Notes from a Small Island

[Canoerebel]

The Allied armored units at Wakkanai are in fine shape. They'll rest for a day and attack again tomorrow.

The infantry divisions have roughly 10/37 disruption/fatigue and will rest at least two more days.

[RangerJoe]

Maybe pull out the airborne, let them catch their breath, and repeat. After all, anyone who jumps out of a perfectly good aircraft for no good reason is crazy. [8|]

[RangerJoe]

I just love the fact that the last horse-mounted charge of the U.S. Cavalry was made on January 16, 1942, and successfully drove a larger Japanese force out of the village of Morong. I suppose everyone deserves a last hurrah

Image the possibilities if those guys had had tanks!

It took awhile to find this, I thought that I had it bookmarked but I didn't. This charge was by ACAV, a M113 with one 50 cal M2B and two M60s (7.62 x 51mm or a .308) with lots of ammo. The enemy caught a platoon and was about to over run it. As said by the recon platoons company commander:

“I was not there, but the survivors from the Recon Platoon told me that it was a sight to see. In the midst of all the smoke, explosions and confusion Charlie Troop seemed to appear from nowhere coming over the hill leading down into the contact area. They were in their battle formation and as soon as they could engage the enemy without endangering their ‘brothers,’ ran through the ambush side to the enemy side and opened up with everything they had. My guys said the only thing missing was the horses and bugler sounding charge ... The battle ended as soon as Charlie Troop rolled through the ambush, directly into the enemy positions and opened up. The enemy now faced with their overwhelming firepower broke contact and left the area.”

The enemy force was estimated to be at least a reinforced battalion.

http://www.talkingproud.us/Military/11t ... thACR.html

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

ORIGINAL: dave sindel
Congrats to you and your family. I hope that your new son-in-law makes a fine addition to your family and is a good fit for your daughter.

Thanks, Dave and other well-wishers.

We had a very nice wedding at a small church near Knoxville this afternoon, with lots of family and close friends present.

The Daddy of the bride help up pretty well. I typically don't tear up for things, but wasn't sure how this would hit me. I handled the walking of the bride to the altar fine and then the subsequent vows and such. But the Daddy-Daughter dance hit me in the gut. I was okay until the music started. My daughter picked "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music, a movie we watched repeatedly when she and her brothers were small. Suddenly it wasn't a self-assured, capable 25-year-old woman I was dacning with. It was my six-year-old little girl.

I spent the rest of the dance with my back to the congregation.

Sounds fantastic, Dan! Congratulations to the bride, groom, and of course the father of the bride!

[jwolf]

I admit I was confused a few days ago when you said you "didn't want Uruppu to fall too quickly" but I see the reason now! You really have a knack for taking a direct assault right into the heart of the Empire. Kudos, and good luck as you continue!

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Maybe pull out the airborne, let them catch their breath, and repeat. After all, anyone who jumps out of a perfectly good aircraft for no good reason is crazy. [8|]

That's true.

The airbone contingent is in modestly decent condition and can fight again soon.

A fair bit of the division is still at Toyohara. I'll use them again the same way before too long.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: jwolf
I admit I was confused a few days ago when you said you "didn't want Uruppu to fall too quickly" but I see the reason now! You really have a knack for taking a direct assault right into the heart of the Empire. Kudos, and good luck as you continue!

Yeah, I sure didn't want Erik thinking "Hokkaido!" suddenly. I wanted him to think there was still time since Uruppu hadn't fallen and since Death Star was engaged in what seemed to be a routine ingress-escort mission. It was fun to have things work out so well, defying the usual "no plan survives contact with the enemy" addage. But from this point forward, I'm sure the plan will deviate wildly.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: USSAmerica
Sounds fantastic, Dan! Congratulations to the bride, groom, and of course the father of the bride!

Thanks! I wonder if I'll be able to watch The Sound of Music again without tearing up?

That movie happened to be my grandmother's favorite. She saw it something like 40 times in theaters.

[ny59giants]

The family moved from Austria to Vermont. The have a very large lodge in Stowe. Nice place!![:)]

[Canoerebel]

I recall reading about that, though I don't know much about the family now. I hope they led happy lives, though I suspect they, like all people, have their share of difficulties.

There weren't many good movies in the 1960s, IMO. Our country was veering into a time of testing old social and moral standards. Thus movies tended to flaunt vulgarity, debauchery and the like - a trend that continued into the 1980s. It persists even today, of course, but seemingly not as gratuitously as then. Today, you find the profanity in war movies and it can be over the top, but there are also a tremendous number of movies entirely devoid of it, such at The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider Man, Les Miserables, Narnia, and a host of others. So the standards today strike me as considerably higher than in the late '60s to late '80s time frame.

There were a few fine movies in the '60s, led by The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago. But Hollywood was beginning to produce movies like The Graduate, sliding into a dark period of much garbage and few gems.

[Canoerebel]

12/22/44

Planning for L-Day+2: An immensely challenging turn to plan for.

