The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

18/8/43


The crump of the torpedo striking something, shatters the early dawn quiet of Akagis bridge.
All faces, including Nagumos haggard grey face, lined deep with fatigue, turn to the port.

Nagumos goes ashen white.

Shokaku is hauling out of line, the three balls already rising up her mast----------I am out of control---------this torpedo has bitten her in the arse........
Stunned silence fills Akagis bridge

"so close to home.....; croaks Hara. "So close to home........"

Nagumo sways. Then steadies himself. "My God. Thats three..........How will I ever explain ..........."

Abruptly, with out a further word, he leaves the bridge.

Hara, busy now chucking Akagi into a hard turn away, misses the Admirals departure.


But there is no missing, no mistaking the single gunshot from his cabin................

[1275psi]

Hidaka enters the ready room.
Its been a long day, and he is looking forward to a wash, clean clothes, and a run ashore.

Captain Takeji rises from his chair, a mountain of poker chips on the table before him. A pile considerably larger than most of the pilots spread around before him

"Aaaah!, my mighty eagle!. Come join us Hidaka, a mighty group of pilots you lead, flyers all, gamblers none!
Come and se if you can win some of their money back!. Drink!, of course..........."

And just like that, hurricane Takeji strikes the ready room, and sweeps all Hidakas plans for this evening away.............

[ny59giants]

How many DDs were in Akagi's TF?? Some players swear that at least 8 are needed to almost eliminate the Allied sub menace. Anything less and what just happened happens more often.

[Gridley380]

Starting to run short on admirals...

[John 3rd]

Damn. THREE CVs? Crap!

[FatR]

Well, at least none seems sunk or in danger of sinking.

As about reducing sub threat, training all divebomber units in ASW as their secondary skill and flying intensive patrols, in combination of assigning 9 DDs for each CVTFs worked well for me. There were some bad hits, but so far all carriers I've actually lost to subs were from small detached TFs en route to somewhere. I might be just lucky, though, and this way might be less beneficial now, as Judy got the shaft in terms of range in stock, so, no 7-hexes ASW sweeps from them anymore.

[1275psi]

figures, password to get in this log in


ZORPEDO..........[8|]

12 dd escort
heavy asw patrol, as usual

I was just damn unlucky.......
40 days until I get all three back.............


grrrrrr

[1275psi]

Congratulations to Cantona for hanging in during the dark times

AAR open to him again for a few days


18/8/43

WO Fuchida enters his new home, 47th Sentai, Yokohama airbase.

When he was a child, Fuchida was never selected for the baseball team, for the soccer team, any team, for that matter
He was, lets put it bluntly, considered "a loser"
A childhood, I am sure many have shared.

But now, as he enters this ready room, and see's the faces, the so many famous faces.........
Aces, 3, 4, 5, 7 of them...........
And everywhere, faces that speak of years of flying, of experience, of courage and skill.
The best, of the very best, gathered in his old unit.
And , his friends remain too.........

His heart swells.
Loser no more
Fuchida enters Japans new, crack, absolutely crack fighter unit.
And make no mistake

he deserves to be there.

[1275psi]

There are things that history simply swallows up.

This month, (in this year 2012) audiences sat down (and mostly wasted their money) and watched one of the worlds last battlewagons take on the evil aliens.
A ridicoulous movie, one that many here cringe at.
But one thing in it realy struck myself, the way that this mighty ship was started just like a car, and away we go..........

What a crock

But, then, this i suppose, shows how history swallows things. In 100 years, who will know how a steam plant ran?
In a thousand?
Not many.
And records, I think, will be thin.

Getting a battle wagon, or a carrier going, is no easy thing.

At exactly midnight, the fleets new Commander, Admiral Kondo, only 2 hours into his job, orders the singapore ships to sea.
Nearly all the ships are still steaming auxiliary, so they won't be coming up from cold, but (for the battleships especially), many, a great many hours will be needed.

The crews, for one, will have to be roused. many, far too many, are actually ashore.
This in itself could be a story.
No mobile phones
No TV
No radio broadcasts
Just a gazzillion bars and brothels to be scoured, to be roused out.
By 0300 hours a stream of men are passing through Sembawang gates, many staggering.
All sour.
Hundreds of boats shuttle to the fleet at anchor, a fleet where funnels in the dozens shovel thick black smoke
Gun barrel covers are coming of, and the flashing lights blink from every bridge
Fuel, last minute stores, formation orders, requests, they all light up the dark

The hive has been stirred


And yet, as it has happened before, and will happen again, in any Navy, in any time, it shakes itself down.
0800 hours, and all report ready.
Mighty anchors drag singapore basin mud into the air.
Fire hoses wash it away
Sirens sound, men race to positions
Sterns churn in great white storms

As they always have, always will.
The fleet sails on time.

[1275psi]

Takeji takes but two minutes to show his mettle.

'Obey telegraphs!"
No smiles here, no laughter behind the eyes.
A ruthless bark of orders, whip cracking across the bridge
'Hard to Port!. half astern port, haqlf ahead starboard!, away all lines!"

Zuiho, as if suddenly startled, swings her arse away from the pier, her bow beginning to nudge in

"Half astern both!"
'Full astern both!'
Stop both!
Ahead full both, hard to starboard!
half ahead both!

hasegawa could not drive to save himself
kato was competent
Takeji, on this, drives as ships should be driven
Take them in bloody hand, and just do it.

[1275psi]

Charge eyes the vacuum guage suspiciously.
Try that again you little shit...........

The gland steam controller has played up. For ten minutes, port shaft has been on reduced revolutions, only now returned to where they have been all day

At full ahead

A busy day indeed

Full revolutions ever since sailing, and a day of constant niggles.
And the new skipper................

Charge has served a long time on zuiho now, never, ever, ever, has a Captain tested her capabilities like Takeji has today
He has thrown her about like a destroyer, testing her handling, testing her reactions
He has tested her guns, her damage control parties. Already Hidaka has CAP in the air.
And Minobe has been hounded down below twice today already.

The Engineer himself, sweating hard, peers too at the guage
"Fixed charge?" Anxiety fills his voice
'Hie!'
'Good!. I think the Devil himself stalks the bridge charge!, the devil himself!'
He scuttles away, up to the bridge again.

Charge smiles
No sculking in your cabin Minobe this cruise my friend. No more.

[1275psi]

Hosho digs

15th army has stopped Marching

On the crest of a ridge, deep in the jungles of Burma, 15th army digs

The Aussies are coming

Here, here deep in this hell, we will see, he thinks as his hole deepens swiftly, just what these bronze warriors are made of.
It is a blessed relief. No more endless marching. No more 'manouvering'
No more wondering.
15th Army prepares to make its stand.

[1275psi]

28/8/43

Bhamo

A point not mentioned on an atlas anywhere in 43
A thousand foot high ripple, standing above the velvet green some 30 miles long, split dead in the middle by a single dirt road going North

baked by the sun, with out water, and with little shade
A hell of a place to stop.
But here, just to the west of the road, Hoshos company digs in

he has 1000 yards to cover, a trick job, he has only four heavy machine guns to do it with
behind, some 2000 yards, division artillery, a thousand behind that, Corps as well.

It on these guns, Hosho pins his hopes.

For the last day and a half, he has been anywhere up to 3000 yards of the line, climbing trees
A monkeys job, but monkeys do not leave flags in the canopy.

There is insufficient ammunition to pre register, nor an inclination to reveal that here the army will stand.
Thus the flags.
Hosho faces , on his line, what appears to be deep jungle, impenetrable.
A day in it, and its heavy canopy, but light underbrush........filled with trails.

Animal, human, who knows.

The Aussies, will be able to close.


On the ridge, the weapon of choice, the grenade, the home made bomb.
Whatever happns here, it is going to be hard, close, and with out mercy.

[1275psi]

Zuiho plows on, 20 plus knots creaming from her bow

Takeji continues to work her hard, and, it seems himself as equally hard.

He is everywhere, that round face, sweat streaming from it. On the bridge, barking orders, in the hanger, examining his men, in the engine rooms, where his knowledeg of Japanese steam systems becomes immediately apparent.
Cutting questions, sharp questions.

Hurricane Takeji sweeps through the ship.

How many times does he say it today."Hurry up!, the war will not wait!"
Hurry up!
Hurry up!

There is, however, following him, laughter, jokes, smiles.
Encouragement.
Do wrong, and the tongue lashes......
Do right, and be rewarded.

But above all............hurry up!, the war will not wait!

[1275psi]

A major difference between war, and peace.


In peace, you know where you are going
In war, only when you arrive


They sail across hot waters, calm waters.
The heat rises.
Clever men can tell they head south, across the tropical zones..........

But other than that, the ocean flows as always astern

And as always, the war looms ahead.

[1275psi]

22/8/43


The marines attack at Finchesen

A new experience this, to attack.

And to be rebuffed.

They kill 600 japanese men today, lose 70.
But capture nothing, advance not a foot.


And at lae?

Exactly the same today..............

[1275psi]

23/8/43

CV Unryu arrives.
Commissioned quietly, with out fuss, she raises her flag at Yokohama.
She needs a few more planes.

And a few more companions.
So she rides at anchor, and waits.




The japanese ss wolf pack pounces at Salamaua, sinks an entire convoy of 3 AKs
They burn all night these ships.
A future PT boat base, rising as smoke into the sky.


Japanese high command considers the situation, and gambles

'reinforce the battle"!

[kaleun]

Any news?

[1275psi]

I think, somewhere, we have done this before.
Done a set of rounds, a watch below.

But I want to repeat this, for a simple reason.
We can go all over the world in this little story, visit many characters, many ships, bases, jungles.
The Stokers of Zuiho cannot. Every six hours or so, the boilers rooms and engine rooms, the auxiliary spaces..........they are there, the watch HAS to be done.
Below decks, here, on the equator, is hell. Sweat streams from you wherever you go on Zuiho now, the heat saps at you, tears you down

In the boilers rooms, it is now sheer torture.
On the top plates, merely to breath is an effort, to open valves, to operate machinery, a marathon
Men regularily collapse, men sway, men faint.

dantes inferno in motion.

But the work must go on, the machinery -overheating machinery at that, must be tended, must be maintained.

Limbs quaking, men will finish watches, and collapse on the starboard gangways and companion ways, and drink the breeze they help produce, the only breeze today in fact, Zuiho passing over mirror seas........

And, soon, they must do it again

And again

And again

and again.

[1275psi]

24/8/43

The defences at Lae begin to collapse, the defence now a rat hunt, the Japanese the poor rats.
the bite, snarl, claw back, but cannot answer the science the amaericans bring with them, the tank, the flame throwers, the 500 lb bombs

At Akyab, for the second day running, 60 Japanese bombers pound the strip.
Here, at least, Japan still fights on equal terms.

And reinforcements are still coming.
Enough, thinks 20th army, to even consider a counter attack.