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Old 09-08-21, 09:16 PM   #181
Molon Labe
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Originally Posted by Ostfriese View Post
I'm still enjoying every new posting, even though the overall situation sounds a bit depressing (a tiny glimpse of what people on the Allied side must have felt during the first half of 1942). Please keep writing your reports. Thank you.




On a side note: I've found some guides to the Japanese industry in WiTP, which, to be honest, make it sound complex enough to be a hardcore sim of its own. There is, however, little information about the Allied industry.

How does the Allied industry work in WiTP?
The Allied economy mostly runs on autopilot. Unlike Japan, we aren't able to expand industrial facilities (supply production, aircraft production, shipyards and repair yards, etc) and we aren't able to tell the factories which aircraft to produce. The most we can do is order a facility to turn on/off production or repairs. We have supply, fuel, aircraft squadrons, and land units that are "delivered" off-map that we have to bring to our bases by ship, which is all subject to interdiction by subs or commerce raiders. But that's about as far as it goes.
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Old 09-08-21, 09:50 PM   #182
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8 April 1942

Java
A heavy cruiser bombarded Batavia, causing heavy casualties to our land forces.

The KB hit Surabaya hard. We lost 2 fighters trying to hold them off with just 1 Zero shot down. Flak got 1 Val. Damage to the ships in port was significant:
1st wave: (A6M2 Zero x 38, B4Y1 Jean x 14, B5N1 Kate x 51, B5N2 Kate x 72)
D3A1 Val x 33
xAP Van Rees, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Orion, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Rochussen, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Woolgar, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAKL Luzon, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Ming Sang, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAKL Soerabaja, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
2nd wave (49 Vals):
xAK Ming Sang, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Lepus, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

Borneo
At least three minesweepers are now based at Miri to deal with my repeated submarine mining of this fuel base. He also had at least one destroyer-minesweeper--had--because HMS Truant put a torpedo into it today.

Solomons
My Catalinas had noticed some tankers idling at an atoll north of the Solomons. Don't ask me why they're there instead of someplace protected, like Rabaul or Truk. But I sent the S-35 over there to go hunting, and it sank one of them. It was a small one, sadly, so this wasn't that big of a deal.

New Hebrides
The CVBG seems to be gone.
Air raids against my troops in Luganville from Guadalcanal resulted in 2 P-39s and 1 Nell shot down.

Our troops are still holding out, well enough that I'm getting angry emails from my opponent. He is killing them, though. Just not all at once, and they aren't giving him the pleasure of a surrender.

Thailand
We're still trying to cause some damage to the 38th Division from the air. We managed to shoot down 3 of the Oscars that defended them, but the Oscars did better than they did yesterday, bringing down 1 Hudson and 3 Blenheims. The replacement pools of the UK bombers are depleted, so my losses in bomber strength here are somewhat permanent, so I am concerned about these losses.

China
We repelled an attack at Chusien, casualties 3700 to 1500 favoring us. There is a unit that is breaking off and approaching a base of ours that is unguarded with level 3 forts. I think he gets to keep those if he takes it, so I'm going to try to beat him there. My units have the better roads so we have a chance.

My plans for a counteroffensive aren't really materializing. Recon is a serious problem for the Chinese; I've tried to mitigate that by training bomber pilots in recon, but they aren't cutting it. I have a British recon squadron being trained in India that I plan to deploy to China when they're ready. Once I can confirm a weak point with some confidence I'll start exploiting it.

CENTPAC
Our Marines on Christmas Island weathered an enemy shock attack by a comfortable margin. The enemy tank regiment here has a glass jaw. I think I'll be able to capture it tomorrow. Still no sign of any reinforcements or naval deployments moving south from Hawaii.
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Old 09-08-21, 10:22 PM   #183
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9 April 1942
Christmas Island liberated; Kido Butai retires from Java

Malaya
3 Destroyers came through the area outside Singapore and sank another pair of light ASW boats. These things are a dime a dozen and I keep getting more so I'm not concerned. I hope these guys are going to Tavoy, I have a welcoming party for the next surface group to do so. Also, I've deployed a 6-aircraft torpedo bomber squadron to Singapore, so by all means, keep sending ships here without fighter cover.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
3 BB bombarding Pearl today--but probably just 2 tomorrow, the Yamashiro took 4 hits from coastal artillery and I don't think the armor stopped it all.

I detached the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes from one of my task forces and bombarded Christmas Island with it in support of a push by my troops. It worked, we overran and wiped out all Japanese on the atoll. The 4th Tank Regiment, 45th Field AA Battalion, and 38th Road Construction Company are no more, and Christmas Island is back in our hands. By tomorrow it will be a fighter base.

