War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

14 November 1942
Rangoon airbase disabled; Pisanuloke captured; more troops coming ashore on Babar

Battle of Rangoon
Today started with an overnight bombardment of Rangoon by a bunch of destroyers that was surprisingly effective. Runway damage is so severe that we had 0 planes on CAP today despite having about 15 fighters in working condition. The absence of those fighters in the air probably contributed to significant losses of transport aircraft flying in the reinforcing special forces unit--16 transports shot down by enemy fighters.

Rangoon was swept by 53 Oscars and 9 Zeroes (are the carriers back? I still don't see them), but no joy due to my runways being disabled. The Sallies (over 100) worked on our troops at Rangoon, causing serious disruption even if casualties were light.

We lost a Beaufighter trying to attack the Hyuga. I wish I could order them only to attack unarmored ships. The B-24 raids included 6 recently arrived British aircraft this time. We had 2 B-24s shot down while the gunners got 3 Oscars and a Nick.

Enemy land forces including the Imperial Guards and 3 tank regiments attacked Rangoon, but fortunately they aren't attacking effectively. Forts are holding at Level 4, casualties 600 to 300 favoring us.

In spite of heavy bombing of the enemy force, Pisanuloke was overrun today, with the total loss of the 2nd Burma Battalion. Now we get to see if they go for Raheng directly or try to sever the supply lines. I believe that I'll eventually have the stronger forces in this immediate area and will be able to counterattack effectively.

All enemy paratroopers around Mandalay have been eliminated. The only enemy units behind the frontlines now are those that retreated from Akyab.

Banda Sea
The enemy continues to unload elements of the two partial divisions on Babar. We're going to get seriously outnumbered very quickly. For now, our air raids are keeping the enemy pinned down.

We shot down 6 Oscars while escorting our bombers to intervene in the landings. 2 Hudsons were shot down by flak attempting to bomb enemy ships. Beaufighters had the only hits, one bomb on a cargo ship that was unloading troops, plus a bomb hit + cannon rounds hitting a destroyer and setting it on fire.

The enemy attempted a shock attack, costing them 102 casualties to our 157. We're holding but the numbers are concerning.

I'm flying in more B-17s to Darwin, along with a B-26 squadron (EDIT: make that two; pulling some Hudsons out to make room) that is very well-trained in naval attack missions that I hope might be able to make effective level bombing attacks against the transports. I'm also sending a 2nd PT squadron to attack, but to make sure they hit at night, I'm going to try to delay their arrival until the day after tomorrow.

Solomons Area
The S-44 scored 2 torpedo hits on a PB near Ontong Java, sinking it. It was depth charged by a SC in retaliation, but not very accurately; no damage sustained and the SC used up all its depth charges.

At Rossel, we shot down 3 Oscars and lost a P-40. The P-38s took the day off for rest and repairs.

Japan
USS Runner sank an AKL near Kyushu in a daytime submerged torpedo attack.

Refits and Reinforcements
VMF-222 arrives at San Diego (restricted, 2/18 F4Fs. Likely going to be purchased with PP and deployed at some point. Corsairs start rolling out in 1/1943 so the USMC fighter squadrons are about to go up in value in a big way)
45th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme
BB Warspite begins refit while under repair at Pearl Harbor
DD Russell taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
DD Morris taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
DD Sterett beginning refit in shipyard at Pearl Harbor

[Molon Labe]

15 November 1942
Enemy forces trying to do too much at once in Burma, possible to turn the tide

Banda Sea
Overnight, the O20 spotted two damaged merchant retiring from Babar, but a destroyers spotted it before it could attack. It lost the destroyer, no shots fired.

The B-26 raids on the enemy ship were completely ineffective. That was 22 aircraft dropping 6 bombs each. I'll be switching one of them over to land attack. I'm also going to try the Aussie Hudsons' hands at low level attack since many Aussie pilots have been training for it. As we've come to expect, the Beaufighters did well:
xAK Yamagiri Maru, Shell hits 4, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Yamabiko Maru, Shell hits 1, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
Yamagiri almost certainly sank. No troop casualties reported, though, which is concerning.

PT attacks tomorrow.

Battle of Rangoon

The Yamato, Hiei, and Hyuga shelled Tavoy overnight. The base is a wreck, but at least for now I'm not using it. After the bombardment, my "Tavoy" army arrived, coming back after pursuing the enemy's former garrison here well into the jungle. I've detached one unit from this group, the rest will continue its trip up the road towards Rangoon.

The former "anti-Bangkok main force" is now back in the vicinity of Moulmein. It appears to be more powerful than the enemy forces currently holding Moulmein. I'd like to consolidate them with the surviving Moulmein garrison, but I'm going to keep a close eye on the supply situation as it's possible that their daily expenditures will outpace what our lines can provide.

