The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

A small CVE task group leaves Hong kong, and hits some of the shipping headed from manilla, or heading towqards Manilla

There are troops on these fast transports...........troops on a almost suicidal mission.

One High Command swears will occur
landings at Swatow, south China coast.

[1275psi]

13Aug

Watanabe's worries become groundless, Unryu makes port, and is rushed into drydock. She is given 14 days to repair.
Susuzuki and the other destroyers anchor, and again come to 4 hours notice.
It is mid summer now, the bay is beautiful, from the ships, the city is peaceful and serene.

Hard to believe today, that a war is going on.

[1275psi]

The imperial conference has gone on for 4 hours now, split, as always it seems now, between the two parties.
One, led by the three remaining civilians in the cabinet, wants peace.
The rest argue for continuing the war...........

The Russians are storming Mukden, a torrent of armour and men advancing on Korea itself. Strange to think that Manchuria, that land that started this long road to disaster, is now Red.
The Army hopes to stop the flood on the Ichon river, whether they can, many secretly doubt.

The argument for continuing the war, however, is still a strong one.
It is mid summer, if the allies are to invade the Home islands this year, then time before the Autumn storms is running out.
Huge area of SE Asia remain Japanese. There is much left to fight for there. The Home islands remain almost unscathed.

And there is a feeling, almost to outrageous to expres, that a victory in the Pacific might yet be claimed.
The Army in Minando fights on..........the allies unable to kill it.
There has been not a single allied landing for nearly 6 months.............

Are they that short on assualt ships, on battleships that they dare not launch another?
'We have bled them dry, your Highness"
The Emperor hears these words often now, maybe it is true?


True or not, they will fight on.

[1275psi]

The ocean west of takao, north of manilla erupts

A small allied task force sits in its middle, and attacks three AKs troop ladened headed north. They are sunk, at a horrible cost.
But three other task forces of fast transports slip by, unmolested, tomorrow they will land on the chinese south coast.
The allies will undoubtably try to stop them.
But some must surely get through.

In the Celebes sea, a2 AO's of japans are sunk at Panay by another CVE group near Jolo island.


But at balikapapan, 30000 tons of fuel has been loaded successfully, tomorrow it will begin for home.
The allied blockade is leaky..............

[1275psi]

14 Aug

20 miles south of the northern tip of Palawan island, Phillipines

0300 hours

Lt Ito, Commander of the E class Fumizuki, is a bare 22 years of age.
Barely begun shaving, if he would care to admit it.
But old enough to do this, almost too old in fact.

Youth, it must be admitted, does breed a certain barvado.
"Full ahead all!"
The helmsman , himself barely 16, grins. Ito's enthusiasm is infectious.
"Full ahead all!", he cries, and the telegraphs clang to the bottom of their travel
The little ship begins to tremble

To Fumizuki's flank, 4 other E class ships are spreading out, 500 yards apart, bones between their teeth, sterns boiling, the phosphorous glowing.

The night is bright, a full moon, the sea calm.......visibility superb.
At 20000 yards , the enemy are visible.............grey hulking shapes.............a line of battle.


A line of battle.
Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, new mexico, the elderly Arkanas.............and 4 destroyers.

Ito strides to the binnacle, grips his sword. This will be short, surely.......short but glorious.

18000 yards..............the sea hisses past, the gun crews stand, or crouch, at their stations, frozen.

Line of battle...........imperious...............how in the hell have they not seen them yet?

There is almost a sense of relief when the great line erupts into fire, a ripple down its length.
"Port ten"...........zig zag, for as long as I can...............

Shrieking frieght trains overhead............too long.....
"Stbd ten'
Thudding bangs 50 yards to port............ah, they have the range.............

'permission to open fire sir"
Lt Toyoda............20 years of age

Yes, and why not...........I have been so focused on the fish I have forgotten my pea shooters.......
"Approved"

15000 yards.........and E Yasoshima busts into flames...........
And now they are entering a veritable forest of water spouts...........shrapnel rattles, a man cries in pain
They remain unhit..............

10000 yards..............and the enemy fire seems to lesson, honing in on the Yukaze...........burning brightly 100 yards ahead of them .

Stbd 20.............I will use her as cover.............

8000 yards............and Toyoda cries."We are hitting them!"
yes, by the gods.we are.............."I have hit a battleship!"..........a battleship with my pidddling boat!

Torpedo range???..........yes, by gods, yes!
"hard to port!...............fire fish!...............

The noise is overwhelming......insane...........but still relatively harmless

They peel away from the slowing Yukaze............the poor barsted glowing red from end to end, her uppers a shambles, the enemy shells still pouring into her, past the almost awash Yasoshima...........

