April 24, 1942
Dan: Coldplay is a very cool group that fits my definition of good music - namely a dramatic sound with smart lyrics that inspires the listener to participate in a bayonet or cavalry charge. I have very specific taste in music! That said I also like Jimmy Buffet, which only inspires me to charge the margarita machine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldplay
Mike: Cribtop HQ's Fringe Division reports PzB has found the tank divisions to be useful in Burma and I suspect I'll send them there. One might be used as a fast delaying force in NW Oz once we are on the defensive there.
Subs
Seal is DC'd by MKB's ASW TF and by escorts for Tanaka Force near Toboali. No big hits on the sub but we keep her away from the high value targets. This is the beginning of a treasure trove of intel this turn for Cuttlefish regarding MKB's location.
Gudgeon torpedoes an xAK ferrying part of an Air HQ to Truk. Good choice of target as the convoy had other less valuable units and supply only xAKs. The xAK doesn't sink outright but is probably doomed. Hopefully our lifeboats will rescue much of the unit fragment.
4th Fleet
No change.
SE Fleet
We have a horde of subs camping out near Fiji, which appears to be a major base for the enemy. Hoping for a return on this investment. No sign of the 4Es, which reinforces our opinion that the raids on PM were a test run.
14th Army
More central PI bases will soon be on the menu.
16th Army
CF moves 9 LCUs to within a hex of Daly Waters, where 2 and soon to be 3 IJA tank regiments are holding the line. They are now in range of our bombers and we will bring them under air attack.
BA Darwin makes an interesting discovery - CF has assembled 8th Aussie Division there, but it only has 102 raw AS. Lots of support troops are present along with a few other small infantry units. Raw AS is 893 vs 245 with good prep for our LCUs. We should be in good shape to take the base but at this distance from our beach head supply draws are slow in coming. Add to that the 9 LCUs near Daly and we need to take Darwin before the enemy cuts our LoC to Wyndham. A worrying situation that spurs Cribtop HQ into action. We make contingency plans to pull 2nd Division out of Java if necessary (we hope it isn't), to shift more LBA over to bomb the enemy, and will even bring MKB to the party if needed (more on the rationale for this later).
Still, we won't panic. Darwin has been out of supply for some time now (recall the re-supply convoy destroyed by Nells well over a month ago). If fort levels aren't too high we should take it pretty easily and bag a nice capture, but there is some danger so we will address the soft spots. CF's actions here perhaps indicate the importance of NW Oz to his plans and hint at an intention to pursue the Darwin-Timor axis of attack.
25th Army
IJNAF planes from Denpasar sweep and bomb the now crowded aerodrome at Soerabaja. Even
in extremis, CF's planes prefer to die on their fields rather than rise to do battle. Tomorrow Malang should fall, leaving Soerabaja as the last functional Allied airfield on Java.
We try another DA on isolated enemy units at 53, 104 but only net a 1:2 with casualties 108(1) vs 184(0). We will soon have more troops here to finish this pocket.
Now the big news. MKB is spotted by Catalinas making for the Sunda Strait. Specifically, Tanaka Force is pegged with 8+ DL and a "Main Body" message, while CarDiv 1 gets an "Enemy Carriers" message and a similar DL. Car Div 2 only has a DL of 4, but the jig is up.
Why did we go the Sunda Route? We knew Batavia was closed and hoped to damage Soerabaja enough to stop his search planes. Further, it will take 2 or more weeks for 18th Division to slog to Sabang and we knew search a/c based there would spot us if we used the Malacca Strait. Therefore we decided to try Sunda, knowing there was a risk of detection.
Now what? We could push on into the IO, but if that doesn't get CF's spidey senses tingling nothing will. We would probably have to go full speed tomorrow to avoid being spotted in the IO and even then if planes from Sabang spot us, or CF gets another sub intercept, we're dead to rights. We could fall back to Singers and try again when Sabang falls, and in fact plan to do just that in the future.
However, in the short run we have to deal with the fact CF now knows the location of MKB for the first time in over a month and also have that little issue in NW Oz. Cribtop HQ is of the opinion that we would be advised to create a narrative that MKB had something on its mind other than Colombo, and further believes that moving toward the Torres Strait will discourage any sudden moves by the enemy in SE Fleet AO.
Thus we give orders to move toward Soerabaja and hammer the airfield with Kates. This will put us close enough to Oz to intervene there if things get ugly and will hopefully lead CF to believe that supporting the ground attack on Soerabaja was all we were up to. No doubt he will think we are misusing MKB, but this should throw him off the scent of Colombo and allow us to try again when the Malacca Strait is open in mid May. Not ideal, but there you are.
15th Army
BA Myitkyina shows raw AS 127 vs 122, but we have another regiment about to enter the hex. The defenders consist of Burma Army refugees and we believe them to be low EXP units that can be shoved aside.
Waiting on the last Sentai of Oscars to get in position to open up our air offensive.
China
We shift air assets to Hankow in furtherance of our devious plan, namely the attempt to encircle and destroy CF's army currently sitting on Wuchang. More on this in later posts.
5th Fleet
Umnak Island makes level 2 airfield for the bad guys. We will nose around to determine whether CF building up for a summer offensive or merely taking defensive precautions. Our subs up here have yet to detect major convoys in the area, but we will use the Amchitka Jakes to make sure. These waters may even get a visit from the CVE Raiders and the main body of 5th Fleet.
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