Commissioned a month earlier than OTL?
She was part of the group that captured U505 which is now in a rather excellent display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Il
Well worth a visit IMO
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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Commissioned a month earlier than OTL?
She was part of the group that captured U505 which is now in a rather excellent display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Il
Well worth a visit IMO
This, on the other hand, is not U-505, which is still being repaired after being "most heavily damaged U-boat to successfully return to port", unless the time-line has made the unfortunate Kaleut Peter Zschech a luckier man.
Black February/March TTL vs Black May OTL
See: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...uisers-volume-2.451883/page-140#post-18612707
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The US destroyer escorts in TTL are closer to the Erie class gunboats with mass production equipment than the DEs in OTL. So the combination of an already in production design and slightly earlier industrial mobilization from a slightly higher base buys a few weeks.
Sorry Fester, but this name haven't been used in two centuries. It's Lorient now.
L’Orient, meaning literally The East, was the original base for the French East Indian Company. The town and the port were created for this.
You pronounce the two the same way, but time changed the spelling.
Don't forget with the bombing of RR's and trains even though a shipment might say it includes something, may it got destroyed or damaged on the way there when a train was attacked.
That is one of the really great museums..and the U-505 is just one of several great displays...starting with the collection of war planes hanging from the ceiling of the lobby as you enter. And if that museum isn't enough, you have the Field Museum of Natural History, the Adler Planetarium, and the Shedd Aquarium all in the same area..along the beautiful lakefront. My parents used to take my brothers and me to Chicago (where they grew up) for short mini-vacations, which always included a visit to that area and a Cubs game. Now you'd have to be rich to pull that off. Too bad.
Possibly the vessel skulked while the captain sulked? The crew would just be relieved to get back.
Story 2049
Vienna, May 16, 1943
The engines were being refueled and rewatered. Young women brought sandwiches and snacks down the aisles. Every few seats, a young tank driver slapped and or pinched a bottom. Sometimes that produced a squeal, sometimes that produced a smile, and once it produced a slap.
The division was moving out of reserve. It had been withdrawn from Russia last November and it had been scheduled to move back to Russia in June. Then the Allies began to make moves towards the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Now the 11th Panzer Division was heading to Rome. Wine and women instead of borsht and partisans, that was a good trade, at least it would be until the American and British bombers took notice of the movement.
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Story 2050
Singapore, May 17, 1943
USS Chicago limped down the channel. The dry dock was not ready for the torpedoed heavy cruiser. Her crew and the men from a destroyer tender would spend the next week removing explosives, draining flooded compartments and shoring up bulkheads. They would work themselves raw even as the rest of the Pacific fleet worked the entrepreneurs of the waterfront raw. The heavy cruiser was the worse damaged ship; a single submarine torpedo ripped open her bow while a single dive bomber managed to place a five hundred and fifty pound bomb down her stacks. A pair of destroyers had been damaged in air raids while a quartet of transports and assault ships would need time in the yards. Palawan was not secured, but the beachhead was broader than any gun the Japanese could bring to bear, and over one hundred fighters were operating from a pair of pre-war airstrips even as three more airfields would soon become operational.
Story 2051
Crete, May 17, 1943
Two more bomb groups slowly descended. A dozen bombers were trailing smoke and even more had scars and slashes in their skin. The four engined beasts lined up on the eight thousand foot runways that had been opening up like hot dog stands on Coney Island.
Even as the bombers started to land, eight Spitfires accelerated as radar picked up a small inbound raid. The German fighter bombers were no more than 1,000 feet over the sea. A single squadron near Athens had started to run intruder missions to hit the bombers on the ground instead of in the air with some success. It was always a game of action, counter-action and new re-action. Gun crews ran to their Bofors and heavy machine guns as they waited.
Half an hour later, the bombers were almost all down on the ground and wounded men were in ambulances headed to hospitals as the all clear came in. The Spitfires scored no kills, but drove the Jabos away.
It's good that everybody is doing their very best for the war effort including Singaporean entrepreneurs.
Those fighters on Palawan will soon be joined by B-25 squadrons is my guess. They will all have their work cut out for them as the liberation of the Philippines proceeds.
Story 2052 Operation Chastise
RAF Scampton, May 17, 1943
The bomber station was busy. Ambulances had ferried men from seven aircraft to a variety of surgeries. Fire trucks and crash carts were dealing with a bad landing. Only four of the Lancasters had returned with all crew members unharmed.
Hours later, a cheer went up after a phone call had been made to the squadron commander. The Ruhr Valley was a swamp.
Real life must come first for sure.
When you are able to post again I wonder if you have any thoughts about what is happening in the Celebes, Borneo and in the border regions between Burma,Thailand and French Indochina.
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