The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Cap Mandrake]

So it is Satawal..Wolei, Yap, Beazelbob and points West. You should go for Hollandia as well to cut off resupply of Truk from the West.

[Canoerebel]

Aitapia and Hollandia are believed to be hardened targets. Vanamo and Hansa Bay aren't.

[Cap Mandrake]

And Vanimmo starts with a level one AF. You could put 50 P-47's there while building.

[Canoerebel]

And P-47s can easily fly in from Oz. [:)]

[poodlebrain]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

I'm beginning to get an inkling of what you are doing (hard not to at this point). As mentioned earlier I expect he is moving planes into position and the air onslaught will commence in the next turn or so. That is , as expected. Whats the thinking on Truk? You will have to run that guantlet for the rest of the war. Everytime you bring ships our or supplies in you are going to be subject to the unending stream of aircraft

If Big Tent is successful, then the Japanes positions in Papua and New Guinea, the Solomons, Bismarcks and Admiralty Islands will be effectively isolated. The Allies will be able to establish, and utilize, a less threatened SLOC south and west of Truk. The Japanese will have to prepare the defense of the Philippines with the knowledge that the Allies can come from the Southwest Pacific instead of the South Pacific or Central Pacific. So Truk can sit there as a potential sore spot, but it will be an irritant not s serious threat.

[JohnDillworth]

Aitapia and Hollandia are believed to be hardened targets. Vanamo and Hansa Bay aren't.

But Hollandia is on the shopping list, no? you are going to need a port up here

[Canoerebel]

Hollandia isn't a near term target. The Allies will spend two months taking and building bases, including ports. Some of these can be built to level four. I think a few can be built to five. There might even be one or two that can be built to six. And the building will mostly be going on far to the west (true west) of Hollandia.

But you guys are right that I'm going to need a major port. It's going to be very hard to deal with damaged ships during this op. It's a long and hazardous way to Pearl. It's a long (and hazardous, at least at the moment) way to Sydney.

So at some point I'm going to need big port. That's why Truk is on the list of invasion targets for early '44. That's why I'm taking bases close to Hollandia (so that I can move on H. if it turns out to be weakly defended). And Rabaul is another possibility.

Long term, Manila is the objective.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I had to look up purple prose. It's not a good thing for a writer, so I went back through the story I'm writing to check for it. But I'm not sure if Loka was referring to me (my "27 Miles from Nowhere" title), to John (his bombastic email message), or to something else entirely.

I was referring to the dark and stormy night bit. I believe that's the classic example of purple prose. Depending on the style, purple prose doesn't have to be bad. The author I'm reading likes to have lots of pairs of heterosexual life partners who talk back and forth for pages sometimes. Most of the time, nuggets about the setting or plot are contained therein, but I finally had to skip one because it didn't seem like it was relevant at all - their 2-3 pages (on my table, so 4-6 pages in a real book?) of speech back and forth didn't seem to have any plot value that couldn't have been said in about 2-3 paragraphs at most, which still would've been verbose. I think that's after about 10,000 pages of the guy's writing. He finally took it too far, seemingly for the sake of showing how much these 2 guys talked to each other about really circuitous crap.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hollandia isn't a near term target. The Allies will spend two months taking and building bases, including ports. Some of these can be built to level four. I think a few can be built to five. There might even be one or two that can be built to six. And the building will mostly be going on far to the west (true west) of Hollandia.

But you guys are right that I'm going to need a major port. It's going to be very hard to deal with damaged ships during this op. It's a long and hazardous way to Pearl. It's a long (and hazardous, at least at the moment) way to Sydney.

So at some point I'm going to need big port. That's why Truk is on the list of invasion targets for early '44. That's why I'm taking bases close to Hollandia (so that I can move on H. if it turns out to be weakly defended). And Rabaul is another possibility.

Long term, Manila is the objective.

How's Sorong? It goes to level 5, which isn't "large" but it can be big enough to do most things.

Based on where you are and where you're landing now, I think Truk makes the most sense medium-term.

[witpqs]

Can we get a list of targets now? Please? [:)]

[Canoerebel]

11/7/43

Big Tent: A fine day for the Allied forces. It opens with Silverside hitting a TK and sinking a PB in the Philippine Sea. It continues with the herd moving SW five hexes (to within 5 hexes of Truk) without encountering enemy subs. And the foremost action is a series of unsuccessful attacks by LBA from Truk. There was one large strike escorted by Georges, Franks and Zeroes. It got chewed up with no ships being targetd. Subsequent strikes by unescorted bombers of course did worse.

On the day, John lost about 130 aircraft, I think including 100+ Jills and Judys. The Allies lost one Wildcat fighter.

