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

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso


Hmmm... should Mandrake get the flock out of there, then?? [X(] [:'(]

Pull out? Heck no! That doesn't sound very manly !

Why do you think I sent Eastern Borneo Bn and Sparrow Force? They are "fungible". [:)]

[rtrapasso]

Pull out? Heck no! That doesn't sound very manly !

Invasion interruptus??

Sorry, i am in a punny mood today! [:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

********USAAF 90th BS(M)Briefing Room, Babo, New Guinea, May 24, 1943*******


Col. Cathcart: <surveys a large scale map of Dutch New Guinea and its environs. He speaks to one of the MP's at the tent entrance> I am here to tell you, sargeant, those Japs may be little but they are smart as whips.

MP: Yes sir, they are smart, little yellow bastards. We would have whipped them already if they weren't.

Col. Cathcart: Every time they make a run in at Sansapor they seem to JUST make it outside of B-25 range before daybreak. One of these times.....they will mess with the 90th Bomb Squadron ONE too many times.

MP: Yes sir, they will regret it then, I'd say.

Col. Cathcart: <he takes out his calipers and begins to walk off distances from Sansapor on the map. He comes up with the same figure he did 5 minutes ago and the very same figure he came up with yesterday> Sargeant, there is something odd. The Japs usually hit Sansapor about oh one hundred then when we spot them about 7 hrs later they are out of range. Figure 110 miles from here to Sansapor then 7 hrs at 30 kts.....that gotta be...even under the most favorable conditions....no more than 320 or 330 miles. Yet everytime..they seem to be out of range..at least according to the map. <for the 10th time he checks his calipers against the map key.
He notices this time that one corner of the key appears to be separating from the map. He tugs lightly at it. To his astonishment, the entire map key peels neatly away revealing several pieces of wartime, low latex chewing gum affixed to it. The original map key can now be seen.>

SARGEANT! I WANT A 24 HR GUARD ON THIS MAP! AND SOMEBODY GET ME SOUTHWEST PAC DENTAL POLICE ON THE HORN...PRONTO!

[Cap Mandrake]

Amboina falls on the 23rd but the airfield is wrecked. Jap carriers and BB's are spotted East of Morotai. Their likely target is Menado but they coudl easily hit Sansapor, Morotai or even Kai.

[Moondawggie]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

********USAAF 90th BS(M)Briefing Room, Babo, New Guinea, May 24, 1943*******


Col. Cathcart: <surveys a large scale map of Dutch New Guinea and its environs. He speaks to one of the MP's at the tent entrance> I am here to tell you, sargeant, those Japs may be little but they are smart as whips.

MP: Yes sir, they are smart, little yellow bastards. We would have whipped them already if they weren't.

Col. Cathcart: Every time they make a run in at Sansapor they seem to JUST make it outside of B-25 range before daybreak. One of these times.....they will mess with the 90th Bomb Squadron ONE too many times.

MP: Yes sir, they will regret it then, I'd say.

Col. Cathcart: <he takes out his calipers and begins to walk off distances from Sansapor on the map. He comes up with the same figure he did 5 minutes ago and the very same figure he came up with yesterday> Sargeant, there is something odd. The Japs usually hit Sansapor about oh one hundred then when we spot them about 7 hrs later they are out of range. Figure 110 miles from here to Sansapor then 7 hrs at 30 kts.....that gotta be...even under the most favorable conditions....no more than 320 or 330 miles. Yet everytime..they seem to be out of range..at least according to the map. <for the 10th time he checks his calipers against the map key.
He notices this time that one corner of the key appears to be separating from the map. He tugs lightly at it. To his astonishment, the entire map key peels neatly away revealing several pieces of wartime, low latex chewing gum affixed to it. The original map key can now be seen.>

SARGEANT! I WANT A 24 HR GUARD ON THIS MAP! AND SOMEBODY GET ME SOUTHWEST PAC DENTAL POLICE ON THE HORN...PRONTO!

I sure hope that Yossarian didn't have a tooth capped recently....[X(]

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Moondawggie

I sure hope that Yossarian didn't have a tooth capped recently....[X(]

Oh sure...the poor guy grouses about a couple of missions and now he gets blamed for eveything. [:)]

The funny thing is...the day after the gum incident, 90th BS flies it's first antishipping mission in some time. [:)]


It looks like the Japs want the Taro field back at Sansapor.
I think I would have picked Menado if I were them givent the usefulness of the position to a landing in Mindanao. I think the feigned encirclement move in Northern New Guinea is working. The remaining ground forces at Sansapor are quite weak. As it happens, the elite Beauforts waiting to torpedo something for months are out of position in Wyndham. They can't be brought to bear at Babo until the 26th. The RAAF at Sansapor did a bang up job. Also the prsence of so many Jap carriers in my area bodes well for Lord Admiral Tabpub's big operation in the Solomons.

[Cap Mandrake]

It looks like the Japs brought the whole shootin' match to New Guinea....meanwhile...120 mi West of Vanikolo (Santa Cruz Islands) the US Navy is up to something. 4 fleet carriers, 2 CVL's, 3 CVE's, 4 fast BB's, five pre-war BB's and over 500 carrier aircraft are headed NW. They brought Americal Div. 43rd ID, a Tank Bn and some Marines just for fun.

They were unspotted till today when Jap Bettys launched from Lunga. A total of 20 Bettys were destroyed with no USN losses. No doubt, the Japs will deduce where they are headed...and with their carriers off New Guinea there is not much they can do about it...short of shore batteries and sea mines.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

It looks like the Japs want the Taro field back at Sansapor.

