The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

Abe recieves the message

"we strike...........carriers burning"

Is that all?............how many, where?, what type?...........losses?
After all these years...........have his pilots not learnt yet of the need of accurate reports?

But of course..so many of the vetrans are gone now..........
"Sir, we are in range now for our shorter range bombers............."

How many?............what type....losses?..............

Does it matter, really.?................the furnace will swallow us all.

"launch!"

[1275psi]

0001 hours
21 febuary

CVE Sitoh bay sunk
CVE kadashaw bay sunk
An AK, sunk
CVe Shipely bay sunk
CVE larges point, sunk


The ocean between the beaches and PNG literally thick with reported task forces..............

Nagato missed by bombers
156 aircraft lost, 67 killed
20000 enemy troops ashore, 18000 facing them
Combined fleets hangers re filled by replacements flown in from ashore, the shattered squadrons sent ashore.

Tanaka turning the corner at Jolo
Fuso, nagato in range of the beaches

Combined fleet will race on south
Tanaka will aim for the enemy carriers at Sarmi
Fuso for the beaches
Nagato for whatever she can find
If it flies, is in range..............it will attack!
Let loose the dogs of war!!!

[John 3rd]

Once More...Dear Friends...

[1275psi]

22 Feb 1945

It has been a long, long night on Battleship Fuso
A long night of alert, of being at combat stations, of waiting for the alarm bells calling to battle

Instead, nothing has happened. She has powered on, as hard as her ancient frame can carry them, skirting the southern coasts of Minanado.
As fast as she can, but not quite fast enough. As dawn breaks, beautiful and peaceful, she and her 6 destroyers are still 50 miles short of the beaches.
There is nothing for it. Breakfast is served, and she powers on.

Seaman Aso mans the port 5 inch gunnery director, a position he loves. (he loves everything about this old girl, her towering pagoda mast, her ugly funnels, her elderly guns)
He is not alone. Fuso is a tight ship.............she has kept them safe so many times before, why not now ney?
"Hey Arichi!, you want another rice ball?"
Below him, Arichi looks up........"No, you have it..........anything on the circuit?"
Aso presses the headset harder to his head. 'Nothing yet, but the Captain has told the gunnery officer it cannot be long now"
Arichi nods......"I hope number four has his crap in a sock today"

Aso can but agree. Once again he presses his eyes into the director glasses, presses his left foot. Hydraulic hums fill the space, slowly the director, Aso, Arichi, 5 and the other five men contained in it rotate to port. Below, and well forward, the 5 inch guns under the focastle follow him, one othe many reasons he loves his job.

Then he see's her...........as so do so many other eyes.
Through out Fuso, the cries go out

'Battleship!...3 cruisers, 3 DDs........bearing 090!...range 30000 yards!"

Aso carefully focusses..........In his ears the gunnery officers calm voice..."battleship is New jersey class.......a tough nut gentleman.........5 inch guns, when in range engage leading cruiser, standby to fire"

The quiet before the storm
NervouslyAso glances down to his lover below his feet, offers a quiet prayer for the face staring hard at the dials in front of him, hands white on the controls.
'be safe, my friend"

And then Fuso fires.........a full salvo, gunnery Officer in a hurry it seems, and the eyes must ram back to the glasses.and the black powder is already bitter upon the lips, acrid in the nostrils.
he begins his battle chant to his guns below........
'range 25000......bearing 085 degrees.............
range 24000.....bearing 080 degrees...........enemy has not engaged yet.we hit!.............no apparent damage...........secondary battery prepare to fire.
22000 yards...........Fuso shudders under his next salvo........he can follow the great red beatles all the way.........and one blooms on the enemy battlewagons side..............and she simply shrugs it aside

Disconcerting..........

Again the gunnery officer speaks.....strain in his voice...........our DDs are going to attack, please do not hit one, Aso, if you are ready."
Hiei!"
"Five inch guns, leading cruiser, range 18000, bearing 076........fire!"

Battleship New Jersey, at 25000 yards, opens fire, and strikes

Hard

Aso is flung from his perch, slamming painfully his rib cage against the controls...., blood on his lips
"Flood central magazines!"
"Admidship turrets destroyed!
"Fires admidships!"
"damage control parties to admidships!"

'Port 5 inch!, adjust your fire!"
"Yes gunnery officer!..........new target, destroyer, range 12500, closing...........bearing 100!"
Fuso leaps again, shudders, gigantic bangs............over the circuit, terrible screams, suddenly cut off"
Aso refocusses, the destroyer slicing in..........leaping , vanishing..........torpedoe hit!

