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Frank is awakened at 3 am.

So here it is, the crises..........nothing is ever good when the Prime Minister
is woken at 3 am.

For a moment he sits on the side of the bed, his wife still snoring beside him.
he's never been bloody any good at this hour.

"Ök, I'll take the call""
"Prime Minister speaking"
Its one of the Chiefs of staff........, sounding panicked.
"Its an invasion!.......Port headland has fallen, Broome too!"

Ok, not so unexpected.........

"Thankyou.........."
"What are we going to do?"
"Me, I am going back to bed, we can speak in the morning"

After all, what else can he bloody do?

11 March

John is busy.
Bloody busy

Sweat is forming on his back, he can feel his whites beginning to stick.
Convoy escort is one thing, this is an entirely different matter.

The Task force has sailed, and HMAS Hobart's Commander is a stickler for formation.
His Signal light flashes: " Napier to take position 1000 yards my port bow"
.
Over there?, damn!

"With permission sir?"
"Yes"
"Port 20!, revolutions 270!"

Busy, demanding, yes.
But better than any convoy escort duty.

1000 yards of Hobarts port Bow........or from another perspective, 1000 yards of Enterprise's......

11 March

From
Commander Eastern Command, India
to
Prime Minister

We now have radio intelligence of 2 divisions, the Imperial Guard, and the 4th, at sea
planning for attacks on the southern coast/Colombo

American air reinforcements are arriving.
have ordered 1st Australian corp to entrain

Have also considered the risk, and begun to strip Northern Burma Border, sending all
available troops to South West corner of India.
Believe we can give Japs here a good show.

March 12th

The Japanese consolidate at Broome, and at Port headland. At port headland they appear to
be getting ready to stay, several construction units,(and we know how valuable they are for
japan) are part of the invasion.

14 unescorted Nells attack Port Moresby
The newly arrived P40E's are not piloted by the most experienced pilots by a long shot,
but they are good enough to knock all but one of them down.

They land part of a Naval guard unit at Saumaliki, north of Darwin. Finally one of
Blamey's traps is sprung, the Japanese find themselves facing 3 times their numbers, in bunkers deep
and extensive.

They are going to need a lot more men.

I watched an interesting Aussie TV show on Smithsonian about Menzies who was Aussie PM through this time frame....the show done by Aussie equivalent of PBS as I recall. He spent a great deal of time in Britain during the war...he on British War Cabinet. He had a tough time with Churchill. He also was much criticized for being out of country.

March 12th
Near Charter towers airfield

Margaret sits, as she know often does in the evenings, in the cool shade of one of the
gardens giant trees. She has no idea what type of tree it is, she just knows it
must be at least a 100 years old, planted by pioneers long, long gone.
In these long warm evenings, she is grateful.
The days have been flowing, as in a fog. There is a small showing now, (but she could be
imagining it) from the child growing inside, and that must be faced one day.
But not today.
Right now, a million miles, another world away from the hard streets of Sydney harbour, of the slums
and tenements, there is peace, security.

It will be alright.
It must be.

She has discovered Dickens.
And even though she struggles with some of the language, something about it appeals to her.

From the airfield, hidden over the slight rise of the paddocks, a new roar drift across the
brown grass, taking her away from the book.
She listens carefully.
She can tell the difference now before the planes leave the field, sweep over the homestead.
The snarling roar of the fighters, the beat of twin engine, twin tailed bombers

Sometimes the pilots of the fighters can even been seen, one, she thinks, even makes a point of waving.
But this noise is different.

Deeper, heavier..



And there is more than one.

It comes over the rise, directly at the house, probably at 500 feet, looking a lot, lot
lower. The roar is tremendous
Four engines, a glass nose, glittering Perspex, a giant tail, and guns pointing
out every where.
The ground seems to shake, the world is noise, noise, noise.
And then another
And Another
And another, beating into the horizon.


Matron has joined her

"B17's dear.......you can read about them in the paper. Lets hope they give the Japs some currie hey"

Charters Towers, in the middle of no where. Now, it seems, in the middle of everything.

March 12th
Evening
Parliament house


The Speaker of the house enters the Leaders of the oppositions
office as he always does- unseen.
"Well Tony, that was interesting"
Jim pours the Scotch. "Yes, Port Headland, Broome both lost, and Nary a mention to the public"
"Would you?"

Would I?. Tony considers the question.
Politically.....probably not. But for the Nations sake?

He cannot answer, instead sips his drink, lets the Speaker break the silence
"The whole bloody country is asleep. Do you know what the headlines were about in Melbourne today?
football, Collingwood, and its bloody coach.......whats it going to take to mobilise
the bloody people?"

Tony, again, cannot answer that.
The Loss of Brisbane and everything North of it perhaps?

March 13th


Westralia enters the gulf of Alaska.
Enterprise marks time in the Northern reaches of the Indian ocean.
Napier occupancies her
232 Squadron rests in Calcutta (Squadron Leader Graham learns the perils of currie)

All battleships reach dock.

Currently I have just one available, Idaho.

CICPAC "seeks urgent reinforcement"


Through out India, final preparations for its defence are decided upon. But will Japan
give eastern Command time to full fill them?

March 14th

The speaker of the house bangs his Gavel strongly.
Across the great dispatch desk, the boxes, two men eye each other.
Battle has been opened.
"The leader of the opposition has the floor"
"Thank you Mr Speaker, I direct my Question to the Prime Minister"

The house, this most vocal of arena's, falls into a hush. Not a member here in all these seats
is unaware of what is coming.

"Sir, in light of your repeated declarations that Australia will never be invaded,
what, if I may ask, is your Government's reaction to reports that Japanese Troops have
landed at Broome, and Port Headland?"

Tony stares hard at the Prime Minister. Take that, you barsted, wiggle out of this.
What you would do for the 7th Division now?

The Prime Minister stands.
But he will not look Tony in the eye
"Mr Speaker.....Mr Speaker, Australia has not been invaded....."
Uproar!
......."this is nothing more than a raid by Japan, a raid, I assure this Parliament, the
people of Australia, that imperils little, achieves little.......will end in a great many
dead Japanese......Mr speaker!, Mr speaker... (shouting now to be heard over the din)
we have nothing to fear.............."'



Meanwhile, Port Moresby sends 18 P40e to sweep Lae
They lose 2, shoot down 5 zeros.
B17's again bomb Rabual.

14th march
From
Prime Minister
to
General Blamey

......is there not anything you can do?
Two Australian towns, lost!
What next?



From
Blamey
To
Prime Minister


I am currently engaged in a fight to the death at Saumalika . The Japanese gather strength
at Rabual, with Port Moresby the obvious target.

I have sent for the nearest reinforcements I am willing to spare, and they reside in Tasmania!

I would remind you, we have a full Corp in India, a fat lot of good its doing me! You promised
American reinforcements.............





If General Blamey wants command of the soon to be formed South West pacific Command,
he is not making many friends on the way............

March 15th

USS Enterprise

LT Jackson reads the signal in his hand.
More bloody dynamite. Another fire under Halsey's arse.

The Admiral has needed a direct order from Kimmel not to move south of his present
position.
No Matter what.
For the most aggressive man at sea, this has been sheer torture.
Torture that inevitably spreads to his staff.

Jackson takes a big breath, moves out to the bridge wing....
standby for broadsides........

"signal traffic sir"
The Barsted is actually thriving on this, does he ever get tired?
"Give it to Me Jackson, more crap from Kimmel?"

Jackson tries to ignore the barb, he reads the first:
Enemy jake floatplane sighted 200 miles north Diego Garcia......possible cruiser plane'
Halsey remains silent. Jackson races to the next, yes, everyone wants to race south
to engage what ever lurks there.
"Second signal .......elements of Imperial guard division placed at sea, enroute Vizapatnam"

Halsey turns away, contemplates the Aussie ships out on Enterprises flank.
"Call up the Tankers, what ever happens, lets not get caught short"

From
General Short
to
1st Australian Corp and all attached units.

All units to entrain immediately, an to prepare to move to Vizapatan as soon as possible.

15 march

"General Blamey?"

With a start he awakens. 3 am. Still bloody hot.
"yes?""
"Signal from Eastern Command.......the enemy at Port Headland are supported by carriers. Also
we have intel that a very large formation of ships has passed through Sunda straight"

"Thankyou"

Blamey lies back down.

Alright....to him the enemy strategy is clear.....
How to counter it?

