Part 393: Operational Report: 03/01/43

The Swordfish makes an unsuccessful attack on a Japanese convoy.







Akyab is attacked once more by a huge wave of bombers, but a combination of fighters and flak drive them off with minimal damage to the port.



This is followed by another wave, and the flak brings down another plane.







Our carriers reach the Marshall Islands, and are attacked by the planes defending the area.



These are level bombers, but they have a good time against our carriers. The lightly armoured escort carriers are badly damaged by the bombs.



Some of the fighters sweep Maloelap, but their inexperienced pilots lose two of their number.



Then the Betty bombers come in, and we lose the Altamaha and the Nassau is not looking good.



The Nassau gets lucky, as she is hit by a dud during the next raid, and at this time, I am wondering where the hell my own bombers are.



They are making an attack on Wotje, and successfully prevent over a thousand Japanese soldiers from unloading, it seems that the Japanese are reinforcing their position in the islands.



An Nauru Island, the Resolution is hit by two more torpedoes and sinks.







There is another wave of Japanese troops attacking at Nanking.



Nanning is quiet today, with only a few casualties on either side.



South of Chuhsien, we continue to grind down the remaining defenders. They are low on supplies and ill trained.



The attack at Sinyang follows the same pattern as we saw at Akyab, today’s losses are still heavy, but nowhere near as heavy as yesterday, in fact, we destroyed more combat squads, so we may even have won today.







More fighting at Guadalcanal, the Japanese Division has all but ceased to exist as a fighting formation, but the soldiers are hidden across the island, and eliminating the pockets will take some time.









That was an expensive day. The loss of an escort carrier and the crippling of several others is a harsh price. Although we did kill a whole load of Japanese soldiers. Then there is the loss of another British battleship.



Painful, painful day. Here is the state of the other escort carriers in the group.



Lets hope tomorrow goes a bit better, or this will be the worst offensive in the war.