From
Winston
to
The Prime Minister Australia
Frank
Although our forces in Malaya are collapsing, it has given us time to prepare
our defences further North in Burma
The Army there has been ordered to retire to India, as we feel nothing can
be gained in fighting there.
At this moment, all 11 Japanese divisions have been located, where they will go after
the DEI's battles, is any guess.
As Promised, I am sending powerful units of the Fleet to theatre
The first, Battleship Royal Sovereign, will be sent to where ever appropriate, the first
of many significant vessels..........
Frank;
Be sure to ask Winnie what is to come of the Australian divisions in North Africa. I'm not saying he is more worried about the Suez Canal than Perth..no..actually that is what I am
saying. Instead he sends you a 26 year old battleship that the Admiralty is planning to give to the Russians.
1275psi:
I need help, AKE's replenish what?
AE's-for BB replenishment?
AG's--??
AD's-are destroyer reloads???
AKEs are just the civilian version of an AE, and they can only do re-ammunitioning in port, not at sea. The idea is to use them at smaller ports that cannot handle the ammo needed. IIRC you need one with 4200 ton capacity to re-ammunition a BB with 14" guns, something like 4900 tons to handle the 16"/45s and the 5400 ton capacity to handle the 16"/50s of the Iowa class. There is a table in the manual.
AEs - same deal as AKEs except that sometime in 1944 they can do the re-ammunitioning at sea. Keep in mind that reloading bombardment TFs empties an AE/AKE pretty fast, so they should be able to dash to a major base to replenish their stock. You need to have extra ships of this type to keep rotating them.
AGs and supplies and minor repairs for minor combatants, generally smaller than DD types. The cannot reload torpedoes on PT/MTBs though - you need a specialized AGP for that and they are few and far between. An AKE will also handle torpedo reloads.
ADs - support DDs including repairs, ammo and torpedo reloads.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
from Enterprise they rise every hour.
Three Dive bombers, bombs slung underneath, wobbling and then gliding smoothly down
the flight deck, falling slightly, rising, winging away across the endless blue
SB6 has been designated the main search squadron, all of her planes sharing the load,
searching , searching....for what ever might be out there.
Lt Jackson watches them go.
It would have been good, if life had have been different, to be at the helm of one of them.
Curse poor eyesight, and curse to glasses.
Enterprise is riding easily today, the breeze is good, the weather fantastic.
120 miles ahead, over the horizon, the two great ladies, Lex, Sara.
Ahead of them, another 120 miles away, the real search ships, the potential bait,
The Aussies, Canberra, Australia.
Course North.
Destination........
Jackson sneaks a glance at the bulldog , the Admiral of this little exersion.
Destination, undoubtedly, wherever those yellow barsteds are..........
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Captain Fischer stands erect on the bridge of Warspite.
To a man, his crew trust him.
It is a trust well placed.
Warspite is doing 21 knots, 21 knots of pounding, booming progress into a steep, steep rising white capped sea.
Every ten seconds, her bow, invisible in this dark, smashes through a wall of water,
sending a waterfall crashing into her tower, flinging spray a hundred feet above, swept into the darl.
A great plow, the great lady carves her way .
The dark is breaking, dawn is soon.
And ahead, starshell, flashes.
Gunfire
AVD Williamson, Casco, running, as best they can, for their lives.
"We have a target sir"
"very good........you may open fire guns"
"Fighting, in a cold, cold hell"
Interviews with the men of the Umnak campaign.
...Stoker Hammond, Warspite....
"Noise. That's what I remember the most. Noise, and the boom, boom, boom of us crashing
through the swells..........heavens, I never thought the old girl could go so hard.
21 knots , that's what the Engineer said we were doing.......22 I reckon.
And then the guns......salvos, solid 4 gun salvos, regular as a heart beat....
Dust and crap falling all around us.....
"Were you scared?"
"Scared?.....think of it this way young man. Ever heard the term, the devils drums?
There we were, right in amongst em............boom, boom, boom!
Cmdr Smith
Gunnery Officer
.it was a good show.......first star shells lit em up, two Furataka's, a couple of Taenryu
CLs, usual pack of accompanying vermin.
Poor barsteds, just as busy trying to stay afloat in the seas as fight us.
Surprise was complete, and my gunnery was good.
First salvo, 3 solid hits fwd on the Furataka........lovely mess, turrets going up in the air
like fountains.......lovely stuff, switched to the Tenryu's....
Seaman Albert
helmsman Destroyer Downes
never seen anything like it. Seas huge....and bloody freezing too. captain tucked us right
up in under Warspites stern, seeking the calmer water in her wake........
God, her shooting, like a heartbeat....bang, bang, bang....great white flashes,
giving em hell she was.
But, of course , being so close to her, with all that stuff coming her way, we were
sure to catch a bit of them ourselves........
Captain Uguri, destroyer Sawakaze
it was, to be honest, horrifying. Out of the dark, this great monster, shooting. shooting
First the Furataka, bang!, bang!, bang, gone!
I did not have any torpedoes left, and what could I do with my pop guns, especially
in a sea like that.
