So, I was bored, F'd around on Wikipedia, found the page for Pearl, and that ended with me reading the section about the Arizona sinking.
Then, I thought, What about no?
There are no winners and losers in war, only survivors.
But whoever said that surviving was the better option is a fool and a liar.
Goldie went down first, she didn't even see the three flyboys drop a spread on her as she woke up for a general inspection. Portholes were open, bulkheads as well. When the spread ripped through her stern section, it ripped a hole through three bulkhead walls right into her engine room. Stern first, she was the first to slip into the waterbed.
WeeVee took center stage next, trying to make a dash out past me into the larger harbor. She was so busy trying to spin up and out that she didn't see when she sailed into the path of several bombers that were making a dash for me. She took two bombs into her forecastle, and a lone torpedo that sailed right into the center of her keel made her victim #2 as she listed port before going bottoms up.
Mary didn't even have the time to mourn before several bombers ripped into her superstructure, the collective 750lb worth of bombs riddled into her conning tower. Her 5"/25 caliber AA guns and 1-1"/75 caliber AA guns falling quiet when the bridge and radar towers collapse into her bow before she joins her sister head first
It hadn't even taken a full half-hour, and a third of us were already gone.
Then a second wave followed.
Oakie was next on the Reapers docket, having been blocked in by Goldie's sinking hull. With lit fuel slicks all around her, she could do nothing but scream out in pain and terror as the flames crept closer, licking at her hull. Another torpedo would slam into her fuel tanks and with little fanfare, the second of the Nevada-class Standard Battleships would light up internally before sinking into the waves.
It was at this point that Silver and Tenny would try for a mad dash into open waters. Both spun up their engines and cut through the oil slicks into the larger harbor. My captain wouldn't follow, as we were still connected to Vestal and were providing AA cover for Ford Island.
It would only be fitting, the lead ships of their classes would be the last ones on this mortal plane between them and their sisters.
Tenny would fall next, having taken too sharp of a turn trying to cut in front of me. Thanks to the immense smoke in the air, it would be too late when her helmsman realized he was going to sail into the docks of Ford Island. Her captain ordered all reverse and a hard right to try and stop in front of the docks. Unfortunately, the sinking of the Titanic proved this maneuver to be fatal, as when she called for reverse and hard right, all it solved was to let kinetic energy continue her course and to slow her down enough to make the turn right meaningless. She would slam, port side first, into the docks, listing and eventually collapsing altogether onto the island.
That just left…
"NEVADA!" I yelled out, as the very first Standard Battleship of the US Navy tried to hamfist her way through to the open seas of the Pacific.
She turned back towards me, "Don't worry!" She gave me a weak grin and a thumbs up, even as I tried to alert her to the incoming stick of dive bombers. "I'll make it ou-"
KA-RACK!
Bado-oooommm...
….eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Whatever she was going to say was immediately cut off when the bombers released their payload. Two slammed right into her forecastle, lighting it up like a candle. The final bomber had come down center-left, and placed his bomb at a slight angle so it would arc forward instead of down.
It would slam right behind the deck of her B turret..
While the ringing in my ear wouldn't stop, I could still see the aftermath of the final bomb, as it ripped through the bulkheads and into her forward magazine hold.
Grrr-Oooo-Nnnn...
Nevada's hull lurched up in the ensuing explosion, before snapping in two like a twig and collapsing into each other. Stern slipped first, as Nevada's forward A turret sent off one last announcing salvo, before joining it's other half. The last glimpses that I saw of Silver was her body ripped in two, as she laid unceremoniously against one of her AA turrets.
We didn't see anybody swim up.
As sound slowly returned to my ears, and I could once again hear the sounds of men screaming, and Zero's diving, I took a glance back at the only other battleship left besides me.
Big Sis looked better than I did, that was more certain. She had been in drydock during the whole fight, and that might have just been her saving grace. Coupled AA fire from the mainland and her guns meant that she was significantly more defended than any of us were.
I, on the other hand, look like I had just walked into a boxing ring and got thrown around like a wet towel. Any torpedoes that could have come my way were blocked by WeeVee's sunken hulk, but that doesn't mean I wasn't thrown around myself. Forward turrets A and B were both crippled and unresponsive, and it was only a sheer miracle that the next bomb didn't end up in my magazine like it did with Silver.
We both got into full battle readiness, and I, only now, began my slow march forward into the larger harbor. It was likely they would send a third wave to finish off the job, and I wasn't too keen on staying in one spot when that happens. Big Sis couldn't move, but that wasn't to say her crew wasn't already scrambling to get on her and ready the AA for when it happens.
And yet, it never happens.
The third wave never comes. There would be no horrendous buzzing sounds, no cacophony of detonating torpedoes and explosives on the base. We sat there for a perfect 20 minutes, quietly pulling out survivors from Tenny's hull, watching the skies and waiting for the next Aichi to poke it's head out so we could put a 3 in AA shell into its engine, and yet they never show.
It was now 09:30 in the morning, Pacific Standard Time. The fight, if you could call it that, only lasted for 90 minutes, and already 8,100 sailors were dead.
It was only now that I realized that the blurring of my eyes was not from the searing hot smoke, but from my own tears as Big Sis came behind me and hugged me softly. Together, we could only watch the fires rage on our fallen friends as the sun began to rise into the sky. Hiccuping, I could only bury my head into her chest, as she rubbed my back softly.
Whoever said surviving was the better option is a fool and a liar.
I guess I'm a fool myself.
fin.