From here to...well...it SEEMS like an eternity

[Cap Mandrake]

***********The Bridge of the Dutch Merchantman, Tjikarang, at anchor, Port Moresby harbor, 13:20, July 6, 1942***********

Admiral Draemel ascends a short ladder to the bridge. His uniform trousers are pinned together at the keel. His trouser legs, after multiple rinse and dry cycles, are riding up his legs to reveal nearly hairless, shiny, remarkably unpigmented Teutonic shins, which together, have born him upright for 130 years. The captain and crew of the Tjikarang have more than a little reason to be anxious. The word has now spread that the Admiral is a torpedo magnet. Still, only two vessels remain at Port Moresby from the original invasion force and the other is an American AK whose crew is manning the bilge pumps. There is little choice and, after all, there is a war to be won. After the loss of the Admiral's colors during the sinking of Adelaide, a USN Ensign was ordered to come aboard Tjikarang prior to the Admirals' arrival and select a battle ensign which most resembled the Admiral's colors. After a great deal of searching through two ancient trunks, he emerged, smiling with a moth-eaten ensign which did resemble, to a remarkable degree, the Admirals' battle ensign. To the great consterantion of the ship's captain, however, it was actually an 18th century Dutch flag which meant "Smallpox Aboard". It might have well meant "Jonah Aboard" as far as the crew was concerned, but an Admiral was an Admiral. They carefully tied up hemp batting over the bulkheads to protect the Admiral's battered head and lay wooden slats over the deck of the bridge to guard against pratfalls. They were ready! As the Admiral successfully negotiated a hemp-covered passageway, a very nervous sailor shouted, in accented English, "Jonah on the Bridge!"......

[Cap Mandrake]

..

[Cap Mandrake]

The unloading transports off Geraldton must be stopped before the troops ashore are fully supplied. Somerville orders an all out attack by surface forces. Dorsetshire, with no torpedoes and almost no main gun ammunition, and the damaged DD's are detached. His remaining ships will head for the beaches for a night attack. La Bisset detaches two light crusiers and HMS Paladin from the carrier escort. There is no time to rendezvous. They will have to attack seperately. In the meantime, the Japs have reinforced with fresh destroyers and the crusier Atago. These were perhaps the escorts for his CVE's. Given the stakes, both sides pull out all stops.

Japanese forces consist of:

CA Atago
CL Natori
DD Yamagumo
DD Harusame
DD Hatsushima
DD Akatsuki
DD Ikazuchi
DD Sawakaze
DD Karukaya
DD Kasasagi
DD Hayabusa
DD Kiji



Allied Losses:

CL's HMS Mauritius, Brimingham
DD's USS Gridley, HMS Paladin

HMS Newcastle and Enterprise heavily damaged

Japanese Losses:

DD Harusame, Ikazume, Hatsushima
CL Natori (sunk by Beauforts 7-10)

[DuckofTindalos]

Good fight...[&o]

[rtrapasso]

Allied Losses:

CL's HMS Mauritius, Brimingham, Enterprise
DD's USS Gridley, HMS Paladin

HMS Newcastle and Enterprise heavily damaged (I erred on the map Enterprise was nearly sunk)

OK - in TWO places it says Enterprise was sunk (map and losses list), and one place heavily damaged and NEARLY sunk (and that the map is in error) ... color me confused... [&:]

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

Allied Losses:

CL's HMS Mauritius, Brimingham, Enterprise
DD's USS Gridley, HMS Paladin

HMS Newcastle and Enterprise heavily damaged (I erred on the map Enterprise was nearly sunk)

OK - in TWO places it says Enterprise was sunk (map and losses list), and one place heavily damaged and NEARLY sunk (and that the map is in error) ... color me confused... [&:]

Just be glad you weren't ABOARD the Enterprise. She survived the battle but now has to run the sub gauntlet to Perth. (Map corrected)

[Cap Mandrake]

I got this email invitation from one of my brothers in law:




Ok It is that time of the year. Iam back from
Argentina for only a couple of weeks so we are going
to have to move up the date by 1 week. The Bar crawl
will be on June 8th beginning at 4 pm at Foothill for
those that want to play a little baseball. For those
of you that have to work. We will offiially start the
tour this year at Kelly's Cigar shop for some pizza
and beer at 5:30. Cost is 60 dollars a person to be
paid to a designated treasurer. Please forward to
anybody interested and please reply if you can or can
not make it

I can see pre-paying for the food, but $60 a head seems kinda pricey for pizza, so, unless part of it is for a fund to pay emergency room bills after the baseball game, I am thinking this must be for drinks. Communal pooling of work and income didn't seem to work very well in the Soviet Union so I have concerns about the wisdom a communal "drinking fund". It seems to me this will encourage drinking real fast until the money runs out [:D] Keep in mind a few of these chaps like to try to outdo each other with Irish Car Bombs.

[DuckofTindalos]

The pizza place is called Kelly's Cigar Shop?[&:]

Not the most intuitive of names, methinks...

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

The pizza place is called Kelly's Cigar Shop?[&:]

Not the most intuitive of names, methinks...

You know..that is a really good point. Perhaps there are Cubans involved. Plus, it occurs to me there may be bus rental and driver. Pizza, beer, cigars, bus, driver..umpire maybe. You talked me into it.

[DuckofTindalos]

Erm, okay... Happy to help...[:D]

[Alfred]

Cap Mandrake,
 
Impressive preformances here and at the earlier battle off New Zealand must be blunting the enemy's offensive capabilities.
 
I notice that the action is in the vicinity of the Houtman Abrolhos.  With the corporate memory of your Dutch sailors and airmen, any chance of running some of the Japanese transports aground on the Pelsaert group and getting a repetition of the 1629 Batavia story?
 
Alfred

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Cap Mandrake,

Impressive preformances here and at the earlier battle off New Zealand must be blunting the enemy's offensive capabilities.

I notice that the action is in the vicinity of the Houtman Abrolhos. With the corporate memory of your Dutch sailors and airmen, any chance of running some of the Japanese transports aground on the Pelsaert group and getting a repetition of the 1629 Batavia story?

Alfred

Alfred;

Interesting story about the Batavia. I had never heard that before.

Abrolhos is a Portuguese word for “reefs” or “rocky shoals” (a contraction of abre [open] + olhos [eyes] - "open your eyes!"). Dutch captain Frederick de Houtman arrived there in 1619 in the VOC ship Dordrecht, prepending his name. In 1629 and 1630 some of the islands were the scene of a spectacular shipwreck and mutiny. The Dutch ship Batavia under the command of Francisco Pelsaert ran aground and Pelsaert and some men went in an open boat to the town of Batavia (now Jakarta) in order to get help. A group of the men who stayed on some of the islets decided to terrorise and massacre many others, including women. When Pelsaert came back many culprits were executed. In 1727 another Dutch ship, the Zeewijk, ran aground here and many men lived for months on some of the islets until most of them went in open boats to Batavia. In 1837 - after the British had claimed complete Australia and decided to colonise it - the islands were mapped and investigated in an expedition with the HMS Beagle. Later during the 19th century many islets were used by men collecting guano.

Perhaps Milo could find a business opportunity with the shipwrecked Japanese.

As for the battle, yes, I would say it has gone pretty well. I have been jumping through hoops trying to keep the postion of the Eastern Fleet secret, purposely putting Fulmars on CAP over Colombo to make it appear the carriers were still there, for eg. We have been getting intel warnings for Darwin and Derby for over a month and there was a huge buildup of air, naval and land forces on Timor. We also had an intel warning for Perth, so it wasn't clear exactly where he was going but the appearance of a Glen-equipped sub off Perth was very suspicious. I took all the Swordfish off naval search and chopped the search range down of the Walruses and moved the Eastern Fleet off to the SW to hide. I purposely tried to get the solo Boise spotted and paraded around a Dutch destroyer and a US four stacker to make it seem the Perth defences were in a sad state. Brewsters and B-25's staged in Broome and in Alice Springs to be able to move quickly to Perth once the flag went up in order to avoid giving it away with the Air Balance. At the very last, Beauforts moved in by rail too. We even held onto the third RN carrier despite orders from the Admiralty (at the cost of 2000 pts) [:)]

Interestingly, it was only Admiral Tabpub's destruction of Junyo and the CVL's in the Battle of the Alphabet Sea that made it possible for the Eastern Fleet to safely deploy off Perth. Previously, this force had been terrorizing shipping in the Indian Ocean and had cut all communication between India and Australia. With the elimination of the mini-KB and the fixation of the KB off Pago, it became possible to deploy the Eastern Fleet with much less risk to the fleet itself or to Ceylon/India. In that sense, you could say the sacrifice of the 2nd Marine Div aided the defence of Australia.

In any event, when he moved on Perth, the trap was sprung. He has lost Nagato and Kako and a slew of destroyers plus two CVE's are out of commission. I am disappointed I didnt get the CVE's and their air crews, but it is also nice that Repulse absorbed their ferocity and the RN carriers are undamaged. He now has 100,000+ troops ashore in OZ. We don't what kind of supply state they are in, but they could still take Perth if they are strong enough and the rail link to Perth, so planned redeployments cant go ahead. For eg., 27 Aus Brig is now headed back to Perth after just having been sent to Derby to bolster defences there several weeks ago. Unfortunately, the road is blocked. There is no reinforcement option of Perth by sea from Oz as the 2 SWPac Australian divisions were involved in the Port Moresby attack and they cannot be gotten safely out at this time. We are in the red on points because of the retention of the third RN carrier so no Australian Command troops can't reach Perth.

Interesting situation.

[Alfred]

Cap Mandrake,
 
Glad you liked the Batavia story which is even more interesting than your precis indicates.  Whilst most of the VOC goods and treasure was retrieved by Pelsaert, one of the chests loaded with silver was not.  Milo could supply stranded Japanese sailors with food etc on the outward trip and return with buried treasure.  BTW the mutiny had been planned for some weeks and was scheduled to occur on the day of the ship wreck.  Most of the people survived the initial ship wreck, unfortunately when Pelsaert left to get help he did not realise that he was leaving behind in charge of the survivors the mutiny leader and his followers who duly mutinied.  BTW the Batavia has been rebuilt and is on display in the Netherlands.
 
Alfred

[bbbf]

The Abrolhos are beautiful, and the sea full of fish and crayfish. 
 
Perhaps their are additional trade opportunity's for M&M there?

[Moondawggie]

Wow, Captain Mandrake.  100K IJA troopers landed in Oz, maybe low on supplies, and you've apparently been successful in forcing the IJN back from the coast. They're either in deep kimchee, or Oz is in big trouble.
 
To this observer, John III looks to be overextended, but Perth looks to be hanging by a thread.  This is one great battle going on! Opportunity galore, and the outcome very much in doubt...
 
BTW, beware the Quokkas on Rottnest Island outside of Perth...
 
 

[cantona2]

Finally caught up and already waiting an update. The funniest of AAR's well done Mandrake, Captain Sir!

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Moondawggie

Wow, Captain Mandrake. 100K IJA troopers landed in Oz, maybe low on supplies, and you've apparently been successful in forcing the IJN back from the coast. They're either in deep kimchee, or Oz is in big trouble.

To this observer, John III looks to be overextended, but Perth looks to be hanging by a thread. This is one great battle going on! Opportunity galore, and the outcome very much in doubt...

BTW, beware the Quokkas on Rottnest Island outside of Perth...

I think you summarized it pretty well. The scope of carnage is truly epic. Even if Perth falls, it can scarcely have been worth the sacrifice.

Jap major surface vessels confirmed lost:





Some of the highlights:

Repulse and Nagato did not get to meet in battle. Repulse took 4 torpedoes and 6 Val hits but made if safely back to Perth and has only 30% system damage [X(] Nagato took 6 torpedoes over two days and succumbed.

Kako was was wrecked and later foundered from a single 1000 lb bomb hit from an elite Dutch B-25 crew.

Two Jap CVE's took damage and his CVE's retired on day two of the battle, else they might have tangled with the RN carriers.

The Beauforts and Stringbags have just been murder on his transports.

[Cap Mandrake]

A vast hemorrhage of troop transports will certainly limit offensive efforts in the future. These are the confirmed sinkings, there are perhaps 20 more heavily damaged and still at risk to the Stringbags and Dutch and USN subs on the West coast of Oz. At least 2 fleet oilers were also sunk or are doomed.

[Cap Mandrake]

Nigella was sunk by its own prey (a Jap sub)

The remainder were lost in a wild night naval battle off the Jap landing beaches.

Damaged:

BC HMS Repulse
CA HMS Devonshire
CL HMS Enterprise
CL HMAS Hobart
DD USS Craven
DD HMS Griffin
DD RNN Van Ness
DD HMAS Arunta
SS RNN KXVII

[Cap Mandrake]

***********Conning Room, RNN submarine KXVII, off Geraldton, Western Australia, 08:15, July 13, 1942********************

Lt. Commander Besancon, RNN <looking though periscope>: Give me a countdown on that last pattern!

XO: 11..10...9...8...7...6...5..4 seconds...3...2...1...0

Lt. Commander Besancon: Hit amidships! <crew cheers..with good greason as this is their third kill in as many days, including 2 Jap DD's> Well done all. Bring us around to course 225, ahead 2/3. Periscope down! What is our weapon inventory, exec?

XO: 4 fish, after torpedo room, sir. 2 ready to run. All forward torpedoes expended, sir. Are we coming around to fire the stern tubes sir?

Lt. Commander Besancon: <looks at his subordinate quizically>I am surprised. Do you not know about the Naval Treaty of 1925?

XO: Yes sir, but I thought that only applied to ship construction?

Lt. Commander Besancon: To a large extent, you are right son, but there is section XI A, paragraph 1....<looks up and to his left to search his memory>..."no submersible craft may fire its torpedoes more than once per AM and PM phase...yada yada yada". I realize the enemy have behaved in a bestial fashion, at times, but that does not mean we shall wallow in the mire with them.

XO: Ah, yes sir. Sorry. Does the "PM phase" begin at noon, sir?

Lt. Commander Besancon: Hmmm...good question. SEAMAN DE BAUN! Go to my cabin and fetch the Naval Treaty of 1925...........