Matrix Games Forums

May 20th

Japan is retreating in China, in malaya.
The DEI are being evacuated of every aircraft left (other than palembang), and what ground support staff that can be rescued.

The Phillipines too are slowly being stripped .

Only at Minando offensive action

2 days ago cagayan was reported to contain 18 units. Now at least 10 of them are moving east along the coast, pursuing the fleeing troops along the nortern coast road .
35 th Army, 15th army, 55th division , 100000 men are marching north, 13 miles yesterday, 13 today.
They are coming down from the mountains, a veritable avalanche


Timing in war is everything

Now, more than ever

do, or die.

22nd of May

The sun has set
All around him the trees have darkened, merged, and melted into the gathering night.

A stillness falls, only the endless whine of the mosquitoes.
Ahead of Hosho, a wide rough field, a small line of trees, a ditch, a road, and then....................the outskirts of Cagayan.
There are lights in the town, glimmering dots.
A line of trucks drive down the road, heading east, .............oblivious

Hosho takes his bayonet, fits it to the barrel.
It is razor sharp

Too his left, the men of some 6 divisions. To his right, the equivalent of 13 brigades
76500 fighting men
70000 "support men"


35th Army will attack
With cold steel..................we will go straight in.


A single flare rises
With a stutter, the mortar chorus begins
Hosho draws breath, stands


With cold steel................we will go straight in

Gads, the suspense!

BANZAI!

ORIGINAL: 1275psi


There are lights in the town, glimmering dots.
A line of trucks drive down the road, heading east, .............oblivious

Foreshadowing! It is going to be a massacre.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Foreshadowing! It is going to be a massacre.

Yes, yes, of course....

Of whom?

E gads, I can hardly wait for the turn myself!

"TRUK!"
Hirate drops his spanner, jams his thumb into his mouth, clamping down on the throb............"TRUK< TRUK, truk!
Cautiously he withdraws his thumb , examines it..yes, he has cut it......the blood wells up slowly, dull red........it will be a while before it stops.

Blood. Gods he hates spilling blood.

O mother.................
O mother, whom I have not seen for so long
O mother, if you could but take me away now, and let me rest against your breast...........

Pain

Oh, gods............pain

Oh Mother, please make it stop.

Almost bewildered, Hosho lies on his back, the ground so hard against his back.
He slowly raises his arm from his belly...............the blood, red, bright, runs down from his hand............almost beautiful............almost


The battle rages about him still.
55th division has gotten into the town.............they did that at least.
But so many, so many, have not, especially on the right flank.....................


Hosho smiles, ironic, yes?.............lying here, and thinking about a right flank..........
Born a soldier..........live a soldier.............die a soldier.....................

O Mother........i have marched so far..............
If I could just march to you.......................








cagayan held 4 divisions still
AV, 4200 to 11oo, but adjusted, 700 to 1100

1 to 2

10000 dead, to 2000 killed
Shattered, the attack reels away....................

Hosho can't be dead, wounded yes.

Another hero, friends fades away. Forgotten never.

I just hope I am wrong. Please let me be wrong.

Mat

Hosho is a fictional character.

Really.

Really!!!

[:(] (Dammit)

In the sanctuary of the Imperial palace, their are more than enough peaceful and quiet areas to hold conversations, to argue, to give orders, to plot...............

In the gardens of the Imperial palace, it truly can be said that here is the world of mice and men, of wax paper and black ink..............

The Emperor and general Sugiyama, (who now with out doubt holds the reins of power in what remains of the empire) stand side by side near one of the ponds, the Koi swirling, circling below their feet.
They are utterly alone

"And so, general, what have you discovered?'
'Quite a tale your highness, quite a tale"
"Aaah......but what would life be like without a good story ney?'

The General takes some bread, casts it upon the waters. The fish feed.
"The facts, as we know them, are this.............On the 1st of of december, 4 men of herbiesans guard, through an utterly delightful ruse, removed a considerable amount of gold from the vaults."
'My vaults general........." the Emperor gently reminds his council leader
"yes, yes of course.....continuing.........on the 2nd of december these same men board a slightly rusty E class vessel , a vessel captained by a certain Captain Ugaki.......
"A fellow revolutionary of our late herbiesan"
"A very close revolutionary friend.............along with several heavy crates marked machinery parts"
'The gold?"
"Undoubtably"

The General casts more bread...........the bare cheek of the theft..........almost unbelievable, even if the facts slotted so neatly...
"Chiburi sails , without Combined fleets, or any fleets knowledge that very day...........destination, until now, unknown"

The Emperor nods............in recent conversations (secret to all but the most trusted) with the Russians, a name has consistantly came up, a name of a man, The Russians it seemed were convinced remmained alive under his care.......
"Rovaasski?"
"Yes your Highness...........Rovasski"

Silence falls between them
The Gold, no doubt now, had gone North, been delivered, but failed to arrive..............
"Do you know where Chuburi went general?
"No, we have some idea, but nothing definate...........she returned December 16th, herbiesan boarded on the 18th...........he died somewhere on the journey north again, how the barsted died we do not know, but that he did there is no doubt. Chiburi then deployed to manilla..."
"And was sunk with all hands............and the trail goes cold general"

'Not necessarily"
The emperor looks at Sugiyama sharply
"two crew members still live............how they got of her, too long to relate.........but they live still. "
"Where?"
The paymaster general tells me they are posted to destroyer Susuzuki, refitting in Hiroshima"

And you will bring them in for questioning?
"No ..............they are stokers............they will probably know nothing, have no idea where Chuburi went, if they do, what can they say?...........that we went north, it was cold?. They will not be able to "help us" in that manner. If they DO know something, all we will get still, is it was cold, we were in Northern waters...........no, we need something more subtle................

