Keynes' Cruisers

[fester]

June 26, 1940

The first US Army Air Corps Pursuit Group equipped with P-39s became operational at Selfridge Field in Michigan. A P-40 Pursuit group had become operational the week before. The Army Air Corps was impressed with the initial production models of the P40, and had placed an order for an additional 500 modified aircraft from Curtiss. The Air Corps was still not as impressed with the Bell product and waited for more operational data before ordering more Airacobras.

The goal was to replace all current pursuit groups with P-40s or P-39s by January 1, 1942. New squadrons would be receiving Lochkeed’s twin engine Lightning once the engineers were confident that it would perform according to the claims.

June 26, 1940 near Bardia, Libya

The Italian destroyer barely made it to port. She had been jumped by HMAS Sydney outside of the port. The light cruiser had chased her for two hours and if she had another twenty minutes, she would have claimed her kill. The coastal defense guns at Bardia had fired a ranging shot a minute ago and the cruiser pulled away.

 

[NHBL]

I am liking this a lot Minor typo: It's "Lightning," not "Lightening."
Keep it coming--thanks for sharing this with us all!

 

[fester]

June 28, 1940 Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

USS Saratoga rested along the blocks as the last of the water was pumped out of the massive dry dock. Her sister had left two weeks earlier to return to Pearl Harbor with a new anti-aircraft suite and a new air wing exclusively composed of monoplanes. Now it was Sara’s turn to trade in her heavy cruiser guns and her anti-aircraft only five inch guns for fourteen individually mounted five inch dual purpose guns. Ideally, she would have received four dual turrets but the engineers were still working through some problems so single mounts would be sufficient. Her engines would be tuned and her armor lightened even as she was bulged. Overtime and a second shift had been authorized to get her back to the fleet by late September instead of the original goal for Halloween.

A few hundred feet away, USS Maryland was busily receiving a modest refit. Her sisters who were still in line would receive the full anti-aircraft upgrade. Maryland would only receive five 1.1 quad machine guns to replace the light machine guns. Her five inch guns would be swapped one for one with the dual purpose versions. There would be no gun houses for the single mounts just gun shields. She would be released back to the fleet in two months. Her sisters would follow her into the dock yards over the next nine months.

 

[fester]

June 29, 1940 1250 Pensacola, Florida

The powerful trainer came to a halt as it finished taxiing to the end of the runway and towards the dispersal area. Once it had stopped and the aircraft secured, two men popped out of the flying cabin. The instructor had a grim face while the student pilot who had completed his flight was doing his best to not smile. Jarosechek commenced his post-flight inspection, checking the engine and giving the maintainers a briefing on a pair of minor problems that popped up during his flight.

Later that evening, his classmates had to physically restrain him from skipping. The sky sure did beat the mine.

 

[mudhead]

Can foresee a Polish presence in Western Desert Force/8th Army.

More thoughts on the exiled Polish armed forces.

IOTL some of the RAF's premier units were Polish, most famously 303 Sqdn of Fighter Command (others in 1940 were the bomber units 300 & 301, and 302, flying fighters). If there's any overseas deployment of the army divisions, it would be logical for the Polish government to request that the Polskie Siły Powietrzne accompany them as an air component.

 

[fester]

June 30, 1940 Liverpool

Lancastria pulled up to the dock with half a dozen tugboats helping her. She had been bombed once in the Bay of Biscay but the high level bombers had been disrupted by her escorts anti-aircraft fire. A single bomb exploded ten yards from the port bow, the shrapnel killing thirty passengers but not impeding her speed. She would be quickly repaired and then steam to the Clyde for further duty as a trooper.

As Operation Ariel wrapped up, the BEF was able to bring home all but 21,242 soldiers who had left for France. 12,128 were known to have died, and the rest were assumed to have been captured.

 

[fester]

July 1, 1940

France signed an armistice with Germany. All of the Atlantic Coast in a strip twenty miles deep along with the entire country north of the Loire at Orleans would be occupied by the Germans. They would also seize a strip of land forty miles from the pre-war German border including all of the Maginot forts. The Italians were given economic concessions in the south as well as the coastal town of Menton. The active and Series A divisions would be marched to German prisoner of war camps and agricultural labor regions.

The fleet was to be frozen in place for the next fifteen days unless there was a drastic and obvious possibility of loss.

 

[fester]

July 2, 1940 London

Too many missions and not enough ships. That was a common enough complaint going back four hundred years for the Kings’ Admirals. Despite the historical support for their worries, the Royal Navy was stretched as invasion could be imminent as soon as the Germans re-organized their armies on the continent. Britain was at her most danger since Trafalgar. The campaign in Norway had smashed the German surface fleet but at a cost; one light cruiser was sunk as well as eight destroyers lost since April 10th. Dozens more ships had been damaged or run hard and needed yard time.

At the same time, the Mediterranean Fleet needed to be reinforced. Ark Royal, Hood, Rodney and Repulse all had departed Devonport for Gibraltar and points beyond. The Atlantic convoys were weakly protected as distance had been their primary guardian. U-boats and long range bombers would soon be based on the French Atlantic coast and beyond the major defensive lines that had bottled them up in the previous war.

