War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

7 March 1943

Banda Sea
I shelled Babar with 3 cruisers, causing surprisingly high casualties after so little effect from so many B-26 raids. The real purpose of this is a bit of a feint, in case they're spotted I want it to seem like there here to harass the Babar garrison rather than to support a landing on Java.

P-38s swept Koepang, shooting down 9 Nicks with no losses. The follow-up air raid didn't hit any ships, looks like everyone left after yesterday.

Burma
I put a CAP over some retreating troops he wasn't expecting, shooting down 12 unescorted medium bombers.

Bay of Bengal
KB disappeared again, but I think the pattern is established. I still think Male is next. With his pattern in mind, I've moved some of the Liberators from Calcutta to Colombo, and I'm going to try to bomb his support ships in harbor at his newly-captured supply bases. But as with the Babar bombardment, I'm not actually after his support ships. I want to force the KB to provide air coverage. Hopefully I'll end up with a good idea of how many carriers remain in the area. If they move out, I'll abort the Java op, but I'll also move the British heavy fleet down to mess with the invasion.


Java
All quiet along the southern coast. My minelayers are nearly all the way to Sumatra and haven't even been overflown by a scoutplane. No activity for the subs, either.

Solomons
We now have an AirHQ at Shortlands, so torpedo bombers can actually carry torpedoes. I've moved in some Beauforts to supplement the Avengers.

Rabaul is pretty trashed, so I've switched my B-17s to Guadalcanal.

[Molon Labe]

8 March 1943

Burma
We lost 4 P-40s assigned to long-range CAP to try to protect retreating British troops--the bombers were escorted by Zeroes this time.


Indian Ocean
We hit Addu's port with 22 B-24s:
AMC Nosiro Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AMC Awata Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage



Scoutplanes report the KB is with an amphibious group ready to hit Male.

[Molon Labe]

War Record of USS Scamp

• Entered service 24 November 1942 on US east coast. Assigned to Indian Ocean to be homeported at British base at Columbo
• Arrived in Columbo approx 11 Jan 1943. Assigned to interdict enemy shipping off coast of Burma.
• 3 February 1943: Penetrates port at Port Blair and sinks enemy tanker Ceram Maru, a 6400 ton Type-1 TM class medium tanker.
• 8 March 1943: Returns to Columbo for refueling/rearming, assigned to the Maldives island chain with orders to close on enemy warships based on Catalina contact reports.
• 9 March 1943: Ordered to vicinity of Male to engage Kido Butai
• 10 March 1943: Locates KB and penetrates ASW screen. Fires 6 Mk14s at IJN Hiryu, scores 3 hits, all 3 detonate. The third torpedo causes a secondary fuel explosion. Scamp is pursued and engaged by multiple destroyers, is forced to surface from depth charge damage, and is gunned down by the destroyers on the surface. The chances the Hiryu survived are virtually zero (tonnage 17,300).

Total tonnage: 23,700

[Ostfriese]

This one is painful, and exchanging an American sub for a IJN fleet carrier is well worth it.

Congratulations.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

This one is painful, and exchanging an American sub for a IJN fleet carrier is well worth it.

Congratulations.

As a nice bonus, because I hit them early in the morning, they probably only had a few aircraft on CAP but everything else was aboard ready to fly--there's no way the ship was capable of flight operations after those hits, so all of those planes are gone too. It'll take them months to reorganize the airgroups and possibly deploy them as land-based squadrons or put them on a new boat or whatever.

[Molon Labe]

9 March 1943
Male captured

Indian Ocean
Tons of troops from the Imperial Guards Division and 4th Division came ashore at Male and captured it. The silver lining was the unloading was a disaster for them, using non-military merchant ships as troop transports resulted in some sort of mishap that cost them 9 infantry squads. Let's call it a capsized landing craft. The KB supported the landings with a massive airstrike (A6M2 Zero x 88, B5N2 Kate x 86, D3A1 Val x 14, D3A2 Val x 119)

Burma
The Japanese army took about 2000 casualties trying to attack my retreating armies near Lashio with 1 armor regiment and 1 infantry regiment. We had about 60,000 troops against their 2800, so we pretty much slaughtered them even though we are desperately short on supplies.



