[GreenLanternCorps]

With the loss of USS Peary at Darwin, now the loss of Truxtun, and the impending losses during the retreat from Java, it is going to be a rough few months for the old four pipers...

For fascinating and heartbreaking reading I recommend this book:

It covers every US Destroyer sunk during the war. With a history of the ship's namesake, a history of the ship herself, and an account of the sinking.

[Oatka]

Another heart-breaker is “The fleet the gods forgot : the U.S. Asiatic fleet in World War II”.

Obsolete four-pipers (destroyers and a cruiser) plus one modern cruiser, some raggedy gunboats from the China Station and 20+ subs are told to slow down the rampaging Japanese Navy. They didn’t but they died trying - some were sunk with all hands. Nearly half of the surface guys ended up POWs.