Fulkerson (J) vs Moore (A) ( no Moore )

[larryfulkerson]

The 2nd IJN Pion Bn has finally reached Cebu. They are being unloaded into a port that has been devestated and needs bou cou
repair. Plus the Resource Centers and Manpower centers need to be repaired. There was a lot of damage done by the naval
bombardment. I can see doing naval bombardments but I'm seeing firsthand what the results are when you do that to a port and an
air field. I expect the damage to be repaired in about two months......maybe less.

[larryfulkerson]

Task Force 377 has graciously volunteered to take a peek at the strength of the Allied Air Power in the waters just north and northeast of
Darwin. I'm planning on running my big guns TF through here to get to Port Moresby and I'd really rather not be surprised at the
ferosity and pentitude of Allied air power. So I'll run a volunteer through those waters and see what happens. I have no real good idea
what Jim has stationed at Darwin....I have a sub parked there true but I'm guessing his intel deals with ships and he can't see over the
immediate horizon and see into the land past the trees. He probably doesn't know about the planes there and the number of LCU's that
might be there. I need some good recon of this particular area. I'll look around for a lose Bab's unit I can spare.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a Bab's unit that had one plane left and moved it close enough to overlook Darwin. I'll move it closer tomorrow. With the radius
of range this plane has I can scope out much of the north coast of OZ. I've given it the target: "Darwin" and maybe we'll get some
actionable intel about the Darwin situation.

[larryfulkerson]

The Zuikaku came down with a serious ailment.......some major damage that needs to be fixed. I'm sending it to a repair shipyard,
probably Naha, with an escort to make the trip safer and it should get there within a week. This comes at a bad time too, I could really
use her services out on the front lines. But, probably better to repair the damage before it gets worse and would take twice as long to fix
in the yards.

[larryfulkerson]

I got to snooping around just now and discovered to my surprise that I have more troops at Gasmata now than Jim does and I'm guessing
that they have enough supplies to mount a bombardment. Maybe my bombardments will garner more results than Jim's has up til now.
I'd like to get Gasmata cleaned up because those guys at Port Moresby need some help.

EDIT: And yes, I noticed where the 1st China Assault Div has Rabaul as their target still......I fixed it so it's Gasmata now and the
bombardment can go off without a hitch tomorrow.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's TF 394. They are empty sitting at Pescadores and I'm wondering what to do with them. Originally, I had thought to send them to
Tokyo to get some more supplies for Pescadores but I got to looking around and sure enough found a TF 202 that is delivering a boat
load of supplies to Pescadores. So now my thought is to get them started loading supplies.....Pescadores has enough supplies for that,
and when the boat-load arrives and starts to unload there will be enough to load TF 394 so those supplies can be carried to CRB or
Saigon, or places to the s and sw of there. Palembang rings a bell here.

[larryfulkerson]

I-165 has graciously volunteered to sail into port at Port Hedland to join the E boat and the three other subs already there. Good hunting
I-165 dude.

[larryfulkerson]

Jim has some PT boats headed toward Oosthaven and Batavia and my operations ongoing and I just happened to have TF 501 handy.
It's some DD's and a DMS ship and I'm tasking it to take on the PT boats if possible and dispatch them. The DMS ship is just in case the
PT boats back into some port that has mines, I can still go after them.

EDIT: If you look closely you'll notice that Jim has pushed a sub up into my port at Oosthaven and is making a pest of himself. I've got
some ASW patrolling the hex and we may ( or may not ) get a hit on him shortly since he's in shallow water and presumably moving.

[larryfulkerson]

I-15 is one of my picket subs and they usually find themselves baby-sitting a port, in this case, Midway, and he reports that there are new
visitors to Midway's port, a DD and an AK. So it's just about time to dispatch TF 559 sitting at Wake, to go to Midway and investigate
somewhat. Maybe start a fight or something. And there will have to be an AO dispatched too just in case it gets nasty and takes longer
than a knife fight. All that for two ships on the Allied side. This could be one of those bait and switch things that Jim likes to do. Send a
couple of ships somewhere to be noticed and then creap up with your carriers to those that come calling and snap the trap shut. I hope
not. Most of my carriers are committed already: Johnston Island and the Port Moresby area. Maybe I can split off a carrier or two to
send this way just to back-up already committed forces.

[larryfulkerson]

TF 524 is my big guns for the SW sector. The Port Moresby area. The TF looks to be still about 3 days from the fight, and there's time
yet to get them there in time to defend the picket ships. Those picket ships are primarily PB's and DD's and are low-cost, make-shift
recon boats that can be expended if need be. Mostly to placemark on the water where you've already looked and define where you
still need to look for the bad guys.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm calculating that TF 544 needs to be dispatched from Pescadores NOW rather than load another day. I'm thinking that Cam Ranh
Bay needs the supplies as soon as possible even if there are less when it get's delivered. Until another load can be arranged. For Cam
Ranh Bay. The idea is to keep some kind of sustainable level at all the Hubs and Spokes so that they don't get into spoilage but they
have some of the necessary goodies when it's needed by somebody down-hub from them so to speak. I'm guessing about 100K of fuel
and supplies each should be good for Truk for a while and maybe not quite that much for Bubble Drop. Not to mention CRB and Saigon and Hong Kong. Some of the Hubs, like Hong Kong, are so far off the beaten track that they are replaced by different hubs, closer to the
actual traffic. I'll have to build a chain of ports and air fields before I'm happy with the supply flow. I need to be able to deliver whatever
is actually needed eventually, say, within a week. That's my goal for supply.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm moving the naval search pattern ( TF 545 ) further north to include the Port Moresby area. I think I'll start at the north end of this
finger and search south trying to go slowly and throughly so as to miss nothing. There's no hurry I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's TF 576, the carriers for the SW sector. As you can see they are still a little more than a day from Shortlands and I expect them
to have 100% of their sorties and ready to go when they actually join the fight, if there is one.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's TF 811 which is a minelayer ship and I'm going to ask it to dash into the Port Moresby port and lay some mines. This little move
might get this ship killed but it might just put a stop to the Allied naval bombardment(s). I figure it's worth a try. One more thing rather
then just getting by with a sub parked at Port Moresby only.

[larryfulkerson]

Jim and I have exchanged moves and I did the combat replay etc. And so here's the latest moves.

Nothing was happening as a result of a series of attacks like this one, the E boat was running outta gas, so I sent it to Koepang.

[larryfulkerson]

This kind of result happened twice and there were several attacks of this kind. I'm unloading supplies to the Gasmata Jap forces and
Jim's defenders are shooting back. He's just using up his supplies at a faster rate this way.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's some major excitement for the day, my heavy guns attack on the Allied TF chasing my carriers. It's dissappeared from my
radar screens and I can't find 'em on the map. I'm hoping that means they have retired but I can't count on that and need to keep going
w/ the carriers for another day. Just in case.

[larryfulkerson]

And then there was this attack on Georgetown by my Betty's:

[larryfulkerson]

And then there was this attack by my Lilly's:

[larryfulkerson]

And then there was this attack on Darwin: