Part 231: Operational Report: 25/07/42

The Bettys return to bomb our supply airfeilds once more, and once more, a single Hurricane goes up to meet them.



And once again, when the enemy send a much smaller force, we meet it with more planes.



While I don't mind the kills, I would have rather seen all the planes deployed against the main force.



Another brutal submarine attack outside Ceylon.







As someone mentioned reinforcing Denpasar, here is a sample of the daily bombing the base sees.





And this is a light day, some days two or three carriers add their firepower to the raids.

At Lunga, we continue to reduce the Japanese defending forces, its slow going, but we're getting there. And fresh troops will be on the way soon.







Another day at Sinyang.



Some of these soldiers must be able to sleep through anything at this time.
After our failed attack at Kiukiang yesterday, the Japanese try and capitalize on our disruption by launching their own attack.



They see that attacking in the region is suicide.

Our large force reaches the men forced back out of Anking, and hit them hard once more, making them retreat further towards Naking.



With more destroyed squads than disabled, this is going to represent a real drop in their manpower.







We continue our slow advance, but there is still no sign of the Yamato under the guns of the British carriers.



Its still out there however, but the lack of fuel in Sydney means that the carriers only have a day or more operating in the area before they must turn for home.

In Burma, Smithforce has finally made it back to India, and now have only the short march to Cox's Bazar and safety.



To the south, we're going to try and break the enemy once more with a deliberate attack. We now have 15,000 front line troops and 30,000 support troops. The enemy are thought to have less than 19,000 men in the area.



Lets see how that goes.



The assault on Pago Pago is surprising, this is very close to Suva. I've ordered a few destroyers and the cruiser Northhampton there, as well as two squadrons of fighters and a dive bomber squadron.



There are already 13,000 men defending the island, so they have been ordered to dig in. this could be a bloody mistake for the Japanese.