I can say that Miller was lucky and unlucky in this turn...
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/15/42
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TF 1026 encounters mine field at Darwin (36,84)
Allied Ships
PT PT-119, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
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Sub attack at 14,85
Japanese Ships
SS I-166, hits 10
Allied Ships
CV Indomitable, heavy damage [:(]
DD Inconstant
DD Jupiter
This is when he definetely was lucky! I-166 unfortunately fired only a salvo of two torps from her rear tubes instead of trying to attack with the four front tubes... the torps missed the heavily damaged British CV! That would have been great to put two torps into the carrier! In return, the two British DDs achieve 10 near misses, I-166 is out of action and has to retire to Japan for major repairs... sys damage nearly at 30...
This is half a dozen hexes West of Broome, so Miller is now trying to move his damaged ships around Australia´s West coast... all our subs have been ordered into attack position to hunt down this TF!
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Sub attack at 30,78
Japanese Ships
AG AG-5163, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS Grayback
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Day Air attack on Koepang , at 28,77
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
B-25C Mitchell x 105
Allied aircraft losses
PBY Catalina: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 3 destroyed, 24 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
156 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 33
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 15000 feet
Miller has increased his attack alt again even though he didn´t reall suffer from attacking at 10.000ft...
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Day Air attack on Manila , at 43,52
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 104
B5N Kate x 4
Ki-27 Nate x 35
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 175
No Japanese losses
Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 113
Aircraft Attacking:
32 x Ki-43-Ic Oscar bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on Darwin , at 36,84 [:D][:D][:D]
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 73
No Japanese losses
now what about that? This is the ordered KB sweep and all my pilots are doing is flying a sightseeing round over Darwin showing Japanese strenght! [8D] This is GOOD NEWS!
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Day Air attack on Darwin , at 36,84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 62
G3M Nell x 70
G4M1 Betty x 24
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 3 destroyed, 19 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 4 damaged
Allied Ships
CA Dorsetshire, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Witte de With, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Wanganella, Torpedo hits 1
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Cornwall, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Hobart, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DMS Chandler, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DMS Zane, Bomb hits 1, on fire
ML Gouden Leeuw, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Heywood, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Mauna Ala, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Henry T. Allen, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Kortenaer, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Van Nes, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Port hits 1
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 1
Aircraft Attacking:
25 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
18 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 10000 feet
and here comes the strike from Amboina, exactly like it was ordered! At this stage it was obvious that the dozen BBs have already left the area. It seems they are not even in Northern Australia anymore. But the British cruisers that were damaged at Lautern are and our first attack hits them hard. Not as hard as I wished but let´s hope for the second strike. With so many ships in port our strike gets too much dispersed but so far I´m happy with it. Even though there are a dozen Allied units at Darwin, flak is far from being strong and THAT´S a surprise for me. Over Wyndham I´ve lost over 50 bombers to flak!
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Day Air attack on Darwin , at 36,84
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 150
G4M1 Betty x 121
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 3 destroyed, 26 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 8 damaged
Allied Ships
DD Witte de With, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Cornwall, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Moreton Bay, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Exeter, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Norman, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AR Harpoon, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Leander, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AP Siberg, Torpedo hits 1
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Kortenaer, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Perth, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
CA Dorsetshire, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP President Hayes, Bomb hits 1
AP Van Cloon, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Rochussen, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Agra, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Koolama, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Wanganella, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Ruth Alexander, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Empire Pride, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Hobart, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Piet Hein, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Van Rees, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DMS Elliot, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DMS Wasmuth, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Isaac Sweers, Bomb hits 1
AP Crescent City, Torpedo hits 1
DD Stuart, Torpedo hits 1
DD Nizam, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Allied ground losses:
49 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Port hits 7
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 3
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x G3M Nell bombing at 10000 feet
18 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
It couldn´t go better and also the strike from Kendari shows up in full strenght and exactly as ordered! Unbelievable that everything has gone off like we planned it! Looks like thinking about what all could go wrong brought us luck this time... [;)] Our hits are dispersed over a lot of ships again and perhaps you could wish some more hits from more than 270 bombers but this is not the time to complain I guess.
At the end of the turn we get two confirmed sinkings: CA Cornwall and DD Van Nes! I hope to see CA Dorsetshire sinking also and if we´re lucky one of the CLs could sink also. You could expect to see more ships being sunk with two such strong strikes but with the heavy cruiser our sub sunk North of Darwin and two more perhaps going down I will be satisfied for the moment. [:)]
This strike should achieve one more thing: Miller has to put a lot of fighters at his airfield! This should have shown him that he has to protect his bases against long range strikes of my IJN bombers. And if he puts 100 or more fighters at a base, he has 100 or more bombers less at a base and this is what we want. We can perhaps deal with strikes of 100-125 bombers, but repeated strikes of 500-600 bombers will break our neck.
We achieved an "ok-result" and we really suffered very low losses and this is what surprised me the most. KB wasn´t spotted the whole turn and this was luck for us also.
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Day Air attack on 33rd Division, at 29,23
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 32
Hurricane IIc x 15
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 20 damaged
Hurricane IIc: 8 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
77 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Aircraft Attacking:
7 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
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Sub attack at 12,86
Japanese Ships
SS I-158, hits 3
Allied Ships
CLAA Capetown, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Inconstant
DD Jupiter
DD Griffin
DD Hotspur
This is the TF with CV Indomitable. I-158 also attacks with her two rear tubes but the skipper proves to be a man who knows what he´s doing. Both torpedoes slammed into the already damaged CLAA Capetown and the AA-cruiser sinks within minutes. The angry DDs drop a lot of DCs but they achieve only three near misses. I-158 continues with sys 9 to take part in the hunt for CV Indomitable.
I really have to say that my subs perform excellently! We´re still early in the war but they have achieved some major sinkings and also a lot of hits on lower value ships for nearly no losses within our submarine force...
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Sub attack at 34,80
Japanese Ships
SS RO-68
Allied Ships
AK West Nilus, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
with Timor being so close to my bases, this is a really good place to use those otherwise useless short legged RO-class subs... the already damaged West Nilus takes a torp but still doesn´t show up as heavily damaged...
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Ground combat at Sian
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 14274 troops, 458 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2882
Defending force 112575 troops, 529 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3605
Allied ground losses:
84 casualties reported
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Ground combat at Kweiyang
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 16007 troops, 201 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3423
Defending force 206544 troops, 540 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 4842
