7 February 1942
Soryu defeats Indomitable
Hawaii
4 BB bombarded Pearl today.
Malaya
Absolute carnage in the skies over Singapore. Our fighters were in about equal numbers, but half his numbers are obsolete Nates. For the cost of 1 Hurricane we downed three Oscars, 9 Sallies, and 9 light bombers.
Java Sea/Makassar Strait
Dutch bombers attemped a strike on the BB Kongo at Tarakan. The enemy CVBG was in range but the Kongo was within range of escorting fighters, not just the bombers, so this was probably a good call. But, we missed. Enemy Betties tried to hit Balikpapan back but were routed by defending US fighters, with one Betty shot down.
Both CVBGs faced off with competing airstrikes. He sent 22 TBs, 3 Vals and 21 Zeroes against me. I had 21 fighters on CAP. Losses were severe: a P-40, 1 Demon, 3 Fulmars for us, and 4 Zeroes, 9 Kates, 9 Mabels and a Val for him. But that left plenty getting through. Indomitable was hit by another bomb that failed to penetrate its armor, and three torpedoes. The torpedo damage was surprisingly light--this is a really tough ship--but she's listing bad enough to prevent flight operations.
As for my strike, I really screwed this up. After having so many strikes go unescorted, my biggest concern was making sure my fighters and bombers could coordinate, and I though the best way to do that was to let the carrier-based fighters handle escort duty while land-based fighters guarded the ship. But I forgot that the Hurricane has terrible range. So my strike proceeded with only Fulmar fighter-bombers able to defend the Albacore biplanes. Five of seven Fulmars went down. All sixteen Albacores were splashed without shooting a single torpedo at Soryu.
Indomitable has been ordered to retire, I'll try to make it to Sri Lanka for repairs.
Coral Sea
He put a long-range CAP over Port Moresby that we tried to break through to bomb his troops, our P40s shot down a Zero but failed to prevent them from reaching the Banshees--4 were shot down. This is an unaccapable loss due to having so few of them so going forward Banshees will only be used on enemy ships here, bombing the troops will be for the far more replaceable Hudson level bombers. Below, our armies fought, casualties were 344 the to 373 us.
Timor
Boela has been captured.
8 February 1942
Indomitable slinks away from combat area, Soryu does not pursue
Japan
USS Tautog torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship off Okinawa. Been awhile since our subs got any merchant traffic so I'm glad to see this.
Hawaii
4 BB bombarding today, plus fighter sweeps (2 P-40s, 1 Zero lost)
Coral Sea
We found 2 enemy subs lurking off the Horn Island choke point and damaged one of them with depth charges. We are still struggling with ASW proficiency. Off Townsville, despite probably 4 patrol ships on ASW duty, light bombers patrolling overhead, and the convoy itself having destroyers escorting, a tanker from Java was torpedoed by an enemy sub. The fuel-laden tanker made it to port still on fire, so the support crews will help battle the massive blaze. We'll probably know if this ship survived by tomorrow.
Malaya
In a humiliating defeat for the IJAAF, 17 Oscars challenged 15 Hurricanes to battle over Singapore. 10 Oscars didn't make it back, compared to just 1 of ours. A huge formation of Nates would try again later; our Hurricanes just swooped in, shot 3 down, and ran for it.
China
The AVGs fight with Oscars near Ichang was far more balanced: 1 P-40 for 1 Oscar lost today. Our armies have finally made it across the river into swamplands adacent to the enemy army (I didn't cross right into them because my troops would become disorganized). So now we march on the enemy encampment itself, which will take several days.
Dutch East Indies
The Soryu CVBG has apparently retired as our scouts did not find it today and it launched no strikes. The Indomitable CVBG safely transited the southern island chain and is now south of Java heading west. I've detected an enemy ARG on the northwest side of Borneo which could be bound for Malaya, Sumatra, or Java. I've ordered my local surface forces to move towards Sumatra to attempt to intercept.
There is also a surge in enemy ASW activity in the Java Sea area choke points. Soryu might need to leave to replace its losses, but something else is coming.
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Enemy bomber losses over Singapore are driving a trend of an Allied advantage in air losses:
