Part 388: Operational Report: 29/12/42

Our forces arrive at Finschhafen and begin the invasion.



To the south one of the Dutch subs takes out a patrol boat. Although two torpedoes is a bit excessive for this small a craft.



Dawn breaks, and the invasion force is attacked, I fear for them when I see the Betties, but our forces survive this first attack with no damage.



The next wave is Lillys, and also does no damage. A wave of Kate's comes in, and the Java gets lucky when she is hit by a dud torpedo.



We don't get as lucky in the next wave, as one of the transports is hit. Casualties on board are reported as only five men however, so it could have been work.



The Imperial Army then attacks our beachhead on the ground, but are unable to shift the troops landing here, after just one day of landing, we already have the same AV as the Japanese forces, so we should be able to deal with them when all the troops are ashore.



We have another good day at Guadalcanal, and it seems the back of the Japanese forces has finally been broken.







Akyab comes under air assault again today, but there is little damage to our port there.



Five more waves of various types follow this, but the damage is still minimal, and I'm not planning on risking ships to send supplies while I do not have air superiority in the region, something that I need to try and regain.





The Shanghai Express rolls out in full force, attacking with 22 planes and causing minor damage to the Naval shipyard in Nagasaki.



I'll try light industry tomorrow – there is more of that, so it should be easier to hit. A second wave lags behind a bit, and does some more damage to anything currently being built or repaired here.







The Japanese once more attack Kiangtu, how they get their men to continually attack such a superior force is beyond me! Today one in ten of them fail to return to their lines.



We follow this with a counter attack, which while it costs us more men, cost the Japanese more squads, which is a long term win for us.



To the north, the Japanese try and open supply lines to their remnant units in the south. They force our men to retreat, but we still block the road.









Another day of heavy ground combat, and we came out ahead at all of them, the numerous air attacks the Japanese are making are, for the most part, harmless – that's not to say that some of them are dangerous though.
But the big news of the day is that the Marshal Island invasions are a go.



These are the targets, the southern two islands are to be attacked by troops from Luganville and Suva, the northern two by troops from Pearl Harbor. All three fleet carriers and six escort carriers are being committed to the region in three task forces. So this could be a very bloody invasion if it goes wrong.



Attacks on Milne Bay, Canton and Goodenough island are planned, but we can't be sure what resources the Japanese have to carry them out.