January 8, 1942
Soryu changes places with the CVLBG, Shokaku and Zuikaku still out there somewhere

Hawaii
I think the success of the PT squadron at Pearl is at an end. They got lucky and ran into two unescorted AKs on the way to Lahaina, sinking one for sure. I was annoyed with the commander for firing their torpedoes at such long range, only one boat still had torpedoes left after this. They then met an ARG at Lahaina, escorted by Kaibokans and PBs. They pressed the attack to make sure the last boat could shoot its torpedoes...and missed. They got close enough to cripple a PB with .50cal fire and set a cargo ship on fire. The cost of this was two boats sunk by Kaibokans. A destroyer detachment responded to this and sank two more. The PTs, having been cut off from Pearl last turn, and now in 3 combat actions this turn, ran out of fuel.

Sacrifices to Neptune continued with the offering of five midgets. Three destroyer minesweepers were also thrown into the fray, clearing 62 mines before my coastal batteries took care of them. The DMSs actually degraded the minefield significantly. I'm ordering one of my tenders to replace some of them. If that draws an airstrike and I lose the tender, the remaining tenders will be able to manage the mines that are left.

Dutch East Indies
I was wrong about that being the Soryu the moved into Celebes. I'm fairly sure it was the Soryu that hit the Jolo evac group (the damaged AP from that group sank at harbor today, by the way...fires were never brought under control). But the task force moving into the Celebes now is the CVLBG, less the Zuiho (which was hit by a torpedo last time it was here). Attempting a repeat of recent history, the Dutch sub KIX (the same boat that torpedoed the Zuiho) hit the Shoho as it entered the Makassar Strati. But this time, the torpedo did not detonate. Force composition is: CVL Ryujo, CVE Hosho, CS Chiyoda, 4 CA, 10 DD.

Zeroes from the CVLBG strafed the retreating PTs again, but were much more effective than last turn, 3 were damaged at least one pretty badly. Possibly because they aren't the same planes.

Fortunately, the strafing mission kept them away from the carriers when my airstrike came. But unfortunately, Balikpapan does not have an AirHQ and does not organize strikes very well. So we only got 4 of 9 medium bombers in the air, and the light bombers never found the target. The fighter battle was even, 12 Claudes against 11 Demons and a Buffalo. We shot down 3 Claudes, and they got one bomber. The rest tried to bomb the Ryujo but missed. We tried again in the afternoon, the bombers got through again, missed again, and AA shot one more down.

The CVLBG is hugging the east coast of the strait and continued past Balikpapan. My read is that it's going to support further landings in the Ceram Sea area. As for the Soryu, I've lost track of it for now. Supporting landings in the Phillipines makes a lot of sense, so I'm not convinced it's gone. I also wouldn't be surprised if it met up with the missing Shokaku and Zuikaku and showed up in the Solomons, now that he knows I have a bunch of cruisers there.

The S-40 torpedoed a Toho class AK in a Ceram Sea choke point.
The Surabaya ASW forces managed a decent hit on one of those pesky subs, but they continue to generally evade attack.

Solomons
The S-28 found two mine tenders moving towards Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The skipper decided they were not important enough to use ammo on and let them get away. That skipper is getting fired.

That task force headed towards Ndeni landed on the Reef Islands instead. It's a marine garrison unit rather than engineers.


Malaya
Malacca has been captured. I hope my armies got some supplies, because from this point forward it's going to have to be flown in, if at all. The AKLs delivering the supplies were bombed by Nells, one will probably sink. That these guys are using bombs instead of torpedoes probably means he's rebasing his Air HQ.

Our Hurricanes shot down 4 Zeroes and 2 Sonias over Singapore.

China
That army unit that got surrounded in the riverlands has pulled out from the hex it tried to attack and into the hex of the army that cut it off. It's two divisions. This is going to be a major loss for me.

Philippines
Army units commenced an attack on the central airbase of Iolio. This is a potential midpoint to evacuate any fighters I might be able to repair at Clark. For now it looks like they can hold, but supplies are a problem. And they have a task force here that could very well be there to reinforce them.
---

Today was the 7th consecutive day enemy air losses were greater than mine.

9 January 1942
Major raid on Hickam/Pearl, attack on CVLBG fails

Hawaii
My mine tender laying more mines didn't trigger an airstrike. Instead, a bombardment task force about to shell Hickam used it for some pre-game gunnery practice. The bombardment destroyed 5 planes on the ground and about 50 more. So, when he launched an airstrike in the morning, my CAP was rather short. Fortunately he was bombing ffrom 20,000 feet, so he didn't hit much. A CL took a hit from a Val that was level bombing. Hickam was barely scratched. Air losses were 7 Zeroes, 14 Nells, 4 Betties, 9 Kates, and a Val for him; I lost one each of P-35, P-39, and P-40.

USS Gar laid a minefield at Lahaina. Looks like it was detected immediately and they're already working on clearing it.

Dutch East Indies
At Kendari, I made another PT boat attack. Looks like they've adapted to this. The troop ships there had plenty of decent escorts: 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, plus a few little guys. I lost 3 of 5 PTs and the others went running home.

The CVLBG apparently had so much fun sitting off Surabaya last time it had to do it again. Once again, I tried to coordinate an airstrike, and again, it didn't go as planned. It was supposed to be two packages: Swordfish torpedo bombers (borrowed from HMS Hermes) escorted by Buffalos, and medium bombers escorted by Hawks. The Swordfish went first, and without escort. Every last one (12) was shot down by the CAP. The well-escorted medium bomber package claimed a Zero, losing 3 Hawks, 2 Buffalo, and 3 bombers. The bombers that got through missed. The carriers launched a strike of their own trying to hit ships at Surabaya. Fortunately they weren't any more successful. Escorting Claudes shot down a Hawk, but that was the extent of the damage.

Solomons
My bad luck with that sub skipper was partly made up: one of the ACMs he let go hit a mine at Guadalcanal.

Japan
USS Sailfish engaged an AKL on the surface near Kyushu. The AKL hurt the Sailfish as bad as it got hurt, and the sub aborted the attack.

Malaya
He switched from bombing Singapore to sweeping Singapore, and got results. 14 Oscars went up against 10 Hurricanes and a Buffalo--he got 7 Hurricanes with only 3 losses. One of those Hurricanes went down with an ace, another ace pilot bailed out but was wounded.

