23 October 1943
Philippine Sea
USS Grouper hit an Aden-class cargo ship (4875 tons) with a pair of Mk14s, sending it to the bottom. The ship was transporting artillery and was was passing north of the Palau Islands.
This is interesting, given how many unescorted cargo ships carrying land units have been sunk over the last week or two in the Sulu Sea. This is much further south than I'd expect them to be if they're using the "north-of-Mindanao" route (henceforth known as the Leyte Route as Leyte Gulf is its eastern terminal). So this suggests the merchant traffic may be on a dog-leg course east of the Philppines to try to throw me off. Grouper just happened to be passing through the lane on its way back to port to refuel.
Japan
USS Shad scored 2 hits on yet another Aden-class cargo ship, this one southeast of Shikoku.
CENTPAC and Truk
The enemy made a large-scale medium bomber attack on my forces still fighting on Tinian. They were as ineffective as my own raids previously.
B-24 raids on Truk met 16 Zeroes this time. Light airfield damage again--4 Zeroes shot down by the bombers though. 1 bomber lost to flak. I'm suspending these attacks for a bit; even though the Zeroes aren't getting kills outright they're still damaging the planes resulting in some operational losses and fewer overall ready aircraft. I'd rather let them repair and attack with a bit more mass and maybe get better results on the ground.
My newly-arrived amphibious group from Guadalcanal was detected as it started to make its way from Wake to Tinian, along with the first group of carriers to be replenished. Rather than let this be an inviting target for the KB while the other carriers are catching up, I'm having these guys double back a bit to make sure we link up ASAP. The marines on Tinian have plenty of supplies to hold out an extra day.
Reinforcements
DD Hoel arrives at San Francisco