It has been one year since the first ship girl took to the battlefield. Since then, the Abyssal fleet has been pushed back, away from many of the world's most vulnerable port cities by the combined effort of the brave ship girls and giving mankind some much needed breathing room.
In the Pacific, the young women of the former Imperial Japanese Navy fight valiantly to rid East Asia of this menace. The Royal Navy, Marine Nationale and the Deutsche Marine work as one in an unrelenting war to keep the English Channel and the Atlantic convoys safe from the Abyssal raids. The Regia Marina, now flying the standard of the Marina Militare, have swept the Mediterranean clean of Abyssal presence and now turn to aid others. In the northern seas, the Red Fleet braves the harsh artic cold in a deadly game of cat and mouse against their quarry.
Around the world, warships from every nation have returned from the grave in a time of direst need to serve their countries once more….
Warships from every nation… save, it seems, those of the United States Navy.
The Greatest Generation is a KanColle fanfic originally written by sasahara17, set in a near future where mankind is at war with the Abyssals. With the loss of Pearl Harbor and Norfolk, and almost its entire fleet, the United States needs ship girls to take the fight to the Abyssals, but they aren't responding. And so Commander Yvonne Swanson, naval intelligence officer, sets forth for Yokosuka Naval Base to find answers, both about the ship girls and the Abyssals... but she may not like what she finds...
Currently the story can be found here on Fanfiction.net
, with with discussion threads here on Space Battles and here on Sufficient Velocity.
Due to work-related stress-induced Creator Breakdown, the original author sasahara17 has decided to hand the project over to a committee of willing authors; the restarted story is found in the links above.
Please note that any references to Chapters 7 and beyond are in reference to the original run of the fic, due to the rewrite stopping at Chapter 6.
In April 2017, the restart was declared dead.
Tropes present in this fanfic include:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Tenryuu in chapter 3 when Matsuda decides to have her scrapped.
- Appeal to Audacity: Inazuma claiming to be responsible in chapter 3 for stealing Yvonne's tablet would have been dismissed as ridiculous if not for who was making that very claim.
- Armchair Military: Invoked by Kaga against Yamato in chapter 4.“I have seen the suffering of these people with my own eyes, Yamato. Have you?”
- Big Damn Heroes:
- In Chapter 6, this is averted by Yamato, who (under Yvonne's orders) waits until the Abyssals launch their third wave against Okinawa's shipgirls. Only after they confirm Shimada's fleet is taking the brunt of the air attack does Yamato engage the Abyssal carriers.
- A more traditional example later in the chapter: Yvonne reveals herself as the USS Enterprise and launches her air wing to rescue Yamato. See Gunship Rescue below.
- Big Secret: Chapter 5 mentions that Yvonne and Dakota seem to be hiding something. Chapter 6 reveals that the former is the USS Enterprise. Later chapters reveal that Dakota is the USS South Dakota and there there are other US shipgirls.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Following the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and Norfolk by the Abyssals, and the amount of surface ships lost in the fighting afterwards, the US Navy has had to re-activate whatever ships they could just to get back on their feet. A CNN-style news article details the reactivation of the Missouri, Kitty Hawk, and Little Rock.
- Break the Cutie: The DesDiv Six girls, angry at being treated like kids who can't handle more mature subjects, do this to themselves, by researching Imperial Japanese war crimes in Chapter 7, except for Hibiki.
- The Cavalry: In chapter 5 Bismarck is about to be sunk by Abyssal forces when Hood brings reinforcements. Granted, it goes wrong afterwards, but it did happen.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In Chapter 6, when Yamato asks why Yvonne insisted on bringing her rigging to Okinawa, Yvonne replies that "it's better to have it and not need it." Halfway through the chapter, Yamato does need it when she goes off to fight the attacking carrier task force.
- Yamato then asks why Yvonne also brought her hunting bow instead of leaving it at Yokosuka with Zuikaku. Yvonne mumbles the same reply while noting a box of arrows that Dakota sent to her. At the end of the chapter, the arrows turn out to be her air wing, which she uses to save Yamato from the Abyssal Douglass SBD dive bombers.
