July 17
An Allied submarine sinks an xAK delivering a Marine battalion to Lunga near Munda. The surviving xAK saves most of the men and picks them up from the water.
DEI: various preparations...
OK:
Erkki: PO2 Nagashima, Hori
Sheb: LCDR Obayashi F
Korbac: PO1 Nagashima U
Timferius: PO2 Ikura R
Fishbreath: PO1 Kumagaya V
Mithras: PO2 Moriura, Toki
Anyone else still wanted a pilot?
Duty. Obayashu often thought about duty. When he was a boy, his father had taught him about the different duties. His duty to his brother. His duty to his family, his duty to the village and Japan. Duty was not the same as responsibility. The latter could be part of the first, but never the same. In school he was taught more of the duty and often would he learn of what duty could be, in good and bad. His duty to take care of his parents and family, who had given him life, who were his life. His duty to study and learn to become a proper citizen so that his nation could grow stronger. And now the Navy, every action of a naval soldier was due to duty. And the greatest duty to a man was to serve his nation, his people, by facing its enemies on a battlefield. His initial 3 year service in the Navy had been physically exhausting, but he had at last found out the very core of the duty and had enlisted, starting a military career. Day by day he could sense how the time when the skills he had been taught would be needed was coming nearer. The day when he could, perhaps, finally fulfill his duty, and perhaps to achieve the greatest honor to a soldier. But before that, it would be his duty to serve the best he can. To work, and to follow orders without questions.
A sudden gust grabbed his cap and only his quick, exercised, reactions saved the cap from flying over board.
The whole squadron had been called to the flight deck, at the very bow end of it, formed in three lines. After the long and hot day, everyone welcomed the evening's cold breeze, now waving the uniforms of the men from the North. The dark blue sailor suits they knew every navy in the world wore. The day had been full of work as they had been training the recently arrived pilots, and landing on a stationary carrier in a nearly 90-degree sidewind of 20 knots had never been easy to anyone, in any plane. Many mock-up dogfights had been fought, and everyone in the squadron had flown at least once. But now most of the planes had been taken down into the hangars, where they would be prepared for tomorrow by the mechanics who might need to stay up the whole night. Only a pair of alert-ready A6Ms were left standing side by side by the edge of the deck behind the tower, and to the aft, standing on the elevator, a single D3A, which would be ready for any liaison tasks. For military service the past 3 weeks had been relatively easy, and Obayashi had noticed it - day by day the men were getting better as fighter pilots, but recently there had been some cases of visible lack of discipline. The men were getting to know each other too well. This would not do.
Standing before his men, Obayashi could see the massive shape of the Kaga approximately a kilometer away, and to the right and across the flight deck, the Yamato's tower was clearly visible. Two destroyers were anchored Junyo's both sides - they were there to guard the valuable carrier against any sabotage attempts. Almost 200 meters away, behind the D3A, he could see the other pilots forming up, and then suddenly running on the deck again, over the side and down back into their quarters just before the last sailor had quite reached the end of the line. That would probably be going for the next 15 minutes, and it would probably do good to the Junyo-1's Zero "Aces" as well. But not now. He wondered if his pilots werent the least lacking in discipline on the ship, or if his superior was easier on his men than he, perhaps, should be. Commander Yamada, who to Obayashi's great relief wants to do all the paper work, training and mission planning himself and leave Obayashi only the practical matters, had arrived from a meeting with Captain Ishii an hour ago and had given him instructions. Ishii himself had spent most of the day aboard the Yamato in a meeting that nobody was, apparently, supposed to know about. Captain Ishii probably knows what is going on, but Obayashi could see in the Commander's eyes that he did not. What the Commander did know is that the Junyo would be leaving Singapore in only 9 hours.
"Squadron! Attention!
Tomorrow's schedule is changed. At 0600 hours, first pair takes off for patrol over the ship. Second pair ready at 0600 hours, takeoff at 0900 hours. Third pair ready at 0900 hours, takeoff at 1200 hours. Fourth pair ready at 1200 hours, takeoff at 1500 hours. The alert pair on the wall in the quarters list is used. Make sure you have that full tank of fuel, drop tank attached, weapons and ammo ready. Standard check list, but also test radios with your pair and to the tower before take off, using both full and half power. Also hydraulics. Personally make sure that the ammunition is loaded and the weapons themselves are good before your plane is moved to the flight deck. Start and test the engine drop tank valve open. Bring the drop tanks back. From 0500 hours tomorrow, everyone is in the standard 15 minute readiness, assigned patrol pairs in full cockpit readiness. That makes 2 in the air and 2 in cockpit readiness from 0600 hours onwards. Also 2 pairs are in 5 minute alert from 0600 hours. 4 planes will be moved up before the dawn for them. Next 2 pairs replace the first 5-minute alert pairs at 1200 hours. Further orders issued at 1030 hours in the quarters.
Questions?
Dismissed!"
edit: fixed some typos...
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Topic: War in the Pacific PBEM AAR - sign up for Bay 12 fighter squad on page 31+! (Read 50507 times)