December 6th, 1941. Routine training, except my crate smelled particularly bad today. Rookie pilots and fighter planes don't mix. Lord knows how those new boots will put bullets on a target that actually moves. Lt. Ass was his typical yell and spit and polish and hold those wings steady. Sigh. But good news - off at 5PM with a 2 day pass. Heading down to Diamond Beach, sip some fine Hawaiian drinks, chase the beauties. And not in that order. Tonite looks to be another dandy in paradise. Beautiful weather. Tasty Drinks. Beautiful skirts! I think I'll sleep on the beach tonite. Why not! Enough for today, I'm on liberty and the women are fine!
War Diary
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
RE: War Diary
Ace-
*chuckling*
This I have to follow.
Best Regards,
-Terry
*chuckling*
This I have to follow.
Best Regards,
-Terry
"No one throws me my own guns and tells me to run. No one."
-Bret (James Coburn); The Magnificent Seven
-Bret (James Coburn); The Magnificent Seven
RE: War Diary
Dec 7th, 1941
What started as a rumor, became a whisper, until it was a conversation, and ended in full-blown chaos. Today is a day no one will ever forget. I was just wiping off my hangover, eating a late breakfast, when the first rumor came "The Japs are attacking the Fillipines". I thought of my cousin, stationed over there, and rolled my eyes. This was about the hundredth time I've heard war rumors. One outrageous rumor, 2 weeks ago, had the Japs attacking Pearl harbor!
By the time I was done eating, I heard the blare of a siren on an MP's Jeep, some boot was yelling through a megaphone "all leave cancelled, return to base " over and over until they were out of sight. I laughed, figured some Major was having fun with the MP's. Until the next Jeep raced through town, nearly taking out a pineapple cart on the side of the road. "All Leave Cancelled, this is NO DRILL". I went outside and looked up and saw more of our planes in the sky than I had ever seen.
When I got to base, 4 of our big ships were making steam out of the harbor, the rest of Pearl looked like a beehive of activity, there were no more squadron planes left as squadmates were already in the air, ready to fight and kill. I wondered if they all had bullets in their guns. Shortly thereafter President Crusty came over the radio - it was no drill. We were at war. The Japs have smashed our airforce and navy in the Fillipines, and attacked the Brits in Asia.
No longer was the war a European adventure. Our days on the sidelines are done. The war had gone global. We ARE at war. Haven't written this much in a long time, can't sleep. Apprehensive.
What started as a rumor, became a whisper, until it was a conversation, and ended in full-blown chaos. Today is a day no one will ever forget. I was just wiping off my hangover, eating a late breakfast, when the first rumor came "The Japs are attacking the Fillipines". I thought of my cousin, stationed over there, and rolled my eyes. This was about the hundredth time I've heard war rumors. One outrageous rumor, 2 weeks ago, had the Japs attacking Pearl harbor!
By the time I was done eating, I heard the blare of a siren on an MP's Jeep, some boot was yelling through a megaphone "all leave cancelled, return to base " over and over until they were out of sight. I laughed, figured some Major was having fun with the MP's. Until the next Jeep raced through town, nearly taking out a pineapple cart on the side of the road. "All Leave Cancelled, this is NO DRILL". I went outside and looked up and saw more of our planes in the sky than I had ever seen.
When I got to base, 4 of our big ships were making steam out of the harbor, the rest of Pearl looked like a beehive of activity, there were no more squadron planes left as squadmates were already in the air, ready to fight and kill. I wondered if they all had bullets in their guns. Shortly thereafter President Crusty came over the radio - it was no drill. We were at war. The Japs have smashed our airforce and navy in the Fillipines, and attacked the Brits in Asia.
No longer was the war a European adventure. Our days on the sidelines are done. The war had gone global. We ARE at war. Haven't written this much in a long time, can't sleep. Apprehensive.
RE: War Diary
Dec 8th, 1941:
My squadron, the 44th Pursuit Squadron, part of the 18th Pursuit Group, was tasked with "extended Combat Air Patrol" today to support any of our PBY's that might come across the enemy. All day we chased from one end of the Hawaiian Islands to the other, as the jumpy Cat crews constantly called out contacts. I never saw any ships, but those PBY's must have dropped 100 bombs on various "sub" and "destroyer" sightings - or probably big fat whales they misidentified. I did notice a couple of nasty looking oil slicks though. Our top brass must have believed the Cat reports pretty well - our BB's that left harbor last night were moored up on BattleShip Row this morning, and nearly all of our depth charge capable ships put to sea. I landed with all my ammo intact. I didn't spot any enemy aircraft, but if they come, we are ready for them. Lt Jerky made sure to let us know, in no uncertain terms, that we are not to discuss any casualty rumors we might hear. My sixth sense tells me that yesterday was not a good day for our boys over in the Philippines (I realized this morning, I was spelling it wrong all this time). Godspeed cousin.
My squadron, the 44th Pursuit Squadron, part of the 18th Pursuit Group, was tasked with "extended Combat Air Patrol" today to support any of our PBY's that might come across the enemy. All day we chased from one end of the Hawaiian Islands to the other, as the jumpy Cat crews constantly called out contacts. I never saw any ships, but those PBY's must have dropped 100 bombs on various "sub" and "destroyer" sightings - or probably big fat whales they misidentified. I did notice a couple of nasty looking oil slicks though. Our top brass must have believed the Cat reports pretty well - our BB's that left harbor last night were moored up on BattleShip Row this morning, and nearly all of our depth charge capable ships put to sea. I landed with all my ammo intact. I didn't spot any enemy aircraft, but if they come, we are ready for them. Lt Jerky made sure to let us know, in no uncertain terms, that we are not to discuss any casualty rumors we might hear. My sixth sense tells me that yesterday was not a good day for our boys over in the Philippines (I realized this morning, I was spelling it wrong all this time). Godspeed cousin.
RE: War Diary
Dec 9th – Someone lit a fire in our chiefs belly, because the maintenance crews worked all night to get our planes serviceable. Come this morning, all were air-worthy (which is saying a lot) – just in time for new transfers from the mainland to get in an patrol. Our squadron leader wanted some of the vets to give orientation flights around the Islands, but my name didn’t come up, so I spent the day calibrating .50’s for some of our other groups planes. I think our Air Boss got a little nervous at all our planes lined up like sitting ducks, so the new heavy bombers that just flew in, were sent back to the mainland. I don’t know. Maybe they are afraid the Nipponese will invade the West Coast. Some of the new transfers to our group had talked about the mass hysteria that gripped San Francisco when word spread of a “large Jap Bomber Force” approaching – but turns out it was just a flight of geese. Well that’s all for tonight, I’m going to write my parents a letter, and hope I get more air time tomorrow.
RE: War Diary
Dec 10th, '41 – A few casualty reports were making their rounds, most of them were seem to be hinting at the devastation of our air force in the Philippines. I think it’s Japanese propaganda, for while on patrol today, I picked up some Asian announcer speaking of the “Ever Victorious Army” and their march down the Malaysian Peninsula. This announcer managed to claim that we’ve lost 2 Carriers, 4 Batterships (the nip can't say his 'l's), and 6 Heavy Cruisers in the last 3 days.
Today's patrol went off without hitch – I spotted a few of our destroyers chasing down Japanese subs (or whales) northeast of our Islands. I noticed that some our Cat planes were depleted – I think some departed in the middle of the night but I don't know where. After chow this evening, about 15 of those new transfers got marching orders and left the squadron – I barely even got to know their names. Our squadron, the glorious 44th Pursuit Squadron, is down to 18 pilots (yours included) for our 16 planes, so I'll probably get a lot of flight time, unless new pilots come in. Now if only the Japs would show up and meet the anger of our guns, this damn war wouldn’t be so boring. But war. We’re in a war, and I’ve yet to see a single enemy.
Today's patrol went off without hitch – I spotted a few of our destroyers chasing down Japanese subs (or whales) northeast of our Islands. I noticed that some our Cat planes were depleted – I think some departed in the middle of the night but I don't know where. After chow this evening, about 15 of those new transfers got marching orders and left the squadron – I barely even got to know their names. Our squadron, the glorious 44th Pursuit Squadron, is down to 18 pilots (yours included) for our 16 planes, so I'll probably get a lot of flight time, unless new pilots come in. Now if only the Japs would show up and meet the anger of our guns, this damn war wouldn’t be so boring. But war. We’re in a war, and I’ve yet to see a single enemy.
RE: War Diary
Dec 11th, 1941:
Another day is tropical war paradise, despite the broken cloud layer at 13k feet. Still no signs of the enemy. We continue our patrols. Recruitment offices are overflowing after this dastardly sneak attack on the Philippines. Our nation seems out for revenge. We heard that a Jap Sub sank a destroyer about 300 miles northeast of us. The war is real, despite the enemy refusing to come and fight us fair and square. Strangely, our unit has become more cohesive, even Lt Jerk is being nice. I guess when it’s peacetime, all the “rank” is used to full effect – but perhaps since Lt Jerk realizes his life depends upon us, and us upon him, we are coming together as a unit.
Another day is tropical war paradise, despite the broken cloud layer at 13k feet. Still no signs of the enemy. We continue our patrols. Recruitment offices are overflowing after this dastardly sneak attack on the Philippines. Our nation seems out for revenge. We heard that a Jap Sub sank a destroyer about 300 miles northeast of us. The war is real, despite the enemy refusing to come and fight us fair and square. Strangely, our unit has become more cohesive, even Lt Jerk is being nice. I guess when it’s peacetime, all the “rank” is used to full effect – but perhaps since Lt Jerk realizes his life depends upon us, and us upon him, we are coming together as a unit.
RE: War Diary
Interesting reading.
Thank you for taking the time to keep up us abreast of your endeavors.
Best Regards,
-Terry
Thank you for taking the time to keep up us abreast of your endeavors.
Best Regards,
-Terry
"No one throws me my own guns and tells me to run. No one."
-Bret (James Coburn); The Magnificent Seven
-Bret (James Coburn); The Magnificent Seven
RE: War Diary
Dec 12th, 1941.
