The little ship that could.

[Lecivius]

[1275psi]

0700 hours

Takeji calculates
10 of his fighters already dispatched towards waingapoe, 3 more warmiing up, the first replacements needed to maintain a constant CAP
Leaving just five for Combat patrol over themselves.

And now this............."from #$#@ takao ..........Bettie bomber search, obviously.......one aircraft carrier sighted, 40 miles due West Koepang, speed 15 knots, course, due West.
Fog of war. A mis identification?. Or an essex carrier coming to wipe his arse....
Again, he looks down upon his flight deck.
19 Judys, behind them, a dozen Jills.

"TRUK!"
There has been a monumental cock up......The Jills are armed for ASW action, not with fish.
Bloody bombs. Dumb bloody bombs

In times of stress, in time of trouble, turn to what, who you know.
"Your opinion Ogowa?"

The flight commander is not on the bridge, takeji has already dealt with him.
There will be a new one tomorrow

"Go with the bombers, get the decks cleared, get the Jills below, change them then. "
But fighters?, how many do we send?
Ogowa gestures, a gesture of helplessness.....".in matters like this, whats more important, our preservation?, the battlewagons?, waingapoe, or the chance of killing an essex?"

takeji strides to the oother bridge wing. Out on the bow, on the stern, Nagato, Mutsu, 3000 yards away. On the horizon, the smudge of Waingapoe.
And beyond it.............

he grimaces
"Ogowa!"
Ogowa stiffens. Frienship flows, unsen in the air. But duty, and Bushido flows stronger

I send you to your death, I think, my friend........"You are promoted flight Commander. Full strike, Dive bombers, every fighter we have. Order torpedo change out to the Jills for follow on strike!"

The Salute is held.
"Hiei!"

takeji strides to the binnacle
Ok, old girl, let us see you at your work. "Full ahead all, battle speed one!, into the wind.........launch strike when ready!"

[1275psi]

0715 hours

battleship Nagato opens fire

Enemy airstrike inbound.

[1275psi]

Furatuka lies low in the water, listing heavily, her speed less than 3 knots

Kinugasa races past.

'Attention on the upper deck, IJN ship Furatuka!"
Tanaka snaps to salute, seeking Kinugasa's captain on her bridge. All through out the ship men salute. Men with a chance, honouring those with very little.

Kinugasa races past, races west, her magazines utterly empty.
Behind, 8 fully laden cargo ships, burning, sinking, the PT boats shattered

Tanaka has done all he can, the mission has cost a CA, 3 DDs at least lost.
The bitter thought races through his mind

Another battle "won", that takes japan ultimately another step closer to defeat.

A war of attrition.
A war, with her shipyards effectively closed, japan cannot win.

[1275psi]

Takeji see's them almost immediately on the horizon.
Level bombers, 8 or ten of the Buka's

There has been no time to launch, and only a man intent on suicide will try now, Hiyo, undoubtably, is going to be thrown vioently about.

3000 yards away, 4 of the bombers streak towards Nagato, her upper works wreathed in smoke from her AA guns.
Abruptly half a dozen columns of water erupt all about her, the swiftly moving planes banking hard as they pass overhead, crosses against the sky.
There is a flash on Nagato, a hit

There are four more bombers, coming in hard on Hiyo's flank.
Takeji watches carefully, unhurried. he cannot be rattled now, not now. A new Captain, under action.
There are a dozen pairs of eyes on this bridge, all of them, no doubt, half concentrating on the bombers coming in, half on this new captain....

Calmly, decisively........"Port thirty"

Mitchells, the first pair. Twinkling in the nose.........
A line of violence erupting across the ocean, racing across Hiyo's bows, snarling engines, swift shadows fleeting across the bridge, the drum beat of Hiyos guns, the towering bangs of the bombs exploding off her bow

"reverse your helm, starboard 30"

The second pair of bombers have tried to match his port turn, to swing past Hiyos rapidly swing arse, , Starboard will keep it there

Hiyo kills one of them, a black shattering red filled ball bouncing skipping across the water, gone. The last one seems, in that initial moment, to drop too soon, the black bombs crashing into the water 100 yards astern
But the black bukas bounce, skip.............3 flashing past Hiyo's arse

The fourth strikes

he cannot help the thought."If Hiyo goes today, I cannot survive her...........I cannot"

[1275psi]

Long pig banks his Mozzie over Bangkok at 6000 feet.
It is, really a depressing sight.
The B=29's have bombed, and bombed. As an industrial centre, bangkok is no more,
Terribly, as a cultural one, the same can be said. Factory, temple, the bombs have not discriminated.

