17 Aug 43
Sub War
The I-6 was pummeled into oblivion near Vaitupu. Apparently, some DDs returned.
There seems to be a line of subs running east-west about 4 hexes north of Kavieng. I caught a Dutch sub over there, hitting her with a DC. I'm going to send some DDs to search the area. The Allied subs that been taking a pounding near Truk seem to have relocated to safer waters here. I'll bet Ted is trying to catch KB when it sorties south to tag some Allied ships.
5 Fleet
4 Fleet
Nothing to report.
SE Fleet
I had sent 2 DDs in to harass (and hopefully damage/sink) some of those APAs to make life easier for the bombers later in the day. Well, they steamed to Namatanai and found the US CV TF that is still functional. CVs Gettysburg and Hornet and CVLs Independence (smoking) and Princeton were escorted by 4 fast BBs, 3 CLAAs, 3 CLs and 10 DDs. They got out of there without a shot being fired by either side. They got to within 6k yards and didn't shoot a torpedo or fire a gun. [8|] Well, I have a feeling I know what's going to happen come sunrise.
Well, the seas south of Rabaul and Namatanai seemed to have exploded with Allied TFs today. Ted must have gotten a whiff of my carriers and I saw the APAs I was after fleeing to the SW. That CVE TF is still a few hexes SSW of Rabaul. Still sitting at Namatanai was the US CV TF. Assuming they had full loads of aircraft, they had 96 Hellcats, 72 Dauntlesses and 72 Avengers. I had 136 Zeros, 28 Judies, 36 Jills and 18 Kates. I got off the first (and only Japanese) attack, composed of 27 Judies, 27 Jills and 9 Kates, escorted by 79 Zeros. They ran into a buzz saw of Hellcats, 94 of them, along with 4 P-47s who wanted to join in the fun. Doing the math, you can see that the US carrier fighters were on some pretty darned high CAP! [X(] Bad for my attack, but not so bad for my CAP. Anyway, my Zeros shielded the bombers as well as they could. I lost 23 of 94 Zeros before the Hellcats broke through. The Hellcats didn't have a lot of time to ravage my bombers, shooting down 7 (of 27) Judies, 4 (of 27) Jills and 2 (of 9) Kates. Then my bombers went to work, mainly missing, with a few notable exceptions.
The BB South Carolina ate 2x 500kg bombs. One bounced but the other penetrated. She'll need some yard time. BB North Dakota took 2 torpedoes (from Kates! [:D]) leaving her burning and heavily damaged. I suspect she'll survive. Finally, The CV Gettysburg took a single 500kg bomb, causing an ammo storage explosion.
I doubt she sinks but unless it's FOW, she'll need a repair yard too.Flak took 15 of my bombers.
Then, it was the Allied turn to attack KB. The first attack was 30 SBDs and 32 Avengers, no fighter escort, against 56 Zeros. One Avenger made it to my ships only to get shot down attempting to launch against Hiei.
The next attack, the only one escorted, was 7 Avengers and 16 Hellcats vs. 39 Zeros. At a cost of 1 Zero, they shot down 7 Hellcats and all the Avengers. The next 3 attacks were 18 Dauntlesses, 8 Avengers and 8 Avengers. All were shot down. In the final attack 6 of 8 Avengers got through, but missed. Banzai!
Remember the small cargo convoy that was going to try for Rabaul? Well, 3 of the 4 ships were sunk from 3 attacks totaling 26 SBDs and 8 Avengers at the limit of their range. The remnants of that TF are headed back to Truk. That actually was a good thing. Many of those bombers would have probably made it through to my fleet. I'd much rather lose 3 xAKs than carriers.
Including planes written off, I lost a total of 55 planes and 53 pilots. KB has operational, 112 Zeros, 14 Judies, 27 Jills and 16 Kates. My estimate of the remaining Allied planes is 87 Hellcats, 23 Dauntlesses and 13 Avengers. Plus, a CV has a big hole in its deck and 1-2 BBs are out of the battle.
Initially, I was going to send KB back to Truk, but changed my mind. We both are relatively flush with fighters, but neither has enough bombers to break through the other's CAP. I'm moving my carriers to a point 8 hexes north of Namatanai, just to see what happens tomorrow. If the US CV TF heads south, I'll slide back down to see if there are any cripples I can clean up. If not, I'll wait it out for awhile.
The Allied bomber force trashed Kavieng, with a few going after Rabaul. None of my airfields are able to launch aircraft.
SRA
Burma
Nothing to report.
China
Arty bombardment of Chungking, killing 19 steps. Gonna be awhile.
Other Stuff
Nothing exciting here.
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