Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007 From: Oregon, USA Status: offline
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November 7, 1944 Location: 175 miles south-southeast of Tokyo Course: Southwest Attached to: TF 27 Mission: Surface Combat System Damage: 0 Float Damage: 0 Fires: 0 Fuel: 361 Orders: Engage enemy forces at Iwo Jima --- An ensign brings Admiral Tashiro a message flimsy. On it is just one word: ika. Tashiro reads it, then folds it carefully and puts it in his pocket. “Send to all ships,” he says. “Increase speed to twenty-four knots. Set course for Iwo Jima.” --- “Captain!” says the sonar operator. “I have a contact, about 1200 meters to starboard, relative bearing forty degrees. It’s solid, sir.” “Combat stations,” orders Ishii calmly. “Helm, slow to sixteen knots, change course forty degrees starboard. Signal Yamato and inform them that we are prosecuting a possible submarine contact.” The klaxon sounds as Hibiki heels out of the column and, slowing slightly, begins to stalk the contact. “Still there, sir,” says the sonar man. “Going deeper, though, I think he knows we’re after him.” “Set depth charges to 150 feet,” says Ishii. “Prepare to launch.” As Hibiki cruises over the submarine’s suspected position he gives the order and the Y-guns on the stern fling two charges to either side. There is a pause as the weapons sink, then the ocean bulges in Hibiki’s wake and geysers are flung violently upward. Hibiki maintains the contact and Ishii brings the destroyer around three more times, now setting the charges to 200 feet. The destroyer expends sixteen charges before the contact fades and is lost. “Damn,” says Ishii. “We may have banged him up a bit but we didn’t kill him.” “And now the enemy knows we’re here,” says Lieutenant Kuwaki. “That doesn’t matter now,” says Ishii. “We’d have been spotted soon anyway.” Ishii gives further orders and Hibiki moves to rejoin the column as the Japanese ships continue to race towards Iwo Jima. Racing, though they don’t yet know it, into the heart of the greatest air and naval battle of World War II. Ishii calculates that they should reach the island about 9 am tomorrow morning.
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