17 April 1942
Attrition at Fiji and Cochin without real progress; Sian Roadblock defeated
SOPAC/CENTPAC
A night raid by B-17s destroyed a Zero on the ground at Noumea. Looks like I need to have fighters flying at night...
The KB's heavy covering force ran into an AKL north of Fiji and sank it. This may have been a picket ship. This move by the KB is intended to get between Fiji and Pago Pago to try to get airstrikes on task forces in between, and outside the large CAP umbrellas of both bases...
...which didn't work out. I messed up the settings on one of my Kate squadrons, so it went to attack a cruiser spotted right at Suva, Fiji. That small strike ran into the large CAP as expected. I lost 7 Zeroes and 9 Kates in that engagement while shooting down just 3 P-39s, and we didn't even hit the cruiser. And of course, my ordered Sweep of Suva failed to fly for a 3rd straight day. Had this flown it might have cleared out those fighters before the strike.
But it wasn't all bad news. The I-16 attacked the oiler Neosho at Pago Pago, hitting it with a torpedo and turning the fuel-laden ship into an inferno.
Another sub tried to deliver a midget sub into Pago Pago, the SSX was lost.
Bay of Bengal/India
The sweep of Cochin did fly, but we just broke even at 4 fighters each side.
China
The Sian Roadblock (formerly the Sinyang Stack) has been defeated again, for what must be at least the fourth time by now. Destroyed devices 1496 to 4. A few units didn't rout with the rest, so we'll need to spend another day clearing them out.
R&D
All A6M5 Zero R&D plants are up and running with the 500-engine bonus secured. At the current rate of progress, I expect to be able to produce the M5 in October 1942.
__________________
|