- In Chapter 8, Yamato gets a full explanation from both Yvonne and Dakota as to why the US Navy doesn't have a ship girl fleet, as much as the latter knows. That's only the official statement. In actuality, it does have a ship girl fleet, but the number of girls they have can be counted with two hands. Yvonne herself is the Enterprise, for example. During her explanation, we get a flashback to when she was first summoned. The Navy personnel that first speaks with her asks if anyone came back with her, and when she replies in the negative, he starts listing off a bunch of ships that they tried to summon and failed. Among one of these failed summoning attempts was for USS Washington. In Chapter 10, a reporter by the name of Mildred Marshall shanghais her way into Yvonne's posse, serving as her public relations specialist. You thought they failed to summon Washington? Think again. Mildred is the Washington, who was summoned during one of the test summons just so the USN could see it actually worked. Her "actual" summoning and its failure were then faked just so nobody, other than POTUS Bartlett, the Joint Chiefs, and certain members of the CIA with need-to-know, knew that she had been summoned.
- Children Are Innocent: DesDiv Six, painfully so (except Hibiki. See Wise Beyond Their Years below)."Why are people mad at Japan because of the war?" Inazuma asked worriedly. "I mean, we lost didn't we? Why would all these people hate us for losing, nanodesu? We're victims too… right?"
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Kongou comes within a hair's breadth of correctly guessing Yvonne's identity.
- Commanding Coolness: Yvonne Swanson, though it's also deconstructed: Yvonne doesn't feel any special; she was just a junior officer who was bumped up to Commander because people senior to her got killed.
- Composite Character: Yvonne Swanson is essentially, a composite of Pacific's Pre-refit Enterprise and her semi-official remodeled version, if not an outright expy .
- The Conspiracy: The USN does have a ship girl division, and it's being kept secret. In Chapter 8, after Yamato ends up seeing Yvonne as Enterprise when the latter was forced to break cover to save her, Yamato is fully briefed by Yvonne and Dakota about the USN ship girl fleet, and exactly why it's being kept secret to the best of their knowledge, as none of the those in the need-to-know, nor even the heads of the program, know that not only are the Abyssals actively blocking their summoning attempts and stealing their girls, the Abyssal behind the plot to revive as many USN ship girls into Abyssals as possible is frickin USS Arizona!
- Cool Ship:
- The Mirai, first of the new Mirai-class Aegis destroyers, which serves as a mobile command post and flagship for Yokosuka's admiral. The helicopter destroyer Izumo also fits.
- Mention is also made of the US Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyers being this (until they were all sunk).
- Chapter 8 introduces the USS Independence, lead ship of her class of littoral combat ships. She was heavily modified to serve as a support ship for the US Navy's ship girl fleet. There's also USS Detroit, another Littoral Combat Ship outfitted as a shipgirl tender, supporting Thresher's mission.
- Culture Clash: In chapter 3 Yvonne, being an American, attaches very different connotations to the term "expedition" than what Tenryuu and DesDiv Six were doing. This perception, and her subsequent behaviour because of it, causes no small amount of problems, to say the least.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Three of them in Chapter 6:
- Yamato does this on the initial Abyssal task force, sinking four Wo-class carriers, damaging the other six, and forcing the task force to flee.
- The Abyssal ringleader then launches her strike on Yamato and handily disables her.
- Finally, the divebombers preparing to deliver the fatal blow to Yamato are swiftly splashed by Yvonne's Corsair squadrons.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- Nobody saw the Abyssal airstrike on Okinawa coming.
- It's an open question if anyone was expecting Yamato to succeed.
- Yamato and Yvonne didn't expect Abyssals to disguise their aircraft to look like ship girl propeller planes, or a second wave of Abyssals for that matter.
- Yvonne was not expecting the second Abyssal wave to retreat without first tearing through her air wing.
- Abyssals in turn didn't expect the presence of Yvonne/Enterprise.
- Dirty Business: Yvonne and the other American ship girls hate having to conceal their true natures, but it was a direct order from their superiors.
- Dressing as the Enemy: The Abyssal ringleader's aircraft look like ship girl propeller planes, causing Yamato to not realise the danger she's in until it's too late.
- Empty Quiver: A number of US Navy warships carrying nuclear weapons were sunk by Abyssals, and the Navy is very concerned about the possibility of its nukes being stolen by Abyssals or human factions. Thresher is on assignment to survey the wrecks and ascertain the status of the nuclear weapons.
- Et Tu, Brute?: In chapter 8 Yvonne expresses her fear that Yamato will take the concealment of her true identity as a betrayal of trust.
- Everyone Has Standards: Dakota may be an incorrigible prankster, but in chapter ten there's a moment where even she realises she might have said the wrong thing.
