War in the Pacific AAR Thread: ML (Japan) vs. Leo (Allies)

[Molon Labe]

16 March 1942
Close call for the Soryu

Java
Minefield clearance at Surabaya ongoing. We're advancing on Batavia while the eastern forces are trying to mop up stray enemy units.

SOPAC
Off the coast of Fiji, the RO-65 was depth charged by a US destroyer, sustaining critical damage. She's limping back to Noumea, but the damage is in the range where her fate is in the hands of the damage control teams. Could go either way.

We narrowly avoided disaster as the KVII lined up a shot on the Soryu in the open ocean between Brisbane and the Solomons. All 4 torpedoes missed, and we failed to prosecute the sub. Just really goes to show how hard it is to defend against these subs--this task force has 16 destroyers, along with 2 Kate squadrons and hordes of floatplanes on ASW patrol. Of course, those patrols only fly in the daytime, and this attack was at night. The sub was engaged by aircraft after the attack and one floatplane claimed a hit on her.


West Australian Coast
A destroyer-escorted cargo ship was sunk by I-171 off the coast of Perth


Reinforcements
DD Naganami arrives at Nagoya - ordered directly to Truk for assignment to the KB.

[Molon Labe]

17 March 1942 (edited)

West Australian Coast
I-157 sank a light cargo ship off Geraldton in the northwest.


Java
A surface action group paroling the Java Sea intercepted and sank a minesweeper that had been displaced from one of the ports we've been capturing.


I lost a Sally bombing Batavia even at high altitude.

Our ground forces reached Batavia and launched a probing attack, finding minimal enemy resistance. We won't need the air support.

[Molon Labe]

18 March 1942

West Australian Coast
In a night surface attack, I-165 hit an unescorted cargo ship with a pair of torpedoes near the northwest corner of Australia, sending it right to the bottom.

Timor Sea
Battleships Nagato and Fuso shelled Darwin, inflicting heavy casualties, heavy airbase damage, and moderate port damage. Part of the reason for this attack is that recon keeps claiming there are cruisers in port. There were no reported hits on any enemy ships, except for a minesweeper on patrol that we ran into and sank on the way in.

China
A small flight of 3 Oscars sweeping the road to Sian intercepted and downed one of those irritating I-15s that's been picking off the occasional IJA aircraft.

With help from some previously idle bombers from Luzon that have been temporarily rebased to China, I'm pounding the enemy army at Kukong enough to severely disrupt them. I think we're going to hold against this counteroffensive. And speaking of that, this enemy army attacked today, achieving only 1 to 2 assault odds, squad destruction favoring me at 3 to 5, and disablements favoring me at 85 to 92. Those aren't great numbers considering I'm outnumbered 2 to 1 here, but they're still encouraging, especially with our forts back up to Level 2.

I also found a division that I managed to forget was available that I'd originally planned to send to Sian--now this is going to be the reinforcement I need to tip the balance at Wenchow. They're on the way to meet up with resting/recovering armies at Chusien, once they've linked up, we'll head back east to the coast and get the job done. Once that's done I'll push southeast with the goal of linking Japanese-occupied China with Vietnam, theoretically creating a ground supply route that goes all the way to Singapore.

Our main Sian stack cleared out 3 1/3 enemy corps remnants from the road, destroying 392 devices while losing only 1. Probably the last obstacle before we get to Sian.

For Sian, I'm going to try to focus most of my medium bombers here while mostly light bombers deal with Kukong. Sian is open territory so bombers will be very effective. Troop level looks to be about 130k, which is plenty, and I'm expecting significant fortification because it's taken this long to get here. What I don't know is the condition of the enemy troops--how many of these 130k were at one point part of the Nanyang stack? Any such troops are probably suffering a lot of squads disabled and low morale, potentially making this stack weaker than it appears. My stack is about 111k troops plus 5 regiments of armor-plus 2 divisions in reserve, resting in Nanyang due to casualties they sustained clearing out the Nanyang stack.


