24 February 1943
Combat debut of Judy dive bombers, LST sunk at Marcus
CENTPAC
Heavy cruisers Wichita and Pensacola and 4 destroyers bombarded Marcus to try to give our outnumbered Marines a chance. The damage to the base was significant, including 7 Kates disabled.
One of those task forces included carriers. They sent 27 brand new Judy dive bombers (with 13 Zero escorts) against a lone LST and sank it. This LST and one other are on their own due to sustaining damage on reefs while landing troops, they can't keep up with the main force getting away from the carriers. I'm willing to bet at least one major fleet carrier is here since the KB would be the first to get the upgrades from Vals to Judies.
Banda Sea
Beaufighters attacked 3 light cargo ships off the coast of Timor. All were damaged significantly, I'd say 2 probably sank.
We traded 2 Wildcats for 2 Nicks as the Nicks intercepted a B-26 raid on Babar
China
Lysander light bombers, which I usually use for Recon, attacked Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait, sinking a pair of mine tenders
Most of the enemy cleared out of Chusien as they manuever into a seige position. I attacked the stragglers, inflicting 1929 to 1646 casualties in our favor, but in terms of disabled vs destroyed squads we came out far more ahead than that. We've got Liberator and Wellington bombers attacking the flanking forces, trying to buy time.
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Could it be that your opponent is losing a staggering amount of destroyers? And how much would a shortage impede his operations?
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Probably not, but Japan doesn't have enough destroyers for its escort needs to begin with so it really can't afford to lose them like this even if it's just a handful. It's hard for me to guess at the operational-level significance because I'm not sure what their mission was. Fast transport maybe? If that's the case, then he probably does less fast transporting. The unsunk destroyers allocated to that task might be reassigned to escort duties.