Ship of Steel, Men of Valor - Cuttlefish (A) versus Cribtop (J)

[nashvillen]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

I am back! And with a lot of catching up to do.

All Hail CF! [&o][&o][&o]

[geofflambert]

Ships of Steel, Men of Valor?  I'm waiting for Grafin Zeppelin to start the AAR "Men of noodles al dente, Women of zombie teddy bears eating GI Joe for brunch. 

[Mike Solli]

Welcome back Cuttlefish. I hope all is well. It's good to have you back. [:)]

[obvert]

Wow. A great surprise to have your writing here today. I'm back into the story already.

[mazzocco]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

I am back! And with a lot of catching up to do.

welcome back Cuttlefish, i waited for news in this beautiful AAR

[adm]

[&o]Hip Hooray Hi Hip Hooray![&o]

[DOCUP]

Welcome back.  Do you feel the love Cuttlefish?

[Cuttlefish]

July 20, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: Pearl Harbor
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
Ship's Status: No damage
Fuel: 525 (100%)


“It’s not fair,” complained Gus Becken. “We get detached and everyone else gets to go back out and clobber the Japs.” Jake Reedy took a long drink of beer and set the bottle down. Behind him the tropical trees that lined the Honolulu street waved gently in the warm tropical breeze. Across the street and a few buildings down a pair of women exited the Moana Hotel and headed up the sidewalk, chatting cheerfully. Reedy watched them for a moment before responding.

“I dunno, Gus,” he said dryly. “Somehow I think I can put up with it, you know?” Becken swiveled around in the café chair to see what his friend was looking at. He turned back with a chuckle.

“Okay, yeah,” he said. “This isn’t exactly hard to take. But I really want to point that twenty of ours at something other than a target sleeve.” He took a drink of his own beer. Condensation beaded on the brown glass bottle as he set it down.

“We will,” said Reedy. “This is going to be a long war, Gus. And don’t forget – anything gets close enough for us to use the twenty, it’s going to be shooting back.” Becken grinned.

“But I need thrilling war stories to amaze the girls,” he said. “Telling them that I survived two helpings of the ship’s meatloaf doesn’t make them all wide-eyed, you know what I mean? Sure, I’ve got my looks and charm, but there’s a lot of competition around here.” Reedy snorted.

“Your looks and charm, plus a nickel, will get you a cup of coffee,” he said. “What you’ve got is persistence.” It was true. His friend was perfectly willing to be shot down in flames nine times if the tenth woman turned out to be more amenable. Becken grinned.

“I got plenty of looks and charm,” he said. “What would you know about it, anyway? You haven’t even talked to a girl in months!”

“I have Cathy,” Reedy protested. Becken sighed.

“Jake, Jake, Jake,” he said. “Cathy the bakery goddess may be a great gal, but she’s back in Scranton. That doesn’t help you get la…” Reedy held up a hand.

“I made a promise,” he said. “That means something to me.” Becken shook his head and took another drink of beer. “Would you break a promise like that?” Reedy asked him. Gus set the bottle down and looked at his friend.

“No,” he said. “Well, probably not. But Jake, you said it, this is going to be a long war.”

“I know,” sighed Reedy. He finished his beer in one long pull and stared mournfully at the empty bottle for a moment. “Believe me, I know.”

[Blackhorse]

“No,” he said. “Well, probably not. But Jake, you said it, this is going to be a long war.”

And if a long war means a long AAR, well then, so much the better.

[Cuttlefish]

July 21, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: Pearl Harbor
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
Ship's Status: No damage
Fuel: 525 (100%)


Bill Bonderman emerged from the Navy Yard, the small box of spare radio tubes that Lieutenant Coszyk had sent him to retrieve tucked securely under one arm. The road out to Hospital Point was busy with traffic, vehicles and men moving to and fro under the clear blue Hawaiian sky.

Not just men, Bonderman noted. Coming towards him was a Navy nurse. She was short and pretty, with a cute snub nose and auburn curls showing beneath her blue and white cap. Belatedly Bonderman shuffled the box he was carrying from one arm to the other and snapped her a salute. Congress had, just a few weeks ago, granted Navy nurses permanent relative rank. The woman approaching him was an ensign, with her rank shown on the sleeve of her double-breasted blue coat. The woman returned his salute.

“Ma’am,” he said as she passed. At the sound of his voice the nurse stopped suddenly and swung around to face him.

“Sailor,” she acknowledged, and then she smiled. “Well, well, if it isn’t the gallant Texan.” With a bit of a start Bonderman suddenly recognized her as the woman he had extricated from the clutches of an inebriated Pyro crewman in a Honolulu bar several months ago.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, feeling suddenly awkward.

“I’m glad I ran into you,” she said. A bit of breeze tugged at her coat. “You did me a good turn that night, and you did it without hitting anybody. I’m afraid I didn’t thank you properly.”

“No need for that, Ma’am,” he said. Joan, that was her name, he recalled. “I was happy to help.” He could feel his West Texas accent deepening but he couldn’t help it. “I, uh, I didn’t know you were in the Navy.”

“I am now,” she said. “They need nurses, you know. Thousands of them. In fact, I’m shipping out tomorrow, to the South Pacific. They’re building a Navy hospital at Noumea.”

“Good luck out there, Ma’am,” said Bonderman. “I’m aboard Gridley. I expect we’ll be out that way before too long. Maybe, ah, maybe Ah’ll run into you out there.” She looked at him seriously.

“I really hope not...Bill, wasn’t it?” Bonderman nodded.

“Bill Bonderman, yes Ma’am,” he said.

“I’m going to be at the Navy hospital,” she continued. “So, you understand if I say I really hope not to see you.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” said Bonderman. For some reason he felt oddly cheered. “Well, like I said, good luck out there.”

“You too, Texas,” she said with a smile. They exchanged salutes again and she turned and continued on towards the hospital, her heels clicking on the sidewalk.

[obvert]

If there's a gun on the wall, eventually someone will have to shoot it.

[Cuttlefish]

July 22-26, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: Pearl Harbor
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
Ship's Status: No damage
Fuel: 525 (100%)


After a week of relative quiet Gridley suddenly bustled with activity. Supplies were quickly loaded and stowed away. The deck echoed to the sound of hurrying feet and the bark of orders. The ship was preparing to leave its berth in the Southeast Loch and put out to sea.

“Have you heard anything?”

“Where are we going?”

The men had a lot of questions, but of course there were no answers. They would not learn their destination until they were at sea. The crew expected nothing less, but this did not stop them from speculating, sometimes wildly. As usual, the best – or at least most creative – rumor came from “Marbles” Jenks.

“We’re going to Uruguay,” he said. “No, really, I got it from a woman who’s a friend of one of Admiral Nimitz’s secretaries. We’re going to refloat Graf Spee under the American flag and sail her back to the Pacific.”

Rumors gave way to the business of putting out to sea. Captain Stickney maneuvered his ship adroitly through the harbor traffic, out the channel, and into the open ocean. Gridley was heading back into the war.

[Cuttlefish]

July 27, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: 275 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor
Course: Southwest
Attached to: TF 154
Mission: Bombardment
Ship's Status: No damage
Fuel: 505 (96%)


Gridley’s destination turned out to be someplace much closer and more prosaic than Montevideo; Baker Island. The small island, less than a square mile in size, had been occupied by Japan at the same time as their failed attempt to seize Canton Island to the southeast. Now the 1st Marine Raider Battalion was going to try and take it back.

With Gridley in the covering force were battleships Idaho and New Mexico, heavy cruiser Vincennes, light cruiser Honolulu, and five other destroyers – Cummings, Case, Balch, MacDonough, and Worden. In command was their old friend Admiral Shafroth. The force was to cover the landing, providing bombardment support if necessary, and remain on station in case a Japanese force sortied from the Marshalls or Gilberts to try and interfere. It was thought that the Japanese might have abandoned the island, but it was possible there were still defenders present. Either way, the Marines were to raise the US flag over the island once again.

If there were defenders their job would not be an easy one. Baker Island was sandy and almost completely flat. It was covered by grass and low shrubs but there were no trees or any other kind of cover. A failed attempt to colonize the island in the previous decade had left behind a few buildings but there was no evidence the Japanese had added any construction of their own. Complicating the attacker’s task, on the other hand, was the fact that the island was fringed by reefs and had no harbor or anchorage of any kind.

The most worrisome factor, from the point of view of Gridley’s crew, was the fact that Baker was known to be within range of Japanese long-range torpedo bombers flying out of Tabituea to the west. The big, slow battleships in the task force would be tempting targets. Aircraft carriers were supposed to be on hand to provide fighter cover. But it would be the job of the surface ships to draw the enemy’s attacks if they came.

[Cuttlefish]

July 28 – August 1, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: Baker Island
Course: None
Attached to: TF 154
Mission: Bombardment
Ship's Status: No damage
Fuel: 391 (74%)


Gridley steamed slowly back and forth just outside the reef fringing Baker Island, her guns trained shoreward, but there was no need. It was quickly apparent that there were in fact no Japanese on Baker Island. The invading Marines reached the shore and then quickly swept the island without drawing a shot or finding any evidence of defenders.

