19 December 1942
ASW superstar Stuart back on the job, China receiving reinforcements
East Australian Coast
An ASW task force including the Luganville operation veterans Stuart and Nizam engaged and seriously damaged an enemy sub off Sydney. Maybe not an actual kill, but should at least be a mission kill.
Burma
Contesting the skies over Magwe was just about the only air combat this turn, aside from relatively routine bombing missions. Our bombers rested as we focused on making the skies safer for them in the future. Enemy losses were 4 Oscars, 8 Zeroes, and 4 Sallies; that cost us 3 Hurricanes.
I'm ordering some troops to fall back to Mandalay, we can't hold more than one base on this front---we probably can't even hold one.
China
This could be a first of the war--Wenchow, China, has received reinforcements from the sea. Troop levels shot up from 6500 to 38,000 per recon patrols. I tried to hit the port where they were disembarking but only caused light facility damage.
Banda and Timor Seas
The O24 was hit by a 250kg bomb from either a Val or a Kate and is critically damaged. The Spearfish was also bombed, but probably just by a floatplane as it was hit with a 60kg glorified hand grenade and is able to remain on station. The KB is detecting most of our subs in the area; I'm rotating the spotted ones away and bringing in undetected ones to throw the enemy off.
Reinforcements
317th TCG/41st TCS arrives at Eastern USA (transports - training)
78th Light AA Regiment arrives at Aden (close to full strength - to Colombo)
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20 December 1942
Mandalay standing by to be overrun, aircraft evacuated, O24 scuttled
Banda and Timor Seas
The KXII attempted to engage a heavy bombardment task force as it approached Babar, but was spotted by escorts. It fired its torpedoes at one of the approaching destroyers--this is usually just to force them to zigzag and isn't expected to hit anything. But this time it did, IJN Shikinami is gone. The KXII got away undamaged.
The task force shelled Babar quite effectively, with 4 P-38s and 2 P-39s destroyed on the ground, and the rest of the aircraft mostly damaged. Facility damage is heavy, and we lost quite a bit of our supply stockpiles, which are low to begin with.
The KB pretty much moved into Babar this turn. A transport plane run went ahead as scheduled, as much as AI commanders are able to scrub plans you'd think they'd scrub this, but they didn't--13 planes shot down by the CAP. We also lost a B-25 that was part of our daily bombing of the enemy encampment there, along with a P-40, but the escorting fighters took down 3 Zeroes.
The O24 lost control of its flooding. There's no hope she can make it to Darwin; I ordered the boat scuttled. The O19 and KXII were also hit by bombs. O19's damage is moderate; she's returning to port; KXII's relatively light and is sticking around for now.
Burma and Thailand
Unescorted bombers appeared over Mandalay, we got 5 Helens and 3 Sallies. The ones that got through caused moderate troop casualties. At Magwe our sweeps ended up trading 2 Hurricanes for 2 Oscars.
The beaten-up enemy division has arrived at Mandalay and there will be more to come. The planes will be evacuated for tomorrow--if they can fly, anyway. Some of the troops falling back here will arrive in time if they attack tomorrow, but I doubt that will buy us more than 2 days.
At Uttaradit, we suffered an enemy attack and held them off. Casualties 3012 to 299. But no way I can manage a counterattack with my supply shortage. This seems to be to my benefit, I get to inflict disproportionate casualties playing defense while the large army that could actually defeat me outright is chasing from behind. They can catch me eventually thanks to the bombing slowing us down, so the attacks at the front of the procession seem unnecessary. But I'll take it. 1st Burma Auxiliary AA Regiment deserted due to the supply shortage.
Solomons
I ordered a sweep of Guadalcanal; 3 P-38s got separated from the group and actually arrived early. We lost 2 of those. The rest of the squadron arrived and shot down 2 Tojos and a Zero without further loss.
Refits and Reinforcements
SS Narwhal beginning refit while under repair in shipyard at Brisbane
SS Grenadier begins refit while under repair at Adak Island
SS Gunnel begins refit while under repair at Adak Island
1st Middlesex Battalion arrives at Aden (reforming unit, empty command)
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