The little ship that could.

[1275psi]

Yokokowa grips the binnacle, braced against the heel of Zuikaku as she continues her mad turn to starboard
"Give me a damage report!!"

'"The boilerroom is being secured sir!, speed reduced to 24 knots!"
he glances over to his navigator, grins..........."Do you think our friend Owada appreciates the attention we are getting nav?"
"Undoubtably sir............" a smile that banishes the bedlam of noise and fire about them" I would say that all is going exactly to plan"

Exactly to plan.
The sarcasm and irony is not lost upon Yokokowa..........it is the plan after all.
Escort the battleships into striking range, be the decoys if necessary, be the bloody bomb spunges if it comes to that...but just get them there un damaged
The deck bucks beneath his feet, another hit, somewhere aft.............

"yes............to plan.................damage report!!!"

[1275psi]

The attack dribbles to a conclusion
5 zeros have been lost

10 enemy fighters killed
30 helldivers destroyed

32 Avengers are claimed.........but a great many more than that have gone down

For an hour the fleet will re gather, fight fires, send succour to the Ryuho, and replenish the CAP
An hour

Enough time for the range between both fleets to close by 60 odd miles
Enough time to bring the corsairs into range.

[John 3rd]

Lordy...I can SEE the fight...

[1275psi]

Okha, Sahkalin islands

For nearly 3 months now the Japanese troops have been here, trapped in a small beachhead
Too weak to attack, but too strong in turn for the Russians to throw them into the sea again

Now, finally reinforced (at such cost! in ships and men) they attack

They are repulsed

For three months they have been there, too weak to attack. But now maybe not strong enough to prevent them being thrown into the sea again





And the Russians attack at Port Aurthur
It holds

Japan rests on the Ichon river, Northern Korea
The russians pile up on the opposite bank, a frightening flood rising, rising, rising ever further

[1275psi]

From
Flagship Kaga

to

All ships

"make every effort to get all fighters aloft. A second wave approaches. Maintain general course west"


Again the Japanese strike first
12 zeros from Formosa, a half score of betties
300 CAP

You don't need to be told

The exhortations really are not needed. What man would not give his all when you ready the shield against the sword?
240 plus zeros await the next wave
90 Avengers, 30 more helldivers
But with them, arrayed 2000 feet above the strike, filling the skies.
90 Corsairs

Gull winged messangers of death For the attacking bombers, Angels at their wingtips.
Suicidally, the zeros attack

[1275psi]

Captain Okada
Carrier Kaga

Kaga is an old ship now. Old in years, old, gods, so old now in miles steamed , in battles fought.
Even as the Helldivers begin to gather overhead, begin to stoop, Okada feels a burst of pride at how the old girl still powers on, how she still responds to his helm, she is alive, is Kaga, and not yet ready to die.

They fall upon her from astern, aligning themselves with her fat flight deck, trying to avoid her guns.
Okada , standing erect on the AA bridge, watches them fall, seemingly oblivious to the guns banging about him, eyes only on the screaming howling shapes plunging down upon them

But he is not fixated, he can see the avengersalso , coming in from directly ahead, still small in size, but low, coming hard, oblivious to the AA, the sprouts of water chasing them.
They want him to turn hard, to expose Kaga's fatter flanks

'Port ten!"
kaga begins to turn
"reverse your helm!..........admidships!"
And then the bombs are arriving.

he watches them all.staning erect as all about him dive for cover, as if he, somehow, is not a part of this, an observer, a theatre watcher in this deadly, deadly play.
Incredibly, while others are killed about him, (disembowled, shredded, sliced asunder, crushed) he will barely sway, and remain totally unharmed

And even as the bombs explode, just one thought
Kaga is an ex battlewagon............her steel is thick and strong............

The first two bombs miss...........hard against her side, slamming her with shock
The next two hit........250 kgsers?............one strikes her flank..........is deflected by the armour
The otherpierces her flight deck one foot from the edge, passes through, deflects almost 80 degrees, explodes against her flanks, bends a support beam
Two more vanish into the flight deck.and explode deep in the lower hanger aft.
There is nothing there to burn , (other than men), the blast bulges decks, destroys much, leaves the vital spaces below unharmed.

her steel is thick
Another explodes at the aft of the tower, it kills, it mangles, it slows her little.....

She is old, is kaga
But it will take more than this to puit the old girl down.



Captain Yokokawa lies on his bridge deck.
About him shattered glass, the arcrid smell of smoke.
he stares across the floor to the navigator, who sightless in death, stares back

"bomb spunge.........bomb spunge, bomb spunge.....the words repeat over and over in his head
She has taken three, right down the middle.
But it will be the fish that has scuppered her.. powerless, burning end to end, Zuikaku slides to a halt

She has fullfilled her final mission
Bomb spunge



The Unryu takes a fish.(yes, another one in this career)
Like those before it, her damage control swngs into gear. Unryu remains in the fight



Ryuho , already settling, capsises under multiple torpedo hits



The attack takes nearly 90 minutes to develop, fight its way in, deliver, egress
It kills 20 zeros
It loses many more than that

The carriers, AA ammo exhausted, with only Tauiho and Unryo's flightdecks left open, turn east

Bomb spunges

They have completed their mission

The enemy fleet is but 200 miles to the West, under darkening skies
His Gunnery officer informs captain Owada that Yamato's AA ammo is all but exhausted, that nearly all of the ships AA ammo is exhausted.
Its immaterial
The carriers are abandoned, to the last escort

Flank speed, due west, then towards Hong kong, where, gods willing, yamato's guns will find fat prey

The orders are simple

'All ships, follow me!"

[1275psi]

battle score so far

Zuikaku is going to sink, she will crawl into takao, but succumb before I can dock her
Ryuho too sunk

Unryu 21 system, 11 flood
Ibuki 21 system
kaga 38 system, 18 flood, 10 engineering, fires out

61 zeros lost
22 betties

198 avengers
104 helldivers
18 corsairs
14 bearcats



I have gutted his carrier strike arm.

[pws1225]

'All ships, follow me!"

Banzai!

[british exil]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

battle score so far

Zuikaku is going to sink, she will crawl into takao, but succumb before I can dock her
Ryuho too sunk

Unryu 21 system, 11 flood
Ibuki 21 system
kaga 38 system, 18 flood, 10 engineering, fires out

61 zeros lost
22 betties

198 avengers
104 helldivers
18 corsairs
14 bearcats



I have gutted his carrier strike arm.

Huge losses for both sides. Japan ships were the sponge you had planned. As a non WitP AE owner/player just how many carriers does Cantona have sailing in the area? Over 300 bombers shot out of the skies. Were any aces born and killed today or mostly to AA?

Had to reread the last few posts just to let the story sink in (no pun intended)!

Banzai!!!!

We are going all the way with you here. Great stuff.


Mat

[CV Zuikaku]

What a battle!! [&o]

[1275psi]

2nd September 1945

0100

It is almost eerily quiet on Susuzuki's bridge
Watanabe has been absent for nearly 4 ours now, a incredibly brave yet wise decision. Sleep is almost more valuable than guns at this stage. Tomorrow, no today, he will need to be at his best.

They may well all need to be.

She steams still at nearly 30 knots , still due West, half her crew at their stations, the rest asleep near them
The wind whistles about the bridge, the sea hisses, the turbines whine below.

It is dark, little moon, the cloud cover still persistant.

The water inky black, smooth.

Somewhere to her north the yamato battlegroup.
20 miles ahead, another destroyer task group.

And about them............

Empty oceans
Where are they?

The night is dark..............and still silent

At thirty knots, Susuzuki plows west.........

[1275psi]

Okano prowls the steaming platform of the fwd engineroom.

Susuzuki is steaming hard, yet still well in her limits.
But he cannot for a moment reduce his vigilance, cannot for a moment give the bitch a chance to get out of control.
So he prowls, eyes glancing from guage to guage, ears attuned to every sound, body to every vibration.

Susuzuki steams to battle.
The hatch above is dogged shut.
Its not the first time he has been in this situation, yes?
'I have come through them all"
Its the only thought he can afford to have.

Anything else, any thought of the hundred and one things that may happen tonight, tomorrow.............
No, that leads to paralising fear.
'I have come through them all. I will come through this. "

[1275psi]

0120 hours
Yamato's bridge


Captain Owada and his Engineer are at the back of the navigation bridge, bathed in the red light.
The conversation is about fuel.
Or the lack of it.

There is very little of it left, 2 days at full power .............

