17 August 1942
Why so many unescorted troop convoys?
Sumatra
The enemy bombarded Palembang despite their task force getting shot up yesterday, but it was just the two destroyers. I guess the 20mm Hispano wasn't enough to deal serious damage, how disappointing. The cruisers will probably get fixed up in Batavia or Surabaya.
Heavy bombing of Palembang continued, we got 2 Zeroes for 1 P-40. But that P-40 squadron, just having received new aircraft days ago, is down to 4 remaining planes.
Palembang turned away a land attack. Forts have been reduced to Level 1. Casualties 2376 to 762. As discouraging as it is to see the forts come down, the enemy probably needs 2x as many troops as it has here to actually overrun my base, so we're really seeing the consequence of putting so many divisions into Hawaii. But it also means he might be able to put himself over the top of the evacuated troops turn up here.
Japan
USS Cachalot encountered a pair of ships transporting troops near a chain of atolls leading to/from Tokyo harbor--no escorts. It made a submerged attack on one, hitting it with 1 of 4 torpedoes and inflicting what is likely to be lethal damage. The best move for this guy is probably to drop off the troops on the closest atoll before the ship goes down. Cachalot attacked the next on the surface, firing all 14 of its remaining torpedoes, scoring only 1 hit--a dud. We got a few hits on it with the deck gun, but so did the enemy--one of which actually took out the Cachalot's gun. Back to base it goes...
China
The overwhelming number of Zeroes at Chengchow is wearing my CAP down. But we still managed to get the jump on them in a rainstorm, shooting down 3 with no losses. If they were to restart bombing missions, we'd be in trouble.
Thailand and Bay of Bengal
Another day of forecasted storms, so I'll be resting my bombers again tomorrow, as I did for today.
The enemy bombed the hell out of Port Blair again. There's a large task force approaching as well--likely an invasion force. I'm ordering my carriers to step on the gas--I don't think I can stop the landings but I can probably catch them on the beaches. I'll be in Betty range, but too far for the Zeroes to escort them, so hopefully any enemy strike on the carriers will be swatted down.
An enemy army is approaching my Bangkok invasion force, currently holed up in the mountains to keep from being bombed until we can take Tavoy and have a decent CAP over them. I don't have a good force estimate on them, but I think even if it's a large force I'll be OK if I don't try to attack.
Hawaii
For the first time since we moved back into Pearl, we hold no submarine detections in the area. I'm routing a number of convoys that had been going around this area to dock at Pearl, including base forces for upcoming amphibious operations and a squadron of F-4 Lightnings (P-38 recon variants).
Reinforcements
AM Tamworth arrives at Brisbane
SC-699 arrives at Eastern USA (bad planning on my part--I don't have a cargo ship left here to act as a "tanker" to get this guy all the way to the Panama Canal. I noticed this awhile back and I'm rebasing several ships from LA to Eastern USA to keep this from happening again, but this one will be delayed about a week)
SS Peto arrives at Eastern USA
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