Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[Grotius]

Wow, you have done well indeed, Cuttlefish, if you still hold all that in mid-1945. Congrats! How many DDs beside Hibiki remain afloat?

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Wow, you have done well indeed, Cuttlefish, if you still hold all that in mid-1945. Congrats! How many DDs beside Hibiki remain afloat?

He mentioned a 21-ship TF in Hakodate. I would hazard a guess that this is the bulk of the Imperial Japanese Navy.[;)]

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Lord Sunderland

Long time lurker on this site. I too will add my appreciation to CF for this AAR- The story is fantastic and I cannot overstate how upset I was when I finally caught up to the present day and realised I would have to take my Hibiki doses day by day, rather than pages at a time!

ORIGINAL: nashvillen

OK, now that I have read all 158 pages of this amazing story, I want to say a repetitive thank you to CF for the great work of literature he has created. This has enthralled me to the point that all I have done with AE is download and just open it once to look at what Matrix has done. Getting back to the story has been more important! Now that I am caught up, I can concentrate on exploring AE in preparation for my first PBEM with rjopel in the near future!

I have played WitP since it was released as PW back in the early 90's, I was fascinated by the level a detail in the game then and am still amazed in the level of detail added in AE. It allows for such stories such as this.

Wow, still picking up new readers after all this time. Thanks for the compliments and I'm glad you gentlemen enjoyed the read.

Part of the, well, "art" (for lack of a better word) to writing this has been to take combat results from the game and turn them into a cohesive narrative. The level of additional detail that AE provides will make this a lot easier. I had been wavering about whether or not to attempt another AAR in this style for AE but after looking at AE I don't think I can resist. It won't happen until this one is done, though.

I have tried your style of 'art' in my AARs periodically CF and I can NEVER match your skill and quality of work. It humbles me to read this work day-after-day and see what you have achieved.

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Lord Sunderland

Long time lurker on this site. I too will add my appreciation to CF for this AAR- The story is fantastic and I cannot overstate how upset I was when I finally caught up to the present day and realised I would have to take my Hibiki doses day by day, rather than pages at a time!

ORIGINAL: nashvillen

OK, now that I have read all 158 pages of this amazing story, I want to say a repetitive thank you to CF for the great work of literature he has created. This has enthralled me to the point that all I have done with AE is download and just open it once to look at what Matrix has done. Getting back to the story has been more important! Now that I am caught up, I can concentrate on exploring AE in preparation for my first PBEM with rjopel in the near future!

I have played WitP since it was released as PW back in the early 90's, I was fascinated by the level a detail in the game then and am still amazed in the level of detail added in AE. It allows for such stories such as this.

Wow, still picking up new readers after all this time. Thanks for the compliments and I'm glad you gentlemen enjoyed the read.

Part of the, well, "art" (for lack of a better word) to writing this has been to take combat results from the game and turn them into a cohesive narrative. The level of additional detail that AE provides will make this a lot easier. I had been wavering about whether or not to attempt another AAR in this style for AE but after looking at AE I don't think I can resist. It won't happen until this one is done, though.

I have tried your style of 'art' in my AARs periodically CF and I can NEVER match your skill and quality of work. It humbles me to read this work day-after-day and see what you have achieved.

I second this remark. I try my hand at creative writing from time to time, but this... WOW!

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Wow, you have done well indeed, Cuttlefish, if you still hold all that in mid-1945. Congrats! How many DDs beside Hibiki remain afloat?

Ordinarily this falls outside the "deck-level" view of the war I usually stay with, but it happens that Captain Ishii has a pretty good idea of the figures - the Combined Fleet being kind of a small club these days and all. Japan still wields a surprising amount of naval strength. Ishii thinks are about 40 front-line destroyers available (not all of them in or around Japan) and another 15 to 20 second-line destroyers. Japan also has 4 CVs, 2 CVLs, maybe a dozen light cruisers, and perhaps 6 or 8 heavy cruisers. Battleships are the most uncertain quantity; Mutsu is known to be afloat but out of the war and rumor says that there are one or two others hidden away somewhere.

