Oh completely, I needed a spot in my head for worn out squadrons to rebuild and a sea plane base at Christmas Island makes sense for anti-sub and anti-raider patrols so I decided to make it explicit that the last operational Commonwealth Buffalo squadron in SE Asia is now rebuilding at the base least likely to actually need fighter cover.
- Status
Errolwi
Monthly Donor
Nice. The standout book on OTL 488 Sqn is 'Last Stand in Singapore', reviews here. Really lays into the poor leadership in the theatre.
I'm still loving this tale...you are a master of alternate history here
Would the U-Boat skipper even know that he was attacked by something new? IIRC, the hedgehog doesn't explode unless it hits something--not sure if he'd hear them hit the water.
I'm pretty sure they can hear the attack. The will hear something hitting the water, they just wont know what it is.
Story 1218
March 27, 1942 Portsmouth, England
HMS Resolution was made fast to the dock near the Free French battleship Courbet. Their fates would be similar, laid up in harbor where their contribution to the war would be as a defensive platform manned by trainees. Within a month, almost all of the trained sailors had left the ship. The few that remained were promised leave before they became damage control instructors. Their former mates were moving on to crew more modern ships joining the Fleet.
HMS Resolution was made fast to the dock near the Free French battleship Courbet. Their fates would be similar, laid up in harbor where their contribution to the war would be as a defensive platform manned by trainees. Within a month, almost all of the trained sailors had left the ship. The few that remained were promised leave before they became damage control instructors. Their former mates were moving on to crew more modern ships joining the Fleet.
Story 1219 March 27 1942 Battle of Lubang Island
March 27, 1942 Mariveles
Four torpedo boats led the remnants of the Asiatic Fleet out of the harbor just after dusk. Look-outs sought out the Japanese blockaders. A sortie the previous week had sunk a Japanese minesweeper for the cost of a patrol boat. Since then, the Japanese had pushed back their patrol line to thirty miles off the coast. A reconnaissance flight by the extremely valuable and well hidden half squadron of P-40s flying from MacArthur Field had confirmed the reports that there were three groups of Japanese patrol vessels.
Two front line blockading groups consisted of old light patrol boats, minesweepers and naval trawlers were running race track patterns. The northern group never went south of Bagac while the southern group covered the approaches from Mindoro. In the center and further out to sea was a single light cruiser and the oldest first line destroyer in the Japanese fleet. These two ships were the rapid reaction force. In Subic Bay there were a number of other light warships but most had never shown any rapid availability.
The four torpedo boats spread out in a scouting line. Three Philippine Coastal Patrol ships followed them two miles to the rear. The rearguard was a pair of China station gunboats. They exited the protected minefields and waved at the great guns protecting the harbor before they headed south. The fleet continued south as lookouts strained to find the Japanese. Ideally the mission should have occurred the previous week as the moon would have been far more favorable but the other half of the mission was delayed. The only aid was the cloud cover that blocked the moon about half the time.
Three hours after the force left the harbor, a look-out spotted a bump on the horizon. Lamps flashed off the sterns of the PT boats without acknowledgement. Two of the fast patrol craft increased their speed to sixteen knots and began to veer to seaward to investigate the contact. Machine gun bolts were cocked, torpedoes readied for launch and eyes strained through binoculars.
One bump became two. The moon’s light highlighted the mast and the PT boats slowed before turning away as they watched the two Japanese minesweepers complete the southern leg of their patrol route and turn to the north.
Another hour and another bump was seen on the horizon. Again, two more PT boats increased their speed to investigate the ships that had just passed Golo Island. Five vessels emerged. A quick flurry of flashes by a hurricane lamp were sent and acknowledged. Both forces relaxed slightly as they had found their compatriots. USS Walker and USS Renshaw were in the lead. Their decks were, for the first time in months, clear of cargo and their crews manned the guns with a palatable desire to fight instead of hiding from contact. Behind them three ships that bore a passing resemblance to their escorts churned through the water at sixteen knots. By now the heavier ships that had departed Manila Bay that evening had turned around and began to head north at their best speed.
