Hong Kong falls to daring Japanese assault! Garrison surrenders!

ACTION SUMMARY: The British Empire is dealt a severe blow following the surrender of Hong Kong. After one week of fighting down the Kowloon Peninsula, the Japanese assaulted Hong Kong island itself, netting over 12,000 prisoners in a surprise shock attack during the evening.

Elsewhere, Force H-K continues to move eastward. No doubt she is heading for repairs at Truk in the Carolines. I've deployed six submarines to barrier her entry through the Surigao and Mindinao Straits. He may also have Force H-K bombard my B-17 airfields in Mindinao on their way to Truk. Aside from a massive air raid on Singapore, a few low-level air attacks against Chinese troops, and the Hong Kong debacle, the enemy is unusually quiet... particularly on the ground in the Phillipines. This is allowing me the opportunity to enact Operation Redoubt.

This operation is the deliberate fallback to the Bataan fortress. Already, intracoastal convoys are building up a stockpile of supplies there. The enemy is foolishly allowing my transports to continue this buildup by not bombing the Manila dockyards. In fact, they have not been bombed in three days, in spite of the fact I have no more air cover in Luzon (Clark AFB is a smoldering ruin). All the same, Redoubt is seeing the withdrawal of engineering teams and AA batteries to the Bataan peninsula, a march of 100+ miles. It will take a week to make those arrangements.

Fullback and Keystone convoys continue unimpeded, though Jap subs have been spotted moving into the Java Sea. These are worth fearing, because the Japanese have superior torpedoes. British and American torpedoes are plain duds. Only the Dutch subs have scored any success at all.

The Saratoga has left drydock in San Diego! She is now bound for PH with an escort of a CL and three DD's.

This allows me to plan some serious offensive operations against the enemy. To facilitate this, I will begin a buildup of the South Pacific staging areas, centered around Canton Island, Pago Pago and Espiritu Santu. This buildup will take months, and could be interrupted by a Japanese Central Pacific offensive, which is entirely possible. Wherever the KB shows up... where ANY Jap carrier shows up, that's where his next offensive will be.

So I've deployed the Enterprise and Lexington towards Canton Island where they will replenish and strike west to raid Japanese bases in the Marshalls. Risky, but I need to retain some initiative.

Elsewhere, convoys are moving to reinforce Wake with a brigade from the 24th Infantry Division. Two Australian CL's are headed to Rabaul, and Force Z continues to move into the Indian Ocean for replenishment.

Here's the war room: