0832 17 October 1944
Nobutake Kondo was philosophical in the extreme about the plan as submitted. Never the less, he had never expected to be mounting the bridge of an Imperial Navy battleship operationally again either. Probably would not have been if Toyoda had been less than impressed by Kurita's lack of "offensive spirit".
Even as a battleship admiral, the American's huge superiority in aircraft would make this a nightmare. It was hoped that the resources husbanded for the "special attacks" would throw them off their game. Toyoda had been blunt in his assessment of what needed to be done and was clearly prepared to sacrifice most of the fleet to achieve it. He seemed convinced that the Americans would not be able to cope with heavy losses. If the Philippines, which clearly the attack must hit, were captured, then there would be no oil to operate the fleet anyway.
He was quite sanguine in regards to his own fate. The death of his beloved mother in an ironically small raid on Nagasaki in August had made him even more so.
The forces under his command were vast, it was true, even counting those forces the plan called to be detached under Shoji Nishimura.
As he looked across the bay at the vast bulk of Shinano, which had arrived only four days ago on the 13th, he gave thanks to the gods twice.
Firstly that Toyoda had duly kept his promise and provided whatever reinforcements that could be garnered, including most of 5th Fleet. Secondly, he had been able to use what little influence he had with the His Majesty due to their previous ties as his aide de camp to suggest that his friend Abe had not been retired and that together they had scuttled two ridiculous plans put forward by the aviation admirals, namely cutting down two battleships to hybrid carriers for low performance planes and secondly that he had her built as a battleship. Converting her would have required more resources than not.
Nobutake Kondo was philosophical in the extreme about the plan as submitted. Never the less, he had never expected to be mounting the bridge of an Imperial Navy battleship operationally again either. Probably would not have been if Toyoda had been less than impressed by Kurita's lack of "offensive spirit".
Even as a battleship admiral, the American's huge superiority in aircraft would make this a nightmare. It was hoped that the resources husbanded for the "special attacks" would throw them off their game. Toyoda had been blunt in his assessment of what needed to be done and was clearly prepared to sacrifice most of the fleet to achieve it. He seemed convinced that the Americans would not be able to cope with heavy losses. If the Philippines, which clearly the attack must hit, were captured, then there would be no oil to operate the fleet anyway.
He was quite sanguine in regards to his own fate. The death of his beloved mother in an ironically small raid on Nagasaki in August had made him even more so.
The forces under his command were vast, it was true, even counting those forces the plan called to be detached under Shoji Nishimura.
As he looked across the bay at the vast bulk of Shinano, which had arrived only four days ago on the 13th, he gave thanks to the gods twice.
Firstly that Toyoda had duly kept his promise and provided whatever reinforcements that could be garnered, including most of 5th Fleet. Secondly, he had been able to use what little influence he had with the His Majesty due to their previous ties as his aide de camp to suggest that his friend Abe had not been retired and that together they had scuttled two ridiculous plans put forward by the aviation admirals, namely cutting down two battleships to hybrid carriers for low performance planes and secondly that he had her built as a battleship. Converting her would have required more resources than not.
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