Task Force Spruance Strikes Sinkawang!
The badly damaged POW limped out of Batavia harbor, and promptly crawled back to Batavia per orders of the AI. To rectify this I changed the orders to “Remain on station” and routing to “direct”; I am not sure if it will work though. Anyway, the Japanese spotted the cripple just outside of Batavia and sent a strike of four Nells which were fortunately deterred by Batavia’s CAP.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Batavia at 49,98
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Japanese aircraft
G3M2 Nell x 4
Allied aircraft
B-339D x 5
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
4 x G3M2 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
Normally, strikes of about 30 Nells from Sinkawang are common, but ADM. Spruance of the US Navy disrupted that:
Night Naval bombardment of Singkawang at 56,88
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M2 Nell: 18 damaged
G3M2 Nell: 4 destroyed on ground
A6M2 Zero: 3 damaged
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed on ground
Allied Ships
CA Houston
CL Boise
CL Mauritius
CL Tromp
CL De Ruyter
CL Java
DD Banckert
Japanese ground losses:
336 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 49 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 23
Port hits 2
Port supply hits 3
On the Task Force’s way into Sinkawang it discovered, and sunk a DD and an AP full of troops that I suspect were an AA unit of some type. In the engagement with the DD, the Dutch Destroyer took moderate damage from two shell hits. The totally BEST part of this attack (Not!) was that Task Force Spruance was ordered to “Remain on Station”, an unfortunate vestigal ordre from the previous turn, so the TF remained at Sinkawang, at Full Speed I might add, all day. Japanese Nells, of course, attacked:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Singkawang at 56,88
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 64 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
G3M2 Nell x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M2 Nell: 5 damaged
Allied Ships
CA Houston
CL Mauritius
CL Tromp
CL Boise
Aircraft Attacking:
11 x G3M2 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
The lack of hits was fortuitous.
The IJN mKB attacked Soerabaja the previous turn without much damage to the port:
Afternoon Air attack on Soerabaja , at 56,104
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 15
A6M2 Zero x 14
B5N1 Kate x 24
B5N2 Kate x 27
D3A1 Val x 35
Allied aircraft
B-339D x 10
CW-21B Demon x 12
75A-7 Hawk x 12
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N1 Kate: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
D3A1 Val: 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-339D: 2 destroyed
CW-21B Demon: 1 destroyed
75A-7 Hawk: 1 destroyed
Port hits 3
In an air attack on Singapore this turn, the Japanese suffered significant numbers of damaged aircraft from the not-insignificant AA at that base in a foretaste of the bloodshed to come.