The Emperor nods

And in the quiet of the garden, another dark plot begins to grow..............

ORIGINAL: Smoky Stoker

Hosho is a fictional character.

Really.

Really!!!

[:(] (Dammit)

them who die honorably, they live for ever...
fictional or not [;)]

Egads, I was so wrong.[:(] Actually, I knew we were in trouble when Japan was waiting for the turn...I had they had played ahead.

24May 1945

B-29s bomb Takao
Bombers bomb other places.............routine, routine, routine.

Amazingly, the tankers have arrived again into the DEI ports, and are yet again filling tanks
Amazing





Cagayan
SGT Yates ( and had that name caused a few issues over the years) rested easily on the sand bags around his machine gun nest. carefully, with fingers still trembling slightly (fingers that had actually been doing this ever since that nightmare of the landings.......christ, how long ago now) he lights a smoke.
It fails utterly to drown out the smell of the battle, of the stink of war.

War is messy. Not the chaos of action, of orders mislaid, of mistakes made, its just so goddam messy
About him, piles upon piles of cartridge cases, of discarded ammo boxes, of mess kit, of ruined weapons, of cloth, of blood stained bandages...........let alone the wreck of the town about him
He has always been a neat man has SGT yates, its not right to think, but it was honest too though, to find the mess about him more disturbing than the twisted bodies lying in almost drifts in front of the machine gun nest...........

They has almost gotten through...almost.

The night, THE NIGHT........too raw to think about...............but how could he forget............the tracers.....the screams,,a wall of shadows, yelling, screaming, jigging, dancing in his sights...............waves........collapsing.........

Stupid, crude.............
But gods, they came so close.

Some of his men are warily searching the battle ground, poking, probing the dead.
To his left, where the enemy penetrated deepest (where those barsteds almost outflanked him), several men struggle with a japanese machine gun.

It stikes SGT yale just then, that if all of those barsteds had attacked with such skill and detirmination...........no , don't think of that........

"SGT!".the yell brings him back into focus......
His Corporal at the Machine gun is poking something..........."This one is still alive, should I finish him off?"

The affirmative rises in his throat......but something cuts it off.............
Maybe its respect for for a fellow grunt who has done so well...........
"Will he live?"

the corporal peers closer...........".maybe..easier to shoot him sarge........."

But just then, the LT arrives, and the chance is too late


War is hard
war is messy
war..............war is cruel.
Hosho lives, but will soon, I think, wishes he did not.
For a Japanese soldier..........a fate worse than death...............capture

A friend posed the question.............what does a sailor do in refit?

For our men.............what don't they do?

Dawn, the reville..........clear and stow the mess.scrub and clean
PT............a hard 30 minutes of PT
Breakfast
Morning muster.............salute the flag, sing the anthem, listen to the days orders, assign the work, plan the work......(and how easy it is in these days............"lets see if we can get that prig of a machine to go today ney?)
And then too it.
The hours will fly by ,a million and one tasks................a hurried meal, and the work continues

The day ends (or slows somewhat) with a muster of compartments head in damage control central
With three days of refit offically left, the atmosphere is tense
The engineer , as always begins at the forward Boiler room
"Hirate?'
Hirate winces............it has not been a good day.
"The boiler brickwork is in, the new tubes are rolled, but the burner throat work is not yet set. Internals are in, but the second safety is not yet repaired. Both feed pumps................(are never going to go again sir, but i cannot say that, can I?)........I have not received the rotating assembies...............these, these I cannot manufacture."

The engineer stares at him hard............and nods with acknowledgement. A wry smile breaks out............."we can but hope, ..........continue hirate...."

Hirate does.............the list of woes remains long, and his list is the shortest...Okano is missing an entire Turbo generator throttle valve assembly.........


Susuzuki is meant to come out of refit in three days..............
She is not, at this rate, going to make it.



On the other hand, who is going to lament extra days alongside in Japan?

What? This thread on page 2?
Outrageous[:@]

I shall write the Times!

sorry guys
major turns issues, cantona sends turns, I no recieve said turns.............no bloody idea what is happening

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

sorry guys
major turns issues, cantona sends turns, I no recieve said turns.............no bloody idea what is happening

There are lots of things to check but one might be the file size. You are probably at about 5 megabytes right now and maybe there is a size issue with the transfer.