I sent some CVs over to Wupenko to bomb the port - I had reconned the place earlier and found a dozen LCI and APD ships in there and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to get my carrier pilots some more experience, as well as damaging his best invasion tools before they start invading!
Raver saw me coming (IJN CVEs are very, very slow) and transferred some Corsairs over to Wupenko - as well as setting plenty of CAP, he shoved a few transports into Wupenko in TFs and with their home base there (he's tried this trick before). Those transports are the bait to lure my bombers over his flak and under his fighters on full CAP!
Well, my bombers were set to naval attack/port attack, and wisely they decided to hit the port. Guess what they found?
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 02/26/43
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Air attack on Wunpuko , at 51,51
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 88
A6M3 Zero x 15
D3A Val x 157
B5N Kate x 168
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 35
F4U-1 Corsair x 10
P-39D Airacobra x 9
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 8 destroyed
A6M3 Zero x 3 destroyed
D3A Val x 3 destroyed
D3A Val x 19 damaged
B5N Kate x 6 destroyed
B5N Kate x 5 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 22 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat x 5 damaged
F4U-1 Corsair x 1 destroyed
F4U-1 Corsair x 1 damaged
P-39D Airacobra x 6 destroyed
P-39D Airacobra x 2 damaged
PO1 H.Ohara of AII-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 5
Allied Ships
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 11, on fire
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
AK Leonis, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Aulick, Bomb hits 1
DD DeHaven, Bomb hits 2, on fire
APD Gilmer, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CL Honolulu, Bomb hits 2
APD Humphreys, Bomb hits 1
DD Lang, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Bush, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Lesuth, Bomb hits 1, on fire
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 3, on fire
DD Meredith, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Wichita, Bomb hits 1
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 94
Port hits 7
Port fuel hits 6
Port supply hits 5
Attacking Level Bombers:
9 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
12 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
9 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
13 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
13 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
16 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
16 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
17 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
16 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
11 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
13 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
14 x B5N Kate at 10000 feet
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The "i" screen records the air to air losses a little differently however! I lost 4 planes to flak, 6 to operational losses, and 22 to Raver's fighters, while he lost 32 fighters to mine! I tangled with Corsairs and although I only got 1 of them, I tore one wildcat squadron apart.
Now my CVs are going to hit the airbase there and smash some Corsairs on the ground hopefully. Tenessee and Maryland are older battlewagons - the sort you escort transports with instead of bombarding things with. Witchita, Aulick and Maryland are the only ships on the above list that I don't think I did appreciable damage to. The rest will be in port for a long time (or more likely, Raver will palm them off to Pearl to get even mor ships back in return).
Nice to know that when the invasions start, the IJN battlewagons will now probably outnumber Ravers at 3.5 to 1 or better (Maryland and Washington against my 7 BBs!!!).
Fortunately, Irau is now pretty secure - lots of troops.
A bit annoyed that Raver says he isn't invading PM - I took the gamble and packed many, many big regiments in there and now the jungle is just going to eat them until the end of the game. The supply situation is fine, but I can't risk my precious transports in evacuations from PM and GG (even to save all that flak that is going to rot while his bombers are hitting Lunga). I am certainly not sending them marching over the mountains to Buna!!!!
His Uber CV TF had me cold in their sights and he runs away under the cover of a storm! I now have 2 BBs that will make it to Noumea and then onto Pearl (maybe I will send them there, I still need the yardbirds to give them a closer look to see how bad the damage really is).
I am reaching the end of my tether!!!!!!!!:eek: