Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[histgamer]

[:(] that bodes ill [X(]

[cantona2]

or Hibiki adds another sub kill to her total

[tocaff]

Still a DD is safer, target wise, than being on a CV.

[histgamer]

True but I want the IJN to still be a threat to pounce on unprotected allied units. I mean if the Japanese lose their carrier force now then the story gets kinda doomed, as far as the fact that it will be air attack after air attack that slaughtered anything that moves including HIBIKI. 

[rjopel]

It's been four days since an update.  What's happening on the Hibiki?

[Droop21]

rjopel, you are a mean person: you gave me false hopes. Seeing that there had been movement on the thread, I had hoped my Hibiki fix had arrived [;)]

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: rjopel

It's been four days since an update.  What's happening on the Hibiki?

I am sorry, I really intended to get something posted over the weekend but ran short of time. Wolffpack and I did get in a few turns, though. I need to write faster, the game is still half a year ahead of the AAR.

[cantona2]

[:)]

[Cuttlefish]

August 11, 1944

Location: 100 miles east of Catbalogan
Course: North
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 374

Orders: Strike Allied shipping at and around Ulithi

---

A Suisei dive bomber, returning from patrol, overtakes Hibiki and buzzes playfully past the destroyer almost level with the bridge. From the forward gun tub Shiro can see the rear gunner waving at them. He waves back.

“Ah, the freedom of the skies,” says Taiki, who is standing beside him. “I wanted to be a pilot when I was growing up. But I followed my brother into the navy instead.”

“Any regrets, Petty Officer?” Shiro asks.

Taiki raises his binoculars once again and resumes scanning the skies. “No,” he says. “It was never a realistic idea anyway. Remember, it was almost impossible to qualify for pilot training back before the war. That a plasterer’s son might do it was just a daydream.” Far ahead a pair of patrolling fighters slant down out of one of the scattered islands of cloud that are all that remain of the recent storm.

“I think you would find it easier now,” says Shiro. “Ariga says that a pilot back in Kagoshima told him that it’s much easier to become a pilot these days. You need two arms and two legs, I think he said.”

Taiki shakes his head. “Then you no longer have the samurai of the skies I idolized as a boy,” he says. “You have a peasant rabble with spears of the skies.”

“That is quite an image,” says Shiro. “But we know from stories what happens when such a rabble meets an enemy samurai.”

“Yes,” says Taiki. “They get mowed down like wheat.”

[Capt. Harlock]

“I think you would find it easier now,” says Shiro. “Ariga says that a pilot back in Kagoshima told him that it’s much easier to become a pilot these days. You need two arms and two legs, I think he said.”

Taiki shakes his head. “Then you no longer have the samurai of the skies I idolized as a boy,” he says. “You have a peasant rabble with spears of the skies.”

“That is quite an image,” says Shiro. “But we know from stories what happens when such a rabble meets an enemy samurai.”

“Yes,” says Taiki. “They get mowed down like wheat.”

That is, of course, pretty much what happened to the Japanese pilot corps. Nice job working that in to the shipboard conversation.

[princep01]

Cuttlefish, I urge you to write at your chosen pace.  The quality of your work is quite remarkable and should not be compromised by the bleatings of fandom.
 
However, I have a question.  Over the last several weeks, there seems to be an increasing sense of forboding and gloom among the Japanese characters.  Some of this is expected as the course of the war and its gnawing tensions would lead to that mood.  Nonetheless, do you sense that the fact that you know what is happens six months in the future of these characters affects your current writing.  In effect, do future events (to us) affect your mood and how you write your characters now? 

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Cuttlefish, I urge you to write at your chosen pace.  The quality of your work is quite remarkable and should not be compromised by the bleatings of fandom.

However, I have a question.  Over the last several weeks, there seems to be an increasing sense of forboding and gloom among the Japanese characters.  Some of this is expected as the course of the war and its gnawing tensions would lead to that mood.  Nonetheless, do you sense that the fact that you know what is happens six months in the future of these characters affects your current writing.  In effect, do future events (to us) affect your mood and how you write your characters now? 

That's a fair question. I think the short answer is that a little bit of that foreknowledge finds it way into my writing but not too much. I try to actively guard against it and just write from the crew's current perspective. Certainly Japan's increasing losses and slow but steady retreat give them things to be worried about.

[thegreatwent]

Thanks for all the effort CF. This terrific drama adds color to my own WitP gaming experience so a doff my cap to you and will wait patiently for the next installment

[histgamer]

Makes me wonder what an AAR for Silent Hunter III would be like...[&o][&o][&o] If only I had your talent. You have written this so well I could never try something like this for WITP but perhaps Silent Hunter... Perhaps some day. Hell the whole crew has a name in that game so I wouldnt even have to make them up. [:D]

[tocaff]

I often wonder which takes more time and effort, the game or the AAR.

[undercovergeek]

ORIGINAL: flanyboy

Makes me wonder what an AAR for Silent Hunter III would be like...[&o][&o][&o] If only I had your talent. You have written this so well I could never try something like this for WITP but perhaps Silent Hunter... Perhaps some day. Hell the whole crew has a name in that game so I wouldnt even have to make them up. [:D]

i forget its name at the moment, so my reply is pointless, but there is a great AAR over at subsim hq for SH3, the guy has factored in the raid on St.Nazairre and has tried to keep historical real world events along side his story - very immersive and led me to buy the game. Im sure his sub is called the laughing swordfish if this helps you find him

[BigDuke66]

Is it this one?
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=83139

[undercovergeek]

well my hat goes off to you to find it with such p*** poor information!!!

yes, thats it, a very good read - now im not saying its Hibiki standard but its very good - enjoy if youre interested

and apologies to CF for advertising other AARs in his excellent thread

[Cuttlefish]

August 12, 1944

Location: 95 miles northeast of Legaspi
Course: North
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 348

Orders: Strike Allied shipping at and around Ulithi

---

Ensign Izu enters the officer’s wardroom and casually tosses his cap onto the table, where it lands upside-down. The table’s only occupant, Ensign Konada, stares at it over the book he is reading while Izu prepares a cup of tea. Finally Konada can stand it no longer. He picks up the cap, brushes it off, and sets it down right-side up precisely in the middle of the table.

Izu finishes his tea and turns towards the table just as the ship gives a lurch. Izu compensates but a small amount of tea still sloshes out of his cup.

“It’s that damned quartering sea,” he says, sitting down. Konada nods in understanding. The sea is running fairly strongly from the southeast and as the waves overtake the ship Hibiki’s stern tends to fall off into the trough. This not only causes the ship to lurch but gives the helmsman fits keeping the destroyer exactly on course.

“I wonder if it will be like this all the way back to Japan,” Konada says.

“We aren’t going back to Japan,” says Izu. “Not yet, anyway. We just got a signal from Ozawa. All ships are to hold position off Legaspi. We’re going to be steaming in circles again.”

“I see,” says Konada. “What is the captain’s mood?”

Izu shrugs. “He just set his jaw a little and acknowledged the order,” he says. “You know the captain. He does not conceal his temper very well so he is probably resigned to these random movements.”

“Apparently random,” corrects Konada a little stiffly. “No doubt Admiral Ozawa knows what he is doing.”

Izu sips his tea, timing the movement to the roll of the ship. “Oh, no doubt,” he says. “That’s what all those bars on an admiral’s sleeve mean, after all, that they are never as confused and uncertain as the rest of us.”

Konada studies Izu’s face but cannot tell if his fellow ensign is being sarcastic or not. He decides to let it go. Instead he looks over at the small puddle of tea Izu spilled. The movement of the ship has given it a shape something like an octopus. “Shall we clean that up?” he asks.

“No,” says Izu casually. “Things like that are why the gods gave mops to enlisted men.”

“Ah,” says Konada. He looks back down at his book for a moment, then glances back over at the puddle. Izu sips his tea. Finally Konada can stand it no longer. He goes over to the counter, grabs a rag, and cleans up the spill. Izu says nothing but only sips his tea again, an action that also conceals the small smile on his face.

[ChezDaJez]

“No,” says Izu casually. “Things like that are why the gods gave mops to enlisted men.”

I have run into many an officer like that. Ones who feel that the enlisted are their personal servants. Generally, that attitude gets corrected in due course.

I remember one young ensign who was a guest pilot on my crew. We were to fly to Midway for an extended operation. Now, generally speaking, unless you had birds or stars on your collar, you loaded your own bags. Not this young ensign. He told the ordnanceman that his bags were in the duty office and to make sure they got loaded onto the plane.

The ordnanceman couldn't refuse the order. So he loaded them onto the plane... into the unheated bombbay. Do you know how cold the bombbay gets at 25,000 ft? And how low the air pressure is? Well, it gets cold enough to cause any liquid (booze, aftershave, etc) to freeze and break the container. Plus aerosol cans have a nasty habit of spraying their contents all over the place due to low pressure. Deodarant, shaving cream, all that good stuff.

Needless to say that by the time we reached Midway, this young ensign's bags were a mess! He never again told any one to load his bags!

And to morale of the story is to always load your own bags... and never, ever mess with an ordnanceman!

Chez