A Way of Life, A Way of War

June 7th, 1939

Vladivostok, Soviet Union



Memo to GAM Staff (Generals/Admirals/Marshals)


Operation Red Sun is underway as planned, with fighting much as expected all along the Manchurian and Mongolian fronts. General Ando is leading our 8th army in the assault on Vladiovostok. General Terauchi is in control of the northern front with the 15th army leading the charge. In the west against Mongolia is Air Marshal Ushiroku coordinating the efforts of several independent corps as well as the overall aerial efforts of the war.

So far we have penetrated the suburbs of Vladiovostok, and have destroyed the many air strips that they based planes in the area out of. However, their coastal gun batteries have kept us from way of landing on nearby beaches, and the CA Atago took several hits from said guns when providing support to the planned landing. Responding naval and air assault from our forces has proved ineffective and therefore the 2nd prong of the attack on the fortress city and military base has been canceled.

Progress elsewhere has been swift and has faced only token resistance. Our few spies in Leningrad and Moscow report that reinforcements in numbers of a million men have already been put into a deployment schedule to be transported across Siberia. There are also rumors that the Marat battleship that set out last month has been re-routed to the pacific, but these are both unfounded and of little consequence.

Banzai for the Emperor!
Chief of Staff Kotohito

July 20th, 1940

The Blood Side Radio: War News


“War rages across the Globe. The Blood Side Radio is here to report all the action, a new radio station that will utilize live radio feeds and survivors tales to let you know what exactly is going on in the world today. We now have our host here in Baltimore, Michael Taraent, who will serve to give you an overview of the wars raging across the globe as we know that the other stations have neglected to tell the whole story all the time.”

“Good Evening Baltimore. We may say that, but it is not so good and fortunate to some around the globe. Over the past year, the Japanese have succeeded in occupying the entire Far east of the Soviet Union. We have reports of nearly two million Soviet Soldiers and nearly a thousand tanks facing the Japanese, and relatively recently that front has stabilized and ground to a halt. Japan, with its limited population from the Home Islands, has reportedly started to draft those they look down upon, the Koreans. And as you inevitably know, two weeks after they went to war with the Red Menace to their north, they also surprised Shanxi and their Chinese allies. However, this campaign has not been met with the same success as was seen in the north, merely 300 miles in, the advance ground to a halt, and since then it has been meaningless slaughter after slaughter for 12 months now.”

“Even though it is most likely the most bloody front at the moment, Asia is not the only place that has seen war ravage its landscape. Europe and North Africa have not been spared. Unless you have just lifted yourself out of bed from under that rock you have been under for the past year, you should know that the allies face a seemingly invincible enemy on the continent in Germany. Germany has completely subjugated Northern France, while leaving the traitorous Vichy France to govern the south, which incidentally is the part of south that has little to no resources for war. Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Italy have all joined Germany on their path to the subjugation of multiple continents.”

“While Germany’s reign in Europe is uncontested at the moment besides the British Isles, Africa is a different matter altogether. The British Lieutenant General Gott has now completely finished off Italian Ethiopia, but Field Marshal Deverell, assisted by General Freyburg of the large ANZAC force in the region, has had a tougher time of it in Egypt and Libya. Initially pushed back to the town of Fuka, reinforcements have slowly managed to push back the surprisingly tough Italian army. The fate of North Africa is up in the air at the moment, while a crucial battle in Forte Maddalena rages that may decide the flow of the war to come. To make matters harder for the allies, the Mediterranean is essentially an Italian Lake at this point, with their battleships ruling the seas. The British absolutely refuse to send anything heavier than obsolete cruisers to the area because of the German navy buildup in the North Sea.”

“Now, we will go to one of our contacts in North Africa to give you an idea of what its like there…..”

You ARE free to post you know

AHA I knew you were hiding somewhere! Welcome!

