14 December 1943
Ambon captured
Philippine Sea
USS Archerfish attacked an escorted 6400-ton cargo ship twice near the Mariannas. The first--one hit--severely damaged it, allowing it to set up a second attack to get two more hits and send it to the bottom. An escorting destroyer caused some minor damage to the Archerfish after the 2nd attack.
East of Leyte, USS Barb put a torpedo into the light cruiser Katori. She'll survive this, yet again. This is now at least the third time the Katori has been damaged in battle, the second time seriously.
DEI
Arizona and New Mexico made another bombardment run at Ambon--108 casualties reported. What a difference bringing down the forts makes!
I meant to cancel my Surabaya bombing attacks, but left at least one squadron with attack orders...
Surabaya (port): 4 B-24s escorted by 3 Corsairs vs 27 Tonies and 15 Georges--2 Corsairs and 3 B-24s shot down for us, 1 Tony and 1 George shot down for them. No damage on the ground.
Ambon (airbase, ground forces): 3 hits
Surabaya (sweep): 13 P-38s vs 20 Tonies and 13 Georges - 1 Tony and 3 Georges down, no losses
Makassar (ground forces): 22 casualties
Kendari (airbase): 2 hits
Land combat:
Ambon (allied deliberate attack): casualties 758(J) to 68(A), BASE CAPTURED. Enemy units remain in hex but do not control the base.
Some fine revenge after these enemy troops were responsible for defeating about a division of Marines months ago. Upon reflection, Ambon was this war's Guadalcanal. Their efforts to hold on here were responsible for losses to the KB that degraded it's potential beneath that of the US carrier fleet and they ended up with thousands of irreplaceable soldiers trapped here.
Marshall Islands
Destroyers Mahan and Cushing found an AKL trying to make a supply run near Eniwetok and sank it with gunfire.
China
Air raids:
Sinyang (ground forces): 51 casualties
Kiukiang (ground forces): 43 casualties
Burma
Air raids:
Rahaeng (ground forces): 0 casualties
Uttaradit (ground forces): 7 casualties
near Bassein (retreating further from Rangoon - ground forces): 6 vehicles lost
Port Blair (airbase): 26 hits
I've begun drawing down transport flights from India to Burma/China, as the sea based deliveries are far more efficient and these flights were wearing down airframes. My next step will be to move aviation support into central Burma where the railroad from Rangoon ends and airlift supplies from there as deep into China as I can, as the roads from that point forward won't support all that much supply flow.
Truk
Allied deliberate attack: 858(J) to 139 (A) casualties
West Coast
Two minesweepers collided outside of Los Angeles, damaging one severely. Good thing LA has a shipyard.
Reinforcements
DD Colahan arrives at Balboa
VMF-112 arrives at San Diego
24th CMS arrives at Aden
1st Manchester Battalion arrives at Aden
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