Another month has passed and we are doing turns rather quickly - too quickly to keep up with the AAR. Luckily not a whole lot it happening on most of these turns.
On the morning of 2nd August, mini KB made a bold move and arrived ~200 miles SW of Calcutta -- her approach was perfect and completely undetected. But let me back up a week or two...
The Royal Navy finally made an appearance in July near Rangoon. My Netties at Rangoon have been growing bored looking for naval targets and most of the skilled torpedo pilots were ordered back home to be saved for later and ground pounder pilots were swapped in - as it is a rich ground target environment in Burma right now. So of course 2 days after I make the switch, the Royal Navy appeared off the coast of Rangoon. The pilots sortied with unknown weapons strapped to their planes and proceeded to attack. Not a single torpedo hit was scored against the cruiser force that appeared - but the threat caused the Royal Navy to retreat and cower in Calcutta Harbor.
So the RN stayed there for at least a week with my patrols spotting them nearly daily. So the mini KB was ordered forth from Singapore where several of the ships just finished their June 42 upgrades. The mini KB swung away from the coastline and approached from the ocean and achieved complete surprise. On the morning of 2nd August the pilots of the mini KB launched...
The British had a large CAP up (over 80 fighters) but they weren't ready for the attack and my planes made it though with few losses and attacked the RN fleet at anchor.
Morning Air attack on TF, near Calcutta at 52,37
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 110 NM, estimated altitude 21,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 41 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 56
B5N1 Kate x 10
B5N2 Kate x 42
D3A1 Val x 42
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 32
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 2 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 4 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 2 destroyed by flak
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
CL Ceres, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CA Exeter
CL Enterprise
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
CA Devonshire, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Dauntless, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Cornwall
DD Inconstant, Bomb hits 3, on fire
DD Hotspur, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Griffin, Bomb hits 1
DD Foxhound
Unfortunately the Kate pilots must have had too much Saki before take off as they all missed - not a single torpedo struck a target despite over 50 torpedos launched [:@]
The Divine Gods of Japan decided to give me a second wave in the PM phase [:D]
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Calcutta at 52,37
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 77 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 28 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 53
B5N2 Kate x 20
D3A1 Val x 27
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 15
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed
D3A1 Val: 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 2 destroyed
Allied Ships
CA Exeter, Bomb hits 6
CA Cornwall, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
Only 20 torpedoes were carried in this attack but they all missed as well.
Overall a lot of 250kg hits on the British Cruisers and DDs. Even though nothing sunk most of those ships will be in repair yards for a while. Over all a very good day for the IJN.