30 December 1941
PTs strike again, 65th Brigade routed, Singapore reinforced
CENTPAC
I used the expected thunderstorms to cover the escape of several tenders from Pearl. Surprisingly, it worked, even though they're pretty slow. Night storms are the best. I also tried to evac a key engineer unit. The enemy took notice of this, though, and launched an airstrike while they were loading. I lost an AK and had an AP shot up, a P-40 went down trying to hold them off. Japan lost two Zeroes and 4 Vals.
My PTs tried to attack at Lihue again, as all the heavies seem to be east. But they chickened out and turned around.
Japan now controls all of Hawaii except for Oahu.
SOUTHPAC and Solomons area
The feared invasion of Pago has not yet materialized. At this time all surface contacts are at or near captured bases.
The enemy SAG remains in position at Fiji, still nothing reported as larger than a CL. Fiji's supply situation is getting bad.
Landings have commenced on the northern shores of Papua New Guinea. My bombers apparently don't feel like doing anything about it. Bad weather? I am disappointed.
Dutch East Indies
Maybe they're not withdrawing everything after all. Two SAGs are in the area, one by Manado and another that looks like it's going to take a run at my bomber base in Kendari. Please, bombard it! There's a new minefield there waiting for you! That's also my PT refueling base for hitting Ambon, though, so hopefully my torpedoless-PTs can refuel and get out of there before the cruisers arrive.
Why torpedoless? Because they just raided Ambon and sank two transports filled with troops! Good job guys, now stay alive and do it again.
The CVLBG is approaching Palau, it might even be headed for Japan. I've got 2 subs in position at Palau to attempt a night intercept.
My bombers didn't attack Billiton. Not sure if it was bad weather or they just needed time to organize after rebasing. Again, disappointed.
Philippines
I made him pay a price for dividing his forces between Manila and Clark, driving out the 65th Brigade from Clark. Casualties were about 2500 to 900 in our favor, but I'm concerned about the supply situation in terms of not being able to repair/heal disabled units. I'll be assigning some Asiatic fleet boats to transport duty to try to help them hold on. Some portion of the force at Manila is now moving to Clark. My forces that retreated from Manila are now reorganized and resupplied, I'm moving them into the hills to threaten to re-engage Manila or cut off a road and base that's probably supplying them.
In the air, it was my turn to take a beating. Oscars took down 6 P-40s and 2 P-35s with only one loss. The absence of Zeroes is noted. The may be confident the Oscars are enough and distributing the Zeroes elsewhere... Rabaul, maybe.
He sent nearly 90 bombers after an army unit in the central area that has no hope of being evacuated. Probably softening them up for an invasion.
USS Pike torpedoed a troop transport north of Luzon. I expected everyone that's coming ashore to be ashore already, so this is interesting. Who are these mystery reinforcements?
Malaya
An odd choice for my opponent--he raided the airfields and port at Singapore but not the troop transports about to dock there. That raid traded an Oscar and a Sally for a Buffalo, a Blenheim blown up on the ground, and hits on the Repulse and a couple other ships under repair. Now my transports will be unloading while the bombers sleep, who knows maybe they'll even be gone by morning. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but reinforcing Singapore twice now probably means he doesn't have enough there to do the job.
Hurricanes have also arrived to start replacing the craptacular Buffalos. The top-performing New Zealand squadron is getting the first batch.
Air raids against my forces withdrawing from the Johore road did significant damage at the cost of 1 Oscar.
Georgetown was captured. 1 bomber was destroyed on the ground that I was trying to move up to Rangoon to rejoin the rest of its unit. They're trying to aid the retreat of the small unit I allowed to be surrounded.
Elsewhere
-USS Sargo made a gun attack on an AKL that it abandoned after running low on ammo. Really sad that we can't even sink little guys like this.
-My army fighting in the Chinese riverlands has been outmanuevered. It isn't strong enough to take down the army I sent it after (especially because they can get bombers here, but I can't), and another enemy unit appeared behind it. The only retreat is through them.
-Most of the Indian Ocean evacuees are safely in off-map bases and are available for forming supply convoys to India, Sri Lanka, and Australia.
-I'm starting to get together convoys from the west coast as well, but I'm being hampered by lack of availability of decent-speed ships. I'm absolutely shocked that the only west coast transports interdicted by subs have been those going to PH before it was encircled. This party can't last, so I'm reluctant to get lacksadaisical about moving supplies out here, and especially troops.
-I don't know why I was happy that the Lex will be repaired early. I still don't have enough Wildcats to fill out her air wing. It didn't help that the Yorktown arrived about 10 planes short.