21 February 1942

Bay of Bengal and Burma
Our subs took out another AKL off the Columbo coast overnight.

Oscars made a low altitude attack on an HDML outside Rangoon, shooting down one Buffalo sent to intercept them and likely sinking the HDML with a bomb hit.


China
In the southeast, I'm starting to put some pressure on Liuchow just in case there is going to be a counteroffensive down here. That opened with a sweep by Oscars opposed by 4 Hawk 75M fighters. We got 2 of them, no losses. Meanwhile our army is headed northeast toward Kukong, away from the army that had been blocking us that is now retreating west towards Liuchow. A pair of I-15 fighters appeared over the Nanyang stack, but no shootdowns resulted.

We made a deliberate attack on the Nanyang stack, getting the familiar result of relatively even casualties, but with device destruction heavily skewed in our favor. The stack once had 150k troops reported; in this combat they were down to 68k, so those destroyed devices are clearly adding up. Or maybe a few units quietly retreated. In any case, it's a slog, but it's a slog we're winning.

Much further northwest, way up the roads leading away from Sian, we took Kiuchuan away from its meager garrison. There are some minor bases with some oil/resources worth capturing up here, and I'm hoping to accomplish that with a token force--2 cavalry brigades and an armored car company. We'll see how far I get.



SOPAC
Our now-regular sweep of Efate downed 2 of 5 P-40s, no losses. No joy over Noumea.

The allegedly crippled I-172, transiting near Horn Island on its way home for repairs, encountered an AKL and sank her with a torpedo attack.

An Ann light bomber claimed a hit on a Dutch sub outside Port Moresby.


Java
An Oscar sweep of Bandoeng downed a single B-339 of 2 defending. meanwhile a strike on Surabaya was unopposed and destroyed at least one more Buffalo on the ground and damaging several more aircraft.


Reinforcements
15th Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Osaka/Kyoto
41st JNAF AF Unit arrives at Tokyo

22 February 1942
Noumea Captured

Sumatra
I tried to break through the blocking force near Medan by shelling it with a pair of heavy cruisers and attacking immediately to capitalize on the disruption, but they held us off anyways.


Java
The east prong of my invasion forces is getting close. Probably still 2 days off. West prong a day behind.

We swept and bombed Tjilatjap as it appeared that was now where the enemy air forces were concentrated. The sweep downed 5 of 8 Buffalo on CAP with no losses. The strike destroyed a pair of Vildebeests on the ground while damaging several medium bombers. Looks like I picked the right target this time.



Burma
I resumed strikes on Rangoon, this time targeting their airbase. The main goal is to try to prevent further fortification. I'm not sure it's going to be worth it.... We lost an Oscar and a Sally to the CAP, and another Sally to flak. No victories. Very slight damage to the base.

The enemy made a strike of his own, 3 unescorted Blenheims to Rahaeng, where they were intercepted by 4 Tojos that shot all 3 of them down.




SOPAC
Resistance to our sweeps was down to a single P-40 in Efate, which managed to escape.

Our pair of divisions was no match for Noumea's garrison, which had apparently not been reinforced with anything significant. Just 2 base forces and 3 artillery units in addition to the basic garrison. As a bonus, the S-34 was scuttled in port. I'm moving to exploit this as quickly as possible, I've already had a pair of destroyers trying to sanitize Luganville; a task force is headed there to move construction engineers from there to Noumea. I've also got an AirHQ rebasing from Lunga to Luganville; they'll bump to Noumea as soon as the airbase is big enough. For now, the invasion forces included enough aviation support to base Zeroes there for their own protection and to support some scoutplanes.

Fuel is a little bit of an issue, my oilers are close to empty from sustaining this. I've got some help running small tankers to Lunga, and I also had a pair of my oilers leave station to fill back up at Rabaul, they should be back in the main TF in another day. Should be enough to gas the KB back up for its next assignment.



Philippines
We captured Baybay in the central islands. As far as I know, those are the last troops outside Bataan. There are still several bases officially in American hands, but I believe they're unprotected.


