February 21, 1942
"It's a trap, Jim!"
Yeah, I got suckered good. My PBEM lessons continue. Operation NEUMAN wasn't over.
1) Turn starts in night phase with the BBs bombarding Johnson. Not a lot of damage because apparently there's not a lot there. Was it evaced of aircraft and the BBs left as pure bait? Don't know. Despite four of the USN BBs having their planes on recon at 2000-6000 feet, this is all they accomplished:
Night Naval bombardment of Johnston Island at 164,112
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
H6K4 Mavis: 2 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged
Allied Ships
BB Mississippi
BB New Mexico
BB Idaho
BB Nevada
BB Colorado
DD Shaw
DD Lamson
DD McCall
DD Jarvis
DD Patterson
Japanese ground losses:
411 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 27 destroyed, 63 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Guns lost 6 (3 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 11 (4 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 30
Port hits 15
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 6
It has a 6000 man limit, and I figure most of that had to be aviation suport, so the KIAs aren't bad, but it's still a lot of effort and risk for not much.
He also left I-23 in the harbor. It didn't get off a shot nor was it damaged in the ASW repsonse.
The BBs left for Pearl, and a good thing. The DDs came up from the south with Do Not Withdraw orders at Johnson, else they would have been headed home by daybreak. I wanted to see if anything came back overnight. Instead the situation in the screenshot above unfolded. I don't know what carriers were there. In the movie comment lines all I saw was air units from Soryu and Kaga. It was not a good day to be a tin can sailor:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Johnston Island at 164,112
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 33 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 55
B5N2 Kate x 42
D3A1 Val x 34
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 1 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 damaged
Allied Ships
DD Cassin, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Farragut
DD Lawrence
DD Monaghan
DD Dewey, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Talbot, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Ralph Talbot
Flooding on CA New Orleans worsened in three pulses, usually a sign the ship is doomed. I merged the healthy cruisers with the Escort TF, so there's more good ships there to help with the DC if the code runs that way, but I don't have high hopes unless the Fires miraculously went out. That, along with the DDs getting jumped and the lack of production at Johnson make this a bust of an operation. No other way to spin it. I got schooled.
2) In the Singers region, mixed events. AG Deneb is sunk after two tries, the first a sub which misses, the second aerial attack by Marys. They also bomb and sink xAK Mariso, a large ship running in supplies. Bombing at Singers is intense.
3) A heavy Betty strike on Soerbaja doesn't go well for Japan. The vector looks like Balikpapan, but it could have been from farther up the coast too. The ancient Dutch fighters do pretty well.
Morning Air attack on Soerabaja , at 56,104
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 31 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 9
G4M1 Betty x 21
Allied aircraft
Blenheim IF x 1
B-339D x 15
75A-7 Hawk x 5
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 6 destroyed, 4 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-339D: 1 destroyed
139WH-3: 1 destroyed on ground
A-24 Banshee: 1 destroyed on ground
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 12
4) The AA falls silent at Bataan; the base is out of supplies.
5) S-28 offers the only good news of the day, sinking a PB in company with a DD near Johnson, in two separate attacks. Perhpas the CO replacement program is working. I believe this was a refugee TF from Johnson.
Sub attack near Johnston Island at 153,109
Japanese Ships
PB Koei Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Cheribon Maru
DD Nenohi
Allied Ships
SS S-28
Submarine attack near Johnston Island at 153,109
Japanese Ships
PB Koei Maru, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS S-28
Three torpedoes in a PB makes confetti. So, we celebrate the end of a bad day. Tomorrow is another try.