Little Great Wars: Azurian Campaign

The story continues...

Azurian defence lines about Azmezidon

Having secured a strong foothold upon Azurian territory, the Ruberian army struck out along the Azaen-Azaris railway, following the defeated defenders of Azaen. Meanwhile, the main body of the Azuria III Corps advanced westward to reunite with its defeated Division. At Azmezidon the Corps Commander, Marshal Count Gevrey-Chambertin decided to make a stand behind Le Laizon, a slight stream that ran northward from the marshes between Azmezidon and the outlying village, Ouezy, to the northwest on the Azaen road. A chasseur regiment each from the 16th Brigade was set to garrison Ouezy and, south of there, Chauvigny. The rest of the Division was dug in before the town itself, the line extending southward. 

Campaign Map: Situation 15th June. Azurian I and II Corps
still distant from the battle front.

North of Azmezidon stood a considerable woodland, Bois de Magny. Within the feature, and to the north, elements of the battered 4th Division had dug themselves in, to cover Le Laizon with rifle, artillery and machinegun fire. Possibly the least convenient aspect of this whole defensive line was the more considerable stream behind it - the river Dives. Deeming the river crossings over the stream adequate to permit a retreat, should one be needful, Marshal Gevrey-Chambertin was rather confident in his selection of battlefield. 

4th Division defences behind Le Laison creek.

But well he might have been. He had to make a stand somewhere, to allow time to bring up Marshal Paullac's I Corps into the theatre. The future of II Corps, somewhere down Azarseille way on the Mesogesean coast, had been waiting upon the outcome of the wrangling in Azurian Strategic Command to decide whether the Corps might embark for the Turcowaz theatre or remain to drive out the Ruberian invaders. However, the situation on the west coast had occasioned its hurried withdrawal, and that formation was close by Azreux, whence it might send troops by train to succour the embattled IIIrd.

At this point I should mention that troops could travel by train, a Division at a time, taking ONE activation to entrain; one activation to travel 8 hexes; and one more turn to disentrain. Neither I nor II Corps were location at a railway station, but one was within a day's march of either. Whether they knew it or not, the Ruberians might have to hurry their campaign.

Ruberia's III Corps roll forward.

This was to be a battle, then, between the respective III Corps of both armies. But where the Azurian were offering battle with no prospect of support, close behind the Ruberians, IV Corps was approaching along a secondary road that passed through Quatre Puits towards Chauvigny and Azmezidon itself.

The Azurian forces comprised:

III Army Corps, Marshal Gevrey-Chambertin

• 4th Division: 17th - 22nd Infantry Regiments
• 5th Division: 23rd - 28th Infantry
• 16th (Light) Brigade: 39th, 40th Chasseurs-a-Pied
• 3rd Mitrailleuse Battalion
• 3rd Light Cavalry Brigade: 5th, 6th Lancers
• 95th and 96th Field, and 194th Medium Artillery
• 205th, 206th, 253rd (pack) Supply Columns.
  
  Note that 4th Division had taken losses in the battle of the 11th June.

General view of the task to be accomplished

The Army facing the Azurians would be attacking 'by the left': III Corps beginning the action, with IV Corps coming up on their right. This oblique attack by successive formations were to have an unexpected effect that did not help the Ruberians.
The Ruberian Expeditionary Force (REF) army was organised as follows:

Commanding in Chief: Field Marshal Montgomery J. ffotheringarnish-Ptarmigan 

I Corps - still disembarking on the beach at Ouarmentville-sur-Mer

III Corps: Major-General Garnet Lord Garnet

1st Division:

• 7th Brigade: 13th, 14th, 15th Infantry
• 8th Brigade: 16th, 17th, 18th, Infantry

2nd Division: 

• 9th Brigade: 19th, 20th, 21st Infantry
• 10th Brigade: 22nd, 23rd, 24th Infantry

3rd Light Horse, 5th Light Horse
3rd Gatling Battalion
4th RFArtillery, 12th RMArtillery
7th, 8th Transport columns.

IV Corps: Lt-Genl Sir Redmond Rosewall, Bart
3rd Division:

• 11th Brigade: 25th, 26th, 27th Infantry
• 12th Brigade: 28th, 29th, 30th Infantry

4th Division: 

• 13th Brigade: 31st, 32nd, 33rd Infantry
• 14th Brigade: 34th, 35th, 36th Infantry

4th Dragoons, 6th Lancers (attached) 
4th Gatling Battalion
5th RFArtillery; 13th RMArtillery
9th, 10th Transport columns.
 
Note that III Corps had taken some losses in the previous battle.

View from behind the Bois de Magny

As dawn broke over the plains west of Azmezidon, the Rubeian infantry of III Corps were already in motion. The absence of IV to their right, still marching up to the field of battle, the III Corps lines tended to spread out over and beyond the rail line towards the town. This extended the III Corps front which rather weakened the attack by 2nd Division against the enemy positions dug in behind the Laizon creek. for all the artillery support they were getting, 9th and 10th Brigades were struggling to get forward to the stream at all, let alone to cross it.

Azurian trench lines

About midmorning IV Corps arrived in the field, to find that elements of III Corps had encroached across their front. Leaving them with a narrow sector in which to mount their assaults. Although this had the virtue of lending weight to IV Corps attacks, this was proving costly to III Corps. 3rd Division quickly bayoneted 40th Chasseurs out of Chauvigny, and pressed on towards the entrenched positions under the Azmezidon's precincts.

General view along the front lines.

Meanwhile the other outlying town changed hand three times before 7th Brigade finally evicted 39th Chasseurs. Then they had to force the defile of the road bridge over the marshes beyond, and that took even more time.

III Corps finding the going tough...

It was elements of 4th Division that quickly broke into the Azuria defences in front of the town. Thirty-fourth Infantry swarmed into the town and reached the railway station on the east side. They might have broken out into the open beyond, but for the Azuria mitrailleuse drawn up in front of them. Sprayed with machinegun fire 34th Infantry stalled, and became pinned down. 

This penetration into the town was not well supported, as the determined Azurian defenders refused to allow a widening of the breach in their defence line, and 1st Division was having a hard time to force the bridge crossing, and then to force their way into the town. Altogether, IV Corps was having the devil's own time expanding upon their early successes.

Breakthrough? But no break out. 34th Infantry
under MG fire on the east side of the town.

III Corps was finding its own successes slow in coming and dearly bought. Apart from the time taken to take Ouezy, the first river crossing was thrown back at once. The supporting gunfire from the entire III Corps artillery eventually induced 17me Infantry to fall back from their field works, a retreat quickly followed up by 10th Brigade. This slight success led to a renewed effort that gradually edged the Azurians out of their earthworks, fighting all the way. 

As the day ended, the street fighting continued with the railway station in Ruberian hands and a tenuous salient under counter-attacks from Azurian infantry. III Corps were across the stream in strength, but the Azurians had reformed a tenuous like along the Dives river. 

Ruberia finding it hard to widen the breach...

But losses among both sides had been heavy. His Corps exhausted and on the brink of dissolution, Marshal Gevrey began to pull out his command. For their part, the Ruberians were glad to see them go. They had been in a fight, no error, and although their own losses did not exceed those of the enemy, they had to be mindful of the army's situation: and invading army in the midst of a hostile population. 

The situation still in doubt when his command's exhaustion 
suggests to the Azurian Marshal it was time to leave...

To be continued...

Battle of Comro Gulf - Day Two

I took this pic to show the size - or lack of it -
of my 'Mini Chubby Marine' pieces. Those hexes are 
5cm across.

I find, checking through these pictures that I took rather fewer photos than I thought I had. Pity, really, because the second day's battle had plenty of excitement for all concerned. The land battle still raged, with little progress to report. The beachheads still held, but they were not expanding either (the fact was, I simply ignored this part of the story as ... incidental).

Early morning air strikes...

The moment the sun lurched itself above the eastern horizon, both sides launched air attacks. It became at once apparent that the Allied air resources had become very slender. Keeping back the fighters to protect the carriers that had become very precious, the respective Saabian bomber wings had available 24 fighters still, but just 60 bombers between them.

The Ra'esharn air arm, slightly outnumbered 24 hours earlier now far outmatched the Allied. In the picture above, you might observe in the distance the swarms of aircraft 'flying' eastward, approaching a far less weighty Saabian mission coming the other way. Now, a point here. As there is a heck of a lot of air space, and each turn represents something between 60 and 90 minutes (actually 80, but I prefer to fudge it), the air forces in effect fly through, around, over, under each other and carry out their missions. They just don't see the enemy at all. Those air armadas have been placed there for convenience to signify they have been launched, but have yet to arrive over their objectives.

Not a lot left of the Allied air forces!

As there was quite a lot of air activity this new dawn, with attacks going in at about mid-morning, we'll begin with the strike by Ra'esharn's southern wing upon what remained of covering force south. It turned out to be something of a disappointment. 

Although the fighter squadron drew the fire of the escorting destroyer, S3, the bombers failed to hit the battleship at all, and lost four of their number (1FlyP) in the process. So disconsolate, the aircrews returned to their carrier.

Strike Force South coming back ... but...

Not a lot left of Covering Force South!

Saabian air attacks upon Strike Force Centre.

Meanwhile, large scale, all-in air attacks struck the Allied fleets close by Comro Island. The Apollyon wing struck at the Saabia Covering Force East, targeting the battleship and both carriers. The fighter dogfight cost the attackers 4 aircraft; and flak accounted for 8 bombers, but they managed a hit upon Bake-Kajura. Now, that fleet carrier had been heavily damaged the day before, but overnight repairs had restored at least some of its operational capacity. Nevertheless, the single hit was serious enough: 6FP of damage at once bringing the vessel close to its critical point (overnight repairs had brought the carrier back to 12FP, but the critical point remained at 5. After the bomb hit, it was down to 6FP...)

For all that, it was not a whole lot to show for the loss of 12 aircraft.

The Angra-Mainyu wing struck the Kiivar fleet, aiming for the capital ships. Fighter Squadron 53 and Dive-bomber Squadron 25 attacked Pteranodon. The fighters managed to knock out some AA defences (which might have had an effect on future air defence) and drew some of the fire, but Ra'esharn still lost 8 aircraft for no other result. The attack upon Harrier by 26 and 33 Squadrons was equally fruitless - and at equally high cost. Sixteen aircraft Ra'esharn lost in these attacks, with little to show for them. Yesterday's superb elan seems to have deserted the Ra'esharn air crews.

Even less successful was the mission by Bake-Kajura's wing against Strike Force North. Of 28 aircraft, more than a third were brought down by the curtain of flak. Not a single bomb or torpedo found its target.

Probably the most dramatic - and the saddest - mission of the day belonged to the Bahamut wing. Thirty-two aircraft went in, a squadron against each carrier, and the third aiming for the battleship Bushyasta. The flak was appallingly accurate. As the squadrons went in, one by one they were shot out of the sky, the few bombing attacks failing to score any hits at all. Last of all, Torpedo Squadron 201 were seen descending into a maelstrom of fire from the fleet carrier Apollyon and its escorting destroyers. Two thirds of the squadron hit the water in flames, or exploded in the air. But a single Flight Point made it through the storm to launch their torpedoes... and struck! 

But one torpedo hit upon the heretofore uninjured fleet carrier was small recompense for the devastation wrought upon Bahamut's bomber wing. Just twelve aircraft remained to limp back to their carrier. There was nothing left with which to complete the job.

Here comes the Ra'easharn - with a single battleship to 
stop them

Altogether, the wholesale air attacks of the morning had been almost entirely barren of results - apart from the appalling attrition of the aircraft and their crews. Thirty-six aircraft Saabia had lost - the morning's bomber force halved. Losses among the Ra'esharn aircrew - twenty-eight the official count - were bad enough, but they still had plenty in hand for further strikes, should they be required. 

The melee in the north...

By late morning, the skies clearing of aircraft, their missions completed, the opposing fleets again moved rapidly into gunnery range. That range shortened rapidly in the confined archipelago waters, and the began a deadly duel of gunfire and torpedoes. Now, I took very few pictures, so, once again, a written narrative will have to suffice. Of course, the main targets were the capital ships, the destroyers waspishly flitting about - fragile, but with enormous stings... and, it seems, charmed lives.

The sea is criss-crossed with torpedoes, and gunfire;
both sides take heavy damage...

On the Ra'esharn side, the brunt of the fight was carried by Strike Force North. Early in the morning the cruiser RNS Chemosh took some heavy damage from long range fire from SNS Karkanos, and its luck did not improve as the morning advanced. By mid morning gunfire started more fires; then the destroyer S9 shoved in a torpedo and Chemosh went down.

By late morning RNSS Baphomet and Charanzon were also coming in for rough treatment. Late in the morning, the cruiser was ravaged by heavy gunfire, 'B' turret knocked out, and speed reduced. In such a  close quarter battle it would be no easy matter for Charonzon to extricate itself from the maelstrom. It turned out impossible. Early in the afternoon the Kiivar destroyer K41 finished her off with a torpedo.

Finally, RNS Baphomet itself took so much damage that she too had perforce to pull out of the battle - 'Y' turret knocked out, half the secondary armament u/s, and its speed impaired. Yet, during all this while, the destroyers might as well have been invisible, so little damage was being done them. R71 and R81 were both hit, but remained in action. The capital ships were certainly priority targets for the Allies!

Strike Forces North and Centre link up...

For their part, the Allies were not coming out of the battle unscathed. SNS Karkinos - already bearing the scars of yesterday's battle, came in for heavy damage during the course of the morning. Further hits in the early afternoon put the battleship out of the battle, its rear main turret out of action. At the same time the cruiser Sarimanok found itself being hammered by gunfire throughout the late forenoon. The cruiser never got the chance to draw out of the action, further gunfire sending her under. Once again, the destroyers were coming in for little attention, only S7 and S9 taking any real damage. 

The Kiivar Covering group was rather less lucky. KNS Harrier had emerged from yesterday's battle with only minor damage, mostly patched up (23FP out of 24). That did not much avail the battleship on Day Two. Having survived the earlier air attacks unscathed, its crew might have supposed the worst was over, but, shortly before midday, the torpedoes struck home. The damage was appalling: 20FP all in one strike.  Before Harrier could find an escape, gunfire from Barbatos and Bushyasta finished her off. 

Kiivar's sole remaining capital ship - carrying deep injuries from the day before, survived into the early afternoon. Then battered a quick gunnery battle, Pteranodon also fetched up on the bottom of the sea. At the same time, the one Allied destroyer that had taken serious damage, K713, was seen, smoke pouring from several fires, pulling out of the fight.

There remains the retelling of the gunnery duel in the south. All that remained of the Allied covering group there was the battleship Hakamai and the destroyer S3. But even with two battleships, two cruisers and six destroyers (leaving aside the fleet carrier), the odds were less steep than might have been supposed. Both Ra'esharn battleships were without their 'Y' turrets (which might have been fortunate given their instructions to carry the fight to the enemy), and, even taken together, their stamina for a battle was less than that of the battleship facing them. The critical factor lay in the smaller craft Ra'esharn carried into the battle. 

On the whole, the big Ra'esharn ships were getting the better of the gunnery duel early on. Five FP of damage lit upon Hakamai before it landed some telling blows late in the morning. It was about then Hakamai's luck ran out. The Ra'esharn cruisers and destroyers inserted themselves into the battle, whereat the Saabian ship came in for a ferocious battering from gunfire and torpedoes. By midday she had taken 14FP of damage; and shortly afterwards took another eight. It's little companion was at that time overwhelmed by the secondary guns of the cruisers and destroyers, and the wreckage sent to the bottom. But before S3 went down, it released a volley of torpedoes. It's dying act took a revenge for its demise, as two torpedoes struck RMS Charun. There was no stemming the inflow from the gashes in its larboard side. 

As the burning hulk of Hakamai tried to crawl its way out of the battle a torpedo from R61 finished the job. Covering Force South was no more.

Such was the situation by mid-afternoon, when Admiral Setiyawan received the news of the annihilation of his southern task force. It was clear to him now that the Allied fleet could not remain close by Comro Island in support of the landings. Although he might yet have held his own against Ra'esharn's northern two strike forces, there was nothing now to stop the southern. Not to put too fine a point on it, the Allied fleet was so close to have been encircled.

Taking stock of a situation suddenly become disastrous, Admiral Setiyawan took the decision he knew would end his career in the navy. He ordered that the land forces to be abandoned, and the remnants of his fleet to break out to the east. As if by mutual consent, the battle sputtered to a close (which is Narrativese for 'I called the battle at this point').

This operation turned out an utter disaster for the Allies. Not only had they lost two fleet carriers, one of them the giant KNS Condor, but three battleships and a battlecruiser as well. The additional loss of three cruisers and five destroyers hardly counted in the reckoning. For their part, Ra'esharn got off surprisingly lightly. One carrier lost and three cruisers, but only two destroyers, sunk. On the other hand three battleships would be out of the war for a long while. They had taken significant damage that would take a considerable time to repair. 

A page of my battle log:
Day 2 Ra'esharn Navy

Both sides would mourn the loss of so many aircraft and air crew. Of the 216 aircraft (18 Squadrons; 54 Flight Points) the Allies took into the battle, perhaps a quarter remained more or less operational - and only half of that remainder were strike aircraft. Considerably better off, Ra'esharn still lost a large proportion of its air strike power. The two days' battle had cost Ra'esharn one hundred aircraft, a trifle over half they had to begin with - a considerable attrition of trained personnel. I would never have believed ahead of time that there would be such a toll among the aircraft. Of course, the loss of the fleet carriers contributed much towards that attrition.

Well - that was my 'interpretation' of Leyte Gulf ... sort of. 

 

Side 2 of the above battle log:
details of air states and missions.

I've pictured here a leaf out of the battle logs. I kept a leaf for both sides, one for each day - four leaves in all. They aren't especially legible. But they kept much of the information that might have been reserved for the 'buckets of dice' that usually adorn pictures of these battles. It is possible, however, that in keeping these records, I rather neglected the pictorial narrative, especially late in the action. 

At some point I may carry out a similar large scale operation, but with an increased role for the shore landings and land operations. I have the kit for it, after all!

Battle of Comro Gulf - Afternoon action

 ....

As the sun passed its zenith, aircraft took off from RNS Achlys - their targets, the Saabian capital ships barring the way at Spot Island. The flak having taken its toll, the surviving bombers failed to hit SNS Hakamai, but the already crippled Calaeno, its anti-air reduced (halved) from earlier damage, was a sitting duck. Damage accrued well past the 24 Flotation Points - twenty-eight, withal - Calaeno went down. 

Two of the Southern Covering Force destroyers also having been sunk to Ra'easharn gunnery during the late morning, all that remained to block the incoming Ra'esharn Strike Force South, was Hakamai - hardly damaged so far (just 3FP of damage to enemy gunfire), Chimaera (so far unscathed), and two destroyers, S2 and S3. The loss of carrier, battleship, cruiser and three destroyers had reduced the covering force to little more than a remnant.

Not that their Ra'esharn adversaries had come off unscathed. Badly damaged, its 'Y' turret knocked out along with half its secondaries and air defence (17/24FP damage), RNS Banshee was already staggering out of the battle. Destroyer R64 had been sunk, R73 critically damaged. Belphegor and Achlys had also taken some incoming, but so far the damage incurred had not been concerning. The Ra'esharn here had given back far more than they had received.

In the meantime, the Northern Strike force was bearing down from the northeast. Ordering most of his destoyers to flank the oncoming column from the east, Admiral Setiyawan brought his main force, led by a destroyer, onto a northwest bearing. The Kiivar strike force returning, more than somewhat discomfited from its encounter with Adniral Yamazuki's fleet, effectively flanked Admiral Suzumaha from the northwest. 


In effect, Suzumaha was bringing his whole Strike Force into a sac, a gunfight in which he had allowed the enemy to 'cross the T'. However, this arrangement took some time to develop so that by the time the 'trap' could be sprung, the day was drawing to a close. Unwilling to bring on a night action in such murky circumstances, both sides withdrew, the Saabian and Kiivar allies closer to Yelta City, the Northern Strike forces well beyond gunnery range. The latter's withdrawal allowed the Kiivar Group, somewhat trapped itself by the manoeuvre Setiyawan's manoeuvre, to slip by down the Comro Island coast to join the main Saabian force.

I'm going to be honest, here: I can not for the life of me recall what happened - or didn't happen - on the afternoon of the 23rd Octember. I do recall the rather nasty situation Northern Strike Force and the Kiivar Group found themselves in. There was a brief exchange of fire, and torpedoes criss-crossed the ocean doing no damage, but the thing appears to have been uneventful. Apart from SNS Bake-Kajura taking a couple of hits from a SFN cruiser, and RNS Chemosh taking a hit from Harrier's secondary weapons, the log is silent. I rather think I mistimed everything, and suddenly realised that night was falling before the gunfire could take place. The gunnery melee was not to happen this day...

The log is not so mute concerning the fight in the south. Bravely standing in the way of Strike Force South (SFS), Vice-Admiral Sirega put up a stout fight. Already having taken some damage in the morning, RNS Belphegor ran into a couple of torpedoes from S2 late in the afternoon, although the destroyer itself took heavy damage coming in, and was sunk shortly afterwards. 

In little short of a sinking condition, the battered Belphegor - just 2FP remaining - slunk out of the battle. Like its consort, Belphegor was minus its 'Y' turret. The cruiser RNS Crocell also received a pounding that forced it to abandon the action, its 'A' turret wrecked. For their part, gunfire and torpedoes accounted for SNS Chimaera, sunk in little more than the half-hour of action. 

Heavily outmatched on paper, Covering Force South could claim perhaps to have got somewhat the better of the late afternoon gunnery battle. All the same, the sole surviving destroyer, S4, had been critically damaged, which, had there remained more hours of daylight, would have left SNS Hakamai alone, with no destroyer screen. On the morrow, it would have a single battered one.

Nightfall brought the day's action to an end, both sides having lost heavily. The Allied losses were severe enough already: 

• Saabia: 1 fleet carrier, 1 battleship, 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers sunk;
• Kiivar: Fleet carrier and 1 destroyer sunk; battlecruiser critically damaged.

• Ra'esharn had lost fewer units sunk, but many critically damaged: 1 fleet carrier and 2 destroyers sunk, 2 battleships and 1 cruiser critically damaged.

At least as critical from the Allied perspective was the loss of aircraft and their crews. Mostly due to the loss of their carriers, the Allies were minus 132 aircraft overall (33 Flight Points), only 24 (6FlyP) having been lost in air sorties. Just 84 aircraft remained (21FlyP), 24 fighters and 60 bombers, to take up the battle on the morrow.

