1275psi
Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005 Status: offline
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July 6th While two equally matched regimentsfight in the dark jungle shadows, Zuiho, seemingly remains impotent, anchored, at palau. To the untrained eye, idle, wasted. She is, of course far from that. There are a great many navies in the world today, as there are this day, July 6th, 1943. Some are great. Some are growing to be great, powerful fleets, weapons of war.. Some are sliding from greatness to impotence The Italians are finished. The germans almost Japan, japan is not . Not yet. For, you see, there is a great difference in having a fleet of ships. And having a fleet of ships, you can keep at sea. Britain will keep hers out there, fighting, to the bitter end. After that, few, only a few of her ships will be worth keeping, the rest driven to , and beyond the ability to keep them going. America, on the other hand, is the master at this. And day by day, she gets better at it. In 1939, to keep a battleship, or any capital ship at sea for 3 months...............impossible. Now, to their dismay, some of her crews will not port for years at a time. Japan, and thus Zuiho, stand on the edge. In adequately supported, with her bases flung thousands of miles apart, her maintenace men, her stokers, her flight deck crews, her gunners mates, struggle to do what must be done. Maintain the fleet, keep the ships ready. She steams auxillary again today. So, what does that mean? For Kato, ensconed in his cabin, quietly celebrating the news (Taiho, they have given me the Taiho!), it means that she is at 4 hours notice for sea, that the lights are on. She burns fuel, but there is fuel enough here for them. the ship is stinking hot, but Tan, at least, does not bug him. For Hidaka, it means no flying. But the birds are ready, the maintenance can continue. His pilots, over the bruises from the dinner, are relaxed, the terrible wieght of the expectation of battle, is of them, just a little. It is a pause. And this is good. For the pilots, auxilliary is hell. No flying. But the heat inside Zuiho is almost intolerable, without the breeze of movent through her, the hanger deck, their ready rooms, are steamy hells. Hidaka hounds them for paperwark (from laundry to mail, to mess accounts, to letters of correspondence) , but little gets done. Its just too truking hot. As always, auxilliary effects the Stokers above all. She steams on 2B boiler today. 4 hours watch keep, 4 hours of, 4hrs on. 12 men do this today, a mere 12. The rest work. Slowly, methodically, charge is working his way through the pumps, the little beating hearts of Zuiho. Each in turn is being taken of line. Isolated, the pipe work disconnected (no small job this), the pumps dragged aside. Impeller casings come off, and impellers, shafts are removed. Wear rings are chissled off, new ones shrunk on and the Lathe runs all night, machining to size. Then the reassembly. They are getting a pump a day done. Defects continue. Govenors, seals, a float controller, the inevitable leaks. yes, zuiho sits idle. But she is despirte everything, ready for sea. (zero system, 0 float!)
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