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Old 09-22-21, 06:54 PM   #211
Molon Labe
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27 April 1942
Radio silence exists for a reason

West Coast


I noticed this as I was finishing up my turn: SIGINT reporting radio transmissions just outside of my existing patrol zones. My best guess is this is a submarine looking to pick off damaged ships returning for repairs. So, I've taken a Catalina squadron off training duty and put it on ASW duty--just barely has the range in this mode to make it there. I've also steered the Saratoga and the battleship task force around it so they can hopefully make it back to San Fran without incident. Oh, and 3 destroyers from the Lexington's old battle group are headed there to investigate as well.

Japan
USS Pompano made a night surface attack against a rather large cargo ship 80 miles southeast of Kyoto. It bounced several dud Mk14s off it but did get one detonation, plus a few gun hits. The torpedo hit didn't appear lethal by itself, but maybe with the gun damage too she'll go down before she can get back to port.

Sumatra
Palembang got swept, costing us 7 Kittyhawks and 2 Buffalos. We got 4 Zeroes in exchange. The air campaign in Sumatra is going to be short.

Hawaii and Line Islands
The cargo ships unloaded but were hit on the way out. We have two survivors, one of which is damaged and is going to take its chances docking at Pearl. But Pearl is now fairly well-stocked. I'll have a projection in a few days for how long it can hold out. If the battleships were still there it might be as little as 1-2 weeks, but I suspect we can do much better now.

I estimate the KB could be at the Line Islands as early as 4/30 if they started heading this way the last time we spotted them. I have some troops that still need to move, but it's essentially time to go. Enemy sub activity has dropped off, so that's helpful.

China
The army trying to cut off Chusien was weak, we handled them easily.

Recon is giving me good news in the Keifeing area in the northwest. It looks like the balance of forces is favorable for an offensive.

Still no CAP at Hong Kong. We hit the Hyuga again with a single bomb.

Thailand
My bombers got back to work but I couldn't solve my escort problem. We ended up losing 4 Hurricanes, 1 Blenheim, and 3 Wellingtons. Losing the Wellingtons in particular hurts. We got 2 Zeroes and an Oscar. Damage on the ground was relatively light, it looks like they're going to hold Pisanuloke instead of retreating to Rangoon. That's fine, I need my bombers to hit that pesky unit that cut off my southern group's supply anyway, and at least for now my sweeps aren't running into fighters there.

Malaya
Another attempt at ships in Mersing, another 4 fighters down with no hits to show for it. I'm turning these raids off until my fighters can recuperate. We just got a delivery of Mohawks so we should be stronger in a few days.
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Old 09-23-21, 08:47 AM   #212
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28 April 1942

Hawaii and Line Islands
The coup-de-grace against the damaged cargo ship headed back to Pearl was administered by an enemy submarine instead of a Betty or Nell. So just one survivor, plus the destroyer escorting it. Posthumous Silver Stars all around--the data for now shows Pearl can hold out about 40 days. Less if the bomber raids resume in full force or if a new battleship force shows up. Hmmm, where's the Yamato?

The Enterprise and Hornet launched a strike on Palmyra as a goodbye. One of Hornet's two dive bomber squadrons did fly the mission. Why not both? Who knows, but at least removing the drop tanks seems to be partially working.

Sumatra
Oosthaven was shelled by a cruiser-destroyer force, which also sank the minesweeper assigned to the port there. Damage was relatively light because there isn't much there.

Palembang was swept by Zeroes; 3 Kittyhawks went down without taking any Zeroes out.

We sent 3 Fulmars out for a low-level attack on an unescorted, damaged cargo ship. Their bombs missed, but they strafed it too. 4 DB-7Bs (A-20s) followed that up and scored a bomb hit. I think that's a kill.

Thailand and Burma
Our southern army moved just in time; a force of 10,000 troops sallied from Bangkok and is now in the hex my forces just vacated. We attack the small force cutting us off tomorrow. Our bombers hit that group for minimal damage thanks to the rough terrain.

Sweeps targeted Tavoy instead of Raheng today, and we embarrassed them- 8 Oscars shot down with no Allied losses.