Enemy troops are currently advancing to the north from Pegu, and have seized the first base on the road, Toungoo. The likely objective of this group is to try to sever supply lines in the north, but they currently lack the numbers to do the job. I should be able to stop them around Mandalay. The enemy force that took Pisanouke is headed straight to Raheng, opting for a contested river crossing instead of a race into a currently empty hex. Based on what I saw when these guys were in Pisanouke, I have enough to stop them here, too. Especially with the benefit of the river crossing and the highly effective bombings of the Vengeance dive bombers stationed here.

We swept Pegu with fighters from Raheng, but surprisingly had no joy as the enemy fighters apparently all went straight to Bangkok after taking off. So that's an opportunity then-tomorrow a portion of my B-24s will hit the airbase instead of the enemy troops in Rangoon. It also appears there are far less fighters here than there used to be--the carriers appear to be gone and it looks like Oscars have deployed elsewhere. Another opportunity there--I'm going to let the Vengeances do naval attacks for at least a turn before putting them back on the enemy ground forces threatening Raheng.

At Rangoon itself, the destroyer John Edwards and an Indian PG succumbed to damage sustained in various air raids and naval bombardments. I evacuated several flyable aircraft, so between that and the base conditions we had no CAP to greet the enemy sweeps/CAP. That proved to be a bit of a problem for the B-24 raids, which suffered one loss to fighters and another to flak, but then 3 more damaged planes crashed on the way home and 2 were scrapped at base. We also lost 3 Wellingtons that arrived without the B-24s and were just outgunned. One Zero was shot down by the bombers.

We also seized Chaing Mai with paratroopers. This is just to prevent an unseen enemy from severing the supply line through the mountains.

Solomons Area
1 Oscar and 1 P-40 down over Rossel. Strangely quiet here otherwise. I've transitioned one of Efate's P-38F squadrons to the P-38G.

Refits and reinforcements
CA Indianapolis beginning refit while under repair in shipyard at Pearl Harbor
DD Fletcher begins refit while under repair at Pearl Harbor
DD Chevalier taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
DD Waller taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor

2nd USMC Air Wing Base Force arrives at San Diego (unrestricted, full strength)

[Ostfriese]

Burma should be one hell of a black hole for your oppnent's supplies, and this campaign is another must-win-situation for him, otherwise it's going to be another disaster like his Hawaiian operation.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

Burma should be one hell of a black hole for your oppnent's supplies, and this campaign is another must-win-situation for him, otherwise it's going to be another disaster like his Hawaiian operation.

Supply wise, he's got an advantage because he controls the adjacent sea and can deliver supplies that way. That'll improve if he takes Rangoon because it has factories producing supply. Right now my supplies are coming by plane from India (slow and inefficient) and backwards through the Burma road from China (Burma should be supplying China, not the other way around).

Moulmein is going to be a critical signpost for me. If I can retake it, and hopefully steal some supply from him at the same time, I might be able to keep pressing. But if that fails, or even if it succeeds but it burns all the supply left that I have, I'm going to have to start looking for places to move my armies away from Rangoon to, because I'm not beating him with starving troops with no ammo. Maybe to China through the mountains, I'd even consider turning them around and trying to invade bases that might have supply in Indochina, work my way towards Hanoi. The trick is going to be to keep my armies threatening to his so that he can't leave, and I have to do it without starving these troops out and letting them get eliminated en masse.

[Ostfriese]

OK, I see the point, thanks.


Still, it's amazing that you managed to hold Rangoon and the Burma Road that long. Historically Rangoon fell at the end of Februrary 1942.


Edit: I have to correct myself: the British evacuated Rangoon in early March 1942.

[Molon Labe]

16 November 1942
Supply route through Raheng isn't severed, but it's not enough

Battle of Rangoon
The army poised to take back Moulmien has less supplies today than it did yesterday, which means whatever supplies are working their way from northern Burma and China, through the mountain trails, through Raheng and finally to my combat units isn't enough to keep pace with daily non-combat expenditures. Which means it's go-time. No waiting to consolidate. But good news: even more enemy units have left Moulmein. Looks like we'll get it pretty quickly.

The ordered sweeps of Rangoon from Raheng didn't happen. Not sure why, maybe my pilots don't want to get into a fight with a numerically superior enemy at extended range without drop tanks? Also no strikes by the Vengeances, if this keeps up I'm not even going to give them the option of naval strikes, we need to hit the enemy army approaching the bridges to Raheng. The enemy is starting to sweep Raheng, though. 1 Oscar and 1 Hurricane down today.

