18 October 1943
Heavy cruiser IJN Nachi torpedoed in Sulu Sea
Hellcats lose to Georges, again
Sulu Sea
USS Grouper scored 2 hits on IJN Nachi on the western side of the north-of-Mindanao sea route. Damage appears to be severe. The nearest shipyard is Manila--I'll have a pair of subs looking for him outside that harbor. Curiously, this appears to be a replenishment task force; the other reported ships are 2 AOs and a kaibokan.
CENTPAC
That apparently-elite George squadron handed our asses to us again. I cancelled the Avenger raids and replaced them with sweeps, mostly from CVEs with more experienced pilots than the newly-arrived Bunker Hill. But, coordination was awful, instead of arriving in a group they mostly arrived 1 squadron-of-9 at a time. We got 1 Zero and 2 Georges, while losing 11 Hellcats.
I've ordered the most depleted carriers (Essex, Yorktown [it's aircraft, not its sorties], Independence, Casablanca, Belleau Wood, and Duncan) to fall back to Wake for replenishment. That leaves Bunker Hill, Princeton, Cowpens, Monterey, and several CVEs.
DEI
USMC paratroopers seized Maurmere, Endeh, and Ruteng.
Of the 6 bases captured, I only intend to build up Maurmere. But he won't know which one it is until there's already a fighter squadron based there. I'll be using landing craft to reconsolidate the Marines, and amphibious ships are moving base forces and engineers over.
Reinforcements
DD Cotten arrives at Eastern USA
DE Parks arrives at Eastern USA
AS Aegir arrives at Balboa
LSD Lindenwald arrives at Los Angeles
__________________
|