1 February 1942
Japanese surface action group smashed off Milne, displaced Manila garrison surrenders
CENTPAC
No sighting of the KB. That makes 2 days.
Some aircraft are getting repaired at Hickam. Not wanting to send any into combat, I set them to train. So they trained--and were in the air when the Betties and Nells came. Apparently they train with live ammo, so they shot down a few. So this was a great accident--if he's transfered fighters out of Lahaina, they'll have to come back. Or the KB has to come back.
Coral Sea
An enemy SAG of 3 CL and 4 DD approached Milne. My cruiser group (2 CA, 2 CL, 2 DD) was covering the transports this time and went out to challenge them, resulting in a long range night battle. Neither side took many hits. Two submarines took shots at one of my CLs shortly after the battle but missed. We found two of the subs near Townsville and dealt some damage to one of them with depth charges. Also got a hit on a sub off Port Morseby.
The enemy formation ended up on the Coral Sea side of Milne during the day, and the Enterprise/Saratroga battle group pounced on them. They had no air cover.
CL Tatsuta
CL Kinu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Tenryu, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Mutsuki, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kisaragi
The Tatsuta got lucky the first round, at least 12 SBDs attacked and missed. Not so much the second round:
CL Tatsuta, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Kinu, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
DD Kisaragi
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
DD Mochizuki
So that's probably 3 CL and 2 DD sunk.
Enemy paratroops managed to take Salamaua (north side of P-NG) from a small Australian garrison.
Timor
I raided his landing area with a force of 2 CL and 3 DD, finding a small task force of 2 AKs escorted by a PB. One AK got away but with significant damage. All the troops had already disembarked.
Philippines
I'm pulling more forces out of Clark to Bataan as their supplies dwindle. I'd say it will become a general retreat within the next 2 days. The enemy forces in Manila attacked my displaced garrisons nearby. I thought I had left them a valid retreat, but apparently empty "enemy" bases don't count. 14,000 troops surrendered and are now on their way to POW camps. An enemy attack at Clark resulted in 1000 friendly and 2000 enemy casualties.
Malaya
In what had to be an accident, 5 Nates swept Singapore by themselves. Only 2 made it back, and they won't be airworthy again for awhile, if ever.
It looks like there are now more troops headed to Singapore from Mersing. Perhaps what was going on was some sort of swap-out--fresh troops replacing tired troops?
Makassar Strait
We finished off his paratroops at Samarinda. But the air battle at Balikpapan was a tactical defeat for us. Our P-39s were at low altitude to protect the bombers hitting Samarinda. Oscars pounced on them from high altitude. We had a few P-40s up high but apparently not enough. We lost 6 P-39s with no Oscars shot down.