5 March 1942
Melbourne Port Strike
SOPAC
A bad decision on my part: I shelled Melboure with the Hiei and Kirishima. There was a substantial minefield that I should have expected. 2 escorting destoyers and the Kirishima were all hit. Damage on one of the destroyers is pretty bad. The task force destroyed a minesweeper on the way in. The shelling did substantial damage to the airbase, blew up 1-2 Wirraways on the ground, and damaged a tanker, subtender, 2 cargo ships, and a transport. Overall not great.
That was followed up by a port strike of Melbourne, 77 Kates and 34 Vals, damaging 22 different ships, I'd say sinking between 5-10 of those. 15 Vals separately attacked Resources at Sale, scoring 4 hits, which apparently did negligible damage.
6 Wirraways attacked the KB, with 5 being shot down. The survivor tried to drop 2 100-lb bombs on Hiryu and missed. That was followed up by 13 Banshees with 17 P-40 escorts attacking that battleship group. The were out of range of my CAP, so they only lost 1 bomber to flak and scored a hit on Kirishima. Another reason why the bombardment was a bad call.
51 Vals attacked Geelong, scoring single hits on the Dorsetshire and Achilles. Achillies has to be hurt pretty badly by now. 27 Kates made a 2nd run on Melbourne but missed everything due to a storm.
7 Banshees flew a 2nd mission, this time targeting the KB--apparently too far for the P-40s as they came in without escort. We shot down 5 with the CAP and a sixth by flak. One bomber made an attack on Akagi and missed.
Philippines
The minesweeper clearing Bataan was insufficiently careful. I have two DMSs on the way to take her place.
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