Part 115: Operational Report: 31/03/42

The continual build up of forces in the Port Moresby/Guadalcanal area continues, as one of our submarines attempts to cut off supplies to the area.



While the dive bombers hit a ship carrying fuel, leaving it burning badly.



They return in the afternoon, and that ship is missing, but they decide to plaster the other ship in its stead.



Hopefully both of these ships are now sinking beneath the waves.

The Australian troops make some headway today, but nothing as spectacular as I would have hoped. More rumours of beer need to be started.



At Soerabaja, the enemy push hard, and break up many of our defences lines.



They take heavy losses doing so, but they do make some gains.





The Bettys return to Wake, and it again ends in more enemy planes taken out by our flack as these planes come in low to make their torpedo attacks.



More worrying is the reports of two enemy task forces in the area. I have no idea what they are, but I have to assume at least battleships, and possibly an invasion force.
Part of that question is soon answered.



The planes roar overhead, the St. Louis takes the brunt of it, taking multiple hits. But is still able to fend off the eight Betty's that return in the afternoon. But then the carrier based planes return.



The Detroit is hit by three 250kg bombs.
At Kwajalein, I order a second day of attacking the enemy fortifications.



As I mentioned before, our units, although stronger, are attacking a level 4 fort, so one day of attacking breaks up their formations, so they need to rest for a couple of days, otherwise something like this happens.





In the north, at Tsiaotso, the battle continues, its not particularly fierce, but it is another drain on Japanese manpower.



On the east coast, south of Hangchow, two of our Corps push back an armoured car company.









The arrival of those carriers near Wake is going to cause us some trouble. We were lucky not to lose anything too serious. The loss of one freighter and the squadron it was carrying was painful, but at least it looks like the Port Moresby area is going our way.

We did get two Japanese destroyers killed in January and February confirmed today though, so we're getting there.






Now to decide what to do about those carriers. Normally I'd sally forth guns blazing, but two thirds of my cruisers are not going to be up to much.



So what I'm doing is moving the Yorktown and Enterprise to the island. This should be enough to stop the raids, and maybe bag a carrier if they return. Its a risk with my last two carriers, but their doing no good sitting in Pearl. If this looks like becoming a really bad idea, then I can always bring them home.