Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[Cuttlefish]

April 16, 1944

Location: 240 miles east of Saipan
Course: South
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 266

Orders: Shadow enemy forces approaching the Marshall Islands

---

The Japanese ships continue to steam south. They remain on a line well to the west of the Marshalls to guard against any sudden move westward by the enemy forces. So far, however, reports say that the Allied ships are continuing to gather east of Kwajalein.

Aboard Hibiki they can easily picture what things must be like at Kwajalein, a place they know well. The airfields, they know, will be hives of activity, with perhaps additional planes brought in, bombers to Kwajalein itself and fighters at the strip at Roi. Men will be checking the guns emplaced in the bunkers set low into the sand. The barracks will be filled with keyed-up soldiers; they will speak to each other of massacring the enemy on the beach, but in private each will be writing final letters to parents, wives, or children.

Ships will be departing the harbor; destroyers, patrol craft, submarines, and auxiliaries, all fleeing to the south or west. It is with the men aboard these ships that Hibiki’s crew identifies the most keenly. Over the past year the enemy’s carrier force has gone from being an object of ridicule to an object of terror; fear goes before them along with the waves of torpedo and dive bombers, and death awaits any ship too late or too slow to get out of their way.

But there is nothing anyone aboard Hibiki can do about it at the moment. Perhaps, if the sometimes strange and capricious fortunes of war permit it, they will get a chance to help their comrades in the Marshalls. Perhaps they will not. Either way, there is nothing to do now but watch for submarines and continue southwards.

[BrucePowers]

Hibiki has a rough year ahead of her.........

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

I only wish if Hibiki sinks it could do something like that but this late in the war I fear it would most likely just be a stupid air attack... Rather than a glorious surface action.

You might just get your wish. The Hibiki has been sent a number of times as an escort on a bombardment run. Usually they encounter nothing but PT boats, but given the shift in control of the air, Wolffpack may decide to have heavier surface forces at the scene of his next invasion.

I vote for the glorious surface action too, but that is largely out of my control. My biggest fear since the start of the game has been that Hibiki will fall victim to a submarine. But who knows, she might yet survive the war. Considering that several posters have reported losing their Hibiki in the first month of the war, though, I'm pretty happy that mine is still afloat several months into 1944.

Well here's the way I look at it. Personally I feel losing the Hibiki in that battle was about the worst outcome I could have. Looking at it objectively, the loss of a BB is the loss of a single purpose ship. Losing the Hibiki is like losing 3 ships, I lost an ASuW unit with its torpedos, I lost an AAA escort, and I lost an ASW platform.

I actually think losing the Hibiki hurts worse in the long run than losing either the Kongo or Haruna, not to mention the BBs might have made it back to port even after suffering so many large calibre hits.

[Cuttlefish]

April 17, 1944

Location: 400 miles southeast of Guam
Course: South
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 230

Orders: Shadow enemy forces approaching the Marshall Islands

---

Seaman Shoji leaves the crew’s mess and heads forward. Around his neck hangs the comforting weight of the omamori. He is still touched that his friends went to all that trouble for him. And he has confidence in their work. When you have people involved such as Snake Man, the keeper of Benzaiten, the clever Ariga, and the skilled Kuramata, he reasons that the result almost has to be effective.

He has a senninbari of course, a thousand-person stitch belt, one given him by his mother. But he knows that only grants him luck in battle. And it works; the times Hibiki has taken casualties he has gotten away without a scratch. All of the accidents that have plagued him have occurred during otherwise peaceful moments and he hopes this charm will change that.

Shoji is jolted out of his thoughts by the sudden clamor of the alarm. Combat stations! Shoji wheels around and runs down the passage, which is now filling with other running men. He turns and hurries up a steep and narrow stairwell right on the heels of Torpedoman Chuyo.

Chuyo reaches the top and bursts out on deck, Shoji still right behind him. Chuyo’s right foot comes down on a small dollop of grease someone has spilled and his foot shoots forward out from under him. The torpedoman topples backward but Shoji catches him before his head can collide with something. Chuyo gives him a grateful look and then hurries aft. Shoji carefully steps around the slippery spot to clear the doorway before pulling out a cloth and wiping it up. He then hurries happily forward. The charm works! A few days ago, he is certain, it would have been him slipping. And no one would have been there to catch him.

Combat stations are cancelled fifteen minutes later. Shoji heads for his hammock still in high spirits. Things are going to go his way from now on. He is sure of it.

[Shark7]

Good for Shoji, maybe he'll be spending less time in the infirmary now.

[bradfordkay]

And the medical dispensary won't be needing to restock as often...[;)]

[Canoerebel]

Things are going to go his way from now on. He is sure of it.

Uh oh, this sounds suspicuosly like foreshadowing....

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Shark7


I actually think losing the Hibiki hurts worse in the long run than losing either the Kongo or Haruna...

[X(]

i'm pretty sure any opponent would cheerfully let you swap a Hibiki class DD for a Kongo or Haruna at the beginning of the game! Heck, i'd love to give the Japanese 20 Hibikis for the 10 BBs japan had during the war![:D]

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

ORIGINAL: Shark7


I actually think losing the Hibiki hurts worse in the long run than losing either the Kongo or Haruna...

[X(]

i'm pretty sure any opponent would cheerfully let you swap a Hibiki class DD for a Kongo or Haruna at the beginning of the game! Heck, i'd love to give the Japanese 20 Hibikis for the 10 BBs japan had during the war![:D]

True, but Kongo can't hunt subs...that's why it hurts worse in the long run. Let's face it, by the middle of 1944 most IJN ships are really nothing more than moving targets for the US carrier air wings. [:(]

That's what makes it so impressive that CF's Hibiki has made it this far.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

ORIGINAL: Shark7


I actually think losing the Hibiki hurts worse in the long run than losing either the Kongo or Haruna...

[X(]

i'm pretty sure any opponent would cheerfully let you swap a Hibiki class DD for a Kongo or Haruna at the beginning of the game! Heck, i'd love to give the Japanese 20 Hibikis for the 10 BBs japan had during the war![:D]

Bob, the BBs are important early in the war, but by 1943, I'd love to have 20 more DDs. Hell, by 1943 I'd love to have as many DDs as I started the war with. [8|]

[Cuttlefish]

April 18, 1944

Location: 525 miles northeast of Truk
Course: Holding position
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 194

Orders: Shadow enemy forces approaching the Marshall Islands

---

The two Japanese carriers and their escorts reach a spot pretty much in the middle of nowhere and begin to steam in circles. They have seen no sign of submarines and their location is, presumably, unknown to the enemy.

All that the ordinary seamen know is that they are a long ways west of Kwajalein. What they are waiting for or what might be happening in the Marshalls is unknown. This does not stop them from speculating, of course. Bits of information dropped by the radio operators, snatches of conversation overheard by lookouts on the bridge, casual utterances by the officers, all are spread throughout the ship. The men discuss them, exaggerate them, add their own misunderstandings and speculations, and come up with a variety of rumors and theories, Some of them are not even distant cousins to the truth; others come closer to reality, if only by accident.

The petty officers have their own ideas. These are based on more information and less speculation. The biggest difference between they and the enlisted men is that they are experienced enough to know that it doesn’t matter. They will be told what they need to know when they need to know it, and in the meantime they have a ship to run.

The officers, in this case, don’t know any more than anyone else on board. But that’s all right. They just have to act as if they do.

[Cuttlefish]

April 19, 1944

Location: 525 miles northeast of Truk
Course: Holding position
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 460

Orders: Shadow enemy forces approaching the Marshall Islands

---

Captain Ishii peers through a pair of the 21 cm. binoculars. “I see them,” he says. “Three carriers. Junyo and Hiyo and a smaller one, maybe Ryujo.” He removes his gaze, reducing the ships to mere shapes on the northern horizon, and looks at Lieutenant Kuwaki. “That makes it four fleet carrers and four light carriers now.”

Kuwaki nods. “Enough for a raid, or to do some real damage to ships without air cover.”

“But not enough to engage the enemy carrier force,” says Ishii. “Not even close.”

“Maybe the Americans won’t figure we will bring our carriers out at all,” Kuwaki says. “Not after Santa Cruz. Maybe they will get careless.”

“It’s fine to be in position to take advantage of your enemy’s mistakes,” says Ishii. “But I don’t like a strategy that counts on it.”

A pair of A6M5 fighters fly over the ship, heading west. Ensign Izu steps out of the bridge and salutes the captain. “Signal from Admiral Yamada, sir,” he says. “Destroyers are to refuel, starboard screen first.”

“Very well,” says Ishii. “We will wait for our turn. Tell the refueling detail to be ready.”

“Yes sir,” says Izu. After he leaves Captain Ishii turns his attention back to Kuwaki.

“You haven’t conned the ship during a refueling, have you, Lieutenant?” he says.

“No sir,” says Kuwaki. Japanese ships refuel from astern and it is a tricky process, requiring precise ship handling. Ishii almost always takes the conn for the procedure.

“Time to learn,” Ishii says.

“Yes sir,” Kuwaki says. He is confident of his abilities but is still a little nervous. Ishii seems to sense this.

“You’ll do fine,” he says. Then, after a brief reflection, adds “Just don’t ram Taiho.”

[Mynok]

“Just don’t ram Taiho.”

A fine philosophy of life right there...... [:D]

[histgamer]

Just think today 4 CVs would be larger than many nations airforces. Hell 4 CVs could pretty much destroy Iran's airforce or even North Korea's... though not in one strike admitadly. [:D]

[F6frc]

Finally caught up reading the epic struggle of the valiant Hibiki and her crew. Awesome story! Hope the Hibiki is there till the end!

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

April 19, 1944

Location: 525 miles northeast of Truk
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 460



“You’ll do fine,” he says. Then, after a brief reflection, adds “Just don’t ram Taiho.”

Taiho does have the distinction of being the only fleet carrier sunk by a single hit -- it would be an interesting occurrence in this alternate timeline. (And lead to Lt. Kuwaki committing Seppuku.[:D])

But I'm afraid your heading has given the game away -- Hibiki refueled successfully and without additional damage.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: F6frc

Finally caught up reading the epic struggle of the valiant Hibiki and her crew. Awesome story! Hope the Hibiki is there till the end!

Thanks! I hope so too, but there are a lot of Allied ships and planes trying to make it otherwise.

[Cuttlefish]

April 20, 1944

Location: 525 miles northeast of Truk
Course: Holding position
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 430

Orders: Shadow enemy forces approaching the Marshall Islands

---

Taiki sits at a small table in the petty officer’s wardroom writing a letter to his wife. At the other table petty officers Okubo and Aikawa are playing cards. Shun sits in his chair, apparently asleep.

“Crap,” Taiki hears Okubo say. He looks up to see Aikawa raking some money towards him across the table. Aikawa’s pile is considerably larger than Okubo’s.

“Your deal,” Aikawa says. Okubo collects the cards and begins to shuffle them, a sour expression on his face. Taiki returns to his letter. He is dimly aware of the game continuing in the background as he writes. From what he hears Okubo is steadily losing. He is startled into looking up again when Okubo slams an open palm down on the table.

“Not again!” he snarls. “You are cheating, Aikawa!” Aikawa goes very still and fixes Okubo with a baleful eye.

“Do you want to retract that, Okubo?” he says quietly. “I think I would, if I were you.” Both men glare at each other.

Taiki sees one of Shun’s eyes open slightly, but the Chief makes no other move and gives no sign that he is aware of what is going on. Taiki watches but makes no other move. Both men outrank him and both are tough men, perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.

The two senior petty officers continue to stare at each other, their anger connecting them like a bar of iron. It is Okubo who blinks first.

“I beg your pardon, Aikawa,” he says. “My temper got the best of me.” His voice is smooth but anger still lurks in his eyes. Aikawa nods.

“It happens,” he says. “Another hand?”

“No, I’m tired,” Okubo says. “I think I’ll turn in.” He gets up, stretches, and leaves the wardroom. Taiki see Shun’s eye close again. Taiki goes back to his letter, but as he writes he wonders at how easily Okubo backed down. It seems out of character. Okubo hates losing face even more than he hates losing at cards.

[Cuttlefish]

April 21, 1944

Location: 525 miles northeast of Truk
Course: Holding position
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 402

Orders: Shadow enemy forces approaching the Marshall Islands

---

Transmissions intercepted by Hibiki, 0800 hours to 1030 hours local time:

[font="Courier New"]Kwajalein: Warning to all ships in area: large number enemy aircraft detected inbound from northeast. Range 70 kilometers.

H8K: Enemy ships, including three aircraft carriers, 150 kilometers northeast, course west. Heavy fighter cover.

AK Onoe Maru: We have been hit by one torpedo and several bombs. We need assistance, Any ships in area please respond…

Kwajalein: We are under heavy air attack from American carrier based aircraft. Harbor facilities have been damaged. Attacks are…(radio transmission ceases abruptly)

F6F: Here they come, boys. Christ, that’s a lot of Japs…

F6F: Got another one! Look out, Marczinski, there’s a Zeke…

CVL Cabot: ...and risk of continued secondary explosions does not permit further flight operations. All returning planes divert to CLV Princeton or CV Bunker Hill…

Namur: Air strip at Kwajalein is heavily damaged. Your daitai should land at Roi to rearm for second strike.

Lieutenant JG Kato: You fool, I AM the entire daitai now…[/font]

[thegreatwent]

Looks like fireworks are the order of the day, both online and outside. Happy 4th of July CF[:)]