Matrix Games Forums

The only reason I wanted it was I get completely pissed of finding
a ship due to withdraw a month away from a port
This game will be played for the journey, not for the win.
Penguin is allowed to move as many chinese/Manchurian units he likes to Burma no PP paid, while
I promised to pay any PP for Indian units
The war should not be decided in Burma

But in the pacific.

B Boiler room.

Pearl harbour bombed hey.
Well how about that?

Inwardly "Big Ben Brown" smiles to himself.
Hadn't he been saying something like this would happen?, been saying it for years?
10 years swanning around the Pacific, showing the bloody flag.
He glances at the steam pressure gauge, tweaks the fuel, the air throttles.
Scowls at the water tender, who bloody well knows he should be on the top plates.
Ten years.
A thousand ports, a 100 brawls..........
And was Chester ready for her job after all that?

His scowl deepens under its sheen of sweat
Under Command of that Barsted.......you had to be kidding.

Ahhh ... a nice coffee to go with the morning installment. Nirvana ... Thanks Herb!

PS: I figure I got one more trip down under left in me. Have to meet up with you and hoist a few schooners when that happens.

Looking forward in reading the letters.

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

Mom,
When I emerged from the radio room, stood at the back of the bridge, staring at the back of that fat
barsted, I admit I hesitated.
My heart was beating a thousand beats, and, gee, I think I might even have been trembling a little.
But you would be proud of me Mum, I think nobody can say I was anything but calm when I called across Chesters
Bridge
"Flash message sir!'
And that fat barsted, I will never forget the colour draining from his face.
"Read it signals""
So I did. Nice and loud, because this meant something Mother. Means something more than we
probably will ever know.
But oddly enough, despite everything it means, I'm proud to have read it, to be first aboard
to know it.
"Air raid Pearl harbour........this is no drill"

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!.[&o]

Anxiously awaiting developments. Welcome back.

Thanks for the welcome back

No pressure.................. LOL


Midday, December 7th

Captain Shock finally calls the Chester to the broadcast just on Midday.
By now she, and the Carrier task force have worked themselves up to nearly 26 knots,
Enterprises deck a mad bustle.
Even here, 5000 yards out on her flank, you can almost feel her Admirals wrath.

Captain Shock makes a brief announcement, nearly all of it already common scuttlebutt,
Battleship row attacked, the Japanese using thousands of planes.
AA Gunner Scott, loader for the Port aft 5 inch AA gun doesn't believe it. Does not want to believe
it.
He has 2 Brothers on the Arizona.
But then there is no time to worry as Shock calls the Cruiser to action stations, and the
Chaos begins.
Its a stupid system. Every man has his cruising station, but nearly everyone has a different
Actions station. Scotties normal watch station is Port look out, Port bridge wing.
When Shock calls for action stations, he has to , wait for his relief to arrive, give him the bearings,
grab his helmet from the back of the bridge, then head aft, through the mass of literally a hundred
other bodies all making to their stations.
Its a long way aft, over the hanger well, past the catapults, up the ladder, into the tub

It takes him 3 minutes .
For some on Chester, today, it takes some 5

Its the fastest she has ever done it.

Good for peacetime
But for war.........war might be an entirely different matter.

If any of you guys ever come to Sydney Australia, there will always be a welcome mat......

Already a great read.

December 8th


"ready Jock?"
"Aye, the question is, are you matee?"
Jocks Irish Brogue rolls as ever thickly of his tongue, and Ensign Cross has to glance at
him to see if his Observer is serious this time, or not.
It might be
As they climb aboard the Curtiss seagull, settle into their seats, it occurs to Cross that
this is real.
Those small bombs below the wing.............real
A if in synch with his thinking, Jocks voice drawls through the cockpit
"Ä little reminder skipper, this time we have to have the safeties off""
Safeties?
Oh, he means the machine guns.

Shoot........
'"come on Cross.....skipper is getting antsie......"

Its the catapult officer, sweating hard
Cross nods, gets to work.
The engine fires the first time with its typical great cloud of blue exhaust, shaking the bird
on her nest.
Even as Cross tightens his straps, the port catapult is being swung out, the skipper
swinging Chester so Cross points his bird into her 15 knot breeze.

Full throttle.........swing magnetos'.....no rev drop.( a drop of 60 means a no go).
All good.
Now, literally, the two men in their vibrating machine place their lives into the catapukts officers hands.
He will launch them.
If Chester is rolling, so easy to throw them straight into the sea, and disaster.
Or, conversely, just as easy to fling them up, up into a stall, and disaster again.
This cake has to be baked just right.....
Cross raise s his thumb, steadies the stick, concentrates hard on the horizon rising, falling..


With an explosive bang, and 7 g's ....Chester hurls them into the blue.

Mom,
Just a quick one, I have no idea when you will receive this (as usual!)
but as promised, I will try to write every day.
By the time you get this I suppose, we will all know what happened at Pearl
harbour, the ship is full of rumours, and some of the stuff I have seen pass through here
has been horrific........
I don't know where we are, and I don't know where we are going, but where ever it is, we are going fast!
Everyone here is full of quiet anger I think.

