Letters from a Prime Minister

[1275psi]

Frank enters the Lodge, late, late into the evening.
He is tired. very tired. The news from Kalgoorlie........discouraging.

The Butler takes his coat, he waves the offer for a drink away.
he moves towards the back of the house.
Abruptly, his wife emerges from the bathroom, still dripping.
The mist from the shower till hangs in the air.
"Frank?"
The surprise on her face poorly hidden. The flick of the eyes into the bathroom, quick, but
not quick enough.
Anger rises in him.
HE is HERE??
In the bloody lodge?
Does she have no shame.....?
For a moment, silence, stand off.
His wife coughs.....embarrassed perhaps. "Äre you staying long?"
Staying long?.....this is the PM's official residence, he is the PM, right?
The anger simmers. he could step into the bathroom, have it out. Have it out now.
But he can't

"Do you know what........darling......updating where our sons, your sons, are right now.
One is being bombed to hell in the desert, one is in the Pacific, on an un escorted Transport, and two
are at sea, about to undertake a mission that has only a marginal chance of success.
And here you are........no, not tonight, I won't be staying long......."'

[1275psi]

May 27th
Two transports dock Port Moresby. The marines 3rd defence battalion quietly and with out fuss
unload.
They never hear how this is achieved, never see the P39's , poor fighters that they are,
rip 9 Nells from the skies over Kokoda.

In Townsville, encouraged, 25th division sails.
Naval escort, to say the least, is stretched.
Stretched or not, it can, and it will fight.

[1275psi]

May 28th

25th division, aboard some 15 transports departs Townsville.
In Port Moresby, two transports are unloading supplies.
DD Helm escorts them. Nobody knows of this ship right now,
soon, she will be known as the luckiest ship in the fleet.
To cover 25th's journey, the Navy has eschewed close escort, instead a small
number of task forces are pushed aggressively into the coral sea.
CL concord commands.

In theory she commands. In the craziness that follows, nobody is.

[1275psi]

May 28th

Near Milne bay
Deep night, calm, mirror calm seas. A fat, fat full moon.

She races again. Le Triomphant, the destroyer born to run, born to sprint, born to
almost fly across the waters, is doing just that. On the bridge, the man made gale almost whips
her Captains commands away.
But there remains no doubt what he is urging..."Plus Rapide!, plus rapide!!!, go faster, go
faster you bitch, go faster!
And maybe, maybe she does.
Visibility is brilliant, cruiser Oi, her 2 destroyer escorts spotted at a good range.
'Navire Ennemi!"
Shoot!, shoot!, shoot!
They block the entrance to the bay.
Speed, all this speed, comes at a cost.

Light guns, not enough fish.

The Japs are fast too, cat like, they whip towards the Frenchie, and the night fills with
starshell and tracer.

Oi takes a hit, but three slam Le Triomphant, and suddenly it seems all that speed was a dream.
Visions of repeating former glorious moments vanish.
She staggers away.
At 12 knots, crossing back over the coral sea suddenly is a long, long journey.

[1275psi]

May 28th
Dawn
From
Port Moresby Command
to
South West pac

Immediate
4 Japanese battleships sighted, speed 16 knots, course North West, 120 miles south Port Moresby


Batten down the hatches boys.
Here it comes.

[LargeSlowTarget]

Bon courage et bonne chance, les camarades - vive la France libre!

[Lowpe]

Fantasque!

[blueatoll]

[starsis]

Love this AAR, check it several times a day.
Noble performance by the French Navy indeed but, at the same time, Le Triomphant is not exactly a light-weight. It is one of the biggest destroyers in the Pacific and has 5 5.5" guns and 3x3 TTs. It is not Boise but it is almost big enough to take on Oi by itself.

[1275psi]

May 29th

Somewhere in the Indian ocean

Jason Ford shuffles around the table in the sorry excuse his transport
calls a planning room.
Nearly 20 other officers from 7th division join him, every single one dripping
with sweat, shirts sticking to backs.
The compartment has but a single fan, a joke in these waters.
The men gather around a small table. on it, a crude plaster model of what
is going to be 7th divisions objective
The town itself, the harbour, are well modelled. And why not?. One of the officers
in this very room actually comes from the place.

