Nomad "The war against Kirk's creation"

[okami]

I love Star Trek references, so shoot me!!! This will not be your typical combat report AAR. I would at this time like to thank Cuttlefish for his more than entertaining AAR. Long Live the Hibiki!!! This AAR will be in a similar vein as it follows the exploits of 1st LT P. Hanzawa and the men of F1/13th Chutai. Pieter is the son of retired naval officer and comes from a fine naval tradition. Unfortunately for our protagonist he enlisted in the IJA as competition for flight school was less intense and the chance of combat in China was greater. The story begins Dec 8th 1941.
This AAR will be sporatic as it will follow as journal entries and letters home. It will be a tragedy as all warstories usually are. I hope you enjoy it.
Andrew

[Cuttlefish]

Thanks for the kind words, and good luck with this! In reference to the title of the thread, however, I have to worry: will you self destruct if anyone points out your errors?

[okami]

As this is the third in my series of journals I will give a little background so that there is continuity and form to my ramblings. To whomever is reading this, ig you could forward the contents to my family in Nagoya I would appriciate it. It is now December 8th 1941 and the war has been a long one. Just today Major Koga informed me that the Emperor has seen fit to widen the conflict to include the British, Dutch and the Americans. Wasn't China enough? If you can not tell I am not a member of the hawks as I spent to much time at my father's side to believe that war with America could be anything but fally. But I am Samurai and I go where my Emperor commands. Duty is as a mountain, death but a feather. Major Koga is not a happy man today. We recieved the new Hayabusa's today and only three of the twelve are in flying order. We will work round the clock to make them ready. In Koga's command even the officers get dirty. I hear we will be moving to Burma in the future after we shake out the bugs. Oh well duty calls.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

Thanks for the kind words, and good luck with this! In reference to the title of the thread, however, I have to worry: will you self destruct if anyone points out your errors?

Hmmmm.... Will there be scenes involving the protagonist and women of bizarre colors?

[okami]

ORIGINAL: AU Tiger

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

Thanks for the kind words, and good luck with this! In reference to the title of the thread, however, I have to worry: will you self destruct if anyone points out your errors?

It will be the Sterilized version and as the characters are flying Ki43's they may not have time to selfdestruct.

Hmmmm.... Will there be scenes involving the protagonist and women of bizarre colors?

If they get stationed back to Japan he may have an encounter with Geisha.[:D]

[okami]

Busy day today. I had my first flight in the new Hayabusa. Flying escort for the navy of things. I have to say those D3A2 are deadly. They sank a merchant ship for no lose while all I did was fly in cirlces looking for trouble that never came. Major Koga wants to know what I think of the new plane. It is not a vast improvement on the Ki27. Still any improvement is better than nothing. Will still be able to fly cirlces around the Americans in their P40s. The add firepower should help as well. Still only seven of twelve planes operational and so we can not do squadron training. I'm glad the Major decided to let the more experienced pilots have the first planes. Still now there are more of us working on the rest. SHould be up and running by the 11th. 14th Army HQ is on base here and so we here about what is happening so far in the war. the 48th and 65th Divisions land at a place called Vigan. There was also a landing a Appari but I don't know what landed there. Word is that the 16th Army landed south of Manila. All seems to be going well.

[okami]

First day of squadron maneuvers. Heard that we landed troops at a place called Kuantan, had to look it up. Seems it is a small town in Malaya. The navy is doing most of the fighting so far. Tommorow we are scheduled to go on bombing missions against Chinese targets. The base seems far removed from the war. A destroyer limped into port today. She'll be headed to the repair yards in a few days.

[tocaff]

Copying is the highest form of flattery.  Good luck with the tale you tell and watch out for those P-40s as they can be deadlier than you think!

[okami]

ORIGINAL: tocaff

Copying is the highest form of flattery.  Good luck with the tale you tell and watch out for those P-40s as they can be deadlier than you think!

The beliefs of the subject are not the beliefs of the author. From his experiences in China he does not have a high opinion of the P-40. I have played this game and so the author knows that (his) opinion may not be correct. But as I have stated this is a tragedy. Thanks for your encouragement. Long live the Hibiki!!!

[okami]

After four days of bombing practice against the 208th Chinese Division, I am bored of bombing missions. I am a fighter pilot!!! The Flying Tigers have been reported at Ichang, and where am I? Stuck doing bombing missions over southern China. I asked Major Koga if we would be stationed to Ichang to engage the Flying Tigers and he said we would be meeting them soon enough but not here in China. When I asked what that meant he would not continue the discussion. So for now I am bored. Where is the Chinese airforce? Those Russian planes are crap. Heard that the Prince of Wales was attacked the other day, rumour has it she was hit by three torpedoes and dozens of bombs. Wonder if that is true?

[okami]

Father I know it has been awhile since last I worte to you. You have my apopologies. The unit I have been assigned to is settling in to a routine. One day we fly bombing'staffing missions against the Chinese and the next we are on escort duty over the city of Hong Kong. The British are putting up stiff resistance and there is a great deal of smoke coming from the city itselfs. Flew over the habour yesterday and found it deserted. Rumours abound that we made a strike at Pearl Harbour and that the American Pacific fleet was destroyed. I know you still have friends in the naval ministry so I hope you can confirm this for me. Major Koga says I am the second best pilot in the squadron. No one is as good as he is. There is a rumour that we will be transfered to Southern Command or maybe Burma Command. Anything would be better than where we are now. Major Koga says the squadron is not ready for major combat operations, the Hayabusa is not a tested plane he says. Give my love to mother, if I get leave I will come home before we are transfered.
Your son Pieter

[okami]

It rained.