We were pulled into a room today, given the usual “Do not speak under penalty of court-martial blah blah” and given the news: Our airforce in the Philippines has been, for all practical purposes, eliminated. Japan has free reign over the PI. How could this happen? 200+ aircraft and so many pilots lost. Hands down I know many of them. The Brits in Malaysia have suffered just as badly, which makes nearly 500 aircraft butchered by the Japs in little over a week. How could this happen? It’s been well known the Jap has bad eyesight, can’t fly, can’t shoot, isn’t as smart as us, and doesn’t have our technology! Someone was wrong. Very wrong.
But that wasn’t the real reason for the meeting – we were told the riceballs simultaneously landed at Guam and Wake island and wiped out the garrisons in a day. That puts them on the path to Midway and our outlying islands. This isn’t good. So many marines lost.
Later in the evening, after our usual afternoon cap with no enemy sightings, our squad was pulled into another room and told even more news to not discuss. One of our CV’s, the Lexington, was nearly back to Pearl when it was attacked earlier in the day and hit by a sub. She made for a backwater anchorage at Kauai to shore up some internal flooding. Our squadron has been tasked for tomorrow with “round-the-clock” cap while she patches up for the return to Pearl.
The war is getting closer to us.
We were pulled into a room today, given the usual “Do not speak under penalty of court-martial blah blah” and given the news: Our airforce in the Philippines has been, for all practical purposes, eliminated. Japan has free reign over the PI. How could this happen? 200+ aircraft and so many pilots lost. Hands down I know many of them. The Brits in Malaysia have suffered just as badly, which makes nearly 500 aircraft butchered by the Japs in little over a week. How could this happen? It’s been well known the Jap has bad eyesight, can’t fly, can’t shoot, isn’t as smart as us, and doesn’t have our technology! Someone was wrong. Very wrong.
But that wasn’t the real reason for the meeting – we were told the riceballs simultaneously landed at Guam and Wake island and wiped out the garrisons in a day. That puts them on the path to Midway and our outlying islands. This isn’t good. So many marines lost.
Later in the evening, after our usual afternoon cap with no enemy sightings, our squad was pulled into another room and told even more news to not discuss. One of our CV’s, the Lexington, was nearly back to Pearl when it was attacked earlier in the day and hit by a sub. She made for a backwater anchorage at Kauai to shore up some internal flooding. Our squadron has been tasked for tomorrow with “round-the-clock” cap while she patches up for the return to Pearl.
The war is getting closer to us.
RE: War Diary
Dec 13th, 1941:
Had a couple of flights today. First one was an early bird escorting some Cats to Nawiliwili Harbor at Kaui (or however you spell it). They were airlifting in some personnel, most likely some support to help patch up the Lex. I got a good look at her, there was some smoke coming from the aft of the ship, but no observable damage I could see. The flight deck looked ok, albeit a little bare – not sure where her planes were, didn't see them over at Burns AF. Of course, there was no interdiction by the enemy air arm. In a mid-afternoon sortie, I was flying high-CAP, a PBY sighted a meatball floatplane, but by the time we got to their location it had disappeared. They couldn’t ID the plane. If it came from some carriers we’ll see some action.
The Jap floatplane spooked someone, because when I landed, I saw our group frantically re-arming and prepping our aircraft. I didn’t even get to the aerodrome before Donny (a decent pilot, but young, we tease him about his lack of a beard) told us we’re relocating to Burns Airfield on Kauai asap.... airfield - if it can be called that. When I flew over it today, it looked like a postage stamp on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by ocean with a few shacks. Lt Jerk called us in – said “pack your gear we’re going to Kauai”. Our flight was to leave at 5AM and be there just as the sun was coming up. I packed my gear, managed to swap a few trinkits for a case of whiskey. We’ll need it. It’s amazing what you can pull over a navy puke these days. A cheap flag penned with the inscription “This flag was flown over the Lex on Combat Air Patrol, Dec 13, 1941” bought me a bottle of whiskey. I quickly purchased 2 more flags from the PX and traded them for other things we’ll need, i.e. whiskey, but most likely not have on this outpost. Not sure how long we'll be there.
Had a couple of flights today. First one was an early bird escorting some Cats to Nawiliwili Harbor at Kaui (or however you spell it). They were airlifting in some personnel, most likely some support to help patch up the Lex. I got a good look at her, there was some smoke coming from the aft of the ship, but no observable damage I could see. The flight deck looked ok, albeit a little bare – not sure where her planes were, didn't see them over at Burns AF. Of course, there was no interdiction by the enemy air arm. In a mid-afternoon sortie, I was flying high-CAP, a PBY sighted a meatball floatplane, but by the time we got to their location it had disappeared. They couldn’t ID the plane. If it came from some carriers we’ll see some action.
The Jap floatplane spooked someone, because when I landed, I saw our group frantically re-arming and prepping our aircraft. I didn’t even get to the aerodrome before Donny (a decent pilot, but young, we tease him about his lack of a beard) told us we’re relocating to Burns Airfield on Kauai asap.... airfield - if it can be called that. When I flew over it today, it looked like a postage stamp on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by ocean with a few shacks. Lt Jerk called us in – said “pack your gear we’re going to Kauai”. Our flight was to leave at 5AM and be there just as the sun was coming up. I packed my gear, managed to swap a few trinkits for a case of whiskey. We’ll need it. It’s amazing what you can pull over a navy puke these days. A cheap flag penned with the inscription “This flag was flown over the Lex on Combat Air Patrol, Dec 13, 1941” bought me a bottle of whiskey. I quickly purchased 2 more flags from the PX and traded them for other things we’ll need, i.e. whiskey, but most likely not have on this outpost. Not sure how long we'll be there.