Direct fire artillery may not use the weapons in the way they were meant to be used, but it sure as hell made one effective Anti-Tank weapon when there was no cover, as there was absolute zero cover beyond sand dunes in the desert. The objective of the II Corps was simple: Capture Forte Maddalena and its associated facilities. Aerial recon had provided some idea of the defenses. The star shaped fort, dug in underground and given above ground bunkers and MG nests, not to mention camouflaged artillery guns. There was only supposed to be a dozen guns here, but when has intel ever been right? The volleys were staggered so there was never a moment that shells weren’t raining down upon the vulnerable force as it drove through the desert. Sure, some were traditional shells, coming out of the sky with the whistling noise they usually made. They were bad enough. But when they were trained right at the tank you were hitching a ride on, or worse, the skeletal and easily destroyed army trucks, it made every man scream out right before they died. The worst was, you could see those coming right at you.

Private J.J. Benson was not a particularly brave kid. He was only 16 when he had been forcibly enlisted. At first it was only to serve as Home defense. But after a few months, African fronts were opened up. The 4th Infantry division was sent, and along with it, JJ Benson went to a place he had only seen in black and white pictures.

Here he was, clutching on for dear life on to his assigned Vickers tank as his Lee Enfield rifle banged repeatedly against his back. He was relatively skinny when recruited, but after months of military life he was as built as any of the men with him. 3 others huddled on the tank, trying to hold on while staying out of the way of the bullets that clanged against the tank. It sped over the flat reaches of sand, still a mile away from the target. The original plan had been to wait for air support, but there was no land air to speak of in Africa, and the HMS Hermes had been tied up in some naval engagement, so the Plan B was to rush the fort. Get within range, blow a hole in the outer walls and bunkers, and blitz through. It was a major supply depot and a minor air base for operations farther inland from Tobruk. They could hear over the din of the screaming artillery shells planes taking off. There were only half a dozen bombers stationed here, but half a dozen bombers could ruin your day.

Just then a fellow private shouted something unintelligible and pointed in front of the tank. Private Benson’s heart sank as he saw a flash and a shell headed right towards his tank. He did the only thing he could-he jumped, just like the other 2 soldiers on the tank that saw it in time. The third wasn’t so lucky, and went up in flames with the crew of the tank as it tried to swerve out of the way. They were only 200 yards or so from the fort, and Benson hurried to get as close to the tank as he could, not to help his comrades, but to get what little cover he could out of it.

He unslung his rifle then, and started to rush forward to another piece of wreckage left by the artillery shells. It was still rolling towards the fort.

“Follow me!” He yelled to the two friends of his that had jumped as well, but he didn’t wait for them. Waiting in a battle got you shot. If you were lucky, the shot killed you. If not, you lived on in pain for a few days until the loss of blood or an infection did. But not getting shot at all was the best cure to getting shot in Benson’s mind. He tucked his rifle down as he ran so as to not give away a tell tale flash.

The dark gray clouds above him told the little humans below them just what they thought of their pathetic fight when thunder rumbled out of the sky with the force of Zues, and lightning streaked the sky a ways away. Water started to wet Benson’s uniform, but he cared little for a little water.

Not too far away from his position, just as he reached the flaming wreck that was within 100 yards of the first wall of defenses, the soldiers on a passing tank were shot up by an aged fighter from the air. The tank itself was unharmed and rumbled on, its turret swiveling to fire at a close up MG nest. Suddenly, a wonderful explosion wracked the ground around Benson and the others on the battlefield. The wall was blown open, and nearby bunkers within it were aflame. An ammunition depot must have been hit!

He wound up jumping onto one of the prototype Cromwell Tanks that had been lent to the Division for this attack as it passed his cover, heading for the widening breach in the defenses. By then other holes had opened up as well, and several planes had been shot out of the sky including one of the bombers that had been massacring our tanks. Soon, he was wrapped up in a traditional gun fight with some Italians by the sound of the language they shouted inside the fort. It was a massive complex.

The battle went this way for another couple of hours until Benson was almost entirely drained. Gunfight, tank arrival, advance. Occasionally their air support, or big guns on the ground would send another tank into flames, and by then the British tanks were getting thin. Only just over 400 had been sent with the II Corps, but now they numbered in the dozens. The battle kept going until there was a small cloud of aircraft that were coming in from the north, although the nationality couldn’t be made out. Both sides of the battle silently prayed they were theirs while they tried to kill what soldiers on the ground they could see. It was only 30 or so planes, but no matter how many came, they would be a great help.

As it turned out, they were HMS Hermes air complement, or what was left of it after they ran into an air patrol above Tobruk. The Hermes itself was on its way back to Britain for repairs they would find out later, but these aircraft would base nearby at a makeshift landing strip and continue to support the Brits. But most importantly to Private Benson, they won the battle and were able to eat their rations in peace before bed. No Italians trying to kill him tonight.
Or he hoped not anyway.


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AN: Not the best writing, but it should suffice for this. Im not spending too much time on the early days such as this period as the real war sends up a flare with Barbarossa, and lights up like a bonfire with pearl harbor

“This is John Brooks, reporting for Blood Side Radio from the British view of things here in their foothold in Eastern Libya. Forte Maddalena has been the site of the most recent battle between the allies and axis here in Africa, and it was a destructive battle indeed. Unconventional tactics were used by both sides due to the extremely flat terrain around the fort, such as the Italians using heavy artillery as AT weapons, and the British essentially using tanks and trucks to blitz through the deadly rain of direct fire artillery to the edges of the fort, then return to their camouflaged staging ground a few miles away for more.”

“In the end, evidenced by me standing in what’s left of the fort, the British overwhelmed the Italians, in no small part due to the airpower that aided them in the later stages of the battle. Tens of thousands of men died during this battle, unusual for such an insignificant fort in the middle of the desert, but it is essential to the British attempts to encircle Tobruk, the central Italian logistical hub in Africa.”

“That’s all I have to report for now, and I should return to aiding the medic group that I travel with. Wounded casualties were particularly high in this battle due to artillery fragments, and all able bodied soldiers are either helping with the wounded, or preparing for the inevitable Italian counterattack. Back to you Michael.”

Q&A with Alex Armitage, Undersecretary of State 1936-Present

October 11th, 1940

Nationally Syndicated interview by Blood Side Radio

Q: Let’s start this off with a bang Alex. Who and what is the largest threat to America today?

A: The who is Japan hands down, and the What is her navy. It is growing monthly, and it is currently estimated that they are on par with us regarding any vessel larger than a destroyer. Their air force is also particularly worrisome, especially now that they have revealed their newest long range bomber – one that could reach the west coast in a one way trip.

Q: How are we, the USA, working to counter this threat to our forces in the Pacific?

A: We are consolidating our relationships in the area, such as with Australia, New Zealand, and Siam so that we are not caught alone and on the defensive; however we have been careful to remain distant from China and the Soviet Union in order to avoid provoking them. You may also recall that congress was recently persuaded to fund the creation of a land garrison on every major pacific island in addition to the expansion of naval and air facilities in strategic places.

Q: I have heard rumors that specific trade sanctions may be imposed upon Japan if they do not stop their aggression and pointless bloodshed against China. Can you verify these?

A: I am afraid I am not privy to such discussions if they exist, but I would not be surprised if such a move came in the coming months. There are many pressures, both domestic and foreign, for the president to ramp up the pressure on Japan. And I am sure you know of Winston Churchill’s constant attempts to draw us into the war against Germany. I am sure if he makes a decision, you will be the first to know.

Q: What about the new class of battleships, and the two new aircraft carriers laid down at Norfolk and New York respectively? Are these directed against the growing Japanese threat?

A: No, they are not meant as any aggressive action towards a foreign nation. But as you know, without those carriers the Japanese hold a 2:1 advantage over us in fleet carriers, and so the move has mostly been made to placate senior naval officials.

Q: Do you foresee an armed conflict between America and Germany in the near future?

A: No I do not. As much of a threat as they pose to the rest of free Europe, Churchill must find a way to achieve victory on his own. American lives will not be sacrificed in another great war under this administration’s policies.

Q: Turning to domestic matters, do you believe Roosevelt will triumph in the upcoming election? It is only a month away after all.

A: The Mcnary/Taft ticket will undoubtedly make a strong showing but I have little doubt that they will lose in the end.

Q: Do you believe ordering the USN Atlantic Task Force to escort merchant ships through the British blockade to German ports was a good idea last month?

A: I firmly stand behind the administration on this issue, not least because I am part of it. We may risk alienating Britain, yet they have no choice but to continue to ask for our aid or submit to Germany. They cannot retaliate. If our merchants wish to see their wares sold in Germany let them. After all, minor food shortages have begun to be reported in France, and it is simply inhumane to allow unwilling subjects of a country to starve.

Q: Thank you for your time Alex.

A: Pleasure to be heard.

Sorry for no update these past few days. Been more than a little hectic, and tonight was simply exhausting. Going to work on the buffer this weekend, and hopefully we will be back to an update every day or every other day next week.

In other news, welcome to all those who have recently posted here! It really is gratifying to see that people actually read this

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March 5th, 1941

Blood Side Radio: War News


“War rages across the Globe. Blood Side Radio is here reporting to our audience of not just Baltimore now, but all of Maryland, in order to give you the news of the fronts that you need to hear. And here is your host, Michael Taraent.”

“Good Evening Maryland. Tonight, I unfortunately have to report on the advances of the Japanese in Siberia and Mongolia. Since the beginning of the war, nearly two years ago now, Japan has largely been feeling staunch resistance in Mongolia and Northern China, seeing their larger advances happen to the North in Siberia. Recently though, the Japanese have launched a major offensive in Mongolia, although thankfully its success has been limited. They have held the Mongolian Capital since the opening days of the war, along with the air base located there, but the Soviet Union nevertheless has an irrevocable grip on the skies above Mongolia, and indeed beats back the Japanese air force along the entire front whenever Japan dares to put her planes in the air. But that seems to be the only bright spot for the Soviets, as the Japanese inevitably move forward. Since July of last year, they taken near 200 miles of territory all along the front, and they have made similar gains in certain parts of Mongolia in only a few weeks.”

“Still, the Japanese have not made any progress in the last nine months against China, but many say they are only bidding their time as China outmans that front nearly 5 to 1 with still millions of men in other parts of the country.”

“Meanwhile, their weapons of war continue to grow on the seas, as they now have a full ten active fleet carriers and four smaller carriers. This is particularly worrisome to the United States and Great Britain as such a buildup on the seas indicates some future devilish plans against a naval power, of which neither China nor the Soviet Union is one.”

“And in North Africa, the Italians have continued to have been pushed back since that fateful battle at Forte Maddalena in Eastern Libya. Reports from the allied military indicates that Tripoli is the last Italian stronghold in Africa, and they are doing all that is in their power to drive west and capture it. The new Italian bases in Greece, which was divided evenly between it and Bulgaria not too long ago, provide Italy with a way to counterbalance the loss of Africa. It helps that the fleet carrier HMS Courageous and her four battleships now contest the Mediterranean Sea, although it is far from won. And 300,000 odd men still stand between the allies and Tripoli according to the intelligence that Britain allows to leak out of the reports they receive.”

“Meanwhile, Britain has thoroughly lost control of the skies above her Home Island. Ever since Germany conquered France, we have seen Germany attempt to force Britain to submit. But they have held strong. While they are still in the war, they have lost their entire air force, with only a few hundred planes operating against Germany, mostly flying in Scotland where few axis planes are sent. However, thousands on German, Hungarian, and Romanian planes can be seen all over England every day, and their industries have been reduced to little more than a few underground strongholds in northern England. London itself is virtually a crater, and it is too dangerous for ships to dock in a port south of Edinburgh. Things have gone so far that many suspect Clement Attlee is in secret negotiations with the Germans on a peace settlement that Attlee would then advocate in Parliament, but Attlee denies such claims.”

