22 February 1942
Noumea Captured
Sumatra
I tried to break through the blocking force near Medan by shelling it with a pair of heavy cruisers and attacking immediately to capitalize on the disruption, but they held us off anyways.
Java
The east prong of my invasion forces is getting close. Probably still 2 days off. West prong a day behind.
We swept and bombed Tjilatjap as it appeared that was now where the enemy air forces were concentrated. The sweep downed 5 of 8 Buffalo on CAP with no losses. The strike destroyed a pair of Vildebeests on the ground while damaging several medium bombers. Looks like I picked the right target this time.
Burma
I resumed strikes on Rangoon, this time targeting their airbase. The main goal is to try to prevent further fortification. I'm not sure it's going to be worth it.... We lost an Oscar and a Sally to the CAP, and another Sally to flak. No victories. Very slight damage to the base.
The enemy made a strike of his own, 3 unescorted Blenheims to Rahaeng, where they were intercepted by 4 Tojos that shot all 3 of them down.
SOPAC
Resistance to our sweeps was down to a single P-40 in Efate, which managed to escape.
Our pair of divisions was no match for Noumea's garrison, which had apparently not been reinforced with anything significant. Just 2 base forces and 3 artillery units in addition to the basic garrison. As a bonus, the S-34 was scuttled in port. I'm moving to exploit this as quickly as possible, I've already had a pair of destroyers trying to sanitize Luganville; a task force is headed there to move construction engineers from there to Noumea. I've also got an AirHQ rebasing from Lunga to Luganville; they'll bump to Noumea as soon as the airbase is big enough. For now, the invasion forces included enough aviation support to base Zeroes there for their own protection and to support some scoutplanes.
Fuel is a little bit of an issue, my oilers are close to empty from sustaining this. I've got some help running small tankers to Lunga, and I also had a pair of my oilers leave station to fill back up at Rabaul, they should be back in the main TF in another day. Should be enough to gas the KB back up for its next assignment.
Philippines
We captured Baybay in the central islands. As far as I know, those are the last troops outside Bataan. There are still several bases officially in American hands, but I believe they're unprotected.
Reinforcements
39th JNAF AF Unit arrives at Tokyo
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