The Setting Sun - Gotterdammerung, Japan 1944.

[trekaddict]

*suddenly a group of people appears in the background, singing*

People: "It's too late to appologize ... too laaaaate ..."

*a 16t-weight drops on the singers, the camera sverves to the right, showing an officer of the British Army sitting behind a desk*

Officer: "And now for something completely different."

*a Japanese soldier appears behind the officer, notices the camery, smiles and starts waving. the officer turns around, looks at the Japanese soldier. the soldier stops waving and smiling, looks at the officer.

... silence ...

then the Japanese soldier turns back to the camera, waves and smiles. the British officer turns around again, facing the camera and shruggs.*

Now that was weird.

[BobaFett696]

that was very weird

[safferli]

All - My apologies for not keeping a closer eye on Photobucket. 36.8 GBs/month is their limit which you guys have managed to exceed. Congratulations

And it's only the middle of the month! Whooohe us!

[Reado]

*suddenly a group of people appears in the background, singing*

People: "It's too late to appologize ... too laaaaate ..."

*a 16t-weight drops on the singers, the camera sverves to the right, showing an officer of the British Army sitting behind a desk*

Officer: "And now for something completely different."

*a Japanese soldier appears behind the officer, notices the camery, smiles and starts waving. the officer turns around, looks at the Japanese soldier. the soldier stops waving and smiling, looks at the officer.

... silence ...

then the Japanese soldier turns back to the camera, waves and smiles. the British officer turns around again, facing the camera and shruggs.*

now that was monty python!

[ColossusCrusher]

...And now, for something completely different...
...
...
...
KA-BOOM!

[alan_le_cowboy]

During this technical interlude, if you do not know what to read, I strongly recommend The German RISK AAR.

Quite old but so funny!

[Maj. von Mauser]

now that was monty python!

My thoughts exactly!

Nice one Sokraates!

[Nathan Madien]

Wow! That was funny, Sokraates.

During this technical interlude, if you do not know what to read, I strongly recommend The German RISK AAR.

Quite old but so funny!

Using a break in this AAR to plug another AAR...oh, wait. I did the same thing in a previous post.

[arch3223]

Great AAR!!
Long time Lurker, First time poster.
I feel proud that we exceeded the bandwidth. Anyone else feel the same?

[alan_le_cowboy]

Great AAR!!
Long time Lurker, First time poster.
I feel proud that we exceeded the bandwidth. Anyone else feel the same?

Sure, during july we exploded limit on 16th day of the month.
We have to explode it before next time!

[Remble]

Sokraates - Even after so many years Monty Python remains amusing

safferli, alan_le_cowboy - Good job. The 23rd of a month is the cut off date for my main Photobucket account and it should reset on that day. It runs a monthly cycle depending on the day you joined, so everything should be back up then. In the mean time I will use my second account to keep updates going.

alan_le_cowboy, Nathan Madien - Plugging other AAR's is perfectly fine There are some very good AAR's out there that deserve to be plugged. Subtle plugging goes on all the time with signature links anyway

arch3223 - Thank you and welcome to the forums and this AAR

Monthly update to follow ...

[Remble]

Update (September 1st 1946)

0000 September 1st 1946.
Imperial Palace. Tokyo, Japan.

"Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen. We will begin with Industry this month." Hideki began the meeting.

"Your Majesty, Gentlemen, good morning." Ginjiro began. "Our resources continue their decline despite efforts by Minister Mamoru to alleviate the problem. More trades will be made to further the process but it is unlikely that we will be able to completely balance our economy until we make advances."

"Transport Capacity has increased during August as our troops that were in Sinkiang redeploy further east to form their new defensive line. This should return to a more normal number within the first week of September as these troops arrive at their destinations.

Energy is higher than normal and is usually around 130 negative per month, a large part of which is due to oil conversion. Metal and Rare materials are also dropping due to trades and the lack of a convoy from Siam today. Oil is positive on most days and the number shown indicates a refueling to our outer islands. Supplies are an ongoing problem as I struggle to maintain a positive balance with the Armed Forces needs for offensive supply to hold our enemies at bay. Financially there is no change with a small surplus on a daily basis.

I was forced to disband one division towards the end of August to compensate for losses to our forces. Current reinforcements need just under half of our remaining manpower and further divisions may need to be disbanded to allow for any other losses. The manpower required is mostly for the Imperial Japanese Navy and its badly damaged ships. The slow withdraw in China should alleviate the decline in manpower as less combat occurs in that region. Supplies should also benefit as these troops should not need additional supplies for a while.

Moving on to our current Industrial Capacity. Consumer goods and Production remain steady with most of our efforts towards the production of supplies. Our reinforcement costs are dropping as ships finish repairs but this will remain around this number for some time as the larger ships continue their refits. Upgrades has dropped significantly with the conclusion of roughly half of the Close Air Support upgrades. The remainder of these aircraft should complete their upgrades in the first week of September which will allow me to concentate on the large amount of Interceptors. Research is almost complete on the latest model of this aircraft which should initially allow some swift upgrades as the earlier models are retro-fitted. The upgrade bill will climb again once the intial lower level upgrades are completed and it will probably take the rest of this year to fully modernise our Interceptor squadrons. Nothing further." Ginjiro concluded.

"Intelligence please."

"Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen. Reports are as inaccurate as normal for the United Kingdom but our intelligence on the Soviets and Americans is fairly accurate." Kuniaki began.

"Soviet industry is almost unchanged and they completed research into Improved Encryption. As you can see from their current research topics they have switched heavily towards better cryptology and computer systems to prevent us from having any advantage in these areas.

Militarily the numbers indicate a loss of twelve Infantry divisions and seven Armoured. Not really enough considering the enemy we face but we still do not have full bombing capability to reduce these numbers any quicker. The number of squadrons they possess has not changed even though we know we destroyed a large number on the island of Sakhalin. This particlular area of espionage is always highly inaccurate. The Soviet Navy remains unchanged except for the loss of one Submarine Flotilla."

"The British are still obtaining intermittent Rare Material supplies from overseas but are still well short of their maximum production. They completed research into Basic Information Theory and a Carrier Doctrine.

Armed Forces losses include five Infantry and one Armoured division with the Royal Navy increasing its smalls ships by eight. These could be Transport Flotillas which could mean an increase in invasions in and around India."

"The United States remains largely unchanged with the loss of two Aircraft Carriers during August."

"Our own research shows that the latest Interceptor design should be finished fairly shortly. All other research programmes are expected to take at least another month to conclude. Once the Interceptor research is completed we will switch that team to one that is better suited to Ship Assembly technology to try and speed up our Ship building. Nothing further." concluded Kuniaki.

[Remble]

"Military please."

"Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen." Tanigawa began. "The Pacific remains very quiet with the destruction the Carrier fleet the Americans were using in the area. Manchuria is largely unchanged but we have been forced to withdraw somewhat in China and former Mongolia. Our troops in these areas are moving towards their pre-planned positions with little trouble. Winter should begin to rare its head during this coming month and the campaigning season should draw to a close as a result. The Red Army is likely to continue to try and advance during the Winter but it will be a lot tougher for them to do so. I will hand you over to Minister Satoru for a more detailed briefing." Tanigawa concluded.

"Thank you Minister Tanigawa. Good morning your Majesty. The Pacific has seen no changes whatsoever so I will concentrate on Asia and the Soviet Union." Satoru began.

"The map has changed a little during August as the Red Army makes advances in former Mongolia. They currently also occupy the capital of Manchukuo but we have thrown those forces out and are advancing to retake it. Operation Tedious is progressing well with a landing in Siberia and the capture of Sakhalin Island which will remain blockaded to prevent the Soviets returning. I shall break the ares down a little to show more detail."

"India has remained fairly stable although the British did make some advances that had threatened to expand deeper. The grounding of their Naval bombers on patrol has allowed our own bombers to resume operations and the situation had stabalised as a result. With some luck we should be able to push them back into Persia this month which will free up the bombers to assist with the Red Army."

