The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

23/2/42

The Imperial Division HQ is silent
The body of its former Commander is lying still -the pool of blood still spreading

Herbiesans orders are being carried out.

"This Division will lead tomorrows attack.. Singapore will fall, or we will fall trying"
The new commanders face is grim. Easy words to say, Harder to achieve.
How, he wonders , is the enemy hanging on?

[1275psi]

Minor miricles are occuring below on Zuiho
Again, there is that small sense of surprise at the difference the removal of all the hoses makes to the boiler room.
From Chaos, to a mere mess.
The boiler is together -right now the back filled water is being drained, soon, a fill with feed, a dose of chemical.

The Charge speaks briefly with some of his space I/c's - a small group of men -all bent with fatigue.
But they are smiling.

'Alright then" The Charge decides. :We go for a light off - 0001 hours"








Hasegawa acknowledges the knock on the Cabin door.

"Ah -Minobe -the hand?'
'Still painful sir, but getting there"
Hasegawa considers the man. What to make of him?. Should he put him ashore? -or persist?
Not so easy to obtain Engineers at the moment...........

'Sir - we will be ready to sail at dawn if you wish"
At last. Yamamotos calls are getting ever more vocal
"Yes. we must. raise steam Minobe -we have a war to get to"

[1275psi]

24/2/42

It all comes togather quickly -pack the tools away, replace deck plates, scrub the plates, tidy up.
Simple words -and a simple task for men who have done it so many times before.
The boiler is lit off - and the steam raised.

There are a few minutes of quiet contemplation for the missing faces, but then the gods of machinery call again
If you are superstitious -they have had their blood sacrifice for now.........

Task force swift eagle safely leaves her anchorage before the sun rises, completes dawn action stations, and settles in for the transit.

Of all the men effected , Okano suffers the greatest fall out from the accident. Not only has he lost a friend, but he has been forced to return to the boiler rooms - and fill in his spot.
Now he views two of the new replacements -pale, definately worried young men ( boys almost).
"Now, my young friends -do you know what that is?" he jerks his thumb at the boiler front
"Of course Petty Officer! -its the boiler!"
"No you fool!. That is your Lord and master now. And I am its high priest!
The men stare back blankly at him
"It means - if you want to keep that hide of yours -you will learn fast!"
'Hie!"
"Good" Okano smiles "lesson Number one. The galley is that way- go get some tea!"



The battle for Singapore splutters to an end -for now.
The Allies hold.
And 25th army is all but shattered.


Hidaka stalks the hanger decks
he is not pleased, and his wrath can be felt , a bubble of frigid air moving through the swelter of the hanger .
Every man tries to avoid eye contact.
Early this morning - well before dawn, some fool team has raised the forward elevator - and left half a kate wing behind.
Fools work

It is not a good way to start a mission...........

[1275psi]

Minister for production, Mr Okura, braces himself
This will be a -as they say -a brisk discussion.

Personally, he wonders if it wont come to blows.
He takes a breath, opens the heavy wooden doors.
As expected the two ship yard owners are standing -and fairly -it is so easy to tell -fairly bristling with rage.
And the commander of First fleet, he did not look too calm either.....

Attack is the best defence at times................
'Gentlemen. My decision is final. If you reverse it -I shall resign."
Commander 1st fleet shakes his head Oh, you don't beleive me then....we shall see.
he braces for the out burst
" Minister! -you just cannot cancel those ships!. Not with them nearing completion!"
'I have, and I can!"
The Hiroshima ship builder leaps in
" And what do i do with 60000 tons of Hulk?! -just put it aside!
'And what of Japans honour!"
'And I need those ships!'

Okura is right - it does almost come to blows
But he will prevail. japanese battleship production comes to a "temporary halt"
Three months of war was more than enough to tell him the hard truth. With her production capacities -such monstrocities could not be afforded...........

