Part 51: Operational Report: 26/01/42

We have another Japanese sub hanging around Sidney. Today she makes her presence known by sinking a transport.








The enemy come to bomb Singapore once more, the defending Buffalo's get one kill, and we lose a plane on the ground.



Over Port Moresby, the Hurricanes once more make a mess of an unescorted bomber squadron.



At Singapore, the enemy finally launch their ground attacks on the city, and the results are as bloody as you would expect.









As I said yesterday, the reports of us sinking two battleships were not confirmed, today we confirmed that we have not sunk those two ships, apparently Japanese battleships are much tougher than Intelligance thinks.



Today, however we confirm the sinking of the Kirishima, as well as inflicting more damage on the Fuso



This attack would have been larger, but one of the squadrons of Devastators got lost on the way to the target, and was unable to find the enemy task force.
The afternoon strike gets it right, but those Fuso class battleships are built tough, and the ships continues to make headway even after taking another three hits by the 1000lb bombs.



A strike on Wake continues to damage the shipping there.








Bataan continues to get its unwanted visits from the Japanese Air Force.



And the Army make a big push at Clark Field, but are once more held off by out defending troops.



But the cost of holding this ground it starting to increase.





At Pucheng, the Imperial Army continues to take heavy losses trying to dislodge our own troops.










While not as spectacular as yesterday, today was still a good day for us – the air losses are markedly in our favour. Their army loss points continue to rise rapidly, and the points for ships sunk has jumped with the confirmed sinking of the Kirishima



Their still claiming the Fuso, and have added the Haguro to the list today. As I say, we cannot trust these numbers to far, but its good to stick in the papers back home.



I'm not sure that I should be worried that a shipping engineer regiment it planning to attack Rangoon or not, these must be second line troops pulled from a civilian job somewhere.





The carriers, having expended most of their torpedoes, are turning for home. They should get one more day of pounding the area around Wake before they are out of range though, and this has been an expensive lesson for the enemy.