2 June 1942

China
We got to their bombers over Keifeng again--7 Anns downed with no losses on our side. They didn't shoot any B-17s down outright, but one succumbed to its damage on the way back and another was too badly damaged to be repaired.


Timor Sea
B-17s hit Koepang again. 4 Zeroes went down thanks to the gunners. The raid caused moderate facility damage, plus an Oscar blown up on the ground and 2 ships in port hit with 500lb bombs.

The enemy sub presence at Darwin appears to be significantly diminished.

Sumatra
An air raid targeted Benkoelen; P-40s diverted from Palembang and splashed two Zeroes but the raid otherwise got through. There really isn't much there for the strike to be of significance beyond the air battle, though.

SouthPAC
The KB continues on a northerly course, more towards Rabaul or Truk than Darwin. It hasn't reached the Solomon Sea yet, so it's not too late for it to turn west. It would almost be disappointing if it didn't come, I've been scrambling to arrange a greeting party so much the last few turns. But without knowing if he has another plan in the works, if the KB doesn't go to Darwin, the chances of the Enterprise's survival shoot way, way up.

Thailand and Burma
An air raid targeted my retreating troops; they'll have a CAP tomorrow.
A Hudson bombed an enemy sub outside Rangoon.

I've got some catching up to do, we've been at a high pace over the last few days. I actually don't think there's a lot of value in going into the details because most of what's going on is just trends continuing, the interesting developments I'm not even sure what day they happened on. So here's a summary of June 3 - June 9:

Darwin and the Enterprise
Amazingly, he didn't finish her off. The enemy sub presence has dwindled, but it looks like he might just be staging them just outside my aircraft range. I'm probing the seas with ASW teams and bait ships--no one's biting. The KB kept going north after the Solomons, it never turned West towards Darwin. He built up land-based airpower at Koepang, then moved it away it seems. My B-17s are hitting the base, but they're suffering unsustainable losses and won't be able to neutralize it.

The Enterprise itself has dewatered every compartment that isn't open to the sea. She still has significant system damage and those repairs are barely progressing at all.

Sumatra
He continued picking off bases in the northwest, then finally invaded in force at Benkoelen, where he's been bombing for awhile. It doesn't look like a very large force just yet, so the main thrust is still coming...somewhere. I'm tempted to use the Brit carriers to interdict, but I checked the ranges and I'd be facing hordes of Betties with Zero escorts if I got close enough to strike. My Falcon, DB-7, Mitchell, and Fulmar aircraft all took heavy casualties trying to stop enemy ships as we just didn't have enough fighters to escort them. We did get one new fighter squadron there, so maybe that will change soon.

Thailand
He's not advancing up the road north from Tavoy, it even looks like he's pulled some troops back towards Bangkok. He might make a direct push for Raheng.

China
The army moving up towards Nanyang thought better of it and turned east. My Kaifeng adventure is pretty much over as a stalemate at this point, now we just need to see what happens now that we've massed so many troops here.

CentPAC and Pearl Harbor
I tried sending a lone cargo ship to Pearl, and I was shocked that it worked--it was never detected, on the way in or out. That one boat saved a lot of hungry bellies and even got our forts up to Level 4. Now the question is, was that a fluke, or is his presence really so diminished that he can't aerially blockade Pearl anymore? I would consider returning to Lahaina if his airpower was negligible.

Also, a series of SIGINT intercepts suggested that a large task force was moving west, possibly from Pearl headed towards the Celebes area.

Reinforcements
USS Wasp has arrived, although she still needs to get to the warzone from the Canal. The British are producing Hurricanes in much larger numbers than before, which is going to help out in Thailand and eventually Malaya again.

10 June 1942
Invasion of Sumatra

Sumatra
A small force of troops crossed the Strait and landed at Benkoelen and captured it.

Palembang was swept, costing me 5 P-40s with no enemy Zeroes shot down.

We lost 2 more B-25s and 1 more Falcon trying to hit the phibs on the coast.

Japan
USS Sculpin got into a rather embarrassing surface attack against an enemy cargo ship near Toyohara. We bounced 7 dud Mk14s off its hull before getting one to detonate, the whole time the Sculpin was taking hits from the cargo ships guns while its gunners couldn't score any hits of their own. That one Mk14 took the ship down, so all's well that ends well I suppose.

There was a second task force detected here. Classified as a flotilla of coastal minelayers plus at least one cargo ship and a troop transport--headed EAST. I question that these are mostly minelayers...but a large task force that includes merchants heading east from Toyohara is most likely an invasion force headed for the Aleutians. The only other thing east of here are the Kurilles, which make good seaplane bases, but you don't need a task force this size to build them up. If the Aleutians are the target, then spotting this task force near Japan has probably earned me sufficient time to stop the invasion. I intend to have dive bombers and a surface combat task force waiting for them.

Timor Sea
The jig is up. USS Hornet was spotted moving back to Darwin and I think he can figure out why. There are also enemy surface forces skulking around the Banda Sea. Three destroyers moved too far to the south and were attacked by VB-6 from Darwin, scoring a pair of hits on one destroyer for a confirmed kill. A few TBD from Hornet's VT-8 that weren't on an ASW patrol got in on the action, but failed to score any hits.

We hold contact on two enemy submarines and I'm going to try to put them on the defensive. Our B-17s bombing Koepang shot down a Nick and took one loss from flak. Damage to the airbase is still minor, but for now I'm going to keep whatever pressure on them I can. More on this "tomorrow."

Malaya
Our Wirraways scored a hit on a seaplane tender at Kuantan, setting it on fire. Why does he need seaplane tenders in Kuantan?

Time warp! :haha: :salute:

Wow, and not just off by a little! Fixed.

11 June 1942
Imperial Guards Division lands at Oosthaven, Enterprise Running the gauntlet

Sumatra
The Imperial Guards landed at Oosthaven, which probably means this is the main force. The western landing is probably to contain my troops and/or neutralize alternate airbases.

30 Sallies attacked Bengkalis unescorted; fighters came all the way from Singapore to take advantage--we shot down 6.

Bengkalis was captured.

Malaya
Wirraways returned to Kuantan and bombed a troop-carrying cargo ship, inflicting heavy damage. They made a second sortie and hit the same ship again.


Solomon Sea
2 destroyers approached Normanby Island, where the enemy landed troops a long time ago and pretty much left them there, stranded. These DDs were probably trying to evacuate them.

Milne has long been a base to USMC Vindicators, and this has more recently been supplemented by Banshees from Noumea as part of a greeting party for the KB should it attempt to go to Darwin. We also have B-26s in Port Moreseby that are in range. The strikes were embarrassingly uncoordinated in the morning, the dive bombers often arriving just 2 or 3 at a time. But the Vindicators managed an early hits on both of the DDs, and by late morning, the Banshees managed to hit one of them as well. In the afternoon, their attacks were more organized, and the Marines and Army bombers together scored 3 more hits on one and 5 on the other for confirmed kills.

China
We got two more Zeroes that were trying to keep my bombers away from their troops near Nanyang.

Timor Sea
The Enterprise is underway, currently under the protection of land-based aircraft from Darwin (including its own VF-6), Hudson bombers providing ASW support along its immediate path, with Hornet providing ASUW protection to its flank and several minesweepers and destroyers providing ASW support further along its intended path. The scale of this operation is massive:

Darwin Assets:
ASW:
4 AVDs (1 sunk by submarine)
1 Dutch CM (sunk by submarine)
3 AM
2 YMS
18 AUS Wirraways
13 AUS Hudsons
VT-6: 15 Avenger

AAW:
VF-6 - 27 F4F
3 P-39 Squadrons: 55 total aircraft
1 AUS P-40 squadron: 16 aircraft
4 B-17s squadrons (offensive counter air vs Koepang) - 36 aircraft

ASUW:
VS-6: 18 SBDs
VB-6: 18 SBDs

Transport: Bringing in extra dockworkers for repairs
4 Dragons
11 C-47
1 DC-2
7 C-33

Hornet Battle Group--protecting Enterprise northern flank from surface attack
1 CV
2 CA
10 DD, plus 4 detached to Enterprise
VF-8 - 27 F4F
VT-8: 15 Devastator - ASW
VS-8: 18 SBCs - ASUW
VB-8: 18 SBCs - ASUW

Supplemental surface forces
2 AM, 1 DD, 2 DMS - Advance ASW on Enterprise's path
2 CA, 2 CL, 3 DD - supplemental escorts for Enterprise, rendevous in Arafura Sea.

KB Greeting Party
3 DM - Laying mines in Horn Island chokepoint
3 US and 4 Dutch submarines
8 PT boats
8 LB-30 Liberators
26 B-26s
19 Hudsons
16 Beaufighters for low-level attack
15 A-24 Banshees
12 Vindicators
40 US P-40Es
16 AUS P-40s

Search aircraft
32 Catalinas (Dutch, AUS, and US)

Totals:
Fighters: 191
Bomber/Attack: 265
Transport: 23
Search: 32
CV: 1 (Enterprise doesn't count)
CA/CL: 6
DD: 18
Other ASW: 14
DM: 3
SS: 7
PT: 8

So if this doesn't work out, don't fault me for not trying, this might be my biggest op so far.

We're going east. I only have two choices, and the fact that our B-17s are not neutralizing Koepang means that the big E and Hornet would be under escorted Betty attacks for several days if we went west, and he could reinforce his numbers during that time. It's very likely he'd break through, putting both carriers at risk. Losing both is completely unacceptable. Going east is risky too-he has at least 2 submarines waiting in that direction, and search aircraft are keeping a very close eye on Darwin. I can reasonably assume that the KB will probably reappear uncomfortably close a day or two after we depart. If that happens, the Hornet will cut and run, and I'll try to draw the KB to my greeting party to make him pay a cost for finishing off the Enterprise. Both options suck, but the eastern route is less bad.

One of the subs we went after to keep it off Enterprise sank the AVD that went after it.

Hornet found a CL and 2 DDs lurking north of our path. We attacked with 25 Helldivers and 4 Devastators (armed with bombs as they are mainly tasked to ASW right now), but the wiggly little bastards managed to evade every bomb.

