Part 783: Operational Report: 28/01/44

We up the ante on tanker kills by taking out an Oiler.







The Japanese bomb Marcus Island once more.



The carrier groups are engaging, and the Japanese get the first strike off.



The CAP gets into gear, and they are soon past the few fighters and slaughtering the incoming bombers. The Japanese attack does not even get to see our ships.



The Japanese have split their forces, and another wave of planes comes in, and this one is more successful.



Our own attack goes in, but the Japanese have kept back a number of their fighters

.

We then take heavy losses, but begin to lay into the enemy ships.



The Ryujio is the worst hit, with our planes reporting ammunition explosions. I also note the presence of the Hiei.
Their afternoon attack is lacking in bombers.



Ours is not, but the next one will be.







The fighting over Akyab continues its normal pattern.







We continue to bomb Ambon.



The Gaum bombing campaign continues to go poorly.









Right, lets see how we're looking after today. While I think we may only get one kill from this, we have at least dealt some damage to one of the Japanese fleet carriers, and take out a lot of their carrier trained pilots. The loss of 154 planes to our own 107 is a painful bit of damage, but neither carrier force will have much left for tomorrow.



I think this is accurate, but I'm not going to get the points for a while. Overall, this puts me in the lead.



No carrier damage to our own ships.



Although anyone with the San Diego as their lucky ship should get ready for a new one.



Now to do that again tomorrow.