- Shipgirls get latitude beyond what conventional personnel are allowed because they are Bunny Ears Lawyers, but there are still limits. Tenryuu has gotten a lot of slack for her recurrent disciplinary issues because of her effectiveness, but gross insubordination and threatening a foreign officer cross the line and she is scheduled to be scrapped for it.
- Extreme Omnivore: While Yvonne's tastes in food aren't too weird, the ones she mentions (Muhallabia, Khao Neow Ma Muang, Peanut Butter cups and Durian) throw the Kongou sisters for a loop. However it's her admission that she prefers coffee to tea that causes Kongou to faint.
- Failed a Spot Check: In chapter 6 ten Abyssal carriers fail to notice Yamato sneaking up on them, as the ringleader commanding them was entirely focused on Shimada's fleet in Kin Bay.
- Farce: Chapter ten is a series of misunderstandings that lead to Musashi having the impression that Yvonne is trying to seduce Yamato.
- Foil: Yamato and Yvonne are consistently played off each other for how different and yet how similar their circumstances are.
- Foreshadowing: There are actually quite a few hints about Yvonne's true identity that show up earlier.
- Her nightmares about Pearl Harbour have her believing that she could have helped if she were present. But how much good could one intelligence officer do? Further, her nightmares never specified that the Abyssals were the ones attacking Pearl Harbor.
- Kongou correctly guessing that Yvonne is a ship girl, but guesses the wrong ship (She guessed the Iowa, and promptly reminds herself that the Iowa is still moored at the Port of Los Angeles as a museum ship). However, she then corrects herself, guessing that Yvonne is a carrier because of her "flight-deck chest" and is about to correctly guess Enterprise, but gets cut off.
- Don't you think Yvonne was a little too upset about saying that Enterprise wasn't coming to Houshou? It's almost as if she was lying, and was bothered by it...
- Yvonne claims that her old Commanding Officer told her "Hit hard, hit fast, hit often". The quote is attributed to William Halsey, Jr., who commanded a special task group during WW2 centering on the Enterprise.
- Being good with a bow for recreational hunting is one thing. But good enough to stand against the carrier girls who train to fight with it? And not just that, but to perfectly execute kyudo?
- And for that matter, why the hell has a random intelligence officer trained with the US Archery Team? The team that goes to the Olympics?
- Zuikaku inadvertently guesses that it wouldn't look out of place for fairy planes to be fired off Yvonne's bow.
- Dakota and Yvonne's talk about arrows that could blow the latter's cover. And what do arrows do in KanColle?
- Yvonne's telling pause when she encounters a certain book written by a man named Stafford about the most famous American warship.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
- In chapter two Yvonne has to force Yamato to confront her issues after three things happen in rapid succession: 1) Zuikaku delivers a blistering tirade over America's failure to summon ship girls just moments after Yamato had promised that the base would offer every courtesy to Yvonne. 2) Akatsuki embarrasses DesDiv Six with her malapropers-turned-innuendo. 3) Yvonne and Matsuda unintentionally fire a barrage of barbs that remind Yamato of her uselessness.
- Yvonne also tries to do this with Admiral Shimada, the Commander of the Okinawa base in Chapter 6, when said base is attacked by an overwhelming carrier strike force and Shimada decides to flee. It doesn't work unfortunately.
- Godzilla Threshold: In chapter 5, Dakota tells Yvonne that if the choice is between obeying orders and getting killed or breaking cover to survive but causing a political shitstorm, she should do the latter. It comes to pass in chapter 6 with Yvonne choosing in favour of breaking cover, in order to rescue Yamato.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Various pieces of Word of God, including but not limited to this one, have declared that this was the intent. Good guys have flaws and shortsightedness, while the devil is not so black as he is painted. Discussions on whether or not these work have been somewhat intense.
- Gunship Rescue: In Chapter 6, Yamato is about to be destroyed by Abyssal dive bombers, when she's rescued by Corsair squadrons from Enterprise's air wing.
- Hero Killer: The Abyssal submarine in Chapter 5. It shows up and kills Hood with contemptuous ease after doing the same to a pair of destroyers.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Bismarck enters one after Hood is killed while trying to save her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Chapter 6, mortally wounded and barely combat-effective, Yamato decides to invoke Operation Ten-Go, to deliberately draw Abyssal attention on herself, away from Okinawa's civilian population.
- History Repeats: While researching the Abyssals, Yvonne began to notice that they were intentionally recreating incidents from WWII. Examples include:
- Re-enacting the Japanese sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse on a pair of unlucky Singaporean Navy Formidable-class frigates standing in for those two larger warships. This was the incident that first piqued her interest.
