[Egan]

27th Nov

what a lovely day for Japan. Milne fell, but when the odds were so heavily stacked in my favour it's hardly surprising.

Ground combat at Milne Bay (101,133)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 15513 troops, 19 guns, 286 vehicles, Assault Value = 392

Defending force 2105 troops, 26 guns, 7 vehicles, Assault Value = 16

Japanese adjusted assault: 264

Allied adjusted defense: 9

Japanese assault odds: 29 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Milne Bay !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
128 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Allied ground losses:
1135 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 45 destroyed, 49 disabled
Engineers: 33 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 9 (9 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 8 (8 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 2


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
38th/38th Engineer Regiment
Maizuru 4th SNLF
38th/229th Inf Regiment
2nd/4th Inf Regiment
8th JNAF AF Unit

Defending units:
7th Australian Bde /5
101st RAAF Base Force

The two infantry regiments will begin prepping for other targets, one of which will be Moresby although I already have a lot ready for there.

My carriers also did nicely today, CCIP attempted to move all his shipping out of Moresby and back to Australia. I don' think he had any option to be honest, but it sure was lovely to have my strike aircraft do what they are paid to do for a change.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Cooktown at 95,134

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 26
D3A2 Val x 46



Japanese aircraft losses
D3A2 Val: 5 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Sculptor, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
AP McCawley, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires
xAP Asphalion, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Cummings, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP President Wilkerson, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Fanning, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
APD Colhoun, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires



Aircraft Attacking:
15 x D3A2 Val releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
10 x D3A2 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
4 x D3A2 Val releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
1 x D3A2 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
6 x D3A2 Val releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
2 x D3A2 Val releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
4 x D3A2 Val releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb
4 x D3A2 Val releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Fanning
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AP McCawley
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AK Sculptor
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAP Asphalion

An attack later in the day on another task force did less but still hit a destroyer.

Although there were several attacks from his 4e lads on my fleet, none got through and, for the first time in living memory, the aircraft that had the highest A2A losses at the end of the day was the B17e. Nice. Even Yamamoto was happy: