Remembering PRESTAGS

What to do with no EDEE turns...

It has been over a week since the last EDEE turn arrived, and work is getting bizarre. I have four masters and two are whinging about average delivery of requirements they have never specified and a third was just been taken over by a UK company. As a result, I am in Sydney (rather than Manila) with my plans needing an overhaul and Christmas is looming.

What better way to express my feelngs, but to go to Vietnam in 1964!

I received this double map whopper two years ago from S&T and shoved it into the roof. Somehow, in my current mood and with an unexpected weekend, I brought it out and set it up. The black are the Viet Cong, the red are the NVA, the yellows are the South Vietnamese and the greens are the free world forces. If you zoom the image by clicking on it, you can see the ANZ Task forice in Phouc Le (just east of Saigon). Also note the massive number of bombers on the left box of the map. Otherwise, there is not much on the map - a few divisions and a number of irregulars on each side. This makes for lots of maneuver (though as I played, I found everything was happening around bases).

The Free World forces are always visible (that rule is cleverly called "New York Times") while the communists have fog of wag and a number of dummy units. To make that work solitaire, I would roll a die for Free World target selection.

I started with a massive bombing of a base near the border hoping to clear it out. I did cause some casualties but only delayed its usefulness to the Communists.

The Communists hit back by taking Khe Sang with two divisions and a regiment of Viet Cong. The Free World lost a regiment of marines and the base. The NVA then advanced and put the firebase of Quang Tri under siege

Elsewhere the Viet Cong did very well taking two cities. At the end of their turn, they were well in the lead with political and military points. The Free World political points were actually negative (humorously indicated by a picture of Jane Fonda in North Vietnam).

The Free World started with some recon of Viet Cong positions. Delta Force uncovered a dummy unit near Da Lat. Unfortunately, Chuck Norris survived the insertion.

The US First division threw itself at the Iron Triangle just west of Saigon but the attack failed, even with fire support, with the loss of a supporting ARVN division. An attack on another Communist base failed when one of the attacking regiments was ambushed. The only Free World attack that went to plan was a riverine counterattack in the Delta where we caught the Vient Cong in the open. (What's that sweet morning smell?)

At the end of the first turn, the Free World clearly needed a rethink. They needed the facility to take out Communist bases and to launch effective counter attacks. One of the AVRN units was shattered beyond recovery. Even worse, their points had gone backwards. If the Communists lead by 25 on both scales, they win a sudden death victory.

What can the Communists do next turn?

BTW, a recent article in S&T talked about the many wargames the US played before getting involved in Vietnam. Everyone showed a Communist victory.

ANZAC Day 2014

I remembered in Canberra.

 

Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

Australia is covered with war memorials, most in remembrance of the First World War and the Second World War. In a Burwood park next to one of the main shopping centres near my home is a war memorial that was opened on Remembrance Day 1922. That is 91 years ago. This memorial now remembers 9 wars up to Vietnam.

Even on my own street, a few minutes walk from my house, is a row of olive trees that is actually a war memorial to the Rats of Tobruk. Most people would drive past these trees without realising what they signify.

I remember.

Known Unto God

One of the first things Tony Abbott's new government did has not received much publicity, although it was an excellent decision.

In the dying days of the former labor government, the governing council of the Australian War Memorial (led by the War Memorial's director, former liberal leader Brendan Nelson) decided to remove the words "Known Unto God" from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. These words were to be replaced with words from a speech by former labor prime minister Paul Keating: "He is one of them, and he is all of us".

Our new prime minister Tony Abbott, and the new Veterans' Affairs Minister Senator Michael Ronaldson, intervened and there will now be no change to "Known Unto God".

I would like to see Brendan Nelson and every member of the council that attempted to remove the reference to God sacked immediately. I have had an absolute gutful of the political correctness (which is a tool of the evil that never sleeps) editing out God at every opportunity, and even creeping into sacred places like the War Memorial.

The stupidity of this whole episode is that the words "Known Unto God" were written by Rudyard Kipling and chosen by the generation of diggers themselves. Although the words were added in 1999 these are the words the diggers had placed on thousands of crosses around the world to mark the graves of their comrades who were unable to be identified.

The Australian War Memorial exists through the efforts of First World War veterans and their vision of how to remember their mates: "Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made" (Charles Bean, 1st World War Official Historian). Precisely. Who are we in our modern corrupt pathetic society of 2013 to change the way the war veterans themselves want to be remembered.

I agree with radio broadcaster Michael Smith's view about the current governing council: "The people who made the plan to remove the historical words used by our diggers are vandals. They have no place as stewards of our most sacred national memorial".

I grew up in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and one of my favourite places was, and still is, the Australian War Memorial. These days the ACT is a hotbed of leftist extremism, perversion and social engineering. The War Memorial has had a narrow escape, although no doubt the God haters will be back. Perhaps they will try and remove actual items from the War Memorial that offend their evil master, such as the Long Tan Cross.

I have never had much time for Paul Keating, and his words have no place in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Hall of Remembrance. However, Keating did use words in parliament once that I believe are a good description of the vandals and anti Christians that wage a continuous assault on our nation: "Scumbags of dog's vomit; sleazebags of pigswill; maggot-infested buckets of pus; crims; grubs; boudoir bandicoots; box-heads; liars; lice; maggots; in and out of a cat's arse; like a dog returning to it's vomit". Yes, that was our former prime minister speaking. He had a turn of phrase, but was not Rudyard Kipling.

 

Vietnam Veterans Day

Today is Vietnam Veterans Day. August 18 was picked because it is the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.

"The battle of Long Tan was the largest single unit battle fought in Vietnam by Australian troops. It began on the afternoon of August 18th and went right through the night until the morning of the 19th. The reason why is was looked on as decisive and significant was because the Australians had only been there a few months - it was the first major conflict involving Australian troops in Vietnam. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army were aware that the Australians were there to secure the province and decided that they would take them on. That was the fate that befell a company of men - Delta company, from the 6th Batallion, Royal Australian Regiment - who were on patrol that particular day. The enemy lay in wait for them - a huge ambush in a rubber plantation called Long Tan. The Australians held off thousands of enemy troops for the duration of that battle. Eighteen Australian troops were killed - up to a thousand of the enemy. The skills of artillery men and arrival of armoured carriers with more men saved the day. The 6th Batallion was called the "Baby Batallion" as it was made up largely of national servicemen - and they certainly underwent a baptism by fire". (RSL, WA Branch)

We grumpy post 50 wargamers were too young for Vietnam by about 10 years. Thankfully, just boardgames for us. I still remember a school class mate who had an older brother killed in Vietnam, and I remember the fall of Saigon on TV.

I commend a wonderful poem:  Long Tan by Gary Jacobson

At least we made it to 50. And we remember them.

Marching bravely into Long Tan, diggers do as they were told
Sadly, some will never have a bloody chance of ever growing old