Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[John 3rd]

As usual---well done!
 

[saj42]

I notice that Hibiki refueled from the CAs sometime on 30-31 December. Tanaka's logistic officer, Lt A.I., probably thought it was a good idea to do so before the run around Espiritu Santo. Fortunately enough Op Pts remained to conduct a thorough attack and retreat before daylight.

[Cuttlefish]

January 1, 1944

Location: 300 miles east of Lunga
Course: North by northeast
Attached to: TF 25
Mission: Surface Combat
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 383

Orders: Return to Kwajalein

---

Many of the crew come up on deck before dawn to watch the sun rise. To see the first sunrise of the new year is thought to be propitious, and it is one of the New Year’s Day ceremonies that the men can observe while at sea. Later the cooks will prepare some of the traditional dishes and all of the nengajo, the New Year’s Day postcards, that the ship received before departing Kwajalein will be distributed to the men.

There is no sign of detection or pursuit by the enemy, which would be a good sign on any day. Yet as the men watch the sun climb into the sky they know that this, the third full year of the war, is likely to be the most difficult year yet. Hibiki has survived the challenges of 1942 and 1943. What, they wonder, will 1944 bring?

---

Hibiki gains a point of night experience, bringing the crew’s day/night experience levels to 80/69. These levels place the men among the elite of Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer crews.

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish


Stadtfeld offers the only resistance the Japanese encounter. Fleming comes charging back down the channel but takes an 8” shell in the engine room and is out of the fight before really entering it. The other two DE’s never even manage to clear the docks.

There must have been some unhappy faces in South Pacific HQ . . . [:D]

BTW, I assume the ammo count on Hibiki isn't current with your story -- at least there should be only one point for the torpedoes!

[princep01]

USS Stadtfeld's death is very reminescent of the real life death of the DD, USS Johnston, while attempting to protecting Adm. Kincaid's CVEs off Leyte.  A tribute, perhaps, to that real life event? 

[marky]

ORIGINAL: princep01

USS Stadtfeld's death is very reminescent of the real life death of the DD, USS Johnston, while attempting to protecting Adm. Kincaid's CVEs off Leyte. A tribute, perhaps, to that real life event?

no doubt

and the IJN DD manning the rails and saluting as well, that also happened at Samar

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

BTW, I assume the ammo count on Hibiki isn't current with your story -- at least there should be only one point for the torpedoes!

You are right, the screen shot is not for the current date, but it's the one I had that reflected the new experience.

ORIGINAL: princep01

USS Stadtfeld's death is very reminescent of the real life death of the DD, USS Johnston, while attempting to protecting Adm. Kincaid's CVEs off Leyte. A tribute, perhaps, to that real life event?

Yes, I did have Johnston and the other destroyers of Taffy 3 in mind when I wrote that.

[tocaff]

CF I light up when I see that you've posted.

[Cuttlefish]

January 2, 1944

Location: 360 miles west of Nauru Island
Course: North by northeast
Attached to: TF 25
Mission: Surface Combat
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 340

Orders: Return to Kwajalein

---

Torpedomen Kinsei and Chuyo are working on the center torpedo mount when Lieutenant Sugiyura comes by. The two sailors, clad in shorts and t-shirts in the warm weather, both stand and salute.

“Good afternoon,” Sugiyura greets them. “How is the work coming?”

“Just fine, Lieutenant,” says Chuyo. “We are almost done.”

“Very good,” says Sugiyura. “By the way, you two, good work the other night. The reloads were done quickly and efficiently. Had we been in a fight against heavier opposition it would have made an important difference.”

“Thank you, sir,” says Kinsei.

“Carry on,” says Sugiyura, and he strolls away. The two sailors kneel again and get back to work.

“That’s the most cheerful I have ever seen him,” says Kinsei. “He actually complimented me!”

“He has been in a good mood since we sank that freighter,” Chuyo says. “And I told you he no longer thinks you’re an idiot.”

“I wonder what he would be like if we sank a cruiser or something?” Kinsei asks.

“Maybe we will find out, some day,” Chuyo says. “Hand me that wrench, will you?”

[Cuttlefish]

January 3, 1944

Location: 360 miles sothwest of Kwajalein
Course: Northeast
Attached to: TF 25
Mission: Surface Combat
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 297

Orders: Return to Kwajalein

---

As the war become more difficult for Japan there is less and less tolerance for dissent. Pacifists, communists, and intellectuals who speak out against the government or against the war are imprisoned in greater numbers. Magazines and other publications are heavily censored.

The government is content to leave alone those who remain silent. And many of those who are imprisoned are able to win their freedom by publicly recanting their beliefs. But those who are known to have acted against the government or whose ideals prevent them from keeping quiet face life imprisonment under harsh conditions. One man who falls into both categories is Morito Miharu.

Morito has managed to stay ahead of the police for the past year by luck and guile. In previous years he found that, in a country as crowded and busy as Japan, the best place to hide was in plain sight. But able-bodied men out of uniform are becoming more and more rare and he has found it hard lately to remain inconspicuous. At the moment he is living in a shack on the outskirts of Osaka, but soon he will have to move on. People will ask questions and then the police will inevitably arrive, and it would be best to be gone before that happens.

He has been very tempted to return to Kanazawa and seek refuge again with his brother’s wife, Kojima. But when he recalls the look in her eye when they parted last he decides it would be a bad idea.

Morito is eating a meager lunch of fish and rice when he hears police whistles in the distance. Instantly he is crouched at the door of the shack, looking up and down the street.

Ah, there! He sees a man scramble over a back fence and run panting down an alley. The police are not after him at all, but after this other man. Morito starts to duck back under cover and then hesitates. Maybe the fugitive is a fellow communist. And Morito has been chased enough to know the quarry’s fear and to feel a deep pang of sympathy. He returns to the doorway. At first he does not see the fugitive, but then the man rounds a nearby corner and comes running right down his street.

“Hsst! In here!” Morito says. The man skids to a stop, looking around wildly, then makes a swift decision and darts past Morito into the shack. Morito takes a quick look to make sure this has not been observed and then he steps back and closes the door. As the fugitive collapses panting to the floor Morito puts out the single lamp and draws the flimsy rice-paper shades.

“Remain quiet,” he tells the newcomer. The hunted man, who is dressed in ragged work clothes, nods from the floor. Morito watches through a crack in the door as the police go running past. The sounds of the chase quickly fade. Morito turns to face his guest, who gets slowly to his feet.

“I owe you many thanks,” says the newcomer. “But why did you help me?”

“I know what it is to be hunted,” Morito says. “Are…are you a communist?” The man looks it. His eyes burn with zeal in his narrow face.

The other man hesitates a fraction of a second, then nods. “Yes,” he says, “yes I am.”

“Then be welcome,” says Morito. “My name is Miharu.”

“My name is Suzuki,” says former lieutenant Umeda of the Tokeitai. “I am very pleased to meet you.”

[Terminus]

He's baaaaack...

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: tocaff

CF I light up when I see that you've posted.

In the 60's and 70's that sentence would have meant something entirely different...[;)]

[tocaff]

Yes, and I remember those days well.  [8D]  Doobie doobie do.....[:-]

[Terminus]

If you remember those days, were you actually there?[:'(]

[Cuttlefish]

January 4, 1944

Location: Kwajalein
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Hibiki and the other ships return safely to Kwajalein. After taking on ammunition, torpedoes, and fuel Hibiki retires to the lagoon and drops anchor. There is no indication yet of what their next assignment might be. Most of the crew is content to wait. While their spirits have been greatly boosted by the recent raid they know that there is little chance of catching the enemy napping again any time soon.

[Cuttlefish]

January 5, 1944

Location: Kwajalein
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

“That’s Yamato all right, Captain,” Lieutenant Kuwaki says, looking out over the water with a pair of binoculars. “But take a look at that battle damage.” The big battleship has just arrived at Kwajalein with a ragtag assortment of escorts.

Captain Ishii raises his own binoculars and studies the battleship. “Those are bomb hits, not shell hits,” he says after a moment. “She was attacked by aircraft, not in a surface fight.” Yamato’s proud silhouette looks sadly battered, though her main armament is intact and there is no evidence of torpedo hits or flooding.

“Must have happened in the fighting around Truk,” Kuwaki comments. “Have you heard any word about what’s happening there, sir?”

“Not many details,” says Ishii. “The American carriers have withdrawn, but their attack achieved its purpose. Our fleet and aircraft were unable to interfere at Manus. I don’t know what is happening there, but I think no news is probably bad news.”

Kuwaki digests this, then brightens. “Yamato is going to need some yard time,” he says. “I wonder who is going to escort her back to Japan?”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Lieutenant,” says Captain Ishii.

[Capt. Harlock]

“My name is Suzuki,” says former lieutenant Umeda of the Tokeitai. “I am very pleased to meet you.”

[X(]Ohboy . . . I had that unpleasant feeling in the back of my spine as soon as the fugitive came over the fence. It's a small world -- especially on an island nation.

[Capt. Harlock]

“Those are bomb hits, not shell hits,” he says after a moment. “She was attacked by aircraft, not in a surface fight.” Yamato’s proud silhouette looks sadly battered, though her main armament is intact and there is no evidence of torpedo hits or flooding.

Still no torpedo hits for either of the Big Sisters? I'm guessing a nasty encounter with B-25's, flying from New Guinea.

[Cuttlefish]

January 6, 1944

Location: Kwajalein
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

A lighter pulls alongside Hibiki in the morning. In addition to a sack of mail it also delivers new orders for Captain Ishii, who retires to his cabin to open and read them. The orders turn out to be short and simple. Ishii looks them over in some surprise.

“Huh,” he says to himself. “Looks like Kuwaki had it right after all.”

---

Taiki is in the forward 25mm gun tub inspecting the guns when Shiro climbs the ladder and joins him. The affable seaman has a big smile on his face.

“Congratulations, Petty Officer Takahashi, on your upcoming wedding!” he says cheerfully.

Taiki finishes replacing the muzzle caps then turns to face him. “Someday, I hope,” he says.

“Maybe someday soon,” says Shiro. “We have just received new orders. We depart tomorrow for Japan as part of Yamato’s escort home!”

Taiki looks at him, thunderstruck. “You are joking,” he says. But he knows that Shiro would not tease him about something like this.

Shiro shakes his head. “It’s for real,” he says. “We should be home in ten days or so.”

Taiki’s grin now matches Shiro’s. “Ten days,” he says, then repeats the phrase to himself. Shiro claps him on the shoulder, then turns and climbs down the ladder. After a moment Taiki shakes himself and returns to his work, but the smile remains on his face for the rest of the day.

[Mike Solli]