29 March 1942
Mines everywhere!
Thailand and Burma
Remember my theory that they were trying to open the Strait of Malacca to submarines? A sub just hit a mine at Rangoon, probably sank.
Air raids over Pisanuloke (adjacent to Raheng airbase) resulted in an Oscar and a Hurricane going down, with our bombers inflicting moderate casualties. Our bombers are suddenly less effective here, not sure why.
Java
The IJN is now shelling our troops trying to take their eastern beachhead. Not good. We have the numbers, but if we're constantly bombed and shelled we might fail to take the hex. An transport in an enemy task force landing reinforcements hit a mine, suffering troop casualties, but not enough to bring the ship down. A torpedo boat in another task force hit a mine here as well, almost certainly sinking.
On the west side of the island, we had a rare successful ASUW attack as 3 Fulmars hit an AKL at low level, scoring 4 gun burst hits and 3 bomb hits, sinking it. Then they rearmed and went back, badly damaging a large cargo ship with 3 bomb hits.
Japan
USS Tautog sank a cargo ship between Kyushu and Okinawa with 2 torpedo hits.
USS Triton hit a mine near Tokyo, it seems the sub was crossing through the shallow water hexes south of Tokyo bay. I set their patrol zones to avoid these areas so I'm not sure what happened here. The sub is crippled and making less than 5 knots towards home. I am not hopeful.
New Hebrides
The enemy continued their attacks on Efate, costing them 3 Nells and 4 Betties as they exceeded the ability of their escorting Zeroes to provide support. But they also had at least one carrier launch a raid, which was escorted and managed to avoid our fighters in any case:
xAP Macdhui, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Macdhui, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage (2nd wave)
CL Perth, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CL Perth, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage (2nd wave)
xAP Kota Gede, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DM Pruitt
xAP Kota Radja, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
xAP Kota Radja, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage (2nd wave)
xAK Red Jacket, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk (by Nells)
xAP Macdhui, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Our bombers got through and hit their troops pretty good without any fighters intercepting. They're landing supplies and reinforcements though, so it seems unlikely I can wear them down enough with bombers to pull a win out of this.
Timor
The KB bombed Koepang airbase, not that it matters much with the base out of supply. About 60 aircraft were disabled.
China
The LR CAP over Chusien is finally starting to pay off. AVG P-40s shot down 3 light bombers with no losses. These are just hit-and-run attacks really, this was 3 P-40s vs 46 nates and 27 light bombers. Superior airspeed is all that stops this from going badly for me.
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