13 January 1942
Kido Butai committed to finishing what it started at Pearl
Hawaii
The assault on Pearl is maintaining yesterday's ferocity. They sent destroyers into the minefield (chasing a submarine maybe?). They cleared 3 mines on purpose, but detonated another the wrong way. 3 of my DDs made a run for it (and toward Palmyra, might as well put them to use if they make it). SIX enemy battleships bombarded Pearl/Hickam, destroying at least 11 planes and damaging 93 more. Service damage is up to 73% so we're not going to repair them quickly. The KBs air raids were devastating. For the low cost of 4 Zeroes and 5 Vals, they sank the BB Pennslyvania, CA Minneapolis and DD King, and just about everything else is severely damaged:
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
PG Sacramento, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Helena, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CA Minneapolis, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 3, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AD Dobbin, Bomb hits 1
DD Monaghan, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD King, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AE Pyro, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AV Tangier, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AG Antares, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
At Palmyra, I got a CL, a DD, and a DMS into the space to try to interrupt further landings. They met a CL and a DD. The enemy DD was the star of this battle, sinking my DD and convincing my task force to leave. Very disappointing. Fortunately, no more troops arrived today. I also realized this was within SBD flying range of Pearl, so I transferred all of my flyable SBDs here. Gets them away from the battleships' bombardments and will be useful for bombing troop ships, as well as the jerks already ashore.
Dutch East Indies
A small cruiser-destroyer group moving through the Maskasar straight sank an AKL of mine that I was trying to useto get desperately needed supplies for airplane repair to the Philippines.
He resumed his invasion of Borneo, landing troops at Sandakan (northeast area). My Falcon bombers split their attention between this task force and merchant traffic in Brunei/Miri, scoring only one hit on an AK in Brunei.
The CVLBG was reaquired at Kendari. Fine by me, hang out in the minefield. A Buffalo-escorted Falcon raid against the task force got no results, though, except for two Buffs and a Falcon shot down.
Malaya
They're not waiting for the mop-up to complete. The main force is on the move to Singapore right now. They'll probably begin their assault in 1-3 days. Right now the only air activity over Singapore are Oscar sweeps; the bombers are all dealing with my scattered forces around KL where I can't reach them with fighters.
Burma
For the first time, a sub appeared off Rangoon and tried to intercept a troop convoy delivering reinforcements. An escorting gunboat depth charged it, possibly sinking it.
I'm planning my first major counteroffensive here as a result of reinforcing Burma with the expectation of a major invasion to repel, that doesn't look like it's coming. Operation Kinky Boots will use the British forces intended to defend Burma push into Thailand, hopefully forcing him to abandon his siege of Singapore. The biggest problem is air support. We'll probably be facing a very large number of very experienced fighter pilots, with a downright oppressive amount of bombers following them. I'll have a decent amount of my own fighters to counter that with, but I'm not sure about the pilots. I can't check their experience levels until they actually arrive in theatre.
China
My surrounded unit near Hwainan (in the riverlands) is taking a beating from the IJA. Over 2000 casualties today. I'm going to be able to get these guys some air support soon--just fighters, though. No friendly airfields big enough to support medium bombers, and I don't have any light bombers in China.
The IJA began an assault on Tsiaotso, a mountain base at the northern front. We're holding; casualties were 1116 IJA to 487 ROC.
SouthPAC
I know that sub is still there but I haven't actually detected it. I'm going to give it one more day before resuming troop transport operations, with special care to include ASW escorts. Major convoys have arrived in Sydney, I'm proceeding to distribute those forces immediately. This includes a fighter group, airbase engineers, and artillery. This whole area is going to be a hard nut to crack pretty soon.