ADavidB
Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001 From: Toronto, Canada Status: offline
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March 18, 1942 - My Allied INTEL services must be making really good quality "Jungle Juice" because they sure seem to be sloshed all the time with their reports. Once again, whatever initiated that report of a Japanese cruiser force in the South Pacific was long gone by the time the Navy got there. So I'm sending the Catalinas and APDs back to position, although I'm going to let the CV TF hang around a bit, and I'm also stationing a few PT Boats nearby. Brit INTEL isn't much better. A Japanese sub snuck undetected into Colombo Harbor and mined it, as an incoming Brit DD found out the "hard way". And despite the lack of an "air symbol" over Mandalay, the Brit bombers and Buffalo escorts found out, again the "hard way", that Treespider had put some good Zeros on LR CAP over the base. Overall, the Brit air attacks on Burma did poorly, with only one of the other three unopposed air attacks even getting any hits on their targets. Now that the rain is back I've once again sat down most of the planes other than for Naval Search. Treespider's mop-up operations continue. Troops continued to land at Dili, this time unopposed by Australian air attacks, possibly due to weather but also possibly due to LR CAP. More Japanese troops also started to land at Bankha to support the paratroops that were sent there a few days ago. And INTEL reports that an NLF unit is heading to Ormac. The general fighting continued to be at a relatively low level in most places. Tit-for-tat bombing continued in China, but with Treespider upping the ante a little. I may well send a few Brit air units into China just to keep him honest. And Manila withstood another Japanese deliberate attack, despite the absence of Allied supply. Treespider will likely need to pull his troops back and let them rest for a few weeks before coming back to finish off the defenders. In other news, I finally pulled the Field Artillery unit out of Canton Island. It's been sitting there since Day One and it really doesn't serve any purpose on an atoll. I'm sending it South, and will either eventually place it in New Zealand or Australia, where it can be of some potential future use. The Hawaiian Islands continue to be strengthened as another fighter group just arrived. It takes a couple of weeks for a fighter or bomber group to get back to full operational strength after being shipped by sea, so I like to have them in position well in advance of any potential attack, or a need elsewhere. I've moved a 2E squadron to each of Midway, Johnston and Palmyra Islands to join the Catalinas in Naval Search as well as to be on Naval Attack alert. In the Hawaiian Islands, in addition to Pearl Harbor, I have a level 4 airfield in one base, a level 3 airfield in another, and level 2 airfields in the other three bases, and all continue to be build up. In addition to the various 2E bomber squadrons and groups in the Islands, I also have the Marine Dive Bombers and Fighters. So I'm feeling fairly good about the Hawaiian Islands at this stage. Dave Baranyi
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