11 September 1943
Air raid on Kendari catches transport convoy
DEI
The minesweeper that just finished clearing Namlea found an enemy midget sub and sank it.
The raid on Kendari started with B-24s that had been rebased from Darwin to Saumlaki. These targeted the airbase and port facility--peformance was rather poor. The enemy CAP had been strengthened considerably since the ASW group was hit yesterday: 45 Zeroes, 15 Tojos, 7 Georges. The B-24s arrived in waves instead of all together, helping the CAP out a bit. We ended up losing 14 B-24s, costing them just 2 Tojos and a Zero. Damage inflicted on the base was negligible. The heavy cruiser Suzuya took a single hit dockside.
The P-38s arrived next to sweep the skies--too bad they didn't beat the B-24s--and with just one loss they managed to take down 3 Zeroes, a Tojo and 2 Georges.
When the main raid of 30 Hellcats at 32 SBD-5s arrived, enemy CAP strength was only 17 Zeroes, 2 Tojos, and a George. The enemy fought especially well despite these horrible odds shooting down 6 Hellcats while only taking 2 Zero losses. The SBDs did OK:
xAK Kosin Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Oyodo
xAP Koan Maru
xAP Kobe Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Miike Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire
xAK Yokohama Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Zenyo Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
634 casualties reported
So that's interesting that these ships were apparently loaded up with troops. Probably evacuating since yesterday's raid probably told them this area was too hot. 14 heavy bombers--and one more Hellcat ace--was a high price to pay, but sinking the ships while they were loaded with troops probably made it worth it. My bombers are a lot more replaceable than the troops.
Burma/Andaman Sea
USS Puffer torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship off Port Blair. The damage would be lethal on the open sea, but I can't confirm whether the ship went down before reaching the nearby port.
We attacked the troop convoy at Rangoon again. First up were 6 Beaufighers out of neighboring Pegu. The enemy had re-established their CAP with 22 fighters total while only 1 P-40 on patrol assisted the Beaufigters, so the mission was aborted but not before the P-40 and 2 Beaus were shot down.
P-40 sweeps arrived after, shooting down a George and a Tony.
Mirroring the Kendari raid, the dive bombers arrived next. The 4 enemy fighters on patrol shot down 3 Hurricanes but never got to the bombers. Three more enemy ships went down:
xAK Chihaya Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Rasin Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Ryoyo Maru, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
Sadly, these were not loaded with troops; anyone they were dropping off is already part of Rangoon's garrison.
On the ground, troops sallying from Pegu cleared out a small enemy unit that had left Rangoon to block the road north to Magwe, which is needed for supply to come down to keep our troops in action.
China
Having eliminated the CAP over Wuchang, the Beaufighters were free to attack again. I only had 4 available, but it was enough to put 5 bombs into a light cargo ship and sink it.
We suffered another ground assault at Kiukiang, casualties 721 (J) to 1597(A). We're probably not going to hold out too much longer there.
Reinforcements
159th USA Base Force arrives at Eastern USA
229th USN Base Force arrives at San Francisco
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