On the whole, Admiral Kaito Vanuzuki, commanding overall the Ra'esharn operation, felt tolerably pleased with the outcome of the day's battle. He knew his Strike Forces had handed out some hard knocks, however disturbed he was at Admiral Suzumaha's performance, and the loss of a fleet carrier. 
That carrier had in effect taken 48 (12FlyP) aircraft with it. The other three carriers had lost 28 aircraft (7FlyP) among them - a total loss of 76 (19FlyP). Out of 192 (48FlyP) with which the fleet began, that was a consideration.

Now - how might such an action be continued? Overnight both sides had withdrawn, leaving a considerable space between themselves and their enemy. The Allies were mostly crowded around the beach landing area of the Comro east coast.  The Ra'esharn Strike Forces took station several nautical miles west and north towards whence they had approached in the pre-dawn. The 24th Octember would see the action renewed.

At this point I decided that some running repairs might be done to the damaged units in an effort to bring them into action the following morning. These repairs were effected as follows:

1. All damage to Flotation Points halved, halves rounded up.
2. All critical damage to weaponry remained as too difficult to repair with the means available.
3. Speed reduced by critical damage was restored.
4. The original Critical Point of damage remained unchanged.
   
   

Example: RNS Belphegor was very badly knocked about in the afternoon's gunnery battle, taking two torpedo hits from destroyer S2. Altogether, 22 FP of damage, leaving just 2FP keeping it afloat.
Overnight repairs brought it back to 2 + 11 = 13FP. 
But Belphegor remained without its 'Y' turret, and only half its secondary and AA weaponry remained serviceable...
... And its critical point remained 8FP of damage. 

It wouldn't take all that much to drive it out of the battle once more.

Note, by the way, the slight change to the original rule set, wherein secondaries were reduced by one-third upon a critically damaged vessel. That was careless of me. Half is a much more tractable number, and so I have adopted it.

Meanwhile, all aircraft lost have been permanently lost. Whether or not the aircraft from RNS Azir-Dahak that survived the air attacks on Covering Force East found refuge on Comro Island, they too were out of the action for good. Maybe they could have been recovered later. Maybe.

To be concluded - The Second Day... 

Battle of Comro Gulf - Morning air strikes

 

Allied beach landings on Comro, with air support.

Dawn of 23 Octember 66944 found Allied aircraft over and around the city of Yelte, attacking the shore defences and airfield as the landing craft pushed beachward from their mother ships. Ever alert for enemy intervention, the Admiral ordered that the aircraft available to Covering Groups North and South remain in readiness in their carriers. The arrival of the Ra'esharn fleets in strength was already to cause Admiral Setiyawan to question whether by committing half his air fleet to the land battle he had taken  the path of true wisdom.

Saabian air attacks

At almost the moment the enemy were sighted, the screening squadron passed on the urgent message. Covering Force South scrambled its aircraft at once, and by mid-morning were over the Ra'esharn ships and attacking. Whilst Fighter Squadron 633 attacked RNS Belphegor, larboard of the carrier, RNS Achlys, Squadrons 203 and 246 went in against the carrier itself with bombs and torpedoes. Squadron 203 attacked the starboard battleship Banshee. Pressing home their attacks, the aircraft had to brave the flak from almost every ship in the Strike Group.

RNS Banshee takes a hit!

 The Strike Group's own aircraft had taken off on their own bombing mission, including the fighters. So the Saabian aircraft met no air opposition on the way in. The attacks on Achlys and Belphegor went for nought, but Banshee took two torpedo hits. Fortunately, with 12 Strength Points of damage (2 6s) the ship was able to continue its mission.

A little aside on game mechanics here. The rule set I used was that published in the Fourth Wargames Compendium. It occurred to me that it might be worth elaborating on the process of air attacks. 

1.  There being not a swag of a lot of room in these hexes, I allow two aircraft stands (squadrons) only to stand in the same grid area as the target ship. 
   
2. Bombers and fighters must be in the same hex as their target.
3. Torpedo bombers may attack from an adjacent hex. They are not committed to attacking a ship in the same hex if a more lucrative target is available in an adjacent.
4. Anti-aircraft fire has a range of one hex, so can be used by nearby ships to help defend target ships against air attack. 
5. Aircraft don't 'fly through' air defences, but are placed over their targets. Then the defenders get to select their own targets. An attacked ship must shoot at the aircraft directly attacking it. This makes it worthwhile fighters attacking warships, even though the only damage they can cause is to their AA firepower. AA directed at the fighter is AA not directed at a bomber.
   
6. If a fighter stand and a bomber are attacking a single target, any AA hits are shared, but with priority going to the bomber (i.e. 1 hit will accrue to the bomber; 2 hits will be shared, one upon each stand).
7. Supporting ships' AA may select any suitable target in an adjacent hex.
8. AA having been resolved (6's to hit), then resolve the bombing and strafing attacks.
9. The mission having been completed, the aircraft then move towards their own fleet (or airfield) to land next turn.
10. Just by the by: in the narrative above I identify the Squadrons individually, by that is just post battle narrative. In this attack, the two dive bombers took a hit each, reducing their Flight Points (FlyPs) to 2 apiece. This represents the loss of 4 aircraft from each squadron.
    
    
    

Remarkably, according to the log I kept, Saabian aircraft took no losses whatever in this attack, for all that the results were fairly disappointing.

Kiivar bombing attack on RNS Apollyon

As the morning progressed further air attacks were mounted: by Kiivar's Covering Force North against Strike force Centre; and the retaliatory air assault by Strike Force South against the southern covering force. The former attack by one each of fighter, bomber and torpedo squadrons proved ineffective, but the dogfight between fighter squadrons cost Kiivar 4 aircraft (1 Flying Point).

By contrast, the Ra'esharn air attack upon Covering Force South proved deadly. Whilst 51 (Fighter) and 21 (Bomber) Squadrons attacked SNS Celaeno, 22 (Bomber) and 31 (Torpedo) Squadrons went after the carrier Calypso. 

Devastating Ra'esharn air strikes upon SNS Celaeno and 
the carrier Calypso.

Flak from Celaeno and a nearby destroyer accounted for four bombers (1 FlyP). The fighter attacks upon the battleship's AA weapons reduced their firepower a little, but not before a third of the bomber strike force had been eliminated. The surviving bombers exacted a severe toll: two hits - 12FP of damage. But worse was to come.

Calypso's escorting destroyers had been ordered westward,
Leaving the carrier exposed, The result...

SNS Calypso was caught isolated - not even a single destroyer in close attendance. This was careless! Although its anti-air clawed 4 bombers out of the sky, the remaining twenty obliterated the carrier. The five dice rolled two sixes, and two fives as well (counting towards damage only if a 6 had been rolled), to inflict 22 Flotation Points of damage. That was far beyond what the carrier could endure. SNS Calypso went down. Not only was the carrier lost, but its aircraft, still on the way back from their own mission, wherever they might find a place to land, were also lost to this action. Had the airfield at Yelte been captured by this time - and put into operation - maybe a refuge could have been found there, but the facilities for rearming would have been lacking. 

The loss of Calypso, together with its air strike force, was disastrous for the Allies. 

The opposing southern fleets well within gunnery 
and even torpedo range.

By this time the two southern fleets had closed the gun ranges such that a melee developed around Spot Island and the southern tip of Comro. Probably the carrier Achlys ought to have kept its distance, but Admiral Tohatsu was possibly getting carried away by his success. Certain in his own mind he could prevail in the coming gunnery duel, he signalled the attack.

Aircraft from Bahomet and Bake-Kajura taking off
for their second sortie of the morning

Meanwhile, it was late morning, and Strike Force North has been sighted approaching from the northeast. The bombers squadrons of SNSS Bahomet and Bake-Kajura having returned from their dawn airstrike and rearmed, were ready to take off. Retaining the fighter squadrons for the carriers' own defence - the news from the south inducing caution from the Admiral commanding - all six bomber squadrons took off to strike the newcomers.

The target: Strike Force North. SU66 lets fly with torpedoes,
misses, and bugs out before the depth charges start 
descending...

Standing in the way of the late-arrived Strike Force, SU66 launched two torpedoes - with the same dismal results achieved by the other patrolling submarines. Both torpedoes missed, whereat SU66, rather than incurring the wrath of depth charges, effectively absented itself from the battle.

General view, looking westward, at the developing situation

So the situation by late morning was that the ineffectual submarine patrols had been brushed aside, Saabia air attacks had achieved nothing beyond some serious damage to RNS Banshee, but Covering Force South had lost its carrier - and hence, in effect, its aircraft. With a badly damaged battleship as well, Rear Admiral Tokashi was about to take on the more powerful Ra'esharn Strike Force. Much hope rested upon the success of the 72-plane attack launched from SNSS Bahomet and Bake-Kajura, but they had other objectives than to assist Vice-Admiral Sirega's Covering Group.

