Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

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1. His father was Arthur MacArthur, hero/MOH and more.
2. He was personally brave, and did well in WWI
3. He was Douglas MacArthur - what else did he need
Classic case of narcissism it sounds like.

Only thing he never had was the skills and intelligence needed to back uo his bravado. Even Patton had it. And he was known for his personality.
 
Uh
1. His father was Arthur MacArthur, hero/MOH and more.
2. He was personally brave, and did well in WWI
3. He was Douglas MacArthur - what else did he need

Because the one man that could show him off died in in 1923; Captain Arthur MacArthur Iii, Douglas' older brother, hard charger, in line for his flag, but died of appendicitis. Imo, his survival would be an interesting POD, for an alternate history...
 
1. His father was Arthur MacArthur, hero/MOH and more.
2. He was personally brave, and did well in WWI
3. He was Douglas MacArthur - what else did he need
Classic case of narcissism it sounds like.

Only thing he never had was the skills and intelligence needed to back uo his bravado. Even Patton had it. And he was known for his personality.
Excessively good PR officers and a good relationship with the newsies
What exactly did MacArthur ever do to give him such a high opinion of himself?
Are we being a bit over the top with this?

MacArthur "academically earned 2424.12 merits out of a possible 2470.00 or 98.14, which was the third highest score ever recorded. He graduated first in his 93-man class on 11 June 1903"(wiki) and then was successfully all the way till reaching the top of the US Army.....He was retired from the US Army in 1937.

Was the main problem not that he should never have been kept on past 37, other WWI officers/generals like Pétain and plenty of others screwed up as they got older and more out of touch?
 
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Just waiting for Volume 6 to start...

OTOH, please have Ferdinand Marcos killed in TTL's Battle of Manila; many Filipinos would thank you for that...

A couple more days, need to get a revise and resubmit off my plate and another chapter of a fun fictional side project up before I'm back in this head space.
 
Was the main problem not that he should never have been kept on past 37, other WWI officers/generals like Pétain and plenty of others screwed up as they got older and more out of touch?

Most highly successful people who reach the top of any organization (military, politics, business) have outsized egos, part of what propels them to the top. I think a big part of McArthur's problem was that he let his ego lead him into hubris and started drinking his own bathwater (not helped by the coterie of sycophants and yes men he surrounded himself with).
 
One thing not mentioned is the Mac was not the eldest son, and he was his mothers favorite. She accompanied him to West Point and lived off post. The best thing that I can think of there was no one who was at his side telling him: "Mortalis es tu", Thou art Mortal. He basically believed his own press clippings after WW 1 and was Douglas MacArthur, WWI Hero and General. If his Brother lived, and there were the right influences, Douglas could retire from the Army in the 20's and go into Business in Radio or Hollywood.
 
It took me well over a month to read through the time line from the beginning, including almost all the comments. I have enjoyed it tremendously and am looking forward to the continuation. The experience has taught me some valuable lessons for when, or rather if, I ever start my own time line. Kudos to the author!
 
It took me well over a month to read through the time line from the beginning, including almost all the comments. I have enjoyed it tremendously and am looking forward to the continuation. The experience has taught me some valuable lessons for when, or rather if, I ever start my own time line. Kudos to the author!

First thank you!
Here is what I've learned so far:

1) Make choices and own those choices.
2) Listen to your characters. Here are some of the characters whose importance I would never had predicted within the first 100 posts of the timeline.

I never thought JFK would be in here yet, once I started listening to Elaine, he made sense. And once I started listening to JFK, sending him to Singapore made sense.
I thought I would have had a few British POV characters (see Robert Smith) but they never spoke to me
I thought Cabling would be more important than Ibling
I thought Ma and Pa Jaroschek from Western PA would have been more prominent.
I thought Anna Marie was a throw-away character. She has talked me into a decent size arc.
I played around with the Stalingrad grandfather as a potentially bigger person but I don't think that will happen.

3) Take a break at times, it helps.

4) Listen to your readers. They don't dictate what you should write or the story you should tell but if they are all saying that an idea is batshit crazy, they might have a point (see Bathhouse)

5) Be ready for a surprise. The Battle of Makassar Strait was a surprise to me until I realized that it was a logical clash of consequences growing from previous choices.
 
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Watching this tale grow has been an inspiration--the way one thing flows nicely from another. This is one of the stories I'm trying to learn from--a small change leads to big ones in a way that makes sense. I hope that I can do 1/10 as well.
 

SsgtC

Banned
Listen to your characters. Here are some of the characters whose importance I would never had predicted within the first 100 posts of the timeline.
I can second this. I created a character for a fanfic I'm writing. I thought she would be a one scene, throw away character. She's ended up becoming one of my favorite characters to write and has steadily grown more important in the story
 
Here is what I've learned so far:

1) Make choices and own those choices.
2) Listen to your characters. Here are some of the characters whose importance I would never had predicted within the first 100 posts of the timeline.
3) Take a break at times, it helps.
4) Listen to your readers. They don't dictate what you should write or the story you should tell but if they are all saying that an idea is batshit crazy, they might have a point (see Bathhouse)
5) Be ready for a surprise. The Battle of Makassar Strait was a surprise to me until I realized that it was a logical clash of consequences growing from previous choices.

Thanks for the tips. Some of them I have experienced in previous writing, like a bad guy turning into a sympathetic one as the story unfolds. Or, stumbling on historical titbits that all of a sudden make your intended turn of events more plausible and push you further in that direction. It is great fun, but it also means the story keeps proliferating.
 
As someone who is (slowly) putting together a timeline for this site I appreciate all the advice given out so far by various posters.
I second that. However, I face the problem that through all the inspiration by real people, books, websites and museums, I now sit on literally hundreds of pages of notes, fragments and phrases and with every turn it becomes harder to hammer those into a uniform sequence of alternative events.
 
Story 2011 Start of Volume 6 April 28 1943

Palawan, April 28, 1943



Birds had stopped singing hours ago. Predators were afoot. Most had fled from this patch of forest bordering the coastal road. A few had nowhere else to go besides up a tree and into silence.

Captain Ibling fingered his rifle. He had not fired a shot in combat in over a year, and that streak might well be broken today. The guerilla band had taken position overnight and now they were well dug-in and nearly invisible to anyone who would not take an hour to walk two hundred meters. Their lives depended on it. A yard behind him, a radio operator was resting back to back with a naval fire observer. His battery operated kit was ready. They waited as a Japanese infantry battalion was being paced by the scouts along the coastal road. The captain nodded, and the radio operator began to send the critical message requesting fire.

Eleven miles off-shore, Bosun Swanson wiped his forehead and adjusted his steel helmet. This battle had been the first time USS Arizona fired her main battery in anger. His boys had worked hard even as the crew had almost completely turned over since Pearl Harbor. Three other chiefs were there that day, the chief engineer had been an assistant engineering officer and a pair of ensigns were now JG running their own turrets. He was on his third skipper since that morning of infamy. It would not matter, they had trained, and trained hard. Yesterday they maintained a steady fire for twenty minutes to cover the assault waves. Now they were about to attack targets of opportunity.

The landings had been only lightly opposed as the two Japanese divisions garrisoning the island were spread too thin to defend everywhere. A few bunkers, numerous minefields and more obstacles and a single battery of mountain guns supported a battalion of third string infantry on the beaches. The heavy battleship shells and near constant bombing broke a company that held the southern beach, while a regiment from the 7th Division had to wait until the support tanks could land to clear the Japanese defenders of the northern beach. Flame throwers, satchel charges and medium velocity high explosive rounds were a good combination.

The turrets aboard Arizona and Pennsylvania shifted ever so slightly. Shells were now being loaded. Final adjustments were being made deep in the armored citadels. And then the solution was there. A single gun from A turret fired. The shell reached for the height of a heavy bomber before tipping over. Almost a ton of steel and dozens of pounds of high explosives crashed into the earth.

Captain Ibling was a mile away. His stomach felt the impact. He knew it was coming, as the guns of Fort Mills had broken up several Japanese attacks along the Ternate shore and the evacuated survivors had shared the experience of seeing battleship breaking shells fall danger close. The forward observer called for a correction as the shell was quarter mile short and a little wide.

Aboard Arizona, another gun fired. The chief waited for the radio call and then smiled. All the turrets slightly shifted and then a full broadside was sent reaching out for the Japanese battalion. Most of the counter-attacking column was on the ground, elbows bracing their head, knees digging into the tropical earth, torsos and pelvises slightly elevated for whatever incremental protection that offered them.

The next ten minutes was the longest lifetime for the survivors as two battleships fired their main batteries on a metronome. Arizona on the minute and Pennsylvania on the half minute. Trees that had reached four stories into the sky before the bombardment were now scattered toothpicks, the road was a battered obstacle course impassible to the ox drawn carts that hauled the heavy weapons. Even if the carts could be hauled forward, most of the oxen were dead, a few were bellowing with pain until their drivers could give them a mercy shot. And just as the bombardment lifted, the guerrilla band started sniping at any Japanese soldier who showed either courage, stupidity or bravery.

As the two battleships secured their main battery, a pair of destroyers detached themselves from the screen and moved closer to shore. Fletcher and Jenkins moved to almost point blank range of the coastal road and would stay there for six hours until their magazines held only enough shells to defend against one substantial air raid.
 
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Story 2012

Alexandria, Egypt April 29, 1943



Two carriers turned out of the wind. The last fighter was aboard. The flight deck crews scrambled to tie down the narrow legged aircraft and bring the half dozen machines that had landed hard down below to the hangers for overnight repairs. Since the carriers had arrived from the Far East, the experienced fighter squadrons traded in their obsolete Sea Hurricanes and their older Seafires for factory fresh machines. Three crates and a pair of pilots had already been written off due to landing accidents.

Forty miles south of the carriers’ training box and two miles inland from the great port, almost the entire complement of the 13th Army rested. Seventeen officers, fourteen sergeants and one hundred and seventy three men of other ranks along with four hundred civilian contractors (mainly truck drivers, painters and set designers) had been called to Alexandria for a briefing. Forty men were still sending radio messages to each other in eleven division and three corps headquarters. The largest of these sites was a pair of almost new Ford trucks. The men had been briefed on the next phase of the Army’s mission. And then they had been released to a night on the town before they headed back to the extensive training ranges occupied by the components of this mighty, false army.
 
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