The bombers were still hitting my units retreating from Malacca. We traded a Mohawk for an Oscar in the air, but the bombers hit the land forces hard.

https://i.ibb.co/YDBgP8D/1942-Jan-9-Aces-Lost.jpg

10 January 1942
Pearl Harbor and Surabaya Air Forces on the ropes, Palmyra in the crosshairs

Hawaii
He tried to sacrifice 2 more barges on the altar of Neptune, but the USS Gar, back from its minelaying mission, gunned them down instead. One of his destroyers hit a mine near Pearl, though. The damaged boat retreated and was intercepted by USS Cuttlefish, which bounced a dud Mk14 off its hull and then had to evade depth charge attacks from other destroyers.

A bombardment group hit Hickam and Pearl, destroying at least 2 bombers on the ground and damaging at least 22 more aircraft. The battleship Oklahoma, still under repair from the original 12/7 attack, was also hit.

He made another airstrike that was mostly ineffective, but between fighting these raids the the battleship bombardments my air forces are breaking. The score in the sky was 4 Zeroes to 2 P-40s.

Two ships have been detected moving south from Hawaii toward Palmyra.


Dutch East Indies
For the second day, the CVLBG defeated my air raids. Once again, my torpedo bombers didn't get their escort. I blame a combination of inexperienced pilots and that the difference in cruising speed between the medium bombers and the fighters is less than the difference with the torpedo bombers. But, even the escorted medium bombers took a beating. Overall losses were 4 Buffalo, 2 Swordfish, and 17 medium bombers. We didn't get anything. These air forces are pretty much spent, I'll need a plan B.
https://i.ibb.co/DkJptbp/1942-Jan-10-Map.jpg

Japan
USS Tautog torpedoed a Gozan class cargo south of Tokyo.

Malaya
A task force of 4 DD circled around Singapore and attacked an ASW patrol in the strait. I lost ML and had another damaged.

In Singapore, Nells torpedoed a pair of AKLs. The raid cost them 3 Oscars and 3 Nells, they shot down 2 Mohawk fighters.


Philippines
Iolio has been captured.


China
His secondary force outside Chuhsien brushed aside an infantry unit of mine that was trying to cut off a supply road, casualties were about 1800 for us.


SouthPAC
Floatplanes have been snooping Noumea for two turns now. There's no sign of any cruisers nearby... maybe one of those pesky aircraft-carrying subs is poking around. I've got a lot of traffic going through this area, I'd rather not let him have a look. ASW assets inbound.

11 January 1941
Heroic sacrifice by USS McCall, USS Maury, gives Palmyra fighting chance; CVLBG continues to frustrate in Java Sea, Heavy cruiser torpedoed off Noumea

CENTPAC
When I detected those "two" ships near Palmyra yesterday, I detached 2 DD from a convoy passing near the area to intercept. They found a lot more than 2 ships.
https://i.ibb.co/WBcQgkD/1942-Jan-11-Palmyra.jpg

CL Abukuma
CL Oi, Shell hits 3
DD Isokaze, Shell hits 2
PB Magan Maru, Shell hits 2
PB Shoei Maru
xAK Okiyu Maru
xAK Nichiyu Maru, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Nitisan Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
xAK Kosei Maru, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Kotoku Maru, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAP Taizan Maru
PB Yamahagi Maru #3, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD McCall, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Maury, Shell hits 17, and is sunk
Japanese ground losses:
1886 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 46 destroyed, 91 disabled
Engineers: 34 destroyed, 53 disabled
Guns lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Despite being outgunned, the two tin cans did awesome, splitting their fire between the transports and escorts. They took out one of the Oi's gun mounts and hit 4 of the 6 transports. One went down in view of the DDs. Unfortunately, so did the Maury, and the McCall isn't going to make it either. None of the damaged ships landed troops, and one of the two transports that continued was struck by coastal defense artillery. The Oi was also hit two more times. The damage done seriously disrupted the landing, resulting in heavy casualties to the Japanese troops coming ashore under fire from US Marines. They would have taken Palmyra easily with 6 transports full of troops, but as of now the fight could go either way.

At Pearl, four enemy destroyer-minesweepers were shot up and two barges were sacrified to Neptune. One of my subs tried to finish off one that retreated but missed. USS Gar was damaged by depth charges trying to mine Lahaina.

Air raids over Pearl cost two zeroes, but level-bombing Kates managed to hit USS Maryland with an 800kg AP bomb, and 250kg hits on W. Virginia and Pennsylvania.

SouthPAC
That sub I was looking for found me first. My cruisers, instead of pursuing enemy ships north, had been covering reinforcements landing on Efate. The sub found them returning to Noumea and torpedoed the USS Pensacola. So that's two heavy cruisers in this group sidelined with torpedo damage. I'm suspending troop movements and reassigning their ASW escorts to deal with this (in addition to ASW assets summoned yesterday).

Malaya
The Japanese destroyer group found two more ASW craft before they could shelter in port, both were sunk.

Air losses were one Oscar to one Hurricane, in a sweep of Singapore. Enemy bombers are now focusing on Kuala Lumpur, too far north to be worth dividing my fighter coverage. The armies at Johore appear to be waiting for this mop-up operation to complete before beginning the siege of Singapore.

Java Sea
"Plan B" was a surface battle with the CVLBG. I sortied a rather large UK-Dutch-US fleet--it should have outmatched them even with 4 heavy cruisers escorting the flattops. But the CVLBG had moved off to the east under darkness, and my ships didn't find them. The carriers launched an airstrike at the fleet, fortunately only scoring hits each on two cruisers, neither inflicting serious damage. They lost two Vals and two Kates but shot down a Hawk and a Buffalo.

Dutch East Indies
I had been raiding Miri and Kendari with light bombers with little result. I changed them to low level attacks for today and it worked; I got 2 hits on a tanker at Miri (likely a kill thanks to fires) and a hit on a cargo ship at Kendari.

Elsewhere
Guam, finally, has been captured. I'm sure that's a relief to him.

My opponent is traveling this week, so we might be pausing the campaign for now. He did send me the replay file for 12 January, though, so I have partial information on the outcome of that:


12 January 1942
Invasion of Palmyra stalled, Shokaku and Zuikaku return to Pearl to boost air raids

CENTPAC
USS McCall sank as it limped away from yesterday's battle. The landings at Palmyra continued without further interference from my navy, but it looks like the damage was done. The surviving transports took more artillery fire from ashore, and a bombardment by the Oi appeared to be ineffective. The soldiers ashore gave it their best, but took 244 casualties without hurting my marines at all. This invasion looks to be stalled unless they can reinforce. They also landed combat engineers, so they might be able to deal with the forts, but it doesn't look close enough for that to be a difference-maker.

