Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[tocaff]

Come on CF no hints as to what's to come.  I like the story unfolding as I read it, not knowing anything in advance.

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: tocaff

Come on CF no hints as to what's to come. I like the story unfolding as I read it, not knowing anything in advance.

Hints are just fine with me. Cuttlefish has shown he knows what he's about: everyone was speculating on whether Hibiki would sink or sustain losses of named characters. It didn't happen (although he could easily have knocked off a character from shrapnel from the blazing Shokaku).

[histgamer]

Oh comon all that hint tells us is they could fire off some depth charges.[:D] It's a destroyer everyone should expect depth charges to be fired off.[8D]

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: tocaff

Come on CF no hints as to what's to come. I like the story unfolding as I read it, not knowing anything in advance.

Gotcha!! Reel him in CF!! [:D] [:D]


[size=-2]Master Story Teller at work....[/size]

[princep01]

ORIGINAL: flanyboy

Oh comon all that hint tells us is they could fire off some depth charges.[:D] It's a destroyer everyone should expect depth charges to be fired off.[8D]

Actually, flanyboy, that is a pretty good point. The "enemy below" should be emerging as a serious threat to IJN shipping about now.

[Cuttlefish]

November 26, 1943

Location: Kwajalein
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Whether returning from defeat or victory there are still a lot of jobs to be done to get Hibiki ready for her next mission. The fresh water storage tanks are filled and provisions and 25mm ammunition are taken aboard. Once this is done Captain Ishii orders the destroyer to weigh anchor and move further out into the lagoon.

When the order is given Seaman Yoshitake pushes a lever to the side and activates the capstan. The drum begins to rotate and the anchor chain begins to clatter up through the hawsepipe. Shoji monitors the chain as it comes up and two other sailors are on hand to make sure the chain is stowed properly in the locker. Petty Officer Okubo oversees the operation.

For a few seconds things go fine, then the chain slows and the pitch of the capstan motor goes up. Okubo curses. “It’s fouled,” he says to Yoshitake. “Gear that damned thing down before you burn out the motor.” Yoshitake, an experienced hand at this, is already doing so. The motor continues to strain.

Just as Okubo is about to order the motor shut off the chain surges and then begins to reel in normally. Whatever obstruction the anchor encountered has been cleared. The water in the lagoon is not terribly deep and soon Shoji, leaning over the side, can see the anchor itself rising up out of the depths of the sun-slanted water. There is something with the anchor, though, and as it nears the surface the sailor gives a yell of alarm and stumbles back.

“Shut it off!” he yells frantically. “Shut it off!” Yoshitake complies immediately. Okubo gives Shoji a withering look, steps past him, and looks over the side. He freezes for a moment, then turns. His eyes are wide.

“Set the brake,” he tells Yoshitake in a low, strained voice. “Do not start the motor again, whatever you do!” He next turns to Shoji. “Get the Captain. Go now!” Shoji breaks his paralysis and stumbles off. Yoshitake sets the capstan brake and then comes and looks over the side.

Japanese is not actually a good language for cursing. English, itself not as good as most European languages for the purpose, is nonetheless much better, and the average American or British sailor has a far better range of invective at his command than does his Japanese counterpart. Despite this Yoshitake does a pretty good job of cursing when he sees what the anchor has dredged out of the bottom of the lagoon.

Snagged on the anchor by ropes tangled around the propeller and dangling warhead down just below the surface is the unmistakable shape of a Type 93 torpedo.

---

A torpedo tender comes alongside and very carefully relieves Hibiki of its unwanted prize. They find later that the warhead was not armed, although as Lieutenant Sugiyura points out this does not necessarily guarantee that the torpedo would not have detonated, especially after being in the water for some time. “It’s hard to keep the Type 93s from going off, sometimes,” he points out.

Seaman Shoji is praised by the captain. “Your alertness and prompt action saved this ship from possible disaster,” Ishii tells him. Shoji is more accustomed to hard luck and injury than to this kind of attention and basks in the praise. He also enjoys the extra seven day pass that the Captain bestows upon him, good for the next time Hibiki visits Japan.

Captain Ishii learns later that another tender lost the torpedo over a year ago while trying to transfer it aboard heavy cruiser Mikuma. Such accidents are not uncommon. War is often a dangerous business, the captain reflects, even when no one is actively trying to kill you.

[tocaff]

...such a fertile mind...  

[Onime No Kyo]

Reg, I bet your picture put him up to the thought. [:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

War is often a dangerous business, the captain reflects, even when no one is actively trying to kill you.

And yet another brilliant entry. (I wonder if that's what happened to the Mutsu IRL?)

[Cuttlefish]

November 27, 1943

Location: Kwajalein
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Battleship Hiei enters the lagoon just after dawn and anchors not far from Hibiki. Many aboard the destroyer take some time during the morning to gape across the water at the venerable battleship. Her superstructure is blackened here and there by fire and everywhere there is evidence of shell hits. One of the 6” turrets on the side Hibiki can see is only a gaping mess of twisted metal. One barrel sticks up at a crazy angle while the other is entirely gone.

Captain Nishida, Hiei’s skipper, is an old acquaintance of Captain Ishii’s and invites Ishii to pay him a visit during the afternoon. Ishii accepts and is ferried over later in the day by Ensign Izu.

Nishida welcomes him aboard and gives him a brief tour of the ship. Though Hiei is perfectly seaworthy there is a lot of damage above the waterline.

“It must have been quite a fight,” Ishii says, looking at a hole made by a 15” shell.

“It was,” says Nishida grimly. “We lost one hundred and eighteen men.” Captain Ishii is silent. He understands all too well the pain Nishida must be feeling over this and knows there is little one can say.

Nishida brings up the battle again later, as he and Ishii relax in his cabin. The cabin, though hardly huge, seems like a luxury suite on a passenger liner to Captain Ishii.

“They must have picked us up on radar,” says Nishida as he pours cups of sake for himself and Ishii. “They moved straight in to intercept. Our own radar spotted them coming in, fortunately. They had six battleships to our three, though the numbers were more or less equal otherwise. Their first salvos were starting to fall among us when our torpedoes reached them. We hit a battleship and a couple of smaller ships.”

He takes a drink of sake. “That disorganized them a bit,” says Nishida. “They might have believed there was a submarine or two in their midst. At any rate we closed the range, firing, and scored some hits.” Captain Ishii listens with great interest as Nishida continues.

“Aboard Hiei we concentrated our fire on one of the enemy battleships,” says Nishida. “It was British, a Queen Elizabeth class I think. Two old warriors going at it! At about 7000 meters we scored some hits. We took some, too, but we were getting the better of it until one of the American battleships – those were all newer ships - came up in support. That’s when we really started getting pounded.

“Admiral Abe ordered our ships to break off and head northeast. We did so, but the enemy regrouped and followed and about an hour later they started firing again. As they closed with us again their destroyers launched a torpedo attack of their own. Haruna was hit. We put a pair of shells into a destroyer trying to do the same thing to us.

“Anyway, we tried to break off again and the enemy was pursuing when Tanaka’s cruisers entered the fight. I have no idea how Tanaka got so close. There was another enemy battleship force in the area, and the enemy might have mistaken Tanaka’s ships for their own. But Tanaka came up on their flank and got within about 3000 meters before opening fire. He put torpedoes into two more battleships and really caused havoc among the enemy cruisers and escorts.”

Nishida puts down his cup. “That was the end of the fight for us. We got out of there. The American force broke off too. Tanaka’s ships were hardly damaged, but later he ran more battleships and lost Maya. Still, not a bad fight. We lost two destroyers in the fighting but sank a couple of theirs as well. Damned enemy planes were everywhere over the next couple of days, though. That’s how we lost Haruna and the other ships.”

“What are your orders now?” Ishii asks him.

“It will take a few days to get Zuikaku ready to return to Japan. We’ll go with her when she does. It will take several months to repair all this.” He sighs. “I wish we were staying out here. With our carrier power so damaged every ship will be needed.”

“Enjoy Japan while you can,” Ishii advises him. “It is now obvious this war is going to last for a while. There will be plenty of fighting still to do once your repairs are complete.”

Nishida refills their cups and raises his. “Good luck to you, Ishii,” he says. “You’re going to need it, I fear.”

“Thank you, sir,” says Ishii, raising his own cup. “To luck.” The two men drink.

[Gen.Hoepner]

The performance of the Combined fleet wasn't that bad actually...
Don't our brave Hibiki guys deserve some free time in a well-known Kwalajein brothel?[:)]

[Terminus]

To pick another nit (and I wish I could stop my nit-picking impulses), the Kongos had no 6-inch turrets. They had casemate-mounted single 6-inch guns, seven per side. The image of a black crater in Hiei's side still works, of course.

[John 3rd]

Provides an even better visual in my view!  Big hole punched out of the side...ouch...

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

To pick another nit (and I wish I could stop my nit-picking impulses), the Kongos had no 6-inch turrets. They had casemate-mounted single 6-inch guns, seven per side. The image of a black crater in Hiei's side still works, of course.

