The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

Yeah, I've been really fortunate with good transports - only two of the really good ones lost in five months of almost nonstop amphibious activity: Aleutians, Marshalls, Kwaj, Wake.

But I have lost too many of some other classes, including AO, TK, CA and CL.

To date I've only lost one fast BB. That was Indiana, which fought gamely at Sabang against overwhelming odds and took Fuso down with her.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

There are classes of ships that I've lost too many of. And I don't want to lose any more APAs or LSI(L)s, but here's a list of all those sunk to date:

Very acceptable losses at this stage.

[Canoerebel]

Here's the list of TFs in the lead group. The "thundering herd" as it moves west. Lots of other TFs are working to catch up. The herd will stop somewhere near Wake so that the armada can tighten up and some ships replenish ASW or fuel.

[witpqs]

I keep trying to scroll the screen...

[Canoerebel]

I bet all of us try to click the "Exit" button when we view screenshots like these.

[Canoerebel]

Internet here in Sticks, Georgia, was down this afternoon and evening. I had finished the turn but couldn't send it to John. Then I did something unexpected. As the sun was setting, I drove north to Chickamauga Creek Trail. Then, as the full moon rose, me and my dog did a six mile hike. The fireflies, whippoorwills, and barred owls made the outing special. When I got home, the internet was back on here in Sticks, Georgia, so the turn is off to John.

[CaptBeefheart]

Edge of seat excitement here! Godspeed Allied forces!

Cheers,
CC

[T Rav]

CR, one of my best "Father's" thing was to take my daughter on a drive through the South a couple years ago. We started it with a walk through the Chickamauga Battlefield. We had an ancestor who was there.

You live in a beautiful part of the country.

T Rav

[Canoerebel]

TRav, there will be an article in our Autumn issue called "Like Falling Yellow Leaves." It's written by Dr. Betsy Hoole McArthur, whose great-grandfather was a captain in the 3rd South Carolina Regiment, Kershaw's Brigade. He was killed in action at Chickamauga, near the Horseshoe Ridge. The family had his sword and rifle until about 13 years ago, when they donated it to the battlefield museum.

We live in a remarkably diverse and beautiful country. I love the southern mountains, with our lush, hot and humid summers and our stark and cool (cold by my standards) winters. The rest of the country is equally beautiful in many different ways, from the majesty of the Rockies to the barreness of Utah's rock country to places like Death Valley and Maine's Acadia National Park. And the people are euqally nice, with a few rare exceptions. In traveling and camping all over the country and meeting nice people everywhere, I've learned that I could've been equally happy had life led me to reside in places like Bath, New Hampshire, or Vernal, Utah.

I'm sure this holds true for the rest of the world too: Oz, New Zeland, Russia, Scandinavia, and on and on. I don't expect I'll ever travel outside the US, barring Canada, but I wish I could.

[Encircled]

Well, having been to the US, New Zealand and India on my travels, I can heartily agree with you.

Travelling is on hold till the kids are older, but the world is there to be seen

[jwolf]

I keep trying to scroll the screen...

I bet all of us try to click the "Exit" button when we view screenshots like these.

More than that ... I constantly get caught trying to "escape" to the previous screen, and clicking on the TFs or bases in the screenshots for more detailed info which somehow doesn't happen within the forum ... [:'(]

[Canoerebel]

10/31/43

Big Tent: The herd continues to move west without incident, ending the day 47 hexes into the journey with about 35 remaining to the first beach. No altercations with subs today. Most of them seem concentrated to the E and NE, while the herd is approaching Wake from the SE. But John's getting good nav search and detection, so he'll work his vectors.

I'm modifying the plan just a bit. I had originally planned to use Wake as the staging point, letting trailing TFs catch up while ships fueled and replenished. But instead that's going to happen at sea, somewhere W or SW of Wake in hopes of keeping John guessing, mainly as to where he'll deploy his subs.

Recon continues of Marcus, the Marianas, Truk and many of the Marshalls. No distubring SigInt today.

Lion Tamer: A small Australian infantry unit landed today at the island west of Koumac. That undefended base should fall tomorrow. Another landing take place at undefended Tamma, NE of Noumea, in a few days. With activity way down there in SoPac, I'm hoping John is concentrating very hard on securing the Solomons, New Georgia, Lae, etc.

[Jellicoe]

I don't think that many of us outside the U.S. quite appreciate the historical nearness of the civil war in your collective memory but framing it as someone's great grandfather just brings home how close that is. Quite close enough to be able to hear first hand accounts of from children or grandchildren which therefore makes them quite real people. That makes civil war history still very personal to many families I should think, in the same way that the Somme and Paschendale are to families in the UK. I was showing my daughter a copy of the excellent Ypres Then and Now that I have so that she could understand what happened to her great granny's uncle when he was killed there in 17. Given that she had met her great grandmother enough to have some very clear memories of her the connection however stretched is still personal just as with your writer.

As for Big Tent fingers crossed

[Canoerebel]

Jellicoe, you're exactly right. Civil War history is foremost in the minds of many southerners.

A few months ago, an elderly, kindly gentleman passed away in our community. Both of his grandfathers were Confederate soldiers. One of his great-grandfathers was killed in action at South Mountain in 1862. I visited with that man in his house about 20 years ago. He brought out the uniform worn by one of his grandfathers along with this haversack. He had a photo of one of his grandfathers taken in the 1870s. After the war, he had gone west to prospect for gold. In the photos, he is still a young man, holding a pistol upright across his chest. It's a striking image.

In the mid 1990s, I met with a lawyer named Warren Akin in Cartersville, Georgia. Believe it or not, his grandfather (by the same name) had been born in 1811! That grandfather had served in the Confederate House of Representatives and had also been a lawyer in the first reported case by the Georgia Supreme Court (sometime in the 1840s). This grandfather had played a key role in trying to get a pardon for a Confederate officer convicted by court martial of "shameful" conduct at the Battle of Chancellorsville. That officer is my avatar.

In the 1980s, while I was a student at the University of Georgia, we happened to have a young man in our dorm who was from New Hampshire. Late one night, we were all sitting in the hallway shooting the breeze about this and that. Suddenly, that Hampshirite piped up and exclaimed, "What is it with you guys and the Civil War?" Apparently, our conversations were frequently sprinkled with metnions of this battle or that event.

[dave sindel]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Jellicoe, you're exactly right. Civil War history is foremost in the minds of many southerners.

A few months ago, an elderly, kindly gentleman passed away in our community. Both of his grandfathers were Confederate soldiers. One of his great-grandfathers was killed in action at South Mountain in 1862. I visited with that man in his house about 20 years ago. He brought out the uniform worn by one of his grandfathers along with this haversack. He had a photo of one of his grandfathers taken in the 1870s. After the war, he had gone west to prospect for gold. In the photos, he is still a young man, holding a pistol upright across his chest. It's a striking image.

In the mid 1990s, I met with a lawyer named Warren Akin in Cartersville, Georgia. Believe it or not, his grandfather (by the same name) had been born in 1811! That grandfather had served in the Confederate House of Representatives and had also been a lawyer in the first reported case by the Georgia Supreme Court (sometime in the 1840s). This grandfather had played a key role in trying to get a pardon for a Confederate officer convicted by court martial of "shameful" conduct at the Battle of Chancellorsville. That officer is my avatar.

In the 1980s, while I was a student at the University of Georgia, we happened to have a young man in our dorm who was from New Hampshire. Late one night, we were all sitting in the hallway shooting the breeze about this and that. Suddenly, that Hampshirite piped up and exclaimed, "What is it with you guys and the Civil War?" Apparently, our conversations were frequently sprinkled with metnions of this battle or that event.

I was raised in Columbus, OH and in my mid 20's moved to Chicago for a while. In April 1982 I accepted a job in Savannah, GA and moved there in early May. I can remember asking my coworkers about Memorial Day plans, and being told in no uncertain terms "that's a Yankee holiday". Which is true in a sense as it was started by Union Army survivors to honor the Civil War dead. And sure enough, we worked on Memorial Day...but as an offset we had Robert E Lee's birthday off !

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Jellicoe

I don't think that many of us outside the U.S. quite appreciate the historical nearness of the civil war in your collective memory but framing it as someone's great grandfather just brings home how close that is. Quite close enough to be able to hear first hand accounts of from children or grandchildren which therefore makes them quite real people. That makes civil war history still very personal to many families I should think, in the same way that the Somme and Paschendale are to families in the UK. I was showing my daughter a copy of the excellent Ypres Then and Now that I have so that she could understand what happened to her great granny's uncle when he was killed there in 17. Given that she had met her great grandmother enough to have some very clear memories of her the connection however stretched is still personal just as with your writer.

As for Big Tent fingers crossed

It's weird to think about, but the oldest living person today was born closer to the Civil War than modern times. Thinking about time can be mind boggling, confusing, extremely clear, and humbling all at once. That's just one example.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: dave sindel

I was raised in Columbus, OH and in my mid 20's moved to Chicago for a while. In April 1982 I accepted a job in Savannah, GA and moved there in early May. I can remember asking my coworkers about Memorial Day plans, and being told in no uncertain terms "that's a Yankee holiday". Which is true in a sense as it was started by Union Army survivors to honor the Civil War dead. And sure enough, we worked on Memorial Day...but as an offset we had Robert E Lee's birthday off !

Interesting. I asked my old roommate, who is from Georgia, about it. He was born in 1983, but says he doesn't remember anything like that. He's from the coast, though.

Also, Lee's birthday was January 19. I wonder if that wasn't just an observance of MLK Day? Although that wasn't observed until 1986, signed into law in 1983.

[Canoerebel]

The South celebrated Confederate Memorial Day (in late April) as an official holiday until recently. I think, in Georgia, that it was the state holiday until perhaps the past 20 years. Now everybody has switched to official Memorial Day. Only a few groups - SCV, UDC - pay respects on Confederate Memorial Day. I'm asked to speak to these groups on that day fairly regularly, but I keep making the members of the SCV mad because my views aren't in lockstep with theirs. But I'm fine with the UDC.

Lee & Jackson's birthday is still a holiday in a couple of states, or only recently changed. But you're right, a number of states changed from that observation to MLK Day.

[Canoerebel]

The best perspective I have on time is this, from just a few years ago. My dad, who was a WWII veteran, was born in 1923. When I visited him in 2013, when he was about to turn 90, I realized that less than double his lifetime would include the Civil War years and even the Cherokee Trail of Tears and less than triple his lifetime was the American Revolution. That's crazy!

[Canoerebel]

Email message from John with latest turn: "I’m as ready as I am going to be with whichever choice you make here."

That's the truth - I'm sure he has attended to everything he could and now there's nothing more to be done with the Allied armada bearing down.

But the real question is this: Did he sufficiently attend to the places he needed to attend to? That's an entirely different thing.

(His message is also his way of saying, "I'm ready for you.")