Notes from a Small Island

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: First ASW attack of the day. This AM TF moved out of Shikuka overnight, set to ASW patrol on the likely inbound path of Death Star and The Herd.

16 hits recorded, including messages like "fire in the control room" and "forward torpedo tubes damaged." Combat report doesn't report "heavy damage" or the like, just the fact of the 16 hits.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: 6 hits reported on this nasty, including one "forward torpedo tubes damaged."

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: ASW scores a penetrating hit, forces sub to surface, and sinks her with gunfire.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: 25 hits reported, two penetrating, "heavy damage." This PF TF must be about out of ammo - the engagement lasted a long, long time.

Many of the hits repored were "rattles sub*" or "rattles sub****", with anywhere from one to four asterisks included. What in the world do the asterisks mean?

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: RO-42 misses, AM Bayless can't find the target.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: AM Bellchasse reports two near misses on this I-boat. This happened after a series of unsuccessful attacks against shipping at Sapporo (including CA Kumano) and Wakkanai (E-class ships) and a few hits on supplies at Wakkanai.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Brief skirmish with torpedoes expended - lots of that happening this turn, too. Some enemy subs will retire, replenish, and return, and it'll seem like Erik has a never-ending inventory of subs.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Second enemy tally so far this evening. This LST TF was part of the Herd until just before reaching the Kuriles. It received orders to detach and proceed alone, and it's now tail-end-Charlie of Allied shipping inbound to Shikuka.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Action out in front of where The Herd and Death Star will wind up today. I-54 misses; the DMS TF scores 7 rattling near misses.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

10/5/44

Shikuka: 4EB hit Bihoro's port - two strikes net just one hit on an MTB. I was hoping to score vs. a bunch of SSX that recon reported here. Perhaps they left overnight.

SSX have extremely short legs - around 80NM IIRC - so I doubt they left. I think you need aircraft set on ASW to hit SSX TFs unless they mini-subs disband in port.

The smallest ones are less than that - 40.

There are some with 400 Endurance, though.

40, 84 and 500 seem to be the most common ones that I've produced. I believe the production is random, because I've had a passel of 84NM and 500 from the same port at about the same time, sometimes different range SSX from the same batch "TF" produced.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: A lot of ammo expended, a lot of rattling and evading patterns, and a few hits that cause some damage.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Death of a hunter.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
the odds of a carrier clash are pretty slim.

Oh? What makes you say that?

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shukuka: The I-boat fires and misses, the USN DDs score some decent hits. The DDs are part of The Herd's escorts.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Nighttime patrol missions report many IJN sub icons (these are just a few of those that end up being sighted) and a fair number of ASW patrol hit reports.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Morning patrols report lots of interactions and quite a few hits.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Many sweeps target Wakkanai today. These are the first sweeps since the Siege of Shikuka began on 9/29. This target selected because it had strong but not overwhelming CAP. The Allied fighters performed pretty well.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: The third large group of Corsairs to go in.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Ketoi is the only airfield-suppression target today. No opposition but Allied 4EB only achieve modest results.

[Canoerebel]

10/6/44

Shikuka: Often, my P-47D25s don't seem to perform well in sweep or escort roles. But when, as here, they come in after Corsairs have tired out the enemy CAP, the results are good.