From the history of a battalion of the 7th Australian Infantry Division, 2nd AIF. They were deployed in the Ramu River valley inland from Lae - Papua, New Guinea during the last quarter of 1943. The Q store was located close to the river and one night the river rose and swept the entire Q store - including all the records - down into the Huon Gulf. The QM was said to have indented for everything that had been issued at the beginning of the campaign - including everything that had been "lost" in the interim.
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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Story 2267 B
Ukrainian Steppes, October 12, 1943
On the map, there was a Soviet rifle corp with a flank completely exposed and hanging out into the grasslands where a daring thrust by an impromptu battle group of several dozen tanks and a few battalions of truck mounted infantry could destroy the shoulder of the Soviet penetration of the minor ally lines. In 1941, that counter-attack would have gone forward. And it would have failed within a dozen miles of the line of departure. It would not have failed from fanatical resistance of infantrymen canalizing the panzer spearheads onto heavy anti-tank guns that had been lying in ambush for days on end. Nor would it have failed from a clash of T-34s and Canadian built Valentines trading two or three Soviet tanks for each German tank. There would be no moment of decision. There only would have been creative cursing as the trucks carrying the infantry and towing the artillery would become stuck in the mud and short, overly burdened riflemen would be at risk of drowning in sink holes as they attempted to dislodge the vehicles.
Twenty miles south of the German Panzer corps commander, Soviet pioneers were repairing a single high road that enabled the flank of the southern attack to stay solid and supplied. Dozens of Studebakers were arriving every hour. Some contained shells and food. Most carried steel mats, gravel and pipes. Every hour of uninterrupted work meant a few hundred more meters of the road would be improved.
On the map, there was a Soviet rifle corp with a flank completely exposed and hanging out into the grasslands where a daring thrust by an impromptu battle group of several dozen tanks and a few battalions of truck mounted infantry could destroy the shoulder of the Soviet penetration of the minor ally lines. In 1941, that counter-attack would have gone forward. And it would have failed within a dozen miles of the line of departure. It would not have failed from fanatical resistance of infantrymen canalizing the panzer spearheads onto heavy anti-tank guns that had been lying in ambush for days on end. Nor would it have failed from a clash of T-34s and Canadian built Valentines trading two or three Soviet tanks for each German tank. There would be no moment of decision. There only would have been creative cursing as the trucks carrying the infantry and towing the artillery would become stuck in the mud and short, overly burdened riflemen would be at risk of drowning in sink holes as they attempted to dislodge the vehicles.
Twenty miles south of the German Panzer corps commander, Soviet pioneers were repairing a single high road that enabled the flank of the southern attack to stay solid and supplied. Dozens of Studebakers were arriving every hour. Some contained shells and food. Most carried steel mats, gravel and pipes. Every hour of uninterrupted work meant a few hundred more meters of the road would be improved.
Story 2268
Sydney Harbor, October 13, 1941
Lancastria, Cameronia and Franconia left the harbor escorted by the obsolete cruiser HMAS Adelaide. Aboard the three troop ships were the 23rd and 24th Infantry Brigades . Half of the men were veterans of the fighting in Malaya and even more were veterans of the whoring in Bangkok. Social diseases had done a number on the front line strength before the three brigades of the 8th Australian Division had been taken home to Sydney for resting, recuperation, retraining and re-manning. Volunteers from both the militia and new recruits from the streets had filled out the ranks over the past several months. Now they were heading to yet another front where Australians had yet to fight or die already in this war. Their comrades had defeated the Italians and they had defeated the Japanese and Thai armies. Now there was just one more Axis nation that had to be defeated and it was one that the brigade and division commanders had fought before.
Lancastria, Cameronia and Franconia left the harbor escorted by the obsolete cruiser HMAS Adelaide. Aboard the three troop ships were the 23rd and 24th Infantry Brigades . Half of the men were veterans of the fighting in Malaya and even more were veterans of the whoring in Bangkok. Social diseases had done a number on the front line strength before the three brigades of the 8th Australian Division had been taken home to Sydney for resting, recuperation, retraining and re-manning. Volunteers from both the militia and new recruits from the streets had filled out the ranks over the past several months. Now they were heading to yet another front where Australians had yet to fight or die already in this war. Their comrades had defeated the Italians and they had defeated the Japanese and Thai armies. Now there was just one more Axis nation that had to be defeated and it was one that the brigade and division commanders had fought before.
The 8th Australian Division. It would seem the men of the 8th had a lot more fun in Thailand in this TL then in OTL. If only that had been the real life events. So now in TTL they are going to Europe. I would guess Greece as I don't think they'll be needed in Italy and it's way too early yet for the invasion of France. Unless an earlier Operation Dragoon is in the cards?
Take transit times into consideration. The 8th Australian (note that I only named 2 of the 3 brigades nor did I mention key combat support elements) Division will need at least 30 days to get to Port Said if that is their destination, or 40 days at sea at a constant 20 knots to get to England if they go around Cape of Good Hope. And that is without zig-zagging or convoying or anything else that slows things down. Realistically, even if the two brigades are to be in combat immediately after they arrive, we're looking at Christmas at which point the fighting season is effectively closed in most locations.
There is nothing for the Commonwealth to fight for in SE Asia. Malaya is secured, Borneo can be left to whither on the vine and there is no chance in hell that Hong Kong will be assaulted.
Going by the last 3 sentences of post #5103 I think they'll be facing the German army somewhere in Europe.
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Gives them plenty of time to acclimatise themselves if they need to though.
I believe they were a variant of the USCG Treasury class cutters.
Driftless
Donor
Yup. IIRC, the Altoonas' were Treasury Cutters optimised for ASW and convoy work. The original Treasury Cutters had long and useful service careers themselves.
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They are a derivative of the Erie class gunboat/Treasury Class coast guard cutter with a lighter armament and no aviation facilities.
Keynes' Cruisers
Wake would certainly be a good place for some of these if they could be emplaced by December 7, 1941. If Guam is going to be reinforced, then a few of these could be used there, if you're not going to seriously build up on Guam there's not much point as you're giving the Japanese a present. They...
www.alternatehistory.com
The Hickory class is a derivation of the Altoona class with diesel engines instead of steam turbines to avoid critical production bottlenecks.
I'm guessing postwar most of the Altoonas and Hickorys are transferred to the Coast Guard where along with their half sisters the Treasury class they will form the core of the Coast Guard's fleet well into the late 60s/early 70s
Story 2269
Helsinki, Finland October 14, 1943
Another train arrived in the city. An ambulance was waiting and even before the engine came to a complete stop and the door to the lead passenger compartment was opened. Within a minute, three stretchers were being carried along the platform to the truck. Two minutes later, the siren screamed and the streets were clear for one of the few authorized uses of gasoline. Twelve minutes after arrival, one of the injured lumberjacks was in surgery.
Even as the surgeons cut and slashed and repaired shattered bones and open blood vessels, the rail yard gangs went to work. They had to remove almost 300,000 board feet in the next few hours before the next timber train entered the unloading queue. Lumber gangs had been hard at work in the boreal forests north of the capital since the spring thaws. What would have been pulped, milled and exported in peace was now being stored to burn for electricity and heat. Every public space had become a storage yard. Some parks had piles twelve meters high and sixty meters wide stacked in neat rows from one end of the park to the other. Young boys had never seen such amazing places to climb even as their mothers chased and yelled at them.
Another train arrived in the city. An ambulance was waiting and even before the engine came to a complete stop and the door to the lead passenger compartment was opened. Within a minute, three stretchers were being carried along the platform to the truck. Two minutes later, the siren screamed and the streets were clear for one of the few authorized uses of gasoline. Twelve minutes after arrival, one of the injured lumberjacks was in surgery.
Even as the surgeons cut and slashed and repaired shattered bones and open blood vessels, the rail yard gangs went to work. They had to remove almost 300,000 board feet in the next few hours before the next timber train entered the unloading queue. Lumber gangs had been hard at work in the boreal forests north of the capital since the spring thaws. What would have been pulped, milled and exported in peace was now being stored to burn for electricity and heat. Every public space had become a storage yard. Some parks had piles twelve meters high and sixty meters wide stacked in neat rows from one end of the park to the other. Young boys had never seen such amazing places to climb even as their mothers chased and yelled at them.
Driftless
Donor
Most of that is soft woods, such as birch and pine? You need to burn high volumes of that wood to produce much heat, plus you get a lot of soot and creosote created as by-products. I'm sure that's been a common heat source, especially in rural areas, but maybe not as much in the cities? It's good the Finns have that resource, but there are some necessary trade-offs involved.
Story 2270
Northwest of Thermopylae , October 15, 1943
An endless line of trucks headed north. They carried shells. They carried fuel. They carried bully beef. They carried stretchers. They carried men, some replacements fresh from the troopships that were using the harbors of eastern Attica as the engineers were not quite ready to allow massive deep draft ships into Athens just yet, and others were returning from aid tents and hospitals. A New Zealand platoon, part of a brigade pulled off the line to rest, recover and reman, was directing traffic just north of fighting positions that the section leader and two sergeants had fought and abandoned just two years ago as they were being run out of Greece by a German panzer offensive. Now they were tasked to make sure the northbound trucks were not delayed by southbound and now westbound trucks.
The westbound trucks had become a new stream of supply as half a dozen Italian divisions had turtled up over the past two weeks and resisted attacks against themselves from all positions and comers until a settlement and more importantly, supplies and protection from partisans, had been reached. A pair of Indian infantry divisions were in the process of passing through the Italian lines and occupying high points and observation posts. The westbound trucks were carrying supplies to both the Indians and the Italians who had begun to stack their arms only the night before. Talks were still in progress about what role the Italian army would play in the ongoing war in Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania. Most likely, most of the veteran infantry would be sent back to Italy to pressure the German army forting up near Milan.
Even as a 20 year old rifleman from Invercargill blew his whistle and waved his hands to slow the northbound traffic, the ground started to shake. All available Army Group Royal Artillery had commenced a massive barrage. One super heavy regiment of 9.2 inch guns and fifteen heavy and medium regiments had started to fire. The rifleman could only smile. He was out of counterbattery range and the dozens of Spitfires that he had seen overhead as well as the battery of Bofors dug in just east of the crossroads gave him confidence against any German aerial attack. He knew what the rumbling ground meant for men like him. They would be advancing behind the chaos and hoping that the hurricane of steel and shards would keep German machine gunners deep within their holes until the fire lifted and the attackers could spring the last few dozen meters. Better them than him. There was a reason why he was back here in the rear, a few too many successful attacks and any division would need to withdraw to rest and reman. One unsuccessful attack would do the same.
As he thought about the poor bloody bastards to the northeast, he turned his hips, raised the cloth flag and sent another truck transport company along to its destination.
An endless line of trucks headed north. They carried shells. They carried fuel. They carried bully beef. They carried stretchers. They carried men, some replacements fresh from the troopships that were using the harbors of eastern Attica as the engineers were not quite ready to allow massive deep draft ships into Athens just yet, and others were returning from aid tents and hospitals. A New Zealand platoon, part of a brigade pulled off the line to rest, recover and reman, was directing traffic just north of fighting positions that the section leader and two sergeants had fought and abandoned just two years ago as they were being run out of Greece by a German panzer offensive. Now they were tasked to make sure the northbound trucks were not delayed by southbound and now westbound trucks.
The westbound trucks had become a new stream of supply as half a dozen Italian divisions had turtled up over the past two weeks and resisted attacks against themselves from all positions and comers until a settlement and more importantly, supplies and protection from partisans, had been reached. A pair of Indian infantry divisions were in the process of passing through the Italian lines and occupying high points and observation posts. The westbound trucks were carrying supplies to both the Indians and the Italians who had begun to stack their arms only the night before. Talks were still in progress about what role the Italian army would play in the ongoing war in Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania. Most likely, most of the veteran infantry would be sent back to Italy to pressure the German army forting up near Milan.
Even as a 20 year old rifleman from Invercargill blew his whistle and waved his hands to slow the northbound traffic, the ground started to shake. All available Army Group Royal Artillery had commenced a massive barrage. One super heavy regiment of 9.2 inch guns and fifteen heavy and medium regiments had started to fire. The rifleman could only smile. He was out of counterbattery range and the dozens of Spitfires that he had seen overhead as well as the battery of Bofors dug in just east of the crossroads gave him confidence against any German aerial attack. He knew what the rumbling ground meant for men like him. They would be advancing behind the chaos and hoping that the hurricane of steel and shards would keep German machine gunners deep within their holes until the fire lifted and the attackers could spring the last few dozen meters. Better them than him. There was a reason why he was back here in the rear, a few too many successful attacks and any division would need to withdraw to rest and reman. One unsuccessful attack would do the same.
As he thought about the poor bloody bastards to the northeast, he turned his hips, raised the cloth flag and sent another truck transport company along to its destination.
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