[Molon Labe]

11 November 1942
Enemy amphibious convoy ravaged by Beaufighters near Babar; APD task force destroyed off Akyab

Banda Sea
The KXI made a failed attack on a large convoy south of Ambon. The convoy included cruisers, plenty of destroyers, and transports--I could tell right away they'd be headed for Babar.

Babar was then swept by Oscars, resulting in 1 Oscar shot down.

Then our scoutplanes reacquired the convoy approaching Babar and Darwin's Beaufighters got the call. They flew two sorties against them and struck without hitting any air cover. We lost one to the heavy cruiser, but the planes were highly effective against the transports:
xAK Ishikari Maru
xAK Momokawa Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire
xAK Nozima Maru
xAK Yamabiko Maru
xAK Yamazuki Maru, Shell hits 1, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
xAK Yokohama Maru
xAK Yodogawa Maru, Shell hits 6
xAK Natisan Maru, Shell hits 1, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Ginyo Maru, Shell hits 18, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage

Good odds they'll abort the landing. If they don't, I'll be trying to hit them with subs, B-17s, Hudsons, and PT boats tomorrow, along with the Beaufighters.

Battle of Rangoon
A bit of a missed connection here - our cruiser detachment arrived in Akyab, found nothing, and turned around. Then right after they left 4 APDs arrived and started dropping off more troops. Our task force got the contact report, turned around, and sank all 4 easily--HMS Brimingham sustained a non-penetrating shell hit that started a small fire. Unfortunately the enemy had completely unloaded by the time we got to them, so our troops will have to deal with them the hard way.

Raheng was swept by Oscars and Nicks, no losses on either side. The enemy force headed here is at least 10,000 strong. I had ordered Force Peter to withdraw to Moulmein, but it turns out they're needed where they were. They're turning around to defend the supply line. Also, with the Vengeances not interested in naval strikes, I'm ordering them to hit these troops and putting some of their escorts on CAP duty.

Rangoon suffered a raid from the carriers (A6M2 Zero x 33, B5N1 Kate x 4, B5N2 Kate x 23, D3A1 Val x 28). All damage at Rangoon's airbase is repaired now, and it shows, we had 25 Hurricanes fighting this raid. 13 Zeroes and a Kate were splashed by the CAP, with flak adding a Val. We lost 2 Hurricanes in that exchange. The bombers targeted the port from high altitude and managed a few hits:
CL Caradoc, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAP Poelau Telo, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Empire Grenfell, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Empire Peregrine, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

The carriers also raided Moulmein and our forces that just defeated Tavoy's former garrison at Mergui. The Moulmein raid was followed by over 125 Sallies, which caused few casualties but the disruption is bad enough that our troops there are just going to be a speedbump. The enemy land forces attacked, taking 900 casualties to our 200 and knocking the forts down to level zero. We'll probably be overrun tomorrow. But, the "main" Bangkok force is nearly back. The challenge is going to be keeping them supplied and not completely bombed out by the Sallies until we've got a force strong enough to take these guys on directly.

We got our B-24s back into it by trying to hit the enemy airbase at Pegu. They hit severe storms and their accuracy was horrible--little to no damage to the base. We did shoot down 4 Zeroes and 3 Oscars. The raid cost us 7 B-24s, though, most of which crashed on the return trip.

An unknown number of enemy troops have entered Rangoon's hex. This is messing with my plans to reinforce Rangoon with the special forces paras, because if that enemy force is more than 3x my existing garrison, if the paras walked in from the adjacent base it would trigger a shock attack. So once I finish flying what's left of the unit to Rangoon, the troops that were landed adjacent will be flown to Rangoon. Tedious and slow, but a shock attack would probably devastate me.

Paratroopers assaulted Mandalay and were immediately wiped out by our garrison forces.

Solomons Area
3 Oscars down over Rousell, no Allied losses.

Reinforcements
TK Stanvac Manila arrives at Cristobal - Will be given to Colombo
511th Coast AA Regiment arrives at Los Angeles - full strength, restricted