14 March 1942
Stunning losses for AVG-1 in Thailand
Hawaii
It looks like they're done landing troops and the 4 BB have gone back to daily bombardments. Fortunately damage was very light today. If they're going to pull this off, it will probably be these 4 ships as the difference-makers.
Java
The battleships Kirishima and Hiei made and appearance bombarding Surabaya:
P-39D Airacobra: 7 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 1 destroyed on ground
P-40E Warhawk: 6 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed on ground
B-17E Fortress: 23 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 2 damaged
PBY-4 Catalina: 7 damaged
Hurricane IIb Trop: 2 damaged
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed on ground
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
L-212: 2 damaged
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 damaged
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 destroyed on ground
...which probably incapacitates the airfield for the next day or two. On the bright side, that limited the amount of damage his fighters could do because I had so few in the air to shoot down. (2 P-40s at Surabaya).
Operation Kinky Boots
Apparently he's realized that what's going on here is a problem. Major air forces--Oscars, probably piloted by veterans of the Phillipines/Malaya campaigns have reinforced Bangkok and were not only waiting for me, but they swept Tavoy airbase. We lost 5 AVG P-40s at Tavoy with no enemies shot down. At Bangkok we lost 4 AVG P-40s and a Hurricane, leaving our Hudson bombers vulnerable--we lost all 5 we sent. We only got 5 Nates in exchange, the Oscars seemed untouchable. The good news is there is no enemy bomber activity, so the adjustment is simple. My bombers stay north in the Raheng area. To the south, my fighters regroup and focus on defense. I'm calling in another Hurricane squadron from Columbo.
At Raheng, our river crossing was a smashing success. The enemy was suppressed by my bombers, the troops got across, and the enemy base was overwhelmed. Casualties were 1388 to 318 favoring me, a great result considering it was a river crossing.
Malaya
It looks like the enemy presence in Singapore is down to 6,000 from a previous high of probably 40,000. Kinky Boots is working. They'll probably save Bangkok, though, which is fine by me.
China
The massive offensive army I moved from Ichang to the central area has reached its objective of Nanchang. He apparently spotted me, as a large army that had been threatening my base at Changsha was spotted moving back to Nanchang on a major highway. They became my priority bomber target yesterday, hoping that by forcing them to scramble for cover they'd slow down. They're not here yet. We attack tomorrow, hopefully that army will be too late.
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