In the afternoon radar detected hostile aircraft inbound from the west. Fourteen enemy “Betty” bombers, escorted by almost two dozen Zeros, attacked the carrier force providing air cover for the invasion. Wildcats accounted for several Japanese fighters and five of the bombers while suffering only one plane lost. The remaining bombers failed to score any hits on their target, battleship North Carolina, and no further air attacks developed. Aboard Gridley the anti-aircraft guns were manned and ready but no enemy plane came within sight of the destroyer.

The first American amphibious invasion of the war was thus a bit of an anticlimax. There were few lessons learned about the difficulties of invading an enemy-held beach – those lessons lay in the future – and the prize was of modest value. But it was good for morale, both military and civilian, and on strategic maps it removed the Japanese flag positioned closest to Pearl Harbor.

Gridley and the rest of the covering force were to remain at Baker for one more day, while the rest of the Marine’s equipment and supplies were unloaded. After that they expected to return to Pearl Harbor. Instead, however, their orders called for them to proceed southwest, into the South Pacific. Though they did not know it, it would be a long time before any of the warships currently at Baker saw Pearl Harbor again.

[Cuttlefish]

August 1-4, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: 75 miles northwest of Gardner Island
Course: Southwest
Attached to: TF 154
Mission: Surface Combat
Ship's Status: No damage
Fuel: 369 (70%)


Gridley had departed Baker Island and headed south. In doing so they had crossed the equator. Joe Beaumont stood by turret 54, his gun, and watched a trio of sailors doing, or attempting to do, a can-can. All three were from New York and had been dubbed “The Rockettes.” It was all part of the first day of their initiation from Pollywogs to Shellbacks. Nearby Chief Petty Officer Odell, in his usual role as King Neptunus, added his laughter and encouragement to the stumbling sailors.

Tomorrow, Joe knew, would come the fuel-oil shampoo, the crawling through the “gauntlet,” and other fun. And then the crewmen would be Shellbacks, initiated into the Solemn Order of the Ancient Mysteries of the Deep. He knew this because he himself had undergone the ritual just a few months before.

It was funny, Joe reflected. He had never pictured having to wear a skirt or get swatted with a hose when he had pictured joining the Navy. Then again, he had never pictured having to crawl through a tunnel filled with burning tires, or spending hours in the steaming tropical heat practicing loading shells. When he had thought about it at all he had pictured something a bit more…well, heroic or adventurous or something.

And yet, as he laughed with the men around him at the antics of the poor Pollywogs, he felt something else he had never pictured. It was a sense almost of…well, almost of family, Joe thought to himself. He set a lot of store by family. He missed his mother and younger brothers every day. Yet in a way this narrow, pitching deck had become home and the men around him almost as close as brothers. Well, some of them, anyway, Joe allowed to himself. Yet all of them were crewmates and that meant something.

Joe couldn’t exactly put what it meant into words. He wasn’t good at that. But he was good at understanding things, and dimly he knew that there were bonds between he and the men around him that would never be broken. They might fade with time and distance but they would never completely disappear. It was good, knowing this. It felt like…it felt like belonging somewhere.

It was a long way from a farm in northern Michigan to the equatorial waters of the Pacific, Joe thought. It was a long way to come to find yourself home.

[Cuttlefish]

August 5-9, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: 40 miles west of Tongatapu
Course: West
Attached to: TF 154
Mission: Surface Combat
Ship's Status: Sys damage 1
Fuel: 346 (65%)


Tongatapu is the principal island of the Kingdom of Tonga. Admiral Shafroth’s task force has been ordered to linger to the west of the island and await rendezvous with other elements of the fleet. Just what these elements might be is unknown to Gridley’s crew until they start showing up. But when all of them are together they make an impressive array, even spread out across forty miles of ocean. There are three carrier task forces and two surface combat groups, including Shafroth’s. Together they have six aircraft carriers, three battleships, seven heavy cruisers, ten light or anti-aircraft cruisers, and twenty-seven destroyers.

Tongatapu, it appears, was chosen as a rendezvous because it was thought to be far enough south of Fiji to avoid detection by prowling Japanese submarines. And in fact as all the task forces come together and prepare to steam west there appears to be no sign that they have been detected by the Japanese. But appearances can be deceiving, especially in warfare.

***

“What’ve you got, Ed?” Admiral Nimitz asked his young intelligence officer, Edwin Layton, as he stepped out of the conference room. Layton had urgently requested to see him and Nimitz knew that Layton would not interrupt him unless it was important. Layton pulled the door closed behind the admiral.

“We’ve just decoded a transmission from Kwajalein to the Jap high command,” he said. “Specifically from the Sixth Fleet HQ there.”

“Go on,” said Nimitz. Layton held up several sheets of paper.

“You want the long version or the short version?” Layton asked.

“I’ve got a meeting to get back to,” said his commander. “Just give me the short version for now.”

“Well, sir,” said Layton, “leaving out the details and the formal Japanese, what the message amounts to is ‘holy crap, there’s a lot of American ships off Tonga’.”

The admiral’s bushy white eyebrows rose slightly. He extended a hand.

“The meeting can wait,” he said. “I’d better take a look at that report.”

[AcePylut]

lol

[Cuttlefish]

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: 300 miles south of Noumea
Course: West
Attached to: TF 154
Mission: Surface Combat
Ship's Status: Sys damage 1
Fuel: 289 (55%)


Gridley steamed almost due west under clear skies. The destroyer was the first of three trailing destroyers in the task force, sailing just behind Honolulu. Ahead of the light cruiser were the two battleships. The presence of Idaho and New Mexico meant that the task force was cruising at less than a breakneck pace. The big ships might have been powerful but they were not fast.

News had spread throughout Gridley that their destination was Sydney. This information was taken with a grain of salt by the veterans among the crew. They had been promised Sydney before and always been thwarted.

“We got to see Darwin last time,” said “Fish” Herring at chow. “And Perth, don’t forget Perth.”

“Yeah,” said Jake Reedy, reaching for more meatloaf. “And we never got off the ship in either place.” Those stops had been during “The Great Australian Walkabout,” when Gridley had been part of a force that hoped to contest the Japanese landing at Port Moresby. Instead they had been forced to circle all the way around Australia to avoid the Japanese carriers.

“I hope we get a chance this time,” Morris Crenshaw said wistfully. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about Sydney.”

“It’s supposed to be a great liberty port,” acknowledged Reedy.

“Well, we aren’t likely to be sent back to Darwin,” said Al Tannen sourly. This comment cast a pall over the discussion. Darwin was now the headquarters of the Japanese occupation of the western part of Australia.

“Maybe we’re on our way to help take it back,” said Fish after a moment. It didn’t seem impossible. The papers they saw back at Pearl had been full of calls for the military to drive the enemy out of Australia.

“Maybe,” said Reedy.

“Hey, maybe we’ll get to spend a month in Sydney, drinking good Australian beer and meeting pretty Australian girls!” said Crenshaw. Everyone laughed. Whatever the Navy had in mind for them, they knew, it surely wouldn’t include that.

[Cuttlefish]

August 13-16, 1942

Aboard USS Gridley

Location: Sydney
Course: None
Attached to: TF 154
Mission: Surface Combat
Ship's Status: Sys damage 1
Fuel: 525 (100%)


Morning finds the harbor at Sydney crowded with American warships. Unfortunately, there is more than one type of rising sun over the port this day.

“What in the hell is a Jap plane doing here?” asked “Red” Sherwood, Gridley’s torpedo officer. He was standing on the starboard wing of the bridge watching a small, distant plane. It was being chased by several black bursts of anti-aircraft fire, all of which fell well short of the target. Even as he watched the intruder disappeared into some clouds,

“It’s a Glen,” said Jack Cameron, the gunnery officer, who was standing beside him. “Some of their submarines carry them.” Sherwood lowered his binoculars.

“Carry them? Where?” asked Sherwood. He had been aboard submarines and his mind boggled at the thought of one of them carrying an airplane. Cameron shrugged.

“I dunno,” he said. “Maybe they carry them disassembled and put them together on deck when they surface.”

“That’s pretty clever, however they do it,” said Sherwood. “We have anything like that?”

“Not that I ever heard,” Cameron said. “You’d think the damned things would be hard to use, but they seem to be everywhere.”

“Nice for the Japs,” said Sherwood. “But I don’t like having them know where we are.”

“Neither do I,” said Cameron. “I’ll bet the brass doesn’t much like it either. But it’s their problem.”

“Yeah, it’s their problem until it gets us sunk,” said Sherwood wryly. “Then it’s our problem.” Cameron clapped him on the shoulder.

“I’d say the biggest worry right now,” he said, “is that this might send us scurrying back out of the harbor. I was looking forward to liberty here.” He looked across the water at the city.

“I hadn’t thought of that!” said Sherwood. He shook his fist at the cloud bank where the Glen had disappeared. “Damn you, you little sneak!”

[princep01]

The Insidious Glen is, without the slightest doubt, the most infernal machine devised by man. The Kate has a sharp sting, the Val drops a mighty egg, but the sneaking snake known as the Insidious Glen (most foul) brings home intelligence without a peer. It is proof, yet again, that the pen is indeed more mighty than the sword.