Bring me the head of Diego Garcia...and the Mayor of Addu Atoll too!

[sprior]

They're just jealous, you can ignore them.

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: sprior

They're just jealous, you can ignore them.

Quite right, we are jealous of your unmatched strategic position.

[sprior]

We are coming up with a new plan. And we're not telling you waht is it because you all either:
a. mock
b. deride
c. laugh or
d. all of the above

at it.

[Cap Mandrake]

***********HQ, Kandy House, Ceylon, Nov. 10, 1942***********


<Teletype springs to life>

Clack, Clackety, Clack, Clack (well, I know it sounds more like a train but you think of of better way of indicating a teletype machine)

"SET DECODER RING TO I-7. REPEAT I-7. MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone

Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone"

Teletype Operator 1st Class Reginald "Sparks" Throckmorton: Oh, bloody 'ell! It's buggered again."

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake


***********HQ, Kandy House, Ceylon, Nov. 10, 1942***********


<Teletype springs to life>

Clack, Clackety, Clack, Clack (well, I know it sounds more like a train but you think of of better way of indicating a teletype machine)

"SET DECODER RING TO I-7. REPEAT I-7. MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

BESURETODRINKYOUROVALTINE

Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone

Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone"

Teletype Operator 1st Class Reginald "Sparks" Throckmorton: Oh, bloody 'ell! It's buggered again."

Fixed that for you. [:D]

[Cap Mandrake]

*****************Nov. 10*****************

Oz: Yamato is still hovering about PH. Today she was hit by two 500 lbr.s from B-25's out of Carnavon. They apparently bounced of Imperiar Force Shield MkIIc(m&m). I have no idea what the LYB CEO's are doing. Perhaps she is there to keep us from reinforcing or resupplying or...more likely....to bait us into moving the carriers up. The ground attack missions from Meekathara and Geraldton seemed to have been scrubbed.

Off Fraser Is. in Eastern Oz, a Jap sub was finally hit by an ASW group. We had atacked the thing daily for a week. It was beginning to seem like it was a big decal on the reef.

SouPac: Tanna landing should be one day out. So far, no Jap air but we must be spotted now.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake


***********HQ, Kandy House, Ceylon, Nov. 10, 1942***********


<Teletype springs to life>

Clack, Clackety, Clack, Clack (well, I know it sounds more like a train but you think of of better way of indicating a teletype machine)

"SET DECODER RING TO I-7. REPEAT I-7. MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

BESURETODRINKYOUROVALTINE

Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone

Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone"

Teletype Operator 1st Class Reginald "Sparks" Throckmorton: Oh, bloody 'ell! It's buggered again."

Fixed that for you. [:D]

DANG! That was fast. [:)]

There is, of course, another cinema reference.[;)]

[sprior]

Yes but we thought that too obvious.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: sprior

We are coming up with a new plan. And we're not telling you waht is it because you all either:
a. mock
b. deride
c. laugh or
d. all of the above

at it.

I for one am very interested in your plan as I am in the same boat ready to move forces to take Daily Waters. It looks like I am getting 500 supplies per week to Tennant Creek at this point ..and I promise not to mock, deride, laugh or all of the above ...[8D]

[sprior]

The basic notion is this:


They are committed in a big way with 3 1/2 divisions plus support ashore and no practical way to achieve air superiority there. Their last attack at 1:2 when they were fresh will not be achieved again. Even so, we would a substantially larger force to evict them. Their carrier force is still a serious threat if we try to land troops again.

I propose we bomb the living Hell out of the airfield and port to get supply hits and make resupply more difficult AND continue with the air to ground attacks on their troops there. In conjunction, we make noise as if we are coming right back to pin their BB's and CV's. We can build up Exmouth so that SBD's and Beauforts can reach PH. We continue the same pattern of suppressing Broome to make it look like we are ready to come back again.

We make noise with bomb raids South of Darwin and move up 18th Div toward Katherine to draw Jap infantry south.

We then try to close the vice from the East either by taking Sorong or even Darwin itself. Merauke will be level 5 in a short while. A landing at Darwin would, of course, require the carriers.

The notion needs some fleshing out, of course.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: sprior

Yes but we thought that too obvious.

Ah, yes. I forgot about the massive throbbing cerebrum effect around here.

[Cap Mandrake]

****************November 11, 1942(c)*******************

Oz: Good flying weather. Highly successful airfield, port and tac air attacks at PH with nearly 500 casualties. One small B-25 attack on a Jap cruiser near PH fails to get any hits. Nells went after some Aussie support troops making their way to Daly. Jap carriers unspotted for some time now.

SouPac: Landings at Tanna start at dawn and go pretty well. No Jap opposition other than some indolent fire from 2nd Indpt SNLF Coy and I/66th Naval Guard Unit. Apparently most of them have converted to the McGoo cargo cult which has a strong pacifist philosophy. No LYB air attacks either. Either we were unspotted or the LYB CEO's have decided this is a diversion of little military significance (which it is).

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: sprior

The basic notion is this:


They are committed in a big way with 3 1/2 divisions plus support ashore and no practical way to achieve air superiority there. Their last attack at 1:2 when they were fresh will not be achieved again. Even so, we would a substantially larger force to evict them. Their carrier force is still a serious threat if we try to land troops again.

I propose we bomb the living Hell out of the airfield and port to get supply hits and make resupply more difficult AND continue with the air to ground attacks on their troops there. In conjunction, we make noise as if we are coming right back to pin their BB's and CV's. We can build up Exmouth so that SBD's and Beauforts can reach PH. We continue the same pattern of suppressing Broome to make it look like we are ready to come back again.

We make noise with bomb raids South of Darwin and move up 18th Div toward Katherine to draw Jap infantry south.

We then try to close the vice from the East either by taking Sorong or even Darwin itself. Merauke will be level 5 in a short while. A landing at Darwin would, of course, require the carriers.

The notion needs some fleshing out, of course.

So...

1. Bomb 'em.
2. Bomb 'em.
3. Bomb 'em some more.

Is the basic formula?

(Strokes Chin)...yes...very clever. Awfully complex for an English battle plan, idn't it? They'll never see it coming...[:'(]

ETA: Please note that the preceding was not ridiculing, defiling, making light of or glib in any way. Alright, maybe a bit.

[Cap Mandrake]

Well it is only November 42 and it is Scenario 2. What do you propose we do, invade Hokkaido? [:)]

The B-24 and B-17 are our chief offensive weapons. We do need to be careful with our carriers as we are down to 3 CV's.

Wait until we start dropping paras all over the place...THEN you will be sorry you said anything.

[BrucePowers]

Happy New to all in this universe (is it WWII(c) or (d) or whatever)[8D]

[zuluhour]

we are down to 3 CV's.

Thats not all that bad from where I stand.[;)]

[Cap Mandrake]

"Fleshing out" a plan.

SouthPac has 3 USMC regiment, a USMC combat engineer bn, some arty and an I Amphib HQ with decent prep for Darwin. 6th Regt is somewhat understrength from the fighting on New Scotland, but the other two regiments are hot-shot. In retrospect, I should have prepped the units assigned to I Amphib Corps...but eh. About 8K LYB's at Darwin adn 24K at Katherine. Darwin appears to have been substanitally weakened.

[sprior]

We also still have 6th and 7th Australian Divs sat at Perth.

[Cap Mandrake]

Situation near Darwin. As you can see there are several LYB airfields of concern. Katherine may not have ground support personel. Koepang is within range (21) of B-24's with reduced bomb loads from Tenant Creek but we couldnt do sustained heavy bomber attacks from there. Ambon is within range (20) for B-24's from Merauke which will be level 5 in a day or two. It would also be hard to hide a big force approaching through the Torres Strait.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: sprior

We also still have 6th and 7th Australian Divs sat at Perth.

Yes. Even if they aren't prepped, the equivalent of 3 divsions should be a potent force. If we got ashore fast and took the town then we could resist a counterattack coming up the road that would be sure to follow.