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

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

P.P.S. The Editors also offer a free WWII(c) T-shirt to any reader who can identify the resource cited in the forward to thsi communication.

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D'OH!!!

Nevermind...

[BrucePowers]

[:D][:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

At this point, the Japanese effort is known or suspected to include at least 2 CVE's and one Shokaku class carrier and Ryuho. The remainder of the KB is unaccounted for, so caution dictates that the RN carriers stay near Perth. The enemy intent is presumed to be that of rescue of trapped forces.

[Cap Mandrake]

This is why young Reginald Pound got invited to fly upside down without his harness.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

P.P.S. The Editors also offer a free WWII(c) T-shirt to any reader who can identify the resource cited in the forward to thsi communication.

Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

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Bingo. Give the man a.....well...nothing yet. [:'(]

[Cap Mandrake]

At this point, it is starting to look like something more than just picking up some starving troops. The Royal Navy Air Arm is taking it in the shorts. It would be a bad thing for the British carriers to go up against even 2 fleet carriers at this point.

The good news...say good bye to the Taiyo and 30 Zeroes [:)]

[Cap Mandrake]

The RN carriers are overmatched and make a timely retreat. The defence of Perth will fall to the remaining RAF, RAAF and NEIAF planes as well as Ensign Borgnine and his chums who were discovered crated up abaord USS Santa Ana.

[scott64]

[Cap Mandrake]

32 elite RAAF Beauforts have been waiting in Perth since the first landings. The fighter complement have been gaining experience in the ground attack role.

It now appears the opposing forces include at least 4 fleet cariers, one CVL and 1 or 2 CVE's, plus 3 BB's (including Yamato)

[HMS Resolution]

Go-go-gadget Spitfires! Wooo! Doesn't David Niven pilot one in "First of the Few"? One of my personal favorites.

[Moondawggie]

Wow, Cap!  Perth is shaping up to be the "Guadalcanal" of WW2b!  Both sides at the end of a long logistics train, seemingly willing to throw everything they've got to take this particular piece of ground. 
 
Nice job defending the Perth airfields; reimniscent of the Cactus Air Force itself.  

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Moondawggie

Wow, Cap! Perth is shaping up to be the "Guadalcanal" of WW2b! Both sides at the end of a long logistics train, seemingly willing to throw everything they've got to take this particular piece of ground.

Nice job defending the Perth airfields; reimniscent of the Cactus Air Force itself.

Thanks. I won't be surprised if he calls it off and just tries to get some of his guys out. The airfield is undamaged, and Perth is heavily fortified. Supply is adequate (for now). Yamato and Kirishima have to go all the way back to Java or Timor for ammo. The Japs are flying LRCAP from hundreds of miles away. That has to be wearing out his Zero Daitias. The weakest link for the Allies are the fighters. No fighters except Brewsters can fly in from Australian land bases so any losses will have to made up by rookie pilots. I am able to rotate out worn out B-25 and Hudson groups and soem B-17's are staging in Alice Springs.

[Cap Mandrake]

***********Aboard Kaga, 520 mi. WNW Perth, 20:25, August 24, 1942************

Ensign Hata looks furiously through the files in Kaga's map room. Map section 117/42-S is nowhere to be found. His alarm grows by the second. This was his assigned duty. The shame will be unbearable. Section 118 is accounted for, all of them, but nothing to the West. A Nixonian crescent of sweat collects on his upper lip, which is no small accomplishment for he has never heard of anyone named Nixon. His mother will never leave the their small house in Nagoya due to shame! His father! Oh, it is too much to bear.

A voice comes over speaker, "Hurry up Hata! What is the matter? We are almost at the map boundary!" This does no good, of course. It merely adds to the stress he is no longer capable of bearing. Oblivious to his predicament, Kaga steams Westward at 28 kts to escape a possible submarine contact. She bears down on a dense fog. Just as well. It should provide protection from submarine attack.

At last! Section 117/42-S! He nearly destroys the file opening it. There is a paper placed curiously on top. It reads, "This map on loan to borrower below: For replacement maps please contact M & M Enterprises Cartography Section, c/o Capt. Ito, I-125, Japanese language distributor (Southern Hemisphere)". It is signed in English script, "J. Somerville". Ensign Hata makes a groaning sound. He imagines himself reassigned to guard duty at the coal mines of Formosa. Wait! There is something else. A map! 117/42-S! He opens it and scarcely breathes. Something is amiss. It's in English. There is way to much coastline. He opens a fold and says out loud, "CREVERAND"????

[DuckofTindalos]

[:D][:D][:D]

Ah, good to see the same old zaniness still going strong...

[ChezDaJez]

Welcome back, Termy.

Chez

[AmiralLaurent]

And now we will see the Time Patrol coming to close the black hole that destroyed KB, or something like that ?

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

And now we will see the Time Patrol coming to close the black hole that destroyed KB, or something like that ?

The man is absolutely prescient..well..sort of. It is more of an astral projection thing than time travel.


**********Wheelhouse, SS William A. Irvin, Great Lakes Ore Carrier, Lake Erie, 12 nm NW Cleveland, 10:46, August 25, 1942(b)**********

Captain Lightfoot looks ahead for trouble. There is none. He allows himself to daydream a bit. He imagines his ore carrier is a Mahan class destroyer, smashing through 20 foot swells in the Pacific, headed to her destiny in battle. In fact, the William A. Irvin is in no danger of being confused with a destroyer. She has no ability to stir the soul. She looks more like a tug which has been sawn in half and had a few barges welded in her midsection. She is fully laden with iron ore from Duluth and is bound for Cleveland at 8 kts. so that Mr. Ford can make tanks. By all rights, Capt. Lightfoot should have been a destroyer captain, but he was unable to pass the medical exam. He adjusts his position on a pneumatic cushion with a hole in the middle like a donut. "Hmmm, damn hemorrhoids, why me?", he thinks.

His reverie is interrupted by a dense fog which seems to boil out of nowhere about 800 yds ahead. To his astonishment, the bow of a warship pierces the fog. "She must be making over 25 kts", he says outloud. She is huge. "Holy Mother of Jesus! It is an aircraft carrier on Lake Erie!" He begin to alter course to starboard and sounds his horn. "How the Hell did that get here? I will report the SOB, endangering commercial traffic like this!" The vessel looks unfamiliar. "British perhaps? Canadian? Do the Canadians have aircraft carriers?", he thinks.

An electrical sensation courses through his body. It is unlike anything he has experienced since his wedding night 25 years before. As the superstructure of the approaching vessel emerges from the fog, he can clearly see a Japanese battle ensign! The ship's Mexican cook enters the wheelhouse with a cup of coffee and an egg sandwich. The Captain looks at him wild-eyed. "BATTLE STATIONS! BATTLE STATIONS, JOSE!"


Editor's note: It is generally bad form to change verb tense 5 or 6 times in one paragraph, but we have other things to do instead of spending all day ediiting.

[BrucePowers]

Hey, Great Lakes ore carriers were magnificent vessels (okay they were huge).[:D]

[DuckofTindalos]

Maybe its the Wolverine or the Sable the good Cpt. Lightfoot is bearing down on...

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Hey, Great Lakes ore carriers were magnificent vessels (okay they were huge).[:D]

Capt Lightfoot should be commanding the Edmund Fitzgerald I!! [8D]