5 April 1942
Another recon failure as a tank regiment greets our Christmas Island landing, carrier battle in New Hebrides fails to materialize
New Hebrides
Wirraways reported two more hits on the subs in the area. I think we're up to 7.
The enemy carriers have fallen back to a defensive position closer to the Solomons. When they were near Luganville to attack Efate, they were beyond the torpedo-carrying range of Guadalcanal's Betties, and beyond the range of the land-based Zeroes to escort them. But picking a fight with that CVBG now would mean a fully-armed and escorted Betty counterattack along with whatever the carriers send out. No thank you.
I have S-boats all over the place here, so I'm going to try to surround the enemy CVBG and see if I get lucky.
Both sides bombed the other's troops on Luganville. The offsetting raids resulted with 7 US fighters down plus 3 Hudson bombers, and 3 Zeroes, 2 Betties, a Nell, and 3 Kates.
My troops at Luganville report they are surrounded, so tomorrow is probably going to be it for them. So that's an infantry regiment plus a base force and USMC aviation support group wasted.
Java
Enemy ground forces attacked mine at Tjepoe, routing my weakened forces. A tender that was ejected from Tjilatjap when it was captured was intercepted and sunk by an enemy submarine.
To the east, a small enemy sub hit two mines at Koepang and sank.
Air battles over Tjepoe throughout the day resulted in 5 Oscars, a Sally, and a Lily down for them, and 3 P-40s, a Hurricane, and 2 P-39s down for us. A Falcon was also shot down by Oscars trying to attack transports offshore. The KB raided Batavia again, shooting down a defending Buffalo and 2 Hurricanes without taking losses, and again hitting the base with its bombers--but that cost him 4+ Vals to AA. I've evacuated most of my planes from there at this point so I'm not too worried about it.
Hawaii and CENTPAC
We landed a marine regiment, an army battalion, plus base forces on what should have been a mostly empty base at Christmas Island, but ran into a regiment of tanks there. We took heavy casualties landing, but I think we can overcome this. We definitely came more prepared than last time, and supporting naval gunfire disrupted the enemy pretty badly. We'll need a day to secure the beachhead after a disruptive landing and then we can try to press and see what happens.
Bismark Sea
USS Grayback torpedoed an enemy cargo ship approaching Rabaul, probably a supply run.