June 19th
Timor Sea:
...didnt go anywhere near as planned. For some reason, the BatDiv I has only moved 1 hex, and BatDiv II has now caught it... I'm still going in, though. I'm not sure what happened overnight, except had allowed refueling escorts if needed...
G4M1s bombing Darwin find minimal AAA defenses, hit approximately 20 aircraft, but destroying (as confirmed) just 2 of them: a P-39D and an L-18 Lodestar. Lots of damaged bombers and dive bombers reported, so the operation is still a go.
Burma:
Paradrops dont work quite as they were supposed to, either: half of the 2nd Raiders jumps in but fails to dislodge the defenders(purely my fault, I knew the transport planes' capacity wasnt enough, but also the unit had wrong operational status), however losses are small. Bomber strikes dont fly because of bad weather. All bombers ordered to hit Chiang Mai tomorrow, rest of the 2nd Raiders will be dropped in.
New Guinea: looks like the enemy has opened a new air field closer than Buna and Port Moresby, at Finschafen. Tomorrow, a group of Zeroes sweeps it, then 120 bombers strike it with a second Zero unit escorting. A6M2-Ns sweep Gasmata hoping to find some fighters flying CAP...
Other news: a US submarine sinks a transport and hits another near Kavieng(Japanese ASW vessels doing nothing, again), a new DD leaves the shipyards at Nagoya, an ASW G3M2 unit is transferred to Truk(to protect Carrier Division I as well as in and outgoing traffic, supply and fuel convoys mainly), and in China a Japanese regiment utterly crushes 3 already severely weakened Chinese Corps, the Japanese unit suffering practically no losses, throwing the Chinese back in the woods...