'Thank you engines, you may return to your post"
Grim faced he moves to the chart, is joined by the Navigator

"Two hours more, I think, then we must turn about, must"
Despair on his face, he looks about, as if he alone can pierce the dark, and find the allied carriers.
"How many carriers do you think they have Navigator?'
"A dozen at least...........but no search plane survived contact yesterday, it could be more, it could be less"

'Then where the hell are they, a dozen carriers.............god knows how many escorts.........where, goddam it, are they?"
The answer, however, comes soon enough.
"Bridge, Gunnery control.........we can see gunfire, approximately 35 miles ahead"

At last

"Battlestations. Prepare for surface action"

At last.
And damn to the fuel situation.

[Smoky Stoker]

The overture for "Der Fliegende Hollander" keeps playing in my brain as I read this.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Smoky Stoker

The overture for "Der Fliegende Hollander" keeps playing in my brain as I read this.

Der Fliegende Hollander

Might you be thinking of the Ride of the Valkyries? Another Wagner special ...

[british exil]

I just hope this song does not come to my mind when I read the next posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG9-j3eevL4

Just couldn't think of the title of the music, although I do own the CD. Just to lazy to get up from my desk.


Mat

[1275psi]

There is nothing special about destroyer Moale
Just another of the inumerable Fletchers that the United States is churning out at nearly one a week
Nothing special about Commander Smith, just another Commander Churned out by the system
Nor, really, even her crew. An ordinary crew, on an ordinary ship, under an ordinary Captain

History has something extrodinary in mind for this oh so ordinary ship


It just on 0115 am, when her radar see's the Japanese ships
Moments later, her single companion, the Destroyer Lowry, confirms the contact

9 japanese warships, 30000 yards, line ahead, going hard, bearing 090 degrees............

There is only one action to take
Commander Smith turns towards the enemy

At 12000 yards, she launches 4 fish.

At 8000 yards, incredibly, one strikes the leading japanese destroyer.....there is abright, blossoming flower of flame.....and then there are eight

At 4000 yards, both allied destroyers engage with guns, the enemy line sheers away, Moale cutting across its stern
Moale takes 5 hits
And deals out nearly 50

Her fish has killed DD Kasunoki, the guns destroyers Katsura, Akikaze.

Before it has really begun, the action is finished, the Japanese survivors continuing West
Commander Smith will briefly see and hear the guns from their next action near Hong kong, 7 allied DDs sinking the kaki.

Briefly, because even as the dawn breaks, 4 heavy cruisers emerge from the early morning mist, and at 17000 yards, let fly
They miss
And miss
And Miss Again

Moale , alone now ( Lowry crawling home) engages

She plants no less than ten hits on one of those hulking Cruisers,.
And they too, turn away, and vanish into the mist

Fires extinguished, holes plugged, ships cat found safe and well, Commander Smith falls his men out from Action stations just after 9 am


Its just 3 minutes later that yet another pair of ships begin to come over the horizon.

Its been a busy night
A hard morning
But this is ridicoulous

Destroyer Moale closes up again, and turns towards yet another enemy
And begins dodging the 18 inch salvos coming her way

[1275psi]

10 am

Yamato's bridge

Icy silence fills the bridge
None dare approach Captain Owada
None dare even speak

"Cease fire"
Slowly, almost reluctantly, the great barrells turn and face forward again

Yamato has turned east
Everyone has
The enemy has not been found
That damned destroyer was not even hit, yet managed to plant two rounds against yamato's side

The enemy have not been found, just a few destroyers guarding Hong Kong
5 destroyers have been lost, for no gain
Hong kong has not even been bombarded, so delayed has Yamato been by this oh so frustrating night

And now her Ammunition lockers are all but empty
The Sun is rising
60 miles from the enemy coast
And the enemy carriers not yet sighted.


An icy silence fills the bridge
And none dare speak

[1275psi]

Sususzuki steams east, sucking at the last dregs of her fuel

A fruitless night

Gunfire briefly ahead
Wreckage passed through
More gunfire heard at dawn
And , distinctly, for a while, the distant, un mistakable sound of Yamato engaging something.............

Now the sun shines
The sky has cleared


Nobody says it. But all know it, and every face searches , fearfully, the sky.

[Smoky Stoker]

"Fearfully flashed the sky's mysterious glass...."