But this is not the focus today.
Its 15th Army, still retreating.

Flak bursts behind the swift wooden wonder, silent bursts, bursts he can ignore.
Long pig has learnt to love this plane, its speed, its manouverability, those magnificent merlins
If only he could bring the cannons into play, if only something Japanese was up here to shoot down.

But not today.
15th Army, it appears, is making its way to the railhead.
Good.

Let the barsteds concentrate...................

[1275psi]

The bang throws the men in Hiyos after repair base violently, the ship shaking, whipping about.
Men curse, lights shatter, objects clatter, crash.

The base I/c yells."Check for damage!"
Hirate, Okano glance towards each other.......this is no occasion to learn the layout of the ship below. But a Petty Officer is yelling at them....."Flood control bags!.follow me!"
They grab the hessian bags, hammers, wooden wedges, plugs, and follow him towards the trunk below.

They descend two decks, go through a door, enter a passageway. below them, the steady whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of Hiyos props beating frantically beneath them.
Ominously...........the sound of rushing, hissing water.

A hatch.
Test plug, no water, but air rushing out. They loosen the dogs, the spanners clanging, men panting with the effort.
They lift the hatch, and descend into the hell below.

[1275psi]

"damage report sir"
takeji takes the phone. His engineer speaks, calmly, clearly.
"The hit is on aft bulge sir, minor flooding outer stern tube, aft engine room reports a single 6 inch hole, pumps are handling it. Speed un effected, no fires, no casualties. We are, I suspect, trailling oil, we have two tanks in that area"

"Thank you engnes, keep me informed"
he replaces the phone.

Luck, it seems, is with them
"launch the strike"

[1275psi]

Fuchida gets his plane repaired, and maes Balikapapan
His is the last fighter to operate from Salarjar field.

The ground crews watch him depart forlornly, then, reluctantly take their rifles.
They are infantry now.
Their skills are, apparently of little use.
But what skills do you need to die as a human bullet?

[1275psi]

Even as Diogowa is dragged from the drink, Ogowa leads the strike aloft

2 zeros leading19 judy bombers

The report of a carrier, was correct, sort of.
A single CVE, dead in the water, drifting west of Koepang. Even as Hiyos strike approaches, japanese Land based air is striking the hulk.
Ogowa goes hunting for other game.

Incredibly, they see allied bombers, more mitchells headed the other way, but no fighters. Ogowa swing north, and they find targets.

Hiyo's fighter pilots may have been lacking, her bomber men, however, know their work

Ogowa feels no compassion, no sorrow, no pity. he feels, in fact, nothing. Impassively he watches the dives, the bomb releases, the strikes
An APA takes three bombs, two LSL are sunk, a LSL.

Its a curiously dispassionate affair.

They retrn, ttake the trap successfully.
Hiyo has been attacked again, but missed. Her flooding is controlled now.
But Takeji knows his luck has been pushed enough.He has only 6 fighters left

Hiyo meets the dusk, steaming west, steaming for Singapore. Diogowa will be transferred across by jackstay in the dark.
He is still grinning, but, as always, still hungry.

[1275psi]

22nd /8/44
The battles about Waingapoe, Koepang climb towards a murderous frenzy

3 japanese heavy cruisers, Chokia, Takao, Atago, 4 DD's run down and destroy a convoy of 3 Flethcher class and 3 large AKs near Koepang

Mutsu and Nagato and 6 DD see of another convoy trying for Waingapoe
Battleship Yamato encounters two damaged DDs, and sinks them both

Yamato, Musashi pound allied troops ashore at Waingapoe
CA Furatuka is sunk by a ss
And at Dawn, Yamato spots a DD, and sinks her with her second salvo, at 25000 yards.

The allies bomb waingapoe, the air is thick with combat over Salarjar
DD Fuyusuki is sunk by a sss

The allies attack at Waingapoe, it fails.
And 17 T bolts are bounced over Waingapoe by a huge pack of NK1's, and they suffer terrible losses.


Hiyo heads north now.
The hole plugging of Okano, Hirate seems to be holding fine.
Fuchida flies to Jolo island as 22nd sentai retires (part of what is now a mostly hidden, but significant re alignment of Japans air defences)
And Hosho begins packing for a train trip south in Bangkok.

