Russ (aka Mogami) versus Tris (aka TJ)

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]"In the afternoon one of our flights found another transport off Arawe. She'll take new paint, too."[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]3 January 1942

Allied medium bombers on patrol out of Port Moresby hit a Japanese transport off Sag Sag. Said one official, "It's that same troop ship our boys hit yesterday. They got a good look, it's name is Tonei Maru. Reports we have say they kicked it pretty good today."[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]An Allied freighter was torpedoed in the Banda Sea off the island of Celebes. There was no report on the extent of casualties.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]4 January 1942

An enemy warship was attacked and hit a couple of times by a Royal Australian Air Force bomber patrol based on Port Moresby.[/font]

[kaiser73]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, What is the point of dividing a LCU and then putting all the parts in the same hex? I understand sometimes you need more then 1 unit so you split a division or a Brigade but why split a unit and keep it in the same hex? Is this some kind of attempt to get extra replacements or something? I see a lot of people alsosplit airgroups and then fly them all from the same base on the same missions. I could see splitting a fighter group because you only have 1 group but several TF require CAP. I can even see setting 1 part to CAP 100 percent and another to escort but I don't undertsand spltting a group and thern sending all the parts on the same mission. Once again is this an attempt at circumventing something? I'm not really addressing this question specifically at TJ. I see this a lot and just wonder what thought process is occuring here.
There are a lot of valid reasons for splitting units and airgroups. The part I am missing is where these units are split when leaving them whole would work just as well.

Personally i tend to split the units. But i never knew this would affect combat. I do just to give bad intel to enemy. Expecially in China. By splitting any div/group you can get 3 times the number of units.
Meaning that enemy will have no intel at all on where i am enmassing my "real army". Similar to what Germans did in late war where they deliberately left very weak divisions instead of merging in new ones to give bad intel to allies.

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]"Yes, she was the light cruiser Yubari and no doubt was headed back out of the area after supporting the recent enemy landings on New Britain, " said a military spokesman. "We did hit her twice, but our bombs just weren't large enough to do a lot of damage to an armored ship."

Asked if the military had plans to upgrade to larger planes with heavier bombs, the officer replied, "We're working on that."[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]The Japanese troop ship Tonei Maru was hit by Australian patrol planes at Sag Sag on New Britain for the third day in a row. "It's that same ship all right," said an Air Force officer. " She's a bear for punishment."[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]An Allied freighter was struck by a torpedo in the Karimata Strait. Damage is said to have been heavy.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]5 January 1942

Hudson medium bombers out of Port Moresby caught a Japanese convoy in the Bismarck Sea and did serious damage to one of the vessels.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]"She was in bad shape when our boys flew out of there," said the Air Force liaison officer.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]The English heavy cruiser Cornwall and her destroyer escort Jupiter were struck by torpedoes from enemy planes in the Malacca Strait.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]The heavy cruiser Minneapolis was struck by a bomb at Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands by an enemy plane flying out of Kwajalein in the Marshalls.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]The port of Johore Bharu in Malaya fell to the Japanese after the Allies evacuated the town.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]6 January 1942

The heavy cruiser Minneapolis was hit by numerous bombs and sank at Makin Atoll when attacked by Japanese carrier planes. The American ship was part of a squadron in the area which included heavy cruiser New Orleans and the light cruiser Phoenix, both of which were also hit during the battle.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]The enemy followed up its air attack at Makin by sending a flotilla of warships into the lagoon. On patrol were a number of American torpedo boats.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]"I'm told it was a helluva fight," said an anonymous source at Naval headquarters at Pearl Harbor. "One of our boats put a fish into a Jap destroyer, I know that for sure. A couple of our PTs were lost in the action, though."[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]A Japanese troop ship was torpedoed in the Celebes Sea. The was no word regarding casualties. A spokesman for Army headquarters in Darwin said this ship was probably part of an enemy effort toward Tarakan on Borneo.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]Military headquarters in Brisbane reported the sinking of two enemy troop ships from action in the Bismarck Sea, the Saiho Maru and Yoshimo Maru. The Japanese auxiliary craft Nagata Maru was also said to go down.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]In China, bombers based on Chungking attacked a threatening Japanese formation across the river and to the west of the industrial city of Wuchow.[/font]

[Tristanjohn]

[font="Times New Roman"]7 January 1942

For the second day in a row Japanese Zeros dueled with American fighter planes over the Philippine capital of Manila.[/font]