It appears the bulk of the northern enemy forces have been moved by rail back to Bangkok. We both seem to be counting on the other not wanting to cross the river at Raheng while under fire.

Recon now indicates significant bomber forces are based in Bangkok. On a hopefully unrelated note, my surface task force guarding the approach to Tavoy was overflown by a scout plane.

A little further north in Burma, the small army I've been monitoring is heading south instead of west toward Moulmein, and a second small unit has appeared behind it. It appears their objective is to cut off supply lines to Raheng rather than a flank attack on my bases in Burma. The enemy appears to be small enough for my local forces--which have been gradually reinforced ever since Kinky Boots launched--to handle.

Java Sea
Off the southeast corner of Borneo, the O23 torpedoed and sank a PB that was part of an ASW task force. Subchasers retaliated and damaged the sub a bit before it got away.

Solomons Area
I sent bombers back to Rabaul, sinking a tender and damaging an apparently empty airbase.
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Old 09-23-21, 10:36 AM   #213
Molon Labe
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29 April 1942

Line Islands
I sent the 4 cruisers back to Palmyra to shoot it up, causing come casualties and moderate airfield/port facility damage, and also damaging a single Betty that's probably there as a scout.

Celebes Sea
USS Finback made a night torpedo/gun attack on an unescorted cargo ship and managed to get 2 Mk14s to detonate (and at least that many duds that hit). That's a kill.

Thailand
Sweeps targeted Tavoy. We lost 4 AVG P-40s and a Hurricane, he lost 3 Oscars and 3 Zeroes.

The unit cutting our southern forces off was just 1/3 of a battalion. We wiped them out; casualties 1161 to 83. The next issue is the force of 10,000 following us. Well, my force is 9072 strong, and we're now in the mountains with a terrain bonus to defense. So maybe I just camp here.
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Old 09-23-21, 11:26 AM   #214
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Hmmm, where's the Yamato?

Be careful what you wish for
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Old 09-24-21, 06:34 PM   #215
Molon Labe
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30 April 1942

Japan
USS Trout got into a gunfight with a light cargo ship in the Korea-Japan gap. The ship was set alight by multiple 3" and even .50cal hits, but getting close enough to use ma deuce meant it could hit back, so the Trout took some damage as well.

Sumatra
Oosthaven got shelled again, and then swept. We got 2 fighters up against the sweep and lost both.

Timor
In a rare sub v sub surface encounter, the O-24 torpedoed and sank a small Japanese sub. This is probably the 3rd such encounter of the war, but I believe it's the first to result in a torpedo hit.

Thailand
They attempted a sweep at Tavoy, we broke even at one fighter apiece. The force of 10,000 has caught up with my troops. I think I have the slightly stronger force; roughly even numbers of troops and artillery, but I have more tanks. I'm not going to order an attack, I'll let them try to hit me and hopefully get some kills thanks to the terrain defensive bonus.

Philippines
At long last, an enemy army is moving against my final base, Cagayan. These guys have been cut off since forever and have been getting bombed daily. They're going to fold like a cheap table when the enemy arrives.

Java
The enemy siezed several coastal islands with paratroops as mopup operations on the mainland continue.

--------------------
Strategic Outlook:

We're still in no shape to take on the KB directly, part of that is due to the numbers--effectively 5 on 2 right now thanks to the Lex and Saratoga both being down for repairs/upgrades. But as long as he feels compelled to make Alfred Mayhan roll in his grave by dividing his fleet carriers, I'll be looking for opportunities to defeat a smaller group in detail.

Setting aside Pearl, his campaigns in most areas are behind historical schedule (the Phillipines being the major exception):

Philippines: Historically, resistance ended April 9, with Corregidor mopped up by May 6. In this campaign, Bataan was taken on February 9 in this campaign.

Malaya: Singapore historically fell February 15. Here, we hold Singapore. We will be able to continue to hold Singapore until Sumatra falls.

Borneo: Historically, Balikpapan fell on January 24th. In this campaign, he got it on 15 February here.

Java: Historically fell March 8. In this campaign, April 25.

Sumatra: Historically 28 March. Here, the campaign is just beginning.

