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15 Jun 42
Near Singkawang the Seawolf was attacked by several destroyers but avoided being hit. The KXV avoided another enemy ASW group off Tarakan before attempting an attack on a transport. She missed. In the far northern part of the Philippine Sea the Pompano missed an escorted freighter. The S-36 was damaged by a depth charge attack west of Pontianak. The O20 hit a damaged transport with a pair of fish west of Singapore.
The battle in the Coral Sea has begun heating up again. East of Cairns an Australian minesweeper group was attacked and missed by a Jap sub. About midway between Cooktown and Port Moresby a trio of DMS reported a sonar contact. A few hundred miles off the coast between Rockhampton and Townsville another Aussie minesweeper group reports hitting a third Nip sub.
Tavoy was bombed overnight again. The AVG were able to force engagement with three Zeroes flying patrol over the base and shot all of them down.
Half the raid on Chengting was damage by AAA fire after slipping past the enemy's CAP.
Enemy bombers added a few more craters to the runways at Moulmein.
The Chinese dropped bombs on the enemy division west of Wuhan. Over fifty Hurricanes made attack runs against enemy forces moving south towards Moulmein from Rangoon. Mandalay's bombers followed with bombing runs of their own.
Beauforts got past the enemy planes patrolling over Tarakan to hit a destroyer and a minesweeper in the port. Martins attacking enemy shipping at sea nearby were unsuccessful. An enemy destroyer at Singapore was hit by a flight of Beauforts while another strike hit a transport to the west.
We lost another freighter in the Java Sea to enemy carrier planes. They also attacked, but missed, freighters at Soerabaja and crippled a freighter at Bali. The airbase at Soerabaja suffered light damage from a second attack. Bali's airbase was also hit in a second strike, taking more significant damage.
The enemy lost a Betty in an aborted attack on Port Moresby. Fighters tangled over Gasmata with each side losing a few planes. The bombers only hit open water. A second attack did better, hitting a freighter with three torpedoes. The escorting Zeroes lost almost a dozen planes and shot down several P-40s and a Wirraway. Menado was bombed by high flying Bettys but suffered no damage.
Beauforts and A-20s bombed the Salamaua vicinity.
There were some more piecemeal attack on Chinese forces at Canton.
After a great many harsh words, one court-martial and threats of bloody murder our bombers around the Java Sea finally attacked the enemy carriers. A two-prong attack of Swordfish, Martins and B-25s came from Banjarmasin and Soerabaja. We lost a B-25, three Swordfish and a couple of escorting Demon fighters. But the Swordfish scored two torpedo hits on the carrier Junyo, one of which set off what we believe was a fuel storage explosion. A second attack of Wellingtons came from Batavia. They scored almost ten bomb hits on the slowed carrier, setting of a secondary explosion that intelligence thinks came from their aircraft ordinance bunkers, while only losing one bomber. Hopefully this success will "encourage" our pilots in the region to make more attacks.
There was no major action at Canton. The elements of the Indian 13th Brigade that were occupying Moulmein were overrun by a hasty attack by the Japanese divisions from the Rangoon Perimeter. But this has allowed the Indian 254th Tank Brigade to re-open the supply line to Rangoon. They will replace one of the reduced Burmese units in the defense of Rangoon, while the Burmese unit will make for Mandalay and possibly Diamond Harbor after that.
More naval and air assets came under this command. The New Zealanders have another squadron of Kittyhawks. A squadron of Mohawks and two of Hurricanes have arrived in India. The Australians launched four new minesweepers at Sydney. But the bulk of the reinforcements are in San Francisco, in the form of the battleship North Carolina, the cruiser Quincy, the CLAA San Diego, two destroyers, two Gato-class subs and a seaplane tender. Three more freighters also became available in various ports.
More reports to follow.
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16 Jun 42
The S-46 sank an enemy freighter near New Hanover Island. The S-31 had a very successful day north of Rabaul. First she shelled an enemy freighter with her deck gun in a night attack. Then she came back that afternoon to torpedo a damaged ship, probably the same one she shelled earlier. In the Celebes Sea east of Tarakan the KXV tracked a damaged minesweeper for a time but ultimately considered it not worth using a torpedo on.
