21 October 1942
MPA-submarine coordination kills a tanker in the East China Sea; under pressure in China
East China Sea
Yesterday the Husdsons patroling the area spotted a task force that appeared to be transiting along a line of islands to avoid deep water as much as possible, then at Miyako-Jima headed towards Okinawa. I had a sub on patrol that looked like it could intercept it before Okinawa, so I adjusted its patrol to make that happen--and it worked. USS Trigger found a convoy of 4 small tankers and 2 PBs and managed to hit and sink one of the tankers.
Japan
USS Salmon made an ill-advised attack on an ASW group as it transited past Aogashima while en route to its patrol area. But it worked, she sank an old clunker of a subchaser and got away with it.
China
My coastal line of bases now has enemy forces approaching both sides of the line. Before it looked like he'd given up on the northern end, but once we started moving our troops to meet the southern prong, they started marching again. I doubt I have enough to stop both attacks. In my favor, though, the aerial situation has reversed from the early days of the war, when he bombed everywhere any of my troops might come into contact with his. I'm bombing both these guys, and it's been awhile since fighters tried to stop me. Also, on the northern end, the enemy is crossing over roadless, rough terrain, which means they'll arrive with high fatigue and probably low supplies too.
In the north, the enemy flanking force is still apparently superior to my blocking force, even with reinforcements. I'm ordering some extra troops north from Sinyang, but I doubt they'll arrive on time. And with my Wellington bombers needed for a mission on the east coast, I reluctantly ordered a B-24 squadron to participate here--the British one. That leaves 2 US squadrons still standing by for clear weather over Port Arthur (rainy again for tomorrow).
Burma
A second thing I forgot thanks to the Mulligan yesterday, I had originally ordered a large base force to sail from Colombo to Burma. So I put that task force together again today. The test-run light cargo ship made it there and is heading back without having been detected, so that's a good sign. So, this means I now have 3 groups of base forces/engineers approaching to reinforce Burma, one overland and two by sea. The sea approach is risky, but the unfortunate reality here is that the status quo doesn't lead to victory, I need to change the equation. I need to prepare for an onslaught of new troops coming up from Singapore, and that is going to be much harder to pull off if Rangoon is still isolated by Port Blair and I can't bring in supplies.
Some good news here--I noticed I moved a base force and a construction unit from Raheng to Pisanouke. Probably to build up the forts to resist a counterattack that never came. They're headed back to Raheng to build up the base a bit. It doesn't solve the problem, but it makes it a little less bad. It's already close to being big enough to operate B-24s, and if I keep going who knows I might even be able to operate multiple squadrons and have fighters there to keep them from getting blasted on the ground.
We've moved our Tavoy armies back onto the enemy base, now reinforced by armor and with more infantry just a few days away. We shelled them with artillery for moderate casualties. I'm tempted to attack now, it might work. But no, better to wait for the extra infantry, I can just keep shelling them while I wait.
Banda Sea
Babar is officially in our hands and we're building forts and an airfield. The phibs should be done tomorrow, they need to hurry because the one P-38 squadron providing cover has nearly half its planes down for maintenance thanks to the Optemo.
Espiritu Santo Islands
I'm going right back to Luganville today. Yes, that heavy task force is still out there. But I'm betting he doesn't expect me to go right back after just a day. I expect I'll have 80% of what I need ashore tomorrow and can evacuate again if I need to. As long as he doesn't anticipate my move, I'm inside his OODA loop on this. A bit risky, but the operation fails if I don't have enough engineers to build up the island. I'm limiting my risk exposure a little bit by not including a lot of surface forces this time. The skimmers are staying in a task force at Efate, hopefully by keeping them in an active task force they will retreat automatically if a superior enemy force approaches Efate. Sure would be nice if I hadn't lost the Yorktown class.
Reinforcements, Refits, Withdrawals
-VMF-212 had to withdraw today. They'll be back in a few months. These guys were one of the squadrons reactivated at Pearl when we got supplies in and played a key part in whittling down the KB's air wing during the Lahaina evacuation.
-Another major troop convoy is loading at LA bound for Pearl. Includes a USMC regiment, marine island garrison forces, and base forces.
AR Ajax arrives at San Francisco
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion arrives at Sydney
__________________
|