6 March 1942
Battle of the Java Sea in progress
East Coast
USS Hornet is now under my command. It will reach the Panama Canal in a week. Current airwing VF-8 (19 Wildcats), VS-8 (18 SBC-4 Helldivers), VB-8 (18 Helldivers), VT-8 (15 Devastators)
Hawaii
Air raids on Pearl transitioned to targeting troops. Sigint has also reported that 2 divisions currently on Molokai are being loaded into transports, so the targeting of Pearl's troops tells us where they're going next.
Philippines
USS Porpoise sank a cargo ship in the Luzon Straight in a gun/torpedo surface attack.
Java Sea
With some regret in hindsight, I had ordered the evacuation of most undamaged warships from Surabaya to Darwin when I spotted the KB. What I didn't spot until this turn were transports. They're going to land on Java. So there's actually something worth fighting over right now and I got my assets out of the way.
At least his attentions on Surabaya were mostly wasted. Two damaged light cruisers and a submarine (the Perch) were caught in harbor. The Perch took a hit from an 800kg monster and was destroyed. The cruisers were damaged badly enough that I'm pretty sure the war is over for them. Nells from Borneo also hit the port, but they were too high and carrying only 60kg bombs due to the distance they had to fly, and did no damage.
This was after an air battle of course, the score there was 6 Zeroes vs 3 P-40s, 2 P-39s, and 5 Fulmars.
The Hermes and Royal Sovereign managed to evade the KB's scouts.
Operation Kinky Boots
So far everything going smoothly. We've reached Tavoy airbase and will begin our attack tomorrow. At Raheng, we're crossing the river adjacent to enemy forces so we can attack overland properly. Our bombers have been softening up both targets' ground forces with no opposition by enemy fighters. No enemy bombers are targeting our troops either, but Boyington's 1st AVG and 3 squadrons of Hurricanes are ready if they're needed.
7 March 1942
We are the British army, and we're here to take your land!
Operation Kinky Boots
Here's where things are going
We captured Tavoy easily, casualties 1500 to 150. Their troops were fatigued and broken, probably thanks to the bombing. They also had no fortifications, so this area was far from a priority for him. We'll see if he's still dismissive as we press east. My armor is going to run down the retreating troops while the infantry heads for the road to Bangkok overland. Once we're there we can cut off that rail line that they'd use to move troops out of Malaya to reinforce Bangkok. Same deal with Raheng, we need to go around and cut off that railroad to block reinforcements from the rest of Thailand.
If you were curious where the operation's name came from:
Java Sea
The KB aggressively, perhaps recklessly, pushed south of the Java Sea. Perhaps trying to find the Hermes and Royal Sovereign, or expecting my US fleet carriers to be there to set up an ambush? I'll have to keep this in mind. He didn't find them, though, we was too far west. We had major air battles over Java as we tried to interdict the invasion force. First, Surabaya itself was still under attack, mostly from land bases. Those cost 5 Nells, a Betty, 2 Zeroes, 2 P-39s and a P-40. And it wore down my CAP, a lot of those bombers arrived unescorted but were still getting through in large numbers. They hit the light cruiser Dragon again, and sank another damaged sub (the
KXI). And they damaged a pair of valuable tenders, an AD and an AR. But most of what's here are just light cargo ships and some troop transports that are too slow to be useful, these soaked most of the hits. The operational combattants all moved southeast...
The landing site was Tjepoe, right in the middle of the northern coast. We attacked with bombers from both sides but didn't do much damage. It was mostly Oscars flying long-range CAP over the transports, but it was enough. We lost 3 P-40s, a Hawk, a P-39, 2 Falcon light bombers, 5 Swordfish torpedo bombers, and 5 139W medium bombers. It was only the Falcons that had any success, scoring 3 hits on two transports, causing 200 troop casualties. It looks like 2 regiments came ashore, which isn't that much for a target the size of Java. There are probably more on the way, but for now I'm going to try to box these guys in before they can isolate either Surabaya or Batavia.
B-17s went after the KB. We lost 5 and got no hits, but their gunners shot down 2 Zeroes.
East of the KB, I'm reorganizing my naval forces. I'm going to have the damaged Royal Sovereign continue to Darwin along with the Hermes, but I'm going to try to have the cruisers link up and form an offensive task force (including a shiny new anti-aircraft cruiser that just arrived). Hopefully with the KB off to the south they'll get through unmolested, if not, I moved a squadron of P-39s from Koepang to an airbase east of Surabaya to provide some air cover.
Further east, there's a small enemy landing force at Dobo, at the eastern end of the Banda Sea. I've had two cruisers headed that way for two days, they better arrive tomorrow. No destroyers in this group, they lost their destroyers when the carrier detachment attacked Timor.
Hawaii
Just bombers today hitting Pearl, mostly attacking troops. I have to assume the BB are getting ready to support a landing. I've moved 2 subs to try to intercept, but it's a short trip in shallow water.