16 March 1942
Makassar Strait
He lost a PB on minesweeper duty off Balikpapan to one of the mines it was trying to clear. Kinda sucks that he sacrificed so many real minesweepers at Pearl.
New Hebrides
I sent the heavy cruiser Australia to Luganville to bombard them and sink any supply ships/barges. They found nothing and dealt some light port facility damage. It looks to me like there is only a token force here, based on PBY recon sweeps. It may be time to take it.
Thailand
Oscar sweeps at Tavoy weren't so bad this time, 1 Oscar shot down, no losses even though we were outnumbered 16 to 9. They made up for it at Raheng, shooting down 3 Hurricanes with no losses. My bombers are all getting through to the routed enemy troops from Raheng, though, and they're really effective.
Java
Oscar sweeps at Batavia got a P-40 and a Fulmar with no losses.
At Surabaya, the bombers returned and our forces did well, losing just one Hawk fighter and downing 2 Zeroes and 9 Sallies. The bombers blew up a P-40 on the ground and damaged 2 cruisers under repair.
We attempted an airstrike of our own on the 2nd enemy beachhead at Kalidjati with a force of 14 shiny new B-25s, 6 139WH-3s, and 3 DB-7B (the A-20 Havoc in Dutch service). The training in anti-surface warfare these pilots have been getting since the war started finally paid off, a little, with this group scoring one hit each on two transports. That had already disembarked their troops. Oh well. The air battle resulted in one downed Oscar and one 193WH.
Kalidjati was captured.
Sumatra
Enemy paratroops are landing on Banka, the large island adjacent to Palembang. The land here is suitable for airfield construction, so that might be his goal. I don't think he needs it, though, especially if he's able to take Batavia. Palembang is hard to reach with large-ish ships, maybe he wants to base a flotilla of landing barges here?
Malaya
We counterattacked the remaining enemy forces in Singapore and drove them out. Casualties 2400 to 700 favoring us.
China
We attacked Nanchang again, casualties 1200 to 5000 favoring them, fortifications held. We outnumber them more than 2 to 1, I think we can still get them. I'll keep working them over with bombers, regroup, and attack again when my troops are ready.
Further south, at Chusien, we expelled a smaller Japanese force from the small base there. Casualties 140 to 1300 favoring us.
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