Burma: Historically, invaded December 1941; here I've invaded Thailand from Burma instead.

So, overall I think I'm doing OK. My biggest problem at the moment is that he's going to knock over most of Sumatra like it's nothing. Palembang itself will be a hard nut to crack, but once Palembang is isolated, it's going to become difficult to keep Singapore supplied and they're going to be in the same ticking-clock situation that Pearl is in. My best bet to change that situation is probably to re-invade Malaya from the north and start taking back airfields. But, with 2 enemy divisions deployed to Bangkok stalling my advance, and with my air forces suffering significant attrition, it's going to take a lot of reinforcements to get that moving again. Japan, on the other hand, seems to be suffering their losses with a smile and pressing on.

Of note, the Brits are now up to 3 carriers in theatre, which means if I had sufficient land and land-based air forces available, an amphibious operation bypassing Bangkok might just be possible. I might be able to scrounge up some armies in India, but fighters I just don't have right now. Without fighters to protect the supply ships I'd be bringing in to save Singapore (and sustain my armies), there's not much point.

I reviewed the Japan Economy Guide, and according to it, Japan starts with enough fuel to last 200 days--just for their economy, ship deployments are extra. They've also got a year's worth of oil to send to their own refineries, so after their stockpiles are depleted they can still produce fuel, just not nearly enough to sustain themselves. So that means they're probably going to be in dire straits before the end of June--but again, that doesn't account for ship deployments.

So far, he's seized small-ish oil/fuel centers in northern and eastern Borneo. (And soon, Surabaya will be producing for him as well, he just needs to clear out the defensive minefield.) I've been mining these ports pretty frequently, blockading them with subs, and even hitting convoys headed there with air attacks. That said, I know there are some tankers getting through. I can't really quantify it. He's also been refueling some of his fleets from these bases directly during high OPTEMPO, so a good chunk of his fuel costs aren't coming out of Japan's stores. And he'll be able to continue to operate in the Java Sea area using "my" fuel instead of Japan's.

Final conclusion on the fuel situation: He has to be under pressure. I don't know when it's going to become critical, but he's going to need to take Palembang and establish a safe convoy route at some point. Hopefully that pressure makes him take some bad gambles.
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Old 09-25-21, 02:01 AM   #216
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Molon Labe View Post
But as long as he feels compelled to make Alfred Mayhan roll in his grave by dividing his fleet carriers, I'll be looking for opportunities to defeat a smaller group in detail.

Well, the Japanese made that mistake (Coral Sea, anyone?), so why shouldn't he be allowed to repeat the same mistake?






To add to your strategic outlook: your opponent has also lost way more ships than Japan lost historically (they didn't lose anything larger than a destroyer before the battle of the Coral Sea). That may save him some fuel in the long run, but I'd say he'd rather have his battleships and less fuel.


Your losses are also somewhat higher than they were in reality (mostly thanks to the ships destroyed at Pearl - is anyone of the ships there salvagable in your game?), but to a lesser degree.
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Old 09-25-21, 08:43 AM   #217
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Originally Posted by Ostfriese View Post
Your losses are also somewhat higher than they were in reality (mostly thanks to the ships destroyed at Pearl - is anyone of the ships there salvagable in your game?), but to a lesser degree.
If it's "sunk", it's gone. But I suspect that the game has something in the code that resists ruling a ship in port "sunk" unless it's hit really, really badly so that you end up with ships hit in port that can get back into the war months down the line. If Pearl only had the original 12/7 attack, I'd have a bunch of disabled battleships back in service by now.

At Singapore, the HMS Repulse is still under repair after being bombed repeatedly in port, I might get her back someday... in about 3 years.
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Old 09-25-21, 09:16 AM   #218
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1 May 1942


Ceram Sea
The KVIII put two of its small-ish torpedoes into a cargo ship that appears to have been carrying an artillery unit, sinking it.

Hawaii
USS Pollack observed tenders and cargo ships approaching Lahaina and took a 4-torpedo shot at a repair ship. It missed. It tried to approach again but the seaplane tender in the group apparently had ASW capability, spotted it, and drove it off.

