12 September 1943
Severe bomber losses in the Dutch East Indies
Solomons
The New Mexico and Arizona are back in action bombarding Guadalcanal in advance of the troops marching on the enemy from the west side of the island.
DEI
Day 2 of my strikes on Kendari began with a P-38 sweep that knocked out 2 Tojos, a Nick, 3 Tonies and 4 Zeroes. 3 P-38s were lost. However, that was out of a whopping 67 aircraft on CAP, so we didn't reduce them by much.
Then came a raid--27 Hellcats escorting 40 SBD-5s. Enemy CAP strength was 45. Only two fighters on each side were shot down but the SBDs took heavy losses--33. And nothing of value was found in the naval base for them to bomb, the enemy had apparently already left.
The next raid targeted the KB which was entering the area south of Makassar. This was 10 P-40s and 17 P-47s escorting 32 SBD-5s out of the new base at Dili. The enemy CAP was 54 fighters and we got massacred. 9 P-47s, 4 P-40s down with only a Rufe and a Zero shot down for us. All 32 SBDs were shot down without reaching the task force.
Burma
B-24 raids over Rangoon ran into substantial fighter resistance. We lost a P-40 and one bomber, with them losing one Zero. A 2nd B-24 was shot down by flak. The Kitano Maru, apparently the toughest ship around, took another hit at the docks but still hasn't sunk yet.
USS Pompon but 2 Mk14s into a cargo ship at Port Blair for a kill.
China
A ground attack at Kiukiang failed to overrun our base but caused 1631(J) to 1540 (A) casualties.
Reinforcements
DD Conner arrives at Eastern USA
DD Nicholson arrives at Balboa
AS Maidstone arrives at Cape Town
No.21 Sqn RAAF arrives at Sydney
9th Marine Regiment arrives at San Francisco
81st (West African) Division arrives at Mombasa
__________________
|