Part 101: Operational Report: 17/03/42

The Captain of the Dolphin decides to sue two of is torpedoes against a patrol boat. I'm hoping he was trying to get past it to have an easy attack on some more valuable ships, as the patrol boat is not worth the expended ordinance in my opinion.



An unescorted bomber raid tries to put the Soreabaja runway out of action, but only two bombs hit their target, and two of the attacking planes fail to return.



To the south, Malang falls to the enemy invasion and the defenders retreat into the city itseld. It now cannot be long until the final battle for the capital begins.

The escorted raid costs us a fighter trying to defend a nearly useless minesweeper.



The Denpasar raid is larger today, and does more damage to the runway.



We manage to get some planes into the air to defend Djambi today, but against the incoming swarms of Japanese planes, there is very little that they can accomplish really.








Wake gets a visit from the long range Betty bombers, I need to look at getting some more planes into the area now, as well as some surface ships and some more AA crews.







Sinyang continues to be a testing ground for enemy tactics, as they send but 3,600 men against our 42,000 defenders, and lose nearly half of them.



Buoyed up by the failure of our assault yesterday, the Imperial Army makes its own attack on our forces in Nanchang.



Unfortunately for them, another Corps of Chinese troops arrived today, and the attack is stopped cold.

After a few days resting and reorganizing, our assault in Hankow gets off to a great start, as we reduce the defenders defences by two levels and still cause more casualties to them than we received, the attack must have been a complete surprise.







Our other threatened Burmese base falls today as the Japanese advance up the country continues, slowed only by the terrain around them.










Another day of minimal air combat and successes in China.
I am really surprised how well my Chinese offensive is going, I'm tying up nearly 100,000 men in Sinyang, and then advancing across the rest of the county, let see how long this lasts, and if the Japanese divert troops to shore up these losses.







Its time to put together an invasion force to take out Rossel Island. The enemy must be digging in, and I don't want them using it to stop me from supplying Port Moresby.



This is the force assembled to take the island, it totals about 7,000 men, and should be enough to sweep the island clear.

They are loading onto a troop convoy with these ships protecting it.



To add a little more defence, I'm adding this task force as a bombardment/surface combat protection force.



Yep, I'm risking another British battleship, well I say risking, this one is going to have 6 cruisers and five destroyers protecting it.



I'm really hoping we run into something out there.

I also have another three cruisers and twelve destroyers in Darwin, so don't think I've gotten all of the Royal Navy sunk.


At Pearl Harbour, I'm trying to relieve pressure on the shipyards, so I'm bringing the Tennessee, West Virginia and California back to readiness, then I can move them to the west coast for final repairs. That should be quicker all around, as long as there are no accidents along the way.