The Enterprise did not report being sighted by scoutplanes and did not encounter any submarines leaving the base. This is a great start, as it means if the KB is planning on appearing when we leave, he might not know we left yet, so we're getting a head start. But the amount of naval activity in the area is probably a big hint.

Reinforcements
No.118 Sqn RCAF arrives at Canada (fighter pilot training)
Eastern Army arrives at Madras (Command HQ - headed for Calcutta)
39th Can (Militia) Brigade arrives at Vancouver (restricted)
BB North Carolina arrives at Balboa - Maybe she'll join the Wasp, they have similar top speeds.
DD Buchanan arrives at Balboa

12 June 1942
Enterprise remains undetected; S-40 on eternal patrol


Japan
USS Pomano sank an AKL in the Okinawa-Kyushu gap

Sumatra
The S-40 had positioned itself to get a shot at the heavy surface group bombarding Benkolen on its way back to the Java Sea. It was detected an engaged in shallow water with accurate depth charge patterns. Its damage forced it to surface and it was gunned down.

Our Aussie P-40s did better, they got 2 Zeroes over Palembang with no losses today. But none of them escorted the B-25 missions, so two more of them were lost to Oscars. Our Fulmar fighter-bombers attempting a low level attack didn't fare much better, 2 were shot down, the rest routed.

Timor Sea and Arafura Sea
Enterprise made it another day without any evidence of it being spotted. It's kind of quiet over here. The B-17s had another mostly ineffective run at Koepang, not much else to say for now. But, spoiler alert:
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca88...hERRKlY_ejDfoA

Reinforcements
DD McCalla arrives at Balboa
AM Shepparton arrives at Melbourne
No.16 Sqn RNZAF arrives at Blenheim (a very badly needed training squadron)

13 June 1942
Heavies approaching Darwin--centered around Yamato

Darwin area
We opened up by locating one of the subs off Darwin and hitting it with a very accurate depth charge attack. This looks like a kill, so we probably avenged the AVD sunk here earlier.

The Yamato, Haruna, Hiei and several cruisers and destroyers were spotted approaching Darwin from the north. The AI captains wisely scattered our ASW forces out of the way. Fortunately, they failed to reach Darwin today which meant I got an airstrike on them and I got to evacuate most of the planes out of Darwin immediately afterwards. I'm getting a lot of help here because we have a railroad connection, so every plane that can't fly right now is still getting shipped out. If he was hoping for an aircraft massacre, he's going to be disappointed. Also, he probably still thinks the Enterprise is there--for the 3rd day, she still hasn't been detected (to my knowledge).

The first strike was 16 SBDs of VS-6 escorted by 7 Australian P-40s and 5 US P-39s. The enemy had 7 Zeroes on CAP over the task force, who managed to avoid most of my fighters and go straight after the SBDs. We ended up losing 4 of them to the fighters, while one Zero, one P-39, and one P-40 were also shot down. The strike was hampered by the weather as they bombed in a thunderstorm... also three battleships plus escorts put up a lot of flak, taking out another SBD before it could attack. Out of 11 SBDs that made their attack, only one bomb found Yamato.

VB-6 arrived next with 18 SBDs and 16 P-39 escorts. The enemy only had one Zero left on CAP, but it was able to shoot down a P-39 before it bugged out. The SBDs scored a hit on Hiei. After that two stragglers from VS-6 found the enemy task force and managed to miss. We ended up losing a total of 4 SBDs to flak.

Overall a very disappointing result that two dive bomber squadrons were only able to get two hits on huge targets with minimal air cover. I'm tempted to turn Hornet around to get a crack at these guys before they disappear, but Enterprise is going to be in range of Rabaul's aircraft soon and it's not going to consistently be close enough to airbases to reliably provide cover. Lexington is actually nearby too, but it probably wouldn't relieve Hornet in time for Hornet to get to the Yamato---also I'm still expecting the KB to respond and having 3 of my carriers together when his 6 show up is something I'd rather avoid. So, I'll leave the defense of Darwin to their substantial coastal batteries for now. (5x 155mm M1918; 2x 6-pounder (probably 57mm); 6x 6" MkV/VII, 2x 9.2", 2x 4")

China
Some of the enemy armies moving east near Nanyang have turned northwest, which looks like a move to flank my armies that left Kaifeng
and are now guarding a river crossing on the flank of the frontline. Going to have to move them back a bit and possibly engage. Our bombers are now focusing on this group, and the terrain here it open so they are taking a beating.

Sumatra
Another P-40 down over Palembang with nothing to show for it. These Aussie pilots just aren't on the same level as the Japanese.

Oosthaven held out against an attack led by the Imperial Guards Division, which was surprisingly weak. I'm not sure what explains the lack of enemy firepower here because they didn't take that many casualties in Java and they've had time to replace their losses.

Singkep has been captured.

Thailand
We got another disappointing air result over Raheng, as Oscars swept the air base and the US P-40s there got beaten 3 to 1. There also appears to be an enemy army advancing north up the road from Bangkok. At this time, I believe my forces here are sufficient to stop it, although I may have to consolidate with my Raheng forces if he's concentrated his troops.

Aleutians
My USMC dive bombers are in place. The surface task force is lagging behind, I'm going to have them steam at flank speed for a day to try to get on schedule. If the enemy really is coming, I'd expect my Catalinas to spot them tomorrow. One sub that wanted to dock for repairs at Dutch Harbor has been ordered to Seattle instead to keep it from being offline in port during a potential battle.


Reinforcements
VB-5 arrives at San Francisco (Yorktown's old squadron being reformed--I don't have enough planes to spare to outfit them, so this is going to be a hollow command for now)
369th Coast AA Regiment arrives at San Francisco (unrestricted, ~30% strength)
140th USA Base Force arrives at San Francisco (unrestricted, full strength)
7th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (restricted, full strength)
14th NZ Brigade arrives at Auckland (unrestricted, full strength)

A mulligan is a do-over. It's a golf term usually used when the player hits a wayward tee shot, and wants to do it again, better this time.


Great AARs Molon Labe.


OOps, I was on the last page and it appeared that question was the most recent post. Already been answered.

No problem, now I know for certain :up:

I'd like a mulligan on my post haha :)

14 June 1942
Emperor furious as his battleships bombard an empty port, the Grey Ghost nowhere to be seen...

Sumatra
A measure of payback for the S-40, an enemy destroyer-minesweeper hit a sub-laid mine adjacent to the S-40s old patrol area, very likely sinking it. The idea had been if he'd detected one, he'd steer towards the other. I guess he ran over both.


Darwin and the Enterprise
Yamato, Hiei, and Haruna stood off from Darwin, bombarding it at long range to avoid my shore batteries getting involved. The shelling caused major damage to the runways at the airbase, moderate damage to the service bays, and moderate personnel casualties. Overall, nothing that can't be rebuilt or replaced, and a very disappointing result for the largest battleship in the world that thought it was going to catch a carrier under repair. Only the Hudsons were left at the airbase, and they escaped damage. The port was completely empty, I had all the remaining ships scatter to nearby ports at top speed. The enemy force left to the northeast. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes back next turn to hit us with secondary batteries. so I'm not having any planes return yet--we need to repair the runways first, anyway.

USS Hornet has been spotted by Rabaul's aircraft passing the Horn Island chokepoint, but not Enterprise. With the chokepoint now behind us, my submarines there have been reassigned to normal patrols. The elevated aircraft presence will continue for the time being. VF-6 and VT-6 are redeploying to coastal airbases along Enterprise's path. VS-6 and VB-6 for now will remain near Darwin for ASUW support, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach to see if operating from Darwin will become feasible or desirable in the next few days.

Enemy Zeroes swept Darwin and were met by the fighters formerly based there flying a long-range CAP. We shot down 3 with one P-39 lost.

Thailand
A sweep on Raheng took down 4 of our P-40s, we got 1 Oscar.

Aleutians
Nothing yet. I'm probably leaving the dive bombers here even after the all clear is signaled.

15 June 1942
Tanker Goyo Maru sunk near Miri, more submarines lurking on Enterprise's path

South China Sea
The S-37 missed a shot at a tanker convoy departing Miri consisting of the San Clemente Maru and Goyo Maru-- both very large and fast--and a PB escort. But a few hours later the same convoy ran into the KXVIII, and the Dutch sub put two fish into the Goyo, setting its fuel cargo ablaze. The convoy left the Goyo behind to burn, so the KXVIII put two more into it to be sure. The Goyo is a 10,000 ton Type-N, they only had 8 of them, so this is a major loss.

Coral Sea & Australian coast
Submarines were detected, engaged, and damaged off Brisbane and Cooktown. The Cooktown one is close to the Enterprise and was detected by its advance ASW escort--we're rerouting around it.

No contact with Rabaul's scoutplanes this turn.

SIGINT reports that a Shokaku-class carrier is headed for Rabaul. I interpret that to mean the whole KB. By the way, the Shokaku and Zuikaku are due for refits that would take them out of service for 3 weeks. Kaga, Akagi, and Hiryu will be due for a similar upgrade in July.

I had to scuttle Noumea's repair tender. It was damaged so severely in the KB's attack that it wasn't going to be useful for the rest of the war unless I got it to a repair shipyard. Very little of the damage was flotation, so with really nothing to lose, I ordered it to Brisbane. But because the system damage was so high, the little bit of water in the people tube quickly became a lot of water, and there was no way it was going to even make it back to Noumea. The lack of a repair tender at Noumea means that most of the damaged ships there are basically done. I only have one other, and it's needed where it's at.

China
They didn't waste any time crossing the bridge when my flank guards fell back to block the wide flanking force. So it looks like they intend to mount a counteroffensive here. I think they have more troops than me here, but if I play smart defensively I should be able to hold. My recon is better than it used to be, but not great, so I'm mostly guessing about this.

Malaya
Our Wirraways bombed another cargo ship in Mersing. A shame these bombs are so small, it's probably going to be fine.

Thailand
2 more P-40s down with nothing to show for it. The air campaign here is just brutal for us. I wish I could just take Bangkok and let the army blow up these Oscars on the ground.

We attacked their roadblock but didn't budge it, casualties were even and light on both sides. We'll have more units to try again tomorrow.


Reinforcements
The Wasp has arrived on the West coast. We transitioned VT-71 to Avengers.
AM Junee arrives at Sydney
627th Tank Destroyer Battalion arrives at San Francisco

16 June 1942
Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an ambush, Royal Navy smashes troop convoy, Oosthaven captured


Battle of the Coral Sea
EDIT: I started calling this the "second" battle of the Coral Sea, but looking back the "first" wasn't much of a battle, it was just me tearing up enemy ships unopposed.

The first combat event was well forward of the Enterprise's path, two minesweepers found an enemy sub off Brisbane and failed to damage it.

At first light, scoutplanes detected Carrier Division 3 making its way towards what I'll call the Lae Strait (the gap between Papua New Guinea and New Britain). The carriers had scouts of their own--a Val spotted the USS Nautilus waiting in the strait for it and attacked. The bomb was a damaging near miss--but the Nautilus' gunners actually shot the #$%^er down for trying. Nautilus remains on station, but the carriers are obviously alerted to it. Port Moresby launched an ill-considered level bombing attack on the fleet.

Later in the morning, the Hornet's radar detected a large incoming strike from the north--behind it. CARDIV3 is still too far away for this to be them, but clearly this is a strike from multiple carriers:
A6M2 Zero x 18
B4Y1 Jean x 13
B5N1 Kate x 14
B5N2 Kate x 8
D3A1 Val x 44
Hornet immediately scrambled a strike and sent it north to sink whoever launched the planes.

We managed 18 Wildcats opposing the enemy strike, plus a single Australian P-40 from a nearby airbase. They did OK, I guess, considering the equal number of enemy fighters: 1 Zero and 1 F4F shot down, plus 4 Vals and 4 Jeans. But that left quite a few getting through:
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CA Northampton, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires

So the opening blow knocked out my only operational carrier here--Hornet is in pretty much as bad of shape as the Enterprise was when this all started.

The Hornet's air wing found the enemy fleet, positively classifying the Kaga, Hiryu, Shoho, and Kongo (I suspect Junyo is there too). They had 42 Zeroes on defense up against our mere 8 Wildcats escorting 25 SBCs and 4 TBDs. The Zeroes splashed 3 Wildcats and 7 of the SBCs, one more SBC was shot down by flak during its dive, so we ended up with 17 SBCs and 4 TBDs actually making attacks. One TBD put a 500lb bomb (because the squadron was assigned to ASW duty they were carrying bombs) through Kaga's flight deck, setting off an Avgas explosion and setting the ship on fire. I don't think the ship is done for, but it is most likely out of this fight. An SBC also managed a hit on Shoho, which wasn't as damaging but it's a big bomb and a small ship, so there's a good chance this one is out of the fight too.

Port Morseby's bombers (2 Hudson, 5 Liberators) arrived at CARDIV3, running into 54 Zeroes and 9 Rufe float fighters. The fighters splashed the Hudsons easily, then got 3 of the Liberators. A fourth Liberator was lost to flak, leaving a single plane to attempt an attack on Shokaku, which missed of course. The number of enemy planes on CAP suggests the Akagi is here too.

Enterprise was next. 13 late-arriving Jeans went after her. We only had 2 Wildcats and a P-40 left on patrol; they did what they could, shooting down 1 before the attack (and two more on the way out). Flak got another, but that's still 11 torpedo bombers attacking a vulnerable ship:
CA Australia, Torpedo hits 1
CV Enterprise, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

A follow up attack by the KB-fragment failed to locate the carriers, finding instead the surface forces that had been part of Hornet's group before she broke off to try to get to port. 16 Zeroes escorted 27 Vals and were intercepted by 3 Australian P-40s. We got two Zeroes. The Vals only managed a single hit on a destroyer.

How did this happen? The KB was expected, but it was supposed to show up the way CARDIV3 did--at least a day away with enough warning to order the Hornet to bug out. I'm not sure where the western force came from--I can only speculate that it took advantage of the evacuation prompted by the Yamato's group to find a gap in our scoutplane coverage and it got into the Arafura Sea completely undetected.

Here's the situation now:
https://i.ibb.co/PwV4wWb/1942-June-16-Coral-Sea.png
I'm hoping CARDIV3 will face the brunt of my "KB greeting party", in particular from Milne as they have about 50 fighters supporting the bombers there, so they might break through in force. Enterprise's air wing is now at Cairns, which is further south than we want, but the northern bases aren't big enough to support offensive operations. VF-6 will help cover the damaged carriers; Enterprise's bombers can get involved if KB-west continues southward. Hornet's air wing--what's still operational--is going to Port Morseby, which could give them a shot at either group.

I'm laying a minefield in Cooktown since that's the obvious place for them to send surface forces to try to finish the damaged ships off. I'm also detaching a few cruisers to sprint around behind KB-west to maybe get a shot at the Kaga or Shoho if they try to retreat back the way they (probably) came. And the submarines that I just dismissed have been ordered back. Hopefully when the smoke clear tomorrow his carrier forces will have suffered as great a loss as mine.


