27 February 1942
Submarine battles suddenly going his way, Borneo now under full Japanese control
Java Sea
Dutch sub KXI, fresh out of port in Surabaya, was intercepted by a group of 3 destroyers south of Makassar. They were armed with deep-reaching depth charges and scored a critical hit. The captain had the nerve to continue with his mission, I had to order him to RTB for repairs. USS Perch arrived in Surabaya for repairs from an earlier bomb hit. The S-36 tried to finish off the APD our bombers damaged yesterday as it retreated up the Makassar Strait, but missed.
On the south side of the Island at Tjilatjap, another sub took out a minesweeper. I've been using this port to move land units that were trying to land at Oosthaven, fortunately most of them are already on their way.
Bandjermasin was captured. Borneo is now entirely under Japanese control.
Philippines
S-37 was hit by an aircraft on ASW patrol near Bataan and has been ordered back to Surabaya for repairs. Another AKL hit a mine at Bataan.
China
Our bombers hitting Sinyang ran into a wall of 40 Nates. We shot down one of them and lost 1 I-16 fighter and 2 SBIII bombers. I'm going to sweep this area next turn and send the bombers somewhere else. The enemy outnumbers us 2 to 1 at Sinyang. Their attack reduced fortifications to nothing, so it doesn't look like we're going to stop them this time.
Malaya
We attempted to hit transports again, missed again, and lost 2 medium (one 1 AA) bombers and 2 light bombers in the attempt.
Yorktown airwing
It's not going to work. The "parent" units for these squadrons were destroyed with the ship, and even with all the fragments in one place, the parent unit isn't being recreated. The fragments can't receive replacement aircraft, so these squadrons are essentially dead. I've spent some political points to reform them but the delay is about 2 months. Hopefully they spawn on the west coast and not Pearl. The good news is that these units had planes "in reserve" that couldn't be made ready for whatever reason, they are now back in the replacement pool, which means I finally have enough Wildcats to replace the Lexington's Buffalos. I just need to get it to a port big enough to allow the replacement. They'll leave tomorrow, I need to allow one more day to try to get rid of that sub hanging out here.
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