15 May 1942
KB disappears, USS Shark on eternal patrol
Japan
USS Shark was bombed by maritime patrol aircraft near Nagasaki, taking two bomb hits. They failed to contain the flooding and the boat succumbed by evening. We're going to have to hang out a bit further away from this coast now that their pilots are apparently ASW-trained.
Timor and N. Australia
Two of our PTs collided and the others are out of fuel. We got one more turn of harassment/disruption out of it before they got to base on fumes. I'm disbanding them and sending them back to the pool.
Our fighters again managed to evade enemy fighter escorts and hit the bombers, we got 2 Lillies and a Sally with no losses. The enemy also lost an Oscar trying to shoot down B-17s; they don't call them Flying Fortresses for nothing.
The two TBs were intercepted by my surface group and sunk without hitting us back.
Thailand
An air raid targeted Tavoy airbase. We shot down two Oscars but didn't reach the bombers. As has been frequent in this campaign, though, the bombers were at too high an altitude to do any real damage, so we're fine.
SouthPAC and Solomons area
Our CVBG was snooped by scoutplanes enroute to its intercept point. Meanwhile, both the KB and the suspected battleship group dropped out of contact, possibly due to overcast skies interfering with our scouts. The risk calculus just changed substantially--I'm aborting the intercept.
I wasn't able to return to Guadalcanal, but I did hit Rabaul with 22 Hudsons. The airbase is still empty but I damaged it badly enough that he probably won't want to send aircraft here until it's repaired.
My best guess is the KB was going to Christmas Island next because that's where he has current detections on my ships. But with my CVBG spotted, he might just turn them around.
China
We attacked Kaifeng today and knocked their forts down to Level 1, casualties 2300 to 2900 favoring them. That's good news but there's no guarantee he won't reinforce before I overrun them. But I kind of want him to reinforce there because my bombers are dealing so much damage, the terrain isn't favorable, and his forts are reduced. It's a good place to kill Japanese troops.
Reinforcements/Refits
Just the Cachalot getting its radars installed.