Malaya
I've rebuilt my torpedo bomber squadron at Singapore, and sent them out hunting. They killed a cargo ship at Mersing with 4 hits.


Sumatra
Oosthaven has been captured.

Now for the good part of today. The Royal Navy CVBG had been moving back along the Indian Ocean coast of Sumatra, as it looked to me like the enemy task forces there were starting to venture too far to be supported by Betties that could have Zeroes escorting them. That target disappeared. But, I'm also trying to get a squadron of Hurricanes into Palembang from Rangoon. To do that I need an airbase in northwestern Sumatra as a refueling point, and the bases are dropping like flies. The last suitible base has enemy troops closing on it. So, my heavies are closing in for a bombardment of those troops. The CVBG was ordered back north to cover that operation. By random luck, we spotted a troop convoy protected by a single destroyer--probably airplane mechanics and base forces trying to move into my base after the infantry clears out my troops.

Albacore I x 27
Fulmar II x 12
Sea Hurricane Ib x 6
Martlet II x 15
Swordfish I x 6

xAK Senyo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Eiko Maru #2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Aso Maru, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Zuiko Maru, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Rokko Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Tateisi Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Koto Maru, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Mikasa Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Kawakaze

One Swordfish was downed by flak. I'd happily trade this success for a fully operational Enterprise or Hornet, but right now this is the good news in a world of despair.

Hawaii
Actually, there is one other bit of good news. After successfully getting a cargo ship to Pearl about a week ago, I started sending more. One is about to arrive tomorrow, and it hasn't been detected despite mostly clear skies. Lahaina airbase is really looking like a paper tiger. We managed to siphon enough avgas out of hangar queens to put a recon flight up: we spotted 9 support ships and merchants at harbor--including a sub tender--but no warships; airbase strength reported as 8 fighters, 29 bombers, no auxilliaries (scoutplanes and transports), and just 8000 troops estimated. I can't say I understand it, but it looks like the Pearl operation was abandoned, with the invading troops left stranded.

I'm going to respond to this conservatively. The first priority to to resupply Pearl because my cargo ships are so plentiful that if this is a trap and I lose a bunch, no big deal. But if I am able to resupply Pearl, I'll probe the invading armies and see if they are ready to fight or if they're starving and out of ammo. As for Lahaina, if I can get a supply convoy in undetected, then I can get battleships in undetected, and there isn't much that base can do to retaliate if the runways are a cratery mess. Also, an operational base at Pearl/Hickam can support lots of bombers.

Reinforcements
DD Duncan arrives at Balboa
ML No. 230 arrives at Karachi
177th USAAF Base Force arrives at San Francisco (unrestricted, full strength)

17 June 1942
Can I name CV-16 Enterprise?


Battle of the Coral Sea, day 2
USS Seadragon intercepted a task force including a seaplane carrier in the Solomon Sea--because CARDIV 3 included Rufes when Port Moresby's bombers attacked yesterday, I think this is CARDIV 3 but Seadragon just didn't spot the carriers. Anyway, the escorts were onto her immediately and drove her off.

Enterprise was trying to make it to the small port at Cooktown for hasty repairs. It was engaged first by a small element, 2 Kates with 6 Zeroes. P-39s based at Cooktown shot down both Kates and 3 of the Zeroes with just one loss. Obviously they weren't done, next was 18 Vals with 18 Zeroes--which we opposed with 18 P-39s. The Zeroes got the job done. 10 of them were shot down with no losses, but the P-39s never made it to the Vals:
CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
CA Australia, Bomb hits 2, on fire

...and that's pretty much it for day 2. My opponent is furious that his carriers didn't launch more strikes, and I'm pissed that my land bases didn't seem to even attempt to strike the carriers. Milne in particular should have held CARDIV 3 at close range from multiple search arcs, and had over 50 fighters to escort its dive bombers, so it would have been pretty evenly matched with their expected 50-60 Zeroes on CAP. And the enemy did press south, so CVW-6 was in range.


Sumatra and the Strait of Malacca
My Brit heavy task force ran into a destroyer that might have been covering the phibs. We fatally wounded it before it broke off, but not before expending a ridiculous amount of ammo and getting one of our destroyers moderately damaged. The task force would bombard the enemy invading Sabang later in the day, but at reduced strength thanks to this ammo expenditure.

There phib task force we hit is bigger than we realized; two small ships evacuating Palembang ran into 3 cargo ships with 4 escorts, two cargos were burning so this can't be a different task force.

With that contact report arriving with the CVBG covering the heavies, another air strike was launched, sinking the 3 remaining cargo ships and causing massive casualties to the troops inside them. One escorting DMS was also damaged by multiple bomb hits.

The enemy attempted an airborne assault on Palembang and got 2 transport aircraft shot down by flak, then the 39 paratroops that made it the the ground were immediately killed or captured. He complained to me that I had 2 divisions sitting there after I supposedly promised not to fortify Palembang. No, I promised to turn off the refineries once under siege so as not to take advantage of the fact that refineries produce supply, which would unrealistically make a siege ineffective. As if I'm not going to defend the biggest oil/fuel producing base in theatre. Sheesh.

