“No guts, no glory – Part 1”
{13 days in June, 1942}
What is our plan? It is a very simple one; we try to win any spot we defend or decide to extend. Does ANZAC command have a solid strategy for leading the Allies to a conclusive V? No, we may be leading the charge in our corner of the seas but we are fighting a battle for survival...little more. To imagine ourselves as the true powers, is too lofty-minded behind our serious limitations. In example, we bought plans for Destroyers and then bought plans for CAGs but we now need convoys & airbases, after the unforeseen development of the IJN parking CV-fleets in our home waters; thus we’ve built nothing that we’ve bought. Every aggressive action we take, is naturally countered by defensive uncertainty. We are not in control of many important ports and air-fields in the regions we fight and that is making for easy gains, sudden losses and sometimes, very serious threats.
The most recent threat you know already, as we left off last time with French troops fighting to retake
Melbourne. Before we get to the story, we lost 4 more men in
Wellington, to the enemy’s 60. I only report about this single skirmish because, I hope one day to compile the total losses in defending our capitol.
Melbourne
2 June As you should remember, what looked to be an easy win for the recently arrived French forces, once they reached the outskirts of the southern port, was greatly delayed with the arrival of 2 more Japanese marine-divisions. I imagine the 1st unit that we did defeat may have retreated back onto the transports that brought the reinforcements in; so whether we destroyed the remainder of that first division, I do not know yet. About this time, realizing we were
up-against-it again, I delayed sending the Canadian bombers anywhere else and sent them back-in to bomb the invading force.
Now, the tide is not in our favor.
Intelligence could not
tell us gents 
what IJN-fleets were in the area. This may mean; there could be no fleets anywhere near home-waters now; there are a few fleets but no fleets can interfere with Melbourne; or if you dare this sea-attack...you will be instantly
blasted to bits by CAGs
as thick as fleas on a slow Roo.
What worried me now, was the simple fact, that if the large enemy-army on South-Island was ferried over to Melbourne? The Aussie mainland would instantly become a full-fledged front and one of which I would not have complete command. I do not supply the mainland; in fact, I make certain, that our ships never base in one of those ports; all ships are based in Wellington and only
Move to a port when needed and this is true for all ship-repairs as well.
Speaking of
move, on
4 June with the lost cause battle continuing in Melbourne, I decided to not bring the two new US Marine-divisions to
Sydney as planned but keep them on the LCTs and
assault Melbourne from the sea. I knew there was no way for them to make it from
Tahiti (not Fiji as I reported earlier and that should add a wee bit of emphasis to that previous required rescue) but once the French had to call the battle off, that would leave the enemy weakened. Before I made this decision, I had already taken a risk by sending Robertson’s 2nd AST-Infantry out of Sydney, in sending them on-down to join the next fight for the port.
Battle Stations!
We crossed our fingers and ordered USS Lexington TF to Banks Strait as a screening fleet, blocking the approach to the assault. The battleships USS Idaho & USS Nevada and their escorts were ordered from repairs in Auckland (mostly finished) to Banks Strait (off the port) to provide bombardment. Although our RN-Raiders were far from healthy, once again I put them in harm’s way; they were to patrol the waters in the
South Tasman Sea. I did not like a bit of this but since we were going for it, I wanted a couple of layers in front of the invasion-fleet to provide both early-warning and distraction for a likely CV action. At this moment, we had seen none but we must expect
angry arrivals.
22 Hrs. 5 June – (a) Lexington sails into Banks Strait
(b) The BBs are headed to Bass Strait. (c) the DDs are on patrol
(d) and the LCTs are off Wellington, in-route to Bass Strait.
(e) On the mainland, Robertson’s men have a long trek yet.
13 Hrs. 6 June – We learned one of our supply-ships went-down off the N.W. coast of the North-Island. Enemy sub? CAGs? We did not know; we have no other fleets in the area. Then the radio hummed,
it was General Kieffer;
enemy force too strong – we can’t continue.
At least the enemy lost by numbers. Kieffer was soon attacked and forced back.
With Robertson heading down, to back Kieffer, and knowing we were about to strike Melbourne?
I did not worry about them marching on
Canberra.
Fighting under Fog again
20 Hrs. 10 June – News from the North Tasman Sea; The Dutch-Raiders found and sank an enemy supply-ship. This good news actually brought fear; those supplies were meant for the enemy-marines in Melbourne; would the IJN react and be brought towards our attempt to the retaking of our port?
03 Hrs. 11 June – We were correct to worry, the Dutch-Raiders were soon bombed by 4 wings of enemy CAGs, on
D’Entrecasteaux Reef in the west-central Coral Sea. The enemy flattops were indeed getting closer to the action. Rear Admiral Brouwer received orders to attempt to evade the carriers but to not break contact; in short, his orders were
to take as much damage as possible but without losing one of his ships. Easy, right?
The light green sea-zone in the north, is the new reason for concern.
The battle for Melbourne at this exact moment.
If they did come down, could we delay or block them further away?
We had to try.
– After being hit again but this time by 5 CAG-wings, Rear Admiral Brouwer re-based his moderately damaged CLs De Ruyter & Tromp in Port Moresby; his lone DD-squadron was barely afloat. Now that our raiders withdrew, would the CVs head our way?
02 Hrs. 13 June – We received our answer, when enemy CAGs attacked both USS Lexington TF in Cape Howe and the RN-Raiders in the South Tasman Sea. Unfortunately, one of our wings was in the middle of refueling and it took time to get them in the air. The enemy had 5 Wings in action and 4 of them went after our patrolling Destroyers. The initial air-battle over Lexington was 1 to 1.
13 Hrs. 13 June – During the 2nd Battle for Melbourne, the RCAF-Tactical Bombing Wing took out 1,807 enemy troops by ground attacks, but the Canadian-pilots were soon ordered to try to hit
any of the enemy carriers. This proved futile and were soon sent back to the airfield at Sydney for much needed rest and minor repairs.
1. Time for our Raiders to sail back to Hobart.
2. Now the long series of dogfights till our CAGs were spent.
3. The enemy fleet sails into port and Melbourne.
4. We would need to pull our fleets towards the west, once the IJN left harbor.
At 08:00 hrs the next morning, we seasoned our rations with Victory. Tasty.
We can estimate approximately, 25,000 total enemy captured from the two battles.
Once again, our planes and fleets were very battered and needed long repair-times.
[Next-up in Part 2: We cover the rest of the action at this time]
