Part 45: Operational Report: 20/01/42
The Japanese finally get enough balls to come at Port Moresby and its defending P40's, and its a less than stellar start for our boys, as they only manage to damage one of the attacking bombers while the Tai Yin takes a torpedo.
We waited a month for that? Time to talk to the commanding officer of that unit. With a club if needs be.
The Hermes's Swordfish have a better day, attacking the ships that are still clustered around Ambon.
The troops retreating from Tavoy towards Rangoon are harassed by enemy bombers, but only lose one of their artillery pieces to the attack.
After a quiet morning, the enemy begin an afternoon bombardment of Bataan.
West of Hanchow, the Imperial Army engages more of our Chinese troops in battle.
While north of Hong Kong we suffer another reversal as the Japanese bring a huge number of troops to bear on less than two thousand of our men.
In Luganville, the first American offensive of the war continues, there are few casualties today, but we nearly have more men ashore than the defenders, and ours are all front line troops, a shock attack tomorrow will test their defenders more than today, but I am happy to wear them down slowly.
Well, that was a very quiet day, we did not even see an enemy plane until the afternoon, maybe they are getting exhausted from this continuous attacking, and we may see a few days of respite.
Or this was an anomaly, and we're in for it tomorrow.
The Empire plan to expand their Dutch East Indies campaign by attacking Balikpapan, we must watch for this and if possible sally forth with our cruisers.
Two task forces have left Australia today bound for Efte, south of Luganville where the enemy are unloading troops, the first carries every spare soldier in Sidney, the second is made up of three cruisers to deal with the defenders and provide landing support. ]
The Carriers have left Pearl towards Midway.
I submit this as its a fantastic sight of American might.
That and I have nothing else to talk about.