At Pearl, 6 battleships and 3 cruisers bombarded the bases. At least 2 planes were destroyed on the ground, with at least 25 more damaged. That these numbers are so small is testament to just how little is left. I don't have an estimate of facility damage yet, but I know runway damage was 10% and service damage 47% before they hit us today.

The base being nicely softened up, the Shokaku and Zuikaku rejoined the KB to join the series of air raids. The damage from today's raid was probably as serious as the original 12/7 raid:
BB Pennsylvania - 8
BB Maryland -6
BB Oklahoma - 5
BB W Virginia - 5
CA Minneapolis - 6
CL St. Louis -2
CL Helena -2
CL Detroit -1
DD Blue -1
DD King -1
AE Pyro -1 (and ironically, on fire)
AD Rigel -1
AV Wright - 2
AM Grebe -1


A whole lot of these were 800kg AP hits. The raid cost them 4 Zeroes, 4 Betties, 8 Nells, and 5 Vals. Zeroes shot down 1 Wildcat on patrol.

Well, I guess he has a decision to make now. Should he send reinforcements to have his soldiers on Palmyra, and if so, should the carriers support it? A major potential downside to saving Palmyra might be that he starts to consider my convoys a threat. I've been enjoying commerce-raider free traffic so far. For now, convoys heading to that area are going to have to turn around.

As for me, I'm SOOOOOO glad I got most of the undamaged combattants and the faster tenders out of Pearl when I did.


SouthPAC
USS Pompano found an unescorted AKE near Truk and attacked on the surface, scoring a torpedo hit and several gun hits. The AKE also hit the Pompano twice, but I won't know how badly until I get the save file. If this were further into the open ocean I'd say the enemy ship was doomed, but he might get to Truk and survive.

Malaya
Trying to imitate the success of the light bombers in the DEI, I set my Wirraways to low level attack to try to get the destroyers that are sinking my ASW craft. They didn't find the destroyers, so the went after transports in Mersing. They missed; defending Nates shot down an escorting Hurricane and flak got one of the bombers.

His bombers continue to harass the forces around Kuala Lumpur. He'll wipe them out, then consolidate to the south for the final siege.


Dutch East Indies
We repeated yesterday's raid on Miri and hit a PB. The little 50kg glorified hand grenades don't do too much damage when there's no fuel or oil to set on fire.

No raids by the CVLBG today. I wonder if he's going to head east towards the Coral Sea to deal with my cruiser force that's been giving him headaches.

13 January 1942
Kido Butai committed to finishing what it started at Pearl


Hawaii
The assault on Pearl is maintaining yesterday's ferocity. They sent destroyers into the minefield (chasing a submarine maybe?). They cleared 3 mines on purpose, but detonated another the wrong way. 3 of my DDs made a run for it (and toward Palmyra, might as well put them to use if they make it). SIX enemy battleships bombarded Pearl/Hickam, destroying at least 11 planes and damaging 93 more. Service damage is up to 73% so we're not going to repair them quickly. The KBs air raids were devastating. For the low cost of 4 Zeroes and 5 Vals, they sank the BB Pennslyvania, CA Minneapolis and DD King, and just about everything else is severely damaged:
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
PG Sacramento, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Helena, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CA Minneapolis, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 3, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AD Dobbin, Bomb hits 1
DD Monaghan, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD King, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AE Pyro, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AV Tangier, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AG Antares, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

https://i.ibb.co/V92Vcgm/1942-Jan-13-Pearl-Damage.png

At Palmyra, I got a CL, a DD, and a DMS into the space to try to interrupt further landings. They met a CL and a DD. The enemy DD was the star of this battle, sinking my DD and convincing my task force to leave. Very disappointing. Fortunately, no more troops arrived today. I also realized this was within SBD flying range of Pearl, so I transferred all of my flyable SBDs here. Gets them away from the battleships' bombardments and will be useful for bombing troop ships, as well as the jerks already ashore.


Dutch East Indies
A small cruiser-destroyer group moving through the Maskasar straight sank an AKL of mine that I was trying to useto get desperately needed supplies for airplane repair to the Philippines.

He resumed his invasion of Borneo, landing troops at Sandakan (northeast area). My Falcon bombers split their attention between this task force and merchant traffic in Brunei/Miri, scoring only one hit on an AK in Brunei.

The CVLBG was reaquired at Kendari. Fine by me, hang out in the minefield. A Buffalo-escorted Falcon raid against the task force got no results, though, except for two Buffs and a Falcon shot down.



Malaya
They're not waiting for the mop-up to complete. The main force is on the move to Singapore right now. They'll probably begin their assault in 1-3 days. Right now the only air activity over Singapore are Oscar sweeps; the bombers are all dealing with my scattered forces around KL where I can't reach them with fighters.
https://i.ibb.co/Y3Spkdp/1942-Jan-13-Malaya.png

Burma
For the first time, a sub appeared off Rangoon and tried to intercept a troop convoy delivering reinforcements. An escorting gunboat depth charged it, possibly sinking it.

I'm planning my first major counteroffensive here as a result of reinforcing Burma with the expectation of a major invasion to repel, that doesn't look like it's coming. Operation Kinky Boots will use the British forces intended to defend Burma push into Thailand, hopefully forcing him to abandon his siege of Singapore. The biggest problem is air support. We'll probably be facing a very large number of very experienced fighter pilots, with a downright oppressive amount of bombers following them. I'll have a decent amount of my own fighters to counter that with, but I'm not sure about the pilots. I can't check their experience levels until they actually arrive in theatre.


China
My surrounded unit near Hwainan (in the riverlands) is taking a beating from the IJA. Over 2000 casualties today. I'm going to be able to get these guys some air support soon--just fighters, though. No friendly airfields big enough to support medium bombers, and I don't have any light bombers in China.

The IJA began an assault on Tsiaotso, a mountain base at the northern front. We're holding; casualties were 1116 IJA to 487 ROC.


SouthPAC
I know that sub is still there but I haven't actually detected it. I'm going to give it one more day before resuming troop transport operations, with special care to include ASW escorts. Major convoys have arrived in Sydney, I'm proceeding to distribute those forces immediately. This includes a fighter group, airbase engineers, and artillery. This whole area is going to be a hard nut to crack pretty soon.

14 January 1942
Time to abandon Clark airbase?

Hawaii
USS Cuttlefish torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship off Lihue.

Taking advantage of the KB being focused on raiding the harbor, I formed another evacuation task force and ordered it north. These were slower ships, tenders and minesweepers, and it appears we got away with it. A sub tried to attack them but that's it so far.

The 3 DD that escaped to the south yesterday met an AP and a PB, probably intended to evacuate enemy troops from Palmyra. My destroyers left both ships ablaze and sinking.

Six BB attacked Hickam again. Damage appeared light because there isn't much left there to hit. 10 aircraft damaged, 1 destroyed. The KB followed that up with a surprisingly light attack, just 44 Vals (30 Zeroes escorting), which blew up 3 more planes on the ground but let my gunners take out 8 of them. I only had 6 fighters on CAP for this fight--they got one Zero.

Japan has a total of 10 BB at this time in the war. 6 of them we know are here. Two, the Kongo and Haruna, were deployed to Malaya and are probably still there--although I didn't see them this turn. The other two are the Ise and Hygua, both of which were damaged in the Battle of the Celebes Sea. So, provided I can verify the Kongo and Haruna are still covering Malaya, this probably means the commitment of 6 BB to Hawaii leaves literally everywhere else without any BB available to cover them.

The relatively light air raid at Hickam might have meant that carriers have been detached from the KB, but recon aircraft are still reporting a full carrier fleet hanging out at Lahaina.


Dutch East Indies
My ASW groups outside Surabaya had some minor success, lightly damaging a sub with a depth charge attack. Then that cruiser-destroyer task force (2 CA, 2DD) in the Makasar Strait yesterday raided the ASW groups. Both sides took light damage, my DDs retreated to port.

https://i.ibb.co/JdcPKxH/1942-Jan-14-Surabaya.png
It's frustrating, I easily have superior numbers here right now, but he's inside my OODA loop. I didn't have a fix on their position yesterday, didn't realize they were already far south enough to get here, and now that they've shown up to attack, I once again don't have a fix on their position. Trying to chase them would be foolish, they have air cover whether they run east (Kendari, Ambon, the CVLBG) or west (Malaya).

My Falcon light bombers attacked Miri again, sinking a mine tender and setting an oil-laden tanker ablaze.


Philippines
He's pushing to take Clark again. Fortifications are reduced to zero and I have no supply. I'm considering a retreat to the Bataan peninsula, at least they have forts and supply there. But not enough to share with Clark. I'm trying to repair the planes at Clark to evacuate them but right now that's only arriving by sub. Maybe repair just isn't realistic anymore.

The central island base of Bacolod has been captured and paratroops are landing on the southern island.


China
Chaochow has been recaptured. Aggravating, our armies were of equal size and the advantage usually goes to the defender. But his troops are much more experienced, and his leaders better. I have to do better than match him man-for-man.

The air support I provided to the surrounded army in the riverlands proved meaningless as no air raid came. Their army doesn't need the help, my units are beginning to surrender.


SouthPAC
I know that damn sub is still at Noumea because his scoutplane keeps buzzing my ships. But I've let him disrupt me enough. Troop movements will proceed. We also spotted a large cruiser-destroyer TF at Rabaul.


West Coast
A sub's scoutplanes also got spotted snooping an ASW task force near Seattle. Looks like our guest from a few turns ago is sitting just outside my aircrafts' patrol range. There still isn't a whole lot of traffic here. A few ships coming back from dropping off troops or supplies, nothing unescorted.


https://i.ibb.co/RYfL7XQ/1942-Jan-13-Analysis.png

Good reports as always. The Ami's need a victory. I appreciate the detail you provide, such as whether a sub attacks on the surface or the aircraft losses of each raid.


One of the things I praised about WitE was despite the scale it was depicting, it was still calculating down the every shot fired. This sort of detail in a game so broad is great.


I'm pulling for you mate, but the outlook is grim. What can you see coming in the near future that could help swing the balance? What major reinforcements are on the way?

So far most of the reinforcements are from the UK through Aden. I think I sent two of those to Singapore and at least two more to Rangoon. My plans for Operation Kinky Boots are based on Brit reinforcements already in Burma with more to arrive soon. We've got a lot of Hurricane squadrons coming in. The UK has also provided the CV Indomitable and a BB.


On the US side, I've been reinforcing everything from Australia to Christmas Island. So far the focus has been to make sure the islands in that southern chain can't be successfully invaded without him making a real commitment. So an infantry garrison, AAA, coastal defense batteries, and fighters. Most of those are coming online now--that's why that damn sub off Noumea is aggravating, I don't want him to pick any of these off. The next big deal for the US are construction battalions. The base forces' engineers haven't been doing great work so far, so I'm hoping dedicated engineers are going to help get important bases built up. Actual US army/marine reinforcements are coming in painfully slow. I'd say I have one regiment right now, but it's really just a command waiting to get filled out with actual troops and equipment. Two more of those should arrive in about a week. I'll also have another 3 US BB within the next two weeks. American army air corps fighters are arriving so fast I almost feel bad for him. Assuming he doesn't interdict the convoys delievering them, the south pacific and possibly the Java Sea is going to become a very hard place for him to fly in over the course of the next month.

15 January 1942

Hawaii
Three more destroyer-minesweepers were sacrificed to my shore batteries, but they cleared out over 60 mines. Battleships continued to bombard--at this point I'd just say Hickam is out of operation. We're only putting up token resistance to the air raids. Speaking of which, strikes today finished off the Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Maryland.

SBDs that escaped from Pearl are now bombing the enemy troops stranded on Palmyra. I might be able to counterattack and wipe them out soon.

Dutch East Indies
One of my ASW groups managed to moderately damage a sub hanging out at Surabaya. Maybe enough to send it home for repairs.

He's moved a Nate squadron to Miri. My Falcon bombers were chased away with one shot down. Being able to raid was fun while it lasted.

The CVLBG is back on the move again, heading east towards Surabaya and strafing PTs on the way. Should I give it a surface battle?

The new Dutch sub O23 got its first taste of combat, hitting a cruiser-minelayer with 2 torpedoes and sending it to the bottom. Well done,
noob.

Malaya
Kuala Lumpur has been captured.

The first wave of enemy troops is now attacking Singapore. It was only about 6,000 troops to start--artillery and combat engineers--3,000 of them were killed.

Philippines
By the numbers, he doesn't have the strength to overrun Clark, and he's taking heavy casualties trying anyway. But, because he has supplies and I'm besieged, the numbers could gradually change. And there's always possibly troops about to be moved here from Hawaii.