Timor
IJN Hiei and 4 destroyers approached Koepang to shell it and were engaged by 5 of my last PT boats. The PTs were spotted early and never made it to torpedo range, all were sunk. Their sacrifice prevented a substantial bombardment of Koepang, though. We launched several airstrikes against transports on the east side of the island as well as the Hiei but all missed.

We should have had additional strikes come in from Darwin, Australia, but deploying heavy bombers there depleted their supply faster than the roads could replenish it. Cargo ships with supply had just arrived this turn to start restocking the base, but too late to take advantage of the convoys spotted near Timor.

Strait of Malacca
The IJN Kako blundered into a light cargo ship that was running resources to Singapore but decided not to engage--indicating it's Winchester after its last shelling of Tavoy. No escorts. Later in the day, it was attacked by my Wirraways and Vildebeests from Singapore--YES! my torpedo bombers finally flew a mission! One Vildebeest was shot down by AA before it got close enough to drop, but we did hit it once. So now we have a wounded, unescorted, out-of-ammo (except AA) heavy cruiser limping through the Strait. Two submarines just finished repair at Singapore, so I've ordered them to blockade the southeast exit. The Brits have two task forces at the other side. Enjoy your future career as a reef, Kako.

Japan
USS Salmon torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship that was part of a small convoy passing between Kyushu and Okinawa.

Thailand
We had air battles around our northern and southern groups. These groups need names--going forward, the north group is designated Peter and the southern Lauren. Over force Peter, we turned away a Zero sweep, shooting down 4 and losing a Hurricane. Force Lauren was targeted with a raid of recently-arrived Sallies escorted by Oscars. Our fighters mostly ignored the Oscars and tore into the Sallies, we got 2 Oscars and 12 Sallies. There were about 50 bombers, though, and they dealt some damage to force Lauren. The enemy army attacked and casualties were regretfully even. I'm not sure if that's because of the bombers or if it their troops are just better.

Sumatra
Oosthaven's being bombed regularly now. We didn't get any fighters up to resist but shot down one bomber with AA. 23 paratroops landed near Benkoelen, a rear area base on the southwest side, apparently hoping to find it undefended. We wiped them out.
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Old 09-25-21, 01:38 PM   #219
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2 May 1942
IJN Kako links up with Aoba and others, survives for now

Marshall Islands
USS Haddock spotted a tanker and two oilers in a convoy here and made a failed attack attempt. Interesting that these would show up here, there doesn't need to be a whole lot of fuel here... just enough to support the occasional supply run, ASW operations, and possibly a sub base. Makes me wonder if a major fleet--maybe the KB--is hiding in here where my scoutplanes can't see it.

Timor
Hiei bombarded Koepang; moderate facility damage, 2 bombers destroyed on the ground, a few more disabled.

Strait of Malacca
An enemy submarine got too close to Singapore and hit 2 mines. Should be a kill.

We didn't spot the Kako today, but we found the Aoba instead, also unescorted. Our Vildebeests flew two sorties against it. In the first, our fighters bounced a bunch of Zeroes that tried to interfere--5 kills. But the Aoba turned into the torpedo attack, causing it to miss. In the second sortie the Zeroes got to the bombers and shot one down. The rest were pressured and missed again. Scouts now report a single task force of 4 ships in the area--behind my sub blockade. Subs aren't very good for holding choke points, sadly. A 3rd sub just completed repairs/upgrades, maybe its new radar will give it a better chance. I've also got a new squadron of Beaufort torpedo bombers that should be ready to fly tomorrow, if the enemy is still in range.

Sumatra
Apparently needing retribution for the paratroopers lost at Benkoelen, he sent his bombers there today. Escorting fighters shot down a Buffalo, and his bombers killed a very proportional 30 people on the ground. A sweep against Tavoy resulted in 3 Oscars down along with a P-40 and a Hurricane.

I said earlier he was suffering the attrition here with a smile but I'm starting to reconsider that. We seem to be settling into parity. Or maybe he got tired of me bombing Hong Kong and sent some fighters from here to there. Also, I took a closer look at my reinforcements over the next month, and I actually have an American air group that's going to be available around the end of the month, 60+ fighters. If I'm willing to spend all my political points, I can afford a full division from India now, possibly another by the end of the month. So maybe I will have what I need to either take or bypass Bangkok to threaten the rest of Malaya.

Thailand
More troops are sallying from Bangkok. This could be bad. Force Lauren has been ordered to start moving back up the road northwest through the mountains.

Reinforcements
I think this will be worth mentioning going forward.
762nd Tank Battalion arrives at Pearl Harbor (Full Strength--yes, it's annoying that they arrive in places under siege instead of off-map or close to it)
221st USN Base Force arrives at San Francisco (about half strength, restricted)
xAK Zachary Taylor arrives at Portland

Also, Avengers are now in production. 2 built so far.
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Old 09-26-21, 11:06 AM   #220
Molon Labe
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3 May 1942
Failed air raids everywhere...

Strait of Malacca
The "3rd sub" from yesterday was the Sargo; if found the Aoba and a destroyer and fired 4 fish at Aoba--and missed. The destroyer retaliated but fortunately wasn't able to capitalize on catching the Sargo in shallow water. It got away with minor damage.

Sumatra
7 DD shelled Oosthaven for light facility damage.

Enemy ships are all over the place right now, and our bombers tried to do something about it:
2 B-25s vs CA Kumano: missed
8 B-25s vs 2 DD: missed
5 Beaufort vs 2 DD: missed
3 Blenheim vs 1 DD: missed
4 Fulmar vs ?: Failed to find target due to weather/range
4 Fulmar vs 1 DD: missed, 1 Fulmar shot down by flak
5 B-25 vs CA Kumano & 1 DD: missed
3 B-25 vs 1 DD: missed
4 Beaufort vs cargo ship: 2 Beauforts shot down by Oscars, missed
3 Blenheim vs DD: missed


Ceram Sea
O19 hit a cargo ship with a torpedo, wasn't satisfied and fired a 2nd salvo--getting 3 hits. Pretty sure that ship is toast.

B-17s hit a convoy near Ambon, scoring one 500-lb bomb hit on an empty troop transport.

Thailand
No enemy bombers today, just a sweep on Tavoy. 2 Oscars and 1 Hurricane downed. I sent a sweep of my own over Force Lauren but no one came out to play with them. We had a few bombers hit the enemy forces chasing Lauren but didn't do much damage thanks to the rough terrain.

China
I moved the Wellingtons from Thailand to China to participate in the Hong Kong raids. Today there were Nates on CAP--and they did manage to take down a Wellington despite only being armed with .30cal machine guns. Sad! Weather hampered the strike, damage was mild.

Reinforcements
xAK Daisy Moller arrives at Aden
YMS-84 arrives at Stockton
174th Infantry Regiment arrives at Tacoma (full strength but restricted)
D Det USN Port Svc arrives at San Francisco (reconstituting a force lost when a Pacific island was invaded)

Intel reports the CL Yubari was sunk in the Java Sea some time ago--I think this was the one that ran out of fuel and got hit by a torpedo bomber.
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Old 09-27-21, 08:27 AM   #221
Molon Labe
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4 May 1942


Sumatra
A bombardment task force attacked Palembang, first sinking the lone PT sheltering there and an AKL I was using to run supplies to Singapore. And then driving into a minefield:
DD Kamikaze, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Kumano, Mine hits 1
The shelling mostly hit the airfield, only one Kittyhawk was destroyed, but facility damage was serious.

A little further northwest at Bengkalis, an enemy sub sank an AKL running resources to Singapore.

At the northern end of the Strait, my British CVBG has been overflown by a scoutplane.

Malaya
We tried to raid merchant traffic at Kuantan, Oscars shot down 2 Martlets, 2 Mohawks and a Wirraway; we got nothing.

SouthPAC
A sub was located and depth charged by the 2 Canadian corvettes at Noumea. They were very accurate, scoring multiple critical hits, which forced the sub to surface, where it was gunned down. The sub survived long enough on the surface to take a torpedo shot at us--the corvettes only had a single 4" gun each, plus machine guns.

