Hypothetical: The Navy drafted you in WWII.
 

I found a database of major American WWII ships the other day and pulled it into Excel. Then I found information on crew sizes. Now I have a simple simulator.

So if you were drafted into the Navy in World War II and were assigned to a large ship (e.g., submarine, destroyer, cruiser, or larger), I can now randomly assign you to a ship. Report in this thread to get your assignment.

I'll tell you your ship, and then it's up to you to look it up and see where it went and what happened to it. If the ship took casualties, let me know how many were killed and wounded and I'll do a random draw to see if you would have survived.


As for me, I would have been one of 700 sailors aboard:

Juneau** Atlanta-class Light Cruiser**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Juneau_(CL-52)

That's not really a good thing. I hung out with a nice set of five brothers from Iowa, the Sullivans, but we saw some bad things.

We launched early in 1942 and did some early runs in the Atlantic and Caribbean before heading to the Pacific Theater. Right out of the gate in the Pacific we had to rescue sailors from an aircraft carrier that sank from a sub attack, and then we headed to Guadalcanal.

Our task force fought off four attacks from the Japanese, one of which took down another aircraft carrier.

Then another big Japanese group attacked, and we took a torpedo. We headed off toward Vanuatu for repairs, running with two other damaged ships, when we were attacked again by a Japanese sub. We took another torpedo which blew the ship to smithereens and we sank in 20 seconds.

The other two ships assumed there were no survivors and took off running. In actuality, 100 of the crew survived the sinking, but only about 10 survived the next eight days until rescue aircraft found them.

Based on a random dice roll, I went down with the ship, so my naval career ended late in 1942. I hope America won.

Reporting for duty, Sir.

Commanding Donger, reporting.

Austinchief on deck!

Welcome to the:

Yorktown (Yorktown-class)** Yorktown-class Aircraft Carrier**


I generally assume that if I've heard of a ship, something bad happened to it. Look it up and let us know.

Nice. A very important carrier.

You are on the:

Honolulu** Brooklyn-class Light Cruiser**


(Shrug.) I'll be interested to hear your story.

Welcome aboard the:

Ommaney Bay** Casablanca-class Escort Carrier**


Hmm. Should be a good one.

Aye Aye Captain.

I wanna fly off a carrier

I want in. And you better not put me in Bumblescum, AL like you did last time

Assignment please.

Reporting for duty! (Also, sorry to hear of your untimely demise.)

Son of a bitch.

USS Yorktown (CV-5) was an aircraft carrier commissioned in the United States Navy from 1937 until she was sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942.


So far I can't find the number of casulties.

Not that many, IIRC. Over 100.