5 February 1942
Hawaii
Only 2 BB bombarding Pearl today.
China
We had an air battle near Ichang for the right of my bombers to bomb their troops again. They got through. We shot down a Tojo and 3 Oscars at the cost of 2 P-40s. These guys are good pilots.
My army that was attacked overriver in the north yesterday counterattacked, routing the enemy army and causing over 900 casualties with little losses to themselves.
Timor
Unescorted Betties from Kendari tried to hit Koepang but ran into P-40s they probably weren't expecting. 7 of 15 Betties shot down, the got through but did minimal damage. Our bombers from Koepang attempted an airfield attack at Kendari in turn and embarrassed the Claude fighters defending it. None were shot down most planes from both sides were damaged. We failed to cause any damage to the airbase.
Malaya
Massive air raid on Singapore. Our fighters were overwhelmed but managed to pick their spots throughout the day, resulting in 7 Sallies shot down. Once again, their bombers were too high to cause serious damage.
We tried to bomb Johore Bahru again, but with Oscars on CAP in addition to the Nates, the juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore--my fighters are better used protecting Singapore than escorting these raids. The bombers got through and blew up one Nate on the ground.
Coral Sea
Zero-escorted Betties targeted my ships covering landing at Milne. We had some P-40s protecting them, the fight resulted in the loss of 2 P-40s, 2 Zeroes, and 1 Betty. Fortunately, the Betties were only carrying bombs--they missed the cruiser they targeted.
The Louisville got within 1 hex from the port at Townsville when it was attacked by yet another submarine. It took one torpedo hit, but as badly damaged as it already was, that was more than enough.
-------------------
6 February 1942
Enemy CVBG in the Java Sea, Indomitable gets lucky
Hawaii
4 BB bombarding Pearl today. I expect Hickam will be out of operation soon again at this pace.
Philippines
My phased retreat from Clark is now a general retreat.
S-36 torpedoed and sank an Aden-class AK in the South China Sea.
Timor
Rather surprisingly, the Betties came back to Koepang. They had the sense to turn around this time when the P-40s met them, so we only shot down 2.
Java Sea
An enemy CVBG--probaby the Soryu--entered the Java sea on the west side and launched two strikes against the Indomitable CVBG at harbor in Surabaya. The first raid was 13 Zeroes escorting 12 Mabel and 30 Kate torpedo bombers. The battle group was defended by land-based fighters in addition to its own air wing, 24 in total. The Zeroes are flown by elite pilots though, and it showed. We shot down 3 Zeroes, but couldn't get any bombers. A Sea Hurricane and a Fulmar were lost. Fortunately, these bombers weren't carrying torpedoes and mostly attacked from high altitude--nothing hit. Flak claimed 2 TBs.
The second raid was 25 TBs escorted by 5 Zeroes, and did much better. They shot down another Fulmar, and once again, our fighters couldn't get to the bombers. But this time, the bombers were more accurate:
CV Indomitable, Bomb hits 2
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Exeter, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Java, Bomb hits 1
Fortunately, the Indomitable has a heavily armored deck which the relatively small bombs failed to penetrate, so she is fine.
The enemy attacked from outside my task force's strike range so there were no retaliatory strikes. This might be why the TBs weren't carrying torpedoes. I consider myself lucky that they fixated on the well-defended Indomitable instead of the transports landing two regiments of troops in Sumatra right now. I have significant surface forces that should be able to defeat this task force, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea because the Java Sea is now in Betty range from Miri, which by now has an AirHQ to provide torpedoes. Also, my local repair capacity sucks. So for now, I'll allow my surface forces to attack if they approach Surabaya, but I won't go hunting for them. I've transfered the Hermes' TBs back to Indomitable and moved some planes around, hopefully we'll get a decent strike tomorrow.
Malaya
The enemy continues with massive raids against Singapore, too many bombers for their small number of fighters to protect. We shot down an Oscar, two Nates, 7 Sallies, and 2 light bombers. Our only loss was one Blenhiem bomber destroyed on the ground.