[font="Courier New"]21 AUG 42
Allied Sub
Porpoise attacks a Tanker convoy in the South China Sea. 2 torps go THUD against the hull of TK
Nisshin Maru.
After the attack,
Porpoise gets off a scathing signal to ComSubSoWestPac about crappy torps and questions the parentage of the torpedo’s designers…
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Japanese aircraft Day Air attack on Port Moresby
11 Allied casualties reported
Airbase hits 2 Runway hits 13
Port hits 1
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The Battle off Nanoumea Atoll
The morning dawned crisp and clear to the east of
USS Wasp. This was the kind of weather you wanted the Gods to spread over the Enemy task force, not yours…
As I was watching the replay, I expected nothing more than just poking some more holes into the cruiser force near Nanoumea. Then, I got reports of E8N “Dave” floatplanes reporting sightings on both of my groupings –
Wasp off by herself, and the
Yorktown,
Hornet,
Raider TFs to the South. It struck me as odd, because E8Ns don’t have a very long search radius, but I supposed them to be from the CA/CL group.
Suddenly the scene narrowed in on an area 120nm ESE of Nanoumea, where full strikes from
Wasp in the North and
Hornet to the South hit in an Hammer and Anvil fashion:
66 SBD Dauntless and 26 TBF Avenger escorted by 20 F4F-4 Wildcat bore in on three of the four remaining veterans of Pearl Harbor:
Soryu,
Shokaku, and
Zuikaku! 36 A6M2 Zero flew CAP. Wildcats kept most of them at bey, losing all but 6 and not getting a single Zero.
Zuikaku was attacked by both
Wasp and
Hornet air groups, taking five 1000lb Bomb hits , and 1 Torpedo hit from VT-71, leaving her on fire, with heavy damage
CA
Tone was also hit by five 1000lb Bombs, and was also on fire, with heavy damage
CV
Soryu and CV
Shokaku both received numerous near misses.
Yorktown AVG then approached. 11 F4F-4 Wildcat escorted 36 SBD Dauntless and 15 TBF Avenger through a CAP of 22 A6M2 Zero. Wildcats claimed 7 Zero destroyed while only losing 4 of their own.
CV
Shokaku was the center of attention in ths attack. VS-5 and VB-5 planted nine 1000lb Bombs squarely on her, setting her on fire, with heavy damage
CV
Soryu also took a Bomb hit that started a small fire.
CV
Zuikaku was not touched, but reported still on fire, with heavy damage.
The IJN Counterstrike could have gone either direction and been no less devastating. I don’ t know what the criterion was based upon. It could have been which was sighted first (
Wasp), or where the lower CAP was (
Wasp), or something completely random. Their strike went North and struck the
Wasp TF.
Hard.
77 D3A Val and 57 B5N Kate escorted by 39 A6M2 Zero pounced on the
Wasp TF like a pride of lions cornering a young zebra. The 19 Wildcats on CAP did their best, but theirs was a hopeless cause. More than half of them were shot down at a cost of 5 Zeros.
CV
Wasp was quickly the center of attention, and she dodged several bombs and a few torpedoes before 4 bombs started tearing nasty holes into her thinly armored deck plates. The 5 torpedoes were the worst, as
Wasp had no belt armor to speak of. She did not last long.
Attention then shifted to BB
North Carolina . She took 8 Bomb hits and seemed to be simply shrugging them off, until Kates showed up and slammed 3 Torpedoes into her belt armor. She caught fire, and with heavy damage took on a 10 degree starboard list.
Hornet AVG wasted no time striking again that afternoon, hitting CV
Soryu with a torpedo that caused a huge explosion and started big fires, followed by 7 Bomb hits setting her on fire, with heavy damage
SBD Dauntless from
Yorktown added misery to misfortune for CV
Zuikaku with 5 Bomb hits, adding to fires and heavy damage.
By that time, gallant
Wasp was no more…[/font]
MOGAMI DIARY-
Holy Cow the mouse turned out to be a RAT the size of a Grizzy Bear.
At least 3 USN CV in 2 or more TF. USN CV Wasp sunk BB North Carolina damaged but all 3 IJN CV seriously (I mean they won't make it back to port) damaged.
Soryu survived the am strike but when Zuikaku and Shokaku's airgroups transfered she was overloaded and had no CAP up for PM strike. (She has 110ac onboard)
Port Moresby operation in jepardy. CV Hiryu will try to cover withdraw (as well as fighters on Baker) But I'm fairly certain the USN will finish me off. (Sometimes you get the bear (mouse) and sometimes the bear (Giant Rat of Sumatra) gets you)
I guess Dadman has learned after all (taught me a lesson) (One day I will learn to put every CV into it's own TF)
It was about time to assume the position (defense)
