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[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

The sun was streaming in through a crack in the wall, and Jaguar was sitting there with his SKS Type 45 Carbine staring intently at something through said crack. He squinted for a moment, opened the bayonet with a *schlick*, and walked outside the house. I got up and peeked out the broken window to see what the deal was. Just a zombie. Jaguar stabbed him a half dozen times in the head, and that was that.

 

He walked back into the building and gave me only a passing glance before wiping the bayonet off on the sleeping form of Dragon. It coulda been ketchup and mustard on Dragon for all you knew, if it weren't for the chunks of gristle and bone suspended in it like pineapple in jello. I watched, without surprise as Dragon rotated onto his back, kicked Jaguar soundly in the hand holding the gun, causing him to drop it, and used his other leg to kick him behind the knees. He crumpled to the floor, and Dragon sat on his back, wiping the blood of the zombie into Jaguar's hair. Disgusting. I'd end up smelling that all day. Thank the Lord it was a "mature" zombie and not something new, which would have had parts of him that the crab deemed unnecessary rotting off. They rolled around on the floor together, a brutish ballet of ham-fisted combat. A better way of saying it would be that they were wrestling. Sounds less fruity too. I got bored of watching this and gave them each a good kick in the ribs, narrowly avoiding a grasping hand that reached for my shirt.

 

They disengaged and Jaguar jumped at me. I dropped my shotgun and brought my knee up to block his assault, rotating my body slightly to use his momentum against him. At the same time, I grabbed his arm and thus, with the help of his bulk, swung him to the floor. I kneeled down on his arms, pinning him quite effectively, and applied pressure to his cheek against his teeth. It's something I learned raising dogs. It hurts. I had both hands on his face, grinding his flesh against his molars and canines, and suddenly felt a sharp blow to my back. It hurt. I fell off him and thought, "I'm getting rusty." And it was true. Most zombies are slow and not a threat. Headcrabs can be dealt with from a range or with a blow from some sort of blunt object. People, on the other hand, are slippery. And can hit you in the back with their knees.

 

I roll over on my back and see Jaguar and Dragon standing over me and laughing, but that was okay. They both offered me a hand up, but I got up by myself. Kind of wished I hadn't. I sort of have a reputation for being standoffish and uptight. It was an opportunity, albeit a small one, to help alleviate this. Meh.

 

"I dunno if you have enough of that disgusting gruel to eat for breakfast, but if you do, hurry up. Time's wasting. Places to go and people to kill."

 

They didn't have any food. Fine by me. My stomach felt hungrier than a black hole with no gas giant to feed off. I wonder if anyone will know what I'm talking about in twenty years. There probably won't be Astronomy 101 in Community College, if there even are Community Colleges. You know what; forget what I said. I was hungry. I hadn't eaten in two days, but had too much pride to go foraging for a headcrab or something. So we set out for the Rustam Hulei Arsenal. Or as Jaguar coined it, "Destination: FUN!" Wacky bastard.

 

The hike took a good part of the morning. We encountered a handful of zombies; nothing too extraordinary. Jaguar's bayonet accounted for a few, and I put my axe to a few more. If you know what you are doing, zombies aren't really a threat unless they get you cornered. At least not the plain-jane types. The hulking brood zombies and the crack zombies are two entirely different propositions, but those are far less common. Except in Ravenholm.

 

The Arsenal was over the next hill according to the map, and it was. It was bigger than I expected. Something that immediately raised warning flags was the fact that most of the buildings were intact, as was the fence. The Combine hadn't blasted this place into slag for some reason. Why wasn't the resistance using this place as a Forward Operations Base?

 

"Jaguar, look at the map again. Any notes?"

 

"None."

 

"Then why aren't we using it?"

 

"Dunno."

 

Odd.

 

"Let's take it slow."

 

And so we fell into formation, the name of it long forgotten but the memories of our instructors fresh in our subconscious. My tenure in the Army seemed so long ago. But it worked. The gate to the compound was swinging on its hinges, a large padlock dangling from one of the sections of fence. Closer inspection revealed a ring of rust where the weather had taken its toll - the lock had been disturbed recently. Fascinating. We could be hot on the trail of the mystery man who shot the stiff by the foundry. Or it could just be nothing. My reverie was interrupted by gunshots.

 

Great, big, loud gunshots in quick succession. And the howl of a zombie. The howl of a crack zombie.

 

"Wanna risk it?"

 

"Sure."

 

So we ran towards the sound. More gunfire broke out, echoing off of barracks and what looked to be vehicle hangars. Then I saw something that made me halt in my tracks. The remnants of a headcrab shell.

 

When the Combine are too lazy to send a dedicated force to root out a large group of people in an area, they use biological warfare. Namely, headhumpers. They created a delivery system (although I've talked to people who say it was the United States military who created these for war after the portal storms) to give the gift of undeath to people from far away. This is what they did to Ravenholm. Headcrabs crawl out and in a few hours you can turn a dangerous population of armed paramilitarists into relatively harmless zombies. During the Seven Hour war nearly every military unit in the world was deployed. And so...

