War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

29 January 1941
Round one of Battle of St. Lucia Bay becomes this timeline's first-ever fight between carrier battle groups

CENTPAC
Christmas Island was invaded and immediately captured. My bombed-out troops offered no real resistance. The only attack on Pearl today was Betties and Nells out of Lahaina. He's already moving scoutplanes in even though the whole base is wrecked--I'm worried my shipping lanes are next.


Coral Sea
Several near disasters here. A minesweeper escorting a reinforcement convoy was attacked by Betties from Rabaul. Somehow, we had no CAP on these guys. The Betties were only carrying bombs, though, and missed the small ships. My other minesweepers at PM would then find and clear 15 mines after going a day or two without finding any--which probably means a sub just laid these. My cruiser group arrived next and bombarded his troops again. The destroyers escorting them detected a sub on the way out but lost track of it before they could attack. I think there are at least 5 enemy subs in this area now--with 2 of them potentially being severely damaged by bombs. More than 20 Oscars swept PM; we managed only 9 P-40s to meet them. Neither side took any losses--we probably averted casualties because these were 2nd rate Oscars, armed with just 1 .30cal and 1 .50 cal machine guns.

We're also landing engineers on Milne. A submarine tried to attack them, but my single destroyer-minelayer escort drove it off. Then he dropped paratroops in--bad call, they're now outnumbered and surrounded. More concerning is a new task force approaching that includes cruisers. They're already close enough that there isn't anything I can do to stop them from getting to my transports. I'll try to hit them with Banshees if they're still there at sunrise.

Battle of St. Lucia Bay
As expected, Tarakan was invaded pre-dawn. Most of the cruisers from the covering force had transferred to the 56th Division's ARG to try to suppress the coastal defenses there. This was a good call--even with the fire support, my batteries managed hits on 4 transports-3 of them probably fatally. But that won't be enough to stop 2+ regiments. 7000+ troops made it ashore, with armor support. Tarakan will be his tomorrow. A Dutch sub tried to penetrate the landing area, it took a shot at a CL but missed.

The enemy began the air battle with a raid of 12 unescorted Vals seemingly coming from Tarakan. They ran into a wall of fighters: 6 Sea Hurricanes, 3 Fulmars, and 7 US Army P-39s flying from Balikpapan. The Vals were wiped out. But this could only mean that the enemy force at Tarakan includes at least one carrier.

Our strike package was 18 Albacores and 6 Fulmars, plus a few Buffalos from Tarakan. The enemy had 36 obsolete Claudes on CAP, plus 5 Zeroes and 2 Oscars. This would have gone very poorly if he had enough Zeroes to replace the Claudes, or if if he hadn't dropped the Soryu's Zeros off at Rabaul to support his attempt at Port Moresby. We can thank our pilots in the Philippines and Singapore for that. Outnumbered, we weren't able to shoot down any enemy fighters, but they only managed to splash one Fulmar and 1 Albacore. The strike package made contact with 3 ships that hadn't been reported here before: CV Soryu, CVE Taiyo, and BB Hyuga. The Fulmars missed, but the Albacores scored one torpedo hit each on Taiyo and Hyuga. Flak claimed one more Albacore.

Afternoon saw both of us launch unescorted strikes (I continue to be frustrated by my commanders' inability to pair fighters on escort duty with dive/torpedo bomber strikes). Our group was attacked by 11 Vals; our CAP got all but two of them. Of those, the CVBG's gunners shot one down before it could attack--and the other right after it dropped its bomb, which missed. Our strike was 12 Albacores. A pair of Buffalos from Tarakan tried to help, but the target is more or less between them and the fighters they're trying to protect, so they didn't even get into the fight this time. We lost 6 to the CAP and another to flak, with no hits. The enemy CAP wasn't any weaker this time around, which leads me to believe the damage to the Taiyo did not incapacitate its flight ops.

The last event here was him landing a paratroop unit fragment at the small base of Tanjoengselor, just south of Tarakan. It was empty, so it's his now.

And that's the end of round 1. Now I have to decide if I want the Indomitable to stick around for round 2. Shooting down 2 waves of Vals probably means the enemy carriers can only play defense, and I can shift my own fighters from CAP to escort to get more TBs through. But, I still have to worry about long-legged Zeroes and Betties flying in from other areas to reinforce here. Actually, now that I'm writing this out, the answer is obvious--with the carriers playing defense, my bombers aren't getting easy targets, which was the reason for this entire operation. It's time to go.


Malaya
I forgot to mention this earlier, but I noticed a day or two ago that there is a large task force at Mersing and troops seem to be leaving Singapore to head there. I'm not sure what to make of this yet. One possibility is he's planning on bypassing Singapore for now and taking Sumatra. If that's the case the Indomitable is in the wrong place right now. Yet another reason to pull out now.

Air raids here were all army--which makes me concerned that the Zeroes and Nells here are reinforcing the battle at Tarakan. But anyway, the Nates were just no match for our Hurricanes, and their bombers too high to bomb accurately. We claimed 7 Nates and 2 Sallies and they had only light damage to my airfield to show for it.


Dutch East Indies
Aside from the the major battle in progress, the enemy is progressing overland in Celebes, and a task force was detected south of Celebes, possibly headed towards Timor. I have Falcons there waiting for him, plus Dutch surface forces held in reserve that can potentially interdict.


Burma
Enemy land units have crossed overland into the road space adjacent to Pegu. The scale of this offensive is not yet known. I'm going to hit them with bombers tomorrow and see if they can tell me how many there are. The enemy picked a great time to show up, Hurricanes and medium bombers for Kinky Boots have been assembling at Rangoon and are ready to get to work. Kinky Boots took the possibility of enemy movement into Burma into account, the plan is to defeat the invaders first and then press on against a hopefully weakened enemy. If the enemy pushes further north to flank our frontline, though, Kinky Boots will have to be postponed.

[Molon Labe]

30 January 1942
Repositioning

Coral Sea Area
His task force (4 CL, 4 DD) bugged out from Milne without engaging my transports. Our aircraft didn't get a shot at them.

USS Narwhal torpedoed a Gozan class cargo ship in the Bismark Sea.


China
His Oscars and Tojos got the better of the AVG over his troops near Ichang, 3 lost 3 P-40s, a Hawk, and 6 bombers with nothing to show for it. I'm going to pull back on bombing missions to try to sort this out a bit. We've also noticed some troop movement east of Hong Kong that we're keeping an eye on.


CENTPAC
Betty/Nell raids on Pearl today appeared ineffective. The KB raided Fanning Island, wiping out a small French garrison there.


Malaya
Another air raid that was just Army, no Zeroes or Nells. One again, the Nates couldn't handle it. With no losses of our own, we shot down 4 Nates and 14 Sallies. He managed to sneak a few light bombers in underneath our cap, strafing an ASW craft. Then he tried it again when my pilots were wise to it and they got 4 light bombers.

Makassar Strait
Both sides appear to be retiring. But his troops have conquered Tarakan. A Dutch sub fired 6 torps at the Soryu but missed. He's also got paratroops into Samarinda--not many but my garrison there is really week. They held on for today, but with the ships leaving, these troops are now my bombing target.

SIGINT reports an AirHQ from Taiwan is headed to Miri. I had moved subs patrolling off Miri to Sumatra, so to deal with this I re-tasked some of the subs trying to mess with the Tarakan landings along with some from the Luzon area.


Dutch East Indies
Enemy troops are landing on the east side of Timor. Unfortunately my scouts lost track of their ARG and airstrikes were not launched.
If the air HQ makes it to Miri, and he builds the airfield there up to level 4, torpedo-armed Betties would essentially have the entire Java Sea in reach. I'm going to try to get more fighters in here before he can build up the airfield.


Burma
The invading unit is the 3rd Royal Thai Army, and at least for now it appears to be alone. We softened them up with bombers and should be ready to engage for real after a few days.

[Molon Labe]

31 January 1941
Siege of Singapore aborted? IJA troops massing on Thai-Burma border.


CENTPAC
We have lost track of the Kido Butai. That's what happens when every base capable of running scoutplanes gets bombed or conquered. I'm temporarily suspending convoys until we know it's not going merchant raiding. But the ships already at sea will proceed for now.

