The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

September 26th

Ogowa's eagles remain grounded
(and the Russian guns..............are they really closer?. Rumours flying everywhere. But nobody really KNOWS.............)

Hirate and Okano spend these bittersweet last days at home. They go for a picnic, and forget the war for a while.



And out of the blue, 30000 Americans , supported by the full wieght of the American fleet, land at Mauban, Luzon.
The land on a totally deserted beach, defended by a single scrawny dog.

The dog inflicts a single casualty (one bitten ankle).

There are still japanese on Luzon, but for now, the dog will do better than them.

[1275psi]

September 27

0400 hours

Gun director
IJNS Yamato

"Bridge, I have the target in sight, permission to open fire"
"track target, but wait.........."


Yet again, Yamato's great barrells turn, raise, then lower...........fixed upon a target, upon the enemy.
Nobody can deny this.
Yamato is a battleship, possibly creating in this war a record never to be surpassed, designed for one thing..................

'You may open fire.........."

Once more dear friends, once more..........

[Long pig]

Simply glorious, I feel like I am riding with them.
Great writing as always 😄

[1275psi]

CMDR Oda has the duty
Its the duty he has lived his whole short life hoping to fullfill
And now, finally he can.

He stares calmly through the glass, the glass that is the first pierce of the great chain of equipment that ultimately controls yamatos guns
Gunnery control officer.
The Gun directors optics are superb, the russian task force at this short range of 5000 yards is as clear to him as if he was alongside these, his targets.
The russians steam line ahead, 2 destroyers, two cruisers, two more destroyers. They steam away from the Japanese battle line at this moment, heading due north. The japanese line, Musashi, yamato, leading has cut across the rear of the Russians, a crossing of the T in reverese.


Point blank
I cannot miss

And the barsteds have not seen them..........


"You may open fire............."

Oda presses his trigger.

Visibility, despite the dark, is good. Good enough to actually watch the first salvo , great white glowing balls race, arc, fall across the kilometres.........and arrive with incredible violence
A good first salvo, the spread tight, the second in line russian burning already.
Musashi has, he notes, hit the lead Cruiser hard as well.

Oda watches the russians , despite everything, their reactions are good. They swing hard to starboard, guns already trying to come to bear......

The lights glow on the panel in front of him, guns 1, 3, 5 ready..........come on , come on.....4, 6 , 8, 9.2, damn, why is 2 always so slower than all the others. 9 lights............27 seconds good
The second cruiser, more of her visible now, steady in his sights...
The trigger feels so comfortable................ Squeeze............the bells tingle, the great guns, his guns, goddam it, thunder, spit 9 more balls of fire, of revenge, of vengence, ...............mess with japan you barsteds....................mess with me.............and their short flight finishes again deep into the russians bowels.

faintly he can feel, hear the secondary's...............and yes, the shells stream out towards the Russians, Russians who's formation is already breaking apart, confusion and panic obvious to allnow.

"Director, am turning to starboard"
Good, very good, all guns can remain on bearing

The russian is burning brightly now...........He's trying to shoot back.
2000 yards.........I can almost pick where to plant the next ones...yes, yes, right there.

Fire!!...............
And that is you finished. You trucker.............

"Shifting target right."
But the russian destroyer, Oda's next choice , is already heeling, heeling.......and Musashi finishes her off.
This has been a long war, long, long, long.
But some things have not changed.


The power of a battleships guns remains awsome...........






2 cruisers sunk, a destroyer sunk, 3 left burning

One destroyer damaged in return

[1275psi]

Ogowa is awoken by the yells of his staff officer
it is dawn, bloody freezing

No sounds of enemy planes, just the wind.but something is seriously adrift........
The officer bursts into his room, white, almost ashen faced

"Sir!..........its the Russians!"
'The Russians???!"
"Armour............only 5 miles from here!"

Ice dumps through Ogowa's veins.

But he shows no sign of panic.
"Scramble the groups...........buggar it. We are going home...........now"

[ny59giants]

Slightly OT - How nasty is the Russian artillery?? As mainly an Allied player, I always seem to be on the short end of any artillery dual. [:(]

[1275psi]

HI NY59 giants
I cannot tell you anything about artillery duels

We ain't had any

he rolls up, there is a deliberate attack, and i am shattered...........every single time

Gawd, i am seeing AV stacks of 3 to 5 thousand , and there seems to be no end to them.........

The biggest problem now is this, so many restricted airgroups training as Kami's that I cannot move anywhere, soon I will lose airfields for them.

[1275psi]

(herbiesan makes BIG error)

yamato and Musashi sail on to Vladivostock.

The bombardment is effective.

The counter battery fire from the 100mm russian fort guns even more so

Musashi will stagger away, aflame.................

(57 system damage.......crappolla)[X(]

[1275psi]

1 October 1945
The train journey for Okano and Hirate has been a miserable one
First, the pain of departure.
Then, freezing carriages. Frequent, unexplained stops. 2 nights in some siding.
Lets not even talk about the missed meals.


The train has been packed to the limits, soldiers, airmen, civil guards, AA men, and even a few refugees..........
The train has been packed with rumours as well.
A tide of sickness , a strange horrible sickness, is sweeping Tokyo. People are dying. And nobody seems to know why.

Hirate and Okano both note, gas masks are reappearing everywhere.
Nobody takes them as a joke anymore.

They reach Kogoshima midday, and after a long, far to long treck, reach their destination.
Its not what they expected...........

[John 3rd]

They have had SUCH a crazy set of...ahhhhhhhh...assignments for the war, I cannot wait for this one!

[1275psi]

no turns

so, I thought I might show this

[1275psi]

and this

[1275psi]

and because i can, one last one

[1275psi]

mucked up

[Smoky Stoker]

Pretty sure that Yamato sortied for the last time with no aircraft...

[:)]

Nifty model!

[pws1225]

Very impressive modeling. Nice work.

[HansBolter]

That baby is HUGE.

One of my former employers is a serious train enthusiast and he built the 1/35th Dora rail gun.

I think it's about the same length as your Yamato.

I imagine the wife is not gonna let you display that in the living room......

[Smoky Stoker]

Time to bump!

[1275psi]

as you can see, turns very slow


October 2nd

War wise, there appears that nothing of real significance occurs

The Russians continue to advance, the Chinese continue to chase japanese stragglers all along the coast, the Americans advance un opposed towards manilla.

japan has one minor, yet satisfying victory. 3 tankers, filled to the gunnells with Palembang oil arrive safely kagoshima.
The blockade still leaks...........

[1275psi]

Hirate and Okano climb yet another gangway, of yet another new posting.
Chiburi could never have been called a polished piece of work. This ship, however, looked like it had never heard of polish.
Okano has, for all his sea going career, seen vessels like this all over the oceans of the world
Tramp steamer AKE Hoeisan Maru.

"Sow , a bloody sow" he thinks as they tramp up the rusting creaking gangway, "can this get any bloody worse?"
It can, and it does.
The Hoeisan Maru is, it turns out, Mother duck to a whole squadron of bloody ugly ducklings, a real mix of baby barsteds, Motor torpedo boats, motor gun boats.
In theory she is meant to support (at what first glance, and soon to be confirmed) these equally decrepit looking boats, to fuel them, to ammo them, to provide engineering support.

A old Warrant officer, booze heavy on his breath, shows them in short order the reality
A couple of lathes, a mill, some spanners, a single hand winch crane, cable fraying. Their accomodation, a cabin smaller than a toilet, and stinking much the same.

Grimly the two men settle in, (an easy task for those well travelled), and ponder what their roles may be.

Hirate looks Okano straight in the eye
"You saw the boats?"
'hardly a lethal weapon..........what, 16 knots?, with those motors?..........and a single torpedo, or a single gun?"
Hirate nods, ."I don't think that matters, really"
"What do you mean?"

'I think, my friend, that we have found ourselves in a suicide squadron"