A Pacific War
8
0200 November 6th 1945.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, Saipan.
The American armoured division, that had landed a few hours ahead of Japanese forces arriving in Babo, had been sufficiently reduced by Tactical bombers to be removed.
Mj. General Wada had been embarked from Sorong and launched an amphibious assault to capture both the armour and the province. The added support from Sorong and the Imperial Japanese Air Force ensured a swift victory.
Admiral Ito took command of the ships that had been repaired in Osaka and was ordered to Palau. The Battleship IJN Ise was amongst the repaired vessels.
Air patrols had picked up a Transport fleet heading towards the Marianas and Yamamoto had ordered BB Division 1 to intercept. There were in fact two fleets containing three Divisions all of which were sunk. IJN Yamashiro would be responsible for all three.
Air patrols had also conducted reconaissance of Wake Island and had found the island to be undefended. There was a Destroyer Division off the coast.
British Strategic bombers had returned to Palau to bomb the airfield. The six interceptor squadrons based on the island were scrambled and caught the bombers during their bombing run. Mj. General Kusaka would lead on this occasion and the British bombers sustained heavy casualties. The bombers had made the airfield almost useless for the time being but had only inflicted minor damage to the aircraft that had intercepted them. The airfield would be repaired as it had been many times already.
By 0800 on November 8th Ozawa and Genda had reduced Spruance's fleet further, having sunk the Heavy Cruisers USS Minneapolis and USS San Francisco. The bombers were also suffering high losses but would return. This fleet was in a place Yamamoto did not wish it to be and it would need to be almost totally crippled whatever the cost.
The conquest of New Guinea continued as Banzai landed in Buna. There was now only one coastal province not under Japanese control on the eastern end of the island and Banzai would also be tasked with its capture.
At 0500 hours on November 9th Wada occupied Babo and would be transferred east where he would be tasked with capturing the mountains inland.
The final bombing run on Eniwetok took place overnight on November 9th and would leave Spruance with only five ships with the Heavy Cruiser being badly damaged. This fleet was not a threat to BB Division 1 which was scheduled to operate in this area. Ozawa and Genda would spend several weeks conducting repairs after the repeated bombings against a well defended island.
Yamamoto received word of the sighting of an American Aircraft Carrier as Ozawa began his latest bombing run.
Admiral Lockwood had found a more modern Carrier to command, the USS Kearsarge. BB Division 3 was still escorting the Transport fleet that was heading north through Dampier Strait and Lockwood made the mistake of engaging Namoru.
His Carrier would escape the battle but Lockwood would lose the 16th Destroyer Division to the guns of the Heavy Cruiser IJN Mogami.