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Molon Labe · 11-03-21, 11:57 PM

4 July 1942
USMC provides occupied citizens of Lahaina with fireworks; IJN Nagato & transports sunk by Brit torpedo bombers off Sumatra

Sumatra & Singapore
The force I originally classified as commerce raiders and than reassessed as a bombardment group is in fact an amphibious group. They landed at Padang on the Indian Ocean side of Sumatra, transporting a third of the 1st Division, destroying a minesweeper on duty there as they approached.

At sunrise they were spotted and referred to Singapore for a strike package. The Oscar sweeps on Singapore continued, which may have interfered with the strike--it appears fighters ordered to escort my bombers were scrambled to fight the Oscars. 7 Oscars were shot down with a loss of 3 Mohawks and 2 Hurricanes over the course of several sweeps throughout the day.

The Albacore torpedo bombers flew 2 unescorted sorties against the enemy ARG at Sabang. My lack of escorting fighters was mitigated by the weather--he had Zeroes on a high-altitude CAP over the target, but my bombers approached low in a thunderstorm. The CAP did not engage either sortie. The first wave of 16 bombers hit the battleship Nagato twice and a troop-carrying cargo ship twice. The second wave hit the Nagato 4 more times, another cargo ship twice, and another once. Nagato went down while still under observation. Enemy troop casualties were about 900.

Hawaii
The S-47 torpedoed a cargo ship south of Pearl. S-33 followed up the attack,
trading gun hits with it. Thresher followed that up, bouncing a Mk14 dud off its hull.

My bombardment task force has yet to arrive at Lahaina, so the occupied citizens will have to wait until after midnight on July 5 for that fireworks show. But we did give them a preview as my reactivated USMC dive bombers attacked ships at port. Enemy Zeroes and Oscars defended--the Zeroes appear to be from Kaga, more or less confirming she's under repair right now. We flew two sorties, the first resulted in 4 Wildcats shot down for me and 4 Oscars and a Zero for them. The SBDs all missed. The second sortie saw one more F4F and Zero go down, and 2 more Oscars. One SBD hit the light cruiser Kuma, causing severe damage and starting a major fire.

China
My AVG replacements failed to escort my bombers to Chengchoon. 3 SB-IIIs and A-29s were lost, only one Lancer on nearby CAP was available to defend them--it shot down one Zero.

EDIT:
Australia
We have a squadron of Anson light bombers that just came online in Sydney yesterday. These guys are radar-equipped so I expect them to be good ASW assets. Yesterday I moved ASW-qualified Wirraway pilots to this squadron and put them on ASW duty, and today they've already scored a hit on one of the several subs operating here.

Bay of Bengal
Despite doglegging, there is a wolfpack of 6 subs in the path of the Brit CVBG. We prosecuted one that was close with no hits. It would seem that at least a secondary objective of the raid on Sabang was to bait my carriers again, and it more less worked. Time to leave.

EDIT2: The last Zero shot down (or more likely, scrapped at base) today was the 1000th Zero lost in the campaign.

11-03-21, 11:57 PM	#296
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	4 July 1942 USMC provides occupied citizens of Lahaina with fireworks; IJN Nagato & transports sunk by Brit torpedo bombers off Sumatra Sumatra & Singapore The force I originally classified as commerce raiders and than reassessed as a bombardment group is in fact an amphibious group. They landed at Padang on the Indian Ocean side of Sumatra, transporting a third of the 1st Division, destroying a minesweeper on duty there as they approached. At sunrise they were spotted and referred to Singapore for a strike package. The Oscar sweeps on Singapore continued, which may have interfered with the strike--it appears fighters ordered to escort my bombers were scrambled to fight the Oscars. 7 Oscars were shot down with a loss of 3 Mohawks and 2 Hurricanes over the course of several sweeps throughout the day. The Albacore torpedo bombers flew 2 unescorted sorties against the enemy ARG at Sabang. My lack of escorting fighters was mitigated by the weather--he had Zeroes on a high-altitude CAP over the target, but my bombers approached low in a thunderstorm. The CAP did not engage either sortie. The first wave of 16 bombers hit the battleship Nagato twice and a troop-carrying cargo ship twice. The second wave hit the Nagato 4 more times, another cargo ship twice, and another once. Nagato went down while still under observation. Enemy troop casualties were about 900. Hawaii The S-47 torpedoed a cargo ship south of Pearl. S-33 followed up the attack, trading gun hits with it. Thresher followed that up, bouncing a Mk14 dud off its hull. My bombardment task force has yet to arrive at Lahaina, so the occupied citizens will have to wait until after midnight on July 5 for that fireworks show. But we did give them a preview as my reactivated USMC dive bombers attacked ships at port. Enemy Zeroes and Oscars defended--the Zeroes appear to be from Kaga, more or less confirming she's under repair right now. We flew two sorties, the first resulted in 4 Wildcats shot down for me and 4 Oscars and a Zero for them. The SBDs all missed. The second sortie saw one more F4F and Zero go down, and 2 more Oscars. One SBD hit the light cruiser Kuma, causing severe damage and starting a major fire. China My AVG replacements failed to escort my bombers to Chengchoon. 3 SB-IIIs and A-29s were lost, only one Lancer on nearby CAP was available to defend them--it shot down one Zero. EDIT: Australia We have a squadron of Anson light bombers that just came online in Sydney yesterday. These guys are radar-equipped so I expect them to be good ASW assets. Yesterday I moved ASW-qualified Wirraway pilots to this squadron and put them on ASW duty, and today they've already scored a hit on one of the several subs operating here. Bay of Bengal Despite doglegging, there is a wolfpack of 6 subs in the path of the Brit CVBG. We prosecuted one that was close with no hits. It would seem that at least a secondary objective of the raid on Sabang was to bait my carriers again, and it more less worked. Time to leave. EDIT2: The last Zero shot down (or more likely, scrapped at base) today was the 1000th Zero lost in the campaign. __________________ Last edited by Molon Labe; 11-04-21 at 03:00 PM.