Thailand
Another P-40 downed over Raheng... I'm a little annoyed because I actually ordered the CAP there to stand down since they aren't bombing, they're just picking my fighters off. No sense coming out to play when it benefits him, right? Apparently some fighters came over from a nearby base to help out...

Good news, though. Our reserve armies cleared the road again. Casualties 1151 against the retreating enemy army to our 190.

China
We had a major victory here today as the enemy flanking force, badly disrupted by days of bombing, was routed by my former Kaifeng assaulters turned flank guards. Casualties were 6547 to 1540, but the reality was even more skewed than that as the enemy suffered 246 squads destroyed instead of disabled, compared to my 12.

We're still outnumbered here, and there is a bigger force that made it across the bridge. For now I'm going to hold position, try to get better recon, and let my bombers start wearing them down.

In terms of victory points, we actually inflicted enough troop casualties today across three battlefields that even with the loss of Enterprise, we nearly broke even.

Hawaii
My second lone cargo ship arrived at Pearl completely undetected. Today's recon report on Lahaina is similar to yesterday's, giving it credibility. I'm putting together a large resupply convoy to follow up behind the loners.

Reinforcements...and withdrawals
The 301st and 303rd bomber groups--B-17 training groups all--withdrew to redeploy to Europe. But they're apparently getting new aircraft, they left their bombers. So I now have about 40 more B-17s ready to assign to combat squadrons, should I choose.

DD Lansdowne arrives at Balboa
DD Stack arrives at Balboa
No.1 PRU RAAF arrives at Melbourne - Buffalo recon variants. Doesn't have the range to be immediately useful, so trainers for now. If a knifefight breaks out in or around Australia that could change.

18 June 1942
The third sister perishes

Battle of the Coral Sea, day 3
As the battle is shaping into a decisive Japanese victory, the enemy's main concern was tracking down Hornet, which for all they knew made it to a nearby port already, or might even be escaping under cloud cover. In reality, it hadn't survived the night, succumbing to the damage it suffered in the first day. At Cooktown, 3 enemy destroyers detached from the KB entered the port and shelled the damaged HMAS Australia without suffering any hits in return. The same 3 destroyers found 3 of mine on ASW duty that had been trying to clear a path for Hornet; they lightly damaged all three before they cut and run. Further south, near Bowen, an enemy submarine intercepted a cruiser and 3 destroyers trying to make it to Brisbane, it torpedoed and sank one of the destroyers.

CVW-6 attempted an attack on the KB, mustering 16 SBDs escorted by 26 F4Fs. By this point, the 2 elements of the KB had recombined and I was facing a massive CAP of 52 Zeroes and 9 Rufes. We got massacred... all 16 SBDs downed, along with 7 Wildcats; we only got 1 Zero and 2 Rufes.

The KB sent an airstrike after the 3 destroyers that escaped his detachment. 3 P-39s attempted to provide cover but only got 2 of themselves shot down. Fortunately, the enemy Vals (18 of them) all missed. 27 Kates arrived next, unescorted. Alerted by the enemy raid, we now had 14 fighters on defense. We got 26 of them with no losses.


Celebes Sea
The KXV torpedoed a troop transport that appears to have been empty but approaching Tarakan. Apparently troops there are needed elsewhere. The ship will likely survive but it's going to struggle to get to a repair yard.

China
It's beginning to look like the defeat the enemy suffered yesterday is actually giving them an opportunity for a much bigger victory, as my "flank guards" that was the main force invading Kaifeng isn't in great position to support the new frontline. The enemy main force is now racing my "flank guards" to Chengchow. They have better roads to use, but they're also getting constantly bombed. Not sure who wins that race.

Strait of Malacca
An AGP and an AM evacuating Palembang were attacked by Nells, the AM was sunk but the AGP successfully refueled at Sabang (which will soon fall) and should make it to Colombo.

Sumatra
Fulmars attacked enemy shipping at Benkoelen, scoring hits on a light cruiser and cargo ship. One Fulmar was lost to flak.

19 June 1942
Milne dive bombers annihilated by KB's CAP


Battle of the Coral Sea, day 4
The Kido Butai continues to search for the Hornet, this time checking Port Moresby. Our base at Milne responded, first with our USMC Vindicator squadron (12 aircraft) with 39 escorting fighters, up against 51 Zeroes and 7 Rufes on CAP. We lost 8 fighters and all the Vindicators, downing just 2 Rufes and a Zero. Next, 13 Banshees arrived with 11 fighter escorts. We shot down 1 Rufe while the CAP took down a P-40 and 12 of the Banshees.

Well that pretty much does it for Milne.

The KB hit the port at Cooktown with a small raid, still thinking Hornet might be there apparently.

I'm failing to reconstitute CVW-8 because the squadrons were all technically destroyed with the loss of Hornet, and the aircraft ashore are just fragments. So the aircraft are entering the reserve pool instead of being reconstituted as combat effective squadrons. I can't even give these to CVW-6 (which wasn't destroyed with Enterprise, they officially disembarked) because every squadron is flying different aircraft than their sister units--even the Wildcats are different variants. I'm going to work on giving some of the Helldivers to reform the USMC squadron that was just wiped out at Milne.

