Some of you may remember my eariler tale about the heavy cruiser USS Chicago. During my current PBEM game with Drex the ship entered action with one of my carriers (I think it was the Yorktown) in September 1942. She was assigned to the Yorktown's TF as the force gave battle with the Japanese in October. First she took a torpedo hit from a air strike, but it was'nt bad damage. Then after Yorktown had her air squadrons destroyed the carrier headed back to Luganville, but the Chicago was dispatched to help protect Lunga. I had very little in the way of capital ships at the time (and no battleships yet) and Drex was sending down bomardment fleets on a semi-regular basis. In late October 1942 the Chicago and her fleet engaged in a few naval battles with the big boys of the Japanese navy (battleships) and was very much beat up on.
After the battles I was amazed at the pasting the ship had taken. Over 30 shell hits, some from 16 inch guns. Plus three torpedo hits from destroyers. Add that on to her eariler pre-battle damage. Her superstructure must have been a mess. Half her guns were knocked out of action. Engines totally destroyed. Gaping holes in the hull. System damage was 99 and float damage was 50 and increasing, plus small fires.
At the time, Lunga did'nt have a size 4 port so she slowly headed to Tulagi (well, only one day) and then docked. She made it with 99 system and 72 float damage. She sat in port for six weeks, while the float damage was repaired and the enginears tried hard to get some life out of the battered engines. Every day I expected Drex to bomb the port and sink the ship, cause one bomb or torpedo hit would have finished her. He either never saw her or did'nt consider her worth trying to break through my CAP.
Finally, in mid December 1942, after six weeks of repairs, she was down to 94 system damge and I could get (gasp!) TWO knots out of her! As no escort could be spared, she headed to Noumea alone. The trip took two weeks. I knew of a Japanese sub attacking near Noumea -- a light cruiser was fired at -- and hastily sent out a fleet of SC's to meet her. No sub attacks. She docked in Noumea on 12/30/42 and was sent back to Pearl the same day. It will take 209 days for her to reach Pearl -- seven months. I won't see her again this game, but it's still a amazing tale.
If that was a Japanese ship she never would have made it.
