Battle of Wuchow opens with Japanese bombardment!

ACTION SUMMARY: The Kwantung Army opened the Battle of Wuchow with a heavy bombardment of Nationalist Chinese forces digging in south of the beleagured Cantonese city. The Japanese 104th division moved into their jumping off positions under cover of artillery. With the reinforcement of four more Chinese corps overnight having marched from north, nearly 80,000 Chinese are prepared to meet the enemy advance of over 18,000 well equipped troops. Intelligence expects the 104th to be reinforced by the nearly 30,00 Japanese troops now in Hong Kong following their victory there.



North of Wuchow around the besieged city of Changsha, the five Chinese Corps were evacuated from Changsha to a concentration point NW of the city. There, four Chinese corps (including two of the American trained "New" Chinese Corps) of 18,000 men are fighting a delaying action to cover the withdrawal of almost 50,000 men from the city. Only one corps remains in the city. In a sudden attack against the marching Japanese columns, four Nationalist army corps struck the vanguard of the Japanese Kwantung Army with few results and heavy losses. Chinese aircraft went into action for the first time today as the ancient Soviet-built I-16 biplanes and Il-12 bombers sortied against the Japanese infantry columns at 3,000 feet.



Elsewhere, the enemy is unusually cautious in both Malaya and the Phillipines. No major advances have been made in the previous five days. Japanese troops continue to grow fat on their north Luzon beaches while my forces continue to draw back into the Bataan fortress for Operation Redoubt. Air activity was heavy across Manila Bay where five strikes totalling 250+ planes swept over the bay to torpedo and bomb three transports and one destroyer. The enemy lost 15+ bombers in action over the Bay. With the threat of being unable to evacuate the Manila depots, Catalina seaplanes were diverted from naval reconnaissance to supply transport in order to speed up the Redoubt preparations. And with the transports off Manila Bay garnering so much attention, Clark AFB has remained unscathed in the past three days. Newly repaired aircraft were ferried to Calagayan in Mindinao, and a handful of fighters were transferred to the dirt strip in Bataan.

In Malaya, only air activity was seen today beginning with a 100+ aircraft strike against the Singapore airfields. Betty's flying at 1,000 feet were vulnerable even to the plumpy little Buffalo fighters, and nine were shot down. RAF sorties against the Japanese transports still lying off Eastern Malay were ineffectual as usual, but a 30+ RAF raid on Songhai in Thailand managed to crater the airfields there. Dutch and American bomber sorties against Jolo off the Phillipines were quite ineffectual, though American Warhawk fighters scored unusually impressive kill figures against the defending Zeros. Still, Kate torpedo bombers flying from Jolo managed to torpedo a transport off Iloilo Island in the central Phillipines.

No naval activity. A Dutch sub surfaced during the night to shell a lone Japanese transport lying off eastern Luzon.



Fullback has evacuated the RAF force at Victoria, Malaya and is withdrawing the force to the new base being built at Andaman off the Burmese Coast. The Australian Command launched Operation Bogus, the reinforcement of the Southern Pacific sector, particularly the Hebrides, Solomons and New Guinea. The Enterprise is poised to make the first carrier strike of the war against Japanese installations in the Marshall Islands. She is moving in at high speed. Little real damage is expected to be inflicted, but I am interested in only showing aggressiveness from the East in order to draw off pressure from the enemy's diversions in China, Malaya and the Phillipines.

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