The Matsuyama brothers vs. the Allies. A Family Chronicle

[ny59giants]

Where are you getting all your pictures from??
It would seem that part alone would take up more time that the story.

[Vetamur]

Most of the pics are from the internet.. Im lucky in that since I speak and write Japanese I can use that to search as well and get some somewhat rare pictures. As far as I know, the photo of the burial at sea is one of only about 10 extant pictures of that.
 
Some of the pictures are from books I own and are scanned in.
 
Depends on the day, the post or the pictures take more time..but a lot of the pictures are already on my hard drive and just have to be selected. Its only when the unexpected happens that I spend a long time looking for acceptable pictures that Im happy with (for example the Enterprise under attack pics..)

[Vetamur]

Dec. 13th, 1941

Clark Field, the Philippines.




Corporal Hideo Matsuyama’s tank was already running when he arrived at it, fresh from the mornings meeting with Lt. Nomiya, the platoon commander.

“You’re wasting gas, Iida.” he said, little real reproach in his voice.

“Well sir, with all we captured here I didn’t think it was something we needed to worry over” replied Iida.

“True enough, I suppose. Well, we are lead tank again today. We head out this way..” he said spreading the map before his driver. Nakata, his reloader, looked over things, just in case.

“Not towards Manila?” asked Iida.

“Nope. Apparently 16th division will take it themselves. We are just supposed to head towards Bataan. Seems the Americans are gathering themselves there for a final stand. We will be passing some villages along the way, I want us to be on our best behavior, we will probably be the first Japanese they see.”

Nakata interjected, “But Lt. Nomiya said we should—“

Hideo cut him off. “I don’t care. We are lead tank. As usual, I expect Lt. Nomiya to be in the rear of the platoon. We will treat all civilians with respect, and they in turn will give us respect. We will need to work with them.”

Nakata looked at him skeptically. Undeterred, Hideo continued, “Look, they can’t help it if they were occupied by the Americans. But under our guidance, with their resources, they really could become strong allies of ours.”

Iida was about to chime in when an explosion cut him off. The three ducked into their tank and a voice was already crackling over the radio. “West side! Infantry units! Maybe company strength!”

Hideo got his tank into the action, rotating the main gun while giving Iida instructions. Lt. Nomiya was the next voice on the radio giving directions to the other 3 tanks in the platoon.

With another three platoons, Hideo’s platoon performed a slow but steady flanking maneuver on the surprise attackers while the regiments medium tanks engaged them straight on. Though the regiment only had nine of the new Type 1 medium tanks, the attackers lacked heavy weapons and were unable to press forward the attack. Once the light tanks had them flanked, the attackers broke and ran. Fearing a diversion, Lt. Col. Kitayama forbade pursuit, content in having broken up the poorly executed attack. Thirty minutes later bodies were being counted and damaged assessed. The attackers had come from two different Philippine divisions and Hideo felt a bit sad seeing the vaguely similar faces of the dead soldiers looking up at him in their death stare. What possessed them to enroll in an American puppet army anyway? He was suddenly angry at them, the dead soldiers. In a foul mood he ordered his tank to move out.

“We have a lot of ground to cover today and tomorrow. Let’s go.”

Dec. 14th



Early the next afternoon they overtook their first group of civilian refugees. Upon seeing their column, two of the men in the column approached, one with his hands raised, the other with some piece of paper in his hand. Hideo ordered a stop, drew his pistol (you never knew) and approached the refugee spokesmen. They handed a card that had been airdropped over their village that morning, instructing them to surrender. It was directed to soldiers, not civilians. Still lacking clear directions on what to do with refugees, Hideo pondered the situation for a moment.

REFUGEES


“Well, they aren’t getting in the way. That’s clear.”, offered Iida.

“Yeah. We will just leave them be.” He looked at the surrender card. Not sure what to do with it either, he found a pen, signed it with his full name and rank, and with that continued on. He was supposed to be lead tank, which meant being in the lead by at least 80 meters.

Five minutes later, from well behind he heard a single shot.

“Do you think…?” asked Iida, unwilling to finish the question.

Hideo’s face turned red. Lt. Nomiya. Bastard. Hideo looked back but the refugee group was too far back, out of view.

The incident played through his mind the rest of the day, until just after they had stopped their march towards Bataan. Hideo was sitting, going over his options when Lt. Nomiya approached. Hideo snapped to his feet, gave a perfunctory salute. About to start verbally laying into Nomiya he was stopped cold by Nomiya’s smile. Lt. Nomiya never smiled. And he had liquor. He gave the officer a quizzical look.

TOASTING MANILA'S FALL


“Manila fell! This evening! Except for Bataan, we own Luzon!”

The news rocked Hideo. He knew the 16th division felt they could take it alone, but he had expected it to take days, maybe a week or two. But already? Was it going to be this easy? The refugee incident drifted from Hideo’s mind and he accepted a drink. Looking around, everyone else was doing the same.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Dec. 14th., early morning, 100 miles south of Borneo..



After take off from Kuching's by-comparison primitive airfield, PO2 Osamu Matsuyama spent most of the morning doing lazy circle 8s over an army convoy destined for southern Borneo. Yesterday had been uneventful, strafing empty airfields across the island from his Kuching base. Today he had hope for real action. He followed Lts. jg Araki and Maki into another turn. Maki was a replacement. That was three now. But Maki seemed to know what he was doing, just needed some combat time.

Just then the call came in, Osamu recognized PO2 Shiga’s voice “Inbound fighters and bombers, 9 o’clock low!” Instantly picking up the Dutch attack, Lt. jg Araki turned his fighter to make a head on attack. Maki kept formation. Osamu was briefly tempted to break off and seek his own prey but stayed in formation.

In total 15 Zeros were on CAP over the convoy and the Dutch pilots had to either be foolhardy or extremely brave to press their attack. While Osamu’s group bore head on into one flight, Shiga’s flight of two aircraft were already moving into firing position on some obsolete Martin bombers. Osamu saw Maki’s hand go up as they flew past the ungainly American fighters and snap a close up.

The 4 Dutch fighters broke into pairs and Araki and Maki split, forcing Osamu into a decision. Maki would probably need more help he decided and stayed behind Maki in support. The lead Dutch pilot just 400 yards in front of Maki made the same mistake that was being made all over the Pacific and tried to get himself into shooting position by getting into a turning match with the Zeros, while his wingman risked being called a coward and simply dove away. Maki stayed with the lead and 30 seconds later the distinctive “boom” of his cannon shattered the canopy of the Brewster fighter and shredded its left wing. In entered a death spin. Osamu let out a shout. It wasn’t his kill but it was the closest he had been yet!

Heading back to the convoy Osamu looked for more targets but found nothing. He sought out Araki and rejoined him in formation.

Hours later, just before turning back Shiga again called out targets. He must have amazing eyesight, thought Osamu. This time Osamu’s group didn’t even break their orbit. It was just 4 antique torpedo bombers and Shiga and Nagaishi were half-way there already. Later he learned PO2 Shiga shot down 3 Dutch aircraft that day, Nagaishi getting 2 more.

PO2 Shiga



Back at base Osamu and Araki hounded Maki to get his film developed. “Do you think you got him on film?”

“Pretty sure I timed it right. Glad I bought this camera! Lets go check”




An hour later they had a picture of Lt.jg Maki’s first kill. They admired the picture as they walked back towards their barracks.

“Well, once we get proper tea houses built around here I will buy you a drink! Quite a feat, Maki. Get transferred here yesterday, first kill today! You’re lucky I let you take it. Next one’s mine”

A buzz caught Osamu’s ear. He searched the sky for a familiar, but different aircraft. Sure enough a large group of Type 1 bombers were lining up landing. “Bombers? Already? Wonder where from.”

--------------------------------------------------------

2000 ft. above Kuching Airbase, Borneo.



PO1 Hiroyuki’s G4M1 entered the landing pattern. Kuching Airbase was smaller than Takao, but he was glad to be here. There was certain to be more action, and the transfer had removed him from a difficult situation with Ling. He was off all women other than Haru he had sworn to his copilot Ueda all the long flight down.

He touched down on the single runway and followed the ground crews instruction, taxing to the westernmost edge of the run where workers, apparently IJA, were filling sandbags to make aircraft shelters for. He had hoped for more for his precious Mitsubishi.

Upon exiting the aircraft he was met by a familiar, smiling face. For once it was a nice surprise: “Hey big brother!” came the shout from Osamu, “Glad you make it to where the action is!”

“Hey little brother! Yeah, I heard the action was down hear and you might need some protection!”

Osamu introduced his flight-mates, Araki (who vaguely remember Hiroyuki) and Maki and requainted himself with Hiroyuki’s crew.

“Maki got his first kill today. A Dutch Brewster. We shot down more than 10 of their fighters and bombers today. I guess they did get lucky attacking the Nagato though, it took a torpedo from one of those antique floatplanes the Dutch are using. Revenge comes tomorrow!”

“Well, that’s why I chose to release the torpedo, not be a torpedo target. Naval Air Corps all the way. Do we still have time? Lets go into town, see Kuching”, he winked at Ueda, “Can’t wait to see what kind of women Kuching has!”

Ueda rolled his eyes, but knew a night, or at least an evening on the town was inevitable. "Come on Matsuyama," he said to Osamu, "You can tell me all about Maki's kill and I will tell you all about the your brothers solmen vows of chastity made all the way down here."

The small group of naval avaiators and crew made their way out for their first foray into Kuching.
-------------------------------------------


Dec. 14th
430 miles northwest of Oahu, Hawaii, aboard CV Hiryu.



Smoke hung over the briefing room and the pilots, commanders of the squadrons above Hiryu and their select CPOs, variously scribbled on their pads, sipped down think Navy coffee or studied Captain Kaku. Finally CPO Junichiro Matsuyama spoke up. “How bad is it, sir?”

The captain cleared his throat. “So far, not bad at all. The Americans interrupted the our landings at New Ireland, and have sunk a destroyer and transport and heavily damaged some other ships. Its not what they have done so far that warrants concern. It’s the situation. At least two American carriers are around Rabaul. We assumed that after the loss of their battleships and the other carrier they would mostly withdraw and regroup. We have invasions going on all over the area, from west New Guinea all the way down to some forgotten island named “Espiritu something-or-other”. They are mostly without aircover.”

Lt. Mori, commander of Junichiro’s Zero-sen squadron looked up from his pad. “Where is the Ryujo? Or the Junyo?”

The captain pointed to the wall map of the Pacific. “They are engaged in chasing down the fleets escaping the Philippines. And even if they were closer they wouldn’t help that much. They are too small. The American’s can’t truly go on the offensive, but they could sink a lot of ships. We need to get there in a hurry, and hopefully without being noticed. Only the cruiser and battleship scout planes will go up and we will make our best speed for the Coral Sea.” He stopped, looked at Junichiro. “If we get their fast enough, we may get the victory you think we need. If we can sink those two carriers, the American’s will be truly impotent. They would have to sue for peace. At least that’s what the admirals think.”

Junichiro weighed the thought in his mind. Just two days before in his journal he had written about the need to use the combined fleet in decisive action. Now, seemingly the opportunity presented himself. Would the Americans sue for peace if deprived of these two carriers? It was, he was sure, Japan’s only chance at victory. Yet, somewhere inside he doubted that American would give up that soon. He remembered driving across America’s seemingly endless highways years before with his family…

He pushed the defeatist thoughts from his mind. He could only do his best. He scanned the room looking at the others and with a smile he didn’t feel proclaimed, “Sir, in the Coral Sea we will end this war. Tell the Army to take their time with Singapore, America will soon be out of the war.”

[princep01]

One week into the war and the Japanese are invading Espiritu Santo.  My, my, these guys are sure enough aggressive.

[Vetamur]

Dec. 15th, 1941.

Tokyo, Japan.

The Matsuyama Home, Aoyama Tokyo


The General’s car made its way through the narrow streets of Aoyama, one of Tokyo’s wealthier districts. Few people were on the bare cherry tree lined streets and almost no cars competed for space. Most people had given up their private vehicles the previous year, though not all and as his car pulled into its destination the General noted that the Matsuyama family was one family that still retained their motor car, it being parked outside. Exiting the car the General paused for a moment to examine the Matsuyama’s car. On the back it had the tell-tale smoky box of a coal conversion: the Matsuyama car burned coal, not gasoline which since the previous year was no longer distributed to the public at large. It must be hard on the engine, the General mused before turning to enter the enormous, especially for Tokyo, house.

A servant met him at the door and showed him and his aide into a Japanese style room. They were served tea and told to wait just, that the eldest Matsuyama would be with them shortly. Normally the General would have been annoyed, if not angered, but the tea was high quality and the smells wafting in from the kitchen showed that rationing wasn’t hitting the Matsuyama family to the extent it was others.

Presently Michihiro Matsuyama showed himself into the room, a glass of amber colored liquid in hand. He looked at the General’s drink. “Is tea fine? Or would you and your man prefer a whiskey? Not to worry, it’s the proper stuff, not the watered down stuff being offered now in the shops. Private stock.”

“You are very generous, but I really shouldn’t,” replied the General. Private stock? It was vaguely distasteful to the General that a mere merchant was enjoying such luxuries, but he allowed that the empire did rely on such men and it was natural that they enjoy the benefits. There usefulness was evidenced by the reason he was here today.

After small talk, mostly on the success of the war effort the military careers of Michihiro’s four sons the General came around to the point.

“The Empire, the Army, and the government have a request for you. Based on the early lessons of this war, some adjustments are being made to war production.”

Warily, his company produced no armaments, Michihiro asked simply, “Yes? Of course, I am always willing to serve the Empire.”

Reaching into his attaché case, the General removed some paper. “What I’m about to show you of course is classified, but we are assured you are cleared despite your civilian status. This is the Army’s new plane.” The General unrolled a sheet and laid it on the table, revealing a plan form view of a single seat fighter.




Still unclear and growing uneasy the older man slowly picked up the plan. “Yes, I see. Quite nice, but I don’t see what…”

The General headed off the question. “Nakajima makes it. At first the army aviators didn’t want it. But so far in this war we have had just one set back for which we haven’t had an answer. The American 4 engine bombers. But this fighter is our reply. The test group, there are 9, have had some success, our only success as of yet, against those bombers. Nakajima has been told to accelerate its development. Hopefully by summer we will have it in full use. You have two bicycle plants in Gunma, do you not?”

Oh. It was clear now. “Uhm. Yes, older bicycle plants. Built in the 20’s. Very small.”

“Yes. Well, people have enough bicycles, now, don’t they? What the Empire needs from you now is the cannon for this aircraft. We would like you to consider converting your bicycle factories to make 20mm cannon for aircraft.”

Despite the wording, it wasn’t a request. He had just been ordered.

“Sure. Of course. If you can set up meetings with Nakajima and the cannon designer, we will start immediately on the conversion.” And with that the Matsuyama clan became for the first time an arms manufacturer.

“My aide will set things up. The government appreciates your help.”

Things wrapped up and Michihiro set about making plans. How were cannon made?
---------------------------------------------------------

Mid Pacific Ocean, aboard CV Hiryua

With flights suspended to help the fleet remain unspotted as it raced to New Ireland, there were few pressing matters for Junichiro to attend to. The air to air victory stories had been told and retold, his personal Zero-sen had been checked and rechecked, and he had reached an uneasy truce with his wingman Minobe. Therefore Junichiro was spending as much time in the radio room and on combat center as he would get away with. Presently the executive officer and he were exchanging whatever news tidbits they had heard. A small man with a prematurely gray beard, Lt. Commander Arai was a rarity: he had come up through the ranks in submarines, had applied very late for flight training, had it approved and now served on an aircraft carrier, where most other senior officers had only surface ship experience. This background in subs explained the unmistakable affection in his voice as he related: “Yep, the I-166 has sunk three ships already and damaged another. She’s heading into port, already out of torpedoes. The subs are doing well, but I would bet the captain of the I-5 is going to be replaced…seems he put two fish in a minesweeper. Someone behind a desk in Tokyo isn’t going to be pleased.”

I-166 (formerly I-66)



Junichiro nodded. He didn’t know much about submarine warfare. His limited experience had been listening to the debate in the months before the war over the role subs should play. Eventually the doctrine about using them against warships had been reversed in the two weeks before the war and from what he was hearing, it was paying off.

----------------------------------------------------
20 miles south of Clark Field, Philippines.

