27 November 1942
Targets of opportunity in China and Solomons?
Northern Australian Coast
An enemy submarine tried to transit the straits around Horn Island, where I had a minesweeper on patrol. We scored several damaging near-misses before it got away.
At Babar, I'm a little concerned that the enemy troops are recovering faster than we're hurting them. Nevertheless our additional light infantry unit is nearly fully disembarked and our supply levels are increasing. There's also no sign of naval intervention and we've now gone two days without a Betty raid. That's... both good and bad. I like that our operation is proceeding, but sometimes a lack of activity precedes a surge.
Burma, Thailand, and Indochina
Enemy airpower continues to focus on our former Rangoon base forces. It appears enemy troops are going to try to hit Raheng again head-on rather than cut off their supply. I'm pulling a few units back to blunt that blow, while the Vengeance bombers continue to interdict them. I expect the total force to be about a division, and that my local forces can handle them.
The overall picture here is still rather poor, as whatever supplies are coming in through the mountains aren't even keeping pace with Raheng's needs, much less the major army at Moulmein. I still can't decide the army at Moulmein is going to fall back to northern Burma through that same mountain path, or if they'd be better off trying to go through Indochina. I've moved some recon aircraft to the China-Indochina border to investigate enemy force levels there. Along with way, I had them snoop Canton, and it looks really weak--just about 6,000 troops there. These estimates have been off before, so I won't act based on this just yet, but that's a possible operation for when I finally finish off the 4 surrounded divisions in Foochow.
Solomons
Recon flights over Guadalcanal didn't report the massive air presence we've become used to seeing there. Once again, I don't want to leap into action based on one uncorroborated report. I'll confirm that with another recon mission tomorrow---with a P-38 sweep for extra confirmation. If it still looks weak, there are a lot of ships in harbor there that are looking really inviting.
Refits and Reinforcements
CL Phoenix beginning refit in shipyard at Sydney
BB Indiana arrives at Balboa
12th Marine Defense Battalion arrives at San Diego (full strength, unrestricted)
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