RE: The little ship that could. (Full Version)

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1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/23/2014 10:30:04 AM)

Ogaowa circles the fleet below.
he circles, and sweats.

This, he thinks, is bloody dangerous............

About him the grey rain clouds swirl, thick, heavy, low.
Unfortunately, the fleets CAP, and Ogowa's eagles do as well............nearly 200 fighters, terrible visibility.........
Bloody dangerous

The allies do not appear to add to the danger..............

The fleet passes below, glimpses of grey and white, and as Ogowa finishes his patrol, vanishes into the murk, wakes boiling, headed south.

The spear stabs south.



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/23/2014 10:46:37 AM)

Yamamato takes the flimsy, and reads the report, reads it twice.

The report comes from search aircraft operating from pagan, reports bought at great cost, no doubt.

The reports are....................incredible

'Enemy carriers and battleships retiring 180 miles south dajangas............course south east, speed 15 knots'

And another

"3 CV, 1 BB operating near cotabato, multiple transports escorts sighted. "

"Where is CV Unryu?"
"200 miles due east Hollandia .Coming north as hard as she can"

retiring.
What does ithat mean?
A lure to bring him in?...........a plan to turn about?
Or a genuine fear of a carrier clash?
No.surely not.

And this, this is command. Abort?...........or go on.
Risk these priceless ships for a few transports?.................

Coldly Yamamato considers................and lets emotion make the choice

'Battle formations as planned. Direct course for Cotabato, all ahead full!"

The men about him stir............and smile.
Battle, as crew on the mightest battleship ever built.
A warriors dream.


The formations shake themselves into shape.
As darkness falls, the rain falls, heavier, heavier.................

There is no moon.



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/23/2014 10:53:00 AM)

Extract from "falling cherry blossoms" a fighter pilots war

Our mission, now my mission, for the 12th was simple

rain, storm.......regardless..........my eagles were ordered to sweep the skies above Cotabato clear of the enemy, to give the navy what cover I could.
I had 120 NK2's.........120 good men

I worked the men of San Jose with a ruthlessness I never knew i had................a hardness that only now i was discovering. By dawn we were ready, 120 fighters , more in fact, strong.

To battle.



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/24/2014 9:53:39 AM)

Admiral Yamamato stands quietly at the back of the bridge, calm, passive, eyes half closed.

For many hours he has stood there, indefagable, tireless. Men cannot, despite the fantasies we hold, influence metal, change physics through will power. Cannot force history to bend to our desires.

But men can, do, influence other men.

Like an invisible spring, men enter Yamatos bridge, and drink strength and calmness from this passive figure in the shadows, bathed in the red light.
As long as HE stands, Yamato will win through.

They know it.


Yamato actually follows Musashi, 500 yards astern, and 500 to her port flank, musashi's boiling wake glowing, the phosporous sparkling down Yamato's starboard side
A thousand yards on each flank, utterly hidden in the dark, just four destroyers.
Line abreast, again hidden, two thousand yards ahead, three of Japans AA cruisers.
Only Musashi is faintly visible..........darkness, the light rain hides the rest of the task force, position revealed only by the glowing cathode tubes.

It is just past midnight, and the fleet has turned yard east around the corner, the city of Cotabato lies 100 miles ahead.
Four hours of silence.
Four hours of plowing south in the dark, eyes straining, every nerve at pitch..........

It is almost a relief, when the radar room finally breaks the silence

"Contact!...........bearing 270 degrees.............range 30000 yards!

At last

Battle at last

Ponderously the great guns swing to bearing 270 degrees, rise to 43 degrees.................and wait for HIM to give the word
At the back of the bridge, the shadow barely stirs. Eyes open, a slight smile
"Whenever you are ready captain"


Battle. Battle at last



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/24/2014 10:10:17 AM)

12/4/45

Even as the giants swing their rifles towards their enemies, another naval battle concludes.
Cruiser Nachi, destroyers Onami, Hayanami and Kiyonami have many hours ago detached from yamato and raced ahead, seeking, seeking the enemy carriers.
40 miles due south of dajangas, contact

5 enemy destroyers.

