The fun point is, her clothes doesn't even look like damaged. If you think you can strip someone'd clothes clean and hang them on a gun barrel using explosive shells, go ahead and try. Zara has enough reasons to worry about her sister, indeed.
Emerald Acid said: So for those curious about why Pola is a drunken nudist, historically when her crew abandoned ship, they drank wine to the point of intoxication (despite being Italians who almost never get drunk) to keep themselves warm against the ice cold water, and they all ditched their clothes that were soaked through-and-through also to keep warmer.
Ozraptor4 said:
Just to clarify the chain of events -
1) Pola gets hit by a British torpedo at dusk. Many of the crew panic and jump overboard.
2) Crew realise that Pola is not sinking after all and climb back on board. They strip off their wet clothes and start to break out the booze. The immobilised Pola calls for a tow and the entire 1st Cruiser Div (including her sisters Zara and Fiume) come to her aid. RN radar spots them as they move in.
3) Pola mistakes incoming RN battleships for friendlies, fires off a recognition flare and helps the enemy confirm the identity of their radar contacts.
4) As Zara and Fiume are obliterated, Pola's crew resign themselves to their fate and descend into total anarchy. Most of the crew jump overboard (again). British boarding parties find hundreds of drunken sailors and empty wine bottles rolling on her deck. Her remaining crew is evacuated and Pola is sunk by RN DDs.
So why didn't the Brits just commandeer the ship and bring her back to England? If nothing else, that's waste of high-quality steel that could've been used after scrapping to make desperately-needed tanks and destroyer hulls.
So why didn't the Brits just commandeer the ship and bring her back to England? If nothing else, that's waste of high-quality steel that could've been used after scrapping to make desperately-needed tanks and destroyer hulls.
Logistics.
Slightly longer answer: The RN was supposed to cover troop movements to Greece. They are the ones with the convoys who are under attack by the RM, 'though they managed to turn the tables by hacking Italian communications.
They don't have the time to spare to take over Pola, which would require a prize crew of some sort and a shit load of spare time which they can't afford.
I seem to remember an old saying about the Regia Marina: "The quality of the warship commander was inversely proportional to the displacement of his ship." Now where'd that actually come from...
Magus said: So why didn't the Brits just commandeer the ship and bring her back to England? If nothing else, that's waste of high-quality steel that could've been used after scrapping to make desperately-needed tanks and destroyer hulls.
They considered it but quickly decided it wasn't worth the risk. It would mean diverting assets to tow a crippled cruiser through contested waters all the way back to Egypt, with Pola and the accompanying RN ships becoming sitting ducks for the Luftwaffe once dawn broke.
I seem to remember an old saying about the Regia Marina: "The quality of the warship commander was inversely proportional to the displacement of his ship." Now where'd that actually come from...
Seems to be true for civilian ships as well, judging from the Costa Concordia, which weighed more than a Nimitz and whose captain was... well, incredible in all the worst ways.
And I thought the USS Porter was the craziest story of WWII. (They accidentally fired a live torpedo at the USS Iowa which was carrying President Roosevelt and a number of VIPs to a conference with Stalin and Churchill).
And I thought the USS Porter was the craziest story of WWII. (They accidentally fired a live torpedo at the USS Iowa which was carrying President Roosevelt and a number of VIPs to a conference with Stalin and Churchill).
Pretty sure Willy D.'s record is still the craziest,just not the only crazy one in that war.
Yeah, I'd say Willy D's record trumps Pola's. Now I'm curious though, are there any other WWII ships that had similarly terrible (yet in hindsight hilarious) luck?
Yeah, I'd say Willy D's record trumps Pola's. Now I'm curious though, are there any other WWII ships that had similarly terrible (yet in hindsight hilarious) luck?
THIS-IS-AOBA-THIS-IS-AOBA-THIS-IS-AOBA
As Freddy succinctly demonstrates:
First she gets Kako sunk. Next she sent Fubuki off to her death. She insisted it was friendly fire AND flashed ID signals, forcing Furutaka to sacrifice herself in the infamous "THIS-IS-AOBA" incident.
Murakumo also sunk later in the same battle while trying to rescue survivors from Furutaka.
Some time later, she was supposed to tow Kumano back to the mainland. Aoba decided to ditch her because she was also damaged. Sorta understandable given the circumstances, but the message she sent really takes the cake.
Summary of the Aoba Victims Club. So, to sum it up, her notable feats include causing the sinking of two name ships, plus killing off an entire class who happened to be her older half-sisters (granted, it's only a two-ship class).
I guess she's lucky she had Sano Shouichi onboard, causing Kadokawa to portray her as a paparazza war correspondent instead of as the pointy-haired dojikko boss supreme.
(Not that I hate Aoba or anything, but her checkered war history is, well, arguably even worse than the Willie D's.)
She also led Tone and Chikuma on the botched Indian Ocean Raid of March '44, ordered a retreat after sinking just 1 steamer (falsely assuming that her distress calls had alerted allied naval forces)......... then forced Tone to slaughter 70+ British civilian crewmen and passengers that she had rescued from said steamer. (= Vice Admiral Naomasa Sakonju on flagship Aoba ordered Tone's commander, Captain Haruo Mayuzumi, to execute the majority of the survivors from SS Behar despite repeated protests from the latter.)
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