Japanese invading Dutch East Indies! Heavy air raids against Fullback convoys today!

ACTION SUMMARY: The Empire of Japan continued its relentless advance today towards the Dutch East Indies as three groups of warships were sighted just north of Ambon, between Celebes and New Guinea. Ambon is the easternmost outpost of Dutch colonial forces where a battalion of infantry, base personnel and a company of light coastal artillery are preparing to resist the upcoming Japanese landings.

The enemy fleet was sighted in the early morning hours by Dornier boats flying from Ambon. The battleship Fuso and Nagato were positively identified along with the light carrier Zuiho, which launched an airstrike against the Ambon airfield toward noon. The enemy invasion fleet is expected off Ambon tomorrow where it is certain a preliminary bombardment by battleships will smash the islands light coastal defenses.

ADBA has been placed on alert and B-17's are slated for operations against the invasion fleet in the morning. This move will effectively cut off not only the Keystone convoy operations, but pinch off the sea conduit between the British and American theares of operation, with Northern Australia and the DEI hanging precariously beneath the hammer. The Allied command is not prepared to risk the ADBA cruiser forces at this time to repel an invasion that is approaching from the open sea and supported by carrier-based planes.



In China, the Japanese Kwantung Army is staging for a renewal of their Manchuria offensive against Yenen. Sketchy intelligence shows several divisions massing along a broad front that has the potential to cut off the nine Chinese corps defending the city. Elsewhere, the uneasy stalemate continues near Changsha, and the daily attrition drags on at Wuchow. At Hanoi, however, the 50th and 27th Chinese Corps along with the regional HQ are now completely sealed off from escape back to Hunan Province. It is only a matter of time before they surrender and are forced into slave labor in the Japanese jungle camps.



Forward Japanese airbases in the Malayas launched a several strikes today against the Commonwealth's Fullback convoys off Andaman and Nicobar Island. The anti-aircraft cruiser Capetown was torpedoed in three seperate massed airstrikes and was sunk with heavy loss in life. She was sheparding two supply-laden transports who escaped unharmed into the night, but dawn will still see the transports within range of the Betty bombers based in Malaya. Off Andaman, a transport was also sunk by streams of Sally and Betty bombers. More painfully, the AK Empire was sunk off Rangoon, the only transport evacuating personnel from Rangoon. In the end, all Commonwealth personnel and soldiers in Rangoon will soon be working on the Burma railway.



Operation Ivy is expanding to include the landing of a U.S. Army regimental combat team on Kiska Island in the Western Aleutians. Once landed, they will begin building a forward operating base for Operation Ivy submarines, and which in the future can accept squadrons of the newer long-range bombers now under development that can reach the Japanese-held Kuriles directly.

In the Phillipines, the Japanese continued to occupy Palawan Island by marching into Puerto Princessa unopposed. With Palawan within Japanese hands, it is only a matter of time before Japanese transports ready to disgorge their troops onto the oil-rich coast of Borneo.

Intelligence also reports that two Japanese transports sank off Tarawa, indicating that the damage inflicted by my destroyers yesterday were fatal. The second sinking indicated that my submarine that had torpedoed a Jap transport off the Marshalls finally can chalk up her kill.

Here is the warroom: