6 May 1942
British bombers massacred over Thailand after failing to link up with fighter escorts
Truk
USS Seawolf observed a massive troop transport convoy (8 AP, 6 AK, 1 CL, 1 E) arriving at Truk. It took a shot at a transport but missed.
Bay of Bengal
An AKL running supplies from India to Sri Lanka was torpedoed and sunk. The troop convoy from Calcutta arrived in Rangoon without incident, but the supply convoy behind it was snooped by a sub-based floatplane.
Thailand
The bombers supporting Force Lauren failed to link up with their Hurricane escorts and ran into a wall of Oscars. They pressed on anyway. The first wave, 17 Hudsons and 4 Blenheims, was wiped out completely. Another 3 Hudsons and 4 Blenheims that were straggling were shot down as well. Of the maybe 3-4 Blenheims that made it to the target, 1 was lost to AA. After all that, a few Hurricanes arrived and shot down a Nate.
The enemy troops, led by the 5th and 38th Divisions, attacked Force Lauren but were turned away, casualties 1743 to 145. I like holding the mountains.
Near Rangoon, the second army coming through the mountains appears to be much larger than the lead element. It still doesn't appear to be enough to take anything from me, so in a sense this is good news--he's sent a substantial number of troops through mountains without a supply line hoping to find a weak rear area. He's going to run into equal numbers of my troops who are well supplied and not fatigued from a long, rough march. I'd say we'd also be bombing the hell out of them too, but... yeah, we don't have many bombers left.
South China Sea
USS Sargo loaded up some mines after failing to track down the Kako and Aoba. It arrived in Miri today to drop off the mines. After that, it ran into the Atago and put a torpedo in her side. The Atago was damaged by a pair of mines a month ago, I suspect she just got out of the repair yard and was attempting to join a task force here. Well, now she gets to go right back.
Java Sea
An enemy land unit made a shock attack against the garrison of Mataram but failed to take the base. I think the small unit is vulnerable to a counterattack now, so I've given the order, plus I'll send some Hudsons to bomb here to help our push.
SouthPAC
The bogey--now bogeys--are holding position north of Pago. As they didn't approach, my surface task force did not engage. Current classification is 2 ships, 1 of which is a tanker. Which makes no sense. My best guess, these are cargo ships being sacrificed to test my reaction time, or to confirm the presence of my carriers before the KB begins an operation somewhere.
Reinforcements
VF-42 arrives at San Francisco (2/27 F4F-3. Yorktown's fighter squadron being reformed--they're going to be a training squadron for now; outfitted with a fresh batch of F4F-4s)
No.82 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (2/16 Blenhiems. I'm designating this a training squadron as well, transitioned them to obsolete Lysander bombers with the 2 Blenheims going to the replacement pool for my other squadrons. There's no sense in trying to equip this unit when I don't have enough planes for the squadrons I already have)
13th Australian Hvy AA Regiment arrives at Sydney (fully equipped, restricted)
18th Canadian Brigade arrives at Victoria (41% strength, restricted)
DMS Dorsey beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles (AA upgrade, radar)
SS Grampus taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane (radar)
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