Fighters originally intended for Christmas Island are about to be delivered to Pago Pago. This will allow me to shift squadrons to the west, ultimately letting me move one more squadron into Java.


Malaya
A US sub laid a minefield at Mersing (where ships appear to be waiting to pick up troops leaving Singapore). It was detected already and at least one destroyer-minesweeper is working on clearing it. It appears that most of the troops that crossed the river into Singapore have left. The enemy didn't send bombers to Singapore today, just a sweep of Nate fighters--our Hurricanes shot 5 down with no losses.


Coral Sea
ASW escorts are now actively prosecuting 3 subs at Port Moresby (light damage to one of them) and another off Townsville. There's at least one more near Milne. Oscars swept Port Moresby, the battle claimed 3 fighters on each side. Zeroes followed up, but we weren't able to get a CAP up to meet them--not a good sign if this is turning into an air campaign. USMC reinforcements are now landing at PM. My Milne engineers are landing again after being chased away yesterday.


Makassar Strait
We had dueling sweeps here, his Oscars vs P-39s at Balikpapan and my P-40s vs Zeroes at Tarakan. We lost 2 P-39s and and claimed a Zero. We bombed enemy troops in Samarinda, causing major casualties.


China
I reduced my bombing raids on Ichang down to just Hudsons, which up until now had been too low for his CAP to reach, but today they engaged and shot one down. Our P40s got one Oscar. I'm going to stand all raids down for a day to repair some fighters and then try to work on this enemy CAP some more before sending the bombers back.


Burma
We sent 41 medium bombers after the 3rd RTA but failed to cause significant casualties. Still no enemy fighter presence. Recon detected probably another RTA division at Chaing Mai. This might actually alter the plan here. If we advanced as planned the army here would be on the flank of the advance. For now I'll just worry about the 3rd RTA and see what develops.


Timor
Falcon bombers out of Koepang bombed the enemy ships landing troops at Lautem, scoring 3 hits on an AK and setting it on fire.


Celebes
Our displaced Makassar garrison got behind the advancing armies and retook Watampone. The only enemy unit present was an aviation support company.

[Molon Labe]

1 February 1942
Japanese surface action group smashed off Milne, displaced Manila garrison surrenders

CENTPAC
No sighting of the KB. That makes 2 days.
Some aircraft are getting repaired at Hickam. Not wanting to send any into combat, I set them to train. So they trained--and were in the air when the Betties and Nells came. Apparently they train with live ammo, so they shot down a few. So this was a great accident--if he's transfered fighters out of Lahaina, they'll have to come back. Or the KB has to come back.


Coral Sea
An enemy SAG of 3 CL and 4 DD approached Milne. My cruiser group (2 CA, 2 CL, 2 DD) was covering the transports this time and went out to challenge them, resulting in a long range night battle. Neither side took many hits. Two submarines took shots at one of my CLs shortly after the battle but missed. We found two of the subs near Townsville and dealt some damage to one of them with depth charges. Also got a hit on a sub off Port Morseby.

The enemy formation ended up on the Coral Sea side of Milne during the day, and the Enterprise/Saratroga battle group pounced on them. They had no air cover.
CL Tatsuta
CL Kinu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Tenryu, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Mutsuki, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kisaragi
The Tatsuta got lucky the first round, at least 12 SBDs attacked and missed. Not so much the second round:
CL Tatsuta, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Kinu, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
DD Kisaragi
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
DD Mochizuki

So that's probably 3 CL and 2 DD sunk.
Enemy paratroops managed to take Salamaua (north side of P-NG) from a small Australian garrison.





Timor
I raided his landing area with a force of 2 CL and 3 DD, finding a small task force of 2 AKs escorted by a PB. One AK got away but with significant damage. All the troops had already disembarked.


Philippines
I'm pulling more forces out of Clark to Bataan as their supplies dwindle. I'd say it will become a general retreat within the next 2 days. The enemy forces in Manila attacked my displaced garrisons nearby. I thought I had left them a valid retreat, but apparently empty "enemy" bases don't count. 14,000 troops surrendered and are now on their way to POW camps. An enemy attack at Clark resulted in 1000 friendly and 2000 enemy casualties.


