kaleun
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Joined: 5/29/2002
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September 20th 1942
Norfolk Island, night. The lookouts on the beach cannot see the ships steaming beyond the horizon but they see flashes of light reflected on the sky and know, even before the sound arrives, to dive for their slit trenches, their bunkers, any hole in the ground they can find before Armageddon comes calling.
On the decks and command bridges of the battlewagons it plays out like an exercise, the turrets swing towards the distant shore, the gun barrels raise, and as one, Mississippi’s guns open fire, so do California’s and Pennsylvania’s, Nevada’s, West Virginia’s and Maryland’s. Closer to shore, Salt Lake City and Pensacola open up with their ten 8 inch pieces. Destroyers Brooks, Peary, Hull, and Jarvis come much closer inshore before they open up with their 5 inch guns. Brooks and Peary, old Clemson class four pipers make as much smoke from their four stacks as from their four guns, but there is no one on the shore of the island looking at the smoke from the old destroyers.
A solitary B17 flies by in the early morning, the bombardier peering at the enemy base through his powerful, German made binoculars. Six Jake floatplanes damaged, two more destroyed. The base, a shambles. The bomber turns back towards Auckland. On the sea, the rear gunner spots dots moving towards the beach. A light cruiser, Nashville and six destroyers, perilously close to the beach fire with all their guns to cover the invaders.
He issues a warning:
“Bandits, six o’clock, high!”
But the enemy aircraft do not approach the solitary receding bomber.
The men on the boats and on the ships of the task force see the incoming bombers. CL Nashville turns her AA guns in the direction of the threat. xAP Wahine and Chaumont turn their minimal defenses in the same direction waiting for a bomber to get into range before opening fire.
Seventeen twin engined and twin tailed bombers begin to maneuver to get into attack position. As they do so, they pull away from their fighters that, in turn, split to stay on the bombers. Twenty nine Zero fighters keep one eye on the bomber they escort, one on their wingman and a third eye scanning the skies.
The allied fighters, fourteen F4F-3 and twenty three F4F-4 Wildcats pick their moment perfectly. As the bombers break formation the blue gray fighters pounce on them. Covering their bombers, the enemy fighters cannot use their superior speed and maneuverability to advantage. Five Zero fall out of the sky in flames. Only one F4F is lost. The Grumman fighters barrel in on the enemy bombers. It doesn’t take much to turn the Japanese fighter into a flaming torch. Four of them flame into the sea and three more turn back one engine belching smoke. That leaves ten machines skimming the water towards the light cruiser and the two transports that now, with no allied fighters to worry about, open up with their AA guns. The four five inch/25 guns that bear on the cruiser belch fire and the four 50 caliber machineguns on that side open up soon afterwards. Their fire, poorly directed is ineffective but nevertheless achieves its purpose. The enemy bombers release their torpedoes and depart unharmed, but the pilots, unnerved by the loss of their friends, and the rattle of shrapnel on their airframes, miss with all the fish. The invasion will continue unhindered, at least for now.
A larger formation of aircraft approaches. Warned by radar, Nashville, Mustin and Sims belch smoke and turn their AA guns against the threat. Two massive formations of aircraft fill the skies, Twenty eight Kate bombers and fifty smaller dive bombers with fifty eight fighters covering overhead. Against this strike, only twenty six allied fighters remain. The dogfights are short and fierce, and cost the allies four Wildcats, and the Japanese, two Zero fighters destroyed, five Kate and two Val bombers damaged.
The light cruiser and the two destroyers open up with all their guns but the carrier pilots are of a different breed than their land based comrades. Ignoring the explosions of the AA guns, they pick their targets and dive on them, with devastating results.
Sims, rocked by five direct bomb hits is on fire, from stem to stern, with only the smoke from her own fires saving her from more damage. DD Aaron Ward evades torpedoes and so does DD Patterson but, while maneuvering wildly to evade torpedoes, Patterson cannot evade one of the two 60 Kg bombs dropped by a Val. The transports, predictably, do even worse. xAP Santa Elena, seven bomb hits, xAP Zaandam three, xAp Klipfontein, 4, xAP Monterrey two, Wahine five, Thomas Barry four, Matsonia four.
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< Message edited by kaleun -- 2/23/2017 12:09:12 AM >
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RE: Part II The Hinge of Fate - 
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