Thanks Cruft and Harlock! It was certainly fun to write it all out. My posts are gradually getting longer and longer, so expect a novel by page 3. [;)]
On a serious note, sorry about the delay in this update, everyone. I've been busy, and these are fun, but they take a while to write!
Oh, and about surface engagements? Your wish has been granted, to a point. [:D]
12/17/41
After yesterdays loss the Japanese fleet off Malaya - 6 battleships, innumerable supporting destroyers and cruisers, and dozens of transports - abruptly turned about and headed north towards Bangkok and southern Indochina.
Except for Admiral Kurita's
BatDiv 1. It was decided that our newest battleships,
Harima and
Inaba would strike south with their battlegroup towards the reported location of the "Queen Elizabeth" class battleships yesterday, hoping to perhaps bag them and, more importantly, draw Cunningham's attention away from our vulnerable transports and other ships.
[center]
BB Harima, symbol of Admiral Shimizu's (architect of the IJN since 1930) victory over the "Black Shoe Fraternity" of the IJN. These two ships, using 8 of the 14" turrets from the Ise and Fuso class rebuilds, are 30% the cost of a Yamato.[/center]
Proceeding south at full speed during the night, Admiral Kurita arrived off the Malayan coast near Kuantan at roughly 2:30 AM. Luckily for Kurita,
Barham and her escorts -
Valiant had headed back for Singapore due to torpedo damage - had actually already passed him, heading northwards, during the night.
Barham was to deliver a damaging bombardment to the Kota Bharu beachhead, destroying much of the supplies that the Japanese had managed to reload and driving home the fact of Japanese isolation. In any case, though, Kurita soon found easy pickings in the form of a British tanker and supply convoy. Three tankers -
Longwood, British Judge and
Hermes - were promptly sunk under a fusillade of gunfire.
As the last tanker slipped beneath the waves, several other, faster ships were spotted in the distance - a small group of destroyers and a destroyer-minelayer. They immediately turned to attack. Kurita - a student of the Jutland battle and very respectful of the RN light forces - immediately shielded his battleships with his cruisers and destroyers.
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HMS Kipling participates in the Battle of Paxoi off Albania in 1940.[/center]
DM
Stronghold was the first to arrive and the first to be sunk - 5" fire from CL Suzuka detonated among the mines and the ship went up in a gargantuan explosion, exposing the 4 British destroyers (
Nizam, Harvester, Jersey and
Kipling tearing through the water towards them. The six Japanese destroyers,
Takao and
Suzuka
(
Atago being out of position) immediately launched their Long Lances. Jersey was hammered by high-velocity 3.9" DP gunfire from destroyer
Kiyokaze even as a torpedo from the same vessel smashed into her amidships. She sunk quickly.
Harvester suffered a similar fate, with only a few assorted shells hitting her before a torpedo hit her head on - the ship did not sink as quickly as
Jersey and many of the crew were able to make it to the coast.
Nizam, weaving through the spray of gunfire, managed to get in position to launch torpedoes against the Japanese force - unfortunately, all missed. In consequence,
Inaba was able to bring "A" and "B" turrets to bear, and the ship was smothered in 14" gunfire. Chunks of her superstructure were found nearly 20 miles inland. Of all the RN destroyers,
Kipling inflicted the most damage, scoring several damaging hits on CL
Suzuka, before she too was gunned down and torpedoed under the water.
Admiral Kurita, considering his mission a success and not wishing to expose himself to daylight air attack, turned about for Bangkok. Once again,
Barham and company were missed.
[center]
HMS Barham pre-war. Although receving the least extensive refit of her class, she still mounted powerful 15" guns and heavy armour. Kurita had had doubts all along about exposing his two modern Harima class battleships, designed as fast raiders, to the ponderous but deadly guns of Barham and Valiant.[/center]
As the naval forces diverged and morning broke, the air war resumed. IJAAF and IJNAF attacks had been hurriedly scheduled for early morning hours, in order to support the now-abandoned beachhead. 39 Lilies, escorted by 8 Oscars, arrived first - they were met by 3 Spitfires, which were outflown by the Oscars but proved highly resistant to their light machine guns. However 20 hits were made. The next raid, 51 "Liz" heavy bombers, did further damage, 46 hits - we hope to forestall the enemy building additional fortifications here.
[center]
Imperial General Headquarters would like it to be known that I really hate these things. Ignore the air filter! This picture was taken in Malaya. Malaya.[/center]
Unfortunately, the next air attack came from the British carriers, which had not disengaged as we had hoped. A strike of 31 Albacores and 15 Sea Hurricanes was launched at the retreating battleships
Ise and
Hyuga. (They were currently only 200 miles from sanctuary in Indochina and proceeding northeast at 29 knots.) 8 Albacores and 6 Hurricanes became seperated from the main force and stumbled upon the 34th Division's convoy - several torpedoes were delivered to
Teikyo Maru and
Ayatosan Maru, drowning many Japanese infantrymen - but the main force of 23 Albacores and 9 Sea Hurris found the force. A torpedo hit Hyuga, slowing the ship only slightly, but Cunningham had already launched his remaining Swordfish. 42 of them appeared over the battlefleet - which had no air cover - around noon.
Ise took three damaging torpedo hits, although it evaded many more, and soon lost speed.
Hyuga received 4 18" torps and took on water at an astonishing rate. Although her crew fought valiantly to contain the flooding she floundered only 45 minutes later.
[center]
The final resting place of Hyuga.[/center]
As of this writing,
Ise still remains afloat, although it is doubtful just how long she will last.
Other small torpedo strikes were launched by the British during the day, although the strike against Ise and Hyuga absorbed most of the effort. Two torpedoes were delivered to the already damaged cruiser
Haguro and she sunk almost immediately - fortunately most of the crew had already been evacuated by, again,
Ibuki. 4 Albacores showed remarkable skill and accuracy when, of 4 torpedoes dropped, two impacted the maneuverable
Suzuka.
Luckily for us, not all the news was bad today. Japanese submarine
I-165, patrolling in the area of Cunningham's operations, spotted his task force in the early evening recovering aircraft. Drawn to the area by the buzzing Swordfish, I-165 maneuvered within the protective destroyer screen and launched a spread at a "large battleship", later identified as HMS
Repulse. Two torpedoes hit and large fires were observed - although we cannot be certain of the effect, we believe Repulse to be out of action for quite some time.
[center]
I-165.[/center]
This ends the naval engagements off Malaya for today. Hopefully tomorrow will grant us a respite. A quick count of our troops in Kota Bharu reveals 34,000 of ours versus an estimated 10,000 of theirs - perhaps we can overwhelm them before they reinforce?
In the Philippines, the enemy has been attacking us at Davao with his Fortresses - at the time we cannot respond, but no serious damage is being done. The same situation seems to apply for Vigan and Legaspi - although air facilities are still on the way, the enemy is making few hits. At Wake, we are actually outnumbered more than 2-1 by the defenders, while at Brunei we are making no headway against the British.
Hurry up, Nagumo.
Nothing to do with me though I hasten to add.
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