The B-24s seem to be getting the job done but losses are mounting. We lost 4 more today; 3 to fighters 1 to flak. They took 1 Zero down with them. The enemy is only using bombardment attacks on Rangoon which is probably because they're too disrupted from the bombing for a real attack.


Banda Sea
The PT raid on Babar was spotted and intercepted by a surface combat task force of 1 CL and 9 DDs. Two PTs were sunk before they were able to abort and break off. Would be nice if I had more strike aircraft that could reach these boats.

I made a really dumb mistake here--I hadn't checked my Beaufighter pilots before picking this fight. They're only partly trained. And they're the only ones getting results! I have a second Beaufighter squadron that's been training while these guys were on the frontlines, and I had meant to swap their pilots when the trainees graduated. Well, now I've done that. Let's see if it makes a difference tomorrow.

We got 4 Oscars without losing any of our own fighters. Weather caused disruptions to our Beaufighters, they got split up and only 2 arrived at the target, not hitting anything. The Aussie Hudsons did their low-level attack and also missed. So they're back to land attack tomorrow.

Solomons Area
Lost a P-40 to Oscar sweeps at Rossel. Time to stop resting the P-38s. Other than that it's just supply and troop movements here. Luganvile now has 2 SBD squadrons and the local AirHQ is being airlifted there to support the growing numbers, and to supply torpedoes to the Avengers that are in transit. It's been awhile since surface ships visited Rossel--looks like my minefield is having a deterrent effect.

China
I finally attacked the surrounded enemy in Foochow again. Casualties were nominally worse for me at 1500 to 1000, but we had few squads destroyed instead of disabled, while his squads were split 50-50 between destroyed and disabled. It may be awhile before I can finish these guys off--supply has become a major problem throughout China thanks to the lack of deliveries at Rangoon since Port Blair was taken. The enemy offensives that we fought off in the preceding weeks have pretty much burned through what we stored up before then.

Reinforcements
258th USAAF Base Force arrives at Tillamook
43rd USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme

[Molon Labe]

17 November 1942
Training is still King. Allied air raids sink enemy transports near Ndeni & Bandar; Rangoon standing by to be overrun


Battle of Rangoon
Raheng suffered a little bit of night bombing from Vals and a few Sallies. No serious damage. Rangoon was shelled by a few destroyers, also not serious. It helps that most of our planes are out. Day sweeps by Osars over Raheng resulted only in damaged aircraft on both sides.

The Vengeance bombers actually attempted a naval attack, and I probably should have been careful what I wished for. The enemy fighters are back in large numbers, including brand new Tojos. So that's why they left, to transition to new airplanes at a bigger base. It ended up being 10 P-40s vs 17 Zeros and 11 Tojos, we got no one, they shot down 4 P-40s and all 14 Vengeances that flew the mission. They're going to be sticking to land attack for the foreseeable future.

Sally and Helen bombers hit Rangoon unopposed, while our bombers rested for repairs. The enemy land forces attacked and took our forts all the way from level 4 down to level 1. Casualties 1182 to 1503 favoring them, remarkable considering that happened while I had the forts. It's because they have a ton of firepower here, artillery and tanks. That's pretty much it, folks. Even if I can get my B-24s back into the mix tomorrow, we can't stop them.


Solomons Area
An enemy submarine attacked a surface combat task force I sent to patrol near Rossel. Twice. It missed both times, the second time we got a few depth charge hits on it. No serious damage to it.

An enemy fast transport task force, APDs and DDs, appeared at Ndeni, probably trying to evacuate his troops there. B-17s from Efate took the first crack at them, but they all missed. Shot down an Oscar, though.

Next were the Marines on Luganville, flying SBD-3s. There were 2 Oscars left on CAP, which the 19 Wildcat escorts (formerly from the Copahee before it got torpedoed nearby) brushed aside easily with one enemy fighter shot down.
APD Yugao, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Wakaba, Bomb hits 1, on fire

B-17s made a second flight, in time to see the Yugao sink and the Wakaba's fires burning out of control. Of course they missed again.


Banda Sea
The enemy is increasing the stakes here. Today's raids included 18 Betties and 42 Sallies. Our CAP took out all 18 Betties (but only about half before they bombed our troops on Babar) and 11 Sallies. But the bombings took a toll on our troops. When the enemy land forces attacked they brought our forts down from level 2 to nothing (our engineers quickly restored level 1), and it feels like this garrison is now hanging by a thread. If not for the B-17s, B-26s, and Hudsons constantly hitting the enemy troops on the beach, we wouldn't stand a chance.

