28 March 1942
Nanyang stack defeated for a third time, massive enemy casualties; we lose an oiler in the Solomon Sea
SOPAC
I detached 2 oilers from the KB's replenishment group at Rabaul to deliver some badly needed fuel to Noumea. While moving past Rossel Island in the Solomon Sea, the KXVI put two torpedoes into one of them, setting it ablaze and to the bottom. That the second AO loss of the war, and these remain the most valuable ships he's taken out.
China
Our main force in the north-central area had pulled back from Sian to deal with the Nanyang stack, which was back on the road, cutting our supply lines to Sian. But of course, these guys having just recently been defeated were at a fraction of their former strength, and probably with severe morale and fatigue penalties. So I didn't mind hitting them again. Casualties were 3125 to 15,908, favoring me of course (10 destroyed devices to 1607). This seems like a serious error to me... the only cost of this to me is that it's slowed me down by about 4 days and expended some supply. For him, this is 12 corps that are probably never going to be near full combat strength again, along with about a carrier and a half's worth of victory points to me. If he's able to get me to completely destroy them, they'll regenerate with 1/3 of their normal power--such is the advantage given to the Chinese. But I can probably avoid doing that.
Reinforcements/Refits
Two Kamikaze class DDs have completed their March upgrades at Saigon and are being assigned to escort oilers supporting the Ceylon operation (see tomorrow).
29 March 1942
HMS Enterprise crippled south of Ceylon as invasion task force passes by
Bay of Bengal
I've been a little coy about what's going on in the Indian Ocean for OPSEC, but there's no longer any need for secrecy: I'm invading Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The operation is a bit of a rush job as when I was staging my forces I remembered that the amphibious unload bonus that Japan gets goes away at the end of March, so it's been a rush to get to the beaches of Trincomalee with at least enough to secure a beachhead to safely deliver follow-on troops.
Our task force unzipped its fly today by attacking HMS Enterprise south of Ceylon with Kates from the CVE/CVLs escorting the transports. Enterprise was hit by a torpedo and 4 bombs and is not expected to survive the night. It appears the cruiser was escorting cargo ships in the area. We also launched an airstrike against a minesweeper spotted in Trincomalee itself, which created a bit of a fight: 10 Zeroes vs 8 Hurricanes. We traded 1 fighter each, but the Hurricanes managed to get to the Kates after they sank the minesweeper and shot down 3 of the 4.
SOPAC
An Ann claimed another hit on a sub near Noumea. If half these reports are true, Brisbane and Sydney should be really busy.
Reinforcements
6th Ku S-1 arrives at Chiba - nice. This is a 45-aircraft fighter unit, ideal for training. Filling them up with Claudes and rookie pilots.
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