Historical AAR - LST 590

[jedwardpita]

Some might be interested in the adventures of a real ship and how it relates to WITP-AE. I will follow LST 590 because one of my relatives was on it, and I have the logs and some other information for LST 590.

LST was launched on 8/19/44 from Evansville IN. It traveled down the Mississippi to New Orleans (where it was commissioned). where its weapons were installed. WITP AE gives a number for crew expertise. For the 590 only the captain (Ensign Boyd Arnett) and the baker had been on a naval ship before. Captain Arnett was a mustang (promoted from the enlisted ranks).

On September 3rd it left for Panama City Florida for maneuvers with other LSTs. When it got back it went to the Mobile AL dry dock for repair to the screw. In the game it takes two days to go into drydock and 2 days to get out. Part of this time is caused by the need to empty all the ammo entering the drydock and putting it back on the ship after leaving drydock.

On October 9,1944 LST 590 entered the canal zone and the game map.

to be continued..

[geofflambert]

Evanston has an LST on display

[jedwardpita]

Yes I am planning to visit that.

[BBfanboy]

Hard to build an AAR narrative around a ship that does not appear until 1944! It would be OK to choose another ship to steam around in until the LST 590 appears. Will be interested to hear some of the history of the ship too. [:)]

A correction on how the game handles drydocking. The game lets you put the ship in dock instantly but it takes 3 days to get it out prematurely. If it is fully repaired in the dock, it automatically goes into the list of ships disbanded in port (i.e. it does not need any time to come out of the drydock).

And if this is to be the start of your AAR, it really should be moved to the AAR section of the forum.

[Maallon]

This sounds like a fantastic idea, especially if you have some first hand information available for that ship.

Just to make things clear, are you planning to make an AAR where you actually play the game and follow along the ship or do you want to write the story that LST 590 had in real life and translate this on how this would have looked like in WITPAE terms?

[jedwardpita]

I don't have any specific game to tie the thread to. I used AAR in the title just as a pun. My purpose was to show the pacific theater from the bottom up. My other purpose was a tribute to my relative and his crew members. I hope to make this entertaining by including a lot of real life oddities and showing what is simulated in the game and what is not. I have a lot of first hand information I will share that I hope at least some people will find interesting. This is also good prep for my visit to the LST museum.

LST 590 arrived at the canal on 10/9/44 and departed for Espiritu Santos on May 12,1944. They were given sealed orders with their destination which they opened after they left port. At this time of the war the IJN sub threat in the rear areas was minimal, so they were in convoy with only LST 933. A week into the voyage LST 933 returned to Panama. LST 933 had a crew member with appendicitis and no doctor. AE certainly can't simulate ships changing course for a medical emergency.

590 arrived at its destination on 11/15/44. It went into dry dock for four days to repair the screw again (this will happen again with a strange method of repair).

One thing WITP AE does better then any other game is to convey time. Since it is so complex and time consuming people often play with one day of play time equaling one day of game time. So it is very rewarding when a planning and prep effort started months ago pays off. On the other hand, if I forget a important detail that takes time it can be very frustrating (like real life).

Next stop Bougainville (or maybe not).

[ReadyR]

Great idea. Looking forward to this.

[Maallon]

Okay, understood. Good stuff so far, will tag along.

[BBfanboy]

jedwardpita: LST 590 arrived at the canal on 10/9/44 and departed for Espiritu Santos on May 12,1944

This is confusing. 10/9/44 can be interpreted as September 10 or October 8, but you have the ship departing in MAY?

[jedwardpita]

I am sorry it was October 12,1944. Senior moment.

[dcpollay]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

jedwardpita: LST 590 arrived at the canal on 10/9/44 and departed for Espiritu Santos on May 12,1944

This is confusing. 10/9/44 can be interpreted as September 10 or October 8, but you have the ship departing in MAY?

They crossed time zones and the date line, remember. [:)]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: dcpollay

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

jedwardpita: LST 590 arrived at the canal on 10/9/44 and departed for Espiritu Santos on May 12,1944

This is confusing. 10/9/44 can be interpreted as September 10 or October 8, but you have the ship departing in MAY?

They crossed time zones and the date line, remember. [:)]

Quite a few times, it seems! [:D]

[jedwardpita]

The nest stage in the saga of the 590 was a trip with a destination of Bougainville. They departed on 11/20/44 in company with LST 637 and no escort. Normally they always traveled with another ship as a safety measure. In Game terms I remember a rule that ships in a task force with a sunken ship can pick up survivors. In addition, ships in the same task force can assist with repairs in real life and the game.

On 11/22/44 the destination was changed to Manus. I couldn't find the reason for the change. They arrived in Manus 11/27/44. Next stop Hollandia.

[jedwardpita]

Mail call bonus. I will be including part of some letters my relative sent from time to time.

Letter postmarked 8/3/44 from Evansville IN (written when the crew was manning the LST):

"They finished bringing on the pre-commissioning supplies today and were arranging the ship into a livable order.

It is surprising to see how fast they can build a ship. There are any number of different operations going on at the same time. The LST's are lined up here in the yard in all stages of completion, Wish you could see the shipyard workers. They range from old women to very young boys. The men, excepting foremen, are mostly middle aged or older. A good part of the workers here seem to be men and woemen who came in from the surrounding hill farms.

The LST we will be on is number 590-more than 350 feet long and about 50 feet wide. They have a very flat bottom, built like a tub which is suitable for running up on the beach.

... So far as I have experienced it, life at sea is not very romantic, but is rather monotonous."

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: jedwardpita

The nest stage in the saga of the 590 was a trip with a destination of Bougainville. They departed on 11/20/44 in company with LST 637 and no escort. Normally they always traveled with another ship as a safety measure. In Game terms I remember a rule that ships in a task force with a sunken ship can pick up survivors. In addition, ships in the same task force can assist with repairs in real life and the game.

On 11/22/44 the destination was changed to Manus. I couldn't find the reason for the change. They arrived in Manus 11/27/44. Next stop Hollandia.

In the game, assistance for other damaged ships at sea is limited to firefighting and only one ship can help with that. The other ships in the TF can help with AA and ASW cover but that doesn't affect the damage control efforts. And there is a chance they will save some of the passengers and the captain of the stricken ship if it sinks.

If any ship in the convoy is on fire or has spreading flooding, you will sometimes see an attack on the TF that produces no hits but shows casualties among any units being carried. That is the fire or flooding spreading during attacks - more likely to happen because the crew has been called to their Action Station (like AA guns) rather than working on damage control. So getting damaged ships away from enemy attack range is important even if you have LRCAP or strong AA/ASW assistance for it.

If the damage is very low and not spreading, many players will keep the ship in the TF and just accept the slower speed and minor risk of damage spreading. The number of escorts available is a factor in deciding whether a ship can be sent back for repairs or not. Importance to the mission is the other factor.

[BBfanboy]

Thanks for the info from the letter. We sometimes forget how unusual it was at the time to have women working at industrial jobs! I bet the 'young boys' mentioned had to be well supervised to keep their eyes on their work to avoid accidents! [;)]

[jedwardpita]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: jedwardpita

The nest stage in the saga of the 590 was a trip with a destination of Bougainville. They departed on 11/20/44 in company with LST 637 and no escort. Normally they always traveled with another ship as a safety measure. In Game terms I remember a rule that ships in a task force with a sunken ship can pick up survivors. In addition, ships in the same task force can assist with repairs in real life and the game.

On 11/22/44 the destination was changed to Manus. I couldn't find the reason for the change. They arrived in Manus 11/27/44. Next stop Hollandia.

In the game, assistance for other damaged ships at sea is limited to firefighting and only one ship can help with that. The other ships in the TF can help with AA and ASW cover but that doesn't affect the damage control efforts. And there is a chance they will save some of the passengers and the captain of the stricken ship if it sinks.

If any ship in the convoy is on fire or has spreading flooding, you will sometimes see an attack on the TF that produces no hits but shows casualties among any units being carried. That is the fire or flooding spreading during attacks - more likely to happen because the crew has been called to their Action Station (like AA guns) rather than working on damage control. So getting damaged ships away from enemy attack range is important even if you have LRCAP or strong AA/ASW assistance for it.

If the damage is very low and not spreading, many players will keep the ship in the TF and just accept the slower speed and minor risk of damage spreading. The number of escorts available is a factor in deciding whether a ship can be sent back for repairs or not. Importance to the mission is the other factor.

You really have a lot of knowledge on the rules! Thanks for your help.

[BBfanboy]

Not so much "rules" as observed game engine behaviour and insights from Alfred on what is used in the game engine calculations. Other than that, reading lots of AARs over 10 years and sandboxing a lot of stuff in my own games against the computer allows for some stuff to share. It's not official, but it gives you an idea of how things should go.

[jedwardpita]

12/8/44 Beached to unload supplies. 12/9/44 Cargo unloaded Taking cargo of US Mail and 500 tanks of acetylene. 12/12/44 Retracted and returned to anchorage. 12/18/20 Departed Manus for Hollandia in unescorted convoy of 10 LSTs. LST 721 was formation guide. 12/20/44 Arrived Hollandia after uneventful voyage.

In WITP AE ships load or unload in a port or using the amphibious task force function. The LST could unload at a dock, to a boat or ship alongside or on the beach. However, every time the LST beached it would put some wear on the hull (how much wear would depend on the surface of the beach). Therefore, beaching was avoided when possible. One method used was pontoons. LSTs could carry them strapped to the sides or overhead. The pontoons would be connected together and run up on the beach. The LST would discharge onto the pontoons. This method wasn't practical under fire, but was common in follow up waves.

[jedwardpita]

oops time travel did not occur - correct retracted date was 12/18/44.

Mail call bonus - Manus Is 12/8/44.

"Well have at least in part earned my pay again today. The work is not so hard as that I did while at home for $0.25 per hour or as mentally difficult as was college work, but is wearisome.

While we were waiting on the beach this noon, one of the men found a box of K-rations. They were surprisingly good and compact. They contain what one might usually get, or at least need, from each meal but in a condensed form [they looked like a thick chocolate bar].

The Seabees have done an astonishing amount and variety of work here. I suspect they deserve a very large amount of credit for some of the advances made over here.

The enclosed money order is your [his Mom] Christmas gift. Buy anything that will make the work (housework or laundry) easier. If such equipment is not now available then buy it when it is available --sort of a deferred Christmas present. But in any case get something that will make your work easier or more pleasant.

Merrry Christmas to all and to all a good night."