The brigadier points out the landing beaches, sweat dripping from his brow.
The plan seems good. Regiment A, land here, B there, timings, gun fire support
(a battleship even by God).
And then some one asks the question:
"Expected resistance, enemy forces?"
A pregnant pause............
"Unknown"
Äny shore batteries??
Unknown
enemy air?
Unknown, and, no, enemy naval forces........unknown

Jason no longer feels the heat
he feels cold, stone, stone cold.

[1275psi]

Captain Smith moves beside John, bent over the Navigation table

Napier's planned track has just been pencilled onto the chart.
Its a very, very long line .

John points to a note in his pocket book. A single figure on the page
BFR.
Burnable fuel remaining.
"Not enough left skipper"
"if we capture the objective, there will be, room a plenty for anchoring tankers"
"and if we don't"?
"Its going to be a bloody long row home"

[1275psi]

May 29th
For Navigators, Port Moresby is a barsted of a place.
Its nestled beside a nice deep indent into PNG, a good harbour. To its east, another
bay, Bootless inlet.
Once into these bays, a sheltered harbour. At this moment, crude wharfing, and little else.
But getting into there......
Only a kilometre out, a great barrier. facing you, as you enter on your left, low, hard, mean,
Daugo island. Surrounded by reefs, lots and lots of reefs.
Then a arse clinching gap, and then, surprise........endless reefs heading east.

There is room to sail between the coast and this reef, past bootless inlet, if you are game enough.

A battleship can cruise outside these barriers, so can cruisers. But if you want to get into
that harbour.........

Its bloody narrow is that gap.
Bloody narrow indeed.

Now, under the moon, still bright, it seems even narrower again.

Destroyers Talbot, Monoghan lurk on the landward side of daugo island.
Waiting in ambush.
Concord, Bagely about 5 miles to the East.

Destroyer Talbot see's them first.
Cruiser Oi, a destroyer. Coming fast. Coming up that bloody gap past Bootless bay.
Bold as brass.
The range is stupidly close, 1000 yards, if that, when both sides see each other.
There is no room to manoeuvre, to even react.
Just to shoot, shoot anything, to throw lead, rocks, any bloody thing at the charging cruiser
Oi veers hard left, spitting fire, bursting into it as well as talbots guns shred her.

Incredibly, her navigator takes her clear into the pacific through that narrow channel, she
and her escort vanishing into the dark.

Talbot slides to a halt, aflame. Monoghan too stops, crippled.
3 minutes. Just three minutes to transform fine fighting machines to scrap.

Talbot burns. She flames. A bright beacon in the night.

On the seaward side of Daugo island, like moths, the flames draw Japanese and allied alike.

[Andav]

I typically do not read Allied AARs but this one is so well done that it is now on my one of my favorites. Keep up the excellent work!

Wa

[1275psi]

Its the Japanese battleships that arrive first of Daugo island, steaming north west at
every knot their ancient frames can muster.
Talbot is an easy target, at these ranges, burning so brightly.......
Nagato claims her with her first salvo. Hyuga misses Monogohan with her first, correcting
with her second.....

Cl Concord, DD Bagley, pygmies against giants. But if the giants are looking the other way, transfixed
by the flame of Talbot......

The cruiser strikes nagato 4 times, Hyuga twice, spitballs against the giants. Concord wisely breaks away.

The question her skipper, Bagleys skipper will ask themselves for the rest of their lives,
where the hell did the fish, all those torpedoes go?
How in the hell did they miss?

The burning beacon once called the Talbot sinks, the dark returns.
Its as if Concords efforts were but a gnat on the elephants back. Methodically, imperiously,
the great guns of what is now revealed as 4 Japanese battleships begin to turn Port Moresby field
into smouldering rubble.

