29 October 1942
Tavoy Liberated (again)
Bay of Bengal/Burma
A soon-to-withdraw minelayer was on orders to mine Rangoon to try to protect it from being shelled, but I was careless and left it on flank speed to long. It ran out of fuel near Rangoon. I sent an AKL out from Rangoon to transfer some fuel to it--and it hit an enemy mine in the channel between the port and the open sea, and sank. Sending minesweepers from Calcutta.
Our reinforced Tavoy assault army got the job done today, casualties 2600 to 600 favoring us. I"m pretty sure Tavoy holds the distinction of the base that has changed hands the most now, he's taken it twice, and I've taken it back twice. I'm not inclined to start immediately moving aircraft here--the base is out of supplies and the enemy bombers that couldn't kill our troops in the mountains can probably still hit the runways, tarmacs, and hangars just fine.
Java Sea
USS Herring was transiting on the way to its patrol area when it got spotted by an ASW group and attacked in shallow water. The boat was badly damaged and is returning to base.
Solomons Area
We swept Rabaul with P-38s for a 2nd day. They added some Oscars to the CAP. We got 5 Oscars and 2 Nicks, 1 P-38 was shot down.
China
We're surrounding both enemy armies in the coastal area. The Amoy (southern) army is weak, we should have no problem killing them. The Foochow army is going to be more difficult, but our bombers will stop them from taking our base, and once the first army is down, I can move those troops back north. Defeated in detail. This is going to be great.
We lost 2 Chinese P-40s at Amoy, but the bombers got through.
The enemy main force at Chengchow made another shock attack, and no, it wasn't any better than the last one a few weeks ago. Forts held at Level 4, casualties 19,000 to 7,000. The flanking force that we're bombing also attacked. Our blocking force, now reinforced from Sinyang, is stronger than them, plus the bombing caused severe disruption. Casualties 4500 to 200.
And they attacked at Foochow too. Numbers wise this was a better attack but these troops are beaten down from being bombed, tired from crossing rough terrain, and out of supply from being away from roads. Nominally, this is a 4-division force, but their assault value was less than 3 divisions worth. Forts reduced from Level 3 to 2, casualties 6000 to 2400 favoring me.
Reinforcements
SC PC-582 arrives at Portland
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