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BBfanboy
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by BBfanboy »

Hope you have a good escort for SoDak. IJN subs love to stake out the area from SFO to the exit from Panama to the map.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

Hasn't been a problem to date. In any case we kind of stay away from the immediate hexes where TFs come out into the main map and yes, she is well escorted.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

August 17th

Hoorn Island, Norfolk Island, and Lord Howe Island all hit by air raids with no allied losses.
In the Aleutians, Dutch Harbor now has a functioning airfield. A tiny, fighter strip but it is a beginning. Maybe sometime soon submarines may be based here.

The battleship task force that participated in the Raoul invasion arrives at Tahiti and disbands for minor repairs; even so, they will take some time considering the primitive facilities available in the island. Maryland docks by the repair ship and will be out for twelve days, West Virginia in a state of readiness will fix her damage in three while Nevada will take five. In addition Nevada needs to upgrade its 1.1 inch AA guns to Bofors but not just yet. PA will take a week to repair with the repair ship aid, California eight in readiness. Tennessee will dock by the repair ship for 23 days before proceeding to Pearl to finish repairs and upgrading. New Mexico too will proceed to Pearl to receive her new Bofors. Mississippi will be ready in six days and will delay her upgrade at this time.

Raoul Island’s runway have been completely repaired, the port is still 57% damaged and the service huts on the airfield are about 80% restored.


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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by BBfanboy »

Is that damage to BB Maryland all engineering damage? If not, some of that 12 day estimate will be for the systems damage and you can move Maryland away from the Repair Ship as soon as the major engineering damage is fixed to free the latter up for another ship.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

August 19th

The Adak raiding force disbands at Pearl to repair minor damage. Norfolk and LHI continue to receive daily visits from the heavies based at Auckland or Sidney.
Over Hoorn Island ten F4F-3 escort eleven SBD3 to hit 83rd NGU. Seven enemy fighters rise and damage one Wildcat and one Dauntless destroying one additional dive bomber. One Zero claimed as damaged.

Over Adak, the air battle grinds on favoring the Japanese more often than not.

Tomorrow CVL Hermes will depart Cape Town heading for Melbourne where she will pick up her air wing, 12 Swordfish biplanes.


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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

August 21st
Burma front

Ledo.
Thirty six Tojo fighters sweep the airfield. Twenty four Hurricanes IIc and Twenty six P40E challenge them. Five Tojo destroyed at a cost of three Hurricanes and one P40. Not a bad result all things considered but, and there’s always a but, twenty nine Tojos return and, this time, only eight Hurricanes and an equal number of P40 are available to contest the airspace. No enemy fighters are destroyed or damaged and two Hurricanes and two P40 spiral out of the sky.

In the evening, all the transports depart from Ledo bound to Jorhat hoping to find safety there.

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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

August 22nd.

Jorhat.

The transports arrived at Jothat during the night, flying into the darkened airfield, the runways barely illuminated with smudge pots. The C47 were immediately dispersed and the airmen directed to their sleeping quarters. That is, the fortunate ones. Most of the pilots slept on the aluminum floor of their machines; it was that or the ground, and the one thing the American flyboys had figured out was to stay off the ground at night. Pesky Indian cobras liked to share the blankets of the unwary; many a newbie jumped out of his cot screaming when he realized he was not sleeping alone, to the general hilarity of his fellow aviators.

Near the airfield, in the surrounding jungle a single man perched in a well camouflaged stand hidden among the branches of a tree; or perhaps it was a pariah, an untouchable squatting by the side of the perimeter road, or one of the traders that sold contraband beer or rented women to the G.I.s
After the last transport landed, a series of dits and dahs rose into the airwaves. British military police detected the transmission but by the time the location was triangulated and a truck with armed sepoys was dispatched the radio operator was long gone.

While the pilots got briefed on the route to follow over the hump, and got fed breakfast, a drone filled the air. Even before the alarms went off, the pilots holding on to whatever parts of their breakfast were portable, dashed off the tents where they sat and dived into slit trenches dug along the perimeter. The roar of Hurricane engines scrambling filled the air. Men rushed to their battle positions, AA guns manned, fire control teams sought their extinguishers, their buckets of sand, and their shovels.
Twenty nine Tojo fighters high, high up in the sky, tracked by the AA gunners who knew their guns could not hit them at that range. And the CAP diving on them, fourteen hurricanes that had departed at first light diving through the enemy formations. 135 RAF squadron with its Hurricane IIb Tropical at fifteen thousand feet, 136 with their IIc at twenty five. 615 and 17, all participate. A total of thirteen IIb and twenty four IIc. Three Tojo destroyed, two Hurricane IIb and two II c lost.

