THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRAL'S EDITION

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 4, 1942- Clark AFB in the Philippines falls to the Japanese, while a series of battles across 5000 miles of ocean erupt in the Central and South Pacific.

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Battles Erupt Across the South Pacific

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) In four separate battles in the South Pacific yesterday, the Allied forces sank a sub chaser, severely damaged and probably sank two cargo ships, and put a 1000 lb bomb on a Yamamoto class battleship. In exchange Enterprise and Saratoga lost a total of nine dive bombers while the Japanese occupied two islands under the protection of carrier-based air power.

Only one of these battles had been planned by US forces.

Lexington vs Wake

The aircraft carrier Lexington yesterday sailed into range and attacked Wake Island yesterday. Japan had taken Wake Island from the allies late last month after a prolonged battle.

Dive bombers from Lexington found two cargo ships and a sub chaser at Wake Island. They proceeded to hit the cargo ships with four and five 1000 lb bombs respectively, severely damaging the two ships. The ships are counted as probably sunk, though the sinking was not confirmed.

One dive bomber also put a 1000 lb bomb on the sub chaser. The explosion disintegrated the ship which was confirmed as sunk by other pilots and reconnaissance aircraft.

Lexington will strike Wake again today, then send the heavy cruisers in to shell the island tonight before retiring to Pearl Harbor.


Enterprise and Saratoga vs a Yamato class battleship

Enterprise and Saratoga were withdrawing from their attacks on Tarawa and Makin Islands when scout planes reported a Japanese battleship heading east, approximately 300 miles south by southwest of the carriers' position - moving east. The carriers immediately launched dive bombers against the Japanese battleship; the range being too great for torpedo planes.

The Japanese task force sailed with no air cover.

However, the anti-aircraft power on the Japanese ship proved to be nearly impenetrable. Only seven Dauntless dive bombers on the two carriers returned undamaged. Japanese anti-aircraft claimed 9 dive bombers, while the rest were damaged.

In four different strikes against the battleship throughout the day, one dive bomber is reported to have hit the Japanese battleship with one 1000 bomb. Military experts are treating the one hit as ineffective.

The battleship is believed to be targeting either Baker Island or Canton Island with a naval bombardment. Forces on Canton Island have been placed on alert and told to expect an attack in the next 24 to 48 hours. Allied forces have not yet occupied Baker Island.

VS-6 and VS-3, the scout squadrons from the two carriers, will take over the roles of the bomber squadrons for a second strike against the Japanese battleship if it is found to be within range in the morning.

Saratoga is confronting a severe fuel shortage. There are two allied oilers in the waters east of the carriers. However, in the face of the threat from the Japanese battleship they have been ordered to stay away from the carrier force until the battle is resolved.


Japanese Landing Forces Occupy Ocean Island, Nauru Island.

In the last 48 hours, Japan has taken control of Ocean Island and Nauru Island.

These are small, isolated islands west of Makin and Tarawa, considered to be far behind enemy lines. In a sense, they were already written off as lost by Allied military leaders.

During the attack, Nauru Island to a carrier-based air assault consisting of approximately 20 Zero fighters and Kate dive bombers. This suggests that a small Japanese carrier - an escort carrier or light carrier - is probably nearby.

The Japanese landings were virtually unopposed. Japan had the islands under their control by nightfall.


Japanese Carriers Appear near New Caledonia

Yet another Japanese carrier force appeared northeast of the island of New Caledonia yesterday.

In one of those remarkable coincidences that happen in war time, because of the breakdown in negotiations at the New Caledonia conference the day before, the Australians and New Zealanders had given their fleets orders to withdraw from the island today. By the time the Japanese carriers arrived, they were only able to find a few stragglers from the convoys that had left Noumea.

There were tense moments as Japan launched 10 Val bombers against the trailing troop transport. It was leaving New Caledonia with elements of the 3rd Royal Australian Base Force still on board and was significantly behind the rest of the allied navy, escorted by a pair of minesweepers. Skillful maneuvering on the part of the three ships three ships managed to keep any of the Japanese bombs from doing any damage. By afternoon, the transport had sailed into a storm squall and suffered no further attacks.

The ships are heading toward Norfolk Island, southwest of New Caledonia. The Australians have decided to occupy this island in the face of intelligence that says that Japan plans to occupy New Caledonia. Australia had demanded a full commitment on the part of the Americans to defend New Caledonia. In the face of American refusal to make such a commitment, Australia and New Zealand pulled their fleets out of New Caledonia with some troops still on board the landing craft. Both nations plan to withdraw the rest of their landing forces as opportunity permits.

Norfolk Island does not have any port to speak of capable of harboring more than the smallest ships. Still, its airfields can control the waters around the island and deter surface raiders from moving south into the waters between New Zealand and Australia, and the island is capable of being supplied by air from New Zealand.

New Zealanders have expressed alarm at the thought, as expressed by one New Zealand official. "If we can deliver supplies to Norfolk Island from New Zealand, then Japan, if it decides to occupy that island, will be able to deliver bombs to New Zealand.

Many New Zealanders have already started to leave settlements on the northern part of the North Island and move south.


Japan Takes Clark AFB

(Bataan - Philippines) In a surprise development in the Philippines, Japan was able to occupy Clark Air Force Base yesterday, dividing the forces on the peninsula of Bataan from forces still occupying the region around Manila.

It has been rumored that General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the forces in the Philippines, had intended to pull his forces out of the capital and into fortifications he has been constructing on the peninsula of Bataan. However, the Japanese assault came with nearly 10,000 soldiers still in and around Manila.

The Manila forces are also reasonably well supplied.

There are rumors that some of the subordinate officers under Manila wanted to leave a significant force behind to occupy the city, to make it tougher for Japan to gain control of its resources and to engage in demolitions as the Japanese forces closed in on the town. As such, they dragged their feet when it came to moving to Bataan.

By comparison, MacArthur is sitting with approximately 40,000 soldiers on Bataan. He had ordered as much food and ammunition as possible to be moved to Bataan and into the tunnels in the island fortress of Corrigador, so the army does have enough material to survive an extended siege.

In addition, MacArthur has ordered two small airstrips constructed in the area, which P-40 fighters have been using to defend the area from Japanese bombers. However, there is little doubt that the fighters will not last long against a significant Japanese effort to take control of the skies above the remaining allied forces.


The Debacle in Central Malaya Continues

(Singapore) The battle in central Malaya, where the Japanese are seeking to entrap 10,000 allied soldiers, continued today with Japanese forces marching into the town of Temuloh, the site of he besieged garrison.

In fierce fighting, the defenders claimed to have inflicted significant damage on the Japanese, though the enemy forces were able to take control of some key locations within the town, forcing the allies to give up some of their forward defenses. It is considered unlikely that the Japanese will

The British forces responded yesterday by sending its land-based bombers out of Singapore against the Japanese forces attempting to encircle the garrison. Reports back from the battlefield suggest that the air forces inflicted more damage than expected on the Japanese attackers. However, it is doubtful that it was enough to slow down the encirclement.

[dekwik]

Great AAR!

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION
January 5, 1942 - Japanese Heavy Cruiser Sunk

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Battle at Baker Island: Jap CA Sunk!

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Airplanes from the carrier Enterprise sank a Japanese Heavy Cruiser yesterday as what has come to be known as The Battle at Baker Island entered its second day.

Two days ago, while Enterprise and Saratoga withdrew from their attack on the Gilbert Islands, with Saratoga low on fuel, scout planes spotted a Japanese task force nearly 300 miles south of their position. The American carriers launched a total of four air strikes against the enemy - one from each carrier in the morning and afternoon - but managed to score only one 1000 lb bomb hit against the battleship.

Anti-aircraft fire from the Yamato-class battleship chewed up the bombardment squadrons of both task forces.

As night fell, there was some worry that the Japanese surface fleet might find the carriers in the night. The carriers remained separated and moved slowly away from the last known position of the battleship. As an aide to Admiral Halsey on Enterprise explained it, "Keeping the two task forces separate means that we increase the chance we will lose one carrier, but decrease the chance that we will lose two."

Dawn brought welcome relief that the carriers had survived the night and it was time to start hunting for the enemy. On this day, the pilots from the bomber squadrons that had attacked yesterday would act as scouts, while the scout squadrons prepared to attack any enemy.

At 8:15 am, the call came in that the enemy battleship had been found. It was approximately 300 miles southwest of Saratoga, about 200 miles west of Baker Island. However, it was only 150 miles southwest of Enterprise - close enough for Halsey to use his shorter-range TBD bombers.

In two air strikes, Enterprise was able to score two more bomb hits on the battleship, and four bomb hits on a heavy cruiser. Evening reconnaissance photographs showed the bow of the heavy cruiser below the surface, with its crew abandoning ship. Saratoga's bombers recorded no damage done to the enemy, though it's scout squadron had over two-thirds of its planes damaged or destroyed in the attack.

By the end of the day, with both of its dive bomber squadrons were wrecked and its fuel situation getting worse by the minute, Saratoga's sent as much of her naval escort as she thought she could spare to meet up with Enterprise and headed east, where an oiler was waiting to rendezvous with her.

Halsey, meanwhile, prepared to spend another night hoping to stay out of the range of the battleship's guns, yet be in position to strike the enemy the next day. Halsey also had to worry about the fact that, two days ago, Japanese carrier planes had struck Narau Island just west of the Gilberts, and Japan had the potential to bring that carrier into this fight.

Elsewhere in the South Pacific.....

Far to the south, Japanese carriers chased and caught the trailing elements leaving New Caledonia. They sank the troop transport ship name carrying soldiers that had not been unloaded at New Caledonia.

North, at Wake Island, Lexington stayed around for another day attacking that island. Its airplanes were grounded during the morning by bad weather. By afternoon the weather had cleared enough for its bomber crews to find and put a 1000 lb bomb on a Japanese transport south of Wake and for its torpedo bombers to attack the island itself.

As night fell, the nine heavy cruisers that had been accompanying Lexington broke off. They are heading to Wake Island. At around midnight they should reach the island to give it a good shelling, then they will retire and catch up with Lexington on the way back to Midway Island.

When the Japanese had taken Wake, Betty bombers had flown up from the south and aided in the attack. Those same bombers could potentially find Lexington and put a few torpedoes in her. Rather than risk the attack, with the objectives of its mission having been accomplished, Rear Admiral Sherman gave orders for Lexington to withdraw.


The Debacle of Malaya: Day 3

(Singapore) Japanese armored units are continuing to rush down the west coast, completing their encirclement of 10,000 allied soldiers at the town of Temuloh. Retreating allied forces met up with defenders at the town of Malacca - the last avenue of escape for the retreating troops. The defenders are worried about their ability to keep the roads open long enough for the 10,000 troops at Temuloh to make their way to Singapore.

The air forces at Singapore have been ordered to make an all-out attack to interdict the enemy tanks moving down the west coast, in the hope of slowing them down. Previous air attacks against the armored units found them with no air cover, while Japanese fighters and bombers focused on Langsa on the island of Sumatra, and Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.


19th Bomber Group Attacks Thailand

(Calcutta - India) "I hope you enjoyed your vacation. It's time to get back in the war," said the 19th Bomber Group air operations officer, Major George Darcy."

The 19th Bomber Group had flown out of the Philippines as the Japanese army had destroyed their bases, and assembled again in Calcutta. There had been talk of moving them south into Java. However, President Roosevelt had expressed concern that the Japanese could close down the flow of supplies to China, so he had ordered the bombers to India.