SouthPAC
They've brought in minesweepers to clear out the presents I left form them at Shortlands. I doubt there are that many left since there is no tender managing them.

I finally found that damned sub handing out east of Noumea. Every ship that tried to sink it missed, though.

USS Argonaut found and attacked a large troop ship north of Shortlands but missed.

Burma
More reinforcements needed for Operation Kinky Boots are arriving, and I note with some disappointment that one of my new fighter squadrons is filled a blend of quality pilots and scrubs. I have more pilots than planes in Malaya, though, so I might be able to fix that problem. But the operation will not proceed if it means I have to put rookie pilots against veteran Oscar (and Zero?) pilots in large numbers.

16 January 1942
Enterprise and Saratoga reveal themselves to sink Luganville reinforcements

Hawaii
He got wise to my northerly evacuation route and had subs and a cruiser-destroyer group ready for today's escapees. This cost me a seaplane tender, a minesweeper, and two cargo ships. Battleship bombardment of Pearl continued, sinking a destroyer and a cargo ship in port. The enemy began clearing the sub-laid mine at Lahaina; one PB escorting a sweeper hit one of the mines.

Dutch East Indies
Dutch sub O21 torpedoed an oiler in the Ceram Sea, looks like she'll go down. The KXIV also struck, hitting an Akasi-class cargo ship near Miri. I sent a PT squad back towards Kendari, which was intercepted by the cruiser-destroyer group that hit the Surabaya ASWs yesterday, one PT was lost before they bugged out. Claudes from the CVLBG took a turn at them too, causing light damage.

SouthPAC
USS Argonaut had another crack at a large AP near shortlands, and missed again. It then surfaced and briefly engaged with its gun before it decided that was a bad idea. The AP took only light damage.

I was moving the Enterprise-Saratoga battle group through the Santa Cruz islands towards the Coral Sea when they spotted 5 cargo ships dropping troops off at Luganville, they launched SBDs and sank all of them. 1631 troop casualties were reported.


Malaya
He shifted his medium bombers back to Singapore while the light bombers are on mop-up duty near Kuala Lumpur. Raids hit the Repulse again along with a cargo ship and merchant cruiser under repair there. The raids shot down 2 Hurricanes and Mohawks, with a loss of 4 Nates, 2 Zeroes, 3 Nells, and a Sally.

More enemy units crossed the channel into Singapore under fire. Casualties were 5000 to 200, favoring us. Fortifications are holding. They've got at least a division across now.


China
The last of my surrounded armies in the riverlands has surrendered.

17 January 1942
Major surge of activity in the Solomons and Dutch East Indies
CVL Ryujo claimed sunk

Hawaii
No air strike on Pearl/Hickam today, just BB bombardments. My airbases are so wrecked I can't even get recon in the air to see if the KB left.

He sent 2 heavy cruisers, the light cruiser Oi, and 3 DD to bombard Palmyra, hoping to give his troops a chance. The SBDs that had escaped Pearl went after them. We got one hit on each heavy cruiser and two hits on the Oi. None of the ships appear heavily damaged, but they're going to need air cover to keep this up. His soldiers attacked and did fairly well, but couldn't overcome the fortifications. I'm getting a little nervous that he might actually have enough.

Dutch East Indies
https://i.ibb.co/LdrcRmW/1942-Jan-17-Ceram.png

After a bit of a lull in activity here, the invasion is back in full swing. Troops have landed in Morotai. A new carrier group has shown up way east in the Banda Sea, I would guess that's the Zuiho coming back after getting her torpedo damage repaired. The CVLBG is moving back west.

My PTs completed their trip to Kendari and found transports to sink. They got torpedo hits on 3 ships, but one took a direct hit from a deck gun and was destroyed. No troops on board these when I hit them. The PTs ran into the CVLBG on the return trip and lost another boat to their escorts.

As the CVLBG approached Makassar, the Dutch sub O24 penetrated the screens and hit the Ryujo with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired. Unlike when we hit the Zuiho, these were full-sized heavyweight torps. The ship is definitely knocked out of action--the O24 is claiming a kill.

Malaya
More IJA units crossing the channel. Casualties 2687 to 7. Still looks like his forces that made it are 1-division strong, we're not in any real danger yet. Sweeps shot down 2 Buffalos, the bombers stayed north.

Japan
USS Sargo torpedoed (and likely sank) a cargo ship off Okinawa while she was on her way back to Surabaya to replenish.

SouthPAC
https://i.ibb.co/nsPSpDY/1942-Jan-17-Milne.png
Even though my CVBG revealed itself in the Santa Cruz islands yesterday, he has a pair of large task forces that appear to be advancing towards Milne. It looks like he's committed enough to overcome this fledgling base, so I'm a bit annoyed by this development. But, these look like great targets. They're close enough to Rabaul to enjoy a long-range CAP, and his Betties can potentially reach my carriers if I move them in, but I think he's spread pretty thin on those right now. Port Moresby has army Banshee dive bombers and Airacobra fighters to escort them, plus Hudson level bombers. Looks like the stage is set for a battle tomorrow.

18 January 1942
Port Moresby in the crosshairs

Hawaii
The KB and land based bombers resumed attacks on Pearl as the BB bombardments continued. They sank a minesweeper, a general tender, an oiler, a troop ship, and a destroyer.

The SAG hit Palmyra one more time and made a run for it, so they were out of range of my SBDs by morning. My SBDs bombed their troops instead, causing heavy casualties.


Dutch East Indies
A dutch sub sank a Lima class cargo ship in between islands in the Ceram Sea. Another dutch sub, the O21, started doing the surface attack without attacking thing. It took two hits without causing damage.

A SAG consisting of the BB Kongo and 4 DD attacked two ASW squadrons outside Surabaya, sinking one DD and crippling another. Two other DD were lightly damaged. We dealt insignificant damage back on them. Force Y was not able to retaliate. I lost track of both these guys and the CVLBG.

Oscars from Malaya swept Palembang, Sumatra; I had Buffalos on CAP. Only a few damaged planes on each side.


SouthPAC
The Argonaut made up for a bit of bad luck lately with two attacks on tankers between Rabaul and Shortlands, one of which was finally successful. The tanker was fuel-laden and will almost certainly go down.

