8 December 1942
Chaos in Burma; PTs miss amphibious transports, but they turn around anyway?
Timor Sea
We had 11 PTs take on their amphibious group--which had only an APD and 2 PBs as escorts, on a moonless night with combat breaking out at just 2,000 yards. We managed one torpedo hit, which was a dud. 4 of our PTs were lost to return fire.
I'm not sure why, but this group ended up turning around. My best guess: he lost sight of my carriers yesterday and thought they left and ordered his fleet in, but when the enemy scouts spotted my carriers today, the AI commander of the amphibs chickened out. And not irrationally--it did save them from a punishing airstrike.
There was a Betty raid on Darwin; our CAP shot down 1 Zero and 1 Betty before they turned around.
The Yamato's group made it back to Koepang; the O20 and KXIII took shots at them near the base but missed.
An enemy sub took approached the Lex&Sara's replenishment group, got caught and got depth charged for moderate to heavy damage. The CVBG's Avengers also reported another hit on a sub. It looks like there are at least 6 in the area, though.
It's my turn to push a little, I need to get supplies and fuel into the area pretty badly, and at least for now we're not seeing enemy carriers, and my carriers are in position to support the fleet movements.
Caroline Islands
USS Herring torpedoed and sank a PB that was part of an ASW group hunting it.
Solomons and New Britain
Nicks came out to play with the P-38s this time, we shot 3 of them down along with 5 Dinah recon aircraft that were apparently on a training flight.
Burma and Thailand
What a mess. We lost Swebo to paratroops. Not a huge deal but it will likely slow down supply flow to us. The bulk of the enemy tanks arrived in Mandalay, hot on the heels of our retreating Rangoon base forces. We have some fortifications there, and a decent number of troops, but not a whole lot of antitank guns. The B-25s and B-24s are going to work together to try to suppress them tomorrow. While that's going on, I'm trying to pull some more base forces back so if I can move planes out of here, I'd hate to lose squadrons on the ground if there's a rapid overrun.
In Thailand, the western evacuation continues with tons of bombing slowing us down. At the nose of the procession, the enemy has moved the equivalent of 2 divisions into Uttaradit. So much for my hope of short-term local force superiority. I'm close to that, but not quite. The best thing I can do for now if let the procession continue and hope I build up a critical mass faster than he does, all the while getting bombed and with supplies continuing to be consumed.
Refits and Reinforcements
SS Sunfish begins refit while under repair at Seattle (She made it!!!!)
AK Carina arrives at Alameda
SC PC-1077 arrives at Los Angeles
VS-2D13 arrives at Seattle (restricted, full strength floatplane unit--training duty)
5th USN Naval Construction Regiment arrives at Port Hueneme