30 November 1942
Most enemy ships escape Guadalcanal in time; a second surface combat task force appears in Banda Sea
Burma and Thailand
Moulmain suffered a bombardment by 2 battleships and 3 cruisers, plus the bulk of the medium bombers in the area. Casualties were moderate considering the volume of explosives lobbed at them. I'm concerned about the amount of disruption is might cause with the enemy army about to make its way over the bridges. Our CAP from Raheng lent a hand, shooting down 5 Zeroes and 2 Sallies without loss--but there might have been a hundred bombers, shooting down 2 is meaningless. I'm offsetting this, though--my B-24s are hitting their advancing army, and even if our numbers are fewer, our bombloads are much bigger.
Near Mandalay (north of Rangoon) we lost a Hurricane and a Blenheim trying to bomb the enemy troops advancing on our line of bases. The B-25s are getting most of the work done, inflicting at least 300 enemy casualties this turn.
Banda Sea
We spotted a surface task force in the area--not the one with the battleships--and sent the Beaufightes after them. We lost one to flak and three to Zeroes on CAP, but shot down 2 Zeroes and badly damaged one enemy destroyer by strafing. All our bombs missed. This task force is very close to Babar and we're keeping our ships away, although it looks small enough--led by 2 heavy cruisers--that we might be able to take it on. But there are also a lot of unseen potential threats--Betties, carriers, and the other surface task force. I'm reorganizing my fleets a safe distance away to give myself better options.
China
The enemy put a CAP on Foochow, which cost us a B-24. I'll be sweeping this area going forward.
Solomons
No enemy fighters attempted to stop any of our flights against Guadalcanal. So we had an uneventful P-38 sweep, B-17s hitting the mostly empty airbase, followed by CVW-2 and -3 hitting the port, which was unfortunately mostly empty:
AD Shintoku Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
AS Jingei, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AKE Asaka Maru #3, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AS Heian Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
These support ships are pretty valuable, though. A large enemy task force was seen north of the Solomons heading towards the Gilberts--they evacuated in time.
Reinforcements
TK British Zeal arrives at Cape Town
No.6 Sqn IAF arrives at Tanjore (2/12 Hurricane fighter-bomber/recon variants)
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