CF, this is a great AAR. If you plan to print it and bind it, let me know and I will buy one.
I have had enough requests for this that I might end up doing something of the sort. I will post more about that when this thing finally wraps up.
ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock
Not quite as many as there was a while ago! The action around the Marianas now takes on more significance. Interesting question: where are the American BB's? An invasion without a preliminary bombardment at this stage of the war is out of the question.
With the carriers, as it turns out. It seems the Japanese have somewhat misjudged where most of the Allied transports are, too. Read on....
Location: Osaka
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 472
Orders: See below
---
Enemy warships have dueled with Japanese gun positions on Guam for much of the previous day and night. Even so what happens next is a surprise, since the Japanese are still tracking large numbers of enemy ships nearing Eniwetok and heading west.
Dawn on June 4, 1944 reveals an astounding sight to the Japanese defenders of Guam. The sea to the west of the island is covered by a vast array of enemy ships. For most of the men of the 46th Infantry division and the other Japanese there are more ships visible than they imagined the enemy possessed. If any of them had been told that in just two days, on the other side of the world, a much bigger force would launch the largest amphibious invasion the world had even seen none of them would believe it. Every ship, they think, that America and Britain possesses must be off the shore of their large island.
Then the bombardment begins. For three hours landing beaches on either side of the Orote Peninsula are flayed by battleships and cruisers. A pall of dust and smoke rises above the island. When the big guns fall silent the first waves of carrier planes comes in and adds to the destruction. As the planes do their work minesweepers and smaller vessels move in to smooth the way for the waves of landing craft behind.
The enemy has honed his craft in a dozen smaller invasions so far. But they have not yet tried to invade an island that Japan holds in such strength or with such determination. Things quickly begin to go wrong.
The preliminary bombardment has been too short and many guns, some of respectable caliber, have survived. The extent of the minefields protecting the landing beaches has also been underestimated. As a result many ships are hit or mined. Almost twenty landing craft in the first waves do not make it to the beach. The soldiers and tanks that do make it ashore do so under heavy machine-gun and mortar fire. Supplies are low and casualties are high.
But the marines and infantrymen that do reach the shore fight back tenaciously and advance. They carve out a beachhead and by late afternoon are ashore in enough force to hold on. Whether they will be able to continue to advance against the defenses awaiting them remains to be seen.
This will largely depend on more supplies and men continuing to come ashore. Guam is ringed by hostile airfields. Even as word reaches Japan of the attack the first bogies are appearing on the radar screens of the carriers tasked to protect the invasion force. The long, brutal, and bloody Battle of Guam has begun.
Even as word reaches Japan of the attack the first bogies are appearing on the radar screens of the carriers tasked to protect the invasion force. The long, brutal, and bloody Battle of Guam has begun.
So much for the mid-ocean strike! Fasten your seatbelts -- it's going to be a rough ride.[:D]
And Hibiki still hasn't fixed that one point of system damage.[;)]
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
Location: Osaka
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 470
Orders: See below
---
“Can you please tell me,” the widow Rin Shun asks tartly, “why people keep wanting to shoot you?” She is seated next to Chief Shun’s hospital bed. Nanami stands on the other side of the bed, holding her father’s hand.
“I don’t know, Mother,” says Shun grumpily.
Rin Shun laughs. “It can’t be your pleasant and sunny disposition,” she says. “Or the knack you have for making friends everywhere you go.”
Shun tries to glower at her but ends up smiling a little instead. His face is still pale and drawn but he looks considerably better than he did just a few days ago.
“The doctor says you are healing well,” Nanami says. “We should be able to take you home soon.”
Shun frowns again. “And Hibiki is leaving tomorrow or the day after,” he says. “Captain Ishii won’t even hear about having me aboard.”
“Well, at least Hagumu-san has some sense,” says his mother. “The war will still be going on when you are ready to return, it’s safe to say.”
“Yes, that is true,” says Shun, though he does not seem to take much comfort in the fact. He turns his head to address his daughter. “You will want to see Mr. Ariga before Hibiki leaves, I suppose?”
Nanami’s face shines. “Yes, Father, I would. Very much.”
“Then you two should go and do that,” says Shun. “I’m not going anywhere, but Hibiki is.” He does not need to speak aloud the grim fact underlying this statement, that any time a warship leaves port there is no guarantee that it will return.
Location: Osaka
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 468
Orders: Intercept Allied convoys heading west towards the Marainas
---
“If the enemy invasion force is already ashore then what are we hunting, sir?” asks Lieutenant Sugiyura.
“I don’t know,” says Ishii. “But there are a lot of ships heading west. More troops, supplies and fuel, maybe even another invasion, who knows? We’re going after them, whatever they are.”
“The carriers are going after them,” Sugiyura says mournfully. “All we are likely to need are depth charges and anti-aircraft guns.”
“See to your torpedoes anyway, Lieutenant,” says Captain Ishii. “We no longer dictate events in this war as we once did, and must be prepared for anything. But if you have any preparation to make, make them swiftly. We depart tonight.”
Location: 100 miles northwest of Tori Shima
Course: South-southeast
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 414
Orders: Intercept Allied convoys heading west towards the Marainas
---
Stripped down to basics all warships are instruments of destruction. They may be put to other uses but their reason for existing is to project violence. Their purpose, in short, is to kill.
And yet…view the Japanese warships as the morning sun illuminates them on their way south. The tops of the waves around them catch the slanting sunlight save where bubbles rise in the long flat wakes they trail behind. The light catches the edge of the flight decks of the two big carriers and glints off the superstructures and masts of the heavy cruisers. Around them prowl the light cruisers and destroyers, long and lean and graceful as they cut through the waves.