 

My train of thought was interrupted by roughly thirty zombies staggering around. More gunshots were heard. I looked at Dragon and Jaguar, and they grinned. Oi vey. I slung my shotgun over my shoulder and got out my 1911. .45 was easier to find than twelve gauge, and this would be more of a turkey shoot than anything.

 

And it was. After the first magazine of ammunition, I stopped using my handgun and just watched. Funny how you become immune to violence against things that were once people, and, according to Dr. Hesing, still are underneath the rotting exterior and alien nervous control. Sometimes, if you hurt a zombie in the right way, it will talk to you...

 

But none of these did because they all died. Dragon dumped the mag from his Kalashnikov and slapped another one in, and Jaguar had used his second stripper clip. He should really consider upgrading to something that could hold more than ten rounds. Little matter. I inspected the corpses of the fallen undead. They were wearing military overcoats, but many of them had civilian clothes, and then it dawned on me that this place had probably been used as a refugee camp right after the Seven Hour War, when the resistance was scattered and many of us in other countries. This is probably why the Resistance skirted the place in the early scoutings. In the young days, we didn't have much ammo to waste, although after the discovery of a few former Soviet arms caches this eased up.

 

"Let's go."

 

And so we did. We would probably frisk the zombies later for anything of vague interest, like a watch or a pocketknife. Hey, you never know what could be useful. And it's not like they'd be needing it. I once found a still-ticking watch buried in the flesh of a brooder zombie. Sometimes I wonder if the person that may or may not have been under that disgusting and deformed exterior could hear it. The muted sounds of the world, and then the incessant ticking of his watch to keep him company as his body became twisted and deformed and horrible to look at, and then new little crabs would begin to grow...

 

Around the next barracks was a big building with a big blast door that was recessed into the ground. The arsenal. And someone was slumped against the wall. His hands were shaking and he had a ridiculous handgun that was as big as a Bible. He pointed it at a zombie which was lumbering towards him and fired, missing by a large margin. It was very loud. The bullet left a crater the size of my fist in the pavement that made up the ground. The gun was empty. He kept pulling the trigger anyway. Jaguar shot the zombie in the head. He turned and looked at us.

 

"Come on."

 

We walked over to him, weapons drawn and he just tracked us with his eyes. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, and had a good bit of meat missing from one of his legs. We sat there and stared at him, and then I kicked the Desert Eagle Mark XIX out of his hands. It skittered along the pavement and came to rest in front of the blast door. I looked at Dragon significantly and then asked the man "Do you speak English?"

 

He just stared at me.

 

"DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?"

 

He squinted.

 

"He doesn't speak English. Too bad none of us can speak Russian. Let's just kill him."

 

"No, don't do that! I can speak English."

 

"That's good. I am going to ask you several questions and I want you to answer them truthfully."

 

"Okay, I can do that."

 

"Why are you here?"

 

"I was looking for my family."

 

"Why did you shoot the man and the girl at the refinery?"

 

"What? No! I didn't shoot them. He was my friend and he killed himself, and then the girl killed herself in sorrow. I ran away in grief... and now I am here"

 

Har har har. All evidence pointed against this. I drew my 1911 and squatted down in front of him, the barrel pointing downward.

 

"What's your name?"

 

"Cheslav Abramova."

 

"Well, Cheslav, here's the deal. I know you're lying. My friends and I here, we've done a lot of bad things in our lives. There was this guy once and he was from Russia too, and he wasn't telling us the truth either. And you know what? There's this thing called the appendix inside of your body. It has special fluid for digesting food in it. Well, we had access to some anesthetic, so we drugged him and cut that open before sewing him back up. He told us the truth about things because his body was eating itself inside out. After the second day we promised we'd kill him if he told us the truth, because that's what he really wanted to do. He wanted to die, because it hurt. He told us the truth, but because it had taken him so long I was feeling kind of cranky so I let my dog eat him. God rest Muffy's soul. Anyway, would you care to change your story?"

 

Cheslav was sweating now, but whether from the pain of his injury or from my long and (for the record, false) painful threat I couldn't tell.

 

"So Cheslav, why did you kill the man and the girl?"

 

"The man wouldn't give me the key."

 

"Why did you kill the girl?"

 

"She had a gun."

 

"Why was she naked?"

 

"Do you like my gun?"

 

"That's a retarded gun. You think that gun makes you more gangster? I'm surprised you lasted this long."

 

"It is a cool gun. It comes from America. I have the only one in Russia."

 

Dragon walked over and picked it up and said: "Now I have the only one in Russia."

 

"And technically, my dear Cheslav, we aren't in Russia. We're in the Ukraine. And you're changing the subject, and I don't like that. Why are you here?"

 

"I have friends in the De Organizatsiya. There is an armory here supposedly. Organizatsiya wants the weapons to fight the Combine."

 

"Why was the girl naked, Cheslav?"

 

"Organizatsiya sent me here but I am a failure because I can't get inside. I thought it would just be a lock or something but it's all elektronik."

 

"Cheslav, answ-"

 

My inquiry was interrupted by Jaguar's angry shout and the screaming of one of the crack zombies. He and Dragon fired their guns about the same time I whipped my head around to see one on the roof of a barracks building nearby, flinching from the shots fired at him. That wasn't so bad. One crack zombie was cake. But there were about a hundred other zombies on the ground, slowly shambling towards us. They were streaming out of the barracks and bunkers and from under the mud. The majority of them were probably on the far side of the compound and were attracted by the gunshots. Bad.