Out of ammo fighters begin to land, refuel and rearm. Their mates, those that took off too late to participate in the dogfight against the Tojos, circle over the airfield, and dash off to the east.
Twenty seven Ki-21-IIa Sally bombers escorted by thirty four Ki-43-Ic Oscar barrel in. The Hurricanes ignore the Oscar fighters and bore into the bomber formations. Three Sallies tumble down in flames, one, trailing smoke from one of its engines, dives down to near tree top level and heads back the way it came. The bombers drop their deadly eggs on the airfield but, their formations disrupted, they drop most of their bombs on the runways. One 250 Kg bomb hits an ammo dump creating a glorious explosion, four additional bombs hit the airbase destroying one C47 and one Hurricane. One Hurricane, engine smoking, glides to land on the cratered runway.

The airmen cheer but their elation is premature. The alarm goes off again. A massive bomber formation approaches. Fifty eight Sally bombers, unescorted. Eighteen fighters attack, destroy nine machines and send six ones back struggling to return to base. The defensive fire from the bomber’s gunners damages two Hurricane. Even so fifty four bombers drop their cargo and destroy four C-47. That no fighters were lost landing on the cratered runway was in itself a minor miracle and a tribute to the skill of the British pilots.

“Is it over?” one of the C-47 pilots asks.

The alarm blares again. Thirty six bombers, only six Hurricanes. One bomber destroyed, six damaged. One Hurricane damaged, one C-47 left a smoking hulk.

Tonight, the C-47s will return to Ledo where the USAF 23FG/76FS with its P40s will reinforce the fighter coverage.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

August 24th

Burma

Japan expands the air war. Two airfields swept by Tojos today.
First twenty seven enemy fighters sweep the empty field at Chittagon; unmolested they return to base. Then twenty five Tojo visit Ledo; they meet eighteen Hurricane and six P40. In the ensuing melee one Tojo is destroyed at a cost of five Hurricanes and one P40.
Tojos visit Ledo again in the evening. Forty two fighters! Forty two, sweep the skies. Two Hurricane and one P40 meet them. Predictably they achieve nothing at all, except for the loss of one Hurricane.

A new idea floats around the allied HQs. Why not send heavy bombers to Burma? They aren’t doing much in the Pacific, the distances involved, their maintenance requirements, limit the usefulness of these machines, but in Burma there are large airfields, and ample support. The heavy bombers might stand up to the enemy fighters and perhaps, just perhaps, destroy enough of them on the ground to turn the battle around. Two B24 groups will embark tomorrow from East USA and begin the long trip to Cape Town and from there to India.
More airgroups will follow, and support troops, and more, in a major effort to turn the air war around, somewhere with no cannon wielding Zero fighters.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

August 27th

Tahiti:
Transports lie at anchor while the men of the 1st Marine Division and the 1st Advance Air Base shuttle out to the waiting ships and scramble over the side. While this happens, ships take turns at the inadequate piers to load up the heavy equipment. The men discuss, comment, and argue about their destination. Some say Wellington, others ask where the truck is Wellington, and some insist that that is a Brit term for boots.

Burma

Enemy Tojo sweep again the skies over Ledo and the defending P40E prove themselves totally inadequate to the task at hand. Forty two enemy fighters vs twenty six allied. One Tojo and seven P40s destroyed. Thirty six versus three, one P40 destroyed.

China

Chungking receives a massive enemy raid. First seventy six Oscar versus twenty P66. One Oscar destroyed and only seven P66 lost, this qualifies as a victory considering the experience or lack thereof of the Chinese pilots. The bombers, escorted by more Oscar fighters follow with predictable results. First three, then a single heroic P66 rise. Fortunately no more Chinese machines are lost, probably because the enemy simply ignored them.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

The Fiji Tahiti front marks the limit of Japanese advance. Here and no further. Now to roll back the behemoth

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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

September 7th 1942

Washington DC.
The Oval Office
There mood is solemn. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sits behind the desk he inherited from President Hoover. Around him stand Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of War Henry L Stimson. The White House photographer snaps a picture that will run in tomorrow’s papers. President Roosevelt signing the executive order that orders the creation or re-creation of US 24th Infantry Division lost in the defense of Australia.

