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Old 12-01-22, 08:03 PM   #646
Molon Labe
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22 August 1943
Both sides' bombers take a beating

DEI
Catalinas, Beaufighters, and P-38s all made attempts at attacks on merchant traffic west of Ambon, with little success. The P-38s were the only ones to connect, and these G variants didn't carry bombs so it was just strafing runs, lightly damaging two cargo ships.

SouthPAC
Daylight B-24 raids on Ponape turned out to be a bad idea. The carriers weren't gone after all. CAP strength was about 50 aircraft, mostly Zeroes. We lost 5 B-24s to the fighters, and a 6th to flak. The bombers took 4 Zeroes down with them.


Burma
Both of us bombed each other's land forces at Pegu, but only I was maintaining a CAP over the battlefield. 23 enemy Betties arrived unescorted, resulting in 8 being shot down by the P-38s on patrol. Additional Betties arrived with Zero escorts, which kept the few P-38s still on station at bay. Overall we're still getting a lot more iron on target than the enemy is. And we have additional land forces only a few more days out.


Reinforcements etc.
The Essex CVBG is back at Pearl and has been stood down for much needed maintenance. They'll be down about a week. I've also transitioned VB-9 from SBD-3s to SB2C-1C Helldivers. This upgrade adds radar and substantial range, although the SBD-5 can best the SB2C-1C in range with the drop tanks added. I'm hoping the Helldiver's higher top speed will make them a bit more survivable in fights where the enemy fighters get through.
55th FG/38th FS withdraws
55th FG/343rd FS withdraws
AD Yosemite arrives at Eastern USA
SS Dace arrives at Eastern USA
DE Narbada arrives at Aden
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Old 12-01-22, 08:33 PM   #647
Molon Labe
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23 August 1943
China becoming very fluid

China


The enemy has reacted to my penetration into their lines in the north and may be able to stop me from taking Chenting. My attempt to take that base today resulted in 2000 casualties for us and 1200 for them, taking fortification levels from 3 to 1. I might possibly overrun them soon, but more reinforcements will probably arrive first.


The enemy is also sending additional troops to try to break me at Nanchang, has blocked my flanking force from finding an opening south of Keifeng, and he has once again moved troops between Chusien and Wenchow. I can't prevail on all of these fronts... but then again, neither can he. My priority is Hong Kong then Chusien/Wenchow, and I'm sort of indifferent about Nanchang and Chenting.


Celebes Sea
USS Peto attacked an enemy cargo ship on the surface near the southern Philippine coast, scoring 2 detonating torpedo hits along with gunfire, sinking it.


DEI
An enemy minesweeper is making very short work of sub-laid mines at Kendari. USS Snapper tried to attack the minesweeper but was detected by it and depth charged for light damage.


I anticipated the enemy fighter presence at Kendari would resume due to yesterday's lackluster ASUW attacks, and ordered a sweep. Turned out I was right, we had a pretty big furball, 20 P-38s vs 15 Tojos and 11 Tonies. We got 3 Tonies and 2 Tojos with no losses.


B-24 raids on Ambon destroyed a midget sub docked there.


SouthPAC
A Kingfisher from USS North Carolina (Yorktown-II CVBG) claimed to have succesfully bombed a submarine northwest of the task forces.



As much as I'd like to take out those troops on Ponape, it's not a prize worth risking my carriers over. I'm still going to get to slaughter the enemy at Guadalcanal, and if I don't mess it up, at Ambon. I'm going to be OK with that. Yorktown and Lexington, both now having been UNREP'd, are headed to Solomons for now.


Reinforcements and Withdrawals
No.353 Sqn RAF withdraws (Hudson bombers based in India)
DD Trathen arrives at San Francisco
DD Wadsworth arrives at Eastern USA
VMF(N)-531 Det 1 arrives at Eastern USA (3 Ventura night fighters)
612th Coast AA Regiment arrives at San Francisco
43rd Aviation Base Force arrives at San Francisco
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Old 12-02-22, 02:25 PM   #648
Molon Labe
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24 August 1943
More carriers headed to Ponape?


