Archduke Piccolo: Battle of Laroc Sea - Action off Petosi Point

Action of Lindisfarne Strait. RNS Charun and R21 have taken
a terrible battering, but KNS Harrier has been holed by a torpedo.

As the Kiivar Task Force 34 brought concentric fire to bear upon RNS Charun and S21, RNS Choronzon and S22 were just rounding Petosi Point to the east. The invasion convoy itself had entered the Lindisfarne Strait - a move akin to sticking their heads in a noose. For the moment, however, TF34 concentrated their firepower against the battered enemy warships nearest to hand.

Action joined off Petosi Point

The planned intervention by the other half of the escort squadron very quickly found their intervention interdicted. Coming up fast from the east, two destroyers led the rest of TF7 - a battleship (SNS Hakawai)and a cruiser (SNS Sarimanok). Closing rapidly into torpedo range, they opened a brisk fire upon Choronzon and S22, a fire as keenly returned. Lurking beneath the growing battle, submarine SU19 awaited its chance. To complicate the situation, the Ra'esharn Covering Force was also approaching from the northeast. The battle was about to become confused and frenetic.

TF1 throws itself in the way of the Ra'esharn
Carrier group south of Guanocanal.

Far to the east the gun-armed vessels of TF1 threw themselves into the path of the much more powerful Ra'esharn Carrier Group. The submarine SU47 having made its unsuccessful torpedo attacks soon found itself under depth charge attacks by destroyer R26. That abruptly ended SU47's part in the battle - and the war.

Action off Guanocanal

By this time a gunnery duel had begun between the Ra'esharn major units and SNS Gullincambe. Once SU47 had been dealt with, R25 and R26 set about dealing with the nearest enemy destroyer, S11. For the moment, S12 was too distant to offer much help. Before the range had closed, RNS Bushyasta had fired off a salvo or two at extreme range against SNS Bahamut, causing a certain amount of damage and a few fires. However, the carrier's operational functions remained unimpaired. As the cruiser Gullicambe and its consorts closed the range, Bushyasta and Cimijes had enough to do to clear them out of the way of their progress westward.

Ra'esharn takes some losses off the Petosi
Island group

Here was where the climax of the surface action was being played out. RNS Charun finally succumbed to the gunfire from Harrier and Heirax; and R21, heavily damaged tried to crawl away from the action. Choronzon also took a fair bit of incoming from Harrier, and began to withdraw northwards towards the Retosi Gap. As the Saabian destroyers swung north to face the fresher Ra'esharn units, it was left to SU19 finally to put R21 out of its misery. Whilst the gunnery battle developed between TF7 and the Ra'esharn escort - such as survived - and covering groups, the carrier Baki-kujira altered course to the southwest, and nearer to Bahomet, well south of the main action.

Saabia carriers steering clear of the surface action.
SNS Bake-kujira is bombing up its aircraft for a strike...
against whom?

After a gunnery exchange with Ra'esharn's light units, Task Force 7's destroyers became the vanguard of the task Group. As S78 and R22 engaged in a running duel, S77 ran bull-headed, straight for the Barbatos. Releasing its forward torpedo at the battleship, S77 launched a battery at the cruiser, Chemosh. Dashing and bold as was this reckless charge, it received scant reward. Incoming fire from Barbatos's secondary armament and from Chemosh quickly sent S77 to the bottom. None of the destoyer's torpedoes hit their targets.

By this time the main duel had begun. Hakawai and Sarimanok were facing Barbatos and Chemosh; but the latter duo had the destroyer R24 - and it was well within torpedo range of the enemy battleship.

The end of SNS Hakawai.

The difference was decisive. The Ra'esharn concentrated most of their firepower against the Saabian battleship. Only the destroyer faced off against the Saabian cruiser. At that, Ra'esharn gunnery proved as good as it has always been (don't know why, but the dice always seems to run Ra'esharn's way, as previous actions have shown). The superior gunnery of Barbatos was augmented by torpedo strikes - the first from Chemosh, and the second from R24. That finished Hakawai. On fire and dead in the water, the battleship blew up, and sank.

Not that the Ra'esharn had come off unscathed. Although the damage to Barbatos was scarcely worth mentioning, Chemosh had taken a fair battering from less hard-pressed Sarimanok. Speed reduced, 'B' turret out of action, and smoking from several fires, Chemosh began to turn about, out of the action. Meanwhile, the duel between S78 and R22 left both in a sinking condition; and the cruiser Charonzon, lucky to survive the one-sided exchange of fire with TF34, was also staggering northwards, hoping to get by through the Petosi Gap.

General view looking westwards

It was about this time that the Ra'esharn Carrier Force launched its air strikes against the Saabia carriers. Those attacks went in just as the battle off Petosi Point was reaching its climax.

Saabian carriers under air attack!

With fighter escorts, the squadrons from Azi-Dahak attacked Bahomet; whilst, some miles to the northwest, those of Achlys drove in on Bake-kujira. The fate of the attacks were very different.

Taking the latter first, the carrier, quite without escort, had only its own resources with which to fight off the attack. The fighters of both sides neutralised each other at the cost of four Ra'esharn escort fighters (1FP).

Nor did the anti-aircraft fire prove effective in stopping the bombers. Already having taken losses earlier in the day, the three bomber squadrons between them comprised just 28 aircraft (7TF).
Seven dice rolled: 2,2,3,3,4,5,5 => zero hits! Weaving and dodging as best it might under a deluge of bombs and torpedoes, SNS Bake-kujira survived the lot!

What happened to SNS Bahomet?

So ... what happened to Bahomet? The attack that went in was about as strong as that against Bake-kujira. Again, the fighter escort kept the interceptors off the bombers, even shooting down some (1TF) of their number. Anti-aircraft fire, however, accounted for as many Ra'esharn bombers. Also reduced from earlier sorties, the bombers lost further aircraft, and reduced to 24 aircraft (6TF). Greatly determined, the attacks went in...

Six dice rolled: 2,2,4,5,5,6 - a hit.
... but what a hit! A six is required to score a hit, but any (and all) fives rolled with it also count towards the damage. Sixteen FP of damage Bahomet took. Added to the slight damage incurred a short while back, that was enough to finish off the aircraft carrier. The radio traffic cracked with the triumphant shouts of the jubilant pilots.

The orphaned Saabian fighter squadron could count itself lucky to find refuge upon the still afloat and operational Bake-kujira.

The defeat of TF1

Meanwhile south of Guanocanal, the overmatched TF1 'gun' vessels were being overcome. S11 disintegrated under gunfire and two(!) torpedo hits; and Gullincambe was reduced to a smouldering wreck, its after turret out of action, and forced to reduce speed (10FP damage) . Although Cimijes had taken a few damaging hits, it was still in good shape for further action. Bushyasta had received but one slightly damaging hit (1FP). Nothing could stop the Carrier Force joining the main action nearer New Sterling.

There, in a short space of time, Saabia had lost a battleship and an aircraft carrier - two major and valuable units. For their part, the Kiivar Task Force was still well and truly in being, only K43 being too knocked about to stay in action. Harrier and Heirax closed in upon the head of the invasion convoy, just then scrambling to escape from the bottleneck of Lindisfarne Strait. But Ra'esharn had at the same time pretty much lost the services of three cruisers; Charun (sunk), Choronzon (crippled) and Chemosh (also barely afloat and under way). Although TF7 had been effectively repulsed, there remained the convoy to protect.