1275psi
Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
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19 July 1945
Nago area
Susuzuki works steadily towards 30 knots, her funnels streaming.
There have been "difficulties" unloading the destroyers in the anchorage, now the sun is already over the horizon, the early morning haze has burnt off, and the day is going to be bright and sunny.
Her bow cleaves a small 1 metre swell, a swell speckled with the occasional whitecap, the wind a steady 15 to 20 knots.
Already the spray occasionally comes across the decks.
Susuzuki works towards 30 knots.
It takes experience to understand this term, 30 knots , slight swell, chop, head wind, in a destroyer.
She is alive under captain Watanabe feet, the wind in his face, the salt on his lips..........now if he can just keep her that way.
The enemy carriers have been sighted
200 miles due south
Susuzuki does thirty knots now, cleaving north
Watanabe urges her on...............faster, faster!
Hirate watches the smoke mirror carefully............almost full firing rate now.........almost. Carefully he closes the fuel throttle a quarter inch, screws the blower open another..............to its stop.
"Watch your bloody water level tender!".............minus two inches.steady though......
The boiler room is a bedlam of noise now, the screaming howl of the blowers, the ca........ullunk, ca.ullunk of the fuel pumps, the hiss of their exhuasts, the whine of the feed pumps.
But above all of them, the roar, the consuming bellow of the furnaces, the hellish sound of the fuel being consumed ton upon ton in ten great blazing cones of flame.
the stokers stand at the boiler front, faces aglow from the reflection of this hell , peering time to time through the inspection glass, squinting.
Susuzuki reaches 31 knots...........faster, faster!
The gunners squint too, eyes against the sun, watching the sky carefully. Overhead, tiny dots 10000 feet, 5 miles away, the Tojo's and tonies circle........comforting, yes, but every minute takes the little task force further and further away from their nest.
men check ammunition, check movement, check comms. Then, they check them again.
The four destroyers are in two columns, 2000 metres apart, 500 yards spread. Kiri, Eonok, port column, kaba, Susuzuki the stbd. The others are 32 knotters, in this race, Susuzuki has power to spare.
But she cannot leave behind her brothers.
Watanabe has just finished his tea, done his 100th lap of the bridge
'Enemy aircraft reported, starboard, 20 miles............50 plus"
Carefully he moves to his place, dead centre of the bridge.........takes his helmet, takes the strap, agressively tightens it
Bends to the voice tube
'Engineroom..........standby to give me everything you have ever got"
And to the Coxswain.........."I expect to throw her around Swain............do not let me down
the great hulk of the coxswain merely smiles, nods. Knuckles tighten upon the wheel
'All hands, prepare for air action"
Okano closes the voice tube......." one last glance about the space, all is secure yes?...........makes a decision
He steps to the main throttle, gently takes it from his throttly.
Thirty one knots................but you have a lot more in you don't you girl...............well, lets wring it from your stubborn heart
And then, from above, the steady bark of the forward 4.5's...........
And the telegraphs move to Flank
There is no point in thinking of what stoops from above, yes?...............we have been through this many times before. Do your duty, do your duty..........faster Susuzuki, faster!
The arial battle begins on the horizon, glints, smoke trails..........growing crosses, closing, closing, , now on the starboard flank, bearing 045, hell divers, Avengers at 90 degrees as well.......hammer and anvil
"All guns fire!"
6 planes stoop on the column............port 20!.........bring the other guns to bare.........and now they all are, the bombers screaming down, the howling whine of the bombs, the chatter of machine guns.the awful crump, BANG!, BANG!, of two vanishing deep into Kaba's guts.
"Admidships!, starboard twenty..............Susuzuki passes up the already slowing, broken destroyer, flames roaring from her admidships.
better not to look to hard.............
Another attack is coming in, Avengers, bombs, no fish..Watanabe orders hard rudder, the coxswains arms blurr, she heals hard, hard, the gunners , the cooks, the stokers, everyone hanging on for grim death.
A million drummers slam her flank as she charges almost sideways the ocean, it piles against her, spray flying in great sheets, water rushes across her decks.....
her speed falls, dragged away by the turn.
Death comes at them again. Black eggs swing down, thundering water spouts..shrapnel, tracer..a plane spinning into the sea.
Susuzuki does a lap around Kaba............trying to do her best to protect her...........but she is done
Admidships!...............Susuzuki straightens......the great screws can bite properly again, the stern bites down. the rooster tail builds anew....she races to catch her remaining sisters.....too late...............Kiri vanishes in a mountain of water, ..fire flame........stumbles out of the white forest......listing already..........
Watanabe grimaces....grim work...........and Eonok too is plastered.
Damnation!!...........last one left
'new course, due north...........flank!"
Full ahead.flank!
Open the emergeny blower throttles.....open all the cocks wide...........Hirate senses, no, knows...........from the noise about them, the clangs, the endless pounding of the guns.............the wild gyrations that things are desperate indeed.........faster you bitch..faster!
Okano knows too..............he can give Watanabe no more............Susuzuki straightens, allows her props to bite smoothly, cleanly....faster, faster...........33, 34..........
The last avengers came from dead astern..........3 only...........a fighter slashes at them.two only, Watanabe watches almost transfixed.......4 bombs...........faster..gods faster................watches them plunge down 50 yards astern...................................
36 knots
Susuzuki runs for her life................
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RE: The little ship that could. - 
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