There have been some reports out of the White House that Roosevelt has been favoring a China Strategy. The plan would be to reinforce India, first for the purpose of preventing the Japanese and German armies from linking up between India and the Middle East, and then to negate the power of the Japanese Navy by driving overland across Southeast Asia.

Several military leaders have spoken against this plan claiming that the terrain was impassible and easily defended, and that it would be far easier to move supplies over open water. Still, the order came to move the remnants of the 19th Bomber Group to Calcutta.

The operations officer pulled back a curtain to reveal a map that showed eastern India including Calcutta, all of Burma, and western Thailand. A wide red ribbon pinned to the map connected Calcutta with a location in west-central Thailand. It would be a long flight - almost to the limits of the range of a B-17. It would be a 6-hour flight.

"Intelligence tells us that the enemy is assembling troops and equipment at the town of Rahaeng." Darcy said, pointing to the destination at the end of the ribbon. The most like purpose for these supplies is to come down the road and attack the British in Burma, probably aiming to take the port of Rangoon. This would end our ability to ship supplies to the Chinese using the Burma Road."

After a pause, Darcy added, "Our mission is to destroy those supplies and stall the Japanese advance on Burma."

He switched to a large hand-drawn map of Rahaeng that showed a river running through the town and four large warehouses on the eastern bank. While he spoke, aides handed aerial photographs to the flight crews where the four buildings had been clearly marked.

The documents also contained a schematic for the flight formation. 30th squadron was assigned the lead position. Ninety-third squadron would take high-right, while the remnants of the other squadrons were to assemble at low left.

Darcy identified a point up river from the town. "You will start your approach from here where you will turn right to a heading of 155. You will follow the eastern shoreline to your target, find, and bomb the warehouses. We have not seen any enemy fighters and limited signs of anti-aircraft capability here yet, so you will be attacking at an altitude of 4000 feet. Each plane will be carrying four 500 lb bombs."

The planes took off starting at 6:00 AM. It took only a few minutes to get the planes into formation, then the headed east.

Two planes had to drop out. Captain Lindsay in 14th Squadron could not retract his left landing gear. Then the Number 3 engine on Captain Donahue's plane took off on him. With no ability to throttle it back he feathered the engine and returned to base.

The remaining 16 planes found the warehouses. Reconnaissance photographs taken after the attack will record that the bombers had placed 22 of their 64 bombs on the target - which was quite remarkable. There was also a huge secondary explosion in one of the warehouses.

All sixteen planes returned to base by 15:00 without taking any losses or any damage. Ground crews could not find anything wrong with Captain Lindsey's plane. They hoisted the plan up and tested the landing gear, which was working perfectly, but Donahue's plane was grounded while the crew disassembled and reassembled its Number 3 engine.

At supper, the crew were told to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep - they would be getting up early again.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 6, 1942 - The Malaya Catastrophe

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Debacle in Malaya Worsens

(Singapore) Hopes of rescuing the allied soldiers at Temuloh in central Malaya were dashed yesterday when the armies retreating from Temuloh retreated in the wrong direction.

As the Japanese attacked the city in forth, they broke through the left flank of the British lines and quickly moved to block the southern routes out of the city. As the line collapsed and the British soldiers were forced from their defenses, they ultimately found refuge towards the east.

The retreat left the army completely cut off and without supplies.

Winston Churchill expressed outrage at the incompetence of his generals serving in Malaya. He attempted to have General Percival removed from command, but was thwarted by political opponents in Parliament who reported that such a move would come at a very high political cost.

Thayne Report can only speculate that the defenders at Temuloh thought that the would have stronger defenses to the east, across the river from the attacking Japanese. However, they lacked the foresight to recognize that they would be able to bring only a limited number of supplies with them, and they would need to cross the river themselves through thick jungle to regain contact with Singapore.

When news of the defeat reached Singapore, it immediately set off a national panic. Tens of thousands of citizens mobbed the docks and airport looking for any way off of the island and away from the Japanese. Small fishing boats attempted to carry refugees to Sumatra. One fishing boat, overloaded with refugees, capsized in the Strait of Malacca resulting in an estimated 250 people killed. Only 87 of the passengers were rescued and returned to Singapore.


Japanese Battleship Escapes

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) - The Battle at Baker Island appears to be over as Enterprise and scout planes flying from Canton Island failed to find any sign of the Japanese battleship that the allies had been hunting.

The consensus is that with the loss of the heavy cruiser and with the damage done to the battleship by three bomb hits, the Japanese decided to retreat.

Admiral Nimitz, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific, counted the battle as a marginal allied victory. Saratoga left the battle with both its scout and bomber squadrons devastated by the battleship's anti-aircraft, while Enterprise will need to rebuild its bomber squadron.

There will be little time to recover from the battle, however, as the next American actions in the South Pacific begin - the reinforcement of Canton Island and American Samoa.

Task forces are moving into position to deliver thousands of additional troops to Canton Island, and to Pago-Pago on the island cluster of Samoa. These landings are due to take place in four days. There purpose is to prevent easy capture by the Japanese of key islands blocking the supply chain between America and Australia.

Saratoga, which has recently refueled at sea, has been assigned the task of protecting the Canton Island landings, while Enterprise will move south to protect the landings at American Samoa.

Elsewhere in the South Pacific....

...at Wake Island

Lexington withdrew from the waters around Wake Island, leaving a squad of nine heavy cruisers to shell the island during the night.

The heavy cruisers encountered a merchant ship near Wake Island as they approached and immediately sank it, before turning their guns on the island itself.

The bombardment was reported to have been quite destructive. In the darkness, it was not possible to get any kind of an accurate account of the amount of damage that was done. However, spotters on the cruisers and observers in float planes reported, "There wasn't anything left on the island more than three feet tall by the time we were done with it."

The cruisers then left to rejoin with Lexington, then to return to Pearl Harbor to re-arm and re-fit.

...at New Hebrides Island

Northeast of New Caledonia, in the New Hebrides Island, the Japanese carrier force that sank a troop transport two days ago continued to hover around these islands, likely looking for targets of opportunity.

Admiral Nimitz reported to Thayne Report that he does have operations planned to occupy islands in the New Hebrides group, but those landings are two or three weeks away.

Finding no ships to attack, the Japanese task force launched a raid on Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia, but inflicted only minor damage. The ships that had been sitting in Noumea left for New Zealand the day before the Japanese carrier force showed up.


The Rescue of the 108th

(Calcutta - India) About 70 miles north of Victoria Point there is a region where the west coast of the Malaya Peninsula can best be described as ragged. In fact, it is one of those areas where the boundary between continent and ocean is only very loosely defined. A walk through the jungle can, at the same time, be a walk waist deep through the ocean.

In these regions, the waters behave strangely. Fresh water coming off of the mountains 'floats' above the heavier sea water. This means that in places near the shore where the ocean is only three or four feet deep, the water is fresh, and fresh-water plants stick up out of the ocean floor.

Lieutenant Colonel Tomlin, who had been in charge of the British forces at Victoria Point until the Japanese came two weeks ago, stopped his group of nearly 250 refugees in this area. He found a place where his soldiers could keep reasonably dry, but where he had a view out into the oceans and estuaries of the Indian Ocean.

For the past two days, American PBY pilots had been flying in and picking up his soldiers, taking them to India. One hundred and fourty of his soldiers had already made the flight out. A little over 80 remained.

Most of those that remained were clerks and mechanics - people who never had much training in actual combat. It was not reasonable to expect them to put up much of a fight. He only had two squads of trained soldiers left - those that manned the perimeter.

There was the constant fear that somebody would hear the engines of the airplanes as they flew in and out and report the operation to the Japanese. He had a couple of his squads sent out as sentries to warn of the possibility that the Japanese were coming. Though, he would not be able to do anything but warn the planes to stay away and surrender. He would be trapped here with the ocean at his back.

It had rained most of the night. As dawn approached, the sky was still covered with thick clouds - not useful for airplanes trying to find a particular patch of swamp even if they had flown here before.

Soaked through, struggling to find a comfortable way to stand on a slippery rain-soaked tree root, Tomlin could do nothing but wait and hope that the Americans would be able to make their way through and pick up the last of his soldiers today.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 7, 1942 - Another Heavy Cruiser Sunk?

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Intelligence Sources Report Sinking of Second Heavy Cruiser

(Washington DC) The War Department intelligence units are scrambling to confirm the sinking of a second Japanese heavy cruiser in the waters around Baker Island.

An intercepted communication reports the sinking of two heavy cruisers, Takao and Chikuma, near Baker Island. An examination of movie footage taken during the attack clearly identifies Takao as having taken four bomb hits during the attack. However, none of the footage shows even shows Chikuma.

An examination of past military intelligence has so far failed to turn up even so much of a mention of the cruiser Chikoma, near Baker Island or anywhere else.

However, potentially confirming the report of a sinking, a separate piece of allied intelligence reports that the Japanese lost a "Pete" float plane yesterday to a "ground" attack. Military intelligence has known the Japanese to use these terms to report the loss of airplanes due to the sinking of ships. This would suggest that Japan lost a "Pete" float plane when the ship it was attached to sank. But what ship sank?

Some military experts are thinking that the Japanese are using code terms to report the sinking of the Japanese battleship that the Enterprise attacked along with Takao two days ago.

Another, more widely accepted theory is that Takao did not sink on January 4th as originally reported. It was last seen with its bow in the water, but still floating. However, it could have then sank two days later, on January 6th. This sinking generated the second, more accurate report of the loss of a heavy cruiser.

Military intelligence has also received intelligence that is causing them to question the reported sinking of the light cruiser Katori.

Katori was attacked by several American heavy cruisers during the first raid against Makin and Tarawa on December 14th. Observers reported that the heavy cruisers hit Katori with a total of 22 shells.

With almost no moonlight, the ships were only 1000 feet apart when the battle started. It is possible that observers might have made some mistakes during the fight. However, at the very least, Katori is in poor shape and will not be returning to the fight any time soon.


Japanese Carriers Return to Threaten Dutch East Indies

(Soerabaja - Dutch East Indies) The Japanese carrier force that has been blocking the route to the Philippines recently has made a move to return to the Java Sea.

The move came just as allied forces were returning to Java to help defend the island. The Dutch and British navy had pulled into Soerabaja just yesterday. The crews were readying to perform maintenance on its destroyers and light cruisers when news of the Japanese return came.

The Dutch-British (DB) Navy had been at sea for a considerable amount of time - since leaving on the first mission to attack the Japanese landings at Ternate nearly three weeks earlier. After shelling the landing sites twice, tangling with a Japanese battleship, sinking a few troop-laden Japanese transports, and then retreating in a wide arc to escape the Japanese carriers, the ships were in need of some repairs.

The Japanese, however, decided against allowing the DB Task Force the time it wanted. The ships have been ordered to make way immediately and to retreat to Batavia on the western side of Java. This call to retreat includes oilers that had returned to take some of Java's oil south to Australia, as well as several anti-submarine warfare ships that had returned.

Another task force of smaller ships is braving open ocean to head south to Australia itself.

Three submarines that had been undergoing refit and repair in Soerabaja have also been dispatched to attack the Japanese force.


The Next American Operation: Reinforce Canton Is. and Samoa

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) American forces are preparing for their next operation in the Pacific Islands - the reinforcement of Canton Island and Samoa.

Ships carrying the 161st Infantry Regiment, 198th Field Artillery, and 110th USA Base Force are due to reach Canton Island in approximately 3 days. They will be arriving under the protection of the carrier Saratoga.

