4 January 1941
New activity in the Santa Cruz Islands, Kido Butai detaches a carrier.
CENTPAC
He sent another minesweeper into Pearl, along with a few barges and PTs. The minesweeper was shot up by coastal defenses, the barges and PTs hit mines. He also had a battleship and cruiser bombard the base again, but this time it was ineffective. He got close enough for coastal defense to return fire, and the battleship took a hit--but not more than its armor could handle.
Probably because that sub spotted the seaplane tenders evacuating yesterday, he sent part of the KB north to intercept, and found the evacuating tankers. My scouts still report "6 CV" near Lahaina, so I'm guessing he only sent one (the reports are never 100% accurate as to number and ship type). He bombed both with kates (just 13, tending to confirm only one carrier detached), sinking one and damaging the other. What sucks is they both had fuel onboard. I didn't offload it because based on my experience from when I tried to load troops to evacuate, I expected that moving them into the docks to unload would have triggered an attack. So now that fuel is helping the fires along.
One of my Catalinas is claiming that it bombed a CV as a target of opportunity. I have no way to verify this or determine the amount of damage.
I decided to do PT attacks on consecutive days instead of giving them a day to rest and repair, hoping to hit that damaged ARG some more. They were ready this time, 3 destroyers screened Lihue and drove the PTs off before they could approach.
A task force to the west of Pearl instead of the east is now reported to include a CVE. I still don't know if the Taiyo is really here. So far there's been no sign of enemy ships near the shipping lanes, including scout plane sightings.
Philippines
While the PTs in Hawaii failed, those in the Philippines succeeded. While he invades central islands in full view of my scoutplanes, I sent a PT squadron in to ruin their day. I found 6 transports escorted by only one PB. Again, the PTs were able to make a sustained attack instead of a hit-and-run. Two transports were on the bottom before the PTs left, two more crippled and likely to sink. Another was set on fire by .50cal hits. These ships had already offloaded their troops, though.
The IJA made a proper attack on Clark. We fought back well and gave far worse casualties than we took--5246 to 681, but lost a fortification level. It would probably be a pretty even fight, with favorable terrain balancing out their superior numbers. But factor in air support, and that we're running low on supplies while they can ship in more anytime... it's looking bad.
Dutch East Indies
More PTs arrived to harass the landing forces at Kendari, but they arrived in broad daylight and met the task force outside of the base rather than onshore. The task force, which included a cruiser and a destroyer, was able to disengage. Bad weather is obscuring the location of the task forces from scout planes.
Malaya
I had two AKLs trying to get badly needed supplies to Malacca. They were detected and sunk by Nells.
Other airstrikes targeted my retreating ground forces in Malacca. Enemy bombers caused significant damage to the severely disrupted units. But bad weather caused their escorts to do a **** job of protecting their bombers. Five Nells and a Val were shot down, they managed one Buffalo. Vals? What are they doing here? I'm not sure. There were only 3, my guess it it's a small unit from Taiwan.
I sent bombers to Malacca as well. Oscars on CAP managed to slip past my Hurricanes and shot down a Wirraway. But my bombers hit the enemy tanks chasing my troops and did pretty OK damage.
China
I've been bombing Ichang pretty much daily, and he's been letting me. Apparently he got tired of that. Nates and Tojos were on CAP there today, shooting down one medium bomber and turning the rest around. Those Tojos have been getting the better of the AVG so far, so I have to take them seriously. Fortunately, he only has a squadron of them.
SouthPAC
Lots of activity here all of a sudden.
A fast transport group (reported as 4 ships, including 1 CL and 2 DD) landed troops on Ndeni in the Santa Cruz islands. That I didn't see them until they arrived highlights a blind spot in my search capacity in the eastern solomons. If he thinks Luganville might have been a bridge too far, Ndeni can help give it air cover. Which reminds me, he's already completed a small airstrip at Guadalcanal.
We also spotted a 4-ship task force closing on Efate from the east, and a three ship force approaching Guadalcanal (reportedly with 2 CLs).
It's now been long enough since we've last seen the Soryu or the CVLBG that it wouldn't be surprising if they showed up here. But there's no sign of enemy scoutplanes this far south, yet.