The three banana boats had dashed through the Dutch East Indies using night and storms as cover as they made their way up the coast. What should have been a five day journey had taken the fifteen and they still needed to go another four hours to complete their mission that had started in New Orleans months ago. The two destroyer minelayers, veterans of seven supply runs into Manila Bay were the last seaworthy survivors of their squadron. Two ships had escaped to Java’s dockyards. One of those vessels was worth repairing. The other four ships had been sunk by mines, submarines and air attack. Each of the survivors needed time in a dockyard, and that time was unlikely to be granted, so their mission tonight was to cause a diversion.
The four PT boats followed the destroyers as their courses diverged from the cargo ships. Steam was released into the turbines and screws bit into the water as the predators headed loudly north at twenty two knots. The torpedo boats spread out in front of the destroyers in another scouting line looking for trouble.
As the moon hid behind a cloud and the merchant ships continued unmolested, the same sailor who had first seen the Japanese minesweepers spotted them again. They were heading south again on yet another long leg of their continual patrols. Their look-outs were alert (enough) for another long patrol in the middle of the night. Chatter had suggested that the Americans were going to try to run another one of their old destroyers into the harbor. The tonnage they could deliver to their garrison merely slowed the depletion of the stockpile and sooner or later, every one of those fast ships would be sunk.
The ennui of yet another leg on yet another night on patrol led to the American destroyers being able to get to within 9,000 yards without being spotted. The lookouts on the two destroyers had spotted the minesweepers. Even as the ships made their final moves to full readiness for action, three dozen mines rolled into the sea. As the mines splashed in the twisting wake of the destroyers, shells were slammed into the breach of the four inch guns and the directors attempted to lock onto a good solution. The men in the radio shack listened intently, they could not interpret nor jam the Japanese signals, but they waited to hear the signal. Finally, they did, the urgent dash and dots of Morse code registered strongly on their dials. The word was going out that they had been sighted.
Within seconds, six guns boomed from the two ships. None of the shells landed anywhere close to their intended targets. Two star shells drifted above the minesweepers while the other four shells were lucky to land within half a mile of their targets. Gun captains waited for their gangs to finish loading while the men at the rangefinder yelled corrections. Another salvo fired and the men waited to see the splashes. They were still long even as the Japanese minesweepers began to increase speed and make smoke.
Over the next fifteen minutes, the two old destroyers spread apart as they raced through the narrow seas. The minesweepers had started to fire back and scored the first hit in the engagement, a single shell exploding near the paint locker of Renshaw. This early success did not last as Walker scored first one and then a second hit moments after Renshaw’s deck brilliantly lit up in a short intense conflagration. Her target slowed as the second shell ripped open the engine room, bursting pipes and breaking men. As the range between Walker and her target edged to under 1,000 yards, the 1.1 inch mount started to fire in short bursts, the high explosive shells peppering Japanese gun crews and damage control parties even as the four inch guns began to methodically hole and sink their target.
Renshaw extinguished the fire but even as the flames were being fought, three shells from her port gun landed on their target. The first was almost harmless while the second landed yards behind and underneath the bridge and the last set fire to the ready ammunition of the aft gun. Even as the two destroyers were finishing their kills, they started to turn as they only had a few hours of darkness to hide from the forces that they knew would be responding to the clash. Thirty miles away, the coastal forces were covering the three blockade runners as they were passing between the mainland of Luzon and Fortune Island.
Even as the blockade runners were several thousand yards short of Fort Mill’s protective guns, the four torpedo boats that were covering the destroyers saw two fast bulks moving through the night. Flares were fired and radio messages sent to warn the destroyers.
Renshaw changed course from north to northeast as her bronze blades bit into the water to push her to Corregidor at 26 knots. Walker reversed her course and began to flee south at twenty five knots. She had enough fuel to do this for four hours and then a more economical speed would be needed. Even as the destroyers split up the four patrol torpedo boats accelerated to almost thirty three knots, rooster tails making their intent all too clear to the alert lookouts aboard the light cruiser Kinu. Her destroyer companion opened fire a few seconds before the light cruiser. Each ship focused on a single attacker. As the wooden boats approached 6,000 yards, one just stopped as a shell hit her bow, breaking her fine lines and dragging the entire craft down by the nose. The surviving crew members were able to jump into the ocean and hold onto the wreckage of their craft. Two men managed to drift ashore and become part of the civilian population while the rest were left to their fate in the water. Another boat was set afire and her crew picked up as the two survivors launched their torpedoes at the light cruiser from two miles away. Seven torpedoes were clean misses. The last caused significant damage to the rivets on one hull seam. It failed to explode.
Surviving torpedo boats split up and aggressively chased splashes even as the Japanese ships began to ignore them and headed south. The two fast ships closed the distance and soon sailed past the resting spot of the two minesweepers. The destroyer threw life rafts and flotation devices over the side even as the ships continued south. A sharp eyed look-out saw a smudge of smoke on the horizon.
As that smudge of smoke became a dark, unnatural cloud, the night’s darkness broke again as the destroyer struck a freshly laid mine. Kimu skidded to a stop and as she lowered her boats to pick up survivors, the destroyer struck another mine. The Americans had gotten away cleanly.
When Kimu’s boats were hauled back aboard the light cruiser and she gingerly backed out of the recently laid and uncharted minefield, 5,000 tons of supplies had entered Manila Bay aboard the three blockade running banana boats. USS Renshaw followed them. All four destroyer hulls were secured to piers and nets soon covered them to hide them even as work gangs came aboard to begin unloading the fresh bounty.
Later that day, over 100 bomber sorties dropped their loads on the Harbor Defenses and the naval station at Mariveles. For the first time in months, every anti-aircraft gun was authorized to fire if they had a target in prime range. It was a single day Jubilee, firing restrictions would be in place again tomorrow. A single battery of 3 inch guns fired one hundred and sixty shells against a single air raid, claiming three bombers that were flying too low and slow for their own safety.
As the 27th turned into the 28th, the blockade runners had unloaded all of their artillery ammunition and fuel. North of the small naval port, crates of spam made their way to the infantry companies on the line and with each crate, came two cartons of cigarettes. It was not a feast day but the small luxury of not having to eat canned salmon again was worth celebrating with a brand name smoke.
Four torpedo boats led the remnants of the Asiatic Fleet out of the harbor just after dusk. Look-outs sought out the Japanese blockaders. A sortie the previous week had sunk a Japanese minesweeper for the cost of a patrol boat. Since then, the Japanese had pushed back their patrol line to thirty miles off the coast. A reconnaissance flight by the extremely valuable and well hidden half squadron of P-40s flying from MacArthur Field had confirmed the reports that there were three groups of Japanese patrol vessels.
Two front line blockading groups consisted of old light patrol boats, minesweepers and naval trawlers were running race track patterns. The northern group never went south of Bagac while the southern group covered the approaches from Mindoro. In the center and further out to sea was a single light cruiser and the oldest first line destroyer in the Japanese fleet. These two ships were the rapid reaction force. In Subic Bay there were a number of other light warships but most had never shown any rapid availability.
The four torpedo boats spread out in a scouting line. Three Philippine Coastal Patrol ships followed them two miles to the rear. The rearguard was a pair of China station gunboats. They exited the protected minefields and waved at the great guns protecting the harbor before they headed south. The fleet continued south as lookouts strained to find the Japanese. Ideally the mission should have occurred the previous week as the moon would have been far more favorable but the other half of the mission was delayed. The only aid was the cloud cover that blocked the moon about half the time.
Three hours after the force left the harbor, a look-out spotted a bump on the horizon. Lamps flashed off the sterns of the PT boats without acknowledgement. Two of the fast patrol craft increased their speed to sixteen knots and began to veer to seaward to investigate the contact. Machine gun bolts were cocked, torpedoes readied for launch and eyes strained through binoculars.
One bump became two. The moon’s light highlighted the mast and the PT boats slowed before turning away as they watched the two Japanese minesweepers complete the southern leg of their patrol route and turn to the north.
Another hour and another bump was seen on the horizon. Again, two more PT boats increased their speed to investigate the ships that had just passed Golo Island. Five vessels emerged. A quick flurry of flashes by a hurricane lamp were sent and acknowledged. Both forces relaxed slightly as they had found their compatriots. USS Walker and USS Renshaw were in the lead. Their decks were, for the first time in months, clear of cargo and their crews manned the guns with a palatable desire to fight instead of hiding from contact. Behind them three ships that bore a passing resemblance to their escorts churned through the water at sixteen knots. By now the heavier ships that had departed Manila Bay that evening had turned around and began to head north at their best speed.
