Guadalcanal 72 Years On

[kham]

Nimitz Graybook --- In reality, Zuikaku still at Truk - undamaged. Shows how sketchy intel can be.

This is Gen Hyakutake's 17th army. He'll try to get as much of it to 'canal as possible. It's a veteran force but has usually fought as smaller detachments. They had "never fought against a foe who possessed superior numbers, equipment or strong defensive positions." 17th Army's Sendai Division are known as "The Butchers of Nanking"

(**ah yes. Another crack unit whose criteria is based on how much a collection of fucking scumbag murdering slime they are. Read up on Nanking, and you quickly think the bastards got off light with only 2 gadgets initiated on them)

[kham]

Bad weather, no Rabaul raid

est At H., Nimitz awards 14 DFCs (Distinguished Flying Cross medals) to Fighter and Bomber pilots.

[kham]

Lt. Yoneda, commander of the float plane base at Rekata Bay, has won the confidence of a native - Mostyn. Mostyn gives Lt. Yoneda fresh fruit and fish. Mostyn has the run of the base. When the Americans bomb the base, Mostyn is always there to cheer up Yoneda. Good Old Mostyn! Then Mostyn, a spy for coastwatcher Kuper, sends Kuper a damage report along with any info he's picked up.

[kham]

est Rabual sends a fighter sweep again. 36 Zeros, 9 Bettys (for navigation) No coastwatcher warning. F4Fx36 intercept. Marines lose 6 planes and 4 pilots. 4 Zeros down. J. exploited their altitude advantage.
Key problem for the Marines - they didn't know it was a fighter sweep. They thought they were climbing to meet bombers. 2 Marine Aces are killed on the Zero's first pass. Sq. Commander John Smith snags a Zero before 2 others shoot him down. Smith crashlands 6 miles S. of H. Amazingly (considering the jungle) he's able to walk back in only 2.5 hours

[kham]

There are 26 working F4Fs at H., about 80-100 zeros at Rabaul. Not all of those Zeros can be used vs. H. Some must be held back for defense against MacArthur's heavy bombers. Some are short-range Hamps. Marine Air Staff at 'canal analyze the IJN fighter sweep strategy. They prepare an ambush plan for the next time IJN try it. You can't expect the same plan to work 3 times in a row. (J. used same plan Sept 29, Oct 2)

[kham]

est TE runs have been delivering larger forces lately. Vandegrift wants to hit the rapidly building IJA before they're ready to attack. Preparations begin for attack around and W. of Matanikau village scheduled to start Oct 7. IJA plan to attack the Western part of Lunga Plain (in preparation for the assault on H. later this month) on Oct 8. Yup, both sides are starting an offensive on the same territory at almost the same time.

est Coastwatchers spot the Rabaul raid this time! Another sweep - 27 Zeros. Some Bettys navigate - just like last 2 times.
F4Fs at 34,000 ft dive to intercept zeros at 10,000! The Marines do well. 9(!) Zeros down, 2 more shot down by AA while strafing H. Marines lose 2 planes, no pilots. The ambush planned 10 hours ago worked! Col Joe Bauer is visiting H. He shoots down 4 Zeros! --- Mauled, Rabaul leaves H. alone for a while after this. (**A bounce coming down from 34,000 to 10 would have been like the angels of death themselves arrived...beautiful )

est 'canal coastwatcher boss Mackenzie at Lunga "borrows" the yacht Ramada to evacuate Father De Klerk's mission at Tangarare. He has a tight schedule. Has to pass Cape Esperance at night so J. don't see him BUT must time it so he doesn't run into the TE.

[kham]

Marine bombers are having a hard time. A. They get bombed on the ground by Bettys. (Betty raids mostly overlook the all grass Fighter One strip - so bombers, revetted near main strip, take more damage.) B. A lot of long flights to attack TE ships in the afternoon. --- The Bombers are wearing out quickly.

