Being even on carrier losses, means your losing here.
How many of the Allied BBs are the fast (28 knot) BBs??
An overlooked area of concern for Japan is the number of DDs. How many have you lost?? Roving SC TFs with about 8 Fletchers should be taking out a good number of your warships now.
Being even on carrier losses, means your losing here.
How many of the Allied BBs are the fast (28 knot) BBs??
An overlooked area of concern for Japan is the number of DDs. How many have you lost?? Roving SC TFs with about 8 Fletchers should be taking out a good number of your warships now.
Actually I am quite pleased with sinking 3 essex class in a scene one game, and at this stage, into the last half of 44, carrier vs carrier battles are always going to end in a japanese defeat.
This game has been such a great ride because we are playing very IRL mode. I have not expanded airgroups, or done any of those things that boost japanese power, the game has played beautifully.
I really would advocate that the next time readers, you go to start a new game, give scene 1 a go, and take the challenge
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Hiyo does not list. She slows, and slows, and her bow lowers deeper and deeper into the sea. A series of explosions wrack her, deep inside. A great burst of steam erupts from the funnel, safety valves being released below.
Takeji reaches his bridge within moments. There is no panic, his men stand firm at their stations. He see's many things almost instantly -the telegraphs are at stop, and repeated. The Helm is at admidships, the port side lamp is flashing, a destroyer races across his bows, hunting alreay for the hidden buka.
The deck is sloping forward.
The sound powered phoine rings, shrill sounds barely audible over the shrieking of the safety valves behind them.
It is the engineer..still calm, still in control.
"Two hits forward, I suspect the 25 mm ammo magazine as well.......I have lost both fwd units, flooding port aft engine room."
A pause.
"I am sorry sir, we are going to lose the boiler rooms."
Takeji knows it. damnation........damnation.'Alright engines, get the men upstairs before she goes........."
There is a sharp retort, completely out of character........'Truk that, I'm going to save this bitch"
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Ogowa, Diogowa, flung from their bunks, join the scramble from the pilots quarters, gather in the dark under the wing of the bridge.
There is little conversation.
Cruiser Natori lies 100 yards of Hiyos flank.
"Are we sinking Ogowa?"
"Not with me onboard we aren't"
'Good, this man has had enough bloody swimming for this week"
The pilots begin to, one at a time, descend to the boat already waiting below, the rope ladder banging against her side. There is, thinks Diogowa, a sadness to this act.
Are they abandoning Hiyo?. Is it right that some leave, while others remain?
He stares up, up at the pale faces of Hiyo's crewmen who are helping him escape.
If he should live, he must not let them down, he must extract a revenge.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
The fwd Baulkhead groans, creaking,..........if one dares to look at it, it is bulging, actaully bloody bulging.
"for gods sake!," Hirate yells, "give me another wedge!"
The vertical shore is short, bloody hell, nearly an inch short......wedges, he needs to get another wedge under it.
he stands in 2 feet of water, sloshing, oil filled evil water, they have 5 verticals up now, five horizontals.
They need this pr*&ck though, or all, all will be lost.
"Its coming!" Okano splashes across the space, there are wedges left,
3 that is.
many decks above, wardroom furniture is being torn apart to make more, but they need one now.
The wedge floats in the scum, he fishes for it.
"here you winging barsted, here it is"
Hirate grins. What else is there to do?
he takes the wedge, swings the hammer.
"Horizontal" he grunts
Willing hands, many hands place it into position
The baulkhead groans. But with luck, it may just, just hold
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
You don't have to flood every compartment to sink a ship. Just fill enough to remove the bouyancy that keeps you afloat.
Takeji stands beside his engineer.
The cool barsted is still immaculate, only the bottom half of his overalls are wet, the evidence of his close escape from the waters below
"This is the situation"......calm, precise fingers, pointing at the damage cotrol diagram of Hiyo.
it does not need to be said. 'I do not know my ship. yet here we are, hanging by a thread, and he does not embaress me. This is a man i can respect............
"Two fish, one here, one here. We have lost the fwd unit, two major zones fwd of that.
Port aft boiler room, gone. "
The engineer looks him in the eye, savage triumph gleams there. 'But we hold the stbd aft boiler, engine room"
Hiyo lies low, dead in the water. Reserve boutancy a mere 24 percent
But the lights are on, the pumps, two of them, run
She lives yet.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
'Divert to Pontianak. One AR, 8 DDs coming. transfer, if not already done so, all pilots to attending ships."
"Do your best"
Do your best
There is much to do
Anchors.........ditch them
Boats, furniture.
The guns, do we need them now?, no?.then get them too over the side.
If we can move it, send it for a swm as well...........
Even as men prepare to rig for tow, the battle below descends into a grim, relentless struggle.
Water is trying to enter the lower hanger, silently coming up from drains, cracks, vent trunking, from the ammunition elevators.
the men , all of them, will fight it
A hundred buckets are at work.
90 miles to Pontianak
The sea will never rest.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
CLAA Natori has laid 100 yards of Hiyos flank, her pilots watching helplessly the battle to save the carrier.
Her escorts have come alongside one by one, metal grinding on metal, as men have come off the carrier, pumps, timber, tools going the other way
At one stage two of them come alongside, one on each flank, and Hiyo lashes herself too them,.
To Diogowa, its as if two trainers take a injured sportsman under each arm, and carry him from the field.
Lights shine in the dark, inevitable in this case, reflecting on the mercifully mirror calm sea.
At 3 am two things happen.
The submarine that has caused this pain and anguish, tries again
And 8 destroyers and the AR ship arrive
The Submarine dies -forced to the surface, its crew machined gunned.
Hiyo lives, The AR ships pumps go to work, soon the ocean for miles about wil be covered with a rainbow oil scum, Hiyos blood.
But she will live
At 1600 hours, her arse touches the gentle mud beside the long, but narrow pier of Pontianak, and she settles safe.
39 system, 75 flood, 23 engineering
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Takeji faces his engineer, his executive officer " I promise not to get in the way gentlemen"
They smile
Hiyo lies stable against the wharf.
Her decks silent, she cannot sink any further, so Takeji has ordered the most vital of things to occur.
The men will sleep, and they will plan the way ahead.
There is much to think about. We have planes still onboard, maintenace crewmen who can tend them. This place has no Japanese military presence........vulnerable to partisans..we need to establish one. How will we support ourselves? How will we salvage ourselves?
Will Combined fleet consign us to scrap, myself to scrap, or can we redeem ourselves?
can we rise phoenix like?
The destroyers are gone, the pilots are gone.
The AR ship commander knows his stuff, I must, immediately meet him, get to know him.
Damnation.........my crew sleep, yet my mind cannot. There is so much unknown..................
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Near tokyo, CVL Ryuho, crawling home, is torpedoed by a SS
(How bloody many is that now???)
She makes port, out for 100 plus days
Allied fletchers massacar a convoy south of palua bound for biak.............yes, the Fletcher wolf packs are roaming now......
Fuchida, 22nd sentai arrive Okiwana, where all of Japans elite groups now rest, the reserve, awaiting the next blow
Ogowa, Diogowa depart Singapore on the Natori, they are part of the remains of combined fleet, enroute back home. Sngapore is overwhelmed by the numbers of damaged/stressed ships.
The fleet will go for one last rest/refit.
Then, I fear, sacrifice on herbiesans altar of "decisive final battle'
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Yesterday, the japanese fighters arrived again over the thialand front, desperate to ease the pounding on the retreating armies
Yesterday, they struggled, elderly oscars, against shining spitfires, gleaming T bolts, certain wooden wonders.
Yesterday, 31 allied planes went down in ambush
But so did 29 japanese
One of them, oscar number 206, lies silent in the jungle just north of bangkok.
It had, yesterday, emerged from a cloud abruptly, leaping upon a twin engined mozzie, guns blazing.
The mozzie has rolled, climbed, swung, and fired back
The oscar has flown on by, apparently unharmed, vanished , fleeing into the clouds again, Long Pig behind it cursing and swearing
But the oscar pilot is dead, the plane has been struck just once, and once is enough.
It will fly straight and true for another ten minutes before it tumbles down........
Long pig has a kill
But he does not know it.
(so shhhhhh, don't tell him, let him find out himself)
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
It is dark, gloomy, and stinking hot and humid in Hiyos hanger
There is little enough power from the AR for lighting, let alone ventilation. Hiyos machinery is silent now, the hanger, a great echoing cave
The engineer faces his men, 300 strong.
"fwd store room, compartment 6-108-4-Q, elevator pump room, 6-108-0-Q. That is our aim today men. The elevator machinery room, I suspect, will be a barsted"
Okano sighs inwardly. His engineer is not wrong. That it will be.
There is a plan now. Simple, direct.
We recover, one bloody compartment at a time.
Hiyo, 65 flood.
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
Takeji, with studied seriousness, opens the bottle of Jonny Walker red, pours a good measure, hands it to the portly captain sharing his cabin.
It has been less than a week, yet this is a friendship that, gods willing, will last a lifetime
Captain Itaga is a gregerialous soul, fond of a drink, fond of his food. Foul mouthed, with every second word a swear word, although not a one could be ever termed offensive.
He is also, it is evident, relaible, hardworking, and absolutely dependable.
And, as takeji has quickly discovered, if he says something will be provided, or done.
It will be.
Things progress well, Hiyo sits now considerably higher in the water, on an even keel (63 flood)
Today, 10 destroyers have arrived, unloaded a base force, departed.
Hiyo is secure, for now.
'To safe harbours"
To safe harbours"
They sip the fiery liquid.
Itaga downs his, takes the bottle, pours another. "safer here than Singapore, i suspect"
"The B-29s?"
"The enemy , I hear, is galloping south in Thailand. Soon, I suspect............."
"No where to hide"
A long silence
Itaga grins......."More reason to drink than ney?........before they bloody bomb it and waste it all"
Yes. Yes you are right
"I will drink to that"
big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt
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