Currently, the only forces holding Canton Island are about 500 construction workers who had been sent there to build an air strip for ferrying bombers to the Philippines. The Canton Island reinforcement task force is bringing an additional 5000 troops, some heavy guns, and engineers to build up the island's defenses.

A second task force is heading to Samoa, carrying the 2nd Marine Defense Batallion and the 8th Marine Regiment, and is also due to reach its destination in three days. It will rendezvous with the carrier Enterprise tomorrow.

These soldiers were actually being prepared to load up and occupy Samoa before the war began. One of the first operations after the start of the war was to carry out their previous mission. In the chaos following the first days after the Pearl Harbor attack, priories went to collecting relief supplies for Pearl Harbor and other forward ports. However, as the war machine built up speed, the Samoa reinforcement operation took off.

After the Canton-Samoa Operations, the allies have made preparations to land a substantial force on the island of Tanna, between Fiji and New Caledonia. The ships in this landing force are currently northeast of Christmas Island.

The anchor for this force is the 2nd USMC Parachute Battalion and the 2nd Marine Regiment.

If the Japanese pose a significant threat to the possibility of landing on Tanna, the Marines and their support units will land on Wallis Island instead. Wallis Island is northeast of Fiji and northwest of Samoa. The occupation of this island will help to provide an array of mutually supporting air fields among these islands.


Bataan Air Force All But Gone

(Corrigador - Philippines) On a small airstrip hastily carved out of the Philippine jungle, mechanics work on to take the remaining pieces of their fighter squadrons and make airplanes out of them.

There are only seven fighters left. Already the soldiers here are at the mercy of the Japanese air force. Over 150 Japanese airplanes were spotted over the last remaining defenses yesterday, hitting airstrips, docks, supply depots, and troops. The Japanese soldiers are lining up north of here against the American and Filipino line of defense.

East of here, approximately 8000 soldiers remain holed up in Manila itself. The fighting was heavy yesterday, as the Japanese took several key locations. Up until today, it was still possible to travel make the journey between the two forces by boat across the bay. However, the Japanese push yesterday cut off the harbor and left the defenders isolated in a few key fortifications.

A determined push tomorrow will probably bring an end to military resistance in Manila itself.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 8, 1942 - ARCADIA Announces Solomons-China Strategy for Pacific

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Combined Chiefs Select Overall Strategy Against Japan

(Washington DC) The Combined Chiefs of Staff, currently meeting in Washington DC at what is secretly called the ARCADIA conference, approved an overall strategic plan for the war against Japan today, adopting what military planners have called The China - Solomons Option.

A spokesman for the Combined Chief explained the announcement.

"There are several routes we can take to fight our way to Japan. There's the Aleutian Islands, Central Pacific, Solomon Islands and New Guinea, Timor, Andaman Islands and Sumatra, and India-Burma-China," the spokesperson said. "We decided that we needed to choose two of these to be our main foci of attack."

One of the two lines of advance that the planners selected will start in the Fiji Islands, move up through the New Hebredis, through the Solomon Islands, up the north coast of New Guinea, and into the Philippines. This option will include the eventual capture of the Gilbert Islands to shorted American supply lines.

With military intelligence saying that Japan intends to capture New Caledonia and, in all likelihood, the New Hebredis Islands, this means that the Fiji Islands will be the jumping-off point for this operation. Military planners are now trying to figure out how to develop the Fiji archipelago to create an array of mutually supporting bases, preventing the Japanese from gaining a victory in the region by attacking one central hub.

The Solomons route will substantially be a navy operation under the command of Admiral Nimitz, currently Commander in Chief of the Pacific.

For the second push into Japan, the Combined Chiefs have decided to try something new in the history of warfare - what will substantially be an air war. This route starts in Calcutta, India, moves through Burma, then into western China, and eventually pushes on to retake Hong Kong.

The terrain in this area will prevent much if any supplies to move over land. Therefore, supplies will move by air - over mountains, jungles, and swamps, while denying the Japanese the ability to do the same thing.

Of course, in all cases, the success of the operation will depend on ground units attacking and holding key terrain.

ARCADIA participants loyal to General Douglass MacArthur, currently serving in deense of the Philippines, strongly protested the decision. They reported that the difficulty of moving men and material through the jungles and mountains in southeast Asia would doom the campaign to failure.

Against this, those who supported the plan said that there will be no easy road to Japan. The routes that were not difficult to travel will certainly be the ones where Japan will set up the strongest defense.

“It is precisely because this route is so difficult that we expect that the Japanese will not puts its best effort into defending an attack from that direction,” said one senior military planner.

Eisenhower and Churchill also spoke in favor of the China option when it was pointed out to that air units in India could easily transfer to Africa to fight Germany and Italy if they were needed. Specifically, the India-China force will be close enough to the oil fields in the Middle East to defend them if the Axis powers try to take them.

It is believed that Churchill also favors the China option because of England’s interests in protecting its colonial interests in India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The India-China option also gives weight to plans in Europe to attack the Germany-Italy alliance first by recapturing the Mediterranean. This would significantly shorten supply routes to India.

Consistent with these plans, the War Department will be shifting the 8th Pursuit Group, originally allocated to the Southwest Pacific. It will eventually be assigned to what will become the Tenth Air Force. A heavy bomber group and several PBY squadrons from the Philippines have already moved to India.

They will also be transferring the 32nd Aviation Base Force to Dimapur in India to cover the operations.


108th Rescued from Burma Jungle

(Chittagong - India) Lieutenant Colonel Tomlin made it a point to be the last person out of the last plane delivering the last of the survivors of 108th base force fro Victoria Point.

Intentionally, Tomlin had left himself and the walking wounded as the last of the soldiers to be rescued. On his way of thinking, this is a war, and England's best fighting men were its most important asset at the moment. Yet, as their commanding officer, he could not consider putting himself before any of his men.

He confessed that he was quite nervous over the possibility that the Americans would not be able to get all of them out before the Japs found them. It was not his intention to become a fallen hero. But he could say the same for each of his soldiers.

The Japanese had taken over Victoria Point, at the southernmost trip of Burma, nearly a month earlier. Since that time, he had been leading those troops that managed to escape from the town north.

Four days ago, US Navy PBYs that had retreated from the Philippines, began showing up on the coast to pick up the troops and fly them to Chittagong. It was a long flight, limiting the number of soldiers each flight could carry.

However, they made it. In four days, the Americans had rescued 258 soldiers.

As the last of the wounded got up to leave the PBY, Tomlin stood on shaky legs behind them. He would learn at his physical that he had lost over 30 pounds on this trip. It would take a few days even for him to get his strength back.

There were new orders waiting for him the instant he got off the plane. A train would arrive in Chittagong in two days delivering supplies to the garrison. He and his soldiers were to get on it and go to Calcutta, where they were to await replacements. Then, he would be posted to a new station - to be named later.

He folded the orders neatly, making sure that the corners of the page matched precisely before creasing the page down the middle, then stuffed it into his short pocket. Then he stood for a moment and looked around.

Medical staff were taking care of the last of his soldiers. A nurse came to him asking if he needed help. He waved her away. At the end of the pier, there was an anti-aircraft gun surrounded by sand bags. A small group of soldiers walked by in clean uniforms, smoking and carrying on a casual conversation.

Yet, with all of this, he could not force himself to relax.

"In time," he said. "It'll come in time."


Private Transport Seeks to Sneak Supplies to Rangoon

(Columbo - Ceylon) The navigator gave the location - 173.4 miles west by northwest of Port Blair.

Captain Forest Hull thanked him for the information, and took a deep draw from his pipe. The pipe was a cliche. But, for Captain Hull, who had always wanted to sail, cliches were his life.

Port Blair was not their destination. They were headed to the port of Rangoon, still over 500 miles away. In their hull they carried 1700 tons of ammunition - anti-aircraft shells, grenades, bullets - some belted, some in clips.

Yet, the ammunition was also not why Captain Hull was sailing through these waters, where the Japanese air force had complete control.

He had family in Rangoon - family and friends. His goal was to get them out of their and into safety in India somewhere.

He knew what would happen as soon as he showed up. The British will take the ammunition he carried. And the civilians will come to hear there is a ship in the harbor. They will become a mob. British soldiers will form a line, their weapons loaded, to keep the mob back.

Somehow, Hull would have to find his family and friends and get them through the mob and onto his ship. The British will allow that. This was his ship, after all, bought and paid for.

But here will be others who have friends and family in Rangoon that they would like to see gotten to safety. There will be pleadings and bargainings, promises of payment, "Anything. Anything at all. Name your price."

He could easily load a couple hundred people onto his boat. It would be crowded. The facilities would be crude and there would not be enough to eat. Diseases would spread. But they would get by for the three or four days it would take to reach Calcutta.

If the Japanese did not find them.

The sun was setting.

"Five hundred miles," he hummed to himself.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 9, 1942 - Manila Falls

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Manilla Falls; Singapore Is Next

Japanese forces captured the port of Manila in the Philippines today, and completed their encirclement of 10,000 troops in Malaya with the capture of Malacca, just 130 miles north of Singapore.

Meanwhile, the Japanese carrier force stands guard at Makassar on the southwest corner of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies, blocking any attempt to get help to be garrisons of both key locations.

The systematic reduction of the defenders of Manila left the soldiers there with no place to retreat. Japan had landed its forces on both the north and south sides of the island and, in the last two days, had the defenders completely surrounded. The result was the mass surrender of over 17,000 American and British soldiers.

However, General Douglas MacArthur has fortified most of his soldiers on the Bataan peninsula. This strategic location prevents the Japanese from making any use of the harbor for the time being - any attempt to sail into or out of the city would be met with the guns from the fortification at Corrigadore Island.

MacArthur continues to insist that he could defeat the Japanese if he only were provided with sufficient air power. He continues to ask for 200 fighters which he says can be delivered to the island by aircraft carrier.

The Japanese must have obtained news of this request. They have parked their carrier force just off the southwest corner of the island of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies not far from the port of Makassar. They have been hovering in these waters for over two weeks, launching repeated strikes against the major ports in the area such as Balikpapan, Kendari, and Makassar itself.

Meanwhile, in Malaya, the Japanese marched a substantial force into the town of Makassar, north of Singapore, severing the connection between the island fortress and the units in central Malaya.

Faced with no possibility of retreat, the forces in central Malaya have started to spread out in the hopes that they can disrupt Japanese supply lines, perhaps even capturing a town left underdefended against the prospect of having a large military force behind their lines.

The Japanese air force has recently started bombing Singapore itself. There have been three air raids against the city in the past 24 hours, each consisting of less than a dozen bomber aircraft.

They were not challenged for control of the skies. In an attempt to try to slow down the Japanese advance and allow the trapped soldiers to escape, General Percival had been ordering all available airplanes to attack the advancing Japanese ground forces. In the last four days, the air forces in Singapore have flown over 350 sorties against the Japanese. These attacks were launched without fighter protection - even the Buffalo fighters were being sent out with bombs and orders to attack ground targets.

However, the fall of Makassar tells us that these attempts were not effective.

General Percival is will be launching yet another all-out attack tomorrow, if the weather holds, to destroy the air fields in Makassar and, hopefully, to destroy some of the supplies that keep the Japanese Army moving south.


300 Miles To Rangoon

(Columbia - Ceylon) Darkness came early to the crew of the cargo ship Hermelin yesterday, and Captain Forest Hull was grateful. There were no Japanese planes in the sky - at least none that he could see and, he hoped, none that could see him.

His cargo ship, carrying 1700 tons of ammunition, was now just over 300 miles from Rangoon. He would arrive the day after tomorrow. He would trust the British and his crew to get the holds emptied while he looked for his brother and his brother's family. They did not know that he was coming. Nobody knew. The Japanese could not given a chance to know.

