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battleships and two fleet carriers was heading south down the western side of Malaya, covered by Goshawk fighters operating out of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. While he had no wish to engage the Japanese fleet under their own land-based air if he could avoid it, if they remained where they were he felt they had left themselves open to an attack while their air force was preoccupied in Malaya and the Philippines.
     
    The Japanese command is pleased with the first few days of the war. Pearl Harbor was a major success, the USAAF in the Philippines has been neutralized, and the RAF has taken serious losses. The Japanese themselves had lost some 50 planes in Malaya to combat, plus about 25 more to operational use. They estimated the RAF had lost around 120 planes, and that they will soon have air superiority. In fact, the Japanese pilots are heavily overestimating the number of planes they have shot down. The RAF has in fact lost 47 planes in combat and bombing attacks, plus some 15 in operational incidents. While the RAF pilots are also overestimating, the more experienced Command is reducing the figures to what they feel is a more realistic figure, based on earlier estimates in the Battle of Britain. They were assuming Japanese losses to be around 65-70 planes, which gave them cause for cautious optimism.
     
     
    Dec 9th-10th
     
    In Britain, the first of the production Spitfire Mk8 is delivered to the RAF. It is hoped that this plane will even the odds over France, where the Luftwaffe's Fw190 has been taking a steadily  increasing toll of the MkV Spitfire. This is planned to be the last Spitfire model with the Merlin engine, development now concentrating on the Griffon-engined version. The RAF has been growing increasingly curious as to how the Fw190 manages such performance, combat photographs indicating something unusual about the cowling arrangement. A suggestion of a Commando raid to capture one and fly it back is receiving serious attention. The Mk8 also carries additional fuel to give it a longer range, something seen as more important now that the RAF is contemplating more offensive operations over enemy territory.
     
    In North America the first of the production models of the Mustang fighter (with the Merlin engine) have been accepted by a joint RAF/USAAF testing unit for final acceptance trials. This project was already a priority even before the Japanese attack, but as a result of this, the unit has been told to 'get the damn thing certified as fast as possible'.
     
    Hitler accepts the fact that the current Blitzkrieg attack on Russia has failed, and that a new campaign will have to be launched in the spring. The Germans are currently being slowly pushed back by the Russian winter offensive, but are planning for their own offensive once the weather again permits movement.
     
    In the Mediterranean the news from the Far East has been greeted with dismay, not just because of the attack, but what it will likely mean to the plans for assaulting Sicily in the spring. Joint talks are started with the French on the (possibly optimistic) assumption that the supply of landing craft will continue and that the armoured force at least will be brought up to the needed levels. Wavell and his staff are told to see what units can be earmarked for the Far East if the situation there deteriorates. While there is not a huge time saving in sending troops from the Middle East rather than Britain, the troops are already acclimatised to hot weather conditions. If such reinforcement becomes necessary, fresh units will be sent out from Britain as replacements. The RAF in the Middle East is ordered to prepare some of the spare pilots kept as replacements and reserves for travel to Ceylon to meet up with the planes being diverted there.
     
     
    Having consolidated their landings in Siam, the Japanese army started a planned move south. This was hindered in the west by the delaying tactics and units put out by the defenders.  Their job was