The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Makee. I learned how to use that website. Attached is the part of the topographic map including the "anomoloy" I wrote about and visited.

[MakeeLearn]

Thanks, Makee. I learned how to use that website. Attached is the part of the topographic map including the "anomoloy" I wrote about and visited.

welcome, that was one of several maybes that I though it might be. a nice steep walk. Keown Falls look like it would be well visited. thats a long mountain.

[Canoerebel]

This part of northwest Georgia is relatively unknown. Keown Falls gets some local traffic and a smidgeon of adventurous outdoors enthusiasts from Metro Atlanta.

In 1997, I hike to Keown Falls on the first day of every month of the year. Then I wrote a story that I titled "A Year of Firsts at Keown Falls." But the dastardly editor changed the title to "Sands through the Hourglass." (That's one good thing about succeeding him - now nobody can mess with my titles; of course, that means there are writers that grumble at my alterations of their titles....)

[Canoerebel]

3/17/44

Burma: The Japanese army collapse continues. This campaign should be called "Bombs Krieg." John's army is stronger than mine, but Allied control of the air turned the tables decisively.

I'm hoping John will become alarmed enough to recommit his air force in a major way. Each good IJ fighter squadron deployed to Thailand/Burma will be one less to confront Fun House. But if he feels the same way, the Allies should be able to push to and then past Rangoon relatively quickly.

Fun House: See map for details. The frantic logistical work is continuing. I'm particularly pleased with the state of the fleet (fuel, repairs, and status of carrier fighter squadrons and pilots). Some loading is already done - particularly units going in strategic mode. I'll wait to load the amphibious troops, since they'll incur disruption during the long ocean voyage. Trying to manage the transports to have the right number left to load the amphibious troops is challenging. I bet I'll make miscalculations. I'm not a spreadsheet guy, though I've done a bit for this op.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna



It's not just CAP, right? It's strikes, too? My answers:

1) no
2) I think yes
3) I think yes

Because I think it depends on ship type, not TF type.


Oh, and I use my CVEs in "Air Combat TFs", not "CV Escort TFs", and they fly full CAP.

Me thinks so too. But never combine CVEs with fast carriers. The TF speed is the speed of the slowest ship and this can affect many combat situations. And, as an added bonus, you then won't have to ponder these questions in the future. [;)]

I have gone the serpent route with my extra carriers this game. Rattlesnake, Copperhead, Diamondback and so on. Ran out of American poisonous snakes so the last one is Wolverine. The CAs I just go with city names. My home town, Silver Spring, is one of them.

But... are you actually from Silver Spring, or the enormous amorphous blob that is "Silver Spring" on the map?


I try to name my ships something that my opponent would appreciate (against a Finnish opponent I named one CV Vainamoinen), or some dirty underhanded trick like naming them all the same thing and putting them in different TFs for my opponent to spot at different times and locations to sow confusion. This is less useful once one of them is sunk or out of action.

Well, now that you mention it I have lived in Wheaton, Colesville, Glenmont, and White Oak during my life. All unincorporated towns in that enormous unincorporated blob known as Silver Spring. So, I guess I would have to be a blobite...

[paullus99]

Technically, where I live (Columbia, MD) isn't a town either - we are a giant HOA.

[Canoerebel]

Hey Ross (crsutton)....

The Confederate officer that serves as my avatar was Colonel Emory F. Best, 23rd Georgia Infantry. He died in Washington in 1912. In the 1990s, I began research for a story about him. I wanted to track down his descendants, but he didn't have any children. So I cast my net wider, looking for descendants of his brother or sister. I found one - a nephew! - living at a retirement facility in Silver Spring. If I remember correctly, his name was Solomon Best. I'm sure he's long since passed away.

I found another descendant - a great-nephew - who was a retired used car salesman in El Cajon, California. His name was Emory F. Best. We talked for a good half-hour on the phone. Towards the end of the conversation, he asked, "Are you any relation to Daniel C. Roper?" My heart skipped a beat. Daniel C. Roper, FDR's first Secretary of Commerce, was a distant relative of mine. When I told Mr. Best that, he said, "He gave me my first job!" Turns out that Mr. Best spent his childhood in Washington and my ancestor gave him a clerical job.

Weird, funny world.

[Canoerebel]

The situation in the DEI.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: paullus99

Technically, where I live (Columbia, MD) isn't a town either - we are a giant HOA.

Ugh, are you ever. I'm helping two friends move into a place there this weekend.

[Canoerebel]

11th East African Division has the opening assignment for Fun House. The week-long delay occasioned by the upgrading carriers benefited the African infantry, too. The unit was 94% prepped for the target base and had already loaded aboard the assault ships. When the carriers stood down, the assault ships unloaded. The Africans are now 96% prepped and will reach 100% before reloading.

11th Africans has had a long, frustratingly quiet history. She arrived on map about a year ago in Mombasa. With troops at 40% experience, I sent her to Australia to serve as a reserve and to prep for Luganville. As Big Tent got underway, the plan was to egress through the Torres Strait, then to invade Port Moresby, Milne Bay, and Luganville, in order to create a solid LOC back to Hawaii. The unit was at 100% prep for many months, training up to 52% experience. Eventually I realized Luganville wouldn't be invaded, at least by the Africans. So two months ago, the unit began prepping for the first Fun House target.

