30 December 1943
HMS Trusty lost to enemy bombers
China
12 Zeroes intercepted our daily raids on the forces outside Anking. Our raid was 11 Chinese B-25s and 10 British Wellingtons escorted by 5 P-66 Vanguards and 6 P-40Ks. Our escorts shot down 2 Zeroes while losing one P-40 and P-66 each. The bombers reached the target ground forces and caused 10 reported casualties. A second raid of 5 B-24s was intercepted by a pair of Zeroes but fought them off; 30 more enemy casualties reported in that raid.
I attempted a ground attack on enemy forces (1/3 division strength) outside Wuchang. Casualties 316 to 670 favoring the enemy. I'm going to try to bring in more troops from the Shanghai area.
Philippines
17 B-24s hit Cotabo in advance of the landings. 132 casualties reported.
4 Avengers took off from a CVE escorting the Cotabo landing force to strike an enemy ASW group off Iloilo in the central Philippines. 4 Nicks and 4 Tonies went against 9 Hellcats escorting the Avengers, shooting down 1 Tony and keeping them all off the bombers. One Avenger scored a torpedo hit on a kaibokan, sinking it.
East of Leyte, 10 B-25Gs attacked a convoy of cargo ships and transports:
xAK Kasuga Maru #2, Bomb hits 1
xAP Baikal Maru, Shell hits 2
xAK Hakonesan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Lima Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Maebasi Maru, Shell hits 2
xAK Monji Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Hakubasan Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Syoka Maru
xAP Palau Maru
Not great results there. 14 Beaufighters followed that up and did a bit better:
xAP Palau Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAP Baikal Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Tokuhei Maru, Shell hits 3, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Tarayasu Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
The landings in Cotabo then began. Resistance is light.
A Dauntless and an Avenger both reported hits on a transport submarine in the Celebes Sea.
DEI
Air raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 19 casualties
Kendari (airbase and ground forces): 6 hits, 0 casualties
Burma
Air raids:
Pisanuloke (ground forces): 10 casualties
Andaman Sea
With no need to patrol Port Blair, British subs have been moving south towards the Strait of Malacca. Enemy ASW air patrols are quite heavy there, as we learned HMS Trusty and HMS Stonehenge both suffered hits from bombers. In Trusty's case, the damage was lethal.
Trusty was credited with a kill on a 4875-ton cargo ship and a 5935-ton cargo ship that was carrying troops at the time it was sunk. It might have been the most successful British sub up until this point.
Reinforcements
CVE Fanshaw Bay arrives at Portland
DD Penn arrives at Aden
12th RAAF M/W Sqn arrives at Sydney
3rd TAF Base Force arrives at Madras
14th Army Engineer Battalion arrives at Madras
28th (East African) Brigade arrives at Mombasa