September 5, 1943
It is a cloudy day as Vc-Adm Tanaka brings his powerful TF down the west side of the Marshalls. As soon as the sun rises, there begin to be relays of Japanese fighter planes over the TF. This veteran TF of sooooo many missions to Sabang and other locations knows that they are headed into dangerous waters.
Intelligence had placed the American carrier TF as having left the area. A known CVE TF is still in the vacinity so having nearly 70 fighters overhead SHOULD be enough. Besides that, all four of these venerable warships have just been updated with the new 100MM AA guns while at Singapore.
What is not expected this day is for a Recon Jake to pick-up what APPEARS to be a massive portion of the American Carrier Force. He anxiously stares at the CAP umbrella and wonders 'will it be enough?'
At 9:30am the first wave of enemy aircraft comes in. There are to be seven waves of attacks in all for this wild day!
Summary:
Morning Action
0930 66 Jap Fighters vs. 7 P-38 and 12 SBD--Several of the P-38 are shot down and only two SBD. Ten attack with three being shot down to AA fire. Result: No Hits.
0955 58 Fighters vs. 18 Avengers--The intrepid squadron is wiped out.
1024 47 Fighters vs. 110 F6F, 25 F4F, 36 SBD, and 18 Avengers--YIKES! CAP does pretty well versus the massed fighters shooting down 4 Hellkitties and 4 Wildkitties but the entire strike force gets through. Five more SBD fall to AA fire. In a furious 10 minutes, all four BC are hit with two of them taking Torpedo hits. Result:
Kirishima 2 Bombs
Kongo 2 B and 2 TT
Haruna 2 Bombs
Hiei 6 B and 1 TT
End of Morning. DEEP CLEANSING BREATH!
Afternoon
1248 50 Fighters vs. 12 Avengers--All destroyed.
1318 36 Fighters vs. 6 Avengers-Same result.
1450 32 Fighters vs. 7 Corsairs and 12 SBD--Most of the Corsairs are shot down and 4 SBD. Eight come through. Two are swatted out of the sky by AA and one manages to plant a further bomb hit on Kongo.
1631 20 Fighters vs. 17 Beauforts (or fighters?)--All but two are destroyed and the remaining pair miss with their Torps.
THANKFULLY no strikes came from the massed American CVs in the afternoon. Bad weather? Hmmm...
Tanaka is a HIGHLY aggressive Admiral and he wants to smack the enemy HARD with this two lightly damaged battlecruisers, He briefly ponders steering a direct course for the Allied TFs but then decides against it. A transmission from Combined Fleet to withdraw towards a CAP trap settles the matter.
Kongo and Hiei with 4 DDs retire towards the 'safety' of Eniwetok where 125 more Fighters land to provide much stouter CAP for the morrow. The CVE TF moves NW away from the action but will also still provide LRCAP support.
Kirishima and Haruna with 4 DDs retire towards Ponape where they will be protected by Fighters flying from Kusaie and Ponape.
Goodness...
