23 April 1942
Celebes Sea
The S-41 was trying to find tankers but found an unescorted troop-carrying cargo ship instead. They had a night surface gun battle, both ships sustained some damage before the sub broke off.
Hawaii and the Line Islands
The destroyer USS Selfridge was torpedoed by one of the subs it was hunting. The destroyer-minesweeper Southard retaliated and scored some depth charge hits--and then a second sub came in and hit the Selfridge again to make damn sure she went down. Selfridge had probably been my most effective ASW asset at Christmas Island.
SouthPAC
Noumea and Efate now have mine tenders and my DMs are getting to work building defensive minefields.
Java and Sumatra
Attacks against Oosthaven resulted in 8 Allied fighters shot down with no victories. My Fulmars & other bombers attempted to hit ships off Batavia. The Fulmars were routed, but some B-25s got through. 5 Fulmars were shot down along with 4 P-40s, a B-25, and an A-20. We got only one Zero. The B-25s got 2 hits on a troop-carrying cargo ship--probably lethal damage.
China
I paid Hong Kong a visit with bombers again to try to hit ships under repair, and bounced a bomb off the BB Hyuga's armor.
Thailand
We have a lot of bombers failing to link up with escorting fighters. It cost us 2 Blenheims and a Hudson. Heavy enemy casualties on the ground, though.
Solomons
S-34 found a damaged cruiser-minelayer approaching Tulagi and put 3 fish into her. Just a little overkill.
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