5 Sept 1942
Enemy fighters break through escorts in China, major bomber losses
Sulu Sea
The KXII spotted a convoy of light cargo ships moving along the shallow water route to/from the Philippines. It hit one of of the ships and evaded the PB escort's counterattack. Troop casualties were reported.
CENTPAC
The KB detached 2 BB and 3 CA to bombard our troops on Canton Island. Disruption is severe, it feels like it's going to be forever before we can attack again. The cruisers in particular didn't appear to be in great condition--he's been running them fast and neglecting maintenance.
The KB itself appears to have moved to the nearby Ocean Island, perhaps to rendezvous with a tender to replenish its avgas.
Luzon Strait
USS Spearfish hit an enemy cargo ship with a torpedo for a likely kill.
China
At Chengchow, the reversal of fortunes in the air yielded a victory for the enemy. His Zeroes interdicted a raid of Hudsons, shooting down 1 P-40 and getting to the bomber formation in force, taking out 8 out of 12 of them. That squadron is standing down for awhile.
That army I spotted moving inland in the southeast appears to be headed to Canton (not to be confused with Canton Island).
Bay of Bengal
The new Vengeance dive bombers flew their first ever combat mission. 10 of them got lost and never arrived on target. 2 tried to attack the battleship Hyuga--they both missed; one was shot down by flak after it pulled out, the other crashed on the way home due to damage it sustained.
Sumatra
In spite of continuous air raids, a lot of the damage at Palembang's airbase has been repaired, enough that we got a few Albacores operational and sent them after a task force near Oosthaven. There were 16 Zeroes waiting for them (reportedly the Junyo's fighter squadron). One Albacore was shot down as they retreated.
Makassar Strait
The O16 scored a pair of torpedo hits on a cargo ship moving along the coast to/from Balikpapan (I wish the combat report have me a heading).
Reinforcements
VMF-123 arrives at San Diego (due to replenishing Yorktown and Hornet's fighter squadrons at Pearl, I have no planes to spare for these guys)
177th Construction Regiment arrives at Seattle
22nd USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme
E/F Battery Heavy Coastal Artillery Regiment arrives at Perth
I transitioned a half-strength squadron of P-40s at Port Moresby to a full-strength P-38 squadron. We've almost fully recovered from our losses from Port Moresby all the way east to Pago Pago (sustained in the KBs raids and the battle in the Coral Sea trying to save the Enterprise).
Current fighter production rates:
P-40K: 65 per month
P-40E: 35 per month
P-39D: 25 per month
P-38F: 40 per month
USAAF subtotal: 165 per month (5.5 per day)
F4F-4: 45 per month
Hurricane IIc: 36 per month
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