Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[Cuttlefish]

October 4, 1942

Location: 220 miles east-northeast of Baker Island
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 8
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 287

Orders: Attack American shipping between Canton Island and Palmyra.

[Cuttlefish]

October 5, 1942

Location: 400 miles east of Baker Island
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 8
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 256

Orders: Attack American shipping between Canton Island and Palmyra.

---

The Japanese ships are due east of Baker Island, heading southeast. The mood in the task forces is tense and alert. They are beginning to thread the needle between the Allied bases on Canton and Palmyra. The search planes from both bases have a slightly overlapping range, but if done properly the Japanese ships can remain several hundred miles from either base.

There are a total of 26 Japanese ships in two task forces. They total four fleet carriers, three light carriers, five heavy cruisers, and fourteen destroyers. This is a large group to attempt to conceal, but the extreme range gives the Japanese a chance. Aboard the Hibiki everyone scans the skies hoping for rain, but while there is some cloud cover the glass is steady and rain seems unlikely.

At the moment everything is quiet. No enemy submarines have been detected in the area, and so far no enemy aircraft have been seen. If the ships are not spotted tomorrow they will break through into more open water and in all likelihood will not be seen by anyone until it is far too late to do anything about it.

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Note: There has been a little confusion over the name of Taiki’s brother since I inadvertently gave the brother a female name at the very start of the AAR. That’s not a mistake I would make now; writing this has been rather educational. At any rate, the brother’s name is Noburo. Further, through the magic of the computer age I have gone back through the entire AAR and made it so that it has always been Noburo. There was no error. It never happened.

Huh? What?

[Capt. Harlock]

Clever reference, Onime!

[Ol_Dog]

Don't look at the man behind the curtin

[Cuttlefish]

October 6, 1942

Location: 420 miles northeast of Canton Island
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 8
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 458

Orders: Attack American shipping between Canton Island and Palmyra.

---

Lieutenant JG Jim Pederson checked his fuel level as he eased his PBY Catalina around to a more southerly course. It was nearing the point where he would have to turn the plane around and head back to Palmyra. So far it had been another routine patrol, nothing to see but the ocean below and a fair amount of cloud cover. Still, he knew better than to complain about boredom. It set a bad example for the other eight men of the crew. And Pederson remembered quite well what had happened back in April, when the Japs had come undetected right through this area and smashed a large convoy.

It had been VP-12 on patrol then, too. They spotted the enemy carriers, all right – after ten ships had been sunk and all they could do was watch the Japs head home, cocky as you please. Heads had rolled over that debacle, and Pederson for one was determined not to let that happen again.

“Hey Skip, I see a plane,” said a scratchy voice in his headphones. That would be Chris Underwood back in the port blister. “About 5000 feet below us at 30 degrees left, maybe a quarter mile off. Hey, there’s two planes!”

“There they are,” said his navigator, looking down. “I see meatballs. Skip, those are Zeroes.” Pederson could see them now too, angling away from his plane. As he watched they sliced through a cloudbank and emerged on the other side.

Pederson felt a rush of adrenaline. Zeroes out here could only mean one thing: Jap carriers. He turned the PBY to follow them, giving the engines a little more power. They were falling slowly behind even so, but that was all right. Pederson wanted to follow them. He did not want to be seen.

They trailed the fighters for several miles. Pederson kept to the clouds as much as possible, staying well above and behind the enemy planes.

“Everyone stay alert,” he told his crew. “There may be more of them, and we don’t want to get jumped.” The warning was scarcely necessary. The crew was pretty keyed up now, and everyone was aware of the danger. The PBY was a tough plane but no one wanted to be on the receiving end of an attack by Japanese fighters.

They came out of a cloud bank. In the distance the sun glinted off the wings of the two Zeroes. And on the ocean beyond them was a Jap carrier. It was a big one, with a yellow flight deck. In the near distance a destroyer trailed a long wake as it kept pace with the carrier.