------------------

10 March 1943
IJN Hiryu sunk off Male

Solomons
In a rather pathetic and unfortunate incident, an enemy sub hit a mine trying to get to our supply and transport fleets at Shortlands. Apparently that drew the attention of nearby destroyers, creating an "ASW Attack" event against the sub. Despite being severely damaged, the game gave the destroyer the usual low-percentage defensive torpedo shot before it goes fully evasive... and it hit the DMS Southard, sinking it almost instantly. I don't have that many destroyer-minesweepers, so that actually hurts. Two destroyers pummeled the already-mortally wounded sub, sending her on eternal patrol.


Indian Ocean
I'd been shadowing the enemy fleets in the Maldives with two subs, hoping they'd stay still long enough to allow an attack. I got quite lucky as today, the KB didn't even move from its location yesterday before the Scamp was able to get to them. As already mentioned, Scamp scored 3 hits on the Hiryu, all of which detonated, resulting in a secondary fuel explosion that almost certainly sank the ship (the flooding alone from 3 torpedoes probably would have been enough). Scamp was mobbed by destroyers afterwards and was unable to escape.

[Molon Labe]

After a flurry of activity in the Maldives, we've had a number of quiet turns. The KB has disappeared and that has got me backing off from Java...


11 March 1943

• 3 Helen medium bombers attacked Changsha. That normally wouldn't be significant enough to report, but the enemy hasn't done any bombing in China for months. There were 6 Vanguard fighters on patrol that failed to engage the bombers.
• A Navy Liberator raid on Keopang caused heavy damage to the airbase and destroyed a Topsy transport on the ground.
• Our retreating units in Burma suffered 1000+ casualties in an enemy armored assault

12 March 1943

• USS Haddo scored 2 detonating Mk14 hits on a cargo ship in an escorted convoy off Aogoshima, Japan, sinking it.
• The Helen bombers came back to Changha, China, but this time the Vanguards were ready; all 3 were shot down

13 March 1943

• Two enemy subs attacked Wake, laying a minefield and attacking our ships.
  • One targeted a surface action group, putting 3 torpedoes into the cruiser USS Richmond, mortally wounding it. The destroyer Alywn retaliated, pinning the sub down in shallow water and causing enough damage to force it to surface, where the cruiser Cleveland pounded it with 6" and 5" guns. The Richmond even took a few shots at it as it sank.
  • The other targeted a supply convoy, making my heart skip a beat because one convoy was delivering a new fighter squadron. But it only hit a cargo ship delivering supplies. That ship is severely damaged but will probably return to service if it doesn't burn to a crisp in port. The submarine was attacked by the convoy's minesweeper escort for moderate damage.
  • The minefield was immediately detected by the on-duty minesweeper, which cleared 9 of them. I ordered two more out of the harbor to help clear the mines.
• We lost a Wellington bomber to flak while attacking enemy ground forces near Foochow, China.
• I'd detected 40 fighter at too-small of a base in Addu, so I sent the B-24s to pound the airfield. The fighters were gone by the time they got there. The airfield took serious damage.
• There's a fairly large convoy at Guadalcanal all of a sudden. It's in range of attack aircraft from Rossel and Shortlands so I'm irritated nothing's flown already. They have no fighter protection; my B-17s are still hitting the airbase and nothing's coming up to try to stop them (except lots of heavy flak).

14 March 1943

• 24 more mines cleared at Wake
• Still no sign of the KB in the Bay of Bengal. I'm sending a sub to check out Diego Garcia. I have another near the tip of Sumatra, which was the launching point for the Rangoon op. And I have a sub near Rangoon, and a few off the western coast of Sumatra. No one is reporting any aircraft spottings so far.
  • The put a lot of troops on Male, so that's what the B-24s are going to hit. And as I promised before, if the KB leaves, the British fleet will come out and play. So Male is about to get shelled in a couple days if they don't get some serious air cover.
• The convoy is still at Guadalcanal, and our attack aircraft still aren't flying. I'm adding an attack squadron to Ndeni now that that base is coming online, so that's now 3 potential vectors of attack we have on these jerks.

[Molon Labe]

15 March 1943

Solomons
A pair of destroyers I sent to chase subs away from Shortlands found and lightly damanged an enemy sub.

Maldives/Sri Lanka
The B-24 raid I mentioned last time happened, hitting Male and causing nearly 900 enemy troop casualties! With just 14 planes! This is what happens when you put a whole bunch of troops on a small island with no natural cover.


