Straws In the Wind

¶ A "powerful" U.S. fleet, according to Radio Tokyo, had left the Marianas and was maneuvering south of Japan this week.

¶ The British Admiralty announced that a Japanese 10,000-ton, eight-inch-gun cruiser had been attacked by torpedo planes and finished by five British destroyers in the Malacca Strait off Penang, Malaya.

¶ Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Allied Southeast Asia commander, was now able to consider: 1) a move to cut off the Malay peninsula by a thrust through Moulmein to Bangkok; 2) a drive at southern Malaya and Singapore by way of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

¶...

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