Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[Dave3L]

The elder Ariga gives a chuckle. “I guess you’re right about that,” he says. The two begin to walk away. And whether any fond and familiar spirits bid Shiro farewell as he leaves none can really say.
 
 
You have another misprint. 
 
 
Still a wonderful addition to the tale.

[tocaff]

Maybe CF is just testing us to see if we're really paying attention.  Maybe it's the least we can do is to be his proof readers.

[thegreatwent]

I would be a poor proof reader as stuff keeps getting in my eyes. Thanks for the story CF[&o]

[Cuttlefish]

March 27, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

“Look, I have my orders,” says the man, a sergeant in the paymaster corps. He reads from his clipboard: “Deliver one truckload of assorted trees and shrubs to destroyer Hibiki to be distributed around the ship for use as camouflage.” Ensign Izu, the officer of the deck, takes the clipboard and reads from it. That is what it says, all right. He looks beyond the sergeant down to the dock, where several laborers stand around a large flatbed truck that is jammed with an assortment of large shrubs and small trees, all in wooden crates or with their root balls wrapped in burlap.

“My apologies for the delay,” says Izu politely, “but I believe I must refer this matter to my captain.” His mental picture of what Ishii would do to him if he allowed this portable forest to be brought aboard without permission includes Ishii removing his skin using one of the dull vegetable peelers from the galley. He turns to a nearby sailor.

“You!” he barks, holding out the clipboard. “Take this to Captain Ishii immediately!” The sailor salutes, grasps the clipboard, and practically sprints away. As Izu expects, Ishii arrives within two minutes. The sergeant and Izu both salute. Ishii acknowledges the salutes and then looks down at the greenery-filled truck.

“And what, Segeant, am I to do with these?” Ishii asks mildly. Izu notes, however, that there are several vertical lines between the captain’s brows. His men know from experience that when those lines appear they had best tread softly.

“You’re supposed to put ‘em around your ship, sir,” says the sergeant. “Break up the straight lines, make the ship look like a little peninsula or something, I guess.”

“It will,” Ishii observes, “make my ship look like a floating floral farce.” He takes a deep breath. “What about some camouflage netting? Could we not use that instead?”

“I am sorry, sir,” says the sergeant. “There isn’t much to go around. From what I hear what’s available is being reserved for the capital ships.”

“I see,” says Ishii. “Very well. Izu, sign for the delivery please. Have the – shipment – unloaded on the dock. And have Seaman Ariga report to me immediately.”

“Yes sir,” says Izu briskly. Ishii nods to the sergeant, who salutes again and trudges down the gangway to begin unloading his truck.

“You know, Captain,” says Izu when the man has gone, “if you like I could get some decorative boulders, maybe a birdbath and some trellises. We could put them here around the…”

“Izu!” barks Ishii. The ensign subsides.

“Yes sir,” he says. “Sorry, sir.” Captain Ishii turns on his heel and stalks away, muttering to himself.

[Feinder]

And have Seaman Ariga report to me immediately.”

 
It's always useful to have a procurement specialist in the company.
 
-F-

[rjopel]

Needed the comedy after the somber post before it.

Thanks

[&o][&o][&o][&o][&o][&o]

[vettim89]

Izu is lucky to still have his head attached but when Ishi calms down he may smile a lttle to himself and perhaps appreciate the Ensign's attempt to make lemonade from the lemons handed him

[Cuttlefish]

March 28, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

To place any group of armed men in position to do effective battle with the enemy requires a system of supply. These supplies are procured, allocated, and delivered by a bureaucracy that in most cases vastly outnumbers the troops it is supporting. And like all bureaucracies these organizations are often plagued by inefficiency and waste, aided and abetted by that breed of parasite known as the black marketeer.

The Japanese are notably worse at logistics than are their opponents. This is partly due to the fact that Japan, dragged kicking and screaming into the twentieth century, simply has not had as much time to develop and refine logistics as a science. It is greatly exacerbated by the fact that supply, as a non-combat branch of the armed forces, is scorned and looked down upon. It may be essential but no one wants to do it.

Riku Ariga has repented his past as a smuggler and given away the money he made doing it in a worthy cause. But his knowledge of the system continues to come in useful for he and his shipmates. Under orders from his captain he spends half the day combing the docks and warehouses of Inch’on, poking into corners and talking to people. There is rarely, he knows, a total lack of any given commodity. There is only inefficient use, poor record-keeping, and human greed.

It takes him hours to discover the camouflage netting he is looking for. It takes less time to find a supply clerk with the authority to release it and to learn what he wants in return. And it takes less time than that to appropriate a truck and load the netting aboard, aided by Oizuma and Yoshitake.

Here, however, he runs into a problem. The bundles of netting are large and bulky and it is probably not a good idea to drive through the streets of Inch’on with his booty on display. Someone from a larger ship and with more clout might be looking for the same thing and take the shortcut of liberating his hard-won prize instead of finding his own like an honest scrounger. So Riku covers the netting with a canvas and covers the canvas with empty produce crates, artfully arranged so the truck looks as though it is delivering cabbages. The camouflage netting is thus in effect camouflaged.