Java
The attack on Batavia has begun. First round reduced enemy forts to level 2 with moderate casualties to both sides, with actual squad destruction favoring us significantly. Our troops did not sustain a lot of fatigue or disruption in the attack so I'm going to order a rare two-days-in-a-row attack. We could take it as early as tomorrow, if not the third attack will probably do it, we outnumber them 2 to 1 and our troops are just better quality.

One of our "mop-up" forces captured Semarang, which had 12 Falcon bombers for us to destroy on the ground.


Strait of Malacca
It took long enough--at least two subs have been spotted near Singapore. I've turned this area in to an absolute ASW juggernaut with aircraft patrols out of Singapore, Palembang, and Singkawang, plus subchasers on patrol. Now that we have confirmed sightings, I'm sending out main fleet DDs that are otherwise on standby in Singapore as hunter-killer task forces. Let's show these guys they can't mess with my tanker routes!


SOPAC
Mavises from Noumea picked up a 4-ship bogey traveling west just north of New Zealand yesterday. I have a surface combat task force intercepting now, which has been counterdetected, presumably by Catalinas flying out of Aukland. Whether I get a successful intercept probably depends on whether the enemy changes course.


The KB successfully transited the Solomons after offsetting east to avoid the obvious straight-line route to Truk that would have a chokepoint between Rabaul and the Shortlands. I was able to sanitize the alternative chokepoints between the islands with an advance DD patrol. Just trying to avoid any underwater surprises.


Reinforcements and Planning

Many of the subchaser depth charge upgrades are completing, so I'm cycling in the ones that stayed online with the upgraded boats. A lot of the upgraded boats are working their way towards the deep water chokepoints like the Makassar Stait and Banda Sea, plus keeping a few in reserve in Japan in case American subs ever show up off our coast.

We're about a week out from a rotation of DD upgrades completing.

I had been hoping to get the Nick by April, but R&D isn't moving fast enough. So it'll be May. But I'm hoping the Nick can play a critical role in this campaign, in part inspired by the ASUW success of my attack bombers in my last campaign, plus my opponent's success using Nicks to counter heavy bombers. I've started to shift IJA fighter training to include low altitude naval attacks to prepare.

With Java wrapping up, and my Luzon troops rested, I'm getting ready for the next major operation...Most of Luzon's troops have already been staged in Singapore, I'll be adding some of Java's troops to that soon too.

[Molon Labe]

19 March 1942


West Australian Coast
I-166 sustained light depth charge damage from a destroyer on patrol off Perth.


Java
Our surface group on patrol in the Java Sea picked off another minesweeper that lost the port it was monitoring.

We made our second attack on Batavia, reducing fortifications to Level 1. Our engineers took heavy casualties with 18 squads destroyed, but the enemy took 85 devices destroyed and had more disabled than us as well. I'll need to rest my troops tomorrow, but we're very close.


Hawaii
I-2 torpedoed and sank an APD in a task force departing Pearl headed northeast. Although the ship did not appear in the combat report, according to the operations report the Yorktown was "sighted and engaged" in the same hex this turn. Therefore it appears this was the Yorktown headed back to the west coast for further repairs after getting patched up here at Pearl.


Burma
Lost a Sally to flak over Rangoon. I hate losing planes for so little but I really don't want there to be huge forts waiting for me when I finally get here.


Gilbert Islands
Yet again we caught enemy ships snooping around here. This time it's the CL Trenton. We attacked with Mavises out of Tarawa but missed. A Mavis on regular patrol claimed a hit on her, though. Sending a cruiser-destroyer force to intercept.


SOPAC
We've lost sight of the bogey we were trying to intercept south of Noumea.


Sumatra
I've landed troops in Bangkalis--trying to make taking the northwestern half of the island a priority now so I can tie off Java/Sumatra with a nice little bow.

[Molon Labe]

20 March 1942
I-171 sunk. Yorktown in trouble?

Western Australian Coast
I-171 was ganged up on by some highly capable destroyers off the coast of Perth. HMS Isis was up first, scoring at least 2 solid depth charge hits and several damaging near misses. The 171 was forced to surface and ended up getting gunned down... but twice the submarine faked its own death, "slipping below the waves" only to come back up again. Unfortunately, it never got far enough away to break contact before it had to come back up, so each time, it was used for gunnery practice. It ended up being the HNLMS Van Nes, that finished the job, which was out of depth charges thanks to engaging another one of my subs but being out of ASW ammo didn't stop her from getting a kill and a sub.


SOPAC
HMAS Perth was hit by two torpedoes fired by RO-62 just off the north coast of New Zealand. This is probably the task force I was trying to intercept but lost track of. At this time I do not believe the Perth was sunk.


China
A sweep of 3 Oscars over Sian failed to shoot down any of the I-16 fighters on CAP there and ended up losing one of their own instead. The escorts for a bombing raid that followed succeeded in taking out two of these, so at least we got payback.

Our main force has arrived in Sian.
The enemy is retreating from Kukong.


Sumatra
I've captured Bengkalis.


Hawaii
Intel reported the Yorktown sank today, at a location 10 hexes northeast of its reported location last turn. I believe the location of the report to be accurate, even if the ship's status likely is not. The distance is significant, as it would be too far for an undamaged ship to travel in a single turn at cruise speed, but looks just right for a damaged ship at flank speed. Ships at flank speed tend to take system and engine damage, and ships that are already flooded tend of have their flooding get worse if system damage is high. So I interpret this message to mean the Yorktown tried to escape Pearl at flank speed and suffered a damage control failure event, increasing flooding and generating the false intel message to me.

I'm being told on Discord that these type of sinking reports are always accurate, however, I remember getting similar messages about Kaga last campaign that were not accurate, so for now I still evaluate the Yorktown to be afloat.

[Molon Labe]

21 March 1942

Karimata Strait
Intense ASW patrols are starting to pay off; we got multiple hits on the KXV including some really solid ones. Not good enough to sink her outright, but it's a long way from here to Perth or Colombo.


Solomons/SOPAC
USS Gato took a bit of a beating from the destroyer Danae off the west side of Guadalcanal.

The KB has arrived in Truk and has replaced its aircraft losses. I'm disbanding them for some well-deserved rest and maintenance.


Java
We captured Batavia. That's the last major base on Java, it's all just mopping up from here. As for mopping up, 3 broken enemy units surrendered at Soerakarta.


China
I did a probing bombardment of Sian, the result of which was a rather effective counterbattery strike that cost me 6 squads and a gun. I've got about 1.25x their assault value here, which isn't great but should be OK for a clear hex, plus I've got a bit of armor and 2 more divisions on the road, the last of which should be here in about 4 days. I'm moving as many bombers as I can into this area and moving around aviation support to be able to sustain that. The open territory is going to make bombing highly effective, and we obviously need it.


India
I laid a minefield in Karachi.

[Molon Labe]

22 March 1942

SOPAC
The SAG I sent from Noumea to track down the bogeys near New Zealand tracked down the destroyer Express and sank her after a short chase. We ended up getting attacked by B-17s and B-26s for coming this close to NZ, but no hits.


India
They found the minefield in Karachi already. Oh well.

Just before starting this turn, I remembered my amphibious unloading bonus expires as the end of the month. So I'm rushing my next operation just a little. Ships loading in Singapore.


China
We splashed a pair of I-15s over Sian. We're probably even for the losses they caused me.


N. Australia
With no naval activity around the Java Sea, I decided it was a better use of my Betties to hit Darwin again rather than just wait for ships to show up. Recon's been insisting there are cruisers in port. The attack hit a pair of destroyers, so recon wasn't completely wrong.


EASTPAC
The I-23 found Yorktown's CVBG again. Again, no actual presence of the Yorktown in the combat report of the map, but we have an intel report saying she was "sighted and engaged" here. I've got 4 subs stalking this task force right now.

[Molon Labe]

23 March 1942


SOPAC
I lost a midget sub trying to attack Sydney. Apparently I did this wrong by manually detaching the sub from its mothership by giving it its own task force entity at the target, the correct way to do it is to leave both boats in the same TF and let the code handle the port infiltration. So it just sat there until a DD found it.

USS Porter (DD) was spotted between Luganville and Fiji in a very interesting position--Just outside escorted torpedo bomber range from Luganville and right at maximum torpedo bomber range from Noumea. Looks like he's testing my defenses. The Betty flying as a scout that spotted her claimed a bomb hit.


Java
A heavy surface task force rebasing from the Makassar area to Singapore encountered an enemy minesweeper off Pontianak and sank it.


China
Another I-15 taken care of over Sian.


N. Australia
Another Betty raid on Darwin sank an AKL and hit the destroyer Thracian again. (Spoiler: based on subsequent recon, it's likely both DD that were here were sunk by these raids). The raid cost me one Betty thanks to flak.

[Molon Labe]

24 March 1942

Java
I've got a minesweeper clearing Batavia. Java is starting to feel like it's really mine, in spite of the ruins of Surabaya.

I've captured Buitenzorg and Lautem.


China
I'm hitting Sian pretty hard with bombers but the results so far are disappointing. I may need to come down in altitude, but that big of a troop concentration has to have good AA. Also, the remnants of the Nanyang stack have moved back on the road to Sian, effectively cutting off my main force at Sian from the supply line from Nanyang. So I actually need to back up and defeat these guys a third time. More time to soften up Sian, I guess.

The enemy units retreating from Kukong didn't all move at the same speed, so I was gifted an attack on the tip of the daschund's tail there, good enough to eliminate 38 enemy squads.


Reinforcements
I'm starting to equip some select base forces and AA units with radars. We'll have a long way to go before this becomes ubiquitous.

[Molon Labe]

25 March 1942

North Australia
After today's Betty raid on Darwin, recon finally stopped reporting that cruisers (or anything else) were present here. So the destroyers that were being reported as cruisers either sank or left. They were badly damaged and I have a barricade of subs outside the port, so I'm guessing I'd know if they tried to leave.


China
Near Kweisui, I made a shock attack crossing a river to fight an enemy unit blocking a road, routing them easily as they had been softened up by bombers. Device destruction ratio 2 to 80.


Strait of Malacca
Kates and Jakes flying on ASW patrol from the light carriers Shoho and/or Zuiho and supporting cruisers detected a US and a British boat on barrier patrol in the northwestern Strait, where the water gets deep.


----------
26 March 1942

South China Sea
Just east of Singapore, a pair of subchasers finally got some work done, damaging the USS Sturgeon badly enough to make her leave station.


Strait of Malacca
Despite giving all of my task forces bound for the Indian Ocean waypoints to avoid the two subs detected yesterday and instead move through a shallow water route that was being sanitized by subchasers, the Shoho/Zuiho CVBG ran over HMS Truant. Fortunately our DD escorts spotted her first and drove her off--the carriers didn't even appear in the combat report, so he doesn't know this TF is a CVBG. Except for the Kates he saw yesterday of course, but in part to create ambiguity and also to shut this area down, I'm moving 6 Kates from Singapore to Taiping for ASW patrol, so he's going to keep seeing Kates here after the CVBG moves away.

China
Oscar sweeps over Sian got 1 I-15 and 1 I-16, no losses.

SOPAC
An Ann bomber flying out of Noumea claimed a hit on a Porpoise class boat.

Reinforcements
TK Okigawa Maru arrives at Yokohama/Yokosuka - I really like these tankers, I was disappointed that I didn't start with any. They're medium sized tankers with a 14 knot speed--the medium tankers I start with are just 12-knot ships. These are ideal to use with the relatively small port sizes in Borneo. For now I'm sending it to Babeldoab, which is serving as a hub for small, inefficient tankers to move oil to--it's a more efficient ship to bring that home to Japan from the larger base. Once I get more they'll probably serve mostly Balikpapan and Tarakan.

[Molon Labe]

27 March 1942
Japanese subs getting on the board again after some frustrations

Western Australian Coast
I-166 torpedoed and sank the destroyer McCall off Perth.


Hawaii and West Coast
I-1 hit a cargo ship with 3 torpedoes south of Hawaii, sinking it from under the nose of at least one escorting destroyer.

At this point it seems likely the Yorktown has escaped again. I had two subs chasing it from Hawaii, they did catch up with her battle group a few days ago but haven't regained contact. The two up ahead tried to collapse in closer to San Fransisco on the assumption that she changed course and would approach from a different direction, but that just put them in easy range to be tracked by enemy ASW assets.


China
I'm letting one of my bomber squadrons attack Sian's airbase instead of just hitting their troops because recon says the enemy has a lot of bombers based there. We got one SB-III on the ground. We're starting to cause light-moderate casualties on the ground too.


Reinforcements
1st Ku S-1 arrives at Maloelap - Fighters for the Marshalls. Sadly initially equipped with Claudes, so I have to ship them off to Guadalcanal to transition them to Zeroes, then fly them back.

[Molon Labe]

28 March 1942
Nanyang stack defeated for a third time, massive enemy casualties; we lose an oiler in the Solomon Sea

SOPAC
I detached 2 oilers from the KB's replenishment group at Rabaul to deliver some badly needed fuel to Noumea. While moving past Rossel Island in the Solomon Sea, the KXVI put two torpedoes into one of them, setting it ablaze and to the bottom. That the second AO loss of the war, and these remain the most valuable ships he's taken out.


China
Our main force in the north-central area had pulled back from Sian to deal with the Nanyang stack, which was back on the road, cutting our supply lines to Sian. But of course, these guys having just recently been defeated were at a fraction of their former strength, and probably with severe morale and fatigue penalties. So I didn't mind hitting them again. Casualties were 3125 to 15,908, favoring me of course (10 destroyed devices to 1607). This seems like a serious error to me... the only cost of this to me is that it's slowed me down by about 4 days and expended some supply. For him, this is 12 corps that are probably never going to be near full combat strength again, along with about a carrier and a half's worth of victory points to me. If he's able to get me to completely destroy them, they'll regenerate with 1/3 of their normal power--such is the advantage given to the Chinese. But I can probably avoid doing that.


Reinforcements/Refits
Two Kamikaze class DDs have completed their March upgrades at Saigon and are being assigned to escort oilers supporting the Ceylon operation (see tomorrow).



29 March 1942
HMS Enterprise crippled south of Ceylon as invasion task force passes by

Bay of Bengal
I've been a little coy about what's going on in the Indian Ocean for OPSEC, but there's no longer any need for secrecy: I'm invading Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The operation is a bit of a rush job as when I was staging my forces I remembered that the amphibious unload bonus that Japan gets goes away at the end of March, so it's been a rush to get to the beaches of Trincomalee with at least enough to secure a beachhead to safely deliver follow-on troops.

Our task force unzipped its fly today by attacking HMS Enterprise south of Ceylon with Kates from the CVE/CVLs escorting the transports. Enterprise was hit by a torpedo and 4 bombs and is not expected to survive the night. It appears the cruiser was escorting cargo ships in the area. We also launched an airstrike against a minesweeper spotted in Trincomalee itself, which created a bit of a fight: 10 Zeroes vs 8 Hurricanes. We traded 1 fighter each, but the Hurricanes managed to get to the Kates after they sank the minesweeper and shot down 3 of the 4.


