From here to...well...it SEEMS like an eternity

[tabpub]

Or, re:CAP, as in.....

Memorandum

To: SEAC Fighter Command – attention Lord Barkley
From; USAAF Air Coordinator Far East – Major Mel Content
Re: Combat Air Patrol over friendly bases

Sir Charles:

We have heard of the increasing enemy air commitment over your air bases in Northern Burma/Eastern India over the last two days. One of your subordinates has been on the teletype, requesting the accelerated release of the re-constituted AVG group from the States for immediate deployment to the SE Asia theater.

At this time, we will have to deny this request. Higher authority in the States says that this group is still undergoing ground and basic air flight training; most of the pilots are at the bare minimum USAAF standards at the moment, committing them to air combat would be an act of a criminal nature.

All further P38G production has been routed to your command for the duration of this declared emergency. Suggest re-equipping USAFF groups in your area with this plane. Also, recommend re-combining any separated groups back together ASAP. While separating a group is more flexible, finding good command officers is difficult and expensive. Have noted some commanders seem more like morale officers than combat leaders in some fragmented groups.

I think that with these changes, and a policy change to increase the level of air patrol over our bases in the area, that we can avoid further “Ledo Incidents”; which are bad for both morale and our combat efficiency. Our Chinese brethren are being pushed on in the Yenen area; and while there are at least two Corps proceeding there to reinforce the Red River line, they are in dire need of any assistance that we can provide. The supply paucity in China prevents them from re-equipping more than a handful of units at one time; and limits their combat abilty when they do get re-equipped.

Good luck.

Major M. Content

[Cap Mandrake]

Holy Heck! Page 2 [X(] <makes New Year's Resolution to post more often and have less...>

[Cap Mandrake]

If you are an Allied pilot and a pretty girl asks if you want to go to the CBI Theatre...just say no.

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Holy Heck! Page 2 [X(] <makes New Year's Resolution to post more often and have less...>

Oh dear, oh dear...[8|][:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

The Battle of the Fossils goes to the 7th Armoured and No. 251 Coy, Royal Engineers. Now 500 Jap tanks and 40,000 infantry are stuck in the jungle with the Commonwealth boys. [:)] Ledo gets smacked pretty hard, creating some consternation in Washington. [:)]

2nd UK Division is recovering very well and it may be possible to push the Japs back to the rail, perhaps trapping 70,000 Japs West of Myitkyina.

[DuckofTindalos]

Wonder why the Japs are shipping in Andaman Island ants? An especially vicious breed, perhaps?[:'(]

[Cap Mandrake]

..

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

..

[:D] [:D] [:D]

[BrucePowers]

So, what goes on in the Pacific?

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: flanyboy

Spitfires carry enough ammo to shoot down 8 planes[X(][X(][X(][X(]

One Round will take out a plane..., if it penetrates the pilot's skull. So it's possible. Likely or Probable are a different "kettle of fish". ONE "one-in-a-thousand" shot in an engagement is entirely believable. EIGHT, on the other hand, stretches credulity and the Law of Averages to the breaking point. Sounds like more Joachim Marsielles nonsense

[DuckofTindalos]

Yeeeees, and of course this is something that's intimately comparable: Japanese paper aeroplanes over the CBI and Allied aircraft in the Med. Suuuure...[8|]

[rtrapasso]

Probably took out the last three aircraft by ramming them! [:'(] [:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

**********In the courtyard of St Mary and All Saints Church, Great Budworth, October 14, 1948**********


Squadron Leader Frank Carey, ret.: <adresses a small crowd from atop a small platform> ....and THAT is why I want to be your Member of Parliament! <polite applause> Thank you, thank you. You are all too kind. Now, I do have time for some questions. Have you any?

Young Lad: Squadron Leader, Do tell about your eight victories over Burma in one day. Oh, please do!

Squadron Leader Frank Carey, ret.: Oh, very well, if you insist. I was leading a group of 3 Spits out of Myitkyina, you see. We were vectored toward a group of Jap dive bombers, Sophias they were called, nasty beasts, armoured like a Cromwell.....

Young Lad: <interrupting> Don't you mean Sonias, Squadron Leader?

Squadron Leader Frank Carey, ret.: Ah yes, I do. Thank you son. <turns to assistant and speaks under his breath> Look, he musn't correct me like that at the next stop. Is that clear? <now turns again to address the crowd> Anyway, we came upon them from out of the sun and had a nice altitude advantage. I clicked my mic to indicate attack and banked into a dive. <indicates a banking aircraft with his hand up high and his target with the other hand....20 heads turn in unison>. The first three victims were in close echelon, you see and my line was perfect. I fired a short, 3 second burst from the 20 and all 3 burst into flames....

<toward the back of the crowd, a crusty older man with wiry eyebrows leans over to another man his age and whispers>

Crusty Older Man with Wirey Eyebrows:'ave you ever 'eard of a chap shooting down 8 Japs in one day?

