19 July 1942
VT-5 delivered to Hickam AFB
Hawaii
The enemy sent another flotilla of landing barges to Oahu to try to evacuate troops. They were obliterated--2 by patrolling subs that surfaced to gun them down, and 10 by USMC Buffalos on low altitude patrol.
The land battle for Oahu claimed another 902 Japanese soldiers and 14 of ours.
USS Wasp delivered the Yorktown's former torpedo bomber squadron to Pearl/Hickam, which immediately transitioned from Devastators to Avengers. They'll be fully operational in 4 days.
The suspected bait ship is moving north towards Pearl, moving deeper into my PBY search radius. My subs are trying to reach it and are searching for possible enemy forces in the areas near it outside my PBY range.
Johnston Island
I used B-24s to raid Johnston and was surprised that there was a decent CAP of Oscars there. We ended up losing 2 of the B-24s to the damage they sustained in the raid. The raid itself didn't do any significant damage to the airfield we targeted. There are ships at Johnston, including a cruiser. Probably an evacuation.
Malaya
An enemy sub skipper got a little too aggressive (I know, Subsim doesn't believe that's ever possible), firing 2 torpedoes at a motor launch patroling near Singapore and giving its position away. The torpedoes missed and the ML retaliated, scoring multiple hits with depth charge patterns, severely damaging the sub. It didn't sink at Singapore--but I'll be surprised if we ever see it again.
Singapore was hit with air raids again; 1 Zero was shot down by the CAP and AA took down 2 bombers. A Hurricane, a Beaufighter, and 2 Albacores were destroyed on the ground. The damage to the base is still manageable, but my supply is cratering. During the original siege of Singapore, I had occasional cargo runs from Palembang and the factories in Singapore had sufficient resource stockpiles to produce supply--both of those are no longer the case. A possible ray of hope: my troop movements in Thailand may be producing a reaction; troops across the river from Singapore appear to be moving north. I'm putting a recon pilot in my last Beaufort and trying to get eyes on them. If the garrison gets too weak I might attempt to break out of the siege and retake resource areas to get my factories back at full capacity.
Celebes Sea
The KXVIII torpedoed an enemy PB on patrol near Tarakan. Surprisingly, the torpedo did not appear to cause severe damage, and the PB attempted to prosecute the sub. The KXVIII disengaged, then set up another torpedo salvo, which missed.
China
Two fighters down on each side in Chengchow, otherwise everything looks quiet.
Thailand
I've resumed bombing troops near Raheng to try to deter an attack on Raheng as I'm advancing towards Bangkok, and to soften them up in case they fall back to Bangkok. Nicks intercepted; 1 P-40 and 1 Nick were shot down.
Reinforcements and refits
DD Gwin beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles
DD Hughes taken out of commission to begin refit at Los Angeles
SS Gato taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane
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