Dauntless

Birds made battleships white elephants. Practically a sin as far as you’re concerned. Line of battle. Angling your guns to maximize the number of shells you can put on your opponent while making sure you’re at a narrow enough angle to minimize the shells he puts on you.

In Nelson‘s day tactics were different because the guns didn’t swivel. Broadside to broadside because that’s where they pointed. Prior to playing the new stupid little game you found you really never gave much thought to just tell different mounted turrets changed it all.

Oh Lord maybe the Nelson and looked at swivel-turreted guns the way you look at birds. actually yeah they probably did.

With swivel turrets you could have a small number of massive guns, and you would need them to penetrate the thick steel armor. You could have 100 cannons and it not matter if you’re dealing with literally a foot thick steel fortress. You have to have rifled shells to pierce that. And you’ve got to have a swivel because you’re only gonna have at most a dozen.

Last thing you want is to be at a full broadside angle. If you’re moving towards a ship, he can only hit your front. You’re a smaller target and if you’re only coming at a slight angle and those long shells hit the side of the hull at the speed they’re going, Physics dictates that the tip isn’t going to pierce armor if it’s at a narrow angle. It will just leave a long scratch, screwing up the paint. But if it hits at that 90° angle, all that force will be concentrated on that single point and that’s how you pierce the armor. It’s like trying to shoot the head of an axe. You’re just gonna scratch one of the two sides. You’ve got a shoot it on the side.

And of course where are the guns on a turreted ship? Fore and aft. Usually. So come at your opponent at a 45° angle so you can swing one way and hit him with all of your guns and quickly swing the other way to present a narrower target. You’ve got about 30 seconds in between volleys if your crew is at the top of their game.

You can just feel that. Makes sense. Just an evolution of stand up, load the cannons and fire. Not to do a disservice to the myriad of tactics used back then. So much more mattered, like wind. Actually wind always matters. But still. whatever.

You’ve gotta love ADD. A really cool idea for a post about birds and you spend all of those first few paragraphs gushing love letters to steal behemoths that got killed by the birds.

Maybe not. Guess it all comes down to what kind of birds you’re talking about. In those days when all that was new there were basically three kinds.

Fighters. Shoot down other birds before they can blow up your ships. Torpedo bombers. Go low to the ocean and line up that shot, pull the lever and pull up after you drop your fish to swim and hit the enemy below the waterline. And then there were Dive Bombers.

If you were a kid then with the amazing 20-13 vision you used to have, they may have put you in birds. And if you had to be in one of those. , what’s the most like what do you feel in the soul would be your place?

There’s a lot to be said about fighters. Especially what they became in being defenders of the fleet like the Tomcats.

Torpedo bombers? Probably a lot easier to aim. Lining up the ship knowing the speed of the torpedo. But wow there would be flak everywhere from all kinds of different directions. And there’s just something about it that just bothers you.

You and your ship and guns. They are in their ship with their guns. You concentrate. You fire. You maneuver. You win or lose.

The sheer uncompetitive inhumanity of putting your life on the line to line up the perfect shot… concentrate… and you’re hit. By a target you didn’t say in the confused crazy chaos but saw you out of the corner of his eye and took you out on his way to get lunch because he happened to be in a lucky spot.

That’s life for those people. And in all honesty it was sometimes his life for The steel ships an Iron Men you romanticize.

So what about dive bombers? At Midway America had the Dauntless SBD. Short, squat bird. SBD was not the model number; it was what they called it. “Slow but deadly”.

If you could survive all the Japanese Zeroes, you could get to the top of the world. High above your target where there was no flak. Maybe high enough where the air got thin. And got ready for the nonexistent roller coaster you would ride.

Sounds terrifying. But maybe that’s what you would want to do.

You would lower the nose and literally play chicken with Planet Earth.

One can only fathom the kind of rush that would be. It would only be moments before the flak started. But it wouldn’t be flak that would be all around that might incidentally shoot you down. No… it would all be coming from below. The same angle.

You would line up the shot. Angle the dive. And at a certain point, The only question that would take place Is weather you would pull the lever to drop the bomb… or if you were shot down… and you would become the bomb.

You’re certain there was more to it than that, but we’re talking about your imagination here so… just imagine… 😂

What’s in your sight is going to get hit. Your life will not be wasted even if you fail. And at that moment, there’s nothing to be nervous about.

Either God decides it is more time… or God decides it is not. If you survive the right point, you drop the bomb and pull up… then in the wild Melee on the deck that you tried to avoid by getting in the dive bomber instead of the torpedo bomber. And then it’s a mad dash away from the fleet so you can get back to the carrier and do it all over again.

But that moment. What on earth did that feel like? It wasn’t a straight 90° angle, but at the steep angle and the way it all would go down it doesn’t matter. You’re still charging freaking planet Earth.

In that moment part of you thinks your job has already been successful one way or another and the only question left is whether it’s time for God to call you home.

If He’s content to wait, The crazy chaos of reality quickly ensues. And if you aimed the bomb right, you’re a hero. If you missed, you’re the heroes fun friend who is great at parties.

But in either case, The chaos and craziness of reality instantly bursts back in.

What was that dive like? You would want to know if you had the choice between the stupid birds.

There wasn’t any maneuvering to dodge flak or air cover. What was in that sight was gonna get hit.

Yeah you would want to be a dive bomber. Stand up and fight. What’s in your sight’s going to go. What happens to you in the process is up to the grace of God.

Just like being on the broadside of a 30 gun frigate. So much less to have to concentrate on. At least easier in one way. And in another way just more honorable.

Like Patton always wanted to fight Rommel. Each in their own tank. They would meet. Shake hands. And then do battle. And that battle of course would decide the fate of the war.

Why can’t life be that simple? Well for one that level of simplicity is rather brutal. Or maybe today we would say binary. Maybe because those moments of fixation on target are like the fleeting moments… just before everything gets crazy again as you were reunited with reality.

Maybe you think it would just be a hell of a ride. That if your life was literally on the line, that’s fine. Just make sure you have the insurance that it was going to count for something. Not just cut down haphazardly amongst wild gunfire going every which way.

What does it mean? You’ve been thinking about this Dauntless post for a while. What does it mean?

Who knows ? It’s a good time to try to keep writing every few days. There’s a reason why; not that you have a clue what it is. You just trust. Otherwise you wouldn’t have ideas.

Maybe it’s the fact that what’s old becomes new again just in a different way. Maybe it’s that new things become old just in a different way.

Maybe it’s a reminder that even in a world where are you feel you are long past your comfort zone in wooden ships and non-swivel canons… that that little corner does still exist somewhere – even in the space of those birds you don’t like because they ruined the lines of battle on the high seas.

The wars going all around you though… they are just as violent and devastating. They are merely spiritual nature. No less deadly in the long run. Maybe it’s both good and bad to realize that. But isn’t that the truth about everything as you get older and wiser?

It’s heroic to be able to go on the offensive. Most spiritual warfare these days here is defensive. You think that might even be why so many Christians are mouthy jerks because they want to feel like they can go on the offensive when we’re not supposed to.

Going on the offensive involves prayer and meekness. Humility and grace. Feels so odd. But that’s what’s devastating to those things we face.

When you were a kid you told dad that you wish you could confront Satan because he was a snake and you would just stomp on him. It took years to figure out dad‘s response and that that’s not how you win.

That’s just basic human instinct. Those battles have to be fought in other realms. With other weapons.

Maybe like birds instead of battleships.

Just maybe….