Keynes' Cruisers

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Preamble

Preamble


This is a riff that owes a lot to half a dozen timelines that have been a source of great entertainment and thought for me. I am stealing shamelessly structure, ideas and plot points from The Whale has Wings, Pacific War Redux, April 1942 Alternate Indian Ocean, A True and Better Alamo Redux and several other stories and timelines. I hope I can provide a fraction of the fun to you that those stories have given me.


November 12, 1936 Washington DC

“Congratulations Mr. President, your victory is overwhelming and the American people expect even greater things from you.” Harold Ickes was the President’s trusted advisor and a leader in his Brain Trust. The election had not been close, but the polling was inconsistent as Gallup had thought the President was in trouble.


“I know, we have done so much, but we need to more. The question today and everyday forward is what promises do we break because circumstance have changed?” The President paused to enjoy a puff from his cigar. His eyes had never set on Harold, instead as he sat in his office chair, he looked out the window onto the National Mall.


“Interest rates are still below 1% for short term debt, and the 10 year rates are less than 2.5% so the deficit is not hurting the country’s long term strength. I know we promised to balance the budget but I also know that my popularity and power is only as good as last quarter’s employment report… We may still have to cut back a bit, and Harold, your department will probably bear the brunt of the cuts, but I think we can use the Navy to shore up some of our marginal supporters in the Northeast. The Army and the Air Corps could drive some money to the Great Lakes.”


“Franklin, let me sound out the House and the Senate as they’ll have their own ideas, but we have a short period of time with amazing majorities before normalcy returns and people forget that the Republicans are the ones who created this Depression and their misery.”


January 1, 1937 Great Britain

The Naval building holiday expired. Great Britain cut the first steel for King George V and Prince of Wales, new 35,000 ton battleships. Each would have ten 14 inch guns and a speed of 28 knots.


March 1, 1937

The Federal Reserve maintained interest rates at 1%. Reserve requirements were left unchanged instead of increased as originally planned.


May 1, 1937

The Federal Reserve left short term interest rates at 1%. Reserve requirements were left unchanged instead of increased as originally planned.


July 11, 1937 Washington DC

House Majority Leader William Bankhead (D-AL) hid a sigh of relief as the last hand had been shaken, the last promise made, the last eyebrow raised. The current Emergency Relief Appropriations Act would go through the House in the morning and then through the Senate early the following week. The act would authorize $2.5 billion in emergency relief spending, a significant cut from the $4.8 billion spent in 1935 and 1936 on the Works Project Administration. Only $1.9 billion was appropriated for the WPA.

The Navy was authorized to build one more Yorktown class carrier with work to be started as soon as practicable. Nine cruisers, three repeats of the Wichita heavy cruiser and six slightly modified St. Louis light cruisers would be laid down over the next three years. Twenty four new destroyers of the latest 1500 ton class were authorized in addition to the regular naval appropriation. Sixty older destroyers would be brought in for significant overhauls at smaller, non-federally owned yards. Finally, Senator Milton’s (D-NJ) vote had been secured when the Navy agreed to subsidize sixteen tankers for Standard Oil.

The Army appropriation had been a long and vicious fight. Congress would approve and fund a new square infantry division but the four infantry regiments and associated support battalions would not be concentrated. Current formations would be sent overseas as soon as the new units were raised. One infantry regiment would reinforce the Philippines, another would go to Hawaii, a third would go to Panama and the last regiment was being penciled in for Puerto Rico. The infantry branch also lost sole control over tanks as the cavalry wanted to convert a pair of horse regiments into a tank brigade.
 
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Story 0001
August 22, 1937 Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania

“Son, we’re so proud of you, just don’t forget where you came from after you get your fancy diploma. We’ll always be here for you… and you’re not too far from us.” Vladimir Jarosechek hugged his work strong son with more emotion than he had ever allowed himself to show around his five children.


His oldest son was a success. He was eighteen and not trapped for the rest of his life underground in the Appalachian coal fields or in the hell on earth of a coke battery. His son has been accepted to Northwestern University and would be an educated man.

Joshua Jarosechek looked at his family, his proud family and focused on his father. Vladimar had a permanent hue of coal and dust ground into every exposed skin pore as he spent six days a week underground. Last night, his father had taken him to the bar near the mine gate and showed him off to all of his co-workers. His son was escaping Belle Vernon and taking a train to the city. His son was not coming into the mines again. His son was going to the city. His son was a success.

The young man had ridden the train a few times in his life, once to catch a Pirates game with his dad in the days when the mine was working three shifts, but he was leaving for good. Belle Vernon was a fine town if you needed a break from the mine, but it was an afterthought to the world. He was going to Chicago.

Between football and the Navy, school would be paid for and he had a commission promised to him at the end of four years. He had never seen the sea, he had never seen any still body of water larger than the rain filled quarries that dotted his home county’s landscape like pox scars.

As he straightened his tie one last time and tapped his wallet that had been filled with cash whose origins he did not need to know about, he hopped aboard the morning train to Pittsburgh with the hope that only an eighteen escaping from a known trap could have.

August 23, 1937 Thomas Number 1 Mine, Georges Township, Fayette County Pennsylvania

Vladimir Jarosechek adjusted his lantern hat and loosely gripped his lunch pail a few minutes before his shift started and he descended into the deep pit mine that had allowed him to raise his family in bad years and thrive in good years. His oldest son was not joining him today nor would he any other day, and he smile as at least one of his boys would escape. Today he would be joining the rest of his gang of forty miners to continue their assault on the Pittsburgh Seam. Seven hours later, his crew would emerge, having sent up two hundred and sixty tons of coal that would be cooked into coke. A week later that coke was sent down the Monongahela River and burned at the US Steel Homestead Works to produce the first batch of new battleship armor plate in fifteen years.
 
Story 0002
September 29, 1937 Long Island

The Grumman engineers were excited as their XF4F-2 prototype taxied to a stop. They had been testing the stubby fuselage fighter for a few weeks now, and she was purring like a well fed cat curled up on a lap. A few modifications would be needed before she was ready for the Navy to have a look at her, but they had a winner on their hands.


October 27, 1937 New York Naval Shipyard

USS North Carolina, the first modern American fast battleship with nine 16 inch guns and a top speed of 27 knots was laid down. Her construction promised employment for five thousand skilled workers and twenty thousand indirect jobs in greater New York.


October 30, 1937 Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

USS Los Angeles, the first of the 1937 Emergency Relief act heavy cruisers is laid down at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. Her construction will employ 2,500 workers for the next three years.


December 12, 1937 Quincy, Massachusetts

The cold northeast wind penetrated the thin jackets of a five man crew who were laying the last keel support blocks in the second largest building slip at the Fore River Shipyard. Soon USS Constellation would be built above the heads of this small crew.


December 12, 1937 Nanking

Chief McElver cursed as an able seaman handed him another cup of coffee spiked with some cheap whiskey. HMS Ladybird had picked him and seven other American sailors up from the waters of the Yangtze River an hour ago after his ship, USS Panay, had to be abandoned. The Japanese bombed her for no reason. He had spent half an hour every day making sure that his deck division touched up the American flags painted atop of every skyward facing structure. There was no way this could be an accident.

December 15, 1937 Bremerton Naval Shipyard

The 14,000 ton hulk with rust streaks on her proud bow was being renamed yet again. She had started life as USS Washington but that name was needed for a battleship that was never completed. Her name was now needed for a new battleship. She was renamed USS Seattle and served the Pacific Fleet proudly as a flagship and an intimidating force with her heavy 10 inch guns. Now she was a receiving ship, a waypoint for men who had more important places to go. Her new name reflected that, USS Puget Sound, as Seattle was needed for a new light cruiser that was being laid down that week next to her sister Norfolk.
 
Story 0003
December 22, 1937 Manila

SS Water Rose, 5,653 GRT, arrived in Manila from San Francisco. Her cargo consisted of twelve 75mm guns, 18,000 shells for those guns, four million rounds of .30-06 ammunition, thirty six 2 ½ ton trucks and 3,200 tons of other supplies for the US Army in the Philippines. A steady trickle of freighters would follow her as the US Army transferred a white infantry regiment to the Islands over the next nine months. The veteran regiment from Washington would be replaced by a new regiment that Congress had authorized.

December 24, 1937 Hurley Wisconsin

The whistle blew as the last shift emerged from the iron mine elevator. Miners were joking with a casual indifference to the cold as they at least now had the faded gray umber of daylight. Tired muscles and hunched backs were stretched as the last jokes of the year were told.

