Part 74: Operational Report: 18/02/42

The Pike and the dud torpedoes, the same story, every day.



Our attack at Sinyang is a disaster, with the sole saving grace that we force the enemy out of their defences. We now massively outnumber the enemy, so another heavy attack tomorrow should continue to wear them down.



To the north east, we force back a brigade of enemy troops as our small offensive continues to see success.



At Pucheng, we shatter the Imperial 22nd Division, killing nearly a sixth of their men in one day and forcing them to retreat.







Batavia comes under attack again today. The runway takes a pounding and one of the planes I've not been able to move yet is destroyed.



As does Soerabaja, here they target the small ships that don't have the range to move overseas.



Our Swordfish strike north again, but the enemies have Zeros in the skies now, and the old biplanes are no match for the top of the range fighters.



The carriers throw their planes at Batavia, again taking out a number of small ships.



Although they are losses, they are all patrol ships of various types. So we've not lost anything of valuable. They return in the afternoon and take out two planes, but inflict no more damage.




The defenders of Bataan have had a few days off, but the bombardment begins again today.



This is the prelude to the enemy advancing behind a heavy barrage of fire.








At Rangoon, the enemy try and force the attack once more, but the attack collapses, and they take heavy losses, especially amongst their vehicles.










The Chinese offensive is going well, and our losses in Java, while heavy in numbers, are not the most important of equipment and personnel.







Its time to make the last valuable run from Soerabaja – the damaged ships.



The only real worries there are the Soreabaja – an oversized patrol ship, and the Royal Sovereign, a British Battleship still mainly full of water. But all that water is now major flooding – so unless she takes some more hits, or her pumps fail, we should be safe from losing her.
After taking this shot I split the ships into two separate forces, so the slow damaged ships will not slow the cruisers down in their race towards Darwin.




The carriers should be beginning their strikes in the next few days.



The slower ships of the troop transports will be a day or so behind, ready to sweep in once the carriers have knocked out the enemies air defences.
I hope.

At Pearl itself, I take the Arizona and Oklahoma out of the overstretched dry docks, in three days I'll send them out to the West Coast for final repairs.