Still no sign of the carriers...
----------------


16 March 1943

Solomons
A task force of 3 enemy destroyers made their way from Guadalcanal to the Shortlands area enroute to Rabaul. One of the destroyers was badly damaged. They met my ASW group at night and traded shots. One of my mine was hit twice, causing moderate damage and setting it on fire. We got a single hit on one of theirs.

The Avengers (18) and Beauforts (11) of Shortlands found 2 of the enemy destroyers during the day, but even the damaged one was nimble enough to evade the torpedoes. 39 wasted torpedoes! The destroyers shot down one Beaufort.

We lost a B-17 over Guadalcanal to flak.


CENTPAC
I sent the USS Lapon into the harbor at Marcus to try to sink support ships. It hit a mine and is headed back to Pearl for repairs.

Maldives/Sri Lanka
B-24 raids on Male took out another 440 enemy troops.
------------




17 March 1943

Maldives/Sri Lanka
It's not just B-24s anymore. Battleships HMS Ramillies and HMS Royal Sovereign, and heavy cruisers HMS Exeter and HMS Devonshire shelled Male pre-dawn for a surprisingly light 53 casualties. Still no sign of carriers...they'll rearm at Colombo, then head back northwest to re-group with the main force. The B-24s came back, but storms limited their accuracy, just 75 casualties.

Still no carriers!!!! But the appearance of the British fleet may change that.

CENTPAC
USS Tinosa torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship in the middle of the Marianas.

Burma
We lost a P-40 to an enemy sweep near Lashio. I'm surprised they have so many sweeps going on and so few CAPs. I have B-24s and B-25s hitting their troops in northern Burma daily with no intervention. Casualties are light due to the rough terrain, but still.

An enemy infantry attack against our retreating troops resulted in 487 to 180 casualties in our favor, once again we badly outnumber them. They're basically hoping we're completely out of supplies... we're not out, we're just low.

--------------------




18 March 1943

CENTPAC
USS Tinosa found the ship it hit yesterday, abandoned by its convoy. She put two more fish into her and sent it to the bottom.

I used 4 PBYs from Wake in an attack role against Marcus, trying to kill what the Lapon couldn't. They spotted a seaplane tender in the harbor and hit it with 1 500-pound bomb. The enemy had 2 Irving fighters (night fighters, I think) on patrol, but they failed to intercept.

Solomons
My ASW 2-ship found another enemy sub and dealt it some damage. These two deep-water engagements have had very low accuracy and expended a lot of ammunition. I'm taking them off-station to rearm and repair.


Maldives/Sri Lanka
B-24 raids on Male caused 385 casualties. Fish in a barrel. This time, 11 Zeroes responded..ineffectively. Combat report says they're from Shokaku. Have they divided the KB? And if so where did the others go?

And the Shokaku wasn't done...it sent a few light raids against the bombardment detachment trying to rearm at Columbo. First, 3 Kates escorted by a whopping 26 Zeroes. 14 Hurricanes came out from Colombo to protect the ships. We got 1 Zero, and lost 1 Sea Hurricane. The Kates made it through, but were apparently at too long of range to carry torpedoes, they dropped bombs at the Devonshire and missed. Then the rest of the Kates, 10, arrived without escort. So they had a bit of a coordination SNAFU. We got 7 of them. One of the Kates hit the Royal Sovereign with a 250kg bomb. There was a true 2nd wave in the afternoon, 24 Zeroes and 15 Kates; we only managed 9 Hurricanes this time. We got 4 Zeroes this time, but the Kates got through and hit the Ramillies and Royal Sovereign with 1 bomb each. Damage to the Royal Soverign was surprisingly high, while Ramilies barely had her paint scratched. I'll be leaving Royal Sovereign in Colombo for repairs, hoping the fighters based there can keep her safe for a few days. We'll have a much stronger CAP over Colombo itself than we do a few hexes out to sea.


Burma
Our retreating armies in Burma suffered another land assault, this time combined infantry-armor all out shock attack. But we outnumbered them 2 to 1 and the terrain favors the defender. Casualties 1480 to 189 favoring us.

[Molon Labe]

19 March 1943

Maldives/Indian Ocean
A near disaster as an enemy sub located our main force and tried to penetrate it. A destroyers spotted it and drove it off before it was within visual range of the carriers... but he still knows I have a large fleet up here now.