Corporal Hideo looked up at the sky at the navy bombers flying overhead. Two large formations of twin engine bombers, with some escorts, heading for Bataan. He didn’t really recognize the escorts, he never paid that much attention to navy planes except what his brothers flew. The bombers were Type 1s, the type his brother flew. For all he knew was brother was in one of those right now. He decided to count them, losing count around 60. Shortly afterwords some smaller army bombers and attack aircraft flew over, heading in the same direction. They weren’t flying from Clark and for a moment Hideo wondered where they were flying in from and why Clark wasn’t being used, before getting back to the business at hand. Rather than heading for Bataan as soon as possible the 4th Armored Regiment was linking up with the 16th Division (recent conquerors of Manila) and other army units. Apparently the Americans and Philippinos had retreated the bulk of their forces to Bataan, which was why the going had been so easy so far. Once linked up with other units, the 4th regiment would lead the way to the final defeat of the Americans on Luzon.

An hour later Hideo’s eyes again went skyward as the returning bombers again flew over his position. Without counting he knew immediately there were fewer of them, and several were unmistakably trailing smoke. There nice, neat formations going in were scattered over the sky, at different altitudes and sub-formations had gaps in them. The Americans weren’t giving up yet.

------------------------------------------------
The fatigue of 8 hours in the sky left Hiroyuki immediately upon sighting their targets. His hands grew sweaty and his stomach knotted up. It reminded him of how he used to feel before a big track meet. The three flights of three Type 1 Mitsubishi attack bombers from G2 Takao had caught their prey: below a single destroyer was escorting a large transport aircraft away from Singapore. As per their discussion, the first two flights lined up for torpedo runs on the tanker, three on each side to decrease its chance of escape. As the destroyer tried to position itself to put up some anti aircraft interference, Hiroyuku’s group made their run on it. Hiroyuki’s aircraft flew second in the group, now a couple of hundred yards behind the lead and purposely letting the lead aircraft increase the spacing.

Descending down to 200 feet, Hiroyuki advanced the throttle and shouted out updates to his aircrew. His right hand moved to the torpedo release. Ahead, PO2 Harada released his torpedo, not trying necessarily for the hit, but forcing the destroyer into a turn that made Hiroyuki’s shot much easier. The destroyer captain noticed the threat belatedly and retrained his crews anti-aircraft guns on the more immediate threat. Black clouds erupted around the aircraft but Hiroyuki lost no concentration, and his aircraft leapt upon the torpedo release, free of the extra weight. Up to that moment, Hiroyuki had been focused purely on his run, but now that the torpedo was released his thoughts turned to one thing: survival. Black mini-clouds continued to fill the air and twice were close enough to set his waist gunner Ishii cursing as metal fragments punctured the aircraft near his position.

As Hiroyuki gained altitude he heard his tail gunner let out a howl “Hit! We hit it!”. The flak suddenly was far off target. Hiroyuki banked the aircraft to get a better view. It was a slight risk, but with just a damaged destroyer as a threat he felt it was justified to get some good damage evaluation. As he made his turn he could see the destroyer in serious trouble.



His torpedo had blown a 30 foot whole amidships just below the waterline. Its list was already severe and it would capsize any moment. The destroyer’s charge, a large tanker was also breaking up.



Ueda intruded into his thoughts, but with good news: “That’s two enemy ships for no losses. I count 9 of us still up here.”

“Alright, let’s head for home.”

Back at base, Hiroyuki celebrated his first kill of the war with sake for all his crew. “Ueda! Paint us an English destroyer on the noise of our plane! I’m going to go find my brother!”

“But I don’t know how to paint!” Ueda objected.

[Vetamur]

Just a quick note for anyone who might have wondered.
 
I have discontinued the AAR for the time being. Given the time it was taken vs. how few people I had managed to interset, it was difficult to justify continuing. Also, I hadnt thought through a few things and was a bit unhappy with the constraints the medium put on the writing.
 
Originally I had planned on writing an AAR that was more than an AAR, but rather a genuine look into Japanese common thought on the war, among the minority educated, liberal types, in addition to normal day to day life during the war for IJ forces. 
 
The game is still going on, I am still keeping track of the 4 brothers units.. I may restart it again at some point, after reconsidering format. Sorry to my handful of readers!

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Vetamur

Just a quick note for anyone who might have wondered.

I have discontinued the AAR for the time being. Given the time it was taken vs. how few people I had managed to interset, it was difficult to justify continuing. Also, I hadnt thought through a few things and was a bit unhappy with the constraints the medium put on the writing.

Originally I had planned on writing an AAR that was more than an AAR, but rather a genuine look into Japanese common thought on the war, among the minority educated, liberal types, in addition to normal day to day life during the war for IJ forces. 

