[Molon Labe]

8 March 1942
Battle of Java Sea ends in decisive Japanese victory
Oahu invaded

Banda Sea
My two cruisers finally arrived at Dobo to interdict the transports. We sank 'em all, 4 troop-carrying cargo ships and 2 PBs. Estimated troop casualties were 1260, we finally hurt him a little bit.

Java Sea
I really should have just accepted that I screwed up by pulling the cruisers out too early. The KB was given the same orders as my cruiser fleet: return to the Java Sea. So they had no problem finding me. The evacuating AKLs also failed to provide a meaningful decoy. Yes, he did send strikes on them, but they were proportional to their priority.

Strikes on Surabaya were mostly from land-based air, we lost 2 P-40s and 4 P-39s there, while shooting down just 2 Zeroes and a Nell. Fortunately, the raids there were once again too high to do meaningful damage.

The KBs strike on Force Y was far more effective. We couldn't even get to the bombers as we traded 4 P-39s for 5 Zeroes. As for the ships:

Wave 1:
CL Boise
CL Tromp, Bomb hits 1
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 1
CL Enterprise
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Mauritius, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CL Durban, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Java
Wave 2:
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Tromp, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Java, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CL Mauritius, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CL Durban, Bomb hits 1
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Walke, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
CL Boise, Bomb hits 1
The anti-aircraft cruiser was the first hit, so that was a very disappointing performance from the unit that I thought was going to help make this task force a difficult target.

Some of our bombers tried to attack the KB, but our fighters were all playing defense so they were handled easily. We lost 2 B-17s, 2 139Ws, and 2 Swordfish.

Tjepoe, the space where the invasion force landed, has been captured.

A small bright spot in all this, the Dutch sub KXIII sank a cargo ship near Makassar.


Hawaii
As expected, the destination of the ships that were being loaded was Oahu. The subs I positioned to intercept were brushed aside by a robust ASW escort. The enemy invaded with two task forces, a main force and a smaller detachment. The smaller one hit the beaches first and took heavy losses--my coastal defenses ranged from 3" to 12" fixed batteries, 8" guns transported by rail, plus all the artillery that the Marines stationed there have, while this force had no major warships. It looks like we wasted 4 out of 6 transports in this group and killed about 1300 troops.

The main force had all 4 battleships we've become quite used to seeing here, plus cruisers and destroyers, so they were able to suppress our shore batteries a bit. We still damaged a few transports and a destroyer, with enemy casualties estimated around 800. Morning brought with it much better accuracy for our shore batteries and a massive ship-shore battle broke out. The enemy warships scrambled to draw fire away from the transports.
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 1
BB Fuso, Shell hits 14
BB Mutsu
BB Nagato, Shell hits 22, on fire
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 4, on fire
CL Kitakami, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Tama, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 1
DD Namikaze
DD Yuzuki
AMC Bankok Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAK Melbourne Maru, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kinai Maru, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Manila Maru, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Seattle Maru, heavy fires
AMC Saigon Maru
DD Kasumi, on fire
DD Ariake

Most of those hits on the battleships are being resisted by the armor, but we have some big guns out there and some of those got through. We'd kill about 1800 more enemy troops while they were trying to establish a beachhead; our casualties were around 300. I'd estimate 4 divisions came ashore today.

USS Pompano, undeterred from being attacked in the morning, returned for more and ended up being spotted and depth charged before it could get in attack position. It took light damage before it escaped.

Operation Kinky Boots
With Tavoy secured, I ordered AVG-1 to sweep Bangkok, kind of a recon-in-force to see if it was dangerous to send bombers there. We encountered 8 Nates on patrol and splashed 7 of them with no losses. The bombers that aren't going to Bangkok yet hit the troops retreating from Tavoy--he had 10 Nates protecting them this time. Our 5 escorting Hurricanes shot down 1, but several got through and damaged some of the bombers. Good thing they only have .30 cal machine guns on those planes.

At Raheng, recon reports there are troops guarding Pisanouke, the smaller base at Raheng's flank. This means I'm going to have to cross a river under fire no matter which way I attack from. So, I've cancelled my order to cross downriver and ordered a frontal assault on Raheng. Raheng is now my priority bomber target, I'm going to work them over hard to help my troops cross.