- Attacking Pearl Harbour with only aircraft, while keeping their surface ships in reserve, just as it happened historically.
- Emulating German U-Boat wolf packs in the Atlantic.
- Airfield Princess plopping herself down on Honiara International Airport, where Henderson Field used to be.
- Attempting to recreate the Doolittle Raid, albeit with little success.
- A big one in chapter 5: Attempting to sink Bismarck in the exact same manner and at the exact same location as her namesake. When Hood intervenes and saves Bismarck, an Abyssal super-sub, which Yvonne surmises to be emulating USS "Hit 'em again" Harder, plows through several of Hood's escorts while no-selling their depth charges, and re-enacts the historical Bismarck's deck-penetrating magazine-detonating shot that sunk the historical Hood by JUMPING OUT OF THE WATER AND LAUNCHING A TORPEDO AT HOOD'S FACE, BLOWING HER HEAD CLEAN OFF. This incident essentially gave Yvonne more than enough info to allow her to present her hypothesis to her task force of Abyssal hunters that she had been building up for a capture mission.
- In Chapter 6 they recreate Operation Iceberg, the bombardment of Okinawa. Once again, the only force the Japanese can muster in response is a small surface force without air cover. Admiral Shimada attempts to defy it by having his girls withdraw, unlike Admiral Ito who pressed on. And then after Yamato is mortally wounded, she decides to invoke Operation Ten-Go... seemingly all the way to her own end.
- Honey Trap: As the American Joint Chiefs are trying to figure out how to keep Yamato from blowing the cover on their ship girls, one of them casually suggests Enterprise should try and see if she swings that way.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Yvonne in chapter 4 when the carriers discuss their concerns about what looks like note-taking in preparation to poach one of them.
- Insistent Terminology:
- In a meta example, Japanese characters use the term "kanmusu", while English-speaker characters use the term "ship girls".
- Regardless of your actual rank, if you have kanmusu serving under you, they'll refer to you as Admiral. Lieutenant Matsuda lampshades this to Yvonne after she meets his command, the Akatsuki sisters of Destroyer Division Six. It is with some difficulty that Yvonne manages to persuade Yamato to address her as 'Commander' instead of 'Admiral.'
- Also, JMSDF officers refer to their service as the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force. The kanmusu refer to themselves as belonging to the Japanese Navy.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Admiral Shimada's assertion at the start of the rewritten chapter 6 that he doesn't trust intelligence officers because they don't care about or understand the cost of lives, unlike line officers, sounds like standard assholeish stereotyping born of Interservice Rivalry. Then Yvonne proves him absolutely right by "volunteering" his ship girls to act as The Bait, something that could have easily cost them all their lives, without so much as a by-your-leave, then has the nerve to be surprised when he gets angry about it.
- The way Admiral Shimada delivered his assertion left much to be desired, but the fact was that he had already sortied his full, optimal condition fleet the first time around and was beaten down to five effectives to little effect! No reasonable person can deny that sending five already fatigued and damaged kanmusu against a second Abyssal carrier task force is the definition of Suicide Mission and Too Dumb to Live, a Senseless Sacrifice that would barely inconvenience the attacker, much less distract them from the refugees. After all, the general track record of surface combatants without air cover against air power is less than stellar. Just ask Repulse and Prince of Wales about how they sunk. Or Yamato about a little thing called Ten-Go.
"I have five ships! I will not send my girls to fight a battle they cannot win! They are tired, they are outnumbered and they cannot fight like this!"- There's also the fact that compared to US Navy ships, IJN ships had ineffective and inferior antiaircraft guns, mounts, and outfits; for example, Enterprise in her final configuration carried more effective AA guns than all the Shiratsuyu-class, and all three class variants of the Fubuki-class destroyers. Combined. note American ships could regularly fight off and weather air attacks that would have overwhelmed British and Japanese ships, and Yvonne's not realizing the difference may have coloured her expectations and perceptions.
- King Incognito: All the known American shipgirls thus far are all covertly working in various US Navy departments. Enterprise (Yvonne) works in Office of Naval Intelligence, South Dakota (Dakota) works in Advanced Naval Weapon R&D Divison (aka the US Shipgirl division), O'Bannon works in Naval Construction Force on logistics, San Diego is helping with Kitty Hawk reactivation, then got roped into being a diva, and Thresher is working on trying to locate all the missing nuclear weapons. The sole exception would be Washington, who is a reporter with CNN, and managed to get herself embedded with Enterprise and her crew..