The two enemy task forces near Milne went right by the fledgling base and headed for Port Moresby. Banshee and Hudson bombers attacked. The Hudsons came up empty, but the Banshees did quite well considering their low experience levels: two transports hit with major damage, and two cruisers hit for moderate damage. I note with pleasure that Rabaul did not provide a long-range CAP for them, but P-39s were escorting just in case.


https://i.ibb.co/1b8zKC6/1942-Jan-18-PM.png
This is a curious move. Having bypassed Milne, his ships have only two ways to go. Further west towards Java, in which case his transports can't outrun my carriers, or back east, through my carriers. Seems like a lot of ships to sacrifice for an attack on PM that has no guarantee of success, especially without BB support and where bomber support is going to be contested by fighters. Is he just that confident that Rabaul's bombers can get through and sink me?


Japan
USS Sailfish attempted a surface attack on a cargo ship between Okinawa and Kyushu. It inflicted moderate damage before deciding it used up enough ammo and broke off. This sub is out of torpedoes too, I manually ordered it to return to rearm.

19 January 1942
The Dutch submarine service strikes again: Scratch one flattop!
Battle of the Coral Sea in progress....

Hawaii
Just 4 BBs pounded Pearl again. Where did the other 2 go? Two of the BB took hits from coastal batteries, nothing serious though. Hickam remains incapacitated, and just about every ship in port is shot up. Did I mention I'm glad I decided to evacuate when I did?

I have a confession to make. I was holding out on you. The Lexington and Yorktown were hanging out near Palmyra. Those token forces I sent there were bait, trying to get him to detach something from Pearl that I could defeat in detail. He didn't bite. My carriers bombed his troops on Palmyra and are now moving West towards the action.


Battle of the Coral Sea
This is shaping up to be a major engagement. Those two task forces pressed on, in spite of yesterday's damage. The enemy's order of battle appears to be:

2 Task forces, approx 20 ships, including: CA Suzuya (damaged yesterday), CL Nagara (damaged yesterday), CL Yubari, CL Tatsuta, 3 DD, 3PB, 2 AK (1 damaged yesterday), 2 AMC
(1 AK sunk or aborted mission yesterday)
Air support: One squadron of Oscars (12+ planes) and 3 of Zeroes (~45 planes)
Ground forces: At least 1/3 army division and 2 marine units, plus an armored regiment
Reinforcements: probably Betties and more Zeroes. Possible the Soryu CVBG is lurking--one of the Zero squadrons is hers but it looks like they are flying from Rabaul.

My forces:
Enterprise + Saratoga CVBG (full air wings)
1 P-39 squadron (18 planes)
1 A-24 banshee squadron (18 planes with a few reserve)
4 Hudson medium bombers
Total ground strength approx 1/2 division, including an armored regiment, and an AA regiment
Scoutplanes everywhere!


Reinforcements:
1 Wirraway Squadron
At least 2 P-40 squadrons
1 A-24 Banshee squadron
Surface task force: 2 CA, 3CL, 2 DD

He started landing troops before dawn. Shore batteries scored hits on two AKs (one that was damaged yesterday) and 2 AMCs. He began sweeping with Oscars and Zeroes but I gave him nothing to shoot at. We then sent 17 Banshees and 17 P-39s up against a CAP of 11 Zeroes to try to get at the ships. The Zeroes were pros, they got 5 P-39s and 5 Banshees without loss. The Banshees that got through hit an AMC and an AK--which appeared to have already disembarked all their troops. A raid of 3 Hudsons followed that up, but the Zeroes tore into them. All were shot down, two managed to attempt an attack first, but missed. Our Banshees rearmed and tried again, just 10 this time with 6 P-39s escorting. They shot down one Zero this time, but three more Banshees went down. 6 Banshees survived long enough to attempt attacks, but all missed.

So that's where things stand now. My CVBG is still out of range but should be able to join in tomorrow or the day after. I'm moving fighter squadrons to help out. The amount of troops he landed is a problem, but they're disrupted from being bombed twice plus taking fire on landing. Will the cavalry arrive in time to save the day? The biggest question, though, is Rabaul's Betties. There might be a lot there. And possibly more Zeroes to escort them than I realize. But range is on my side, I doubt I'll ever need to get inside Zero range, and I'll be right at the limit of how far a Betty can carry a torpedo. Decent odds they can't even find me, and if they do, it'll probably be unescorted Betties and they might only be carrying bombs. The Wildcats--and Butch O'Hare--are waiting for them.

https://militarygraphics.com/wp-cont...19/12/VF-3.png

Dutch East Indies
Submarine KXIII won a game of cat-and-also-cat against an ASW squadron, putting 2 fish into a TB and slipping away.

Submarine O24--the likely killer of the Ryujo--once again encountered the CVLBG near the Makassar coast. This time it targeted the Hosho, hitting it with 2 of 4 torpedoes. The torpedoes caused multiple secondary explosions, including a magazine that cooked off. No doubt about this one, she's gone.

Enemy troops have landed in Makassar.

Oscars swept Palembang but we were unable to get any Buffalos in the air to meet them. None were shot down yesterday, but they all got shot up. Bombers took advantage and caused significant facility damage.

Philippines
The S-36 torpedoed and likely sank a cargo ship in the Luzon Strait.

China
He attacked in Chusien but he's way short on strength to succeed there right now. He lost 3200 men for trying and only killed about 300 of mine.

Malaya
Another attack on Singapore, more dead Japanese soldiers. 3472 to be exact, we only lost 39 and the forts are holding. Looks like he's up to two divisions across the river though.

20 January 1942
Combattants escape Enterprise and Saratoga, transports destroyed


Hawaii
Four BB (same 4 as yesterday) continued to pound Pearl. Even the shore batteries seem to be knocked out at this point. The KB, or perhaps just a detachment of it, are sprinting towards the Lexington and Yorktown. But I've got a head start. For now, the SBDs on Palmyra have been pulled back to Christmas Island, no point in attacking the KB without escorting fighters.

I've got fighter support along the chain of southern islands and can move some Banshees there as well. If KB wants to chase me I'll make a tower defense game of it.


Malaya
This seemed like a really uneventful turn until I got to the ops reports. There was a raid on Singapore. We traded 2 Hurricanes and a Mohawk for a Zero, three Nells, and 7 Sallies. They hit the Repulse again. But one of those Hurricanes was our leading ace, G.L. Hesketh of the 488th, with 14 kills. May his memory be an inspiration to those still in harm's way. We also lost 3 Hudsons trying to bomb enemy troops outside Singapore.


Battle of the Coral Sea
We did not get the slaughter we hoped for. Did we get the slaughter we deserved? He opened the day by bombarding Port Moresby with every combattant he had, bringing them to within 1000yd of shore and firing every gun down to the AA. The airfield took some damage, removing a few planes from the coming fight:
Wirraway: 4 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 7 damaged
Catalina I: 4 damaged
A-24 Banshee: 1 damaged
Then they turned and ran towards Milne and back north to Rabaul. They ended up in two groups (maybe the original 2 groups?), one fast and one slow. The fast one made it far enough my carriers didn't try for it.

The first air mission was their Oscars sweeping PM again. I put some P-39s on CAP this time because I was worried about bombers. The Oscars shot one down. SBDs acting as scouts spotted the task forces, but 2 were shot down by the CAP. But now the strikes began. The Wirraways went first with a low-level attack. They slipped past the CAP, but these rookies failed to hit anything. Then came the Banshees, which split their attacks between the two groups. Only the attack on the fast group had escorts: it was 4 P-39s against 4 Zeroes. The Zeroes took out 2 P-39s and moved onto the Banshees, getting two before their bomb runs and one more after. The 2 bombs were aimed at the CL Nagara but missed. The slow group drew only 2 unescorted Banshees. The CAP splashed them without difficulty.

Finally, the air strike I've wanted since I first spotted these task forces near Milne happened. A package of 20 Wilidcats and 62 SBDs arrived over the slow group. They had 10 Zeroes defending. They fought the F4Fs to a stalemate, but a few snuck past and shot down 4 SBDs before they got on target. But 58 SBDs dropping bombs is going to ruin your day. Somewhat frustratingly, every warship in the group that was attacked was missed (1 CL, 2 DD). But it appears that the transports were wiped out:
xAK Hauraki Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Lyons Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Tusima Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMC Kongo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Teiryu Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
CL Tatsuta
xAK Shinsei Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMC Hokoku Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hayate
xAK Daihachikyo Maru, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Huzikawa Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akikaze

So that's where it stands. I'll try to bomb any stragglers tomorrow, but the CVBG's focus will now shift to supporting the troops fighting in PM. Meanwhile I'm moving in fighters and level bombers in expectation of an air campaign with Rabaul.
https://i.ibb.co/L94drGT/1942-Jan-20-PM.png



Dutch East Indies
Makassar, now being invaded, was my PT base. So I sent the PTs there to do something about it. They were driven off by a cruiser-destroyer SAG. Makassar was overrun as they left.


China
I wiped out the last of the troops hanging out in the open around Ichang. Nothing to interfere with my siege anymore. My question now is whether my troops can handle the forts without combat engineers, while the enemy is probably hurting for supplies and with low morale due to being cut off for weeks and being bombed almost daily.

Nice! Give 'em hell!

21 January 1942
Mutual error leads to surface skirmish in Coral Sea

CENTPAC
The KB, fully restocked on aircraft, is in pursuit of the Lexington and Yorktown. They took the time to bomb Palmyra's airbase on the way, destroying 1 PBY. Looks like he thought he'd find my SBDs there, what a waste of an alpha strike.
A6M2 Zero x 36
B4Y1 Jean x 27
B5N1 Kate x 44
B5N2 Kate x 53
D3A1 Val x 87
That's 211 bomber sorties! For one patrol aircraft!

The same 4 BB bombarded Pearl again. There's so little left there that the damage done seemed insignificant.

Coral Sea
In an apparent mutual blunder, his "fast" task force doubled back to attack my task forces, while my reinforcing SAG raced to intercept them. I had forgotten to limit the distance my SAG was authorized to travel to meet the enemy--and it looks like my opponent did the same thing as that task force clearly has orders to run to Rabaul. But we ended up in a small surface skirmish near Milne, both groups well in range of possible air strikes by the other. The early hits were in our favor--we got first contact thanks to radar--but evened up by the end. But neither side had any ships seriously damaged. In what I have to assume was the result of unexpected bad weather, neither my CVBG nor Rabaul launched air strikes at the 2 task forces in no man's land. We didn't launch the strikes on PM that I had ordered either. My land-based bombers did fly, though, and bombed the enemy troops. It doesn't appear that they did much damage.

For tomorrow I'm ordering the SAG to bombard the enemy troops to supplement the air strikes. We've detected 2 enemy subs so I'm dispatching minesweepers and destroyer-minelayers from Australia to try to keep them away from the CVBG.

Malaya
The situation in the air is now so bad that I lost 4 Wirraways that tried to bomb enemy troops at Singapore itself. We had no fighters available for escort and the CAP was already too busy to help. Operation Kinky Boots is badly needed to relieve the pressure here, but that's still 2 weeks away, minimum.

I attempted a counterattack in Singapore thinking that his recent failed attacks caused enough disruption that I'd tear through them. I was wrong, casualties were 965 to 244 favoring them.

China
Like with Singers, I thought between massively outnumbering the enemy at Chusien and the enemy having recently been repelled, the time was right for a counterattack. It also failed, casualties 952 to 246 favoring them. I noticed that a portion of the airstrikes hitting my troops here were coming from the west instead of the east. Probably Nanchang. I'm assigning some assets to offensive counter air missions here for next turn, maybe I can shoot down some Nates and bomb a congested airfield.


Strategic considerations
As bad as it feels to have Hawaii occupied, it looks like the Japanese advance has already run out of steam. It looks like they want to actually invade Oahu, but it's going to be a quagmire for them. Even suppressed, they're going to take a lot of damage from mines and shore batteries. Their attempt at Palmyra, although it still could succeed, is stalled. Same with Port Moresby, but they don't have the KB there to control the seas. Their progress in Luzon appears stalled. The balance of forces in Malaya makes it appear that even once their forces in the north make their way down to Singapore, they won't have enough. In the Dutch East Indies, the loss of two CVLs is going to make their fleets vulnerable to air attack just in time for the HMS Indomitable to show up. Land based aircraft could fill that gap, but their Zero fleet in particular is stretched thin due to losses well above replacement rate since the war began.

It sure looks to me like allocating so much to Hawaii--troops, carriers, battleships, and submarines--has been a huge mistake. Huge enough to cost him the whole war soon if he doesn't make a correction. His next move has to be getting some troops out of Hawaii and into the Philippines. If he breaks through there, he can send those troops to Singapore to break that seige, and then onto Java and Sumatra. So, detecting this troop movement and possibly interdicting it is now the #1 priority mission for my sub fleet. Lots of new patrol areas to assign. I'm also going to start moving US medium bombers into the DEI (this will take time) and generally looking to take a less passive approach there.

22 January 1942
Port Moresby repels land attack, barely

CENTPAC
Another day, another BB bombardment of Pearl. The KB launched another massive strike on Palmyra's airbase with essentially nothing to show for it, because nothing's there. But the KB is now between Palmyra and Christmas Island. I imagine he'll switch targets soon. At which point the SBDs will have nowhere to go. The KB was last reported heading east, maybe he's finally going after my shipping lanes? Not thrilled about that, but it looks like the Lex and Yorktown are in the clear.

Burma
A Japanese sub attempted to intercept a convoy delivering bombers to Rangoon. An escorting corvette depth charged it instead, causing moderate damage.

Operation Kinky Boots is scheduled to begin 2/13, although I may bump that up 5 days if I decide to send the last Hurricane squadron to Sumatra or Singapore instead. The pilot situation looks good enough to proceed and the last convoys should depart in less than a week.

Dutch East Indies
A force of 2 CA, 3 CL, and 4 DD is entering the Sulu Sea from the South China Sea. A Dutch sub took a shot at them and missed. I'll be interested in seeing where these guys go. They might merit some air strikes, maybe even Force Y can take a shot at them.


What's left of the CVLBG was spotted retreating out of the area, north of Papua-New Guinea, headed east towards Truk.


Coral Sea
My bombardment task force encountered some presents left behind in Port Moresby. The HMAS Adelaide hit a mine and is returning to port for repairs. A small air battle broke out as Zeroes flew all the way from Rabaul to try to stop my bombers from tearing into his armies. Three Zeroes were shot down, along with one of our P-39s. Land based and carrier-based bombers hit the enemy troops hard, causing at least some disruption. The thick terrain is limiting the usefulness of air strikes.

His armies attacked anyways, reducing my fortifications to level 1. The good news is that it cost him a lot of troops, casualties were 1188 to 684 favoring me. It should take him some time to recover from that. I'm considering evacuating the airbase, but for now I'm going to put my faith in the grunts. The carriers will stick around for longer than I wanted to help make sure this goes my way. I'm also going to send some extra ground forces over...and minesweepers.


Philippines
I managed to get a few more B-17s flyable and evacuated them. Paratroops landed on Jolo Island, which has a fragment of a base force still there. I've evacuated the PBYs that had been flying there, and I'm going to try to counterattack the paratroops. They've got nothing to lose, they are already dead, they now go into battle to try to reclaim their lives.


China
My sweep of Nanchang came up empty, although this is apparently an Oscar base. My bombers blew up an Oscar on the ground and caused light to moderate facility damage.

23 January 1942
Port Moresby appears doomed


CENTPAC
The daily 4 BB bombardment of Pearl happened again. Shore batteries hit back a bit, enough to start a fire on the Fuso. As expected, the KB switched targets to Christmas Island and incapacitated the SBD squadrons. I'm glad though, better this than sinking the transports to the east or south. Lexington and Yorktown are long gone.


Dutch East Indies
Our Falcons tried to hit the SAG entering the Sulu Sea, but the only result was one lost to flak. A few went to Miri too and didn't bother to bring the escorting fighters I made available. Fortunately the Nates missed.

US fighter squadrons are arriving from Australia. I had been hoping to position them in areas to support attacks on enemy ships, but I've lost most of the airbases that would be useful for that. So out of necessity these are just going to end up at our largest bases.


Coral Sea
Zeroes tried to stop us from bombing the troops again but were beaten back, 1 P-39 and 1 P-40 lost to 5 Zeroes. But, this will be the last attack by land-based bombers for awhile. The enemy troops have reduced our fortifications to nothing and it appears our base will be overrun soon. So, all flyable planes have been evacuated. After all this, it looks like they've won. I still have reinforcements on the way, maybe I'll get lucky and the enemy will need to pause before the final push.


China
I bombed the Nanchang airbase again but it appears to have been empty this time. There's an army unit that moved into the open near Ichang, so it's time to switch targets anyway.

24 January 1942
Port Moresby Hangs on, mostly quiet everywhere else


CENTPAC
The two BB that stopped bombarding Pearl showed up to bombard Christmas Island. And then the KB hit it again right after. I've moved away what I could, but the SBDs are stuck there. There is also another task force approaching from the north. Probably reinforcements for Palmyra to push that invasion over the top.


EDIT: My opponent just emailed me to thank me for dropping off the SBDs at Christmas Island for him to kill. He thinks they're from when the Lexington and Yorktown were there! I think I'm just going to tell him... EDIT2: Hahahahahaha no I'm not, I'm going to admit to this mistake and call myself a dumbass so he thinks the Lex and Yorktown are at half offensive strength!



Coral Sea
2 minesweepers arrived at Port Morseby and got to work. They might have finished the job already .My CVBG hit the enemy troops, Zeroes managed to shoot down an F4F and an SBD on the way in. The enemy then began a shock attack, and our troops barely stopped the enemy from overrunning them. With this minor success, the chances of PM surviving increased significantly, but that doesn't mean the odds are on my side. Just not quite as hopeless as it looked yesterday. The first (small) group of reinforcements should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully the minefield is taken care of. I'm also flying some troops in from Milne--Milne won't survive if PM falls anyway.


Malaya
Temuloh has been captured, and with it 5,000+ British troops surrendered. There is one (broken, retreating) unit left north of Singapore.


China
I bombed the division I caught in the open near Hankow. They're falling back. Mission accomplished I guess. The bombers are going to target Ichang again next. I'm going to make a serious attempt at capturing it. He might even be evacuating, there are at least 5 units that snuck across the river into the swamps to the south.


Dutch East Indies
The enemy SAG coming down from the Sulu sea appears to be targeting Tarakan. As much as I'd like to airstrike them again, they'll be able to bombard the base before sunrise. I've evacced the planes.

Indomitable is probably 2 days out from being able to get involved in anything, 3 if she's going to head up to Tarakan. There isn't a whole lot of other activity here right now. I'm bombing some troops in Celebes without any fighter opposition. There's a very small ARG in the islands south of Celebes. I'll send out someone to greet them. I'm also moving Force Y to Balikpapan now that I'm relatively sure they aren't going to run into battleships on the way.



That's basically it. It's been quiet. So much so that they really haven't sunk anything since finishing off a bunch of ships at Pearl:
https://i.ibb.co/jb6kbKs/1942-Jan-24-PM.png