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Canoerebel -> RE: The Good The Bad & The Indifferent (12/31/2016 6:57:37 PM)
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A quiet day at home. I need the quiet to fully recover from Thursday's hike. Here are random reports:
1. CVE Altamaha took a torpedo from a sub near Saumlaki months ago. Damage was relatively light (about 50 total) and she remained with the fleet for days. Eventually, she made it to NE Oz, where she holed up for a month or two while enemy subs prowled the coast. About fifteen days ago, I sent her south with a small escort. She made it to Sydney. Her combined damage is 13. She'll be ready for action in two weeks. She'll join two other CVE and a CVL to form the TF tasked to provide protection for the backwater amphibious ops meant to clean up some lingering Japanese bases.
2. 2nd Marine Division earned the nickname Minutemen. The unit invaded Umnak with no prep in late June '43. Then it performed a reinforcing invasion unprepared at Dobo. Then it did an underprepped invasion of Gove. All three operations were successful. Now the unit is strong, experienced, and prepping for a Fun House target.
3. 6th and 7th Australian divisions are the Allied Expeditionary Army. They fought hard in Burma in late '42 and nearly got surrounded and cut off in early '43. They retired to Chittagong, entrained, boarded transports at Bombay, sailed to Capetown, Balboa and San Francisco, and participated in the Aleutians campaign, helping take islands from the Japanese. 6th remained as forward garrison on Adak until being removed about two months ago for Fun House. 7th retired from NoPac and then served in the Marshalls invasions, after which it has occupied Mili, Maloelap and Wotje. Now the three RCT are being pulled out to join Fun House, though I'm not yet sure all will make it in time (due to enemy combat TF in the area a week ago).
4. 9th Australian Div. was originally slated for Burma, then re-routed to follow 6th and 7th to North America for the Aleutians campaign. It didn't make it quite in time and remained in Hawaii until the Marshalls campaign. It invaded Tarawa and then occupied the base for about eight months. It was withdrawn a month or two back and is present for Fun House.
5. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that I'm keeping close to my vest, for reasons I'll explain in about a week. One of the fascinating aspects is trying to evaluate what John's up to, how to react, what the dangers are, and how this impacts Fun House, for either good or ill. As mentioned previously, Celebes looks pretty grim from an operational standpoint. But Fun House continues to look good, and that has more significant long term implications.
6. On January 2, 1944, the Allies recommitted the air force in Burma after it stood down for something like nine months, training and buildings pools. John probably got complacent, thinking that his grip on the region was strong. The Allies recommenced the air war to draw John's air force back to SEAC, thus diluting his DEI strength a bit. But after contesting things a little bit, he completely withdrew his air force. This provided the opportunity to begin targeting his ground troops. Somehow, he failed to recognize a deteriorating situation (or chose to ignore it) until too late. Thus a rout is on. My objective was to take the central plains and open a land-bridge to China by summer. But with the apparent collapse of the Japanese army, the objective is to push John out of Burma, open the supply road to China, and move an Allied army into China.
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