My original plan was to take Palmyra at about the same time as Christmas, supported using some of the same forces, but my forces were worn down here by the unexpectedly presence of a whole damn regiment of tanks that managed to hide from my PBYs. So I'm going to hold off just a little. I should be able to get real recon planes here pretty soon to investigate Palmyra better than my PBYs did, and my land forces can use some time to recover.

Java
Surabaya suffered a bombardment from 2 BB and a CA, significantly degrading the airbase. The KB left the area, heading north up the Makassar Strait, but it gave Surabaya a strike as a kiss goodbye. Our meager CAP was only good for getting two fighters shot down, with no kills of our own. They damaged one transport and a destroyer tender, probably because that's all there is left to hit there.

4 Fulmar fighter-bombers attacked an enemy destroyer-transport off their western beachhead at Kalidjati and scored a bomb hit. 26 B-25s that had been rebased from Batavia to Palembang hit the port area at Kalidjati:
PB Heiei Maru #7, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Zenyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Okuni Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AV Sanyo Maru, Bomb hits 1
PB Tatsumiya Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Anzan Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, on fire
About friggin time my planes hit some ships.

Enemy troops have arrived in Batavia.

Thailand
We've now confirmed its two divisions moving north against my "northern prong." Definitely time to retreat to Raheng. My efforts to bomb his troops in the open went poorly this turn; we traded a Hurricane for an Oscar but a lot of Oscars got through and they brought down 5 more Blenheims. I'll be pausing my bombing raids for the time being. Also, a squadron of Wellingtons has arrived in Calcutta, they'll be in Rangoon and ready to join this party in probably 2 more days, so even if I can't give these squadrons more Blenheims to fly at least I'm restoring some strength.

This looks like it means he's ignoring my southern prong. They've rested up, and when he defeated them a week or so ago they didn't have their armor yet (it separated to chase enemy base forces down a coastal road while the infantry trekked through the mountains that armor can't cross efficiently; the armor doubled back and took roads the long way to meet up with the infantry.). I do have proper recon aircraft here, and they're reporting weak perimeter forces in 3 hexes outside Bangkok, and force levels in Bangkok itself consistent with 2 weakened RTA divisions. Also, no bombers in Bangkok. I probably can't beat them with the southern prong alone, but I probably can advance again while their main force is getting pulled away.
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Old 09-09-21, 06:30 AM   #184
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Molon Labe View Post
The Allied economy mostly runs on autopilot. Unlike Japan, we aren't able to expand industrial facilities (supply production, aircraft production, shipyards and repair yards, etc) and we aren't able to tell the factories which aircraft to produce. The most we can do is order a facility to turn on/off production or repairs. We have supply, fuel, aircraft squadrons, and land units that are "delivered" off-map that we have to bring to our bases by ship, which is all subject to interdiction by subs or commerce raiders. But that's about as far as it goes.

But the Allies still massively outproduce the Japanese, especially in the long run, don't they?
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Old 09-09-21, 07:31 AM   #185
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Yeah, our production rate is going to get really hard for them to deal with.
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Old 09-09-21, 08:51 AM   #186
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That's what I'm counting on!

The big blue fleet is like really big


Or, it will be....
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Old 09-11-21, 11:59 AM   #187
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10 April 1942
Be careful what you wish for: surface task forces evade US and British carrier forces

Thailand and the Andaman Sea

A troop convoy headed for Rangoon was intercepted at night by the heavy cruiser Aoba and a destroyer:
xAP Talma, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Tilawa, Shell hits 4, on fire
xAP Rajula, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Somelsdijk, Shell hits 13, heavy fire
xAK Marpessa
xAK Gard
KV Jasmine, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Somelsdijk sinks....
KV Jasmine sinks....
xAP Tilawa sinks....
(spoiler alert: tomorrow-- xAP Rajula sinks....(lost control of flooding 2 hexes off Rangoon))

Allied ground losses:
1471 casualties reported
Squads: 81 destroyed, 28 disabled
Non Combat: 78 destroyed, 37 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 11 (11 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 43 (20 destroyed, 23 disabled)

I am appalled that an enemy task force was able to lie in ambush in an area surveilled by Catalinas from Rangoon and where I had a carrier and a surface task force waiting for exactly this to happen. But it's my own fault. That Catalina squadron in Rangoon--just 4 planes. And I'd made assumptions about how many ships in my task forces were carrying scout planes; the number is actually quite low. So it makes sense that a very small task force was able to avoid detection here.

Back on land, I switched to sweeping and let my bombers rest. The battle ended up being 13 Hurricanes vs 11 Oscars and an 8-on-4 followup, we shot down 9 and only lost 1.


