14 December 1941
Time for my bomber forces to take a beating
The dark days of the war are in full swing
Philippines
Taking advantage of their victory in the Celebes Sea yesterday, a SCTF of 3 CA and 3 DD went on a tear, sinking 5 cargo ships trying to leave the area. Fortunately, they did not spot the transports evacuating the Cavite Base Force.
The Japanese gave most of their medium bombers the day off to recover from yesterday's beatdown. Fighter sweeps cleared all my fighters out from over Clark, 5 P-40s and a P-26 lost. Light bombers attempted to hit ships in port but came up empty. We shot down a few, but these are obsolete models that aren't good for much other than coastal ASW patrols, so it doesn't really matter.
The Soryu finished off the Marblehead, while Claudes from Ryujo shot down a Dutch bomber trying to attack Ternate.
The P-35s at Cagayan once again failed to stop the unescorted bombers hitting their base. With my surface forces defeated, there's not much point to keeping them here, time to head back to Manila/Clark.
Weather kept my B-17s on the ground.
Malaya
My bombers took a beating. I decided to go with unescorted medium bomber strikes while cancelling torpedo bomber strikes for a day, to let my fighters repair. Instead of meeting Nates, my bombers found Oscars on CAP at Kota Baru. I lost three to the Oscars and two more to flak. Another Blenheim and 3 Wirraways were lost to the CAP over Kuantan. And about those torpedo bombers..I forgot I had them at two bases, so I didn't cancel all the strikes. I lost 6 Vildebeests thanks to that.
Other
-They made a push in Rabaul and failed. But they're landing more troops. Just a matter of time.
-I still hold Midway, for now. It looks like my coastal guns actually wore them down enough that my marines could take them in a head-to-head fight. But my troops are too disrupted by naval gunfire to attempt a counterattack. I had the USS Indianapolis and several destroyer-minesweepers make a stop there (it was in the area trying to avoid the KB), too late to shell any of the transports. The Indy's scouts spotted a covering force, so I'm going to shell the marines and GTFO before KB arrives.
-My ASW group in west Java managed to find one of their subs but only caused light damage
-Two enemy subs are now known to be operating east of Surabaya, one took out an AKL.
-I lied about Kavieng yesterday--we do have troops there. Just 55 of them, but enough to shoot 12 Japanese soldiers in the face and send the invaders running for cover for the night. They'll be surrounded by tomorrow, though.
-I don't think any of my subs attempted a single attack today. Probably means the troop convoys passing through their areas finished their missions, it may be time to shift patrol areas. It's definitely time to change the Asiatic Fleet's homeport from Manila to Surabaya; any sub returning to Manila at this point is likely to be bombed.
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