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Author’s notes: This AAR is my attempt at providing an Allied perspective of my game vs. Cuttlefish ( tm.asp?m=2494582 ). I wanted to do something “fun”, and since I have limited time available to write an AAR, I have decided on use this type of format. It will allow me to submit periodic “Diary entrees” without having to give a complete play-by-play of the whole war.

The idea is create a diary of a newly commissioned ensign (Malcolm Redding) in the US Navy. As the war progresses, Ensign Redding will obtain a position within the Navy that will allow him to see the whole picture of what is going on in the war. Then, throughout the war, he will have different assignments and missions that I hope will pique the reader’s interest.

Some caveats:

1. I am not a Navy guy….I’m Army. I was going to write this from an Army soldier’s point of view, but decided that this might limit me and make it more difficult. So, with that being said, I hereby apologize to you Navy types if I get some things wrong in regards to naval lore and/or structure.

2. I have never written anything like this other then the occasional college paper. My creative writing skills may be lacking. If so, please bear with me and I might get better as the story evolves. I have no real idea where I am going with the story. I’m just going to let it develop as it happens.

3. Between work and home life (and of course doing AE turns), my spare time is limited. There may be long periods (2 or 3 weeks) where I may not post any new entrees. If these long periods occur, I will attempt to “catch-up” in a fashion as one would do when writing in a diary.

4. There will be no AE combat reports. There will be little “specific” information, but I will try to hit the “big” items.

5. At this time, there will be very little personal drama….maybe some off-duty adventure, but no “lady in every port”….and certainly, no love triangle. So if you are an AFB (Affleck fan boy) this AAR will not be for you.

Anyway, I hope this comes out as an enjoyable read.

PROLOGUE

December 6, 1941

My name is Ensign Malcolm V. Redding and I am 23 years old. I was born in Marshfield, Oregon and have lived there my entire life until the day I left to attend Annapolis.

Marshfield was a decent place for a boy from a poor logging family to grow up, but things had changed over the last few years. My mother passed away 6 years ago from pneumonia and my father died a couple of years later in a logging accident. Without any other family to speak of, I could see no reason to stay in the bay area. I had too many memories that haunted me and there had been too many changes in the area. Heck, they were even talking about changing the name of Marshfield to Coos Bay. Why, I don’t know. It sounded stupid to me.

After my father died, for a lack of anything better to do, I had applied for admittance into the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. I wrote a letter to my Congressman, Frederick Steiwer, asking for his nomination. To my surprise, Mr. Steiwer was willing to nominate me and my application was accepted. I don’t really know why I was accepted….I didn’t have any money nor was I from a family of influence. Oh well, I didn’t really care why. I was just happy that I had something to look forward to and that would allow me to leave the dank town of Marshfield. So, in August of 1936, I boarded a bus to start my new life in Maryland.

The Naval Academy was a challenge. All of that studying…exercising before the sun came up…learning to be a proper gentleman…and of course, learning the “Navy Way”. I have always been pretty good with learning things and the exercising wasn’t much harder then bucking trees or gaffing logs off of a tug. However, the “gentleman” part and learning the ways of the Navy took some getting use to. Anyway, after 4 long years, I was finally able to graduate in June of 1940.

After graduation, I was assigned as an assistant gunnery officer aboard the USS Alywin (DD-355), stationed out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Alywin is a Farragut class Destroyer commanded by Lt. Comdr. Robert H. Rodgers. She is a good ship, but is starting to show some wear. I joined the ship while it was in for repairs at Mare Island. On the 22nd of September, 1940, I finally went to sea with the Alywin as it returned to Pearl.

For the past year I have been learning all of the different positions on the ship. In March ’41 I was assign as the main gunnery officer in charge of the #4 gun and the stern depth charge racks. Shortly after this assignment, the Alywin was a participant in a freak accident.

On March 17th we were participating in a tactical maneuver. There was no moon out this night and the fog was laying low to the water. Near the end of the exercise, the port lookout spotted a ship coming out of the fog. It was the Farragut and it was on a collision course with us. Both ships tried to back emergency full, but it was too late. The Farragut hit us on the port side at 90-degrees and nearly severed our bow. The Alywin immediately caught fire. The flames were as high as our masthead. Everything I owned that wasn’t with me was burnt up when the fire ran through the officer’s quarters….including my old diary. It took help from 3 other ships to get the fires under control that night.

Then, to make matters worse, as we were being towed back to Pearl by the USS Detroit, the tow cable parted. We had to suffer the indignities of being towed into port stern first by the USS Turkey.

The ship was in repairs for 5 months and still has that “burnt electrical” smell to it. Sometimes the smell is overwhelming to the point where it is nauseating.

Well, it is getting late and I have duty tomorrow morning. It will be Sunday, so it should be a fairly slow day. We will be moored and just doing a bit of maintenance on the poor girl. Maybe someone can find a way to get rid of the burnt electrical smell.

USS Alywin

Good luck with your AAR and your battles against the mighty Cuttlefish [;)]

Maybe someone can find a way to get rid of the burnt electrical smell.

Yes -- but you won't like the burning fuel smell that replaces it. According to history, Alwyn will suffer light damage from a near-miss. But Cuttlefish's AAR is light on details of his PH strike, so we'll see.