The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

Hosho has again found comfortable digs

A nice bunker, deep in the reverse slope, solid rocks overhead.

The enemy bombers are at work overhead. Occasionally dust will fall down from the roof, the ground will shake......but nothing can get them here.

The allies, down below them, at the base of the hills, are silent.............gathering their strength, no doubt.
Let them.
Hosho knows a good position when he see's one, too many of years of war has taught him that.
Let them come

15th army and friends, they will stop them............

[1275psi]

27/3/45

In the early morning, in the cool, before the humidity rises, even a god forsaken place as this, thinks LT Gen Homma, can have a certain beauty

The Commander of 35th army, and thus the defacto commander of all forces, 15th army, southern command forces, 4th fleet and 4th air army, stretches, and takes a last drag upon his smoke, carefully, for there are few left.
About him, Minando stretches in every direction, mountainous, beautiful in the soft light.
Behind him, his staff hustles, already hard at work.
Just too his left, undoubtably, the radio antenna's hum with heavy traffic.
It will be a busy day..............4th fleet has promised "to deal the enemy fleet, a lethal blow"

The tobacco suddenly tastes bitter............how long now has 4th fleet and 4th air army promised that?

But maybe today ney?

He enters the bunker...........accepts the salutes
"To business gentlemen!"
Confidence fills him. 7 divisions enternched above the bay...........entrenched forever.

A glance at the clock............0500 hours, the first actions over dadjangas should have begun........

But today, something different

It is LT Hara who brings the first report, brings it with shaking hands.......


It fills him with icy cold.



"Enemy troops landing at Cotabato..........4 divisions strong."

[1275psi]

extract from shattering the sword............a cantona production.


300 plus Japanese aircraft obliterated against the allied fleet, for 80 lost. Snowballs hurled into the furnace for all the effect they have had .
CV Hornet2 hit by a bomb, the Wasp a single torpedo.
No other losses.
And 4 divisions ashore, against just a single regiment, understrength at that landed successfully, surprise, apparently, complete.

It has taken a long long time.
But this time, this one is going their way.

[John 3rd]

It is March 27, 1945. How you START to lose the war at this point??!! Perhaps those are 'phantom Inf Divs' at Cotabato. Have you checked the troops reporting this for TOO MUCH Saki??

Seriously though you have fought a campaign that is truly amazing...WELL DONE!

[1275psi]

Thanks John

28/3/45
Heavy rain lashes all of the phillipines, grounding planes, washing away hopes.

the allied divisions, 4 , admittably understrength divisions, plow through the rain and mud, crap and filth, and take Cotabato, over running the defenders, defenders who do know running of their own.............they die mostly in place

Few planes fly

A million radio messages do

What, if anything ,can the Japanese do?

[1275psi]

29/3/44

Hosho hunches his shoulders, and yet again takes care with the next step. rain flows of him, flows past him, his boots skwelch into the deep mud.
More dangerous going down the hill in this crap...but so much easier than what the climb was

A long line of men, equipment is ahead of him, vanishing into the rain, an equally long line is behind him
To the left, to the right, hidden in the grey, more men

Overnight, today, they have marched 13 miles, slipping away from the crest of the ridges, the hills. They have abandoned the defences................so far, unnoticed.
But for how long?

4 divisions are reported at Cotabato, some, apparently marching south, some north...........one must remain as garrison surely.

Hosho, his Company, his regiment, his entire division, the ENTIRE, bloody army, is going to Cotabato.
Crush, or be crushed.

Hosho does not care really. They will fight....again
friends, companions will die.....again
Hills, paddies, towns................who the hell cares.
he will fight, and probably die

And never have to march another bloody step again.

[1275psi]

Sir?

Ogowa waits at the door of the HQ, Clarke field
'Come in Okano, come in..............."
the commanding general barely looks up from his desk, it is covered in papers, orders, disorder
"Your air group state?"
"we are 100 % again sir"
"Good..........." the general flings him a glance, and there is much anger there, much in those eyes
"The Army have abandoned us............all army planes, other than some KI44's, are leaving the Phillipines.............re grouping I think for the last stand...........we, Navy, have the defence now"

Okano feels a knot tighten in his belly
'
The General continues............'I have about 50 clapped out zeros, 40 bombers to my name............and you"
'Sir"

The General stops fussing with his papers."There is 3 months fuel, 6 months of oil stored around Manilla bay in various locations....we must get it out..........that will be your mission Okano...........the Navy has been left to its own..........so that is what we will do, protect our own........."

[1275psi]

30/3/44
Extract from "shattering the Sword" a cantona production

Four allied divisions are now at Cotabato, the 93rd, the 81st, the 31st, and the 1st marines.
None are at full strength, and all are heavily disrupted, nor have any support troops been landed .
But driven by the glittering prospect of trapping the japanese Army at dadjangas, 3 divisions are ordered to march, , one North, one east, one due south.
It is on this day, the 30th, that the 81st division (at only 2/3rds strength), racing south, crosses the river south east of Cotabato.

