15 February 1942
Japanese surface forces press into Java Sea to hunt US carriers
Java Sea
As I mentioned yesterday, my biggest concern here was that Japan would use its heavy surface forces to try to take down my carriers. To try to protect them, I first merged the covering task force with the Yorktown's detached tf headed for Surabaya for emergency repairs. This would hopefully make them strong enough to survive an attack from the Soryu's escorts. Next, I detached the battleship Royal Sovereign from Force Y to prioritize speed, then sortied Force Y from Surabaya to take up station on the cape in southwestern Borneo. This would act as a blockading force to try to stop task forces moving south through the Makassar strait. The Lexington CVBG would move in a hook pattern, moving away from the Soryu's escorts before turning back north to get in a strike position against his surface forces. Every available ASW group was ordered to sanitize the path for the Yorktown to get to Surabaya. The flyable Wildcats from Yorktown were flown from Denpasar to the Lexington to supplement their CAP, and some of the flyable SBDs were rebased to Surabaya (in hindsight, that should have been the TBDs, because Surabaya has an AirHQ to arm them with torpedoes).
As feared, he did press his attack. The first encounter was between Force Y (1 CA, 7 CL, 3 DD) and a the former Soryu CVBG (2 CA, 1 CS, and 15 DD). I'd call that evenly matched since I'm mostly cruisers and he's mostly destroyers. Our heavy cruiser, HMS Corwall, took an early torpedo hit but stayed in the fight peppering the CA Myoko (already damaged from bombs yesterday) with hits, two of which penetrated her armor at the waterline, causing severe damage. The CA Mogami struck back, getting solid main battery hits on Cornwall and Glasgow. In the end, each side lost a DD to torpedo hits, and each side had a cruiser crippled. The Cornwall would sink before the end of the day.
A second surface group of 1 BB, 5 CA, and 5 DD bypassed Force Y heading south, apparently trying to prevent my carriers from escaping to the south. They encountered 2 of my DD moving towards the Yorktown for ASW duty, the DDs turned away and escaped.
Daytime brought a flurry of airstrikes, with a surprisingly high number of Zeroes on patrol despite the absence of any IJN carriers, probably all flying out of Makassar. A quick summary:
14 SBDs (Yorktown's) and 9 TBDs vs southern SAG: 3 SBDs downed by Zeroes, 1 bomb 1000lb hit on CA Nachi, 1x500lb hit each on BB Kongo, CA Atago
6 Vals vs Force Y (close enough to Lexington to get CAP protection): 3 Buffalo shot down by Zeroes, Vals missed Glasgow.
7 Kates vs ASW group (2 DD): 1 Zero shot down by land-based fighters, 1 Kate downed by DD's gunners. Very low altitude attack, no hits.
14 SBDs from Lexington vs former Soryu CVBG: 9 SBDs and a Buffalo shot down, SBDs attacked Mogami and missed.
7 Kates vs ASW group (AM and PG), no hits.
3 139HW-3 medium bombers vs southern SAG: no hits
3 Hudson medium bombers and 4 B-17s vs Makassar airbase: light facility damage
10 Kates vs Yorktown escort group: 1 Buffalo shot down by Zeroes, 1 Zero and 9 Kates shot down by land-based fighters. No Kates reached the ships.
13 Yorktown SBDs vs southern SAG: 1 SBD shot down by Zeroes, no hits.
5 Kates vs HMS Royal Sovereign's Force Y detachment: no losses, all Kates damaged by AAA or land-based fighters.
7 TBD (Yorktown's) vs southern SAG: 2 bomb hits on BB Kongo
5 Kates vs ASW group (AM and PG): no hits
12 SBDs from Lexington vs former Soryu CVBG: 3 hits on CA Ashigara-SUNK.
17 SBDs from Lexington vs southern SAG: 2 hits on BB Kongo
Without naval gunfire support, our shore batteries took a serious toll on their transports at Balikpapan. But with about 2 regiments ashore, the enemy attacked and easily overran the base. This is an important strategic site for Japan as it's one of the major oil/fuel sites, well-positioned to keep Truk supplied while other locations feed Japan. It had also been serving as a forward submarine base for me, including for the supply runs to Bataan. I'm also going to feel the loss of this as a seaplane base, as it was the last place I had that could observe most of the Celebes Sea as well as the waters north of Bornea (to help vector my subs into their merchants).
Celebes Sea
S-39 torpedoed and sank a cargo ship off Manado in a surface attack.
Banda Sea
A Dutch sub torpedoed and sank a cargo ship near Kendari.
Sumatra
The Japanese task force entered Palembang harbor, the light cruiser Jintsu hit a mine and they aborted whatever they were doing there. Later in the day, level bombers attempted an attack on the task force, but missed.
More concerning, well-escorted raids of Nells and Betties hit Oosthaven, where I have a growing backlog of transports piling up waiting to offload reinforcements. Zeroes took out a P-40 and 4 Buffalos, while our fighters got a single Zero and 3 Betties. Fortunately, most of the bombers did not have torpedoes and were as ineffective as level bombers generally are. One scored a torpedo hit on a troop ship, again fortunately, one that had already offloaded its soldiers. This party is over, time to find another way to get troops to Sumatra.
Hawaii
4 BB bombarded, and airstrikes on Pearl focused on the naval base instead of Hickam Field. The cruiser St. Louis was destroyed in drydock, also damaged was the CL Detroit, 2 tenders, 2 tankers a transport, and a minelayer. Our CAP was only a few planes today, time to ground everyone again.
Coral Sea
Oscars swept PM again, taking out a single P-40.