 

I shoved my 1911 back into the holster and unslung my shotgun.

 

What happened next was kind of hard to remember. It involved lots of shooting. At one point I ran out of shotgun ammunition and started using it as a club before dropping it and using my axe. The herd had started to thin. I got scratched quite nicely. Jaguar and Dragon had more ammunition than I did. I had two clips for my 1911 left when they were all dead. All but one.

 

One of the zombies I had smacked was... different. Smaller. Same arms, same split chest cavity, but it was about three feet tall and I realized it was a child. I don't know why I've never found a child zombie before. It wasn't dead. Dragon dropped the nearly empty magazine from his Kalashnikov, slapped a new one in and was about to crush its head before I stopped him. I picked the little zombie up under the shoulders and set him down in front of Cheslav.

 

"Cheslav, you could have told us about those zombies and you didn't. Now, the only thing I want to do right now is cut off your arms and legs and let this little guy wake up and eat you. But I'll give you a fighting chance, even though you're scum. I won't cut off your arms and legs."

 

I set the little zombie down in front of him, and it started to stir. Cheslav called out "Yob materi vashi!", which Dragon tells me is a very bad thing in Russian. I turned around and walked away, and his cursing reached a crescendo. I stopped for a moment, gritted my teeth and turned around and walked toward him. I stomped the head of the zombie child in, and said "I know what you did to that girl," and shot him.

 

You know how you read in books about time slowing down during moments of intense emotion? It's true. I watched in what seemed like slow motion as his face caved in, A tiny halo of blood and flesh and bone spouted up from his forehead as the bullet went in before it splashed back down and joined the rest of the debris that exited the back of his skull and painted the wall he was leaning against red. I've read somewhere before that the Colt .45 is powered by the will of the Founding Fathers of America, and is propelled with powder made of the blood of every patriot. Some days that seemed true. But not today. I sort of scared myself by doing that. It was like I lost a tiny peice of humanity by shooting someone in cold blood. I've never really killed an ordinary human before, that close or that suddenly. He was an evil man, and in America or even Russia he would have been put to death for what he had done, but I made myself the judge, jury and executioner. The scary part was I kind of liked it.

 

"Wow," said Jaguar.

 

"He deserved it," said Dragon.

 

"Shut up and swipe that card you found in the coat." I said.

 

The card worked, and the door's locks disengaged. There was a muted grinding of gears and cogs and then the door finally began to slide open. Odd. This place must be on the Combine power grid or something.

 

"Go on in, I need to get my shotgun and I'll frisk Cheslav here for anything useful."

 

They went in, and after retrieving my shotgun I cupped my hand under Cheslav's chin and lifted his head up. My first squad leader told me to never look at the eyes of the people I kill, but I did anyway that first time and I've done it to every "real" person since. Combine are faceless, and zombies don't count. His blue eyes hadn't glazed over yet. Another face to remember for the rest of my life. This made nine, along with the face that I can't forget anyway.

 

Cheslav had nothing on him but an empty mag for the Desert Eagle. I put it in my pocket and stopped for a second. Fighting the zombies had given me an unbeleivable adrenaline rush, one that I thought couldn't be topped, but Cheslav was "better," if you could call it that. I swapped mags out of my 1911 and ran into the arsenal after Jaguar and Dragon with eight in the chamber.

 

What I saw when I got in surprised me. An older man wearing a Ukrainian uniform was sitting and chatting with Jaguar and Dragon. He nodded as I entered the room. I just sort of fell down in shock because frankly the last thing I expected to see in here was a clean shaven middle aged man. He was speaking Russian, so I looked at Dragon expectantly for some sort of explanation.

 

"He wants to know why we shot Cheslav."

 

"Tell him why I shot him."

 

Dragon and the man jabbered on and on about various things, and my eyes wandered over the room. It was one of at least three, packed to the ceiling with crates of weapons and ammunition. There was a conspicious empty spot. When I pointed, the Ukrainian said something and Dragon said "Heavy weapons. They were all deployed when the Combine showed up."

 

I suddenly felt very tired. I performed a huge tactical error and fell asleep.

 

My watch said it had been fifteen minutes but it felt like five days. I guess it was psychological, like my brain needed to be rebooted or something. I was very hungry. Dragon asked the man about some sort of food, and he said many words. He then got up and went outside.

 

"He said he would make us soup. He also said we could each choose one weapon and as much ammo as we could carry from his stores here."

 

Jaguar's eyes lit up and he ran off into the other room and began opening crates. Dragon did much the same thing. I began to wander around in the huge building, bewildered by the amount of devestation that this room could unleash. There were probably a billion rounds of ammunition in here. I grabbed eight boxes of shotgun shells, loaded my shotgun and threw the rest in my pack. There were many weapons here. PKM light machine guns, SVD Dragunov sniper rifles, Kalashnikovs by the hundreds. But I wanted something special. Something unique. Something that could actually be different and make me useful in capacities that my peers couldn't be. And then I found it.

 

I was still entranced by it when the Ukrainian walked in and stood next to me. "That" he began in broken English, "Mosin-Nagant 91/30PU Sniper Rifle. Zoom scope. 7.62x54 boolets. Big boom."

 

I pointed at the World War II era weapon and looked at him. He shrugged his shoulders and pointed to a bucket of stripper clips in the corner and then again to a tin of ammunition for it. I smiled at him in gratitude and picked up the heavy weapon. It fit me perfectly. I took the dust cover off the scope and sighted it down the room. Beautiful. The action worked perfectly. I was in love.

 

I put two ridiculously heavy tins of 7.62x54 in my pack as well as the stripper clips. It was going to be a long hike back home. I wondered how Oscar was doing. And then a smell wafted into the area I was in, a smell that overpowered the stench of cosmoline and metal, a smell that spoke to me of many things that once were, before the advent of the Combine. I walked into the main room to see the Ukrainian hunched over an electric range with a great big soup pot. He had some oil in the bottom, and was sprinkling an odd looking white powder into it - once it hit the oil I could smell the fact that they were dehydrated onions. Onions. Leek of the gods. And in the bottom of the pan, braising? Cubes of meat. Not the pale meat of a headcrab, but good red meat. It looked like beef. As I found out later after the addition of more dehydrated goods, it tasted kind of sweet, like pork, but also gamey at the same time. I made commentary on this and the Dragon translated the old man's words:

 

"Regrettably, the animal was under a lot of stress before the butchering. But it's still edible at least."

 

It was good enough for me. I sent Oscar a message in a code we had devised to let him know we were all okay. It was very simple. A certain pattern of knocks meant that we were in good fortune or bad. Two days without communication and he would report us missing to New Little Odessa.

 

We spent the night there, and ate the leftovers of the man's delicious soup in the morning. Before we left, he told us that the dead man near the refinery was a new recruit assigned to the arsenal, and after it turned into a refugee camp, only he and his girlfriend escaped. He came back the next day to see everyone headcrabbed - and thinking the old man was dead too, got the biggest lock he could find and contained the infestation. Why did the old man not signal him? "He likes his solitude," said Dragon.

 

We set out that day, back for my home and their boat so that they could leave. The man in the Arsenal said that any attempt by the Resistance to seize the arms would be met with lethal force, and I didn't doubt that for one moment. The three of us made a pact to lie about where we got our new arms. He could have his solitude.

 

I noted with interest as we left that something had worried the corpse of Cheslav over the night and removed most of the meat from the bones. Maybe a ravenous horde of crows? I didn't really know or care. I was thinking about what I could do to the Combine with my new weapon. She was beautiful, the light of the sun bringing out the color in her stock and the blued metal that made up her barrel and action. I was thinking up various euphemisms for sniping people when I heard several screams, much like the screams of crack zombies. They jumped over a nearby hill and were upon us in an instant. I felt burning lines gashed into my chest and then felt myself flying through the air and hitting something hard and I don't really remember what happened after that because I blacked out.

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

anjou naruko

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

moz-screenshot-42.png

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

Space And Time

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

Still, the whole "I hurt me to hurt THEM" mindset fits Roland here.

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

You read like a spoiled child.

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

"An' you wan' me to stop de money from reaching de bigots?"

 

Charles nodded. "Both of you will pose as a couple and infiltrate the ball. Blend in, secure the donations and leave. Cyclops will handle insertion and extraction."

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

Carmelite nun

[Certified]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

Get thee gone from this place, demon of lechery

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

[Clonus]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

Electricity, particuarly in the form of nerve impulses called action potentials, is the main mechanism of signalling within the central nervous system. It works because the brain (and the body as a whole) contains a lot of charged molecules such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Cl- etc. Membranes such as those which surround cells do not readily let charged particles across them. Membranes do however contain two important types of proteins, ion channels and transporters.

 

Transporters use stored energy in order to actively transport particular ions across membranes in particular directions, against the concentration gradient. This enables there to be much more of e.g. K+ on one side of a membrane than the other. This creates both a chemical (more potassium on one side) and electrical (more positive charges on one side) gradient across the membrane. The ionic difference means that cells normally exist with a difference in voltage across the membrane (a potential gradient). The electro-chemical gradient is the basis of nerve cell signalling, because it is basically potential energy.

 

When a nerve cell receives a stimulus, it responds by opening some of its ion channels. These are usually relatively selective for some types of charged molecules e.g. K+ can pass through them but Na+ can't. Opening of these channels allows e.g. K+ to flow across the membrane down its electrochemical gradient. This results in a change in the potential gradient across the membrane. Normally neurones have a potential gradient of e.g. -70 mV between inside the cell and outside. Opening of K+ channels results in a rapid change in this, rapidly causing the potential gradient to be positive. This in turn causes some potential-sensitive ion channels to open e.g. Na+ channels. The flow of Na+, which transporters maintain at high levels on the opposite side of the membrane from K+, returns the potential gradient towards normal.

 

So, transporters create electrical gradients, which are used by nerve cell ion channels to create rapid, transient changes in potential, resulting in what we call action potentials. Action potentials travel along nerve cells as channels consecutively open and close along the length of the nerve axon. At the end of the cell, the change in potential causes the opening of ion channles selective for Ca2+. Elevated levels of Ca2+ inside the cell causes it to release molecules into the synapse that initiate signals in other cells. This is how electricity is basically the mechanism by which we think!