Malaya
In what had to be an accident, 5 Nates swept Singapore by themselves. Only 2 made it back, and they won't be airworthy again for awhile, if ever.
It looks like there are now more troops headed to Singapore from Mersing. Perhaps what was going on was some sort of swap-out--fresh troops replacing tired troops?


Makassar Strait
We finished off his paratroops at Samarinda. But the air battle at Balikpapan was a tactical defeat for us. Our P-39s were at low altitude to protect the bombers hitting Samarinda. Oscars pounced on them from high altitude. We had a few P-40s up high but apparently not enough. We lost 6 P-39s with no Oscars shot down.

[Molon Labe]

2 February 1942
Coral Sea overrun with submarines, USS Louisville critically damaged

Coral Sea
The morning started off with a submarine attack on the Milne covering force that resulted in two hits on Louisville. She didn't sink, but is severely flooded and is headed to port for emergency repairs. Two other subs took shots at CA Australia and DD Hatfield in the same task force. There are now at least 8 subs operating in the Coral Sea and they're starting to move towards blue water instead of the coastal areas.


The damaged CL Tatsuta and 2 DDs moved through the Milne area and got spotted by my PT boats, which administered a coup de grace on the Tatsuta and fled. The destroyers were taken down by later airstrikes by the Lexington-Yorktown CVBG and Banshees from Port Moresby.

The enemy army at Port Moresby made an attack but was easily repelled, as the 8th USMC regiment is now backing up the Aussie troops there. Casualties were 424 to 59 and we knocked out 21% of their tanks.


CENTPAC
The extended absence of the KB and reduced battleship bombardments have allowed repairs to progress rapidly at Hickam field. The runway is fully operational again, most service facilities are online and we have have a bunch of planes repaired. Enemy bombers hit Pearl at night instead of day due to the fighter threat. I'll have a decent CAP up tonight, hopefully we can pull the KB back over here. I liked knowing where it was. Only two battleships bombarded today and they didn't accomplish much.


Borneo
USS Sailfish encountered a large transport task force in the South China Sea--I suspect this is the AirHQ I was specifically trying to interdict. The escorts spotted her, though, and she was unable to engage.

Several sweeps targeted Balikpapan, gradually wearing down the US fighters there. Losses were 1 P-40 and 2 P-39s to one Zero, but nearly all our fighters need repairs before they can fly again.


Sumatra/West Java
11 Oscars swept Batavia, opposed by the CAP of 2 Buffalos plus 6 Sea Hurricanes and 2 Fulmars from the Indomitable. Two Buffalos and an Oscar were shot down.


Singapore
Whatever troop shuffle was going on here appears to be over with, as the task forces have left. We took an opportunity afforded by our fighters being allowed time to repair by bombing the airfield at Johore Bahru, which was overstacked with enemy bombers. We destroyed 9 Sallies and 2 Marys on the ground.

[Molon Labe]

3 February 1942
CVL Shoho torpedoed on an otherwise uneventful day

Hawaii
I've got enough working planes to get a nightCAP up, and it worked. We shot up 2 Betties that attacked at night, shooting down one of them.

Still no sign of the KB anywhere.

China
It appears that enemy reinforcements are arriving to break the stalemate at Chusien.


Sumatra and West Java
Oscars swept Batavia again, they didn't have the numbers to take over the skies, but were able to shoot down a Buffalo before being driven off.


Celebes
He's almost got complete control. Betties are now bombing my displaced garrisons that took rear areas.


Philippines
Submarine O21 was vectored into an enemy surface combat task force entering the Celebes Sea headed towards the Sulu Sea. Unexpectedly, the CVL Shoho was with them. O21 managed to hit her with 1 of 6 torpedoes fired. These Dutch subs are just owning the enemy CVLs!

Probably 2/3 of my units are now retreating from Clark to Bataan, only units with decent supplies are staying to cover the retreat.

[Threadfin]

Too bad about the Philippines, but that was always a long shot to hold, wasn't it? You've nearly lasted as long as they did in real life.

Otherwise, some encouraging results from your aircraft and submarines. This should only begin to snowball in to 1943 and then watch out.

Keep it up mate.

[Molon Labe]

4 February 1942
Kido Butai unseen for 5 days as enemy task force activity ticks up around Solomons and Celebes Sea.

Hawaii
He sacrificed two coastal minesweepers to my coastal guns at Pearl. Haven't seen that in awhile.

