7 February 1944
Daylight bombing run on Manila, enemy resistance increasing
China
-enemy night raid on Kanshein, 1 base hit
Allied air raids:
near Taiyuan (ground forces): 42 casualties
near Chengchow (ground forces) 152 casualties
DEI
One of our troop transport convoys bound for Makassar was attacked by a Japanese sub in the Banda Sea. Australian destroyer Nizam hunted it down and killed it.
Allied air raids:
Koepang (ground forces) 12 casualties
Kendari (ground forces): 22 casualties
Burma and Thailand
We swept Bangkok with just 9 P-47s, meeting a CAP of 23 Georges. Despite being outnumbered, we came out ahead 7 to 1. Japanese pilot attrition must be awful.
Allied raids:
east road (ground forces): 90 casualties; Georges attempting to intercept but not arriving in time for most of the raids, except for one. 11 Georges vs 15 P-47s; 1 P-47 shot down. We got a bit lucky, the next raid after this was was 8 unescorted Blenheims with experienced pilots. Time to give them better planes!
Philippines
3 Nicks tried to attack the amphibious ships landing at Cebu. There were plenty of P-47s, Corsairs, and Hellcats providing cover. 1 Nick was shot down, the rest bolted.
Replacing the Beaufighter-strike and Hudson-patrol combo flying out of Ambon to try to interdict shipping in the Luzon Strait, PV-1 Venturas are now flying out of Amoy with Spitfire escorts. For today the PV-1s are doing both search and bombing duty with the Spitfires escorting. 4 Venturas tried to bomb a subchaser but missed.
Heavy bomber raid on Manila's airbase; 42 Liberators with 12 P-38s and 13 Corsair escorts. We lost 3 Corsairs, 1 P-38, and 2 B-24s to the 32 enemy fighters on CAP, while shooting down 3 Georges. We destroyed at least 2 aircraft on the ground while scoring 46 base hits. 1 B-24 was downed by flak.
A sweep by P-38s followed the bombing raid; 20 P-38s vs the remaining CAP of 9 Georges and 2 Franks; 1 P-38 lost while shooting down 2 Franks and 3 Georges.
In the Strait of Luzon, USS Grunion put 2 Mk14s into a 2900-ton tanker, sinking it.
Reinforcements
SS Pipefish arrives at Eastern USA
APA Herald of Morning arrives at Alameda
PF Pocatello arrives at Mare Island
PF Bisbee arrives at Mare Island
__________________
|