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Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (8/6/2007 4:43:08 AM)
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February 17, 1943, Part 2 - day
Location: 90 miles north of Koepang
Course: South
Attached to: TF 72
Mission: Air Combat
System Damage: 4
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 191
Orders: Destroy enemy forces approaching Timor.
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Shortly after sunrise destroyer Shiokaze, the last surviving destroyer of the attack that prevented the enemy battleships from reaching the Japanese carriers, is sunk by two torpedoes from submarine Graying. The damaged destroyer sinks almost immediately. Thirteen survivors are eventually rescued.
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Submarine O24 is caught just off the coast of Timor. Lieutenant de Vries will hunt no Japanese carriers this day. A D3A from Akagi comes out of the east, out of the rising sun, and its accurately aimed bomb strikes the submarine forward on the starboard side. The submarine’s forward compartments flood, pulling the submarine below the surface as her remaining crew fight desperately to keep this from being O24’s final dive.
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Shiro and another sailor help fish yet another man out of the water. Hibiki and two other destroyers reached the scene of last night’s battle at first light and have been pulling survivors out of the water ever since. The man they have just rescued is from Umikaze, and the poor fellow is in rough shape. He is smeared in sticky oil and one arm has some serious-looking burns.
Shiro helps him to a spot where he can sit down. The decks are crowded with 43 other survivors, and Hibiki crew are moving among them with blankets and tea. The rescued sailor gives Shiro a grateful if somewhat wan smile. Riku appears and pours the man a cup of tea from a pot he is carrying and then kneels and helps him get the oil cleaned off his face. Both Riku and Shiro are smeared with the stuff as well by this time.
Riku looks up at Shiro from where he is kneeling.
“It’s hard not to think that it could be us in the water instead of these poor fellows,” he says. Shiro nods. It has been very hard for the empathetic sailor to see so many comrades in such a wretched state. There have been a lot of bodies in the water too, people they could not save, and that has been an even harder thing.
“I know,” is all he says. “Are you okay for now?” he asks the man they have just rescued. “Someone will be along in a bit with clean clothes, and a medic will look at that arm soon too.”
“I will be fine,” the man says. “Tell me, have you rescued a man named Kiyomi Yoshino, also from Umikaze?” he asks, looking worried. “He is my closest friend, and I lost track of him when the ship started to go down.”
“I will ask around,” Shiro tells him, “as soon as I...” He is cut off suddenly by the combat stations klaxon. From the port 25 mm AA tub above them a man is pointed and shouting above the noise. Shiro and Riku turn and look and see planes on the horizon, coming their way. They are not Japanese planes.
Shiro sprints forward. At the front of the tower he scrambles up the ladder into the forward AA tub. The gun captain, Taiki, is already there. He hands Shiro a helmet and gives him a tight smile.
“Keep the ammunition coming,” is all he says.
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Hibiki and the other two destroyers race back towards the nearby carriers. The fleet disperses slightly, and as the enemy planes draw near Hibiki slides into her accustomed spot on Shokaku’s port flank.
The enemy strike consists of 34 dive bombers and 13 torpedo bombers, escorted by about 15 fighters. There are almost 50 Zero-sen fighters over the Japanese fleet, but not all of them are in position to intercept the incoming strike in time. They shoot down 6 enemy fighters and 11 of the bombers without a loss, but the remaining 36 bombers break through and begin their attack runs against the Japanese ships.
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Shiro rips an empty magazine out of the receiver of one of the three 25 mm guns and reaches behind him. The empty magazine is plucked from his hands and replaced with a full, heavy one. He leans over and slams it into place. The smoke and noise from the guns blinds him to almost everything, but he is peripherally aware of a enemy dive bomber arcing overhead, trailing smoke as it screams down on Shokaku. He has no time to turn and see whether or not Shokaku is hit. The magazine is emptied in less than 15 seconds and he pulls it out, scrambling sideways to keep up with the traverse of the guns. He hands it back and replaces it with the full one he gets in return.
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Shokaku is not hit, and neither is Zuikaku nearby, though both are attacked. A few miles away Soryu is not so lucky. Two 1000 lb. bombs strike the carrier. One rips through the overhang of the flight deck and explodes just off the bow, and the second hits the port side of the flight deck near the stern and penetrates two decks before exploding. The carrier heels out of control in a sweeping circle, steering temporarily lost, trailing boiling columns of smoke as she does so.
Fifteen minutes after the last American plane leaves a D3A from Hiryu finds an enemy carrier. It is only 115 miles to the southeast. Ozawa’s four operable carriers come into the wind and launch their planes.
The carrier sighted is Yorktown, and it is doomed. Japanese planes hit the carrier with half a dozen torpedoes and eight bombs. The resulting fires and flooding cannot be controlled, and the carrier sinks less than an hour after the attack. Anti-aircraft cruiser San Diego, operating close by in defense of the carrier, is hit by three torpedoes and battleship Washington is hit by a torpedo and several bombs.
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No further air strikes approach the Japanese carriers, and no further enemy carriers are sighted. Japanese land based bombers begin attacking the enemy transports now standing off the beach at Timor. Half a dozen of them are left ablaze and a sub chaser is also hit. The small vessel sinks almost immediately.
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Soryu eventually brings her fires under control. Admiral Ozawa orders his carriers to turn and head for Balikpapan. He does not want to, but he has very few bombs and torpedoes left for his planes, and in his view the few ships he might sink are not worth the chance that a large strike by enemy four-engine bombers could find him and inflict further damage on his force. There are a lot of G4M bombers standing by on Kendari and Amboina; let them deal with the transports.
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Shiro brings a man over to the patch of deck where the last sailor they rescued sits eating a plate of rice and fish. The rescued man is considerably cleaner, and his injured arm has been treated. The man accompanying Shiro is another seaman, also rescued from Umikaze. The two men greet each other.
“You were asking about Kiyomi Yoshino,” says the newcomer. The rescued man, still sitting, nods. “I am sorry,” continues the man, “I know you were friends. Yoshino was injured, he didn’t make it.”
“Thank you for the information,” says the sitting man softly, and bows his head. Shiro turns and leaves quietly, to give the man a chance to be alone with his grief. As alone, at least, as he can be on a deck crowded with survivors. As he leaves Shiro wonders what it would be like to be in that man’s position and learn that Taiki or Riku had died. He knows that today has been a victory, but he is learning that even victory has a price.
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