Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

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historyfelon

historyfelon

It will be interesting to see how a shrunken Soviet sphere of influence will affect the Cold War or if there will even be one (wishful thinking). The Iron Curten will be much further East, China may well remain Nationalist, and hopefully Korea and Vietnam will not turn into areas of conflict involving the US. Will a weaker Soviet Union mean a more aggressive or more passive Joe Stalin? If the Soviets are less a threat and no one "loses China" then no Joe McCarthy or McCarthyism and maybe no John Birch Society. Our future may be so bright that we will all need to wear shades. I love good alternate history.
 
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Cryhavoc101

fester said:
Ishigaki, Japan October 9, 1944

Just west of the island airfield a yard minesweeper drifted with the currents. Two rubber rafts were ready and another team of men were prepared to enter the water with only knives and life buoys. This was a standard patrol now as the super heavy bombers slowly accelerated down the runways that were the entire purpose of conquering these islands. The first one hundred and eighty two bombers rose into the air with the grace of goony birds. The bomb bays were full of high explosive and delayed fuzed bombs. the 183rd bomber failed to take to the air with enough power. The pilot attempted to adjust power to his engines and run them hot to let the propellers grab the thick air for as long as possible. He could feel his failure and instead began to prepare the aircraft to ditch in the small bay on the south shore of the island. Even as the bomber hit the waves, another aircraft was taking off behind him. Thirty one minutes later, the bomber crew had been fully recovered. Two men would need time in the base hospital, while the rest would be debriefing with the group operations and maintenance officers to try to identify what had gone wrong.
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B29s take off was a race for airspeed rather than altitude

The Engines would overheat quickly so engine checks - magneto drop checks and the like were conducted during the taxing to the runway.

If the engine caught fire it would melt through the wing spar very quickly dooming both aircraft and crew so take off was low and fast before they climbed
 
Story 2625
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    • fester

    Northeast of Banat, Yugoslavia , October 14,1944

    A few anti-aircraft cannons sputtered. The heavy flak guns were on the move again to cover another crossroads four kilometers further to the north. The British fighter bombers rocketed and strafed the retreating rear guard of the 11th Panzer Division. They, along with the Panzer Lehr had managed to punch through the outer screening line of Yugoslavian partisan and army forces that had pushed over the Danube and threatened the last line of communication to the rapidly retreating German armies in Romania. But as soon as the weather cleared, the sky darkened with single and twin engine bombers. Battalions were safe as long as they did not move. The rockets and cannon fire was not accurate enough to target individual dug-outs and hull down tanks. But as soon as they had to move, or the supply columns had to make a run to the front, vehicles would burn and men would be butchered by the ever present jabos.

    The single Yugoslavian tank brigade had arrived two days ago. It had slowly advanced even as a pair of British infantry divisions also advanced in conjunction with a single army tank brigade. They had not gone far, only eleven kilometers but they had moved steady. Determined rear guards of broken companies and shattered battalions would delay the advance until the a defensive line could be established again well outside of artillery range of Timisoara.
     
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    • mudhead

    fester said:
    ...the retreating rear guard of the 11th Panzer Division. They, along with the Panzer Lehr...
    Click to expand...
    IOTL both of these formations were committed to the West: 11 Panzer in the south of France, and Lehr in Normandy.

    So, the decision to advance through the Balkans has removed (at least) two formidable divisions (Lehr had personnel with a high level of expertise, and was completely mechanised) from the western front.
     

    fester

    mudhead said:
    IOTL both of these formations were committed to the West: 11 Panzer in the south of France, and Lehr in Normandy.

    So, the decision to advance through the Balkans has removed (at least) two formidable divisions (Lehr had personnel with a high level of expertise, and was completely mechanised) from the western front.
    Click to expand...
    Different set of crisises drive different solutions
     

    Cryhavoc101

    mudhead said:
    IOTL both of these formations were committed to the West: 11 Panzer in the south of France, and Lehr in Normandy.

    So, the decision to advance through the Balkans has removed (at least) two formidable divisions (Lehr had personnel with a high level of expertise, and was completely mechanised) from the western front.
    Click to expand...
    And both units are very likely losing a % of their vehicles every day simply through mechanical breakdown that cannot be repaired in time obliging them to be 'scuttled'
     
    Story 2626
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    • fester

    Near Strasbourg, October 15, 1944

    "Anna Marie, get over her NOW" Her father yelled at her. The rest of the family and the farm workers were already in the recently dug out shelter. It had been propped up by half a dozen logs that the laborers had felled in August. The dug-out was small, but it was reasonably safe. As long as a bomb did not land within meters of the shelter, or the artillery line still stayed a fifteen or twenty kilometers to the east, the family would be safe.