And to life.


They have lived
2 E class sunk
No fish hits on the battlewagons...........but a healthy supply of shells expended.


As Ito leads the 2 other surving ships towards manilla, he cannot feel but sorry for the Gunnery officers of those battlewagons.

And hope they meet the Yamato some day.

[1275psi]

23 E class attempt to land troops at Chaochow , southern coast of china

They are thwarted by 6 Flether class DD's, who sink 1, hit another 5.


But other Fast transports land some troops at Soochow.

And japan has more at sea, who tomorrow will try as well.

As predicted, the chinese cities are very, very lightly defended.
There remains a chance yet.

[1275psi]

Mukden, manchuria falls

Flattened actually

6500 AV headed south............ye gods

[1275psi]

Aug 15th

War is confusion

From almost dusk, to almost dawn, the waters off China's southern coast reverberate to the sounds of naval battle.
6 Allied destroyers foray from Hong Kong, tangle at long range with three Japanese destroyers, engage a dozen or more E class, lose them, find them, engage them again, and near dawn, exchange shots with those 3 jap DD's yet again

Ships are damaged on both sides.
Who won?...........hard to tell.
The enmy Battle wagons run into another small group of E class.............and shoot depressingly far straighter

And E class No 67 sends the most pathetic signal in History..........."have sighted 2 New Jersey Class BB's, 2 Alaska Class BC's, multiple escorts..............am attacking"

She, of course, is never heard of again.

So, there is action a plenty, tactically bloody yet fruitless for Japan, annoying, no doubt , for the Allies. But there is no doubt at all in Japans mind. The allies are gathering upon Hong Kong. They are on the move.
At last

[Anthro03]

."have sighted 2 New Jersey Class BB's, 2 Alaska Class BC's, multiple escorts..............am attacking"
'Duty is heavy as a mountain, death is light as a feather.'

[Mike McCreery]

You have lasted much longer than many many others. Nothing to be ashamed of when Fletchers pick apart ships that cannot do 1/2 their speed.

And the AAR has got to be one of the top ones in the history of the board :]

I vote for a sticky if it is possible. The story alone would motivate people to play!!

[1275psi]

Aug 17th

"They must sail"
General Sugiyama stares at the three admirals facing him. Again he repeats the demand, his voice hard, pityless 'They must sail, the fleet MUST sail......I demand it!"

He is met with stony silence, hostile, cold
Finally, one of the elderly men speaks.'For what?, to save Army face again?. We have bled enough for you already, it was your mad scheme, you carry it out!"
Anger fills the general........"And if damn well committed it fully the China operation WILL succeed!"

There have been further engagements in the seas between takao and China, further close range knife fights between destroyers and E class boats. Troops have gotten ashore, and held the counter attacks at Chaochow.

But now, now the enemy carriers , battleships are entering the scene. And takao itself shakes under B-29 bombing.
The Army is losing many men
The Navy, many minor ships.

"Succeed general?. How would you measure success?. We measure it now on days Japan remains unbombed, un invaded!. Only when the transports come for Japan itself will I release Yamato.............only then!. Only Then"

Sugiyama see's the detirmination then. traitorous barsteds, as if ships have value now?.................Barsteds.
"very well....you fools.very well"



Yamato, Musashi, the remaining carriers will remain at anchor a while yet, it seems.
Susuzuki is attached to them.
So, for a while longer, she, and our stokers remain realitevely safe.

As safe as those who fight against a nation that now posses the bomb

[1275psi]

Aug 18th

1945

Before we begin today, a lesson. As you near the end turn files become huge...........we have been having massive mail problems with non delivery of turns, and Cantona now has to zip his.
I never had a zip program, so that was , for me, interesting

Well, we got a turn through today.

Its a wonderous thing seeing late Essex class CV's and the Alaska class, the Iowa's , wandering around the oceans.
It would be even more wonderous if I could just sink a couple.............LOL

[1275psi]

Aug 18th

In Minando, the final acts are beginning
The allies have reinforced. marine divisions. The Aussies. Masses of artillery
They out number the remaning japanese now 2 to 1, and with so many succumbing every day the odds grow larger quickly.


This is an army of immense power (2500AV).
But its a long, long way from Japan......


Tilitjap, DEI, falls to the allies

Falls to the third Marines, no less

Imperial HQ notes this carefully. Marines tied down in Minando. Marines in the DEI, no less
There can be no invasion of Japan this year..............

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

Aug 18th

1945

Before we begin today, a lesson. As you near the end turn files become huge...........we have been having massive mail problems with non delivery of turns, and Cantona now has to zip his.
I never had a zip program, so that was , for me, interesting

Well, we got a turn through today.