Philippines
S-36 detected a large-ish fleet approaching Luzon from the west. Maybe what was going on in Singapore was a transfer of troops to the Philippines? Regardless, S-36 was counterdetected before she could fire, and there's nothing to stop them from arriving. At Clark, we're so short on supplies that I don't even think our artillery and counter-firing when we're bombarded.

Celebes
My displaced units from Makassar were finished off. I have a few more scattered troops on the east side but they aren't numerous enough to matter. For all practical purposes, Celebes has been fully pacified.

Malaya
The air campaign for Singapore was resumed with massive airstrikes--I'm counting 128 bomber sorties. Their fighter coverage was sparce though, I think they had 18 Oscars at it's peak, while my peak number of Hurricanes on CAP was 12. The fighters mostly cancelled each other out, we got 1 Oscar. But they weren't able to stop us from getting at the bombers from time to time--we got 13 of them. The bombers targeted the airfield but hit it from too high up to do real damage. We sent our bombers to Johore Barhu, trying to get more planes on the ground. Not so much this time.. we traded 2 Nates for a Hurricane, and our bombers got 3 planes on the ground at the cost of one shot down by AAA.

Borneo
20 Zeroes swept Samarninda instead of Balikpapan. A pair of P-40s assigned to patrol Balikpapan were nevertheless close enough to get involved. Badly outnumbered, one was shot down.

Coral Sea Area
We attacked enemy troops at Port Moresby, casualties were pretty even, but we have supplies and support, while they are stranded. Advantage us. Most of the subs have disappeared, but we did find one and dealt light damage to it.

Two enemy task forces are moving east on the north side of the Solomons. With the KB now missing for 5 days, if I was going to bait me with something, this is where I'd do it. I still have a huge scoutplane blind spot in that area, those guys are right on the edge of it.


China
In the north near Taiyuan, an army that's been slowly retreating was attacked by an enemy unit crossing a river. Disrupted by the crossing and outnumbered, we kicked their butts. 2863 to 13.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Threadfin

Too bad about the Philippines, but that was always a long shot to hold, wasn't it? You've nearly lasted as long as they did in real life.

Otherwise, some encouraging results from your aircraft and submarines. This should only begin to snowball in to 1943 and then watch out.

Keep it up mate.

I'd like to hold out as long as we did in real life, but I think having my Manila garrison retreat south instead of to Clark/Bataan really hurt my chances of that.

[Molon Labe]

5 February 1942

Hawaii
Only 2 BB bombarding Pearl today.


China
We had an air battle near Ichang for the right of my bombers to bomb their troops again. They got through. We shot down a Tojo and 3 Oscars at the cost of 2 P-40s. These guys are good pilots.


My army that was attacked overriver in the north yesterday counterattacked, routing the enemy army and causing over 900 casualties with little losses to themselves.

Timor
Unescorted Betties from Kendari tried to hit Koepang but ran into P-40s they probably weren't expecting. 7 of 15 Betties shot down, the got through but did minimal damage. Our bombers from Koepang attempted an airfield attack at Kendari in turn and embarrassed the Claude fighters defending it. None were shot down most planes from both sides were damaged. We failed to cause any damage to the airbase.


Malaya
Massive air raid on Singapore. Our fighters were overwhelmed but managed to pick their spots throughout the day, resulting in 7 Sallies shot down. Once again, their bombers were too high to cause serious damage.

We tried to bomb Johore Bahru again, but with Oscars on CAP in addition to the Nates, the juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore--my fighters are better used protecting Singapore than escorting these raids. The bombers got through and blew up one Nate on the ground.


Coral Sea
Zero-escorted Betties targeted my ships covering landing at Milne. We had some P-40s protecting them, the fight resulted in the loss of 2 P-40s, 2 Zeroes, and 1 Betty. Fortunately, the Betties were only carrying bombs--they missed the cruiser they targeted.

The Louisville got within 1 hex from the port at Townsville when it was attacked by yet another submarine. It took one torpedo hit, but as badly damaged as it already was, that was more than enough.


