[font="Times New Roman"]15 October 1942[/font]
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subs: Under a waning moon and a clear sky mini-sub SSX Ha-5, launched yesterday by the large mother sub I-16, eases quietly into Suva harbor. Even during the early morning hours a few smoking and damaged ships are entering port from the surrounding areas, some being towed, others limping in under their own power. Only a few ships seem to be on patrol duty. Among them is the destroyer Fox.
As the Ha-5 comes within sight of the port Fox turns and moves in it's direction. LT Murananka O., with only his periscope above water does not know if he's been sighted but takes no chances and orders the sub down, changing course to the East, then back out to the South. After 30 minutes of maneuvering he resurfaces to find his bearings. He is further out than where he last sighted Fox. He cannot see anything moving now, as the last stragglers appear to have anchored or moored in the inner harbor.
LT Muranaka is then startled by the sudden appearance of a destroyer not 500 meters away off of his port bow. He realizes quickly that it is moving very slowly and then sees the smaller yard craft towing the ship into port. Judging by the seeming list of the ship he deduces that it is badly damaged and returning from the previous day's battles. He has only a few seconds to calculate the distance and speed of his target and the resulting deflection angle while the ship is in front of him at such an ideal attack position and before its crew sights his own small vessel in the phosphorescence of the South Pacific waters.
At 04:37 he fires two of the new Type 98 torpedoes at what turns out to be the destroyer Wilson, (which had been hit the previous day by both a 12.7cm shell from the destroyer Shirayuki and later by an air-launched torpedo). Less than 30 seconds later he is jolted by a severe explosion and sees the ship seemingly leap from the water in two pieces cut just aft of the bridge.
The remains of the Wilson pirouette over and sink quickly as LT Muranaka steers away and orders the boat submerged for the journey back out to the open ocean rendezvous with the I-16 to report the success of his attack to the Empire. Banzai!
Also near Suva I-176 hits DD Allen, (already heavily damaged by 3 250kg bomb hits), with two torpedoes.
Drum hits supply ship xAK Nisso Maru near Nagoya.
So Pac: The KB and SCTFs move North to Tulagi. Several subs are sighted and attacked near the fleet.
Burma: Many divisions are now in Burma. Seven full divisions are here plus the pieces of the 1st and 2nd armored divisions, still awaiting their arty units to be bought out from Manchuria to reform. This means I need to send more supply here. I'm still struggling to find enough supply from the HI to bring all areas of the Empire to comfortable levels.
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"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
