Really enjoying the story.
Not wanting to disturb the thread too much.
Is it possible to reveal the what the allied plan for Australia was, how the Japs seem to have foiled the plan and how it can be avoided? If at all possible, is there any hope?!
What have been the losses, down there in Western Australia? It does seem that it is a real nightmare.
If John is putting so much pressure in this sector, is there a sector where you are faring better?
Got my fingers crossed and following all the newsreels.
This is real nail bitting stuff.
(Your "The little ship that could." seems like a holiday cruise.
Mat
Hi friend!
We are miles behind the game, most of your questions will be answered in time......
thanks for the comment, ironically I was contemplating pulling the plug on AAR last night as real life is really intruding.
But, encouraged, we continue!!)
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Herbie, on March 21, I wrote the following message for your ARR, but somehow my computer posted it in Lowpe's AAR vs. Jacke. Lowpe alerted me, but I forgot to re-post it here:
"The storytelling really is superb. Sometimes I'm reluctant to post as I don't want to interrupt the symmetry and flow of the AAR, cluttering it up with my comments. But if I know anything about writers (and probably any creator: musician, poet, artist, etc.), sincere compliments are much appreciated. Keep on keepin' on, Herbie."
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
0900
Strike away, commence recovery for re fuel CAP
0915
Raid detected bearing 180 degrees. Reported 30 plus strong
0925
Raid in sight, bearing 170 degrees. 6 bombers escorted by 30 plus fighters. Intercepted
10 miles out, 15 enemy fighters claimed.
The enemy Bombers came in with great determination, at very low level. At 4 miles range 1 broke aftwards,
two towards hornets bow, three coming straight on.
Full Starboard helm ordered to place stern at what was considered greatest threat.
0927
Hornet struck by 2 torpedoes, , port boiler room, port main feed tank
Fwd elevator jammed in down position.
Speed reduced to 22 knots, hornet continues full circle turn, finalises on course due south.
1000 hours
List stable at 5 degrees to port, speed now 17 knots, flood/fires contained (see separate damage reports)
Report from strike received, 8 bombers diving on BB Kongo, no hits obtained. Strike ordered to
land at Kalgoorlie.
Unable to operate air wing due to damage, Hornet retires towards Melbourne.
A dry tale. A dry tale indeed. But for those back in the States who will examine it closely, a sorry, sorry
one indeed.
So many mistakes, so many inefficiencies.........
Now, in the days ahead, to be paid for with so many terrors, pain, and death.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
"hello cobba, they sound new"
Jack joins the men about him, raises his hand against the glare, seeking the new sound in the air.
"There they are, look!"
Jack see's them too, 8 new shapes, fat ugly things, tries desperately to place them, Sonia's perhaps?
"Christ, they are Yanks!"
A small cheer breaks out, for a moment, a sweet, sweet moment, hope rises in chests all
about him, a hope that just as quickly drains away.
8 planes. Dauntless dive bombers, Navy Blue, stagger into circuit.
3 are smoking, one crabs more sideways than straight ahead.
They land, taxi to them, silence falls.
A tubule...... shattered frames, holes seemingly everywhere. Slumped men. White ashen faced men.
They climb (if they can) from the bombers, eyes averted, shoulders slumped.
No reinforcements will be found here. Just refugees, of a carrier that just can't..........
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Japan has sent 2nd division into India, to the gates of Cornilla.
The snake has extended its head.
Pilot Officer Graham, Staff Whalla smiles. Stuck out its head nicely.
The air action over the southern border has been fierce.
For the Japs
1000 casualties inflicted this week alone............
And I am sending crates, obsolescent wrecks. Wait until I get some real planes.
Wait until then.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
A week of traveling, 24 hours to get Wi-Fi to work properly. This was the first thing I wanted to read. I am crushed by the Hornet's action. But I am addicted to this AAR, it's MUST READ material. I am anxious to hear what happens next.
"No bullshit please Prime Minister, just the facts please"
The table is still, the silence complete. 6 pairs of eyes turn from Tony to the Prime Minister.