“Wait breaking news has just come in! It seems that Germany has, within the last hour, made the Balkan country Yugoslavia its next target. The limited news outlets in the very restricted Yugoslavian society have been able to report that not only is Germany attacking, but Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Italy as well. With the Allied Air force hiding wherever they can, their navy fighting to keep supply lanes open, and their army preoccupied in Northern Africa, it seems unlikely at first glance that Yugoslavia will be able to hold out for long against the Nazi menace. We will have more on that to report as we hear more form that new region at war.”

April 3rd, 1941


“Go. Now!” Came the whisper from the bushes on the other side of the road. The city of Saigon was far from kept, and the surrounding jungles had practically taken over the city, allotting easy cover to any guerillas who might not like the city’s current ruler.

The group of three men scurried from their cover on the right side of the road, and sprinted to another spot of cover behind some crates. Each one had a fully loaded M1 Garand rifle, American in make, and each man was also practiced in its use. They set up shop and covered as two more of their comrades scurried to behind a French lorry on the left of the street.

Just around the corner was the local Japanese military administration building. It oversaw all military affairs in southern Indochina, including those of Siam, Japan’s ‘allies’.

The streets and houses around the base were either abandoned voluntarily, or their residents were forced from their homes by force to provide for the security of the base. However, once you familiarized yourself with the Japanese patrol routes, recruited a few distractions, and correctly utilized the cover in the city, it wasn’t too difficult to reach. After a few seconds behind their cover, they heard the sound of a lorry starting in front of the base around the corner. The lorry they had come all this way to interdict. It contained some very important persons to the Japanese empire, and the continued oppression of the native Vietnamese.

The leader of the group of three men, the one with multiple elongated lacerations across his face overtop of layers of other scars, began to inch forward, cradling his rifle and darting his eyes everywhere at once in case he was spotted. Each man in the group had a specific target, but this mans target was far more important than the rest.

The engine became louder as it started to crawl towards them, picking up speed until it was at an acceptable level. Just as it turned the corner, its engine was shot up, its tires exploded, and glass shards from the windows showered those occupants inside. Two heavily armed men stepped out and looked around swinging their rifles with them as they covered for a very important pair of men to escape, but it was of no use.

The man with the scarred face took aim. Very careful aim, as he had only a split second until the bodyguards spotted him. Dropping to a knee in order to get the angle he needed, he squeezed the trigger, and half a second later, all that was left of General Kano of the Japanese Empire was a very bloody corpse.

The other men in the group were firing, but the scarred man hardly noticed. Orders were to shoot your man, then scatter into the city, and meet back up at base camp in the jungle proper. Do your job for your country, for your people, then leave. And leave they did, all their targets killed, and all assailants nowhere to be found.

October 23rd, 1941

Blood Side Radio: War News

“War rages across the globe, but its epicenter for the past four months has quite obviously been in the Soviet Union, as the Far East has been quite a stalemate, Africa has been wrapped up, and the air war over Britain couldn’t be worse but pales in comparison to the slaughter of the Red Army. This is Blood Side Radio, broadcasting to Maryland and the District of Columbia, and here is your host Michael Taraent.”

“It is a bad evening America. No pleasantries may be offered up, because there is nothing pleasant about how completely violence seems to have engulfed the world. As your probably know, the British have prevailed in Africa, taking Tripoli back in June, mere days before the Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet Union. Yes that’s right, Hitler has gone for the biggest prize in Europe, the Soviet Union, and with that decision have come tremendous rewards and terrible losses of life. But we will analyze the situation there later. In other Mediterranean news, Malta has recently fallen in the past weeks to an Italian amphibious landing. An attempted landing on Cyprus was thrown back by paramilitary British forces, and that airfield is still active, although it is of little use to the British due to their lack of any airpower in the area.”

“On the sea, the Battle of the Atlantic heats up just as the Battle of Britain winds down in a German victory. German ships reign openly in the Atlantic, from submarines to battleships, and the result has been severe shortages of everything imaginable in Britain. The navy has been hard pressed to find a safe port south of Edinburgh, and occasional bomber sorties from Norway make docking in Scotland risky these days as well. Iceland, the previously Danish but presently American naval base has become one of two main bases for destroyers and battle groups fighting in the Atlantic, with the other being Gibraltar. The North Sea is also perilous for allied ships, so the British have resorted to keeping the channel closed, and keeping coastal patrols, letting German ships run the gauntlet between Scapa Flow and Iceland if they wish to risk it. Unfortunately, many succeed.”

