War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

28 March 1942

Timor
The enemy detached 3 destroyers and sent them into port at Koepang to finish off the Duchess of Bedford, the only surviving transport. The loss of that ship resulted in another 1100 casualties to our ground forces. The damaged destroyer Tjerk Hiddes attempted to clear the area but was finished off by a submarine.

The battleship Kirishima and 3 destroyers followed up to shell Koepang, disabling at least 20 planes, and underscoring a serious problem at this base: when I ordered the re-embarking of the partially disembarked troops, the ships also started taking supply from the base. Between that and the damage being dealt to the base, the supply here is depleted, and my planes won't be flying, including the light bombers that should be performing low level attacks against these ships shelling the base.

Java
An enemy heavy cruiser and destroyer hit mines attempting to shell Surabaya. The destroyer aborted its mission, but the cruiser and two others pushed on and shelled the base, disabling over 50 planes and damaging a destroyer under repair in port.

The battleship Haruna and 3 heavy cruisers shelled Batavia, disabling at least 30 planes.

The damage to airbases reduced the size of our raids. We lost a P-40 and a B-25 near Surabaya without inflicting significant damage on the ground. An attempted light bomber run on enemy ships at Tjepoe resulted in 1 Oscar shot down but no hits on anything, despite a the mine-damaged destroyer being targeted.

In a case of my failing to range-limit my bombers, I lost 4 139W bombers attempting to attack a tanker at Singkawang, which had a CAP and was beyond the reach of my own fighters. 2 bombers made it to the tanker but missed.

Thailand
Oscars attempted to sweep Tavoy but we beat them back. 6 Oscars shot down for a loss of 1 Hurricane and 1 P-40.

New Hebrides
The enemy bombers pursued my retreating ships from Luganville to Efate. We got 2 Betties and 8 Kates.

I ordered my troops to perform a shock attack on Luganville, hoping I could overcome their defenses before this operation becomes unrecoverable. They were pushed back with 275 casualties, only inflicting 12 on the enemy.