The men had been working full shifts late in the year as the blast furnaces in Gary and Cleveland needed high quality ore. The new Navy orders were encouraging expansion of rolling plants able to work with the high strength alloyed steel needed for armor and structural supports. The last Laker of the season would be on its way on the 26th and the mine would close for the next three months.

January 13, 1938

The US unemployment rate nudged up 2/10ths of a point to 14.6%
 
Excellent story and plot line. Looking forward to seeing more




December 22, 1937 Manila

SS Water Rose, 5,653 GRT, arrived in Manila from San Francisco. Her cargo consisted of twelve 75mm guns, 18,000 shells for those guns, four million rounds of .30-06 ammunition, thirty six 2 ½ ton trucks and 3,200 tons of other supplies for the US Army in the Philippines. A steady trickle of freighters would follow her as the US Army transferred a white infantry regiment to the Islands over the next nine months. The veteran regiment from Washington would be replaced by a new regiment that Congress had authorized.

December 24, 1937 Hurley Wisconsin

The whistle blew as the last shift emerged from the iron mine elevator. Miners were joking with a casual indifference to the cold as they at least now had the faded gray umber of daylight. Tired muscles and hunched backs were stretched as the last jokes of the year were told.

The men had been working full shifts late in the year as the blast furnaces in Gary and Cleveland needed high quality ore. The new Navy orders were encouraging expansion of rolling plants able to work with the high strength alloyed steel needed for armor and structural supports. The last Laker of the season would be on its way on the 26th and the mine would close for the next three months.

January 13, 1938

The US unemployment rate nudged up 2/10ths of a point to 14.6%
 
Story 0004

January 22, 1938 Washington Naval Yard


“Johnson, Matheson, my office now”

The two engineers put down their pencils and quickly tidied up their work stations that were covered in papers concerning the 1.1 inch anti-aircraft gun. They wondered what this call to the boss’s office meant. The early installations has been going well enough. The new destroyer leaders were the next class to get the guns. They were a bit of a challenge as they were far smaller than a cruiser or a battleship.

The director’s office was a testament to quietly stated power. Heavy oak furniture, well polished brass picture frames, and fine water colors of a dozen warships in half a dozen battles greeted the young engineers as they stepped through the door frame.

“Please take a seat”

Both men pulled the well stuffed chairs away from the desk. One chair bumped into a globe as he was slightly nervous at this meeting. Meetings with the boss seldom were a good career event, and jobs for engineers were still tough to find.

“No need to worry gentlemen. The Navy is happy with your work, and so am I. However, the 1.1 inch anti-aircraft gun has been a fickle bastard. Your job is to straighten it out. Congress in its infinite wisdom has authorized $155,000 for further engineering tests on this gun. You’ll both be going to sea aboard Somers when she conducts her shakedown cruise.

You have two primary objectives. First, observe how the gun is used in the Fleet, secondly, identify ways to make Fleet use match with the specifications and expectations that the Navy has invested in this project. Any questions? “

“When do we leave?”

“Next month”

“What is the long term objective of the program?”

“Good question, Johnson. As you know most of the light anti-aircraft guns in the Fleet right now are belt fed machine guns. Those guns have too short of a range and the round is too light to carry any explosive any reasonable distance. They may have been sufficient fifteen years ago, but now, the Fleet’s short range air defense is obsolete. The 1.1 inch gun corrects this severe deficiency.

We need this mount to work, and we need it to work right. If the Navy needs to expand, it will expand with raw recruits and conscripts, not the highly skilled sailors that currently man its ships. The Navy will need weapons that can be fought and weapons that can be maintained by men who are walking down the street this afternoon. It is a large and complex piece of machinery that replaces small and simple guns.

Our job is to give the Navy the tools that they’ll need. And if we can save Congress some money by building our weapons more efficiently, our lords and masters on Capitol Hill will be eternally grateful. Is that clear enough?

“Yes sir”

“Very well, wrap up your work and start planning for a wonderful cruise to the Caribbean.”


February 15, 1938 Fort Riley, Kansas

The 7th Cavalry Brigade accepted their 110th M1 Combat Car. This regiment would spend several months training on the new equipment it would exercise against other units.

February 28, 1938 North Atlantic USS Sommers

The experienced crew were trying hard not to laugh at the engineers. The shorter one, Matheson, had spent the past three days trying to waddle to the rail whenever the destroyer hit swells that barely disturbed any sailor’s gait while Johnson had been running around the ship like a boy given a golden eagle and told that he could only spend it at a candy store. His civilian clothes were destroyed in the engine room as the snipes showed him about. The Skip had to stop his enthusiastic guest from getting in the way but he was following orders that these engineers were to get the run of the ship.