The nighttime bombing of Tavoy continued.
During the night the freighter at Gasmata that was torpedoed by Bettys sank. We also received intelligence of an IJN destroyer sinking somewhere between Ponape and Truk.
The Japanese tried to attack Yenen. The defending I-16s quickly broke up the escorts and downed all three Sonias as well as several of the Nates.
Chinese bombers attacked the IJA near Wuhan.
Wellingtons and Beauforts attacked the Junyo again today. Encountering no CAP at all, they scored several more bomb hits on the carrier. A followup by a single flight of Martins lost the carrier in the clouds.
Fifteen unescorted Bettys tried to sneak in to attack shipping at Port Moresby. They turned back when the CAP let them know that stealth had failed by shooting down one of the bombers. Shortly afterwards three more Bettys approached the base, either a second strike or a flight that became separated from the first strike. The CAP shot down two of those.
While we were blasting one enemy carrier to the north, other IJN carriers continued to attack our shipping in the southern Java Sea. They attacked a pair of freighters at Bali, sinking one of them and heavily damaging the other. The tanker Baldbutte, damaged and fleeing from Balikpapan, was hit by almost twenty bombs by another strike. The ship is still somehow afloat but it remains to be seen if it can make it to a port. A third strike attacked Soerabaja's harbor, sinking a freighter and damaging a second after quickly blowing thru the Demons on defense.
Enemy planes bombed the abandoned base at Sandakan. Balikpapan came under further attack. This enemy force was turned back after losing half-a-dozen Zeroes and three Bettys. One defending P-40 was lost. A pair of Bettys approaching Gasmata quickly turned away when they were intercepted by P-40s.
The fighting around Canton remained localized and confined to small unit actions.
More reports to follow.
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17 Jun 42
Action continued in the northern Coral Sea. Three DMS attacked a sonar contact southwest of Gili Gili and report an oil slick resulting. Farther to the southwest, due east of Cooktown, Australian minesweepers damaged an enemy sub.
The tanker Baldbutte sank overnight.
Blenheims bombed Tavoy during the night. AVG P-40s briefly engaged four Zeroes over the base before making their strafing runs.
The slow, steady attack on Chengting airbase continued. It doesn't appear to be doing much to stop the enemy's attacks on Yenen. While the well blooded Chinese 11th Fighter Squadron has begun moving south, the 19th appears to be well able to continue the defense here. They shot down one of the Nates, drove off the rest of the escort and bagged one of the Sonias.
B-17s and Wellingtons attacked Singapore. The Forts went after the dry docks while the few Wellingtons bombed the harbor. Beauforts hit a transport in the harbor a short time later. Several other strikes by Beauforts in the surrounding waters failed.
Nates and Anns attacked the airfield at Balikpapan. The 21st Fighter took down two of the escorts but avoided getting caught up in an extended dogfight, turning their attention to the divebombers instead. Of the nearly twenty enemy bombers, only five survived to drop their payloads. A second attack by Bettys quickly turned back when one of the escort Zeroes was shot down.
Chinese bombers attacked Canton. One of fifty-six Hurricanes attacking enemy troops near Rangoon was lost to ground fire. The higher flying Wellingtons, B-25s and LB-30s made their attacks without loss.
Some Martins and Beauforts slipped past the enemy Nates on patrol over Tarakan to attack ships in port there, but were not able to score any hits.
The second freighter at Bali was sunk by the enemy carriers, spotted just south of Lombok Island. They also bombed Lombok itself, to little effect.
Attacks by Bettys on Gasmata and Port Moresby continued. Gasmata's P-40s and Wirraways engaged half-a-dozen each of Zeroes and Bettys, driving the raid off. A Wirraway, a Zero and a Betty were shot down. The first of today's attacks on Port Moresby was a dozen unescorted Bettys. They turned back after losing two planes. The second attack was more determined. While the Wildcats kept the Zeroes busy, shooting three of the four down, the Kittyhawks destroyed one Betty and damaged a second before they aborted. And finally, a lone flight of Bettys turned away when the CAP claimed one of them.