SOPAC
An Ann claimed another hit on a sub near Noumea. If half these reports are true, Brisbane and Sydney should be really busy.


Reinforcements
6th Ku S-1 arrives at Chiba - nice. This is a 45-aircraft fighter unit, ideal for training. Filling them up with Claudes and rookie pilots.

[Molon Labe]

30 March 1942
Battle of Bengal Bay, day 2


SOPAC
Six B-26s attacked my airbase in Port Moresby, causing moderate facility damage. I did not have any fighters protecting it. To stop him from disabling the airbase, I'm moving in a small detachment of Zeroes.


China
Medium bomber raids on Sian caused light casualties on the ground and destroyed an SB-III bomber. I lost one Lily to flak.


Bay of Bengal
The British began their attacks against my task forces as they began landing in Trincomalee. The first wave was six Swordfish and six Vildebeest torpedo bombers escorted by 22 Hurricanes. They were opposed by 21 Zeroes, which unfortunately did not include the CAPs from the CVLs that were standing off one hex from the coast. We got the better of the Hurricanes, splashing 14 of them without taking any losses, but we failed to reach the torpedo bombers. Flak took care of one Vildebeest, but the other 11 bombers fired their torpedoes at my two CVEs and a transport, resulting in a hit on the CVE Taiyo.

Next were four Wapiti light bombers, which mostly walked past our CAP thanks to them being busy. We splashed two, the two that got through attacked Hosho and missed.

Wave three was 11 Hudson IIIa medium bombers coming in at 1000 feet, with 2 Hurricanes. We splashed both fighters and one of the bombers, but the Hudsons managed to get a rare level bombing hit on Taiyo thanks to their low altitude attack. It was only a 250lb bomb, but it achieved critical damage, starting a fire and knocking out flight operations. Taiyo isn't in any danger of sinking, provided we do a better job of protecting her than we have so far.

The aircraft returning from Taiyo diverted to other ships, but some failed to find an available deck, resulting in 4 Zeroes and 3 Kates ditching.

In the afternoon, 10 of the surviving 11 torpedo bombers returned for another attack, but due to enemy fighter losses they only had 4 Hurricanes escorting them. Our CAP was now just 13 fighters, but that was still enough to wipe out the entire raid except for one lucky Hurricane. 8 Hudsons also made a second attack, selecting a destroyer and a cargo ship, but missed. The CVEs got four new aces today.

As for the landing, it got a little messy. They had significant 6" coastal batteries, which scored hits on two cruisers, a destroyer, and three transports. Two of the transports have major fires and won't survive the night. However, troop casualties were light, and we got most of them ashore quickly. It looks like we have overwhelming force and should take this base without a problem. I'll also be able to add a battleship to the task force that landed already and to the other that's about to land, overnight. The BBs will hopefully suppress the enemy batteries better than the cruisers did as well as attract their fire.


Reinforcements
DD Kazegumo arrives at Port Arthur - top of the line destroyer, sending to Truk to be assigned to the Kido Butai.

[Molon Labe]

31 March 1942
Battle of Bengal Bay, day 3: Allies suffer worst single-day aircraft loss since 7 December.

Bay of Bengal
The combat between my 'phibs and the coastal batteries continued before the BB joined the task force. Two more transports were damaged, with three then ablaze--and as expected, two sank by morning. A second amphibious task force arrived; the coastal batteries got hits on a cruiser four destroyers, and a cargo ship. Further offshore, HMS Truant intercepted yet another amphibious task force and put two torpedoes into a cargo ship, sinking it with about a third of the base force intended for Colombo.


Inbound for a bombardment run against Colombo, the Ise and Hyuga ran into a minesweeper and sank it.