In a brilliant action, the lead units surprise and destroy a fragment of the 109th division, 100 trucks filled with vital supples, and even better, catch nose to tail , a regiment of Japanese light tanks.

Euphoria fills the allied ranks, they are in the Japanese rear, the cork is all but in the bottle...............

[1275psi]

LT Gen Homma is not a man to panic.

panic will not help now.............

Just to the west of his HQ, nestled in the hills across the road leading to the heart of Minando, 5 reiments are in place.
On the road to cagayan, ......................

This is the worry.
The bounce of the 81st south does not worry him...........15th army will simply roll over it in the days ahead, this he is sure.
But the road to cagayan is manned by just what he believes are the remains of Cotabato defenders, and handfuls of auxiliary troops.
Cagayan itself has no combat troops at all.

But the fight is not over yet my friends, not yet.

'from southern command,
to
35th army

'Hold on. Air lift of Formosa regiment to cagayan has begun.
You must fight on"


You must fight on

That I can do..........Homma feels the will stir in him
That japanese troops can do.................they will always fight on.

[1275psi]

My worthy opponent goes school camping to months end.............do the poms actually have a teaching time between excursions, holidays, school plays and the like!

LOL

[pws1225]

[:D]

[british exil]

Not just the "poms" the Germans are the same.

Germany/Lower Saxony 2014.

Jan: 1,2,3,30,31
Feb: all work
March all work
April: 3-22
May: 1,2,29,30
June: 9,10
July: 31
August: the whole month free
Sept: 1-10
Oct: 3, 27-31
Nov: 3-7
Dec: 22-31

74 days free
104 weekend days free

178 days no school (public holidays are included)

187 days work


Now my wife is a school teacher, as is her brother , her parents and her sister in law. ALL of them complain that they are worn out due to hard work. When they come together at weekends all they can talk about is work! In fact they are worn out after the first few days back at school. Apart from 2 months in the year they have a few days off work every month.

One must remember most German schools have lessons from 8am-1pm. More and more are having afternoon lessons. So really they spend half a day at work, they have to prepare lessons for the next and review exams. But they do have quite a bit of free time in the afternoons.
All weekends are free. I know of some teachers they even have another day free in the week too.
Most teachers are government employees, so they can't get the sack.

No thread Hijack intended.

Mat

[1275psi]

31/3/45

Weariness fills Hosho. They have marched, and marched. The hills however now lie behind them, and 55th division moves across the flat plains, the paddy fields.
The fields are dry, and empty. Empty of growth, and now seemingly empty of people, the population long since gone, gone to ground, gone gods know where.

They need to have

Battle looms
The division has been swung to the left flank, for high command feel that they are the strongest, and the swiftest of the divisions now fanning out across the plain.
The entire Army, 56000 men strong, has disengaged, and now manouvers for battle tomorrow

18000 men, the 81st division face them.

At around midday, dust is seen on the right flank, rising behind a row of trees 5000 yards away.
The word soon arrives.
A column of vehciles, armour included, moving at walking pace south

Soon, scattered gunfire, recon verses patrols................

The division halts, a welcome rest for most.

"Company commanders to the front"
Wearily Hosho moves to his battalion commander, listens carefully.

But the plan is simple really.
At Midnight, a barrage
At 0010 hours, green flares would light up the enemy positions

And they would attack

hosho returns to his men
"There will be nothing subtle about this men............the enemy are there, we will attack him.............with irrisistable numbers and force"


A shock attack.
Across open ground.................
Against armour.................

[1275psi]

Susuzuki still remains at anchor at Batavia
The number of heavily loaded tankers anchored in the Bay is slowly increasing, the high riding ones decreasing as they in turn travel to Palembang and load the precious black gold.

To a man, all are aware that the B-29's can now reach that treasure lode.................

War is relentless.
So are the demands of a destroyers engineering plant. Hirate and Okano are busy each day with a hundred different tasks, valve repacks, pump repacks, oil changes, cooler cleans.........
This is good. For the days pass far quicker, and each day past is one closer to the beginning of the return trip home.

Nobody says it, but all feel this as well. If they manage to get home, they will not be coming back here again.

[1275psi]

1/4/45


Extract from "a killing field" by LT GEN Furphy(ret) Amazon books (special price, 1 dollar)


No battle camn ever be adequately described with out some explanation of the ground over which it is fought, for the ground is everything.
And these fields south of Catobato contained everything
A single dirt road leading south, the very same one that the bulk of our enemy, the 35th and 15th army had marched down themselves over a month ago. Raised some 3 feet above the surrounding ground, a deep ditch , filled with stinking water on each side
To the West, 4000 odd yards of dried up paddy fields.
These demand some description. here the agriculture effort had been inntense, and each field was very small, and the boundries were all literally low walls, some 2 feet high, some 6 feet wide, and all of them seemed to be lined with palm trees, heavy vegetation.
In short, cover

To the east of the road, broken ground, low 3 to 6 feet scrub, some patches of fallow fields, clutches of trees.
Seemingly everywhere, the small ramshackled timber dwellings of the phillipino people.

But essentially, militarily, it was all about that damned road

Our forces stretched over nearly five miles.
754 th tank brigade lead the way, 5th Tank reiment following

The 1st US MC tank regiment, brought up the rear, regiment in all but name.

And on the flanks, 81st division.

My Division

And I will make no excuses for this sorry bunch of men...we had asked a lot of them, these green boys, and they had been roughly treated, too many lost at sea in those terrible early days of 45.
But as dawn broke, wet and soggy on this day, Morale was high, the enemy had been flung from Cotabato, we were within grasp of trapping them in the hills near Dajangas, and best of all, we ruled the skies.....

The day begun well.
754th reported just after 1000 what appeared to be a regiment ahead. (we now know this was the 109th division)
What followed was awesome, terrible.

Our seventh fleet went to work, brushing aside what fighters japan sent overhead. By midday, 4000 jap bodies lay ahead, and the march south resumed.
It was not until 1400, that the first inclining of what lay ahead came to me.
A message from 1st marine Division, Dajangas "Enemy positions abandoned here..............you may expect to encounter numerous fleeing troops"

A quick conference..........and it was decided that as we (apparently) sat astride the enemies only escape route, this would be a suitable killing ground

I was right, as we know.
But also terribly wrong.

[1275psi]

Hiroshima bay

An admiral stands rock like upon a bridge.
About him, a dozen men, aware to the nth degree, what this moment means

the Admiral nods almost imperceptably to his captain

The nod is returned
White gloves grasp the speaker tube, stiff uniform bends

"Slow ahead all"


So it begins.

The Yamato task force sails.

[1275psi]

The movement of armies, highly trained or experienced armies, is a wonderful thing.
This army of japans, 15th especially, is beyond experienced, 3 years of war, of marching, of movement has seen to that.

Now, through this long hot day, Hosho and his men, do this the most delicate of tasks..the approach to the attack launch point.
Hosho is not alone, of course, here, over a great many miles, 50000 men are moving.

The rain helps to hide them. When it lifts, instinctively the long ant lines of men melt into cover.
japan, as ever, seeks the flanks, seeks to get around, and behind the enemy.
The allied general , more than aware of the threat, sends out companies to his left, to his right.

There are sharp clashes.............

But he remains stubbonly upon the road.


Hosho will spend this day at a slow trot, gasping in the humidity. Along the paddy trails, through scrub............on, and on, and on.

The day, it seems, will never end. But there can be no stopping. Honour demands it.

By dusk, they have arrived, near the tail of the allied column.that long snake of steel, bristling with guns.

They prepare their guns, stack the mortar shells.......there is nothing to eat.
Attack is timed for 2200 hrs
At 2150 he growls to his men, spread hidded behind the paddy bund, the line of palms, invisible but felt in the dark

"Dinner, my friends, is in those vehciles..........we but have to go get it"

1000 yards of fla ground between them and the last tank, the men in the ditches.
500 yards to the listening, sentry posts.

A long, long way............

At 2155, the rain begins to pound down.
At 2200 precisely, the mortars fire...............hosho, and an entire army, rise as one, and rush the enemy...........

[1275psi]

Extract from "a killing field" by LT GEN Furphy(ret) Amazon books (special price, 1 dollar)

They hit us at the head of the column first, a seenmingly endless wave of screaming japanese men, men who came at us, and melted away under the storm of fire unleashed.
They fell in heaps, like wheat before the skythe......crawling over the growing piles of dead.
But they kept coming.............

Mortars fell amongst us, tracer filled the air.....the screams and cries rose..........

I thought, I was confident even, that we would smash this attack, break this army upon our steel reef.
I was confident that even though we were to be attacked from all sides ( this I had accepted, fully aware of the Japanese flanking movements that our armour must prevail.
he , after all, had none.

But he also had about 40000 men more than I expected.

The attack began at 2200 hrs
They began to overrun us a mere 5 minutes later...................

[1275psi]

Hosho eats steadily from the dead Americans ration pack.
The tank under his arse still smokes.the one ahead burns steadily, ammo still cracks in the flames of the tank behind.

It had, for 55th division, at least, been too easy (if anything in war is easy)
it must, had to have been so stunning to see that great mass of men emerge from the rain..............and the poor youth of the 81st, spread so thin on the flanks...........had run.

Once amongst the armour, nose to tail, all that fire power so useless...............


Hosho eats, and eats.
he has new boots, new socks.
His pack bulges with captured supplies.
Tomorrow, he knows, they must march again.

Another race................



Enemy routed
4160 casos, 101 tanks destroyed, 400 squads destroyed, 131 guns........
japan however loses 4000 men in the attack..............109th division shattered.
The army will continue north...........
35th army releases a new division towards Cotabato..........

I have a chance to defeat his scattered units now in detail.............

[british exil]

Unbelievable.

Such a "weak" 15th Army. Yet it creates havoc amongst the US. Destroys whatever lies in it's path.

A plague of hungry locusts.

Mat