Bring me the head of Diego Garcia...and the Mayor of Addu Atoll too!

[Cap Mandrake]

Admiral Lord Sprior:

Have we any restrictions on night bombing? I can't remember.

[Chickenboy]

Two-two-two great tastes in one!

[sprior]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Admiral Lord Sprior:

Have we any restrictions on night bombing? I can't remember.

I don't think so.

[Chickenboy]

Regardless. You have a moral imperative to make up for that JJ xAKL armada surface sweep bit down by New Scotland some time back. Karmic retribution!

[sprior]

27/9

Port Hedland invasion force formed up and moving off...

[Cap Mandrake]

********9-27(not 27-9[;)])***********


Oz: Rough day in the air over Port Headland. The P-38's go in squadron by squadron resulting in equal losses to P-38's and Tojos/Oscars. One of the P-38 squadrons is mourning its losses so I stood them all down. The B-17's will have to go in alone tomorrow. The B-17 raid over PH was moderately effective but now the runway damage shows at 41%. This could be bad intel but it may be the boys from Jalisco are working overtime. The USAAF is running out of gas (the human kind...well..I mean in the psychological sense). The B-24's from Marakesh encounter 7 Tojos over Broome, which now appears to not have bombers. The B-24's at Alice are resting for a night raid on Wyndham.

5 operational B-17F's moved to Geraldton from Melbourne and a squadron of B-17's flew into Charter Towers from Fiji. Both will add to the firepower over PH.

SouPac: The crusier force closed to within about 200 miles of Koumac but the CO chose to stand off. In any event, there are no Jap TF's at Koumac. There is a transport TF about 150 mi NE of Koumac. Either they got wind or the timing was off. I am calling off the raid for now as we are likely spotted and there may be several dozen Bettys in New Scotland by tomorrow.

The landing force for Norfolk Is., a USMC regt. a Kiwi brigade and some combat engineers, is about 2-3 d out.

Ground attacks at Nadi are going in daily with the odds now up to 7:1. It's hard on the Allied infantry. 2 USMC raider Bn. were beat up badly today.

[Cap Mandrake]

Admiral Lord Sprior:


What do you think about sending some BB's with CV cover up ahead of the transports to take out Port Headland airfield once and for all (now that we have apparently flushed the Bettys out of Broome)? I am concerned that the current level of damage can't be sustained up until D-Day and I would hate to see them put in 20-30 Vals on D-Day(-1) and ruin the party. This would free up the B-17's for Broome and the B-24's for Wyndham.

The BB's could sprint in for a night attack and recover to Geraldton for ammo. Their egress could be covered by LRCAP from a carrier or two standing off to the West of PH (with the rest of the carrier fighters as CAP for the carriers themselves). As the transports round the corner they could be covered by Beaufighters from Carnavon. Perhaps the two fast BB's could pull it off safely.

The main downside is giving up a day or two of advance warning (assuming we are not already spotted), plus the extra exposure and fighter fatigue on the carriers.

[Cap Mandrake]

Hmmm... just rebooted the game and now PH is at 56% damage. Maybe we can continue with the status quo?

[khyberbill]

Hmmm... just rebooted the game and now PH is at 56% damage. Maybe we can continue with the status quo?

Just keep rebooting and soon PH will be at 100% We will call it the Mandrake Affect.

[sprior]

The BB's could sprint in for a night attack

You do know this is R Class battleships we're using?

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: sprior

The BB's could sprint in for a night attack

You do know this is R Class battleships we're using?

What about South Dakota and Repulse?

[sprior]

We could do that.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Hmmm... just rebooted the game and now PH is at 56% damage. Maybe we can continue with the status quo?

From the manual, page 214:

"Runway damage can limit the air operations at a base. A strike Mission may only be launched from a base with runway damage less than 20+(airfield size x5). Patrol and CAP missions may only be launched from bases with runway damage less than 50+(airfield size x5)."

So, for Port Hedland's size 4 AF, you need to get to runway damage of 70 to restrict CAP air ops. It is currently incapable of supporting strike aircraft, if that makes any difference for your mustelid-based offensives.

ETA: Stiff upper lip re: the B-17 losses, what. Don't go getting all wobbly on us now, Mandrake. He'll have to resort to LRCAPing soon and it looks like you're doing a splendid job of beating on Broome to keep them out of the picture.

ETA II:Broome will be getting close to being incapable of sustaining CAP soon. They are incapable of launching strike aircraft at this time.

[Chickenboy]

Oh. Right. Forgot one minor detail:

Expect KB (or what's left of it) to pounce on you if you're in theatre at Port Hedland more than three days. Will you have sufficient organic naval air to support you or be well and truly gone by then?

ETA: Sorry. Just looked at your map in more detail. Jolly good. Jolly, jolly good.

[Cap Mandrake]

We are having "network connectivity issues" at work...which is IT jargon for "nothing works for ****" [:)]


Somehow or another a "data spike" caused a FUBAR in the "Tier 1 Applications" and they had to do some "VLAN configuration changes".


The last email actually cited one of the Psalms. [X(] This has got to be a bad sign.


...weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. - Psalms 30:5 [:D]



Now..in regard to WWIIc...we can borrow something like a Psalm...Oppie is going to use this reference in about 2 years..


"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds..." (Bhagavad Gita). Runway damage at Port Headland climbs to 81%...Huzzah!

[witpqs]

Perhaps a "data spike" was Brent Spiner going berserk in the server room with a pick-ax?

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Perhaps a "data spike" was Brent Spiner going berserk in the server room with a pick-ax?

If there is to be any "going postal" around here I am first in line. It could be the Fantasy Football spike....or maybe "Dancing With the Stars" was on HULU.

[Cap Mandrake]

Speaking of "going postal", I hope they don't close the Postal Service down because a letter carrier pretty much saved my life yesterday.


I was finishing off planing down the pepper tree yesterday and had to get to a branch about 15 feet up. There wasn't really a good stable place to rest the ladder so I decided to hook it over a stub of a branch that have been truncated. I remember thinking to myself, "maybe I should get some help....nah". Well, I have to say the plan worked pretty well until the branch I was cutting off fell away, which unweighted the main branch, which then, gravity being what it is, shifted and the ladder tilted to the downhill side. So I am standing up there holding on to the branch to stabilize the ladder and everything is OK so long as I dont try to climb down. "What a dumb ass", I say to myself then I shake off the temporary insanity and start looking around for solutions. I can hold onto the branch and try to drop down but my disability insurance doesnt kick in for 3 months. I look for my cell phone...no luck. I look around the neighborhood. There is a real estate agent about 400 ft away taking down his signs..but that is it. Then I hear the mail van which sounds like it is going to drop its tranny. The guy pulls up about 15 feet away from me but I am WAY above him so I can just see his legsn and one arm in the truck.

"Yo, Mr. mailman." He stops sorting mail like he has heard me. "YO MR. MAILMAN!" Now he is really trying to figure out what is going on. "I'M OVER HERE. UP HERE IN THE TREE! I NEED YOUR HELP!" He sets the brake and gets out.

He is really a short Asian fellow in his alte 50's with a pretty bad limp. I wondered if he might even be Ito with a war wound. "Oh sorry not see you" "You up in tree"

"Yes, that is precisely the problem. I am up in the tree. Could you please go around the corner to get my wife, Stalker Girl, and tell her I need help." He nods his assent, gets back in the truck and drives 200 ft around the corner. It seems like I am up there forever. I imagine the inernational space station passing over 2 or 3 times.

Meanwhile, he goes up to the door and Stalker Girl answers. He says, "Your father need you, hurry. He up in tree." [:@]

Finally, Stalker Girl comes around the corner, "Where are you?"

I'm up here. On the Goddamn ladder.

What are you doing up there?

What does it look like?

"Do you realize the steaks are burning?" I am up the ladder holding on with one hand and being scolded because the ******* steaks are burning. I should have had Ito help.

"**** the steaks. I need two people to hold the ladder so I can get down." Finally, she comes back with Stalker Girl Jr. and I am saved. I never got to thank the letter carrier.

[sprior]

32ID is loading up as a floating reserve, escorted by 2 ex-breakwaters from Pearl. If not needed at PH or Broome they continue on to Wyndham.

The Broome invasion convoy sets off from its marshalling area.

[zuluhour]

Father.[:D]