September 10th

Aleutians

Twin surprises over Adak Island. First it is an unescorted flight of fourteen B25C that meets, in addition to the twenty seven A6M2 Zero fighters a new enemy. Eight Tojo IIa machines. Nine B25 destroyed, one damaged, for a Zero and a Tojo destroyed. The second surprise is on the Japanese. A new enemy, arriving too late, joins the battle. Eighteen P38F sweep the sky to find the enemy pilots eager to tangle with the new American fighter. Twenty one Zero, two Tojo rise to give battle. Four Zero and one Tojo destroyed, but four P38 fail to return. The first appearance of the new long range fighter ends in a draw.

Sidney

An observer, had there been one, watching the harbor at night, would wonder at the site of a gaggle of submarines leaving the harbor. Where are all this boats headed to? He might ask. This is the opening move of an offensive allied operation, “Shotgun I” These submarines will take assigned positions around the target and around Noumea, ready to provide warning, and also to snipe at enemy forces that might come to interfere with the allied operations.
The target: Norfolk Island.




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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

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September 13th 1942

Wellington, New Zealand.

The harbor is positively clogged with shipping. The invasion forces arrived two days ago and disembarked. The men are restricted to base which means absolutely nothing. Marines will always give MPs the slip and the bars, gaming dens, and other less savory establishment do brisk business with the new arrivals.
The staff officers assign ships to the invasion force, unassign them, and assign them back again. The harbor master chain smokes and pulls on his receding hair trying to unload the ships that bring supplies while at the same time preserving capacity for loading the invasion fleet. Warships demand fuel, ammunition, service. It’s enough to drive a Mormon to drink and he is no Mormon.

September 14th

Chaos reigns in the harbor but at last, the invasion troops begin to load on their transports. Elsewhere, at Pago Pago, a raiding force begins loading for the invasion of Tongatapu, a little operation meant to obtain an airbase within medium bomber range of Suva and Nadi.

September 16th

TF 180, the Norfolk Island invasion force departs Wellington. TF 191 the bombardment and covering force under Rear Admiral Harry Wilbur follows. Ahead of the main force, four destroyer minesweepers will clear any enemy mines; an unenviable task as they will do so fully exposed to enemy coastal gun fire.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

September 18th

Despite the continued bombing from Vavalu and Pago Pago, and the assistance of the 3rd USMC parachute Bn parachute assault, the 3rd Marine raider battalion fails to capture Tongatapu




Meanwhile in the Burma Theater, a whole slew of AA units begin to move to the front airfields in the northeastern frontier. Many of these guns cannot reach the high flying Sallies but their noise at least improves the defender’s morale.






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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by Bif1961 »

The higher they fly the less accurate they bomb, and it will discourage the low flying night bombers as well.
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

Post by kaleun »

Look: More than 10000 hits. Yeah!
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

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September 19th
The Norfolk Island invasion force is approaching its target but the bombardment task force lags behind. Signals criss cross the skies and the battlewagons belch black smoke as all their boilers strain to push heavy steel through unyielding seas.

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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

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September 20th 1942

Norfolk Island, night. The lookouts on the beach cannot see the ships steaming beyond the horizon but they see flashes of light reflected on the sky and know, even before the sound arrives, to dive for their slit trenches, their bunkers, any hole in the ground they can find before Armageddon comes calling.
On the decks and command bridges of the battlewagons it plays out like an exercise, the turrets swing towards the distant shore, the gun barrels raise, and as one, Mississippi’s guns open fire, so do California’s and Pennsylvania’s, Nevada’s, West Virginia’s and Maryland’s. Closer to shore, Salt Lake City and Pensacola open up with their ten 8 inch pieces. Destroyers Brooks, Peary, Hull, and Jarvis come much closer inshore before they open up with their 5 inch guns. Brooks and Peary, old Clemson class four pipers make as much smoke from their four stacks as from their four guns, but there is no one on the shore of the island looking at the smoke from the old destroyers.
A solitary B17 flies by in the early morning, the bombardier peering at the enemy base through his powerful, German made binoculars. Six Jake floatplanes damaged, two more destroyed. The base, a shambles. The bomber turns back towards Auckland. On the sea, the rear gunner spots dots moving towards the beach. A light cruiser, Nashville and six destroyers, perilously close to the beach fire with all their guns to cover the invaders.
He issues a warning:
“Bandits, six o’clock, high!”
But the enemy aircraft do not approach the solitary receding bomber.