A long running fight, radar controlled mostly, the utter dark split by starshells, the range never below 8000 yards, never above 12000
Nachi leaves one of the enemy destroyers burning, but frustrated at the delay, her captain breaks the action off, turning west again, still searching for the hidden enemy


Nachi will search in vain.



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/24/2014 10:17:10 AM)

There are other players this dark, dark night

CV Unryu.

Now off Hollandia, she strains every rivet, her turbines screaming, her boilers thundering. She must be off Biak by dawn.
She will be.

On her deck, her strike package prepares.

Such a shadow of a fleet air arms glory days.......13 zeros, 13 Judys.
The irony of the numbers is not lost on the aircrew.

They do not expect to achieve much, how can they?............but what general has ever been left unshaken to hear the report.........'sir, the enemy are in our rear!"



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/25/2014 8:26:19 AM)

12/4/45

"You may fire when ready captain"
Yamatos captain nods, and nods in turn to the gunnery officer

He in turn bends to his speaking tube, and launches yamato's terrible weapons
Simultanously, Musashi fires..........and the night is split by thunder and fire
The darkness crashes back in, the great guns rise and fall, and the next salvo shakes the ship.
The greatest machine ever launched by Japan hums efficiently, dealing death

It is a surreal battle, the enemy totally unseen..........the range nearly 30000 yards, tiny dots on the radar screens

Destroyers?........cruisers?

Steadily, carefully, regularily, the guns roar, the ship shakes, the sea hisses past

On the horizon........a sudden flare, small, intense, fading in gunnery sights to a dull red glow. On the radar, the three dots become two

For ten minutes the battle, if that is what you can call it, thunders on. No enemy shells come back, the range is simply too great.

Yamamato moves to the front of the bridge............"Opinion captain?"
"destroyers.........the enemy..........the enemy it apears, are gone"

Yamamato agrees. The allies have, incredibly, retired. The waters in the sulu sea are empty.

"We are wasting our time Captain, and dawn approaches..........break the action, make for Manilla"

The rifles, blistered, smoking, settle back to ahead, to the almost horizontal. The fleet turns and heads north

And to the east, the sky begins to brighten.

The enemy carries are gone, it appears. But the allied airfields, no doubt, will be ready to seek revenge.




Lowpe -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/25/2014 10:24:04 AM)

Boy, you had me geared up for the Clash of the Titans, and you give me this![:-]

Ah well, it is what it is.[:D]




John 3rd -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/26/2014 12:56:27 AM)

Totally depressing...



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/26/2014 8:30:51 AM)

It is, as Lowe (hi!) says, what it is.

The buggar ran away


Dawn, and Yamato steams north at full speed.
Briefly, she and her Sister have again engaged two destroyers, again one at the most incredible range of 30000 yards has been hit.
A brief , yet piognant reminder of what could have been

Her magazines are empty now.
Now she must run.
40 miles to her West, the Carriers run parrallel to her, also running hard North

The seas were empty of the enemy, but the skies are not.

And the enemy fleet has now been sighted, 240 miles south of Dajangas, and its coming for them.

There are no bombers on the carriers, just fighters, and they are all committed to the CAP. japans air arm is but a shadow of what once was, but what remains still is as sharp as ever. Every plane that flings itself aloft is manned by a veteran. They know their business.
They know it well.


At 0700 hours the skies fill with more planes, Ogowa's eagles sweep overhead towards Cotabato, 100 plus strong............and find nothing.
They circle and search fruitlessly for 30 minutes, are forced to return home, frustrated, tired.

Of course, war being what it is, the allied planes appear but 20 minutes later.
Rain hides the carriers.
But I don't think that matters. the battleships prove to be an irresistable lure.

0900 hours, the AA action begins.

