The pitiless glare of a star shell illuminates the U.S.S. Brooklyn as she lists slightly to starboard. The camera lens has foreshortened her elegant lines, making her look more like a "Monopoly Battleship". The fast firing 6" guns of the Brooklyn were a major force in the Jackson Gamers' 1:1200 scale....
WWII Naval Battle in
IRONBOTTOM SOUND
A Japanese heavy cruiser steams past peaceful tropical islands. The run down the slot for this ship and it's escorts was reported by an Australian coast-watcher and the U.S. fleet was waiting for the Japanese ships!
Two American cruisers, the U.S.S. Brooklyn and the U.S.S. New Orleans (top to bottom) formed part of the intercepting force under Rear Admiral Pitts.
Speeding through the darkness, the I.J.N. Atago is only moments from combat.
A Japanese Destroyer hunts for the enemy ships.
Japanese Admirals laugh at the pitiful American efforts to hit their ships. From Left: Diamond-San, Pepper-San, and Pitts-San.
A large shell splash towers near the U.S.S. Fletcher. This American Destroyer is cutting across the bow of the cruiser U.S.S. New Orleans.
Similar to the above, but with the cruiser in focus and not the destroyer. Note the darkness closing in as the parachute flares from the Japanese float planes began to die out.
A wild melee between Japanese and American Destroyers. Shell splashes everywhere!
The U.S.S. New Orleans with her guns trained to port
A similar shot to the one above but showing the ship at a later time, engaging to starboard. Note the lovely green (?) of a tropical sunset behind her. Since she did not survive this battle, this was the last sunset for most of her crew.
Towering waterspouts loom over a Japanese showing near misses by American shellfire. The foremast is askew, indicating previous damage to this ship. (actually, I think that it was stepped on by a gamer many years ago when we used to play these games on the floor. A concern for the models and aging baby boomers' inability to get up and down mean that we fight these games on the table-top nowadays - Jay)
American Admirals reach over the table moving ships and checking the range.
The Players
We ran a "test & learning" game first and then reset the game so that we could use the night rules. The American Players had a heavy cruiser (Jim Pitts) and a light cruiser (Robert Whitfield). Four U.S. destroyers were commanded by Tim Latham and another player who's name has not yet been released pending notification of his family.
The forces of His Imperial Japanese Majesty were two heavy cruisers (John Switzer and Fred Diamond) and four destroyers (Pepper Bradford and Sean Pitts). Sam Bush stepped in to run a Japanese destroyer late in the game after John and Pepper had to leave.
Jay Stribling was the game-master for both games.
The Results
Two U.S. and one Japanese Destroyer limped away with empty torpedo tubes. One Japanese cruiser floated with flooded engine rooms, awaiting the dawn and the U.S. planes from Henderson field on Guadalcanal. All the other ships added to the scrap metal collection on the ocean floor, helping to give this body of water it's nickname " Ironbottom Sound".
Go to the SURFACE WARSHIP rules that we used to play this game
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