“The Far East is a bloody stalemate, tying down nearly a million soviets to keep it that way, and over three million chinese to the south to resist the Japanese offensives on both fronts. Mongolia is the only region that has seen constant movement, and most of the fighting there has been in the former capital of Ulan Bator, and the area south of the city called Arvayheer. Ulan Bator has been in Japanese hands virtually the entire war, despite massive Soviet assaults to retake it. The occupation of Ulan-Ude by the Japanese, a major route of reinforcements to Mongolia has been blocked, and Soviet offensives have become fewer, especially since the Germans have attacked. Nevertheless, Arvayheer has become a constant battleground for months as each side wishes for a decisive breakthrough in the others lines especially the Soviets who mercilessly bomb the entire front in the face of zero Japanese airpower being used against them despite the prestige of that particular arm of the Japanese military. Casualties are mounting, as an estimated 750,000 have died in the region, not counting the civilians that have been caught in the struggle.”

“Now, to the Eastern Front, what all of you inevitably want to hear in detail about. After the quick attack on Yugoslavia that hardly lasted ten days, Hitler had turned his attention east. Stalin seems to have been planning his own pre-emptive strike as well, although any information that comes out of the Soviet Union is always sketchy and can rarely be confirmed. Either way, on June 22nd, Germany and its Axis allies invaded the Soviet Union in their traditional blitzkrieg. Rations have now been declared in all Axis countries for the first time this war, a complete economic wartime footing has been imposed, and radical measures have been enacted in order to ensure the factories have the materials they need to keep going. Tank production has skyrocketed as has fighter production, and the Wehrmacht has never been larger. As you know, we have a very mobile group of reporters, and since America is neutral we have some limited capability to investigate even in countries like Japan and Germany. Here is a recording of a recent interview of German Factory worker, a female because of the conscription demands on the male population, who fortunately spoke English fluently:”

“I am proud to serve my nation in such a way, even if that way is producing goods for the boys on the front. Everybody has to pitch in here. This is my contribution. I have a husband, a father, and two sons on the eastern front right now. All are fighting bravely so that the Volk may live in peace after the war. I remember when I was a little girl. We were forced to accept Versailles even though any reasonable German would have fought tooth and nail to avoid such a fate. But now, Hitler has given us another chance to show the world that we Germans do indeed have what it takes to be a world power! Heil Hitler!”

“As you can see, even the female population has been mobilized, and that has freed up millions of men for the front. The Germans have driven across the Urals, capturing all major military and industrial hubs west of that mountain chain, and are currently focusing on Russian Resistance in the Caucasus. Stalin has already sent out feelers for peace, each one successively becoming more desperate, although all of them thus far have been rejected.”

“Allied forces have begun to be placed in Northern Persia in case the German advance is not halted. Field Marshal Alan Brooke, head of all forces in Africa and the Middle East, has expressed grave concern for the threat to the Middle East and India if the Soviets cannot stop the German Advance. Any potential and very expected invasion of Greece will likely be canceled due to the threat to the Middle East.”

“And finally for some good news. Here in the United States, we have recently launched an entire new class of battleships called the North Carolina Class, and two new aircraft carriers named the USS Wasp and USS Hornet, ensuring our ability to compete against any foreign navy on the seas. However, Congress has still been reluctant to expand the army besides funding the establishment of garrisons on all major Pacific Islands.”

November 23rd, 1941

Wake Island Military Compound


“Sir! Patrol 8 is sending an emergency coded report from the recon fleet over the central pacific!” A top aide to General George Marshal of the 4th army yelled across the busy HQ of the main American military compound west of Pearl Harbor. The 4th army wasn’t technically located on Wake Island yet, but the advance team had already accompanied the general to the island in order to setup communications and logistics, and oversee what military elements were already in place.

“Roger! I need that decoded and handed to me in 5.” Marshal curtly shouted out to a computer technician and head encryption and decryption expert of the advance team.

“No problem boss. It seems to be fairly short.” Roger replied in his deep, but somehow quiet voice. He set to work on the problem as Marshal turned around, took off his hat, and ran his hand through what little gray hair he had left.

“Sir! Patrols 3, 14, and 21 are also sending emergency encoded reports!” A different aide yelled this time.

“Roger?” Marshal asked, uncertain how much his man could handle at once.

“Will take a little longer, but should be done soon. Here is the report from Patrol 8 boss.” Marshal briskly walked over to the group of machines Roger was sat among and unintentionally snatched the papers from the hand of the expert. Roger shrugged and went to work on the others.

Patrol 8 reports large plane buildup on Marcus Island. Bulky bombers assembled under camouflage. Group of zeroes were scrambled to intercept patrol as we passed over the island. Returning to recon ship now.

“Boss here are the reports of patrols 3 and 14.” The General took them from Roger, taking care not to do so violently again.

Patrol 3 reports mass concentrations of Japanese army forces on Kwajalein. Tanks. Trucks. Artillery. Hundreds of thousands of tents cover the entire island. Large and cramped supply depots everywhere.

Patrol 14 reports that the core battleship fleet of the Japanese navy has arrived in Eniwotok overnight. Yamato and Musashi are clearly visible and recognizable. Three other smaller battleships also present with escorting force.

“And boss, here is the third and final report I have received. If you don’t mind, I am going get back to setting up that logistic code that you requested in order to mask when our convoys are arriving.” George personally shivered after reading this one.

Patrol 21 reports two Japanese carrier fleets have arrived in the port of Kwajalein. Yamamoto’s personal flag is flown from one of the older carriers, suspected to be the Akagi. 8 fleet carriers have been identified, and 4 smaller ships have been noted with planes on their decks. Heavy AA fire and takeoff of zeroes from carriers forced us to return to recon fleet. Photos taken.

“Susan! Get me on the phone with an admiral in Norfolk now!” It wasn’t quite a minute before a phone had been dialed and handed to him, even though he had to walk across the room to have it handed to him. The room quieted down as he made the call, as he obviously didn’t have his own office finished yet. Sometimes he wished he still had his desk job in DC as Chief of Staff that he had been reassigned from in the past weeks.

“Nice to hear from you General. Or not, really, assuming you have urgent news.” The voice was that of Grand Admiral Barbey, temporary administrative leader of the navy while an inter-service HQ is being built outside DC itself. However he was also commander of the carriers Ranger and Saratoga.

“Well, your right. Urgent news has found its way to you through me.” And so he quickly and quietly explained the situation that seemed to be unfolding. The Japanese were building an inter-service assault force….but for what, and when, and where?

“Thank god your newly created patrols discovered this George. I will set out myself right away. Cooke will have to take over for me. And you will have to contact General Holcomb at Schofield Barracks to speed up the construction of your facilities at Wake and the deployment of your command there. I will ensure naval and naval air forces are sent to reinforce your pacific islands.”

December 3rd, 1941

Flagship Akagi, Port of Kwajalein

“They have taken the bait. Their response is a pittance, but this is the time to strike. Ranger and Saratoga will arrive in Pearl Harbor on the 8th according to our submarine shadowing them. Send the order to set sail. We shall also arrive on the 8th.” Yamamoto was certain of all of this, just as certain as any tactical and strategic genius in military history could ever be. There would be no stopping the Rising Sun.

“But sir-“

“Everything is in place is it not Commander Hundoi?” Yamamoto asked.

“Yes sir.” The commander answered.

“Then there should be no problems. See to it that my order is carried out right this second.” Yamamoto stared out his window. “Then allow me to see to it that the USN is dealt a blow from which they wont recover for a very long time.”

H.Appleby said:

Oh dear... this will be much worse for the United States

Click to expand...

You have no idea. It only gets worse for the USA for a few years yet. But then, you will see how it turns out in due time