Recon SBDs spot the incoming TE run This TE has DDx6 and Seaplane Tender Nisshin. (Nisshin has 330 men, 9 heavy arty pieces, Gen. Maruyama) The J. now have nearby airbases. There are 10 Zeros covering the force. The SBDs barely get away. More SBDs spot another DDx3 inbound.

est More planes for H.! B-17x6 (temporarily), SBDx6, TBFx3 and 6 more Army pilots for the P-400s (Vandegrift *likes* P-400s now.) The B-17s will be bombing Buka in coordination with Hornet's raid on Shorlands 3 days from now.

The TE with Nisshin attacked by SBDx7, TBFx3. The ships take violent evasive action and avoid damage from the bombers.

est Yamamoto is angry about losing 10%* of Rabaul's and 11th Air Fleet's Zeros in one day. *20% of the long range Zeros. He fires Adm. Tuskahara and sends in Adm. Jinichi Kusaka as his replacement. (Hammel says the replacement was done yesterday)

est CV Hornet is in the Coral Sea. She turns N. and makes a high speed run to get into launch position for a strike at Shortlands.

TE unloads at Tassafaronga. Heavy Arty, maybe some tanks, from Nisshin (pictured). H. attacks. No hits.
Despite flares, only 2 SBDs were able to see the ships. --- These 150mm howitzers are the first heavy arty the J. have had on 'canal. Nisshin is one of the few *fast* ships that can carry *and* unload bulky items like heavy artillery and tanks. She keeps up with the DDs.
Another SBD attack on Nisshin. No hits but Nisshin takes a severe near-miss and leaves early with 2 arty still on board

[kham]

est The Ramada makes it to Tangarare and evacuates everyone except Father de Klerk. He'll stay behind and make all the J. in the area miserable. Also taking over Rhoades' coastwatcher duties. This is his own idea and he's not asking for permission.

est H. bombers take another shot at Nisshin. Miss

est Yamamoto issues the orders for the October Offensive - the capture of Guadalcanal (The dates are flexible) Gen. Hyakutake will move from Rabaul to 'canal with his Sendai (2nd) Division - the main infantry unit. Counting other units of the 17th Army, there'll be about 22,000 men taking part. --- Vandegrift's surrender is scheduled for Oct 15th. Rabaul will intensify air raids. (once they recover) --- BBs Kongo and Haruna will bombard H. to allow landings by transports. Kondo's 2nd fleet will hover N. of 'canal with 3 CVs. Nagumo's 3rd fleet will patrol E. of 'canal with 2 CVs (Zui/Sho) He'll block reinforcements. The CAs, CLs and DDs of Combined Fleet will be in reserve

IJN upgrade their radio intel unit at Rabaul. They set up 2 RDF stations and a unit of code breakers.

[kham]

est CV Hornet is in the Coral Sea. She turns N. and makes a high speed run to get into launch position for a strike at Shortlands. The plan for Hornet's attack is to have her aircraft strike Shortlands at dawn. At launch time the weather is bad. The forecast says *maybe* Shortlands will be clear at dawn. Except for some F4Fs held back for CAP, Hornet launches everything! A 60 plane strike. No lights for takeoff. Planes use the exhaust flare from the planes ahead of them to see the deck!

Gen. Maruyama (Sendai Division) is upset that battered survivors of earlier battles have been talking with his fresh troops. Their depressing stories have a demoralizing effect. He bans such contact and issues a general order.

[kham]

est Hornet's strike is at 14,000 ft as they approach Bougainville. The Hornet strike flies into a *big* cloud. When they emerge, the strike is completely scattered. The Hornet strike attacks their targets (Kahili airfield and assorted ships) in small groups. Attacking planes exploit heavy clouds to pop out close to their targets, attack and return before defending Zeros can do much of anything. 2 Float Zeros are shot down, a few ships are damaged. EVERY PLANE RETURNS TO HORNET!
This plan also involved those 6 B-17s from H. attacking Buka and the other bombers from H. hitting the seaplanes at Rekata. The bad weather scrapped the non-Hornet parts. Hornet's F4Fs on CAP shoot down a 4 engine patrol bomber.