Grr...I was looking at a picture of Hiei when I wrote that and knew better. Something went wrong between my brain and the keyboard. I'm glad that doesn't happen very often or *shrrrk* vermillion aardvarks gavotte freely *shrrrk* this story would suffer for it.

[Terminus]

A gavotting aardvark? I think I'd pay money to see that, especially a vermilion one...[:D][:D]

[Cuttlefish]

November 28, 1943

Location: Kwajalein
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

“What are you going to do when the war is over?” Oizuma asks Shiro. The two are atop the deckhouse, where Shiro is tightening the backstays on the aft mast. Oizuma is helping by standing around and trying to look busy.

Of all the topics discussed by Hibiki’s crew this one is the most enduringly popular. Women, the shortcomings of officers, politics, rumors about the war, all these subjects come up frequently. Again and again, however, the men return to “what are you going to do when the war is over?” After nearly two years of war there would seem to be little more to say on the subject, but still the question gets asked. It reminds the men, perhaps, that the war will not last forever and that someday, if they are spared, they will return to Japan and the lives and people they left behind.

Shiro wrestles with a recalcitrant turnbuckle a moment before answering. “Go home to Tendo and become a carpenter,” he says. “I’d like to get married, too, and have a family.”

“Do you have anyone waiting for you?” Oizuma asks.

Shiro shakes his head. “My brother had a match arranged – her name was Yukiko, she was very pretty – but I could not get home and she ended up marrying someone else,” he says. “But there will be time to find someone, once the war ends.” He pauses. “I might still write that book someday, too.”

“If you do make sure to put Benzaiten in it,” Oizuma says. Shiro smiles.

“I could not tell our story without mentioning her,” he says. “What about you, Oizuma?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps I will study and try to pass the entrance examinations and attend a university.”

“Really?” says Shiro. “I did not know you had such ambitions.”

“I didn’t,” says Oizuma. “But now I am thinking perhaps of studying biology. Perhaps I will become the foremost herpetologist in all Japan!”

“Herpetologist?” asks Shiro.

“One who studies reptiles and amphibians,” Oizuma says.

“Ah,” says Shiro. “That is an interesting goal. I think you would be good at it.”

“We will see,” says Oizuma. “If we get home.”

“We will get home, someday,” says Shiro.

---

Tendo, present day:

Shiro Kuramata sits in the garden and enjoys the spring sunshine. He is in his favorite rocking chair, one he made himself many years ago. There is a blanket over his legs, for it is still March and despite the sunshine the chill of winter is not entirely gone.

Perhaps later he will go into his workshop and put the finishing touches on the dresser he is making for one of his great-grandchildren. Despite being eighty-eight years old he still likes to keep busy. But he tires easily and for the moment it is pleasant just to sit in the sunshine.

He dozes off and slips into a dream. In the dream he is back aboard Hibiki. He has such dreams from time to time. Not all of them are unpleasant, though from some of them he awakens with his heart pounding. In this dream he is talking to Snake Man. What was his real name? Oizuma, yes, that was it.

He is awakened a short time later by voices.

“I still don’t get it,” someone says. “Why would we ever fight America?”

“We did, though,” says another voice. “I have great-grandfather’s book right here. It’s amazing.”

Shiro opens his eyes and sees someone standing in front of him. “Oizuma?” he says, disoriented.

“No, great-grandfather, it is Jomei,” one of them says gently. Shiro focuses and comes back to the present. Before him are two teenage boys. Jomei is 15 and his cousin Minoru is a couple of years younger. They are wearing blue jeans and t-shirts. Shiro can read the English words on Jomei’s t-shirt, but he has no idea what “Aperture Laboratories” and “The cake is a lie” means. Jomei is holding some sort of small electronic device.

“Our apologies for disturbing your rest, great-grandfather,” says Jomei. “My father told me about your book last week and I downloaded it and read it.” He holds up the device, which is about the size of Shiro’s wallet. How a book could get in there Shiro has no idea. “May we ask you some questions?”

“Would you tell us more about the war?” asks Minoru. “What happened? What did you do?”

Shiro looks around at the garden he helped build and that four generations of his family have enjoyed. Then he looks at the boys in front of him.

“I spent a lot of time wishing I was right here,” he says, and his deeply lined face wrinkles into a large smile.

[kaleun]

So good!

[princep01]

Great, Cuttlefish, and the best is yet to come.

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

The performance of the Combined fleet wasn't that bad actually...
Don't our brave Hibiki guys deserve some free time in a well-known Kwalajein brothel?[:)]

The trouble with well-known brothels is.....ummm, nevermind [:)]

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

A gavotting aardvark? I think I'd pay money to see that, especially a vermilion one...[:D][:D]

I'm betting he has no recollection of having typed that. [:D]