14 April 1942
Naval Battle of Oahu opens with enemy battleships avoiding airstrikes, troop transport convoy hit instead
Hawaii
USS Drum started the battle with an attempted torpedo attack on an enemy cruiser near Lahaina, which missed. Two destroyers went after her but their non-deep exploding depth charges weren't up the to task in deep water.
The Japanese attacked next, going after the Enterprise-Saratoga group, sending 9 Nells and 4 Betties (I expected a lot more!) escorted by probably the entire compliment of fighters at Lahaina, 26 Zeroes and 7 Oscars. We only managed 26 Wildcats getting into this fight despite having 2 CVs in this group and another close by enough to help--that includes scrambled alert fighters that didn't start in the air. A recurring theme with my carriers, apparently. The enemy fighters succeeded in keeping our Wildcats off their bombers, shooting down 1 Wildcat and losing 3 Zeroes. Fortunately, the small number of bombers meant our gunners didn't have to divide their fire all that much. One Betty was shot down and probably all the rest were shot up, no one hit their targets (they attacked both carriers and one destroyer).
Our airstrike failed to locate the enemy battleship fleet. We did find a troop convoy though, and it was loaded up, so that wasn't a bad consolation prize. With all enemy fighters flying in an offensive role, there was no resistance:
Japanese Ships
xAK Asuka Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Matsue Maru, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
CM Shirakami
SC CHa-13, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
PB Kyo Maru #8, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
(late arriving Devastators: PB Kyo Maru #8, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk)
xAK Atlas Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Santo Maru, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
E Uji
SC CHa-1, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Alaska Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
Japanese ground losses:
1276 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 95 destroyed, 61 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 7 (5 destroyed, 2 disabled)
The Japanese rearmed and refueled their surviving planes and attacked a second time, this time with just 3 Nells, escorted by 18 Zeroes and 5 Oscars. We intercepted with 19 Wildcats and once again failed to reach the bombers. 3 Wildcats were shot down trying, without scoring any kills against the enemy fighters. The 3 Nells targeted the Enterprise and missed again, one being shot down by AA and the other two badly shot up. A Wildcat finished one off as it tried to leave.
Our second wave also failed to find the enemy battleships, so they hit the convoy again:
Japanese Ships
CM Shirakami
xAK Alaska Maru, heavy fires
E Uji, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Atlas Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Dakar Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
Japanese ground losses:
345 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 26 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Two Saratoga SBDs were lost in landing accidents, and two Enterprise Wildcats are too badly damaged to be repaired.
* * *
At Christmas island, we swept 23 more mines.
Java
Dutch sub KVII suffered a very accurate depth charge attack in shallow water. She was saved by the fact that it was just a PB that wasn't carrying enough ammo to carry the attack to a conclusion. She's RTB for repairs. The S-40, near the entrance to the Makassar strait, also suffered damage in a shallow water depth charge attack when it tried to attack an escorted convoy. Damage was light and she's remaining on station for now.
An enemy air raid on Surabaya destroyed a B-17 on the ground and damaged airfield facilities; one Zero and a Sally were shot down by our CAP. Late in the day, a cruiser-destroyer force bombarded Surabaya, damaging the airbase and a lot of the planes in it. Our airbase here is mostly incapacitated.
5 of our DB-7B bombers attacked the port in Tjepoe, outrunning the enemy CAP and scoring hits on a cargo ship and two light cruisers. One bomber was shot down by flak.
Malaya
Our small ASW patrol craft made themselves useful, detecting an enemy sub passing by Singapore and getting a few depth charge hits.
We attempted 2 attacks on the heavy cruiser Kako, frustratingly, this did not include the torpedo bomber squadron that I moved here for this specific purpose--just Blenhiem I medium level bombers and Wirraway light bombers. We traded 6 Hurricanes for 3 Oscars trying to get to the ship, and the bombers missed. Oddly enough, a Catalina spotted it later during the day and took an opportunity attack against it, and reportedly hit it.
Thailand
We're flying against Zeroes in addition to Oscars today--they've reinforced Bangkok. Air battles to try to bomb the troops chasing our northern force resulted in 2 Blenheim and 2 Zeroes downed. Today was the Pacific-Theatre combat debut of the Wellington bomber, it performed well, clearly dealing more damage to the troops below than the Blenheim and suffering no losses.
The successful raids weren't enough to change the balance on the ground. The enemy attacked and routed by troops back to Pisanuloke, casualties 861 to 3730.
I think we've done all we can here. With 2 divisions plus present, we're not advancing any further. Which is fine, we've saved Singapore and taken two key airbases in Thailand. I'll take it.
SouthPAC
Troop transports arrived at Luganviile and my dive bombers attacked. We sent out 15 Vindicators and 4 Dauntlesses (Yorktown survivors) escorted by 21 P-40s and 6 P-39s. The Kaga and Junyo contributed 27 Zeroes to defending the convoy. We lost 4 P-40s, 2 P-39s, and 2 of each dive bomber type to the Zeroes while shooting down only 2. But we got through:
AMC Nosiro Maru, Bomb hits 1
AMC Saigon Maru, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
AMC Awata Maru
xAP Argentina Maru
These were empty, so it appears their mission is to remove IJN marines and take them elsewhere.
The plan for tomorrow is to try to shoot down fighters while the mechanics repair the dive bombers that made it back full of holes. Level bombers will try to work over the port to damage and delay the enemy convoy as it loads, and to draw the enemy CAP to lower altitudes. Then my high-altitude sweeps will pounce on them. I hope, anyway. But if it works, the next day my dive bombers should have less resistance to deal with, and might get a chance at the Kaga or Junyo.
* * *
An enemy submarine was spotted off Noumea and was attacked by a Canadian corvette, sustaining moderate damage or better. I expect this one will retire for repairs. A Wirrway bombed another, so that's probably 2 mission kills off Noumea today.
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Also, my first 2 radar-equipped subs put to sea after upgrading. I'll have a steady stream of these upgrades finishing, probably over the course of a month, until the entire fleet has radar.