Small groups of Bettys continued attacking the Chinese at Canton.
Two flights of Beauforts hit an already damaged destroyer twice east of Tarakan, setting off a magazine explosion on board.
The Chinese launched another assault on Canton. They didn't make any real progress, but if the Japs are true to form they should attempt a counter-attack tomorrow. Inflicting heavy losses on such attacks appears to be our best way of wearing down the defenses of Canton, since the Chinese are lacking in combat engineers.
Two freighters finished their conversion to Mine Tenders in San Francisco. If we can put one or both together in the East Indies with what few minelaying ships we have left, we may be able to cause the enemy some problems by putting minefields around some of the ports he's captured during the last six months.
More reports to follow.
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18 Jun 42
The minelayer Ogalala was torpedoed by an enemy sub between Nanomea and the Santa Cruz Islands. The ship is turning for Nanomea but may not be able to make it, the damage is very severe. This is not good in two different ways. First is the blow to our plans for increasing mine warfare operations, the Ogalala is one of the few dedicated minelaying ships we have left. Second, our ASW attention and assets are concentrated in the Coral Sea and we are not in a position to quickly respond to an increase in enemy sub activity here. There are two destroyers not too far away that were enroute to Townsville that are being diverted and one ASW group operating out of Baker that will turn its attention to this region.
The tanker Gulfland, carrying a load of fuel, was hit by a torpedo as it hugged the west coast of New Guinea south of Port Moresby. Despite extensive fires the captain believes he can make it to port.
Our own subs were not idle. The Drum torpedoed a freighter off the coast of Honshu. The Trusty made a nocturnal surface attack on another freighter in the Malacca Strait, sinking it with two torpedoes as well as a number of rounds from her 4" deck gun. She followed that by shelling a tanker, scoring more hits with her deck gun.
The nightly raid on Tavoy went well. The aircrews report destroying several enemy planes as well as an increase in the number the enemy has deployed here. The AVG's sweep and strafeing of the base also encountered increasing enemy activity, shooting down one Zero of half-a-dozen flying CAP. It appears that we need to re-task some of the heavy bombers in the region to suppressing the base again.
Most of the Chinese raid on Chengting got lost in heavy weather. The few that found the base did no significant damage.
Japanese forces bombed Jambi. Palembang also came under attack. The dozen Hawks on defense shot down three of the Oscars and drove the other six off before making runs thru the twenty Sally bombers. They failed to shot any of the bombers down but damaged a number of them. A pair of Beauforts were destroyed on the ground and there is more runway damage to be repaired.
The Chinese continued bombing enemy troops at Canton. Enemy units east of Rangoon were struck heavily in two attacks. First by almost sixty Hurricanes, then by over sixty Wellingtons, B-25s and LB-30s. The Vietnamese division west of Haiphong was also bombed, by Chinese SB-2 bombers.
The freighter unloading supplies at Gasmata suffered minor damage when an enemy scout plane bombed it. An enemy followup raid by a dozen Zeroes and a flight of Bettys failed to inflict any further damage and lost a bomber and several fighters to the P-40s.
Mandalay came under attack, with somewhat more than a dozen each Zeroes and Bettys attacking. A dozen Mohawk fighters suprised the raid, shooting down a Zero in passing and downing five of the bombers. Two more were lost to our AAA and no losses are reported on the ground.
We have lost most of the enemy's carriers but the one group we have been able to keep track of is now about mid-way between Bali and Sulawesi. They launched an attack on Macassar that unfortunately caught the base just as elements of the 34th Fighter Squadron had landed. This unit is being re-equipped with P-40s and the first of them were enroute to Palembang from Darwin when the attack caught them on the ground. Two were destroyed, several more damaged and significant damage was done to both the airfield and port.
Menado took a few hits to its runways when it was bombed by about twenty Bettys.
Beauforts and Bostons did some minor damage to the port of Salamaua.