[ny59giants]

Methodically, imperiously,
the great guns of what is now revealed as 4 Japanese battleships begin to turn Port Moresby field
into smouldering rubble.

John truly loves to use his BBs to hit bases regardless of date in the game. Prepare accordingly, sir!

[1275psi]

May 29th

90 miles east of Kalgoorlie

Jack awakens with a start in the rear of the truck.
"Everyone out!"
Groggily he looks out. A burly Warrant Officer is staring up at them in the truck.
"Hurry up !, the Japs are not going to wait for fly boys nap time!"
Stiffly, Jack jumps down. Its dawn, cold, the sun just beginning to rise, the desert
the same as always, wide, open, seemingly empty.
"Here you go cobber, you might neëd this"
A soldier thrusts a rifle into his hand, passes a bandolier of ammunition into the other.
"We are all going to be fighting this one mate, If I was you and your friends, I would start digging"

Jack takes in his surroundings more closely. They are on a small ridge, barely 100 feet high.
To the West, a dry plain, bolders, a little scrub. Behind them, more scrub, more endless plain.
The ridge, as small as it is, appears to be a major feature of the area.

And, it appears, Blamey has noticed.
As the light begins to improve, it begins to reveal what the desert tries to hide
Gun pits, guns, trucks....trenches.

jack turns to the Warrant Officer
"Whats the buzz Warrant, and no bullshit"
The warrant points to the West.
"Two full divisions just 10 miles behind us, another trying to out flank us down the
rail line to our south..."
He points then to the east..".20 miles that way, first division is coming, , we have to hold until they do"
Jack understands
They all understand

"Give me a bloody shovel"

[1275psi]

The 4 Japanese battleships retire. In the craziness of this night they encounter 2
large allied APs, and veer away.

At dawn, Concord and Bagley are sighted. The battleships must have no main ammo left,
both allied ships are hit, but only with 5 inch shells.
They will escape. DD Monogahan will sink, adding to the Navigation hazards at Port Moresby.

CL Concord damaged, bagley Damaged. 2 DD lost. CL oi damaged, a destroyer damaged.
The allies, quite simply, have nothing left. The Japanese, surely, have no ammo left.
There must be a gap. Must be. 25th division convoy considers the weather forcast (bad),
the action just completed, the need, the desperate need at Port Moresby.

The convoy turns around, builds to what we can mock as full speed, and stabs for Port Moresby.

[1275psi]

May 30

Fate is fickle. Glory sometimes ignores those that deserve it most. And sometimes fate
decides to humiliate those that deserve it least

DD Le Trioumphant fails to reach home........she remains to this day rusting on the edge
of the reefs a mere mile from Cairns.
Still, some say that inglorious end then, has allowed a glorious now. A reminder, everyday,
in her rusting wreck, that France fought here too, and fought well.


Other ships are sunk this day, and maybe its best no reminders remain of this sorry day.

Japanese nells strike the convoy carrying 25th division. The weather is bad, but not
bad enough for Macs gamble
3 big APs are sunk in the first wave. 3 more the second.
Tomorrow barely a regiment from 25th Division will get ashore.

A horrible horrible day.
Nobody will want to be reminded of that.

[1275psi]

Jack checks his ammo.

25 rounds.
Still 25 rounds.
There were 25 yesterday, and he still has 25 today.
The rifle remains unfired, and nothing, nothing, would please him more than to
see a target, and make it 24.
They have been bombed, bombed again, and again.
The terrible drum roll of artillery has sounded to the ridges left, to its right.
Rounds have whistled overhead........both ways.


The Japanese, just 2 miles away, have not attacked. They are there, massed, 3 divisions strong,
just out of sight.
Its just after dusk when Jack finds out why.
The word comes, quietly. Pull out.
They file from the trench eastwards, his 25 rounds banging on his hip.
They emerge in the half light, dark, ominous. And in numbers.
The maltildas, all of them, have punched through.
The rest of the army cannot be far away.

[1275psi]

Rats

literally
Rats


have chewed through my internet connection

we will resume when it is restored, and they are dead, dead, dead.