22 February 1944
Burma and Thailand
Mushashi, Haruna, and Kongo along with several other warships bombarded our troops in Bangkok again, this time pulling out after and heading south towards the South China Sea. 82 casualties.
They're also landing troops at Prachuap Khiri Khan, apparently unhappy that I cut off the rail link between Bangkok and Singapore.
I moved additional Vengeance squadrons to Tavoy to try to pressure the enemy task forces at Bangkok. One of them got lost and never found any targets, the other got split up. We ended up attacking the heavy surface group in one wave of 8 Spitfires with 2 Vengeances, and 6 Spitfires with 14 Vengeances. CAP strength was 54 Zeroes. We lost 1 Spitfire and 10 Vengeances while shooting down just one Zero. Another Vengeance was lost to flak while attacking Haruna and Mushashi. Mushashi was hit twice, but I'm sure it wasn't seriously hurt.
Other raids:
Bangkok (ground forces, port, and airbase): 8 port hits, 2 airbase hits, 12 casualties
South China Sea
USS Narwhal torpedoed and sank a PB in a tanker convoy off the Vietnamese coast.
Marianas
USS Pampanito damaged a large cargo ship with a torpedo north of the Marianas. Presumably this is the convoy departing.
China
I swept Takao with 12 Spitfires out of Amoy, they went up against a whopping 59 fighters. We ended up losing 2 while shooting down 1 George and 4 Zeroes. One of the George squadrons was flying in the 5th altitude band, in violation of the new house rule.
Other raids:
near Taiyuan (ground forces): 23 casualties
near Chengchow (ground forces): 140 casualties
Land combat:
We routed the enemy in our rematch against the shattered 34th Divsion near Chengchow, casualties 1032 to 35, enemy units retreating back to their side of the river.
Our southernmost prong in our advance eastward has captured Shaohing. There were only reported 1073 defenders, and enemy casualties were reported as 1533 (and allied 78). Yes, I know that should be impossible.
DEI
Raids:
Surabaya (airbase and port): 8 airbase hits, 1 port hit, 5 casualties
Kendari (ground forces) 17 casualties
Land combat:
The last of the enemy troops at Koepang have been eliminated. 1643 enemy casualties.
We've seized the empty island Mataram with paratroopers. This should be the last airbase we need to build before returning to Java.
Philippines
The heavy bombers returned to Manila. We faced 19 Georges and 10 Nicks on CAP. Due to poor coordination, some B-24s arrived without escort and got pounced. 5 B-24s lost to enemy aircraft, another to flak, and 2 F4U escorts were also shot down. The escorts got one George and one Nick, and a followup sweep by Hellcats got another Nick. The raid managed 21 airbase hits, a hit on the disabled cruiser Yura in port, and a Judy reportedly destroyed on the ground.
USS Scorpion was moderately damaged in a depth charge attack in the Luzon Strait and is headed to Hong Kong for repairs.
Iloilo's defenders held off another attack while sustaining 197 casualties. Pretty impressive.
Reinforcements
DE Riddle arrives at Eastern USA
DE Waterman arrives at Los Angeles
SS Sterlet arrives at Balboa
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