6 May 1942
Burma: Pegu captured
West Australian Coast
I-32 incinerated a loaded tanker outside Perth in a night surface attack. It was unescorted--despite the numerous destroyers conducting ASW patrols in the area.
Fiji
Our troops ashore sustained attacks from heavy bombers and dive bombers while the KB was away resupplying, but damage was insignificant. Sweeps over Nadi eliminated 1 P-40 and 3 P-39s with no losses.
Burma
We captured Pegu with minimal resistance.
7 May 1942
Heavy enemy air losses over Fiji
SOPAC
The I-20 sustained depth charge damage in two separate attacks near Pago Pago while trying to deliver an SSX to the port. The damage is serious and she's limping back to Noumea for repairs.
At Fiji, the enemy CAP was rejuvenated, with 21 enemy fighters greeting a Zero sweep. We blasted 3 P-40s and 9 P-39s, exploiting the poor high altitude performance of these early Allied fighters with a "stratosweep" from 30k feet. We lost just 2 Zeroes. I guess I should enjoy this while it lasts.
8 May 1942
KB returns to Fiji - incoming enemy bombardment task force?
SOPAC
An enemy night raid of Port Morseby with B-17s destroyed a Zero and a Dinah on the ground. I really don't want to tie up multiple aircraft detachments here but I clearly need to have fighters in the air at night. Sigh.
On the east side of Fiji, the RO-34 engaged an AKL on the surface with gunfire, crippling the ship. This ship is out of position to be a picket--maybe a supply run?
After yesterday's severe losses, the enemy only had 3 fighters on CAP over Nadi--we shot down 1 with a Zero sweep. At this point, our amphibious task force delivering a reinforcing army division--covered by the KB--was close enough to draw an airstrike--just 3 Vincents and 3 B-17s. The Vincents were shot down by our CAP, the B-17s missed. A slightly stronger raid of 5 SBDs escorted by 6-P-40s targeted the KB, but called it a day after 3 of the P-40s were shot down.
The KB's scouts detected an enemy task force approaching from the east and sent a strike after it. With most of my Kates on ASW duty, this raid was heavily weighted with Vals--33 Zeroes, 10 Kates, 35 Vals--which worked against me as it turned out this enemy task force was the HMS Warspite with the American heavy cruisers Vincennes and Chester, with a single APD escort. The enemy had 14 fighters trying to protect this task force, but we brushed them aside rather easily, shooting down 3 P-40s with one Zero lost, and keeping them off the bombers. We hit the Warspite with 7 bombs and the Vincennes with 1, but I don't believe any of the bombs penetrated the ships' armor. System damage to the Warspite is probably pretty decent though. One Val was shot down by flak.
Having most of my Kates on ASW duty wasn't so bad---we claimed 5 hits on enemy subs today, with sound effects for a sub sinking at the end of the turn.
So, this left me in a bit of a bad spot. A battleship and two heavy cruisers is tougher than the surface forces I have immediately available, and they are close enough to attack before the next KB airstrike. The phibs have just one heavy cruiser and several DDs; the KB has 4 heavy cruisers and probably like a dozen DDs. I have a battleship task force to the west but it's going to take another day to get here. With the enemy force detected, it's likely they'll pull back, but if he decides to charge at either the amphibs or the KB, our battleships would be engaging in the aftermath if at all. Detaching a strong force from the phib's or the KB would be a major gamble--they'd need a lot of DDs to protect them from all the subs in the area, which would in turn leave my original TFs vulnerable to the subs. Plus my heavy cruisers would likely take plenty of devastating hits from the Warspite while struggling to penetrate its armor. And I suspect enemy carriers are in the area looking for an opportunity to jump in--pulling the CAs out of the KB would significantly decrease my flak protecting the carriers.
I mentioned my situation in Jochen's discord server, and one very experienced member, Heclapar, noted that the enemy force would be vulnerable to attack by destroyers--they are too slow. And I'd noted that several times this campaign, my enemy had interrupted my bombardment attacks with wear surface forces that nevertheless ate up my ships' ammunition which was needed to hit targets ashore. So, the plan is this: I'm detaching 3 Fubuki-class destroyers from the KB, with the light cruiser Yubari to lead them, right into the path of the enemy task force before they reach us. The Fubukis are the only destroyers in the KB that do not have the deep-reaching depth charges, so their ASW contributions to the KB won't be missed very much. And they have plenty of torpedoes. This force, I hope, will be enough to force the enemy TFs to waste most of their main battery ammunition before they reach their objective, which is worth it even if that means sacrificing these ships--his accuracy will be MUCH better if he's shooting at unloading transports instead of small, quick destroyers. And with a little bit of luck, I might get close enough for a torpedo attack and cause significant damage. The KB will follow that up with an airstrike hopefully first thing in the morning, this time, with more Kates.
As for the transports...they've started unloading and we are taking far more intense shore battery fire this time around, with three transports and two destroyers hit so far. He's clearly moved something over from Suva, and it looks to me like he's probably landed reinforcements despite the almost constant coverage of the KB, land-based maritime air patrol, and submarine patrols. So our troops have their work cut out for them.
CENTPAC
The I-9 made two separate attacks on the AO Guadalupe at Christmas Island with 6 torpedoes each time, and missed every shot. The I-8 did better at Palmyra, hitting an escorted cargo ship with a torpedo, causing potentially lethal damage.