    Anna Marie grabbed the small cauldron of stew and hurried. She was racing against time. As she was heading down into the shelter, the anti-aircraft battery that was set up at the crossroads on the southern edge of their farm began to fire. As she was ladling out the vegetable and rabbit stew to everyone in the shelter, two squadrons of Mitchells began their bomb runs on the assembly area of an infantry regiment that had been pulled back from the line after getting mauled by an armored thrust of the 7th Army. They young men, most who had not finished their education when they were drafted years ahead of their time and handed a rifle and a uniform had been in tents for the past week absorbing replacements, and integrating a few veterans in each company to stiffen their morale and provide a bare level of competence. Most of the regiment merely had a bad afternoon but the bomb line landed on two companies that already were only at half strength.
     
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    • Story 2627
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    • fester

    Near Strasbourg, October 15, 1944

    The platoon leader, Jaroshek, paused for a moment. His men were in position. They would be the base of fire as the rest of the company had been working their way around a German position that had proven to be somewhat bothersome to the French scouts who had run into the position that morning. His friend Jacque was next to him and even before he asked, there was a cigarette lit and ready for him to enjoy the momentary rush and then the clarity of the first drag. He had to wait. The artillery would start in another ten minutes, and then as soon as the three minute barrage ended, his platoon, along with a mortar squad, a pair of heavy machine guns, and a single tank destroyer would begin to shoot the assault in. His men were ready. They had not lost anyone in the past five days, and almost everyone had been shot at and had shot back at least once or twice. Not everyone was a veteran, but the platoon had a good group of men who had at least landed in Southern France and had been on the pursuit northeast ever since then.

    Jacque enjoyed his cigarette too. He had a moment before he needed to check on the half of the platoon that was part of the assault. The rest of his men were either in the battalion rear bringing men to the aid stations and re-organizing, or leading the other two platoons to a plausible flanking position. One of the men grew up in the village the division had liberated yesterday afternoon, so he was quite confident that he knew where the trails that would never be on a map should be. Tomorrow, or perhaps the day after tomorrow Jacque would be able to see the ridge where his family had lived for the past hundred and eighty years. He wondered how they were.

    There was no time for lollygagging. He took the last deep drag from the Lucky Stripe and began to crawl to where the rest of his countrymen were waiting for the signal to shoot at the Krauts. A moment before he made it to the small hollow, two squadrons of Mitchells flew overhead as they were likely returning to their airbase.
     
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    • Story 2628
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    • fester

    Arnhern, Netherlands October 16, 1944

    A few dozen dirty men slowly emerged from the ruins of a public square. A dozen tanks and other armored vehicles were burned out shells of themselves. Some had been destroyed by six pounders firing at point blank range. Others had a half dozen Molotov cocktails splash against their armored carapace until flaming gasoline found the small gaps in the rivets or entered the engine compartment. More had been destroyed by mines and bazooka rounds coming from above. Most of the vehicles had been destroyed by all of the methods that desperate paratroopers could conceive of without worry about efficency or efficacy, only effectiveness. The last two German tanks were destroyed by a squadron of Shermans where the fireflies shined brightly as they fired across the river.

    The airborne had held, they had held just long enough for the engineers to throw up a pair of Bailey bridges just downstream of the primary objective. That bridge could support men and perhaps jeeps, but not the steady stream of tanks that were lined up on the west bank and slowly making their way east.

    They had held. They had held against two days of counterattacks.

    They had held. They had held against house to house fighting.

    They had held. They had held as Germans fired artillery at them like they were American gunners.

    They had held as four brigades might be able to assemble five functional battalions.

    A tall red headed captain called for his men to form up and soon three dozen men, many barely able to walk or fire a weapon stood in three parade perfect columns as a British brigadier took responsibility for the ever expanding bridgehead on the east bank. They had held. And now they would head to Paris to reconstitute and rebuild after a bender that would become legendary.
     
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    • Seawolf

    RyderWest said:
    And Arnhem ends not in disaster, but in victory.
    Click to expand...

    That's going to make A Bridge Too Far quite interesting when you think about it. Given how in this universe, the Allies are more willing to listen to the smaller Allied Powers. Its entirely plausible that the advance didn't go up Hells Highway.
     

    RyderWest

    Seawolf said:
    That's going to make A Bridge Too Far quite interesting when you think about it. Given how in this universe, the Allies are more willing to listen to the smaller Allied Powers. Its entirely plausible that the advance didn't go up Hells Highway.
    Click to expand...
    And the more proper usage of paratrooper forces as well. TTL's paras were actually used as holding points and it was better coordinated with the ground advance as well.
     
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