Finally, light forces had to be kept close to destroy any potential invasion. There were no good choices, only a variety of bad choices with various consequences. One of the first choices would be to eliminate the possibility of a threat from the remnants of the French Fleet. Strasbourg and Dunkerque were due to arrive in Martinique within a week. Lorraine was still in dock at Alexandria while Courbet and two dozen lesser warships were tied up in Portsmouth. They would be kept there. Once the battle crusiers were under American supervision, Operation Catapult would be initiated.

 

[torten]

July 1, 1940

France signed an armistice with Germany. All of the Atlantic Coast in a strip twenty miles deep along with the entire country north of the Loire at Orleans would be occupied by the Germans. They would also seize a strip of land forty miles from the pre-war German border including all of the Maginot forts. The Italians were given economic concessions in the south as well as the coastal town of Menton. The active and Series A divisions would be marched to German prisoner of war campaigns and agricultural labor regions. The fleet was to be frozen in place for the next fifteen days unless there was a drastic and obvious possibility of loss.

This is better than OTL, not as much of France occupied?

 

[fester]

This is better than OTL, not as much of France occupied?

Correct --- France is about 50% occupied instead of 60% occupied

 

[mudhead]

June 30, 1940 Liverpool

Lancastria pulled up to the dock with half a dozen tugboats helping her. She had been bombed once in the Bay of Biscay but the high level bombers had been disrupted by her escorts anti-aircraft fire. A single bomb exploded ten yards from the port bow, the shrapnel killing thirty passengers but not impeding her speed. She would be quickly repaired and then steam to the Clyde for further duty as a trooper.

Well, that's a lot better than OTL - one of the greatest ever maritime disasters.

 

[sloreck]

Only leaving ~21,000 British forces behind in France, of which ~12,000 were KIA. So much better than OTL. Unlike OTL the vast majority of evacuated troops have come back with at least rifles, helmets, web gear and so forth with more heavy equipment brought back as well (compared to essentially zero OTL). You have a significant experienced Polish force already stood up with at least decent equipment, and the possibility or more Norwegian, Dutch, Belgian, and French forces that will stay in the fight. Similarly more of the MN is either in British ports or the Western Hemisphere. Less of France occupied - although Pétain is still in charge and I expect his ministers will be pretty much the same as OTL (not good).

While the French fleet is "frozen, how many of the MN ships decided to put to sea while the armistice was being negotiated and where will they go (certainly not back to Metropolitan France). I expect that a lot of soldiers both north and south of the occupation line will decide to remove their uniforms and go home rather than be sent as forced labor to Germany. The Germans will be pissed but there is little they can do, I expect at least in some units sympathetic administrative personnel will make rosters disappear. I imagine there will be at least individual AdA pilots/crew that will decide to fly to Britain or North Africa.

 

[jsb]

Operation Catapult would be initiated.

Not sure that Catapult needs to even happen if the French capital ships are off in the west? Looking forward to Operation Judgement far more with the potential for more CVs now glorious has been saved....

 

[fester]

Not sure that Catapult needs to even happen if the French capital ships are off in the west? Looking forward to Operation Judgement far more with the potential for more CVs now glorious has been saved....

Who is to say it is the same operation... Remember there are USN officers with French heavy units as observers plus the RN should be feeling much more confident as they are able to play international football with a goalkeeper

 

[Unknown]

Well, that's a lot better than OTL - one of the greatest ever maritime disasters.

I agree about the Lancastria; it makes sense that OTL's fate for her would be avoided ITTL (butterflies played a part here, IMO).

Yeah, I see more French military personnel saying screw this and trying to go to Britain; I don't see Franco entering the war ITTL (for one thing, Spain is still recovering from the civil war; also, Britain looks less on the point of collapse here, especially since many more troops got out of France before its fall than OTL)...

 

[fester]

July 4, 1940 Canobie Lake Park, Salem New Hampshire

She leaned in against him, her body warm and willing as he squeezed her tight against him. They were forty feet over the midway the ski lift bench chair that traversed the entire park. Other young couples were eating peanuts, laughing at little jokes they told each other and drinking and playing games beneath them.

In his pocket rested a small ring, it was all he could afford as he had been saving all of his National Guard pay for the past four months. He would give Elaine his heart and his hope at the end of the night as the guys down at the Armory were telling him that the division would soon be mobilized and they would not allow mere privates to be married while in service.

Until then, Patrick held Elaine tight to him as the fireworks started to go off over the lake.

 

[perfectgeneral]

prisoner of war campaigns

Damned spell checkers! (myself included)

 

[Unknown]

Hope he lives (Patrick, I mean)...

 

[Paulo the Limey]

Well he killed off the young Scots soldier just when we all thought he was safe so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Hope he lives (Patrick, I mean)...

 

[fester]

Well he killed off the young Scots soldier just when we all thought he was safe so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

He is safe up until at least February 1942 --- I don't know what his unit will be doing nor where will he be after that point.