[Capt. Harlock]

The Allies control the northern three-quarters of the island. Japan still holds out in the far south, including Naga, and the enemy does not seem inclined to press the issue. There are a lot of Japanese troops there in very good defensive terrain and the enemy attitude seems to be that they are not going anywhere.

Interesting strategy. I would guess the Allies have enough airfields and ports to assemble what they need for the next step.

Riku may be regretting not taking the offer to relocate Nanami -- but I don't think Granny would have agreed to move, and Nanami wouldn't have agreed to leave her.

So the Brits have part of the Malayan peninsula now -- I wonder if they managed to take Rangoon from the south?

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Wow, you have done well indeed, Cuttlefish, if you still hold all that in mid-1945. Congrats! How many DDs beside Hibiki remain afloat?

Ordinarily this falls outside the "deck-level" view of the war I usually stay with, but it happens that Captain Ishii has a pretty good idea of the figures - the Combined Fleet being kind of a small club these days and all. Japan still wields a surprising amount of naval strength. Ishii thinks are about 40 front-line destroyers available (not all of them in or around Japan) and another 15 to 20 second-line destroyers. Japan also has 4 CVs, 2 CVLs, maybe a dozen light cruisers, and perhaps 6 or 8 heavy cruisers. Battleships are the most uncertain quantity; Mutsu is known to be afloat but out of the war and rumor says that there are one or two others hidden away somewhere.

I take back all my snarky comments about the state of the IJN. It´s freakin´ amazing you´ve managed to keep so much of your fleet afloat for so long. This is what - half the pre-war cruiser and destroyer strength, 2/3 of the pre-war carrier strength (although probably much less effective plane-for-plane)... even if they are reduced to the state of a fleet-in-being, that should be enough to keep the Allied player on his toes, especially with the stunt that the Ikoma task force pulled.

[Cuttlefish]

May 17, 1945

Location: Hakodate
Course: None
Attached to: TF 21
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

The Japanese government finally confirms an event that has been widely rumored. Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is over. For most Japanese this is not in fact earth-shattering news. Germany has always been an ally of convenience and not one for whom most Japanese feel a great deal of kinship. But while the two nations have not exactly contended side-by-side on the field of battle there is still something disheartening about knowing that Japan now continues the fight alone.

---

“What about Hitler?” asks Ensign Konada. Several of Hibiki’s officers are in the officer’s wardroom discussing the announcement.

“He killed himself as the Russians closed in on his bunker,” says Lieutenant Miharu.

“I can’t blame him for that,” says Chief Engineer Sakati. “Those Stalinists are cold bastards. I would not want to be their prisoner.”

“Have you known many Russians, Sakati?” asks Lieutenant Miharu curiously. He has rarely if ever heard Sakati offer a political opinion of any kind.

“A few,” Sakati says. He pops the last morsel of dried fish he has been eating in his mouth and washes it down with a little sake, then makes a face. “Bah. Indifferent stuff, but there is no better to be had, these days. Yes, I knew a couple of Russians when I was at Glasgow and I once visited St. Petersburg as part of a tour of the Obukhov State Factory. The Communists among them all had closed faces, like shut-up tombs. And they all drink…vodka.” He shudders.

“There are rumors that we have approached Russia and asked them to help negotiate a peace settlement,” says Lieutenant Sugiyura. Lieutenant Miharu shakes his head.

“I have heard that too,” he says. “I cannot believe it, though. That is like a rabbit asking a wolf to save it from a tiger.”

“How is that, sir?” asks Sugiyura. “I would think the Russians might be willing to help. They are fellow Asiatics, after all.”

“That is a dangerous illusion,” says Miharu. “The power elite in Moscow is not Asiatic and they feel no ties of kinship with us, or with anyone.” He speaks with rare passion, perhaps because he had this same argument many times with his now-dead brother. “Stalin is very dangerous, and now that Germany is out of the war I very much fear that they will turn their eyes in our direction.”

“Why, sir?” asks Ensign Konada. “They have no reason to go to war with us.”

“They don’t need a reason,” says Miharu bitterly. “They have ambition and insatiable greed and that is more than reason enough.” He lapses into silence. His expression is set and distant and the others, somewhat surprised by this outburst from the usually taciturn officer, elect not to pursue the topic further.

[kaleun]

Watch out for Russian activation.

[Barb]

Those ruskies wanted to revenge the defeat in Russo-Japanese war...

[Alikchi2]

Getting some armageddon-y vibes over here..

[Cuttlefish]

May 18, 1945

Location: Hakodate
Course: None
Attached to: TF 21
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Here and there, around the world:

---

Frank Barnwell sits at the table in his kitchen and looks out over his garden. The garden is filled with sunlight and it promises to be a fine spring day in Brighton. He looks back down at the letter he is reading, the one denying his request to return to active duty.

It’s just as well, he tells himself. I must have been barking mad to make the request in the first place. After all I’ve been through and survived only a fool would want to go back.

He folds the letter and puts in back in the envelope. He thinks of his old mates and wonders how they are getting on there in Burma. Heat, bad food, mosquitoes, and Japs. Yes, only a fool would want to go back. He sets the letter aside and picks up the latest copy of The Argus, scanning it first, as he always does, for news of the war in Asia.

Fool or not, he wishes he was there.

---

The Rickshaw Man slips into Hong Kong like a dirty, tattered shadow. He’s gotten used to the claw he now wears in place of his left hand and has even learned to use it to sinister effect. In a way it is a measure of his master’s regard for his services that he has it. Any less valuable servant would have been killed for disobeying orders and, worse, failing the mission.

Shun has the hand now, the Rickshaw Man reflects. Well, that is fair. He wonders what Shun will do with it. Keep it as a memento, he hopes. It is discouraging to think of one’s bitter enemy simply tossing a part of oneself aside. But Shun never was very predictable.

In any event the Rickshaw Man has a new assignment. Du is already looking past the end of the war to a day when he might need a bolt hole. If the Communists ever take control of China Du is finished and Du, more farsighted in this regard perhaps than many heads of state, sees this as a real possibility. Hong Kong would make an ideal place to retire and it is the Rickshaw Man’s job to prepare the way.

He puts aside his reminiscences and sets about getting the job done.

---

Ensign Mark Turnby, resident of the prisoner of war camp known to its inmates as The Mitsui Madhouse, squints up at the sun before plying his shovel again. He hopes a someone will be along soon with a bucket of water and a dipper. Digging slit trenches is thirsty work.

The area has not been bombed lately but it is best to be prepared. News through the grapevine says the heavies are busy working over places to the south, places like Nagoya and Osaka and Sasebo. Despite the tragedy of losing friends to his own side Turnby still cheers the bombers on. Anything to end the war and get out of this dump and back home.

At least he and his fellows here have it easier than most. He doubts there is another POW camp in Japan where the guards are bribed to take good care of the prisoners. Turnby and the others are fed as well as the guards, which is not all that well but better than nothing, and really scarcely guarded at all. Right now, for instance, Turnby is so laxly watched that he could put down his shovel and walk right out of the compound without drawing a yell or a shot. But where would he go?

He drives his shovel into the ground again and thinks for the one thousandth time about his family. He thinks about girls he knows, and he thinks about eating a steak. He would give his left hand for a big, juicy steak, fried up right and smothered in onions and mushrooms. Dirt flies over his shoulder as he chases the imaginary steak down with a nice cold beer and then enjoys a big dish of ice cream. His stomach growling, Ensign Turnby works on in the bright sunshine.

---

Harry S. Truman sits in the Oval Office and looks again at the plan that the Joint Chiefs have set in front of him. It is risky and ambitious and if it works could bring the war to a swift conclusion. If it fails it could be a disaster.

Truman is tempted to just wait for the first test of the Manhattan Project, tentatively scheduled for two months from now. The scientists have assured him that it will work, and if it does it would possibly render the plan in front of him unnecessary. But if it fizzles then two months or more will have been lost, months during which the war could have been brought to a conclusion.

It is a terrible decision to have to make. Either way tens of thousands of people are going to die. Truman is simply given some control over who dies and when. This isn’t the job he signed up for, but it is his job now. As he himself says, this is where the buck stops.

“Mrs. Conway,” he calls. Rose Conway, efficient as ever, is in the doorway almost immediately. “Get me Admiral King on the phone, please.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” says Mrs. Conway. A moment later she informs him that Admiral King is on the line.

Truman picks up the phone. “This is Truman,” he says. “Proceed with Operation Longbow.”

[Capt. Harlock]

“Why, sir?” asks Ensign Konada. “They have no reason to go to war with us.”

“They don’t need a reason,” says Miharu bitterly. “They have ambition and insatiable greed and that is more than reason enough.”

Actually the Soviets had two substantial reasons: Korea and Sakhalin Island. The former was ceded to Japanese control (along with Port Arthur) and the latter was divided between Japan and Russia. Stalin wanted the whole thing (there were substantial deposits of coal) and of course, he got it.

[thegreatwent]

Cue the suspenseful music[:)]

Once agian thanks CF[&o]

[Alikchi2]

Oooh boy. Fingers crossed - will Hibiki survive Longbow?

[SierraJuliet]

Re Around the World.  Sombre reading CF but gloriously put together.

[Cribtop]

Around the World is great stuff. Each vignette, in its own way, is proof that the only predictable outcome of a major war is to forever change the world as we knew it.

[yubari]

Magnificent. There never was a greater.

[Cuttlefish]

May 19, 1945

Location: Hakodate
Course: None
Attached to: TF 21
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

The days of the American occupation of Okinawa have passed swiftly for Nanami Ariga. She and several hundred other Okinawans are being kept in a large camp. There were more initially but they are slowly being allowed back to their homes and villages. Nanami has stayed for several reasons. First, she has no place else to go. Second, she is still looking for her grandmother. And third, there are many here who need her, homeless families with young children and others who all seem to need help or a kind word here and there.

Meanwhile they are fed and cared for reasonably well. Most of the Americans are very nice. A few have been openly hostile, obviously mistaking them for Japanese, and a few have looked at her and made comments whose words she doesn’t know but whose tone she understands perfectly well. By and large, however, she and the others are cared for with a cheerful and somewhat remote efficiency.

The efficiency of the Americans is what astounds her. Whatever they need seems to magically appear. Tents, blankets, latrines, cots, food, all of these pour out of the cornucopia of their war machine with little effort. They even have chocolate, here, thousands of miles from home. It is a casual and breathtaking display of power that Nanami feels would compel the Japanese to surrender immediately if they saw it, even those unimpressed by their airplanes and ships and guns.

At the moment Nanami is walking through the makeshift camp, occasionally exchanging a greeting or a few words with this person or that. She does not like being idle. That gives her too much time to worry. She worries about her grandmother, her father, and her husband. Riku! She has not seen him in so long. She tells herself fiercely that he must be alive, that surely she would feel it somehow if something had happened. But she does not know for certain and it gnaws at her.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a jeep pulling up alongside her. At the wheel is Hayakawa, the interpreter. Nanami has worked with him a lot since her capture, as he speaks no Okinawan and few of the islanders speak Japanese that he can understand.

“Hop in!” he says cheerfully. “I have found your grandmother.” Nanami gasps and scrambles to obey. Hayakawa guns the engine as soon as she is settled and they drive off.

“Where is she?” Nanami asks in Japanese. “How is she?” Hayakawa chuckles.

“She was taken to our field hospital near Kadina,” he says. “She has a broken leg and was dehydrated, but she is fine.”

“Are you sure it is her?”

“She is a small elderly woman named Rin who has taken command of an entire ward,” he says. “All the doctors, corpsmen, and nurses love her and fear her and obey her every whim. Does that…”

“Oh it is her!” interrupts Nanami happily. “Hurry, please!” She hangs on as the jeep sways around a turn and bounces down the rutted road south towards Kadina.

[Canoerebel]

American efficiency? I've always thought we were kind of looked down upon in that regards - at least by Germans, to whom efficiency is sacrosanct. American abundance and productivity and inginuity, yes!

Your reference to chocolate reminds me of the scene in the "Battle of the Bulge" movie in which two German officers are marveling over the fact that American infantry troops in the Ardennes had chocolate cake that had been flown over from the states.

P.S. I should add that this isn't a complaint about your story! Far from it - like everyone else I continue to marvel at your ability to weave such an engaging narrative.