Flying Tigers in action again today over Ichang. Japs attack in Manchuria!

ACTION SUMMARY: The "Flying Tiger" corps was in action again today flying long range CAP protection above Ichang where 8 Tomahawk fighters pounced a Jap bomber flight of over fifty planes. Diving through the escort cover, the outnumbered Tomahawks shot down over half the Japanese flight as Chinese troops within the trenches of Ichang cheered them on. The display proved that the Japanese Army pilots in their Oscar fighters lack the dogfighting skills of their Imperial Navy counterparts as not one Flying Tiger machine was lost to enemy action.



Frustration is undoubtedly mounting in the Japanese Imperial Staff over the presence of the 50+ planes of the Flying Tigers, whose American-piloted long range fighters are able to strike beyond the front lines from deep within Nationalist Chinese territory.

The Royal Air Force is also displaying impressive skill in their level bombing as the daily sorties from Singapore managed to bomb two transports off Khota Bharu again today. That's seven transports in three days. But the Japanese also decided to demonstrate their own skill at making low-level runs against anchored transports, as they have done so well in Manila Bay. During the morning, three massive flights of Japanese Army bombers swooped in low from the jungle-twisted mountains of Malaya to smash up a Fullback convoy off Georgetown, sinking three transports and wounding every other vessel of the five-ship convoy. The Imperial Japanese Staff is beginning to realize that the dispositions of British forces in Burma and Malaya are not as they were on December 7th, and that a concentrated effort on my part is being to made to adjust the parity of force in the Burma Theatre. In response to this movement of forces that Fullback is intended to effect, the Japanese 104th Division swiftly occupied Victoria in Burmese Malaya, so recently abandoned by the rattled 1st Burma Brigade.

Meanwhile, fighting in China broadened northward just as Chinese forces continued in their Wuchow counter-offensive. Five Japanese divisions with corps artillery, a regiment of tanks and independent brigades finally struck Yenen after three days of deliberate preparations. Nearly 73,000 men of the Japanese Kwantung Army struck at dawn against stiff Chinese opposition, resulting 3,000+ casualties against the enemy. Three more corps of Chinese troops are marching southward to assist in the defense of the city and hopefully crumple the flanks of the massive Japanese effort, but the situation remains highly uncertain for the outnumbered defenders of Yenen. In Wuchow, the counter-offensive continued with heavy casualties on both sides with the Chinese losing much artillery during today's exchanges.



Elsewhere, Operation Congo saw the torpedoeing of a Japanese supply ship off the Marhsall Islands as I've currently deployed four submarines from Pearl Harbor to prowl the waters there. The sole purpose of Congo is to prevent the enemy from believing I am vulnerable in the region between the Central and Southern Pacific, and to begin building up forces there that can permit me to rapidly shift forces from one theatre to another in response to any major Japanese offensive in either. These submarines will keep the Imperial Navy concerned for her Marshall Islands defenses if I continue to express interest in upsetting their peace.



Elsewhere in the Phillipines, the Japanese Army moved in to occupy Clark AFB, abandoned three days before as Allied forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula. The move cutoff three Phillipine divisions in the Luzon interior and in Manila who will now have to fight along surrounded. Thus begins the siege of Manila, the length of which is uncertain. The viscous Japanese continued to bomb Manila today despite the city being scantly occupied by one Phillipino division and the handful of Catalina seaplanes at Cavite City, who continue to provide invaluable information on Imperial Navy movements off Luzon and still make daily supply runs to Bataan.

No other activity today besides the daily B-17 raids over Jolo Island. The Japanese airfield appears to be completely neutralized as no more sorties are being flown from there. Massed B-17 formations are showing the worth that I had hoped they would, but only too late to repel the Japanese offensive from Luzon.

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