If prepared well the taro itself is OK. The secret is the sauce.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

It looks like the Japs want the Taro field back at Sansapor.

If prepared well the taro itself is OK. The secret is the sauce.

Well...there you have it. They shall have a fight then.


*********The PM's bunker, London, May 25, 1943**********

Sir Alan Brooke: .....it's Blamey, you see. He's come undone about the Jap carriers. He wants to get his boys out of Dutch New Guinea.


W.C: Get them OUT, you say? NONSENSE! We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the Taro fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Sir Alan Brooke: Why....that's.....that's quite good. I am not sure, however, that there there are any streets in Cape Sansapor.

W.C: Right...jungle paths then. Get it off right away to Blamey. No time to go all wobbly on us........

[Cap Mandrake]

Stalker girl is out of town and I had a bad cold last night so I watched Battlefield Earth on one of my 600 chanels...or maybe it's 500..who knows.


Oh dear God that was terrible. At several points I said out loud, "what were they thinking"? I even checked the label on my chai tea to make sure it had no hallucinogens. I kept thinking "is it the acting...editing...pacing...cinematography...yes..yes..yes and yes...but there is a certain indefinable quality...a pervasive crappiness that transends normal moviemaking." I couldn't believe that Heaven's Gate was actually worse than this thing. I congartulated myself for not spending any money on it. [:)]


Then I looked up the author ....[:D][:D][:D]



More on Admiral Draemel after I get back fromt he Ducks game.

[BrucePowers]

I did not watch the movie and I was sorry I bought the book

[USSAmerica]

I read the book years and years ago, basically when it came out, as a teenager.&nbsp; I remember enjoying it then, but never bothered to watch the movie.

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Stalker girl is out of town and I had a bad cold last night so I watched Battlefield Earth on one of my 600 chanels...or maybe it's 500..who knows.


Oh dear God that was terrible. At several points I said out loud, "what were they thinking"? I even checked the label on my chai tea to make sure it had no hallucinogens. I kept thinking "is it the acting...editing...pacing...cinematography...yes..yes..yes and yes...but there is a certain indefinable quality...a pervasive crappiness that transends normal moviemaking." I couldn't believe that Heaven's Gate was actually worse than this thing. I congartulated myself for not spending any money on it. [:)]


Then I looked up the author ....[:D][:D][:D]

Yeah, i just recently saw it for the first time on Rifftracks, which is a really nifty innovation... the guys from Mystery Science 3000 riff on the movie all the way through it... basically, you can download a movie (in MP4 format) then combine it with their commentary, thus avoiding any copyright problems... of course, you could just watch the movie without the commentary as well...

Anyway, old L. Ron supposedly wrote the series, but it turned out he was dead when most of it was written... i guess you can really crank em out once you don't have bodily considerations to deal with [:D]... of course, this business didn't come out for some time.

The Scientologists declared that L. Ron had been transformed to light or gone directly to heaven or something, but the IRS got on their case and they eventually were forced to produce his body... i think he had been dead for close to a decade - which turn out it was when his writing career took off (going on memory here.)

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

It looks like the Japs want the Taro field back at Sansapor.

If prepared well the taro itself is OK. The secret is the sauce.

Actually more important, IMHO, would be the Kava drink.

Alfred

[Cap Mandrake]

*******Aboard HMS Exeter, flagship of Amboina Landing Force, 40 mi North of Kai Island, May 20, 1943******

Admiral Draemel stands outside the bridge to have a smoke. As he begins to light his pipe he drops his match. The match is still lit. As he is a very parsimonious man, he bends to pick it up. The ship rolls to port. In his precarious position (and because he is no longer a young man) he loses his balance and his head pitches heavily into a heavy door latch. He staggers upright, the world is compressed into a narrow tunnel of vision. The ship begins to roll to starboard. He feels himself moving backwards in slow motion. "MY GOD!", he tries to say. Under the circumstances, his less than perfectly functioning brain falls back on familiarity and it sounds more like, "mein Gott". It is barely croaked in any event. Nobody hears him. The small of his back hits the cable railing and he pitches ass over tea kettle into the Banda Sea. Auf Wiedersehen Herr Admiral Draemel.

[USSAmerica]

Things are looking up for the Commonwealth Naval assets.&nbsp; [:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: USS America

Things are looking up for the Commonwealth Naval assets. [:D]

Not so fast. You don't think that is the end of the story. [:)]

Check this out...Milo...of the Draemel variety is in a book by Newt Gingrich[:D][:D]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/Story?id=4741089&page=3

[Cap Mandrake]

******Wooded street, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, May 22, 1943******


Gracious trees arch over the street. Before a neatly maintained home, with dozens of tulips in full bloom, a khaki sedan with "USN" stenciled on its side pulls to a stop. Two US Navy officers get out and begin to approach the home. From behind a picture window in the front of the house a middle aged woman lets loose a wail that can be heard from the walkway, "MEIN SCHATZ, MILO!"

[Moondawggie]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake



Check this out...Milo...of the Draemel variety is in a book by Newt Gingrich[:D][:D]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/Story?id=4741089&page=3

That was one heck of a destroyer torpedo run he led into the teeth of the IJN BBs in WW2 1941 v.B-7 mod 5.3! [:)]

Mandrake, you just might miss him in the future.

Fair winds and following seas, Admiral Dramel!

[FOW]

I have always been very sceptical of the 'Global Cooling' hypothosis UNTIL NOW[X(]

Am I the only person to notice the giant icebergs floating around the Molucca and Banda Seas [;)]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake