9 January 1942
Major raid on Hickam/Pearl, attack on CVLBG fails
Hawaii
My mine tender laying more mines didn't trigger an airstrike. Instead, a bombardment task force about to shell Hickam used it for some pre-game gunnery practice. The bombardment destroyed 5 planes on the ground and about 50 more. So, when he launched an airstrike in the morning, my CAP was rather short. Fortunately he was bombing ffrom 20,000 feet, so he didn't hit much. A CL took a hit from a Val that was level bombing. Hickam was barely scratched. Air losses were 7 Zeroes, 14 Nells, 4 Betties, 9 Kates, and a Val for him; I lost one each of P-35, P-39, and P-40.
USS Gar laid a minefield at Lahaina. Looks like it was detected immediately and they're already working on clearing it.
Dutch East Indies
At Kendari, I made another PT boat attack. Looks like they've adapted to this. The troop ships there had plenty of decent escorts: 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, plus a few little guys. I lost 3 of 5 PTs and the others went running home.
The CVLBG apparently had so much fun sitting off Surabaya last time it had to do it again. Once again, I tried to coordinate an airstrike, and again, it didn't go as planned. It was supposed to be two packages: Swordfish torpedo bombers (borrowed from HMS Hermes) escorted by Buffalos, and medium bombers escorted by Hawks. The Swordfish went first, and without escort. Every last one (12) was shot down by the CAP. The well-escorted medium bomber package claimed a Zero, losing 3 Hawks, 2 Buffalo, and 3 bombers. The bombers that got through missed. The carriers launched a strike of their own trying to hit ships at Surabaya. Fortunately they weren't any more successful. Escorting Claudes shot down a Hawk, but that was the extent of the damage.
Solomons
My bad luck with that sub skipper was partly made up: one of the ACMs he let go hit a mine at Guadalcanal.
Japan
USS Sailfish engaged an AKL on the surface near Kyushu. The AKL hurt the Sailfish as bad as it got hurt, and the sub aborted the attack.
Malaya
He switched from bombing Singapore to sweeping Singapore, and got results. 14 Oscars went up against 10 Hurricanes and a Buffalo--he got 7 Hurricanes with only 3 losses. One of those Hurricanes went down with an ace, another ace pilot bailed out but was wounded.
The bombers were still hitting my units retreating from Malacca. We traded a Mohawk for an Oscar in the air, but the bombers hit the land forces hard.