-------------------
6 February 1942
Enemy CVBG in the Java Sea, Indomitable gets lucky


Hawaii
4 BB bombarding Pearl today. I expect Hickam will be out of operation soon again at this pace.


Philippines
My phased retreat from Clark is now a general retreat.
S-36 torpedoed and sank an Aden-class AK in the South China Sea.


Timor
Rather surprisingly, the Betties came back to Koepang. They had the sense to turn around this time when the P-40s met them, so we only shot down 2.


Java Sea
An enemy CVBG--probaby the Soryu--entered the Java sea on the west side and launched two strikes against the Indomitable CVBG at harbor in Surabaya. The first raid was 13 Zeroes escorting 12 Mabel and 30 Kate torpedo bombers. The battle group was defended by land-based fighters in addition to its own air wing, 24 in total. The Zeroes are flown by elite pilots though, and it showed. We shot down 3 Zeroes, but couldn't get any bombers. A Sea Hurricane and a Fulmar were lost. Fortunately, these bombers weren't carrying torpedoes and mostly attacked from high altitude--nothing hit. Flak claimed 2 TBs.

The second raid was 25 TBs escorted by 5 Zeroes, and did much better. They shot down another Fulmar, and once again, our fighters couldn't get to the bombers. But this time, the bombers were more accurate:

CV Indomitable, Bomb hits 2
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Exeter, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Java, Bomb hits 1
Fortunately, the Indomitable has a heavily armored deck which the relatively small bombs failed to penetrate, so she is fine.

The enemy attacked from outside my task force's strike range so there were no retaliatory strikes. This might be why the TBs weren't carrying torpedoes. I consider myself lucky that they fixated on the well-defended Indomitable instead of the transports landing two regiments of troops in Sumatra right now. I have significant surface forces that should be able to defeat this task force, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea because the Java Sea is now in Betty range from Miri, which by now has an AirHQ to provide torpedoes. Also, my local repair capacity sucks. So for now, I'll allow my surface forces to attack if they approach Surabaya, but I won't go hunting for them. I've transfered the Hermes' TBs back to Indomitable and moved some planes around, hopefully we'll get a decent strike tomorrow.





Malaya
The enemy continues with massive raids against Singapore, too many bombers for their small number of fighters to protect. We shot down an Oscar, two Nates, 7 Sallies, and 2 light bombers. Our only loss was one Blenhiem bomber destroyed on the ground.

[Ostfriese]

How long does a typical WiTP game usually take (single player, not PBEM)?

[Molon Labe]

A few months to play the full campaign.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

A few months to play the full campaign.

Thanks. I'll have to restrict myself to reading your reports then, as much as I'd like to give the game a try.

[Molon Labe]

7 February 1942
Soryu defeats Indomitable

Hawaii
4 BB bombarded Pearl today.

Malaya
Absolute carnage in the skies over Singapore. Our fighters were in about equal numbers, but half his numbers are obsolete Nates. For the cost of 1 Hurricane we downed three Oscars, 9 Sallies, and 9 light bombers.

Java Sea/Makassar Strait
Dutch bombers attemped a strike on the BB Kongo at Tarakan. The enemy CVBG was in range but the Kongo was within range of escorting fighters, not just the bombers, so this was probably a good call. But, we missed. Enemy Betties tried to hit Balikpapan back but were routed by defending US fighters, with one Betty shot down.

Both CVBGs faced off with competing airstrikes. He sent 22 TBs, 3 Vals and 21 Zeroes against me. I had 21 fighters on CAP. Losses were severe: a P-40, 1 Demon, 3 Fulmars for us, and 4 Zeroes, 9 Kates, 9 Mabels and a Val for him. But that left plenty getting through. Indomitable was hit by another bomb that failed to penetrate its armor, and three torpedoes. The torpedo damage was surprisingly light--this is a really tough ship--but she's listing bad enough to prevent flight operations.

As for my strike, I really screwed this up. After having so many strikes go unescorted, my biggest concern was making sure my fighters and bombers could coordinate, and I though the best way to do that was to let the carrier-based fighters handle escort duty while land-based fighters guarded the ship. But I forgot that the Hurricane has terrible range. So my strike proceeded with only Fulmar fighter-bombers able to defend the Albacore biplanes. Five of seven Fulmars went down. All sixteen Albacores were splashed without shooting a single torpedo at Soryu.

