Guadalcana campaign August 9 and 10 and air strike battle report

 Note. I didnt record the results of the Tulagi battle as it mostly went as expected and i was eager to be done with these land battles. mostly because i messed up my land board and it is too uneaven for the terrain. needless to say the US forces won with their massive advantage.

Turn 6 day (August 9)

The weather is fine

The US sub continues to patrol.

The Japanese land forces stop withdrawing.

The US task force continues to unload

2 dive bomber sections and a fighter attack the transports but are intercepted by a large number of fighters and abort the mission before reaching their target.

Once again the Japanese submarine spots the task force it has been following.

I-123 fires a spread at the Task Unit from old TF 16, 1 of which strikes the enterprise.

The submarine is then destroyed by depth charges.

The torpedo strikes the Enterprise carrier but at a bad angle and while there is some hull damage the ship escapes mostly intact.

Turn 6 night

The weather is fine.

The US forces continue to unload.

The US sub continues to patrol

The only Japanese forces in the theatre now hunker down and await reinforcements.

Turn 7 day (august 10)

It is cloudy

Once again a large air force attacks the transports They are intercepted by 2 sections at 25000 yards.

So it is 2 sections of CAP vs 3 fighter, 3 dive bomber and 1 torp bomber sections.

The 2 Cap sections are White 1 from the USS Wasp and the Saratoga's 2^nd fighter red section. The Saratoga's section is lead by a vet and has 1 average pilot and a rookie. The wasp's section are all average pilots. They face 3 zero fighter sections all average and lead by veterans. These are

escorting 3 dive bomber sections and 1 torpedo bomber section. It will be a hard fight for the Americans. They start coming head on to the bombers

Turn 1

All the planes move up, some long range fire from the Japanese fails to do any damage.

Turn 2

The planes manover, US white moves over the bombers and directly behind them but is caught and tailed by a zero section. US red moves around to the right in a tight circle pursued by 2 zero sections. The hard manoeuvrer causes the rookie to test to keep formation which he does.

The leader of the Zero section behind US white fires on the leader and the long burst shreds the planes fuselage causing it to begin to spiral down to the sea. US red takes a lot of fire but only minor damaged is caused. In turn a burst of fire from US red leader (H. Jones)causes one of the torpedo bomber pilots to loose control.

Turn 3

The leader of US white (W. bailey) bails successfully from his stricken plane. Fire from the Japanese section behind US red causes engine damage on number 1 (S. Roche) and misses the others. One Japanese pilot jams his guns.

The 2 remaining planes from US white section split up and both turn to follow the torpedo bombers. The get behind them and both fire. White 1 (J. Thompson) causes damage to the fuel line while white 2 (N. Powell) accurate fire causes the bomber to explode causing number 3 to loose control. The leader still struggling from the earlier fire fails to regain control.

US red leader has now moved up behind the bombers a good distance from the escorts, CAP and torpedoes bombers behind him. His accurate fire causes engine damage to one and causes another to explode causing another to loose control.

The green zero section fires on US white 1 but misses with 1 pilot jamming his guns. Another Zero sections on the rookie of US red section (J. O'Rorke) The cockpit is shredded and O'Rorke is KIA.

Turn 4 and Turn 5

Red leader having used all his ammunition leaves the battle field, seeing behind him 2 of the bombers who he caused to loose control and the one whose engine he damaged smash into the sea.

The Zero section behind US white 2 damages the plane enough to force the pilot to bail as it heads towards the sea.

2 sections pursue White 1 (J. Thompson) as he makes his escape and miraculously he dodges all their fire with nothing more than his gun sights and windows damaged. The pursuing zeros, having run out of ammunition break off.

The surviving 6 dive bombers and 1 torpedo bomber make their attack runs on the transports.

The torpedo bomber is shot down almost immediately. The dive bombers make runs on the USS Fuller and the USS Alhena. One dive bomber from each is damaged. The Fuller is struck amid ships by a penetrating bomb which causes extensive damage and sinks the ship after a short while. The Alhena is hit in the stern with the bomb reaching the 2 stern cargo holds. A large fire takes hold but is eventually put out.

The loss of the Fuller take with it 2 weapons platoons and 2 marine platoons. The Alhena fire costs the landing forces a weapons platoon, an artillery platoon and 2 tanks. The losses among troops would have been much greater if they had not already mostly been sent ashore in the landings.

However, the damage to another of the cargo ships of which there are only 5 has cost more heavy equipment. Already 25% of the tanks and a portion of heavy artillery have been lost.

The skill of red leader (H. Jones) has seen him reach the level of a Junior ace, the first one among all the carrier pilots.