He had nightmares of rushing to his brother's house and finding it empty. They might have moved upriver. They might simply be away from home shopping or enjoying the day out. There will be a curfew in place that would prevent Captain Hull from looking for his brother after sundown. The streets will be dark. Soldiers will be anxious to shoot anybody caught roaming the streets.

They might have already fled. Though his sister and law would fight that option. She had family here, too. This was her country.

He would have to make room for them to get her to come along, and he would have to get her on board to get his brother to agree to leave.

"It would be easier to sail through a hurricane than to navigate the hazards of this family," Captain Hull mumbled to himself.

If he survived tomorrow, he would probably make it to Rangoon. He would then be able to sail through the night and arrive near dawn - too late for the Japanese to stop him. At night, he did not need to worry about airplanes.

He only needed to worry about submarines.

All he had to do was make it through another day.

He emptied the bowl of his pipe into the ocean, and allowed the darkness to swallow his ship.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION
January 10, 1942 - Americans Reinforce Samoa, Canton

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Cargo Crisis at Samoa

(Pago-Pago - Samoa) "Petty Officer Whitmire!" Lieutenant John Appleton shouted out of his office, catching the attention of the security guard the door to the building. "Whitmire, I want you to find out who is responsible for those ships out there and SHOOT HIM!"

The guard turned his attention back to his guard duty.

"I know," Appleton continued, "People generally frown on shooting a senior officer. I can understand that. But, in this case, you would be doing me and the whole allied war effort a big favor. It'll be worth a medal, I promise."

A young Marine lieutenant followed Appleton out of his office and said, "What should I tell the general?"

"Tell him he is an idiot," Appleton answered. "Tell him that if he wants to get his equipment unloaded in this harbor that he should put it on a boat that fits in this harbor. There is no way he is getting that boat docked on this island."

"But we need . . ."

"IT DOESN'T FIT!" Appleton shouted at the Marine lieutenant.

"You do not need to shout, sir."

"Obviously I do, because obviously you are hard of hearing."

At that instant, Petty Officer Alan Rice stood up from his desk and handed the Navy lieutenant eight folders.

"What is this?" Appleton asked.

"Eight more ships, sir. They should be here either tomorrow or the next day."

"No," said Appleton.

He waited for Rice to answer.

"This isn't funny."

"It wasn't meant to be, sir."

He opened one of the folders and found the name of a ship and the ship manifest, as well as instructions on what to do with each item in the ship's hold. He opened another and saw the same thing. The next folder identified a tanker coming into port carrying aviation fuel.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" Appleton asked the Corporal, who simply stood silently.

"Gad! Somebody needs to go to Washington and teach those idiots in the War Department how to read a map! Where do they think they are sending this stuff to, Pearl Harbor?"

He looked again at the folders and rolled his eyes in frustration.

The Marine lieutenant said, "The General . . ."

"IT DOESN'T FIT!" Appleton shouted again. After waiting for the echo to die down, he added, "Here's what you tell your General. Tell him to take his ship over to Suva and have them unload it. Then load the equipment up again in a smaller ship and bring it back here, and then I'll unload it."

"He's not going to be happy."

"Good," Appleton said. "He should be furious. He should find the person responsible for this mess and have him shot. I know. The Navy frowns on senior officers committing suicide but if the General does it right I think he must might get away with it."

"Suva?"

"Suva should be able to take care of him. Yes. I'll get the rest of his ships unloaded here."

The Marine Lieutenant saluted and took Navy Lieutenant Appleton's advice with him as he left the building.



Three Hours Until Dark

(Rangoon - Burma) Forest Hull, captain of the cargo ship Hermelin carrying 1700 tonnes of ammunition for the British in Rangoon, watched the weather nervously. He had spent the morning under an overcast sky. However, as morning turned into afternoon, the clouds were lifting.

Ahead, the sun was peeking through a growing patch of blue sky.

He was close to the one-hundred mile mark. If he could make it to dark . . .

"Airplane!" shouted the ship's cook Sie. He wasn't cooking today. He was told to stand on the desk and hunt for enemy planes.

Hull followed the direction of Sie's outstretched arm to the northeast and raised his own binoculars. The airplane was a small speck moving slowly to his left. It would cross in front of him.

"Stop the engines!" Hull shouted.

Aung Kyi looked at him questioningly.

"Stop the engines! They'll see our wake long before they see us! Now!"

Immediately the engineer brought the engines to a stop, but the ship kept moving. It would for several more minutes.

"Now, get on the radio. Radio Rangoon, tell them our position, and that we have spotted an enemy airplane."

Meanwhile, Hull watched the plane nervously.

"Another airplane!" Sie shouted again. This time he pointed due east.

Through his binoculars, Hull could see the floats on the airplane. It was coming straight for him.

"Full speed!" Hull shouted. "Get moving! Now! Now!"

It took the fully loaded ship as much time and energy to start moving as it did to stop. Meanwhile, the enemy plane got closer. He did not need the binoculars to see it now. It was in plane sight. By now, the plane was due to pass slightly south of him, but the plane turned. It had seen them.

Hermelin had been given four machine guns, and four British soldiers to use them. They took their positions and readied for the attack.

The enemy never came down. It circled at least a mile up.

Hull had his engines on full speed. Mentally, he was trying to calculate the time that it would take for the pilot to radio their position to Bangkok and for Bangkok to launch a torpedo bomber to sink his ship. If the Japanese were smart, and it seemed they were, they would have had planes ready to respond for just such a report.

As the Japanese float plane followed him north, Hull was powerless to do anything but to try to get as close to Rangoon as he could.

"Airplane!" Sie shouted again. This time he pointed south. Through his binoculars, Hull could see the third plane, but it was moving away.

But the plane ahead kept circling.

It circled for a good 20 minutes, then the pilot suddenly banked left and headed off to the west.

As soon as the plane was gone, Hull ordered an abrupt turn 30 degrees left and kept the engines at full speed. If they had plotted his course and speed, he wanted not to be where they thought he would be when the enemy planes got there.

Still, he kept his ship moving at full speed. He knew he was burning fuel, but he had enough to reach Rangoon and was certainly they had enough for him to go home.

"The navigator Carl Bellows came looked up from his map. He had been plotting their position to radio to the forces at Rangoon.

"A hundred miles left," Bellows told his captain.

"And three hours until dark," said Captain Hull. "Three hours until dark."


Supply Interdiction Near Singapore

(Singapore)The purpose of the mission was to interdict the supply lines feeding the Japanese monster that was consuming Malaya and had trapped over 10,000 British troops behind enemy lines.

Airplanes in Singapore loaded up with bombs were taking off throughout the day, striking anything that looked like a truck convoy or munitions stockpile at the recently captured city of Malacca, just over 100 miles northwest of Singapore.

From the reports coming in, the project seems to have been a success. Reports came in all morning of a number of secondary explosions and significant hints. At the end of the day analysts concluded that seven ammunition and fuel caches had been destroyed in nearly 100 sorties.

Whether it will be enough to slow the enemy remains unknown.

Meanwhile, British and Malayan soldiers trapped behind enemy lines are also looking for ways to cut the flow of supplies. Reports received in Singapore say that they are trying to make their way back to the main roads where they can set up at least temporary road blocks.

Meanwhile, odds makers have started taking bets on when Singapore will fall into Japanese hands - with some gamblers betting that it will fall as early as January 15th. Its fall will come as a complete embarrassment to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and will raise the question of whether he is the right person to be leading England in this time of crisis.

It is already certain that the Malaya campaign will go down in the annals of British history as one of the worst military blunders in the entire history of the country.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITIONJanuary 11, 1942 - Enterprise Torpedoed!

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Enterprise Torpedoed! Fights for her Life

(Samoa Islands) The USS Enterprise took a torpedo in the port bow yesterday afternoon as it watched over ships involved in the landings at Pago Pago in the Samoa islands. The torpedo punched through the hull and did massive external damage, springing several internal hatches and causing severe flooding.

Counter-flooding, necessary to allow Enterprise to resume flight operations, has the carrier very low in the water, which makes her much slower and less maneuverable.

Destroyers accompanying Enterprise claim to have sunk the submarine that caused this damage. However, there were sightings of a submarine near Enterprise after the alleged sinking. This could indicate that the original report was false, or that the Japanese are using wolf packs.

It is possible that the Japanese learned of the Samoa operations from "loose lips" and sent several submarines into the waters around these islands.

Enterprise is heading for Pago Pago, and will then try to reach Pearl Harbor.

Meanwhile space is being made available in the dry docks at Pearl Harbor as preparations are under way to move the battleships Tennessee, California, and Nevada to San Francisco. These three battleships are in the best shape for making the long ocean travel.

Pennsylvania will be moved pier-side to made room for Enterprise, if she should make it home safely.

As it is, her ability to make the trip home is in doubt. It is possible that the trip home could spring the doors to other sealed compartments. If Enterprise takes in much more water, she could be lost entirely. As it is, it will take at least a couple of weeks for Enterprise to reach a suitable port.

Meanwhile, the Samoa operations will be left without the protection of a carrier, leaving it vulnerable to surface raiders and leaving remaining ships even more vulnerable to submarines. While on station, Enterprise was using its naval attack squadrons to suppress enemy submarines.

At the same time, ships are being assembled to land a substantial force on the island of Tanna, between Fiji and New Caledonia, which was also to fall under the protection of Enterprise.

To cover this deficiency, Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, ordered Saratoga to move south to cover the Samoa operations. To do this, she will have to leave the Canton Island operations unprotected.

At Pearl Harbor, Wasp has just arrived from San Diego while Lexington will be returning in a couple of days from its assault on Wake Island. These two carriers will be prepared to sail into the South Pacific as reinforcement operations continue.


The Mad Dash to Rangoon

(Rangoon - Burma) As the sun set, Captain Forest Hull of the freighter Hermelin zigged and zagged his way to the port of Rangoon.

After the sun had set, he was no longer worried about enemy airplanes. His only remaining worry was enemy submarines that might be watching the port for ships just like his. So, Hull kept his freighter on full speed and took the wheel himself, turning left and right on his own whim to spoil any potential submarine's aim.

Carl Bellows, his navigator, struggled to keep up with erratic path in order to keep Captain Hull informed as to their location.

Rangoon was actually situated about 20 miles up the Rangoon River. The river - or at least the last 25 miles of it - was an ocean inlet not much different from a shallow Norwegian Fjord. It was not a coastal town sitting on the ocean's edge.

Naturally, the inlet had been mined, and only a few people had any idea what course to take through the waterways.

All Bellows needed to do was to navigate [/i]Hermelin[/i] to the mouth of the inlet. There, they met a boat from Rangoon with a harbor pilot and a half-dozen guards. They boarded the ship and, with the crew safely locked away below deck, piloted the ship through the mine field and to the pier.

At Rangoon, Captain Hull could breathe a deep sigh of relief. It was dark, but the harbor master had a crew standing by ready to unload the cargo.

Word had spread through town that a boat had arrived before Hull even had a chance to touch shore. As he had predicted, a mob was forming around the harbor perimeter. He would have to navigate that mob to get his brother's family onto the boat - if he could find them.

At least, he felt, he did not have to worry any more about being suddenly blown to bits by a Japanese bomb or torpedo.

In daylight, he had an opportunity to renew that assessment. The docks itself showed damage from repeated bombings. Anything that interfered with the operations on the docks had been removed, but the burned-out hulks of destroyed warehouses and out-of-the-way bomb craters had not been filled in.

