15 November 1942
Enemy forces trying to do too much at once in Burma, possible to turn the tide
Banda Sea
Overnight, the O20 spotted two damaged merchant retiring from Babar, but a destroyers spotted it before it could attack. It lost the destroyer, no shots fired.
The B-26 raids on the enemy ship were completely ineffective. That was 22 aircraft dropping 6 bombs each. I'll be switching one of them over to land attack. I'm also going to try the Aussie Hudsons' hands at low level attack since many Aussie pilots have been training for it. As we've come to expect, the Beaufighters did well:
xAK Yamagiri Maru, Shell hits 4, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Yamabiko Maru, Shell hits 1, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
Yamagiri almost certainly sank. No troop casualties reported, though, which is concerning.
PT attacks tomorrow.
Battle of Rangoon
The Yamato, Hiei, and Hyuga shelled Tavoy overnight. The base is a wreck, but at least for now I'm not using it. After the bombardment, my "Tavoy" army arrived, coming back after pursuing the enemy's former garrison here well into the jungle. I've detached one unit from this group, the rest will continue its trip up the road towards Rangoon.
The former "anti-Bangkok main force" is now back in the vicinity of Moulmein. It appears to be more powerful than the enemy forces currently holding Moulmein. I'd like to consolidate them with the surviving Moulmein garrison, but I'm going to keep a close eye on the supply situation as it's possible that their daily expenditures will outpace what our lines can provide.
Enemy troops are currently advancing to the north from Pegu, and have seized the first base on the road, Toungoo. The likely objective of this group is to try to sever supply lines in the north, but they currently lack the numbers to do the job. I should be able to stop them around Mandalay. The enemy force that took Pisanouke is headed straight to Raheng, opting for a contested river crossing instead of a race into a currently empty hex. Based on what I saw when these guys were in Pisanouke, I have enough to stop them here, too. Especially with the benefit of the river crossing and the highly effective bombings of the Vengeance dive bombers stationed here.
We swept Pegu with fighters from Raheng, but surprisingly had no joy as the enemy fighters apparently all went straight to Bangkok after taking off. So that's an opportunity then-tomorrow a portion of my B-24s will hit the airbase instead of the enemy troops in Rangoon. It also appears there are far less fighters here than there used to be--the carriers appear to be gone and it looks like Oscars have deployed elsewhere. Another opportunity there--I'm going to let the Vengeances do naval attacks for at least a turn before putting them back on the enemy ground forces threatening Raheng.
At Rangoon itself, the destroyer John Edwards and an Indian PG succumbed to damage sustained in various air raids and naval bombardments. I evacuated several flyable aircraft, so between that and the base conditions we had no CAP to greet the enemy sweeps/CAP. That proved to be a bit of a problem for the B-24 raids, which suffered one loss to fighters and another to flak, but then 3 more damaged planes crashed on the way home and 2 were scrapped at base. We also lost 3 Wellingtons that arrived without the B-24s and were just outgunned. One Zero was shot down by the bombers.
We also seized Chaing Mai with paratroopers. This is just to prevent an unseen enemy from severing the supply line through the mountains.
Solomons Area
1 Oscar and 1 P-40 down over Rossel. Strangely quiet here otherwise. I've transitioned one of Efate's P-38F squadrons to the P-38G.
Refits and reinforcements
CA Indianapolis beginning refit while under repair in shipyard at Pearl Harbor
DD Fletcher begins refit while under repair at Pearl Harbor
DD Chevalier taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
DD Waller taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
2nd USMC Air Wing Base Force arrives at San Diego (unrestricted, full strength)