The action at Alexandria is awesome to imagine.
He-51 carrier launched bi-planes are flying a night scouting mission over Alexandria, to determine the state of the British fleet. The weather says rain, but I prefer to think of it as a great Haboob sweeping across the delta.
They take accurate fire from two Anti-Aircraft emplacements. They are also intercepted by Fairey Swordfish launched by the 4 escort carriers in port. But unless his CAGs are better than mine, these are ineffective at night in the dust storm(3 air attack at 42% vs 6 air defense at 147% defend).
Several pilots reported hits, but it is unlikely any bomb really found its Mark. Germany has not developed air dropped torpedos or an effective light bomb, and so the HE-51 only has a sea attack of 4. With the interception and night-time bad weather they are attacking at only 21%. This means they got slightly less than 1 attack per round. And they were soon stripped of what little ORG they had and started taking losses.
The real mission was to gather intel though. Considering the confusion that must have reigned (the wing lost 10 planes) the photographs brought back are unrealistically good. However, the news is bad.
Ramilles, Hood and Renown are all at harbour. Hood shows significant battle damage from the port strike launched on June 19th. But repair crews are working under lamps to get her battle ready. Renown was Hit by several bombs (at 75% STR) on June 19th, but now her paint is not even scratched. Resolution is not spotted, and that reinforces the Italian claim to have sunk her in a battle off the coast of Palestine.
Four Escort carriers were spotted. Collosus and Eagle are both undamaged, but two previously unknown ships, Venerable and Glory, both show significant damage.
There are ten heavy cruisers, mostly county class. Six are ready to fight. With 28 escorts available, the AI is unlikely to run out, even though several are badly damaged. No transports are spotted.
Along with these ships spotted in port the RN has two other fleets composed of capital ships mixed with light carriers. The Italians chewed up one near Palestine, and claim to have sunk the battleship Resolution. And Royal Oak and her group are trying to break my blockade of the port. British production is not strained, and it seems like full IC has been allocated to repairs. Trying to port strike this behemoth to death will not work.
WIth my 6 carriers, 2 cruisers and 14 light cruisers, backed by the Regia Marina's 8 battleships, 14 heavy cruisers, 41 escorts, and 22 submarines I think I have a quantative and qualative edge in ships. However, I can't count on the Italians to maintain a blockade. After the next load of troops is ashore at Tobruk I'm going to retreat to port and reorganize.