8 February 1944
USS Darter lost in Japanese home waters
Japanese Home Waters
USS Darter was patrolling off Miyako-jima when it was spotted by an ASW group. They were as accurate as they needed to be with their depth charges.
China
-Another night raid on Kanshien, no damage
Allied raids:
near Taiyuan (ground forces): 50 casualties
near Chengchow (ground forces: 53 casualties
ground combat:
near Hankow, Allied Deliberate Attack, 37k troops vs 4k troops, 2639(J) to 141 (A) casualties, enemy units retreating. This is a mop-up attack.
DEI
Allied raids:
Surabaya (night, airbase): 3 base hit, 1 Tony destroyed on the ground
Surabaya (sweep): 2 Corsairs lost, 3 Georges and 2 Tonies shot down
Koepang (ground forces and airbase): 17 casualties, 5 base hits
Kendari (ground forces) 12 casualties
Sumatra
A British heavy cruiser detachment approached Sabang to try to intercept a replenishment task force we'd spotted at harbor there. We failed to find the target, so they shelled the base instead. 195 casualties reported with an Irving destroyed in the airbase.
Burma and Thailand
A major B-24 raid on Bangkok was opposed by 16 Franks. So they're suddenly defending it now? 1 B-24 went down, but we still hit the base pretty hard, 32 hits plus a George destroyed on the ground. A sweep by 12 P-47s later shot down 5 Franks with no losses, so their resistance should collapse.
Other raids:
Ayuthia (ground forces) 307 casualties. I'm softening these guys up to minimize my casualties when my armies cross the river under fire.
Philippines
A second bombing attempt by the new Venturas based in Amoy failed to hit an AKL off Batan Island.
A B-24 raid on Manila resulted in 5 B-24s shot down by fighters and another by flak. Just 1 Frank and 2 Georges were tallied for our side, and just light damage on the ground, including a Frank and a George blown up on the ground. Gotta give the W to Japan over Manila today.
I moved the Yankee Butai to within range of Manila to try to get some airstrikes on the ASW patrols around Luzon. The carriers arrived, but they didn't launch any strikes. Apparently these little PBs and SCs don't register as important enough targets for SBDs and TBFs. One SC was bombed by a scout bomber, though.
Reinforcements
DD Tingey arrives at San Francisco
DD Ingraham arrives at Balboa
DE Coolbaugh arrives at Eastern USA
DE Wesson arrives at Eastern USA
DE Mitchell arrives at Seattle
Fifth USAAF Eng Engineer Aviation Battalion arrives at San Francisco
6th Ceylon Heavy AA Regiment arrives at Colombo
9 February 1944
Major attack against Yankee Butai mostly parried, USS Cabot hit by torpedo and disabled; US subs wreaking havoc in Strait of Luzon
Philippines
USS Archerfish put 2 fish into a laden 6400-ton tanker in the Strait of Luzon for a kill. The same convoy was then attacked by USS Gunard, which put 3 fish into a 9975-ton tanker, sending it to the bottom as well.
An enemy airstrike targeted the Yankee Butai (now withdrawing), probably mostly from Clark airbase, and it's the first time we've seen the Frances torpedo bomber used in large numbers. The first wave was 12 Frances following behind a wall of 41 Zeroes, 7 Georges and 3 Franks. Our CAP was supported by land based air, with 147 Hellcats, 3 Corsairs, 4 P-40s, 3 P-38s, and a single P-47. The massive furball resulted in 11 Zeroes, 2 Georges, 1 Frank, and 8 of the Frances going down, with a loss of just 5 Hellcats. But 4 Frances got through to attack the Intrepid and Langley--pretty frustrating given how badly we outnumber the enemy. These 4 bombers missed, and 2 were shot down by flak.
