30 September 1942
Luganville operation underway, a plan to take Hainan Island
China
2 P-40s down over Chengchow with one Oscar shot down. One Wellington bomber lost to flak. Forts are back to Level 2-enough that I might move fighters back.
Reinforcements arriving in Madras, India included a regiment-strength paratrooper unit, and there was one already there. I see an opportunity here. There are two bases on Heinan Island, one of which is completely undefended and actually reverted to my control due to proximity to my garrisons on the mainland. The other base is a major naval base, mostly used for merchant ships. Having a large number of paratroops available should mean I can ferry troops into the base I control undetected--then it's just a short march to the other side of the island to take the naval base.
Solomons, Espiritu Santo Islands, New Hebrides
A raid on the Shortlands amounted to nothing, just a few hits on an empty port. Recon flights have spotted 4 subs at Guadalcanal and 1 sub at Rabaul--but they say Rabaul only has 4 fighters compared to the ~100 at Guadalcanal. So Rabaul is getting bombed hard tomorrow.
I have two task forces headed to Luganville, phibs and a heavy cover/bombardment group. I've got another group of phibs standing by to drop seabees off once the Marines succeed. The primary phib group includes a CVE with 28 Wildcats providing cover. We'll also have cover from fighters from Efate and the USS Wasp if need be.
Meanwhile, raids on Ndeni continue and I'm unable to get a CAP that far north right now. All the more reason to take Luganville quickly. I kind of hope this task force gets their attention so we can splash some of them. I suppose I should be careful what I wish for.
USS Seawolf was depth charged for moderate damage near Ontong Java (the atoll north of the Solomons where we've previously seen tanker traffic).
A bit to the south, Noumea's Wirraways hit another sub. Would be nice if my surface forces would finish off one of these wounded boats.
Burma
The isolation of Rangoon is starting to have an impact in China, as I've noticed decreasing supply amounts in key areas. I think I may have to attempt to get a convoy in. I have a large, building force of medium and heavy bombers in India and Burma, so maybe what I can do is start a bombing campaign against Port Blair, and if I can bomb them into ineffectiveness, I'll slip a convoy through.
Some destroyers are patrolling the Tavoy coast--I'm activating my partially-trained Vengeances for this. Maybe they'll have a nice confidence-building success.
The enemy armies guarding the road to Bangkok decided to pursue my withdrawing main force, so I just had them turn around and go after the enemy. We engage tomorrow. Our units moving south from Raheng met an army large enough to hold them up, so our bombers are helping them break that stalemate--so far no interference from enemy fighters.
CENTPAC
Lahaina forts are down to Level 1.
Intel
The intel weenies can't make of their mind about Ise. They're reporting it sank again--today--not far from Manila. Which would have been a reasonable place to go for repairs if they thought they could get it seaworthy enough to leave the harbor it was torpedoed near.
Reinforcements and Refits
VT-8 has been reformed at San Fransciso. I immediately transitioned them to Avengers, they'll head to Pear tomorrow.
I'm going to upgrade the Sara and Lex together. They start tomorrow. They'll be getting both radars upgraded, the Chicago Pianos replaced with 40mm Bofors, and in the case of the Lex, she's getting her 5" guns upgraded from Mk10s to Mk12s and the last of her .50cals replaced with 20mms since we skipped her June 1942 upgrade.
374th TCG/33rd TCS arrives at Eastern USA
77th Chindit Brigade arrives at Madras
11th Construction Regiment arrives at Kukong
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