RE: War Diary
Dec 14th, 1941:
Made the early flight over to Burns. The small airstrip was crowded with Navy planes from the Lex. During the morning Cap, I looked out East… man, we must have had about 100 destroyers and escorts pounding the ocean as there was constant depth charging going on. Not to be outdone, the bombers from Pearl spent the morning dropping about 100,000 pounds of bombs. I was hearing constant reports of “submarine” over the radio. I think those boys need a little more radio discipline as the chatter was constant, and about half of it was irrelevant, but hopefully that will come with more experience. Later in the day, a rainstorm came over the area and turned our “airport” into a quagmire. The living quarters here are, to say the least, primitive. No more cushy beds, just tents with cots and a pre-package meal for dinner. The biscuit was as hard as a rock. We had to soak it in our coffee before we could eat it. Blech. Tonite I hope to ply some info out of the navy boys with a bottle of whiskey.
Made the early flight over to Burns. The small airstrip was crowded with Navy planes from the Lex. During the morning Cap, I looked out East… man, we must have had about 100 destroyers and escorts pounding the ocean as there was constant depth charging going on. Not to be outdone, the bombers from Pearl spent the morning dropping about 100,000 pounds of bombs. I was hearing constant reports of “submarine” over the radio. I think those boys need a little more radio discipline as the chatter was constant, and about half of it was irrelevant, but hopefully that will come with more experience. Later in the day, a rainstorm came over the area and turned our “airport” into a quagmire. The living quarters here are, to say the least, primitive. No more cushy beds, just tents with cots and a pre-package meal for dinner. The biscuit was as hard as a rock. We had to soak it in our coffee before we could eat it. Blech. Tonite I hope to ply some info out of the navy boys with a bottle of whiskey.
RE: War Diary
Editors Note: Recapping Week 1 of War
This is an AAR in a “war diary” format of a Pilot “V. Donahue” from the 18th PG, 44th PS, initially stationed at Pearl on Dec 7th. They are flying P40B’s. The game is mod DBB-C, and my opponent is Anachro who is also running an AAR.
On Dec 7th, the PH strike was eschewed in favor of a Manila strike. It did a lot of damage to my sub arm, I have about 8-10 subs that escaped damage. 3 subs are damaged and making their way to Sydney. The VP loss was equivalent to losing 3 of the PH BB’s.
Mersing in Malaysia was invaded. Interestingly enough, this happened to me before so I knew what I had to do. Unfortunately, my Singapore AF did squat to interdict the invasion. I maybe sank 2-3 transports, damaged a couple of combat ships. I had a blocking forced to prevent the troops in the north end of the peninsula from getting cutoff. A large majority of my combat troops and supply has made it to Singapore so “yay”.
I sent in Force Z (who was pulled out of Netty range on Dec 7th, but didn’t depart the area). We had a big surface action of Force Z (upcharged with a few Danish CL’s) vs. a 2BB, 4CA, 2 CL, 8DD Jap fleet. All told, my boys did great. I lost a CL and a DD, but did quite a bit of damage to 4 CA’s and 1 BB. The Repulse ended up with 40/40/0 damage, the POW was untouched. Intel shows 2 CA sunk, but I am doubting that. The Repulse is limping it’s way out of the DEI, but is currently in port at a small harbor as the KB is closeby (after the KB spent 3 days at Manila, it moved over and hit Singapore for a couple of days)
Hong Kong fell on Dec 14th – 2 days later than I expected. I moved in a corps of Chinese troops to the heavy urban city 2 hexes from HK to shut down production and provide a thorn in the IJ side for a few days.
In the PI – I’m going to defend Manila, not Bataan, because of the urban hex and if I remember correctly, it creates supply daily. By Dec 11th, the PI airforce was wiped out. Japs are marching down the region. I had the Boise and Houston near Lisyang when the IJN invaded with a transport heavy escort light TF and sent my 2 ships in– but even though both tf’s were in the same hex and I had multiple search over the area, no combat developed. I noticed a CS in the IJN TF and really wanted to bag that ship, but oh well. After there was no combat, I decided to pull the Houston and Boise to safe waters.
Kaveing was invaded on Dec 11th. Recon over the base up there shows that 2 CS are sitting in dock. I believe it’s just one CS… but for Dec 15th, I ordered numerous Hudsons to Port Strike, and sent in a bombardment TF of 1 CA, 2 CL, and some DD’s to try and smash it.
The Lex got hit by a torp, 20/40/40 fires. In 1 day, the fires were put out. It’s sitting at Lihue as there are about 10 subs between Lihue and Pearl… no doubt trying to bag the Lady.
My goal in the first few months is to strike tactically. I’m not pulling a Sir Robin. My opponent isn’t experienced against a human (and neither, really, am I, but I’ve read pretty much all the AAR’s over the last few years, have a few games of a year under my belt) and may be expecting either a Sir Robin or “easy conquests” like you get when playing the AI. I want to be aggressive as I can, but not “throw away troops and ships” needlessly. That’s why I chose a Force Z attack at Mersing, the Houston and Boise at Lisyang, and the upcoming port strike at Kavieng by the combat ships that started in the Solomons/Coral Sea. At the very least, I hope to make my opponent pause before sending in lightly escorted invasion fleets to every open base around.
I’ll probably give a summary every week or two of “game time” but maintain a daily “war diary”.
This is an AAR in a “war diary” format of a Pilot “V. Donahue” from the 18th PG, 44th PS, initially stationed at Pearl on Dec 7th. They are flying P40B’s. The game is mod DBB-C, and my opponent is Anachro who is also running an AAR.
On Dec 7th, the PH strike was eschewed in favor of a Manila strike. It did a lot of damage to my sub arm, I have about 8-10 subs that escaped damage. 3 subs are damaged and making their way to Sydney. The VP loss was equivalent to losing 3 of the PH BB’s.
Mersing in Malaysia was invaded. Interestingly enough, this happened to me before so I knew what I had to do. Unfortunately, my Singapore AF did squat to interdict the invasion. I maybe sank 2-3 transports, damaged a couple of combat ships. I had a blocking forced to prevent the troops in the north end of the peninsula from getting cutoff. A large majority of my combat troops and supply has made it to Singapore so “yay”.
I sent in Force Z (who was pulled out of Netty range on Dec 7th, but didn’t depart the area). We had a big surface action of Force Z (upcharged with a few Danish CL’s) vs. a 2BB, 4CA, 2 CL, 8DD Jap fleet. All told, my boys did great. I lost a CL and a DD, but did quite a bit of damage to 4 CA’s and 1 BB. The Repulse ended up with 40/40/0 damage, the POW was untouched. Intel shows 2 CA sunk, but I am doubting that. The Repulse is limping it’s way out of the DEI, but is currently in port at a small harbor as the KB is closeby (after the KB spent 3 days at Manila, it moved over and hit Singapore for a couple of days)
Hong Kong fell on Dec 14th – 2 days later than I expected. I moved in a corps of Chinese troops to the heavy urban city 2 hexes from HK to shut down production and provide a thorn in the IJ side for a few days.
In the PI – I’m going to defend Manila, not Bataan, because of the urban hex and if I remember correctly, it creates supply daily. By Dec 11th, the PI airforce was wiped out. Japs are marching down the region. I had the Boise and Houston near Lisyang when the IJN invaded with a transport heavy escort light TF and sent my 2 ships in– but even though both tf’s were in the same hex and I had multiple search over the area, no combat developed. I noticed a CS in the IJN TF and really wanted to bag that ship, but oh well. After there was no combat, I decided to pull the Houston and Boise to safe waters.
Kaveing was invaded on Dec 11th. Recon over the base up there shows that 2 CS are sitting in dock. I believe it’s just one CS… but for Dec 15th, I ordered numerous Hudsons to Port Strike, and sent in a bombardment TF of 1 CA, 2 CL, and some DD’s to try and smash it.
The Lex got hit by a torp, 20/40/40 fires. In 1 day, the fires were put out. It’s sitting at Lihue as there are about 10 subs between Lihue and Pearl… no doubt trying to bag the Lady.
My goal in the first few months is to strike tactically. I’m not pulling a Sir Robin. My opponent isn’t experienced against a human (and neither, really, am I, but I’ve read pretty much all the AAR’s over the last few years, have a few games of a year under my belt) and may be expecting either a Sir Robin or “easy conquests” like you get when playing the AI. I want to be aggressive as I can, but not “throw away troops and ships” needlessly. That’s why I chose a Force Z attack at Mersing, the Houston and Boise at Lisyang, and the upcoming port strike at Kavieng by the combat ships that started in the Solomons/Coral Sea. At the very least, I hope to make my opponent pause before sending in lightly escorted invasion fleets to every open base around.
I’ll probably give a summary every week or two of “game time” but maintain a daily “war diary”.
RE: War Diary
Have you considered having a couple more diaries in the AAR to cover a bit more of the map?
Would have liked to see an eyewitness account of Force Z's tussle with the Japanese.
Sorta true. As long as you have resources your LI will produce supply. I think the HI will too if it has fuel + resources. But production of resources and fuel stops when a hex is invaded, so stockpile as much as you can.
Would have liked to see an eyewitness account of Force Z's tussle with the Japanese.
AcePylut: I’m going to defend Manila, not Bataan, because of the urban hex and if I remember correctly, it creates supply daily.
Sorta true. As long as you have resources your LI will produce supply. I think the HI will too if it has fuel + resources. But production of resources and fuel stops when a hex is invaded, so stockpile as much as you can.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
RE: War Diary
I thought about doing a “5 Brothers” AAR, where I’d take 5 imaginary brothers, place them each in a unit in various theaters, and use them to discuss the war as it impacts each theater (but my “fun time” is pretty limited thanks to work, a wife, and 2 small children, so I decided against it).
