Hi All,
Firstly, a quick question: How do I create those midget sub TF's again? Not the one's from the base screen but those that can be carried to an enemy port on a mother ship and conduct a midget sub attack (a la Pearl Harbour)?
A mixed couple of days. Not a lot of significant action on the 22nd but the 23rd was action packed.
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SoPac:
My transports and KB left the PM area on the 22nd. Looking forward to getting KB back to Truk. Many of the ships will go back to Japan for upgrades.
I decided to send my
Nagato/
Mutsu covering SC TF to bombard Horn Island. There's a reported 21 fighters, 54 bombers and 40 auxiliaries there. They should bombard overnight tomorrow. My TF has not been spotted either so it should be fun. Naturally my TF FP's will be up as spotters.
I'd also been secretly planning a further little counter-attack recently. Dad landed at Arorae (southern Gilberts) back in March and has been slowly building up the AF (now size 2). I've been keeping a close eye on it with Recon and noticed that over the past month or so there was only 1 LCU there and over 20 fighters. As such I'd been prepping 65th Bde for a counter attack.
BB Ise,
Yamashiro and
Hyuga provided cover and the landing went like clock work:
Ground combat at Arorae (138,137)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 5548 troops, 32 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 216
Defending force 1271 troops, 11 guns, 37 vehicles, Assault Value = 10
Japanese adjusted assault: 188
Allied adjusted defense: 1
Japanese assault odds: 188 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Arorae !!!
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
P-40K Warhawk: 14 destroyed
Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(-), disruption(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(+), leaders(-)
Japanese ground losses:
70 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Allied ground losses:
524 casualties reported
Squads: 13 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 145 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 12 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 12 (12 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 44 (44 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1
Assaulting units:
65th Bde /1
Defending units:
119th USAAF Base Force
Once fully unloaded tomorrow I'll quickly re-embark and head back to Truk. This is purely raid to wipe out the forces Dad had and to keep him on his toes. Zero's were providing CAP and a further unit at Tabiteuea strafed the AF in the day for no effect.
Usual Allied pounding of New Caledonia.
I've attached a screenshot of the PM area showing the fleeing Aussies, my 10th Division in pursuit and a blocking Naval Guard force heading from Wau.
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Burma:
Not a lot of action here. The Allies bombed Meiktila again on 23rd and met a mixed force of George's and Oscar IIb's on LRCAP. The enemy lost 1 x P40K and 6 x B25D1 for 3 x George and 1 x Oscar IIb.
11th Division is ashore and heading to Meiktila as reserve.
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Port Hedland:
The Allies are still at Port Hedland unloading. My Nells continue to operate from Makassar flying at 6K bombing the enemy TF's. This will continue until enemy fighters are present. As it is there's no covering CV's and Port Hedland has a size 2 port and size 0 AF.
13 x Nell flew on 22nd and hit
AK Governor with 2 bombs.
28 x Nell flew on 23rd and reported hitting
DD Nizam with a bomb.
Only 1 Nell has been lost over the these days.
45 x G4M1 have also flown in Waingapoe. There's no Air HQ here though so their mission is to bomb Port Hedland's port to keep it damaged (and prevent AF construction for fighters) and to also hit any damaged ships that Dad decides to disband.
3 subs are also on station outside of the port to intercept any ship fleeing back towards Exmouth.
