October 3, 1943
Facing reality in the Marianas
CENTPAC
As landings proceeded overnight, the most badly damaged transport at Guam took an additional pounding. Which is sort of OK, they were basically destroying a sunken ship. But they switched to another transport, critically damaging it as well.
A midget sub approached the Saipan landing force but was spotted and driven off.
The main morning air strike targeting the main amphibious body was a shadow of its former self 2 days agao at 17 Zeroes and 3 Tonies escorting 6 Betties. Our CAP was now down to 39 Hellcats thanks to Yorktown being disabled yesterday. We got 7 Zeroes and a Betty with no losses; the remaining Betties turned around. A second raid of 12 Betties and 3 Tonies targeted the Saipan landing; they met 23 Hellcats and lost a Tony and 2 Betties. 9 Betties made attack runs on the BB Alabama and CA Quincy; all missed and 2 were lost to flak.
22 Betties flying in from Truk then targeted the Guam landing. I had assigned them a CAP from one of the CVEs but they were nowhere to be found. A troop transport took 2 torpedoes and a cargo ship took another. The ships are nearly wiped out at this point. 7 Judies followed that up, targeting a destroyer and missing. That same destroyer found a midget sub approaching later in the day and sank it. Late in the day one of the few surviving cargo ships hit a mine; a destroyer was able to clear 2 mines after witnessing that.
Our airstrikes arrived next. Saipan airbase was hit again, destroying 4 Betties, 4 Helens, 3 Zeroes, a Tony, and a George on the ground, along with inflicting moderate base facility damage. The port was also attacked; 2 cargo ships took bomb hits, likely sinking one. The attack cost me 3 SB2Cs. Tinian's ground forces absorbed a raid by 27 SBD-3s from a CVE.
As landing operations proceeded at Tinian, an APD hit a mine, and a DMS trying to clear a path took damage from shore batteries. 7 mines were cleared. One cargo ship each at Tinian and Saipan took substantial fire from coastal defense as well.
Aircraft on ASW patrol reported 11 hits on enemy submarines in the area.
The enemy garrison attacked our landing at Tinian, resulting in 1107 enemy casualties and 568 for us. We benefited substantially from the thick jungle terrain. Our counterattack added 109 enemy casualties and 193 to our count. Overall force strength looks even. Enemy forts are Level 4.
On Saipan the enemy attack was far more even in strength than the other two, which combined with the terrain bonus resulted in lopsided casualties of 1447 for them and 189 for us. Our counterattack resulted in 819 more enemy casualties and 98 for us. But even with these force levels and numbers, it doesn't mean we're going to win--the forts here at Level 5, which is pretty serious.
On Guam, enemy garrison attacked caused 312 to 245 casualties favoring us. Again, terrain helped. But the numbers here look awful; the enemy garrison is about 3 times stronger than our invading Marines.
Based on the force levels on all 3 targets in the Marianas, it's clear that I didn't bring enough to take all 3. Guam is hopeless. Between Saipan and Tinian, the enemy garrison on Tinian is smaller and their forts are 1 level lower. Based on this I'm ordering a retreat from Saipan so I can put as much into Tinian as possible so I can set up my damn airbase there. Hopefully a sustainable airbase will mean second attempts on Guam and Saipan will succeed.
Burma
Wellington bombers attacking the enemy tank regiment got ambushed by a new enemy CAP, and of course, they didn't link up with their escorts. That cost us 5 Wellingtons. A sweep of P-47s arrived in that area later, but by then the enemy fighters were gone.
Reinforcements
AR Ranpura arrives at Aden
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