19 September 1942
HMS Indomitable and Hermes vs IJN Kaga, Hiyo, and Junyo - another point for the Brits
Solomons
My encroachment op is proceeding according to plan, including shellings and bombings against Ndeni as my troops came ashore. The enemy moved some Nicks to Guadalcanal to deal with the B-17s there, resulting in two shootdowns by the Nicks and a third to flak--and two more crashing on the way home. We had actually received a report of 3 subs in port at Guadalcanal, so the B-17s were going after them instead of the airbase, but it looks like we just bombed an empty port. But, the Nicks stayed away from my phibs, which is what matters.
Philippines
USS Gato was badly damaged near Siargao attempting an attack on an escorted convoy and is RTB for repairs.
CENTPAC
We hit Canton Island with a cruiser-destroyer group, causing over 100 casualties and damaging some Mavis scoutplanes. An enemy sub attempted an attack on the way in but was driven off by an escorting destroyer.
I've started landing troops on Kona, Hawaii to remove the enemy presence there. I'm also sending a minesweeper to Lahaina, mostly to see if it takes fire from ashore if it tries to clear mines.
Taiwan Strait
A group of 9 destroyers--many of them modern and highly-capable--bombarded the recently captured coastal base of Amoy, causing a great deal of airbase and port facility damage. But I'm not using those facilities.
This is more confusing information. Many of these destroyers have the deep-reaching depth charges that makes them ideal for convoy escort duty, if not escorting major surface combattants. And I'm still finding unescorted merchants quite frequently. Why are there so many destroyers available for a low-priority bombardment mission when there are unescorted convoys? A thought occurred that these might be the KB's escorts if the KB is finally getting its July upgrades, but without any cruisers I don't think so, and I checked the ship list with the list of ships from when my subs penetrated the formation and hit Akagi--no ships on both lists. Can't rule it out, but probably not.
Bay of Bengal
It's starting to feel like the HMS Indomitable is forming a bit of a relationship/rivalry with the Hiyo and Junyo. The fleets (including Hermes on my side and Kaga on theirs) came into contact today and traded airstrikes, which worked out much in my favor.
The enemy tried to strike first with a wave of 29 unescorted Kates. I asked about the lack of escort and he told me he range-restricted his fighters, so this looks like I've benefited from an error here. I made a similar error back in the fight for Balikpapan, though, when I thought my Hurricanes had the range to escort my torpedo bombers when they didn't, so I guess we evened that score up. Anyway, we had 20 Hurricanes and 11 Martlets on CAP and spotted the raid on radar 82 miles out. The Kates didn't have a chance. All were shot down with no fighter losses, and the Brits even had an Ace-in-a-day with 6 kills to his credit.
Our raid was much smaller, just 13 Albacore torpedo bombers escorted by 8 Martlets. But radar made a huge difference. We were spotted just 16 miles out, and most of the enemy fighters--36 in total--didn't arrive until after we had already attacked the targets. It looks like the fight started with just 6 Zeroes present. 5 of our Martlets were shot down by the Zeroes but they fought well enough for 8 of the 13 Albacores to attempt attacks on the enemy, resulting in 1 torpedo hit on the Kaga and another on the Yamato. The Junyo was also attacked, but missed. Only 2 Albacores made it back to the Indomitable in total 9 kills were by Zeroes and 2 by flak.
Once again, we don't have any overt indications that damage to either warship was severe, and I have to assume both are operational. That the battleship held in reserve from the shore bombardments is the Yamato is concerning--I'd rather not have my old battleships fight the Yamato like this. And those 13 Albacores--now 2--was all the offensive punch I had on both carriers. Also, I'm surrounded by something like 7 subs and the Kaga probably has Vals it can send after me. So I'm not going to stick around for a surface fight; the task force is headed west towards Calcutta to avoid the subs and get some extra fighter cover, then southwest back to Colombo. Most of the Vengeance dive bomber squadron is operational again, so I'm moving them west from Rangoon to take advantage of a hopefully weakened task force.
It seems pretty likely to me that the Kaga would not have taken this hit had it received its scheduled 7/1942 upgrade. And I don't even think it would have been that inconvenient for the Kaga (and Akagi) in particular, because it already needed probably weeks worth of repairs from the damage it sustained in late June 1942
China
After letting our fighters rest for a bit around Chengchow, we put a CAP back up. It looks like more enemy troops are headed here, so I have to be ready for bomber attacks. We got 4 Zeroes and 2 Oscars with no losses.
Refits and Reinforcements
Repairs completed on BB North Carolina at San Francisco, ship returned to service (AA upgrade completed--on its way to Pearl)
BB Washington taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor (same AA upgrade NC just completed)
CL Dauntless beginning refit in shipyard at Bombay (AA upgrade)
CL Caradoc beginning refit in shipyard at Bombay (AA upgrade)
AM Rockhampton arrives at Melbourne
SC-637 arrives at San Diego
SC-641 arrives at San Francisco
SS Shad arrives at Balboa
TK Alcides arrives at Abadan
No.159 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (14/16 Liberators -- headed straight to India)
341st BG/491st BS arrives at Karachi (B-25s, I forget how many but probably about half-strength. Headed to Calcutta by raid)
374th TCG/6th TCS arrives at Eastern USA (transport squadron)