Seems more likely right now it will be Saratoga (a recent tweet mentions a large distinctive funnel for the foreign CV to be added to the game this next event).
Seems more likely right now it will be Saratoga (a recent tweet mentions a large distinctive funnel for the foreign CV to be added to the game this next event).
But why Saratoga? We need Enterprise for the Enterprise trauma group.
But why Saratoga? We need Enterprise for the Enterprise trauma group.
Maybe they are waiting for a larger event? Or she's too traumatic? Sara missed a bunch of action in the war, but survived, was a night carrier, and was with Nagato and Prinz for some atomic testing. She is one of only three American carriers that survived the entire war (the others being Enterprise, who is legendary, and Ranger, who was in the Atlantic for most of the war and never saw combat against the Japanese.)
Sara had a bad habit of running into things or being torpedoed, and missing stuff. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on the last day of the Battle of Midway and brought replacement planes for Enterprise and Hornet, plus brought the fleet's strength back up to three carrier after the loss of Yorktown the day before she met up with Enterprise.
She was left along during 1943 for a little bit while Enterprise was repaired, but got help from the British carrier Victorious for a few months, than was alone again until the light carrier Princeton arrived. She has sailed with two of Warspite's sister ships for Operation Cockpit.
Sara is RJ's personal trauma. Several cruisers were beat up by Sara at Rabual in November of 1943.
It seems Sara took the most veterans home after the war in Operation Magic Carpet.
Seems more likely right now it will be Saratoga (a recent tweet mentions a large distinctive funnel for the foreign CV to be added to the game this next event).
It's both Saratoga OR Lady Lex.
I'd personally have Lady Lex instead, a ship that went down fighting with a much more impressive service history that went down fighting, rather than a ship helped with one campaign (Guadalcanal) and then spent the rest of the war getting torpedo'd and then converted into a training ship.
I'd personally have Lady Lex instead, a ship that went down fighting with a much more impressive service history that went down fighting, rather than a ship helped with one campaign (Guadalcanal) and then spent the rest of the war getting torpedo'd and then converted into a training ship.
The likely French ship getting introduced likely did less than Sara, the Seaplane Carrier Commandant Teste seems the likely vessel.
But why Saratoga? We need Enterprise for the Enterprise trauma group.
Next may is the 75th anniversary of Midway, do the math.
PSYNtech said:
It's both Saratoga OR Lady Lex.
I'd personally have Lady Lex instead, a ship that went down fighting with a much more impressive service history that went down fighting, rather than a ship helped with one campaign (Guadalcanal) and then spent the rest of the war getting torpedo'd and then converted into a training ship.
Lexington did nothing, she fought one battle and then was destroyed by her crew's own incompetence after sustaining minor damage that she had basically already shrugged off (make over 20 knots and recovering aircraft) at the very start of the war.
Saratoga did considerably more then that: -She was with Enterprise at Eastern Solomons and sank RJ -She was with Enterprise as the only operational CVs for some months in late 1942 early 43 providing a critical deterrent and cover during the various operations up the Solomon chain -Along with Victorious She covered the invasion of New Georgia island operation against any intervention by enemy CVs along with attacking air fields in the area to keep them from interfering -Shortly after Empress Augusta bay almost alone she launched an air raid on Rabual that damaged half a dozen cruisers that had been brought up and were a serious threat to the comparatively small covering force available ending said threat in a matter of minutes in one of the most successful single fleet carrier raids of the war. -Took part in several of the first large amphibious operations of 1944 -Then was sent to operate with the Indian Ocean fleet of the Royal Navy conducting a number raids on east indies oil facilitates and for familiarization for future joint operations. -Became along with Enterprise one of the first carriers specifically trained and equipped for night operations which became increasingly important as the Japanese began to try and rely more on night intruder type operations given the suicidal nature of daylight attacks by that time.
Saratoga contributed far more to the overall war effort then Lexington ever did. There's no doubt that she had some bad luck in 1942 with submarines and her presence at Coral Sea, Midway, or Santa Cruz could have been game changer, but such are the foibles of war. If anything though such things just make her more interesting as a possible character IMO. Lacking the 'star power' of others with a more 'work a day' type career, and probably carrying considerable baggage and mixed feelings regarding her career and the course of the war that she saw from beginning to end, there's way more to play with.
Then you get into all her pre-war history Saratoga was actually the first USN fleet carrier, she was finished months before her nameship sister and together they basically built the core of the USN carrier force, almost all the senior officers that ran that force during WWII trained on or commanded one of the sisters before it. They were basically directly equivalent to the IJN First Carrier Division, hell they were the First Carrier Division of the USN, literally that was their designation going into the war.
The 'crossroads connection' is just a bonus.
I'll also fully admit to having a personal fondness for her. I think the Lexington class in general are probably the coolest looking CVs of the war (those funnels, the huge sweeping battle cruiser lines, and the enclosed bows made them look quite rakish IMO) and Saratoga as a ship had a 'hard luck' history I always found kind of endearing.
Lexington did nothing, she fought one battle and then was destroyed by her crew's own incompetence after sustaining minor damage that she had basically already shrugged off (make over 20 knots and recovering aircraft) at the very start of the war.
That's an unfair assessment.
First off, Lexington was in three battles. Just because missions weren't completed doesn't mean combat didn't take place.
Secondly, since when does two torpedoes and two bombs, including detonations of ammo magazines, count as "light damage"? (By that assessment, Kaga was sunk through harsh language, and Taihou and Shinano through funny looks, alone...)
Thirdly, the fact that they could recover aircraft in spite of heavy damage, and the fact that they could stave off damage far in excess of what would have sent the crews of some other navies jumping into the sea (*cough* *cough Ark Royal *cough*) is a sign of how competent the crew was in spite of suffering critical damage.
First off, Lexington was in three battles. Just because missions weren't completed doesn't mean combat didn't take place.
Yes fine, it was involved in two other ultimately inconsequential skirmishes that accomplished nothing before Coral Sea.
Secondly, since when does two torpedoes and two bombs, including detonations of ammo magazines, count as "light damage"? (By that assessment, Kaga was sunk through harsh language, and Taihou and Shinano through funny looks, alone...)
Thirdly, the fact that they could recover aircraft in spite of heavy damage, and the fact that they could stave off damage far in excess of what would have sent the crews of some other navies jumping into the sea (*cough* *cough Ark Royal *cough*) is a sign of how competent the crew was in spite of suffering critical damage.
Lexington was not in any "Critically" damaged as result of damage directly inflicted by enemy weapons. The bomb hits were small instantaneous fused weapons that failed to penetrate any notable depth into the ship, one started a fire in a ready use locker immedatley off one of the 5 inch AA guns, but that was quickly controlled and was zero threat to the ship. The other struck the stack and did nothing but kill a few exposed gunners with fragments produce a few new holes for smoke to escape through. They did not effect any part of the ship beyond these peripheral superstructures in any way.
A ready use locker directly off a gun is not the same as an actual magazine by the way, but I presume that is what you were referring too.
As for the torpedoes, first off not all torpedoes are created equal. In particular most of the aerial torpedoes in WWII had a warhead weight smaller then most submarine or surface weapon. The Type 91 torpedo deployed against Lexington had about 200 kilo warhead, this was within the range of what the class's TDS had been intended to defeat, and in fact the Lexington classes TDS proved to be quite good in practice. Saratoga basically resisted a 300 kilo charge for instance, only having some flooding due to a result of a poor piping arrangement and sub-optimal liquid-void set up due to ballasting, but the actual bulkheads held.
In Lexington's case the entire system held, the bulkheads were not buckled and there was only minor seepage, a minor list was corrected by a simple transfer of liquids between tanks and the ship's immediate operation was not particularity affected. The only notable damage was that one of the compartments damaged in the TDS had contained Avgas, and fumes began seeping from it through some of the aforementioned minor deformations. Proper ventilation could have easily handled this, it wasn't done and was allowed to build up over an extended period and eventually reached an area containing electrical equipment.
The resulting fuel air explosion was the sole cause of the ship's loss, none of the weapons themselves had inflicted damage that posed any serious threat to the ships survival, or really even it's immediate operational capabilities. No one rushed to get off it like Ark Royal because it was blinding obvious to everyone that the damage was no actual threat to the ship's survival, and it wasn't if proper procedures had been followed in mitigating it's side effects.
Kaga is an entirely different animal, bombs directly penetrated into a hanger full of fueled aircraft and littered explosives (though one could still argue a better ship and crew might have survived, see Franklin for the best example). Shinano wasn't even finished with ineffective water tight doors and without a full and trained crew. Ark Royal was a clusterfuck that is in fact often compared to Lexington in a "this ship should have have been lost" way, but it's damage was in fact much worse. The torpedo that hit ran deep, avoided the TDS, and struck near the keel causing enough flooding as a direct result that while the ship was judged salvageable on review it was clearly immediately out of action. Taiho of course is rightly and widely regarded as a ship that was sunk basically solely by massively incompetent damage control, but she too had arguably sustained worse damage then Lexington as the larger warhead of the US submarine torpedo had in fact breached her hull while the bulkheads on Lexington were not defeated.
The long and short of it is that Lexington's designers had done an excellent job, her defenses performed almost perfectly more or less entirely mitigating the impact of the enemy's weaponry. She was able to continue in action and was in zero danger of sinking, but it was all undone by poor choices and a lack of knowledge among her crew. That ship by all rights should have sailed away from that battle with a clear tactical victory and some damage that might have taken a few months to patch, it should never have been lost but for catastrophically poor damage control. Some of these issues had in fact been known even before her loss and so should not really have been entirely unknown to the experts among the crew.(it was suggested for instance that the compartments inboard of the Avgas tanks within the TDS should be permanently void and filled with inert gas because the risk of seepage caused by shock damage to the tanks which were integrated into the structure of the ship and thus rigid was later realized).
It's interesting reading these debates from a few years ago.
For anybody curious: the ship they added was Saratoga. As of January 2021, neither Enterprise nor Lexington are in KC. The other three American carriers are: Intrepid, Gambier Bay, and Hornet.