Sub War
The I-10 caught an inbound supply convoy south of Noumea and, in 2 attacks, sank one xAK and heavily damaged another. Just a couple hexes away, the I-170 sank an ACM.
East of Dutch Harbor, the I-179 sank another xAK.
Finally, off Truk, the Oyashio hit a sub prowling around the area.
5 Fleet
Nothing to report.
4 Fleet
Ok, I moved KB around with the idea of thrashing the already beat up CVE TF. I ended up 2 hexes to the NW of the remnants. What I didn't know was that there was another CV TF that came scurrying up from the south. This one was composed of Yorktown, Saratoga and Wasp. [X(]. Two fortunate events happened. 1) I got the first strike in and 2) they went after the CV TF 4 hexes away instead of the trashed CVE TF 2 hexes away. [:)]
My first strike was a biggun. 83 torpedo bombers and 63 dive bombers escorted by 56 Zeros, but he had 66 Hellcats defending. [X(]. Talk about stressful! [:D]
Here's the replay:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Ontong Java at 114,129
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 20 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 5
A6M5 Zero x 51
B5N1 Kate x 3
B5N2 Kate x 54
B6N2 Jill x 26
D4Y1 Judy x 63
Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 66
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 5 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 1 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 7 destroyed, 4 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed by flak
B6N2 Jill: 2 destroyed
D4Y1 Judy: 10 destroyed, 13 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 4 destroyed by flak
Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
CV Wasp, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Phoenix, Bomb hits 1
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Wichita, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
I ended up losing 17 Zeros, 24 Dive Bombers and 17 torpedo bombers. Looks like only 25 TBs had torpedoes. The Wasp had a fuel explosion too. Definitely worth the pilots. I have plenty in the Home Islands waiting for their chance. By the way, only 2 Hellcats were shot down. [:(]
Ted's attack struck next. Here's the play by play:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Buka at 112,125
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 7
A6M5 Zero x 82
A6M5c Zero x 26
Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 21
SBD-3 Dauntless x 63
TBF-1 Avenger x 51
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 5 destroyed
SBD-3 Dauntless: 25 destroyed, 21 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak
TBF-1 Avenger: 21 destroyed, 5 damaged
Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
CVL Ryujo
CV Akagi
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima
CV Kaga
CVE Hosho
Seeing over 100 enemy bombers heading my way scared the hell out of me. My fighters did their job though, killing 11 of the (only) 21 Hellcats before burning through to the bombers. They shot down 30 SBDs and 28 Avengers before getting to my ships. Flak got a couple SBDs and a dozen of each were shot down on the way home. 55 of the bombers attacked my ships and none hit, which I find curious. I guess he should have been more active with his bombers earlier striking at my ships where my carriers weren't, if only to get naval attack practice. Sitting in port training will get you only so much. Conversely, many of my carrier pilots were on those ships from the beginning of the war and have gained a LOT of experience. What's even more interesting is that while I lost quite a few planes, I didn't lose that many pilots. Really weird actually. Something saved a lot of them. I did have quite a few subs in the area but I though the subs had to be in the hex. Whatever the reason, I lost far fewer pilots than planes, which suites me fine.
There were a couple small attacks from both sides that got trashed. We each lost about a dozen planes.
Then, my carriers hit his CV TF in the afternoon:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ontong Java at 114,129
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 20 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 4
A6M5 Zero x 40
B5N1 Kate x 6
B5N2 Kate x 29
B6N2 Jill x 25
D4Y1 Judy x 38
Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 17
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 1 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 4 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 2 destroyed by flak
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CV Wasp, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Balch
CL Columbia
DD Lansdowne
CL Nashville
CL Phoenix
CL Montpelier
CL St. Louis
DD Reid
CL Honolulu
I think Wasp is doomed and Sara is 50-50. I think Yorktown will make it. Most of the bomb hits were 500kg.
Anyway, there was one final attack on my carriers:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Buka at 112,125
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 5
A6M5 Zero x 59
A6M5c Zero x 17
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 3
F4U-1 Corsair x 2
SBD-5 Dauntless x 13
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
SBD-5 Dauntless: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
SBD-5 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak
Japanese Ships
CVL Ryujo, Bomb hits 1
BB Haruna
Only one Dauntless survived, but the hit was with a 1000 lb bomb. I was really worried that little Ryujo was doomed but was surprised by the damage: 1-11(1)-0-0 [X(] Must have been a near miss!
The last two attacks of the afternoon was by KB and they went after the CVE TF:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ontong Java at 114,126
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 20 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 18
D4Y1 Judy x 9
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 5 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 2 damaged
Allied Ships
BB New Mexico, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CLAA Reno
CLAA Oakland
DD Lang
DE Gilmore, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
and:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ontong Java at 114,126
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 65 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 27 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 18
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 3 damaged
Allied Ships
CLAA Oakland, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Richmond, Torpedo hits 1
BB New Mexico, heavy damage
CL Detroit
New Mexico is doomed, as are some of the cruisers and destroyers too. It'll probably be awhile before I learn of the final results, but it was glorious.
In all, I lost 31 fighter pilots, 21 dive bomber pilots and 25 torpedo bomber pilots.
I'm heading for the hills with KB. They're just about out of torpedoes and need routine maintenance.
By the way, I heard multiple sinking sounds throughout the afternoon.
SRA
Burma
China
Nothing to report.
Other Stuff
Here's a screen shot of the aftermath:
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