Part 29: Operational Report: 04/01/42

The Repulse runs into the carrier, but her captain decides that the British battlecruiser is far to damaged to engage even this poorly armed ship and her destroyer escort. So without either side firing a shot, they disengage.



The Zuiho waits until afternoon before launching her fighters, and when she does its not at the badly damaged ship, but at the port of Soerabaja.



The CAP suffers badly, losing a third of its strength to the enemy planes, but for some reason the enemy attacks this port rather than all this ships we have out in the sea around her.

Over Malaya, the enemy shift their bombing campaign to a fresh target, continuing their tactic of softening up our defences before their attack waves.



Manado falls to the enemy today. When outnumbered two to one, there is little you can expect our men to do.








The daylight bombing continues over all of our remaining bases in Luzon. And the enemy opt to bombard the defenders of Clark Field rather than launching another headlong assault.





The enemy continue widespread bombardment of our defences, but this is not enough to break our men's spirits, and the Japs once more launch an ill advised attack and pay for it with horrendous casualties.











Another quiet day. I wish that the captain of the Repulse had at least put a few rounds into the enemy ships, and where the rest of Task Force Z was I don't know.



Before I go looking for them, I look at the sig intel. As usual there is nothing of any major importance, but lost of background movement of the enemy.







It seems that Task Force Z retired back to port, rather than trying to hunt down the enemy carrier. But she's still in range, and I'm sending them out again to try and engage the enemy and hunt down the Zuiyo once and for all.
To maximize the chances of getting her, I've split the force down into two forces or near equal size, and named the new force Task Force Y.

The Repulse has managed to pump some of the water out of her hull, so as long as she doesn't take any more damage, she has a chance of making it back to port.





Finally the Saratoga has finished her repairs, and is now ready to be moved out to Pearl with the Yorktown.



As you can tell, this time I'm not skimping on the destroyers. If these ships get torpedoed again, heads will roll!