Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[Cuttlefish]

Though he won’t get to read this for a while, I would like to welcome my opponent wolffpack back to the States. His unit, the 1st Cavalry Regiment, was recently inactivated at Budingen, Germany and he returned to Fort Bragg earlier this week.

[Cuttlefish]

March 7, 1943

Location: 740 miles southeast of Tjilitjap
Course: Northwest
Attached to: TF 72
Mission: Air Combat
System Damage: 4
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 256

Orders: Escort damaged carriers to Tjilitjap for emergency repairs

---

The sea is a relentless opponent. With perfect efficiency it seeks out any least flaw in the steel holding it at bay and works to exploit it. Hiryu can deal with the two gaping holes in her side, but the warped and damaged bulkheads beyond these wounds are a problem for the men working deep within the ship to stem the inflow of water. The displacement of a ship as large as an aircraft carrier creates considerable pressure, and just as victory is declared against the flooding in one area it breaks out anew in another.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the violence of the two explosions has loosened hull plates elsewhere in the hull, and new flooding is constantly being discovered in other parts of the ship. As the task force labors slowly towards Tjilitjap the desperate battle between men and the sea continues inside the carrier.

---

Aboard Hibiki Captain Ishii taps the barometer and frowns. It is dropping. The air is humid and still, and he doesn’t like the look of the fat, smooth swells. There is almost no wind, and though it is not raining at the moment the cloud cover is thick and low.

Ishii has no weather reports to go on, no long range forecasts. There is no satellite imagery he can call on to see what is happening out in the remote reaches of the Indian Ocean. There are no Japanese bases out here, and no other task forces available to give reports about what is happening in their area. All the captain has to go on are his experience and instincts.

These tell him that the task force could be in for some trouble. He hopes not. These are unfamiliar waters, he reminds himself, so he could be wrong. He steps out onto the observation wing and turns his binoculars on Hiryu. Is she lower in the water? It is hard to tell. He looks up at the sky and then paces back inside. There really isn’t anything he can do right now but wait.

---

Hiryu watch: Sys 42, Flood 57, Fires 0. Distance to port: 740 miles

[kaleun]

Gnaaaang!

[Capt. Harlock]

An officer saying to stop it wouldn't stop a sailor worth his salt.

Discipline was a bit more rigorous -- and unquestioning obedience considered more of a virtue -- in the IJN.

Well, at least Hiryu's fires are out. But the flooding has reached the 50% level -- not a good sign.

[rtrapasso]

Well - something a bit strange about the mileage - 1 day and she went from 780 to 740 miles (less than 1 hex) - i suspect it was actually 640 miles (that would be 2-3 hexes which is about right for 1 day for a crippled ship)... if she stays at 7 points of flooding for every 2 hexes, she should make it, barely (approx 11 hexes/2 = 5.5 x 7 = 39 + 57 = 96) - so she should make port... whether or not she'll stay afloat after that...

If it IS 740 miles (i.e. about 12 hexes (which is actually 720 miles) - she'll enter port at 99 flood...[X(]

i think there must be a subroutine in there calculated to make things interesting. [:D]

[goodboyladdie]

She's going to sink.[:'(]

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

Well - something a bit strange about the mileage - 1 day and she went from 780 to 740 miles (less than 1 hex) - i suspect it was actually 640 miles (that would be 2-3 hexes which is about right for 1 day for a crippled ship)... if she stays at 7 points of flooding for every 2 hexes, she should make it, barely (approx 11 hexes/2 = 5.5 x 7 = 39 + 57 = 96) - so she should make port... whether or not she'll stay afloat after that...

If it IS 740 miles (i.e. about 12 hexes (which is actually 720 miles) - she'll enter port at 99 flood...[X(]

i think there must be a subroutine in there calculated to make things interesting. [:D]

I try to make things seem a little more realistic by not always assuming Hibiki is in the center of whatever hex the ship finds itself in at the end of the turn, so it's possible the ship could report traveling as little as 20 miles or as much as 100 and still only move one hex. I also tend to report distances as a compromise between game distance via hex movement and straight-line distance.

That said, I think I may have messed up the distance calculations for either the 6th or the 7th back when I jotted them down. I do know, though, that at the end of March 7 the task force was 13 hexes from port. My notes are pretty clear from that point on, so over the next few days a good picture of the race between flooding and distance to port should emerge.

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: tocaff

An officer saying to stop it wouldn't stop a sailor worth his salt.

Except in the IJN, where insubordination like that would lead to a severe public beating (at the least).