Death Star strike aircraft then sortied against shipping at Truk. It is tempting to be sarcastic about those ships being there, but it could be they had a vital mission to deliver much-needed supply or some artillery. Here John lost three xAK, two PB and an AMC.

Witpqs, I am not quite ready to reveal targets yet, for this reason: Big Tent is a slow moving, long lasting operation. Some of the major targets are quite distant in time and distance, so I want to maintain opsec for now.

The first landing should, however, take place in two days - Free French aboard APDs tasked with taking Satawal, which will then be used to base PBYs. This isn't a critical part of the operation, but it may be useful.

It isn't critical because of Eldorado, which I'll reveal in a few days. But I will say that I just finished alot of clicking to change the home port of every TF involved in Big Tent to another location. If something goes amiss now, I judge that it's better to have my TFs/ships retire to another location rather than to Wake. This is one of the important role played by Eldorado.

Those four BBs are down around Ocean, retiring after their bombardment run to Tarawa. They are still 30 hexes distant from the herd, so they won't be a factor during the next two days. If John's going to combine KB and LBA, tomorrow is his best chance. But the loss of 130 good aircraft today probably takes just a bit of the edge off the threat. I hope. If John doesn't strike effectively tomorrow, then the herd begins to create separation from all the threatening airfields except Truk, and in about three days even it will be distant enough to diminish as a threat.

At the moment I have no idea where KB is. The sighting of a CVL near Ontong Java a week back is the only sniff I've had. That and the fact that four BBs just visited Tarawa would lead me to guess that KB might be down around the Solomons; if not there, perhaps in the Bonins a few days back to respond to threats to either Marcus or the Marianas. If that's the case, it should be within striking distance.

Lion Tamer: Another dot hex base near Efate falls today. Judys sortie from Ndeni but get turned away by a few Lightnings flying LRCAP from Koumac.

[paullus99]

I, for one, am happy to see the target list kept under wraps at the moment - it really builds the tension....

[witpqs]

OK, I suppose it is wise to make preparations before revealing all.

[Flicker]

Satawal - did you know that breadfruit trees produce a form of latex that can be used for boat caulking? Let's hope you don't need it...

Manus is on my target list (revised after Luzon was eliminated). Good potential, don't know the current defense posture. Some others have been eliminated by CR (e.g. Hollandia, Rabaul).

Sorong is now on the revision to my revised list.

[Canoerebel]

I didn't know that. Heck, I still trying to figure out what "copperas" is. Wasn't that the stuff that was mined/harvest/gathered/produced on some of the Pacific islands?

[JohnDillworth]

I didn't know that. Heck, I still trying to figure out what "copperas" is. Wasn't that the stuff that was mined/harvest/gathered/produced on some of the Pacific islands?

might be thinking of phosphate. Was needed for artillary shells http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/06/na ... ed-by.html

[IJV]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I didn't know that. Heck, I still trying to figure out what "copperas" is. Wasn't that the stuff that was mined/harvest/gathered/produced on some of the Pacific islands?

Copra? Dried coconut kernel, so used for production of coconut oil etc. Don't think they grow too well underground, though.

[Canoerebel]

Yes, I meant "copra." Here's the Wiki definition: "Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of coconut oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word koppra."

"Copperas" is another term I've come across in Civil War era store ledgers as a product purchesed. Here's the Wiki definition: "Iron(II) sulfate (British English: iron(II) sulphate) or ferrous sulfate are salts with the formula FeSO4.xH2O. These compounds exist most commonly as the heptahydrate (x = 7) but are known for several values of x. The hydrated form is used medically to treat iron deficiency, and also for industrial applications. Known since ancient times as copperas and as green vitriol, the blue-green heptahydrate is the most common form of this material. All iron sulfates dissolve in water to give the same aquo complex [Fe(H2O)6]2+, which has octahedral molecular geometry and is paramagnetic."

[Canoerebel]

Current map.

I think tomorrow's the day of maximum exposure to a coordinated LBA and KB strike. I still don't think John commits KB yet. I think there's a 75% chance he'll load up Truk.

[JohnDillworth]

Yup, Tomorrow will be tough. Since you are going south what other airfields can John load up and from where? I've not seen any Netties so they will be coming, plenty of single engine strike aircraft. This is a John mod of a already loaded Japanese aircraft production machine so I assume there is an unlimited number of strike aircraft, just a shortage of good pilots. Limiting factor may be fighters. need more hops to get them into position. Buckle you chinstrap, tomorrows going to be rough

[crsutton]

I just don't think the Allied death star can be threatened by any LBA. Truk just can't put enough planes in the air to get through the CAP. Some might get through but your AA is good. Only real threat with an operation such as this is that big attacks over multiple days will eat up your AA ammo. But he will have to find a way to put a lot air up to do that. I don't worry about much when deep in Indian territoriality- except running our of ammo.