26th Dec
Boxing day is pleasant. A Bond film on telly, and lots of cake and left over turkey to eat. Of course, being crewed by utter sods, my bombers decide they would rather fly to Moresby for the first time in a week. Unfortunately, most of the fighter jocks are too full of plum duff to fly....And the allies have got lots of shiny new Spitfires for their Christmas by the looks of it. I lose 34 Betties, which really sucks. I should know better by now. I had planned out an escort curtain (does that term exist? if not I'm copywriting it!) with fighters from Rabaul, Lae, Milne and Buna, but very few of the flew and we lost a huge amount of aircraft to a strong CAP.
This was compounded by CCIP's third torpedo success when S-38 sank the Destroyer Hamakazi. The other destroyers, as per the script, forgot to attack the sub....
And finally, I had expected my carriers to be north of Yamato but in a position to provide fighter cover by today, even taking into account their leisurely route to avoid US submarines. I had, however, failed to take into account two things: A, I suck. And B, there is no plan so simple that the Japanese fleet can't ruin it by pissing about.
As a result, Yamato and her mob ended up being hit by marine dive bombers out of Lunga. CL Nagara was the worst hit and is on her way home, Both Yamato and Haruna took bomb hits. On Yamato the captain thought someone had dropped a tiny hammer......Awesome ship.
Anyway. I have returned to the gym tonight after a fortnight doing other things and I hurt. Oh lord how I hurt.
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