Reinforcements
39th JNAF AF Unit arrives at Tokyo

Going to be interesting following you, to see if you can do what Japan couldn't - win the war.

Markus

23 February 1942
KIX sinks one of the Kido Butai's oilers, and the Lexington and Enterprise raid the Marshalls


SOPAC
Remember that pair of oilers I sent to Rabaul to top off and then rejoin the replenishment group? The KIX intercepted them on the way back, hitting the Toho Maru with a single torpedo, but that's all that's needed when the ship is a huge tub of highly flammable liquid. That's the most valuable ship he's sunk so far in the war. Operationally, I don't think it matters--the replenishment group is rather large and wasn't empty, and it now includes one ship that's 100% full. But I won't be trying to shuttle these off on their own; after I refuel the KB, the whole task force is going back to Rabaul to fill up.

As for the KB, I was sending it around Noumea to the south, but Kates spotted 3 submarines in her path. And that's just what I see, there are probably more. So I'm going to head north first... quicker to refuel that way anyway.

3 Banshees escorted by a single P-40 attempted an attack on my ships picking up construction units from Luganville. We wiped them out. A few B-17s followed that up, one of them took down a Zero, while flak got one of the bombers. The first wave of B-17s came in at 5000 feet, violating a house rule giving most 4-engine bombers a hard deck of 10k feet for naval attacks. (I should probably mention that to my opponent now that I remember.)


China
A single I-15 somehow managed to shoot down a pair of Oscars over the Sinyang stack. The way his air war is going, I hope they give that guy a medal.

A deliberate attack on Wenchow, with pretty much all available reinforcements now contributing, failed to overcome the garrison. But as we often see, the enemy had many more squads destroyed than I did even though total casualties looked even or in his favor. So I'm willing to try again after resting.

Near Nanchang, we took our last swing at the retreating 7th and 84th Corps, inflicting 129 destroyed devices at them as they fled to the other side of the Gan River.



CENTPAC
Taking advantage of knowing the KB is deployed well southwest of the Marshalls, Enterprise and Lexington reappeared, attacking an ASW patrol and the airbase at Maloelap. The naval attack sank 2 of 3 PBs in an ASW task force, while the attack on was mostly ineffective, causing moderate facility damage but completely missing the Claudes and Mavises based there.


Java
D-day -1. We bombed Tjilatjap, destroying another medium bomber on the ground. On the east side of Java, Betties found a minesweeper to attack and blow up, and another was destroyed by a sub lurking of Denpasar.

Despite the several raids targeting their airbases, the enemy managed to spot one of my trailing invasion task forces and sent 7 medium bombers after it. Because this group hadn't caught up with the main force yet, it did not have fighter cover. But, the bombers missed. The fact that both main invasion forces will be landing tomorrow but have not yet been detected speaks volumes about the current state of the Dutch Air Force.


Industry
The Devilish Mr. Lodrik stopped by my subchannel on Jochen Heiden's discord to chat about the Marshalls raid. Eventually we talked about my industry status and he pointed out an error that in hindsight seems rather obvious. It's a little in the weeds if you haven't managed Japan's economy in WITP, but the short version is that my R&D plan for Zeroes was suboptimal due to my error. It's too late to truly fix anything but I did make an adjustment to try to make it a little better. At least I know for next time.


Repairs and Reinforcements
Repair of the I-1 has completed, she's headed back to her old station near Hawaii.
Yokohama Ku T-1 Det arrives at Yokohama/Yokosuka - a pair of Emily flying boats, I sent them to Wake to spy on shipping lanes near Midway
45th I.F.Chutai arrives at Keijo - 12 Idas; training squadron

24 February 1942
Lexington/Enterprise CVBG raids Marshalls for a second day; Java invaded; Bataan falls

Java
Landings began at both sides of Java. In the west, one of our cargo ships hit a mine causing moderate damage. In the east, we flushed out a minesweeper that was sunk by our covering force. Both groups came under air attack, and both groups had Oscars circling overhead waiting for them. In the west, the enemy lost 11 CW-22s, 5 139WH-1s, plus one more 139W and a Vildebeest to flak. In the east, our air cover was less effective, shooting down a T.IVa, while several 139WH-1s got through, one of which was shot down by flak, but another scored a hit on a cargo ship and sank it.