Hopefully, as the war progresses and pilots get moved around, we'll hear more about other theaters. For example, my pilot has a cousin in the Philippines – we may not hear about what happened to him in the PI for a few months, if I decide not to kill him in action or what have you. Also, I’m not really much of a storyteller like Cuttlefish so I think any “grand story with multiple characters” would be lacking. He set a very high bar with the Voyages of the Hibiki. I figured that I’d just stick with one pilot and have him write a diary every day, so that way we can see all his (my) storytelling faults, I can excuse my grammar and spelling, and hopefully that adds to the story… as a diary doesn’t read like a “book”.
My pilot will only have the information I feel he’d have, and often discuss random “non-war related” things like “living quarters” “winning at poker”, “longing for home”, “Loss of comrades” (when the time comes) and other mundane things of life that, in all of the war diaries I’ve read, the author touches upon. Some of the info he’ll know is deliberately wrong, some of it is delayed by 1940’s communication methods (including censorship of defeats/victories), some is accurate – it all depends on the source it comes from (Tokyo Rose, plying Navy pilots with drink, newspapers, called into the Ops Room at the last minute) as far as accuracy, content, etc. We may not hear from our pilot about a “great naval battle at Mersing” for a while, and what we might hear will most likely be wrong – as the ‘real life’ Japanese would censor any news if they lost a couple of capital ships, and the Brits are, as in real life, so shocked by the advance of the IJA that would overstate the kills for propaganda purposes. So you might hear that the Japs are reported to have lost 1 BB, 4 CA, and 3 CL, when the reality might be is that 2 IJN CA were left smoking and nothing else.
I plan on sprinkling in a lot of FOW as I’m doing now with the submarines. I believe there are about 5-6 subs between Pearl and Lihue. I have 8 ASW tf’s and all my bombers and floats on ASW/Search in the region. The Ops Reports has shown about 10-15 “oil slicks reported” over the last 2-3 days, but that’s FOW and probably one 1 or 2 subs have been damaged if not sunk. I combine all this info, and it results in my pilot describing “100,000 lbs dropped and 100 destroyers pounding the ocean”. His words are not 100% accurate, but they are what I would “think” he’d say, were I in the same position.
Either way, this is the first week of the war, so the soldiers at Pearl are inexperienced, jumpy, prone to jamming the radio with constant, irrelevant, battle reports… they are trigger happy and dropping DC’s on whales. They’re eager to hit the Jap, they haven’t been bloodied or experienced loss, they haven’t transitioned out of the cushy comforts of Pearl (although my pilot is getting his first taste of “remote airstrips” – it’s going to get worse for him). There will come a time when he rotates home for a few months to train new pilots, and his diary will reflect what he sees from “home”.
But to keep everyone abreast of the war, I’ll dole out “editors notes” every week or so of game time.
Hopefully, as the war progresses and pilots get moved around, we'll hear more about other theaters. For example, my pilot has a cousin in the Philippines – we may not hear about what happened to him in the PI for a few months, if I decide not to kill him in action or what have you. Also, I’m not really much of a storyteller like Cuttlefish so I think any “grand story with multiple characters” would be lacking. He set a very high bar with the Voyages of the Hibiki. I figured that I’d just stick with one pilot and have him write a diary every day, so that way we can see all his (my) storytelling faults, I can excuse my grammar and spelling, and hopefully that adds to the story… as a diary doesn’t read like a “book”.
My pilot will only have the information I feel he’d have, and often discuss random “non-war related” things like “living quarters” “winning at poker”, “longing for home”, “Loss of comrades” (when the time comes) and other mundane things of life that, in all of the war diaries I’ve read, the author touches upon. Some of the info he’ll know is deliberately wrong, some of it is delayed by 1940’s communication methods (including censorship of defeats/victories), some is accurate – it all depends on the source it comes from (Tokyo Rose, plying Navy pilots with drink, newspapers, called into the Ops Room at the last minute) as far as accuracy, content, etc. We may not hear from our pilot about a “great naval battle at Mersing” for a while, and what we might hear will most likely be wrong – as the ‘real life’ Japanese would censor any news if they lost a couple of capital ships, and the Brits are, as in real life, so shocked by the advance of the IJA that would overstate the kills for propaganda purposes. So you might hear that the Japs are reported to have lost 1 BB, 4 CA, and 3 CL, when the reality might be is that 2 IJN CA were left smoking and nothing else.
I plan on sprinkling in a lot of FOW as I’m doing now with the submarines. I believe there are about 5-6 subs between Pearl and Lihue. I have 8 ASW tf’s and all my bombers and floats on ASW/Search in the region. The Ops Reports has shown about 10-15 “oil slicks reported” over the last 2-3 days, but that’s FOW and probably one 1 or 2 subs have been damaged if not sunk. I combine all this info, and it results in my pilot describing “100,000 lbs dropped and 100 destroyers pounding the ocean”. His words are not 100% accurate, but they are what I would “think” he’d say, were I in the same position.
