Matrix Games Forums

April 23rd

"Prime Minister?"

Oh God, what now??........another invasion?, my bloody wife?, or, ....no, lets
not go there, news of a Son?
"Yes?"
"Its the French Ambassador sir, Noumea again"
Noumea , again. How many bloody times do we have to tell him?
"Tell the bloody Frog eater, that we know the situation, that we will be
doing something about it, just bloody trust us..."

And pray the yank Carriers get there in time..............

April 23rd

8th Tank regiment comes East down the Railway towards Kalgoorlie
1st division leisurely following. The Maltildas, well even at full speed, they follow
leisurely as well.

Two Tank units leave Kalgoorlie to meet it. 18th division is south of Kalgoorlie now,
but seems to have decided to forego a direct assault. It too, is trying for the rails.

Tank or men, the Wirriways harass them all.
They hit little, but men ducking for cover cannot march.


Vindicators from Kodiac venture south, run into zeros.
A Nasty lesson learnt.
Why the venture?.........once again, Japanese Battlewagons are coming.

We prepare a reception committee.
From this point on, no matter the odds, the Allies will accept a surface fight.

apologies no posts
2 days in a row, spent over an hr writing, only to lose it when tried to post.

Can't face go three tonight.
battles to describe.............

That is a real pain. Esp. when you have written a very long post.
If I have to do such things, I tend to write in word then copy and paste. More work I admit, but less frustrating when a post gets lost.

Still enjoying and looking at my maps I have.
Thx.

Mat

ORIGINAL: british exil

That is a real pain. Esp. when you have written a very long post.
If I have to do such things, I tend to write in word then copy and paste. More work I admit, but less frustrating when a post gets lost.

Still enjoying and looking at my maps I have.
Thx.

Mat

Just highlight all you typed and copy (CTRL-C or right mouse click) before posting. If the server eats your post, it is still on your computer's clipboard ready to be pasted into a new post window. If that dies too, you can paste yet again until you clear the clipboard with shutdown or a new "copy" command.

I just use word, and keep the word document.

April 24th

They have been here at Port Moresby for nearly three months now.
Three months of digging holes, building bunkers, clearing firing lanes.

Three months of listening to the roar of Allied aero engines snarling aloft,
of watching the ever growing numbers of Japanese air frames scatter themselves
on the surrounding hills, in the harbour.
They have watched a Japanese task force of destroyers impale itself on the minefield.

It has become easy to believe Blamey when he says
"Port Moresby is a fortress, it will never fall"

Many troops have even come to believe that the Japanese will never come, that
"we should go over the hills, and root em out, or, enough of us
here, lets send some home to Australia, and clear our land, our homes"
The men of Port Moresby are confident, in themselves, in their Army, Navy, airforce.


It takes Battleships Mutsu and Nagato just 2 hours to shatter this illusion,
this falseness.
Two hours of bombardment delivered from the dark

Two hours of the great shells tearing up the field to uselessness, of destroying the port, of sinking
the patrol craft, of turning supply depots so carefully constructed to pyres.

Two hours to turn everything on its head


When dawn comes, and they survey the smoking ruins, many, a great many share the same thought

Port Moresby is terribly alone.
They all are.

"Admiral Halsey!"
"Contact report sir, from Yorktown!, have spotted, and been similarly spotted by
Japanese search plane, 10 miles south my position. Enemy has given a contact report!"'

Silence falls on the great bridge.
Shattered by a single, rude profanity

Rhymes with duck.

24th April

100 feet above the dirt , west of Kalgoorlie.

Jack is in a hard bank, gasping for breath, wheeling his fighter around for another run
at the black beetles scattered along the rail line, when the shadow flicks across his wing
"Lookout!, Japs!' some one yells.
fear dumps through him. The desert rushing so close below, already on the ragged edge of his turn,
already at max top rudder........
Thoughts at the speed of light
To straighten, is to die
To remain, is to die
To try to climb, is to die

he snatches the throttle back, and pulls the stick even harder into his belly.

She staggers, the Oscar roars across his nose, so close, so close, its guns spitting,
shells smacking his wing, the ground rises close, so close, hard opposite stick now,,
don't stall her!. don't stall her!, dust rising behind him, and clear of the desert, of the Oscar,
sweat clammy everywhere.........



Columns of smoke, of fire scattered across the desert........




He has 6 holes in his port wing. All, 6 of them have holes of various degree.
But nobody has been lost.
They had the bounce, the height.
They lost 4
Jack knows it now. They all know it.

We can take these barsteds............

To
South Pac Command
From
CINCPAC

Enemy TF en route Noumea, due to arrive Midnight.

From
SouthPac
to
CINCPAC

We have this covered.

April 25th

General Blamey smiles.
A chance, at last.

"Send the following to the Prime Minister........Americal Division has safely arrived
Port Kembla. I am taking immediate command of it for offensive operations', stop.""