[okami]

It is December 21st and our squadron has taken it's first casualty of the war. On a routine mission over Hong Kong Major Degawa my section leader dived to steeply. He never came out of it. As a result Major Koga has promoted me to section leader and assigned the Mitsumuni brothers as members of my section. It seems that I have finally gotten what my father always wanted command of men. I will never forgive Major Degawa for this gift. Now I have to worry about others I hope it does not affect my flying. major Koga stood down my section for the last to days while the three of us trained to get use to the way I will run the section. It is a strange feeling when flying having to lead instead of follow. I hope I can lead, at this point I just don't know. I do know one thing, the Hayabusa is an unforgiving mistress.

[okami]

18,000 Commonwealth soliders went into captivity as Hong Kong fell yesterday. Major Degawa's personal affects were collected and his replacement flew in from the home islands today. Fighting in the Philipines is said to be going slowly. Not much happening in China, everyday we go out and bomb somewhere new. Word has it with the fall of Singapore the British will sue for peace and the Americans will not be able to stand alone. I don't believe it as my father is of the opinion that we can not hope to defeat such an industrial power as they.

[okami]

I do not understand these American's and their allies. Yesterday we found out that two whole divisions surrendered at Luceni in the Philipines, officers and all. Do they have no honor? Where is their fighting spirit? We have been fighting the Chinese since 37 and they have never done this. Look at the setbacks they have endured, and still no mass surrenders. Unit is moving to Canton to support operations in Southwest China. I here the Flying Tigers are operating out of Changsha. Maybe we will duel them in the coming days.

[okami]

We have finally moved operations to Canton China. Wing Command has us standing down to rest today after the last few days have been spent getting set up. We will start sweep operations tommorow, there are many chinese airfields within operational distance of Canton. The Flying Tigers are flying out of one of these bases and we are to engage them over the next week or so. Japanese troops have entered the city of Manila and are starting the process of reducing resistance there. A large force of Commonwealth troops is said to be cut off north of Singapore. There have been raids by US carriers at Wake Island. Will probably hear less about the war here as we are now a small fish in a vast sea of fish. I will have to see send a letter to father to see what he is hearing from his friends in the government.

[okami]

Today was a day of frustration. It rained. How is this frustrating? Air Command had ordered a big sweep of Changsha for today. Two sentai and our chutai were to engage and destroy the fighters defending this base so that our bombers could go in unopposed over the next week. We were rained in. Only the 24th Sentai flying the Ki27 actually went on the mission. They flew from Amoy where it did not rain. The fighting was ferious, 16 P40's against 24 Ki27's. Reports indicated that 3 of the enemy where shotdown while the 24th lost two of their fighters with no survivors. I can only imagine what would have happened if the 47th with it's 36 and our 13th with our 12 Ki43's had been engaged as well. I wonder if the enemy will change fields or if they will defend Changsha? I think they will move but we have orders to fly tommorow. I hope ot doesn't rain.

[okami]

Father I am doing fine. I am in Canton China now and we get so little news of the war outside our local front. We went on patrol today, it rained yesterday, Major Koga probably would have wished for it to rain today as well. Our patrol took us over the city of Changsha and as expected the Americans came up to fight. The battle was an uneven one we outnumbered them three to one. That didn't save Major Koga though. He charge in on the enemy just like a samurai of old. His section mates could not keep up with him. He was everywhere, breaking up the enemies formations making it easier for us to get into positions to make a kill. But only the enemy made a kill, they got Major Koga. After isolating his section from the rest of the battle they pounced like hungery tigers on Major Koga's plane. His plane started to flame and rolled over into a steep dive. It never recovered. By the end of the engagement we had lost our leader and the enemy had lost six confirmed and five unconfirmed. None of these loses were caused by our chutai. They will send us a replacement, maybe tommorow. Maybe we will get a new commander or the Captain will take charge. Nothing is for certain. We will be going back to Changsha tommorow, conventional wisdom is that as long as the Americans defend we will attack. Could you send me word of how things are going elsewhere, we get little if anything at all here. Maybe if we are winning somewhere else then Major Koga's death will have meaning. So far we keep killing the Chinese and more show up to take their place. Give my love to mother.
Your obediant son Pieter

[okami]

The mission today was to bomb Wuchow. Fifty four dive bombers, thirty six high level bombers and forty eight fighters were the strike force. The mission was not a complete success. The AVG was no where to be seen. Although we shutdown the airfields they will be operational within a few days. There were no planes at any of the fields so we will have to try somewhere else tomorrow. Rainfall has hampered our efforts as it has shutdown operations almost everyother day. It may rain tomorrow and so we won't fly. We must engage the tigers and put them out of operation. Still no word from the SRA although we heard that we landed and took Rabaul. I wonder how the war really is going. No word on a replacement for Major Koga, so the Captain is still calling the shoots.

[okami]

Today took us to Liuchow. We bombed a small airfield there. We found only one P40 on the ground and destroyed it. No defense of the airfield was made and flak was light. Where are they. Heard some news from Malaya today. Kuala Lumpur fell a few days ago and 30,000 British troops were captured. Why do they not fight until the end. We have even heard that groups of Chinese troops have surrendered. Also there is fighting for Timor near Austrialia and their was a raid on the Port of Darwin by the Navy. Still no letters from home but then again we moved to Canton so it could take some time to reach us here. Looks like their will be no replacement for Major Koga. I have been give the extra duty for flight instructor by the Captain. Just what I need more work to eliminate my downtime. Two days without rain, that could be concidered a draught. Well it's back to escort duty tomorrow.