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RE: The little ship that could. - 8/18/2015 10:06:16 AM   
Long pig

 

Posts: 26
Joined: 6/6/2013
Status: offline 		Magnificent Lightning, I wonder if it can make a difference now in such small numbers ... I hope so 😀

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3811
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/19/2015 8:30:10 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		Hi Long Pig!
Miss ya mate!

No posts on you yet, as I have not seen a B-29 for ages


Hirate and Okano once again crawl slowly across the landscape of Japan in an obscenely crowded train
The Journey is stop, start, stop again.
There are less troops this journey, but many, many civilians.
Peasants. Children.
All Hungry, all thin, drawn pale faces everywhere.
The people of Japan are on the move , looking for food.


The train is headed towards Hiroshima, a journey that should fill them with anticipation.
But they are silent, inward.

Hirate chews the same thoughts over and over again.
"Why us?"
"Why, with so many to choose from, why us?"
And why the Musashi?

Why, have we been fated to serve on this the most hunted of vessels, now, so late in this cursed war?

But there is no answer

Just the thoughts, again
Why?

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to Long pig)
Post #: 3812
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/19/2015 8:32:57 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		battle joined at Genzan, Korea

13254 AV vs 5001

1 to 5 deliberate attack

I lose 12000 men, the Russians 16000

I can go and eat a meal during the replay!

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3813
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/22/2015 1:41:40 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		October 28th

Extract from Shattering the sword, a Cantona production


The last fires extinguished in Singapore, the last defenders found and eliminated, the British Army
turns its attention to the great docks.
Engineers she does not lack, nor the innovation and skill to quickly repair what is broken, or to
replace what is utterly broken
These are , of course, the days of, "just getting it done"
Days the like of which we may never see again

The Japanese have attempted, of course, to destroy the shipyard, have scuttled 2 small ships in the docks entrance
, sunk the dock doors themselves.

But they have failed utterly to damage where those doors will need to sit, and the pumps
hidden below the concrete have, it seems, simply been forgotten

Cranes can be replaced........
So Can warehouses
The Engineer commanding surveys the damage with a very, very practiced eye.

"Inform Ceylon command, we will be ready to receive the fleet by weeks end"

The British pacific fleet, in reality the Indian fleet, will soon need a new name

South China sea fleet.

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3814
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/22/2015 1:58:18 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		Hirate and Okano stand outside the small hut near the main dock Hiroshima
This is the dock liaison hut, interface between the Navy, and the Hundreds of dockyard workers that
have been assigned to this ship, this next task

Both men cannot help themselves, eyes drawn irresistibly to the mammoth nestled in the concrete cavern.

Battleship Musashi lies under repair.

She has had terrible luck.
Only 5 Russian shells struck her during that aborted bombardment of Vladivostok.
They could not have done more damage if they tried for a 100 years.

The fwd gunnery director ...........obliterated
The Aft....jammed.
The Command bridge, wiped away

And her hanger deck seared by fire


A new director sits upon the tower, the hanger deck now gleams

But to reset those directors to work, to connect those cables, those hydraulics, those thousand and one
things that need to be aligned, so that the guns, Musashi's very purpose, can actually hit something......

32 days.
This is how long the Dockyard needs

32 days


Our two men do not, of course, know this yet

To them, the great ship seems undamaged, ready to sail.
And apparently, it seems, with them......

The door opens to the hut, a harassed looking leading seaman pokes his head out, spies the waiting men
"Ahh, Chief petty officers!, the Engineer will see you now"

They enter, face a desk overflowing with paperwork, a chaos of forms, note books, plans, , work orders.

He has aged, has the Engineer, aged, and gained a solid stripe.
But the eyes still sparkle, and the smile remains .

Now Commander, Engineer for this mighty vessel, Tan, ex Zuiho, leaps to his feet, hand outstretched ......."thank the heavens...
My reinforcements!"



_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3815
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/22/2015 2:58:52 PM   
Major Shane


Posts: 195
Joined: 7/19/2007
Status: offline 		Awesome, another reunion. One thing that holds true for any of us who have served, is seeing a long lost comrade. I can't count how many times I have run into someone for a previous assignment and picked up the conversation like it was yesterday. It's also very normal to bring in officers and non-commissioned officers to a unit because they had previously served with a leader in the unit. When you are going to combat, you people around you that you trust. Great job bringing these three back together again.

_____________________________


(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3816
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/24/2015 6:18:16 AM   
nicwb

 

Posts: 518
Joined: 4/26/2010
Status: offline 		Sorry - late the party. That's one impressive model of the Yamato ! Where in Sydney do you propose to launch her?