First, I had to consider what Erik might do while making allowances for other things. My conclusion is that he is most likely to stand down his strike aircraft for a turn while increasing his sweeps. I'm sure he'll continue to commit small fry against Death Star. He may commit good combat TFs, though I don't think so quite yet (I wouldn't be surprised if he sent them against Wakkanai).
I'm concerned that he might gang up on Shikuka via all-out strike. So I tried to keep enough fighters dedicated to CAP.

Then I began issuing orders, taking into consideration what I think he'll do, what I think he might do, what most concerns me, and what I need to accomplish to further the ongoing operations. The result was chaotic. Hundreds and hundreds of clicks...with many dispositions dependant on others, so that if I changed my mind I had to keep track of all the other things that needed to be changed and try to remember things that might get left hung out to dry.

My biggest concern is enemy air getting through to whack Death Star. At the same time, a all-out enemy air strike could gut Erik's air force, providing a key opening for the Allies. So I elected to keep DS in position. Within reason, I'm willing to suffer some losses if the result is a massive loss of enemy aircraft.

Perhaps the most likekly negative result would be further fighter battles resulting in one-sided Allied losses. To counter that possibility, I changed ranges on DS fighter squadrons. But some LBA is set to provide some LRCAP to the ships (and troops) at Wakkanai, and there may be an opportunity for Erik there.

I decided to target Ashigara in order to slow down the enemy reinforcements moving towards Wakkanai. There will be a stout number of sweeps and escorts and a robust number of 4EB and 2EB involved. Several B-29 squadrons will target Kushiro airfield tonight, hoping to degrade air ops there just a bit.

I think Erik allowed for the Allies to bombard Sapporo today and thus moved alot of his aircraft out. He'll likely move them back in tonight. Originally, I intended for an all-out attack on that base, as it showed just 100 fighters there. But I'm guessing there will be 400 fighters tomorrow.

[JohnDillworth]

Are you short of Navy fighter pilots or Navy fighter airframes? IF you need pilots you probably have a bunch of Wildcat FM-2 groups around that would not face front line combat. You can put those pilots in the pool.

[Canoerebel]

My carrier pilot numbers are fine, for now, though there aren't many reserves. But some of my LBA navy fighters now have less pilots than frames. Frames are still okay, though by no means plush.

I've pulled pilots from every navy squadron on the map, including Burma, New Guinea and West Coast.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

At Shikuka today, certain small, subtle maskirovka orders were issued.

This note is from last week, and refers to one of the many small things that went into planning this op. IT refers to something I did to avoid tipping off Erik that something was up when the huge amphibious TFs formed at Shikuka. Three or four days before, I created empty TFs at the port totaling about 300 ships. Then, upon forming the actual amphibious TFs, I disbanded the empties. Any Erik mouseover of Shikuka thus showed about the same number of ships in port.

[Canoerebel]

Erik wrote a nice note yesterday referring to things I'd told him about my daughter's wedding. At the end of his email, he wrote: "Ok. I see there is a turn. Yikes. What craziness is in store now? "

That's the closest Erik has ever come to making a comment about the game. We both play things close to the vest and don't discuss what's going on in the game. That suits me, because I don't enjoy the mind games that otherwise might be involved in communications between opponents (many players do enjoy that aspect of the game).

Erik received the turn at about 4 p.m., my time. I figured there was a decent chance he'd send it back by 8 p.m. my time, which is 1 a.m. his time. But he didn't. He also didn't send it early this morning. That's pretty unusual compared to the typical flow I've seen in the game.

He's taking a long time with the turns, as you'd expect. I think this turn will be loud and noisy with a decent chance of some real setbacks for the Allies. But he isn't posting in his AAR, which I think is somewhat encouraging. But I usually misread signs like that.

[Canoerebel]

12/23/44

L-Day+2: I'm no prophet in real life nor in game, but my thoughts about what Erik was likely to do were pretty accurate. Within that context, the knife-fight in the dark continued. Here's a look at the theater as the night-phase opens.

[Canoerebel]

12/23/44

L-Day+2: Erik continues to send SS, SSX and MTBs into the fray. I-37 will be sunk by ASW later in the turn.

[Canoerebel]

12/23/44

L-Day+2: BB Alabama leads a strong bombardment TF to Wakkanai and gets ambushed. The two TT hits generate "critical damage" messages plus damage to engines messages, erasing my early thought that SSX torps might not do a lot of damage.

[Canoerebel]

12/23/44

L-Day+2: A few B-29 squadrons are assigned to strategic bombing targets. During the course of the turn, a goodly number will be targeting the airfield and ground troops at Asihagara and the airfield at Kushiro. Other 4EB will mainly focus on Asahigara airfield and ground troops. A few will target Sapporo airfield at night with no success.

[Canoerebel]

12/23/44

L-Day+2: BB Alabama TF (minus Alabama) continues with the bombardment mission, with okay results (supply hits are always good).

I assume Alabama has detached with an escorting DD to make the perilous journey back to Shikuka. I hold my breath as the turn unfolds, wondering about enemy sub and air threats.