Ah yes, surface engagements at sea today!
A Destroyer squadron attacked the japanese ships at Jolo tonight. After driving away the defending ships (and suffering some damage in the process) they attacked a tanker fleet unloading there and sank one transport with her escort gunship.
Night Time Surface Combat, near Jolo at 38,59
Japanese Ships
CL Naka
DD Yamagumo
DD Kuretake, Shell hits 1, on fire
Allied Ships
DD Barker
DD Parrott, Shell hits 1
DD Pope, Shell hits 1
DD Stewart, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Vampire
DD Vendetta
DD Evertsen
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Jolo at 38,59
Japanese Ships
PG Hakkai Maru, Shell hits 15, on fire, heavy damage
TK Moji Maru
TK Ogura Maru #2
TK Terukawa Maru, Shell hits 1
TK Toen Maru, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
Allied Ships
DD Barker
DD Parrott
DD Pope
DD Stewart, on fire
DD Vampire
DD Vendetta
DD Evertsen, Shell hits 1, on fire
The biggest action took place 50 miles southwards at Tawi Tawi. Lead by heavy cruisers Houston and Cornwall the bulk of ABDA fleet hit the japanese shipping there.
Two Japanese heavy cruisers with their escorts were surprised and CA Cornwall scored the first radar guided hit of the war on CA Kako in the opening minutes of the battle. She then proceeded to land almost 10 8" hits on the cruiser leaving her burning. Several torpedo runs were made on both sides and both sides only had a few succesful hits, with DD Electra torpedoing CL Kitakami and DD Amatsukaze torpedoing CL Java and DD Express. The hero of this battle was CL Marblehead who proceeded to bury the now wounded Kitakami under an avalanche of 6" and 3" shells sending her burning hulk finally into the bottom with a direct hit on her forward magazines. CA Myoko didn't take part of the battle.
Night Time Surface Combat, near Tawi Tawi at 38,60
Japanese Ships
CA Myoko
CA Kako, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
CL Kitakami, Shell hits 36, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Amatsukaze, Shell hits 1
DD Mikazuki, Shell hits 7, on fire
Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 1
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 1
CL Java, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 1
CL Tromp, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Enterprise, Shell hits 1
CL Marblehead
DD Whipple
DD Tenedos
DD Thanet
DD Electra
DD Express, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
That battle wasn't over however as another light cruiser, this time the CL Kashii, an old training vessel, surprised the allied squadron with her two destroyer escorts. The small calibre japanese guns had little chance against allied armor however and only DD Sagiri escaped. CL Kashii was sunk almost single handedly by DD Electra's gunfire, surely a disgrace to the IJN.
Night Time Surface Combat, near Tawi Tawi at 38,60
Japanese Ships
CL Kashii, Shell hits 31, and is sunk
DD Sagiri, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Kari, Shell hits 25, and is sunk
Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 1
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 3
CL Java, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 3
CL Tromp, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Enterprise, Shell hits 1
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 1
DD Whipple
DD Tenedos, Shell hits 1
DD Thanet, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Electra
DD Express, on fire, heavy damage
Almost all shell hits on allied ships seen here and during the previous battle are glancing hits, with the exception of the hits on destroyers and one hit on CL Tromp
IJN got a small revenge outside of Darwin when three of their battleships escorted with a cruiser and 3 destroyers sank a minesweeper. [:'(]
Night Time Surface Combat, near Darwin at 36,84
Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima
BB Yamashiro
CA Furutaka
DD Oyashio
DD Natsushio
DD Oboro
Allied Ships
MSW Latrobe, Shell hits 35, and is sunk.
During the day there was little action aside from the sinking of the crippled CL Java by japanese light carriers.
So all in all the score of the night is as follows
Ships sunk 2 CL and 1 DD for japanese and 1CL and 1 PT for allies
Ships heavily damaged 1 CA for japanese and 1 DD for allies
Seems like a fair trade for me, considering that CL Kitakami is one of the two japanese ships that carry radar [:D]