Solomons and New Britain
Another B-17 down over Guadalcanal. At least it looks like we're wearing this base down.

I sent a few B-25s to Rabaul to try to get that damaged destroyer that passed by the Shortlands, and sure enough we found a destroyer in port there and hit it with a 500-pounder.
---------------



20 March 1943
Major naval engagement at Colombo; massive British air losses, IJN Yamato and HMS Ramillies sunk.

Sri Lanka
Japan was apparently determined not to let my bombardment detachment get away, and sent a heavy task force backed up by the full KB (no, it didn't leave with just Shokaku left to stand watch). The surface force was the Yamato, the Hiei, Haruna, and Kirishima, along with 3 heavy cruisers and 5 destroyers.

They approached the port of Columbo in daytime but in a thunderstorm, maximum visibility just 6,000 yards. They unzipped their fly when the ran into and sank the motor launches on ASW patrol. My task force (battleship Ramilies, heavy cruisers Exeter and Devonshire, 2 destroyers) then caught the enemy on radar and closed range, attacking with surprise from just 3,000 yards. They picked the biggest target, the Yamato, and hit her with 4 shells from Ramilies' main batteries and 4 torpedoes...and that was pretty much it for her. What followed was astonishingly accurate fire from Ramillies along with a surprising lack of response from the 2 remaining enemy battleships. Ramilies managed to spread main battery hits around the enemy fleet. The heavy cruiser Kumano was sunk for sure, but the other two also appeared mortally wounded, as was the Hiei. The Ramilies' luck eventually ran out, and although most of the rounds that hit her were secondary battery hits that her armor resisted, she eventually started taking rounds from either the enemy battleships, followed by torpedoes, dooming her. The Exeter also took a pounding and went down. One of our destroyers went down and the other appears mortally wounded. The Devonshire survived with moderate damage, for now. But, the damage sustained by the enemy was enough to get them to turn around, so we did manage to protect the Royal Soverign (in port for repairs), for now.

Although completely outgunned, we inflicted disproportionate losses on the enemy: Very likely 2 BB sunk along with 3 CA, vs 1 BB and 1 CA, and probably 2 DD for me.

To add a little more insult to this USS Hoe approached occupied Diego Garcia and torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship twice.

He would get some revenge in the air, though. Our efforts were poorly coordinated, and we were up against greater numbers and their best pilots. By day's end, Colombo's air forces (48 Hurricanes, 16 Sea Hurricanes, 37 Martlets (Wildcats), 32 Beaufighters, 32 Vengeances, 12 Albacores, and 10 Beauforts) were only able to shoot down 4 Zeroes, and score 1 hit on Zuikaku with a little 250-pound bomb (from a Beaufighter). Our losses: 7 Martlets, 12 Hurricanes, 3 Beaufighters, 31 Vengeances, and 10 Albacores. The worst part of this raid was that one of the Vengeance squadrons got separated from the main group. Only one bomber from the main group got through, so I'd expect had that separation not happened, we'd have had 17 dive bombers attacking instead of 1, more than enough to score devastating hits on multiple flattops.

He had over 100 Zeroes on CAP, and didn't launch any airstrikes of his own. It appears that he intentionally baited this strike, confident he could parry it, and now that my offensive power is essentially depleted he can strike at me without much fear of retaliation.

The silver lining for me in this massive aerial defeat is that I now know for sure the KB is committed to this theatre. I backed away from Java when the KB disappeared on me during his Maldives operation. That operation is now going forward, and I'm not turning away this time without more than losing contact.


Solomons and New Britain
We hit Rabaul with B-25s again, and hit another destroyer. This time troop casualties are being reported. So, it looks like he's actually using destroyers to try to get unit fragments out from Rabaul and Guadalcanal now that my new airbases are making these Waters very Dangerous for his ships.


China
I picked a fight with a pair of enemy divisions moving between Chusein and Foochow, thinking I had the upper hand. I outnumbered them 2 to 1. Casualties were 1400 to 900 in their favor. Oops.

[Ostfriese]

So, this means he will probably take Sri Lanka, but he again will have paid a hefty price for it. Did I get that right?

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

So, this means he will probably take Sri Lanka, but he again will have paid a hefty price for it. Did I get that right?