[1275psi]

No posts for three days - of for 20th wedding anniversary

(yes , you get less for murder)

LOL

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

No posts for three days - of for 20th wedding anniversary

(yes , you get less for murder)

LOL

So this friend of mine at work a few years ago tells me on a Monday that Sunday was his 25th wedding anniversary. He adds that he called up his father in law that night and started crying. He's a pretty together guy so that raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Yeah. He's a big guy and he was a state trooper back when I was dating Kathy. I said to him "Remember when you told me if I knocked up your daughter you'd have me put away for 20 years unless I married her?"

He said "Ya, I remember. Why are you crying?"

I told him "I could have been out 5 years already!"

{Edited to add ending.}

[1275psi]

24/2/42

Corporal Hosho eats dirt.

Overhead the p40s snarl, a frightening predatory sound, one that reaches into your very insides, and squeezes them.
Another fighter howls in, and again the bark, the hammer of guns, and the thud, thud, thud of the cannon shells plowing the fields about them.

Hosho eats dirt, and curses.
'Where" he thinks, not for the first time this long day " is out airforce?"
he will look for them many times this day.

But he will not see them.
Britian still commands the air over Burma

[1275psi]

Hasegawa paces his bridge.
For the hundreth time he raises his glasses, and stares to the North

Davao is to the north, American davao - home of the cats.
Hidaka joins him on the bridge, standing quietly besides his captain.
"If they come sir -my boys will welcome it"
Hasegawa turns and smiles "You know, 3 months ago, I might not have believed you. Who is on Cap now?"
"Po Nashiguchi , mostly Shoho pilots at the moment"
"good"

They contemplate the blue, blue sea sliding steadily past
"Its a wierd campaign, isnt it" Hasegawa states it. It is not a question "battling for batavia -yet the phillipines remain theirs"
Hidaka says nothing . He takes his glasses, and again joins the search of the horizon.

[1275psi]

25/2/42

editors note; based on a true story -would not have happened in the japanese navy for sure -but this is a WITP world........



It is almost 2 am in the morning, and Zuiho is mainly quiet. In just over an hour her decks will begin to refill with men -the air support men to the lower hanger, and the the flight deck crews to the upper -to ready this days ASW patrol craft.
The Stoker change of watch too will begin to fill the mes daeck, as other watch changes will.
With 4.40 dawn action stations, the entire ship , of course, will be awake.

But now, mostly, the lower areas of the carrier especially are quiet, and dark -lit only by the soft glow of the red lights, her messes a phantom gallery of huddled forms, swinging gently in the hammocks as Zuiho rides the easy swells.

Amongst this quiet gallery, SMN Stoker Agarshi does his work -Chief of the Watch rounds.
He is no Chief -yet THE CHIEF -depends heavily on this youngsters work.
Agarshi moves steadily through the Fwd CPO's mes, acutely aware of the men asleep around him.
he unscrews the sounding tube cap, takes out his dip tape-drops the plumbob into the dark hole -extends the tape 10 feet, and waits

Zuiho rolls upright.........and he plunges the tape into the hole the last two feet, and swiftly with draws the steel tape.
Even in this light- the water mark glimmers.
he notes the mark - does swift mental calculations
7200 gallons -feed still near 90% for the port tank.
Good.
Routinely he replaces the Cap, does another calculation -swing the vap in another 20 minutes -just right, might even be full by watches end.

He opens the door to the pasage way, looks up, and is thrust into a nightmare.....

[1275psi]

What confronts seaman Agarshi in the half red light is so unexpected, so totally wrong -that the mind for a moment refuses to accept it.
He is confronted, here in the dark -by a great big Orange gorilla- arms raised, face, mere inches from his.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" yells the Gorilla

Agarshi shrieks, drops his dip tape, stumbles away, then, as the realisation that Gorillas don't occupie the passageways of imperial warships, he turns back............but already that the passageway is already empty.........
except for footsteps coming from the mess.
The door slams open......"What is it, who screamed?"
Oh great, the charge.............

"well young man! -out with it!":
'A Gorilla sir -there was a Gorilla............"
The single withering look from the Charge told Agarshi everything he needed to know....
"Get on with your job, and stop being an idiot"


LT JG Kamisaka continues to giggle
Kurihama helps him with the suit."And?"

"he almost crapped himself...........perfect, just perfect"
'We will get caught you know"
'So? -and what crime do we do?"
Kurihama does not answer - he is smiling, grinning too.
"besides Kurihama, my old campaign friend, if one cannot maintain a sense of humour in war -what hope do we have?"

the suit, tattered and mody -it has seen many days this gorrilla suit -disapears into Kamisaka's secret hiding spot in the vevt trunking "Where should George turn up next you think?"

[1275psi]

25/2/42

Extract from Shattering the Sword, a cantona production

.............the first raid, a mere 3 B17's thundered over the PNG coast at 20000 feet. 24 th Flotilla -alert and ready, confidently intercepted some 40 miles before Port Moresby, and attacked, 9 fighters strong.
It is a rude shock, very rude indeed for the previously invincible Japanese flyers.
Fortress is a very good term for the American bombers..............

[1275psi]

Yamamoto reads the signal.
It is, to him, a deeply disturbing one.

"What do you think Nagumo?"

The elderly Admiral takes it, shakes his head. 'War on Civilians like this -is it necessary?"
"I am less concerned about civilian casualties than damage to the port" Yamamoto rubs his chin. "nevertheless 16th Army has requested our help"
'I still think it a stupid risk"
"Nevertheless, the Navy has pledged to assist. Combined Fleet will continue planning for phase two ops. 1st fleet will support the Army request. Inform the Battleship divisions. We Bombard Batavia"

Soerabaya bustles. Ten japanese battleships, 9 cruisers, raise steam, and slip into the night.
16th Army -hung up on batavia, has asked for assistance, it will get it.

[1275psi]

25/2/42

Hung up.


It is, when you think about it -a very disturbing term

Dictator herbiesan, here in the quiet of his command bunker -the clock ticking past 3 am, contemplates the term

Hung up.

If things don't change soon ----he could almost feel the noose around his neck already.

Dictators rule through success, and this, this was not success.

Mistakes have been made -grave mistakes.

Some how, the allies have slipped a fresh division? - surely not a division?into Singapore.
And now -the Army , ............was hung up.

At batavia - a fresh regiment too had magically appeared
And now, 16th Army -.......was hung up.

15th Army -at Muolmien-------------hung up.


And the 14th Army -still screaming for reinforcements, with the fighting still at Clarke field.
Hung up.

The clock ticks in the dark
And herbiesan contemplates the time. Time is slipping away, slipping away.
Damn that man Cantona!

[hosho]

very nice writing! even dictators can sweat a bit from time to time [;)]

looove the gorila part ... did you have any such experience while you were on a boat? [:D]

[John 3rd]

I throughly understand the issues. Gopt that way going after Lew in my RA Campaign. Had troops in India, Burma, Java, the Philippines, and Australia. Life..got...exciting! [8|] Now, however, the Philippines are done, Java just surrendered, and the Monsoon has descended upon Burma. Makes life a wee bit easier for the IJA to handle things.

Have faith something will give somewhere and then the steamroller can get going again...

[1275psi]

26/2/42

back after a far too fattening Christmas...................



Hosho -again-eats dirt
Again the P40s scream across the jungle canopy roof -attacking whatever thay can see.

it is not much -japanese troops are far too well disciplined and trained in camoflage to be easily caught - and few, very few casualties are experienced.
Morale, haowever, is dropping -trained to attack, always to attack, 112th regiment stews in the humid jungle heat, and stews some more.
Hosho may not know the grand picture of the war -but sitting here seems to him, to be achieving little, if anything....

[1275psi]

Zuiho carves a broad wake across a mirror sea.
Hasegawa again paces the bridge -again checks the chart.
Tension cuts the air, and every man avoids his eyes. A submarine has been spotted 120 miles ahead -and there is little that can be done to avoid its last reported position, they simply must transit that area to get into port..

Yesterday -despite this, despite everything, a crew man has been found asleep on watch -an unforgivable sin on a warship at sea.
Little wonder the elderly man -a man who in decades at sea has never fell into the temptation of sleep -is livid.
What the unfortunates punishment will be, is yet to be detirmined.

But inside Hasegawa's mind, inside that stony exterior, far different thoughts are swirling.
he is finding it hard not to smile...............a gorrilla.
For heavens sake -who ever it is, surely has balls............

