Allied defense of Mindanao collapses! Japanese also capture Malacca!

ACTION SUMMARY: Japanese forces advanced on the ground across the breadth of the Pacific today accomplishing stunning victories in Mindanao and Malacca. At Cagayan Mindanao, the 101st Phillipino Division was unable to sustain a sudden Japanese assault that bursted through the jungles. The airbase at Cagayan was swiftly overrun shortly after American airbase personnel set fire to some 40+ fighter aircraft based there. The sudden loss of Cagayan has upset the Allied defense in the Southern Phillipines, considered the gateway to the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. From Cagayan flew the B-17 flights that had bombed the Jolo airfield for the past month, sustaining the Redoubt convoys and other naval movements in the area against Japanese air attack. The B-17's have since withdrawn to the ADBA command on Celebes, but the fighters remained at Cagayan. Now they are all destroyed, the last fighters of the once impressive USAAF's air force in Asia. Now 3,000 Phillipino soldiers and American base personnel have fled SE into the jungles as 8,000 Japanese soldiers moved in to occupy the important airbase at Cagayan, Mindanao.



In Malacca, the Japanese 56th Division sprung upon the 22nd Indian Brigade after an arduous trek over the spine of Malaya. The 22nd Indian Brigade, already suffering low morale from their grueling retreat from Khota Bharu three weeks before, fled north towards the Commonwealth stronghold of Georgetown in Central Malaya where the 7,600 men defending Alor Starr are holding the door open for Commonwealth forces seeking refuge throughout Central Malaya. Malacca was swiftly occupied by the 56th Jap Division.

At Alor Starr, 7,600 soldiers from two brigades are defending gloriously against the sustained Japanese assault. Their defensive positions all but overrun, Japanese hubris led to the enemy over-extending their advance. In a crushing flanking maneuver through the jungles, the 12th Indian Brigade smashed two regiments of Japanese infantry. The 16,000 men of the Japanese 55th Division lost some 2,000 men in the disaster. Whereas it was thought Alor Starr could not hold out for the past two days, the Commonwealth forces guarding the approaches to Georgetown have given the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth their first respite and clear victory. Still, the Alor Starr position is growing quickly untenable, and preparations for withdrawal to Georgetown continue.

Fighting continued in Manila where the Japanese launched another foolish attack. Around 1,200 of their soldiers died in hard close combat in the Manila outskirts where 10,000 Phillipino soldiers and American base personnel are defending doggedly against the 23,000 Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese also landed troops off Ambon today. There, two batallions of Dutch colonial infantry are defending. Contact with the enemy is expected tomorrow. Additional troops also landed at Rabaul. Fighting continued at Tavoy where the 2nd Burma continues to resist desperately, and an AK was sunk off the Bataan Redoubt today.

The U.S.S. Yorktown has left drydock and is now bound for Pearl Harbor, bringing U.S. carrier strength up to four aircraft carriers. She is escorted by 5 destroyers. New Gato-class submarines have also been placed on the U.S. Submarine Command's roster. They are being deployed to the South Pacific. Also, a massive glut of transports and several regimental size infantry regiments have also been made ready at San Francisco to join the war effort in the Pacific.

No warroom today.

Japanese advance into Manila. Alor Starr defenses breached!

ACTION SUMMARY: The vanguard of the Japanese Southern Luzon force met resistance from the entrapped 71st and 91st Phillipino Divisions in the outskirts of Manila. Bridges were demolished and hasty entrenchments were dug as the full breadth of the Japanese assault up southern Luzon is expected to make contact tomorrow.



Meanwhile, Japanese forces have also blasted through the last line of jungle defenses at Alor Starr, the Commonwealth military depot in Malaya. Commonwealth forces are preparing to evacuate the untenable position and fall back to Georgetown.

Ground fighting was reported elsewhere in Rabaul where additional Japanese naval infantry from the Maizura SNLF landed under sparodic and uncoordinated fire from ANZAC beach patrols. Sorties from the few ANZAC bombers left at both Ambon and Rabaul failed to score any hits on the Japanese transports lying at anchor. No reports on the Kido Butai, or the light carrier forces spotted at Ambon two days ago.

The offensive in China, since quiet for over two weeks, kicked off again with a renewed counter-offensive at Wuchow. The results were disasterous for the ill-equipped, poorly-supplies Chinese as 3,200 casualties were reported in the first day of fighting. The Japanese are well dug into Wuchow, and trench warfare appears to have set in among the maze of improvised entrenchments among the ricefields outside of Wuchow. The Chinese will not be renewing their offensive tomorrow. An uneasy stalemate hangs over China as the Japanese have not pressed their three main axes of advance at Wuchow, Changsha or Yenen. Chinese forces, however, remain cut off at Hanoi.

Fighting was also reported at Tavoy in Burma where the 1st Burma Brigade is trapped and fighting tooth and nail against the whole of the 55th Japanese Army Division. Also, heavy Betty raids over Manila Bay struck two transports from Singapore unloading supplies off the beaches of the Bataan Redoubt. I was surprised that these transports even made it, having run the gauntlet through the South China Sea where Japanese airpower dominates the approaches to the Phillipines.

No other activity today. I've ordered new sub deployments to the Congo theatre and saw off two troop and aircraft convoys for Pearl Harbor and Canton Island. Spruance's task force is moving into position just south Palmyra in case the Kido Butai is sighted off Canton Island. Sherman's carrier group is moving into position east of Canton for the same reasons. The Japanese will be at a disadvantage if they move any of their carrier forces beyond the range of their land-based recon, the closest of which is in Tarawa off the Marianas.

No warroom today.