The game is still going on, I am still keeping track of the 4 brothers units.. I may restart it again at some point, after reconsidering format. Sorry to my handful of readers!

Well, rats!!

Truly sorry to see you discontinue this...

[Andy_MKST]

Sorry to hear that Veta, I was rearly enjoying this...
 
Hopefully the boys will be back soon!

[String]

Nooooo...

[princep01]

What was presented to us was truly inspired, Vetamur.  I look forward to the continuation, should you decide to invest the considerable time and effort.  Nice style.  Loved the pics..

[Cuttlefish]

I encourage you to pick this up again at some point, Vetamur. Don't be discouraged by what seems like a low number of hits. The Hibiki AAR started out slow, too. And at any rate, it's the sort of thing you write because you want to - if anyone reads it, that's just a bonus. And it really is good stuff.

Being unable to use the format to do quite what you want is another matter, and I've got no advice for you there. I hope you find a way to write something that does what you want and still lets you keep up with the game, etc.

[ny59giants]

My interset in an AAR are rated as follows:
1) Those that have a high rate of maps to follow the progress of the war.
2) Your's and Cuttlefish's stories of a particular ship or family.

3) Those with just combat reports....boring!

[kaleun]

Sumimasen.
I am really sorry to see this end. I hope you restart it.
This was one of the best AARs IMHO

[pauk]

ORIGINAL: kaleun

Sumimasen.
This was one of the best AARs IMHO

disagree here. this is a best AAR!

Vetamur, i hope that you will be back - i'm sure that many peoples read this, most excellent, stuff but they dont want to post there just because they think that, if they wrote anything here, would look a like SPAM (well that is feeling i have)

[&o]

besides that, you already have 17.5 hits per post....i recall that when i started AAR against Mac i had 15 hits a looong time...until the world recognised my genious (sp?)[;)][8|]

[Helpless]

not that I want to worsen a hit per post, but just to express a support to something much more interesting than just combat reports. keep it going, please

[cantona]

Veta

Its a shame that this has been stopped. IMO it beats all the CR AARs by a mile. This one and the Hibiki are my favourites because they tell a stroy. I have some AARS in the TOAWIII forum and they are all in this style. A story being told from within the perspective of the game. Ive only discovered this today, got all excited about it and gutted its over all in about an hour. Keep the writing going as im sure there are manu LUKERAARS that read this thread.

OT if you like these type of AAR's Veta try the Paradox Forums, full of these

Cantona, hoping for a continuaion of this masterful AAR [&o]

[kaleun]

disagree here. this is a best AAR!

Vetamur, i hope that you will be back - i'm sure that many peoples read this, most excellent, stuff but they dont want to post there just because they think that, if they wrote anything here, would look a like SPAM (well that is feeling i have)



besides that, you already have 17.5 hits per post....i recall that when i started AAR against Mac i had 15 hits a looong time...until the world recognised my genious (sp?)

Concur. I am only suscribed to this one, Hibiki and the end of the world as we know it.

BTW, after reading those three I am ashamed to continue my "Halsey Defects' AAR, and I have not reported on my new game with warspite.
You three guys raised the standards!

[jwilkerson]

Vetamur,

Any AAR with a hit rate more than 10 to 1 to posts I consider to be a clear success - and you have exceeded that with only 50+ posts ... and this is your first major thread ... so very unusual ... at least around here. Perhaps many readers (like myself) didn't want to post particularly because we didn't want to disturb the "mood" of your AAR ... after all we would be "interlopers" in the story!!!

I think your topic and theme are important and I strongly encourage you to continue!! [&o]

[Vetamur]

Hi. Me again. Ok.. a couple things..I think I wasnt quite clear in that post. I didnt mean that there werent enough readers in a sort of "post ratio" kind of thing.. I meant, writing here is for at most an audience of a couple dozen. I dont mind a horrible ratio.  Its just a time vs. audience thing.
 
I didnt realize the positive feelings some people had so I will continue this by Monday (my time.. Sunday for most of you).
 
I may make a few changes here and there..like I said, Im feeling somewhat constrained by the medium but really, it is on me to find a way.  Thank you for the kind words. My next post will be back in action.

[cantona]

Let me be the first to say wahey
 
many thanks Veta
 
made the hurt of the FA Cup Final loss lessen somewhat