[1275psi]

Deep in Damage Control central, the Charge stares at the daily log.

'Nil defects of note. Machinery at 100%. Feed at 95%.

It is, for him, in his time as a Charge -a rare entry this -and to repeat it for nearly a week..........

Scary. positively scary.

Japanese machinery just never should run like this......................




(Zuiho remains 0 system, 0 engine damage)

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

26/2/42

back after a far too fattening Christmas...................



Hosho -again-eats dirt
Again the P40s scream across the jungle canopy roof -attacking whatever thay can see.

it is not much -japanese troops are far too well disciplined and trained in camoflage to be easily caught - and few, very few casualties are experienced.
Morale, haowever, is dropping -trained to attack, always to attack, 112th regiment stews in the humid jungle heat, and stews some more.
Hosho may not know the grand picture of the war -but sitting here seems to him, to be achieving little, if anything....

Actually, it was the lower-grade Japanese infantry units that used the destructive (to themselves) stand-up tactics. The good units (I think the 112th belonged to that category) used infiltration tactics and drove into the enemy's rear rather than engage the superior firepower of the Allied battalions.

[1275psi]

Hi herwin, nice to have some one of your knowledge inputting!
The story is a bit behind the game name -112th reg is "infiltrating" nicely now .............but lets leave that for later.

27/2/42

While Zuiho slides across a moonless sea -her skipper tense with anxiety over the submarine threat-the charge is asleep in his mess, hot and sweaty with the rest of them, and still wondering how they could be so lucky this journey.
But the fates are not kind, nor are many engineering gods (or demons), and while he dreams, well aft and down, another little nightmare is brewing for him. Like many, it will start well hidden, and small enough............



Starboard Engine room settles into the Gutz watch. The teas have been drunk, the logs updated, the initial rounds completed -and nothing much has changed in the 8 hours -the revs remain fixed on 120, the turbines whine, the pumps whine, the guages stay steady.
Steam machinery has this all over any other form of propullsion -keep the oil up, the steam up -and this plant could happily run like this for years.........

The third hand returns from his rounds of the auxillary machinery, passes the sheet to the E.O.O.W, who examines it carefully.
'Purifier time young man"
The lad nods, gathers his tools he will need, descends to the bottom plates.
This lad, who is just like so many of the seamen who work for the charge,, is typical of so many Japanese seamenof the day -drafted straight to the ship -and "trained" on the job.
The training is simple -monkey see, monkey do.
Little wonder the E.O.O.W watches the rounds sheets carefully -everything they do carefully -they make great "monkeys" (and we are not being derogative here -its the term every one uses for them -including themselves) - they do what they have been shown well -fear is a great learning tool -but few have any instinctive 'feel' for the machinery they tend.
Problems, unexpected problems will nearly always bring immediate helplessness in these young men.


The young man goes to work on the purifier - the machine that spins the oil at high speed, cleaning it -and seperating any water that may have gotten into it - a continous problem on japanese warships - the art of gland seals is still impresise here in 1942

he likes this time , as does many of his friends. You work alone, out of sight of the glaring eyes of the Petty officers, and you can relax, and smoke, and think -as you carefully clean each purifier disc, re asseble the beast -a rather complicated task.

It takes nearly 40 minutes to clean it -then for the tricky bit.
Getting it going

Align the pipes, but leave the suction valve closed!
Check the brake -again! -off?
Good.
Oil level?
Good
OK- press start -hold your breath, good, its turning, turning, working up to speed -and the belt is holding tonight -at least that does not have to be re done tonight...........

The beast whirs up to speed -nearly 11000 rpb -and the bearings are good
Attach the hose, prime........................shut thehose!, crack the suction valve! -Come on you bitch -suck!
The suction valve flickers, falls, flickers -adjust, adjust the valve, careful -flicks to a steady 2 bar.......

It goes


The lad, well pleased, cleans up -heads upstairs

he does not notice the small split in the discharge hose -nor the thin, steady dribble of MPE sump oil falling into the bilges

Nor will the next watchman, or the next........................