Daybreak brought with it a flurry of enemy air raids, mostly by medium bombers, and the RAF would fare quite poorly. With the exception of the Unyo, which was just arriving, my carriers were completely defensive, their Kates on ASW patrol and their Zeroes ready to defend the landing area. A total of 7 waves of Blenheims and Hudsons attacked my task forces, most of which targeted my heavy covering task force, which had only 10 Zeroes protecting it. This worked out in my favor as the level bombers just aren't that accurate against ships, so it wasn't a big deal that many got through. They scored no hits. We shot down 7 Blenheims and 5 Hudsons.

We reacquired HMS Enterprise just outside Colombo; a Unyo sent a small strike of 5 Kates with 6 Zero escorts went after her, running into 8 Hurricanes protecting her. Each side lost 2 fighters, Enterprise took 2 more bomb hits.

We also spotted an enemy CVBG approaching from the southwest. Unyo launched an ill-advised strike of just 3 Zeroes and 5 Kates. There were 16 Martlets (Wildcats) on patrol. We got one of the Martlets but failed to keep them away from the bombers; 4 Kates were shot down. The single surviving Kate tried to bomb HMS Formidable but missed.

Formidable launched its own strike, 12 Albacores apparently at maximum range and without escorts (probably because we were too far for the assigned escorts). They went after the main force where they faced a wall of 44 Zeroes. 3 bombers managed to make bombing attacks on CVLs Shoho and Zuiho, but all missed. And none of them made it home.

Finally, to close the day out, our forces took the enemy base rather easily, and I was shocked to find out that most of the medium bombers were in fact coming from this base rather than Columbo. The enemy's loss of the base destroyed an estimated

35 Blenheims, 20 Hurricanes, 1-2 Waipitis, and 1-2 Vildebeest--a serious blow to any further capacity of the Brits to resist this invasion.

West Australian Coast
Enemy minesweepers got to work on a sub-laid minefield at Perth.

I've deployed a surface combat task force of 3 CL and 1 DD to this area to see if I can poach some ASW ships. And we did get a PG, plus a pair of AKLs. No retaliatory airstrikes.
One of my subs joined in on the action and sank an AKL of its own near Carnarvon.


SOPAC
After a long absence, B-17s made an appearance at Noumea--10 of them making an attack on the port. We had 11 Zeroes on CAP and ended up trading one of theirs for one of mine. The bombers succeeded in hitting the battleship Mutsu once and an AMC once. Nothing too serious.


Withdrawals
Four fighter squadrons are due for withdrawal today:
Komatsushima Ku T-1 - 20 floatplanes, will be withdrawn
Komatsushima Ku T-2 - 20 floatplanes, will be withdrawn
Sasebo Ku S-1 - Nate training squadron, withdrawn
4th Ku S-1 - Zeroes in the Marshalls, reluctantly withdrawn. A recent arrival will take their place.

[Molon Labe]

1 April 1942
Battle of Bengal Bay day 4: HMS Formidable, HMS Resolution crippled by Kate strikes; land battle for Sian begins


Western Australian Coast
My hunter-killer group sank a minesweeper off Carnarvon. I think I'll give these guys one more day and then pack it in. Recon says there's a heavy cruiser in Perth, which I doubt, but I'd rather not chance it.


Bay of Bengal
Overnight, the I-29 torpedoed and sank a fuel-laden cargo ship outside Diego Garcia--unfortunately blowing most of its torpedoes in the process due to poor accuracy, followed by overkill (4 hits). This sufficiently confirms that Diego Garcia was the point of origin for the enemy task forces trying to stop my invasion. My tripwire subs were watching here but just didn't spot them.


The Ise and Hyuga reached Columbo. An escorting destroyer spotted a mine and blew it up, but that was the extent of the resistance they faced. We shelled the base from 26k yards out, staying safely out of range of shore batteries and not encountering any other mines. Estimated enemy losses: 4 Hurricanes, 4 Blenheims, 2 Hudsons. Not a great result but after the massive haul we took last turn it makes sense that there wouldn't be much here to blow up.