Soon, the live fire anti-aircraft drills would start. The main battery would be almost useless against any attack other than that by torpedo bombers. The two quad Chicago Pianos were the main air defense. The forward mount had been finicky but the gun crew and a few extra machinists had spent the last twenty one hours fine tuning their baby. The aft mount was ready.

Over the next three hours, the two engineers collected a wealth of information. Three major casualties occurred; a dropped magazine slowed the rate of fire on the forward mount and two mechanical failures that were repaired on the mount. The last casualty took the ship’s company twenty minutes to fix. Accuracy was decent but the guns were not firing until the target was less than a minute away from attacking the ship.

March 12, 1938 Vienna

The German Army was marching down the grand boulevards of Vienna after they had been invited in by Austrian political opportunists.

* http://www.academia.edu/1916418/Mechanization_in_the_Interwar_U.S._Cavalry
* http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_2.htm
 
Soon, the live fire anti-aircraft drills would start. The main battery would be almost useless against any attack other than that by torpedo bombers. The two quad Chicago Pianos were the main air defense. The forward mount had been finicky but the gun crew and a few extra machinists had spent the last twenty one hours fine tuning their baby. The aft mount was ready.

Over the next three hours, the two engineers collected a wealth of information. Three major casualties occurred; a dropped magazine slowed the rate of fire on the forward mount and two mechanical failures that were repaired on the mount. The last casualty took the ship’s company twenty minutes to fix. Accuracy was decent but the guns were not firing until the target was less than a minute away from attacking the ship.

Am I right in thinking that the 1.1 inch anti-aircraft gun was found inadequate and replaced with Bofor's guns?

The basic issue being that torpedo bombers have to be killed before they drop the torpedo. Therefore the AA guns used against them need a substantial reach advantage out past the torpedo drop point, and the 1.1" didn't have that. Or is my tendency to equate WWII shipboard AAA with Quad Mount Bofors guns getting the better of me again?

"Paint it green and throw it in the long grass" as one instructor I had used to say about useless equipment.
 
Yep, the 1.1 was long run inadequate as it could not put a heavy enough shell far enough down range reliably enough in 1942. In 1938 it was the best option in production for the USN as it was replacing Browning .50 caliber mounts which were even shorter range with no HE shells.

The goal of the 1.1 inch arc is to show marginal improvement with a little bit of money released earlier, not to make it a war winner.

Am I right in thinking that the 1.1 inch anti-aircraft gun was found inadequate and replaced with Bofor's guns?

The basic issue being that torpedo bombers have to be killed before they drop the torpedo. Therefore the AA guns used against them need a substantial reach advantage out past the torpedo drop point, and the 1.1" didn't have that. Or is my tendency to equate WWII shipboard AAA with Quad Mount Bofors guns getting the better of me again?

"Paint it green and throw it in the long grass" as one instructor I had used to say about useless equipment.
 
I am enjoying this time line. On the 60 older destroyers that are being overhauled, are some of those the ones that were sent to England as part of the "Destroyers for Bases" agreement? If so then this is good news for the British since I have read that the older destroyers needed a lot of work before they could be used.

Stubear1012
 
I am enjoying this time line. On the 60 older destroyers that are being overhauled, are some of those the ones that were sent to England as part of the "Destroyers for Bases" agreement? If so then this is good news for the British since I have read that the older destroyers needed a lot of work before they could be used.

Stubear1012
Yep, mostly the 60 destroyer overhauls were thrown in as a way to shovel money to some of the smaller shipyards. The Reserve four-stackers were mostly the Atlantic Fleet's ASW escort pool, so getting them in decent working order before they're needed sounded like a good idea to admirals told to spend a little bit of money on labor but not capital intensive projects. Now reality will take them away but instead of a 8 to 10 month turn-around on ships being traded away for leases, the turnaround will be 4 to 6 months.
 
I am wondering if any money can be spent on upgrading the Coast Guard? Their ships tend to be smaller and the work could go to the smaller shipyards. Beside creating jobs, the country benefits since they provide rescue services and combat smugglers. During war time, they become part of the Defense Department. During this time period, they are part of the Treasury. It is my understanding that the USA did provide some Coast Guard cutters to Britain during WW11.

