24 December 1943
Port Blair captured as Marines land on Ponape
Philippine Sea
USS Barb put 2 torpedoes into a troop carrying cargo ship (6400 tons) east of Leyte. That's a kill.
China
Air raids:
Anking (ground forces): 90 casualties
DEI
Air raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties
Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 18 hits, 0 casualties
Burma
Amphibious landings remain in progress at Port Blair at the beginning of the turn. Supporting airstrikes caused 14 enemy casualties. An enemy airstrike of 4 Helen bombers attacked the landing area, someone one even made it to an LST to make a bombing attempt (it missed). The other 3 were shot down by fighters from the British CVBG. Our troops then captured Port Blair with a deliberate attack, casualties 278 to 11 favoring us. There really wasn't a whole lot left there.
Other air raids:
Pisanuloke (ground forces): 68 casualties
CENTPAC
I moved some troops off Truk to invade nearby Ponape. Once again, this base had substantial shore defenses:
CA Boston, Shell hits 26
CL Achilles, Shell hits 36, on fire
DD Hull, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
DD Bell, Shell hits 7, on fire
APD Little, Shell hits 1
The armor on the cruisers was enough to prevent them from taking serious damage. The Hull is headed back to Pearl for repairs though.
Reinforcements
DD Haggard arrives at Seattle
DD The Sullivans arrives at San Francisco (a bit of a weird name since the Juneau hasn't been sunk in this timeline)
AR Vulcan arrives at San Francisco
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