For context: the situation on land. Beachheads established 
both sides of Yelte; assault held up on the beach at the southern
end of the line. Airfield and sea port still in Ra'esharn possession

At this time, elements of 14th Marine Division had driven small bridgeheads on both sides of Yelte City, but 73rd Marine Regiment was still held up on Red Beach One to the south. The airfield being so far still in Ra'esharn hands, there was no refuge for the orphaned aircraft from SNS Calypso. [Note that the land battle was not really part of this scenario - just there to provide context]. 

Air attacks upon Covering Force East

The late morning Saabian air raids coincided with the attacks upon its warships by aircraft from Strike Force North's carrier, RNS Azir-Dahak. Escorted by fighters, the Ra'esharn bombers were vulnerable to the Saabian interceptors from both carriers. The escorting fighters and one squadron of bombers driven off, left one bomber squadron attacking the carrier Bake-Kajura, and the torpedoes attacking the battleship SNS Karkinas. 

Considering the relative weakness of this air strike
- just 4 squadrons - they achieve hits upon a carrier ad the battleship

A note, here: Fighter protection for the ships does not diminish flak defence under the rule set presently constituted. Although I have some doubts about this, I haven't really decided upon making the change such that the one obviates the other. Suffice to say here, that the surviving squadrons burst through the defences in sufficient strength to hit both vessels. Bake-Kajura took 6FP of damage; Karkinas 11 - not enough to knock them out of the action, but serious injuries enough. These Ra'esharn pilots were sure lord earning their corn!

Heavy airstrike upon Strike Force North.

Meanwhile, the huge attack was happening several miles north against the Ra'easharn Strike Force North. Three of the six squadrons lost aircraft going in. Two squadrons attacked the battleship RNS Botis; two more the aircraft carrier. The cruisers Chemosh and Choronzon each drew the attention of a single bomber squadron. Of the surviving aircraft, 2 Flights (FlyPs) attacked Chemosh, 5 attacked each of the main ships, and 3, Choronzon. As luck would have it, the gunships emerged from the maelstrom unhurt. 

At the cost of a dozen aircraft, Saabia sends 
RNS Azir-Dahak to the bottom - their first really 
major success of the day,

The carrier didn't. With acute precision, Saabia's bombers landed 16 hit points upon Azir-Dahak, sending her at once to the bottom. SNS Calypso had been avenged. Naturally, this disaster also meant the loss of valuable air-crew. However, the Yelte airfield still in Ra'esharn hands allowed them safe landing, although there was no prospect of their mounting later sorties from thence.

Devastating air attack on the Kiivar Covering Force

At around midday, aircraft from Strike Force Centre arrived over the Kiivar Covering Force as it was passing through the strait north of Comro Island. At that time, KNS Condor had just one fighter available for its defence. The other aircraft having returned, were still in the process of rearming and bombing up for a second sortie later in the day. My rule set allows the carrier's fighters, if available, to scramble and intercept the incoming aircraft. But the raiders also had a fighter escort. They got the better of the dogfight over the carrier into the bargain, shooting down half the Kiivar interceptors, for no loss to themselves. 

The defensive flak accounted for a dozen bomber aircraft, but that left plenty more: 4 FlyP attacking the carrier, 6 going for the battlecruiser, KNS Pteradodon, and 5 more the battleship Harrier. Fifteen Fly Points represented as many 'flights' - 60 aircraft. Harrier emerged unscathed, but the other two ships targeted took heavy damage. Taking 17FP of damage, Pteranodon was left a wreck, speed reduced to a crawl, and 'A' turret knocked out, along with half its secondary and AA armament. The battlecruiser had no choice but to turn about, away from the oncoming enemy fleet.

Disaster for Kiivar. the battlecruiser reduced to a wreck barely afloat; 
the carrier sunk. 

Worse was the fate of Condor (damn: I liked that name!). Three torpedo hits were enough to sink the carrier at once, with the consequent question mark over the fate of the Kiivar air crews. The training of the Ra'esharn air crews so far in this battle was showing to advantage, but the attrition on both sides was starting to cause concern.

Approaching gunnery duel between the southern fleets...

The morning's action had so far consisted of a series of damaging air attacks, leading to the loss of one Ra'esharn and two Allied aircraft carriers. The loss of air crew was becoming serious, especially as  the loss of a carrier meant the loss of its aircraft - at least their services for this action - even though the Ra'esharn at least could find refuge on Comro. Heavy damage had also accrued to a number of other capital ships, most notably to the Kiivar battlecruiser Pteranodon. During the afternoon, as the distance between opposing fleets narrowed, the battle was to become a gunnery duel, with the agile destroyers adding to the carnage...

To be continued: the Battle of Spot Island; and the Melee in the Strait.