Crusty Older Man with Exuberant Grey Nose Hairs: No. I'm not voting for the puffed up bag 'a wind either.

[Cap Mandrake]

Egyptian Girl's Note: A number of readers have expressed skepticism over the report of the downing of 8 Japanese aircraft by one Spitfire in one sortie. Our research staff have found an interesting parallel from the pilot carreer of one Frank Carey, RAF, flying the Hurricane in France in 1940 (WWIIa).

"..Carey’s victories continued on the 13th May. He shot down two Ju87’s, two probable Ju87’s, destroyed two He111’s, one Do17 and a probable Bf110. On the 14th he shot down a Do17 near Louvain but his Hurricane was hit by return gunfire and he had to make a crash landing near Brussels suffering from a leg wound.."

http://www.battle-of-britain.com/BoB2/B ... /carey.htm

[BrucePowers]

I'm going with Squadron Leader Carey on this one.......[:)]

[Cap Mandrake]

So my son gets me a $50 gift card to Nordstrom's and it is their half-yearly men's sale so I decide to go in and buy a new shirt and some vomit-resistant work shoes. So I pick out some shoes and a couple of shirts and a belt apparently made from the skin of Italian cows and, of course, I have long since blasted through the $50 mark but I see these cool boots which have, apparently, been made by the hands of Italians from the skins of cows from the same heard that the belt came from. So I look at the price...$500 [X(] You have to be freakin' kidding me. Oh, wait, 1/3 off. Anyway, I must have some giveaway expression on my face because all of a sudden there are 3 salespeople there looking for the right size boot. They reminded me of a the crew of a marlin boat just before they land a trophy fish. I swear one of them actually had a gaff behind his back. So I try on just one boot and start to walk over to a mirror and this good looking woman walks by and says "WOW! Those are hot!" Then she smiles and does the coy, chin dip thing. And this is with only one boot on! "Dang", I thought, "these things really work." Then it occured to me. "Wait a minute, she was such an obvious shill for the store. I bet they queued her up by radio. I am not falling for that kind of manipulative crap. Do I look stupid? Besides, who am I kidding? Stalker girl bought Christmas gifts for my kids. I am a dead man walking. Her divorce is final and she moved back down to the OC. I wouldn't be surprised to find her late one night urinating along the perimeter of my yard to mark her territory. Get a hold of yourself Mandrake, you dumbass. Are you going to let a bunch of marketing tricks influence the shoes you wear? They are friggin' boots! Stand up straight and act like you have free will you worthless Holothuroid."




They gave me this cool velvet bag so they wouldn't get scuffed up "in my suitcase when you are travelling overseas or something". Speaking of "overseas", someone asked how things are going in the Pacific. I should post something on that.

[rtrapasso]

Attaboy, Mandrake! You managed to get a free velvet bag for the boots you didn't buy!! Good deal!!! [&o]

Oh, wait... are you saying you did buy those boots?? [X(] [8|] [:'(]

[Cap Mandrake]

Someone asked how things are going in the Pacific. Keep in mind, I seldom look at the map East of the Coral Sea, but I do know Lord Admiral Tabpub is planning an invasion of Paramashiro Jima no later than February 1946. [;)]

HMS Prince of Wales in San Franciso has been fully repaired and is slowly making its way back to the Royal Navy. As a payback, I sorta "borrowed" a couple of USN AO's and DD's for use with the RN carriers. Midway is fully built up as a USN base with long range bombers, SBD's etc., etc, it is virtually invulnerable. We don't really know where the Jap carriers are. The first P-38's in the Pacific Theater went to USAAF squadrons in Australia and have made PM unusable as a Jap airfield. Gili Gili and Lae have 60 and 90 fighters respectively, at least half are Tonys.

There has been a dust-up in the air over Timor (more to come on that).

The spring is coiling. [:)]

[Cap Mandrake]

**********Old Cricket Club, Singapore, November 7, 1942************

Sajeev can barely conceal his hatred as he serves bowls of steaming rice to Japanese naval officers on the 2nd story veranda of the old colonial Cricket Club. His hatred gives him purpose. As he clears a table he glances briefly toward the harbour. Today, there are may new ships, large ones, 4 crusiers and 4 battleships. He will get the message to his cousin after work. In his small way he hopes to end the war early.

[Cap Mandrake]

*****Trincomalee Cricket Club, Trincomalee, Ceylon, now serving as Eastern Fleet HQ, November 12, 1942****

Admiral Somerville: <looks over intel report> 5 crusiers and 4 battleships? That seems improbable to me. Still, we don't want to get caught with our trousers down. See to it that the new squadron of Cats is opeartional as soon as possible and send the two Dutch destroyers up to join HMS Frobisher in Karachi as soon as she arrives. I want her down here with Eastern Fleet. Lastly instruct La Bisset to be ready to sortie with the carriers from Perth as soon as the 14th.....