4 November 1943
KB remains at Truk, at least for the morning
CENTPAC and Truk
I forgot to order the two minesweepers at Truk to GTFO. They went back, ran into the KB again, retreated, went back again, and got killed by coastal batteries. A bit glitchy in that the coastal batteries didn't go after them when they were patrolling there previously. But hey, they swept 16 mines before they got killed.
A bombardment task force led by battleship Ise shelled our troops on Truk. Light casualties. I kinda hope they stick around another day...
Our combined carrier task forces (should I call it the Yankee Butai?) didn't make it to strike range today, but got close enough to be counterdetected. I didn't end the turn with a fix on the KB, but I didn't end last turn with one either and that didn't stop them from being at Truk. So maybe tomorrow. Or maybe they see the hammer about to fall and pull back.
By the way, intel now reports Kaga is still in service.
Japan
USS Rasher was spotted and depth charged by a kaibokan on ASW patrol, suffering moderate flooding. I forgot to manually order it back to port, hopefully it's doing that automatically, but I doubt it.
Rasher went on to torpedo a Husimi-class cargo ship (4675 tons) later in the day. The damage didn't appear lethal, but we got the SFX for a sinking ship later in the day and I don't know who else it would have been. Also there were 6 floatplanes reported "destroyed on the ground" and once again, I don't know who that would have been if not for them going down with this ship.
Marshall Islands
My hunter-killer combo of 2 DD and a pair of Catalina squadrons tracked down a singleton destroyer near Kusaie Island, and this time it didn't get away. Our 2 DD shelled it for substantial damage, then torpedoed it to put it down. No damage to us. The enemy DD was carrying artillery--apparently a "fast transport" evacuation effort.
Philippine Sea
USS Nautilus torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship (875 tons) off Legaspi. OK, maybe those floatplanes could have been on this, too.
DEI
Our troops ashore at Manado made a push to take the base but failed to dislodge the enemy troops. We have them badly outnumbered, the have no fortifications, and we have air support. I can reinforce if I need to, but no matter what it's just a matter of time. Ha, on second thought maybe I back off on the air support--our troops report there are 3 enemy units here total, a base force and 2 AA units.
Reinforcement
DE Cloues arrives at Eastern USA
__________________
|