[Onime No Kyo]

Sink or not, I think a prudent admiral would fly off whats left of her airgroup at first chance. Gods help those who help themselves. [:D]

[Feinder]

-F-

[princep01]

At the risk of being pounded into protoplasm by CPO Shun, I predict that Hiryu will not survive her ordeal.  There is much ocean to cross and she travels slower and slower as the flooding accumulates.  Plus, there is the possibility of Allied subs being routed to intercept her (and her compatriots) while she is vulnerable.

[bobogoboom]

I will say survive.......unless they break out the sake

[brisd]

Ok, thanks for that clarification. 70% is surely enough in the stock game. Those were some elite Avenger pilots I guess.

[Feinder]

I think it's amazing that, in all likelihood, Vicky will have sunk two IJN fleet CVs all by her lonesome, for nary a scratch.  You certainly wouldn't see -that- in the "standard" mega-CV battle of WitP.  I levels the playing field a bit more, after the problems the Allies had at Timor.
 
Was just thinking Cuttlefish, I don't suppose your opponent is allowed in this AAR...  That's a shame, to be the only one excluded from what it probably the best AAR in the forums.
 
Great story thus far.
 
-F-

[veji1]

Injured 2 IJN CVs, one mortally, not sunk 2...

ANyway, greatissima AAR.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Feinder

I think it's amazing that, in all likelihood, Vicky will have sunk two IJN fleet CVs all by her lonesome, for nary a scratch.  You certainly wouldn't see -that- in the "standard" mega-CV battle of WitP.  I levels the playing field a bit more, after the problems the Allies had at Timor.

Was just thinking Cuttlefish, I don't suppose your opponent is allowed in this AAR...  That's a shame, to be the only one excluded from what it probably the best AAR in the forums.

Great story thus far.

-F-

Thanks for the compliment! I actually do let my opponent read this; I let him know from time to time when it's safe to catch up. Right now, for instance. The game date is about three weeks ahead of the AAR, and nothing he reads here will give much away. He's a First Sergeant, so it's perhaps perfectly understandable that far and away his favorite character is CPO Shun.

Akagi, by the way, is at 18 sys damage with no flooding and is in no danger at the moment.

[Cuttlefish]

March 8, 1943

Location: 690 miles southeast of Tjilitjap
Course: Northwest
Attached to: TF 72
Mission: Air Combat
System Damage: 4
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 474

Orders: Escort damaged carriers to Tjilitjap for emergency repairs

---

A convoy of oilers, escorted by several destroyers, was dispatched from Singapore when the carriers left Balikpapan on their expedition into the Indian Ocean. They now rendezvous with the carriers. It is more than slightly embarrassing that the lumbering oilers have to cut their speed to avoid outrunning the warships as their column swings in alongside Ozawa’s ships.

Ozawa now faces a dilemma. It will cost him some time to refuel, and he is keenly aware that time is his enemy right now. On the other hand, some of his ships will have to refuel at some point before reaching Tjilitjap.

Ozawa decides in favor of having his ships refuel. Conditions are ideal. The sea is almost unnaturally calm at the moment. The glass continues to fall, however, and if there is bad weather ahead there may not be another chance to refuel. The Japanese ships come begin to come alongside the oilers to fill their tanks for the push to Tjilitjap.

---

The triumph of HMS Victorious gives a much needed boost to morale on both sides of the Atlantic, and goes some ways towards offsetting the gloom caused by the defeat at Timor. It is perhaps regrettable that some American commanders hear the praise heaped on the British as implied criticism of their own defeats, or hear honest enthusiasm on the part of some British commanders as gloating.

No one is more prone to this than the sharp tempered and notoriously Anglophobic Admiral King. A potentially divisive incident is narrowly avoided when King overhears two of Sir John Dill’s staff conversing in a corridor outside a meeting of the Combined Chiefs. When King hears one of them say “…good thing we were there to show the Americans how it’s done, eh?” he forgets all about the coffee he had been looking for. He starts towards the staffer, fists clenched, and only the quick thinking of one of his aides prevents him from throwing a punch. King is dragged off until he can cool down, and the diplomatic Dill quietly passes the word to his staff to avoid discussing the victory for a while.

---

Hiryu watch: Sys 42, Flood 58, Fires 0. Distance to port: 690 miles

[Terminus]

King was probably just crazy enough to have done something like that in real life...

[kaleun]

[:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

When King hears one of them say “…good thing we were there to show the Americans how it’s done, eh?” he forgets all about the coffee he had been looking for.

Hiryu watch: Sys 42, Flood 58, Fires 0. Distance to port: 690 miles

Well, the Brits did at least show the Americans how torpedoes are supposed to work! [;)]