If I'm going to hurt him, it's pretty much up to the submarines now. Milne, CVW-6 and CVW-8 were my main weapons, and they're all done for, at least in the short term. Subs cycling back onto station from replenishing at Brisbane and Noumea are headed directly for the KB--which will only work if they turn south into them. A bunch of subs that had been patrolling the Solomons are also guarding the KB's likely exit routes from near Milne up towards Rabaul.

An otherwise uneventful day, air raids continue in China, Thailand, and Sumatra but that's about it.

20 June 1942
Junyo detached from KB

Coral Sea
He's really got it in for my 3 destroyers running south (just 2 now, the worst damaged split off from them). They suffered a sub attack that missed yesterday that wasn't worth mentioning. Now, the Junyo has detacted from the KB and sprinted south, hitting these damaged ships with an airstrike:

DMS Trevor, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Edsall, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk

The main KB raided Milne and sank a minesweeper, and also severely damaged two cargo ships that have been desperately trying to clear the area for several days.

N. Australia
Darwin is coming under air attack again. I had been returning ships there that had evacuated with the Yamato was spotted. That was a bad call...I'm clearing them out again, maybe permanently. Some of the fighters that had been supporting Hornet and Enterprise are working their way back here to put up a defense.

Burma and Thailand
Oscars are being used in the attack role, trying to hit my small ASW boats at Rangoon. We shot down 5 with Hurricanes and got one more with flak with the loss of one Hurricane.

21 June 1942


Coral Sea
The KB detacted its heavies and bombarded Port Moresby:
B-26 Marauder: 10 damaged
B-26 Marauder: 1 destroyed on ground
Beaufighter Ic: 16 damaged
Beaufighter Ic: 3 destroyed on ground
P-40E Warhawk: 6 damaged
Hudson III (LR): 13 damaged
Hudson III (LR): 1 destroyed on ground
LB-30 Liberator: 1 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 1 destroyed on ground

Although I'm guessing he was looking for the Hornet in port. The detachment made for Rabaul, passing my Milne and drawing a PT boat attack. He sank two, we never got close enough to shoot.


N. Australia
Some evacuating ships came under Nell attack, which fortunately missed. We'll have a CAP tomorrow.

East China Sea
With the enemy committed to a major ground offensive around Kaifeng, centered around a 100k-plus soldier death star unit, he's going to be sucking supply in China like never before in this campaign. With that in mind, I've ordered several subs into the dangerously shallow East China Sea to try to interdict supply lines from Japan to Shanghai and other bases further north up the coast. We got our first kill of that operation with the sinking of an AKL by the USS Gar.

Hawaii
I'm about to have another cargo ship successfully dock at Pearl undetected. With enough supply to operate Kingfishers, I've noted that there is some merchant traffic here and identified its route of approach. Some of my subs supplying Pearl will be retasked to interdicting these merchant runs. The "big" cargo run is still several days off. If successful, I'll probably have battleships--Arizona and Nevada in the lead--and phibs on the way next.

Burma and Thailand
We got 6 Oscars (one by flak) l in the enemy's second attempt on my Rangoon area shipping--this time going after cargo ships, with one Hurricane lost. They also lost an Oscar trying to stop my bombers in the Raheng area.

I'd been supplying Port Blair to make it capable of sustaining air ops in the future if I needed it. Betties took advantage, sinking one of 3 cargo ships unloading there. I had actually considered moving fighters here for this turn, but I decided against it since the attacks on Rangoon were occurring while this raid was just something I thought might happen, so I missed a chance at unescorted Betties.

22 June 1942

Coral Sea
The heavy detachment ran into some merchies at Milne but did not engage..probably out of ammo. I think these guys are doubling back to rejoin the KB.

The Junyo is still pursuing ships clearing out of the area. It's near the north end of New Caledonia--too far to be supported by the KB. Lexington already left this area, but it's not far. I expect it to turn back, but in the past he's shown that he's fine with parking his carriers off my bases, so we'll see.
Wave 1 (Vals)
DMS Zane, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Mungana, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DMS Boggs, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DM Tracy, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
Wave 2 (Kates)
xAP Mungana, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
DMS Boggs, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Montoro, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk

An air strike on Milne cost the enemy 6 Zeroes and 2 Kates, we lost a P-40. Our B-17s that were in Darwin are now in Brisbane, they went after the Junyo as it continues south... one B-17 was lost with no hits on the enemy.

N. Australia
The Kittyhawks now on CAP here got bounced by a sweep--7 lost with no victories--clearing the way for the bombers we knew were coming later in the day.

South China Sea
KXI sustained light depth charge damage off Miri.

China
There is now a squadron of Zeroes trying to defend his death star near Kaifeng. We shot down 3 of them at the cost of 2 P-43s, our bombers are still getting through. A decent chunk of the death star has already arrived in Chengchow, so it looks like he's won the race.

Burma and Thailand
An enemy submarine showed up at Port Blair to finish what the Betties started, both remaining cargo ships were sunk.

One fighter on each side went down over Rangoon in a sweep.