1275psi -> RE: Letters from a Prime Minister (11/16/2015 7:27:30 AM)
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Jan 24th near Umnak Captain Fischer stands erect on the bridge of Warspite. To a man, his crew trust him. It is a trust well placed. Warspite is doing 21 knots, 21 knots of pounding, booming progress into a steep, steep rising white capped sea. Every ten seconds, her bow, invisible in this dark, smashes through a wall of water, sending a waterfall crashing into her tower, flinging spray a hundred feet above, swept into the darl. A great plow, the great lady carves her way . The dark is breaking, dawn is soon. And ahead, starshell, flashes. Gunfire AVD Williamson, Casco, running, as best they can, for their lives. "We have a target sir" "very good........you may open fire guns" "Fighting, in a cold, cold hell" Interviews with the men of the Umnak campaign. ...Stoker Hammond, Warspite.... "Noise. That's what I remember the most. Noise, and the boom, boom, boom of us crashing through the swells..........heavens, I never thought the old girl could go so hard. 21 knots , that's what the Engineer said we were doing.......22 I reckon. And then the guns......salvos, solid 4 gun salvos, regular as a heart beat.... Dust and crap falling all around us..... "Were you scared?" "Scared?.....think of it this way young man. Ever heard the term, the devils drums? There we were, right in amongst em............boom, boom, boom! Cmdr Smith Gunnery Officer .it was a good show.......first star shells lit em up, two Furataka's, a couple of Taenryu CLs, usual pack of accompanying vermin. Poor barsteds, just as busy trying to stay afloat in the seas as fight us. Surprise was complete, and my gunnery was good. First salvo, 3 solid hits fwd on the Furataka........lovely mess, turrets going up in the air like fountains.......lovely stuff, switched to the Tenryu's.... Seaman Albert helmsman Destroyer Downes never seen anything like it. Seas huge....and bloody freezing too. captain tucked us right up in under Warspites stern, seeking the calmer water in her wake........ God, her shooting, like a heartbeat....bang, bang, bang....great white flashes, giving em hell she was. But, of course , being so close to her, with all that stuff coming her way, we were sure to catch a bit of them ourselves........ Captain Uguri, destroyer Sawakaze it was, to be honest, horrifying. Out of the dark, this great monster, shooting. shooting First the Furataka, bang!, bang!, bang, gone! I did not have any torpedoes left, and what could I do with my pop guns, especially in a sea like that. Then Tenryu, bang!, bang! then the Tatsuta, bang!, bang!...15 inch shells........and I remember, does this ship ever miss? And then, and then, she turned her guns on us...bang! And down we went........ Warspite empties her magazines. her escorts, DD Downes, Cummins take damage. Furataka sunk, both CLs heavily damaged, one possibly sunk, a destroyer (the 18th already for the war) sunk, all other ships damaged warspite takes 6 hits Stout armour, stout hearts. She is barely scratched. Rule Britannia!
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