The three banana boats had dashed through the Dutch East Indies using night and storms as cover as they made their way up the coast. What should have been a five day journey had taken the fifteen and they still needed to go another four hours to complete their mission that had started in New Orleans months ago. The two destroyer minelayers, veterans of seven supply runs into Manila Bay were the last seaworthy survivors of their squadron. Two ships had escaped to Java’s dockyards. One of those vessels was worth repairing. The other four ships had been sunk by mines, submarines and air attack. Each of the survivors needed time in a dockyard, and that time was unlikely to be granted, so their mission tonight was to cause a diversion.
The four PT boats followed the destroyers as their courses diverged from the cargo ships. Steam was released into the turbines and screws bit into the water as the predators headed loudly north at twenty two knots. The torpedo boats spread out in front of the destroyers in another scouting line looking for trouble.
As the moon hid behind a cloud and the merchant ships continued unmolested, the same sailor who had first seen the Japanese minesweepers spotted them again. They were heading south again on yet another long leg of their continual patrols. Their look-outs were alert (enough) for another long patrol in the middle of the night. Chatter had suggested that the Americans were going to try to run another one of their old destroyers into the harbor. The tonnage they could deliver to their garrison merely slowed the depletion of the stockpile and sooner or later, every one of those fast ships would be sunk.
The ennui of yet another leg on yet another night on patrol led to the American destroyers being able to get to within 9,000 yards without being spotted. The lookouts on the two destroyers had spotted the minesweepers. Even as the ships made their final moves to full readiness for action, three dozen mines rolled into the sea. As the mines splashed in the twisting wake of the destroyers, shells were slammed into the breach of the four inch guns and the directors attempted to lock onto a good solution. The men in the radio shack listened intently, they could not interpret nor jam the Japanese signals, but they waited to hear the signal. Finally, they did, the urgent dash and dots of Morse code registered strongly on their dials. The word was going out that they had been sighted.
Within seconds, six guns boomed from the two ships. None of the shells landed anywhere close to their intended targets. Two star shells drifted above the minesweepers while the other four shells were lucky to land within half a mile of their targets. Gun captains waited for their gangs to finish loading while the men at the rangefinder yelled corrections. Another salvo fired and the men waited to see the splashes. They were still long even as the Japanese minesweepers began to increase speed and make smoke.
Over the next fifteen minutes, the two old destroyers spread apart as they raced through the narrow seas. The minesweepers had started to fire back and scored the first hit in the engagement, a single shell exploding near the paint locker of Renshaw. This early success did not last as Walker scored first one and then a second hit moments after Renshaw’s deck brilliantly lit up in a short intense conflagration. Her target slowed as the second shell ripped open the engine room, bursting pipes and breaking men. As the range between Walker and her target edged to under 1,000 yards, the 1.1 inch mount started to fire in short bursts, the high explosive shells peppering Japanese gun crews and damage control parties even as the four inch guns began to methodically hole and sink their target.
Renshaw extinguished the fire but even as the flames were being fought, three shells from her port gun landed on their target. The first was almost harmless while the second landed yards behind and underneath the bridge and the last set fire to the ready ammunition of the aft gun. Even as the two destroyers were finishing their kills, they started to turn as they only had a few hours of darkness to hide from the forces that they knew would be responding to the clash. Thirty miles away, the coastal forces were covering the three blockade runners as they were passing between the mainland of Luzon and Fortune Island.
Even as the blockade runners were several thousand yards short of Fort Mill’s protective guns, the four torpedo boats that were covering the destroyers saw two fast bulks moving through the night. Flares were fired and radio messages sent to warn the destroyers.
Renshaw changed course from north to northeast as her bronze blades bit into the water to push her to Corregidor at 26 knots. Walker reversed her course and began to flee south at twenty five knots. She had enough fuel to do this for four hours and then a more economical speed would be needed. Even as the destroyers split up the four patrol torpedo boats accelerated to almost thirty three knots, rooster tails making their intent all too clear to the alert lookouts aboard the light cruiser Kinu. Her destroyer companion opened fire a few seconds before the light cruiser. Each ship focused on a single attacker. As the wooden boats approached 6,000 yards, one just stopped as a shell hit her bow, breaking her fine lines and dragging the entire craft down by the nose. The surviving crew members were able to jump into the ocean and hold onto the wreckage of their craft. Two men managed to drift ashore and become part of the civilian population while the rest were left to their fate in the water. Another boat was set afire and her crew picked up as the two survivors launched their torpedoes at the light cruiser from two miles away. Seven torpedoes were clean misses. The last caused significant damage to the rivets on one hull seam. It failed to explode.
Surviving torpedo boats split up and aggressively chased splashes even as the Japanese ships began to ignore them and headed south. The two fast ships closed the distance and soon sailed past the resting spot of the two minesweepers. The destroyer threw life rafts and flotation devices over the side even as the ships continued south. A sharp eyed look-out saw a smudge of smoke on the horizon.
As that smudge of smoke became a dark, unnatural cloud, the night’s darkness broke again as the destroyer struck a freshly laid mine. Kimu skidded to a stop and as she lowered her boats to pick up survivors, the destroyer struck another mine. The Americans had gotten away cleanly.
When Kimu’s boats were hauled back aboard the light cruiser and she gingerly backed out of the recently laid and uncharted minefield, 5,000 tons of supplies had entered Manila Bay aboard the three blockade running banana boats. USS Renshaw followed them. All four destroyer hulls were secured to piers and nets soon covered them to hide them even as work gangs came aboard to begin unloading the fresh bounty.
Later that day, over 100 bomber sorties dropped their loads on the Harbor Defenses and the naval station at Mariveles. For the first time in months, every anti-aircraft gun was authorized to fire if they had a target in prime range. It was a single day Jubilee, firing restrictions would be in place again tomorrow. A single battery of 3 inch guns fired one hundred and sixty shells against a single air raid, claiming three bombers that were flying too low and slow for their own safety.
As the 27th turned into the 28th, the blockade runners had unloaded all of their artillery ammunition and fuel. North of the small naval port, crates of spam made their way to the infantry companies on the line and with each crate, came two cartons of cigarettes. It was not a feast day but the small luxury of not having to eat canned salmon again was worth celebrating with a brand name smoke.
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Story 1220
March 28, 1942 Maleme airfield, Crete
One of the first American aircraft in the Mediterranean theatre landed on its first practical mission. The C-47 Dakota taxied to a stop. The most important cargo, two crates of vaccuum tubes were offloaded. Each glass valve was wrapped in a wool blanket and the bundles were then packed in straw to prevent any breakage. These valves were needed for the airfields’ radar.
After these two critical crates were removed, the rest of the cargo and passengers including a trio of American pilots who were qualified on the Martin Baltimore walked off the plane. The pilots were quickly hurried to a ready room where the pilots could be integrated into an RAF light bomber squadron that had arrived on the island with their new light bombers. Within days, the Americans would be flying on check flights and then they would partake in the regular search and destroy missions the squadron flew in the Greek archipelago.
One of the first American aircraft in the Mediterranean theatre landed on its first practical mission. The C-47 Dakota taxied to a stop. The most important cargo, two crates of vaccuum tubes were offloaded. Each glass valve was wrapped in a wool blanket and the bundles were then packed in straw to prevent any breakage. These valves were needed for the airfields’ radar.
After these two critical crates were removed, the rest of the cargo and passengers including a trio of American pilots who were qualified on the Martin Baltimore walked off the plane. The pilots were quickly hurried to a ready room where the pilots could be integrated into an RAF light bomber squadron that had arrived on the island with their new light bombers. Within days, the Americans would be flying on check flights and then they would partake in the regular search and destroy missions the squadron flew in the Greek archipelago.
Stroy 1221
March 28, 1942 Norwegian Sea
White caps broke over USS Washington’s bow. The task force was cruising in a narrow box with a half dozen Grummans circling overhead. The two carriers were just a mile behind the two fast battleships that served as their bodyguards. A flag went up from Illustrius’s mast and the entire force made their first turn in a box pattern. They would kill time in a narrow area while the hundred strike aircraft that were on their way to Bodo struck and then came back.
