1 May 1942
Indian Ocean
Aircraft have been spotting a British sub near Colombo over the last few days; I sent an ASW task force of 3 DMSs to try to sink it. Today, the sub ambushed the ASW task force and sank one of the DMSs. Ugh. The remaining ships only slightly damaged it afterwards.
CENTPAC
The I-8 hit a transport outside of Pearl with a torpedo, causing severe damage. It's close enough to Pearl to have a decent chance to survive.
SOPAC
Mutsu and Yamashiro shelled Suva. Again, not much damage, two days in a row.
A deliberate attack on Nadi went nowhere. Enemy forts holding at level 3. The main defender is a New Zealand brigade. Casualties were pretty even, although we had a small number of squads destroyed while he did not.
We fared better in today's air battles against the unloading amphibious task force, downing 3 P-40s, 1 P-39, 1 SBD, 1 Banshee, and 1 Vicent--without losing any Zeroes.
The KB's Kates claimed a hit on the S-46
Western Australian Coast
I-123 took a shots at the cruisers Glasgow and Sumatra outside Geraldton (north of Perth) and missed. It's just interesting to see them here, especially after the Indomitable was spotted and hit near Perth.
China
We broke even on casualties with a bombardment attack. We've only got about a 50% force advantage now, thanks to constant enemy reinforcement. The combined aerial and artillery bombardment doesn't seem to be wearing them down that much. Although, I got the worst of it last bombardment, so maybe breaking even is actually a good sign?
Upgrades
I've fallen a little behind, with the Atago class cruisers overdue for an upgrade along with the Ashashio class destroyers. With May, the Kagero class is now due as well. The Atago class has been tied up around Ceylon while the Ashashios are mostly escorting carriers on both sides of the theatre. The Ashashio upgrade is pretty important as it increases the depth charge launcher numbers (accuracy by volume matters!) along with a significant AA upgrade. But it's going to be easier to upgrade the Kageros because they're mostly deployed as amphibious escorts, so there are lots of opportunities at base to swap ships. I think a lot of the DD upgrades will end up happening in June-July when my carriers will also be upgrading.