The ship that refused to die!

In combat, some ships do amazing things (BTW; a SHIP is the hardware, but especially her Crew). We had one such ship in WWII that refused to die! The USS Yorktown was a fleet carrier, that was one of two that fought in the Coral sea Battle. They lost one, we lost the USS Hornet, and they set the Yorktown on fire. They wrote her off as sunk, because a Japanese carrier that damaged would have sunk. But the USS Yorktown refused to die. The Battle of the Coral sea was a draw; BUT it was the first time the Japanese forced had been stopped in WWII. While she burned, her damage control crews fought their special kind of War; and they put the fires out, and got steam up, and limped her back to Pearl Harbor!

This is from Pixabay, but I apologize it is not the Original USS Yorktown, but a namesake.

Once there, the yard birds swarmed all over the ship, repairing battle damage, and rebuilding the entire ship. They had three to six months worth of work to do, but they only had days to do it. Our code breakers knew the Japanese were going to hit Midway, and the US Navy decided that was unacceptable. They sent out the only two carriers we still had, and ordered the Yorktown to follow, once minimal repairs were done. Days later, she followed, with yard birds still working on her as they travelled back to combat. She arrived, with battle damage from the Coral Sea yet unpainted, and repairs still in process, at Midway.

In the course of the battle, the Yorktown was located. They launched an attack on her with four carriers; and they over whelmed her defenses and set her on fire again. When they left, she was burning with holes in the flight deck, dead in the water, and listing. The Japanese wrote her off again. Her Damage control Men said NO, and joined the battle! They out out the fires (fire is death to any ship, but especially a carrier) corrected the list, got steam up, and repaired the flight deck, and began flight operations again.

The Japanese can count, and by their reckoning the US Navy only had one remaining carrier, having written the Yorktown off twice now. Have you ever watched a Football game, where the offense stunk, but the defense was SO GOOD, that they won anyway? This is similar, in that our Damage Control was so MUCH BETTER than theirs, it forced them to make decisions that were just plain wrong!

So they go looking for that single remaining carrier. If they can sink her, they can threaten the West coast of the US itself, unopposed. That could force us to accept a negotiated peace, and they keep the Pacific! They find the Yorktown again, and set her on fire, again; for the third time in a Month! This time, even though they get the fires out, she has to be towed. They are sure they have sunk all out carriers, right up to the second where Yorktown's planes join the planes from the other two carriers we still have; and blast three of the four Carriers they have there to the bottom. The forth followed shortly after. The Japanese forces now had Zero air cover, and were forced to withdraw. This time it was not a draw, but a clear Victory!

The Yorktown is under tow, and if she can get back to pearl, they can refit her! On the way back, an I-Boat found her, and hits her with six fish. Now she is a wreak; but even after abandoning her, she still floats; she refuses to die! It is too big a risk, to keep towing her, so the Navy decides to sink her. It takes a dozen or so US torpedoes, on top of the other battle damage, to finally put her down; a proud ship, that refused to die!

When I was a kid, the first model ship I ever built, was the USS Yorktown; she was a real Tough Lady!

:)