The unit has African squads that aren't very good. But shear weight of numbers should be sufficient to overwhelm the enemy base. D-Day could be in 15-17 days.

[jwolf]

Are you worried about having so many Japanese bases behind your lines? The enemy ground units are -- more or less -- cut off, but the Japanese can move a lot of air units around pretty quickly, arranging for possible aerial hit and run attacks that could be damaging. I'm wondering if you plan to take, for example, Port Moresby and Darwin in order to get a more secure LOC between the Coral Sea area and the DEI. I guess what I am really asking is this: are any of the currently bypassed enemy bases so critical that you will at some time backfill them?

BTW I'm anxious to see Fun House in motion. It was very tense and enjoyable to watch your Big Tent op as your fleets went past certain "natural" objectives, ultimately into the Eastern DEI area.

[Canoerebel]

The tension is between security and time. What bases did I need to secure a minimally satisfactory LOC? I eventually decided that Merauke, Gove, and Horn Island were sufficient, in addition to the big Allied airfields in NE Australia.

I've kept Port Moresby suppressed for months, but John has other big airfields in New Guinea, Darwin, Timor, etc. From time to time he's tried to use them against my fleets, but has gotten a bloody nose on most every occasion. I'm aware of the threat from those fields, so I try to arrange for proper protection for ships transiting the LOC.

I could try to enhance security by taking some of his remaining airfields, but IMO the time and resources allocated aren't worth it. Right now the war is to the front. I need to move as expeditiously as possible in that direction.

Eventually there will be mop-up operations, but only after events at the front persuade John that Port Moresby, Darwin, Luganville, etc. can no longer be defended. That point should be sooner rather than later.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

The tension is between security and time. What bases did I need to secure a minimally satisfactory LOC? I eventually decided that Merauke, Gove, and Horn Island were sufficient, in addition to the big Allied airfields in NE Australia.

I've kept Port Moresby suppressed for months, but John has other big airfields in New Guinea, Darwin, Timor, etc. From time to time he's tried to use them against my fleets, but has gotten a bloody nose on most every occasion. I'm aware of the threat from those fields, so I try to arrange for proper protection for ships transiting the LOC.

I could try to enhance security by taking some of his remaining airfields, but IMO the time and resources allocated aren't worth it. Right now the war is to the front. I need to move as expeditiously as possible in that direction.

Eventually there will be mop-up operations, but only after events at the front persuade John that Port Moresby, Darwin, Luganville, etc. can no longer be defended. That point should be sooner rather than later.

It also looks like virtually all those bypassed bases are very low on supply or have none - which means their bombers cannot transfer in and bomb very much.

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

It also looks like virtually all those bypassed bases are very low on supply or have none - which means their bombers cannot transfer in and bomb very much.

Plausible, sure, but how can you tell?

[Canoerebel]

There are no guarantees, so precautions have to be taken. But I think the current arrangements allow for proper security while allowing the Allies to move forward more expeditiously.

[Canoerebel]

3/18/44

Fun House: This operation caused me to blow a fuse in my cranium today. Way too much thinking and clicking and organizing. The troops are loading, but I can't yet say they are loading in good order. The fuse blew.

Not all Fun House ships are going to leave port tomorrow, as originally scheduled. But slower TFs, especially LSTs, are on the way or about to leave. Everything else is going to be bit of guesswork as the ports may be overwhelmed by all that's happening.

After all the hair pulling today, I'll know much more tomorrow when I see how many units loaded (or how close they are to being loaded). I think the major amphibious assault units will commence loading tomorrow - I'm saving them to last since they'll incur some disruption during the ocean voyage.

The carriers are six days from completing upgrades. By the time they do, I think all the merchants will have left (to get a head start) or will be ready to leave.

Despite these various logistical fuse-blowing activities, Fun House remains on schedule as far as D-Day. How can this be? Well, as Olivia Newton-John would say, "It's Magic."

DEI: John's making trouble in Celebes. He's going to be able to hurt Allied units bad over the next week to ten days. But then the sheriff will return to town and restore order. Actually, the sheriff has something else entirely in mind, but I can't whisper of super-secret things at the moment.

Burma: This was the good-news theater, as Allied efforts were successful and everything seems straightforward in this theater. I'm doing to John here what he may do to me in Celebes on a smaller scale.

John III: He should be scratching his chin and saying "Hmmmm." I don't know that he is, but he should be.

[BBfanboy]

I'd say you got the necessary priorities right for the assault landings. The rest does not need max efficiency or detail management.
A suggestion- combat engineers are not needed all that much in the first wave because you cannot order a DA to take out forts in the initial landings. To minimize their losses I hold them back to land in the second wave - after the infantry and tanks establish the bridgehead. Then on Day 3 they are usually in good enough shape to work on the forts in a DA (with infantry and tanks of course).

[Canoerebel]

What about atolls?

[:)]

[BBfanboy]

Atolls get you a shock attack and Combat Engs do not get to do much work in a SA (charging headlong at the enemy). They are much too valuable to expose in the open like that so that is why I suggested landing in a later wave. If that means they also have to SA, at least the established troops can be set up to join them and take on most of the fighting.

[Canoerebel]

SigInt today shows 116th Div. inbound to Tarakan, a special base force to Manila, 1st Air Fleet to Balikpapan and 2nd Tank Div. to Pare Pare.

This is helpful information and is consistent with recent trends.