herbiesan vs Cantona!!!

[1275psi]

3/9/43
Rabual is calm today -47th and all the sentais shake themselves down quickly -the CAP is established, the comms to the outposts checked, the radar tested again
Tha Navy continues to ferry men about -it seems hardly an hour passes today without a ship leaving or entering -and the base itself is bustling.

The memory of rangoon still lingers in many minds -and its hard to convey the power of the allied forces building to the south to the men who have been here for so long.
maybe its blind faith in the Empire -or a refusal to face facts -but for many here in the last quarter of 43 -the war is as it has ever been -Japan triumphant -an empire of a million years.
Lunga, Munda, now Port Moresby - set backs, minor setbacks.
The fleet will be back -and they would be re taken.
It was as simple as that.
Even the most optimistic could see that blooding the British nose came first, the fleet would come - Port Blair -then Port moresby.
You see. You just wait and see.

The men of Nakamura's group know better.
They pick their bunkers, , strengthen the slit trenches. They check the AA guns again.
And they watch the sky -the gathering storm clouds - and wait.

[1275psi]

3/9/43

Dusk
CVL Hosho turns into the wind, and the last of here zeros is safely -if not awkwardly brought back onboard.
Captain Umeya cannot believe their luck. Only one lost, and that pilot saved.
Only one lost.

"Officer of the Watch!"
"Sir!"
'You have the con - get us to the rendevou -full speed, Im going below"

The ready room of the Hosho is a joke. Some modern houses have bigger bathrooms than the smelly tattered steel shell these pilots have used -usually a cold, uncaring room, now it is full of laughter, excitement , flushed faces -and nearly a dozen voices all talking loudly at once.
The Captain is met with a great cheer as he enters the room -and excitably they gather around him -each in overwhelming need to recount tales of their battles over port blair.

Umeya swells with pride -and why not?
These few men have fought all day above the troop convoy -they have tackled the new corsairs, hellcats, and the big bombers.
Only 3 transports hit -and all the troops ashore.

"What now captain -more of the same tomorrow?"
"No"
"What! "-a dozen faces become incredulous
he holds up his hands -"steady men. here is the dope -The Navy has done its job -a full division landed. There are heavy bombers acting all over the bay -our little friend Unyo managed to dodge them today -tomorrow, well we may not be so lucky."
"So thats it? -the pilots voice is heavy with disa pointment -'one moment of glory -and now its back to the endless circling of sheep?"
Captain Umeya is able to smile at that.

'lets see -if today hasn't shown our esteemed Admirals that us little guys are useful, nothing would."
He pulls out a signal from his pocket -flourishes it dramatically
From Combined Fleet"
to
CVL HOSHO
CVE UNYO
CVE Taiho

Well done. Change of command from CnC Home Fleet to CnC Combined Fleet - 4 th carrier Fleet
Effective immediately

signed Yamamato

"now who wants a drink -my shout?"

[1275psi]

4/9/43

extract from Shattering the Sword -a cantona production

from the Imperial fleets viewpoint - operation Blind draw was an outstanding success.
Given the task of getting a convoy through to port blair Yamamato could only rely upon one weapon -the carrier fleet.
But the carrier fleet was not available - it was as we now know -busy elsewhere -operation SHO GO 1, and its preperations.

Thus he turned to the only other thing he had -subterfuge.
Effectively CVL Hosho -and 3 old battleships would become "The fleet" -filling the air with signals, and showing carrier planes over Port blair. The two 2 CVE would be used to add to the picture, and hopefully interupt any convoys to the North of port blair.

Luck played a huge part - the 2 CVE effectively hidden from the british carriers by the storms - "the Fleet" similarily hidden -but the planes not so over Port blair.

The British -wary of Japanese LBA - and of whatever was to the south -simply could not risk battle -they struck on the 13th at the convoy -but struck essentially too late.
The japanese CVE sink a CA, cripple another - a good return for the incredible risk taken.
faced with what appears to be overwhelming forces, the british take the prudent course.
Retiring to the north on the 14th, they allow the Japanese to disengage, battle effectively over.

Battle effectively over at sea, but on the island itself - disaster for the Japanese. Emboldened by the reinforcements -supremely confident of their positions -the japanese army attacks during the night of the 14th -and is shattered.

Churchill was right. Only a week ago - all portended disaster. Once again, the hero of the empire -the common cocknee soldier -the poor bloody infantryu -pull the chestnuts out of the fire.
The japanese were NOT going to be able to kick them of this island. Not now.

Both sides now have much to think about....................





(PS -is Cantona updating his AAR -some one hint to him herbie would love to read about his view of this one day)

[1275psi]

4/9/43

Something quite incredible has happened to 47th sentai today.
They have been paid.
How the Army has kept track of them is beyond him - but miricles do happen.
It is very early in the morning, Juni has hitched a lift into Rabual proper -and now he seeking out essentals.
A sewing kit
A razor,
Booze -not so essential -and still easier to find then the first two items
Writing materials, and a new sleeping mat.

Then -he has heard rumours, that a good supply of seafood is still available here -and for a price -the Lobster are something to get.

Whatever -it is again simply good, to get into a town -to mingle - to look, to be human for a while.
Passing one of the inumerable bars, he has to take quick avoiding action, as half a dozen soldiers erupt from its darkness. They are happy, they are drunk. they are detirmined to tell everyone why they are happy, and why they are drunk -and why everyone -Juni included -should join them in their happiness..

Juni recongnises them -marines -paras from the 4th maizaru unit. They have seen tough fighting, munda -and lunga.
For a few minutes Juni balances between offending them (flying this morning -accepting a drink now would be very, very bad) -and sharing their joy.

they are going home
'See that big sucker in the harbour -the one with the 2 red funnels" the soldier grins " that my friend -is heaven"

Juni feels a stab of jealosy. but then -these men have earn't it.

he fibnally manages to peel away from them -and continue on.
He even does find a lobster.


1400
Juni peels to his right -the controls steady, the air calm.

There was no mistaking it -a submarine had struck
The engine noise fills his world -obliterating it.
He needs it to

Below, alone on the shimmering sea -rabual still clear behind them - the great ship -her two red funnels lying in the sea - pauses for her final plunge.

From 200 feet, juni circles -helpless -watching the men swarm over her sides.
The engine noise fills his world
he needs it to,
or the hate would consume him

[1275psi]

Nakamura conducts an inspection of rabuals AA defences -he is less than impressed

Juni flies CAP, returns, gets drunk

Miyazuki too flys CAP, returns, loses at cards, gets into a fight -loses that too

His younger brother drills on his AA gun, and watches the destroyers steam past -they, the lucky barsteds, get to see action

Hosho dodges bombs at kavieg - and frets over the maintenance to his plane

Mr Iwaya inspects a factory, sacks a manager, takes a bribe, and he too frets over the falling production figures.

Captain Umeya guides the CVL Hosho through dangerous waters -and nurses a very sore head

ADM Yamamato too inspects things -and interviews captains destined for new shipping

Hyakutakes sister in Hiroshima finishes another interminable day over her lathe

Major Hashimoto, commander of forces Kwaljien, dudts himself of yet again. The great bunker is beginning to look a little battered now................

Gen Nobe -, 4th regiment, Miyrintyka?-Burma, cuts his mens rations -again

And Captain Jones - in Big betty 3 -completes another milk run against majuro.

Its another day of the war.

[Jones944]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

(PS -is Cantona updating his AAR -some one hint to him herbie would love to read about his view of this one day)

Sadly it appears as though it has been abandoned. [:(]

I know he reads this AAR, so please, Cantona, start updating again, in the style you started out with. Lots of maps and straight up strategy talk.

[cantona2]

AAR not anbandoned just not enough time for two witp games, 2 ae games and aar's as well. will update when i can

[cantona2]

Herb, ope you do not mind this cameo from my AAR

Order of the day 330th Fighter Squadron

'Tigers spotted in the area, good hunting! Tame the beast!"

[1275psi]

6/9/43

Heavy scattered cloud covers the general area over Rabual. great white fluffy mointains moving steadily with the latest weather front, with patches of blue about them.
Perfect hunting weather for a fighter pilot.

Juni and Miyazuki walk out to their planes, there is little conversation. Juni "is in a mood" -to every one he has put up the shutters -he sits for hours on the mess veranda -brooding at the harbour.
They recieve a surprise on arrival at the planes - today they arr not polished smooth - covered in a fine grey ash.
"What is thes crap?" Miyazuki bristles at the ground crew.
The corporal merely smiles -and points at the great hill behind them- "She's active"
Miyazuki turns -and now he notices -the great volcano dominating Rabual is steadily belching into the sky -an unsettling sight -almost unnatural in his eyes.
Juni breaks his silence - 'just don't fly into that muck -it'll bring you down like a stone"

A volcano eh?. Its a funny thing Miyazuki thinks -Japan is full of them, and here I am half way across the globe before I see one.

The take off -the patrol goes as normal -9 fighters sweeping the area to the south of the harbour -patiently waiting for whatever comes their way.
The hour ticks by -boring, boring, boring. Fuel burns, the engine assualts the senses, the world vibrates -the neck turns, and turns, and turns.
Juni leads them east -out over the ocean, he has a hunch.

It pays off

Having hit Kavieng, the great Liberators are taking a great detour around Rabual, the weather however, is playing havoc with the formation -and now its more of a stream of planes heading south.

Its one of the younger eyes that see them first -small dots against the great sheet of white - moving in an intercept across the patrols bow. His excited shout of Bogies! -shatters many a revere -and sends excitement racing through a dozen or so bodies.

Juni sswings hard, banking vertical -straightening out, his pack following.
"Attack, Attack! Attack"
They come in from the forward starboard quarter of the leading bomber -a good position - the front turret at full deflection, the upper unable to engage them under the wing and engine -the side guns too hampered by the bombers own great bulk.

As the target grows, and grow, Juni begins to bank -sweeping in to the attack - he feels not cold today -the hate burns too bright -but glad, glad that once again they can spray death at the great beasts.

Its a savage pass - close, close, terrifyingly close -the bomber crew can hear Junis engine scream even above the bedlam of their engines -the shattering bangs of impact -the scream of the dieing man -and he blasts past, diving down under the revenging fire of the rear gunner, inverted, rolling, stick into stomach, , hard right rudder, screwing his machine, him, into position for the second great barsted -and the cordite stinks, the guns hammer, the beast flashes underneath, guns empty, and he dives away, fuel now dangerously low, and who cares -he has bitten deep, deep, deep as the sea, you barsteds -take that -go into the ocean!

The great bombers -as usual -do not go down -they race south still -some smoking, one yawing all over the sky -but the fuel is gone -and satisfied, the fighters return towards Rabual


Nakamura listens to the debrief with interest -why kavieng? Why not here?
Never mind -its not worth the effort -the enemy will do what the enemy will do.
What matters is 47th have re entered the war -some new comers have blooded, and no planes have been lost.

Behind them the Volcano rumbles, and if you concentrate very, very carefully -the ground is ever so slightly shaking.
Its a wierd feeling. Definately unsettling.
'One would think a giant is striding the earth" he thinks.

Nakamura is not far from the truth................

[1275psi]

posted -just cause I like it!

[1275psi]

7/9/43

it rains ,and rains.
Ironically, at rabual, its a great day - one of those impromtu parties develop in the mess - some one sets up a wrestling mat -and the pilots of 47th sentai generally beat the hell out of the 85th pilots.

Its a good day.

South, and south west of Rabual, literally 100's of allied pilots in all probability curse the flying weather.
But 47th don't know that, and don't care

Ignorance can be bliss at times.

[1275psi]

8/9/43

MR Iwaya, Minister of production, stands carefully at attention on the reviewing dias.
He is two rows back -to the right, another indistinguishable face amongst the goverment faces here -all circumspect, all carefully lined up to convey a sense of solidarity to the public around them.
Grand Dictator Herbiesan is taking the salute -if he is aware of the many eyes hatefully staring daggers in his back -he shows no sign of it.

Why should he ? - the war goes well -as far as anyone really knows -and the military around him, are all still in his pocket.
And of course, all the Ministers know what happened to Mr Kyoto - he who had tried to contact the allies behind the dictators back.
His headless body had been a suitable warning -the fact that his entire family had vanished as well rammed it home.......

No, Dictator herbiesan has little to fear from the toadies and cowed men about him.

The Dias overlooks a main street in Tokyo -, and today -as it has been custom for years now -the next division to deploy for the front marches past -its the 58th today -a good one.

The rows and rows of youth march past -the crowd-as large as the police , the secret service, the local political branches can muster, is mostly silent. They wave the flags issued, they stand obediently in the light rain.
Few smile .

No amount of censorship can hide from them one irrefutable fact - many, many sons have sailed away. None have yet returned.

The stamp of feet continue, and Iwaya wishes himself anywhere but here.
He scans the crowd again, and his blood runs cold.

The number of divisions in japan today is, of course, a secret - but there are quite a few. Across the road, a group of generals stand -and Iwaya knows that they represent all of them - every single last one.
And in the middle of them , head bent to hear a whispered comment from one of them, Tanaka holds court.
For a moment, Iwaya and the Navy mans eyes meet across the parade.

Tanaka smiles
See - they are with me, the smile says -see -they are with me -and you?
Iwaya looks at the dictator -looks at Tanaka.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea, the thought dashes through his head........................

[1275psi]

8/9/43

Rabual.
Nakamura cannot help himself, the waiting for the blow is simply not in his nature.
Dawn sees a dozen helens escorted by a pack of 50th sentai KI43's dispatched south to munda.

They return 4 hours later -missing just 2 fighters, the missing helen is at shortlands (they believe)
The enemy are there -p38's -but not many.
A few warships, nothing else sighted.

It all seems too quiet, too -too what?
What, everyone thinks -are they up to now?

[1275psi]

Flt Hosho curses the world, the war, everyone.
They are at Truk -cushiest place in the pacific.
The mission -deliver mail to here, here , and here.

For a warrior like him -this is now so totally below his station..................

[hosho]

as I am currently out of work... postmen doesn`t sound to bad at the moment...
lets see if the 47 can stop cantona`s hammer...
nice work herbs

[1275psi]

9/9/43

Extract from "Shattering the sword" a cantona production


............and with that appointment, Churchills final adjustments of his war cabinet were complete.
His new appointment in India faced a situation that beconned with oportunities -if they could be grasped.
The crises of port blair seemed to have eased, japan lacked the strength -it appeared, to throw them of the island.
In Northern Burma - the blunder of Gen Matsuraya's "recongnisance in force" seemed to invite an advance on Mandalaby.

Balanced against this -the where abouts of the japanese fleet. Intelligence indicated home waters. But elements certaintly remained in Singapore .
And now, increasingly, intelligence traffic reported a new operation -SHO GO 1.
Another effort to re take Port blair?
A raid into the Pacific?
Surely not some sort of offensive?
Or was this the plan for the much vaunted "decisive battle?"
Mountbatten would have to carefully consider all............

[1275psi]

10/9/43

For this historian, these days are easy pickings - we hold all of the records of rabual for this period.
Nakamura's days seem routine enough -combat patrols for his sentais -the allies we know declining to attack rabual until ready.

