The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

The american carrier fleet is tracked carefully, but with out doubt to just off broome, where it turns east, target no doubt to be Darwin.

21 japanese ss wait for it in the approaches.
A little revenge would be oh so sweet............

[1275psi]

The conference decides nothing.other than that "the situation is serious, but victory is still certain"

Harder heads return to ships, and through out Japan, experienced pilots are dragged from shore billets. Attend to your powder at all times, and let the generals worry about the war.

The Unryu class, at least 4 of them, have been operating with the new experimental BN2a, and D4Y, and AM5c's, well and good, but no factory is currently tooled for these planes. A complicated, and at times harrowing re organisation has to take place through out Japan as these models are sent ashore, and older planes that can actually have combat losses replaced, are bought onboard.

There are no shortages of these, Akagi's airgroups, for one, have been reformed.

One thing for certain, if the process confuses Herbiesan, hopefully the alies will be bemused............

[1275psi]

8 may

Zuihos crew file back onboard. In ones and twos, they come up her gangway, salute the flag at the stern, disapear into her interior. Not a man, I think, does not let out a sigh as they do. Leave has been short. It has, for most, been sweet.

She will sail now tomorrow, her departure delayed a day.
Few will no why, or care, its a day to sober up, or to put hang overs to bed.
An extra day alongside, a bonus indeed..........



Takeji reads the signal again, raises his face to Minobes. "Is this really true?'
"Apparently..........yes"

Bad. This is...very bad indeed........


The signal is brief, yet oh so potent
From XXXX naval support detachment
to
4th fleet HQ, Combined fleet
"refuelling delayed 24 hrs. Stocks exhausted here, awaiting, attempting to source further supplies................"

[1275psi]

Hosho awakens, stretches on his mat. Cocks his head towards the entrance of the bunker............yes, dawn breaking.
The younger soldier on guard nods a greeting."Morning sir"
Hosho scowls......morning, bah, another day of staring across the river, at the jungle, wondering if the enemy really is still there.

"Breakfast?" he asks hopefully
To his surprise, the sentry actually smiles. "yes sir, actually there is, a delivery last night"
The young man stands, siloeutted against the rising sun outside the bunker " Two bags..."

There is a THWUMMP, and the soldiers throat dissolves in a spray of blood and flesh.
Eyes wide, glazed already in death, he slumps and falls

Frozen, Hosho stares at his dead man.

500 yards from the river.............100 yards of river............how far to the enemy.............gods, to hit at that range.........surely no sniper can do that?...............surely not?

But somehow, deep in his heart, he knows that over the river, at least one man can

[1275psi]

Private first class, Greg Butler, sniper, lowers his rifle. How many in the bunker? Who knows? Rats. Rats in a trap.
Dirty rat japs. Carefully he slides another round in. There's at least one Officer in that hole, lets see if we can't get him ...........

[1275psi]

The enemy Carrier fleet steams east.

From Soemba, a long way to the North, the japanese launch a strike

23 zeros, 16 N1K1's, 16 Jill TBDs
Culled as is, the CAP remains impressive, and deadly

71 hellcats intercept a long, long way out..............

6 jill bomb, and miss the Princetown, no planes make it home.

Over Babar, the T bolts replace the corsairs and hellcats. They too bite deep into the Japanese attacks.

A bad day for japan, 120 planes lost for 30 enemy down.

4th fleet seek reinforements.

"so sorry, there are none to be had"

[kaleun]

Great writing, as usual.

[Smoky Stoker]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

...There is a THWUMMP, and the soldiers throat dissolves in a spray of blood and flesh.
Eyes wide, glazed already in death, he slumps and falls...

Unlucky to be hit, but still fortunate. Sometimes a man takes a very long time to die. Sometimes even a short time can be very long. Gamers don't want to think about this.

[1275psi]

May 9th 1944

Okano is smiling as he gives the news
"My parents are delighted. It will be all arranged, your marriage to my sister Mioko will occur June 1. Do not be concerned if we are not here, they have a photo of you, it will suffice"

Hirate stands stunned, his surroundings another world. "And.............and she agrees.............?"
"of course. She is delighted, almost as much as Father is..I think he has plans for the both of us in the workshop after the war, something about building refrigerators..........a crazy idea, but.."

"I cannot do it"

"Eh?"

"I cannot do it...........as much as I would like to, as much as the thought fills me with pleasure, but I cannot do it"
"But why?"

Hirate waves his hands around the boiler room........'because one day, one day soon, we will be below that hatch, that locked down hatch, and the water will be coming in...........I cannot let her marry a dead man..........."

Okano laughs."Not yet my friend, not yet!......more the reason to say yes...........live life to the full, while we can"

[1275psi]

The hidden sniper takes out two more men this long day..........impossible shots, but the impossible lies still on the river bank, and along the trail near the bunker, gathering the flies already.

There is, of course, another entrance to the Bunker, hidden out the back, narrow, and totally inconvienient to everything else.
It has to be used.
This does not worry Hosho at all. But other things do. This bunker is an important defence link in the line, two machine guns man the maw of it. Right now, they are useless. Twice the bullet has slapped into the wall behind them whenever someone has tried to man them.

Something, something must be done.
But what?

[1275psi]

The dragons deep in Zuihos bowels are glowing again

What is needed to keep the beast glowing ?, to keep it contained, to master it, and it not master you?

It needs firstly, fuel............vast quantities of heated, strained, sprayed into its guts fuel.
It needs air, air to mix with the fuel, to help it combust. Only one fan runs at this time, that ever present sound again fills the airs.

The drains have been drained, the automatic ones clack away now, LP, HP, returning every presious drop of condensate to the system.

The feed controller has been stroked, the feed check valve is open wide, the water tender monitors the feed pump, the booster pump, the feed heater. He watches the guage glass continously, even when attending to something, anything else, that narrow guage is always being watched.

The chemistry, at the moment, is bad. Twice now in this last hour, the water level has been raised, the surface blow down valve opened, the rumble of water and steam through the hull.


Boilers have few, a very few moving parts, but they need constant attendance
This week..........6 burners to be changed and cleaned, twice a day, every day
Water Chemistry checked, every 8 hours.
Surface blows, as required.

Every week, a compulsory shut down, then bottom blows, then a chemistry dose, before a reflash.
The bolier cleans, every 5000 hours internal, 5000 external.
The registers must be kepts aligned
The Boiler level guage glasses -blown down daily
Soot blows, every night, an hour of crushing effort

And what, we may wonder, do we get in return?

Power.
Smooth, irresistable, ever on tap, power. power for turbines, generator, the galley, power for everything.
Steam is man power intensive, thirsty, seemingly crude

But oh............the power.

[1275psi]

May 10th

The fleet has gathered again.
Hiroshima bay is crowded with ships. The carier airgroups have refilled, replaced, re shuffled. The battleships have re ammunitioned, the cruisers and destroyers re filled tubes and depth charge racks.

The gaps in the ranks though, have grown since the last time the fleet gathered thus. Hiryu is gone, Akagi is gone, one of the cVls, several CVE too.
Too many cruisers now patrol eternal seas. And the fleet now can see all but 10 of its destroyers gathered here, and here there be but 40 of them.

'Fraying at the edges'.............a good description of the fleet in 44.
Fraying yes. Gathering for yet another fight, yes. The allies are dithering, it seems. Again, japan has been given a chance to re coup.

herbiesan will not waste it.

[1275psi]

The allied CV fleet approaches darwin. The japanese ss attack, the japanese ss die

3 attacks, 2 sunk

It is the end of the SS fleet, herbiesan orders the cancellation of any more ss construction, this arm of his navy is now definately a wasting assett.





And thats it until after easter, cantona is on holidays.........again!

[kaleun]

Great read. Happy Easter.

[1275psi]

Zuiho once again slices the water. The darkened bridge is tense, tenser than usual in fact. Little threat of submarines, here in Japans inner seas, but they are still their in Takeji's mind. No, what concerns him is the waters they sail, japans inner seas.......her crowded, crowded inner seas. Fishing boats, gods, so many fishing boats, and countless small craft. And now, cleaving its way east, at speed, literally almost the entire japanes navy, close formation, blacked out.

Tense times indeed.
Ahead, Yokohama, fuel, then south again.

South again

At this time, Takeji has no idea what the grand plan is. Does command know?
They must have a plan. He prays it is a good one.

