14 September 1943
DEI
Submarine S-28 attempted an attack on the enemy fleets at Ambon and ended up getting badly depth charged. It's limping back to Darwin.
O-19 also attempted an attack, striking a destroyer with a torpedo before also being depth charged badly enough to need to abort and RTB.
South of Makassar, USS Seadragon intercepted a convoy of mostly-destroyers but with a few transports included. It torpedoed and sank a Kaibokan and got away nearly undamaged.
1 CL and 4DD bombarded our base at Dili, destroying a P-40 and a Spitfire on the ground and disabling several more aircraft.
A B-25G squadron apparently decided Ambon was too hot, so went all the way west to Kolaka, Makassar to shoot up enemy shipping. They sank a PB and severely damaged a SC, which will probably also go down.
9 SBD-5s showed up at Ambon unescorted somehow. We lost 5 of them before they pulled out. Enemy CAP strength was 60 -- I really thought it would be lower after the Shokaku took that beating yesterday.
China
We cleared out another hex around Canton. I think it's safe to say the enemy forces remaining here aren't a threat. Casualties 5619 to 1604.
Marshalls
I've had intermittent contact with small convoys around the Marshalls for the last week or so, so I'd sent in a few destroyers to try to interdict them. We finally hit pay dirt today, with a task force of 3 DD sinking a cargo ship and subchaser off Tarawa. They then located another cargo ship escorted by PB and another subchaser and sank them too.
Reinforcements
DD Chauncey arrives at Balboa
LST-38 arrives at Balboa
LST-40 arrives at Cristobal
DE Godavari arrives at Aden
No.5 Sqn RAAF arrives at Cloncurry
VMO-251 arrives at San Diego
24th USN Naval Construction Regiment arrives at Port Hueneme
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