5 January 1944
Enemy air strike targeting amphibious task force at Cotabo wiped out
Japanese Home Waters
USS Blackfish torpedoed and sank a Lima class cargo ship (6475 tons) near Torishima.
Strait of Malacca and Singapore area
USS Salmon, patrolling slightly east of Singapore, attempted to attack a large cargo ship convoy but missed. We got lucky and got away from the destroyers afterwards--this is a shallow water area and we have nowhere to hide from the depth charges.
We now have 3 British subs in the Strait itself plus at least a half dozen US boats waiting on the east side. Yesterday's semi-successful airstrike off Mergui probably means the enemy CVBG will be coming through here in another day or two.
Burma and Thailand
I ordered a sweep of Bangkok; 15 P-47s vs 13 Irvings, 34 Georges, and 16 Tonies. Shot down 8 Georges, 2 Irvings, 1 Tony, with a loss of just 2 P-47s.
other raids:
Pisanuloke (ground forces) 64 casualties
Philippines
Our B-24 raids on Cagayan caused 375 enemy casualties.
The enemy sent a raid of 28 Betties escorted by 19 Zeroes to Cotabo, where an amphibious task force is delivering engineers needed to build up Cagayan into a suitable heavy bomber base. We had 57 Hellcats and 8 P-40N5s on patrol. Presumably they're from Manila/Clark. The Betties were completely wiped out along with 17 of the Zeroes, with only 1 P-40 shot down. Of the Betties, 4 did make it to our ships. One of those was shot down by flak before it could attack, the remaining 3 made attacks on the CVE Santee and CL Adelaide (missing), then got splashed by fighters before they could get away.
At Cagayan, we attacked the weak enemy forces there with a tank battalion and an artillery battalion. It wasn't enough to capture the base, but we did cause another 102 casualties without taking losses of our own. And we have an infantry division about to arrive.
Our landing site at Dadjangas, Mindanao, now has a small functioning airstrip. Enough for a local CAP.
Scout/ASW patrols claimed a lot of hits today.
Subs:8
minesweepers: 3
China
Air raids:
Sinyang (ground forces) 31 casualties.
Land combat:
Near Wuchang, allied deliberate attack, casualties 368 (J) to 121 (A)
Allied reinforcements have arrived at Sinyang, let's see if I can break the enemy line.
DEI
Air Raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties
Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 1 base hit, 19 casualties
Reinforcements and repairs
USS Yorktown II is now under repair & refit in Alameda. It's going to take 50 days... better than the 75 days it was going to take at Pearl but still a long time.
DD Remey arrives at Eastern USA
LSV Catskill arrives at Eastern USA
364th(Sep) Infantry Regiment arrives at Seattle
9th RAN Base Force arrives at Sydney
36th Div Engineer Battalion arrives at Madras
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