Stubear1012
 
I am wondering if any money can be spent on upgrading the Coast Guard? Their ships tend to be smaller and the work could go to the smaller shipyards. Beside creating jobs, the country benefits since they provide rescue services and combat smugglers. During war time, they become part of the Defense Department. During this time period, they are part of the Treasury. It is my understanding that the USA did provide some Coast Guard cutters to Britain during WW11.

Stubear1012
I've written about 150 pages of this time line and the Coast Guard might be mentioned once or twice. There is some space for additional cutters, but I have not included them. The better ASW cutters were the Treasury class (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasury-class_cutter) which were good, spacious, stable sea boats that could have been a decent rip-off for a US austere escort design to be laid down in 1940/1941 but they were not; instead the US went the Destroyer Escort route which produced some good ships but much later than really needed.
 
Story 0005
April 11, 1938 Haverhill Massachusetts

Another boxcar of boots was attached to the engine. They would begin a slow journey, first to Boston and then west to Fort Ord, California. Most of the boots in the car would eventually end up on the feet of the doughboys of a new infantry regiment. The remaining boots were headed to Hawaii as they followed an established infantry regiment. Somehow, six dozen pairs of boots would find their way to Chungking and the last would be worn out in 1953.

April 13, 1938 Washington Navy Yard

The two engineers walked confidently down the gangway with sea bags flung over their shoulders. The past seven weeks had produced a wealth of information. Most of their notes had already been sent to the arsenal the night before. Sailors from the deck division had been tasked to bring seven crates of prototypes, models and sketches before they were released for liberty.

There were three major improvements that the engineers wanted for the 1.1 inch anti-aircraft mount and one major recommendation. The first change stemmed from the recognition that the gun was a good piece of gear when it worked. It did not work often enough. The crew of the Sommers lavished attention on their mounts but they were seldom at 100% capability. Simpler construction, easier maintenance and more reliable engineering was a must. The easiest modification would be a metal stiffener for the mount. Secondly, the quad mounts went through ammunition quickly. The current mount had less than a minute’s worth of ready ammunition on hand. More clips needed to be stored on the mount for instant action while the ammunition handling work flow would need to be shorten the path magazine to barrel on new construction. The last major change was the ammunition. The shells were fused to detonate on contact with fabric wings. The fuses were too sensitive. The effective rate of fire was far lower than the theoretical maximum rate as everyone was justifiably terrified of high explosive shells that could detonate on contact with doped fabric. The Navy and Army Air Force were moving towards all metal construction. Re-fusing shells to deal with metal skinned aircraft would lower the fear while increasing the rate of fire.

The last recommendation that the engineers were debating was whether or not there was a need for a dual barrel mount for destroyers and lighter warships as the quad mount ate up a significant amount of deck space. A simpler dual mount without all the bells and whistles could give the older destroyers a respectable anti-aircraft capability that shamed the light machine guns they currently mounted. That would be a new project and a new funding request if the boss approved of it.

May 17, 1938 Washington DC

The new Naval Act had passed the Senate earlier in the week and the President had signed the bill that morning. The Act authorized another three battleships, a new carrier, and eight more cruisers of a lighter design than the current St. Louis class plus additional destroyers and submarines. American shipyards were starting to become busy as a trickle of new construction that had sustained them through the first part of the decade was becoming a navigable river if not yet a flood.
 
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Just caught up with this: really enjoying it. A couple of comments:
The shells were fused to detonate on contact with fabric wings. The fuses were too sensitive.

I think the Soviets had a problem of a similar nature with the ShVak's 20mm HE shells: possibly 1930s combat experience against Italian aircraft in Spain had led to the design of a very sensitive fuse and thin-walled projectile. As a result, during The Great Patriotic War many German aircraft were damaged rather than destroyed due to the shells exploding outside rather than inside the airframes.

the grunts of a new infantry regiment

This seems a bit anachronistic. When did the term "grunt" come into use> IIRC it was during the Vietnam War.
 
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Re grunts I will look that up...
Just caught up with this: really enjoying it. A couple of comments:


I think the Soviets had a problem of a similar nature with the ShVak's 20mm HE shells: possibly 1930s combat experience against Italian aircraft in Spain had led to the design of a very sensitive fuse and thin-walled projectile. As a result, during The Great Patriotic War many German aircraft were damaged rather than destroyed due to the shells exploding outside rathert than inside the airframes.