Phillippine Sea
USS Thresher located and engaged a tanker convoy near Legaspi in the eastern Philippines. This corresponds to a shallow water route that goes through the islands. The Thresher missed, and unfortunately I didn't get a direction this convoy was headed in. But I'll have subs looking for this convoy in both the Sulu Sea and around Okinawa.


DEI
P-38 sweeps at Kendari got another 5 Tojos with no losses.

Our marines have taken Lautem, Timor, inflicting 800 enemy casualties nearly without losses. We will now advance to Dili overland.

Boela's airbase is now large enough to base medium bombers without penalty.



Burma
No enemy air activity at Pegu today. But it looks like they're sending in additional troops from Rangoon. It's a gamble, thinking he can overrun my troops before I can bring in more. The problem with that theory is Pegu is open terrain and I'm causing hundreds of enemy casualties with bombing every day. That said, it could still work, depending on the number of troops.


China
We suffered an enemy attack at Kiukiang, casualties 211 to 345 favoring them. We're badly outnumbered (14k to 3k) and just holding out thanks to terrain defensive bonuses. At least my reinforcements will arrive before his. But who knows how much he's bringing in after that.


SouthPAC
A smaller task force with carriers is moving into the area. Still sketchy on who this might be, best guess is maybe a couple CVEs. The main CVBG moved a little east of Ponape, probably thinking he can attack my carriers after the bombing of the sub yesterday gave him some idea where they might be. But he's looking further north than where they actually were, and they left the area headed south, so he's pretty far off.

3 days until I reform the Essex battle group.
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Old 12-03-22, 01:30 PM   #649
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25 August 1943
N1K1-J George as the answer to Japan's P-38 problem?
Land reinforcements arrive just in time in China and Burma
Refocusing on strategy: Time to close the Celebes Sea

SouthPAC
USS Gudgeon attempted to sneak into Truk and lay a minefield, only to hit a mine herself. She aborted her mission and is returning to Brisbane for repairs, thankfully not too seriously damaged.

USS Scorpion gave Gudgeon an assist by destroying a subchaser along its escape route.

We hold no contacts on any enemy carriers today, and it appears the garrison on Ponape is significantly reduced.


Japan
Southeast of Okinawa, USS Trout turned the tables on a Kaibokan trying to sanitize the area, sinking it with a Mk14.


DEI
For the first time in a long time, the P-38 lost an engagement. This was a sweep of Kendari, but instead of Tojos, the enemy CAP was the N1K1-J George. Even though the numbers were 13 to 7 favoring me, I lost 2 airplanes and we shot down nothing. I don't know how many of these planes he can produce, but if he can produce them in large numbers we'll be fighting on pretty even terms again. However, this aircraft has a terrible service rating, which means they're going to be spending a lot more time in the hangars than in the air. The best place to kill them is probably on the ground.

With that in mind, my main objective in sweeping Kendari was just to reduce the number of fighters that might be protecting enemy shipping moving through the area. It can wait. I'm going to focus on making sure the Celebes Sea gets closed, which should force all his tanker traffic into the Luzon Strait where they'll find a wall of submarines, and possibly Beaufighters from China. I'm surging base forces and construction battalions, recently having arrived in Australia, into the Banda Sea area to start taking even more bases and building more airfields. I hope to have bases soon at Dili, Namlea, and Ternate. The first two should lock down enemy troops at Koepang and Ambon, while the third should close the Celebes Sea, or at least the passage through it south of the Philippines.

A repair tender has arrived at Saumlaki to try to make two badly damaged subs sheltering there seaworthy again. It doesn't look like the tender will make that much of a difference.


China
The Beaufighers on the coast are assigned to naval strikes intending to hit targets in the Luzon Strait, but when some small cargo ships were spotted going upriver to Wuchang, they were in range too. One cargo ship was sunk, two more damaged. I think the implication of these ships being here is that even in the central industrial section of China, the enemy's supply situation is poor.

We endured a shock attack in Kiukiang, and just as with the attack in Burma below, our reinforcement arrived just before the attack, causing the enemy to have insufficient numbers. Casualties were 1800 to 250 favoring us. However, the enemy seems to be sending yet more troops here from Wuchang, and I'm not sure I can afford to send more. Might just hold out and let them take disproportionately high casualties due to defensive terrain bonuses.

We made our own attack in Chengting in the northeast. The attack eliminated their rebuild level-1 fortifications, casualties were even at about 650 per side. We only have a slight manpower advantage here, but it appears the enemy troops here are inexperienced. Going to try a shock attack tomorrow and see if that gets us an overrun. If it doesn't, no big deal, I'll just fall back one hex and defend.

Reinforcements for Hong Kong have arrived in the nearby rail-station base of Kukong; they'll now proceed by road to approach the enemy from their eastern flank. The Hong Kong area forces are currently the only front my bombers are hitting. I could move in more bombers from India, but we're already struggling to keep supply levels high enough to keep the bombers we have in the air.



Burma
My main force waiting outside Rangoon moved into Pegu to reinforce the imperiled detachment there. Just in time; we suffered a shock attack from enemy soldiers of division strength. The assault failed thanks to the extra troops, casualties 950 to 730 favoring us, with far more enemy squads "destroyed" instead of "disabled" relative to us. We outnumber them more than 2 to 1 now and we have another division about to arrive, so probably a good time to counterattack. He has yet more troops now sallying from Rangoon, which just seems like throwing them away. We will have a much easier time killing them in open terrain and with lower fortification levels vs if they stayed in Rangoon.


Reinforcements and Intel
Intel confirms the sinking of IJN Kirishima on 6/27/43
DE Wileman arrives at Mare Island
---------
EDIT: Wayback machine!
26 June 1943
Sinking of Kirishima when I wasn't doing mission reports!
USS Narwhal found the Kirishima in a task force in the Makassar Strait and attacked with 6 torpedoes, scoring 3 detonating hits. The Kirishima was apparently abandoned the next day. Narwhal was lightly damaged in retaliatory depth charge attacks, but escaped.
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Old 12-03-22, 11:13 PM   #650
Molon Labe
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26 August 1943
CVE Unyo torpedoed (and very likely sunk) near Truk
Pegu captured


SouthPAC


Overnight, Dutch submarine KXIV encountered the CVE Unyo in the company of several oilers near Truk. (This would be the 2nd carrier group I first spotted on the 24th). The KXIV fired 4 torpedoes at the Unyo and connected with three. There were no secondary explosions, but the damage nevertheless was severe and appears lethal. KXIV reported only 2 escorting destroyers, both of which engaged her after the attack, but they inflicted insignificant damage before the sub slipped away.

During the day, the KXIV again encountered the same replenishment task force. Unyo was not with them, and this time KXIV spotted a third escort (a kaibokan). It would be completely normal for the AI to automatically detach a damaged ship from a task force, but it would be given an escort. So if Unyo was detached, it would be weird to see more escorts with the task force instead of less; so her absence along with no escorts being missing would tend to confirm she went down. Even if she somehow made it to Truk, I don't expect her to be seaworthy again before the war ends.

An Avenger from VT-16 on Lexington claimed to have bombed an enemy submarine off the north coast of Rennel Island in the Solomons.


China
Our Beaufighters made a second attempt on the cargo ships traveling upriver to Wuchang, but this time they had Tonies flying CAP. We lost 4 Beaufighters, plus two more that went missing on the return trip, with no victories.

Our assault on Chenting failed, just barely. Casualties 1093 to 2475 favoring them. Might be able to get through if I rest a bit...maybe get some air support.


Burma
With my main force now in Pegu, we naturally attacked the enemy base. The enemy troops, worn down from constant bombing, were in no condition to fight, plus we outnumbered them by 2 to 1 anyway. Casualties 4850 to 750. Can we take Rangoon next?
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Old 12-04-22, 03:06 AM   #651
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How are things with his pilots' qualitiy? Even though he might have up to eight CV available, he had already suffered enormous losses back in 1942, and as he continues to throw pilots and aircraft at you he can't have spent much time on training, so how good are his pilots by now?
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Old 12-04-22, 04:21 AM   #652
Molon Labe
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ostfriese View Post
How are things with his pilots' qualitiy? Even though he might have up to eight CV available, he had already suffered enormous losses back in 1942, and as he continues to throw pilots and aircraft at you he can't have spent much time on training, so how good are his pilots by now?

Whenever we've faced his carrier pilots, they've seemed pretty good. I noticed a bit of a downtick in quality, but nothing he can't come back from. His land-based pilots (including Navy fighters operating from airbases), on the other hand, started getting better awhile ago, but it didn't last. They're the ones taking the heaviest losses and it shows.
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Old 12-04-22, 01:40 PM   #653
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27 August 1943
Troop transports sunk by Vengeance dive bombers at Rangoon

SouthPAC
The KXIV torpedoed and destroyed a subchaser patrolling near Truk.


DEI
PT boats patrolling Babar noticed the enemy had laid mines there. I've detached a minesweeper from an amphibious group there to deal with it, and I'm sending another from Darwin to help.

The P-47s providing air cover for our Marines advancing on Timor were swept by George fighters, and once again the George came out ahead. 4 P-47s down, no victories. I guess Thunderbolts and Lightning aren't very frightening after all.


China
Light bombers attacked our troops at Chengting in two waves. We're definitely not going to win that fight if they're getting air support. I've moved a P-66 squadron to the area to try to catch them tomorrow.

I tried to sweep Wuchang to deal with the aircraft protecting the ships there, but I didn't take into account that my pilots had good offensive training but poor defensive training. We lost 2 P-40s while shooting down only 1 Tony.



Burma
A pair of unforced errors on my part resulted in unnecessary losses. First, after we cleared out the enemy from Pegu, I adjusted the bomber missions to attack Rangoon, but didn't adjust the long-range CAP. So the bombers attacked Rangoon without protection and ran into a dozen Zeroes, costing me 5 Wellington bombers. They mostly ignored the B-24s but one of the few that didn't was shot down.

Second, I didn't make sure the Hurricanes assigned to escort the Vengeance dive bombers had their drop tanks enabled. So at some point, the drop tanks were automatically deselected due to low supply levels and stayed that way. We spotted a convoy at Rangoon, so the dive bombers went after them, but the Hurricanes didn't have the range to escort them. There were 9 Zeroes left on CAP, which managed to splash 10 of the 23 dive bombers. But the 13 that got through scored a total of 9 500lb bomb hits spread between 4 transports, possibly sinking as many as 3 of them. 391 enemy troop casualties were reported--not sure if that means they're reinforcing or evacuating. We lost an 11th Vengeance when the damaged aircraft crash landed at base, killing the pilot.

Recon now reports the task force at Rangoon is mostly cruisers. The British CVBG has rearmed its torpedoes and had its maintenance done, so they're sprinting back to see if we can maybe get an Avenger strike on these ****ers before they leave.


Reinforcements, etc.
-Halsey is back at sea with the Essex CVBG, minus the battleships he had before as those are going to take much longer to repair after soaking the coastal battery fire at Ponape.
-I forgot to mention this yesterday, but I've solved our USN fighter problem for the time being. I had only sending trained pilots to the reserves from squadrons assigned to training at Pearl, then I remembered I had 9 CVEs that weren't doing anything but training pilots. There were enough veterans there to shuffle around to bring my CV and CVL pilots all up to my standards. One of those pilots that got moved was none other than CW McKlusky, who now has command of VF-16 aboard Lexington.
-Speaking of famous pilots, I'm not sure when it happened, but Jimmy Thatch and Noel Gayler were killed flying Corsairs with VF-3 out of Babar. They had 2 kills each. AO Vorse is listed MIA as well (3 kills). At least O'Hare is still alive and fighting (3 kills). Going to use a text crawler to see if I can find out when these guys bought it. (Edit: no luck, I think because none of them were aces their deaths didn't get reported)
-DE Levy arrives at Eastern US
-608th Coast AA Regiment arrives at San Francisco
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Old 12-04-22, 11:34 PM   #654
Molon Labe
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28 August 1943

DEI
The minefield at Babar wasn't very large. The detached minesweeper took care of it in a day.

5 George fighters tried to defend Ambon from our daily B-24 raid. 6 Aussie Kittyhawk (P-40) fighters defended the bombers; each side lost 1 fighter.


Philippine Sea
USS Seawolf torpedoed and sank a PB off the coast of Legaspi.


Burma
The task force in Rangoon stood off just outside Rangoon, far enough to get out of range of the Vengeances. P-40 sweeps over Rangoon had no joy. But, he did have a CAP over his ships, they just chose not to divert slightly to protect Rangoon. I did have a B-25 squadron on naval attack orders, and they were still in range. So they ran into the CAP--we lost 7 thanks to that.

The Victorious CVBG was detected by Betties on patrol... no strike came, but the presence of many (15) Zeroes on CAP over that task force made me reassess whether it was worth trying to get an Avenger strike on those ships. I'd be within Zero-escorted, torpedo-carrying range for Betties out of Port Victoria. They'd get through. Those ships aren't worth losing a carrier over; I'm sending them back to Columbo.


China
The Vanguards over Chengting got 5 Anna light bombers. Out of about 40 light bombers total. Not good enough.

At Wuchang, the P-40s took on the Tonies again... we lost 3 while only shooting down 1.

There was a river-borne amphibious assault against us at Kiukiang. Between the number of troops they brought in overland and these guys, I don't think I'll be able to hold on. I'd also ordered an attack this turn, thinking I outnumbered the enemy enough to push them out. The defensive terrain bonus had other ideas. Casualties 75 to 1288 favoring them.

We spotted yet more enemy forces on the eastern flank of Canton as our reinforcements are moving overland.


SouthPAC
There are at least 4 enemy subs prowling the Solomons, two of which are very near my CVBGs, currently at Shortlands. One of those CVBGs was spotted by a scout aircraft.

Intel reported 28 Judies destroyed today. The only thing I can think this means is they were aboard the Unyo and it went down today.


Reinforcements
VRF-5F arrives at San Francisco
No.119 Sqn RAAF arrives at Canberra
No.17 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden
1st USMC Amphb Tank Battalion arrives at San Diego
5th RNZAF Base Force arrives at Auckland
6th RAF Advanced Base Force arrives at Calcutta
7th RAF Advanced Base Force arrives at Calcutta
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Old 12-05-22, 11:12 AM   #655
Molon Labe
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29 August 1943
Lexington CV-16 hit by two torpedoes while attempting to withdraw from submarine threat
More enemy transport losses at Rangoon

SouthPAC
I thought I was playing it safe by ordering Lex and Yorktown to leave the Solomons and head back to the Coral Sea area to get away from the surging enemy sub presence. Well, I walked right into one. Lex took two hits. Fortunately, the damage was not severe. I've detached Lex along with a bunch of destroyers and gave the rest of her task force to Yorktown. She's headed back to Pearl. Sydney is closer, but their shipyards suck and it'll probably take them months instead of weeks to patch these holes. The enemy sub got away mostly unscathed, just some minor damage from near misses.


DEI
There was a significant fighter presence (16) waiting for my B-24s at Ambon today. I thought he'd given up on saving these guys. We lost one Australian Kittyhawk trying to protect the bombers, no other losses on either side.

Our attack on Dili, Timor commences tomorrow.