Indomitable has been ordered to retire, I'll try to make it to Sri Lanka for repairs.


Coral Sea
He put a long-range CAP over Port Moresby that we tried to break through to bomb his troops, our P40s shot down a Zero but failed to prevent them from reaching the Banshees--4 were shot down. This is an unaccapable loss due to having so few of them so going forward Banshees will only be used on enemy ships here, bombing the troops will be for the far more replaceable Hudson level bombers. Below, our armies fought, casualties were 344 the to 373 us.

Timor
Boela has been captured.


8 February 1942
Indomitable slinks away from combat area, Soryu does not pursue


Japan
USS Tautog torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship off Okinawa. Been awhile since our subs got any merchant traffic so I'm glad to see this.

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding today, plus fighter sweeps (2 P-40s, 1 Zero lost)

Coral Sea
We found 2 enemy subs lurking off the Horn Island choke point and damaged one of them with depth charges. We are still struggling with ASW proficiency. Off Townsville, despite probably 4 patrol ships on ASW duty, light bombers patrolling overhead, and the convoy itself having destroyers escorting, a tanker from Java was torpedoed by an enemy sub. The fuel-laden tanker made it to port still on fire, so the support crews will help battle the massive blaze. We'll probably know if this ship survived by tomorrow.

Malaya
In a humiliating defeat for the IJAAF, 17 Oscars challenged 15 Hurricanes to battle over Singapore. 10 Oscars didn't make it back, compared to just 1 of ours. A huge formation of Nates would try again later; our Hurricanes just swooped in, shot 3 down, and ran for it.

China
The AVGs fight with Oscars near Ichang was far more balanced: 1 P-40 for 1 Oscar lost today. Our armies have finally made it across the river into swamplands adacent to the enemy army (I didn't cross right into them because my troops would become disorganized). So now we march on the enemy encampment itself, which will take several days.

Dutch East Indies
The Soryu CVBG has apparently retired as our scouts did not find it today and it launched no strikes. The Indomitable CVBG safely transited the southern island chain and is now south of Java heading west. I've detected an enemy ARG on the northwest side of Borneo which could be bound for Malaya, Sumatra, or Java. I've ordered my local surface forces to move towards Sumatra to attempt to intercept.

There is also a surge in enemy ASW activity in the Java Sea area choke points. Soryu might need to leave to replace its losses, but something else is coming.


---

Enemy bomber losses over Singapore are driving a trend of an Allied advantage in air losses:

[Molon Labe]

9 February 1942
A change in bombing tactics in Malaya increases damage being done

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding again. A Zero sweep resulted in the loss of 2 Zeroes and a P-40. I'm just happy he had to move Zeroes back here.

Borneo
Submarine O20 laid mines at Miri and then decided to go after some cargo ships leaving port. That turned out to be a bad idea, and the submarine suffered a depth charge attack in shallow water. Fortunately it got away with only minor damage.

The Soryu launched a strike from Tarakan against my ASW patrol outside Balikpapan, 12 Zeroes escorting 4 Mabels, intercepted by 8 P-39s and 6 P-40s. We shot down one Zero and 3 of the Mabels, the one that got through missed. The Zeroes took down 1 P-39.


Philippines
USS Perch torpedoed and sank a cargo ship in a night surface attack in the Luzon strait. A bit to the east in the South China Sea, USS Pickerel torpedoed a cargo ship as well, finishing it off with the deck gun.


Malaya
He dropped the bombing altitude for his strikes on Singapore to deadly effect. The air battle itself was the carnage we've come to expect--1 Hurricane down with 2 Nates, 2 Sallies, and 3 light bombers shot down. The reduced altitude resulted in 4 more bombers shot down and many more shot up, but facility damage was significant and we had a bomber and a fighter blown up on the ground.


Burma
The 3rd RTA is retreating now that it sees my armies advancing on it after probably a week of being bombed daily.


China
The enemy army in the Ichang swamplands has already left for Hankow, so my armies have nothing to engage there. That's fine, all I wanted was to get them off my flank. Next stop: Nanchang. The AVG shot down one Oscar while supporting this aborted operation.