a bloody turn with lots of fighting...
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Aug 18, 44
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack near Tarawa at 136,128
Japanese Ships
PB Yachio Maru
PB Nisui Maru
PB Nanshin Maru
Allied Ships
SS Bream
Bream of course still sits at Tarawa but at least she was kept from attacking...
SS Bream is sighted by escort
Bream bottoming out ....
PB Yachio Maru fails to find sub and abandons search
PB Nisui Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Nanshin Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Nisui Maru fails to find sub and abandons search
PB Nanshin Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Nanshin Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Nanshin Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Nanshin Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Nanshin Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
during the nav search phase we have spotted several big convoys, carriers, battleships, transports, freighters, all kind of stuff... what did the hundreds of bombers and fighters set to attack do during the morning? NOTHING... NOTHING AT ALL... not a single strike was even launched, from a level 9 and 8 airfield with air HQs...
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Mangalore at 30,32
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 23 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B7A2 Grace x 6
N1K2-J George x 60
P1Y2 Frances x 22
Ki-84a Frank x 24
Ki-84r Frank x 78
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 36
Hellcat I x 15
Seafire IIC x 4
Japanese aircraft losses
B7A2 Grace: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
N1K2-J George: 1 destroyed
P1Y2 Frances: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged
P1Y2 Frances: 1 destroyed by flak
Ki-84a Frank: 1 destroyed
Ki-84r Frank: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Corsair II: 4 destroyed
Hellcat I: 3 destroyed
Seafire IIC: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
DD Laffey
APD Chew
CV Illustrious
APD Overton
xAP Forthbank, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Talisse
APD Ward
Allied ground losses:
685 casualties reported
Squads: 26 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 18 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 55 (55 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 24 (24 destroyed, 0 disabled)
all enemy task forces have been spotted so many times their detection levels would have been in the 30s if it wouldn't be capped at 10... while the weather was better during the morning when we had no strikes at all, now in the afternoon with Thunderstorms we see the first tiny bits of over 300 bombers attack into a hex with a carrier group and a troop convoy that has picked up troops from Goa during the night and left during the day (good move!)... this is a combined strike from Bombay and Hyderabad and while the escorts outnumber the CAP 3:1 the CAP still got to the bombers and took down over halve a dozen of them... out of the 18 Frances attacking with torps there were 11!! attacking from bad angles which means a 100% miss right away... left us with only a handful of bombers in bad weather and we have to cheer about a transport full of troops being sunk... 7 squadrons on CAP so there got to be a number of carriers but the total number of fighters on CAP is miserable... all that saves such a move is the game not being able to employ 800+ aircraft from the biggest available airfields to attack shipping... using LBA against shipping is more or less pointless if you don't have carriers engaging too when you go up against high value targets...
Aircraft Attacking:
18 x P1Y2 Frances launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp
1 x B7A2 Grace releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
No.834 Sqn-FF-1 FAA with Seafire IIC (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 2 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 2 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters to 16000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 52 minutes
No.834 Sqn-FF-2 FAA with Hellcat I (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
5 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 10000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 6 minutes
No.881 Sqn FAA with Corsair II (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 4 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 1 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 13000 and 19000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 33 minutes
No.1830 Sqn FAA with Corsair II (0 airborne, 7 on standby, 7 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 3 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 9000 and 19000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 47 minutes
No.1836 Sqn FAA with Corsair II (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 4 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 2 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 10000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 31 minutes
No.1839 Sqn FAA with Hellcat I (0 airborne, 3 on standby, 3 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 10000 and 17000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 39 minutes
No.1844 Sqn FAA with Hellcat I (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 3 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 14000 and 17000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 35 minutes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Goa at 32,29
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 124 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 37 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 26
P1Y2 Frances x 9
Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 1
Japanese aircraft losses
P1Y2 Frances: 1 damaged
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
xAK Meigs
DD Rocket
xAK Sidney Hauptmann
after a first "bigger" strike we already start with the piecemeal sh*t coming in... there's no CAP left after the escorts of the first strike cleared the path but if the game doesn't send in more bombers what does it help...
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x P1Y2 Frances launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp
CAP engaged:
No.134 Sqn RAF with Spitfire VIII (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 10000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 3 minutes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Mangalore at 30,32
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 21 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B7A2 Grace x 30
N1K2-J George x 45
Ki-84a Frank x 24
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 12
Hellcat I x 6
Japanese aircraft losses
B7A2 Grace: 7 damaged
B7A2 Grace: 3 destroyed by flak
Allied aircraft losses
Corsair II: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
CVE Begum, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CV Illustrious, Bomb hits 1
CV Indomitable, Bomb hits 1
CVL Unicorn
a second strike from Bombay against the carrier group idendifies several RN carriers that put up some CAP again... while the RN carriers take advantage of their armored flight decks the CVE suffers three 250kg bombs going through it's flight deck... not nearly enough to sink it due to the reduced bomb effects in Babes so without further damage this strike has only achieved losses within the attacking Grace unit...
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x B7A2 Grace releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
1 x B7A2 Grace releasing from 10000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
8 x B7A2 Grace releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
9 x B7A2 Grace releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 2 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
No.834 Sqn-FF-2 FAA with Hellcat I (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
2 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters to 12000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 61 minutes
No.1830 Sqn FAA with Corsair II (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
4 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 12000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 21 minutes
No.1836 Sqn FAA with Corsair II (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
4 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters to 12000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 24 minutes
No.1839 Sqn FAA with Hellcat I (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
1 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 21000 and 22000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 8 minutes
No.881 Sqn FAA with Corsair II (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
4 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 12000 and 21000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 5 minutes
No.1844 Sqn FAA with Hellcat I (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
2 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 12000 and 19000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 23 minutes
