Part 375: Operational Report: 16/12/42

The day starts with the normal bombardment of Tarawa.







Once again, my ships ignore my orders to flee the range of enemy bombers.



We have another brutal day at Guadalcanal, the Japanese are using the rough terrain on the island to its maximum effect.



We take out a third of the defenders at Merauke today, the Japanese defenders now running low on supplies. They have no intention of fleeing to deeply into the jungle it seems.







The Vengance's make an attack on the Japanese soldiers at Akyab, but are unable to hit the massed Japanese forces.



We hit them with artillery, which is much more effective.







We hit Shanghai once more, driving off the enemy fighters, damaging many of them, even though its not on the list.



Its just a shame that the bombers can't hit their targets on the ground.





The Japanese lead an attack at Kiangtu, it does not go well, but the Japanese are outnumbered three to one, so the attack is never going to end well.



At Wuhu, we take out all of their defences, meaning we can really start going to town on them tomorrow.



We track down the 104th Division for the last time, by now this once proud formation consists of 18 troops – one of who we kill twice.



That's one more force we no longer have to worry about.
Not everything goes our way, as there is once large Japanese formation left in the south. But they are running low on supplies.









Taking out the 104th Division has taken a long time, but its freed up a large section of the south now. Its also freed up a number of troops I can move to other areas to clear out more Japanese forces.
I'm moving the Shanghai Express to another target, to see if that makes any difference. - its time to hit Hiroshima once more.

The carriers have reached air range of Pearl Harbor again, and a load of their fighters have been replaced. They will actually make harbor tomorrow, when I will start setting up the invasion of the Marshall Islands.