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2nd Battle for the East China Sea[/font]
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So, I had my first CV reaction. Not a pleasant experience...the CV Fleet separated from the Amphibs and that cost me some Amphibs I shouldn´t have lost. But luckily the CVs/CVEs stayed together.
Turns like these are hard because you lose so much. You have to keep the bigger picture in mind. Oddly enough today was a victory. Bittersweet but still a victory. Erik had his chance and did a lot of damage. But not enough...
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The Battle
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Yesterday I decided to move the entire fleet closer to the coast. I did this to intentionally draw Eriks strikes. The thought was that I rather take the strikes when not having to devote LRCAP to covering a landing or split the CVEs off. Not sure it was the right call but done is done.
I also decided to stand down my strike planes to put the Escorts on CAP. This I think was the right call as at the end of the day Corsairs was spent with only 150 left on CAP while the 700 Hellcats still flying managed to deflect countless of LBA strikes.
There was so much happening its hard to report everything but basically the entire Japanese air force and the KB launched from 3 hexes against my CV fleet. I got a really good CAP up but two KB strikes managed to get through.
Morning Air attack on TF, near Nakadori-jima at 101,56
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 36 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A7M2 Sam x 187
B7A2 Grace x 182
D4Y4 Judy x 261
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 121
Corsair IV x 114
Hellcat I x 30
Hellcat F.II x 16
Seafire IIC x 16
Seafire L.III x 4
F4U-1A Corsair x 78
F4U-1D Corsair x 552
F6F-5 Hellcat x 887
Japanese aircraft losses
A7M2 Sam: 65 destroyed
B7A2 Grace: 60 destroyed, 14 damaged
B7A2 Grace: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y4 Judy: 76 destroyed, 22 damaged
D4Y4 Judy: 4 destroyed by flak
Allied aircraft losses
Corsair IV: 1 destroyed
Hellcat F.II: 1 destroyed
Seafire IIC: 1 destroyed
F4U-1A Corsair: 1 destroyed
F4U-1D Corsair: 7 destroyed
F6F-5 Hellcat: 12 destroyed
Allied Ships
CVL Independence, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CVL Langley, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CV Viking, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 3, Kamikaze hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Valhalla, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Bunker Hill, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
CVL Cabot, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Healy
CV Victorious, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVL Cowpens, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CV Franklin, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Makin Island, Torpedo hits 1
CV Indefatigable, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CLAA Oakland, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Mertz
DD Remey, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Corregidor, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
CLAA San Diego, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Evans, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Halford, Bomb hits 1
DD John Henley, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
DD Hale
DD Albert Grant, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Converse
CVE Matanikau, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Luce, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
That is the worst strike. Another KB strike in the afternoon finished most of the damaged ships off.
Sadly and most importantly the Amphibs didn´t react and was left without CAP which cost me. Luckily not too badly. I lose only 2 APAs and another 10 or so damaged but in no danger of sinking. Considering there are some 200 APAs/AKAs its not going to change anything.
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Losses
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Sunk:
CV Frankling, CV Victorious, CV Valhalla, CV Viking, CVL Independence, CVL Cabot and CVL Langley
Will sink:
Indefatigable, 3 CVEs, DD Remney, 2 APAs
Might make it:
CV Bunker Hill (64/53/37)
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Aftermath
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This might look very bad but I only lost about one seventh of my carrier capabilities. Not much given the big picture. Now I just have to make sure I havn´t suffered the losses in vain. I put the CV Fleet there to do a job and they did what I wanted them to do. 1700 Japanese planes are shot down during the battle. The KB air wings are wrecked again and LBA won´t be a factor for at least a week. My amphibs are intact.
Tomorrow we land in Korea.
