2 December 1942
Massive enemy casualties in Burma crossing bridges under fire in Moulmein and Rahang, surrounded armies at Foochow just about done
Indian Ocean
Harbor patrol craft spotted an enemy sub near Karachi and dealt it some moderate depth charge damage before it got away. A second pair of patrol craft reacquired it and were much more accurate, forcing it to surface. It was a little worrysome when that happened because these craft's biggest gun is a 40mm "pom-pom". After an exchange of fire, the sub went under again--probably still under control--but realistically, this far from home, a sub barely clinging to life isn't going to make it.
Burma and Thailand
We clashed with enemy fighters for control of the skies over Moulmein--the enemy Tojo fighters there were highly effective, shooting down 3 P-40s without loss, but we got 4 Zeroes to avenge those losses. Neither side was able to stop the other's bombers-so both armies on opposite sides of the bridge took significant bombing disruption.
The enemy apparently divided their forces, with 2 nominal divisions and change (approximate actual strength 1.5 divisions--thanks, bombers!) going straight into Moulmein under fire and at least 1 division crossing over into an adjacent hex to flank us. Which raises the question--why not send the whole offensive force to the flanking hex, so you can attack overland in force instead of over bridges? Another think to ask him later. Casualties were 11,000 to 844--that's more than half his force killed or wounded.
The forces coming up from Tavoy have made it all the way up to the road to Ragheng. We held Moulmein as long as we had to. All my units with less than 50% of their requested supplies are evacuating to the east. Those with 50% or more of requested supplies are going to take advantage of the carnage and counterattack, hopefully putting these 2 enemy divisions out of action more or less permanently.
Another RTA "division" crossed the bridges at Raheng under fire, taking 808 casualties without inflicting any on me. There are still more troops that haven't crossed, and it looks like they're moving to the adjacent base, which I actually hold with more troops now than I'm holding Raheng with (because I don't have fortifications there and there's no river limiting access). I actually couldn't ask for anything more--the Raheng troops pretty much killed everyone they could and are now low on ammo. And now he's going to attack my fresh troops instead? Please and thank you.
This is also a good time to mention that I am an idiot. This whole time, that mountain supply route? The one supposedly keeping Raheng in operation and hopefully tricking supplies to the armies near Moulmein and Tavoy. I don't think it ever existed. The "road" terminates in a hex with a rail route, which I thought was good enough because railroads are assumed to have "trails" that give land units movement bonuses, I thought that would move supply too. But I checked supply status using an interface hotkey, and it looks like everything south of that intersection is completely unconnected to supply movement. So that's why Raheng dwindled to nothing in spite of apparently being connected. That said, this wouldn't have changed the plan. We still can't go north because the enemy has more troops there and we'd be the ones crossing bridges. We couldn't go south to Bangkok because we'd get bombed in the open terrain, just like we're doing to them in northern Burma now, and then we'd have to cross bridges into fortified and well-garrisoned positions. East has always been the only option...and it keeps our forces alive the longest, even if he does hunt them down eventually. I'd say I'm about a week from being able to launch a major offensive out of Australia.
Another thing worth mentioning now...I think he had about 7 divisions in Burma, but what we're seeing now looks like 3-4 divisions at Moulmein, 1 division at Raheng, and probably not even a division moving up towards Mandalay. There's at least 1 division not in play in any of these moves...and I've been getting a lot of SIGINT about preparation for an attack on Ceylon. And there's plenty of ship traffic going into Rangoon now. Odds are, this is his next operation, to happen after he's done in Burma. But it's at least possible that he thinks he can catch Ceylon off-guard with another surprise landing.
Solomons
I moved a Beaufigther squadron from Australia to Rossel and had it attack the enemy port at Tulagi, based on scout reports that a pair of subchasers were docked there. We found a subchaser...and a sub. The sub took 5 bomb hits and multiple strafing runs and sank, the subchaser was hit by one bomb plus a few cannon bursts, and will likely join the sub at the bottom of the harbor.
Banda Sea
Mostly quiet. The 1st surface task force, I think, was spotted hanging out at Koepang, along with a bunch of fighters and bombers at the base standing back and standing by. Unsettling. The 2nd surface task force has disappeared, presumably it went back to Ambon to rearm.
I'm shifting some forces around to deal with this problem. I'll be sending more ground forces from Port Morseby as it's clear even with the extra infantry on Babar, I'm not going to kill those 2 enemy regiments. I also need more airpower to deal with the surface threats--Beaufighters and P-38s are great for transports and destroyers, but cruisers (and maybe battleships) take something that hits a bit harder.
China
3 of the 5 units in Foochow (4 of which are infantry divisions) have been eliminated. Not sure which ones. One even surrendered, a rarity for Japanese units. That was another 7900 killed/wounded/captured to add to the IJA's awful day.
Reinforcements
SS Snook arrives at San Francisco
45th Indian Brigade arrives at Karachi
18th British Division arrives at Aden
^---both of these are empty commands, and I don't think I'll have squads to fill them out with anytime soon thanks to the urgent need for replacement troops in Burma.