16 May 1942
Kido Butai reappears near Pago, invading forces at Koepang reinforced by Imperial Guards Division
Timor
At least one more amphibious group arrived at Koepang and started dropping off the Imperial Guards Division and more combat engineers. He was cutting it a bit close on troops before this but probably still would have won, this move assures he has enough to take the base. There is now a rather large collection of assets here, though, so a possible opportunity to cause some attrition.
That attrition isn't coming from our bombers today, though. We flew several sorties, mostly from Darwin, and came up empty except for a Zero shot down by a B-17 gunner. Our CAP continues to do well against the enemy air raids, today we got 3 enemy fighters and 9 bombers with just one P-40 shot down.
Hawaii
I had a thought about Pearl--his bombers don't seem to be causing a lot of damage but I'm still sucking supply, where's it all going? Maybe it's being spent to repair/replace the devices and squads of our land forces. So I turned replacements off for everyone at the base. Hopefully if we stay at our current force level we won't consume so much. Also, the first submarine assigned to transport duty arrived. They can't deliver much, but every little bit will help, especially if turning replacements off made a difference.
Sumatra
Our scouts found a vulnerable transport convoy transiting the west Java Sea and our bombers took advantage. A pair of Fulmars got two 250lb bomb hits on a cargo ship loaded with vehicles and artillery, and Falcon light bombers scored multiple 50kg hits on two more--also carrying vehicles.
China
Reinforcements have arrived at Kaifeng and we might be outnumbered for now, but I'm attacking as planned anyways. The enemy base is being displayed with multiple large fires in the bombing animation--I'm not sure exactly what that means (high facility damage? low supply? high % of squad disablements?) but I'm willing to bet it means he's weaker than his apparent numerical strength. Also, some of those numbers are probably troops shipped in by rail, and a land unit needs 1-3 days to "unpack" from that mode of transport. During that time they're not fighting and they're more vulnerable to taking damage.
I regretfully lost one of my Hudson bombers here to AA today, which is worth mentioning only because I have so few decent bombers in theatre. Most of the results are from one British Wellington squadron (formerly operating in Thailand) and one American B-25 squadron. I'm moving the altitude for the attacking bombers up a pinch to try to avoid further losses.
SouthPAC
We've reacquired the suspected battleship group near the Gilberts--further North than expected. The KB has also been spotted again on a western course north of Pago--so it does look like they're reacting to my CVBG being spotted.
Ships at Pago are continuing to succumb to fires and flooding...
AP President Hayes sinks in port
...hopefully that's the last of them.
Reinforcements/refits
Two Australian minesweepers collided while on ASW duty near Brisbane--both were due for an upgrade so now that they're going to be spending time under repair anyway, I've cued that up.
SS Grayling taken out of commission to begin refit at Dutch Harbor (radar)
xAK Robert Morris arrives at Alameda
23rd FG/74th FS arrives at Aden (23/25 P-40s -- already being loaded on a boat to India to get shipped by rail towards Thailand)
34th Infantry Regiment arrives at San Francisco (2% strength, restricted)
Also, I have enough Avengers in inventory to transition a VT squadron. Next carrier to stop at a large port gets them, not sure who that is yet.
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