- Magnetic Hero: Yvonne Swanson is this in spades. As of Chapter 3, she's recruited Yamato, Tenryuu and the DesDiv Six girls to her cause.
- Again in Chapter 4, Zuikaku has joined Yvonne's cause as well, though not without some difficulty.
- Magnetic Weapons: Railguns are equipped on the Zumwalts and the Mirais. They are effective against the Abyssals, but tend to overheat, a flaw that proved to be fatal for the Zumwalts.
- Malaproper: When she first appears, Akatsuki embarrasses herself with a barrage of these.
- Meaningful Name:
- At the end of chapter 6, the author's notes spell out the etymology of Yvonne's cover name.
- Dakota's full name would be another one. The "Leigh Gatch" part refers to Captain Thomas Leigh Gatch.
- Washington's cover name is another one. Her cover name's surname (Marshall) is a reference to the person who christened her historical counterpart, Virginia Marshall.
- The Men First: Deconstructed with Admiral Shimada. Putting the welfare and lives of your men first and refusing to throw their lives away for nothing sounds noble at first glance, but doing so does not occur in a vacuum and has consequences. He prioritised the lives of his ship girls and had them retreat over ordering them into a Senseless Sacrifice of a battle they had no chance of winning. Unfortunately, because said sacrifice would in theory have bought time for the civilians to evacuate, which was what he was expected to do, he ended up disgraced and hated both In-Universe and out.
- Mirror Character: There are increasing parallels between Yvonne and Yamato regarding their frustrations and their roles. Yamato eventually realizes Yvvone's situation is hardly that different from hers: a legendary ship, both symbol to their nation's Navy and their nations unto themselves, unable to fight as they were meant to due to their circumstances.
- Morton's Fork: Whichever way Admiral Shimada chose, he would have been screwed since he didn't know that Yvonne is Enterprise. Stay and fight? His ship girls get overwhelmed by the vastly superior Abyssal numbers and die in a Senseless Sacrifice. Some of the civilians might - and that's a pretty big might - succeed in evacuating, but most would probably still get slaughtered by the Abyssals. The way to the home islands is left wide open. Retreat? His ship girls might survive, but the civilians would be done for. Either way, lots of people would die and someone would be calling for his political if not literal crucifixion.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- In chapter two Yvonne feels like an ass after realising how many barbs she had inadvertently fired at Yamato and thus prompted the latter's breakdown.
- More humourously, Yvonne has this reaction after Yamato claims her as her Admiral.
- Zuikaku has this in chapter 4 after she inadvertently expresses admiration of Yvonne's bow.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- In chapter 3 DesDiv Six's theft of Yvonne's tablet, intended to clear Tenryuu's name, not only fails to do so, but in fact gets them in trouble too.
- In chapter 8 Dakota's attempt to help Yvonne break the existence of the American ship girl programme to Yamato only creates more problems. It's apparently a bad habit of hers.
She may have always had good intentions, but sometimes good intentions weren't enough. - No-Sell: In chapter 5, an Abyssal super-submarine shrugs off multiple direct hits from depth charges.
- Not What I Signed on For: Said almost word-for-word by Zuikaku in chapter 4 regarding kanmusu getting poached by Yvonne.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Tenryuu being anything but cocky and confident is something that disturbs the DesDiv Six girls, and learning the reason prompts the girls to attempt vengeance.
- In chapter 4, the seriousness of the situation is reflected by Akagi not feeling hungry.
- Off with His Head!: In chapter 5, this is the fate of Hood, to an Abyssal super-submarine.
- Oh, Crap!: We've got a few.
- Yvonne's reaction in Chapter 6 when she realises that the planes approaching Yamato aren't friendlies.
- Yamato's reaction shortly after the above when those hostile aircraft attacking her are not the usual Abyssal fare, but Abyssalized Douglas SBD dive bombers.
- Omake: A number of interludes act as mostly humorous breaks in between the drama (and also whet the appetite of the readers in between chapters).
- Overranked Soldier: Yamato, pride of the Japanese Navy and symbol of her nation, is ridiculously overqualified and much too prestigious to be serving as an aide (however temporary) to a visiting military officer. This causes Yvonne to wonder if Yamato's screwed up badly enough to be shitcanned...
- Reality Is Unrealistic: As this article explains, hiding a carrier strike group from detection is not as impossible as one might first think, and that's with full-sized warships. With human-sized Abyssals...