"Our defensive positions in north western China have mostly been abandoned and the forces moved closer to Lanzhou. We do still have a garrison force on the Indian border to try and prevent the Red Army moving in this direction. This force is inadequate to stop them if they are determined to move in this direction. The bombers in India will of course remain there if the Soviets enter the north of the Country. Soviet advances are slow across this entire area and they are still being bombed as they try and advance."

"The center is probably our largest problem right now but we are withdrawing in order to our initially planned defences. The Soviets are using more armour here than we would like which is allowing them to advance a little too quickly. The blue highlighted area is where we would expect to cause a very large number of casualties as this area is in range of our many airbases, shown as orange squares. Close Air Support aircraft can operate in this zone and the infrastructure is appalling to say the least which will slow them down considerably and make them even more vunerable.

The two green squares indicate where the forces that were in Sinkiang are redeploying to. One withdraw, also in green, will be made to solidify the line if it is needed. The blue lines indicate further withdraws as required to a more stable line. We can expect to be pushed further back in the New Year but we should be able to hold this line during the Winter months."

"The situation is Manchuria is the most stable at the moment but it also has the capacity to turn very quickly if we were to lose Harbin."

"Is that likely to happen?" Hirohito asked.

"Quite possibly your Majesty. The Soviets have more than enough troops to force the issue if they want to. The loss of Harbin would be a blow but not a disaster. The map shows our fall back positions should it turn against us. Losing both Harbin and Xinjing would require us to hold Changde in the east to prevent our Manchurian puppet from falling, which is why it will receive a large defensive force. Any soviet advances in the east of this region are likely to be very slow as it all mountainous, and with snow not far away, could take several weeks for the Soviets to cross. We would like to keep the current defensive line if at all possible but with the current manpower situation it may be more prudent to withdraw a little and try and rebuild our reserves during the Winter. Nothing more from me so over to Minister Osami for a small Naval briefing." concluded Satoru.

"Thank you Minister Satoru, good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen." Osami began. "Two operations are currently underway. Operation Tedious has already been mentioned and the second is Operation Retreat which although classified is almost complete. I will brief you on that after the meeting your Majesty."

"Thank you."

"Moving on to casualties. The Imperial Japanese Navy has seen little action but has sunk a few ships."

"The most notable are the two American Carriers of course. Some smaller engagements have netted us some other vessels but the enemy no longer has a massive fleet to send against us so we can expect sporadic combat at best for the time being. The only current area under invasion remains Colombo in Ceylon, where the Americans continue to throw troops uselessly at the steep cliffs. Done." concluded Osami.

"Well Gentlemen it looks like the Soviets are finally waking up to the War that they started. Next year is likely to be the sterner test as the Winter will allow the Red Army to muster its full force on our borders. Try not to lose too much before the snows come." Hirohito said as he stood and left the meeting followed by Minister Osami.

[alan_le_cowboy]

I hope Mamoru is not only a good diplomat but also a good cooker because he will soon be obliged to trade Japanese noodles to get oil...

[germanpeon]

Oooh, some good research coming up. That hostpital tech is crucial. Agriculture isnt too bad either. And ship assembly! I cant wait.

[Maj. von Mauser]

Nice update.

The situation looks stabile to say the least in China, but you never can tell.

[stnylan]

The importance of Harbin becomes every more plain.

[Maj. von Mauser]

Hold Manchukuo!!

Don't kill yourself over it though.

[Sokraates]

Yes, the classics never fail. Dive Bombers and Monty Python prove effective time and again.

I'm glad that Operation Retreat is drawing to a close ... a successful one, I hope. The next monthly meeting will hopefully tell. After that I'm eagerly looking forward to Operations Completely and Different.

KUTGW! (where "G" stands for "Great")

[Kurt_Steiner]

If Russia is doing this, may it mean the Germany is kapputt... oh gosh! Those soviets didn't read your previous AAR!

They must pay!