The enemy is still launching penny-packet attacks on Chinese forces beseiging Canton.
A pair of Martins missed a destroyer east of Tarakan.
As predicted, the Japanese at Canton tried to counter-attack. Considering the size of the forces engaged here, Chinese losses were negligible. I don't believe the Japs can say the same as the Chinese are claiming over 3,600 hundred enemy dead and wounded.
The Australians commissioned another squadron of Hurricanes.
More reports to follow.
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19 Jun 42
The Ogalala sank overnight. We also have intelligence of two enemy freighters and a transport sinking.
The KXV attacked an enemy convoy in the Celebes Sea but wasn't able to hit any of the ships.
The Blenheims bombed Tavoy during the night again. The AVG made a sweep over the base in the morning, but their engagement of the CAP Zeroes was inconclusive with no aircraft lost on either side.
Forty of out bombers, evenly split between Wellington IIIs and B-17Es, hit Singapore. The Forts again went after the drydocks and shipyards while the Wellingtons attacked the airfield. Intelligence reports twenty enemy planes destroyed with a similar number damaged. Significant damage was also done to the airbase and the ship repair facilities.
More squadrons have flown in to Rangoon and some seventy Hurricanes made straffing runs on enemy troops closing on Rangoon. The Chinese bombed the Indochina infantry near Hanoi and Haiphong.
A flight of Martins hit a damaged freighter in the Celebes Sea with a pair of bombs. Sixteen Beauforts attacked a convoy near Singapore but failed to make any hits. A separate flight of Beauforts hit a troop transport in Singapore and group of Wellingtons hit a freighter just outside the harbor.
Enemy aircraft from a carrier in the northern Java Sea sank two freighters and damaged another. The first enemy carrier force moved east and hammered Balikpapan with multiple strikes. By the end of the day they had lost more than a dozen Zeroes, over half-a-dozen Kates and a Val. But they destroyed half-a-dozen P-40s, several C-47s, damaged the AVD Williamson and an already damaged tanker and sank a transport that had been in port, plus doing some damage to the airbase and port.
The Japs attacked Rangoon for the first time in a while. One defending P-40 was shot down but the enemy lost a pair of Zeroes, a pair of Bettys and more than a dozen Nates. The remaining bombers failed to do any real damage.
A small group of Bettys bombed Jesselton. An enemy strike against a freighter at Gasmata caught the CAP by surprise. Two P-40s were lost while only one Zero was shot down. Fortunately the few Bettys were not able to hit the ship with their torpedoes.
An escorted flight of B-25s attacked Pontianak but it doesn't look like they did any damage. The bombing of Salamaua continued.
Enemy bombers attacking Canton were better organized and more numerous today, but the attacks can still only be considered minor.
The fighting on the ground around Canton was light. A Chinese division moved into position to attack the VM unit in north Indochina.
More reports to follow.
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20 Jun 42
The minesweeper Robin has been working for the last week at clearing a surprising large Japanese minefield around Makin. We were fortunate that only one ship hit a mine during the landing. But the extent of the mines here and our experiences during Alarm Clock show that we need to give more consideration to our minesweeping doctrines and how we're going to handle it during future landings.
Intelligence has passed on a report of an enemy transport sinking somewhere to the northeast of Truk.
It was a busy day for Sub Command. The Grunion spotted but was to attack a freighter near Osumi. The Pompano was attacked by a trio of enemy ships at the western entrance to the Sea of Japan. After spending the day avoiding the enemy's ASW, the ship surfaced for a sunset attack on a freighter. After hitting it with a torpedo and several deck gun rounds, the crew was surprised when their conning tower was hit by a round from the enemy ship. They were lucky that it turned out to be a dud. The KXV had to avoid a pair of gunboats in the Celebes Sea. The Drum also conducted a surface attack at sunset outside Tokyo, hitting with a torpedo and a deck gun round. Near Tarakan the KXV used her 88mm deck guns to shoot up a freighter before putting a torpedo into it. Once again the target shot back but the sub reports no damage.
