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to form too much in the way of a delaying defence. The Japanese infantry, led by tanks, was moving steadily in the direction of the airfield which seemed to be their target. The advance was held up a couple of times during the day by defensive ambushes by the Indians, but each time part of the Japanese force faded into the jungle, to appear again behind them. Both times this happened it caused panic to the still-inexperienced troops, and the Japanese breakthrough was only stopped when the lead tanks ran into a Matilda. The British tank, manned by a crew who had learnt their trade in Cyrenaica, proceeded to calmly put its 2-pdr rounds through four of the Japanese tanks, ignoring the shots aimed at them which merely bounced off the Matilda's armour. As two more Japanese tanks tried to pull back, they shot them up too, and then proceeded to machine gun the infantry until they had all gone to ground. This attack was credited with stopping a larger panic and breakdown among the Indians, but there was concern that more of this type of attacks might cause the units to break and allow an easy Japanese advance. To forestall this, Blamey ordered 18 Brigade of the 7th Australian division to back up the Indians in the northeast. Despite the holding of the Japanese advance close to the border, the airfield is simply too close now to be used safely, and Park orders the remaining planes and men to be evacuated and  the airfield and its satellite strips to be demolished.

    Map 2 - The Philippines
     
    In the Philippines, the proposed B-17 attack on Formosa had to be cancelled when Japanese troops from General Homma's 14th Army began landing in northern Luzon. Six transports, covered by a cruiser and destroyers, landed 2,000 men at Vigan, while another force landed a similar number at Aparri. The airfields were the invaders first priority, and they immediately secured the airfields near the two towns. A force from Batan Island (a small island north of Luzon which had been taken some two days ago) landed on Camiguin Island to secure another airfield.
     
    The invasion force had been spotted at dawn, and a number of rather uncoordinated attacks had been made by torpedo-armed PBY's and bombing B-17's. No serious damage was done to the invasion fleet, or to its covering warships. The Japanese air forces on Formosa were taking advantage of the better weather to strike hard at the Philippines.  Both airfields and the naval base at Cavite were heavily bombed, and a number of planes destroyed on the ground as well as those shot down by the Zeros escorting the strikes. The most serious damage was to the naval base, where the bombing destroyed the Asiatic fleets stock of torpedoes and damaged two of the submarines at the base.  That evening Admiral Hart evacuated two destroyers and his few minesweepers south, leaving the defence of the islands to his submarines.
     
    At Wake Island, the Japanese air attacks had left the defenders with only eleven Wildcat fighters for defence, although a number of Japanese aircraft had been destroyed in return. An invasion force of four transports, escorted by two light cruisers and four destroyers, was on its way. The invasion force was detected at 0300, but while the defences were alerted it was decided not to attack until the Japanese were close inshore. By 0645, the Japanese warships were within 2500 yards of the battery at Peacock point, which opened fire, hitting the Japanese flagship Yubari twice. As the ship pulled back, they hit her twice more.  The battery at Peale Island then landed a salvo directly on the destroyer Hayate, which exploded, breaking in two and sinking immediately. They then hit another destroyer and set one of the transport ships on fire. The second battery on the island hit two more destroyers, which made smoke and retreated behind its cover.
     
    The Wildcats, each loaded with two bombs, were launched to attack the retreating force. Four of them attacked the destroyers, landing a hit on