An hour later, the attack on Bodo was going well. The Grummans were outclassed by the few single engine German fighters that had been able to scramble but quantity had a quality all its own and the naval aviators were trained well enough to compensate for their material inferiority. The dozen Wildcats lost two of their own in shooting down the four German defenders. Anti-aircraft fire in the port was heavy and fierce as the Dauntlesses dove on a tanker and three ore ships. Two ships were left burning before the Fleet Air Arm Albacores made their torpedo runs on the two survivors. Further out to sea, the Devastators laid mines along the Leads to catch any ships coming out of Narvik.
Half an hour after the first bomb dropped, the strike turned around and headed back to their carriers. The bombers would be stored in the hangar deck except for a few aircraft needed for anti-submarine patrols while the fighters aboard the two carriers would cover the landing of a company of Norwegian commandos near the fish oil factories of Lofoten Island. The raid was only scheduled to last eighteen hours and the carriers could find sea room to run and hide.
White caps broke over USS Washington’s bow. The task force was cruising in a narrow box with a half dozen Grummans circling overhead. The two carriers were just a mile behind the two fast battleships that served as their bodyguards. A flag went up from Illustrius’s mast and the entire force made their first turn in a box pattern. They would kill time in a narrow area while the hundred strike aircraft that were on their way to Bodo struck and then came back.
An hour later, the attack on Bodo was going well. The Grummans were outclassed by the few single engine German fighters that had been able to scramble but quantity had a quality all its own and the naval aviators were trained well enough to compensate for their material inferiority. The dozen Wildcats lost two of their own in shooting down the four German defenders. Anti-aircraft fire in the port was heavy and fierce as the Dauntlesses dove on a tanker and three ore ships. Two ships were left burning before the Fleet Air Arm Albacores made their torpedo runs on the two survivors. Further out to sea, the Devastators laid mines along the Leads to catch any ships coming out of Narvik.
Half an hour after the first bomb dropped, the strike turned around and headed back to their carriers. The bombers would be stored in the hangar deck except for a few aircraft needed for anti-submarine patrols while the fighters aboard the two carriers would cover the landing of a company of Norwegian commandos near the fish oil factories of Lofoten Island. The raid was only scheduled to last eighteen hours and the carriers could find sea room to run and hide.
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Story 1222
March 29, 1942 London
The smoke hurt every man’s eyes. The lack of ventilation was intentional as air shafts could also allow for eavesdropping. After seven days of deliberations and consultations with the shipping boards, plans were formed. An emergency plan to invade Brittany had been agreed to in case the Soviets collapsed over the summer. A small lodgement could probably be secured and supplied although the divisions available in the British Isles would be insufficient to do anything other than be besieged.
Far more important was the primary operational plan. The North African coast would be cleared with a follow-on invasion of Sicily and Sardinia. The 8th Army in Libya would be the anvil while an Allied Army composed of a Free French, British, and American corps would be the hammer swung hard from the sea. Enough shipping would be available for operations in the middle of the summer and the green American troops could probably be hidden from too much operational danger. They needed the chance to be blooded and to have reality driven into their commanders’ brains. This offensive, every man at the table agreed, would not be decisive but it would serve a good purpose. That purpose varied depending on the man who one last spoke with, so that purpose was never stated as an objective.
As the men left the room, plans started to radiate over wires and radio waves to be followed by couriers who would soon board long range flying boats. Hundreds of thousands of men and millions of tons of war supplies would start moving in response to an eight hundred word memo.
The smoke hurt every man’s eyes. The lack of ventilation was intentional as air shafts could also allow for eavesdropping. After seven days of deliberations and consultations with the shipping boards, plans were formed. An emergency plan to invade Brittany had been agreed to in case the Soviets collapsed over the summer. A small lodgement could probably be secured and supplied although the divisions available in the British Isles would be insufficient to do anything other than be besieged.
Far more important was the primary operational plan. The North African coast would be cleared with a follow-on invasion of Sicily and Sardinia. The 8th Army in Libya would be the anvil while an Allied Army composed of a Free French, British, and American corps would be the hammer swung hard from the sea. Enough shipping would be available for operations in the middle of the summer and the green American troops could probably be hidden from too much operational danger. They needed the chance to be blooded and to have reality driven into their commanders’ brains. This offensive, every man at the table agreed, would not be decisive but it would serve a good purpose. That purpose varied depending on the man who one last spoke with, so that purpose was never stated as an objective.
