Part IV: The Indonesian Campaign (June 1939 - 8th September 1939)
Saruman ordered his troops in New Zealand to close the pocket, and they duly did that.
Perturbed by the Japanese advance in the Dutch East Indies, Saruman decided that with most of the New Zealand forces destroyed, conquering New Zealand could wait. Once the North Island was secure, the Uruk-Hai were ordered to transfer to Darwin and then on to the island of Java instead.
Unfortunately, during this transfer, the Australian Escort Carrier was destroyed! Although this was a blow, the division of Uruk-Hai who were in that fleet survived, and they were more important in the short term at least, and the Carrier was only a prototype model, after all.
The Uruk-Hai invaded the jungle-ridden islands of the East Indies where the Japanese had not yet reached. The Uruk-Hai were almost ashore when a British fleet appeared and started beating up the proud Australian fleet. Somehow we managed to destroy one of their light cruisers, but we lost the pride of our fleet in the process!
The rest of the Australian fleet returned to port to Australian ports to nurse their wounds, as the Uruk-Hai began taking over Java. They wanted to get into Sumatra too, but there was a problem.
"Sire," said the chief of the Indonesian Forces, "we are having trouble invading Sumatra. Our Uruk-Hai cannot cross the strait, due to constant naval forces in the area, mostly due to the forces that are in Sumatra."
"Thanks for reporting this," said Saruman "I'll see what I can do."
Saruman went to his own private office in Orthanc, uttered some sacred words, and sent his mind thousands of miles away to the area in question. He strove around, looking for weak mortal minds that he could bend to his will. Eventually he found some, and he bade them do his bidding.
It was time for Saruman to use more of his magical abilities to aid the troops. First he uttered some words to increase the coffers of the Australians.
No idea what happened here.
Secondly he cast a spell known only as "console assigncontroller" to gain two seemingly worthless territories, that he knew held magical powers.
Leadership is a major issue for Australia's ambitions, if I can use this little bit of magic to help then so be it! This is probably going to be the limit of using console to help me out directly.
Meanwhile, news from Europe suggested that Hitler had this great idea to avoid the Magniot line by going through Netherlands and Belgium, but after a while he took leave of his senses and got bored with that plan, so attacked the Magniot line as well.
Back in the Far East, the Japanese - finally - after sitting outside Singapore for over a month, decided to march in to it and take it.
Come early September, it was time for a round-up with the various heads of departments.
"OK, foreign affairs minister, what's going on in Europe?"
"Well sire, Germany has defeated France and has begun to invade Norway, as these military intelligence reports show."
"Excellent. Now then, Chief of Staff, can you give me an update on the situation in Indonesia and Malaysia?"
"Yessir, this picture gives a good overview."
"Very good. Now then, minister of trade, can you tell me what the implications of our Indonesian conquests are?"
"Of course. We have implemented a military government in order to make the most of the resources present. The quantity of rare materials there are immense - enough to power 61 factories - so we have cancelled all our deals which brought us these resources from abroad. This has meant we have cut our supply for cash exports too, freeing up more factories for producing war materials. Finally the islands also give us enough metal/energy to run 1-2 factories, not much but it helps."
"Excellent, excellent! This leads into an update from our minister of industry...."
"Well sir," began the minister, "our two latest factories have completed construction, and two more have begun, which we are hoping to finish in a year. Together with our research into industrial output, and the extra capacity that Japan have given us entirely of their free will...."
"Yes that's right, no use of my mental powers was involved in that at all...."
"...yessir, I wouldn't dream of suggesting that.... as I was saying, as a result of these things our industrial output is quite impressive considering where we were a few years ago, but we shall not rest on our laurels yet, more industrial research and more factories shall be constructed."
"I am glad to hear it - though I fear the time of factory-building may be drawing to a slow close. I shall keep you up to date with my orders on this. Well, unless anyone else has anything pressing to tell me, I will call this meeting to a cl..."
At this point a hurried messenger came running through the door.
"Sir! Sir! The Americans have made a speech declaring an Unlimited National Emergency!"
"That is a surprise. I didn't think the Americans would feel so threatened by the Germans at this stage."
"Sir, you are right... they aren't!"
"Then.... who ARE they threatened by?"
