herbiesan vs Cantona!!!

[1275psi]

8/7/42

8/7/42

Operations report
47th sentai - Shanghia

A/c available 10
A/c repairing 2

Unit training day.
WO Higashiyama reports for duty
WO Inokuchi reports for duty

What is leadership?
Leadership is something different to many people.
In this modern age we have some funny ideas about “leadership’
“Its getting the best out of your people”
“It’s the ability to manage in your resources and blah, blah, blah blah”
“Its something that is taught –that has to be learnt, that has to be…………Blah, blah, blah”

Col Nakamura would never have heard of this clap trap –would probably not even know “ the qualities of a leader” if they came up and bit him on the arse.
What he did know –was what 47th Sentai needed to do –and how he was going to get them to do it.
He had just one simple rule –if he could not do “it” and wasn’t the Goddam best in the Sentai at doing what ever “it” was –then he had no right in asking others to do it.


Iwaya is sweating –sweating hard
Only inches from his wing tip sits the wing tip of Nakamura, rock solid in place despite the turbulence here at 2000 feet.
The CO nods his head –and Iwaya throws his plane into the bank to his right – as hard as he ever has turned a plane –and for a moment he wonders if this fresh smelling –BITCH! – come up nose! –of a machine will shed a wing or not.
The turn is good (for him) –but where is he!? He should be ?.....

The new fangled radio (another new thing to learn!) bursts into life –Rat at tat tat, Rat , at tat tat!
“ You are still flying 2 dimensional!! The Colonel barks “ the sky is 3 dimensional! –until you fly as such – you have things to learn!”

@#$%$ ! –that man can fly!



9/7/42

Operations report
47th sentai - Shanghia

A/c available 14
A/c repairing 2

Unit training day.
WO Renza reports for duty
WO Chuzaburo reports for duty


Takenaka is ready –and fixes the colonel with a steely gaze.
The CO nods his head –and Takenaka zooms the new fighter almost vertical, rolls, and inverts and……….. ‘rat at tat!, Rat, at Tat!” –
And Nakamura has already killed him.
“The radio crackles_ “ That was good – but I see you always pre empt yourself –too easy too read Takenaka, too easy to read”

@#$%$# -that man can fly!

10/7/42

Operations report 47th sentai
A/c available 16
A/c repairing -1

Unit training day
WO Ariyoshi reports for duty

Juni B bleared across the table.
Maybe he had drunk too much. Maybe. It was only Scotch -he’d had not THAT many…………
Something was very wrong tonight. Very, very wrong. Outside of the natural order of things. Nakamura sits casually opposite him – his bottle almost gone.

Juni B shakes his head –checks his brother –crap! –even worse
For the first time in years –the chips were flowing steadily away from the twins.





11/7/42

Operations report, 47th sentai
A/c available – 17
A/c under repair -1


Unit training day
WO Hirabayashi reports for duty

Nearly 20 men –the pilots of 47th Sentai –are running.
If The Colonel had any effects from last nights drinking they weren’t showing –nor had thet been at 5 this morning – when he had roused the men
“Come on you fat bastards! Lack of combat has made you all pig like! –how can you expect to fight wars, shoot enemy and conquer women when you can’t see over your navel!”
“lets go men! –lets go!”

Dawn is peeking over the horizon –its still warm, and will get hot, very hot later today –and he leads the men at a very hard pace, a complete lap of the field.
They are an extremely sweaty lot as they return –many gasping for breath.
Iwaya is sure he is going to die
Even Takenaka is struggling.

The newer men are a bit better – not much –but better.
The group begin to disperse towards the messes –to the bathes

“SCRAMBLE!”!!! hells the Colonel
Hell breaks lose as the men belt for the planes –struggling to gat gear, to get chutes –to get organised.

3, maybe 4 engines have started before Nakamura fires the abort flare.

“Hyakutake!”
Sir!
“ if you cannot get your #$%^ in a sock under stress –then don”t bother me! – what did you forget”

Stricken Hyakutake checks himself – checks his plane……………. OH NO! –and is mortified that he almost took of in a plane – a plane with the elevator still firmly chocked.
“NO shortcuts Hyakutake – no short cuts –ever!”

[1275psi]

Numbers now building rapidly - a real feeling of confidence and power is gripping the unit as it grows

[1275psi]

Again the cry rings across the field
SCRAMBLE!, SCRAMBLE!

Inoue grabs his gear, his helmet, his chute -and folows as best he can the younger menof the Sentai to the line of fighters -engines already coughing into life.
Every muscle in his body aches - Nakamura's training runs, the intense flying of the last few days have been very hard on his 40 odd year old frame.

He arrives at the port wing root - most of the fighters now have a rope attached to the cockpit side -he grabs it, using it to help pull himself up to the cockpit, his attendent mechanic is holding the straps clear.

Into the seat, eyes automatically scanning the instruments -hands, feet already testing the controls as the crewman pulls his straps hard

Ready!
The crewman removes the rope, pats his shoulder once and literally leaps clear as Inoue jams the throttle forward -roling onto the strip.

Already a dozen fighters are moving -and Nakamura's is already speeding down the strip.
Inoue slips into the cue, blipping the throttle -and jams it forward.
The Tojo leaps forward - and the earth quickly falls away
Full power -full climb -the radio is barking, barking - the leader calling his pack, gathering his wolves.

10000 feet
15000 feet -oxygen on!
20000 feet - the curve of the earth so far below
Higher!
HIGHER! -the controls are sloppier now -things take longer to happen -his plane feels" skittish, balanced on a knife edge -but still they are lead higher - the cold is biting now

Nakamura turns his pack to the North, about a dozen KI 44's are with him now, the rest still struggling up to them - and the target is coming- 3 bombers, 3000 feet below.

Inoue follows him down -hard on his heels, intending to show that he Inoue -can fly as well as anyone
They "attack" - the 3 helens loom into view, flash past.
" Good, good" Nakamura calls -"but we are still too slow, still too slow!"
"All planes return to base!"
Inoue allows himself an extended spin down.
He is content
He finally has aleader to follow

[1275psi]

13/7/42

Operations report, 47th sentai
A/c available – 19
A/c under repair -2

WO Inokuchi reports for duty
WO Hidaka reports for duty
WO Okamoto reports for duty

Training day

The Colonel takes his pilots into the air today in small groups of 3 -in one of the Helens he has"borrowed"
Other Tojo's "attack" the bombers
'" I want you to remember gentlemen!" he yells over the beat of the bombers engine" that our friends the Liberator and B-17 have multiple 50 Cal guns -guns with a reach as far, if not further than ours!
"Further -our guns just poke little holes in him -his take us out!"

Takenaka squints at the next Attack -God - how slow the cross rate when attacking from the rear - a child could have hit that last attack.

Nakamura braces himself in the bombers tight cockpit - "So friends -we need a solution -we must find a vulnerable spot, a viable attack point -or we are going to be the snowballs in hell"

[1275psi]

14/7/42

Operations report, 47th sentai
A/c available – 21
A/c under repair -2

WO Nori reports for duty
WO Ginowa reports for duty

2 Nate units have moved into Shanghia -but 47th sentai have nothing to do with this unit today -the nates are expected to go west tomorrow to join the battle west of Nanchang

47th sentai has aquired a new"bomber"

What it is in reality is a 1/3 size plywood mockup of a B-24 -complete with "gunpits" and turrets, all capable of taking a man sitting in them

In addition several "fighters" have been built -small models of Tojo's with wingspans of 2 feet or so -realistic enough.

The day is both fun, and serious at the same time. At times it reminds some of the men of their childhoods -playing with toy planes -but all soon see the value of the exercise.

The men "fly" their fighters in on various attack profiles -while others sit in the "turrets"
Lessons are very quickly learnt
Attacks from below are suicide -simply suicide
from the rear -almost the same
From the side -do able -but the dive away made one very vulnerable.

but there are weaknesses -especially the diving attack from slightly ahead.
The upper turret finds the angle awkward -the forward guns unable to bear at all.

It will take extrodinary flying -but it can be done.
Fly parrallel to target -5000 feet above, get ahead of it
Invert
locate target"above" you
Dive - and aim for the cockpit-hit the pilots

hard
difficult
It can be done -and the Colonel will have them practice this week until it is second nature.

[bbbf]

Hi Herbie,
 
Is that an actual attack profile, or  one you have thought of?
 

[1275psi]

Actual - can't remember the name of Japanese pilot who used it -(let alone spellit[8|]) -but I remember his description vividly - because i had a go in an aerobatic glider one day - and stuffed it very, very badly -scared hell out of myself[:'(]

[1275psi]

excitement builds in 47th sentai - soon we will be at 36 plane strong -and surely released back to the battle!

[1275psi]

16/7/42

Operations report 47th sentai
A/c available 25
A/c under repair 2

WO Ban reports for duty
WO Igarashi reports for duty


Newspapers have been delivered to the airfield courtesy of some transport pilots just back from Nagasaki.
The men consume them eagerly –news has been hard to get since leaving Canton, the big radio is missed

Navy pilots are claiming many enemy ships sunk south, north, west, everywhere, seemingly anywhere in the waters around Tarawa –The Battleship Oklahoma joining the ever growing list of claims.
The twins place a bet between themselves that by Christmas the Navy will have claimed more ships sunk than what America started the war with.

Our veterans are resting today as Nakamura flogs his new pilots –the WO’s all have steady skills –reliable skills –but he needs “them to dazzle”
Our group look up from the lounge chairs and their papers as the Colonel leads his charges above the field at about 5000 feet.
He has a simply new game –follow the leader. He leads, the 12 or so others follow, or try to. Easy enough – but its all happening inverted –and this is sorting the naturals out from the “trained” very quickly…………

“ten yen Ginowa lasts the longest”
“make it 5”
“Done”

17/7/42
Operations report 47th sentai

A/c available 27
A/c under repair 2

WO Hagashiyama reports for duty
WO Kimura reports for duty

High level intercepts
Low level flying
Stunting

Training level 100%
Moral at maximum
What more can a man want?
Clear skies, a wonderful powerful plane, and unlimited permission to fly it to the limit
Who would be anything else but a fighter pilot?

18/7/42

Operations report 47th sentai
A/c available 29
A/c under repair 2

WO Diago reports for duty
WO Ginowa (another one!) reports for duty

New bombers move into Shanghia field –the new KI-48(mk2) –japanese production seems to be churning along well.

The poor commander of this unit hardly knows what hits him. Within 3 hours of his arrival he finds himself and his bombers “attacking” Shanghia – and surrounded by a terrifying spectacle of KI-44’s diving down at him at stupidly high intercept speeds –while others swarmed about in a hive of flashing aluminium and growling engines.

As his bomber shuddered in the slip stream of another frightening fighter pass he could only mutter –“they are #@$%^ crazy, #$%^& crazy.

For 47th sentai it’s a brilliant day


19/7/42
Operations report for 47th sentai
A/c available -31
Under repair -2

WO Chikuma reports for duty
WO Senda reports for duty

Inoue has a letter

Father!
Good news
I have found a way to get this to you –your unit is in the newspapers –the unit that will stop the B17’s dead! –did you know that is how your new planes are being reported in the papers.
I am fine –I lost so much weight in the fighting in the north that a breeze could have blown me away – but I have been stuffing myself here in Rangoon –along with what feels like half the Japanese army –there are so many soldiers here there is no room for the natives!
1st para is shipping for somewhere else –sea time again for your son!

So – who knows where we will be –but Im sure it will be where the action is.
Hope you get this and are well.
Your son

[1275psi]

Cockpit of KI-48

[1275psi]

20/7/42 to 23/7/42

47th sentai fly every day –and they run every day.
Every night they argue tactics – and get to know the new men better
The final planes arrive –WO Koda , Wo Hidake, WO Chiba.

Overall the experience in the group is good, no rookies, some combat experience.
The war presses on, and Colonel Nakamura has his orders.
He needs more time to whip this team into shape –but war rages in the south pacific………..

23/7/42

From 47th sentai to
High command

47th sentai now fully operational.



23/7/43
The entire sentai is lined up before its planes
Nakamura is not one for long speeches.
He simply thanks the base support men for their duties well done – availability has been very good.
Some photographers take a few photos of the occasion –the impressive line up of fighters, the men. Ghosts of the past –how much we have forgotten! We argue endlessly today over what they would not have thought twice about –their planes, their tactics, the mere organisation of getting 36 fighters into the war.

Day to day for them. Mystery for us.
But they were men, just like us –and indubitably many hearts were filled with what we would feel in a moment like this.
Excitement. Trepidation?. A new adventure.

It happens nevertheless pretty quickly –a final formation flypass –and 47th sentai departs China for maybe the last time.
It heads south –south to the war.

[1275psi]

24/7/42

Extract from ‘Shattering the Sword” a Cantona publication

………but the American Admirals still had many objectives to yet accomplish , and still even more worries to think about.
The Japanese fleet had disappeared since its loss of what had been tentatively identified as the Mutsu, but the where abouts of its Carrier arm remained a mystery.
The Americans continued to build as rapidly as possible the chain of out posts connecting Hawaii to Australia, and for their part, the Japanese continued to try to exploit the many, many holes in the air cover the wide spread American forces currently experienced

South of Tarawa Aparri -a tiny atoll now crammed to maximum capacity, was becoming a vital cog in the securing of Tarawa –the new long legged P-38’s augmenting the CAP over Tarawa.

On this day several things came together for the Imperial navy. The Combined fleet finally sailed from the home islands, boosted by a new CVL (ryujo) and the return of Shokuka and Zuikaka from refit –and news that Kaga would be ready in another week.
Majuro – next island north of Tarawa declared itself Torpedo bomber ready.
We now know that the High Command ordered operation swift return to to be activated immediately - and 5 divisions of troops began to load into transports at various locations throughout the Pacific.

Bomber and fighter units moved into the Gilberts –and began the battle for air superiority over Tarawa.
Battles open with 23 betty bombers escorted by 41 zeros attacking Aparri shipping –the 16 P38’s and 13 P40e furiously defended.
The Japanese lose 3 fighters, the Allies 6, and a destroyer sunk

The great furnace of the pacific war began to be stoked………………..



25/7/42
Davao

Takao had been busy, still full of planes conducting training missions, or ASW planes patrolling. Efficient. Clean. Ground crews eager and able to help.

Manilla had been quieter.
Still plenty of support, but few planes to see.
A big, empty field –a few desultory work gangs digging holes here and there.

Davao – well Davao was dead.
Home to an antiquated unit of Anne light bombers on anti submarine patrol – patrols that were yet to sight a single Submarine.
Nary a sign of fox hole digging, nor of any great Military prescenec.
As the base Commander quipped at dinner that night “the only reason that the Guerrilla’s don’t march back in here and take back this stink hole is that we spend too much money”

A totally forgettable road stop in the way to the war.


Anne light bombers operating out of Davao

[1275psi]

26/7/42

I-26 departs japan, repaired, re supplied, re invigorated.
She departs with quite a number of her fellow underwater sharks
The harbour, last week packed with shipping, is now empty –only the single Carrier now remains, and on her, the smell of fresh paint is beginning to fill the air.



Hyakutake is tired, his back aches, his arse aches, his hands are numb, and his teeth feel loose after the vibrations of the last hour.

They’d come with no warning –one moment the mighty engine had been purring along –the next –a frightening drop in revs, and a steady, heavy vibration from under the cowl
Instrument scan worryingly revealed nothing wrong –despite the obvious fact that something was.
At that stage all that was below the sentai was the ocean – empty, empty ocean at that.
He’d made the decision right then.
If the engine did quit –he would’nt jump –he’d ride her in

But the engine hadn’t quit, and finally the little field of Sorong had crawled into view, and a vastly relieved Hyakutake had put himself down onto the jungle surrounded strip.

Immediately the Sentai realises this place is different.
Nobody races out to meet them, there are no field guides, no trucks with fuel.
36 fighter engines, and 2 recon engines from their guide shake the air, and the jungle just seems to suck it up.

Finally a half dozen men –shirtless –wander out from the trees, one of them suddenly grabs his stomach –and rapidly retreats back into them.

Sorong is home to 32nd base force in name only.
In reality it is a base of the sick.

Nakamura is quite firm.
He prohibits them from eating anything, drinking anything from the base. He will not have illness cut HIS command in half.

[1275psi]

mistake!

[1275psi]

KI-48 -shepherding them across the ocean wastes

[1275psi]

27/7/42
47th sentai clears Sorong on dawn, and transfers to Amboina, just a short hop away

This base is a medium size place –and much Dutch equipment remains for the significant forces that now occupy it.
‘Ahh” observes Iwaya drily as their planes are refuelled “ the magnificent Dutch East Indies – salvation to all of Japans economy woes!”
Its not much of a place –the hangers are wrecked, and the hardstands are pock marked –whether that’s the result of Japanese bombs –or Allied –its impossible to tell.
At least the Commander here has been busy –the jungle has been pushed right back –the drains clear –the battle against malaria currently being won.

Other signs to the experienced pilots immediately come to eye –all the gun pits are manned –and alert.
Slit trenches are everywhere.
There is another very good indicator at the field
The Navy is here –with its new A6M3a’s -27 obviously hard worked planes –and so are the wrecks, nearly a dozen pushed into untidy piles on the edge of the fields, or in singles, alone and abandoned already to the creeping jungle.

47th sentai knows the value of every plane –having just 2 for so long has well and truly conditioned them to that. To see fighters treated as a disposable item, to be so easily discarded, comes as quite a shock.

There is little time for niceties –almost immediately the unit is stood too into a standing patrol – the enemy have reconned already today –and knows they are here.

It would be unpardonable to be caught on the ground

[1275psi]

28/7/42

Operations report 47th Sentai

Location: Amboina

36A/c available, nil under repair
36 pilots available

Report:
36th sentai involved in continous Combat patrol operations over local area .
Enemy recon flights early morning(p-38) –fail to intercept


We have the records from 47th sentai at this time
Our pilots stand at
Juni v 44 combat missions
Juni B 44
Hyakutake 41
Takenaka 40
Iwaya 40
Inoue 40.

Sentai has specific mission to provide protection to 3 large tankers due to arrive Amboina “shortly”

29/7/42

Its evening
The small wooden hut can hardly be called amess –but it has to do.
The men are sweating heavily, and all are tired – many are easily reaching 50 hours in the air for this week already –and bodies ache.
The heat too is so different from china –a wet, horrible humid clamminess that wears at you, gives you a terrible rash –and makes you stink
For the new joiners from Japan, its been a hard adoption, our veterans have suffered this already earlier in the war.
For Juni b and Iwaya its been a very frustrating day.

Enemy P-38’s are operating out of Darwin – a pretty impressive feat –and both men have spotted todays mission –and totally failed to intercept it.
“too high –too bloody fast”
“And they are using some of these as fighters?
“apparently –but not with much success I hear”
“Well –they are doing something wrong then –lets hope they don’t work out whatever it is”

[1275psi]

As close as Hyakutake gets:

[1275psi]

30/7/42

Hyakutake as we know, lives for flying. He is never happier than when he is in the cockpit of his fighter, and today is especially good.

He is at nearly 30000 feet – where the sky is crystal clear, and the curve of the world so far below seems to be totally disconnected to the reality of now.
He gently banks his plane to the left – and carefully observes the giant some kilometres from him.
Mother nature imperiously marches on, the mighty thunderhead cloud towers another 20000 feet above him, its base a dark, dark shadow.

Hyakutake knows that some where way down below a savage thunderstorm will be lashing his base – he will have to watch his fuel closely until this monster has passed.

Its like flying around a mountain – a cloud only sure –but to fly into it would be just as lethal.
He keeps skimming its edges – not that close –the occasional thump and crash of air pockets just hint at the power in the beast –he must be careful.

“Ahhhhhhhhh –there you are my friend” he mumurs to himself
Hyakutake is hunting – and he has spotted his quarry – the weird twin tailed recon flight – there – a few thousand yards ahead – it too trying to skirt around this floating “air block”

Hyakutake wants to risk it –cut a bit of the corner –but resists –the dark shadow of the thundercloud casts weird shapes - beware little human –I rule here.

For a few minutes he slides, twists around the cloud formation, gaining on his target, testing every aspect of his skill –and is almost in position when the American –heavens knows how -spots him
The P38 abruptly turns away –and astonishingly – climbs even higher!

Hyakutake has to give up the chase. The next 2 hours are spent circling at far more sensible altitudes waiting for the storm to pass.
He notes that the harbour is today crammed to the maximum capacity with 3 large tankers taking on oil.
Hyakutake smiles. Honey in the harbour. How long before the bees turned up?

[1275psi]

31/7/42

47th sentai spends the entire day on a maximum combat air patrol effort over Amboina harbour, as the oil is painfully pumped into the three precious tankers alongside.

It’s a hard, punishing routine, , complicated again by frequent thunderheads passing through the area. The field is muddy, and several fighters get bogged in the outer areas –it takes many men to move them.

The enemy however fail to turn up, Aru island to the south is bombed however


1/8/42
Some excitement to add to another gruelling day of patrol – one of the zeros working with them reports a submarine lurking near the harbour entrance.
Another reports sighting yet more recon planes far over head –although no Tojo pilots see it.
Despite the heavy operational tempo 47th sentai is in peak morale –this is a mission with real purpose.