While I was in defensive mode last turn to absorb the enemy's air attacks, this turn I intended to go on offense. The 3 CVEs would guard the phibs, with help from an Oscar squadron that I moved into Trincomalee. The BBs that tried to support the phibs formed up with some destroyers to act as a covering force, as I'd detected a few cruisers to the north at Madras that might try to come down. But now my CVLs formed up with the Hiryu and the main heavy covering force (led by fast battleships Haruna and Kongo) to advance on the Formidable.

Not having disabled the Columbo airbase, they launched several strikes. Against the raids targeting my offensive task forces, we splashed 5 Hurricanes and 11 Blenheims with no losses. And the strikes targeting my 'phibs lost 2 Hurricanes and 7 Blenheims.




In a move I'm still confused about, the enemy task forces did not abort their attack after yesterday's beatdown, instead they moved east as if to box me in. As you can see from the direction I advanced, I was expecting a retreat, perhaps back to Diego Garcia to disengage completely, or to Columbo to get extra protection from land-based Hurricanes (hence why I shelled Columbo). By moving east, he failed to put himself in range of my phibs, while keeping himself in range of my CVBG and also getting into strike range from Port Blair.

As for Port Blair, he got lucky there. A Betty strike did launch, but they failed to find the enemy. My CVBG was not so unlucky. One small strike of just 5 Kates attacked the Resolution--which appears to be off on its own--and hit it with 3 torpedoes. The ship doesn't appear to be in danger of sinking from this, but between the size of the ship, the amount of damage, or the relatively low quality of repair shipyards in this theatre, I think she's out of action for at least a year. We then had two waves of attacks against the Formidable CVBG. The first was 19 Zeroes escorting 14 Kates, opposed by 10 Martlets. The Martlets never got to the bombers, two were shot down trying. We got 2 torpedo hits on Formidable, knocking her out of flight operations. Wave 2 was 31 Kates with 14 Zeroes. Despite the greater size, we managed only 1 torpedo and 1 bomb hit on Formidable, plus a torpedo hit on the cruiser Hobart. Between both waves, we lost 2 Kates to flak. Resolution also had to face a strike from the Hiryu's 18 Vals--we got 9 hits but failed to get anything through her armor. We did at least knock out a few gun mounts, which is sure to keep her in the shipyards even longer should she manage to escape.

Formidable managed to launch 3 Albacore at my CVBG before she was knocked out--probably all she had left after yesterday. They were wiped out, although one did reach the Zuiho for a failed bombing attack. The CVBG also faced a few waves of unescorted Hudsons and Blenheims--we shot down 2 Hudsons and 8 Blenheims with no losses and no hits on any ships.

A third cargo ship succumbed to its damage at Trincomalee.



Burma
As recon had recently spotted enemy fighters, cruisers, and transports in Rangoon, I restarted Oscar sweeps. We were outnumbered 13 to 12 (and then 3 to 2), but shot down 6 without taking losses. That kind of success against Hurricanes makes me think he's having training/quality problems.


China
With the road between Nanyang and Sian clear of the enemy (for now), I began my attack on Sian. Our unadjusted assault odds are just under 2 to 1. Our attack reduced the fort level to 3 (so presumably it was at least 4), we acheived adjusted assault odds of just over 1 to 1, and casualties were 1247 devices destroyed/disabled for me and 1335 for him. I'd consider this a very good result as the casualties will skew my way the more the forts come down. I believe the fort reduction will probably help my bombers wear them down as well. Sian is going to cost us, but it's a major prize, so I find these casualties to be acceptable.

I have suffered an operational level defeat, though. I had three units working their way up the north extremes of China, trying to secure small, relatively unprotected oil-producing bases. I was stopped at Hami, and I have insufficient forces to break through. So, they are turning back, and we probably won't be back until after Sian and other nearby bases fall.


Sumatra
I've reinforced my forces in the northwest and have resumed offensive operations there.