At dawn we slept...in the cab on the way back from Olongapo

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

************January 1, 1942(e)**********

Sea of Okhotsk: Egress seems to go well. We run into a couple of AK's near P-J and sink them. No air or sub attacks.
Now, to run and hide before Jap carriers show up.

But why would Jap carriers show up? They're probably happy to know the USN battleships are up there not hurting anything. [:'(]

Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of. [:)]


Admiral D. Adams.

[Cap Mandrake]

"Hey, why don't we send the carriers North of New and Improved New Britain and ambush the Jap surface forces?"

FAM

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.


Admiral D Adams

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Itdepends

It's pretty easy to cut Darwin off from supplies (and retreat) by landing at Whyndham, Derby etc. Are you sure you want to put the 18th that far north?

Doesn't really matter - the way this works it's either brilliant or the staff's fault! [:D]

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.

[Cap Mandrake]

The Allied ships floated in the Coral Sea in much the same way that bricks don't.

[witpqs]

[:D]

The FA is drunk on the elixir of life. Bravo!

[Cap Mandrake]

*************************January 2, 1942(e)************************

Java-jima: The noose is tightening on Batavia. We get the planes out except for a few uglo-seaplanes that look like they have parts of the Brooklyn Bridge welded onto their fuselage.

JJ are still held up at Samarang in the south. Getting most of the planes out of Soerabaja too.
Some of the Dutch fighters are in Borneo supporting a run up to the oilfields by a Dutch SCTF. All of the USAAF fighters out of Java-jima now.


Georgetown: Pressure is mounting. They are all future railroad construction engineers but don't know it yet.

Port Moresby: The A-24's with peach-fuzz pilots don't hit anything important. The part of 33rd Div ashore shock attacks and achieves 1:1. We take the brunt of the casualties. Port Moresby is toast. We get all the planes out. Not much of a speed bump but what can you do when 33rd and 4th Div are attacking together in the South Pacific.

[Cap Mandrake]

****************January 3, 1942(e)************

Wow..that was fast.

PM: This is pretty funny. USS William B. Preston was at PM supporting the PBY's. She has to get out. She gets underway at night and scares away the convoy unloading 33rd Div. [:)]


Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 98,130, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Hakaze
AMC Awata Maru
xAK Nissan Maru
xAK Sinsei Maru
AMC Saigon Maru
xAK India Maru
xAK Victoria Maru
xAP Argentina Maru
xAP Hie Maru
xAP Yoshino Maru
xAP Atsuta Maru
xAP Kanzyu Maru
xAP Montevideo Maru
xAP Teikyo Maru
xAP Baikal Maru

Allied Ships
AVD William B. Preston

Improved night sighting under 100% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 100% moonlight: 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 9,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 9,000 yards
Allied ships attempt to get underway
Both TF attempt to withdraw!
Range increases to 12,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat

[Cap Mandrake]

This is just a war crime. We were about ready to give up but JJ has to blow up all the poor headhunters AND the cricket field. They can't help themselves. Their brains are smaller....well, that's what I heard.

Night Naval bombardment of Port Moresby at 98,130

Japanese Ships
CA Nachi
CA Haguro
CA Myoko
CL Yura
CL Nagara
DD Yamagumo
DD Yukikaze
DD Kuroshio

Allied ground losses:
1160 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 45 destroyed, 86 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 23 (6 destroyed, 17 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Airbase hits 23
Airbase supply hits 9
Runway hits 46
Port hits 17
Port supply hits 5

Then they send in a bunch of bombers to blow up the shrunken-head museum, a key cultural artifact of New and Improved Guinea. Little yellow baaahstards. And then, after all that...no ground attack.

[Cap Mandrake]

Borneo: JJ posted some DD's at Balikpapan after our previous attack so we fool them...we no show up...go to Samarinda instead.

We break some planes and the runways but no oil hits. De Ruyter recovers toward Tarakan to refuel then it will be on to Manila for ammo. Disappointingly, there are no DD torps to be had at Manila
No catastrophic damage but if they are going to leave bases working in their rear areas, we will use them.

Night Naval bombardment of Samarinda at 65,96

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ia Oscar: 6 damaged
A5M4 Claude: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
CL De Ruyter
DD Banckert
DD Witte de With
DD Kortenaer
DD Piet Hein

Japanese ground losses:
109 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 53
Port hits 13
Port fuel hits 8
Port supply hits 3

[Cap Mandrake]

A USN SCTF with Marblehead and some DD's just rearmed at Manila and is headed for Miri. We spot a transport on the North coast of Borneo and detach a torpedoless USS Stewart, which manages to do quite a bit of damage, wrecking some combat unit.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Kudat at 69,86, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
TB Kasasagi, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAK Nojima Maru, Shell hits 29, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Stewart

Japanese ground losses:
551 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 22 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

[Cap Mandrake]

Malaysia: Various brown men with albino officers refuse to give up at Georgetown.

Ground combat at Georgetown (49,74)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 11031 troops, 71 guns, 83 vehicles, Assault Value = 414

Defending force 19304 troops, 133 guns, 53 vehicles, Assault Value = 544

Japanese adjusted assault: 87

Allied adjusted defense: 220

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), leaders(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
677 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 182 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Vehicles lost 13 (1 destroyed, 12 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
218 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 42 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 4 (3 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Assaulting units:
14th Tank Regiment
6th RTA Division
7th RTA/B Division
41st Guard Battalion
1st RTA/B Division
1st RTA/C Division

Defending units:
3rd SSVF Battalion
28th Gurkha Brigade
5/14th Punjab Battalion
6th Indian Brigade
1st Mysore Battalion
15th Indian Brigade
FMSV Brigade
8th Indian Brigade
2/215th Bty 80th AT Gun Regiment
223 Group RAF
110th RAF Adv Base Force
Penang Fortress
2nd ISF Base Force
109th RAF Adv Base Force
109th RN Base Force
137/155th Field Regiment

[Cap Mandrake]

WHAT!?

Goddamn vermin! I hope they all lost their coke bottle glasses when they jumped! Time to get the aircraft out of Cairns.
Somewhat humorous that the CO of 13th RAAF Base Squadron is superior to the WJD paratroop CO.

Ground combat at Cairns (92,140)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 53 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 4

Defending force 450 troops, 4 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 2

Allied adjusted defense: 7

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 0)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), leaders(-), preparation(-)
experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-)

Japanese ground losses:
7 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
10 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
Yokosuka 1st SNLF /2

Defending units:
13th RAAF Base Sqdn

[Cap Mandrake]

Batavia: 1st attack at Batavia

Ground combat at Batavia (49,98)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 24846 troops, 163 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 772

Defending force 11370 troops, 150 guns, 15 vehicles, Assault Value = 226

Japanese adjusted assault: 391

Allied adjusted defense: 325

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1947 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 172 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled

Allied ground losses:
865 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 65 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 17 (3 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 9 (5 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Assaulting units:
113th Infantry Regiment
148th Infantry Regiment
4th Ind.Mixed Regiment
II/124th Infantry Battalion
2nd Sasebo SNLF Coy
65th Brigade
Yokosuka 2nd SNLF
Sasebo 3rd SNLF /1
56th Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
XII KNIL Battalion
1st Cav Sqdn
I Marechausse Cdo
XI KNIL Battalion
X KNIL Battalion
I Landstorm Cdo
2nd Cav Sqdn
IV Landstorm Cdo
2e-VLG-III Sup Afd
Batavia KM Base Force
3e-VLG-III Sup Afd
A-I-Ld AA Battalion
HQ I KNIL Division
ML-KNIL
3e-VLG-V Sup Afd
A-III-Ld AA Battalion
Batavia Defenses
Andir ML Base Force
2e-VLG-V Sup Afd
1e-VLG-III Sup Afd
VkA-1 Sup Afd

[Cap Mandrake]

**************Control Tower, Cairns Aerodrome, Jan. 3************

Lt Col. Gardner: THERE'S A COUPLE, LADS. <aims Lewis gun and lets loose a short burst> MY GOD THIS IS A SPLENDID GOOD TIME! COME ON OUT YOU LITTLE YELLOW BAAAHSARDS
<turns to soldier next to him> Cpl. Jones, you don't suppose they've run out do you?

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake


Goddamn vermin! I hope they all lost their coke bottle glasses when they jumped! Time to get the aircraft out of Cairns.

Its obvious that they want to have first crack (pardon the expression) at the busty white women before the Yankees arrive.

[Cap Mandrake]

***************Briefing Room, Canberra, January 3, 1942(e)**********


Mr. Curtin: Cairns? Why on earth would anyone invade there? Do we have any key facilities there?

Aide: 6000 ft macadam runway....radar, older model...smallish harbour.

Public Health advisor: It might be the women, sir. They are said to have ample bossoms. Something about hormones in the milk apparently.

Mr. Curtin: Good God! You may be right. GET THEM OUT, ALL OF THEM! Tell that Gardner fellow he must hold!

[Cap Mandrake]

..

[Cap Mandrake]

Man, this stuff is bad. They should be ashamed of themselves.[:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

[:D][:D] Seems like they are a pretty happy group despite their affliction.

[Cap Mandrake]

******************Train Station, Cairns, 18:20, Jan 3, 1942(e)**************

<a chaotic scene of near panic. A long line of curiously attractive young women with large bossoms are boarding a train car for the trip South. A group of soldiers look on>


Lt. Thistlethwaite, RAAF: Right then! Lads, I'll need a volunteer to guard the civilians. It might be dangerous. Any takers?