Marshalls
The CVBG detached CA Chester and CL Danae to shell Kwajelein, the main port of the Marshalls... but I evacuated it the previous turn, so they did little damage. For their trouble, coastal batteries pounded both ships, probably causing moderate damage.

The Lex and Enterprise sent their bombers to pound Maloelap and Wotje, and again the damage was unimpressive. The Mavises had been evacuated, but we still had 9 Claudes at Maloelap which again went unharmed--perhaps because they tried to escort a flight of Nells out of Roi, which failed to find the enemy CVBG. Both bases suffered light facility damage.


Philippines
We attacked Bataan and the holdouts surrendered. That's 17,514 to the POW camps. My forces here did not lose a lot of strength; I'll let them rest a bit at Manila while we clear out the mines and then ship them to another theatre.


Reinforcement
SS I-29 arrives at Port Arthur - assigned to Indian Ocean

25 February 1942
Lexington and Enterprise vanish, but Yorktown now raiding Wake; the last stand of the Dutch Air Force


Java
https://i.ibb.co/nktxwM2/1942-2-25-Java.png

The destroyer-minesweepers I brought with the western invasion force got to work on the minefield they landed inside, clearing 40 mines.

The Dutch Air Force hit us with pretty much everything they could today, which wasn't much. They did manage to slip in some medium bombers in on the west force, low under our fighters, scoring a hit on a cargo ship. But we absolutely dismantled their other raids, wiping out a raid of 6 Vildebeests and a Buffalo, and shooting down another 3 139WH-1 and 3 T.IVas.
We captured both our landing areas, Banjoewangi and Kalidjati, destroying 11 FK-51s and 11 L-212s at Kalidjati, which presumably were too damaged to evacuate. Total air losses for today across all theatres were 5 to 41.


Bay of Bengal/Burma
I-123 took a serious depth charge hit from a minesweeper off Columbo.
We shot down a single Hurricane raiding Rangoon's airbase. Damage on the ground was minimal.


SOPAC
I ordered my two commerce raider AMCs to rendezvous east of the Solomons to begin a patrol to the south to try to find merchant lanes to then send my subs after. One departed Guadalcanal and was immediately torpedoed by the Gato, so it turned right back around to attend to damage control in port.

The KB and its covering force are fully refueled, and the replenishment group is now headed for Luganville to give the rest of its cargo to my amphibious shuttle operation to Noumea before heading back to Rabaul to top off.



China
In the north central region, I noticed a concentration of fighters at Yenan and became worried they might try to CAP trap my bombers. To try to preempt this, I pulled a few fighters off escort duty to sweep the base, which reduced the enemy fighter force by 3 with no losses.

Meanwhile, the Nanyang stack looks like it wants to retreat, but my armored force is blocking the road to the west, leaving them trying to off-road through the mountains as their only choice. I'm going to attack next turn, but if it fails I think I'll just let them. They'll be effectively immobilized, isolated from supply, and building up fatigue if they do this, leaving me free to make an attempt at Sian and then come back for them when they're even more worn down.


CENTPAC
We no longer hold contact on the Lex and Enterprise; I can only assume the left headed east at full speed. But now the Yorktown has shown up, raiding Wake's airbase with SBDs, causing light damage. It's a bit harder to evacuate here because I don't have much fighter/bomber coverage to retreat behind. I had 3 submarines in reserve in the Marshalls that I sent after the first CVBG, I'm going to try to have them swing north now to try to get in the Yorktown's path if she returns to Pearl.

26 February 1942
USS Yorktown survives Nell attack from Roi

SOPAC
A destroyer-minesweeper cleared 10 mines out of Noumea, and that might be all there was.


Java
A Dutch sub tried to attack a retiring amphibous task force headed back to Singapore, but our PBs got the better of it, dealing moderate depth charge damage.

I hit Bandoeng with a Sally strike, expecting this to be the main holdout area in the west (or maybe Batavia); escorting Zeroes took out one Buffalo on CAP.