Assuming he doesn't ragequit over losing 2 BB and 3 CA in a fight he should have won, yes. He should be able to stop me from sinking his transports when they get here.


And hopefully, the price he pays for protecting those transports is Java.

[Molon Labe]

Sorry I've been too busy to do the AARs last week. Will try to get caught up. Lots going on.


21 March 1943

CENTPAC
USS Lapon, already damaged from a mine at Marcus, was essentially run over by an enemy surface action task force headed east towards Midway or Wake. Lapon was spotted and depth charged relentlessly, forced to surface, and gunned down. At least we got a contact report out of it: 2 CA, 2CL, 9 DD.

The Wasp is nearby escorting an amphibious task force to the Marianas. Looks like it has a new job to do...


Burma
We lost 2 P-40s to a sweep by Tojos near Tuang Gy. Our retreating armies near Lashio suffered a land attack, but inflicted 949 casualties while sustaining only 153.


Indian Ocean
The KB launched a strike on Colombo: 47 Zeroes, 48 Kates, 34 Vals. They got 3 hits on the Royal Sovereign in port, damage appears minimal. They also hit the destroyer Van Galen, which is severely damaged. Our CAP took out 2 Zeroes on the way in but never got to the bombers. Fortunately Colombo's flak was impressive, causing at least 10 Vals and 5 Kates to fail to return. Our Beaufort torpedo bombers tried to attack smaller enemy task forces, but failed to score any hits.



--------------
22 March 1943
The surface action group was actually a CVBG--USS Wasp lost


CENTPAC
Remember how I said the enemy sub in the Indian Ocean spotted our British CVBG without actually spotting the carriers? Well... USS Lapon didn't spot theirs..the Junyo, Taiho, and Ryhuo. So I just put my last American flattop into a fight with multiple enemy carriers, and it went like every other carrier vs carrier fight has gone so far...

The enemy strike arrived first: 27 Zeroes with 22 Kates, 9 Jills, 37 Vals, and 27 Judies. We had just 18 Wildcats on defense. The Zeroes splashed 5 of them while losing just 1 Zero and 1 Val. Flak got another 5 Vals and 2 Kates.
CV Wasp, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Massachusetts, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 1
DD Mugford, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Our strike was 18 Wildcats and 27 SBDs; they had 19 Zeroes on CAP, which shot down 5 Wildcats while suffering 2 losses. 1 SBD was lost to flak, leaving 26 SBDs to have a go at their carriers...leading to one single hit on the Taiho, which did not incapacitate it.

The returning aircraft diverted to Wake, as the Wasp was a blazing inferno at this point. And Wake already had too many planes due to a squadron-swapping evolution being delayed by the enemy activity in the area.

An enemy follow-up strike finished off the Massachusetts with 2 bomb and 6 torpedo hits. A pair of Wildcats made it from Wake, enough to shoot down 1 Zero. They also sent a strike to hit ships at Wake itself. A P-40 on CAP shot down 1 of the Vals (out of 57 total attack planes); the strike sank a cargo ship and damaged a destroyer.


Burma
A more even fight when the enemy swept our P-40 CAP: 2 P-40s lost, but they gook 2 Tojos and an Oscar with them.

[Molon Labe]

23 March 1943

CENTPAC
Wasp was abandoned overnight, as the fires could not be brought under control.

The Taiho's CVBG continued to attack the Wasp's battlegroup. I had actually hoped the cruisers could get into a surface battle as the task forces were pretty close, but we failed to find them at night, and once the sun was up, the planes were flying..
CA Pensacola, Bomb hits 2, on fire
--CA Pensacola, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CA Wichita, Bomb hits 1, on fire
--CA Wichita, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
--CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Cleveland, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Radford, Bomb hits 1, on fire
...with at least 3 Jills and 4 Vals shot down by flak.

They also attacked Wake, sinking a minesweeper there, while losing 3 Zeroes and 2 Vals to the few Wildcats and P-40s we were able to put up.

Indian Ocean
USS Hoe was depth charged for moderate damage near Diego Garcia and will have to put in for repairs.


Burma
We bagged 3 more Tojos near Tyang Gy.


Japan
USS Halibut was depth charged by a subchaser near Yokohama and severely damaged. It's returning to base.