The men on the boats and on the ships of the task force see the incoming bombers. CL Nashville turns her AA guns in the direction of the threat. xAP Wahine and Chaumont turn their minimal defenses in the same direction waiting for a bomber to get into range before opening fire.
Seventeen twin engined and twin tailed bombers begin to maneuver to get into attack position. As they do so, they pull away from their fighters that, in turn, split to stay on the bombers. Twenty nine Zero fighters keep one eye on the bomber they escort, one on their wingman and a third eye scanning the skies.
The allied fighters, fourteen F4F-3 and twenty three F4F-4 Wildcats pick their moment perfectly. As the bombers break formation the blue gray fighters pounce on them. Covering their bombers, the enemy fighters cannot use their superior speed and maneuverability to advantage. Five Zero fall out of the sky in flames. Only one F4F is lost. The Grumman fighters barrel in on the enemy bombers. It doesn’t take much to turn the Japanese fighter into a flaming torch. Four of them flame into the sea and three more turn back one engine belching smoke. That leaves ten machines skimming the water towards the light cruiser and the two transports that now, with no allied fighters to worry about, open up with their AA guns. The four five inch/25 guns that bear on the cruiser belch fire and the four 50 caliber machineguns on that side open up soon afterwards. Their fire, poorly directed is ineffective but nevertheless achieves its purpose. The enemy bombers release their torpedoes and depart unharmed, but the pilots, unnerved by the loss of their friends, and the rattle of shrapnel on their airframes, miss with all the fish. The invasion will continue unhindered, at least for now.

A larger formation of aircraft approaches. Warned by radar, Nashville, Mustin and Sims belch smoke and turn their AA guns against the threat. Two massive formations of aircraft fill the skies, Twenty eight Kate bombers and fifty smaller dive bombers with fifty eight fighters covering overhead. Against this strike, only twenty six allied fighters remain. The dogfights are short and fierce, and cost the allies four Wildcats, and the Japanese, two Zero fighters destroyed, five Kate and two Val bombers damaged.
The light cruiser and the two destroyers open up with all their guns but the carrier pilots are of a different breed than their land based comrades. Ignoring the explosions of the AA guns, they pick their targets and dive on them, with devastating results.
Sims, rocked by five direct bomb hits is on fire, from stem to stern, with only the smoke from her own fires saving her from more damage. DD Aaron Ward evades torpedoes and so does DD Patterson but, while maneuvering wildly to evade torpedoes, Patterson cannot evade one of the two 60 Kg bombs dropped by a Val. The transports, predictably, do even worse. xAP Santa Elena, seven bomb hits, xAP Zaandam three, xAp Klipfontein, 4, xAP Monterrey two, Wahine five, Thomas Barry four, Matsonia four.



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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

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The position of the enemy carriers

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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

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Both carrier forces are too far away to attack each other. The US carriers launch against the enemy defenders. One hundred and eight Dauntless dive bombers drop their eggs on the III/90th Infantry battalion. Later in the morning, twelve B17 do likewise.

The invasion continues however until the afternoon when a new strike is detected at 113 nm distance. The torpedo bombers return, anxious to make good on their poor performance this morning. Fifty seven Kate bombers and fifty one Zero fighters tangle with twenty two wildcats. One zero falls out of the sky, two Kate turn back smoking and sputtering. Three Wildcats lost. The AA claims one more Kate. But forty one of the bombers drop their fish and one of those torpedoes finds its target, xAP St. Mihel. Fifteen of the Kates carry bombs, two 250Kg bombs apiece. Two of those bombs find xAP Perida.

Night falls.

Elsewhere, Japanese forces seize undefended islands: Green Island, Woodlark Island, and Gebe.



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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate

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Aftermath
On Mississippi the orders arrive, are read and acknowledged. The battleships will pound Norfolk once more tonight then withdraw to Wellington and putative safety under the cover of their P40s.
On Hornet, the captains of the carriers Yorktown and Wasp assemble, officially to confer with Admiral Mitscher but actually to listen to his orders.
The carriers will not withdraw, yet they will not close the range to the enemy force. They will remain southwest of Norfolk, but outside of Betty/Nell range.

“If they want to tangle with us, let them come,” he says.
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