News on the street was that the British were evacuating, and that stirred the growing mob to a greater frenzy. Many were anxious to see the British out of town and wanted to encourage the departure. Chasing the British out with stones and Molotov cocktails seemed a good idea.

After making arrangements to get the ship unloaded, Hull went to his cabin, grabbed a side arm and an set of loaded clips from a box near his bed, and headed off into town. It was time to hunt for his brother, and his brother's family.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 12, 1942 - Emergency Crews Work to Save Enterprise

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Enterprise Flooding Controlled

(Pago-Pago - Samoa) Ships crews seem to have gotten the flooding on the aircraft carrier Enterprise under control since it was struck by a Japanese torpedo yesterday. Sealed compartments seem to be holding, while damage control parties were able to pump out a significant amount of water that had gotten into other parts of the ship.

Still, the mission to rescue Enterprise is not over yet. The carrier must make a long trip from Samoa to Pearl Harbor. During that trip it will continue to be under threat from Japanese submarines and surface raiders.

An even greater threat is that the stricken ship might find itself in a violent storm that rips the already crippled ship open and sends it into the deep ocean.

Enterprise has been able to level its flight deck, so it has the ability to launch and recover its own planes. The SBD and TBD bomber squadrons will both be on the lookout for enemy submarines until Enterprise reaches Pearl Harbor.


Planning Continues for a China Front

(Calcutta - India) Now that the Combined Chiefs of Staffs have announced that Burma will be one of the places where allied soldiers will begin the long march through China to Hong Kong.

The Joint Chiefs have decided that the Americans will be sending the following air groups to India.

• 51st Pursuit Group - currently on its way but under strength

• 8th Pursuit Group - 1 squadron on its way, the rest to be activated near the end of January.

• 3rd Medium Bomber Group - to be activated next week and sent immediately to India.

• 19th Heavy Bomber Group - already on station in Calcutta

• 7th Heavy Bomber Group - on their way to Australia, they will then fly through Darwin and Batavia on their way to Dacca, India.

These forces will be added to the Hurricane fighters and Blenhein bombers that the British are allocating to the region.

Japan has already won the air war in Burma, systematically destroying the air fields until the units launching from there had no base from which to operate. There were not enough engineers to keep the fields operational once the Japanese attacked.

One of the priorities in establishing this new air war is to make sure that the air bases are provided with the engineers they need to keep the bases operating.

In addition, British 223rd and 224th Royal Air Force Group Headquarters out of Singapore and send them to India. They are being flow from Singapore to Java, then to northwest Australia, and from there to Perth. Two high-speed troop transports have been dispatched to Perth to pick up the headquarters units and deliver them to India.


Penrhyn Island Receives Reinforcements

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Another island in the South Pacific has received reinforcements, strengthening the allied presence in that area.

While troops continue to disembark on Canton Island and Samoa, another transport has stopped off at the island of Penrhyn to deliver the 112th USA Base Force.

This island, situated southwest of Christmas Island and east of Samoa, is being set up as a second line of defense in case the Japanese capture Canton Island or Samoa. It was originally intended to serve as an alternative landing strip for airplanes flying to Australia. However, if Canton Island is captured by the Japanese, Penrhyn Island might find itself on the front lines.

Penrhyn is already serving its intended function as the ships for the planned landing on the island of Tanna, in the New Hebrides Islands, are gathering assembling there. These ships will soon fall under the protection of Saratoga, who will take them to Fiji and then, if the coast is clear, on to Tanna.

If the Japanese are considered too much of a threat for the proposed landings, other islands in the Fiji chain will serve as alternative destinations.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 13, 1942 - Japanese Attack East Borneo

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Subs Escape Japanese Invasion at Balikpapan

(Soerabaja - Dutch East Indies) The alarm went out, "Get out of here! Japanese ships coming in!" went out over the radio.

A Japanese invasion fleet was approaching Balikpapan.

Lieutenant Commander William G. Chappel ordered the fuel lines cut, had a few last boxes of food and ammunition thrown into the submarine, and ordered the ship to prepare to make way.

He had brought his submarine here from orders to "fill her up while you still can." Chappel in SS-38 had been patrolling the Makassar Straight for the last month and was running short of food, fuel, and other supplies. He had failed to get a shot off against the Japanese carrier fleet when it sailed through, but stayed on station to intercept any other Japanese attempt to infiltrate the Java Sea.

Now, the Japanese were coming.

His crew fired up the engines, and SS-38 pulled away from the dock. But the channel to the ocean was only fourty feet deep. It was too shallow to submerge until they got into the deeper water off the coast.

SS-36 was ahead of him. Through his binoculars, Chappel saw the submarine dive and mentally marked how far he would have to go to get into safe water. He calculated the time needed as at least five more minutes.

He could not make a direct run for the open ocean. Balikpapan Harbor had been mined. He had a zig-zag course to run under the direction of a Harbor pilot who had jumped onto the submarine as they left.

Then, Chappel saw the ships.

"Take her down!" Chappel shouted. "Clear the bridge"

"It's only thirty feet deep!" shouted Lieutenant Lopez.

"Lower our profile a bit, Lieutenant. At least we'll be harder to see."

"It doesn't work that way, Captain!" Lopez answered. "There are rocks and . . . "

"Up here, there are ships, Lieutenant, who mean to do us harm. I'll take my chances with the rocks."

The submarine settled into the water just a few feet. As it did so, it lost speed to match. As it lost speed it would take longer to reach deeper waters.

"Radio back. Tell that Dutch sub to leave NOW!"

He paused while his order was carried out, then said, "Distance to the shelf?"

"One point four miles, sir." Lopez answered.

"All ahead full. Watch the depth."

"Thirty-seven feet, sir."

At this point, he was heading almost straight for the Japanese ships, which were coming in. It was like playing chicken. He was almost certain that the Japanese ships could see him by now. Hopefully, they could not yet tell SS-38 from dozens of private ships that littered the harbor - some of them also trying to escape.

"Depth, Mr. Dawson."

"Almost Forty feet."

Lieutenant Lopez said, "We should bottom out. Let them go by."

"They'll see us," Chappel answered. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to block out all sounds and other distractions. "Take her down, thirty feet, all ahead full."

At the depth the water was above the deck, but the conning tower still rode above the surface. They were, perhaps, the equivalent of a fast-moving tug boat.

"Fifty feet. Sixty feet, sir, we've cleared the shelf."

"Clear the bridge. Take her down."

The submarine sank into the water.

After waiting until the sub was totally submerged, Chappel said, "Thirty degrees right, all ahead half." He was hoping to prevent the Japanese from being able to plot his course after they watched him submerge.

They could hear the propellers of the enemy ships through the hull and sat, nervously and quiet, trying to escape notice. They heard no active sonar.

After a minute, he ordered, "All stop. Periscope depth."

Through the periscope he saw the line of Japanese ships moving towards the harbor.

"Bring us around 180 degrees," he ordered. "All ahead slow. Down periscope. Load the torpedoes."

He stood, impatiently, while the submarine turned completely around. SS-38 only had torpedoes facing forward, so he could not fire behind him.

"Course, 325." Lieutenant Lopez said.

"All stop," ordered Chappel.

"Up periscope."

Looking through the periscope, he found a ship. "We have a troop transport. Range, 3000 feet. Speed, 8 knots. Course, 290."

This information was used to plot an intercept course for the torpedoes. They would be firing at the ship at a fairly steep angle. It meant that they were not going to lead the enemy ship by much, but that it would be easy to get a glancing blow off the side.

"Course plotted and laid in, sir," Lopez informed him.

"Fire torpedoes."

"Torpedoes away."

Chappel watched while the seconds were counted down to impact.

"Hit!" reported Captain Chappel. The crew cheered at his news. "Two hits!"

A couple of seconds later, the sounds from the explosions rumbled through the submarine confirming the Captain's report.

"Down periscope. Get us out of here, Lieutenant Lopez. The Japanese aren't going to be too happy with us."


America Load More Reinforcements at San Diego

(San Diego) San Diego harbor has become a beehive of activity as the American military prepares to send another wave of reinforcements out into the South Pacific.

Cargo ships and troop carriers have been arriving all week from Australia and New Zealand. They had assembled at the collection point set up about 800 miles southwest of San Diego and brought through the submarine-infested waters off of the American coast by anti-submarine escorts.

For the last three days they had been loading up troops, equipment ammunition, food, fuel, and other supplies.

This next set of landings includes the 1st Marine Raider Battalion for the island of Savaii, along with artillery, anti-aircraft batteries, and engineers. Savaii is located in the Samoa islands near Pago Pago, near where Enterprise was recently struck by a Japanese torpedo. Reinforcing the island would add one more base to the mutually supporting nest of air of naval bases that the allies were trying to establish at Samoa and Fiji.

The forces heading out into the South Pacific also include a Port Service unit for Suva in the Fiji Islands. These soldiers would help to maintain the air and naval units seeking to use Suva as a base.

The unit with the longest journey ahead of it is the 32nd Aviation Base Force. They were loading up on the troop transport Monterey, a converted cruise ship capable of moving at a cruising speed of 18 knots. This was done to speed up the trip and get the soldiers to their destination as quickly as possible.

That destination was Karachi, India. From there, the soldiers will board a train that will take them to Ledo in northeastern India. Once in Ledo, they will board transport airplanes that will take them over the mountains into western China. Once in China, they will take the place of the American Volunteer Group in servicing American military planes used on the Chinese side of the China Offensive.

In addition, cargo ships and tankers are being loaded up with all measure of aviation fuel, ship fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, food, construction equipment, and clothing for the bases that are already established. Approximately 2 dozen cargo ships will be heading out to 2 dozen different ports to deliver their precious cargo.

It remains to be seen how many will actually make it to their destinations.

For the first part of their trip, they will form up into a large convoy. Protected by a screen of anti-submarine warships and moving only as fast as the slowest ship, they will sail out to the Pacific Assembly Area. There, they will split up into individual ships and small task forces. Meanwhile, the anti-submarine ships will pick up a new set of transport and cargo ships gathering in the Pacific Assembly Area and prepare to bring them to San Diego.


Battleships Make Way for San Francisco

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Three of the battleships stricken during the Pearl Harbor attack prepared themselves today for the long trip to San Francisco, where they can be repaired and prepared to return to the war. They were told to leave shortly after dark. To most of the people in Hawaii, the ships will be in the harbor one day and gone the next. Their date of departure and their destination were all secrets.

The three battleships making the trip are Tennessee, California, and Nevada.

They are being accompanied by a squadron of destroyers that will have their own turn in the repair yards. These destroyers will be fitted with the newest radar, allowing them to better track Japanese airplanes and Japanese ships.

The three remaining battleship casualties of the Japanese attack - Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland - are still too badly damaged to risk on the open oceans.

Work on at least one of these ships will stop when Enterprise arrives. Enterprise[/iu] will get the full attention of as many repair crews as it takes to get the ship repaired and restore it to the battle lines.

[Andy Mac]

Just a small note from the home front apparently PM Churchill is very dissapointed in the failure of the Malayan defences and is very concerned.
 
Of course he never did like Wavell that much....

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 14, 1942 - China Isolates Large Japanese Force

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


China Outmaneuvers Japanese Army

(Chunking - China) A substantial Japanese force of perhaps 40,000 soldiers has gotten itself surrounded by a much smaller Chinese army in the hills of southeastern China.

The Japanese forces were a part of a major operation to push the Chinese forces out of the hills overlooking the coastal ports they had captured. This army started in Shaoching, China, and has been pushing its way westward.