[1275psi]

Admiral Abe rests at his desk, high, high above the seas, Admirals cabin, Yamato

Below him, her massive bulk cleaves the seas at 20 knots, and yet his glass of water rests near his elbow, still.

Fitting, he thinks. For three days now, he has struggled with this greatest of problems, how to defeat the Americans, how to bring this damn war to a conclusion.
Only now, here, alone, in the stillness, in the deep of the night, have the decisions come.

Tomorrow, Herbiesan
Herbiesan, the man who so easily fell into this war, and now, ever more desperately, needs to end it.

The plan sits before him:

Commander:

To win this war, we must face realities. We must face the strength of the Americans and British............and we must use this to our advantage.

What do we know?
There are many enemy carriers operating near Timor -which is obviously a target.
But, and this we must face...........not ALL of his carriers, his ships. He plans something in the pacific, what, I do not know, but he knows we are in the pacific, ...........and waits for us to leave (thus the raid on timor, soerabaya)

The British wait, or gather for an invasion of Port Blair, or sabang............why we know this, he cannot go through us in Burma, he must go around. Constant bombing of Port blair is a sure give away, yes?

Our defence faces 4 fronts.
The aluetions we must ignore. North fleet must make do.......I do not believe we face a threat there
The pacific?...................what can we afford to lose there>
Anything but Siapan...........and does he have enough carriers for that?. Maybe, maybe not?

I guess not.

This, sir, leaves just Timor, and the British.

The reality is this, Timor will fall, it will hold for a month, but it will fall.

And what can combined fleet do to stop it fall? Crawl through Submarine infested waters, having ships we cannot afford to lose, lost.

No, I think there is a better way..............force his Carriers to leave Timor, which will vastly improve our chances there.
And how to do this?

Beat the british
They are strong, but not strong as we are still.

Herbiesan, we sail to attack the British, to sail on submarine free seas
We sail to attack them where ever we find them, to force them to call for American help.
With Singapore as our base, we will have fuel, supplies enough, at last.

Admiral Abe



He signs the letter.
Its mostly bull crud, he knows. But it contains the one word that guarantees Herbiesans assent

Attack.

Mid 44, and still Japans plans to attack.

[John 3rd]

BANZAI!

(The strategic thinking does make SOME sense!)

[1275psi]

may 11th, 1944

There is no mistaking the moment.
In over 800 minds, through out Zuihos length, the mental note is taken.
A few share the moment, quick glances, eyes met, no words spoken, but message recieved, shared, digested together.

Zuihos bows rise, and fall, the deck, solid a moment ago, begins to move.

The pacific. Open ocean. Japan is falling behind again, the unknown calls them forward.
The allies are moving.

800 plus men. Good bye home.
Welcome, my old enemy, the eternal sea.
let us dance again, ney?

[1275psi]

Cantona's holidays finished at last

His message to me

"bring it on"

He's re found his WITP mojo I think.

herbiesan surveys his empire, his fleet.
Preening confidence fills Imperial HQ.
What possibly can go wrong[:)]

[1275psi]

SPEED!, SPEED!, SPEED!!!

Fuchida's voice rises ............
"I take control!".........forcably he takes the stick, shoves it forward, the little trainer wobbles dangerously 50 feet above the strip, regains its bearings, swoops down,, but still lands alarmingly heavily onto the grass strip.
Without hesitation he takes his short stick, oh so familiar in his hand now, and raps the hapless student's head in the cockpit ahead of him........"Buka!, you almost killed us both!, If we'd had a big breakfast we would have stalled!..........speed, always, watch your speed!'

A few minutes later, in the silence between students, Fuchida wirly thinks of his life now. At times, it seems, it would be safer tangling with hell cats than circling this place, the standard of his students...............

It wasn't like this in his day............

47th still not re built.
Rumours that there are no planes to do that anyway...................

Things are changing, you can see it. Shortages, more shortages.........and even more shortages.
Training hours being cut, again.

The next "victim" climbs in.
"Did you walk around the plane, my young friend, did you actually check we still have our wings attached, perhaps?'
The student does the predictable.........freezes. he can almost see that face going red ahead of him..........
"No, instructor!"
WHACK!

A hard head this one, he hardly flinched

"Well go and check yes!"


he sighs. Fighter pilots?...........they want him to turn these boys into fighter pilots?
he does not know whether to laugh or cry............