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

moz-screenshot-43.png

[Certified]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

[Ragitsu]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

it's not "Pro Life", it's "Anti Choice".

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Ctrl+V

 

Chapter: Protection, Comparison and Contrast, RN vs USN

 

The question of the value of armor for carrier flight decks taken in itself –but we should bear in mind that we are in fact talking about armoured hangars-- is bound up in the likely losses due to damage at the hangar deck level. Although the US lost no Essex class carriers (these 27,000 t. sd carriers are not directly comparable to the 23,000 t sd Illustrious types, but the comparison is still made) they, and more directly comparable 19,100t s.d. Enterprise, did suffer heavy casualties due primarily to slanting hits that did all or most of their damage on the hangar level. Given the factors that went into making an individual hit deadly or not, it is also worth looking at damage in smaller classes. So I spent some time with Morison’s 14 volume official history of US naval operations in the Pacific compiling the following list. (In fact, I’ve done this work several times, indication in its own right that it was time to put it in a WP file.)

Morison 12 (Leyte). N.B. casualties given below as (KIA and MIA/WIA. Morion never distinguishes KIA and MIA, but occasionally differentiates the severity of wounds. On occasion, he appears to omit some information, particularly WIA. Aircraft losses in action are not always given, but included where given.

24 October 1944. After a generally excellent interception, a leaking “Judy” (Yokosuka D4Y “Susei,” or Comet divebomber w. 1560hp radial, 5512lb weight empty, 10,267 operational, Vmax 356mph, range 954 miles, capacity for 1x550lb bomb in bomb bay, 2x66lb underwing) bombs Princeton the single bomb penetrates three decks and blast sets fires at hangar deck level that penetrate a torpedo mantlet, causing loss of ship, no details of incidental losses, which were heavy and probably implicated losses on a CA alongside.

12:357ff In the wake of Leyte the fast carriers raid the Luzon airfields in November 1944. Intrepid is hit by 1 kamikaze (hereafter k) that detonates bomb at hangar deck level. A k hits Cabot with light damage, 36/16. (Other sources give moderate to severe fragment damage, presumably from a near miss. Anyway, it might be worth confirming whether Cabot had to retire from the theatre.) Essex is hit by 1 k with 15 KIA. Intrepid hit again by k within the hour, damage reaching the hangar deck where a fire causes superficial damage and a net 69/35. Lexington takes a k. on the island with minor damage. Essex takes 1 k with minor damage.

Morison 13 (Lingayen Gulf and minor ops in Philippines).

13: 101 Omaney Bay sunk by single k that feeds penetrating bomb to hangar deck level, fatal fire. 13:180 In a strike against Formosa the fast carriers get in the way of a raid on 21 January. Langley takes 2 small bombs from an SE intruder. 2 explosions on flight deck, 3/11. Ticonderoga takes k, 550lb bomb detonates above hangar deck at 1208; at 1250 1 more hits island and avgas sets fires. Total losses 143/202, 36 a/c lost. CV retires from theatre. (151–2) Intrepid does herself. A 550lb bomb drops from harness on a taxi-ing Avenger, detonates on hangar deck, 52/105.

Morison 14, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

(53–5) An experimental operation in which Saratoga*is to give day and night advanced fighter cover for Iwo operations. In cloud at 3500ft Saratoga is attacked at 1659 by 2 ks that hit short, “hurling their bombs into the ship” and themselves hitting the ship at waterline. A 3rd a/c bombed. 2 crashed deck, fourth a/c bombs ineffectually. 42 a/c are lost aboard, 123/192. Ship retires from theatre.

(54–5) What Saratoga’s placement is intended to prevent. Bismarck Sea CVE is sunk by 1 a/c. Fire reaches avgas stores, ship abandoned with 218 KIA or WIA.

On 18–31 March the fast carriers (now TF 58) are sent in to attack Kyushu for air superiority preparatory to Okinawa. (94-100 inclusive). Oops, on 18 March the TF is rumbled, TG 58.4 attacked shortly after dawn by no more than 50 a/c. Enterprise is hit by a dud. Intrepid takes 2/43 to fragments that start fire on hangar deck. 3 DBs attack Yorktown, 1 500lb bomb passes through 1 deck and “explodes near ship’s side,” holing hull and 5/26. Listed as minor damage.

19 March TG 58.2 attacked shortly after dawn. Wasp bombed by weapon that penetrates hangar deck, bursting in no 3 deck galley. Fires on 5 decks controlled in 15min. Another k detonates alongside. 101/269. Listed as moderate damage.*Franklin is hit by 2 bombs dropped by an intruder not even detected before it bombs. One explodes on hangar deck, one above it. Internal explosions and enormous fire result. Ship not underway until 0300 20 March. 724/265. Ship retires from theatre. in the course of 20 March TF 58 withdraws slowly from its launching area, providing air cover for the slowly proceeding Franklin. Heavy air attacks appear several hours after dawn and have relatively little effect. A k. misses Hancock, which suffers minor damage. Fires due to AA splinters on Enterprise flight deck. The most important aspect of this operation is a squadron-strength attack by Bettys (Mitsubishi G4M “Betty,” a so-called heavy bomber optimised for long range operations by rigorous weight saving, with [G4M2 2xKasei 1850hp 14cyl radials, lgth 64'4.75", height 13'5.75", span 81'7.75", 18,600lb/27550 max overload 33,070, vmax 283mph, ceiling 30,000ft, torpedo carried externally). 27 Bettys carrying the first operational baku manned glide bombs were easily dealt with by Hellcats. the Bettys are reported showing marginal performance when burdened by the presumably externally-mounted bakus. A more effective heavy bomber would thus have had a serious impact on the successful retreat of TF58.) A total of 3 CV retire from theatre. (209) I have another source that apparently claims 7 in total as see below. During Ten-Go most of the massed k. attacks end up over Okinawa attacking picket destroyers and amphibious shipping, but at 1212 7 April Hancock receives a bomb that detonates on its hanger deck. Marc Mitscher evidently took a lesson from his previous experiences. During the 7 April attack a survivor of this first major k attack against the Okinawa landing (coinciding with Yamato’s fatal sortie) is pulled from the water, who claims that the next major attack is planned for 11 April. TF 58 is still in Okinawa waters providing CAP for operations around the island at that date. In anticipation Mitscher orders all bombers degassed and debombed and stored on the hangar deck (Morison 14:209). Attacks begun from 1:30 thus not being able to take advantage of darkness to mask their approach. Enterprise is first missed alongside , the results of the damaging explosions being as indicated above. 72/82 notwithstanding the fact that the bomb is reported so light that it rolls along flight deck before penetrating. (210) On 11 April 2 near miss k put Enterprise out for 48h. In same attack near miss to Essex inflicts 33/33. Ship out of action due to machinery damage. T5 58 again attacked 16 April after a near miss on 14 April when its radar screen absorbs 15 a/c. Intrepid crashed once, missed once. Fires and structural damage lead “Evil I” to finally withdraw from the theatre 10/87. On 11 May TF 58 again found. Bunker Hill*crashed by Zero. Bomb (would be 250lb if identification correct) detonates in AA. Judy achieves hit. 396/264. Ship retires from theatre. On 12–13 May Mitscher decides to draw the sting of the Japanese attacks by closing Kyushu and attacking the airfields again. The 13 May raids go as planned, but on the morning of 14 May the retreating TF 58 is again caught when 26 Japanese raiders catch up. Enterprise crashed once. Bomb penetrates “deep” into the ship.” 13/68. Enterprise retires from theatre, eighth CV to do so, 7th of Okinawa campaign out of 12 that started the campaign. 3451 American casualties in the fast carrier ops, including 1734 dead, figures exclusive of Princeton.

This is all very interesting, but what about major operations where everything went right. The Battle of the Philippine Sea is rightly accorded status as the most successful American air-sea battle after Midway. It is therefore interesting to follow ops in Morison, 8: 263ff. Ozawa elected for a complex battle plan, with Japanese carriers making an approach during the night to a flying off area about 500 miles from the Marianas, where the American TF 58 was covering the landing operations. Evidently he expected the USN to close his forces, because he chose an odd operational formation, with his semi-useless CVLs deployed downthreat with a massive AA screen to engage the USN counterstrike and divert it from the CVs which were operating behind the decoy. The only problem is that this left his CV without ASW screen, leading to the loss of 2 of 6 due to submarine attack. Overall he had 6 CVs and 3 CVLs, and only 2/3s the number of a/c enjoyed by the USN. Much emphasis is placed on the poor state of his pilots’ training but it also bears noticing that he intended to use shuttle operations with his carrier groups ending up on the Saipan airfields. This suggests low fuel states during some of the air operations over the American carrier fleet, and thus less than energetic operations. Information problems led Ozawa to finally launch 4 raids from about 8:30 on incomplete sighting information. In excellent radar conditions the first 3 raids were detected at up to 150 miles from the fleet, and easily intercepted. However, the Japanese made some use of penetration aids (window, and the 4th raid of 82 a/c, coming in from an unexpected direction after being diverted to investigate a bogus sighting, eluded CAP and was first spotted visually from the deck of Juneau, accompanying TF 58.2. AA proves sufficient to drive the raid off, and only a small proportion of it recovers to Saipan. High AA losses are claimed, but from the circumstances the fuel problem suggests itself. To put it plainly, this raid caught half the American carrier force completely unprotected from air attack except by AA. Given the limitations of AA, heavy losses ought to have resulted. They did not. Very few aircraft recovered to Saipan. Given the limitations of AA, they were not shot down. Therefore, there was some other cause for their loss. I infer fuel starvation. (272).

The crucial point is that even under nigh ideal conditions, an 82 a/c raid penetrates to one of the two major CV TG without being detected. Oops.

 

 

Treatments of the damage to various Illustrious and modified Illustrious types. (From Richard Woodman, Malta Convoys 1940–43 (London: J. Murray, 2000).