Southwest of Java, an RO-class sub destroyed a minesweeper at Christmas Island.


Burma and Bay of Bengal
The I-28 sank a cargo ship off Sri Lanka with 3 torpedo hits.


CENTPAC
Yorktown hit Wake again with a port strike with VS-5, causing light facility damage. All ships had been evacuated. But then a flight of Nells arrived from Roi-Namur in the Marshalls, 14 of them escorted by 19 Zeroes. Yorktown had 10 Wildcats on patrol. We each lost a fighter in the intercept, with each side apparently losing one more fighter to damage after the fight. The Nells all got through unmolested by the F4Fs. I was a little surprised to see old, slow battleships in company with the Yorktown, but Idaho and New Mexico were here, and the Nells divided their attention rather evenly between the 3 capital ships, hitting New Mexico twice and Idaho and Yorktown once each. There were no secondary explosions or major fires breaking out, so all 3 ships appear to be "fine", although they'll certainly require lengthy repairs.


China
I took another swing at the Nanyang stack, and the result yet again was a lack of breakthrough with disproportionately high device destruction for the enemy. The enemy is now only about 1/4 my strength here.

I also made an attack at Wenchow, and this is going to be the last for awhile. We just had the last available reinforcement for awhile join the attack, and we only managed 1-to-2 adjusted assault strength ratio, which simply isn't going to be enough to make the budge. I'll come back later if something gets freed up. For now, my forces are headed back to a base I control to try to heal up.

27 February 1942
Lost contact on Yorktown CVBG

Burma and Bay of Bengal
I-164 sank another cargo ship off the tip of India as the feeding frenzy continues. A raid on Rangoon resulted in a Hurricane shot down, while minimal damage inflicted on the airbase.

Java and Banda Sea
An air raid on Tjilatjap shot down a defending Buffalo while doing light damage to the airbase. We've got a decent sized force now in Bandeong but probably not enough to defeat the defenders just yet. I'm bypassing the base with some armor to the east to take some relatively undefended looking airbases off the table. I'm also sending another infantry force to the west of Bandeong just to cut it off from Batavia. No need to rush.

A Jake flying out of Ambon claimed a hit on a submarine.


CENTPAC
I was hoping Yorktown's flooding would reduce her speed enough that we'd still see her today, but no such luck.

I'm redeploying the bulk of my subs around Pearl to guard the western approaches. I expect her to arrive between 5 and 10 March. If she tries to go straight home, it might not work out well for her.


Reinforcements
SS I-30 arrives at Port Arthur

28 February 1942

SOPAC
Have I mentioned I'm going to turn the Australian coast into a sea of fire? I don't think I have. Anyways, that's the KB's current assignment, and we're getting close to our station from which to bomb Melbourne and Sydney. Slight problem: I also have a pair of midget sub carriers and an aircraft-carrying sub standing by to try to attack Sydney's port (the floatplane was supposed to tell me if Sydney's harbor had anything worth attacking, but got shot down by CAP on its first flight, so since then the SSXs are waiting on my carriers to tell them when to attack Sydney). These guys got spotted and are being harassed by at least 3 ASW vessels now, enough that I need to move them to evade. The KB is going to pass close enough to this patrol area to attack them--which I DON'T want, because the more surprise I'm able to get when I attack, the less fighters I'm likely to encounter. So I'm actually restricting my bomber's attack range to prevent an airstrike on these guys. Sorry subs, you're on your own for at least another turn.


Burma and Bay of Bengal
One of those 4 subs returning to base was damaged off Calcutta this turn. I-158 was engaged by a highly accurate depth charge attack by the PG Lawrence. I'll try to remember that little ship is a problem.

Philippines
A minesweeper arrived at Bataan and cleared 40 mines. Might be a lot more.

CENTPAC
One of my submarines shifting patrol areas to intercept Yorktown got spotted an attacked, sustaining a solid pattern hit. So she's RTB... Allied ASW skill is improving; I now have 4 subs returning to base due to depth charge damage and at least 2 currently under repair.

Java and Banda Sea
Pretty quiet as our troops advanced without resistance. A flight of 3 139WH-3 tried to bomb our eastern amphibious task forces; one was shot down and the others aborted the mission.

Another claim of a hit on a sub outside Ambon, this time by an Ann light bomber. Probably not the same one as yesterday, since the Jakes and Anns have different patrol areas.


Reinforcements, upgrades, and withdrawals
Hong Kong Det disbands
47th Naval Guard Unit arrives at Tokyo
44th JNAF AF Unit arrives at Tokyo

March upgrades will include lengthy refits for the Takao class heavy cruisers, which are getting their AA mounts and depth charges upgraded. I'll be sending 2 for upgrades right away while the 3rd waits a month for the first two to complete. The Tomozuru-class torpedo boats will be converted to kaibokans, a 45-day evolution that will double both their AA and ASW ratings. I'm sending all 4 for the full upgrades immediately. Lastly, many of my subchasers will be upgraded to carry deep-water depth charges, which will take 2 weeks. This is a critical upgrade and I think I'm sending about 2/3 of them to have it done immediately.

1 March 1942
Straight-line ambush for Yorktown

SOPAC
AP Hugh L. Scott was spotted moving south down the Australian coast near Newcastle and hit with a torpedo by I-25, but the torpedo failed to detonate. The ship is already crippled, presumably from the raids on Cairns, and is probably limping to Brisbane for repairs. Hopefully I'll finish her off, that's a valuable transport.


CENTPAC
I-24 sank an ACM near Lihue with gunfire.


https://i.ibb.co/g7m6YpH/1942-3-2.png
Our floatplane carrying subs spotted the Yorktown approaching Pearl on what appears to be a straight-east line. So, I'm lining up 9 subs between Yorktown and Pearl on that direct course.


China
We lost an Oscar to an I-15 over the Nanyang stack. Pretty amazing these obsolete fighters are taking on Oscars in greater numbers and not just getting blasted.

A bit north of Hong Kong, we attacked Kukong, with light casualties inflicted on the enemy while sustaining negligible casualties. We should be able to win here.


Java
Splashed a Buffalo over Bandoeng. 3 139WH-3 bombers attacked our tanks outside Tjilatjap, no damage. 9 Falcon light bombers tried to attack our forces at Bandoeng, we shot down 5 of them. No bombers reached their targets.

2 March 1942
Yorktown turns north to avoid ambush, raid on southeastern Australia begins


China
That pesky I-15 took advantage of some bad coordination and got to my bombers near Nanyang, shooting down a Sally.


Java
He tried to hit my troops at Bandoeng with Falcons again, we shot down 1, the rest ran. A pair of 139WHs followed that up, we splashed them both. A raid on our forces on the east side cost them a Buffalo.


SOPAC
The KB took station off the southeast corner of Australia and launched sweeps of Melbourne and Sydney. We had no joy at Melbourne, while encountering 23 P-40s protecting Sydney. We shot down 10 of them while losing 1 Zero. The enemy also sent waves of B-26s and B-17s after me, losing 3 B-17s and 7 B-26s to our CAP and another 3 B-26s to flak. This took a toll on our fighters though, with no shootdowns in combat but 4 Zeroes not making it back to the carriers or being scrapped due to battle damage.


CENTPAC
Yorktown was spotted again, but well north of its reported east trajectory to Pearl. Apparently he took notice that his CVBG had a detection level and responded. This puts about half my subs out of position for an intercept, making adjustments for the rest. But he now has a smaller amount of space to sanitize.



Reinforcements
10th Garrison Unit arrives at Nagoya
The Marshalls' fighter squadron has converted from Claudes to Zeroes at Guadalcanal. They'll fly back to their home base in about 3 days.

3 March 1942
Australia industry raid


CENTPAC
No luck ambushing Yorktown on the second possible day. She's only a few hexes away now, we've got maybe 2 boats in position and they have a lot of ASW patrols.