It also appears that he's bringing in more troops, although it's possible it might actually be a partial evacuation. In any case, there were no enemy ships at Babar today, but a task force of transports and destroyers was at Timor, and there are more task forces operating to the north between Babar and Ambon. The Beaufighters, now with properly-trained crews, took the western target. What a difference training makes. Compare this to the raids when this started:

Wave 1, 15 planes;
xAK Momokawa Maru, Shell hits 12, Bomb hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kikuzuki, Shell hits 11
Japanese ground losses: 293 casualties reported

Wave 2, 14 planes:
DD Kikuzuki, Shell hits 10, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Ushio, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses: 152 casualties reported.

I'd say all 3 of those ships are goners.

[Overall, 29 sorties generated 16 bomb hits and 33 shell hits (cannon bursts). On 11 November, we had 15 bomb hits and 20 shell hits in a similar number of sorties.... so... it's actually not that much better. 50% better strafing, and it was the strafing skill in particular that the pilots were lacking, so that makes sense. This felt like a much better performance because it was concentrated on fewer ships.]

Tomorrow, it will be my turn to raise the stakes.


Reinforcements
SC-750 arrives at Balboa

[Molon Labe]

18 November 1942
Rangoon falls; Kido Butai (or just a division?) approaching Rossel Island; Lexington, Saratoga and Washington save Babar, for now

Battle of Rangoon
Overnight Val/Sally raids on Raheng damaged 3 Vengeance bombers. I hope I don't have to start taking these seriously. A heavy-cruiser led bombardment group shelled Rangoon damaging three ships under repair, including the light cruiser Caradoc. Daylight sweeps over Raheng cost the enemy 6 Oscars with no victories. The remaining Vengeance bombers resumed their interdiction mission, causing 46 enemy casualties in Pisanuloke.

The relatively small enemy unit moving north up the road from Rangoon towards Mandalay was hit by 33 B-25s based in India, causing 113 casualties. These guys might become really important as we fight to keep the supply route through the mountains open.

As expected, the enemy forces at Rangoon attacked again and overran our positions. We took over 8000 casualties as our forces retreated to Bassein. We managed to evacuate all but 3 planes before this happened, 2 Blenheims and a Catalina, no big loss. But 3 ships had to be scuttled to prevent capture, including the Caradoc. One xAP was able to get underway but I don't expect it to get far. An enemy tank unit was kept in reserve to pursue our retreating forces, so we're still in contact with the enemy. The pursuing tank unit will be the B-24s target tomorrow.

My "main force" is already in Moulmein and will attack tomorrow, I expect an easy win here at it appears the enemy has mostly just support troops here. But after that.... I had hoped I could keep Rangoon long enough to get these guys across the river into central Burma, he'd have to divide his army to stop me and I could possibly defeat them in detail. Doing that now would probably just mean I face the full force of his army, minus the few guys headed north, which is a fight I probably lose even if my Tavoy forces arrive.

For now, my best bet is to hold Moulmein until my Tavoy forces arrive, doing otherwise would allow him to cut them off and eliminate them. After that depends on whether he makes a real effort to shut the mountain supply line down. For now, my supplies are OK, the bad situation from the last few days seems to be getting back under control.

Banda Sea
Awhile ago, I had ordered an amphibious task force with an aviation support unit and destroyer-minelayer escorts to Babar. They arrived in the area a few days ago but had to stand off because of the enemy warship presence at Babar. At this point, landing aviation support might just be throwing away a good unit, possibly a good squadron too since the purpose of more support is more planes. But I do have the heavy cruiser Australia in this group. So they shelled the enemy positions, and I'll have them lay their mines tomorrow.

Also, the Lexington and Saratoga are here--their objective is to sink an enemy surface combat task force to try to change the balance of power here. It may be too late for that, as there's no one left near Babar and I'm not sure they want to come back after yesterday's asskicking. They detached the battleship Washington and the heavy cruiser Portland, which also shelled the enemy on Babar. And the task force launched an airstrike, too, which was disappointingly uncoordinated, aircraft arriving a few at a time. But with no enemy fighter presence it didn't matter too much. Along with the now-daily raids by B-17s, B-26s, and Hudsons from Darwin, the naval bombardments, the raids caused the enemy's attempted attack this turn to completely collapse, casualties 319 to 32.

Due to the sheer number of enemy troops landed, I can't win this fight unless I add troops of my own. I'm airlifting Australian light infantry and sending machinegun units by boat. I also ordered a supply convoy making a return trip to make an unscheduled stop at Port Moresby to pick up troops there to add to the mix. It's not so much that I can't afford to lose what I've invested here, it's that 2/3rd of an unrestricted enemy division is too good of a target to pass up.