Hawaii and CENTPAC
And it wasn't just the Brits. At Christmas Island, a light cruiser and 3 cruiser-minelayers blundered into my landing task forces at night. Neither side wanted to play, but that they were here meant they snuck past PBYs and scout bombers--yes, my carriers are here. The enemy CMs laid their mines and took off; my scouts searched for this task force all day and never found it. I've ordered the Hornet CVBG to move north to maybe get another shot at this guy and to try to make sure we see the next one. I've also ordered two destroyer-minesweepers to deal with the new problem.

I'm disappointed this is all they sent, I was really hoping to take some pressure off Pearl. They had some immediate success--one of my cargo ships delivering Christmas presents (in the form of USMC Wildcats) hit one of the freshly-laid mines, but sustained only moderate damage.

Java
Horrible turn for the Dutch air forces. My fighter bases are a mess and aren't generating many sorties. But the bombers I moved to Palembang still flew. And ended up with few to no fighters escorting them. We ran into a hive of Zeroes and Oscars--30+ each, at the western beachhead of Kalidjati. We ended up losing 13 (of 23) B-25s and 2 P-40s with no enemy losses. No bombers made it to their targets; a the survivors aborted and returned home.

Malaya
We lost 2 bombers to flak at Johore Bahru, despite bombing from relatively high altitude at 10,000 ft. I had been hoping to take advantage of recon reporting no fighters around. But these guys are dug in and have a lot of big flak guns, apparently. I'll look elsewhere. This probably means having my Singapore armies try to retake the Malayan peninsula is not an option for now, they'd take heavy losses crossing the channel to the mainland that would change the balance of forces here.
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Old 09-12-21, 03:07 PM   #188
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11 April 1942
USS Hornet wipes out minelaying task force, USS Enterprise and USS Saratoga wipe out Palmyra reinforcements.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
3 BB bombarded Pearl again. These guys are focused. Plus the usual daily airstrike.

My two DMSs swept 11 mines at Christmas Island. Still more to go.

The Enterprise-Saratoga battle group spotted an enemy transport task force at Palmyra and hit it with 66 SBDs, sinking 6 cargo ships and damaging a 7th. 6 USMC Wildcats from the Saratoga followed up dropping their glorified hand grenades to finish off the last one. Reported ground casualties were light, so they probably offloaded troops under cover of night. One SBD was damaged by flak, but was repaired by day's end. A bit further east, the Hornet found that minelaying task force. We attacked with 31 SBC-4 Helldiver dive bomers and 9 TBD Devastators:

CL Tama, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
CM Sarushima, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Tsugaru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Natsushima, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk

I'm pretty confident both the "damaged" CMs sank. Despite them having a light cruiser in the task force, none of our planes sustained substantial damage. So, all 3 carriers are still 100% combat ready for the next engagement.


Java
An unescorted airstrike targeted my troops in Soerakarta; the CAP from Surabaya diverted and took down 6 Sallies. 10 Oscars swept Batavia and took down a Hurricane and a Buffalo; we had no fighters up when the bombers arrived. Enemy troops have arrived at Batavia, they attacked and reduced our fortifications to rubble. This isn't going to last long.

New Hebrides
The Japanese marines on Luganville finally finished off the last of my troops there. I'm going to keep bombing them as long as I can, I'll treasure the death of every squad my bombers manage to take out.
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Old 09-12-21, 03:36 PM   #189
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12 April 1942
Batavia falls, Kaga & Junyo reappear near Solomons

Hawaii and CENTPAC
My two DMSs swept 95 mines from Christmas Island. At a price--the USS Eliot hit one. They're trying to patch it up at harbor before it sinks, it could go either way. The operation was aborted when the Eliot hit the mine, so there's still work to be done. Hopefully not too much more, I only brought the two sweepers.

At Pearl, his armies attacked and brought my forts down to Level 1, casualties 2580 to 1096 favoring us. We're also down to the end in terms of supply. The siege is now in its final phase.

Java and Sumatra
He's figured out most of my fighters have rebased from Batavia to Oosthaven, across the strait in Sumatra. Oscars swept the base and shot down a Hurricane. We got the better of a Zero sweep over Surabaya, downing 4 Zeroes with 2 P-40s lost. Enemy bombers focused on Batavia and Soerakarta. We got one Mary light bomber over Soerakarta but were otherwise ineffective. With help from the bombers, both of these bases were captured. About 8100 were killed or surrendered at Batavia, another 5305 at Soerakarta.

We attempted raids of our own at Tjpoe but ended up losing 2 DB-7 and 1 139W bombers to Oscars, plus a B-25 to flak. We caused some damage to port facilities, but didn't get any ships.