This seems a bit anachronistic. When did the term "grunt" come into use> IIRC it was during the Vietnam War.
 
Re grunts I will look that up...

Looked it up at https://www.reference.com/government-politics/military-grunt-2f0faa7ac3711ceb. Extract below.

"Military grunt" is slang for an infantryman or foot soldier. It is thought that this term arose during the Vietnam War. This usage was first recorded in print in 1969...

Since around 1900, "grunt" has been a word for a low-level worker or laborer. This is the likely origin of the term "grunt work," referring to a job that is thankless, boring and exhausting but necessary. There is no record of how this word became applied to infantrymen though it is indisputable that infantrymen often engage in grunt work.

The military branches love to label themselves and one another with made-up acronyms, or backronyms. For this reason, it's sometimes jokingly claimed that "grunt" stands for either "Government Reject Unfit for Naval Training" or "Ground Replacement Unit, Not Trained."​
 
Story 0006
June 3, 1938 Belle Vernon Station, Pennsylvania

Joshua Jarosechek looked at the busy railyard in Uniontown. He was a city boy now, having completed his freshman year at Northwestern. He had established a good routine of study, skirt chasing, and physical training with the Navy. In March, his NROTC class had been taken county airport for familiarization flights. He had been amazed at seeing the ant like people and model cars scurry underneath him as he looked out of the open observer cockpit on the SBA scout bomber as it did a lazy circuit over the lake, passing the Golden Mile, before heading back up the Chicago River. Flying was even more fascinating and invigorating than sweet talking city girls. He cinched his travelling bag tight to his shoulder and stepped off the train. Three steps off the platform, he was swarmed under by a sea of hugs including an unexpected hug from his father. They had much to catch up on over dinner and a beer but so little time as he was due to arrive in Annapolis for his midshipmen’s cruise on the 12th.
 
Story 0007

July 21, 1938 BuShips Washington DC


The carrier Wasp was still under construction at Quincy but the architects were busy analyzing the design. She was a half measure, an expedient to take care of some remaining tonnage left over in a now defunct treaty. She would be a fleet carrier but a second line carrier at best. Wasp had only five eighths the engine power and almost no armor to cram an air wing that was 90% of the regular fleet carriers. She would be an excellent training ship, and a good carrier for a secondary theater. However she could not be the basis of an expedient carrier. The Yorktown class was faster, better armed and armored with far more endurance while the two converted battle cruisers were even larger with more combat endurance than the purpose built full sized carriers.

Instead the architects had two tracks they were working on. The first was similar in size but far less ambitious than Wasp. Cruiser hulls and cruiser machinery would be used to build fast light carriers that could support the heavy carriers on offensive missions. Their air groups would be small; full capacity might only be thirty-five aircraft instead of Wasp’s seventy-five but they would be faster and slightly better protected on a 10,000 to 12,000 ton hull. These ships would be expensive for the capability that they provided but they could be built in yards that could not build a Yorktown or the new fleet carrier design that was being bandied about. One designer had raised the possibility of designing a fast aircraft maintenance ship that could supply the fleet carriers with spares and repair damaged aircraft. That idea had been quickly shot down.

The other possibility was a conversion of auxiliaries, probably fast tankers, to basic rear area aircraft carriers. The Navy was looking into the possibility of C-2 cargo ships and T-3 tankers. These ships would not be able to make more than 19 knots with new machinery and a clean hull, nor could they operate more than thirty aircraft. However, they could act as ferries and support ships. Fleet carriers would be freed up for for more important duties.

There was no authorization for new construction. Instead a few thousand dollars and three dozen hours of tank and wind tunnel time had been found for testing out rough models of expedient carriers. Anything that the architects found out over this summer of testing and drawing would be instantly obsolete but they could at least find out what definitely would not work when the Navy needed flight decks in a hurry.

September 30, 1938

The major western powers and Germany had reached an agreement concerning the disposition of the Czechoslovakian border lands that were overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Germans. Germany would occupy those lands while the United Kingdom and France would not militarily oppose.

October 1, 1938

The Munich Agreement was digested across all European capitals. Poland took this as a pre-emptive war warning and continue to review and revise mobilization and modernization plans. Great Britain and France both hoped the agreement would buy them at least another two years to re-arm. Hungary and Romania prepared for a deluge while the Soviets continued their internal purges.
 
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