9 February 1942
A change in bombing tactics in Malaya increases damage being done
Hawaii
4 BB bombarding again. A Zero sweep resulted in the loss of 2 Zeroes and a P-40. I'm just happy he had to move Zeroes back here.
Borneo
Submarine O20 laid mines at Miri and then decided to go after some cargo ships leaving port. That turned out to be a bad idea, and the submarine suffered a depth charge attack in shallow water. Fortunately it got away with only minor damage.
The Soryu launched a strike from Tarakan against my ASW patrol outside Balikpapan, 12 Zeroes escorting 4 Mabels, intercepted by 8 P-39s and 6 P-40s. We shot down one Zero and 3 of the Mabels, the one that got through missed. The Zeroes took down 1 P-39.
Philippines
USS Perch torpedoed and sank a cargo ship in a night surface attack in the Luzon strait. A bit to the east in the South China Sea, USS Pickerel torpedoed a cargo ship as well, finishing it off with the deck gun.
Malaya
He dropped the bombing altitude for his strikes on Singapore to deadly effect. The air battle itself was the carnage we've come to expect--1 Hurricane down with 2 Nates, 2 Sallies, and 3 light bombers shot down. The reduced altitude resulted in 4 more bombers shot down and many more shot up, but facility damage was significant and we had a bomber and a fighter blown up on the ground.
Burma
The 3rd RTA is retreating now that it sees my armies advancing on it after probably a week of being bombed daily.
China
The enemy army in the Ichang swamplands has already left for Hankow, so my armies have nothing to engage there. That's fine, all I wanted was to get them off my flank. Next stop: Nanchang. The AVG shot down one Oscar while supporting this aborted operation.
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