27 March 1943
Java
Chaos is starting to break out around the landing area as the various task forces are reacting to each other. For me, my heavy covering force wants to rearm, and some of the phibs want to run. For the enemy, the CL Isuzu broke off with 2 destroyers to try to make it back for repairs, but trying to avoid combat by going south just made it easier for them to get found by my covering force that started going that way before I turned it around:
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 2, heavy damage
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Amagiri, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
At daybreak, the main enemy surface force seemed to be trying to reach the phibs without running into my covering force (they only had destroyers at this point, I had 2 battleships). That left them open for airstrikes from the CVEs and from the 2 airbases that had come online.
We flew several sorties which were somewhat disorganized--the Avengers from the furthest airbase flew without escorts. The enemy CAP started strong but tapered off. The first wave was 10 P-40s and 17 Wildcats vs 16 Zeroes, 6 Oscars, and 3 Nicks (27 vs 25), but other waves met only a single Oscar or nothing at all. The aircraft took a bigger beating than the ships. Losses were 9 Wildcats, 2 P-40s, 9 Avengers, 4 SBDs. For that, we got 5 Zeroes, a Nick, 2 bomb hits on different DDs, and three torpedo hits on 2 others, sinking both. This all but completely exhausts the torpedo stores aboard the CVEs.
China
1 Tony splashed over Foochow.
The massive army at Foochow attacked, reducing forts from Level 3 to Level 2, causing 3000 enemy and 1700 friendly casualties. Not good.
28 March 1943
KB finally responding to Java invasion?
Java
As some of my phibs depart, I'm consolidating the task forces and peeling some combattants off to try to reinforce the covering force. Overnight, once such supplemental force of 6 destroyers encountered a pair of enemy destroyers near the landing sites. We severely damaged one of them before the other ran off. They then ran into the main force, were the damaged one took a battleship's main battery hit and went down as the other retreated.
Meanwhile, at least 6 of the enemy destroyers were retreating through the eastern straits to the Java Sea, heading back into the minefield they originally passed through without incident. This time two of them hit mines. The others started working on clearing it.
Indian Ocean
A B-24 strike on Addu caught enemy destroyers in port, probably fast transports trying to load troops. The bombers hit 3 of them, and all three are severely damaged and likely to either sink or sit out the war in that small port. Unless they take Columbo, then they'll have a shipyard close enough for them to limp to.
The KB has moved to the southern edge of my searchplane radius and is reported headed southeast. Maybe they're meeting the phibs to escort them to Sri Lanka, but that also puts them on a direct course for Java. So it's time to get my ships out of there. I got nearly everything ashore that I wanted. One Seabee unit never made it ashore, and I have two task forces that aren't quite empty but should finish overnight.
The British CVBG is headed back south down the western Indian coast. If the enemy carriers are away, whatever ships they have in the Maldives are now targets.
China
Foochow was attacked again and is now down to Level 1 Forts, casualties 1887 to 2281 favoring the enemy this time. I'll be lucky to hold on even another day. They'll probably roll down the coast after that, taking out the airbase I'm using to monitor the Luzon Strait. A small silver lining; it looks like I've outmaneuvered and isolated 2 divisions near Chusein and will defeat them in detail in another day or two.
__________________
|