Yamamato still remains on the bridge.
'You may manouvre as you will captain..........but " the smile, so incorogous breaks " I would think that every mile we get North would be a good idea"

How many AA guns does Yamato have?
History still debates this..........on this ship, they seem to breed uncontrollably every time she comes alongside.........
One thing we do know. A veritable of forest of barrells point towards the growing black shapes bearing down upon them from the horizon.

This time, this action.........they remain silent.

The fleet cap pounces..............120 plus strong......against 34 corsair and 31 Avengers

It has happened so many times before in this war.....allied strikes coming in pell mell, un co ordinated, getting chewed up, pressing on, falling one after the other, victims to japans elite
It happens again

One Avenger survives the attack.


Just one


The second strike comes, bigger this time....41 corsairs, 10 hell cats, 40 helldivers, 16 avengers
But this time 20 helldivers survive.

From three different directions, they stoop simultanously upon the giant below.






1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/28/2014 8:49:19 AM)

Hosho peers somewhat perplexed at the large, slightly rusting tin can in his hand
"What the hell is this?"
"that my friend, one of his men answers, three tins filling his arms" is a tin of suasages'
Suasages?, what the hell is a suasage?'

"An english delicasy.........so they say"

The tin is large, rusty on the outside, the lables faded and peeling. But it has a seassuring wieght in his hand, balanced somewhat by the "sealed 1936 date" on the bottom of it.
Hosho can only do what all about him are doing. He whips out his bayonet, tackles the lid.
What is revealed looks positevly revolting. cautiously he stabs what, (he cannot help the thought) looks periously like a wrinkled penis.....

By the laughter about him, not the first to think that thought iether.

But it tastes good. Bloody good

And there are piles of them, supplies, lots and lots of supplies are flowing up the mountains, these wierd suasages in their rusty tins, ammunition, medical supplies...........
Armies march on their stomachs
35ths is again full.

Restocked, re supplied, nestled in these hills, this wilderness of defensive opportunity after opportunity, an army regathers its strength.



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/28/2014 9:09:59 AM)

The first four hell divers attack from dead ahead, starting their dive from 12000 feet.
The maths are brutal.
All those guns will have but a window of mere seconds to fire at these killers, from effective range to bomb release.
With this attack, not a chance............

Yamato's captain does the only thing he can,
"RIGHT FULL RUDDER!"
And she swings, Gods, this great beast is remarkably manouverable.
The bombs plummet, explode hard on her port bow, the thundering torretts of water reaching as high as her tower...........terrifying ,, but harmless

The next four come in , now on her still turning starboard Flank, eager to get in, get out, get away from the marauding fighters still hunting them in this forest of flack
Yamato's guns, CLAA Nagara's (sailing almost suicidally close up her arse), snatch three of them away...........the last one misses

8 down
12 to go

Astern, screaming down..............again the thundering splashes, and the bright flash of a hit............


"Hit aft sir..........aft barbett.......some casualties...........no significant damage"
A 250 kg bomb...............a spitball against this steel.

The last 4 come down steep, very, very steep, directly from overhead
One will lose control, plunge into the ocean inverted

One, however, bombs true.

Its another 250 KG bomb, it wobbles the whole way down, almost vertical as it plunges down the starboard side of Yamato's tower.
It strikes in the area of the machine gun nest there, destroys it totally, fails to explode, defelected, slams into the roof of the fwd 4.7 inch AA gun, and stops, smoking on the focastle

Two men race from one of the AA guns, and kick the smoking, battered bomb over the side

Two men have been killed at the machine gun, and one more on the bridge, struck by a tiny splinter, his heart pierced

Two men history will quickly forget

The Third, Yamamato, not for a long, long time.......................



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/28/2014 9:18:34 AM)

To the south, CV Unryu strikes

The strike , now 13 zeros but 11 judy's, two failing to get off her deck.
They attack Morotai, and run into a hornets nest of enemy

None will return

Her presence announced, she will now flee North, and escape.