Ogowa is promoted Flight group commander
Cdr Fujita, the man he replaces, accepts the demotion with a shrug.
He could not care less. As do most of Hiyos fighter pilots.................

The war continues.


(hiyo fighter morale 34!!![X(][X(][X(])

[british exil]

Great Story.

34 morale, what was Zuiho's before she was sunk?


Mat

[kaleun]

I wonder how fast can Owaga make morale rise?

The whippings will continue until morale improves[8|]

[1275psi]

Hi Guys, moral was already was already pretty low from too heavy a CAP load, and the ruthless way herbiesan has exploited them!

i AM AFRAID, SHORTLY, ITS GOING TO GET A LOST WORSE............

[1275psi]

23rd of August
Hiyo 19 system, 12 flood, 3 Eng

Hirate rests on his arse, back against the cold steel of the aft engine room baulkhead
He sits on a stool, a large wooden mallet in his hand.
His feet are wet, in fact, nearly 3 inches of water gently rushes from one end of this storeroom to the other.

He sits amongst the complicated forest of timber that shores up the spliner boxes, the plugs, the soft patches that keeps the greedy ocean at bay.
he can be proud of his work (not that he is, he is simply too tired to care at the moment).

Some I am sure, who read this, have done the 'sink tank"
Have descended into the compartment, faced the rushing waters, those incredible pressurised streams . Have taken those soft plugs, those boxes, and given battle.
You know how hard this is.
How hard it is to raise those vertical shores, get the lengths of the horizontal right, get those wedges in.

You would be proud too, of this timber forest Hiyo's men have created.

The water rushes with Hiyo's roll over his feet, the inevitable leakage that runs down from the repairs. The eductor rumbles in the corner.
Hirate struggles to stay awake. As long as Hiyo has power for her fire pumps, for the eductors, they are safe.
As long as they have power.

[1275psi]

23rd of August

Takao, Chokia and Atago pound Koepang, and then brush aside some 3 destroyers on the way out.

A brave action again.
But, if bravery can be measured:

12 mavis patrol planes, yes, those great ancient machines, sweep across Koepang harbour in the deep of the night.
Flares drop, machine guns bark

They come in at a stupidly low hieght.
Maybe the Cruisers bombardment helped distract the AA gunners.
3 LST are struck and sunk, also a submarine.

Brave men.
Well done and banzia!




Bravery is good. But Bushido cannot help hold back reality
Nagato is torpedoed today, yet another Capital ship that will have to return home.

[1275psi]

Heavy rains fall over bangkok.
Under it, 55th division, Hosho and his men entrain.
Coal cars. Filthy, dirty, water gathering in the bottoms of them, cold and miserable

But it beats walking.
After Burma, Hosho would be pleased never to walk anywhere again.

[1275psi]

August 24th

It is quiet in herbiesans room.

An hour ago, the great hall. the massed crowd. The speech, that voice, his voice that God has cursed/blessed him with. The ortation that has brought millions to your view, that has fired revolution, earnt an empire.

Now it is quiet, and we face the reality.

"We will fight a million years" but with what?
"The imperialists grow tired" but still they come on.........
"I will never abandon japan"........but life is more important than that...............

The battles about waingapoe have not gone well today
A LSD sunk
Agano crippled by a 1000lber
CLAA tatsuta crippled too

No word on Mikuma, she apparently is burning.........

One more CVE sunk in return


But I cannot maintain these losses. I cannot.

In the quiet of his room, a thousand miles from Waingapoe, herbiesan blinks first.



'No more warships to be deployed to battle zone. Waigapoe to be supported by air only. The following airgroups to withdraw...............



There have been no allied CVs sighted for nearly 3 weeks, or is it a month now.?
They must appear soon.
And I fear that no speech will hide what they will bring.

[1275psi]

A small game note
japan 44000 points
allies 43000 points

Allied carriers (CV/CVL ) sunk:8 cv, 4 cvl
14 BBs sunk
21 CVEs sunk.

Japan
13 cv/cvl sunk
3 bb lost
2 cve lost

[1275psi]

August 25th
0400 hours

Hirate and Okano sip tea on Hiyos quarterdeck, the sweat of the last watch still drying on their skin.
They do not speak.
Okano has mentioned home, and Families that are missed...........enough to drive both men into themselves.

They contemplate the shining moon lit sea, Hiyos wake swirling behind them

It is a beautiful night.

Until the two fish slam into Hiyos flank.