Keynes' Cruisers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reader mode

Viper91

fester said:
March 12, 1942 South of Diamond Head, Honolulu

Five carriers turned into the wind. Enterprise and Lexington were in Task Force 16 while the Atlantic Fleet reinforcements, Yorktown, Constellation and Hornet, formed Task Force 17. Destroyers waited for the course of the carriers to steady as they attempted to hold their screening positions during flight operations. Fifty three minutes later, the carriers slowed to normal cruising speed and the escorts tightened up on them. Over two hundred aircraft were launched, all heading north to “attack” a secondary army airfield on Oahu. Yorktown had finished launching her deck load strike first, every plane was up and assembling within twenty seven minutes while Hornet took the longest at forty seven minutes. The two Pacific Fleet carriers were only slightly faster than the rookie.

By nightfall, the exercise was done and the carriers headed back to Pearl. The Atlantic Fleet carriers had liberty tonight while Enterprise and Lexington would get liberty tomorrow night. The Shore Patrol had been overwhelmed with fist fights when the victors of the Norwegian Sea started having intense discussions with the pinprick raiders of the Pacific.
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, a second, larger strike against Rabaul would not be a bad move. Even if some of the ships and units that would have been at Rabaul have been sunk ITTL, I'm guessing the Japanese must still be planning to build up the base. A major strike by three carriers could be devastating.

A strike against the Marshalls would also in my mind be a worthy goal. The only major warship that I know for sure is there would be the light cruiser Katori, but that area is still a key Japanese position. A strike there would also be good for ensuring the Japanese don't make any further moves against Wake Island.
 

sloreck

While some of the "get out of Dodge" scenarios for Anne-Marie are plausible (barely) and others require Skippy the ASB, the basic problem is she has no clue how badly boned she is. In her head is the "I've been recruited to screw Germans and get information, and I'm sending information to my controller(s) so everything is peachy" thought is bouncing around. To have any chance of getting out of there in one piece she needs to make plans, stash money, get papers, have a go bag ready for if and when she needs to bail (including things like having a clue on train schedules heading to the unoccupied zone). To make it even worse, at this point she is in danger from the Gestapo and the resistance - she has no friends. Even if the folks in London wanted to make an effort to save her, they can't unless they pull her pretty soon. They won't know if/when the Gestapo knock on her door, and they can't just send out a blanket notice to all resistance forces she is an asset for obvious reasons.
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
She may be lucky to be the victim of a Resistance hit-and-run op on a Paris side street. That would be a quicker end than some of the other possibilities.
 

Mr Carrot

......there's been page after page portraying the non SOE resistance units as some form of competent, nigh, elite paramilitary insurgent force.

not the brave but bungling incompetent communists half of them were in reality.

they are just as likely to screw up their timings on the hit and run into an off duty SS company than they are to pull off a perfect hit.
 

fester

Mr Carrot said:
......there's been page after page portraying the non SOE resistance units as some form of competent, nigh, elite paramilitary insurgent force.

not the brave but bungling incompetent communists half of them were in reality.

they are just as likely to screw up their timings on the hit and run into an off duty SS company than they are to pull off a perfect hit.
Click to expand...
In my mind, the Paris resistance unit that was recently written about has some minimal training ( a few people were reservists), some Darwinian learning as it has seen what happened to the dumb/lazy and unlucky but fundamentally, they are composed of men and women who know the city, know what looks unusual. There are a few individuals that I really would like to avoid in a dark alley and that is it. Imagine closer to the mob with the veneer of patriotism and a nice sideline in smuggling.

Keeping an eye on another horizontal especially if that eye is not a dedicated tail but a "Hey, if you see her, remember it..." is not incredibly difficult especially if the state of play is light observation.
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
fester said:
Imagine closer to the mob with the veneer of patriotism and a nice sideline in smuggling.
Click to expand...

Lucky Luciano, for example. A big shot crime boss given a (very thin) veneer of patriotism and a get out of prison agreement. I'd bet many Resistance groups had some members who were more successful at being on the wrong side of the law in peacetime - which translate to a useful skill in wartime
 
Last edited:

Mr Carrot

fair enough, wasn't addressing the story as much as the level of ability she would have to employ to escape.

I mean, If she thinks something is up (and she should be slightly paranoid), it's a matter of going home for a bit at this time given the lack of non SOE/UK run national network, she doesn't have to leave the country. it's hardly dodging The Terminator levels of hard.

And as I said half of them were incompetent student communists who probably did more harm than good.
I agree that The other half (and that's being generous) became increasingly skilled, organized and useful as the war dragged on finding natural allies with French organized crime.

Though I was laughing on the train reading some of the escape plans, I was waiting for the suggestion that she uses a stolen V2 to enter orbit then perform HALO jump landing on the White House lawn to ask for asylum directly from FDR.
 
Last edited:

Crowbar Six

The only way she gets a wake up call is if she overhears a conversation about someone in a similar position getting screwed over by both the German, resistance and/or the British following which she draws the appropriate lessons and makes some preparations and plans. However, anything she dreams up will likely be impractical, not radical enough or badly planned. Even the best like Richard Sorge cocked up with fatal consequences.
 

Oldbill

Crowbar Six said:
The only way she gets a wake up call is if she overhears a conversation about someone in a similar position getting screwed over by both the German, resistance and/or the British following which she draws the appropriate lessons and makes some preparations and plans. However, anything she dreams up will likely be impractical, not radical enough or badly planned. Even the best like Richard Sorge cocked up with fatal consequences.
Click to expand...

Or a failed attempt at assassination. Which might lead to her gaining papers to move elsewhere (via the Germans) and/or her awakening to the fact her life prospects are pretty dim. If she can move elsewhere, good for her. French North Africa would be an out of the way place. Over near the Spanish border would be good as it would allow her to possibly flee to Portugal. Switzerland would be good, albeit at the cost of long term internment, if they didn't simply deport her back. All in all, French North Africa seems to be the best bet for long term longevity, as long as she can find a job to live.
 

Cryhavoc101

Mr Carrot said:
Though I was laughing on the train reading some of the escape plans, I was waiting for the suggestion that she uses a stolen V2 to enter orbit then perform HALO jump landing on the White House lawn to ask for asylum directly from FDR.
Click to expand...

Utterly implausable - the V2 does not have the range.....now if she beds a luftwaffe fighter ace and gets him to learn her to fly she can then steal an 'Amerika Bomber' - simples - far more plausable
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor

Marquis

Mr Carrot said:
Though I was laughing on the train reading some of the escape plans, I was waiting for the suggestion that she uses a stolen V2 to enter orbit then perform HALO jump landing on the White House lawn to ask for asylum directly from FDR.
Click to expand...

I tried with my plans to keep it low-tech. Hence doing in the German officer with a pillow or a steak-knife.
 
Story 1196
  • Index

    • fester

    March 12, 1942 Halilulik, Timor

    The machine gun fired again, four rounds and a short pause, and then another four rounds at some movement three hundred yards away. Rifle men shifted their views from the front and followed the tracers down range as they waited for a barrage from Japanese knee mortars. The first assault had been beaten off earlier in the morning. The National Guardsmen occupied a blocking position just northeast of a crossroads town. The main line was three miles long with a battalion on each of the slopes of the hills that cosseted the narrow road. The last battalion was in reserve along with a reinforced artillery group of twenty four 75 millimeter guns.

    The Dutch brigade had retreated haphazardly and they had taken most of the previous day to completely pass through the lines. One battalion was in decent shape and had been able to move into prepared positions west of the town to serve as a rear guard and a stopper from infiltration attempts. The Japanese division had been pursuing the defeated Dutch aggressively. They had not anticipated running into the Americans until after their first hasty attack with a company of infantry supported by a trio of mortars was stopped cold when all twenty four artillery pieces went to rapid fire for three minutes in a prepared firing plan. Since the morning battle, it was obvious that more Japanese units were arriving with more heavy equipment. A flight of Army A-24s had bombed the road and claimed to have destroyed several howitzers. Japanese light bombers had responded and they inflicted some casualties as most of the Americans were in reasonably deeply dug positions already.


    The machine gun fired again, another trio of short bursts as a Japanese light machine gun started to reach out for the American positions. The tempo of battle was increasing from the mid-morning lull.
     
    Last edited:
  • Index
    • STory 1197
  • Index

    • fester

    March 13, 1942 Sydney

    Men kissed their wives, boys kissed their girlfriends and sergeants moved reluctant privates onto their ships. The convoy had spent the last two weeks assembling and loading the equipment for the reinforced 1st Australian Armoured Brigade. They had received their new M3 tanks from American in December and by now they were competent drivers of the medium tanks. The brigade was needed in the Malay barrier. Tentative plans were to move the force to Singapore but there was a contingency to land in either Timor or Java as needed.

    In addition to the three armoured regiments, the motor infantry battalion as well as a field artillery regiment had been included. A new motor infantry battalion and artillery contigent would be attached to the 2nd Armoured Brigade as it still was training on their recently arrived tanks. That brigade force would not be ready for action until the second half of the year.
    As the ships left the harbor, they met their escort; HMAS Adelaide and HMNZS Achilles. By nightfall, the blacked out convoy had left side of land and was heading north to reinforce the bastions upon which their country depended on for its defense.
     
    Last edited:
  • Index
    • Story 1198
  • Index

    • fester

    March 13, 1942 Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    The small core staff of the 101st Infantry Division of the US Army Organized Reserve breathed a sigh of relief. The divisional shell had been slowly filling out over the past three months as the next wave of mobilization and expansion for the US Army had started almost as soon as the fires were extinguished at Pearl Harbor. Most of the divisions in that wave would be built up as the skeleton cadre had expected, mainly infantry divisions with a few horse cavalry units converting to tank units but there had been talk about making the 101st Infantry Division a parachute division. None of the men who would become responsible for training the division once it activated in the late spring knew how or why anyone would sanely jump out of the back of a perfectly functional aircraft.

    Word had come down that the 101st would be a specialist division but the specialty would be light assault. A new T0&E had been sent from Washington that stripped out of the division anything that required more than a Bantam to haul. The infantry would be specialized assault troops for amphibious assaults and raiding missions. Now the cadre just had to figure out what that meant before the flux of draftees arrived.
     
  • Index
    • Reader mode
    Top
    Status
    Not open for further replies.
    Top