Allied naval losses heavy in the Phillipines. Noose tightens around embattled U.S. forces.

ACTION SUMMARY: It appears that my enemy is intending to isolate the Phillipines before he makes his major advances in Luzon and Mindinao. So far, his troops have been sitting at their beachheads in northern and southern Luzon. But today the Japanese air fleets in Formosa launched fresh raids against Clark AFB, and seven major low-level torpedo attacks against my ships anchored in Manila Bay. There, six transports were sunk, two destroyers damaged, and the destroyer U.S. Scout was sunk.



Dutch and American bombers in Borneo and Mindinao failed to make a dent in the Japanese airfield at Jolo Island, where torpedo bombers struck a squadron of minesweepers I was evacuating from Manila Bay.

And worse, a major Japanese fleet was sighted off southern Luzon where it sank three AK's (transports) and a TK (tanker) during the night. This is disconcerting, because if he sailed that squadron into Manila Bay, I could do little to stop it. The entire warship contingent of the Asiatic Fleet is deployed with the ADBA squadrons, the nearest of which is in eastern Borneo. To send my ADBA assets into the Phillipines would be suicide, especially with the Japanese torpedo bombers based at Jolo.



Allied naval activity include the depth charging of a Jap sub off of San Diego. Dutch subs torpedoed two transports off Kuantan, and an American sub sank an AK off Leyte. The Japanese lack in ASW capability is beginning to show itself in spite of the poor torpedoes carried by American subs.



As it were, here's the new Phillipines situation.



A counter-attack in brigade strength at Kauntan failed to dislodge the Japanese from their beachhead, the IJN having disgorged 20,000 men onto the Malayan beaches in less than two days. The Indians lost heart and fell back with few losses. Fighting at Georgetown continued, and five Chinese corps began marching to new positions defending the approaches to Changsha.

As of today, my Pacific Command has designated my central and southern Pacific operations accordingly. Operation Bolo is the reinforcement of my Central Pacific outposts, namely Midway and Wake Island. Already, convoys are enroute with supplies, and one 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division is enroute to Wake. Operation Congo is the offensive buildup in the Southern Pacific centered on Canton Island. This is where the Enterprise and Lexington TF's are headed for before making a high speed run to launch air raids against the Marshalls.

Here's the war room: