Letters from a Prime Minister

[1275psi]

From
Prime Minister Winston
To
Prime Minister Ford

I wish to appraise you of the situation as we see it re India.
Your 1st corp is all but safely transported to India, and is concentrating
at a location where we think it can best be used.
Its location, is, at the moment, secret.

The Japanese are only very slowly advancing in Burma, with minimal troops.
So, I smell a rat......

Please do not be alarmed with loss of Diego Garcia, our Submarines are already making
this a very lonely outpost indeed.
What I do wish to inform you is of the situation in China, where it is very
apparent (to us) that extra Japanese air units are being thrown into the war, especially
around Wuchow.
Both Myself and the President place great emphasis on engaging the Japanese everywhere,
especially in areas that in the long term serve no great purpose for the enemies
long term war aims
The AVG has shot down nearly 200 planes now, but needs to come out for rebuilding.
Thus , with new squadrons arriving in India, I intend to send some to China,
while the "going is good"

We have repaired your Cruiser Australia, and I have asked the Admiralty to look into a replacement for
gallant Canberra

The days may seem dark, my friend, but they were never going to be anything else but
in the early stages. What we need to continue to do, is make the enemy bleed.

I support your decision to make Port Moresby a Fortress, every week taken to reduce it, is one less week to
invade Australia proper

Winston

[1275psi]

The leader of the oppositions office is not as luxurious as you would suppose.
There are times, thinks Tony, when it could never be big enough.
Especially now, when Minister Smith comes a calling

Tony is no small man himself. Alongside this bull of a man, he is small indeed
And Smith, as usual, is chucking his weight about

"OUR PRIME MINISTER!.."
"Please Minister, don't shout..."
"Alright then.......our Prime Minister ran for election on a platform of a strong Australia,
a country able to stand on its own two feet...... and here we are, still lapdogs to the
British...!.my electorate has many sons in the First Corp, they want them home!"

Tony sighs.
Yes, I know this..do you think I am blind to the situation...
"I know this, I have brought this up many times...but we are all in this together"

"Together!. Just remember this Tony, the man was NOT elected, its his by default"
"yes, his by default, until the election next year"

"We will be speaking Japanese by then, just you wait and see!"

Tony looks away. There is, horribly, a grain of possible truth in THAT.
""Oh, I am sure it won't come to that"

because I would rather be dead by then........

[1275psi]

DD Napier arrives Karachi again

There is no curiosity now about this place, they know it well.
There is nothing here for her crew, except fuel, work, getting the troops ashore, getting away again for the
next lot.
There are rumours of course
"The Med again"
"A run to Sumutra, pull those poor barsteds out"
'We are definitely going home"
'Going to blighty, refit"

A hundred rumours
A thousand

John Ford, navigator, probably has the best clue
It arrives under guard, a small parcel, a small book within

A United States Navy Code book.

So that rumour IS true....the yanks have some carriers here, somewhere.......

[1275psi]

18th feb

Buna
(well, 20 miles inland, deep in the Owen Stanley ranges)

Pilot officer Smith very carefully feels himself all over, searching
carefully for the holes he is sure should be in him.

To his relief, he finds none.
Suspended in the trees 20 feet above the ground by his Chute, he doesn't
know whether to laugh , or cry.
laugh, at his successful bail out of his burning P40 E, or cry at the mortification
of being shot down.

By a Claude no less.

A trucking claude!

[1275psi]

Chinese forces achieve 2 to 1 Wuchow, forts to 0
Allied DDs bombard Lunga, no effect, no enemy encounters

The enemy advance towards Sian using the Northern route.
And finally, finally, his CVs near Kodiac begin to retire westward
The damaged BB's make a run for it.

[1275psi]

19th Feb

Battleship New mexico is torpedoed Bay of Alaska
damage, mercifully, is light. She will follow her sisters south as quickly as she can.

Over Wuchow, a new development
A dozen odd zero's and Oscars (but all zeros to the allied pilots, anything with red meatballs
and a single engine is, at this stage, a zero), sweep over the embattled city.

They encounter a new enemy, squat, hump backed.
13 Hurricanes, more than willing to engage.

With recent memories of easy kills over Malaya, the japs swing in to the attack.
It goes poorly.
Five Japanese go down, 5 Hurricanes as well.


"we will fight him anywhere, any how. We will fight him"
As it is said, it will be done.

[1275psi]

20th feb

From
ABDA Command
to
Prime Minister

despite my best efforts, it now appears that Batavia will soon fall, and with it,
our last hopes and dreams for defending the Indies
I must admit that , in hindsight, adopting an aggressive defence may
have been the wrong strategy, but I will leave that to the historians to debate.
I wish to thank the troops for their efforts, and the Navy in particular.

I believe we have got some good licks in, and I still believe, that we almost pulled
of the Palembang gambit..........

Nevertheless, I regret to say, some 7 Japanese divisions will soon be free
to be re deployed to where ever their Navy can carry them...........

I wish you the best, and await the turning of the tide
Yours
Brooke Popham




From
Eastern Command, India
to
Chiefs of staff


Sirs
I must, must point out the perilous situation facing India at this time

Other than the Australians, I have all but the scattered parts of a division
to cover the entire south coast of India.
An impossible situation.
I seek immediately, that 1st Australian Corp be passed to my command.
I seek an immediate reinforcement...........
I seek......
I seek...........



From
General Blamey
to
The War cabinet


..................and so sirs, the chickens are coming home to roost
I am told some 7!, divisions are available to Japan in the forthcoming months,
we must awaken Australia from its slumber, now!.
We must begin digging , digging, fortifying everything............





From
Prime Minister
to
War cabinet

For Immediate action:

Please update me on situation/location of Americal division
Is it at sea?
Is it still enroute?
If so, when, and where is it due to dock?

This division is VITAL to the defence of Australia, if it has been diverted, I must know
immediately............

[1275psi]

20th feb

In the waters about Umnak, both sides SS score. We lose 2 AKs, kill one in return

The damaged battleships continue south, hugging the coast, aiming for seattle

Their escape, however, may not be guaranteed.
Car Div 5 has been spotted well west of Umnak, coming due east, straight towards Prince Rupert.
Galvanised, pacific Fleet assumes temporary command over Alaska command.
Troops, planes, ships, anything available, is ordered to the theatre..........

[BBfanboy]

waiting for the show to start ... smooth seas and a following wind to you!

[1275psi]

21st feb

Australia is a big country.
Bloody big

To really, really appreciate the size of this land, try travelling across it.
In Peak summer.
By train.
Third class.

Pilot officer Jack Ford wearily drags his papers out of his pocket
They are travel stained now, creased, sweat dampened.

Townsville.
9th group
75th squadron.........a new unit.

The train crawls slowly north, across Australia's central plains. The heat builds
Mile after mile, after mile...........

A country so big, so wide, impossible to occupy it with any army, surely.
Yet here he sits in this moving oven, destined to be a part of the effort to stop just
that............

[1275psi]

Westralia plows on

As much as he hates the old sow, Jeffery has to give her this, she just
keeps on keeping on.

She is crowded again, Americans again, tough Marines, engineers.
Headed due east, headed state side

A long way from home
A long way from his %$#&*( Father

A long way from a girl he has already almost forgotten

[1275psi]

Kweilin China
15000 feet

Visibility, ..........visibility superb.
Pilot Officer (Harry) Graham leads his pack.
15 hurricanes.
Harry's hunters they call themselves........HIS happy Hunters........
Fresh from kicking Nazi arse over Dunkirk, over the white cliffs of dover.....

And now, somehow thanks to winnie, hunting nips over China

he touches his trim, scans the sky again
Does it matter??
Enemy of the empire all the same..........different yes.......

"Aircraft!.....11 o clock low!"
Jesus.........they do have red meatballs.........
Nine.........3 vics of 3...........

It all flows so easily..........."Alright everybody........lets mix it in"
He dives, the mighty merlin rising to its roar, turning, turning..........
Zero floating, floating, it pulls away, god, can those truckers turn!, tightens the
bank, tightens, inverting, another zero, the finger tightens........and it simply
disintegrates under his blows.