Lex and Sara are going to carefully proceed north towards Ambon to get a raid in before they clear out, staying outside of Zero range from Koepang (I don't mind Betties if they don't have fighters protecting them, especially with Butch O'Hare flying CAP). I might let them leave their heavy cruisers here to continue to suppress the enemy troops. I'd include the Washington in that, but Darwin can't rearm her main batteries efficiently. But there's another consideration here...


Solomons Area
The KB sortied from Guadalcanal and is approaching Rossel Island. I normally don't believe scoutplanes' classifications, but this is being reported quite reasonably as 4 CV, 1 BB, multiple CAs and DDs. I'm hoping this is just a division of the KB based on recent sightings that suggested just 2 fleet carriers. They left before the enemy knew Lex and Sara were near Darwin, so their objective appears to be the surface combat task force that their sub attacked yesterday. I am having that task force head all the way to Darwin now, both to protect it from the carriers and to potentially face off with enemy surface forces near Babar.

If the enemy decides to go any further west, they'll be dealing with CVW-6 on Milne, which I reinforced with the two USMC SBD squadrons that just got a taste of combat at Ndeni. All the area's level bombers are assigned to scout duty to back up the Catalinas to make really sure we know where the enemy is. Except for an Australian B-25 unit at Port Moresby; we have recon showing no enemy fighters at Rabaul, just scoutplanes, so they're going to hit Rabaul to try to take some of the enemy's eyes away.

If that's the full KB, we really need to at least knock out one carrier if it tries to go west. The last thing I need is the Lex&Sara stuck between 4 carriers to the east and a potential death star of Betties & Zeroes in Koepang to the west.


Japan
USS Runner sank an AKL in a gun&torpedo surface attack between Okinawa and Kyushu.


China
It took awhile, but I have a full unit of special forces on Hainan Island now, currently on the base we control. They appear to be undetected. They're marching on the enemy naval base on the other side of the island.

[Molon Labe]

19 November 1942
Carrier forces playing it safe; Moulmein recaptured

Banda Sea
Now he's doing night raids here. 36 Sallies hit Babar overnight, destroying a P-39 on the ground and dealing a small amount of facility damage. Still 2 months before I get my first night fighter squadron, despite having about 20 P-70s in inventory.

The raid on Ambon I wanted didn't happen, the carriers didn't get in range in time. And he's quite possibly evacuated most ships from Ambon. But as far as I can tell, the Lex and Sara are still undetected, so I'm still going to try to hit Ambon tomorrow. After that the carriers need to get out of here, I've more or less rung the dinner bell.

Japan
USS Kingfish sank an AKL off Kyushu, night surface attack.
Which reminds me, the USS Sunfish, damaged off the Japanese coast weeks ago, made it safely to Adak in the Aluetians. The crew actually did well enough with repairs that there isn't much the repair ships can do there, so she'll be headed for a real shipyard soon, either Seattle or Pearl.

Burma and Thailand
Sweeps over Raheng resulted in 6 Oscars downed, at the cost of 2 P-40s and a Hurricane.

Sallies harassed our retreating forces at Bassein, while we hit the pursuing tanks with B-24s. The B-24s got 2 Zeroes but didn't seem to do much damage below.

Vengeance bombers hit the enemy advancing on Raheng, causing about 100 casualties. The troops appear badly disrupted. The enemy may be reinforcing this group by rail from Bangkok. At this time it looks like mostly support units and that the balance of forces here hasn't tilted.

A task force of destroyers shelled Moulmein, but their little popguns didn't change anything--we still took Moulmein back. Now if we can just get the Tavoy force through this intersection before the Yamato follows that up.... Casualties 3000 to 1000 favoring us, but squad destruction was even more lopsided at 111 to 7.

Solomons Area
The 10x B-25 raid on Rabaul met no resistance, as expected. They did a pretty good job cratering the runways, but we didn't destroy any aircraft.

The suspected KB did not advance into range but instead moved to the Shortlands. I can't tell what he's up to here. Best bet, it gives him an immediate strike option if (when) I move more units into Rossel. But so does Rabaul. It also might be another attempt at the 2-directional attack that took down Enterprise and Hornet last time our carriers ventured into the Darwin area, he's just staging here waiting for the other carrier division to get close to Ambon. But Shortlands isn't necessarily any better to stage from than Guadalcanal. I suppose a third possibility might be that he's trying to bait me.

Shortlands is just barely out of range of CVW-6s aircraft in Milne. But they'd be in range from Rossel. So one thing that's going to happen, aviation support is going to start making its way from Milne to Rossel as I continue to build up that base. The carriers might be gone by then, but at least I'll be encroaching on him further. For tomorrow, I'll have P-38 recon variants checking in on them and a P-38 sweep over the base. Between those flights I'll hopefully have a really good idea which carriers are actually there. The carriers in the Banda Sea either already have, or soon will, drive their potential targets out of the area, so they'll need something else to do... like engage these carriers if it's just a fragment of the KB. I'm also sending an invasion force to Midway--but that operation is premised on the whole KB being in or near the Solomons. If that turns out to be wrong, I should probably either turn that task force around, or back them up with enough CVE support that they could turn away an attack from a KB fragment.

