2 February 1942
Coral Sea overrun with submarines, USS Louisville critically damaged
Coral Sea
The morning started off with a submarine attack on the Milne covering force that resulted in two hits on Louisville. She didn't sink, but is severely flooded and is headed to port for emergency repairs. Two other subs took shots at CA Australia and DD Hatfield in the same task force. There are now at least 8 subs operating in the Coral Sea and they're starting to move towards blue water instead of the coastal areas.
The damaged CL Tatsuta and 2 DDs moved through the Milne area and got spotted by my PT boats, which administered a coup de grace on the Tatsuta and fled. The destroyers were taken down by later airstrikes by the Lexington-Yorktown CVBG and Banshees from Port Moresby.
The enemy army at Port Moresby made an attack but was easily repelled, as the 8th USMC regiment is now backing up the Aussie troops there. Casualties were 424 to 59 and we knocked out 21% of their tanks.
CENTPAC
The extended absence of the KB and reduced battleship bombardments have allowed repairs to progress rapidly at Hickam field. The runway is fully operational again, most service facilities are online and we have have a bunch of planes repaired. Enemy bombers hit Pearl at night instead of day due to the fighter threat. I'll have a decent CAP up tonight, hopefully we can pull the KB back over here. I liked knowing where it was. Only two battleships bombarded today and they didn't accomplish much.
Borneo
USS Sailfish encountered a large transport task force in the South China Sea--I suspect this is the AirHQ I was specifically trying to interdict. The escorts spotted her, though, and she was unable to engage.
Several sweeps targeted Balikpapan, gradually wearing down the US fighters there. Losses were 1 P-40 and 2 P-39s to one Zero, but nearly all our fighters need repairs before they can fly again.
Sumatra/West Java
11 Oscars swept Batavia, opposed by the CAP of 2 Buffalos plus 6 Sea Hurricanes and 2 Fulmars from the Indomitable. Two Buffalos and an Oscar were shot down.
Singapore
Whatever troop shuffle was going on here appears to be over with, as the task forces have left. We took an opportunity afforded by our fighters being allowed time to repair by bombing the airfield at Johore Bahru, which was overstacked with enemy bombers. We destroyed 9 Sallies and 2 Marys on the ground.