11 February 1942
Tactical blue balls...
CENTPAC
I-10 sank a cargo ship off the Samoa Islands in a night surface attack.
Java and Banda Sea, SRA, etc.
I spent so much time thinking about the possible carrier battle that I forgot to turn off the Sweep of Madioen. Oh well. There were 2 Demons left, we got one.
Splashed another pair of Hudsons over Babar. Seems to me these unescorted raids are a mistake.
A minesweeper of mine hit an uncharted rock near Babeldoab and sank.
Burma
Another Blenheim raid on my advancing troops near Moulmein. Splashed one, no damage on the ground.
A port strike on Rangoon hit the Colombo again. How is that ship still afloat?
SouthPAC
No major battle here today. We did not see any searchplanes following our fleets, and our searchplanes didn't find his. There are plenty of thunderstorms and heavy overcast areas though, so I honestly don't know if he ran off or if our forces are intermingled and we just don't know it yet.
Anyway, there were still skirmishes. B-26s again raided Luganville, with flak taking down one. No damage to the base. Which I'm happy for, because I just moved in about two dozen more Zeroes to help suppress Efate, and they could have been caught on the ground. The 11 remaining Banshees then attacked, but since they arrived before B-17s my Zeroes were fresh and ready for them. 3 of the newly arrived Zeroes managed to join in. They lost 6 to my Zeroes then another 3 to flak. I think we can credit prior sweeps of Efate to making these Banshee's efforts wasted, as we basically wiped out the P-40s that should have been escorting them.
One of Hiryu's Kates is claiming a hit on a submarine.
The landings at New Caledonia will now proceed. I'm also going to use a second heavy surface task force to shell Efate, using the extra Zeroes at Luganville to protect them from possible carrier attack. Hopefully this will remove some of the bomber threat in the area.
Sumatra
The Betties from Palembang flew again, this time sinking a minesweeper at Oosthaven.
Their medium bombers attempted another raid on my troops advancing on Oosthaven, this time we were only able to get 1 Oscar this far south and didn't shoot anyone down. The raid was still ineffective regardless.
China
Some enemy units were passing by Nanchang (eastern central area) in open territory, trying to get back to their own lines, so I sallied some excess garrison out to beat on them a little while working them over with light bombers. Round 1 resulted in light casualties to both sides. But by now you know to expect that the longer these skirmishes with isolated units last, the more it tips in my favor.
I also was able to find some spare units to send to Chengchow while the main event is taking place Nanyang. We found Chengchow virtually abandoned, as expected, and took it with minimal losses. But, this was a mistake. The enemy was retreating at my arrival; I could have just let him leave without attacking. During the rout, the enemy destroyed a majority of the light industry in the hex. The cost of repairing these facilities is unlikely to be repaid by their production within the expected time scale of the war, so this damage is, for practical purposes, permanent.
Reinforcements
62nd Naval Guard Unit arrives at Tokyo - another one for Truk to aid our expansion in SouthPAC.
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