Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[nashvillen]

I remember reading that one. I hope I have my avatar set right now to see what LtCmdr Kurtis looks like... He is a real Klingon, you know, the kind without bumps on their head!

EDIT: the avatar is not working right, I must have messed up something. Here is the picture:

[Cuttlefish]

June 13, 1945

Location: Wakkanai
Course: None
Attached to: TF 21
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 5
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Return to Wakkanai

---

With the city of Yamaguchi secure the Americans begin to establish a defensive line that runs southeast from the Hagi on the Sea of Japan to Yamaguchi and then south to the shore of the Inland Sea. It is good terrain for defense but the line is some 60 kilometers long. This does not give the 60,000 American troops present a chance to defend in much depth.

The Allied plan at this point calls for additional troops to come up to bolster the line. The inevitable Japanese counterattack is to be defeated and Japanese troop strength to be whittled down by artillery and air strikes. Then Allied columns will break out, capture Hiroshima, and then overrun the rest of Honshu and compel a Japanese surrender.

The plan is encountering difficulties, however. The Japanese have managed to impede the progress of troop and supply convoys through the Tsushima Strait. With the Allies still fighting to maintain control of the air over the Strait few of the planned reinforcements have been able to land. In particular the invasion force is short on armor and artillery.

For their part the Japanese are struggling to bring troops forward in the face of heavy air attacks. But several infantry divisions are now in contact or nearing contact with the Allied line and more are coming forward. Within a few days the Japanese expect to have nearly a quarter of a million soldiers ready to attack.

To support this effort the Imperial Navy is ready to send what ships it has to attack the enemy at Fukawa Bay in an effort to close the vital port there to reinforcements. Hundreds of Japanese planes are readied for one final push in support as well. Most of them currently dispersed in small numbers around the countryside, as any large concentration of aircraft is quickly noted by the Allies and destroyed from the air.

A desperate battle for the survival of Japan is about to begin.

[Capt. Harlock]

In particular the invasion force is short on armor and artillery.

For their part the Japanese are struggling to bring troops forward in the face of heavy air attacks. But several infantry divisions are now in contact or nearing contact with the Allied line and more are coming forward. Within a few days the Japanese expect to have nearly a quarter of a million soldiers ready to attack.

Odds of more than four to one. Fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna be a bumpy ride!

[paullus99]

Ultimately, this will probably lead to A-Bombs on just about every major Japanese city. Don't think that is going to leave much left for rebuilding after the war.

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

In particular the invasion force is short on armor and artillery.

For their part the Japanese are struggling to bring troops forward in the face of heavy air attacks. But several infantry divisions are now in contact or nearing contact with the Allied line and more are coming forward. Within a few days the Japanese expect to have nearly a quarter of a million soldiers ready to attack.

Odds of more than four to one. Fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Four to one on paper. Those are probably some of the best troops the Allies have, while most of the best Japanese troops have been destroyed on some island or another, or are sitting the war out on Luzon. Plus the Japanese are under constant air attack, while the Allied troops are not.

[kaleun]

Ultimately, this will probably lead to A-Bombs on just about every major Japanese city. Don't think that is going to leave much left for rebuilding after the war.

My experience with A bombs is that their effectiveness (in WITP) is very, shall we say, limited?

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: paullus99

Ultimately, this will probably lead to A-Bombs on just about every major Japanese city. Don't think that is going to leave much left for rebuilding after the war.

We're only in mid-June '45. Unless Wolffpack has been seriously accelerating the Manhattan Project, no A-bombs will be available for weeks to come.

[paullus99]

From the perspective of the narrative only (forgetting game mechanics). The final result of a failed US Invasion of Mainland Japan would have probably have left Japan flat, green & quite possibly glowing at the end of the day.

Just saying....otherwise, this has been a great ride to watch.

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: paullus99

From the perspective of the narrative only (forgetting game mechanics). The final result of a failed US Invasion of Mainland Japan would have probably have left Japan flat, green & quite possibly glowing at the end of the day.

Just saying....otherwise, this has been a great ride to watch.

They wouldn´t have had the bombs for that sort of thing until years later.

[paullus99]

Not as long as you'd think - combined with an increase in conventional bombing, I bet the US would have run out of viable targets by December 1945 or January 1946 (again, if they had too). But Japan would have surrendered long before that.

[ny59giants]

The "Dice Gods" will have their voices be heard in this battle. I hope CF has made the proper sacrifices. [:D]

[kaleun]

Benzaiten rules!