A mere 100 miles to her south, Long pig and Bigglesworth sail on, oblivious to just how lucky they have been..................



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/30/2014 6:02:19 AM)

13th April, 1945

Ogowa's eagles retire to Manilla
Diogowa disobeys Ogowa, and flies as part of a final sweep south

There they tangle with a dozen p 51'S, shooting down 6 for 1 lost, Diogowa niether engages an enemy, or is engaged himself

It is, as we have recently said, what it is.

Ogowa merely shakes his head on his friends return. What else can he do?



Deep down south CA's Haguro and Kumano engage CL marblehead, Hobart and 3 destroyers
They leave both CLs burning, but Haguro is crippled by a hits in her engine rooms............her captain scuttles her, the cruiser sliding under even as Avengers add to her destruction.
Kumano, unhurt, will get away, decks packed with survivors


The rest of the fleet steams unhindered to manilla, here they will refuel, and depart as soon as they can.
Hard decisions are made, nearly every surviving zero unit flies to manilla, and is dsbanded. The fighters, not nearly enough, will go into the pools, and be spread about the carriers.
The fleet air arm is in that sort of shape now, all but gone.................






Lowpe -> RE: The little ship that could. (7/30/2014 11:25:09 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: 1275psi
The Third, Yamamato, not for a long, long time.......................


A splinter from a dud bomb. Argh.



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/2/2014 9:02:23 AM)

14/4/45
deep in the heart of Minando, lies rugged mountains and jungles, a wild area spread over 100's of square miles.
Just a single road weaves its way across this range, according to the maps.

But there are many, many other paths. Forestor passes. Farmers trails, a hundred paths forged by the villages that cling to a primative simple life, weaving like a maze across these hills and forests.
35th army basically disperses into these hills, fanning out, hiding, digging in, ravaging the poor locals for anything that can be eaten.

Supplies still come up the road, are parceled out.
To the north of them, the allies are building up for an attack on Cagayan (one that might not be as easy as they would hope)
The bombers that bomb them daily inflict few, very few casualties.
35th Army makes the only choice it can.

A retreat to the coast will be crushed the moment they quit the mountains.
Supplies here are plentiful
The defensive position is good.

Here then, they will remain, a huge menace behind the allied lines, ready to sweep down from the hills should the allies leave a weak garrison.
Not glorious. Offering no chance for a death in battle. A situation almost intolerable for a warrior of the empire.
But one 80000 men will have to accept.

So be it.

55th division settles into one of the hidden valleys, occupies a series of now deserted villages running along a small river, and commences what might be its longest and toughest fight yet.
The fight to delay starvation
The fight against despair
the fight to remain, somehow, a fighting force , if they are ever required to fight again.




1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/2/2014 9:08:56 AM)

The Tanker convoy, now of Jesselton, is snooped.

The liberator bomber is lucky to survive, the CAP springing towards it like wolves in a pen of lambs.
But it escapes, radio electric at work.

There is little the man of the convoy can do except grimace.
The allies have been brilliant at just one thing in this war, the use of their bloody underwater sharks.

How many of the hidden buka's right now are swimming their way?



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/2/2014 9:13:11 AM)

15/4/45

Unreported.
But significant, to those involved, I suppose.

A massive chinese attack on Sinyang has been underway for nearly 60 days.
The attack, upon which so much was hoped, has utterly failed.

The chinese will not win the war for cantona then..............



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/2/2014 9:23:25 AM)

Battleship Yamato clears Leyte, greets the rolling pacific swells.
Her decks are quiet, half from sorrow, half from an utterly exhausted crew that now snatches what sleep it can
CV Unryu joins the fleet, almost to the astonishment of those they re join

Astonished or not, she is surely welcome.

This then, is the fleet
4 fleet, 1 light carrier. 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 20 odd destroyers.

The fleet mourns one dead man, riding deep in Yamato's bowels.
But what tradgedy is that, when you compare this fleet, to once what was?