24 March 1943
D-Day: Java

Java
I've opened a new front. Our primary landing was at Tjilatjap with a secondary at Djokjakarta. Resistance so far is light. What's ashore already or soon will be:

192nd Tank Battalion
194th Tank Battalion
Americal Infantry Division
41st Infantry Division
32nd Infantry Division
147th Infantry Regiment
201st Infantry Regiment
148th Infantry Regiment
129th Infantry Regiment
161st Infantry Regiment
Rifles of Canada Battalion
...a whole lot of base forces and engineers

12th Fighter squadron (25 P-40K Warhawks)
15th FG/25th Squadron (25 P-40K Warhawks)
VF-8 (Hornet's Wildcat squadron, 36 F4F-4)
VMF-122 (18 F4F-4)
VMF-213 (18 F4F-4)
VT-5 (18 Avengers; Yorktown's)
VB-5 (36 SBDs; Yorktown's)
VT-8 (18 Avengers, Hornet's)

The Avengers are actually flying in from Australia, the rest of these are being delivered by cargo ships--most of them dedicated aircraft transports.

I have a total of 5 CVEs providing air cover to these landings while we consolidate control over Java's airbases so that the above squadrons can actually start flying. I've pre-placed minefields in the straits on both sides of Java to deal with any surface response, I also have a heavy covering force, plus 3 of the CVEs have Avengers ready for naval strike missions.


CENTPAC
2 enemy subs tried to penetrate the harbor at Wake; 1 hit 3 mines, the other just one.

And of course, the Taiho is just having a field day with my retreating ships.
CA Wichita, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
--CA Wichita, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Pensacola, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Aylwin, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Dewey, Bomb hits 1, on fire

A Zero sweep on Wake resulted in 2 Zeroes and 3 Wildcats downed.

[Molon Labe]

25 March 1943

Java
The enemy assembled a cruiser-destroyer task force at Surabaya and sent them to sea...right into the KXII, waiting for them outside of the harbor. But they spotted it and drove her off with light depth charge damage.

The Avengers from the CVEs took a shot at them next. 25 of them... and they all missed. We lost one to flak.

Amphibious task forces are still unloading. Tjilapjap has been captured, so we can make sure of the port to unload the aircraft tomorrow.

The first counterattack came in the form of Nick fighter-bombers, but they were nothing the CVE's Wildcats couldn't handle. 6 Nicks shot down, no US losses.

CENTPAC
A sweep over Wake cost me 2 Wildcats.


And he's still chasing my retreating ships.
CA Wichita, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
DD Aylwin, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Fortunately, the amphibious group that the Wasp was originally escorting hasn't been spotted yet. They're headed way north to try to avoid the combat area.

Indian Ocean
An error on my part...I left an Albacore squadron with attack orders. So they flew today with little chance of success, targeting the KB. The resulting air raid claimed 1 Zero, but we lost 3 Hurricanes, 6 Marlets, and 4 Albacores.



26 March 1943
Battle of Djokjakarta

The enemy surface task force (3 CL, 15 DD) that so far evaded a submarine, a minefield, and 3 Avenger squadrons was finally intercepted by my heavy covering force (2 BB, 3 CA, 1 CL, 6 DD) before it could reach the transports unloading at Djokjakarta. It was a night battle with a lot of misses. But, my task force simply outweighed his--his guns just weren't enough to deal with my heavies.

Japanese Ships
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 2
CL Kitakami, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
CL Yubari, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
DD Akigumo, Shell hits 2
DD Takanami
DD Kuroshio
DD Oyashio
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 1
DD Yugure
DD Ariake
DD Fubuki, Shell hits 1
DD Asagiri
DD Yugiri
DD Amagiri, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Sazanami
DD Minekaze
DD Namikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Hasu

Allied Ships
BB Nevada, Shell hits 3
BB Revenge, Shell hits 1
CA Portland, Shell hits 3
CA Northampton
CA Vincennes, Shell hits 1
CL Leander, Shell hits 1
DD Bancroft
DD Cummings, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Preston, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Cassin, Shell hits 1
DD Porter, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Phelps


Round 2:
Japanese Ships
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 10, heavy fires
DD Akigumo
DD Takanami
DD Kuroshio
DD Oyashio
DD Hayashio
DD Yugure, Shell hits 1
DD Ariake
DD Fubuki, Shell hits 1
DD Asagiri
DD Yugiri
DD Amagiri, heavy fires
DD Sazanami
DD Minekaze
DD Namikaze
DD Hasu

Allied Ships
BB Nevada, Shell hits 4
BB Revenge
CA Portland
CA Northampton, Shell hits 1
CA Vincennes
CL Leander
DD Bancroft, Shell hits 2
DD Cassin, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Porter, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

So that's 2 enemy CLs sunk with a 3rd crippled, vs 2 DD down for me. And most importantly, they're not getting to the transports.


China
Things are heating up here. Enemy forces are strung out from Chusien to Foochow, and in contrast to what I thought about what would happen when my Hong Kong armies got here, it's actually looking like I'm outnumbered--5 Divisions+ in Foochow itself right now. And he's starting to contribute air power to this. I'd been ready for that--4 Tonies down with no Allied losses.


CENTPAC
Another 2 Wildcats and a P-40 shot down over Wake. The carriers have to leave sometime, right? At least this time we got 3 Vals too..but they sank a minesweeper.

[Molon Labe]

27 March 1943

Java
Chaos is starting to break out around the landing area as the various task forces are reacting to each other. For me, my heavy covering force wants to rearm, and some of the phibs want to run. For the enemy, the CL Isuzu broke off with 2 destroyers to try to make it back for repairs, but trying to avoid combat by going south just made it easier for them to get found by my covering force that started going that way before I turned it around:
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 2, heavy damage
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Amagiri, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

At daybreak, the main enemy surface force seemed to be trying to reach the phibs without running into my covering force (they only had destroyers at this point, I had 2 battleships). That left them open for airstrikes from the CVEs and from the 2 airbases that had come online.

We flew several sorties which were somewhat disorganized--the Avengers from the furthest airbase flew without escorts. The enemy CAP started strong but tapered off. The first wave was 10 P-40s and 17 Wildcats vs 16 Zeroes, 6 Oscars, and 3 Nicks (27 vs 25), but other waves met only a single Oscar or nothing at all. The aircraft took a bigger beating than the ships. Losses were 9 Wildcats, 2 P-40s, 9 Avengers, 4 SBDs. For that, we got 5 Zeroes, a Nick, 2 bomb hits on different DDs, and three torpedo hits on 2 others, sinking both. This all but completely exhausts the torpedo stores aboard the CVEs.


China
1 Tony splashed over Foochow.
The massive army at Foochow attacked, reducing forts from Level 3 to Level 2, causing 3000 enemy and 1700 friendly casualties. Not good.







28 March 1943
KB finally responding to Java invasion?

Java
As some of my phibs depart, I'm consolidating the task forces and peeling some combattants off to try to reinforce the covering force. Overnight, once such supplemental force of 6 destroyers encountered a pair of enemy destroyers near the landing sites. We severely damaged one of them before the other ran off. They then ran into the main force, were the damaged one took a battleship's main battery hit and went down as the other retreated.

Meanwhile, at least 6 of the enemy destroyers were retreating through the eastern straits to the Java Sea, heading back into the minefield they originally passed through without incident. This time two of them hit mines. The others started working on clearing it.


Indian Ocean
A B-24 strike on Addu caught enemy destroyers in port, probably fast transports trying to load troops. The bombers hit 3 of them, and all three are severely damaged and likely to either sink or sit out the war in that small port. Unless they take Columbo, then they'll have a shipyard close enough for them to limp to.

The KB has moved to the southern edge of my searchplane radius and is reported headed southeast. Maybe they're meeting the phibs to escort them to Sri Lanka, but that also puts them on a direct course for Java. So it's time to get my ships out of there. I got nearly everything ashore that I wanted. One Seabee unit never made it ashore, and I have two task forces that aren't quite empty but should finish overnight.

The British CVBG is headed back south down the western Indian coast. If the enemy carriers are away, whatever ships they have in the Maldives are now targets.


China
Foochow was attacked again and is now down to Level 1 Forts, casualties 1887 to 2281 favoring the enemy this time. I'll be lucky to hold on even another day. They'll probably roll down the coast after that, taking out the airbase I'm using to monitor the Luzon Strait. A small silver lining; it looks like I've outmaneuvered and isolated 2 divisions near Chusein and will defeat them in detail in another day or two.