THE THREAD!!!

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

Good day!


Leo "Apollo11"

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

[:)] Tithe....

Happy birthday Steve! [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Happy birthday to AW1Steve![:)]

Thanks T![:)]

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

[:)] Tithe....

Happy birthday Steve! [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

Thank you Leo! [:)]

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Dixie

Good day chaps [:)]  I'm back from my first trip to the proud nation of Afghanistan [:D]  It's surprising how comfortably you can sleep wedged between the aircraft fuselage and the baggage tins when you're tired [>:]

Welcome back Martin!

Did you manage to find some Soviet era artifacts / souvenirs? [8D]


Leo "Apollo11"

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

[X(]

Hunt on for 'hijacked cargo ship'

by BBC

A search is under way for a cargo ship which may have travelled through the English Channel after apparently being hijacked by pirates.





Coastguards fear the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, carrying up to 15 Russian crew, was hijacked in the Baltic sea.

UK authorities had the last known contact with it as it entered the Strait of Dover. Up to five Russian navy warships are seeking the vessel.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the situation was "bizarre".

Spokesman Mark Clark said: "Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?

"It seems strange to think that a ship which had been hijacked was passing along the channel along with ships carrying day-trippers going over to Calais."

See the ship's route

Hijackers may have been coercing the ship's crew when they made radio contact with coastguards at Dover on 28 July, the MCA fears.

Mr Clark said the person on board whom coastguards had spoken to had told them the ship was due to arrive in Bejaia, northern Algeria, on 4 August at 2300 BST.

Reports say Swedish authorities have been told by the Finnish shipping line operating the 3,988-tonne cargo ship that on July 24 it was boarded by up to 10 armed men claiming to be anti-drugs police as it sailed through the Baltic sea.

The intruders apparently left the vessel - which was carrying about £1m worth of sawn timber from Finland to Algeria - 12 hours later on an inflatable boat after damaging the Arctic Sea's communications equipment.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said many questions remained unanswered.

He said: "If masked men took over the ship off the coast of Sweden, which in itself if pretty staggering... then made off by speedboat... why didn't the crew report all of this immediately and where are they now?

"The worrying thing is that this happened right off the British coast. Piracy in this country is unheard of, not since the days of Cornish brigands a long, long time ago."

On 3 August, Interpol told Dover Coastguard the crew had been hijacked in the Baltic Sea and asked UK authorities to be alert as the vessel passed through the channel.

But by then the ship had already left the Strait of Dover, having last been recorded off the coast of Brest, northern France, just before 0130 BST on 30 July.

Nuclear submarines

The MCA said it was told the vessel had seemingly been spotted by a Portuguese coastal patrol aircraft but its current location was unknown.

Mr Clark said nothing seemed suspicious when the ship made contact, adding: "It could well be that a crew member had a gun put to his head by a hijacker when contact was made, but who knows?"

Two nuclear submarines are among the five Russian navy vessels searching for the ship, according to Moscow's Itar-Tass news agency.

Commander-in-chief Vladimir Vysotsky told the agency: "On orders from President Dmitry Medvedev, all ships and vessels of the Russian Navy in the Atlantic have been dispatched to search for the missing ship."

Naval staff had no indication of the ship's location, despite reports it may be off West Africa, he added.

Commercial dispute?

Mark Dickinson, general secretary of seafarers' union Nautilus International, said the situation was "unbelievable" and criticised authorities for their "relaxed" view of marine hijacking, in comparison with that of aircraft.

"It is alarming that, in the 21st Century, a ship can apparently be commandeered by hijackers and sail through the world's busiest waterway with no alarm being raised and no naval vessel going to intercept it," he said.

World leaders have become increasingly concerned about pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.

But Nick Davis, who runs the private security firm Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, told the BBC's Today programme the relatively low value of the cargo suggested this was a different kind of piracy to that seen off the coast of East Africa.

Instead, he suggested, it was more likely that the apparent seizure was the result of a "commercial dispute" in which one party had decided to "take matters into their own hands".

He added: "Piracy is piracy - if someone's wanting to take that vessel, and they're not authorised, and they use a speedboat to go and get it, then it's no different to what the Somalis do.

"However, I don't believe they would have boarded that vessel firing weapons in the air, and threatening to kill the crew."

Leo "Apollo11"

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Dixie

Good day chaps [:)]  I'm back from my first trip to the proud nation of Afghanistan [:D]  It's surprising how comfortably you can sleep wedged between the aircraft fuselage and the baggage tins when you're tired [>:]

Welcome back Martin!

Did you manage to find some Soviet era artifacts / souvenirs? [8D]


Leo "Apollo11"

Nope, I was only there for a short time. Plus I'm technically a coward so going anywhere where there might be dangerous things and/or bad men with guns is out [:D] Still, I'm only 29 more trips away from a medal [;)]

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie

ORIGINAL: Dixie

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie

Might as well bump my count to break 3000 while I am in...

Pffft! I'm sure someone remarkably like you chastised a certain Threadster for a lack of WPO turns. And lo and behold you're here spamming [:-]


[:'(]

Point 1: The chastisee deserved it

Point 2: I am trying to learn AE before my PBEM turn 0's land in my inbox so am struggling for time - when your wee'un arrives you'll understand...

Point 3: Glad you are back in one piece

Point 4: Pussy!

1: Pfft!

2: I probably will, until then... I refer you to point 1 [:'(] I assume that wee Freddie is doing well? Has he grasped the strategic ramifications of a full strength push through the DEI?