[vettim89]

No new posting by our author in two days. I suspect he is hard at writing and rewriting one or more pivital posts that likely will tell us how Hibiki and her crew will end the war

[mdiehl]

They wouldn´t have had the bombs for that sort of thing until years later.

The US was on track to build seven bombs by November 1945, and some 20 or so by the end of the year. After that they'd have used up the ready plutonium reserve. The third deployable bomb (not counting the Alamagordo test device) was on its way to Saipan when the Japanese surrendered.

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: mdiehl

They wouldn´t have had the bombs for that sort of thing until years later.

The US was on track to build seven bombs by November 1945, and some 20 or so by the end of the year. After that they'd have used up the ready plutonium reserve. The third deployable bomb (not counting the Alamagordo test device) was on its way to Saipan when the Japanese surrendered.

Still... thirty bombs or so, most likely all of them far below 100kt, wouldn´t have been enough to level Japan. With nukes that small, I guess some of the bigger cities (Tokyo, Osaka) would take more than one to destroy.

[Cuttlefish]

June 14, 1945

Location: Wakkanai
Course: None
Attached to: TF 21
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 5
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: see below

---

It is not much of a meeting room, simply the front half of a warehouse. The back is piled with crates bearing the stamp of the Imperial Japanese Navy, though a persistent smell of fish betrays the building’s original use. In front there are several rows of folding chairs. In these are seated officers from the twenty-one ships of Rear Admiral Yamamoto’s task force.

Yamamoto walks out into the space in front of them. He has no lectern or dias and no large flags or maps hang in the background.

“Remain seated, please,” says the admiral. “Let us get this over with quickly.” He rocks back and forth on his feet a couple of times and then places his hands behind his back and begins.

“Tonight we set sail for the enemy-held ports of Yamaguchi,” he says. “We will attempt to get as close as possible before being detected but being detected will not deter us from our mission. That mission is to destroy the enemy surface forces guarding the ports and, if possible, to sink or drive away as much shipping as possible.

“The latest reports,” he continues, “show many enemy ships in the area. There are at least four battleships there. We have positively identified one of them as Texas. There are many enemy carriers near the northern entrance to the Korea Strait.” The assembled officers stir, but no one speaks.

“You have all faced the Americans in battle and know what kind of firepower they have,” Yamamoto says. “You all know what their planes can do. You can figure the odds as well as I.” He looks down at the floor for a moment, then raises his head and looks at the officers again.

“I suppose I should say something noble and inspirational,” he says. “But I fear you have the wrong commander for that. I do not speak well. We have our orders and we will carry them out. That is really all there is to say. For what it is worth, the enemy forces have been battered this past week. Our aircraft have reported many sinkings. I am sure most of these are wishful thinking but there is little doubt many of their carriers, cruisers, and battleships have been forced to withdraw due to damage. Our submarines have also been busy with both torpedoes and mines.” Yamamoto takes a breath.

“We leave tonight, as I said. The enemy is on Japanese soil. There can be no thought of holding back forces for another day. This is the final test. Good luck to all of you. May we meet again at Yasukuni Shrine.”

He turns and walks away. Dust motes, disturbed by his passage, dance in the beams of sunlight slanting down from the dirty windows set high up in the walls. The officers stand and talk quietly among themselves for a while before leaving to return to their own ships. They will depart Wakkanai in a few hours and few among them believe they will ever return.

[veji1]

gulp...

[paullus99]

30 or so twenty - thirty kiloton weapons, backed up with the largest conventional bombing campaign ever seen (firebombing everything in sight), certainly would be more than enough to finish off every single major industry, commercial, and residential area in Japan within about six months.

If we had wanted to do it, we certainly could have.

This is such a great AAR - I'm sure there will be a book after.

[Canoerebel]

Hibiki is a ghost ship that cannot be sunk.

P.S. Japanese industry and transportation was already a shambles. Atomic bombs weren't really necessary to that campaign. They were only needed to weaken the will of the Japanese to fight so that the Americans wouldn't have to face the one thing that strategic bombing couldn't take care of - Japanese military and civilians in every ravine, hollow, cave, ditch and cover willing to fight to the death.

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hibiki is a ghost ship that cannot be sunk.

You just wait... during the climax of the battle, when all seems lost, Benzaiten will take her true dragon form and incinerate the entire Allied fleet.