Part 56: Operational Report: 31/01/42

Off Mindanao, it seems as if we have our own submarine wolf pack working, as the SS Snapper makes a surface attack on a Japanese freighter, two of her three torpedoes are duds, and she then uses up all of her deck gun ammunition on the ship before withdrawing.



A few miles to her west, the Stingray has worse luck as she score six separate hits on the Syoto Maru, none of which explode.



The Hokusho Maru has little luck though, as she runs into another of our subs, the Sailfish, who hits her with another torpedo for good measure.



The Sailfish then gets another two hits, one a dud and the other good on another ship as dusk is falling.



Bataan is bombed, I'm mainly reporting this for continuity now.







The Hermes's Swordfish continue to raid shipping in Watampone, making some use of their bombs on the ships unloading there.



The afternoon raid puts two more bombs into each ship.
While to the north in the Makassar Strait, planes out of Samarinda raid an enemy cargo ship, which by our reckoning is within eighty miles of our cruisers.



The port at Singapore gets hit today, but there are no ships left, so the actual facilities are the ones damaged. At least reduces their value to the enemy if they do take the city. And the flack took down one of the attackers.



Its looking very likely that we will lose the city, as the poorly supplied defenders take heavy losses stopping the latest wave of attacks.



At least they made the Imperial Army bleed somewhat for the ground.
To the north, we have a disaster, as the former garrison commander of Kauntan leads his men in a foolish attack on the defenders of the port, his 1,200 men attack a base with 19,000 men in it.



Unsurprisingly, most of his men are killed or captured in this foolish attack.





Changsha is bombed hard today, it gets some visits every day, but today's raid is larger than normal, and damages the runway and takes out one of the few Chinese planes on the runway.



The battle for Pucheng erupts again today, as the enemy strikes at our lines once more, and are beaten back with heavy losses.



To the west. The enemy make more ground against another army group.



Over near Canton, we get pushed back further as the enemy continue to press on our forces.








The H81's claim three more victims today.



Go lads, go!
On the ground, things do not look anywhere near as good, as our forces are pushed back into Pegu on the outskirts of Rangoon.








The Japanese subs are really out to rub it in, as one sinks one of our ships on Anti-Submarine patrol.



Talk about adding insult to injury.





Today saw some major sub actions in the Philippines, and a fairly good day for subs with names starting with the letter S.



We're continuing to inflict heavy losses to the enemy in the air.



Attacks on Manila and Rangoon are planned, neither of which are a surprise.

There is little else to do today, once the carriers return to Pearl Harbour, then the attack on the Marshall Islands will begin, but for now, we are just holding as much as possible.