SOPAC
With yesterday's sweeps confirming the amount of enemy resistance is low enough to proceed with strategic bombing, I attacked Melbourne with 89 Kates and 90 Vals, targeting "manpower" sites, which yielding 61 hits and a firestorm level of 26946. This earned 320 victory points as the fires damaged/destroyed light industry in the hex. I lost 6 Vals to flak. 9 Kates and 9 Vals went after a small surface task force including 2 cruisers and a destroyer at the adjacent hex, Geelong, the Vals scoring 3 hits on the Achilles and 1 hit on the destroyer Vampire. 7 more Kates peeled off to sink a minesweeper south of the task force.

A Jake flying off a battleship near Noumea claimed a hit on a submarine.


Java
We made an armored attempt on Tjilatjap, reducing fortifications but not taking the base just yet.


China
Yet another attempt on the Nanyang stack. Same result (he's taking way more squad destruction casualties), so it's working for me...just working slowly.

We captured Kukong.

4 March 1942

Java and Banda Sea
An American sub picked off an AKL near Ambon.


CENTPAC
Safe to say the Yorktown has arrived at Pearl at this point, we do not hold contact.

A American seaplane tender was caught trying to set up shop in the Gilberts; Mavises from the Marshalls attacked twice, scoring a hit on the second run.


SOPAC
B-17s attempted a strike on the Mutsu near Nomea, they shot down a Zero but our Zeros got one of them too, flak added a second. And of course they missed the battleship.

Australia strikes were scrubbed by weather. The fires added another 30 or so VP. Strikes today were intended to go after massive numbers of transports and tankers spotted in Melbourne's port, as well as the 2 cruisers in the port next door.


Java
Tjilatjap has been captured, with a loss of at least 5 aircraft on the ground. The tanks are now headed back to Bandoeng. On the east side, we've captured Loemadjang and Malang.

We made an attack on Bandoeng as well, finding level 2 forts and achieving only 1 to 2 assault power ratio--not enough. Hence why the tanks are heading back.

5 March 1942
Melbourne Port Strike

SOPAC
A bad decision on my part: I shelled Melboure with the Hiei and Kirishima. There was a substantial minefield that I should have expected. 2 escorting destoyers and the Kirishima were all hit. Damage on one of the destroyers is pretty bad. The task force destroyed a minesweeper on the way in. The shelling did substantial damage to the airbase, blew up 1-2 Wirraways on the ground, and damaged a tanker, subtender, 2 cargo ships, and a transport. Overall not great.

That was followed up by a port strike of Melbourne, 77 Kates and 34 Vals, damaging 22 different ships, I'd say sinking between 5-10 of those. 15 Vals separately attacked Resources at Sale, scoring 4 hits, which apparently did negligible damage.

6 Wirraways attacked the KB, with 5 being shot down. The survivor tried to drop 2 100-lb bombs on Hiryu and missed. That was followed up by 13 Banshees with 17 P-40 escorts attacking that battleship group. The were out of range of my CAP, so they only lost 1 bomber to flak and scored a hit on Kirishima. Another reason why the bombardment was a bad call.

51 Vals attacked Geelong, scoring single hits on the Dorsetshire and Achilles. Achillies has to be hurt pretty badly by now. 27 Kates made a 2nd run on Melbourne but missed everything due to a storm.

7 Banshees flew a 2nd mission, this time targeting the KB--apparently too far for the P-40s as they came in without escort. We shot down 5 with the CAP and a sixth by flak. One bomber made an attack on Akagi and missed.


Philippines
The minesweeper clearing Bataan was insufficiently careful. I have two DMSs on the way to take her place.

6 March 1942
Heavy losses over Australia

Java and Banda Sea
We lost another AKL to a sub, this time off Koepang. That ship was intended to pick up some SNLF troops to land on Dili.

We got even, picking off an AKL off Darwin.


SOPAC
The American destroyer Porter shelled Ndeni. We really don't have anything there anymore.

Now for the bad news. I divided my attacks up again between Melbourne and Geelong. The Geelong mission was cancelled. I had one squadron of Zeroes escorting each strike, so the Melbourne strike flew with just one squadron of escorts, and the enemy CAP only had to deal with the one package. So that was a 12 Zeroes vs 17 P-40 fight when is should have been something more like two 12 v 8 fights. We shot down 2 P-40s but several made it to the bombers. We lost 12 Kates. We did a second sortie, this time with even numbers between the Zeroes and P-40s, still enough to let a couple P-40s through; 4 more Kates went down.

The strikes hit 5 more ships, with a confirmed sinking of a transport, two other merchants likely to have sunk. Overall I think I sank about a dozen ships between all these strikes. It might be significantly more because there were several loaded tankers that we ignited on day 1 that didn't seem very damaged, but we didn't see them there for the second day.

These losses mean it's time to go, though. I'm also pretty sure the enemy is forming up a wall of subs to greet me on my way out, and the longer I stay the thicker that wall is going to be. I'm heading south around Tasmania while sending the Zeroes back to sweep Melbourne. This should help reduce their numbers a bit so I can hit Sydney on the way out.


China
Another attack on the Nanyang stack, and although we didn't break through this time, we did get the most disproportionate loss ratio so far, with just 7 devices destroyed for us, but 282 of his, and adjusted assault ratio of 1.35 to 1, which is really close to an overrun. The next one might finally do it. On paper, this force is down to 56,000. I think it used to be something like 130k!

7-8 March 1942
Kido Butai picks off evacuating merchants as it repositions for Sydney strike

Unless specifically mentioned, all events were on 7 March (8 March was quite uneventful)


Philippines
The 2 DMSs are hard at work on the Bataan minefield, clearing at least 120 mines between these two days.

Java and Banda Sea
We picked off another AKL near Darwin with a sub.
Anns flying from Ambon claimed two hits on an enemy sub (subs?).


SOPAC
The merchant raider that was not torpedoed upon leaving port encountered an enemy convoy near the Tonga islands. So, some good news, we have a pretty good idea where their supply lines are running. The bad news is this convoy had 2 CLs and 2 ASW ships escorting it. My raider was sunk; we got some hits on empty tankers in the convoy.

Meanwhile, the KB picked up several small task forces at it went around Tasmania to the south.

The resulting airstrikes eliminated 4 AK/AKL, 5 AP, 1 AM, all confirmed.

On 8 March, an attempted SSX attack on Geelong failed, probably due to me using the wrong type of orders. The SSX ran out of fuel and is being recovered by the mothership to return to Noumea for refueling.

Burma
Port strike on Rangoon damaged a cargo ship; might have sunk it.


China
The pesky I-15 presence near the Nanyang stack got another Lily today.
I found another pair of opportunities to change garrison units; it will take weeks but once they arrive it will free up about 350 AV to use offensively in the southern central area.


Reinforcements
CVE Unyo arrived on the 8th. I'm sending a few DD over to bring her to the Marianas, where there are carrier-trained aircraft ready to board her.

9 March 1942

Philippines
Mine clearance operations at Bataan and Manila have completed. Time to start moving troops again.


Gilbert Islands
I sent a small SAG (1 CL, 3 DD) after a bogey that turned out to be a PG. Not sure what he was up to, but he's on the bottom now. One of my destroyers took a hit for moderate damage.


SOPAC
I swept Sydney with 18 Zeroes, opposed by 9 P-40s; we shot down 6 of them and damaged the other 3 with no losses. Strategic bombing to follow.

At Noumea, we lost a pair of Zeroes to 4 B-17s attacking the battleship Yamasihro. No damage to the ship.


Java and Banda Sea
The day before they were due to withdraw, I raided Darwin with a Nell squadron, doing light damage to the port facilities.

10 March 1942

Bay of Bengal and Burma

I-28 torpedoed and sank a minesweeper off the southern coast of Ceylon.
An HDML was spotted near Rangoon; Oscars made a low altitude attack and sank it with small bombs and gunfire.


Gilbert Islands
The SAG that sank the PG yesterday found a PC to sink today out to the east near Baker Island. They snuck up on it in a storm at night and sniped it with a torpedo.


China
The only air to air shootdown of the day was an I-15 getting a Lily over the Nanyang stack that lost its escort.

