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diamond dave -> RE: uss wasp (7/9/2013 2:22:03 PM)
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In my previous game, once the fast carriers started showing up I sent Wasp to the Indian Ocean where she rendered invaluable service with other Brit carriers in raiding Japanese bases and causing havoc with shipping in the eastern IO. Also managed to help recapture Port Blair too, really putting a crimp on shipping coming up the Malacca Straits. Once things cooled down, sent her back to Pearl and used her airgroups for training and refilling the reserve pools to make up for pilot losses on the fast carriers. Once I had a surplus of carriers I used her as well as Lex/Sara (which surprisingly survived this long) as a reserve force to protect against IJN incursions into my shipping lanes between the West Coast and PH. (Note- I pulled Lex/Sara from front-line service because of their fewer sorties and greater fuel consumption, but would use them sometimes to replace a carrier returning for repairs or upgrades.)
Amazingly Wasp proved to be one of my most durable carriers. She got torped on a couple occasions (once by sub, another by Betty sneaking through the fighter/AA screen), and was reduced to a burning hulk after a carrier battle in the Solomons. I actually left her for dead, intending to soak up any further Japanese carrier strikes, but not only were the Japanese not interested, she actually self-repaired enough to limp (probably sideways at that point) all the way to Sydney where I got her patched enough that she could painfully make her way to the San Diego shipyards. Not bad for one of the most lightly built and unprotected carriers in the fleet, definitely worthy to be made into a museum ship after the war ended...
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