1275psi
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Approaching Midnight, Febuary 22nd
An Admiral sits at a small desk.
Sweat stains his uniform, streaks his long lean back with an ever growing stain.
For a few minutes he stares at the sheets of crisp white paper before him, attampting to gather wooly thoughts.
He is tired.
About him USS Essex works, preparing for yet another day of battle.. If his group commander can find enough planes to assemble a strike, that is..........
What is done, is done.
Now he must explain himself.
Commander, United States seventh Fleet, is a Godly man. The Truth, he knows, must be said. Must be spoken, unblemished. To not tell it now.............is no way to honour the dead.
So many dead
He reaches for his pen, noting the slight tremor of the hand.
He begins to write, the pen scratchings loud, despite the ships noise about him
He wrtittes steadily, never pausing.
There have been too many lies in this war, now for the truth.
To the President of the United states:
Sir,
I write to you now, with the invasion of Minanado very much in the balance.
Our Army is ashore, yet at a cost that must be considered in light of the future demands of the war, especially any plans to invade the Home Islands, this year, if at all.
As A Navy, I believe we have finished the Japanese fleet. It retains but two heavy units now, and its carrier arm is finished.
But, and I must re iterate the but, in this current battle, it is the Japanese Land based arm that has not been crippled.
In fact, I must tell you plainly Mr president, we are faced with an immense crises here against what appears to be an inexhaustable flow of aircraft, that have now, indisputably achieved air supremacy over the beach head.
I tell you this, not to alarm you, not in a deafeatest air, but as a warning to gird yourself , and the people of America for what will be very hard, costly days ahead.
The army is ashore..........there it must stay, must be reinforced, supported, or die.
To die, will mean defeat in this war.
The days action, briefly (you will, I suspect hear very much of what has occured in the days ahead in detail) is this:
The AM period of the day saw concentrated and continous air action over the beachhead, the bay at Davao, involving mainly my Combat patrols, P51's against multiple squadrons of Navy heavy fighters.
Interspersed amongst these were multiple land based raids, many containing Kamikaze planes
Battleship Missouri is sorely damaged, struck by 3 twin engined "betty" types and a heavy bomb
Battleship Mississipi also has suffered twin kamikaze hits.
Both battleships are retiring
The Kamikaze scourge, as feared, and warned, has reaped a horrible harvest this day, sinking no less than 5 fully loaded transports. Our losses at sea for infantry are now approaching 6000 men
During Mid morning, this task force came under repeated and sustained air attacks from land based air, 2 Cls heavily hit, but carriers Essex, and Franklin were both narrowly missed.
Enemy were roughly dealt with, these attacks severly restricted my own offensive efforts
Nevertheless, Battleship Nagato was put down in Davao bay during this period, Battleships Kirishima, and Hiei finally slowed with torpedo hits.
decisive actions occured this afternoon, with this Fleet engaged against enemy battleships and cruisers retiring towards Balikapapan to my West, and an enemy carrier task force to my east,
At this stage, it is understood that battleships Kongo, Kirishima, Hiei and two heavy cruisers of the Western task force have been sunk, and 4 others heavily damaged.
To the east, carrrier Shokakua has been sunk, CVL Chitose sunk, an unidentified CVL damaged.
Heavy hits to CV Zuikaku, kaga are reported, although both ships were last reported still steaming hard due east towards Truk
A carrier CV Unryu, is reported hit, but I cannot confirm this. Japans last Known carrier CV Taiho, was not sighted today, nor the battleships Yamato, Musashi.
If these should appear, Mr President, I regret to tell you, that I have no battlewagons to counter them at this time.
Carriers CV Franklin, CVL Princeton were both heavily hit today. I do not currently know if they are available for tomorrow.
Mr president, despite the damage to the Imperial Navy, I too must report that we are sorely hurt.
We have claims for 350 enemy planes today, but have lost 240 of our own.
Losses for the last 24 hours are, 2 BBs lost, 5 damaged, one fleet carrier lost, 3 damaged, 2 CVL damaged, 3 light cruisers, 2 DE's, a unknown number of transports.
Sir, at this point, with late 45 firmly in mind, I cannot risk the remaining carriers in close support of the beaches, the load will be taken up, yet again, by the CVE's, an order that fills myself with dread.
Mr president, I , in the spirit of truth, again warn you, that this battle will grind on for many days, even weeks yet, and losses will be heavy.
Unless some sort of war winning weapon can be produced, that finishes this horror in a single blow, we face many, many more bloody days yet on this hard road to tokyo.
We will fight on
Your Humble servant............
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RE: The little ship that could. - 
and your luck seems to hold just fine
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