[Molon Labe]

20 November 1942
Lexington and Saratoga bomb an empty port; weather foils strike on suspected amphibious group approaching Rossel

Makassar Strait
The enemy cleared out a sub-laid minefield near Balikpapan, but it cost them a PB.

Japan
Near Kyushu, USS Kingfish raked an AKL with machinegun fire and a few deck gun hits, leaving it to burn and likely sink.


Banda Sea
Night raids took out another 3 P-39s on the ground. They're getting better. I may have to just divide my squadron and put a third up at night. But if they aren't going to attack my troops this is all for nothing.

We bombarded the enemy positions with 3 heavy cruisers from two task forces.

Lex and Sara didn't have any surface contacts (their priority target), so they flew their secondary mission, a port strike on Ambon. Turned out to be a waste, there were a few cargo ships in port--we damaged two--but the port was mostly empty. These guys will hit the enemy on Babar one more time as they withdraw back towards Port Moresby.


Burma and Thailand
Our retreating forces (from Rangoon) took over 200 casualties from Sally and Helen bombers, then another 240 from the tanks chasing them. Sweeps at Raheng resulted in 2 Oscars and 1 P-40 downed. Vengeance raids caused over 200 enemy casualties at Pisanoulke. A third of a Royal Thai Army division tried to cross the brides from Pisanoulke to Raheng and were wiped out to the last man-1312 men--by our defending forces that were waiting for them.

Another enemy division, the 33rd, has landed just north of Moulmein.


Solomon Sea
The P-38 sweep at Shortlands had no joy; the enemy CVBG moved on. We don't know where to--weather was apparently awful in the area. The strikes on Rabaul were scrubbed (probably a good thing, reports are there are now 40 fighters there). We also detected an enemy task force approaching Rossel Island, and one of the SBD squadrons went after it, but failed to find the target. Classification of this group is 4 DDs or APDs, so it looks like a fast transport group or a bombardment group. Rossel is more prepared for this than Babar was; the garrison is a little better, they have a minefield, and they have 2 squadrons of PT boats. I'm hoping between the minefield and PTs, even if its a bombardment group, they get too tangled up to vacate the area before the morning and we get a 2nd chance at an airstrike.

Reinforcements
No.5 Sqn RAAF arrives at Cairns
224th USN Base Force arrives at San Francisco

[Molon Labe]

21 November 1942
Heavy losses at Raheng; enemy fleets pull a disappearing act

Solomon Sea
The task force approaching Rossel was just 4 destroyers. They encountered a PT squadron in the rain and exchanged fire with them. No one was hit. We never reacquired this task force. Right now the only surface contacts are some tankers docked at Rabaul.


Burma and Thailand
Moulmein was shelled by cruisers and destroyers. The base took lot of damage, but our troops did not, so that's fine.

Raheng suffered several sweeps, which is bad news if it means that he's going to focus his fighters here going forward. We lost 2 P-40s but shot down 2 Oscars and 2 Zeroes. Then we attempted a dive bomber raid on Pisanoulke, which led to 18 dive bombers being shot down by the CAP. That happened in two waves; it was 4 P-40s vs 41 Zeroes in the first, and 3 P-40s vs 22 Zeroes in the second. This after probably 2 weeks of no CAP here. I might end up evacuating the dive bomber units from here if they can reach anywhere; I just don't see us ever wearing the enemy CAP down if this area is a priority now.

Bangkok's retreating forces were ejected from Basein, with over 2500 casualties during the rout.

CENTPAC
I'm putting Midway on hold due to the disappearance of the suspected KB.

Reinforcements and Refits
CA Frobisher arrives at Cape Town
CM Weehawken arrives at Balboa
SC-632 arrives at San Francisco

USS Wasp has completed its upgrade.

[Molon Labe]

22 November 1942
48th Infantry Div and 2nd Tank Div land in Burma, Tavoy changes hands again

-Aside from the same repetitive bombing raids that happen every day, that's all that happened.

23 November 1942
Betties sink a troop transport at Babar; heavy enemy bomber losses in Thailand & Burma


Indian Ocean
For the first time in the war, an enemy submarine appeared off Karachi. We had a corvette spot it and depth charge it for light damage. This area has been so far from enemy patrol areas that some of my convoys here are unescorted. Guess that might have to change.

