A bit of an annoying day as despite 3-4 bombardments our troops fail to reduce the forts at Lae from 2 to 1. Moreover, John's ships are nearby and we can anticipate some potentially massive bombardments over the next few days and local Japanese air superiority with John's KB on the way. Nonetheless, this is tempered by some nice activity by our subs plus the good performance of our Thunderbolts in the air. An American sub puts two more torpedoes in the beleaguered CV Taikaku near Eniwetok, but despite that ship being hit by four torpedoes now, she still hasn't sunk. A French submarine puts an additional torpedo in the BB Tosa at Madang. Subs additionally sink an xAP and an xAK.
The real interesting thing is what to do with my CV's. They can head by way of Tahiti and Palmyra back towards the SoPac undetected, they can take a more direct route through the Marshalls, they can also attempt to come from the north and hit John's damaged ships and the CV Taikaku near Truk while his KB is down by Lae (recent intelligence puts some of his damaged CA's near Truk with the CV Taikaku heading there before it was hit again one hex out of Eniwetok). I'd imagine John would need to put CV Taikaku back into Eniwetok and we could potentially sink it at port there with our CVs. Decisions.
Meanwhile, our forces at Lae are okay for now and can be reinforced by more troops later on if needed. As stated, the 1st Marine Division (412 AV) at Buna is 100% prepped, there's also an additional 100 AV at Milne Bay.
" - BBfanboy
