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ORIGINAL: BillBrown

I like Raboul because he can spread out in all directions and clear up his sea lanes.

Big Tent: The sudden fall of Wake should allow Big Tent to proceed on its original schedule. It will take the carriers a good ten days to return to Pearl, where Enterprise, Hornet and South Dakota will likewise be ready in ten days. The last inbound troop TF is 42 hexes from Pearl - probably six or eight days. So embarkation date might well be in two weeks.

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Big Tent: The sudden fall of Wake should allow Big Tent to proceed on its original schedule. It will take the carriers a good ten days to return to Pearl, where Enterprise, Hornet and South Dakota will likewise be ready in ten days. The last inbound troop TF is 42 hexes from Pearl - probably six or eight days. So embarkation date might well be in two weeks.

Hmmm..this is fun.[:)]

Assuming the US Navy/Army have not yet instituted random operation naming, what could "Big Tent" mean?

1) The author has secretly wanted to join the circus and bring his contortionist act to the world but his parents wanted him to be Atticus Finch

2) FDR is secretly going to use the military to take out his GOP rivals

3) The name refers to the scope of the operation, perhaps implying multiple targets collected under one geographic area

4) It is someplace with elephants

Now, FDR did try to pack the Supreme Court and incarcerate thousands of US citizens in internment camps but option 2 seems over the big top

For option 1 you would think we would have seen at least some pictures along the way or some mention of "limbering up".

For option 4..where are the nearest elephants? Thailand? Why would you start at Pearl Harbor.

That leaves option 3.......

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Or maybe it just means a guy wearing loose pants at a "clothing optional" beach ....

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

We should handicap it:

Morning Rine, Hirohito Handicap:

Marinaras: 8:5

Bonin Isrands: 3:1

Kurires: 4:1

Truk Ragoon: 5:1

Rabaurh: 20:1

Phirripines: 50:1

Truk + Pelelieu & Babeldaob: 14:3

ORIGINAL: poodlebrain

Observing CR's play, it appears to me that he favors strategies that lead him nearer the Japanese Home Islands over strategies that isolate Japanese forces via flanking maneuvers. So if I were setting odds on the target for Big Tent I would make the Marianas the favorite. I really went out on a limb there, didn't I?

As atonement for my reluctance to expose my posterior by making a bold prediction, I'll offer my concept of operation, Poodlebrain's Big Tent Proposal. Capturing the entire island chain in a single swoop is not a realistic possibility with the forces available. So I propose to do so in stages. The first stage would involve a main invasion of Tinian with a supporting invasion of Pagan. Stage 2 of the operation would be to secure the lines of communication and develop Tinian and Pagan into bases capable of supporting the stage 3 invasion of Guam and Saipan. I would expect the entire operation to take as much as six months to complete.

While Big Tent is being conducted I would be making thrusts at economic targets elsewhere that would require the Japanese to commit the IJN, and the KB in particular, for the Japanese to have a favorable chance of repulsing. Lots of fun to be had with the Allied navies in 1944, and much of the forces lost on Sumatra will have been replaced and needing something to do.