How I always counter things like this.

Energised, he climbs from his stretcher, pokes his head out from his tent
"Signals!"

Out of the dark, as expected, an answer
"Sir!"
"Tell me how in the hell I can get CICPAC, we need to talk!

16th March
4th marine defence battalion loses men as an APD is sunk by a SS in Alaska bay.
Westralia battles terrible seas moving slowly West across Alaska Bay.

Napier refuels in the Indian ocean, taking fuel from Enterprise.
The allies attack at Saumaliki, and savage the Japanese. They have 4 to 1 advantage in troops.

Akyab falls.



The allies are not being passive
In the coral sea, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, and a fat AK sail from Townsville
Rabual is filling with ships.
Tankers amongst them.

What a lovely target they would make.

17th March

A dozen or so Bettie bombers impale themselves on Calcutta's air defences.
The Killers are P40e's.
A clue to what is waiting in India should the Japanese come.

In North Eastern China, on the road to Lanchow, a good sized Japanese force has been
advancing, sweeping north of Sian.
They are in trouble, Chinese forces have cut them off.

CA Salt lake city takes a Nell Torpedo whilst operating south of Milne bay.
Westralia moves to full speed, racing for Kodiac.

Frustratingly, no less than 6 allied SS attack today, for nil results.

17 March

The White house

The President scans his Joint Chiefs.
The table they sit about is very large, the single sheet of paper sitting upon it
seemingly lost in its vastness.

But the implications of the paper..........
Large
Very large

"What do you think Gentlemen?......any one throw some light on this Blamey?

It is King who answers. "A mixed reputation. Terrible personality, hated by many of his troops,
absolutely no feel for men. However........"
"There's a however?, sounds to me he should not have command of a Company, let alone a Theatre of
war"
".....however, when it comes to grand strategy, and sheer audacity, he might just be the man
in the Pacific"

Another General speaks, "Audacious is hardly the word, shouldn't a request like this come
from the Australian Prime Minister, what's his name?, instead of his Generals?"

The President nods in agreement "Normally, yes. However, right now Prime Minister Ford is
welded to a no invasion possible, reality be damned"
He takes up the paper
"So Gentlemen, what do you recommend, what about it?"


From
CICPAC
to
Joints Chiefs

For Info
Received the following today, for comment, and guidance

{I tend to agree with many points. Will travel immediately to Washington to discuss}


A situation appraisal

Japan is about to launch a FULL SCALE invasion of Australia's West coast
They MAY also be about to land Southern India (although I feel this is a decoy)

The Japanese fleet, carriers in Particular (less CAR DIV 5) is operating in the Indian ocean
Anything WEST of Adelaide, is going to be LOST.
However, we have sufficient forces on East coast to deploy.

Proposal:
There are 2 full divisions at Pearl
Another at Suva
Equivalent of another in ANZAC forces in SW pacific
release these as soon as possible, and commence immediate offensive SOLOMONS, target
Tulgia, Guadacanal.

I believe that ..............

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

It is King who answers. "A mixed reputation. Terrible personality, hated by many of his troops,
absolutely no feel for men. However........"

LOL! Of all people, it is King who advances such an assessment? Now that is funny!

The best defense is a good offense[X(]

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

It is King who answers. "A mixed reputation. Terrible personality, hated by many of his troops,
absolutely no feel for men. However........"

LOL! Of all people, it is King who advances such an assessment? Now that is funny!

Takes one 'right SOB for the job' to recognize another. [:D]

18 MARCH 1942

Heavy Cruiser Astoria steams hard across a dead calm sea.
Some where , hopefully a 1000 yards behind her, Destroyer Kennion.
The word Hopefully is used purposely.
Astoria steams hard into a pitch dark night, moonless, and now lashed by heavy rain.
Milne Bay is 100 miles south of her, dawn 6 hours away.

And somewhere, coming south, a Japanese task force spotted yesterday.


There are transports unloading at Milne Bay, and, (again hopefully) another allied ship needing
every decoy and distraction she can get.

Astoria's crew are closed up, the guns are manned, Look outs doubled.

They never see Chokai, never get a shot away.
Three torpedoes slam with out warning into her flank, a hail of shells scream out of the dark

She, and her crew die , never understanding what the hell they were doing here in the first place.