 

On 10 Jan 41, the Med Fleet, with Illustrious in company in the body of the fleet over the standing objections of RAdm Lyster, Adm Aircraft Carriers, who believed that this made the CV overly vulnerable, was headed into Malta, escorting 4 freighters and the crippled DD Gallant. At 10:06, 5 Fulmars were flown off for CAP. At 11:06 2SM 79 high level bombers were shot down, and 3 Fulmars landed on. At 11:26 2 low level TBs made a pass at the Illustrious, and 2 Fulmars chased them off. At 12:28, a Fulmar “subflight” was ready to take off, and Lyster apparently considered immediate launch, but he required explicit permission from Flag to turn into the wind, and this was not scheduled until 12:35. At 12:34 the Fleet received radar warning of an incoming raid. At 12:35 the first Fulmar was launched. At 12:36 40 German Ju 87 DBs are spotted. 2 Fulmars on flight deck landing on? 12:38 DB attack begins. 118) 30 Ju 87s attack Illustrious, diving from 12,000 feet to 7000, recovering, then making their final dives. 119–21) A bomb, assessed at 1000 lbs, passes through a portside 2 pdr S1 mount and into the sea, where it detonates and splinters strike the ship. ii) hits the flight deck at the bow and passes through into the paint room at the bow of the hangar, starting a fire. iii) A third hits S2 pom pom and kills entire crew. These three bombs were probably not 1000 lbs, as the Germans DBs did not employ a 1000 lb GP, and these were clearly high capacity weapons intended to attack the AA, probably 550lb HE. iv) a real 500kg AP struck the elevator as it was lofting a Fulmar to the flight deck. The elevator collapsed to the hangar deck and the bomb exploded there, setting the Fulmar on the elevator on fire as well as 9 armed Swordfish and 4 Fulmars on the hangar deck, and damaging the rear 4.5"batteries with splinters. A second 500kg AP (fifth hit) also strikes the aft elevator and again detonates in the hangar deck, or below it in the wardroom flat according to Robert Jackson. The third 500kg AP hits at the bow and penetrates. The fourth hits just forward of the aft elevator, penetrating the fractured deck and detonating on the hangar deck, or according to Jackson in “the compartment below” where it damages the steering lines. At this point the climbing Fulmars just launched reach the diving Stukas and interrupt their aim. By 14:00 Illustrious is underway at fleet speed of 21kts. Loss of steam steering ensues and Illustrious turns out of control in the formation, but steering is recovered by 14:30. At this time it is discovered that hydraulic oil dripping from punctured lines in the steam steering system is feeding uncontrolled fires in the hangar deck. This leak is stopped and the fires brought under control. The spray system was not effective, but direct hoses proved adequate. By 1600 Illustrious was maintaining 15kts and steering. At this time there was another DB attack, and a 500kg AP penetrated the deck just forward of the aft elevator. Once again the fractured armoured deck gives way and the bomb detonates below, I’m not sure where. At 17:30 the ship suddenly heels due to the free surface effect of the large amount of water now shipped in the hangar deck. This is controlled and corrected by heroic damage control. (128) Illustrious left Malta on 24 Jan despite being hit one more time and near missed.

The interesting thing about this narrative is that it reveals that there was not one straightforward penetration of the flight deck in its fully armoured area. The ship’s survival depended on the capability of the armour under the hangar deck to withstand splinters and generalised damage control. Notwithstanding, given similar damage the US carriers in the SW Pacific would certainly have been lost... Formidable’s damage in the Med comes from 12 a/c of Stuka Geschwader 2 on an antishipping patrol. 3 bombs, of which 1 detonates on the flight deck and 2 cut through starboard side. (87–8) Victorious also attacked during “Harpoon,” by two Re 2000 fighter-bombers that plant two bombs on the deck at low level. One breaks up on the flight deck a “dud” the other is rejected and rolls into the sea, where it detonates to no effect. N.B. my sources list this fighter as able to carry a 200kg bomb. Additional information from Robert Jackson, Strike from the Sea: A Survey of British Naval Operations, 1909–69(London: A. Baker, [1970], 80ff, 87–8, 112.

 

 

 

What about the assumption that armour is just dumb on CVs? Well, mere wargamers have always known that the modern US carriers are armoured, but here is confirmation, Captain Charles H. Brown, USN (ret.) “Up, Up, and Away,” USNI Proc. 127, 8 (August 2001): 36-40, 38.

 