The Enterprise-Hornet CVBG was detected by a scoutplane near Fiji--has to be from a sub.

Thailand
No enemy fighter sweeps, and no resistance to my bombing. Weird.
The enemy armies attacked Force Lauren instead, casualties 1278 to 514 in my favor. The enemy troops include elements of the 1st Division, which is a restricted unit--so he's spending political points to reinforce this area.

Timor
He's landing on some of the smaller islands near Timor; close enough to draw a strike from Koepang. Our Falcons hit a troop-carrying cargo ship, causing some troop casualties.

Ceram Sea
B-17s from Darwin hit Kendari, sinking a mine tender.

Japan
USS Pickerel was bombed by a patrol aircraft near Nagasaki. It's headed home for repairs.

Line Islands
A PBY spotted an enemy sub and bombed it. I expect it's at least headed home.

Reinforcements
VP-61 arrives at Alameda (2/12PBYs, restricted unit)
No.110 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (16/16 Blenheim)
23rd FG/76th FS arrives at Aden (22/25 P-40s)
XV Indian Corps arrives at Madras (Corps HQ)

The aircraft arriving at Aden are already being packed up to ship to India, they'll end up on the frontlines in Thailand/Malaya. The Corps HQ will likely find its way there too.
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Old 09-27-21, 10:45 PM   #222
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5 May 1942
Bogey approaching Pago from the North, evidence of sub activity in Pacific and Indian Ocean shipping lanes


Sumatra
Oosthaven was bombarded again. There's not much here and the airbase is already neutralized so this is almost a non-event.

Falcons and B-25s took a run at the mine-damaged Kumano but missed.

Malaya
The Oscars at Mersing took care of business today, shooting down one of my Buffalos, 2 Martlets, and 3 Wirraways with no losses.

Java Sea
Denpasar (small island across the Java Sea from the Makassar Strait) has been captured. This is a nice little seaplane base.

Ceram Sea
A pair of P-39s strafed and bombed a troop carrying cargo ship offloading troops at Pantar. A trio of Falcon bombers followed that up, hitting the ship with bombs, probably finishing it off.

Hawaii
Several AKLs approached the coast and got completely nuked by my artillery. I assume this was a supply run.

So much for 40 days--supply is becoming an issue again. The bombings have stepped up and it's burning through my stores.

Thailand
Status quo is holding. We lost one Hurricane to a sweep over Tavoy.

Troop and supply convoys are reporting being snooped by floatplanes between Calcutta and Rangoon. Subs.

Line Islands
The Japanese thought it would be a good idea to attack Christmas Island with Mavis patrol aircraft. The first wave of 4 was routed with all 4 shot full of holes by USMC Wildcats. The second wave was just 1, and it was shot down.

A PBY bombed a submarine near Christmas Island, the second such hit in recent days.

Further south, one of my tanker convoys was snooped by a floatplane--I'm sure it came from a sub.

SouthPAC

We have a single unidentified contact approaching Pago from the North. There's no reason to send a civilian convoy this way so I'm assuming this is a warship, which makes me wonder what it's doing here or where its friends are. The Hornet and Enterprise are nearby, but I'm not tasking them to this yet. I have a cruiser-destroyer group very close by, I'm going to station them at the edge of Pago's fighter's coverage range and see if the PBYs can get us better info. Pago hosts some Helldivers too, so if they get too close we'll hopefully soften whatever it/they are up before our skimmers get involved.

Reinforcements
Repairs completed on CA Northampton at Sydney, ship returned to service (repaired torpedo damage)
No.20 Sqn RAF arrives at Jamshedpur (bomber training squadron)
139th USA Base Force arrives at Fort Ord (full strength, unrestricted)
33rd Aviation Base Force arrives at Eastern USA (full strength, unrestricted)

I'm starting to reorganize my destroyers. I'm swapping old ones for modern ones whenever a convoy pulls in near a naval fleet so that the old guys hopefully don't face anything scarier than a submarine. Also, recently upgraded DDs are meeting up with task forces so that DDs in need of upgrades can rotate back to the shipyards.
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Old 09-28-21, 10:28 PM   #223
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6 May 1942
British bombers massacred over Thailand after failing to link up with fighter escorts

Truk
USS Seawolf observed a massive troop transport convoy (8 AP, 6 AK, 1 CL, 1 E) arriving at Truk. It took a shot at a transport but missed.