Breathing hard, breathing bloody hard, pointing the nose up, seeking altitude, seeking life

His hunters begin to re gather about him.
Grimly, he notes one is missing.

There is no time to think about it, more planes...........

For a brief moment, recollections of Hitlers Hienkals over Dover.........
Bombers, 35 plus.

No fighters

"Dig in everyone, there are no fighters, plenty to go around"



The day will be a long one.
Graham modestly will share kills, claim just the one
(There was something in that image of the zero just falling apart he just cannot forget)
2 Hurricanes missing

19 sallies shot down
5 Zero's, what is reported as a Stuka, another twin engine type

20 for 1
A good days hunting indeed............

[1275psi]

It is a bad day for Japan in China
A full division, the 32nd attacks across the river into Sian

It all goes horribly wrong
By dusk, 50% of the division has been destroyed
The rest, trapped.

Sian, for now, is going to hold.

[1275psi]

22Feb
Its cold, a biting cold sweeping into the gun bay.
But for now, Jeffery can happily ignore it.

Symbol of the mighty strength of a nation now emerging from slumber, the Golden gate bridge
towers above Westralia.

So this is what the yanks are about..............

[1275psi]

From
General Blamey
to
War cabinet.

Re Port Moresby

Fortification building continues satisfactorily.
Supply situation satisfactory, but must be improved

Airfield construction now almost ready for Heavy bomber deployment,
certainly ready for light bomber deployment
Recommend earliest deployment of Banshee bombers now at Townsville






From
IV bomber command
to
General Blamey

Do not agree with deployment of bombers to Port Moresby
Consider level of training insufficient for operational missions
stop


From
General Blamey
to
IV Bomber command

Re
banshees

BULLCRAP
What better bombing practice to be had than to drop real
bombs on real Japs
STOP
Bombers to be deployed no later than weeks end.

Blamey

[1275psi]

From
ABDA Command
to
Winston

Enemy have broken into city
resistance ending

Until better days

ABDA

[1275psi]

Battleship Warspite

"Are you sure?"

"Enemy carrier Div5 is coming due East, its as if they can see us"
"With all these subs and their damn float planes about, I am not surprised...
will we make Seattle?"
"Not a chance sir"
'Then its prince Rupert.......best speed you can do please Engines, lets hope
something is there waiting for us"

[1275psi]

23rd feb

Prince Rupert

Something is waiting at this once quiet back water.
The lights are burning late into the night around the three rows of gleaming planes

Wildcat
Dauntless
Vindicator
P40E

Names not yet well known by an American public
But soon to be very well known indeed

And eventually
Known even by the Japanese

And feared


Car Div 5 is coming.
Coming hard

[1275psi]

Port Moresby grows teeth

Out of the dawn sun , 30 banshees dive over lae
Above them nearly a dozen P40Es hunt

30 Claudes scramble, .....too late

5 of them fall
5 precious pilots killed

The allies escape, unharmed
A AV, a AK, and a AP lie in the roads, burning


As Blamey will say later this day
"Bloody good practice"

[1275psi]

24/2

Two men sit, scotch comfortably in hand
Above them, a fan beats uselessly at the hot air.
Australias summer has beaten the cooling effect of the stone constructed parliament house,

The Speaker of the house contemplates his drink
"As speaker, I am, you know, meant to be impartial Tony"
The leader of the opposition snorts
"Yes, and we both got into this game for love of country too.........."

Canberra is still, quiet, as if beaten (as it has been in some ways) into
submission by the blazing sun above it.
There are Bushfires burning near Bathhurst, it is said.
And Flooding near Melbourne

"What I cannot get Jim, is this so called "war Cabinet......how in the
hell can you have a cabinet without any members of my party?"
The speaker scratches his head
"Way I see it, Frank feels responsible for the mess we are in, he was Minister for defence
you know, you know, the man who cut us to the bone....maybe because he %$#@ed it, he wants
to be the man who fixed it"

Tony shakes his head.

%$#@ed it, is only half the word........do you hear the dockies are threatening to go
on strike?"
"Christ......now?.....during this?"

"Yes, during this!"