I teach an adult Sunday school class in a relatively small rural church. This past Sunday, a lady in my class was winding up a comment when she said this: "I was talking to my French mule...."
This caught me by surprise. Thinking quickly, as all teachers sometimes must do, I wondered if "my French mule" was a new slang term, similar to "BFF" or something. So I asked.
"Your French mule?"
"I said, 'My friend Shmool."
It turns out the lady has a friend Shmool.
Words are funny things, spoken or written.
But you know, I really like the sound of the quote. We now have a mission. Come up with a suitable meaning for "talking to my French Mule."
I teach an adult Sunday school class in a relatively small rural church. This past Sunday, a lady in my class was winding up a comment when she said this: "I was talking to my French mule...."
This caught me by surprise. Thinking quickly, as all teachers sometimes must do, I wondered if "my French mule" was a new slang term, similar to "BFF" or something. So I asked.
"Your French mule?"
"I said, 'My friend Shmool."
It turns out the lady has a friend Shmool.
Words are funny things, spoken or written.
But you know, I really like the sound of the quote. We now have a mission. Come up with a suitable meaning for "talking to my French Mule."
That's easy- a French Mule would be a stubborn arrogant horse's ass.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
Speaking of Mules. Here is one for a fellow Georgia boy. My Great Grandfather, John Maner, at his farm in Augusta. My Great Grandmother wrote the caption. (Baalam and his ass!) Dan, a church going lad such as you should recognize the reference. I don't think anyone would have had the nerve to tell my Mamaa that she misspelled Balaam. [;)]
Sit Rep: There's a lot going on behind the scenes. The most effective way to show you would be to post the Strategic Map, adding notes here and there. But I can't. If I did, you'd see all kinds of green blips. I'm not ready to go into detail nor to answer questions for clever and intuitive forumites. So I'm puzzling over how to present an interesting AAR - setting the table for what's to come without spilling too much. I don't have an answer yet, so instead I'll just mention little things here and there that mean little individually but that mean a lot to me, in the context of the bigger picture:
Burma: Allied 4EB conducted a low-altitude night raid over Pisanonoluke, one of Erik's two major bomber bases. The strike was effective and built on another that took place three or four days back.
Meanwhile, the Allies are shifting down the coast road towards Bassein, which I now hold, as though threatening Prome. Erik is responding in like measure and has strongly reinforced Prome and vicinity. He's working sweeps and bombing missions that thus far have drilled dry holes. I'm leaving defense to oranic AA in ground units, which is somewhat effective, especially in the jungle.
Supply is an real issue and will continue to be into the medium term. Lots of small TFs are delivering, but the Allies have a massive army in Burma to feed. This is all good - my objective here is to keep Erik focused...or, if he should eventually decide to withdraw, to follow closely and work any opportunities.
1st Cavalry Division: The fragment at Wake was retrieved and returned to Pearl Harbor, where it joined the other fragment. This was an important tiny op to me, since this allows the battered division to rebuild and upgrade.
Gilberts: The Allies just invade and easily took Abemama. Eric has tiny garrisons in this area, so I'm taking them via "catcher's indifference" (a baseball term). Nothing to get excited about here, but mopping up here is important in creating a better LOC and eliminating a pocket from which Erik could base patrol aircraft, subs or small raiding TFs. Tarawa and Naura will come soon. Ocean, Mili, Roi, Kwaj and Eniwetok later. Erik will consider deploying a raider TF probably (John III would).
SoPac: Joseph (SqzMyLemon) did a great job of moving troops and supply forward in the Solomons/New Georgia/Admiralties region. But that does create some logistics problems. Having 2,000 AV at, say, Rabaul means loading later under enemy supervision. I prefer to begin ops from further back, away from prying enemy eyes. So from the start of the game (for me, 3/1), tremendous work has been going on getting ships forward, loading units, and pulling them back to marshalling areas. This is going well and will continue probably for another month.
Diego Garcia: East African brigade arrived to garrison this important outpost.
Subs: Eric's air ASW sank a Dutch sub near Saipan yesterday. But by and large he isn't using nav search or air ASW. So my guys have spread out to get information more than anything. A sub did nab an xAK near the Mariannas two days back.
SigInt: Still not a single report of an enemy division (nor, I think, even a mixed brigade) outside of Home Islands, Korea, China. Now, I'm nearly positive there are many in Burma, so I'm not drawing any conclusions yet. The info may be wildly inaccurate thus far. But I am getting a better feel for where Eric is concentrating.
Long Term: The plans have been made, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
You didn't forbid such postulation, so here's my guess:
With Rabaul and Manus in Allied hands, that's a pretty interesting setup for a mid-level leapfrog to Hollandia and maybe a bigger step to Babeldoab, Palau and / or the Vogelkopf, with a preference for the former two. That would seriously unhinge his SWPac LOS and further provide a springboard into the Celebes / Sulu Sea region, Morotai and, later, Mindanao. It would also threaten the Western approaches to Truk and the Marianas, channeling him into a narrow LOS back to the home islands.
I believe that you will not-at this time-approach Sumatra or Java from the IO. Your supply issues and troop / ship dispositions do not currently favor such a move. A concerted move into the southern DEI will take too much time and blood against formidable defenses. Like King and MacArthur, et. al., You are looking at leapfrogging strategies from your current forward positions to buy real estate at a modest cost.
Balaam and his ass is a great story from Scripture.
About six years ago, wife and I taught the church youth group during Vacation Bible School. We decided to spend our time teaching some of the funny stories in the Bible. Now, probably a lot of folks aren't familiar with humor in the Bible, but it's there with some really good stories. In the end, the youth voted on the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.
My wife has been to Israel about four times, including a visit to Mount Carmel.
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
You didn't forbid such postulation, so here's my guess:
With Rabaul and Manus in Allied hands, that's a pretty interesting setup for a mid-level leapfrog to Hollandia and maybe a bigger step to Babeldoab, Palau and / or the Vogelkopf, with a preference for the former two. That would seriously unhinge his SWPac LOS and further provide a springboard into the Celebes / Sulu Sea region, Morotai and, later, Mindanao. It would also threaten the Western approaches to Truk and the Marianas, channeling him into a narrow LOS back to the home islands.
I believe that you will not-at this time-approach Sumatra or Java from the IO. Your supply issues and troop / ship dispositions do not currently favor such a move. A concerted move into the southern DEI will take too much time and blood against formidable defenses. Like King and MacArthur, et. al., You are looking at leapfrogging strategies from your current forward positions to buy real estate at a modest cost.
The Allies also have Madang and Hansa Bay, so they're in close proximity to Hollandia, etc.
Joseph had his troops prepped for there and places like Wolei and Mindanao. They played much further into the game when one of his carriers ate a torp during the opening moments of the Wolei invasion.
So I have a lot of units prepped for that vector of attack. And my base of operations is perfectly set up. On the down side, Erik has been through this once (with Joseph) and knows many of these things.
So, do I use the well-orchestrated base of operations and prep to continue on Joseph's vector or do I forego? The decision was made on day one or two of the game (two weeks ago).
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
I'll conclude this first post by saying that the title for the AAR comes from a Bill Bryson book. Bryson is an American who moved to England for many years before returning home (and I think he may now be back in England)? For some reason, Obvert aka Eric has always reminded me of Bryson. I considered using "A Walk in the Woods" or "A Walk in the Jungle" but settled for this.
So, do I use the well-orchestrated base of operations and prep to continue on Joseph's vector or do I forego? The decision was made on day one or two of the game (two weeks ago).
Keep us in suspense....that is your motus operandi! [&o]