Probably as a result of bad coordination, a second package of 25 Frances escorted by only 2 Zeroes came in next, which were able to avoid much of the CAP. We got 10 of these before they got to the carriers. The 15 that got through attacked the light carrier Cabot along with the Lexington II, light cruiser Juneau and destroyer Charrette. Cabot took the only hit, but it was a nasty one, cooking off some of the ship's torpedo stores. She'll survive, but she's now limping at 6 knots back to Darwin. Flak took care of 3 more bombers after they dropped, and then fighters ran down the rest, scoring another 8 kills. So overall only 4 of these bombers survived. Since later attacks involved Betties, I don't think he has a lot of these planes.
A secondary airstrike then hit a CVE-led amphibious task force near Cagayan. This was just 9 Betties with 7 Georges; CAP strength was 40 fighters, mostly Hellcats. Only 3 of the Georges survived, the rest were shot down.
This task force also drew two more airstrike later afternoon, the first 12 Betties backed by 4 Zeroes and 3 Georges. Again, they were no match for the CAP, which was now up to 45 fighters. This group managed to shoot down 2 Hellcats, but they lost 2 Zeroes and all 12 Betties. The second was 9 more Betties with 5 Zeroes--once again the Betties were wiped out, with 1 Zero going with them.
Taking advantage of the massive number of fighters no longer protecting the ships near Luzon, 13 Helldivers (probably from Jolo) attacked an ASW group near Bataan and sank a pair of PBs. 2 Nicks tried to intervene but failed to arrive in time. Shortly after 18 Beaufighters from Jolo attacked another ASW group, sinking 2 more PBs and 2 SCs. A follow up raid by Beaufighters in the afternoon was less lucky, getting intercepted by 11 Nicks and 2 Tojos; 1 Nick and 1 Beaufighter were lost. Only 1 Beaufighter was able to score a hit on a ship, crippling and likely sinking an SC near Manila. 4 Beaufighers were dispatched against another group, these ran into no resistance and sank a kaibokan of Bataan with 3 500-lb bomb hits. (I'm fairly sure I remember that ship as a sub-killer--good riddance!)
Also off Bataan, USS Gudgeon torpedoed and crippled a PB. My guess is we'll end up finishing this one off in Manila's shipyard.
The B-24 raids on Manila continued in spite of this chaos. 30 fighters were still defending Manila, which wasn't enough to cause losses to the bombers. 1 Nick and 1 Tojo were shot down. Base damage was light, between pressure from the fighters and severe storms, accuracy was poor. We did get a Betty on the ground, though.
We had also ordered air strikes on Iloilo to soften them up for the paratroopers we landed around them. That cost us an land-based SBD to flak. 61 casualties on the ground. The paratroopers attacked but failed to take the base, 242(J) to 13(A) casualties.
We had 7 new USN and USMC aces today.
South China Sea
HMS Templar spotted the new CVE Shinyo in the southwestern South China Sea and missed her with a spread of 4 torpedoes. Templar sustained moderate damage from her escorts afterwards.
DEI
Allied raids:
Surabaya (night, airbase): 2 hits
Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties
Kendari (ground forces): 0 casualties
China
Allied raids:
Taiyuan (ground forces): 58 casualties
near Chengchow (ground forces): 70 casualties
ground combat:
Near Sinyang, Allied deliberate attack, 26k troops vs 972 troops. Enemy unit wiped out.
Once I finish off those units north of Sinyang, I'll be looking to make a push in the direction of Shanghai. I'm hoping I've controlled Rangoon for long enough that the supplies coming in are making a big difference. I still have shortages in a few key areas, but the central area is doing pretty well.
Burma and Thailand
Allied raids:
near Raheng (ground forces): 6 casualties
Bangkok (airbase): raid opposed by 5 Irvings and 2 Tonies, 1 Irving shot down. 3 casualties on ground, 37 base hits.
Ayuthia (ground forces) 124 casualties
east road (ground forces): 50 casualties
Reinforcements
DD Norman Scott arrives at Eastern USA
DD Uhlmann arrives at Balboa
DD Roe arrives at Balboa
81st FG/92nd FS arrives at Aden