The night fighters kept up the pressure on Tavoy. The AVG's sweeps over Tavoy have been getting weaker, today's was only eight fighters. They failed to engage a trio of Zeroes over the base. Fortunately those fighters were not a problem for the thirty Liberators that came after the AVG. Intel places the enemy's losses at sixteen planes destroyed on the ground and a like number damaged.
Rangoon came under attack by a dozen Sallys escorted by twenty-five Zeroes and Nates. The defensive fighters shot down one of the Sallys and eight of the escorts. One P-40 and two Blenheims were destroyed by enemy bombs.
We attacked Singapore with thirty bombers, attacking the dry docks and airfield again. Another dozen enemy planes were destroyed and we believe that the cumulative damage to the repair facilities has almost completely shut them down. A flight of Beauforts followed up with another attack on the air base, apparently catching engineers as they were starting to repair the runways. Then more Wellingtons, destroying several more planes and causing more casualties. There were several more attacks by Beauforts on enemy shipping around Singapore but only one ship, a transport, was hit.
SB-2s and IL-4s continued bombing enemy troops at Canton. Five squadrons of Hurricanes totalling seventy fighter-bombers spent the day attacking enemy forces outside Rangoon. A dozen Wellingtons and forty B-25s also bombed the enemy. More SB-2s attacked the enemy's Indochinese unit south of Hanoi.
A pair of Martins slipped past the enemy fighters at Tarakan but were not able to hit their target, a troop transport.
Balikpapan came under very heavy attack from the enemy's land- and carrier-based aircraft. It began with a decade of Anns escorted by five Nates. The dozen P-40s on defense shot down almost all the fighters and three of the bombers but the tanker Chas Kurz took another bomb hit. The two more Anns got past the CAP to hit the Manvantara. Next the enemy carriers to the southwest launched. First thirty Zeroes escorting a single Val. The resulting dogfight cost us four P-40s to the enemy's loss of two fighters. The Val missed all the ships in port. Another attack by the carriers consisted of only half-a-dozen Zeroes, two dozen Vals and almost twenty Kates. The remaining P-40s were able to bypass the escorts and go straight after the bombers, shooting down several Vals and a Kate. But the rest destroyed another P-40 and two transport planes, did more damage to the airbase and hit the Williamson one more time. The final attack was two dozen Zeroes and two flights of Bettys. Five of the enemy's fighters and one bomber were shot down by the exhausted defending pilots. The 21st Fighter is getting ground down trying to defend the base, so I am diverting the P-40s of the 34th Fighter which were enroute to Java to Balikpapan.
Gasmata came under attack by fifteen Bettys and twenty Zeroes. One of our P-40s here was lost but the defenders claimed a Betty and several Zeroes. Most of the rest of the bombers aborted and the few that attacked failed to hit the ship in port.
A second enemy carrier group, just south of Belitung, sank the freighter Vitorlock in the Java Sea as it was fleeing for Australia. Near southern Java the freighter Gandara reports being attacked by a single bomber, apparently escorted by a single fighter. From the description they were probably a Kate and a Zero.
Imphal was attacked by half-a-dozen Bettys and some Zeroes. The bombers stayed at high altitude and did no real damage, but the attack was an unpleasant reminder of the range of the enemy's aircraft.
Another small group of B-25s and Demons attacked Pontianak. Beauforts and A-20s bombed around Salamaua. Neither attack did significant damage but hopefully the aircrews are gaining experience and will get better.
Three unescorted Bettys tried to sneak past the CAP at Port Moresby, but all of them were shot down. Half-a-dozen more bombed the Chinese at Canton.
A flight of Martins attacked a freighter in the Celebes Sea. The noteworthy fact of this was that the ship is too far south to be heading to or from Tarakan or Mindanao. We can't figure out where this lone ship is heading, but any likely invasion target has too many defending troops to be worried by a single ship's cargo.
There was only delusitory fighting at Canton. South of Hanoi the Chinese 25th Corps shelled the Vietnamese in preparation for an attack.
More reports to follow.
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This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff. "Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.  |
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RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.) - 
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