Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
- Thread starter fester
- Start date
- Status
Story 2480
Near Valras Plage, France, April 11, 1944
The frogmen clambered back aboard the torpedo boat. Beach samples were hurried below decks. Weapons were stowed and the men huddled in the small galley with a hot plate and a boiling vessel where buns and hot drinks were passed around as they debriefed themselves on a mostly successful mission even as the boat headed back out to sea at thirty four knots.
Once the torpedo boat cleared the coast, the two Free French destroyers Panthere and Lynx moved up the coast and bombarded a German observation and communication post for twenty minutes. They had done this half a dozen times already and the Germans knew the game --- they took cover and sent a message back to higher headquarters that would be effectively ignored. Harassment missions did not require a response that involved waking the counter-attack troops nor burning valuable petrol.
The frogmen clambered back aboard the torpedo boat. Beach samples were hurried below decks. Weapons were stowed and the men huddled in the small galley with a hot plate and a boiling vessel where buns and hot drinks were passed around as they debriefed themselves on a mostly successful mission even as the boat headed back out to sea at thirty four knots.
Once the torpedo boat cleared the coast, the two Free French destroyers Panthere and Lynx moved up the coast and bombarded a German observation and communication post for twenty minutes. They had done this half a dozen times already and the Germans knew the game --- they took cover and sent a message back to higher headquarters that would be effectively ignored. Harassment missions did not require a response that involved waking the counter-attack troops nor burning valuable petrol.
Story 2481
South of Iwo Jima, April 12, 1944
All four carrier task groups of the 5th Fleet were assembled. They had topped off their bunkers the day before sprinting into a pre-dawn launch position. The volcanic island was an outpost of the inner ring of the Japanese Empire. Reinforcements had been flowing into the pair of airfields on the island even after it had been hit hard by transiting carrier groups that needed an opposed final training run. Today, strikes that would make the waves that started the Pacific War look small would be taking off every ninety minutes. And then once there was nothing above ground and mobile operational, half a dozen cruisers would empty half their magazines in the evening.
All four carrier task groups of the 5th Fleet were assembled. They had topped off their bunkers the day before sprinting into a pre-dawn launch position. The volcanic island was an outpost of the inner ring of the Japanese Empire. Reinforcements had been flowing into the pair of airfields on the island even after it had been hit hard by transiting carrier groups that needed an opposed final training run. Today, strikes that would make the waves that started the Pacific War look small would be taking off every ninety minutes. And then once there was nothing above ground and mobile operational, half a dozen cruisers would empty half their magazines in the evening.
Story 2482
South of Hainan, April 12, 1944
Four carriers turned into the wind. One carrier had patrol duties and primary CAP responsibilities. The other three ships would be sending raiding pulses all day against the Japanese held islands. Fighter opposition had been worn down by ever increasingly fragile logistics to the Home Islands and routine Free French and RAF raids. The Chinese Nationalist Air Force as well as the Americans operating from bases in Southern China had also joined the cacophony of chaos and destruction. Ruining the airfields, and more importantly, the base workshops would give the Royal Navy a far freer hand in the northern portions of the South China Sea. Once the last Tarpon and Seafire landed tonight, three cruiser minelayers would reseed several gardens near the island before running back to air cover before dawn.
Four carriers turned into the wind. One carrier had patrol duties and primary CAP responsibilities. The other three ships would be sending raiding pulses all day against the Japanese held islands. Fighter opposition had been worn down by ever increasingly fragile logistics to the Home Islands and routine Free French and RAF raids. The Chinese Nationalist Air Force as well as the Americans operating from bases in Southern China had also joined the cacophony of chaos and destruction. Ruining the airfields, and more importantly, the base workshops would give the Royal Navy a far freer hand in the northern portions of the South China Sea. Once the last Tarpon and Seafire landed tonight, three cruiser minelayers would reseed several gardens near the island before running back to air cover before dawn.
Driftless
Donor
To borrow from Professor Oxley (Indiana Jones IV) "Not into space. Into the space between spaces....."I don't think it will be the landing site. You're too far for air support from allied bases, forcing you to rely only on carrier aircrafts. The lands behind the beaches are marshlands for kilometers (a good part was drained post-war to build the beach resorts). And, most of all, there are no deep water ports worth mentioning in the vicinity. You only have Sète, but it's really small and, in all probability, it wasn't properly dredged since before the war.
Last edited:
BINGO --
You know that, I know that, the Germans suspect but don't know that... and the Germans know that they have been getting a bunch of pinprick raids from the Spanish border to the Italian border, so this is just another night and another pinprick. That categorization is accurate for tonight, but it may not be accurate in the future.
McPherson
Banned
a. I don't like the French road net that far west for rapid movement off the beach.
b. There is no direct bee-line to Dijon, which hubs a major air base complex that would be very useful in any future southern French campaign.
The Allies are going to recon, harass, take soil samples, send in raiders, and take pot shots all along the French southern coast all the way from Spain to Italy so the Germans have no idea where they’re going to land, if they’re going to land, when they’re going to land and even once they think they’ve figured it out they’re still going have to worry about “what if” the Allies do “this” or “that.”
You have a level of engagement by the Nationalist Chinese far beyond what they exhibited. What convinced Chiang to commit his front line units instead of saving them for use against Mao?
A token effort of a squadron of Chinese manned and American built bombers flying with a few groups of American aircraft flown by American crews generates great press pictures & that keeps his suppliers happy so that 95% of a much broader OTL supply line will continue to go to the KMT's top priorities.
Short answer: politics and ally management
This is actually more of a myth. In reality, Chiang repeatedly got his armies destroyed in an effort to meet the effectively impossible demands that FDR set for China to receive Lend Lease. What little LL that China got in OTL was mostly taken by Chennault and Stillwell for their own pet projects.
What airplanes do the nationalist Chinese have? Also where are there airfields they are using?
The Chinese frontlines are always messy in my mind and I struggle to picture them.
The Chinese frontlines are always messy in my mind and I struggle to picture them.
In OTL any lend lease that was getting into China was being airlifted over the Himalayan mountains. The Hump airlift. The Americans were losing a transport plane about every 3 days or so on average. For a total of almost 600 transport planes and their crews lost over the 3 year course of the airlift. So you can see why the Americans had a keen interest in how those LL supplies were going to be used. After all the Allies, including the U.S. were at war with Japan, not Mao.
In this ATL the Burma Road is still open and supplies are being fed into its start at Lashio via railroad from the Port of Rangoon. A far more bountiful and far less costly supply route. It would make for some changes.
Last edited:
- Status