PaxMondo -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/2/2014 3:14:08 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe


quote:

ORIGINAL: 1275psi
The Third, Yamamato, not for a long, long time.......................


A splinter from a dud bomb. Argh.


Never seen this ... or better to say, never noticed it and didn't know it could happen. Thought commanders only had chance to die if ship sunk ... didn't know you could lose them in any action. Really good implementation on the Dev's part ...




Long pig -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/3/2014 7:06:18 AM)

Perhaps honourable perhaps not, one thing is certain Yamamoto was a massive figure in history.
A shame for him to go in this way!



Argos -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/3/2014 3:38:51 PM)

Given the choice - I'd bet on the bridge underway as opposed to a passenger in a transport aircraft.



Ol_Dog -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/3/2014 4:46:10 PM)

Or in an automobile accident



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 10:53:52 AM)

Hi guys, thanks ever so much for the comments and interest, remain stunned as always that anyone still follows this.

A confession, Yamamato's death is a bit of artistic license, to be honest, I cannot find him on the commanders list anymore, I disbanded the Yamato TF in manilla to refuel and re organise ect, reformed, and could not find him.
So, I decided to kill him off for good.....................

(Writers priveledge and all that........................)
Again, apologies if the impression was the game killed him. I am still following what the game does religously, just found myself in a hole.............

And again, thanks for following, AAR has been hard work lately.............



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 11:06:41 AM)

16/4/45

B-29's pound balikapapan, a dozen of them raid Kobe , and basically miss..........
Khoto Bharu falls.

Yamato and the carriers clear the phillipines, begin the journey home
And the enemy bomb Guiuan yet again...............


yet again

Its obvious to herbiesan whats coming next.
3 regiments rest at Leyte, a large TF of E class fast transports are detached to there, and an amphibios task force as well (yes, we still have transports enough)
The war drags on


Other orders are given.
A trickle atr the moment, but soon to grow into a bloody stream, the first small groups of Nates are dispatched to the southern phillipines.

The nate is long long obscelescent..............but as a human guided bomb, especially in skilled human hands, they may be terribly lethal.
We will see.

the pool of them, and men to fly them, is almost bottomless................



1275psi -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 11:19:04 AM)

17/4/45

"warm through soot blowers"
Hirate sighs...........somethings never change ney?
0200 hours, racehorse of the sea, or battlewagon, or carrier.........a boiler is a boiler, is a boiler.
And they need to be blown .

Susuzuki has been steaming all 4 of her boilers this week, ready at any moment to come to full power, to accelerate into battle.
But the calls have not yet come (and who can complain at that) and she has idled about on the convoys flank between 7 and 12 knots.

Low speeds, idle boilers...............coking and soot, and water chemistry all over the shop......
racehorses should run.

In the meantime, you blow soot, do bottom blows, battle the chemistry.

Hirate gives the orders, the boys open the drains at the rear of the boiler, the steam to sooties is cracked, the space becomes warmer still.
The war continues.
So does the work

lets not forget that. For the men at sea, japanese, American, british, Australian, ........... the work at sea never ceases.
It just never ceases..........



BBfanboy -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 4:11:17 PM)

herbiesan? I thought you killed him off when he ran with the gold. You need to invent a new leader character! One with great strengths ... and some flaws. [;)]

BTW - I think most forumites read your AAR religiously [&o] - the writing is just so compelling and, like Game of Thrones, we never know which character is
going to "buy the farm" next![X(]
The lack of comment is because we don't want to interfere with your telling of the story. It's like putting commercials
in an HBO program!



Mike McCreery -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 5:02:06 PM)

It is the first AAR I read if a new entry is up :]



Thayne -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 8:25:40 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

It is the first AAR I read if a new entry is up :]


Actually, quite true here as well. When I come to the site, I look for signs of a new posting of The Little Ship that Could and come here first. Anything else can wait.



John 3rd -> RE: The little ship that could. (8/4/2014 9:19:16 PM)

I'll third that comment.



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