30 March 1942
Battle of Bengal Bay, day 2
SOPAC
Six B-26s attacked my airbase in Port Moresby, causing moderate facility damage. I did not have any fighters protecting it. To stop him from disabling the airbase, I'm moving in a small detachment of Zeroes.
China
Medium bomber raids on Sian caused light casualties on the ground and destroyed an SB-III bomber. I lost one Lily to flak.
Bay of Bengal
The British began their attacks against my task forces as they began landing in Trincomalee. The first wave was six Swordfish and six Vildebeest torpedo bombers escorted by 22 Hurricanes. They were opposed by 21 Zeroes, which unfortunately did not include the CAPs from the CVLs that were standing off one hex from the coast. We got the better of the Hurricanes, splashing 14 of them without taking any losses, but we failed to reach the torpedo bombers. Flak took care of one Vildebeest, but the other 11 bombers fired their torpedoes at my two CVEs and a transport, resulting in a hit on the CVE Taiyo.
Next were four Wapiti light bombers, which mostly walked past our CAP thanks to them being busy. We splashed two, the two that got through attacked Hosho and missed.
Wave three was 11 Hudson IIIa medium bombers coming in at 1000 feet, with 2 Hurricanes. We splashed both fighters and one of the bombers, but the Hudsons managed to get a rare level bombing hit on Taiyo thanks to their low altitude attack. It was only a 250lb bomb, but it achieved critical damage, starting a fire and knocking out flight operations. Taiyo isn't in any danger of sinking, provided we do a better job of protecting her than we have so far.
The aircraft returning from Taiyo diverted to other ships, but some failed to find an available deck, resulting in 4 Zeroes and 3 Kates ditching.
In the afternoon, 10 of the surviving 11 torpedo bombers returned for another attack, but due to enemy fighter losses they only had 4 Hurricanes escorting them. Our CAP was now just 13 fighters, but that was still enough to wipe out the entire raid except for one lucky Hurricane. 8 Hudsons also made a second attack, selecting a destroyer and a cargo ship, but missed. The CVEs got four new aces today.
As for the landing, it got a little messy. They had significant 6" coastal batteries, which scored hits on two cruisers, a destroyer, and three transports. Two of the transports have major fires and won't survive the night. However, troop casualties were light, and we got most of them ashore quickly. It looks like we have overwhelming force and should take this base without a problem. I'll also be able to add a battleship to the task force that landed already and to the other that's about to land, overnight. The BBs will hopefully suppress the enemy batteries better than the cruisers did as well as attract their fire.
Reinforcements
DD Kazegumo arrives at Port Arthur - top of the line destroyer, sending to Truk to be assigned to the Kido Butai.
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