9 December 1941
Magwe under attack in Burma, Timor area mostly quiet for now
Japan
A 3-tanker convoy got past our subs near Okinawa. USS Gunnel managed one dud hit on one of them.
Timor and Arafura Seas
The local surface action group is making its way back to Darwin to hopefully resume bombardment missions. A sub intercepted it on the way, but we spotted it in time and depth charged it pretty good. The Lex/Sara CVBG was also approached by a sub, but the escorts spotted it and forced it to break off.
My carriers are backing off a bit, trying to avoid the subs and leaving the defense of Babar and Darwin to their local air forces.
New Britain
He tried protecting Rabaul with Tojos but that didn't work any better, 3 shot down with no P-38 losses. Damage from the B-17 raids looks like it's starting to accumulate, so I might be able to disable the airbase if I keep it up. With the base nearly empty, though, am I just disabling it against my own future use?
Burma and Thailand
The tip of the evacuation train at Uttaradit drew pretty much every enemy bomber in theatre, it had to be over 200 aircraft. Except for 6 Anns that bombed Moulmein. The jungle is pretty thick here so this isn't the best use of them, but it will mean we can't counterattack effectively. The enemy land forces attacked, causing 654 casualties while taking 1194. The combat report indicated the enemy had a slow supply alert, but not me. Good to see that the garbage infrastructure of the area is hurting him as much as it's hurting me. Really no excuse, though, he has a rail line from Bangkok to here and nothing stopping him from landing supplies in Bangkok. Except, perhaps, that his strategic-level supply picture is actually bad and keeping Bangkok supplied wasn't a priority.
We suffered 7 more Blenhiem losses thanks to poor fighter-to-bomber coordination near Magwe. Late arriving Hurricane sweeps got 2 of the responsible Zeroes, but suffered 2 losses of their own. Over Magwe itself, our Hurricanes shot down 5 Zeroes and 2 Oscars while taking just 3 losses, helping our B-25s and B-24s get through to the tank-heavy enemy units below. But the fighter numbers are titling in their favor up here now, too. I wish I could say it was going to get better soon, but it's not. He attacked here with his land forces--mostly tanks--dishing out 400 casualties while taking 190--and not taking significant armor losses. That's bad, really bad.
We finished off the remaining paratroops at Cox's Bazaar.
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