Something slams him, the world wirls...heat, flame..........ringing in his ears.

Arichi slapping his face............'aso, Aso, we have to move, we have to get out............please, please, wake up!"
Ringing in his ears...........

The roof of the director is gone...........friends lie smashed, meshed with metal.
Blood flows

Another horrendous scream, a shattering bang..........
'Come on!.we have to get out!"

Together, they try to force the rear door, it is bent, buckled. They squeeze through.

Hell

Again, and again, and again, the shells are coming into Fuso. Impossible to describe. Frieght trains plowing into metal, into men
Exploding, sending metal carooming, skything..........
Screams.

A 16 inch shell strikes into the forward 5 inch battery, the focastle lifts......the forward turrets fall silent
Anther, and another turn the pagoda mast into a ladder of fire
More slice through armour like butter, vanish into her guts.
Men fall in heaps, blocking passage ways, soon to become blazing piles of flesh, foul, nauseating

The shells howl overhead, hammer home....every single one aimed at you.

There is nowhere to hide

Aso crouches, looks, they must get to the starboard side, must get away
Arichi places his hands over his ears, stands, screams, and screams, and scream
"make it stop, make it stop!, MAKE IT STOP!"
Aso grabs his hand, pulls him behind them, heading aft, heading around the back of the tower seeking the starboard side

The deck is listing.............

Nightmare visions..........number three turret, no roof, both barrells pointing to the sky, its interior a furnace....
The funnel, ..........gone

Number 5 turret............still firing.belching, smoke and flame even as fire licks its base

And still the frieght trains pound in

They find a ladder down to the main deck, passing 20 men huddled here under the cover of the bridge, the starboard director.
Fuso is slowing, listing, aflame
They pass behind the barbett of number two turret, pause........there is nowhere to hide..

The huddled men vanish as the wall behind them explodes

Fuso's bow streams smoke, flame, hell

The water erupts again, again
The shrieking..............he can feel himself going mad
Fuso topples, the water roars up, sweeps them into the sea....................

[1275psi]

battle report, USS New Jersey

Did engage one Fuso class battleship, 6 destroyers , action commencing at 0630 hours

Initial fire with held due to initial confusion with targetting and identification of target
target initially mis identified as BB Texas

0635. Struck by two heavy calibre hits on main armour belt, hits defeated
0636. A turret face struck. Hit defeated
0640, commenced firing , range 25000 yards, initial ranging good, deflection nil error
42 main salvos fired, 64 minor salvos fired, all guns reporting good rapid fire, and good service
Enemy struck early, often , and rapidly became obscured in smoke.
Enemy attempted to turn away at 0657, range closed, with action ceasing at 0655, enemy battleship abruptly heeeling to port and capsizing.

Nil damage suffered

Engaged remaining enemy destroyers at 0712, ceasing engagement at 0720, with sinking of last vessel

Ammunition levels judged to be too low to remain in area, set course south.






This, my friends, is what happens when modern meets obscelescent
Fuso sunk, all 6 DDs sunk

1 enemy DD sunk

[ny59giants]

Daylight surface battle against USN in '45 not a pretty sight. Maybe at night, Fuso would have had a better chance. What were her crew day experience levels??

[1275psi]

Hirate and Okano are at the fuelling point, monitoring Chiburi's refuelling from the wharf.
Repairs, long and dirty, are almost complete
By tomorrow, maybe the day after, she will be ready for orders again.

It is hot on the focastle, blazing almost. Manilla bay, as usual stinks, the water oily and foul . Even the ever preent hawkers and prostitutes seem to have thought better of it, seeking shelter , shade anywhere they can.
Hirate angles closer to Okano.
"Don't look too closley, but we are being watched"
Eh?"
"The corner of the warehouse, kempati if I have ever seen one"
Hirate risks a glance
Yes...........and a close watch too.........

"The crates?"
"The crates.................

Both men bend over the hose connection, as if absorbed in a problem
"How meny men on here do you think really knew what was in those crates friend?"
"The party that went ashore..........."
"That never came back"
"Ugaki, the Charge............."
"And us"


'And us"

Hirate thinks.'You know brother in law, I don't think they give a rats arse about what happened to herbiesan.........."
"But the gold is a different matter"
"yes, is a different matter. Someone else knows it went ashore...there is only one road, given enough time."
"Anyone could find it"

"only if you are alive to look for it"


"We need a need a new ship again, I think...........this ships orders could be very unhelpful......"
'Agreed..............but how?"
'The first ship that comes in here that may have suffered casualties.............we must visit"

[1275psi]

Extract from Shattering the sword, a Cantona production

...the Japanese advance was well telegraphed...........and appropiate responses taken
New Jersey deals with Fuso, brutally.
Winsconsin too, fullfills her duty, 40 miles to the east of Fuso, she engages Nagato in the dawn light.
Nagato does a little better, damaging her opponents superstructure, but the result is despairingly the same.
Yubari is sunk, all 8 destroyers damaged heavily, Nagato reduced to an impotent wreck before she turns away, seeking Davao

Battleships have suffered heavily in this war, but today, they more than pay for their great cost.

Missouri closes the beach, back stop, awaiting Yamato, or Tanaka and his batllecruisers.
But they do not come.

But the planes do.
Again, and again, and again.

[1275psi]

Tanaka

Where is Tanaka?

On Kirishima, he stands alone...........and a dozen hostile faces surround him.
All night he has taken Kongo, Hiei, 6 heavy cruisers, 9 destroyers, due south from Jolo island.
At 3 am, he has turned hard to port, struck for Sarmi..............and found nothing.

As dawn breaks, wet sodden, the radio fills with the dying of Fuso, of Nagato, of reports of hundreds of ships to the north, to the east, to the west.
Tanaka hides

A weather front of storms is sweeping across the celebes sea, one flank of it brushing Sarmi, the other way south on Ambon, a wall of thunderstorms and showers moving east at 15 knots.
And Tanaka hides in it.

They have been here before, has Kirishima, and Tanaka, and failed to engage.
Blind bad luck?
Or, the great unspoken here on the bridge

Cowardice?

But he is Admiral...............

Enemy planes fly over them, what?, 3, 4 times?
And no one attacks them.

A mystery.

All day, all this long day, they will wallow along, almost blind, changing course frequently, chasing the rain, chasing the storm.

It is only as dusk approaches does the statue on the brifdge stir, does Tanaka speak.

'The enemy carriers gentlemen..............tonight, the enemy carriers.."

[1275psi]

And why no attack on Tanaka?

Incredibly, he sails south of this mighty invasion fleet, cuts clean across the path of gods know how many task forces.
At dusk, he is south of Sarmi island

Carriers to the east, to the south, to the North, invasion task forces everywhere.............

But the lack of air attacks is no mirical.
Abes's decoy................has worked. Japan still has a few cards to play.

"Full ahead all!."

Let us play them!

[1275psi]

Abe plows south, no effort at hiding now, no pretence that this is nothing else than a last suicide charge.........

To his west, all over the Celebes sea, his men are dying, in particular the search planes, the float fighters, the banged up bombers.
They die well, morse tapping to the last...........and the messages flood in

By 0900 hours, there is no doubt on it.
He addresses his bridge, his friends, his true, true comrades

"The enemy are racing towards us. I estimate three carrier groups, maybe even four. Impossible odds gentlemen, but we will keep them busy"...........he smiles wanly....."prepare for carrier action!"

My last, I am sure.............he looks again at Kaga, Shokaku on his flanks, grand old ladies, powering on. He feels Zuikaku under him, still alive, vibrating. Still faithful.
Such a shame...............

But is there any other way for such ships to die?
No.
Not for us the scrap metal yard, the cutting torches.
No
In battle. At full speed............striking back.

Abe is old..............but the desire burns bright

"let us score an essex class or two, yes?"

[1275psi]

Air operations report, actions over dajangas beach, AM feb 21 1945

0900 hrs 24 frank fighters, 11 betty bombers. CAP intercept, all shot down, losses light.
0910 hrs CVE Wake island reported rammed by twin engine bomber, heavy explosions, ship a fire
0918 hrs, 15 zeros observed making suicide runs on CVE, all shot down
0920 hrs, major attack, 50 odd fighters, 50 plus bombers, lilly, judy
CVE wake island reported hit 6 bombs, out of control
CVE Shipley Bay reported hit 4 bombs, in process of being abandoned
task force commander requests urgent support from main carrier fleet. request not acknowledged
CVE Salamau bay reported sunk, cause unknown
Many confused reports arriving
CVE Lunga bay reported struck by 2 Kamikazi aircraft
Multiple transports reported burning

0932 hours, Nil Cap reported available. two burning CVE reported torpedoed by twin engine bombers

1000 hours, multiple air attacks reported, 11 seperate AKs reported burning, sinking state.
1005 hours, heavy air attacks reported on beaches
1007. hours. 50 plus Liberators report successful strike on Cotabato.
1008 hours further strikes, 27 Lilly reported attacking BB Mississippi, no hits recorded

1100 hours, enemy CVs spotted, and confirmed 300 miles due east of Sarmi
1105 hours. main fleet reports......."am launching to engage"
1200 hours.............



