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Molon Labe · 01-29-22, 01:11 PM

19 November 1942
Carrier forces playing it safe; Moulmein recaptured

Banda Sea
Now he's doing night raids here. 36 Sallies hit Babar overnight, destroying a P-39 on the ground and dealing a small amount of facility damage. Still 2 months before I get my first night fighter squadron, despite having about 20 P-70s in inventory.

The raid on Ambon I wanted didn't happen, the carriers didn't get in range in time. And he's quite possibly evacuated most ships from Ambon. But as far as I can tell, the Lex and Sara are still undetected, so I'm still going to try to hit Ambon tomorrow. After that the carriers need to get out of here, I've more or less rung the dinner bell.

Japan
USS Kingfish sank an AKL off Kyushu, night surface attack.
Which reminds me, the USS Sunfish, damaged off the Japanese coast weeks ago, made it safely to Adak in the Aluetians. The crew actually did well enough with repairs that there isn't much the repair ships can do there, so she'll be headed for a real shipyard soon, either Seattle or Pearl.

Burma and Thailand
Sweeps over Raheng resulted in 6 Oscars downed, at the cost of 2 P-40s and a Hurricane.

Sallies harassed our retreating forces at Bassein, while we hit the pursuing tanks with B-24s. The B-24s got 2 Zeroes but didn't seem to do much damage below.

Vengeance bombers hit the enemy advancing on Raheng, causing about 100 casualties. The troops appear badly disrupted. The enemy may be reinforcing this group by rail from Bangkok. At this time it looks like mostly support units and that the balance of forces here hasn't tilted.

A task force of destroyers shelled Moulmein, but their little popguns didn't change anything--we still took Moulmein back. Now if we can just get the Tavoy force through this intersection before the Yamato follows that up.... Casualties 3000 to 1000 favoring us, but squad destruction was even more lopsided at 111 to 7.

Solomons Area
The 10x B-25 raid on Rabaul met no resistance, as expected. They did a pretty good job cratering the runways, but we didn't destroy any aircraft.

The suspected KB did not advance into range but instead moved to the Shortlands. I can't tell what he's up to here. Best bet, it gives him an immediate strike option if (when) I move more units into Rossel. But so does Rabaul. It also might be another attempt at the 2-directional attack that took down Enterprise and Hornet last time our carriers ventured into the Darwin area, he's just staging here waiting for the other carrier division to get close to Ambon. But Shortlands isn't necessarily any better to stage from than Guadalcanal. I suppose a third possibility might be that he's trying to bait me.

Shortlands is just barely out of range of CVW-6s aircraft in Milne. But they'd be in range from Rossel. So one thing that's going to happen, aviation support is going to start making its way from Milne to Rossel as I continue to build up that base. The carriers might be gone by then, but at least I'll be encroaching on him further. For tomorrow, I'll have P-38 recon variants checking in on them and a P-38 sweep over the base. Between those flights I'll hopefully have a really good idea which carriers are actually there. The carriers in the Banda Sea either already have, or soon will, drive their potential targets out of the area, so they'll need something else to do... like engage these carriers if it's just a fragment of the KB. I'm also sending an invasion force to Midway--but that operation is premised on the whole KB being in or near the Solomons. If that turns out to be wrong, I should probably either turn that task force around, or back them up with enough CVE support that they could turn away an attack from a KB fragment.

01-29-22, 01:11 PM	#489
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	19 November 1942 Carrier forces playing it safe; Moulmein recaptured Banda Sea Now he's doing night raids here. 36 Sallies hit Babar overnight, destroying a P-39 on the ground and dealing a small amount of facility damage. Still 2 months before I get my first night fighter squadron, despite having about 20 P-70s in inventory. The raid on Ambon I wanted didn't happen, the carriers didn't get in range in time. And he's quite possibly evacuated most ships from Ambon. But as far as I can tell, the Lex and Sara are still undetected, so I'm still going to try to hit Ambon tomorrow. After that the carriers need to get out of here, I've more or less rung the dinner bell. Japan USS Kingfish sank an AKL off Kyushu, night surface attack. Which reminds me, the USS Sunfish, damaged off the Japanese coast weeks ago, made it safely to Adak in the Aluetians. The crew actually did well enough with repairs that there isn't much the repair ships can do there, so she'll be headed for a real shipyard soon, either Seattle or Pearl. Burma and Thailand Sweeps over Raheng resulted in 6 Oscars downed, at the cost of 2 P-40s and a Hurricane. Sallies harassed our retreating forces at Bassein, while we hit the pursuing tanks with B-24s. The B-24s got 2 Zeroes but didn't seem to do much damage below. Vengeance bombers hit the enemy advancing on Raheng, causing about 100 casualties. The troops appear badly disrupted. The enemy may be reinforcing this group by rail from Bangkok. At this time it looks like mostly support units and that the balance of forces here hasn't tilted. A task force of destroyers shelled Moulmein, but their little popguns didn't change anything--we still took Moulmein back. Now if we can just get the Tavoy force through this intersection before the Yamato follows that up.... Casualties 3000 to 1000 favoring us, but squad destruction was even more lopsided at 111 to 7. Solomons Area The 10x B-25 raid on Rabaul met no resistance, as expected. They did a pretty good job cratering the runways, but we didn't destroy any aircraft. The suspected KB did not advance into range but instead moved to the Shortlands. I can't tell what he's up to here. Best bet, it gives him an immediate strike option if (when) I move more units into Rossel. But so does Rabaul. It also might be another attempt at the 2-directional attack that took down Enterprise and Hornet last time our carriers ventured into the Darwin area, he's just staging here waiting for the other carrier division to get close to Ambon. But Shortlands isn't necessarily any better to stage from than Guadalcanal. I suppose a third possibility might be that he's trying to bait me. Shortlands is just barely out of range of CVW-6s aircraft in Milne. But they'd be in range from Rossel. So one thing that's going to happen, aviation support is going to start making its way from Milne to Rossel as I continue to build up that base. The carriers might be gone by then, but at least I'll be encroaching on him further. For tomorrow, I'll have P-38 recon variants checking in on them and a P-38 sweep over the base. Between those flights I'll hopefully have a really good idea which carriers are actually there. The carriers in the Banda Sea either already have, or soon will, drive their potential targets out of the area, so they'll need something else to do... like engage these carriers if it's just a fragment of the KB. I'm also sending an invasion force to Midway--but that operation is premised on the whole KB being in or near the Solomons. If that turns out to be wrong, I should probably either turn that task force around, or back them up with enough CVE support that they could turn away an attack from a KB fragment. __________________ Last edited by Molon Labe; 01-29-22 at 03:41 PM.