Bay of Bengal
An AKL running supplies from India to Sri Lanka was torpedoed and sunk. The troop convoy from Calcutta arrived in Rangoon without incident, but the supply convoy behind it was snooped by a sub-based floatplane.

Thailand
The bombers supporting Force Lauren failed to link up with their Hurricane escorts and ran into a wall of Oscars. They pressed on anyway. The first wave, 17 Hudsons and 4 Blenheims, was wiped out completely. Another 3 Hudsons and 4 Blenheims that were straggling were shot down as well. Of the maybe 3-4 Blenheims that made it to the target, 1 was lost to AA. After all that, a few Hurricanes arrived and shot down a Nate.

The enemy troops, led by the 5th and 38th Divisions, attacked Force Lauren but were turned away, casualties 1743 to 145. I like holding the mountains.

Near Rangoon, the second army coming through the mountains appears to be much larger than the lead element. It still doesn't appear to be enough to take anything from me, so in a sense this is good news--he's sent a substantial number of troops through mountains without a supply line hoping to find a weak rear area. He's going to run into equal numbers of my troops who are well supplied and not fatigued from a long, rough march. I'd say we'd also be bombing the hell out of them too, but... yeah, we don't have many bombers left.

South China Sea
USS Sargo loaded up some mines after failing to track down the Kako and Aoba. It arrived in Miri today to drop off the mines. After that, it ran into the Atago and put a torpedo in her side. The Atago was damaged by a pair of mines a month ago, I suspect she just got out of the repair yard and was attempting to join a task force here. Well, now she gets to go right back.

Java Sea
An enemy land unit made a shock attack against the garrison of Mataram but failed to take the base. I think the small unit is vulnerable to a counterattack now, so I've given the order, plus I'll send some Hudsons to bomb here to help our push.

SouthPAC
The bogey--now bogeys--are holding position north of Pago. As they didn't approach, my surface task force did not engage. Current classification is 2 ships, 1 of which is a tanker. Which makes no sense. My best guess, these are cargo ships being sacrificed to test my reaction time, or to confirm the presence of my carriers before the KB begins an operation somewhere.

Reinforcements
VF-42 arrives at San Francisco (2/27 F4F-3. Yorktown's fighter squadron being reformed--they're going to be a training squadron for now; outfitted with a fresh batch of F4F-4s)
No.82 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (2/16 Blenhiems. I'm designating this a training squadron as well, transitioned them to obsolete Lysander bombers with the 2 Blenheims going to the replacement pool for my other squadrons. There's no sense in trying to equip this unit when I don't have enough planes for the squadrons I already have)
13th Australian Hvy AA Regiment arrives at Sydney (fully equipped, restricted)
18th Canadian Brigade arrives at Victoria (41% strength, restricted)

DMS Dorsey beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles (AA upgrade, radar)
SS Grampus taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane (radar)
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Old 09-29-21, 11:07 AM   #224
Molon Labe
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7 May 1942

Timor
IJN Hiei bombarded Koepang overnight. It doesn't seem to have had a lot of ammunition for the task, and damage was surprisingly light: 1 bomber destroyed, a few more damaged, light facility damage. They might have succeeded in disrupting my planned bombing of Mataram, that strike never took off.

Java Sea
Our planned counterattack on Mataram amounted to nothing (not that we had anything to lose, though). He landed a bunch more troops so we were horribly outnumbered by the time the attack took place. Plus he bombed the snot out of the island, while our bombers never got there. Mataram is captured.

Hawaii
USS Flying Fish ran itself out of ammo attacking two cargo ships trying to resupply enemy armies at Pearl. It torpedoed and likely sank one and shot up another with its gun. Sadly, torpedo ammunition efficiency is pretty horrible when more than half of them are duds.

I'm going to set up a submarine operation to try to keep Pearl supplied. I have a bunch of subs patrolling places that aren't getting any traffic or that just aren't mission critical, so I can spare several boats.


SouthPAC
We engaged and sank the bogey, VIDing it as a single cargo ship. I wonder what happens next now that this sacrifice has taken place. If nothing else, he knows I have 4 cruisers operating in this area, but he should already know that from the Christmas Island op.

Solomons
A Liberator raid at the Guadalcanal port produced a hit on a seaplane tender. I'm very surprised I've been allowed to have my way with Guadalcanal and Rabaul. I'm guessing the increased Zero presence at Lahaina was at the expense of this area.

Sumatra
The enemy attacked Oosthaven with a lot of bombers from much lower altitude than usual, as low as 6,000 feet. He paid for it--7 Anns, 6 Lilies all shot down by flak.

We sent 9 B-25s after the heavy cruiser Kumano, escorted by 6 Australian Kittyhawks. The Kittyhawks proved no great barrier to the 31 Zeroes protecting the ship, 2 were shot down without enemy loss. But the B-25s themselves were a meat grinder. Most of the Zeroes were shot up. 1 was shot down. 2 B-25s were shot down, but the rest made it to the target---and missed.

Bay of Bengal
The supply convoy made it safely to Rangoon, no sub attack materialized.

West Coast
A floatplane was spotted spying on San Francisco. I've surged ASW assets again and assigned some USMC Buffalos to CAP.

Reinforcements
CLAA Atlanta has made it through the Canal and is approaching San Francisco just in time for the enemy sub to be snooping around. I'm giving it extra DDs to complete its journey. Its transit from the Canal took so long it's already due for an upgrade, which means I probably won't deploy it with the Lex, which finishes its upgrade in a few days.

CLAA San Diego arrives at Balboa (Panama Canal)--fortunately this one already has the upgrade.

SS S-31 arrives at San Francisco -- Assigned to Pearl supply run

xAK Samuel Adams arrives at Alameda

54th PG/42nd PS arrives at Eastern USA - (18/25 P-39, restricted) - training squadron. I wish I had obsolete airframes to give to this unit so I could send those P-39s to the front.

North Pacific arrives at Dutch Harbor (HQ unit, close to full strength)

A major troop convoy has arrived at Sydney from the US. It's delivering replacement base forces for Brisbane (the unit previously there was moved, I think, to Milne) along with a general buildup of Seabees, artillery, and AA. I took the opportunity to swap a couple destroyers--old ones with the convoy, newer ones with upgrades to join local combat task forces.

A squadron of B-25s from Aden arrived in India. Once they offload they'll be headed east--I originally intended them to deploy to Burma/Thailand, but now I think they'll do more good in China.
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Old 09-30-21, 08:28 AM   #225
Molon Labe
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8 May 1942

South China Sea
The S-37 torpedoed and sank a cargo ship off the northwest corner of Borneo in a night surface attack. She took minor damage from the ship's guns in exchange.

Philippines
The enemy armies--smaller than the US/Philippine garrison it opposed--attacked Cagayan and forced a retreat. I'm surprised they didn't just surrender.

SouthPAC
4 Mavis floatplanes tried to attack an amphibious group delivering troops to Pago. The local P-40 squadron responded, shooting down 2 and sending 2 more home full of holes before they could reach their targets.

Between the subs, the cargo ship, and the Mavises, I feel like this whole area is being probed. I haven't seen the KB in long enough that it could be anywhere, so maybe it's looking to make an appearance here soon.

Sumatra
I rested my B-25s, but Fulmars and DB7s still attempted raids on shipping, and ran into plenty of Zeroes. 3 of my 4 Fulmars were shot down, and the 4th had to be scrapped at base due to its damage. So that squadron is down for the foreseeable future. One DB7 was lost as well. No one scored any hits.

I had been sneaking the Brit CVBG to this area, but there's no point to it. They won't get through the Zeroes protecting the ships here either.

Reinforcements
Repairs completed on SS S-47 at Noumea, ship returned to service (radar)
AM Geelong arrives at Melbourne
TK Aristophanes arrives at Balboa
4th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (restricted)
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