BBs than they have torps...

[:D]

Well, technically, what we really need is about 1 BB for every 3 of their torps.

[sprior]

Then we've already won!

[Cap Mandrake]

JJ have left a surface group or two at PH, though I am not sure of their ammo situation. Perhaps a fresh group snuck in after Valiant exited and manged to escape air attack. More likely these are survivors of the night fighting and air attacks.

JJ is definitely rearming at Broome (at least cruiser and DD's and perhaps even Yamato).

East African Brigade now has no infantry. It is quite desperate. Br. 2nd has a lot of fighting power left but is severly disrupted and fatigued.

[Cap Mandrake]

Air losses for the day. JJ lost quite a few Zeroes although some of these may have been in Burma.

One Alf lost. This was probably on the CL that was sunk. Would Hyuga have aircraft? Mouseover on the carriers shows 70 fighters, 115 bombers. They may have back-filled from land bases.

[Cap Mandrake]

Looks like we send in the BB force (Adm Patterson, 5 x 21-22kt BB's with radar, Adelaide and 5 RN/USN DD's) tonight and clean up the vermin there while standing off the transports. Perhaps Adelaide or a DD could go in first to mop up the smaller vermin.

Several questions:

1) Do we set the BB's to bombard or surface combat?

2) Do we hold one or two back to bombard tomorrow night and cover the AK's?

3) Do we try to keep some surface force at PH with remain on station command?

4) How long can this go on? Should we send PoW and Washington from Sydney and Auckland?

[Cap Mandrake]

Uggh. Carnarvon and Exmouth with severe storms. Geraldton with heavy rain. Meekathara seems to have good weather. Severe storms over Wyndham. Good flying weather over Broome.

Severe storms over PH. The weather might keep the fighters at PH grounded...or maybe not.