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ORIGINAL: CaptHaggard

HAGGARD GROUP
SPECIAL COMMUNIQUE
Tsinkiang, China

September 28

THE DAY Marine Captain Stu Heffel saunters in, the lump of soggy bandages weighs on my forehead as heavy as cocktail prawns on a bed of ice.
“Lieutenant,” he states cordially, “—feeling better?”
I imagine the good company he keeps in regretting that a crafty Jap sniper was not responsible for my wound. After all, he is General Vandegrift’s adjutant—men who do not stumble. Sliding to the foot of my cot, Heffel gazes philosophically across the balcony to the harbor, where confiscated lighters unload the last of the tankers—
“Colonel Puller is taking the twenty-second to knock next door—” he catches my quizzical expression, “—Tsinkiang, twenty miles up the coast.”
He pauses, seeming to listen for the sniper-fire from Amoy across the sound. But that stopped yesterday. “You’re here, apparently, to tell our tale,” he says, scrutinizing the hilly horizon beyond Amoy, and in an instant his cordiality evaporates: “Or we can put you on a tin can out of here—”


September 29

“BLOOMQUIST-ROSE,” Colonel Puller reads my orders, “Lieutenant... USNR... what’s the ‘R’ stand for, sailor?”
Colonel Puller is the only man I’ve ever met who makes a crestfallen expression a warning. He steps up to breathe on my bandage: “R—Resolve. Let’s just agree that ‘R’ stands for ‘resolve’.”
A few chuckles. He and his smirking Marine entourage stride away toward the maze of tents. “If you haven’t chowed, chow, Lieutenant. We leave when the trucks arrive...” They disappear into the tent-maze, but Colonel Puller’s gravel-in-a-drum voice booms forth in a pretense of primitive confidentiality: “Bloomquist-Rose, reservist—Jesus! If it were up to me I’d have that navy prig in the brig until he changes his name—and not a month longer!”
Every Marine has a good laugh—
“Bloomquist-Rose?” roars Puller, “It’s enough to shake my resolve!”
A happy army on the shore of a hostile continent.


RUGGED RAVINES clutch the coast tight north of Amoy but nearing Tsinkiang those mountains release their grip, and a broad stream-laden plain extends out to sea. Even with the recent rains, these squads of Marines fan out along the road in raised dust, a regiment silent except creaking leather, staining canvas and herds of rapid boot-falls.
By the time I slip away from the modest wagon-train of three communication trucks, the sun dips below the ridgeline and the village on the low bank behind us exudes spicy cooking aromas. “They’re throwing caution to the wind and smoking the last of their chickens,” my famished mind cries, “And who can blame them?” I stand before the stick concoction bridging the stream there: it looks like its repair chit for structural upkeep was submitted sometime during the Han Dynasty, so I restrain myself from moseying over to make new friends...


SOMEONE WITH a flashlight beam glancing a wristwatch tells me it’s twenty-three thirty-seven; rifle fire is intensifying straight up ahead. It is hard to believe the outskirts of a large city lies less than three miles distant; here it’s just village after village in low-lying marsh.
The first casualties are brought in to the hospital tent—three engineers who blew up a Jap stronghold on the far side of a bridge, a mile up ahead. Corporal Hurley, a young engineer with a bloody shoulder wound, pulls on his Viceroy and tells me what he’s most proud about the escapade is that the charge launched the stronghold into the sky but left the bridge completely undamaged. No small feat: Hurley is not referring to the Brooklyn Bridge here—in this flood plain, even the strongest bridge along the main route—manufactured under British supervision—appear as though they might collapse with a few well-placed grenades, much less Hurley’s satchel charges.

EARLY A.M., September 30: Colonel Puller comes charging through the night, looking for the radio crew responsible for squads on his left flank losing communication. Two seconds after the problem is fixed he disappears forward into the darkness, and I am gripped with a vile thought. Not since USC was robbed of victory by our hometown referees have I experienced anything like this—
For an awful moment I feel sorry for the Japs. I can’t help it. I stand a few yards away from the radiomen, listening to communications crackling back and forth, over which I hear the voices of distant men who are crawling forward in pitch-black, over terrain they have little idea of, and against an implacable enemy—an enemy who has no chance against them.

Nothing will stop these Marines. Nothing.


Submitted,

F.W. Bloomquist-Rose, Lieutenant, USNR
Special correspondent, SPECOP Haggard Group

ORIGINAL: Rio Bravo

[center]Strategic Map

as of September 30, 1943[/center]


The end of September, 1943 finds the Allies camped in El Lobo's backyard. The reception of Tokyo Rose's transmissions is quite clear now. Her sweet voice resembles a lullaby which eases us into sleep each night.

Best Regards,

-Terry

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

I see the enemy aircraft totals you list are taken from the recon info.

They are exceedingly low. That mass of carriers will have way more than 271 fighters.

Then again, even the number of carriers being reported is subject to heavy FOW.

Even your own totals appear low.

You should have 324 fighters on your 9 CVs alone, if at full strength.

Are you using the replenishment carriers in their intended role or did you convert them to attack CVEs?

Given the deep foray, I would have wanted the ability to replenish air frames on my combat carriers and would have brought a TF of replenishment carriers along.

ORIGINAL: Rio Bravo

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

I see the enemy aircraft totals you list are taken from the recon info.

They are exceedingly low. That mass of carriers will have way more than 271 fighters.

Then again, even the number of carriers being reported is subject to heavy FOW.

Even your own totals appear low.

You should have 324 fighters on your 9 CVs alone, if at full strength.

Are you using the replenishment carriers in their intended role or did you convert them to attack CVEs?

Given the deep foray, I would have wanted the ability to replenish air frames on my combat carriers and would have brought a TF of replenishment carriers along.

Hans-


As you have noticed and so indicated the Japanese aircraft totals and number and type of Japanese carriers are shown as intelligence indicates and of course subject to FOW.

The totals for the Allied carriers are accurate. Prior to the Invasion Fleet leaving the vicinity of Formosa, I flew off approximately 200 fighters and approximately 200 bombers to Pescadores and Takao.

I am using the replenishment carriers as fighting aircraft. As I have mentioned a few times but you may have forgotten, I first loaded as many carrier capable fighters as the 25 carriers could hold. The remaining aircraft space on the carriers was filled with Dauntless and Avenger. I wanted as many fighters as possible to provide CAP and LRCAP for the carriers, Invasion Fleet, and the three objectives of Amoy, Pescadores, and Takao.

Presently, some of the Allied carriers do not have any aircraft on them.

Best Regards,

-Terry