So dry
So many reports
For the men at Dajangas, for those in the ships...a hundred thousand minds think the same thoughts
"Where the hell are our fighters, where is our CAP...............and will the attacks never end?"

they wont
In fact, horribly for this great beached whale of an invasion fleet.......
It gets worse.

[CV Zuikaku]

So, I'm going to die.... [8D]

[1275psi]

ORIGINAL: CV Zuikaku

So, I'm going to die.... [8D]

Oh, maybe we had better read on..............unexpected things happen in battle.
Even in 45![:D][:D][:D]

[1275psi]

The B-29 drones across the Celebes sea at 25000 feet, threading its way around the great mountains of clouds that cover the great blue and green arc below.
The weather up here, is cold, clear, unlike the mess developing below.
Long pig points down, "See em Bigglesworth?"
Bigglesworth nods..............ships manouvering at speed
"Ours, or theirs?"
"Can't tell, should we report them?"
"No, I don't think so..they must have been reported a dozen times now if they are Japanese, which I doubt"

And Tanaka goes un reported again.............

"Target ahead!'

Long pig and Bigglesworth are again observing the American air force at work, and again feeling the frustration at what they see.
Why Jolo island?

Long pig cannot understand it...........couldn't a bombardment force do this job?

Apparently not.

The 13 B-29's grind on, bomb, encounter no opposition.
They close the base, but the battle is not here. Dajangas is where this war will be decided.
One way or the other.

[1275psi]

There are ships burning at dajangas bay
Amongst them the hundreds of amtracks crawl, and the Landing craft weave

Japans shore guns remain defiant, 88's mostly, they are scoring far too many hits.
Battleship Mississippi moves in to deal with them.

Through the smoke, coming in hard, low, fast, 18 elderly Kates, 15 Grace bombers attack
8 bomb hits.

The battleship , another one, must crawl for home.

There has been no CAP. its busy, 80 miles away, protecting the Fleet carriers, 320 planes strong.
KB strikes.

[1275psi]

Seventy zeros, 90 dive bombers.

Genda leads them
he has taken them even further south from the launch point, curved over waigapo, and now, in this horrible weather, he comes due north.....just another wave of allied planes heading north
The Allied CAP fails to intercept.

How?
We do not know.
Japan does not care. She throws her dice. And rolls fat 6
Out of the rain, the bombers plunge



CV Intrepid takes 2 bombs, heavy hits, deep in her guts, she burns, burns heavily.
CV Bennington also swallows two bombs, and her fires will still be burning into the night....
CV hancock shrugs her bomb
CVL Monterfry takes 2 bombs as well.

There are multiple allied carrier task forces in this battle.
Abe believes he has removed one.............

[1275psi]

Abe watches the last avenger bomber die.
"You would think it is 42 again", his staff officer comments.........i cannot believe we are still afloat!

"They have had a busy day dodging battlewagons.......and the range, the weather is with us............our Combat patrol has done well, 20 bombers destroyed............do we have our losses yet?"
"Light sir...........light. Do we retire now?"
Tiredly Abe shakes his head.

"No, Tanaka is still in the thick of it...........we continue south, who knows, maybe we can do it again tomorrow?"
Another day of life
How precious they are.
Another chance to gain glory.
I wanted an essex............now I will be greedy, and ask for more.

[1275psi]

The allies attack at SuratThani...........and the Japanese defenders crumble.

Its a side show.
Over Dajangas, 207japanese planes have been lost, 115 allied killed

The invasion is a shambles, barely a unit has arrived complete.
38th army, North of the beaches, nestled in the hills north of Davao signals to imperial HQ

"believe that enemy is in great difficulty. Recommend immediate reinforcement, am abandoning the stubborn defence plan. Can imperial HQ assist?"

The reply is immediate.
"Agreed. As long as Cagayan port remains open, we will send our very best. Fate of empire rests upon this battle. we trust in you to do your very best".

It has been a day unlike any other.
The furnace consumes all.
War, as horrid as it can get. Too big for the individual, too big to comprehend. Too giants locked together in mortal combat, committed now.
Committed to win.
Or to die.

[John 3rd]

Damn.

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to Japan. Is your opponent thinking about Seppuku?

BANZAI!!!