There is so much attached to that sentence.
Australians use that word, bullshit carefully. They can smell it a mile away.
Most of those at this table suspect they have been fed it for many a month now.
The Prime Minister, white, haggard, dark circles under each eye, shifts uneasily in his seat.
You do not become Prime Minister by shirking the hard issues. Grant Frank that.
"We are deep in it."
As all suspected. Now confirmed.
"But there remains hope"
Frank stands, walk in a nervous circle behind his chair, resumes his seat.
"The 5th division is trapped near Albany, its doomed. The 2nd and 3rd are trapped at
Kalgoorlie. The First is 60 miles to the east of them, stalled. The fourth is at Alice, coming"
"Jesus"
"That's all of them"
That line hammers through Tony's mind. ALL OF THEM. ALL of them.
A thought struggles, bubbles
"First corp?"
The Prime Minister visibly blanches.
"The 6th Division is way north of Colombo, coming, there has been issues........the 7th
is enroute from the Cape, it too, has had.......issues"
The silence is complete.
"Ï did, however, say there is hope. The British too have a division at sea. 5 Battleships are coming,
as are 7 carriers. the 24th, 25th divisions are at Sydney. The 32nd is at Melbourne, the Americal
at Adelaide. A raid on Efate is underway, and this American General, Mac, wants to attack, reinforce
Port Moresby."
he takes a drink "It all, I think, depends on the carriers"
( I have had severe problems with off map movement of 1st corp, its now scattered literally from top of
the map to the bottom, the tankers to support this grand movement refused to enter the map too)
Its going to take 2 weeks to re concentrate everything.....
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Escorted by 3 cruisers, a scattering of destroyers, she seeks the safety of the deep south waters of the
great Australian bight.
There are other allied ships out here, moving North aggressively.
But what the Japanese are about to pull is beyond any allied commanders wildest nightmare......
The 5th Aussie division resists well a shock attack against it from the Imperial Guard,
4th division.
Amazingly the 10th light horse slips through the Japanese ring, and enters Albany.
And finds it empty.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
It really does make good reading, doesn't it? Herbie knows how to tell a story. He understands the use of drama to foreshadow and arouse wonder and curiosity. Readers identify with the protagonists. It's very fine writing.
Thanks, Herbie.
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
A week of traveling, 24 hours to get Wi-Fi to work properly. This was the first thing I wanted to read. I am crushed by the Hornet's action. But I am addicted to this AAR, it's MUST READ material. I am anxious to hear what happens next.
It is indeed a good read.
I must say, though, that I keep thinking, the IJ has now committed the bulk of their early war mobile land combat power and a large proportion of their naval effort to an invasion...
That has got them a thousand miles of red dirt, a logistics headache, and the prospect of bumping into, ultimately, 8-9 trained up US and AU divisions that will stop them cold before they take anything useful. There is a massive pan of oil shale out there somewhere. Its the size of France. It is also not an economic extraction prospect even in the 21st century, even with the high oil prices of a decade ago. There are some cattle stations the size of Belgium. That statement is not an exaggeration. The stock density is rather low.
Shoot the cattle, burn everything, form a solid defensive line and let them batter themselves to death. Western Australia only just voted to join the Commonwealth in 1901, so no great loss.[;)]
Incidentally, right about now you should have the 1st Armoured Division, AIF, with 150 + some Grants, 50 odd Stuarts and a brigade + of motorised infantry to let loose. Andymac will tell you all the constituent bits are there, but without wanting to argue with him any further, I still say the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
It really does make good reading, doesn't it? Herbie knows how to tell a story. He understands the use of drama to foreshadow and arouse wonder and curiosity. Readers identify with the protagonists. It's very fine writing.
Thanks, Herbie.
An amazing skill to conjure all this up with a just a few short, concise but highly suspenseful and dramatic paragraphs for each update. Masterful story telling.
14th May
"General Blamey!, sir!.....sir!, Albany is ours!, 10th light horse reports the town
theirs, 5th division following hard!"