"Sir... it's.... us!"
:blink:
Saruman ordered his troops in New Zealand to close the pocket, and they duly did that.
Perturbed by the Japanese advance in the Dutch East Indies, Saruman decided that with most of the New Zealand forces destroyed, conquering New Zealand could wait. Once the North Island was secure, the Uruk-Hai were ordered to transfer to Darwin and then on to the island of Java instead.
Unfortunately, during this transfer, the Australian Escort Carrier was destroyed! Although this was a blow, the division of Uruk-Hai who were in that fleet survived, and they were more important in the short term at least, and the Carrier was only a prototype model, after all.
The Uruk-Hai invaded the jungle-ridden islands of the East Indies where the Japanese had not yet reached. The Uruk-Hai were almost ashore when a British fleet appeared and started beating up the proud Australian fleet. Somehow we managed to destroy one of their light cruisers, but we lost the pride of our fleet in the process!
The rest of the Australian fleet returned to port to Australian ports to nurse their wounds, as the Uruk-Hai began taking over Java. They wanted to get into Sumatra too, but there was a problem.
"Sire," said the chief of the Indonesian Forces, "we are having trouble invading Sumatra. Our Uruk-Hai cannot cross the strait, due to constant naval forces in the area, mostly due to the forces that are in Sumatra."
"Thanks for reporting this," said Saruman "I'll see what I can do."
Saruman went to his own private office in Orthanc, uttered some sacred words, and sent his mind thousands of miles away to the area in question. He strove around, looking for weak mortal minds that he could bend to his will. Eventually he found some, and he bade them do his bidding.
It was time for Saruman to use more of his magical abilities to aid the troops. First he uttered some words to increase the coffers of the Australians.
No idea what happened here.
Secondly he cast a spell known only as "console assigncontroller" to gain two seemingly worthless territories, that he knew held magical powers.
Leadership is a major issue for Australia's ambitions, if I can use this little bit of magic to help then so be it! This is probably going to be the limit of using console to help me out directly.
Meanwhile, news from Europe suggested that Hitler had this great idea to avoid the Magniot line by going through Netherlands and Belgium, but after a while he took leave of his senses and got bored with that plan, so attacked the Magniot line as well.
Back in the Far East, the Japanese - finally - after sitting outside Singapore for over a month, decided to march in to it and take it.
Come early September, it was time for a round-up with the various heads of departments.
"OK, foreign affairs minister, what's going on in Europe?"
"Well sire, Germany has defeated France and has begun to invade Norway, as these military intelligence reports show."
"Excellent. Now then, Chief of Staff, can you give me an update on the situation in Indonesia and Malaysia?"
"Yessir, this picture gives a good overview."
"Very good. Now then, minister of trade, can you tell me what the implications of our Indonesian conquests are?"
"Of course. We have implemented a military government in order to make the most of the resources present. The quantity of rare materials there are immense - enough to power 61 factories - so we have cancelled all our deals which brought us these resources from abroad. This has meant we have cut our supply for cash exports too, freeing up more factories for producing war materials. Finally the islands also give us enough metal/energy to run 1-2 factories, not much but it helps."
"Excellent, excellent! This leads into an update from our minister of industry...."
"Well sir," began the minister, "our two latest factories have completed construction, and two more have begun, which we are hoping to finish in a year. Together with our research into industrial output, and the extra capacity that Japan have given us entirely of their free will...."
"Yes that's right, no use of my mental powers was involved in that at all...."
"...yessir, I wouldn't dream of suggesting that.... as I was saying, as a result of these things our industrial output is quite impressive considering where we were a few years ago, but we shall not rest on our laurels yet, more industrial research and more factories shall be constructed."
"I am glad to hear it - though I fear the time of factory-building may be drawing to a slow close. I shall keep you up to date with my orders on this. Well, unless anyone else has anything pressing to tell me, I will call this meeting to a cl..."
At this point a hurried messenger came running through the door.
"Sir! Sir! The Americans have made a speech declaring an Unlimited National Emergency!"
"That is a surprise. I didn't think the Americans would feel so threatened by the Germans at this stage."
"Sir, you are right... they aren't!"
"Then.... who ARE they threatened by?"
"Sir... it's.... us!"
:blink:
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