Part 268: Operational Report: 31/08/42

To add insult to injury, today the Japanese minisub gets in on the action.



How the hell did it even get out this far?



It does need a big brother to finish off the job though. If these reports are accurate, that makes three different subs seen in a hundred mile radius in the last two days. I set four destroyers to patrol the area, but that is a much larger area than the enemy are using.



A fourth sub even enters Colombo harbour and tries to shoot up one of our cruisers anchored there.

This is Really starting to wind me up now. Although the torpedo nets do have some effect in protecting the harbour.



This doesn't stop the I-18 from entering and sinking another ship.



I must have every Japanese sub left in the region.





Our useless old bombers go out from Port Moresby once more, and once more fail to hit anything.



But the Japanese return the favour when they go after the task force carrying the Buna reinforcements.



They attack Buna as well, and while their bombs miss, their escorting Zero's are much more effective.







After a quiet day yesterday, the enemy make another, smaller push on Sinyang.



but the big news is Hong Kong, after weeks of attack, we finally take the city in a fairly bloodless day.



Well, for us anyway.
This means that we've taken the two most important cities in China in less than a week.







A great day in china is counterbalanced by a poor day in Burma. The number of Japanese subs in that small area makes me wonder if the Chinese are adopting Wolfpack tactics.

But back to the good news!



There may be 12,000 Japanese soldiers still in the area, but we control the city, and as well as depriving the enemy of a number of shipyards, we also have captured 16,000 tons of fuel – something that the Japanese will be needing. Our hungry men have consumed the supplies, but they will be replaced, and from now on, we will be the ones growing stronger.



In five days, the repairs on our shipping at Pearl Harbour will be complete, and the Tarawa invasion will begin – I'm adding two days to this to allow a number of long range AP class cargo ships to be upgraded.