The enemy now has a significant presence in Kukong; it's safe to call this a counteroffensive at this point. Our garrison is outnumbered 22k to 10k--bad enough that we could lose it. I'm trying to build forts and hope that the combination of wooded terrain (2x defensive bonus) and air support will help us hold.


Java
Our western force made a deliberate attack on Bandoeng, reducing forts to level 1; disablements/destroyed squads favored us, 80 to 181. We should get it soon. The eastern force captured Madioen, along with a significant number of aircraft destoryed on the ground including 18 75A-7 Hawks, 2 CW-21 Demons, and somewhere between 5-8 Buffalos. The base had only a token force defending it.


SOPAC
Vals from the KB picked off a minesweeper near Newcastle. Storms caused the Sydney strike to be scrubbed.

11 March 1942
Strategic bombing of Sydney, Bandeong falls

Indian Ocean and Burma

I-27 torpedoed and sank an ML off the coast of Karachi. Kind of pointless to pick off a small ASW craft when they didn't even know I had a sub up here until now.

We lost 2 Betties bombing Rangoon today, enough that I think it's time to make this an army-only mission. Too little damage to them, too many aircrews being lost.


SOPAC
After the disapointing scrub yesterday, our strike on Sydney flew today; 40 Zeroes escorting 76 Kates and 82 Vals. They had 10 Kittyhawk IA fighters on patrol, one was shot down trying to get past the Zeroes. We lost 2 Vals to flak as our only losses. The raid scored 26 manpower hits, setting off fires with a rating of 16725. At the end of the turn those fires accounted for industrial damage worth 116 victory points.

17 of my Vals went north towards Brisbane where they obliterated an APD that had been harassing my subs. 10 of the Vals scored hits. If I could only have that kind of accuracy for my port strikes.

6 B-17s from (probably) Brisbane went after the KB, followed by 4 Bolos; Zeroes took care of 1 B-17 and all 4 Bolos; flak added another 2 B-17s. No damage to any ships. Another 6 B-17s from Fiji attacked Noumea, losing 2 to the Zeroes on CAP.


Java
I attacked Bandeong again and captured it this time. 488 devices destroyed to 2. That was likely the biggest group of defenders. Surabaya looks weak--I'll be attacking tomorrow and expect to capture it easily. That that pretty much just leaves Batavia.


China
The enemy tried to take back Kukong, forts were reduced to 0 and our casualties were higher at 96 devices disabled/destroyed to 21. That's good enough to take it from me in as little as one more day. I'm adding some bombers to help out but there isn't much I can do. It's of little consequence, especially compared to the slow massacre going on outside Nanyang.

12 March 1942
IJA forces occupy Surabaya, finding it reduced to rubble by retreating Dutch forces; 2nd day of strategic bombing in Sydney

Aleutian Islands
I laid 40 mines at Adak by submarine. This base in going through rapid expansion so there will probably be traffic to hit.


SOPAC
I launched two strategic bombing raids; the first trying to stoke the fires in Sydney a bit more (which might have been mitigated by rain) and another targeting heavy industry. The Sydney raid was 76 Kates and 15 Vals, which scored 31 manpower hits and caused 9107 level fires, dealing 160 VP worth of industry damage. No losses. 61 Vals then targeted Heavy Industry in Newcastle, scoring only 3 hits which disabled 9 HI units--basically negligible damage, they can repair a point per day.


I lost a mini-sub trying to penetrate the harbor at Portsea.


China
We lost an Oscar to an I-15 above the Nanyang stack. We suffered a deliberate attack at Kukong but held it off; the enemy took more disablements but we had more squads destroyed, which basically means they can get us if they're patient.


Java
A flight of 9 Do-24s tried to attack Kalidjata, our western landing area. They were mostly routed by Oscars on defense, with 1 being shot down.

We then attacked Surabaya with 2+ divisions, taking it easily. The capture destroyed 11 Do-24s, 3 T.IVas, and 2 Buffalos. However, the base was completely demolished by the enemy's engineers.

All 80 Resource, 190 Oil, 10 HI, 170 Refinery, and 40 LI damaged were captured in a damaged state, while the shipyard had 1 unit of 8 functioning. The port is also trashed, but that might have been my doing.