Thailand and Andaman Sea
My surface task force has been detected by enemy scouts. Maybe for the better--deterring him from intercepting my troop convoys is almost as good as sinking those that attempt it.

I sent my bombers back after his troops chasing down my northern forces. We ended up trading one Blenhiem for 3 Oscars--much better than days prior--and did some damage to the troops below. But, it wasn't enough to disrupt his land attack. We took heavy casualties, including an artillery unit completely wiped out; overall casualties were 630 to 1070 favoring them. And we didn't even retreat, so he might attack again tomorrow.

Solomons and New Hebrides
The enemy CVBG has reappeared near the Solomons, heading towards Luganville probably. It has a transport task force with it. So, they're either going to land engineers to build up Luganville (Guadalcanal is now a Level 5 airbase--big enough to operate B-29s if he had them, so the engineering units that accomplished that could be redeployed), or, they're going to remove the massive number of marines there that are no longer needed. (He had either 2 or 3 partial-strength marine units when I landed, that had ballooned to 6 marine units and fragments of another 3 by the end of the battle.)
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Old 09-13-21, 09:04 AM   #190
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13 April 1942
The operation to save Pearl Harbor


Hawaii and CENTPAC
Having failed to draw significant naval forces away from Pearl, I've decided to take the fight to him. Hornet, in company with a battleship task force, is the tip of the spear, with Enterprise and Saratoga forming up. The carrier task forces have all been detected, but the battleships have not. The goal of this operation is the sink the enemy battleships that have been the decisive factor titling the land battle on Oahu, and if possible, to cause enough damage to the airbase on Lahaina to allow Pearl to be resupplied.

Kingfishers and a single operational Bolo bomber have flown enough recon to give me a count of enemy aircraft at Lahaina that has been both consistent over several turns and corroborates with combat reports of what's been bombing Pearl. It looks like I'm only dealing with 30 fighters and 30 "Netties", plus various other bombers that would only be useful as decoys. I'm bringing 90 fighters to the party, which should be enough to deal with the problems those aircraft could cause. They can probably fly in more, but I intend to make them too late.

The plan is for my battleship fleet to hit the airbase to knock it out for this fight, while my carriers hit his battleships. His battleship fleet is resupplying from the port on the same island as the airbase, so there is a potential for an old fashioned BB vs BB fleet battle. If that happens, it should happen after I hit his fleet with an airstrike first, so I'll take those odds. But, he hasn't detected my battleships yet, so my expectation is that the BBs will try to evacuate to the north, which is fine by me it because gets them out of my way without getting them out of danger.

Clear skies forecasted, should have no problem finding them.


Back to today, the sub USS Pollack was depth charged after attempting to torpedo the enemy battleships (3 bombarding Pearl today), sustaining light damage.

At Christmas Island, we swept 30 more mines, still more to go. My USMC aircraft are coming online. We found another midget sub skulking around and destroyed it.

Thailand
We attacked the enemy armies chasing our nothern forces again. Just like yesterday, we shot down 3 of the Oscars trying to stop us, and lost 1 Blenheim.


SouthPAC
A Vincent light bomber reported bombing an enemy submarine near Suva, Fiji.

I've lost track of the enemy CVBG and the transports they're escorting. I still think they're here, just temporarily hidden by weather.

I've ordered a bunch of S-boats to block Luganville. Maybe I'll get a loaded troop ship on the way out.

Malaya
Wirraway light bombers attempted a low-level attack on the heavy cruiser Kako near Mersing, but missed. I'm a bit frustrated my torpedo bombers didn't fly too, this would have been an ideal opportunity for them--big target, no fighter cover.
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Old 09-13-21, 09:41 AM   #191
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Good Luck and Godspeed for your Hawaiian operation.
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Old 09-14-21, 09:22 AM   #192
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I don't have the replay yet, but I did get an angry message about his land-based bombers failing to score any hits. So, at least I know I didn't lose any CVs on 4/14.
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Old 09-15-21, 12:31 PM   #193
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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.

---------
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.
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Old 09-15-21, 02:11 PM   #194
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Well, not optimal, but not bad either. Hitting Japanese transports should always be painful in the long run.
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Old 09-15-21, 02:42 PM   #195
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Originally Posted by Ostfriese View Post
Well, not optimal, but not bad either. Hitting Japanese transports should always be painful in the long run.
As a strategic target, yes, but I have immediate tactical concerns. The transports can't rush my carrier fleets in the middle of the night, or gun down my battleships when they try to neutralize the airbase. Not hitting the battleships made this operation a whole lot more dangerous.
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Last edited by Molon Labe; 09-15-21 at 02:53 PM.
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