Part 16: Operational Report: 22/12/41

The Japanese subs hunt two tankers, but miss both. The second sub is driven off by destroyers. It seems my alterations to the Anti Submarine Warfare units has been successful.





Some of our motorboats try their luck at some Jap ships, but think better of it when MTB-10 explodes into debris after its first hit. Even a destroyer can make mincemeat of these small craft.



The defenders of Manilla have a good day today, as the enemy send a wing of bombers over with no escort.



They paid for that, but this does nothing to stop their ground forces advancing closer to the capital and taking another base from our troops.







The Sailfish has a rough time, putting five torpedoes into a ship before the sixth explodes. We really need to check these defective torpedoes, this is a massive waste of ordinance. To the north the Sealion fires four torpedoes to no effect, the only hit bouncing off the hull of their target.






Over Rangoon, our CAP fails for the first time. Several ships unloading reinforcements are hit by the attacking bombers, and many sailors drown in the bay. 900 men are rescued from the Rajula though, which is some small consolation.








George Town in Malaya continues to be hit of waves of 30-40 bombers at a time, two or three waves a day. The enemy definitely wants to soften up this target, and this is a easier target than Singapore.



The escort carrier identified as the Taiyo has moved off to the coast of Borneo. She seems to have a complement of a large squadron of bombers and one of older fighters. This could be a risk to our raiding forces, or an opportunity, depending on how things go.



Sambas falls to the enemy, but at least we've held for a few days.



Rabaul falling is no surprise, the defenders there were outnumbered five to one. Lae falls on the mainland of New Guinea as well today. We are rapidly running out of time to put defenders into Port Moresby.











We're starting to lose ground quickly now, the enemy are hitting us in weak points and other defenders are being worn down.
It is nice to see that we think that they are losing more planes than us, if we can continue this trend then we can really start to hurt them as our numbers increase.



Again, just more reports of reinforcements to go into Malaya and the Philippines.







Well, everything we can move is on its way to Port Moresby, we may be able to get another few units into place in time, but its not looking likely. With the dive bombers in place, we should be able to defend the place a bit better as well.




At least we have been able to reinforce Rangoon to a decent level, and we're having the troops dig in as well as possible.



Hopefully 13,000 men will be enough to hold out, properly prepared in their defences. I've replaced as many commanders as I can with decent generals, and there are two units of Gurkha's in there, and they can be a little hard to shift.
With plenty of supplies and no enemies in sight, holding here is our best bet.