3: Not as glad as me [:D]

4: Why does it block pussy? [&:]

5: Good to see you around again [:)]

[Dixie]

[:D][:D]




EDIT: Hopefully the next patch will sort the issue of an entire division's worth of shipping being protected by 1 SC [X(]

[gladiatt]

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

[:)] Tithe....

Happy birthday Steve! [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

Thank you Leo! [:)]

Wow, Steve, i feel obliged to raise a salute for you and to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY pal ! [:)]

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: Dixie

[:D][:D]




EDIT: Hopefully the next patch will sort the issue of an entire division's worth of shipping being protected by 1 SC [X(]

Why? Not unheard of, historically... Was that a troop convoy?

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: Dixie

[:D][:D]




EDIT: Hopefully the next patch will sort the issue of an entire division's worth of shipping being protected by 1 SC [X(]

Why? Not unheard of, historically... Was that a troop convoy?

Yep, carrying a divison to invade a Brit base a fair way ahead (for the AI) of the front lines. Surely even the Japanese command with their disdain for the Allied capabilities would realise that an invasion force that big going that close to major Brit forces would need something more substantial than a pair of sub chasers. If the invasion point was nearer the front line and covered by LBA, or a bypassed base then a small escort would have made more sense, but where the battle was there was no other Jpanese presence.

Japanese Ships
SC Ch 27, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Daiya Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Eiko Maru #2
xAK Hakkaisan Maru
xAK Ikuta Maru
xAK Kogane Maru
xAK Kohoku Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Taiko Maru
xAK Bandoeng Maru
xAKL Biyo Maru
xAK Enju Maru
xAKL Ganges Maru
xAKL Genkai Maru
xAK Hikosan Maru
xAKL Hokuhi Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Hukko Maru, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
xAKL Hotsukawa Maru, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
xAK Kashiwara Maru
xAKL Kitahuku Maru
xAKL Kurama Maru
xAK Kurohime Maru, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Malacca Maru
xAK Miyadono Maru, Shell hits 18, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Nansin Maru, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAKL Nissyo Maru
xAK Nittei Maru, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
xAK Otake Maru
xAKL Nitian Maru
xAKL Nitiyu Maru
xAKL Sunten Maru
xAK Yahiko Maru, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
xAKL Kamishima Maru
xAKL Keizan Maru
xAKL Taiyo Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Tatibana Maru
xAKL Tatebu Maru
xAKL Higari Maru
xAKL Shuntai Maru
xAKL Toshin Maru
xAKL Hoko Maru, Shell hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Fukoku Maru, Shell hits 2
xAK Kanzaki Maru, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Oyashima Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Chuko Maru
xAK Okuni Maru, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Azuchisan Maru, Shell hits 13, and is sunk
xAK Hirota Maru, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
xAK Amakusa Maru, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Shinfuku Maru, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
SC Ch 33, Shell hits 4, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CA Dorsetshire, Shell hits 2
CA Exeter, Shell hits 5
CL Mauritius, Shell hits 1

Japanese ground losses:
3130 casualties reported
Squads: 70 destroyed, 74 disabled
Non Combat: 69 destroyed, 166 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 45 (20 destroyed, 25 disabled)

With a bigger escort that force could have possibly succeeded in it's goal or caused some real damage to my forces, lucky the sigint told me they were coming so there was a reception waiting [:D] Good job they ran away as well, I've got bugger all forces to stop them really and I have a suspicion that the Bay of Bengal will soon be an unhealthy place for my ships to be [:(]

[DuckofTindalos]

Ah, it was an AI convoy... Well, that's an issue Andy Mac is working hard to squash; you'll soon have even more cause to dislike that man...[:D]

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Ah, it was an AI convoy... Well, that's an issue Andy Mac is working hard to squash; you'll soon have even more cause to dislike that man...[:D]

I got the impression that he was tweaking the AI routines for convoy escorts. If that had been a human player then they'd have deserved everything they got [:D] I'm thinking of starting a new AI game when the new AI routine is sorted. I want to start a new game, but I'd almost feel like I was cheating now that I know where the AI sends some invasions.

Andy has done a generally good job on the AI, especially in the first month or so I was scrambling around trying to relocate troops to vulnerable bases and counter invasions I could reach. If I hadn't got advanced warning of the invasion then I'd be worrying about India by now, something that never concerned me before [X(]

[DuckofTindalos]

Compared to the original, I'd say he's done a "bloody brilliant job". And take it from me, the AI has been tested ALL THE WAY to the end of the war, i.e. into 1946. It's not just for the first 4-6 months.

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Compared to the original, I'd say he's done a "bloody brilliant job". And take it from me, the AI has been tested ALL THE WAY to the end of the war, i.e. into 1946. It's not just for the first 4-6 months.

I don't want him getting big-headed [:D]

[DuckofTindalos]

He's a Scot, so you're too late...[:D]

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

He's a Scot, so you're too late...[:D]

That's racist [X(] You sir, are a racist [:-]

Just because he's a porridge-wog does not mean he's big headed. [:-] Tight with money, yes. Angry, yes. [:D]


Just kidding Andy. I love the Scots really, just in case you find out where I live [:'(]

[Mynok]

Incomprehensible, yes. [:D]

I swear, despite a good dose of scots-irish in my blood (over half), I have a devil of a time understanding those folk.

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Incomprehensible, yes. [:D]

I swear, despite a good dose of scots-irish in my blood (over half), I have a devil of a time understanding those folk.

It's easy enough. They're either:
1) Asking for alcohol
2) Asking for money (to buy alcohol)
3) Threatening you (probably for not providing items 1 or 2) [:'(]