9 November 1942
A threat to Raheng's supply lines
Japan/Philippine Sea
We spotted 2 tanker convoys today. One was off Torishima, a small atoll between Tokyo and Iwo Jima. The USS Saury hit one of them, a Type N large tanker (10,000 tons), setting its oil cargo on fire. Neither the damage nor fire is severe, so it has a decent chance of making it to Tokyo. The other convoy was spotted by a retiring USS Seal in the open ocean east of Luzon and south of Okinawa. The Seal hit one of the tankers but the Mk14 did not detonate.
It appears that the enemy thinks the Luzon Strait is too hot to send tankers through, so he's shifting his routes east. I'm going to have to keep a very close on on the eastern exit of the Celebes Sea as well as try to establish a barrier across the Philippine Sea east of Luzon.
Solomons Area
Rossel was swept by 28 Oscars, we shot down 2 while losing a P-38. The minefield here will be set up tomorrow, and we now have 6 radar-equipped Beauforts flying night naval surveillance between here and the Solomons.
We reacquired the enemy CVBG well northeast of Ndeni--looks like a direct course for Roi-Namur in the Marshalls. So that's probably his central staging area for the KB. As it turns out, we have a sub parked off Roi-Naumur and even though it's close to the base, it isn't reporting any patrol aircraft activity. This looks like a very likely intercept in the next 1-2 days.
The Dauntlesses we moved to Luganville flew a mission against an enemy ASW task force near Ndeni, sinking one PB and damaging another badly enough that it probably sank too. They flew at extended range, carrying only 1 500lb bomb each instead of the usual 1000lb SAP.
China
Another Oscar down over Amoy. They only sent 3. They just don't seem willing to put the effort in here.
Banda Sea
Oscars sweeping Babar ended up with one loss and no victories against the defending P-38s and P-39s. I'm sending a little bit of fuel out here to support some PT boats, I wouldn't be surprised if they send marines here soon.
Battle of Rangoon
The situation continues to deteriorate...
The most noteworthy thing is the simultaneous appearance of enemy forces advancing toward Raheng and Pisanaoulke and paratroopers dropping on Tuong Gyi. It appears their objective is the supply route that runs from Tuong Gyi to Raheng, which if it's severed pretty much all my forces southeast of Moulmein are cut off. I'm probably going to kill the paras off without much difficulty, but without having a strength estimate on the Raheng-area group, I don't really know if I can stop them. I've moved a few recon Hurricanes down to Raheng to try to snoop these guys. In the meantime I'm also assigning them as a secondary target for the Vengeance bombers, if they decide they want to fly again. Oscars swept Raheng today; all my fighters here are either on escort duty to on offensive sweeps, so there was no one to play with. But I think that's going to invite a strike tomorrow, so I'm cancelling the sweeps and putting a modest CAP up.
The B-24s are going to rest another day with most of my planes still being repaired and another day of bad weather being predicted. The enemy airbase at Pegu is now up to a Level 3 (still too small for medium bombers without penalty) and they've moved most of the area's Oscars here--seriously, over 100. As crowded as the airbase is, that's an invitation for a bombing. But not tomorrow, yet.
Rangoon's kinda waiting for the hammer at this point. It looks like enemy forces are on the move from Pegu. Just a matter of time. On the bright side, the runways are fully repaired and the service facilities are improving. 3 Zeroes, an Oscar, and a P-40 were shot down over Rangoon and/or Pegu.
To the south, we've overrun the enemy at Mergui, a small base south of Tavoy, which I only did to make sure the armies here were forced far enough away that they don't have access to the road back towards Rangoon. That taken care off, these guys are all headed back north. I'll leave a small unit behind to garrison Tavoy but the rest are going to rendevous with our retreating anti-Bangkok force, and combined we can hopefully take a meaningful fight to the enemy near Rangoon.
Northwest of Rangoon, our infantry has caught up with our tanks at Akyab. I am hopefull we'll have the base tomorrow, and after making sure the enemy is no threat, these units can try to contribute to the primary front.
Refits and Reinforcements
Repairs completed on CL Nashville at Pearl Harbor, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on CA Pensacola at Pearl Harbor, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on CA Vincennes at Pearl Harbor, ship returned to service
^---- 3 cruisers completing upgrades. The cruisers on the way to Midway will be next, once they return.
SC-645 arrives at San Francisco
VS-7D14 arrives at Alameda (floatplane training squadron)
329th FG/337th FS arrives at Eastern USA (fully restricted, 10/25 P-38s. I'm getting annoyed that the P-38s are arriving in squadrons like this. They're in too high of demand to be used in training squadrons, and to free them up I need to give the squadron a full batch of something else. Right now even giving these guys 25 P-40Es seems like a waste. I may have to disband a few training squadrons, consolidate those aircraft and move them in here.)