In the course of the conflict, it bypassed a substantial Chinese force hidden in the hills. This force then came out of the hills to occupy the roads through which the Japanese have been carrying their supply.

With the supply routes cut, the Japanese forces at Pucheng found themselves in a lopsided battle where the Chinese were able to isolate and overrun a force of about 3,000 Japanese soldiers. In this battle, the Japanese suffered an estimated 2500 casualties at a loss of only 50 casualties for the Chinese.

There is a possibility that the Japanese are able to bring up some supplies up from the south. There are roads coming up out of the port of Foochow. However, at last report, the allies had control of those roads and the Chinese forces were preventing any Japanese transport from going through.

Further west, a Japanese force is pushing up out of Hong Kong and has just captured the city of Wuchow and are threatening the city of Nanning. Since the main Chinese objective currently is to protect the road from Burma to Chunking from harm, these units are retreating to the railway across central China.

In other news, the Chinese have agreed to move two Chinese divisions to India to begin to train for the upcoming Hong Kong offensive. These units will travel through northern Burma into India, eventually relocated to bases at the port of Calcutta in eastern India. There, they will begin to equip and train.

The Chinese have assigned this mission to their 36th and 200th divisions.

These units will not be committed to the fight immediately. It is expected to take several months to get these divisions up to fighting strength to the point that they can be deployed effectively in combat.

The American forces have further reserved the right to call two more Chinese divisions to move and train in India - a right which they fully expect to exercise.

Withdrawing these units from China is expected to provide a couple of benefits. Not only will it allow the allies to properly equip and train these forces, but the supplies currently being trucked into China will not need to be spread out so thin. Currently, a substantial portion of the Chinese army is under equipped. The withdraw of troops that would have normally been under supplied and under trained will not have any significant effect on the combat effectiveness of units left in China.


The Pacific War and the Butterfly Effect

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) In San Diego, a butterfly flaps its wings and, as a result, a Japanese carrier launches an unopposed air assault on New Caledonia.

We have no way of knowing what caused the planning officer in San Diego to put the 8th Marine Regiment on the troop transport Mariposa for its trip to Pago Pago in the South Pacific.

But he did.

It was not until the transport reached Pago Pago that somebody came to the realization that there was no way one was going to fit this ship into that port. The ship was simply too big.

So, as a result, orders were cut for Mariposa to take its cargo to Suva on the Fiji Islands, to unload there, and have the troops and cargo re-loaded for transport back to Pago Pago. The carrier Enterprise was told to escort the convoy to Suva.

Then, a Japanese submarine hit Enterprise with a torpedo - because Enterprise was where it would not normally have been.

So, instead of going to Fiji, [/i]Enterprise[/i] made plans to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

Then, yesterday, a Japanese carrier showed up east of New Caledonia and launched an air strike against the defenders there - where Enterprise would have been in a position to intercept if not for a Japanese submarine, which would not have had a chance to fire a torpedo if not for a decision to take Mariposa to Fiji, which would not have been necessary but for a planning officer's decision to load troops destined to Samoa on Mariposa

Thus are the misfortunes of war.


PT Boats Frighten Off Japanese Landing Force

(Darwin - Australia) Two days ago a Japanese landing force was frightened away from the port of Ambon by a squadron of six PT boats.

The Japanese landing force, consisting of three transport ships, two escort ships, and a light cruiser, approached Ambon on a clear afternoon, where the ships were seen 6 miles from shore.

The six PT boats scrambled to meet the oncoming assault, hoping to do a bit of damage to a Japanese landing that was certainly going to be successful.

However, upon encountering the PT boats, the Japanese force turned and ran without firing a shot. This is in spite of the fact that the Japanese force was escorted by at least one light cruiser, according to eye-witness reports.

On seeing that the Japanese force was in retreat, Lieutenant Voorhees, the commander of the PT boat squadron, called his force back into port. The two opposing forces never got to within 4 miles of each other.

[Cuttlefish]

As the readers of this AAR can tell, I am more of roleplayer than a wargammer. I like a good story. The purpose for the AAR is to provide the story with a setting that is different from (better than) what I could imagine. It is the seed material. I like to ask the question, "What would this be like for somebody who is in the game?"

This can be seen in a shift in focus on some of the stories. I have started to introduce stories that try to provide a perspective on the ground . . . stories that are less strategic in scope and more personal. I think that will continue.

I enjoyed imagining the construction on the base at Christmas Island - from a lone person walking on the beach on an island with a couple hundred inhabitants, to two villages eight miles apart - a port village and an airport village - each with a population of thousands in just a few days.

This disposition is why PBEM does not work for me. Against an opponent who is looking to score the most points in the least amount of time, I'm sitting on my side committing myself to a strategically stupid move because the political situation requires it.

I am enjoying your reports!

Doing this sort of AAR against a human opponent is more like doing improv. You sacrifice control but gain a certain level of dramatic tension, I think. But based on how well this is written you could certainly pull it off. Not that I'm saying you should - you get to write what you want to, after all - just that I think the result would be very good if you did.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 15, 1942 - Damaged Battleships Return to Pearl; Bataan Suffers Dwindling Supplies

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Nimitz Orders More Transfers to Suva

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Having been ordered by the Combined Chiefs of Staffs to make the Fiji Islands a major base for fighting the Japanese, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific, gave additional orders yesterday to move more allied units into the area.

Chief among these new orders is Nimitz' decision to put General William Upshur in charge of the operation to occupy the New Hebrides Islands, and to move the 1st US Amphibious Corps to the Fiji Islands with intentions to move it to Tanna at the first opportunity.

Additional intelligence reports in the last 24 hours continue to support the theory that Japan is planning on taking the island of New Caledonia, southwest of the New Hebrides Islands. Nimitz is looking to allow Japan to take the island, then cut off the units that Japan uses to hold the island by taking and holding the New Hebrides Islands.

Tanna is being set up as a major initial toe hold on those islands. It is within the normal range of bombers and transport aircraft flying out of Fiji, and can be reinforced using fast transport missions out of the Fiji Islands.

Most of the units already assigned to land on Tanna already belong to the 1st US Amphibious Corps

In addition, Nimitz has ordered the 1st PT Squadron from Pearl Harbor to the Fiji Islands. It is thought that the small short-range torpedo boats will be particularly well suited for fighting the Japanese in the close-quarters provided by having a collection of Japanese and Allied bases close together.

Also, the 19th Transport Squadron and the Navy's VMJ-252 will be transferred from Hawaii to Fiji to provide support to the outlying islands.

Within the next week, a task force will arrive in the Fiji Islands containing the 2nd Marine Regiment, the 2nd USMC Parachute Battalion, plus anti-aircraft and artillery units. These units will first land in the Fiji Islands than move forward into New Hebrides as the situation permits.

Currently, a Japanese carrier force is sitting northeast of New Caledonia providing a significant threat to any attempt to move ahead and reinforce Fiji or to move units into the New Hebrides. However, the reinforcements that Nimitz is sending down to Fiji include the carriers Lexington and Yorktown as well as nine heavy cruisers. These ships left Pearl Harbor three days ago.


Battleships Return to Pearl Harbor

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Shortly after leaving Pearl Harbor for San Francisco, the battleship Maryland began to take on water. The decision was made to turn the entire task force around and to get them back to Pearl Harbor before any of the ships sank.

As Nevada returned to Pearl Harbor, there was a period of time in which Admiral Nimitz refused to allow the battleship back into the Harbor. Nimitz worried that Nevada would sink in the channel connecting Pearl Harbor to the Pacific Ocean, rendering the port unusable until the battleship was removed.

Engineers assured Nimitz that Nevada could make it into dry dock before it sank, whereupon Nimitz answered, "Are these the same engineers who assured me that Nevada could make it all the way to Pearl Harbor?[/i].

Nimitz finally agreed to allow Nevada to enter Pearl Harbor where it was quickly sailed into dry dock.

All six damaged battleships are now back at Pearl Harbor. In addition, the carrier Enterprise is coming in for repairs from a torpedo hit it recently took near Samoa.


Percival Prepares for Siege of Singapore

(Singapore) With a substantial Japanese army only 50 miles away from Singapore, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival has ordered allied units to prepare for a siege of the city.

Percival is still sitting with two substantial military forces trapped in the jungle far behind enemy lines in central Malaya. These units are attempting to move onto the roads moving through Malaya in order to interdict combat supply.

He has also been seeking to slow the Japanese advance by sending his air force to destroy supply caches supporting the Japanese army.

Military intelligence units examining information gained at the recent battle of Malacca reveal that the Japanese threw a substantial force into taking that region. These included:

4th Ind. Engineer Regiment
1st Tank Regiment
56th Recon Regiment
5th Recon Regiment
15th Ind. Engineer Regiment
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st RF Gun Battalion
5th Mortar Battalion
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Percival has assured Prime Minister Winston Churchill that he can hold Singapore. Even with the current setbacks, he reports that his army outnumbers the Japanese, and the Japanese will have the disadvantage of attacking a fortified defender. Furthermore, according to Percival, Japan has been making its advances so far against poorly trained Malayan and Indian units. If they attack Singapore, he reports, they will need to deal with well-trained British soldiers.

Percival added that Singapore has an ample store of food, water, and ammunition and can be supplied by air from Batavia in Java as needed.


Supply Shortages Plague Bataan Defenders

(Bataan - Philippines) General Douglas MacArthur, speaking from his bunker deep in the caves of the island fortress of Corrigador yesterday, expressed alarm at the rate at which the allied forces were going through the stores of supplies he had stored up for a siege.

Quartermaster forces had informed MacArthur that the army there had 32,000 tons of stores on hand to be used to keep the Japanese at bay. However, after recent Japanese bomber attacks hit a number of supply stockpiles, the Quartermaster reported yesterday evening that only 25,000 tons of supplies remain.

Military officials also report that the garrison in Bataan has suffered from saboteurs. Anti-American Philippinos had sabotaged the fuel stores on the island, adding impurities that have required the army to stop generators and trucks every 2 hours or so to clean out the gas filters.

Some of these supplies are going to American submarines that continue to visit the port at night to refuel and restock their supplies. Last night, SS Pickerel, which had been patrolling off of the east shore of the Philippine Islands showed up to refuel and to take on board a stock of food and ammunition. In the first weeks of the invasion the submarines were able to attack a number of Japanese transport ships off of the coast of the Philippines. However, in recent weeks, these patrols have been far less successful.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 16, 1942 - Japan Takes Baker Island

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Japan Occupies Baker Island

(Pearl Harbor – Hawaii) Yesterday, Japanese forces occupied Baker Island, a small island approximately 300 miles northwest of Canton Island, southwest of Hawaii.

Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific, ordered a destroyer squadron to Baker Island and disrupt the landings. Destroyer Squadron <<TF###>> was patrolling the waters just 150 miles south of Baker Island, hunting for a Japanese submarine that a PBY crew reported seeing in the area.

Nimitz also ordered a carrier force consisting of Lexington and Yorktown, currently sailing from Pearl Harbor to Samoa, to visit Baker Island on their way south. This force is being escorted by 9 heavy cruisers that recently re-armed after visiting Wake Island, which Japan occupied around Christmas Day. This will be the first combat action for the crew of Yorktown and the third for Lexington.

Admiral Bill Halsey, commanding Enterprise, which is returning to Pearl Harbor for repairs, has requested permission to visit Baker Island on the way home. Given the possibility that Japan may be hiding a carrier force in the region waiting for allied forces to arrive, and the fact that Enterprise is riding low in the water due to a torpedo hit near Samoa, permission had been denied. Enterprise recently sank a heavy cruiser and damaged a battleship near Baker Island, suggesting that the support force for this invasion may be considerably under-strength.

In addition, Nimitz has ordered <<air squadron>> (Marine F2A’s) from Christmas Island to Canton Island, and has ordered that the island of Palmyra be immediately reinforced by units at Pearl Harbor.

The occupation of Baker Island will threaten sea routes between Pearl Harbor and the Samoa/Fiji Area where Nimitz is preparing to fight Japan over New Hebrides Islands. Airplanes stationed at Baker there will force allied naval forces from Hawaii to take a longer route around Christmas Island, adding several days to the journey.

However, the Japanese move comes at the end of an American operation to reinforce Canton Island, only 300 miles from Baker Island. Allied forces have dropped off nearly 5,000 combat troops at Canton. In addition, mine layers have just completed a project of seeding the waters around Canton with over 100 mines maintained. Engineers included among the landing force went to work immediately to fortify the island and have just completed projects that qualify the defenses as Level 3 on the 9-point fortification scale.


Captain Hull Leaves Rangoon for Calcutta

(Rangoon – Burma) You would not have guessed that the man standing next to Captain Forest Hull on the bridge of his freighter Hermelin was his brother. David Hull stood a good four inches shorter than Forest, and weighed at least forty pounds heavier – and looked a lot happier.

Captain Hull clenched his pipe in his jaws as he watched as the harbor master sped away on the small harbor boat. Jeb Smythe had helped sail Hermelin through the minefield and was returning to Rangoon, leaving Captain Hull to pilot his ship to Calcutta, India.

Over 250 refugees stood on the crowded deck of his freighter. Most of them were the wives and children of British soldiers, diplomats, and businessmen living in Burma, as well as the families of Burma officials who had earned favor from the British.

The Japanese had utterly destroyed the airfield, and kept it ruined with frequent raids, so there was no hope of flying out of the country. The only other way out of Burma was a treacherous walk through a hundred miles of trackless jungle.

There were rumors that the British were flying their own soldiers out from secret airstrips in the jungle. These were just the types of rumors that a frantic conspiracy-prone people would spread, stirring up anger at the British and making it unsafe for their families to stay, even without the threat from the Japanese.

Yet, Captain Hull had his own reasons to be angry with the British. Not only did they demand the authority to pick who will ride on his ship, they also saw fit to load his holds with rice and hardwood lumber. Its weight would slow him down, make it harder for him to escape any Japanese attack, and help his ship sink that much faster if hit.

He was more ambivalent about the two small gun boats that he was told to escort to Calcutta. The time spent keeping the small boats fueled would mean a longer trip, but the guns on the smaller ships would be useful if any Japanese planes decided to attack.

He was also unhappy that the British had him leave in the middle of the afternoon, where everybody in town, including any Japanese spies, would see him leave.

But, he was at sea, and needed only to make it to Calcutta to get his brother's family to safety.

"Steady as she goes," he said, more to himself than to any member of the crew. Ahead of him, the sun was setting. He'd have the night to get further away from the Japanese.


China Shuffles Army for China Option

(Chungking – China) Generalissimo Chang Kai-Shek has ordered two of his armies to shift position in an attempt to defend the flow of supplies from India and Burma into China.

According to sources at the Imperial Palace, he ordered 12th Group Army from the area around Changsa to Kweiyang, while commanding the 19th Group Army retreating from Wuchow to take up station at Linchow.

The moves are a part of what the Combined Chiefs of Staffs have called the China Option - a strategic option to attack Japan overland from India and Burma through China. Ultimately, the objective is to retake Hong Kong from the west, then use the port to supply a massive push to Shanghai on China's east coast. Bombers from Shanghai would have no trouble attacking bases in most of Japan.

One of the weak points in this plan is a possible Japanese push from Nanning and Linchow to the northwest to capture the town of Kweiyang. If Japan takes Kweiyang, it will cut the flow of supplies from India to Chungking.

Generalissimo Chang Kai-Shek has already moved a sizable portion of the Central Reserve and the First Group Army to Tuyun, a town just 60 miles south of Kweiyang, to block any Japanese attempt to advance on Kweiyang.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 17, 1942 - The Continuing Menace of Japanese Submarines

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.

Minesweeper Sunk South of Fiji

(Suva - Fiji) Lieutenant (jg) Ernest Underwood had hoped it would be a little bit harder to discover the fate of HMNZS Gale. As it was, the cloud of black smoke directed him straight to a patch of ocean covered with thick oil and debris.

Gale was a Castle class trawler, built to trawl for mines for the New Zealand navy. They are less than twice the length of a PT Boat. Her job was to patrol the New Hebrides islands for signs of Japanese activity there. When the Japanese carrier showed up two days ago, it was ordered back to port for its own safely.

That order itself may have lead to its destruction.

Underwood's first job was to report his findings back to the base at Suva. He did not say that he found Gale, only that he found a patch of oil and debris in the general location where Gale was last reported. Yet, he knew that the people at Suva would draw the same conclusions he did.

Gale had been sunk.

The next question is: By what?

It could have been by airplanes from the carrier that had recently struck Noumea in New Caldonia. Underwood ordered his spotters to keep an eye out for enemy planes, and took a quick look around the skies himself.

It could have also been sunk by an enemy ship. Raiders had sunk tankers in the waters southeast of Fiji in the opening days of the war. Yet, no ship could be found.

Besides, whatever hit Gale sank it so quickly that the ship did not even send a distress call. It was not reported missing until two hours after it was due to arrive in port - and did not show up.

This meant that the most likely culprit was a Japanese submarine.

They have been known to patrol the waters around these islands.

Finding no threats, Underwood made a low pass over the wreckage for a closer look. His spotters shouted that there were survivors and that they "don't look Japanese", so the pilot flew around for another pass. This time, he had his crew drop a life raft out the door on the way over, as close as possible to a pair of sailors who looked like they needed it most.

Finally, he landed, and taxied the plane up to the wreckage.

"Keep your eyes pealed," he told his crew. "We might be leaving in a hurry."

He stayed in his seat, one hand on the throttle, while his crew pulled seven survivors into the plane - two with severe burns and two others with serious injuries. They also recovered a body - a sailor with a leg blown off that had probably bled to death in the ocean.

"Watch for sharks," Underwood commanded.

With the sailors loaded up, Underwood throttled up the engines and took off, heading back to Suva.


ASW Study Condemns Lack of Air-Sea Coordination

(Washington DC) A study sponsored by the War Department to look into the problem of Japanese submarines patrolling off of the west coast of the United States came back with a blistering condemnation of the lack of air-sea coordination in combatting the enemy submarines.

The report found that there was absolutely no coordination between anti-submarine aircraft flying out of air bases on the west coast, and patrol ships that sailed off the America's coast. Pilots would report sighting Japanese submarines, but nothing would be done with the news other than to record that the sighting took place and where.

Specifically, no attempt was being made to direct anti-submarine surface forces to the location where the Japanese submarine was seen and attempt to sink it.

As a result of these findings, the War Department has ordered that an anti-submarine force be established that would receive all information on enemy submarine activity off of the west coast and to have authority over all forces available for their destruction.

In this way, anti-submarine patrols will have the opportunity to react to the reports that pilots make, and pilots will be able to help surface forces keep track of enemy targets.

The new plans are to go into effect immediately.


Freighter Hit in Rangoon Harbor

(Rangoon - Burma) The Thayne Report has been telling the daring story of Captian Forest Hull, who sailed from Columbo to Rangoon on a mission to rescue his brother's family and deliver 1700 tons of ammunition to the British forces in Burma.

The British Admiralty in Ceylon decided to follow Hull's ship, Hermelin, with another similarly-sized freighter, Washingtonian, thinking that if Hermelin was successful that Washingtonian would follow up that success. While, if Hermelin ran into trouble, Washingtonian could retreat.

Late yesterday afternoon, The Thayne Report learned that Washingtonian made it to Rangoon Harbor, where a Japanese patrol plane dropped two 60kg bombs on it, causing significant damage. The ship is currently at risk of sinking.

Meanwhile, Hermelin continues to make its way to Calcutta. It's passengers - Captain Hull, his brother David and David's family, and about 250 refugees from Rangoon - were still doing well at last report, in the company of two harbor defense motor launch boats that they are escorting to Calcutta.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 18, 1942 - Burma Invasion Reaches Tavoy.

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Burma Invasion Reaches Tavoy

(Rangoon - China) The Japanese army, making its way up the west coast of the Malaya peninsula, reached Tavoy yesterday, dislodging the British defenders.

Those defenders are now on retreat to Moulmein, further up the coast.

Moulmein represents the next line of defense. This line is within range of long-range bombers of the 19th Heavy Bomber Group currently stationed in Calcutta. It is also within range of the airfield at Dacca, which will soon become the home of the 7th Heavy Bomber Group, and of two squadrons of Hudson bombers currently stationed in Chittagong, India. The British have been digging in for six weeks the colony.

Two additional British fighter squadrons and a medium bomber squadron are currently en-route to eastern India from Africa. They are due to arrive before the end of the month.

One significant shortage for the allied forces in the region at this moment are engineer forces. The lack of engineers and engineering equipment played a key role in allowing the Japanese to kick the Royal Air Force out of Burma. Japan simply systematically destroyed the airfields in Burma, which the British lacked the tools to repair.

Currently, British engineering power is concentrated in Diamond Harbor, Calcutta, and Chittagong in India. At Diamond Harbor, they were working to secure the area from a Japanese invasion, while the engineers at Calcutta and Chittagong are there to keep the air fields operating.


Capt. Skinner Dies Protecting Rangoon Harbor

(Rangoon - Burma)Charles J. Skinner, captain of the freighter Washingtonian, died yesterday in a daring attempt to save Rangoon Harbor from damage done to his ship.

Skinner navigated Washingtonian - a 1700 ton freighter - into Rangoon Harbor following the successful completion of a similar quest by Hermelin only four days earlier. Hermelin was able to unload its cargo and take on new cargo which it is now in the process of delivering to Calcutta.

Washingtonian, however, was not so lucky. Just a few hours after entering the port and starting to unload its cargo, a Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted Washingtonian and decided to take a shot at her before going back home. She struck the ship with two 60kg bombs.

One of the bombs penetrated the deck and entered the holds, which were filled with tons of ammunition for the British defenders at Rangoon. The resulting fires among the ammunition threatened not only to sink the ship, but had the potential of destroying much of the harbor as well.

After ordering everybody else off the ship, Skinner climbed into the bridge, started the engines, and piloted the ship away from the docks, running it up onto a distant sandbar where it would not sink and block the channel.

With nobody to fight the fires, the flames grew around him. Then came explosions from the ammunition left on board.

Captain Charles J. Skinner has not been seen since.

British army officials are not allowing anybody near the wreckage at this time, claiming it is still far too dangerous. After the fires cool down, a party will be sent to the ship to look for Captain Skinner's body.


72nd Pursuit Squadron Learns Its Lessons

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Lieutenant Jack Allen gave a whoop as he looked up at the score board that squadron commander Brian Campbell had placed in their makeshift hanger.

Today's score brought his cumulative score up to 59, which was tied for the second-best score in the squadron.

Three weeks ago, on December 30, the Thayne Report told of Allen and his friend Lieutenant Walter Ellis when they first arrived at the squadron. They were shocked to discover that the squadron was going to be flying seriously obsolete P-26 Peashooters, a fixed-wing aircraft that was primitive compared to modern fighters.

They also learned that the 72nd Pursuit Squadron was set up to teach army air corps officers who did not know how to fly how to do their job. Only Captains and First Lieutenants were brought here. This was not a place for pilots right out of flight school. This was a place for senior officers who had been flying for a long time, and simply getting a lot of things wrong.

Captain Campbell, the squadron commander, looked up at the score board and smiled. All of his students had shown substantial improvement. At the start of training, he was accustomed to seeing most scores in the mid 20s. Now, the air combat scores for all but two pilots is above 50.

This includes Lieutenant Allen's friend Ellis, who showed up on the board with a current average score of 55, which was slightly above average.

Campbell made sure to speak up loudly enough for the pilots present to hear him above the sound of construction. The hanger they were using was still being built - the original hanger having burned to the ground on December 7th.

"It's come to be my professional opinion that pilots like you do not deserve obsolete planes like these. If there are any pilots here with an average score of 55 or higher who would like to join a combat squadron and fly real airplanes, submit a request to my office and I will review it."

The pilots cheered and congratulated each other - at least those with scores above 55 did.

"In fact," Campbell continued, "If you have a score of 55 or better, talk to Corporal Verner about getting a weekend pass. Get off my base. I don't want to see you until Monday morning.

The cheer grew all the louder as half of the pilots picked up and left the hanger, leaving the other half behind.

"As for the rest of you," Campbell said to those who stayed behind, "We still have some work to do."

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION

January 19, 1942 - Americans Prepare Attack on Baker Island

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Lexington Prepares to Attack Baker Island

(CV Lexington) I had been traveling on Lexington long enough to know that the crew of VS-2 were not particularly worried about tomorrow's mission.

I caught Ensign Chuck Dunsmore and his gunner Wally Newman discussing the battle to come while they waited for the start of a special pilot's briefing the afternoon before the attack.

"If I were the Japanese, when I took one of these bases, I would have a whole nest of carriers sitting back just far enough not to be seen. Then I'd wait for us to show up and right when we were all gone attacking the island, I'd pounce. Sionara Lexington.

"Well, why don't you just march up and tell Admiral Sherman what you're worried about," Dunsmore answered. "I'm sure he's just waiting for you to come up and tell him now to fight the Japanese."

"Sure. We're having brandy and a cigar on the flight desk right after dinner," said Newman.

"Look, if there were any carriers in these waters, they would have pounced on Enterprise when it took on that battleship. That battleship and heavy cruiser were the Japanese escort on this mission. [/i]Enterprise[/i] sank the cruiser and sent the battleship home for repairs, so we are in the green."

Just then the Dauntless crews were called to attention as Lieutenant Commander William Burch entered the room. He took his position at the front of the room and told the crew members to take their seats.

With a map of the Pacific behind him. He pointed at the map and said, "Tomorrow morning, we are going to be here, about 150 miles southeast of Baker Island."

Burch turned back to his crew and stepped in front of the podium.

"The Japanese occupied Baker Island just a couple of days ago. Lexington has been told to pay the Japs a visit and welcome them to their new home. We are supposed to sink any and all enemy ships that we find. If we do not find any ships, then we have orders to turn Baker Island into a heap of smoldering ash. Just like we did with Tarawa last month, and at Wake."

There were smiles and nods of approval among the pilots.

"Except there is one small difference," Burch continued. "We have 10 cruisers sailing with us. Those 10 cruisers have a total of 38 float planes. Admiral Sherman has decided that we can let the cruiser planes look for enemy ships. This means that we get to visit the Japanese with bombs, rather than binoculars."

This news brought actual cheers from the SBD crew members.

"Tomorrow morning, before sunrise, the cruisers will put their planes in the water and take off looking for enemy ships. If they find some, we get to help sink them. If they don't find any, we get to take off and attack Baker Island."

Burch flipped up the map of the Pacific to reveal another map behind it, a map of Baker Island.

"Something else we're doing a bit differently this time is that Lexington and Yorktown are dividing up their responsibilities. Yorktown has the job of destroying the enemy port, while we destroy the enemy airfield."

Burch then folded his arms in front of him, sat back against the table, and said, "One more fact that you're probably not aware of. Four destroyers paid a visit to Baker Island last night. All they found was a lonely troop transport which they drilled full of holes and sent packing back to Japan. So I would expect us to be bombing a Japanese air base tomorrow. Now, pay attention, and we'll get down to specifics."

Dunsmore slapped Newman on the arm, gestured toward Burch, and said, "See, I told you."

Newman answered, "I'm not hoping you're wrong. Trust me. I'm not hoping you're wrong."


Allied Navy Converges on Fiji

(Suva - Fiji) In advance of a move to land on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides chain, a school of ships are currently converging on the port of Suva in the Fiji Islands.

These task forces include:

• The carrier Saratoga and her escort

• A surface attack force built around the heavy cruisers Australia, Canberra, and Pennsacola.

• A troop transport carrying the 2nd Marine Regiment and several supporting units.

• Cargo ships bringing the entirety of the 35th Pursuit Group.

• Tankers, supply ships, and support ships in three different task forces.

In addition, the air forces in Fiji have been augmented by an additional bomber squadron out of New Zealand.

The maneuver is bound to create a backlog as big as the one suffered at Samoa, which still has not cleared itself up and which indirectly resulted in Enterprise taking a torpedo hit.

Eventually, the carriers Lexington and Yorktown are due to arrive to relieve Saratoga, which has not seen a port since it left San Diego shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.


Suva Prepares for Company

(Suva - Fiji) "Dang, it's getting crowded around here," said Lieutenant (jg) Ernest Underwood as he stepped off of his PBY and onto the dock.

"A bomber squadron just few up from New Zealand," said Seaman Chuck Livingston as he secured the plane to the pier.

"A bomber squadron?" Underwood asked. "I was talking about all them ships down by the docks. Seems like they've got half of the American fleet waiting to unload down there. Now, a kiwi bomber squadron?"

Livingston answered with a shrug as he started to give the plane its post-flight inspection.

He had seen over a dozen ships sitting sitting in port as he flew over; tankers, troop transports, cargo ships, and a healthy escort of destroyers. While he was flying over, the cargo ships were lining up for dock space, while the destroyers were assembling to head back out again.

"I hope they find that sub," said Lieutenant (jg) Gregory Ainsworth, Underwood's co-pilot.

"You make it sound as if there is only one," said Underwood. "The one that sunk that mine sweeper wasn't the same one that hit Enterprise. It seems to me that the Japanese know that there's something going on here and they're keeping an eye on us."

Ainsworth said, "Well, whatever's going on, we've got a 3:00 wake-up call tomorrow morning. All of us. The whole squadron. If you're plane don't work they said you should come to the briefing wearing feathers because they want every eye out there trying to find out where that Japanese carrier is at."

"No training session."

"Not tomorrow," said Ainsworth. "This is all hands."

"Something's going on allright," Underwood said. He was feeling tired already.

[Thayne]

THE THAYNE REPORTS: THE ADMIRALS' EDITION
JANUARY 20, 1942

The Thayne Reports are published by allied intelligence and distributed to senior officers serving in the Pacific Theater of Operation in order to give these officers an understanding of the overall military situation. These top secret reports contain the best and most up-to-date information available at the time of their writing. Revealing any of the contents of these reports will be punished as treason.


Singapore Invaded

(Singapore) The end is near for Singapore as a full Japanese division stormed the island's weak western defenses and gained key footholds on the edges of the island city. With these enemy forces ashore, more Japanese soldiers are making the crossing.

Military experts do not expect Singapore to survive more than a few days.

The Combined Chiefs of Staff have already ordered the air squadrons out of the city and over to Java. The British air forces have survived virtually unscathed, suffering only a few losses while they have struggled to intercept and slow the Japanese advance. Yet, even British control of the air around Singapore did not stall the Japanese advance.

Those air forces have been ordered to Java to help in the protection of those islands. It is hoped that this concentration of air forces might offer some measure of additional defense for the islands.


Malaya's Failure Throws Burma Defense In Doubt

(Calcutta - India) The inability to stop Japan's advance through Malaya has raised doubts on the allied ability to provide any sort of defense of Burma.

Part of the plan for the defense of Burma involved building up the air force in India to interdict and slow or stop any Japanese advance through Burma. However, the air forces in Malaya had almost no effect on the Japanese attack on there, suggesting it would similarly have no effect in stalling any Japanese offense against Burma.

The current strength of British units in Burma is significantly less than that of Malaya. This further indicates that the British lack the capacity to defend the country. This is particularly true if the army Japan used to attack Malaya is brought to Burma after the island city falls.

There is some speculation that Japan may attempt to hook up with Germany with a combined offensive in India and the Middle East. This threat is one of the main reasons why the Combined Chiefs have opted for the China Option - because this throws additional units into the gap between Japan and Germany.

With these facts in mind, the Combined Chiefs have started to examine the requirements for a meaningful defense of India. Decisions may be made in the near future to send additional American units to India to aid in its defense.


Massive American Air Raid Devastates Baker Island

(Pearl Harbor - Hawaii) Over 100 allied airplanes from the decks of the carrier Lexington and Yorktown delivered a devastating attack on the Japanese held island of Baker in the South Pacific yesterday.

After patrol planes reported no Japanese ships in the area, rear admiral Frederick Sherman sent the strike at Baker, demolishing the island's air field and primitive port facilities. It also destroyed supplies that the Japanese had gotten onto the island but not yet been able to secure.

The carrier force will be moving towards the Fiji Islands during the night but will remain close enough to Baker to launch a second attack against the Japanese in the morning.


Canton Island Defenders Brace for Impact

(Canton Island - South Pacific) on the island of Canton, Colonel Clarence Orndorff, commander of the allied forces here, prepared a statement that he ordered copied and distributed to every soldier on the island.

Thayne Report has acquired a copy of that statement.

[font="Courier New"]We have been placed on the front lines of this war.

The next island over is Japanese, and we can expect that the Japanese will want to occupy this island as well.

We can almost certainly expect to get bombed. We will probably get shelled. We must consider and prepare for the prospect of Japanese battleships lobbing artillery at us that weighs the same as a small car.

We may see Japanese storming the beaches to take this island from us.

We can't run.

We WILL fight.

We will dig in. We will make sure that this Island is still in American hands a year from now, as it is today.

We know what type of enemy we are dealing with. We saw that at Pearl Harbor. We know from Nanking and a thousand other stories out of China.

We are not alone.

A few days ago, American carriers sank a heavy cruiser and damaged a battleship that almost certainly would have been putting their shells on us.

Yesterday, Destroyers sailing from here visited Baker Island and sank a troop transport, sending Japanese soldiers, guns, and supplies to the bottom of the ocean.

Today, as you read this, 90 bombers from two aircraft carriers are smashing Baker Island.

We might be bombed. The Japanese are being bombed.

We might be shelled. The Japanese will be shelled.

We might face a Japanese invasion. Some day, the Japanese will forced off of that island, long before they could hope to force us off of this one.

Until that day comes we dig in, we hold on, and we fight.

Signed: Colonel Clarence Orndorff, Commanding[/font]


Japanese Destroyer Raids Midway Island; Sinks Frieghter

(Midway - Hawaii) Yesterday, a Japanese destroyer snuck up to Midway Island and sank a small transport ship.

The transport ship had almost finished unloading, so few supplies were lost.

Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific, asked for a full investigation as to how a Japanese warship reached Midway and escaped without being seen by anything other than the merchant ship it sank.

The Japanese destroyer was fortunate in that four allied destroyers in the company of a well armed amphibious ship was just one day away from reaching Midway. If the Japanese ship had attacked a day later, it would have had a more violent reception.