Ch 47. Banging against a steel wall
We may have lost the first engagement but I am still confident in the possibility of a victory.
A few hours after the fight ended we prepared for the next fight. The water was pumped out of the broken hull sections, the guns were cleaned and repaired. The crews rested and were ready for the next round.
I failed to discover the enemy’s new positions and that was already a bad omen.
My battleships found a silhouette and fired at it. The ranging shots were not very accurate but somehow one of the shots hit something. The rapid deployment aircraft were already on their way to the enemy ships.
When the attack group was intercepted by a patrol, they managed to break through without losing too much time, and the next engagement with an actual fighter force turned into a dogfight where my old A5Ns managed to overwhelm the enemy aircrafts and win.
For the cost of losing most of the torpedo bombers I managed to hit an enemy battleship and make it slow down. That was enough to let the dive bombers suicide-dive at the ship and deal additional damage to its weaponry.
Meanwhile the gunfight between the battleships continued. One of the enemy shells hit my battleship and it started smoking. They reported heavy damage and taking in a lot of water. I am about to lose another ship.
The enemy bombers tried engaging my formation and the fighters tried to stop them. Another fight began and while the fighters were busy, the bombers continued on course. The enemy torpedo bombers attack the previously damaged battleship, their attack was enough to make their situation unsalvageable. The dive bombers changed the attacked target and while they took a lot of losses, they crippled one more of my battleships.
Another group of enemy dive bombers finished off the poor wreck of a battleship but the damage they took while they attacked it and the escorting light cruiser was enough to consider them shot down.
The third group of the enemy bombers had no protection and was intercepted. The enemy dive bombers were shot down but during their destruction, the torpedo bombers managed to sneak away. And they sunk a light cruiser in the process.
While there was a small break between the bombers taking off, I sent a scouting group which gave me a great insight about the enemy position. That was a nice compensation for the lost initiative.
Another wave of attack aircraft crippled a battleship but they paid the price for that. The enemy had only a few aircraft return from that attack. The fleeing attackers were about to be intercepted when I saw another wave incoming, the new group was about to be turned into nothing.
My own counterattack was reinforced with the ‘Brave new world’ airstrike.
The enemy fighters were forced to retreat and my attack armada proceeded to the enemy main fleet.
With a lot of casualties of B4Y torpedo bombers I sunk an enemy heavy cruiser that harassed me for a long time. And then they managed to break through the remaining destroyers to attack the enemy carriers. I discovered that there are 3 of them. One of them got 2 torpedoes and a lot of bombs. That was not enough to take it down which surprised me a lot. The carriers were under attack by my BNW strike. Another carrier was hit with a lot of torpedoes and started listing, at least they are no longer able to launch planes. Especially after the successful D3A bombing. The enemy carrier is barely afloat after this run.
Soon the skies turned grey and a storm began, in such weather it was impossible to properly scout the enemy positions.
Under a heavy fire from enemy battleships I lost a heavy cruiser and a light cruiser.
The enemy aerial attacks were intercepted but no bombers were shot down. They attacked my escorts and sunk a light cruiser. I also received a minor damage to my flight deck. Their friends sunk a heavy cruiser and I saw that there might be one less light cruiser.
The fight started to yield some results. Under allied fire an enemy battleship was heavily damaged and soon sunk from a torpedo launched by one of the light cruisers. And after a couple of attack runs from my aviation another battleship was listing to its side.
Under heavy shell bombardment an enemy heavy cruiser was burning like a gas-drenched candle. I sent in my attack aircraft to finish its miserable existence. Only one group of torpedo bombers attacked it but that was enough to break it in halves. The rest of the aircraft went to sink another heavy cruiser.
After a battleship hit one of the heavy cruisers I saw a smoke which was followed by a number of bright flashes, several seconds after that its gun turrets started landing into the water around the ship. The similar fate happened to two more heavy cruisers when their ammo stowages were hit by dive bombers.
The final casualty of this engagement was a poor dreadnaught which already suffered a lot of damage and got hit by a barrage of shells before going underwater.
The second engagement ended with another miserable fail.
Fuji lost: 4 battleships, 5 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 15 destroyers.
The enemy lost: 1 battleship, 1 carrier lost its ability to attack, 3 heavy cruisers and 3 destroyers.