Burma
They brought the task force into Rangoon after all, and it was transports again, not cruisers. The CAP over the task force ended up going after the B-24s hitting Rangoon and got worn down to essentially nothing. 1 Zero actually shot down, along with 2 B-24s lost. But that opened up the skies for my Beaufighters and Vengeances later in the day. Only one Zero intercepted the Beaufighters, and they shot it down. The 15 Beaufighters managed only 3 bomb hits spread between 2 transports--unimpressive--and one was shot down by AA fire.
xAP Teifu Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAP Kitano Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire

The Vengeances did better, 16 aircraft scoring 17 hits between 4 ships--all of which might go down depending on damage control:
xAP Kamo Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
AV Sagara Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAP Dairen Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Kanzyu Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk

No troop casualties reported, so it looks like this was reinforcement rather than evacuation.

We now have base forces in Pegu, so starting tomorrow we'll have P-40s and Beaufighters based right next to Rangoon. We'll see what trying to support that is going to do to our supply lines, though.


Japan
USS Haddo torpedoed and destroyed a mine tender (being used in an ASW role) near Tanegashima. This is a very poor use of mine tenders, IMO. Japan doesn't have enough of them to maintain minefields in all their harbors, and they suck in this role.


South China Sea
USS Capelin torpedoed and sank a PB escorting a tanker convoy off the northwest coast of Borneo. I wish she would have gone after a tanker instead; hopefully this convoy will be more vulnerable to other subs at it nears the Philippines.


China
The enemy has reinforced Chengting sufficiently that I won't be able to take it. I'm falling back to Taiyuan. Hopefully they follow, I'll have a good defensive bonus there and will be able to inflict more casualties if they attack.
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Old 12-06-22, 08:56 AM   #656
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30 August 1943

DEI
S-28 torpedoed and sank a PB off the coast of Kendari

A sweep of Ambon by P-38s got rid of 2 Tojos and a Tony with no losses.

We've captured Dili. We'll make an airbase of it soon.


China
The CAF just can't handle the IJA in the air... 4 P-40s lost over Wuchang, no victories.

Burma
Recon flights over Port Victoria report over 100 bombers on the ground there. I wonder what they're waiting for.

Reinforcements
5th BG/394th BS Det arrives at San Francisco (B-24s)
80th FG/459th FS arrives at Karachi (2 P-38s; transitioned them immediately to 25 P-47s)
311th FBG/529th FBS arrives at Aden (14 A-36 (P-51 fighter-bomber variants))
101st Heavy AA Regiment arrives at Aden
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Old 12-07-22, 10:07 AM   #657
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31 August 1943

Burma
The enemy has started night bombing on Pegu. Damage was minor and he lost 2 Sallies to flak. I'm moving in night fighters. The base is already a bit overstacked relative to the amount of aviation support there, though.

He had a decent CAP of Tonies and Nicks over Rangoon today, which cost me 2 B-24s. P-38s swept later and got one of each. P-40s out of Pegu were supposed to be patrolling over Rangoon but did not intervene with the CAP. My guess is supply levels at Pegu were too low throughout the day to maintain my own CAP.

Beaufighters from Pegu (9) attempted to attack troop transports well south near Mergui. There were 2 Zeros on CAP, both sides fought briefly with no shootdowns occuring. Then the Beaus proceeded to completely miss on their low altitude bombing runs on the transports.


Solomons and New Britain
I've got a couple task forces at Rabaul shuffling some troops around for the invasion of Guadalcanal. One of these was approached by a sub. HMAS Nizam spotted the sub and inflicted moderate depth charge damage on it before losing contact.


Sulu Sea
PBs successfully escorted at least 4 tankers past the waiting USS Muskallunge, along the chain of islands and the north end of the Sulu Sea. At least we have confirmation this route is active.


DEI
George fighters attempted to stop the B-24 raids on Ambon. The bombers got one George with no losses. P-38s swept Ambon later, but no one was left in the air to greet them.


Reinforcements
APA Neville arrives at Balboa
311th FBG/528th FBS arrives at Aden (More A-36 Mustangs)
8th RAF Advanced Base Force arrives at Calcutta
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Old 12-09-22, 10:37 AM   #658
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1 September 1943
US landings underway at Namlea

Japan
USS Tuna came across a lone minetender, in the open ocean east of Okinawa, on ASW patrol and destroyed it with a torpedo hit.


Burma
George fighters swept Pegu, shooting down 5 P-40s, with 3 losses.

Enemy tanks crossed the river from Rangoon to Bassien. I only have a few paratroopers here so they can probably take it from me. I don't really see the benefit of doing so, though.


DEI
George fighters swept Boela, shooting down 3 P-47s while taking just 1 loss.

I have an amphibious task force unloading at Namlea, which is just west of Ambon. I'll probably go north from here, once I have a good sized airbase set up here.

B-25s and PBYs attempted naval strike missions on what I presume to be ASW task forces, but failed to locate their targets.


SouthPAC
Beaufort bombers flying out of Shortlands reported bombing a Japanese sub.

Dutch sub KXIV was bombed near Truk and is returning to base for repairs.
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Old 12-10-22, 12:46 PM   #659
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2 September 1943
Amphibious task forces suffer heavy losses in surface hit-and-run attack
US submarine fleet has an especially productive day


South China Sea
USS Hoe torpedoed and sank a PB near Singapore.

USS Capelin torpedoed and sank a cargo ship off the northeastern coast of Borneo.


DEI
Our landings at Namlea, nearly complete, were interrupted by the appearance of an enemy surface combat task force (2CA, 10DD). Our force was protected by 2CL and 5 DD. It ended up being a complete slaughter. Before sunrise we'd lost both CLs, 2 DD, 1 APA, 1 AKA, 4 LST, 6 LCT, and 9 PT. Damage to the enemy force was insignificant.

We tried to get them back from the air but it didn't work out. 4 PBYs went first, only to find the task force with nearly 50 fighters overhead. One was shot down before they escaped. Beaufighters went next, taking 10 losses without ever reaching the ships. B-25s attempted low level attacks as well, taking 4 losses and also not getting to the ships. I may have screwed up a bit here... There was a dive bomber squadron in Boela that might have been able to get in on this and be far more effective. But due to overstacking I'd stood them down for the day to prioritize giving the phibs fighter cover. I should have stood down the Beaufighters instead. At the time I was thinking more range was better.


B-24 raids on Ambon reportedly destroyed a Tony and a Judy on the ground. 4 Tojos opposed the raid, nowhere near enough to stop it. A P-38 sweep arrived later and shot down 2 of them.



Celebes Sea
USS Peto torpedoed and sank 2 PBs off the southern Philippine coast, in two separate attacks.


Bay of Bengal/Burma
USS Puffer torpedoed and sank a PB off the coast of Port Blair.

Georges swept Bassein (adjacent to Rangoon), shooting down 5 P-40s with no losses.


Reinforcements
SS Archerfish arrives at Balboa
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Old 12-10-22, 05:52 PM   #660
Molon Labe
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3 September 1943

Solomons
I'm trying pretty hard to reduce the enemy sub presence around Shortlands with air patrols and destroyers. And we did get one...probably at least 3 more to go.


Burma
The enemy took back Bassein with little resistance. The enemy troops appear to be dividing themselves further, one unit moving east to the flank of my main force, the other headed north. North bothers me a little as that's going to interfere with me turning Prome into a new airbase. I still really don't get it--it looks like I have enough troops to retake Rangoon, and he's dividing up his forces as if to make it easier for me. Maybe he really is confident he can hold Rangoon. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing.

He tried to sweep Pegu with just 3 Tonies, we shot down 1 with no losses.

My bombing raids on Rangoon hit a transport I didn't know was there, probably sinking it.


DEI
He seems to be recommitting to defending Ambon--20 Zeroes and 5 Georges on CAP to greet our bombers today. We lost 3 B-24s and they shot down one of the Zeroes. A later P-38 sweep got 2 Georges and 4 Zeroes with no losses.

B-25s attempted a low level attack against a transport convoy at Kendari, but it was well-defended by 4 Zeroes and 20 Tonies. That cost us 7 B-25s, a few made attack runs but no one hit.


Reinforcements
SS Tally Ho arrives at Aden
APA Harry Lee arrives at Cristobal
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