Then Tenryu, bang!, bang! then the Tatsuta, bang!, bang!...15 inch shells........and I remember,
does this ship ever miss?
And then, and then, she turned her guns on us...bang!
And down we went........
Warspite empties her magazines. her escorts, DD Downes, Cummins take damage.
Furataka sunk, both CLs heavily damaged, one possibly sunk, a destroyer (the 18th already for the war)
sunk, all other ships damaged
warspite takes 6 hits
Stout armour, stout hearts. She is barely scratched.
Rule Britannia!
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
From
The Minister of the opposition
to
General Blamey
General, I know you are busy, but I would really like to hear your opinion .
The Japanese carrier operating near Milne bay has (its seems to me) revealed
just how vulnerable you are .
Are you comfortable with this?
How ARE we going to support you?
The Government refuses to tell me the current state of your forces, the air strength
we have, and opinions on what is expected next?
I would very much appreciate your opinion
Tony
(This letter is not replied to, General Blamey, apparently, is too busy)
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
From
LGEN Smart
First Australian Corp
to
Prime Minister
Bulk of 6th division ashore safely India, and entraining south to training area .
The British have assigned an armoured regiment to myself, which is very satisfying.
Division is in good shape, moral is strong.
Do not yet know where I will be deployed , as of yet.
Intend to bring 7th Division to same training location, and complete Corp as a single fighting force.
Smart
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
From
CICPAC
to
POTUS
Summary of current actions ,and Japanese intentions
China:
The Japanese are , basically, hunting down a dozen regiment size units all over southern
Japan. They are succeeding, slowly, but in the meantime, the defences about Changsha grow ever stronger
They also push from the North towards Sian, as yet, we feel that there is enough resistance
to prevent its fall.
What japan has not yet seen, is the large offensive we have just learnt about.
Burma
The allies have evacuated to Myrintinka , japan has so far only committed minor forces , they may
be vulnerable to a counter stroke
India
The enemy are about to invade Diego Garcia
A TF with at least 2 CS ships, and a AV, is involved
Of all current operations, this one fills us with greatest excitement (see plan 1)
There are great opportunities here.
Sumatra/Java
To our surprise, The british and dutch fight on both in the mountains near
Oostenhaven, and south of Djambi
This is important to note, at both locations the Japanese are struggling.
Victory will come for them, but the list of damaged units grows
Java
The dutch have concentrated in the mountains south of Batavia
We hold hope that they will hold out for some time yet, as the bulk have not
been engaged
Malaya
Again, the British fight on, both in central and Northern Malaya
Again, the Japanese have insufficient troops for a complete kill
Solomons
Other than small actions , no major moves noted here
Umnak.
The Japanese have deployed Battleships to this theatre
This is nothing but good news for us
Umnak is drawing greater , and greater resources japan could use elsewhere
I am more than happy to draw even more
carriers
2 identified coral sea
Enroute (we believe) to the gulf of Carpenteria.
transmissions, and sightings of AO's, possibly 2 in the gilberts (heading north?)
Kaga may be supporting Diego operation
Our operations
Plan 1 remains in force
Umnak will receive what ever is needed to keep japan engaged there
(I do NOT intend to retake the island, but to be siege it, or land just enough troops
to raise, as it were, the pot on the table)
I intend to do the same at san Diego, "keep him interested"
We have the initial stages of a raid upon the gilberts underway
Our decision to send the bulk of initial forces towards India may have been correct.
San Diego, the carriers exiting the coral sea, the bulk of japans army in the West
Australian first Corp is beginning to arrive in position.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Pretty sure that is one of those programmers know best options on a mobile device. You know, the ones that infer what you are talking about and change the entire meaning and structure of your sentences without you realizing it. [:@] Dollars to donuts he typed in Diego Garcia, but the programmer was too stupid to understand that there is more than one "Diego" in the world and he of course meant to type San Diego, not Diego Garcia (what's that?). On my phone, that "spell/context checker" defaults to changing the word I type rather than keeping the word I typed and asking me if I want to change it. WTF? #$%@$%#$*&@!(@!^%^$%&@!() Stupid programmers [&:] (And I manage a development team....)
Pretty sure that is one of those programmers know best options on a mobile device. You know, the ones that infer what you are talking about and change the entire meaning and structure of your sentences without you realizing it. [:@] Dollars to donuts he typed in Diego Garcia, but the programmer was too stupid to understand that there is more than one "Diego" in the world and he of course meant to type San Diego, not Diego Garcia (what's that?). On my phone, that "spell/context checker" defaults to changing the word I type rather than keeping the word I typed and asking me if I want to change it. WTF? #$%@$%#$*&@!(@!^%^$%&@!() Stupid programmers [&:] (And I manage a development team....)
Knowledge of geography is known to be one of the weakest points of education in Western countries. The more people get facile worldwide connections the less they actually look to see where they are. As a child, I was always fascinated by tales of faraway places and looked at maps constantly.
I don't really blame the programmers who have to predict what you are about to say - they pretty much have to go with the most popular lines rather than list all the possibilities. That said, Diego Garcia was a US B-52/B1-B bomber base during the Cold War and should be known to more of the populace.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
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