Either way, this is the first week of the war, so the soldiers at Pearl are inexperienced, jumpy, prone to jamming the radio with constant, irrelevant, battle reports… they are trigger happy and dropping DC’s on whales. They’re eager to hit the Jap, they haven’t been bloodied or experienced loss, they haven’t transitioned out of the cushy comforts of Pearl (although my pilot is getting his first taste of “remote airstrips” – it’s going to get worse for him). There will come a time when he rotates home for a few months to train new pilots, and his diary will reflect what he sees from “home”.
But to keep everyone abreast of the war, I’ll dole out “editors notes” every week or so of game time.
RE: War Diary
Well you are right to prioritize the family and work first - that part of life just goes so fast.
I thought it was 1275PSI that did the Hibiki tale, followed by the one with Zuiho's crew and now the "Letters from a Prime Minister" one. I hear ya when you say you can't match his writing - he has a gift.
If you are trying to follow up on all those "oil slick" reports, don't bother - almost all will be false. Follow the air sightings reports in the little window at the bottom left of the screen when the turn is running. If the report is in blue text, it is bogus. Also the reports of "Eight Japanese ships" in areas you know are very unlikely to have raiders (like along the US coast) are all false. There is a limited number of these phony text scripts so you will come to recognize the bogus ones after a while.
I usually require a sigint hit or a report of an attack on a sub before I send an ASW TF.
I thought it was 1275PSI that did the Hibiki tale, followed by the one with Zuiho's crew and now the "Letters from a Prime Minister" one. I hear ya when you say you can't match his writing - he has a gift.
If you are trying to follow up on all those "oil slick" reports, don't bother - almost all will be false. Follow the air sightings reports in the little window at the bottom left of the screen when the turn is running. If the report is in blue text, it is bogus. Also the reports of "Eight Japanese ships" in areas you know are very unlikely to have raiders (like along the US coast) are all false. There is a limited number of these phony text scripts so you will come to recognize the bogus ones after a while.
I usually require a sigint hit or a report of an attack on a sub before I send an ASW TF.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
RE: War Diary
True True - my flyboys reporting it don't know it though so they pass along those report, and that's what gets spoken about. I'm really trying to keep the FOW in the diary. I didn't know about the Blue text though. Thanks for the info 
I've read quite a few of these personal accounts in a diary form of soldiers that were there, and when I compare them to the knowledge we have now, it's interesting to see the differences.
I read one diary of a soldier that was on a B24 in WW2 - a few times he mentioned "rocket attacks from the ground" and I wondered what the heck he was talking about. I have never heard of the Germans launching rockets at our bomber formations from the ground. I didn't follow up on it, but I assumed it was the Me163 attacking the planes... but the diary sounded like it was an unmanned rocket, so I don't know.
Also - my grandfathers war memoir, he spoke of the fear in the US public, in '43, of being bombed. He was tasked with setting up an AA battallion on a golf course, in Chicago Il, to defend against enemy bombers. He knew that it was ridiculous, in fact I think his comment on it was along the lines of "we destroyed a perfectly good golf course to setup an AA unit to defend against bombers the enemy doesn't have. Stupid".
I've read quite a few of these personal accounts in a diary form of soldiers that were there, and when I compare them to the knowledge we have now, it's interesting to see the differences.
I read one diary of a soldier that was on a B24 in WW2 - a few times he mentioned "rocket attacks from the ground" and I wondered what the heck he was talking about. I have never heard of the Germans launching rockets at our bomber formations from the ground. I didn't follow up on it, but I assumed it was the Me163 attacking the planes... but the diary sounded like it was an unmanned rocket, so I don't know.
Also - my grandfathers war memoir, he spoke of the fear in the US public, in '43, of being bombed. He was tasked with setting up an AA battallion on a golf course, in Chicago Il, to defend against enemy bombers. He knew that it was ridiculous, in fact I think his comment on it was along the lines of "we destroyed a perfectly good golf course to setup an AA unit to defend against bombers the enemy doesn't have. Stupid".
RE: War Diary
Dec 15th, 1941:
No flights for me today, an overnight rainstorm turned our field to mud. Destroyers and PH’s bombers continue to turn the ocean into an explosives depot. Funny, half of the Lex’s Dauntless' must have parked on some really soft soil, because they were sunk in the mud up to the fuselage. Last night a few of us headed down to the edge of the peninsula to fish. Turns out that some navy and marine pilots were there with the same idea – augment biscuits and C-rats with some fresh fish. These water lovers already had already reeled in a few big ones, we had the drink they lacked, and a bargain of mutual assistance was struck. We gathered some wood, lit a fire, and ate and drank. After a few drinks, the unusually quiet Marines opened up. These were the boys stationed on Wake Island at the start of the war, flying those fat beer-barreled F4F’s. They were pretty upset that they were ordered to the Lex instead of defending the island, were distraught that the island fell in a day as they all believed it would be able to hold out for a few months or at least put up a better fight. Nearly all of them were wondering how some of their friends on the island fared, and what’s happened to the civvies on it. Much cursing of “cowards in high command” was had all around. That was a little shocking, the marines I knew usually didn’t curse their superiors. I guess the drink was a good release for their emotions, I felt some pity on them, so I got another bottle from my secret stash and let them have it. They thanked us profusely for it. We drunkenly trudged back through the muck and crashed in our cots. I had a recurring set of nightmares – in it I was a civvie on Wake and faced execution – and each time I had the nightmare I was to be executed in a different manner… sword, gun, crushing by bulldozer, drowning, and more. I woke up this am with more hate for the Japanese than I had yesterday.