As the men left the room, plans started to radiate over wires and radio waves to be followed by couriers who would soon board long range flying boats. Hundreds of thousands of men and millions of tons of war supplies would start moving in response to an eight hundred word memo.
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Driftless
Donor
Raids like this likely would lead to the Germans stuffing more troops and planes into Norway. Historically, Norway was the most occupied country in the war (based on population anyway) with one German military person for every nine Norwegians. Norway was an absolute sinkhole for under-employed German manpower. Here, the Allies show up, deliver several sharp jabs and then leave the scene - a relatively low cost, high reward outcome.
Driftless
Donor
Who would have thought those old oft-reconfigured destroyers would be so very useful?
(There's another movie storyline right there - a very different "They Were Expendable". This version about the Banana Boats. Jeez, you probably could use the same cast as the original..... Montgomery, Wayne, Bond, etc.....)
I'm still loving this tale...you are a master of alternate history here
Would the U-Boat skipper even know that he was attacked by something new? IIRC, the hedgehog doesn't explode unless it hits something--not sure if he'd hear them hit the water.
German passive sonar was good enough to pick up depth charges hitting the water from throwers - "wasserbombs, Herr Kaleut!" - not sure about the ones rolled off the stern. The operator would certainly have heard the salvo hitting the water, but wouldn't know what they were.
Being able to detect a hedgehog does not necessarily follow from being able to detect a thrown depth charge - the latter is, after all, six or seven times heavier than the former, and will therefore make a bigger splash.
Interesting. Operation Torch approaches. Will the French holdings in North Africa be targetted, or will their neutrality still be respected for the time being?
While I'm neutral to the idea of landing on the Italian peninsula directly, clearing Sicily at least makes sense to secure Malta and remove threats to shipping in the region.
Story 1223
March 30, 1942 San Francisco
The bands played on the quarter deck. 20,000 men waved goodbye as they were heading to war. Most of the equipment for 1st Marine Division had been loaded on a convoy that had already departed for the South Pacific from Wilmington and Savannah. Only the Lafayette and two lesser liners escorted by a light cruiser and a pair of destroyers were needed to bring the division to the front.
The men had been shipped across the country in a series of troop trains. Occasionally they had been released from the sleeping cars for a run and a recruiting tour. The fourth town in Nebraska looked a lot like the first three so even that diversion lost its lustre.
As the six ships cleared the Golden Gate, the Marines onboard waited to hear about their final destination. It would be New Caledonia and then destinations unknown.
The bands played on the quarter deck. 20,000 men waved goodbye as they were heading to war. Most of the equipment for 1st Marine Division had been loaded on a convoy that had already departed for the South Pacific from Wilmington and Savannah. Only the Lafayette and two lesser liners escorted by a light cruiser and a pair of destroyers were needed to bring the division to the front.
The men had been shipped across the country in a series of troop trains. Occasionally they had been released from the sleeping cars for a run and a recruiting tour. The fourth town in Nebraska looked a lot like the first three so even that diversion lost its lustre.
As the six ships cleared the Golden Gate, the Marines onboard waited to hear about their final destination. It would be New Caledonia and then destinations unknown.
Story 1224
April 1, 1942 Colombo, Ceylon
The Eastern Fleet was assembled to cover another convoy to Malaya.
29 merchant ships had been assembled and they were carrying over 175,000 tons of cargo for the garrison. A fresh brigade from East Africa was on board two troop ships. The armored brigade that had been diverted from North Africa was split into two echelons and placed on three fast transports. 200 new Valentine tanks with 6 pounder guns were split between seven ships. 120 Hurricanes were deck cargo. They were to re-equip the fighter squadrons which had had been worn to a nub throughout the campaign.
The Eastern Fleet was assembled to cover another convoy to Malaya.
29 merchant ships had been assembled and they were carrying over 175,000 tons of cargo for the garrison. A fresh brigade from East Africa was on board two troop ships. The armored brigade that had been diverted from North Africa was split into two echelons and placed on three fast transports. 200 new Valentine tanks with 6 pounder guns were split between seven ships. 120 Hurricanes were deck cargo. They were to re-equip the fighter squadrons which had had been worn to a nub throughout the campaign.
- Status