More on the Esssex design: Norman Friedman tells us that the Essexes were “seriously overweight (133)”; that flight deck armour was considered and rejected (133–4) at an early stage; that the size was forced up from the Wasp design by the desire to operate more, larger, a/c, and particularly by the estimated increase in avgas use to 21,900 gall/day at an average a/c consumption of 37 gall/hour (137); armaments-wise, the 6"/47 DP was considered but rejected because it would interfere with air ops. Design grew to 27,100t thanks to outbreak of WWII, which eliminated the treaty constraints. Air group grew to be (ultimately) 74 incl. 7 utility plus 25% spares equivalent (down from original 50% target). By 1940 it was up to 82 (9 fighters added to give 37 SB, 18 TB, 3 Obs, 2 ut, 27 fighter). (139–40) Captain John McCAin argued in 39–40 strongly for an armoured flight deck. Friedman summarises his case; “[A]ny U.S. carrier, if her flight and hangar decks were crowded.... was a potential inferno and that friendly fighters could not guarantee the security of any flight deck.” (139–40). It is impossible, says the General Board, who assume that belt cannot be extended to flight deck level. (141) Much advocacy of 8" guns and 12 5" AA (Admiral Towers), while yet others argued armour versus 8" guns (Admiral Horne). BTW, all schemes for deck protection was STS. (152–3). Avgas arrangements changed after Lexington was lost to a gas explosion, reducing later ships’ capacity to 209,000 galls. (156). In action Essex actually carried 36 fighters, 18 SB, 18 DB, 18 TB and 1 liaison DB for 91 + 9 reserve. (154) By 1945 Essex’s weight critical, but first 2 completed lighter than design estimates. The real problem was weight growth topside. By 1945 Intrepid carries 382 officers (40 flying, 175 aviation, 167 ship) and 3003 enlisted (100/35/2768). They were designed for 215 (98/22/95) and 2171 (106/537/1528) and were 50% over by 1945 even once AA was removed. (212) in the Midway*design, Captain Marc Mitscher, then representing BuAer, pushes for an 8" gun, backed by Captain Crenshaw of War Plans; but he is for suppressing AA as necessary and relying on fighters granted radar. 5"/54s adopted as upshot of discussion.

[Ragitsu]

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The goateed man's fierce slam is dead on: he solidly impacts the Metrocop's chest, feeling something on them give - a rib, maybe? - before he topples down with both the cop and Vasily. Despite getting smashed by over a hundred pounds worth of human, they still manage to hold onto their weapon, though the arm with it gets sprawled along the ground.

 

Vasily's expression of anger turns into a grimace and a harsh gasp, having been unexpectedly piled on by the weight of two adults. Wasting no time, he manages to rapidly tug himself out from underneath the weight while eyeballing the barrel pointed in his general direction. Once clear, he leans forward before taking a shaky and slow step upwards.

 

Meanwhile, the Metrocop groans and starts hoisting their gun arm towards Roland...

 

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TOUCHDOWN!

 

Roland takes one point of Crushing damage to his own torso, and is presently astride the Metrocop.

[Ragitsu]

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Ritsu Tainaka

[Ragitsu]

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[Ragitsu]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKsVhyiISY8

[Ragitsu]

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[Clonus]

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[Ragitsu]

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I saw that. Disgusting.

 

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Earth Tones and Leaves

[Ragitsu]

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I am sick of the endless debates about the f**king flag. I’m sick of the ribbons and banners. The parades. The f**king holidays. I’m sick of wars that, as Wes Mendell so elegantly pointed out, have their own theme music and logos. I’m sick of politicians who wrap themselves in the red, white and blue, setting themselves up so that any criticism of them or their ideas is a criticism of America itself.

 

You’re being f**ked up the ass with the giant dick of patriotism and all you can say is, “harder, harder.” It’s a distraction, that’s all it is. Magicians call it misdirection. Hey, look over there, so you won’t notice what we’re doing over here.

 

You think you live in a free country? Bullshit. They’ve been systematically taking away your freedoms for a hundred years and most of you haven’t even noticed. It’s not new and it’s not partisan. It’s all about power.

 

Take a look at the Constitution. All those rights that you were guaranteed? How many do you think you still have?

 

The first amendment covers your right to free speech. Take a look, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

 

The very existence of the FCC blows that one out of the water. Seems somebody decided that if it’s broadcast, it’s not covered. Ask George Carlin, he’ll tell you.

 

And your freedom of religion? Doesn’t apply if you don’t have one, or your religion doesn’t include a supreme being. At least that’s the case in seven states, where someone who doesn’t believe in the existence of god is prohibited from holding office.

 

Want to assemble peacefully? You might need a permit for that. Depends on the situation and the law that covers it, even though any law covering such assembly is, well, f**king unconstitutional.

 

How about the second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms? Would you like to try counting the number of laws that infringe on that one?

 

The fourth amendment says this, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

 

The Patriot Act took care of that one. For our safety. I refer you to the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

 

Do you still think you’re free?

 

In a free society, you’d have the right to put anything into your body that you chose. Drug laws make that impossible.

 

You’d have the right to end your own life at the time of your choosing. Sorry, against the law.

 

Want someone other than the government and corporations to f**k you up the ass? Forget it, sodomy is illegal in 24 states.

 

And can anyone give me any reasonable justification for the laws against prostitution? As Carlin said, “Selling is legal, f**king is legal, why isn’t selling f**king legal?”

 

Land of the free my ass.

 

These laws and many others exist for one reason, to control us. To make us into good little sheep while the powerful live their lives of privilege, content in the knowledge that all it takes to keep us bent over is a little flag waving and a couple verses of the f**king national anthem.

 

It won’t change. You’ll keep voting for them, supporting them, gladly giving up your freedoms for a little more peace of mind. So when they take away your smokes, your red meat, your candy, don’t worry about it, it’s for your own good.

 

And when they start banning your games because they’re too violent for your children, well, that’s okay too. After all, we have to think about the children.

 

Any other freedoms you can live without? Speak up. I’m sure they’re listening……

[Cancer]

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Moreover, the temperature dependence of the resonance frequency f(T) = ω(T)/2π of TOs containing solid 4He (3–11) resembles closely that of its shear modulus μ(T) (16).

[Ragitsu]

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