11 April 1942
USS Hornet wipes out minelaying task force, USS Enterprise and USS Saratoga wipe out Palmyra reinforcements.
Hawaii and CENTPAC
3 BB bombarded Pearl again. These guys are focused. Plus the usual daily airstrike.
My two DMSs swept 11 mines at Christmas Island. Still more to go.
The Enterprise-Saratoga battle group spotted an enemy transport task force at Palmyra and hit it with 66 SBDs, sinking 6 cargo ships and damaging a 7th. 6 USMC Wildcats from the Saratoga followed up dropping their glorified hand grenades to finish off the last one. Reported ground casualties were light, so they probably offloaded troops under cover of night. One SBD was damaged by flak, but was repaired by day's end. A bit further east, the Hornet found that minelaying task force. We attacked with 31 SBC-4 Helldiver dive bomers and 9 TBD Devastators:
CL Tama, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
CM Sarushima, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Tsugaru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Natsushima, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
I'm pretty confident both the "damaged" CMs sank. Despite them having a light cruiser in the task force, none of our planes sustained substantial damage. So, all 3 carriers are still 100% combat ready for the next engagement.
Java
An unescorted airstrike targeted my troops in Soerakarta; the CAP from Surabaya diverted and took down 6 Sallies. 10 Oscars swept Batavia and took down a Hurricane and a Buffalo; we had no fighters up when the bombers arrived. Enemy troops have arrived at Batavia, they attacked and reduced our fortifications to rubble. This isn't going to last long.
New Hebrides
The Japanese marines on Luganville finally finished off the last of my troops there. I'm going to keep bombing them as long as I can, I'll treasure the death of every squad my bombers manage to take out.
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