Burma and Thailand
Sweeps over Raheng cost the enemy 4 Oscars, with no enemy victories. Sally/Helen raids on Moulmein were inadequately escorted due to coorindation problems. We lost 3 Hurricanes there but got 2 Zeroes and 20 Sallies. The bombing doesn't appear to have done serious damage to the troops.

With all units between Moulmien and Tavoy headed north back to Tavoy, the enemy is moving right back in. Tavoy and Mergui have both been retaken by amphibious landing. I now estimate the enemy presence in Burma/Thailand to be in excess of 8 Divisions.

The supply situation continues to worsen. I'm almost certainly not going to try to hold Moulmein longer than I have to. Retreating through the mountain path to northern Burma looks like the best bet, and if they achieve a breakthrough to cut that off, as a backup plan I can trek through the mountains to China.

We hit Rangoon with our B-24s because recon said they had fighters there even though the base is mostly unoperational. We had 1 B-24 go down on the way home, but we got 9 enemy fighters on the ground and cratered up the runways some more to hopefully cause more losses when the CAP landed.

Banda Sea
We suffered two Betty raids today, the first was 15 Betties with 15 Zeroes escorting, taking on 13 P-39s and 7 P-38s. As frequently happens with naval raids, the Zeroes kept the bombers safe in spite of heavy losses. We shot down 9 Zeroes, but no air-to-air kills on the bombers. Flak shot down 1 Betty before it could drop its torpedo. The first raid went after the the cruisers Honolulu, Leander, and a transport; they all missed. The second raid was 30 Betties with 16 Zeroes and 31 Oscars, it got through unmolested by my CAP. They went after the heavy cruisers Canberra and Australia as well as a minesweeper and 3 transports. Flak took down 1, but they got 2 hits on the transport Koolinda, sinking it. It had been transporting a machine gun unit, but all that were left on board at the time were supply trucks, so that could have been worse.

Between the light infantry being airlifted, the addition of a heavy cruiser to maintain bombardments, and the mostly safe arrival of the machinegunners, I feel comfortable adding more aircraft and aviation support to Banda. So there are now 16 Australian P-40s operating from Banda in addition to the US P-39 unit (plus the P-38s flying from Darwin). In light of the number of attackers, though, I'm going to have my CVBG provide air cover to the light infantry batallion arriving in the area from Port Morseby instead of getting them out right away.

Strategic Picture
Just looking at large infantry units, here is what I think he has and where:

Burma: 1st Div, 48th Div, 16th Div, 38th Div, 33rd Div, Imp Guards Div, 18th Div, 5th Div (Bangkok), 4th Div

Java: 12 Div (but, reported moving to Sabang, his staging area for ampibious operations into Burma).

Manila: 2nd Div

Malaya: 8th Div

Sumatra: 90th Infantry Regiment, 56th Division

SIGINT is giving me enough hints to discern a pattern of a Naval Guard units being present in any of the various moderately important bases throughout the DEI. Small enough to handle with 2 regiments or a regiment + tank support. So, every time I see another division show up in Burma, it's telling me just how little resistance I'll probably see in the DEI. Java in particular looks really juicy right now. My troop surge to Australia hasn't finished yet, but it's getting there. I'll probably have 3 divisions available in a week. I'll be looking to push my way into Celebes with regimental-sized units first, but after that (establishing an air presence over nearby sea lanes, including getting recon to confirm enemy troop levels), I think it's time to head back to Surabaya. But I'll have opened the door to the southern Philippines and Borneo too, in case those areas look more vulnerable.

Reinforcements
SS Hake arrives at Eastern USA
SS Scamp arrives at Eastern USA
AO Tallulah arrives at Cristobal
AO Cache arrives at Balboa
VS-8D14 arrives at Alameda (Kingfisher training unit)

Yesterday:
No.3 PRU RAF T-Flt arrives at Aden (Spitfire recon, headed for Australia)
48th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme

[Molon Labe]

24 November 1942
Cruiser torpedoed off Babar, but troop levels starting to even up

Burma and Thailand
Enemy battleships and cruisers bombarded Moulmein, causing moderate troop casualties. This is becoming concerning as it takes supply to re-activate disabled squads and devices, and the supply situation is bad. The rearmost group has 80+ miles to go before our planned time to pull out. 3 Oscars and a Hurricane went down over Raheng; 1 Zero and 2 B-24s over Rangoon (4 aircraft destroyed on the ground).

The enemy troops moving north have moved into an area of open terrain, the last hex before they arrive at the first of my bases in the region. We should have a few turns to cause absolutely massive casualties on them here.

The tanks pursuing our retreating Rangoon forces caused another 1100 casualties.