(in reply to Major Shane)
Post #: 3817
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/24/2015 8:05:45 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		Hi!
Hubertus Country club
5 sept
weather permitting!


October 30th 1945

War is hell
But for Hirate, this is turning into a special hell
One , he thinks, he will never win

Commander Tan has asked for reinforcements, and he truly, truly needs them
The paper war...........

It is hard to convey the sheer ..........inevitability that Naval practice sometimes follows.

Did you know that right at the extrimis of germanise last days, when Pinz Eugans guns were the last
heavy artillery in the entire courtland peninsula.........she was withdrawn for refit?


Refit???


Somewhere, someone really had priorities wrong there .

And now, it seems, Musashi has been infected with the same disease.

Overdue inspections
Overdue maintenance routines, boiler cleans, turbine bumps, tank cleans.....
And reports!
Please provide overdue correspondence on this, on that, ..on every bloody thing!

Tan has been buried
Now, apparently, he hopes these two new Chiefs can help him

By the end of today, Hirate knows that he might not be able to......

Oh, inspections, that he can do, and tomorrow he will be deep inside Musashi's belly, but
these reports...

He has no schooling for this.
Okano, well he has a little more.

The day, this first one will pass relentlessly, form after form, after useless form.......

Musashi is due to sail in 32 days

Not nearly soon enough!!!!


_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to nicwb)
Post #: 3818
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/24/2015 8:12:11 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		The evening however, helps

There are still pockets in Hiroshima where one can obtain food, obtain beer, tiny little
tucked away places
Tan, it seems knows of one

The bar is smaller than your bathroom.
Tans laughter fills it

The three men share the last years, grow melancholy as Hirate recounts Zuiho's passing

They drink a silent beer for the charge.

'Now, says Tan,"let me tell you how I have deceived the entire Japanese navy with my Engineering
knowledge"
It will be a long tale.......the carrier tahio, a spot on a cruiser, and now" my
ultimate magic trick" he grins, The Musashi.

The trick, as always, is to surround yourself with good men.

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3819
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/25/2015 8:48:57 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		Oct 31

"You can have them, gladly"
Ogowa hands back the form to the 201st's commander.
Right now, for this moment, Ogowa is now a Commander with out a plane to command.
His 30 odd NK5J's have now been handed on, and good riddance
Tomorrow, the first deliveries of the new fighter, the magnificent lightning.

let us hope it truly is magnificent......



Ogowa has come a long way, once, barely noticed as a pilot.
Now, now the highest of high commands listen to him.
Production of the NK5j ceases in Japan, the 2 version will do, there are 200 plus of them
still in the pools.
The Shinden needs two engines, and these come of the lines in still insufficient numbers for
the George, the Sam, for anything else.


japan has been spared the bombers, so far

But for how much longer?

Ogowa knows it. Come the spring, the skies will be black with them.

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3820
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/25/2015 1:50:41 PM   
PaxMondo


Posts: 9750
Joined: 6/6/2008
Status: offline 		I thought the J7W was a single engine plane? Or am I confusing planes here?

_____________________________

Pax

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3821
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/26/2015 6:47:16 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		hello pax

MY BAD!!

yes, it does only have one engine, no idea where I got the idea from

more on her to come!

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to PaxMondo)
Post #: 3822
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/26/2015 8:35:04 AM   
PaxMondo


Posts: 9750
Joined: 6/6/2008
Status: offline 		Whew! Worried my last marble had been lost!

< Message edited by PaxMondo -- 8/26/2015 9:50:03 AM >

_____________________________

Pax

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3823
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/26/2015 8:46:19 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		1 Nov 1945

Boilers are faithful servants
But I often thought of them as jealous mistresses......ready to strike you with spite
if you should ever neglect them.

The Damage to Musashi has not penetrated into her bowels, so Tan has taken full advantage of
the long period of inactivity.
The Kapong boiler is notorious for clagging up, for splaying around the burners, for terrible losses of
efficiency.

Cleans are absolutely essential

So, while we wait for the electricians to run the cables to the Gun directors, lets
do one, yes?
(After all, no director is worth crap, if it can'r be carried to sea)

Let the boiler go cold, then run all those precious gallons of feed run down to bilge, draining her
life blood.
While we are doing that, lets open up the furnace door, remove the great big brick.
And while we are at that, lets swing the burners out too

A dozen hands will be busy removing all the casing doors (some the size and weight of a dining room table), stripping of the gaskets, and we have to kick
in the water drum and steam drum doors too.

WAIT!!!!

This boiler was hot yesterday, kick in the steam drum one first, if you do the water one first,
you are going to receive a nasty burst of steam and heat in your face.

Now Hirate will get to work......he will wriggle into that steam drum, and personally
plug the down comers with wooden DC plugs, and make damn sure they are numbered and counted too
The boiler internals must come out (a prig of a job that!)
The space I/C and his boys will now set to work doing the real work -the cleans


When they are done, ( the benefits of now being a Chief) Hirate will climb back in, and inspect
the clean.
Now for what Tan has needed him for.
Carefully he will inspect the tubes, will use mirrors to look carefully in every hand hold door,
look carefully at the internal gear nuts and bolts.

All inside a tube barely 4 feet in diameter, or from underneath the boiler , where space is measured
in inches

The work, obviously is hard, heavy, a real barsted......

Now the doors go back on, the boiler is filled, and the space reverbs to the
PFFFT< PFFT< PFFT of the air pump , and Hirate will watch like a hawk to see if the pressure can be maintained.

First time, frequently, it is not, and the ring of sledge hammers on spanner will ring its own
unique symphony

Once done, dump, fill, refill, treat, and light off......
3 days per boiler
Musashi has many of them.

Hirate does not mind the grime, the dirt, the hard work
It beats doing those endless forms..........

< Message edited by 1275psi -- 8/26/2015 9:57:32 AM >

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to Long pig)
Post #: 3824
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/26/2015 8:56:58 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		They arrive, ingloriously, by truck

Only three today, drawing the crowds about them
Diogowa circles the first bird, the pusher propeller, the weird canard wings, the almost stork like undercart

"A stubby little thing" Ogowa comments
'A bloody flying engine" Diogowa replies, 'Do you think it is going to be stable?"

Ogowa smiles, no, a devilish grin breaks across his face...'Who cares.....a flying engine
wrapped around a gun.......they say it is fast. Terrifyingly fast "
He punches Diogowa lightly on the shoulder "Do you think you can handle it my friend?"

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3825
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/27/2015 7:42:24 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		2 Nov

3 more shindens, but it will take 4 days before the first is ready to fly. They have time, winter
storms and rain sweeps Japan, early bad weather.
Hirate and Okano fret, home so close, yet so far away
And the thought that no fishing is possible.


Musashi advances

She will be ready, it is said , by years end.



_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3826
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/30/2015 9:25:11 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		3 Nov

The siege at Genzan has settled in, a quarter of a million Russians pound the perimeter of the 100000
plus Japanese that are trapped there.

It is a situation Japan has allowed.

The Korean peninsula is rapidly being lost, it could never be held, not in detail anyhow.
But concentrated like this, they are a force that has to be eliminated if the Russians are to secure their
supply lines, or the entire country, for all of that.

So, the siege will continue.

Genzan has ben selected because it has a good port (now)
A good proportion of what remains of Japans merchant marine now tries to supply it.

Yamato, Musashi have dealt the killer blow to the Russian Cruisers that could threaten them,
but three Russian destroyers apparently remain
Today, they try to catch a small Japanese convoy

6 rusty AKs
1 destroyer to escort, DD Shigure

The Russians are spotted steaming in at 20000 yards
Shigure responds as only true destroyer men can .
Turn towards the enemy, ahead Flank!

This is a quick action, a brutal, how dare you try to deal with me action
Hardened battle refined men against those yet to pass an appreticship

Two Russians reel away, ablaze, the third turns for home
Shigure takes knocks, true, but her flock will make it in.....

The Russian guns pound again today

The Japanese dig



_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3827
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/30/2015 9:28:30 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		9 Shindens now available

The crew Chief has good news

Tomorrow three will be ready
Ogowa,as he walks around this strange new bird, feels something he has not felt
for many, many years

Nervous excitement

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3828
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/31/2015 9:13:46 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		November 4th

Somewhere over Hiroshima

30000 feet

A small, delta winged beast screams across the sky, wheeling, twisting, a bullet of a plane
splitting the sky at 460 knots

We cannot, of course, hear inside the cockpit

But if we could:



YEEEHAHHHHHH!!!!

Diogowa , on the edge, and living every second of it

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3829
RE: The little ship that could. - 8/31/2015 9:16:05 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		A tanker sails proudly into Kagoshima

In her hold, 6150 tons of pure Palembang liquid gold

Japans merchant marine scores another small victory, as good as any the "real" Navy can achieve

Well done, my unsung heroes!

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3830
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/1/2015 11:02:00 PM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		5/11/45

"What do you think?"
Admiral Cunningham raises his glasses again, and tries to focus upon the vague shapes
hard against the coast some 5 miles away.
It is no easy task, there is the usual early morning mist, the targets are small, the coast green,
matching them
Exasperated, he lowers them.. "Guns?"
"15 of them sir..... hard on the coast, parallel course"

"Thankyou"
Japanese barges....running supplies from Palembang most likely to Bengalis

"We will engage....signal Jean bart.........this will make perfect practice Guns"

Singapore only 5 hours away
A grand fleet itching for action, men desperate to see action, any action, to break the monotony
of the bay of Bengal.
A good chance to shake the cobwebs of Renowns guns

Great guns swing
Renown, Jean bart, 10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, line ahead, open fire.