He can almost here that idiot Mac Arthur scream from here............

April 25th
Kodiac

They come, imperious, line ahead.
Fuso, Yamashiro, 2 light cruisers, 4 destroyers.

They sail as if they own these seas, as if nothing would dare challenge this weight of
steel, this hammer seeking its anvil.

Admiral Scott knows they are coming.
Knows that 6 inch guns are all but useless against that steel.
Useless, useless unless you can get in close, very, very close.

Incredibly, under the half moon, he does.

The action, this brawl, this knife fight, opens at 1000 yards
The range never exceeds 4000


CL Helena, Honolulu , 4 DDs, spitting fire, curses and hate.

Yamashiro stumbles away, 2 fish in her belly, upper works ablaze.
Helena, DD Close are blown apart.
Honolulu can fight on.

Fuso vanishes into the dark, abandoning her Sister.
Dawn will soon come. She must close the field. Must.

April 25th
At the other end of the world

From
Callaghan
to
Pacific Fleet

CA's Louisville, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, 2 DD, have engaged CA Myoko, 1 DD, Noumea

Enemy CA sunk
Nil damage to my task force

Mine field Noumea seems to have worked wonderfully.

BRAVO!!!

April 25th

Dawn
Fuso bombards Kodiac airfield.
And misses.

She turns for home, running from squall to squall, using every piece of cover she can find.

100 miles to the south West, Yamashiro does not have that luxury.
Crawling at 5 knots, she cannot chase anything.

Kodiac too, is socked in, the rain lashing the field, turning the moonscape of
Fusos shells in the hills above the field into miniature dams.
But one flight does get away.

30 plus P39's find Yamashiro in the grey muck. They cannot, short of suicide, harm HER.
The escorting destroyer however......

Again, and again they sweep in, shredding the little ships topsides, killing crew,
turning her interior into a charnel house.
The rain soon thickens, hiding the horror.
Exultant, (for this was their baptism) the pilots claim both ships sunk.

The dive bomber pilots nod heads in agreement, and congratulations, and turn back to readying
their planes.
If anyone is going to finish that buggar off, it will be them.

25th April
Dusk

Kalgoorlie

General Blamey stands outside the tent, inside loud voices, excited voices.

Good.
very good.
"Gentlemen, may I enter?"

The tent , as large as it is, is crowded. It is filled with rough beds, clothing, boots,
the 101 items a pilot needs to fly.
One glance, yes, already this tent begins to show signs of permanency....
The tent falls silent, the men leaping to attention, or attempts to.
"Ät ease men, I am looking for a Warrant Officer Hachett"

A tall, thin fellow rises. "Sir?"
""I just came to shake your hand .......apparently you are our first ace, they tell me you got three today"

The tall man smiles, as if surprised at the news
"Apparently sir, oscars"
They shake hands, and the silence becomes awkward
To break it, Blamey makes an announcement "I am withdrawing the wirriways men, they don't
seem to be much chop. 9 Group is sending more fighters, you won't be alone much longer.
Keep it up.If this place falls, Australia falls. If it holds, we win, win big.......

Just excellent descriptions of combat! Hurrah for Helena and Honolulu! Wow.

April 26th

Billy Mitchell could not have done it better.
A large, burning, slow moving battleship, a calm sea.
Visibility superb.
Yamashiro's AA wasn't the best to begin with. Now most of it is scrap.

Yes, Billy could not have done it better.

11 wildcats keep the half dozen zeros busy, 6 Vindicators put Billies theories into
brutal practice.
2 bombs strike.

And they wont be the last
2 squadrons of Dauntless fly into Kodiac today. The smoking wreck will still
be in range tomorrow.

Your bold and aggressive early days strategy prompted me to adopt a similar one in a game versus the AI I just started.

I'd always been hesitant to burn out engines with full speed orders but not this game. Multiple sessions of 2 weeks in port for refits is well worth the 10,000+ troops, 50+ xAKs of various sizes, 2 CVs (Akagi & Hiryu), 2 CVLs (Shoho and Zuiho), 3 BBs, and assorted CAs, CLs, and DDs I've sent to the bottom (and it's March 1, 1942). After a major success by the IJN at Pearl, USN ship losses have been moderate while a whole bunch of HMS ships that were scheduled for withdrawal are in the Deep 6. The CVs & CVLs were pounced on by 12 ship HMS cruiser TF after hitting a minefield off Batavia.

Thanks for making me think about this game differently in the AAR.

April 27th

Parliament house

Some time near midnight.

"What will you do about her Frank?"
The tired man looks aghast at the Speaker of the house, as if the question had never
occurred to him.
"Do? what the hell do you mean do?"
The speaker shrugs......."everyone in the house knows about it, its only a matter
of time before the press does"
The answer is venom filled......"What the hell do I care, half the country under enemy hands,
our entire Army in peril, a mad general in charge, no friends, what in the hell
do you think I should do?, drop all that for her!!!"