Letters.

[Taxcutter]

Great stuff.

Puts flesh and blood onto an abstracted game.

[pws1225]

@Taxcutter: He's a hell of a writer. If you haven't already, check out his earlier AAR "The Little Ship that Could". Very good stuff. You can find it here: tm.asp?m=2560960&mpage=1&key=

[cwemyss]

I'm waiting for the hardcover version.....

[1275psi]

Dec 30th
New Years eve.

Big Ben Brown lies in his bunk, fighting that most terrible of battles.
He's going to lose it, that's inevitable, its a battle nobody in history has ever won,
but Goddamm.....now?, of all times now?
He needs to pee.
Soon
About him, Chester groans, creaks, shudders, and yet again, falls horribly into the next trough.
He can feel her, Physically slow, held back by that immeasurable weight of the swell.
And now she climbs again, and Bens world goes from horizontal, to many degrees towards the vertical


And this is the war so many sailors know, and so few who have never been to sea ever will
understand.
The sheer effort such a simple act-going to the toilet-in seas like this , can be.

Chester is heading West, through the Bass straight, through these , some of the most
violent waters in the world.
Its a shiiiite of a way to spend new years eve............
Big Ben sighs, the inevitable can't be put of any longer.
He hauls his big frame out of his bunk, careful to hang on.
This is, of course, not only unpleasant, it can be dangerous.
He feels around in the dark for foot wear, it is, of course gone. Ä silent " truk"
Through the stinking smell of the mess, 60 odd bodies gleaming in the red lights, the
swaying uniforms, the rattle and roll of a coffee cup that has escaped ( until it
destroys itself somewhere) to the ladder.

The ladder moves too, of course, a crazy carnival ride, to the main passageway above
Water races up, down it, mini tidal waves, cold, utterly unwelcoming for bare feet.
Another curse.
And now the journey, one hand on the towel maintain what modesty Ben wants (there are some
who never bother, not during these hours) the other moving from support to support.

The heads are occupied.
Two poor wretched souls. The stink of vomit. The wretch of more arriving. The slosh of water
across the floor, and the cold whoosh, gurgle of the sea rising and descending the toilets.

Ben has been at sea many a year.
Seen much, done much

But for new years, this this will never be bloody matched.................

[1275psi]

Jan 1
1942

Captain Shock.
And what of him?
Some facts.
City born, city bred
Money, a lot of money in this family.. The depression barely noticed.
A career in the Navy.......to overcome boredom?, a challenge to a Father
determined to have him join the firm?
Or something else?
A middling time at the Academy
A destroyer, another destroyer, a grounding, a school instructor.....gunnery.....
and then, then the break.
XO on Chester, as she toured South America with the President onboard.
And tour completed, promotion to Command.
A lot behind THAT tale......but not for here.

Chester labours in seas the like he has never seen before. Huge, dominating, the swells
literal cliffs advancing under a howling gale, almost horizontal rain.
Seas like these are transfixing......you stare at them, almost helpless.

Shock does , as does all on her bridge, some flinching as the sea slams against the bridge.
But his mind is not on the waves.
Not even on his ship.

Its turned to the future, to the Indies.
And he knows he is not ready.
He knows he is afraid.

[ny59giants]

I was in USN from 77 to 83. I served 2 1/2 years on FF-1079 USS Bowen which is a DE. Thankfully, I was sleeping on my stomach at that point in my life. It made it easier to sleep through the night with the ship acting like a cork. I was able to never get sea sick.

[pws1225]

[1275psi]

As Chester, her sisters battle across The great Australia bight, near the Celebes, a
shadow of what lies ahead.
CL Marblehead, destroyers Barker, Paul Jones, Stuart and Thracian attempt to intercept
an invasion convoy.
They miss.
Retreating they sink 2 small patrol vessels, but daylight brings what few Navies have
prepared for adequately.
The bombers come, high, dropping in formations, almost oblivious to the pathetic AA.
They miss.
They come again.
And again, and again.

Marbleheads task force survives this day,crews shaken from the day.
Japanese bombers, it seems, can reach almost anywhere.

Chester struggles on.
Her AA?
4 times 5 inch. Some machine guns.
Maybe Shock has a right to be afraid.

[Bif1961]

That's not illogical Mr Shock.

[1275psi]

10th January 1942

It has taken Chester nearly a week to get across the Bight.
A journey of horrors for many of her crew.
A 4 hour stop over in Freemantle, fuelling, then onwards again, North this time, up the West coast
still, to many of her crews dismay, battling the swells.
It is a tired ship, a tired crew, that arrives in Port Headland, this insignificant little
Bay on the edge of the desert..
And instantly the "horror" of sea sickness, is put into perspective..

The bay is packed with shipping.
Refugee ships from the Dutch East Indies, large and small. Flying boats nested like sea gulls.
Chaos, it seems , rules.
But its the warships that draw the gaze.
Dutch, British, several American.
All damaged. Some terribly, some slightly. One, it seems, will never leave this place.
This is bad enough.
Despair hangs over the bay. maybe its the lack of greeting, the lack of life the ships display,
but you can feel it, almost taste it in the air.

Ford views the ships, the men disconsolate on their decks.
"Someone has taken a whipping, I think...........and won't get up again"

Fortunately, he will be wrong.

[1275psi]

11 Jan 1942

Dear Mother

I never, ever, ever, will ignore your advice again.
"Don't do it Son, don't join the Navy son, "
How many times did you warn me?
I need a new stomach, I think the old one is on the deck somewhere..........

We are a long way from home right now. This Port is a bay, with a pier, a pier that
makes fishermen happy, but is useless to us.
We are getting ready, filling up with everything we might need, although I am sure we
will leave something we need behind!
The Captain spoke to us today. We are, to quote, going off to kick Jap butt.
Some of us, I think, think he is full of it.

We will see.
We sail soon, so I will get this off

All my love
Peter

[1275psi]

12/1/42

Chester sails just before dawn.
Northampton accompanies, destroyers Blue, Mugford, Ralf Talbot, Farragut and Hull lead the way
out.
Course is set North West.
Captain Shock declines to address the crew.
"You do it Ford", and with that he disappears into his cabin.

Some what surprised, Ford takes the tannoy.
"Ï don't know of our destination, but I can assure you of this;, we steam into danger.
We must do our best"

They will have to.
Over the DEI's, the storm clouds are darkening.

[1275psi]

13/1/42
Ensign Cross side slips, straightens, and brings his floatplane to bouncy, yet
competent stop a mere 30 yards from Chesters stern.
Jock, as always, has his comment, "you know, you might even make a pilot one day"
which, as always, Cross simply ignores.
He guns the throttle, keen to get the bird alongside, and under Chesters crane.
A boring search, empty seas, empty skies.
Mission ten.
Even as they bounce and dangle back to the nest, there is another explosive bang, as Dwight
is flung into the sky with his turn.
The pace is quickening.

[1275psi]

13/1/42
Shock takes the signal from young Peter.
He reads it, twice, grimaces, signs it , hands it back
There is nothing he can do about it.

But the warning is there.
CA Astoria, struck by 2 torpedoes whilst operating North of Timor by just 6
bombers.
But from where?.......the nearest known Japanese field at the moment should have been at least 600 miles
away!

They are fighting over Batavia today.
By tomorrow,the day after, we will be a lot closer to the war than that.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

13/1/42
Ensign Cross side slips, straightens, and brings his floatplane to bouncy, yet
competent stop a mere 30 yards from Chesters stern.
Jock, as always, has his comment, "you know, you might even make a pilot one day"
which, as always, Cross simply ignores.
He guns the throttle, keen to get the bird alongside, and under Chesters crane.
A boring search, empty seas, empty skies.
Mission ten.
Even as they bounce and dangle back to the nest, there is another explosive bang, as Dwight
is flung into the sky with his turn.
The pace is quickening.

Just FYI that isn't exactly how float planes were recovered underway. Usually the ship would sail in a circle to create some smoother water for the plane to land, then they would drag a pad with hooks behind the ship. The floatplane would taxi up to the pad and loops on the bottom of the float would catch the hooks. This would allow the plane to power down and keep the plane at the same speed as the ship. Then they would use the crane to lift the plane back onto the ship.

From what I read having the catapults amidship made it easier to recover the planes rather than the stern. The stern bounces around more than amidships to hooking the plane with the crane was tougher. Though in combat having the plane handling on the stern was safer. When treaty CAs got hit amidship it would start massive fires in the hanger area and effectively cut the ship in two. In some cases people in the front half of the ship had no idea if anyone was alive in the rear half and vice versa.

Bill

[1275psi]

14/1/42

Some 120 miles south east of Christmas island
Chester rolls easily in the moderate swell, the sun blazing down onto her decks.
The heat, the humidity now is aggressive, there are no dry shirts to be seen.
For the hundredth time this day, Ford removes his Cap, wipes the sweat
from his brow.
The cruiser is doing a mere 12 knots, good for the escorting destroyers sonar,
useless for creating any sort of breeze across the deck.
Its hot here on the bridge.
Below, rapidly climbing towards the intolerable.
The boiler rooms......easier not to think about it.

Shock turns to him, having brought them down to this speed
"She's your Ford, standard Box pattern"
"Any time until sir??"
Short scowls.
"Until we don't anymore, I am going below"
And just like that, it seems another ten degrees hotter up here already.

[1275psi]

15 Jan 1942
The Japanese invade Tarakan, and launch mass attacks at Palembang.

They bleed.

Enemy CVs lurk near Batavia. Type unknown. Numbers unknown
Result for trying to approach.........definitely known.



Big Ben sits in the shade of the catapults. It doesn't really help. Through the steel he can
feel the heat, the air about him beats heat.
Its hot. Bloody hot. Sweat streams from him, from the rest of the watch sitting here.
In a few minutes, they will go below, where it is truly hot.
Big Ben has served a long time, the Atlantic mostly, that one trip to South America.
That, he had thought, had been bad.
Nothing, however, has prepared them for this.
4 hours below, feeding the furnaces.........

Its going to destroy him. He just knows it.

[1275psi]

16 Jan 1942
The seas have calmed.
Not quite mirror calm, another day will see that.
Gunner Scotty stares across its endless vista with the rest of his team,
and curses that single curse.
It all looks the bloody same to him.
It is midday. Bloody midday.
The sun blazes. The waters glitter. Eyes squint against the glare.
And, like all aboard, Scotty sweats.

And wonders what in the hell they are waiting for.
And for that?.......how long?

[1275psi]

17 Jan 1942
Peter too , along with everyone else sweats
He is hot, almost as hot as the radio's in the comms centre.
Chester is under radio silence, she listens carefully, remains silent herself.

But seethes with anger and impatience.

Peter sweats, running each scrap of news to Shock.
The war in the DEI's burns bright, burns hot.

The Japanese fight there way into Palembang, at great cost it seems.
Cruisers Indianapolis , Portland and 4 destroyers smash a convoy at Batavia, another
allied task force bombard Merack
And 30 banshees enter the action at Tarakan.

Shock takes these messages silently, and broods, waiting, waiting for God knows what.





There are many other things in these messages of course.
The Japs have taken Lunga.........supported by carriers.
Reports of carriers south of the Philippines........
More in the Java sea........

How bloody many do they have??
Wherein the hell will they appear next?
Where ever they go, Japan wins.......
Chester patrols the calm waters, waiting

Shock wonders where they will go next...................

[1275psi]

18th January
Once again Cross is flung into the air, the brilliant Blue flashing
beneath his wings.
He pushes the canopy back, breathes deep of the cooling rush of wind.
Such a bloody relief to be of the ship, out of that stinking wardroom.
Good, good to be in the air again.

It will be a long patrol, again, good. Boring for sure, doomed to see nothing almost for sure,
still, still so bloody good to be in the air again.
He banks gently, headed North on his first search leg. Over there to the East, the Indies.
Over there, the war.
What was happening?. Who was winning?.
Would they ever see a bloody Jap???





Cross will not see one today.
No one will in this task group.......today.

South of Balikpapan, the Dutch steam hard, steam North , encounter Jap minesweepers.
They don't have to fight very hard, making swift work of them.
DeRuyter, little obsolescent cruiser that she is, may not be killing much, but she sends
the message.
We fight, we fight, we fight.


Chester does not turn to the fight.
She waits. She has to now. Fuel is low, very low. On the destroyers, even worse.
They run on fumes.
The war rages to the east.
Too far away now.