- Refuge in Audacity: In chapter 3, Tenryuu's last ditch effort to keep the Akatsuki siblings out of trouble is basically this involving faking an attack on Yvonne, smashing a tablet full of classified data over Nagato's head so hard it broke in order to conceal the fact that the Akatsuki sisters stole it, taking down three battleships before being stopped, and firmly placing all blame on herself. The only reason it wasn't completely successful is that the girls own up to the truth afterwards. Fortunately, Yvonne is so impressed by her pulling it off that she steps in on their behalf.
- The Reveal: Chapter 6 has one in the form of Yvonne's true identity being none other than that of USS Enterprise CV-6, aka "The Grey Ghost".
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In chapter 6, the Abyssal ringleader realises who or what Yvonne really is and decides to retreat despite its side having numerical superiority.
- Shout-Out:
- The two Mirai-class guided missile destroyers (Mirai and Yukinami) are one to Zipang.
- “What does she think we are, pocket monsters?”
- The CNN-style news interludes mention the reactivated USS Missouri being put under the command of Captain Alex Hopper.
- The US President is Bartlett.
- The names of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff are a veritable fusillade of these:
- Yvonne's motto of "Hit Hard, hit fast, hit often" is a shout-out to Admiral William Halsey's famous quote.
- Her physical appearance is a reference to Pacific's take on Enterprise, combining the elements of the original and semi-official remodeled versions.
- Skewed Priorities: When the call is given to search for intruders in chapter 3, three of the four Kongou sisters are more concerned with the possibility that it is a panty thief than a spy out for classified data or some other serious matter.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Chapter 6. End with another Abyssal Ringleader having bombed Okinawa, with Yamato and Yvonne/Enterprise missing and presumed to be dead. The author then immediately after that posts this cute little video.
- Tempting Fate: An unrelenting string of 'How bad could it be?' from the DesDiv Six girls in chapter 7.
- This Is Reality: This is reiterated in Chapter 5. The Akatsuki sisters are made painfully aware that modern geopolitics aren't as simple as they'd thought."I don't understand, why people would distrust us for trying to capture an Abyssal?" Inazuma asked, "Aren't we all on the same side, nanodesu?"
- In chapter 6 the narration notes that Japan, being as resource-starved as it is, can't make good use of refugee labour the way Australia or other more bountiful nations can.
- True Sight: In chapter 6 the Abyssal Ringleader "sees" ship girls with images overlaying their human appearance.
- Unreliable Narrator: Based on this piece of Word of God (beware spoilers), the first act was supposed to hint that Yvonne's perspective was not infallible. How well it worked is left as an exercise to the reader. Notably, the rewrite of the divisive chapter 6 had author's notes at the end explicitly laying out points where characters thought wrongly based on their limited perspective.
- We Have Reserves:
- The Abyssals have always had seemingly endless numbers to throw at mankind. Best demonstrated in chapter 6, where the Abyssal Ringleader uses two carrier task forces with a total of seventeen carriers and a surface combat group to attack Okinawa and ambush the ship girls stationed there.
- As this reader notes, Yvonne herself may be guilty of having this kind of perspective. Being an American and the reincarnation of a World War II American warship at that, her view of the situation was affected by the mistaken belief that losing ships, while unfortunate, is affordable because they can be replaced. This is not true of either Japan - the Pacific War would have been very different if it could - or ship girls.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 6. Another super-Abyssal joins the fray. Hints are dropped that at least some Abyssal ringleaders are vengeful spirits. Yamato sorties into battle and is mortally wounded, and it's revealed that Yvonne isn't a human officer, she's a shipgirl: USS Enterprise, CV-6. And by the time reinforcements arrive, both Yamato and Enterprise are missing in action, presumed dead..
- Wham Line: The end of chapter 4."Admiral, they’ve… it… it s-sank the Hood.”
- What the Hell, Hero?: In chapter 8 Yvonne lays into Dakota for her unauthorised spilling the beans about the US ship girl programme to Yamato.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Hibiki, very much so. No one noticed this until Tenryuu finally noticed it in the aftermath of the internet incident, noting that Hibiki probably had seen a LOT of things as Verniy.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Similar to Rossiu, Admiral Shimada's mistake was doing the realistic, tactically sound thing of retreating his beleaguered force rather than staying the course and believing that Yvonne's Million to One Chance hope of the Abyssals Failing enough Spot Checks to let Yamato sneak up on them would actually come to pass.