Nobody dares even speak to the skipper........
Mom, when I signed up for this, it was the Navy, or Jail, you know that.
But even with the threat of fighting the Japs, I am glad I am not in Jail!!
Chester is ready, we are ready.
Our Gunnery Officer is claiming we can put out 100 rounds a minute.
I sort of want to see if that's true.......and sort of hope we don't.

Anyway, we are so busy right now, Ill write later
Your son
Peter

Port Bridge wing

Chester is steaming hard, chasing Enterprises charge across the ocean.
The Jap carriers are reported to be operating south, or retiring south from their strike against Pearl.

Halsley wants to fight.

Ford stands on the bridge wing, enjoying the breeze, trying to hide the tension within him.
The news from Pearl is bad.
Very, very bad
All 8 battleships sunk..........

All 8!
surely not.
A sickening thought.
And below that thought, lurking, dangerous as a hidden cobra

2 carriers seeking battle with possibly as many 6.........

But there are other dangers already in this new, new war

"message from Ensign Cross sir!.......have sighted and attacked enemy submarine 20 miles south of our
current position!"
A submarine....directly in their path.
Holy crap.

Great to see a new epic from 1275psi underway.

Sweating hard, young Scotty slams the next round into the breach.
With a curse the gunner "fires" the round, and the shell, actually un fired, is ejected.
Gunnery drill........the endless cycling of shells through the gun, one after the other, after the other.
Scotties arms ache, and he is breathing hard.
That Barsted is watching from the bridge, and all of the gun crew are aware that after just
20 minutes , the rate of "fire" is beginning to lag.
They are down to a round every 6 seconds.

Scotty is breathing hard, sweating hard. They all are.

"Jesus!"
The talker exclaims, eyes widening.
He clasps the 2JV headset harder against his ears, listening hard.
He looks up, eyes wide.
"The Japs are bombing Pearl harbour again!"

A pause, a short pause
The drill resumes.
A round every three seconds.

From
USS Enterprise
to
TF 78
Enemy carrier forces have attacked Pearl Harbour a second time, and appear to
be operating North West of Pearl, not , repeat south, as previously thought.

Enemy carrier strike has been heavily damaged by our fighter defences.
Intention is to now rendezvous with Lexington at point...........

Battle order one:
Seek the enemy, and kill him.

The seagull has barely wobbled into the air, climbed away to barely a thousand feet, banked into its first turn and lap
of the task force, when Jock sights the submarine.
"Periscope!, f%$#k me, a bloody periscope!"
Ensign cross almost dies right here, right then.

Startled, he twists hard in his seat, craning to see the sliver of white wake cutting across the brilliant
blue.
Incredibly, it is there, there is a bloody submarine......right there passing under the left wing.
Transfixed, he watches it, watches it.......

And forgets to fly the plane.

Stalls occur in many manners.
Many, a great many, begin, are well underway, long before the pilot realises, and too, too many
turn from stall to spin to impact.
The seagull is turning, banking , hand on stick following the craning neck, the nose rising, the turn
flattening, the insipid spin developing.......

"Hey buddy!" Jock drawls "fly the bloody plane will ya!"

"Uh?"

"The plane Cross, the bloody plane"
Reality snaps in. The eyes go back to the front. The stick goes forward.
The plane restores to flight.
And the training kicks in.
"report it Jock"! now in full control the throttle goes to the stops, and Cross begins a hard,hard turn
""Standby!, attacking!"

Damn, this is good. Only those who really know, can understand the blankness of that very first time, first moment. I am glad your back to writing for the rest of us [;)]

What he said

I check for updates before work, at lunch, and after dinner. [&o]

The submarine, had of course, already disappeared as Cross returned to its last sighting.
With a curse, he pulls the bomb release, the two small bombs vanishing into the blue, the
subsequent bangs hardly impressive.

"Well at least you might have scared him"
Lips firmly pursed shut, Cross deems that Jocks sarcasm needs no reply.
In silent anger, he hauls the Seagull about again, seeking the task force and Chester.

And flies straight over the top of yet another submarine, this one all but surfaced.
Surfaced, vulnerable, desperately trying to dive again

And Cross has no weapons left.............

Dec 9th

Frank Ford faces the young man in his cabin, perplexed
Now?, really, now he hears this? Now when the war is just beginning?
"Are you sure Jock?, really sure?"
The young observer grimaces......there is anger here. And maybe not a little touch of fear
"He's no bloody good Sir, 2 bloody subs , 2 bloody cockups!"
"Ok, calm down, calm down"

Chesters Executive Officer considers the situation.
No doubt about it, Cross has made a mistake, maybe even a very bad one.
But no ship, no crew, ever slides effortlessly from peace to war.
No. Mistakes are made, will be made.
Hopefully none will kill them first.
"Ï take your opinion under advisement Petty Officer. But the hard truth is this,
we only have four planes, and we need them. He will learn..........we all will"
"But Sir..""
Firmly now "he will learn....thankyou"

Jock departs, the scowl even deeper.


Ford stays for a moment in his Cabin, feeling his ship alive around him.
She sounds, feels absolutely the same as she did last week, before pearl.
But class is in.
The lessons are on
And every exam has a pass mark of 100 percent.
And fail equals death.