7 November 1942
High-altitude fights compromise Zero/Oscar effectiveness, Moulmein assaulted
Solomons Area
Another enemy sub ventured into the shallow coastal water at Noumea, and once again our surface combat task force spotted it and engaged. This sub got away, but it was badly damaged. Wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it back to base. Beauforts reported another successful bomb hit on a sub.
Very surprisingly, 21 Betties from Guadalcanal raided Port Moresby. Unescorted. I just figured it out--these guys were on Ground Attack orders to hit Ndeni. Now that there aren't any of my troops on Ndeni to bomb, the AI picked another target for them. Welp, they ran into a CAP of 8 P-39s, which shot down 9 of them. Flak got another 3. They failed to cause any casualties on the ground.
The enemy carriers are still at Ndeni. So, it appears they are going to remove the troops they dropped there, which makes sense because there were so many. This is a very similar situation to the Lahaina evacuation. The fighter wings of these carriers have been worn down significantly by the P-38 sweeps. We've got pretty constant PBY surveillance on these guys, too. I really think it's just 2 fleet carriers, maybe with CVL/CVE support. If it's just Shokaku and Hiryu, maybe that means Akagi and Shokaku's imouto are finally getting their upgrades.
Battle of Rangoon
We had Oscars and Zeroes sweeping Rangoon, trying to gain air superiority--which they eventually did, just because my planes had to land to refuel and get serviced, and my base's service facilities are shot, so my turnaround time is horrible. But tactically, we owned them--5 Zeroes and 3 Oscars shot down to just 1 Hurricane. Here's why:
The Zeroes came in at 32,000 feet and the Oscars at 38,000 feet. I'm patrolling at about 31,000 feet. So, because they start with an altitude advantage, they get a "dive bonus", more or less they get to attack first. Which could be devastating if I wasn't training up my pilots defensive skills. But of course, I'm making defensive training a priority. Once that first attack is evaded, the fight's on--and as you can see in the chart, the manueverability advantage that the Zero has at most altitudes does not apply at 32,000 feet. The Hurricane is actually more manueverable than the Zero up here. And it has better guns, more durability, and armor. Similar story with the Oscar--it still has a maneuverability advantage up here, but it's a lot smaller than it would be if we were lower.
The small task force we detached from our CVBG had no joy. Our scoutplanes reacquired the APD task force heading southeast towards Port Blair. Our assets at Akyab still report 4 enemy units present, so I think he's reinforcing, not evacuating.
Enemy carrier aircraft made another ineffective attack on my Tavoy ground forces. 4 more Vals were lost to flak. The Sallies bombed these forces too and didn't do much better. My troops are taking cover and slowing down but they aren't getting many squads destroyed or disabled.
I'm resting my B-24s to make repairs. I have more planes down than I do that are flyable. Thunderstorms predicted tomorrow, so they'll be resting/repairing tomorrow too.
The 38th Division made a shock attack on Moulmein, bringing the forts down from level 4 to level 2. Casualties were 702 to 34 favoring us, but they established their position on the other side of the river and they outnumber us, about 13,000 to 4,000. They'll win, and they'll win soon.
CENTPAC
Finally, we have solid recon on Midway. 2,400 troops estimated with minimal artillery support. We also spotted 4-5 small ASW ships there--with classification being suspect, it might be a small transport task force pulling what's left out. The bad news, the CVE that flew the recon mission was also detected, so for all I know there are Betties headed to Midway's airbase to fly a mission against me tomorrow. So, the CVE is pulling out. Three of her escorting destroyers are going to shell the base, hopefully encountering and sinking the small task force there, and hitting the airbase in case anyone moved in. I'm also sending a pair of cruisers from Pearl to do the same thing. It'll take them a day, so if the DDs damage any Betties I should be able to turn the cruisers around before they get blown up. Doubtful they have an AirHQ present, though, so maybe I'm overstating the Betty threat, they're pretty weak if they don't have torpedoes.
Reinforcements
46th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme
2 B-17 squadrons were delivered to Sydney today. I'm also moving a USMC Avenger squadron out of Los Angeles to the SouthPAC area.