28 August 1943
DEI
The minefield at Babar wasn't very large. The detached minesweeper took care of it in a day.
5 George fighters tried to defend Ambon from our daily B-24 raid. 6 Aussie Kittyhawk (P-40) fighters defended the bombers; each side lost 1 fighter.
Philippine Sea
USS Seawolf torpedoed and sank a PB off the coast of Legaspi.
Burma
The task force in Rangoon stood off just outside Rangoon, far enough to get out of range of the Vengeances. P-40 sweeps over Rangoon had no joy. But, he did have a CAP over his ships, they just chose not to divert slightly to protect Rangoon. I did have a B-25 squadron on naval attack orders, and they were still in range. So they ran into the CAP--we lost 7 thanks to that.
The Victorious CVBG was detected by Betties on patrol... no strike came, but the presence of many (15) Zeroes on CAP over that task force made me reassess whether it was worth trying to get an Avenger strike on those ships. I'd be within Zero-escorted, torpedo-carrying range for Betties out of Port Victoria. They'd get through. Those ships aren't worth losing a carrier over; I'm sending them back to Columbo.
China
The Vanguards over Chengting got 5 Anna light bombers. Out of about 40 light bombers total. Not good enough.
At Wuchang, the P-40s took on the Tonies again... we lost 3 while only shooting down 1.
There was a river-borne amphibious assault against us at Kiukiang. Between the number of troops they brought in overland and these guys, I don't think I'll be able to hold on. I'd also ordered an attack this turn, thinking I outnumbered the enemy enough to push them out. The defensive terrain bonus had other ideas. Casualties 75 to 1288 favoring them.
We spotted yet more enemy forces on the eastern flank of Canton as our reinforcements are moving overland.
SouthPAC
There are at least 4 enemy subs prowling the Solomons, two of which are very near my CVBGs, currently at Shortlands. One of those CVBGs was spotted by a scout aircraft.
Intel reported 28 Judies destroyed today. The only thing I can think this means is they were aboard the Unyo and it went down today.
Reinforcements
VRF-5F arrives at San Francisco
No.119 Sqn RAAF arrives at Canberra
No.17 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden
1st USMC Amphb Tank Battalion arrives at San Diego
5th RNZAF Base Force arrives at Auckland
6th RAF Advanced Base Force arrives at Calcutta
7th RAF Advanced Base Force arrives at Calcutta
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