As he drives the truck back to Hibiki Riku thinks about organizations and ways to streamline them to reduce waste and improve efficiency. He has some ideas on the subject. Perhaps, he thinks, after the war he may get a chance to try some of them. If there is an “after” for him, that is, and if anything remains on which to build.

[Hornblower]

camouflage netting sounds like they may be there awhile...

[tocaff]

Ariga is doing good just to get a truck with fuel to transport his booty in.  At this stage of the war everything is in short supply for Japan.

[Dave3L]

Anyone else besides me feel compelled to keep checking for updates, even though they are experiencing A Palpable Feeling of Doom?

[Terminus]

No, it's just you... NOOOOOOOOOOT!!![:D]

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: rjopel

Needed the comedy after the somber post before it.

Thanks

[&o][&o][&o][&o][&o][&o]

"After you fetch us the first shrubbery, you must fetch us another shrubbery, and then arrange them one behind the other, so we get a two-level effect, with a little path down the middle... A path! A path!"[:D]

[tocaff]

A feeling of doom?  I thought everybody has that feeling when fighting a war.

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Terminus


"After you fetch us the first shrubbery, you must fetch us another shrubbery, and then arrange them one behind the other, so we get a two-level effect, with a little path down the middle... A path! A path!"[:D]

Tune in next week when Shun orders Riku to chop down the largest tree in Korea - with a herring!

[Cuttlefish]

March 29, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

As camouflage netting is put in place over Hibiki the collection of trees and shrubs originally intended for the purpose sits disregarded at the end of the pier, giving a drab naval installation the look of a small, untidy patch of woods. Though the weather is still cool the trees are beginning to unfurl new leaves and the shrubbery glistens with drops of water from last night’s rainfall.

Shiro is down on the dock helping to install a pole that will be used to help support the netting over the ship. During a break he wanders over to the assembled greenery. After contemplating it for a moment he scoots the burlap-wrapped roots a few feet to one side. Then he moves a couple of shrubs before Chief Petty Officer Shinoda’s voice summons him back to work.

This process is repeated throughout the day by various members of the crew. By nightfall the untidy patch of woods has begun to take on the highly formal appearance of a Japanese garden. Someone even moves an old wooden bench into its midst to serve as a centerpiece. It gets repositioned twice before a satisfactory spot is found.

None of this is planned and no one coordinates the activity. Nonetheless by the following day the “garden” has a name: Boldly Hiding Park.

[1275psi]

I am waiting for the snake to go over the side AWOL - then I will know doom is upon them, not before -fight on Hibiki!

[kaleun]

As camouflage netting is put in place over Hibiki the collection of trees and shrubs originally intended for the purpose sits disregarded at the end of the pier, giving a drab naval installation the look of a small, untidy patch of woods. Though the weather is still cool the trees are beginning to unfurl new leaves and the shrubbery glistens with drops of water from last night’s rainfall.

Shiro is down on the dock helping to install a pole that will be used to help support the netting over the ship. During a break he wanders over to the assembled greenery. After contemplating it for a moment he scoots the burlap-wrapped roots a few feet to one side. Then he moves a couple of shrubs before Chief Petty Officer Shinoda’s voice summons him back to work.

This process is repeated throughout the day by various members of the crew. By nightfall the untidy patch of woods has begun to take on the highly formal appearance of a Japanese garden. Someone even moves an old wooden bench into its midst to serve as a centerpiece. It gets repositioned twice before a satisfactory spot is found.

None of this is planned and no one coordinates the activity. Nonetheless by the following day the “garden” has a name: Boldl

How long did you say you lived in Japan?

[Cuttlefish]

March 30, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Japanese resistance stiffens around the airfield at Amami Oshima. The Allies want that airfield, and quickly, and so reinforcement troops are dispatched across the Philippine Sea.

To cover the vulnerable transports the enemy carrier force that has been roaming about the Sea of Japan is recalled to bolster the air defense around the island. As the enemy force passes through the Korea Strait the Japanese attack. A hodge-podge collection of aircraft, trying to take advantage of the constricted waters, is launched against the carriers from airstrips in both Korea and Japan.

The Allied air defense is equal to the task, however. Hellcats and Corsairs swat aside the attacks. Japanese losses are heavy and no hits are scored.

Word of the action is swift to reach Hibiki and the other ships at Inch’on. The official Japanese statement speaks only of “fierce attacks against the enemy” and gives no mention of results. As if this was not indication enough of what actually happened news of the failure quickly spreads from personnel based at nearby airfields which participated in the attack.

Gloomy as this news is, the men of Hibiki are glad to see the enemy carriers go. Their presence in the waters on the other side of the Korean peninsula was a constant threat and their departure is a relief.

What will not become obvious for several days, however, is that the enemy withdrawal has set in motion a chain of actions and reactions that may well be viewed, by Hibiki’s crew at least, as a series of unfortunate events.

[HMS Resolution]

Ah, at last, the untold tale of Lemony Snickett's wartime career with the frogmen!