Vignette AAR - AW1Steve and Onime (A) vs Mundy [No Mundy, please]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

2/6

The next USN strike on Singapore did not go for any finesse. It was a straight-on battering ram which gathered all of the American carriers’ might into one strike and launched it at the shipping in Singapore.

Unlike last time, the Japanese had a few fighters in the air, but not even a dozen. The escorting American Wildcats bore into them, but being tied to their bomber charges, they were not able to use all their maneuverability. As a result, the slashing Japanese attacks cost the Americans two of the stubby fighters. After that, however, the escort simply chased the Japanese off.

With no more aerial opposition, the bombers got to work. The already blasted light carrier, a heavy and several light cruisers or large seaplane tenders and even some destroyers and transports were left heavily damaged and burning. At least one heavy and one light cruiser turned turtle, the rest were obscured by thick black smoke of oil fires as the bombers departed.

Awesome! Mighty careless of the Japanese to have those ships there and so poorly CAP'd after your previous port/naval strikes.

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

2/6

The next USN strike on Singapore did not go for any finesse. It was a straight-on battering ram which gathered all of the American carriers’ might into one strike and launched it at the shipping in Singapore.

Unlike last time, the Japanese had a few fighters in the air, but not even a dozen. The escorting American Wildcats bore into them, but being tied to their bomber charges, they were not able to use all their maneuverability. As a result, the slashing Japanese attacks cost the Americans two of the stubby fighters. After that, however, the escort simply chased the Japanese off.

With no more aerial opposition, the bombers got to work. The already blasted light carrier, a heavy and several light cruisers or large seaplane tenders and even some destroyers and transports were left heavily damaged and burning. At least one heavy and one light cruiser turned turtle, the rest were obscured by thick black smoke of oil fires as the bombers departed.

Awesome! Mighty careless of the Japanese to have those ships there and so poorly CAP'd after your previous port/naval strikes.

Yep. Its interesting because intel had nearly 150 fighters there. Steve thinks theyre single engined bombers or other sorts that are being misidentified.

[Onime No Kyo]

2/7

The bright tropical sunrise promised another beautiful day. The clear, blue water shimmered and danced, sometimes revealing the mere hint of shadows of fish just beneath the surface.

The taskforce of naval vessels was almost superfluous in this idea setting. Four small ships and one large one, lost in the blue vastness just north of the Hawaiian Islands, going about their business, meaningless dots in the great oceanic expanse.

An ear splitting explosion shattered the morning idyll.

The large ship in the group, USS Enterprise, staggered as the torpedo struck her starboard side just aft of the forward elevator. Previously damaged in the battles around New Caledonia, the Enterprise had made port in Oahu, received the most crucial repairs and now, stripped of her air group, unnecessary equipment and most unessential crew, was headed to the West Coast for final repairs.

The torpedo opened several compartments to the sea, and in other conditions the hit might have been more serious. But in her lightened state, the carrier was able to bear the damage much better. The crew, though reduced from her normal complement, retained more than enough damage control personnel to manage the hull breach.

History books would dryly note that the Enterprise entered Seattle harbor just over a week later and stood into dock for repairs.

[Onime No Kyo]

2/8

For the American pilots the Sumatran jungle was becoming a pretty familiar sight. Various squadrons had now crossed the island at least half a dozen times. A handful of planes had crashed on it. But in all that time, the US naval units had never attacked it. Today’s raid would charge that.

Palembang harbor was stuffed to the seawall with shipping. Whether caught in port by the American strikes on Singapore, permanently stationed there, or for some other reason, the road was more full than a front line base, even the premier oil refinery port in what Japan amusingly called its co-prosperity sphere, had any right to be.

The strike consisted of virtually every airframe in the US carrier force that could carry a bomb. And as was becoming strangely habitual, there was no Japanese patrol to greet them.

There were certainly flak batteries on shore to make the task exciting, and for one crew even fatal, but the 150 bombers that attacked Palembang that day, did it in a calm, systematic, orderly fashion, while the Japanese merchant ships below them tried frantically to find some means of escape.

Caught completely flat footed, most of the Japanese ships did not even have the boiler pressure for immediate movement. As steam came up, ships began to slowly shift position. In most cases, the speed was woefully insufficient to produce any sort of safely. And in almost all cases, the movement was chaotic, uncoordinated, and did a significantly better job of interfering with the ability of the few escort vessels to assist, than it did of offering the American pilots more difficult targets.

Several Japanese ships collided. At least 3 ran aground. Two escorts and some smaller coastal steamers were sunk outright. Some other vessels were so badly damaged that they would necessarily settle or capsize within hours. By the time the attackers left, there was not a single undamaged ship in Palembang harbor.

[Onime No Kyo]

2/9

A squadron of American Liberator bombers was winging its familiar way to Singapore. In daylight, the flight path was fairly simple, and generally involved staying between the two land masses which were both visible from a certain altitude.

The task before them would not be so simple, this time. As they approached the island fortress, small black dots of patrol aircraft became visible. This was relatively new, but not entirely unexpected. The bombers moved closer together in their box formations and prepared to receive visitors.

Again, the number of hostiles had not very much in common with the numbers of planed that intel and photo reconnaissance said was stationed in and around the base. They circled the port in three separate bunches, and attacked clumsily, separately.

The first bunch was made up of Tojos, Japan’s newest fighter. These came in from the side, carefully lining up their shots. When the combined “broadside” of the square opened up on them, immediately blowing one of their number into a fireball, they scattered and turned away.

The next bunch, Zeros, was a bit smarter. They came in from above and ahead, making slashing attacks through the formation. Their light armament was insufficient to bring down a B-24 in the time available during such a pass. And although they certainly blew a lot of holes, large and small, in the olive drab airframes and wounded over a dozen crewmen, all of the bombers remained aloft. On the third pass the lumbering beasts even got some of their own back, sending one of the Zeroes into the water far down below.

The last group, a trio of Oscars, barely made a motion in the general direction of attack, making several distant passes and turning away.

This is not to say that the bombers were able to hit their target with impunity. Half a dozen Tojos and zeros continued to harass the formation as singletons, continually forcing minute shifts that threw off final accuracy.

At the end of the day, however, it was Americans 2, Japanese 0

[Onime No Kyo]

2/10

Two corps commanders or, more precisely, former corps commanders, stood facing the grim line. Their fate was sealed, the evidence reviewed, sentence reached and read out.

The Central Army had finally made its move. After the bloody battled of last Spring, when the Chinese forces took Hanhow, Wuchang and Nanchang, the units had spent months digging entrenchments, bunkers and concrete hard points around the captured cities, bringing their own numbers and equipment to order, and training and preparing for the next phase.

The phase had started two months ago, when the day after Christian New Year, the Northern Army had set out for Sian. A little over a week ago, it was the Central Army’s turn, when they stepped out from behind Hankow’s fortifications on the road to Sinyang.

The way had been largely uneventful. The march slowed for several days when the rains turned the dirt road into a swamp. Finally, two days prior, the army had reached contact with Japanese patrols.

The infantry was still pulling in from the long march, weary units, feet and cart wheels covered in mud, assuming the positions around the enemy perimeter, when the two failures hatched their ill-conceived plan.

They remembered, they had subsequently told their interrogators, that Sinyang was defended largely by units that had been beaten and thrown out of Hankow almost a year ago, and even those were mostly artillery and engineering units, easily overthrown.

With all of the artillery still slogging their way up the muddy road, the plan called for a cautious reconnaissance in force, exposing the infantry just enough to ascertain enemy dispositions, strength and pinpointing his major defense hubs and machine gun positions. This was supposed to happen all around the hemispherical perimeter of the city, simultaneously, so as not to allow the enemy to shift significant forces from one side to another. After the Japanese were well and truly engaged in a fire fight, the Chinese would begin to withdraw under cover of corps artillery, AA and AT batteries.

Along the line the order was executed virtually flawlessly. There were, of course, casualties. Men fell to machine gun nests before they could be found, or cut down by mortar shrapnel. But in general, the plan had worked. Everywhere except the areas of the 70th and 72nd corps. Not very large, and nowhere near even half strength, these formations were placed adjacent to one another on the right flank, where flat ground would make a frontal attack almost impossible, and where the enemy would likely place his least combat effective forces.

The day’s debacle began as the rows of Chinese infantry rose from their hastily dug trenches and began to march towards Sinyang. Whereas everywhere else the troops were ordered to hit the dirt as soon as they began to receive fire, soldiers of the two unfortunate corps charged the enemy defenses.

The suicidal rush across open ground had predictable results. Dozens of soldiers were cut down. Where units went to ground, shocked by losses and unable to advance, they were moved still further by officers the respective headquarters, with threats, kicks and exhortations.

When an army observer, making the round of the sector, appalled at the carnage, rushed into the headquarters dugout of the 72nd corps, he found Gen. Han hysterically yelling at someone into a field telephone to “get those men up”. When the observer demanded to know what was going on, he was led away by an officious staffer with the excuse that the General must run the battle. Finally, after 15 minutes of backtalk, the observer, a colonel but vested with the authority of Army command, flew into a rage and demanded to speak with Han immediately. At that point, the general was almost in tears. Upon being pressed by the envoy, he admitted to his idiotic plan.

By the time Army headquarters and dozens of runners could get a handle on the situation, both formations had virtually ceased to exist. Han, and his accomplice from the 70th, were promptly arrested, and sang like birds under questioning.

It seems that the two fools conceived the notion that instead of mapping the enemy strongpoints, their corps’ would heroically rush the hated Japanese, push aside his pitiful engineers, and break through the defensive lines. Seeing this success, Army command would be forced to order a general assault, and after the city was taken, lest Army command admit that the charge was made against orders, the two erstwhile strategists would be made heroes for their heroic charge.

They got the firing squad instead. But that would never bring back the almost ten thousand men their corps’ lost dead and wounded. Bled white, what remained of the formations would have to be sent to the rear to rebuild. And the campaign of Central Army would start with a bloody setback.

[Onime No Kyo]

2/11

It was a long way from Singapore to Japan.

The enemy task force must have had a harrowing journey, escorting a badly damaged battleship from one side of the ocean to the other. The ship, sat low in the water from all the briny deep it absorbed though the holes which torpedoes blew in its side. The crew would not be able to seal the breaches, and short of japan itself, there was not a single yard large enough to fix the damage.

So it was that three destroyers had to escort the heavy, slow, limping warrior back.

The American torpedo, and the submarine that launched it, went completely unnoticed until it struck the battleship as it hove in sight of Yakushima Island. The American dove immediately to avoid reprisal as the battleship began to settle to the bottom.