“I count one carrier and three escorts, destroyers or light cruisers,” said his copilot. “The carrier is a Shokaku class. The closest ship is a…let’s see…” He thumbed quickly through his ship recognition cards. “Looks like a Fubuki class destroyer, Hibiki type. Their course is southeast.”

“Call it in, Riggs,” Pederson told his radio operator. He banked the plane around to get back into the clouds. This was no place to linger out in the open.

---

“Captain Ishii, sir!” came the radio operator’s voice over the speaking tube. Captain Ishii stepped across the bridge to the tube.

“Yes?” he said.

“Sir, I’m picking up a radio transmission. It’s in code, sir, but the signal is fairly strong. They must be close. An American plane, I think. It sounds as though they are broadcasting coordinates.”

Captain Ishii swore softly, then thanked the radio operator and asked him to let him know if he picked up anything else. So much for sneaking through undetected, he thought to himself. He wondered what Nagumo was going to do now.

[Cuttlefish]

October 7, 1942

Location: 300 miles west-southwest of Jarvis
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 8
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 427

Orders: Attack American shipping between Canton Island and Palmyra.

---

“Captain, I don’t understand,” says Lieutenant Miharu. “Pressing on is one thing, but if we have been spotted why are we doing so at half speed?” Captain Ishii shakes his head.

“I don’t know,” he says. “The Admiral is not confiding his strategy to me. I know he opposed being sent on this mission. I would almost suspect that he is trying to make sure we are located to ensure the mission would fail, but that would be out of character.” He pauses. “I think.”

“There has been no sign of enemy aircraft all day,” comments Miharu. “If we are trying to be seen we are doing a poor job of it.”

“The course change may have thrown them off,” says Ishii. “The Americans may think we are moving to strike at Canton Island and are concentrating their search in that direction. I just don’t know.” He shrugs. “Of course, we don’t need to know. Our job is to screen the carriers. Admirals set strategy, we just follow orders.”

“And hope the admirals know what they are doing,” says the lieutenant. Ishii gives a small smile.

“Of course they know, or they wouldn’t be admirals,” he says dryly.

[Cuttlefish]

October 8, 1942

Location: 220 miles southwest of Jarvis
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 8
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 396

Orders: Attack American shipping between Canton Island and Palmyra.

---

As the day goes on the Japanese ships continue their slow, meandering course to the southeast. As far as they can tell they remain undetected once again. Uncertainty reigns on both sides. The Japanese are unsure how much the Americans have seen, or if they have any firm idea there are Japanese carriers in the area. The Americans have a single solid sighting report of Japanese carriers moving southeast, but the carriers have since disappeared.

As night falls the Japanese carriers alter course slightly but continue to move generally southeast, still steaming slowly. The high stakes game of blind man’s bluff continues.

[Cuttlefish]

October 9, 1942

Location: 240 miles south-southwest of Jarvis
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 8
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 365

Orders: Attack American shipping between Canton Island and Palmyra.

---

Early in the afternoon a Catalina locates one of the Japanese task forces and shadows it for about an hour. The Japanese amble placidly along. The Catalina is finally forced to turn back and the Japanese continue on, moving beyond the range of any search planes the Americans possess.

As soon as darkness falls Admiral Nagumo turns the task forces around. The meandering pace ends, and the Japanese ships head northwest at high speed.

[Cuttlefish]

October 10, 1942

Location: 300 miles west-southwest of Jarvis
Course: Southeast
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 9
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 333

Orders: Return to Kwajalein.

---

“It is easy enough now to guess the Admiral’s strategy,” says Captain Ishii. “Make the Americans think we are loose in their sea lanes while returning to port.”

“That is apparent enough, sir,” says Lieutenant Sugiyura, “but why not just break into their sea lanes?”

“I am guessing there are two reasons. One, once we were spotted it is almost certain that any enemy shipping in the area would be quickly turned around or diverted south. Two, we lack the fuel for an extended stay.”

“I see,” says Lieutenant Miharu. “Since the operation was not likely to succeed anyway at least this allows us to sow uncertainly and confusion among the enemy.”

“Exactly,” says Ishii. “We have not been spotted since we turned around, and at this point it is unlikely that we will be. The Americans may well think we are still down south, perhaps with a replenishment group.”

“Clever,” says Sugiyura. “But still a bit of a disappointment. It’s been months since I’ve had a target for my torpedoes.” Captain Ishii glances at him.

“Do not worry, Sugiyura,” he says. “I think that you will have plenty of targets for your torpedoes before this war is over.”

[kaleun]

Excellent

[Wolfie1]

This is great stuff[:D]

[tocaff]

The bluff has worked?  Eager young men to do battle become older ones, if they're lucky, never wanting to see or talk of war again.

[cantona2]

Did the bluff work?

[Cuttlefish]

October 11, 1942

Location: 550 miles east of Baker Island
Course: West by northwest
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 9
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 302

Orders: Return to Kwajalein.

---

Shiro enters the makeshift bunkroom by the forward ammunition storage area and begins rigging his hammock. Riku lifts his head from a nearby hammock as he does so.

“Everything quiet up there?’ he asks. Shiro deftly loops a knot around a pipe.

“Yes,” he says. “No search planes, no submarines.” He finishes with the hammock. “It is strange,” he continues. “We go swiftly to the southeast, then slowly to the southeast. And then yesterday we turn around and go charging back to the northwest. I wonder what is going on?” Riku has disappeared back into his hammock, but his voice floats upward.

“Maybe we will find out when we get back to Kwajalein. Or maybe not,” he says in a meditative tone. “We may have to wait until after the war to find out what was really going on with things we were right in the middle of. We'll read about it in the history books.” Shiro swings into his hammock.

“Since they say that history is written by the winners,” he says, “let us hope those books wil be in Japanese. Do you think they will be? Riku?” There is no answer. Riku is asleep again. Shiro lies awake a few moments thinking of what the history books that will be written might say about the war so far, but soon he too is asleep.

[Cuttlefish]

October 12, 1942

Location: 360 miles east-northeast of Baker Island
Course: Northwest
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 9
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 273

Orders: Return to Kwajalein.

[Cuttlefish]

October 13, 1942

Location: 220 miles northeast of Baker Island
Course: West
Attached to: TF 79
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 9
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 240

Orders: Return to Kwajalein.

---

The Japanese ships turn west for a bit to avoid any chance of being detected at the last minute. As far as they can tell, however, the enemy has no idea where they are. There is a good deal of American radio traffic, but none of it is close. The Japanese cannot understand any of it, but to Admiral Nagumo’s intelligence analysts it shows all the signs of an intense and unsuccessful seach underway over a wide area to the south and east.

Admiral Nagumo considers himself satisfied. The enemy is in a state of confusion, and his carriers can now get some needed rest at Kwajalein. He is not worried about being reprimanded for failing to attack Canton Island. He feels fairly certain that he and Admiral Yamamoto see eye to eye about the wisdom of using carriers to do battle with land-based aircraft at this point in the war. Shimizu may not like it, but he is a submarine man and in Nagumo’s opinion understands carrier operations the way a donkey understands flying.

A low pressure zone is moving into the Central Pacific. The Japanese ships disappear into a curtain of rain as they make their way back to Kwajalein.

[princep01]

And the war drags on, carrying the humans and machines with which they wage it, hither and fore across the vast reaches of the blue Pacific.

[kaleun]

And the war drags on, carrying the humans and machines with which they wage it, hither and fore across the vast reaches of the blue Pacific

Now we have poets here too (Good ones)
Reminds [8|]me of a thread in the UV forum. It was all a series of Haikus in reference to naval battles....

[Capt. Harlock]

The Japanese ships turn west for a bit to avoid any chance of being detected at the last minute. As far as they can tell, however, the enemy has no idea where they are. There is a good deal of American radio traffic, but none of it is close. The Japanese cannot understand any of it, but to Admiral Nagumo’s intelligence analysts it shows all the signs of an intense and unsuccessful seach underway over a wide area to the south and east.

Clever! I'll bet Wolffpack was guilty of some unguarded language when playing those turns . . . [:D]