Banda Sea
Betty raids opposed our reinforcing of Babar, resulting in losses of 1 P-40 on our side, with 3 Oscars, 9 Zeroes, and 7 Betties shot down. But once again, the enemy fighters succeeded in keeping most of ours away from their bombers until they arrived on target. All the Betty losses occurred in the 2nd wave, which arrived unescorted, possibly due to heavy enemy fighter losses in the first wave. Enemy accuracy was poor overall (22 total dropping torpedoes, 18 dropping bombs) but they got a torpedo hit on HMNZS Achilles. She'll survive, but I'm having her withdraw along with some cargo ships that have already unloaded.

The enemy troops on the island attempted a shock attack, which completely collapsed due to the severe disruption caused by constant air and naval bombardment. Casualties 785 to 8. Even though the enemy force is nominally 2x 1/3 division fragments (should I just call them regiments?), their numerical strength is down to about 4,000 troops (same as mine) and their assault strength is only equivalent to about .2 of a division (also about equal to mine).

China
The Heinan Island operation is about to come to its conclusion, but it doesn't look like it's going to yield much. The special forces unit is close enough to the enemy port to have been noticed, so I hit the port with B-24s and Wellingtons, hoping to disable a few ships to prevent their escape--but the port appears to have been empty. One B-24 was shot down by flak. The bombers gave us some recon and it appears that, as expected, the only ground units present are a base force and possibly some small support units.

Australia
2 Infantry regiments arrived in Sydney today. 2 USMC regiments with construction engineers and a CVE arrive tomorrow. And more after that.

[Molon Labe]

25 November 1942
Two more transport hits by torpedoes at Babar


Banda and Arafura Seas
With Babar looking a lot safer thanks to yesterday's failed enemy land attack, I'm relocating a detachment of Dutch patrol aircraft from the southern coast of Papua New Guinea to Babar, including moving a pair of aircraft tenders. An enemy sub spotted the tenders and hit one of them twice, sinking it.

Yesterday I decided that the Gull battalion, currently being transported to Babar, isn't worth the potential risk of the Lexington and Saratoga if the enemy shows up with 4 carriers here, so they're headed out of the area. It looks like we got away with it so far as the enemy attacks didn't target this transport group today, and by tomorrow they'll be under the air protection of Babar's fighters.

Of course, that protection is no guarantee, as the enemy demonstrated again today. Raids on Babar cost them 9 Zeroes and 5 Betties, but enough bombers got through to put torpedoes into two troop transports, causing serious damage to one and critical damage to the other. The transports had already unloaded their troops, so at least we got away with that much.

Burma and Thailand
We tried to sweep Pisanouke but had no joy. Fine by me, I'll restart the dive bomber flights.

Our medium bombers had a field day with the enemy units in the open (near Magwe). We flew 58 sorties and managed 451 casualties.


Reinforcements
AM Herald arrives at Alameda
No.42 Sqn RAF arrives at Madras

[Molon Labe]

26 November 1942
Betties take the day off, submarines pick up the slack. Samah (Heianan Islan) captured

Sulu Sea
The O21 caught a troop-carrying cargo ship either leaving or entering the central Philippines and hit it with a torpedo. The ship is on fire and heavily damaged; I don't think it makes port. USS Porpoise encountered the damaged ship shortly after and hit it with a Mk14--a dud of course.


Banda and Arafura Seas
A minelayer I was rebasing from Sydney to Darwin (to be ready to deploy defensive minefields at any new territory I take) was picked off by an enemy sub. It only hit it once on the first attempt, but came back for more and hit it 4 more times (one of which was a dud), so that CM is really, really, really dead. Both times, the minesweeper escort failed to acquire the enemy sub.

No Betty raids today. More light infantry reinforcements are unloading. With the troop numbers up, the airfield being built up, forts built up, planes being moved in... I don't want to jinx it, but this is looking like a success.


China
The special forces unit took Samah, Heinan with minimal resistance. One small boon; although any in service ships and planes were out of that base long before I got there, there was a tanker under construction there that we were able to destroy.


CENTPAC
Due to the KB disappearing, I've scrubbed the Midway operation. They'll be ready to go if we reacquire the enemy carriers. Maybe Canton too.


Burma and Thailand
Dive bomber flights resumed at Raheng with no issues. Enemy airpower is focusing on interdicting my retreating armies from Tavoy. The terrain is protecting the troops from casualties, but the bombing is still slowing them down, which might be worse, since I have a concentration of forces at Moulmein that's waiting on them.


Reinforcements
SC-634 arrives at Los Angeles
VP-54 arrives at Pearl Harbor (2/12 Catalinas, unrestricted - I have enough in reserve to fill it out. Good timing since I"m beginning to expand)