Over the straights, the thunder booms, fading slowly across the miles

A great drum, sending another Message to Japan
The british Fleet, carriers, battleships.....returning to Singapore, returning to the war

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3831
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/1/2015 11:05:25 PM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		Russian bombers, nearly a dozen strong, come south, probing Japans defences

The Japanese population are never even aware that the home land has been attacked by the bear
itself.

The Russians will gain no knowledge either
No bombers return to give it

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3832
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/1/2015 11:14:37 PM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		Ogowa calls his pilots together.
They fill the mess, 46 strong at the moment, 36 of them aces.
The squadron has 5 Shindens ready now, 4 in the hangers, and a promise of a steady stream
to come.
His briefing is sharp.


The Shinden is good. Brilliantly fast. A terrible punch in its nose.
But no dog fighter.
Each pilot in turn will soon get to fly, to try out this new beast.

'But we must change our thinking.......we must become bomber killers...we must create new tactics"
It seems obvious
The georges will rumble against the Mustangs, the hellcats that must come

They, as their name suggested, must strike from above, swiftly and terribly
Like lightning



_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3833
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/1/2015 11:20:02 PM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		With the exception of the Kaga (still 36 days away) the entire Japanese Navy , destroyers upwards,
now swings at anchor in Hiroshima bay.
Autumn winds beat against them, the white caps slap steel sides.

We wait, and wait, and wait.........will the enemy ever come?




(cantona sent a message, challenging Musashi and Yamato "to come out and play against the british fleet"
I politely declined

When Musashi is repaired, I will have enough force to smash one last invasion fleet.
(I have smashed enough this war)
And I think cantona knows it.

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3834
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/4/2015 3:33:20 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		6/11/45

well, that WAS ALMOST DAMN NEAR INCONVIENIENT, 24 hours before Yamato sail day almost carted off to
Hospital with horrible respiratory problems

Uuugh..........
recovering..........


Cantona is moving house, and school, so turns a bit slow, a few in the bank thankfully, so we have a
little to write about.




At genzan, the Russian AV is 15000, mine 4000, the bombardments just go on, and on, and on
I hit play, fast fwd, and go and have dinner,,,,,,,,,,,,,


Also for about 30 minutes allied bombers pound isolated base, after base, after unit, after unit
I am losing easily 1000 men a day merely from this.
The term, the dying times, is not exaggerated
However, 4 more Tankers slip into Japan, full of oil, how they slip through from Miri is beyond me, but
they do!

Other than the bombing, allied mopping up ops in Luzon, around soerabaya, and the Russians, the war is quiet

No sign or indication that an invasion of the inner ring is even being contemplated.



_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3835
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/5/2015 5:34:24 AM   
1275psi

 

Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline 		meanwhile, Yamato awaits for the Americans to come




Attachment (1)

_____________________________

big seas, fast ships, life tastes better with salt

(in reply to Long pig)
Post #: 3836
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/5/2015 8:01:48 AM   
Major Shane


Posts: 195
Joined: 7/19/2007
Status: offline 		Wow, what a wonderful ship. If the photo was in black and white, with just a hint of grainy texture you would easily assume it was taken during the war.

How long were you able to sail her for?

< Message edited by m_shane_perkins -- 9/5/2015 9:02:20 AM >

(in reply to 1275psi)
Post #: 3837
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/5/2015 11:03:20 PM   
Long pig

 

Posts: 26
Joined: 6/6/2013
Status: offline 		I agree she is beautiful and Herbisan I thank you for bringing her to life.
Seeing your ship on the water is magnificent, I feel so lucky to have seen her once in the flesh 😀

(in reply to Major Shane)
Post #: 3838
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/6/2015 1:51:00 AM   
Mike McCreery


Posts: 4232
Joined: 6/29/2013
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Long pig

I agree she is beautiful and Herbisan I thank you for bringing her to life.
Seeing your ship on the water is magnificent, I feel so lucky to have seen her once in the flesh 😀


You saw her naked?

_____________________________


(in reply to Long pig)
Post #: 3839
RE: The little ship that could. - 9/6/2015 1:52:09 PM   
zuluhour


Posts: 5244
Joined: 1/20/2011
From: Maryland
Status: offline 		She is riding high, on the way to Okinawa?

(in reply to Mike McCreery)
Post #: 3840
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