It is a sight that somehow stirs the blood and makes the heart beat a little faster. Captain Ishii has seen such sights many times and yet as he stands on the bridge and views the task force steaming rapidly south he still feels it. He can hear the crash of waves against the bow and the flutter and snap of flags and pennants as they catch the stiff breeze. He feels the tilt of the ship and the vibration of powerful engines.
The ships are a grand sight. Yet so is a regatta, Ishii thinks. What raises this collection of gray vessels above the merely aesthetic and into the realm of the inspiring? Their mission is one of destruction. If all goes as planned men aboard enemy ships will suffer pain, wounds, and death. If the plan goes awry it may be they themselves that suffer this fate.
Perhaps, Ishii thinks, that is the difference. The belief the men have in their country and the willingness they have to die for it if necessary is what catches at the breath for a moment. The lines of the ships speak of power. Their efficient movements as they steam rapidly south tell of purpose. And the interplay of sunlight and water, of steel and spray, lends a kind of beauty to the scene. But it is the men aboard who infuse the sight with a touch of grandeur.
Perhaps it would be better if it were not so. Perhaps then men would not be so quick to go to war. But it has been that way as long as men have fought upon the sea, which is to say as long as there have been ships. Ishii can imagine the Greek captain of a trireme having similar thoughts, or the captain of a British ship of the line in Nelson’s time. Perhaps some captain among the fleets of his enemies is even now looking out over the sea and thinking the same things, he thinks.
The moment passes. Ensign Konada approaches with a question and Ishii is drawn back to the business of running his ship. As the sun climbs in the sky the Japanese ships continue south, seeking the enemy.
ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
“Can you please tell me,” the widow Rin Shun asks tartly, “why people keep wanting to shoot you?” She is seated next to Chief Shun’s hospital bed. Nanami stands on the other side of the bed, holding her father’s hand.
“I don’t know, Mother,” says Shun grumpily.
Rin Shun laughs. “It can’t be your pleasant and sunny disposition,” she says. “Or the knack you have for making friends everywhere you go.”
Nobody knows you like your mother. [:D][:D][:D]
Just got caught up, CF. Amazing, masterful, (place your superlative of choice here) work, as usual.
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
Location: 60 miles east of Bonin
Course: South
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 386
Orders: Intercept Allied convoys heading west towards the Marainas
---
The Japanese ships go south without launching any search planes. They do not wish a prowling enemy submarine to spot a short-legged dive bomber and draw the conclusion that there must be carriers nearby. It is a risk, to go blind when the enemy’s own carrier forces are not that far off, but if the Japanese force is spotted the enemy carriers will move swiftly to intercept and the mission will be over – one way or another.
The Imperial Japanese Navy is building new carriers and looks forward to a time not far off when they can once again challenge the enemy. But that time is not yet, and even with a second carrier force coming behind the one Hibiki is escorting to go up against what the enemy has off Guam right now would be a fatal mistake.
Location: 285 miles west-northwest of Marcus Island
Course: South
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 341
Orders: Intercept Allied convoys heading west towards the Marainas
---
“Damn,” says Captain Ishii. He is training his binoculars past Zuikaku to the other side of the strike force, where there is a flurry of activity. “Asashimo and Tanikaze are after a submarine. Yes, Tanikaze is dropping depth charges.”
Lieutenant Kuwaki comes up beside him. “Do you think it saw the carriers, sir?” he asks. Ishii grimaces.
“Would a man spot an ox in the middle of a tea house?” he says. “I think it is likely. This is bad luck.”
“The enemy’s submarines seem to be everywhere,” Kuwaki says. “At least the carriers are unhurt. What will happen now?”
As it turns out, what happens is that the task force picks up speed and sprints to the south. In the morning they will send out search planes. And then, as Ishii observes, they will see what they will see. It is time to roll some dice.
Location: 230 miles southwest of Marcus Island
Course: South
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 291
Orders: Intercept Allied convoys heading west towards the Marianas
---
The Japanese search planes sent out in the morning find nothing but empty ocean. This is a disappointment, but at least it seems that Hibiki and the other ships have not sailed into a trap. Zuikaku and Taiho have outdistanced the slower carriers following behind and now they continue to press south, seeking the enemy.
Finally, at around 1500 hours, a contact report reaches the Japanese ships:
[font="Courier New"]Six to eight destroyers, possible light cruiser, at 190 miles bearing 221 degrees. Course west, speed 18 knots.[/font]
Now Admiral Ozawa, in overall command of the strike force, faces a decision. This could be reinforcements moving to join the battle at Guam. It could be a force screening transport convoys located further south. Whatever they are doing here it is now almost guaranteed that the enemy has a good idea where the Japanese carriers are.
Ozawa comes to a typically careful decision. He has targets in front of him. He will launch one strike while he still has enough daylight and then turn around. There may be juicier targets just a little ways further south but the risk of being found and drawn into battle with enemy carriers is too great. He ignores the protests of many of his staff and issues his orders.
The strike is a modest success. Two enemy destroyers are sunk and third is left listing and burning. As night falls the Japanese forces are already headed back to the north.
Anticlimax!
But from my few games as Japanese, that is the way to play once you are on the downside of the game. Hit where you can, and run; immediately!
Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.
Sun Tzu
The strike is a modest success. Two enemy destroyers are sunk and third is left listing and burning. As night falls the Japanese forces are already headed back to the north.
With American subs on high alert after them, I'll bet! Any useful radio intercepts from the situation on Guam?
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
and the