The Log is fairly sparse -so we turn to other things to glean information about life in late 43 for a Japanese airman.
The war against the mosquito apparently continues -1000 extra mosquito nets are distributed today -and a new drain is completed, another swamp aparently emptied.

A convoy must have arrived - 1000 support personal are "temporarily attached to 8th base force, from 6th AV regiment"
Correspondence about four fuel trucks.
More on a new communication net being set up.

An interesting report on the Japanese view of the new B-24J -and yet again -the call for a cannon armed fighter.

In retrospect -looking at the mountains of paperwork Nakamura and his staff confronted every day -little wonder he flew so much.

[1275psi]

10/9/43

For weeks now Captain Jones, in Big Betty 3, has been flying "milk runs" against Kwaljien.
Its his second tour of the war, and although the resistance is only a scratch of his first tour - when those damn Tojo's tore into them, it really is kind of depressing to return after so many months in the States - to find that the airforce still wants him to bomb the same targets.
Were they getting anywhere in this damn war?

Its mission 22 against Kwaljien on this tour -another strike at that damn Bunker
Big Betty is new -a new model, a new plane.
Same old tired men flying her.

Today however is different.
30 minutes out, the island still hidden over the horizon
"SH%t -bandits skipper"
That same familiar freeze up the spine, the sweat on the brow, the clench of the muscles
"Crap, where?, how many?"
"Dozen plus - zeros - 3 o'clock!"
he cranes his neck -OK -yep -barsteds -angling in already.

he sounds calmer than he feels
"OK guys -looks like we earn our pay today - keep calm, shoot cleanly. We will get through this"

Unlike the Tojos from tour one, these attacks are clumsy, rushed, and not pushed in hard.
Nobody gets hurt, nobody goes down.

But the message is clear.
No more freebies again in the marshalls................

[1275psi]

Its a huge moment

Once again the engineer checks his guages.
Vacuum 29 inches steady
Oil pressure good
Condensate temp right on
Steam pressure 300psi
Ahead , astern temps good.

Its the moment
"Disengage turning gear!"
"Hie!"
The Seaman kills the electric motor, bends, unlocks the great padlock, grabs the great lever, frees the great shafts.
"Turning gear disengaged!"

The Engineer speaks into his comms.
"All spaces - opening main steam valves!"
"Open main steam bypass!
then, as the pressure equalises
"Open main steam Valve guard!"
The men leap to work -the great valve initially sticks, a curse -another heave, then swiftly, swiftly it opens.

The Engineer steps forward, takes the great astern throttle into his hands. A years work leading to this moment.
All eyes are upon him. Today will be the peak of his career. A moment he will cherish forever

He swings the great wheel, and smoothly, easily, the great shaft turns.

The great ship -on which so many hopes and dreams lie, is no longer a hulk of dead machinery.
Today, first basin trial day, marks the true birth of Japans first new carrier.................

[1275psi]

11/9/43

And so it begins, the first probe of Rabuals defences.

At 30000 feet, there is little chance of doing great harm to the base, but then again, the Allies know that only the KI-44's will reach them up here.

Its been a long, long time since 47th have had to fight up here - where exposed skin will stick to metal, and 30 seconds with out the oxygen mask spells doom.

2 dozen liberators, some 30 44's trying to climb and engage.
We know that Juni was on the ground today, as are Nakamura and Miyazuki, its the newbies who fly.
nevertheless, they attack with courage, most getting in a psss, and WO Shirahama gets a kill - another sentai another.

47th sentai have 54 kills now.


No bombs strike anything -surely not the objective of this raid.
Its just the beginning, the testing of the waters.






The last Tojo has barely stopped rolling, the pilots now sweating heavily as they remove the heavy flight gear in the steaming heat, and the Helens, a mere half dozen, roar away.
With a pack of KI-43's in escort, they go south looking for shipping.

2 fighters do not return, but again resistance at Munda is very light.