7 December 1943
USS Dorado lost, Kido Butai defeats USN/USMC air attack in Celebes Sea
Philippine Sea
USS Greenling torpedoed and likely sank a PB off Legaspi, one of at least 2 escorts for a tanker. The tanker got away.
USS Salmon laid a minefiled on the interior side of Legaspi.
Further south near the Palaus, B-25Gs and Beaufighters attacked 3 enemy cruisers from low altitude, scoring a single bomb hit on the heavy cruiser Kinugasa, setting it on fire. Nothing that can't be repaired. 4 Nicks attempted to intercept but there were no losses on either side.
Also near the Palaus, USS Dorado attacked a replenishment group comprised of at least 3 oilers and 4 destroyers. It missed, only to be sunk by the escorting destroyers' counterattack. It doesn't appear that Dorado ever had any victories in this campaign.
Celebes Sea
The KB made a brief appearance near Jolo, an island separating the Sulu Sea from the Celebes Sea. This drew airstrikes from our bases at Manado and Talaud-elanden, and as you might imagine these strikes went about as well as other relatively small strikes against the KB.
The initial battle was 16 SBD-3s and 16 TBFs escorted by 9 Corsairs and 18 Hellcats, up against a CAP of 78 A6M5 Zeroes and 18 A6M2s. All of our attack aircraft were wiped out, along with 5 Hellcats and 3 Corsairs. We splashed 2 Zeroes.
The second wave was 11 Corsairs escorting 16 more Avengers; the enemy CAP was still overwhelming with 68 fighters in the air. We shot down 1 Zero while losing 1 Corsair and all 16 Avengers.
Wave three was a second attempt from the first group. 4 Avengers escorted by 13 Corsairs and 9 Hellcats vs 92 enemy fighters total. We shot down 3 Zeroes while losing 1 Hellcat, 2 Corsairs, and 1 Avenger. The other 3 Avengers aborted and escaped.
I've trained enough attack pilots to replace these losses... barely. Further losses will result in decreasing pilot quality, I'm stretched pretty thin on qualified Avenger pilots already.
China
bombing targets:
Sinyang (ground forces): 43 casualties
Anking (ground forces): 57 casualties
Kiukiang (ground forces): 23 casualties
Burma
bombing targets:
Moulmein (ground forces): 0 casualties
near Rangoon (ground forces): 10 vehicles lost
Uttaradit (ground forces): 14 casualties
DEI
bombing targets:
Ambon (ground forces, airbase): 0 casualties, 14 base hits
Makassar (ground forces): Raid of 10 B-26s escorted by 12 P-47s intercepted by 9 George fighters. 4 Georges shot down, no friendly losses. 6 enemy casualties on the ground.
Kendari (airbase): 22 hits
ground combat:
Ambon: allied deliberate attack - forts reduced to Level 3, casualties 334(J) to 364(A). Japanese bombardment attack - ineffective.
Truk
bombing ground forces and port: 16 casualties, 2 port hits
land combat:
Allied deliberate attack: no fortifications left. Casualties 1201(J) to 297 (A). We're getting close.
An Avenger reported another hit on an enemy submarine near the Yankee Butai.
Reinforcements
SS Truculent arrives at Aden
No.621 Sqn RAF Det arrives at Socotra
417th BG/672nd BS arrives at Eastern USA
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