21 August 2022
Enemy carriers pulled back?
SouthPAC
The night B-24 raid was ineffective. Switching to daytime raids for tomorrow.
We did not hold contact on the enemy CVBG today, despite recon flights over Ponape and Truk and Catalina runs everywhere in between.
The Yorktown and Lex battlegroups are traveling together to position themselves for a strike as we still hold merchant contacts at Ponape. The thirstier of the two groups got gassed up by the AOs. Wish it would have been both.
Enemy units that had retreated from Rabaul came back to look for a fight and were soundly routed. II/81st Naval Guard Unit was destroyed along with either another naval guard unit or SNLF (marine) unit.
Burma
HMS Trident attacked a cargo ship on the surface at Tavoy, expending quite a bit of torpedoes and getting 4 total hits for substantial overkill.
Our bombers hit Pegu ridiculously hard, causing 400+ enemy casualties on the ground. They also got some Betties in, which I thought would be intercepted by P-40s, but unfortunately we had none overhead because supplies at our airbases dropped too low to support drop tanks. Going to try to have P-38s overhead tomorrow, supplies look fine for the time being. The enemy land attack cost us 440 casualties, and 730 for them, but with many more of his squads destroyed instead of disabled.
It could still be weeks before we can build a suitable fighter base closer to Rangoon. The forces we landed amphibiously will help with that, but their movement is being hampered by the lack of adequate roads.
DEI
Air raids on Ambon destroyed a Thalia transport on the ground, which is concerning. Apparently they want to try to fly troops out. I'm putting a long-range CAP over Ambon to try to intercept the transports. Eventually they'll run out of supplies to repair the airbase, too.
Our marines on Timor are trying to break through; 340 to 18 casualties in our favor today, but our troops are getting fatigued so they'll get to rest tomorrow. The force levels are rather even, but we have tanks and they have only light naval infantry, also they're being bombed by B-25s daily and we're not, so it's only a matter of time before we wear them down.
China
The situation at Hong Kong is worse than it looked. The enemy force that moved onto the roads between HK and Canton is over 3 divisions strong. Too strong to dislodge with my current force levels, and strong enough to possibly threaten either base. The troops I sallied out have been ordered to return and defend HK. This is now my priority bomber target, and I'm calling in reinforcements from central China.
Reinforcements
DD Harrison arrives at Balboa
DD Roebuck arrives at Cape Town
SS Escolar arrives at Balboa
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