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1/8/45

Sapporo:

1/8/45

Sapporo: It is clear now that Erik did not sortie his combat TFs towards Death Star, nor did he set them to flee to safety. He left them rather "naked" - exposed to an Allied onslaught. This is surprising, to me, and warrants further thought. Why? What advantage did he see here, or what necessity was he allowing for?

Allied recon did not show lots of enemy ships disbanded in port, so sinking the ML, PB, MTB, SC craft may help clear the way for follow-up action. I don't know, yet, if the Allies will press here or move to another target, but the beginnins of a plan have come to mind.

Message received that only a few B-29s sortied and they couldn't find the target. So no bombing of the port tonight - and no report to find out whether the Black Widow night-fighters managed to escort the bombers.

1/8/45

Sapporo:

1/8/45

Sapporo:

1/8/45

Sapporo: The night-phase ends. The day begins with the YMS TF clearing a lot more mines at Wakkanai, followed by this skirmish.

1/8/45

Sapporo: A tough battle, with Japan losing another DD. Boy, I hope I have more combat TFs available, not to mention those PT TFs.

But its daylight now, so any Allied TFs here are exposed to attack by enemy aircraft. Some of my LBA fighters are set to LRCAP but not nearly enough to handle what Erik can commit, if he wishes to.

1/8/45

Sapporo: Almost single-handedly, CA Nachi batters the Allied CL/DD TF.

1/8/45

Sapporo: There's something especially distasteful about suffering at the hands of mini-subs. It also seems that the Louisville TF is out in the open during daylight hours (or has daylight movement happened yet?).

1/8/45

Sapporo: So there's something extra-satisfying in dealing effectively with an SSX.

1/8/45

Death Star: Enemy MTBs collide with a Death Star combat TF.

Take note of all the enemy subs behind DS. To this point, the Allies have really hammered IJN subs. Erik has lost a lot of them. Allied ASW and ASW doctrine has worked very well, thus far. There is always a chance of mishap, but this may also be a chance to seriously reduce whatever Erik has left.

1/8/45

Death Star: At least some of the enemy subs out here are SSX. They are dangerous - one put two TT into BB Alabama about a week ago - but they are also pretty vulnerable to ASW.

1/8/45

Death Star: Erik must wonder, "What the heck? Why TKs out here?" Regular readers will know. About four days back, before I had any notion of sortying DS vs. Sapporo, a host of "empties" left Shikuka to join Death Star, in preparation for an egress trip into the Pacific. But opportunity (as I saw it) beckoned, and here we are.

1/8/45

Sapporo: Lots of messages like this one - enemy search aircraft locked on all those Allied combat ships at and near Sapporo.

The fighting has been hard and both sides have done pretty well. To this point, though, I feel like the Allies have prevailed - sinking one CA and seriously damaging a few others, and apparently clearing Sapporo of a large percentage of its defenses. But the tables may be about to turn. Will it have been worth the expense?

1/8/45

Sapporo: I stood down most fighters and bombers today, but a few fighter squadrons were ordered to sweep. I wanted to gauge the strength of Erik's CAP, and see whether there was any info that might hint at his mindset.

This is not the uber-CAP I had expected and took precautions against. It seems that Erik left his cruisers at Sapporo with much less CAP than expected. Now, of course, I wish DS had been set to strike.

I'll add this info to the hopper that will churn out the plan for the next turn.

1/8/45

Sapporo: Allied 4EB were set to naval strike with range just shy of Sapporo - just in case damaged enemy ships retired out from under CAP. There were a handful of small strikes, like this one. None scored a hit.

1/8/45

Sapporo: A closer look at that action - two enemy CAs vulnerable, darn it. They ships are out of Sapporo now and can almost certainly succeed in breaking contact, if Erik wishes to withdraw. But Sapporo is going to be largely unprotected, if he does so. But he has to, doesn't he?

1/8/45

Sapporo: Enemy strike and aircraft sortie from Ominato, Kushiro and enemy carriers, yet the number of enemy strike aircraft is small.

Allied fighters are all LBA LRCAP from Wakkanai. They do just enough to blunt the attack.

1/8/45

Sapporo: A second bullet dodged.

1/8/45

Sapporo: The morning phase ends; the afternoon kicks off with this enemy strike.

1/8/45

Sapporo: Another DD damaged.