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The Ugly?

Here is the KB on its second day northwest of Sumatra. I figured Scott would head north and south after he saw my carrier TF so I decided to see if I could catch the northern group since by heading south I could be heading into his CV TFs.

The following will be the morning airstrikes because this time the CVs decided to launch their planes. Warning, what you are about to see is not for those of a sensitive disposition.

Next AM airstrike.

Next AM airstrike.

Next AM airstrike.

Another AM airstrike? Sure, why not?

That was it for the morning. But, I guess my flyboys were ashamed of not launching last turn because they put in a full day's work. First PM airstrike.

Second PM airstrike.

Another PM airstrike.

Do we have time for one more PM airstrike? Yes, yes we do.

That's what we have. I think I (totally by luck) caught Scott shifting Brits from India to the DEI to help with the main offensive there and, judging by the squads and devices lost, I'd estimate that two divisions, an armored brigade and numerous support units have been destroyed along with a large amount of shipping. He may have been using Burma as a feint to draw me in and then plan on moving to invade Vietnam or Malay to cut me off. This explains why I have not seen more units in Burma and means that his troops there may be open to a counter attack.

To give you an idea of the amount of effort in this battle I had 7 CVs and one CVL that used up their entire complement of torpedoes in this single day and all of it on merchant shipping full of troops. Now, I have to get my CVs back home as LBA searches reveal a number of US carriers south east of Sumatra about for hexes north of Java. My plan is to flank speed back to the straits of Malacca and move my CVE TF out of Singapore up the straits to both draw off US CVs on the other side of Sumatra and provide more cover.

The pending loss of the Palembang oil, however, is about to severely crimp my ability to use the navy but this was a major Japanese victory IMHO.

Here are the reported ship losses thus far. These only appear to include ships listed as sunk in the combat reports and I"m sure that many of the ships list as "heavy fire heavy damage" will not make it.

Second screen.

This last screen just adds some LSTs at the bottom.

Amazing that that many troops would not be escorted by some carriers. Seems like a bad play on your opponent's part.

I think Scott got used to seeing my carriers at Singapore and I still had 5 there (CVEs and a CVL) so his intel may not have noticed the move out. And, he had CVE TFs inter spaced to attract any LBA attacks. So, I think it was more complacency as he has been moving ships just past Sumatra for months and I've never attacked.

Something, something, military maxims....something, something enemy capabilities, not intentions. [:D] Nice hunting!

That was ugly indeed, JFB's wet dream for the 44. Congratulations!
Now get the hell out of Dodge [:D]

From a JFB perspective, that was beautiful. [&o][&o][&o]

The dream of every SCTF commander should be to attack un/under defended transports. You just did it by carrier air and suffered few losses. Think of how many units are gone and how long it will take to replace them - if he has enough squads and devices to do so. If you would have had a carrier battle, what would your carriers look like now? This should slow him down not just for now because of the losses but for every operation from now on he will either have to escort his transports or expect this to happen again. Congratulations on getting a lot more points for very little loss.

I was very lucky. I had no idea he had so many transports up there. I merely reacted to what I thought was an invasion force heading towards northern sumatra and/or Blair Island and I wanted to get my CVs away from Singapore and the threat of a LBA attack. But I'll take lucky over good any day of the week.

@ GetAssista, heading back to the barn asap. Two turn window of vulnerability!

@ Anachro, can I quote you on that?

@ Ranger Joe, since I strongly suspect that these are British divisions it will take him a long long time to replace these units. And, it gives me more confidence that I can hold Burma and Rangoon's large VP total for longer.

Now, let's see if the carrier boys can get home and what Scott does to me at Palembang.