Its a wonderous thing seeing late Essex class CV's and the Alaska class, the Iowa's , wandering around the oceans.
It would be even more wonderous if I could just sink a couple.............LOL

You may want to check out something like Onedrive...in effect cloud storage -- you upload the file to your onedrive and you send an email that links to the file for downloading and sharing. You would avoid the zipping if you dislike that.

All the big free mail programs have something pretty close.

I still love your AAR![&o]

[1275psi]

Thanks Lowpe

19th August

Ogowa and Diogowa return from the village. There is a new baby to visit. A bay, tea, delightful conversation. A friendship deep and lasting is building between these two hard fighter pilots, and these two equally (internally) tough Navy wives.
Two, three times a week the two push their rattling bikes down the lanes to the sea side. Frequently they carry backpacks filled with food and other now almost impossible to find essentials.
They are recieved almost wordlessly, and vanish almost immediately
Ogowa notes that they very rarely see these gifts in the house, and wonders quietly to himself just how many villagers 401st sentai is actually supporting now..........


Diogowa now a days rarely stays long in the house , he soon slips away with father to the workshop. There are a million and one things in there, a million and one idea's.
And after the war, surely it will be bright ideas that will restore Japan, yes?.

Autumn is coming. And Japan lies almost quiet. Few, very few planes fly in the air. A great many factories, all but a few shipyards lie quiet.
But here people are not.
massive drafts of the elderly, the very young are being coerced into the drafts of the emergency militia.
There are not enough arms for them. Excuses for uniforms.
But no shortage of desire of the powerful to spill these poor barsteds blood.

[1275psi]

A small victory of sorts

3 tankers, 30000 tons of fuel aboard clear palua island after escaping balikapapan, and turn north for Japan.


No small feat , I feel for August 45!

[1275psi]

20/8/1945

he is the descendent of the Sun God himself
yet, as with all men, ill health can strike

The emperor of Japan falls ill with a severe chest infection, one that could easily turn into something far worse.
As so many of his subjects have done before him, he takes to a Mountain retreat, a sanitorium, to help clear his lungs, to regain much needed strength.
It is a small place, nestled on the slopes of Mt Odake, in sight of Mt Fuji to its south, the city of Tokyo to its east.
It is usually a quiet place, but not today. Home command is holding a massive air defence exercise, today is the third of five full scramble, full Cap exercise days, a stress test of Tokyo's air defences

Mt Odake is being used by many of the circling fighters, Mt Fuji one way point, the imperial palace another, Mt Odake the last.

There will be nearly three hundred of them involved today.............armed to the teeth, of course.
But few, if any, expecting any real action this week.

They, of course, are going to very, very wrong

[1275psi]

Japan lands more troops at Okha, the russian port in the North sahklin islands
They are almost 2 to 1 in strength now.

In China, a Japanese counter attack rolls westward towards Foochow, the enemy facing them is a hollow bluff.
But the landings at Changchoaw are in real trouble.

And B-29's pound manilla, and sink 4 AK, a tanker, and 2 DD's alongside the docks..............ships designated to support the china operation.
There are none left to replace them

[1275psi]

The Enola Gay glitters in the setting sun, a sun that glows red, swollen.
The bomb is aboard.

It has been a perilous journey getting this odd looking bomb to this Chinese field, one that has seen it cross the pacific to Hollandia, then by a different bomber across the south china sea to Honk kong, then another leg to here.

Long Pig and Bigglesworth have both seen it.
"A harmless looking beasty you think Bigglesworth?"
"Until its armed my friend, until its armed"

That, apparently will only occur once its airborne

Long pig has yet to see the detonator, he has met the quiet man who will fit it, admired the way he has spent all of today sweating in the bomb bay practicing the procedure.
That bit will go well, he has no doubt.

But the rest fills him with it

Tomorrow, just after 3 am, two bombers are to take off, he a passenger on "The laughing clown" as an observer.
The flight path, Kagoshima,, Mt Fuji, a dawn bombing of Tokyo.
The target. The emperors palace itself

A flight over the length of a country hardly bombed in the last 2 months, defended by god only knows what.
Japan could have a thousand fighters there tomorrow

Or none
God, let it be none
let em all be stood down, saving petrol

Bigglesworth places a friendly hand upon his shoulder. "Think positive mate. There hasn't been a allied plane over tokyo for three years, at the crack of dawn, they are all going to be still in bed..it will be a cracking good show, you will be part of history,,,,,,,,,


Burma, the Irrawaddy, the 101 other mad things that have happened to him this bloody war. Stuff that, Long pig thinks, I can do without any more bloody history...............

[pws1225]

The bomb is aboard.