Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

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Driftless

Donor
Aboard YAMATO, Inland Sea, Japan March 17, 1945
(snip)
An hour later, the Admiral's staff had been called to a meeting. New intelligence had come in. Decisions would soon need to be made in coordination with the Fleet Command and the government in Tokyo. By the end of the month, fuel would no longer be a concern for the Imperial Fleet.
Hmmm....
Could mean no fuel at all, could mean just enough fuel for a one-way trip for Yamato, or other political decisions are being finalized.
 
Story 2793
Munich, Germany, March 19, 1945

The air was heavy. American fighter bombers had strafed, rocketed and napalmed every vehicle convoy that had attempted to move north. There was little danger to transportation along the roads heading south. American and French medium bombers had wrecked the rail marshalling yards the previous night. Barricades were being assembled in the streets and the tired divisions of the garrison plus the field army were making themselves ready for an onslaught.

To the north of the city, just outside of 155mm range of the suburbs, an infantry division had taken blocking positions. American engineers were digging an anti-tank ditch as forward observers were making off landmarks and surveying the land. Behind them five divisions were heading to the recently secured river crossings. Munich would be taken eventually, but not today, nor this week and unlikely this month. The city could wither as it was defended by old men, young boys and women. The objective was further to the east.
 

Driftless

Donor
Munich would be taken eventually, but not today, nor this week and unlikely this month. The city could wither as it was defended by old men, young boys and women. The objective was further to the east.

Kinda like the Central Pacific Island Hopping practices...
 
Cloppenburg, Germany March 16, 1945

Half a dozen tanks started up again. A trio of light tanks darted out ahead. A handful of halftracks overloaded with riflemen and machine gunners who had overrun the roadblock that had been manned by a few dozen teenagers stiffened by a handful of recovering veterans from half a dozen different fronts followed the light tanks. The Shermans then followed. They expected contact as contact was being initiated every hamlet and town over the past several days.

The advance guard bounded up the road. The light tanks would sprint forward for several hundred yards, find an overwatch position and then cover the half tracks and medium tanks for throughout the morning. Bangalore torpedoes were used to clear a single minefield just before noon. After that, the spearhead cleared the next hamlet of a dozen villages with an intersecting cow path before stopping for lunch. As they were policing the area before heading east again, two quarter master trucks arrived with another company of infantry. Fuel tanks were refilled and a few additional boxes of ammunition were loaded into the half tracks before the spearhead sought to take another ten miles before dark.

Fifteen miles the rear, brigade and divisional staffs were busy. They finally had a breakthrough and the complex art of passing the Guards Armoured Division through the lines of an infantry heavy corps had started.
They moved an infantry company with just two teucks? Suggest either a shuttle with two trucks taking the afternoon, or at least 8-10 trucks. These are deuce and a halfs, not semi trailers, right?
 
They moved an infantry company with just two teucks? Suggest either a shuttle with two trucks taking the afternoon, or at least 8-10 trucks. These are deuce and a halfs, not semi trailers, right?
"As they were policing the area before heading east again, two quarter master trucks arrived with another company of infantry."
My reading is that it was a Company of Infantry as well as two Quartermaster Trucks.
 
"As they were policing the area before heading east again, two quarter master trucks arrived with another company of infantry."
My reading is that it was a Company of Infantry as well as two Quartermaster Trucks.
Tweaked the sentence. A follow on infantry company arrived and then 2 quartermaster trucks showed up to top off the spearhead mid day.
 
The IJN is playing chess while the USN is playing bowling. On the same table.

Doesn't the IJN still have a couple of Aircraft Carriers at their disposal? If they do then I can see what the IJN plan will be. The chances of it succeeding are highly unlikely, but might just be plausible. The IJN sorties, the Carriers go out first and eat the raids that sank Ten-Go in the first place, now all of a sudden, America's CVs are shit out of ordnance that can really make a difference (torpedoes and 1600-pound and 2000-pound bombs) against capital ships, meaning that we get another battleship engagement and with three Yamatos plus I think Nagato or Mutsu....well it probably won't be one-sided in its entirety and given the relative inexperience of night actions, its plausible, barely, that the IJN might be able to roll a natural twenty or two along with the weather playing a role and thus get not a typical battleship engagement but a full blown Barroom Brawl that can best be described as a clusterfuck.
 
as a side note, I am aiming to wrap this timeline up by no later than mid-January 2023, so things might move quickly.
I can see it now:

Dark Fester: This is going too slow, prepare to fast forward

Colonel Fester: Prepare to Fast Forward

Dark Fester: Fast Forward

Proceeds to speed through to the end of the war to find the Druidian Princess
 
I can see it now:

Dark Fester: This is going too slow, prepare to fast forward

Colonel Fester: Prepare to Fast Forward

Dark Fester: Fast Forward

Proceeds to speed through to the end of the war to find the Druidian Princess
Major Asshole, SIR

More realistically, this is getting close to a few novel lengths of writing and given where I am in my career, I can't afford to have an unfinished novel rattling in my head for two or more years.

As a side note, this was supposed to start off as a little project on a better defense of the Western colonial possessions of the South China Sea region 6+ years ago and then it just expanded....
 
Major Asshole, SIR

More realistically, this is getting close to a few novel lengths of writing and given where I am in my career, I can't afford to have an unfinished novel rattling in my head for two or more years.

As a side note, this was supposed to start off as a little project on a better defense of the Western colonial possessions of the South China Sea region 6+ years ago and then it just expanded....
How many Assholes we got on this Thread?

*entire thread base stands up* YO

I knew it.... I'm surrounded by Assholes.... KEEP WRITING ASSHOLES


XD Gotta love spaceballs, but its all good, I'm actually rereading it all now
 
As a side note, this was supposed to start off as a little project on a better defense of the Western colonial possessions of the South China Sea region 6+ years ago and then it just expanded....
Don't you just love when that happens? Best of luck finishing, we'll all be here reading and waiting for more updates. I think you have done an excellent job juggling about fifteen different balls in the air all at once and am looking forward to the conclusion when it happens.
 
Story 2794
Western Pacific, March 20, 1945

The radar operator in the back of the dark blue Avenger did not expect to see anything on his scope. The dozen aircraft from USS Enterprise had been launched just after midnight. They were conducting the proforma sweep ahead of the fleet. There might be a junk or a sampan, fishermen trying to make a living, but anything that could not fit into a small bayou port with a wooden pier had not been seen in months. He looked at his screen one more time before he started to speak.

"Multiple contacts, big... 25 miles, speed at least 20 knots...."

"Firm that up before we call it in"

Soon radios crackled as more Avengers from Enterprise found something that had not been seen in over a year. The Japanese Fleet, or at least a significant portion on it was at sea again.
 
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