The General, unkempt, erupts from his small tent....."Ïs this true Corporal?"
"red hot, just in from the Brigadier"
Blamey's mind races....Albany ours.......but for how long?, and can we do anything
practically about it?. Would the Navy gamble?, could they gamble?
With Hornet, maybe......now?
"Signal to Admiralty, priority, Albany ours......"
Now what the hell will they do with that?
Even as the signal flashes out, The Navy IS doing something about it.
Violent something's.
Busily being met, from the Japanese sides, equally violent things....
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Sir I can only just barely imagine how anyone finds the time to do what you do.
Between building what can only be described as a marvel of Model Ship Building, Conducting perhaps several Player against Player games and then crafting these stories of a quality I find impossible to not follow.
Seriously, How do you manage?
The idea that you may be considering "pulling the plug" on this saddens me. But, I am selfish in that.
I wish you the very best and hope you realize that you have developed a devoted readership that considers you a master at the craft of story telling.
14th May
They begin just east of the Cape.
Pushed by the trade winds that blow eternally eastwards, circling forever the great frozen
southern wastes, they grow.
By the time they reach the gulf, some of them are simply enormous.
The great southern swells.
I have sailed across these swells. As a sailor you mark of certain things. The
salt water mans bucket list:, to pass through the Panama Canal, the suez, to go around
the capes.
To do the bight, to do Bass strait.
These waters may, rarely, be mirror calm, on the surface. I have seen them so.
But under the surface, the great beasts roll ever eastward.
They march, one after the other, sometimes miles between the peaks of each moving ridge, so
deceptive, hiding so much power.
I have stood on the decks of a destroyer, a DDG, and known, that on the other side of the
moving mountain, hidden, sails another.
I have seen a destroyer slide down the face of one of these swells, with the Captain
pretending that he has control of his vessel, knowing full well that the swell has control, not him
So they roll, ever onwards, where eventually some travel Bass strait, and pound the coast,
creating one of the most beautiful vistas in the world.
And for sailors, for over 200 years, one of the most lethal.
South of Perth, of Albany, off Esperance, a great many ships sail today. A high pressure
weather zone is over the bight, calming the surface, but not the hidden mountains.
They will carry the detritus of these days ever eastward, to add to the skeletons and bodies
and wreckage of 200 years, to this, Victoria's southern coast, the shipwreck coast.
The first battle in these moving mountains occurs 100 miles due south of Albany.
Minneapolis, Louisville, skating around Mogami, Sendai, 3 destroyers.
The mighty Minni does best, smacking the Mogami hard, leaving her burning.
But its a win for the Japs, the allies are prevented from making the coast, of completing the
mission.
CL Raleigh bombards Esperance, creates chaos.
Sideshows to the real goal. The eternal swells will have a heavy cargo to carry.
AO Rampao, torpedoed by a SS
Three fat AKs racing into Albany, filled with everything 5th division needs so
desperately.
Sunk.
Many of the bodies will miss the shipwreck coast. They will be pushed ever on eastwards,
ever on, ever on and forever on.........
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
.......this operation fills me with the willies. I keep asking myself, is the risk
of America's entire carrier fleet worth Australia?. Is it worth 3 of the British carriers,
and 5 battleships?
We have given the Aussies 4 divisions, you another one.
It honestly gives me the willies..........
From
Winston
to
POTUS
Re
The Aussies:
Sometimes, one must die for ones most faithful friend.
Winston
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
"Come right, new course 090 degrees. Set speed 15 knots""
Hornet rolls drunkenly across the next great mountain rolling under sodden hull.
Now, at least, with her nose finally turned towards Melbourne, they will be
coming up under her arse, helping push her home.
They have run 200 miles due south before this turn. No, that is wrong. Run implies
mobility, speed, power. Hornet has little of this. She has, instead, buckling bulkheads,
creeping water, endless shoring, exhaustion.
And not a little fear.
The Japs, already involved in actions against the Mighty minni, are not even trying to hide
the radio traffic.
There are battle cruisers out here. Close.
And hunting.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