No flights for me today, an overnight rainstorm turned our field to mud. Destroyers and PH’s bombers continue to turn the ocean into an explosives depot. Funny, half of the Lex’s Dauntless' must have parked on some really soft soil, because they were sunk in the mud up to the fuselage. Last night a few of us headed down to the edge of the peninsula to fish. Turns out that some navy and marine pilots were there with the same idea – augment biscuits and C-rats with some fresh fish. These water lovers already had already reeled in a few big ones, we had the drink they lacked, and a bargain of mutual assistance was struck. We gathered some wood, lit a fire, and ate and drank. After a few drinks, the unusually quiet Marines opened up. These were the boys stationed on Wake Island at the start of the war, flying those fat beer-barreled F4F’s. They were pretty upset that they were ordered to the Lex instead of defending the island, were distraught that the island fell in a day as they all believed it would be able to hold out for a few months or at least put up a better fight. Nearly all of them were wondering how some of their friends on the island fared, and what’s happened to the civvies on it. Much cursing of “cowards in high command” was had all around. That was a little shocking, the marines I knew usually didn’t curse their superiors. I guess the drink was a good release for their emotions, I felt some pity on them, so I got another bottle from my secret stash and let them have it. They thanked us profusely for it. We drunkenly trudged back through the muck and crashed in our cots. I had a recurring set of nightmares – in it I was a civvie on Wake and faced execution – and each time I had the nightmare I was to be executed in a different manner… sword, gun, crushing by bulldozer, drowning, and more. I woke up this am with more hate for the Japanese than I had yesterday.
RE: War Diary
ORIGINAL: AcePylut
True True - my flyboys reporting it don't know it though so they pass along those report, and that's what gets spoken about. I'm really trying to keep the FOW in the diary. I didn't know about the Blue text though. Thanks for the info
I've read quite a few of these personal accounts in a diary form of soldiers that were there, and when I compare them to the knowledge we have now, it's interesting to see the differences.
I read one diary of a soldier that was on a B24 in WW2 - a few times he mentioned "rocket attacks from the ground" and I wondered what the heck he was talking about. I have never heard of the Germans launching rockets at our bomber formations from the ground. I didn't follow up on it, but I assumed it was the Me163 attacking the planes... but the diary sounded like it was an unmanned rocket, so I don't know.
I have seen many accounts from US soldiers and airmen and any form of German artillery refers to them as 88s. The 88 may have been used as battlefield artillery on very rare occasions (there is some evidence Panthers were used for emergency artillery at Normandy), but no battlefield commander would want to wear out the barrels on ground attack missions. The most common German artillery was the 8.0cm mortar.
Airmen refer to the 88 flak as the caliber for all flak. B-17s and B-24s usually flew higher than the 88's ceiling. Most of the flak they faced was 128mm. Medium altitude bombers like the B-26 and B-25 did face 88s though. So did heavy bombers on rare missions below 27,000 ft, or damaged planes that had to drop down to lower altitudes.
Tactical missions faced 20mm and 37mm flak, the 88 was too big to train on a target at low altitude.
Also - my grandfathers war memoir, he spoke of the fear in the US public, in '43, of being bombed. He was tasked with setting up an AA battallion on a golf course, in Chicago Il, to defend against enemy bombers. He knew that it was ridiculous, in fact I think his comment on it was along the lines of "we destroyed a perfectly good golf course to setup an AA unit to defend against bombers the enemy doesn't have. Stupid".
My mother grew up in Inglewood, CA, which is near what is now LAX. She said there was a flak emplacement at the end of her street, but that made at least a modicum of sense. It was within range of Japanese carrier aircraft and the Los Angeles area had Northrop, Lockheed, North American, and Douglas factories, which were targets.
Bill
WIS Development Team
RE: War Diary
Dec 16th, 1941:
Our group has 28 pilots for 16 aircraft, I drew the short end of the straw and didn't fly today. Got shanghai'd into pulling those Dauntlesses out of mud. Worked all stinkin day with others and we managed to get 5 out of them out of the muck. What I wouldn't give for a bulldozer. Exhausted.
Our group has 28 pilots for 16 aircraft, I drew the short end of the straw and didn't fly today. Got shanghai'd into pulling those Dauntlesses out of mud. Worked all stinkin day with others and we managed to get 5 out of them out of the muck. What I wouldn't give for a bulldozer. Exhausted.
RE: War Diary
Dec 17th, 1941 - Bulldozers showed up! A day late and a penny short, but at least it got us off of airplane lifting out of the mud duty! Flew again, same story... no Japanese to be seen, destroyers have killed approximately 23,145 fish. Many of which have washed up on our shore and left a nasty stink across the peninsula. At least a good breeze came in and washed the stink away. Heard a report of a couple of Jap ships west of Palymra. had to look at a map to find it. Something tells me this is a war that's going to be fought over 10,000 specks of dirt in a vast ocean.