Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

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This is a fictional officer. I was on a work Slack yesterday guessing which burrowed in Trump appointees would be counting penguins in the Aleutians due to new pressing operational requirements within the week.
Easy enough job since there are no penguins in the Aleutians. Fulmars, perhaps?
 
there's an easy way to handle the penguin survey...make some cut-outs painted to look like penguins and go around taking pictures of them in different places on the island!!!
 
there's an easy way to handle the penguin survey...make some cut-outs painted to look like penguins and go around taking pictures of them in different places on the island!!!
That reminds me of the old Paranoia game. Troubleshooters were sent to infiltrate the Wobby secret society, but there were no Wobblies. On reporting that, they were executed for failure to perform their duties.
Soon enough, some troubleshooters decided to create the Wobblies rather than be executed for treason. The society grew, but the entire secret society consists of members of other secret societies and troubleshooters spying on it. (A slightly exaggerated version of the Communist party in the 1950's, when urban legend says that most of the ones that managed to pay their dues were FBI infiltrators.)
 
That reminds me of the old Paranoia game. Troubleshooters were sent to infiltrate the Wobby secret society, but there were no Wobblies. On reporting that, they were executed for failure to perform their duties.
Soon enough, some troubleshooters decided to create the Wobblies rather than be executed for treason. The society grew, but the entire secret society consists of members of other secret societies and troubleshooters spying on it. (A slightly exaggerated version of the Communist party in the 1950's, when urban legend says that most of the ones that managed to pay their dues were FBI infiltrators.)
Love that game

Needed a switched on GM though
 
Story 2450
Ishigaki, Japan March 4, 1944

The flame thrower tank jerked forward. A loud explosion signaled that an anti-tank round had been defeated by the armor on the front glacis. The tank platoon and the infantry company that were to be supported by the specialist tanks and an engineering platoon began to pour an ungodly amount of steel and lead up the hill. A minute later, American mortars began to drop a combination of smoke and high explosive shells on the area where a hint of smoke was seen. The attack slowly moved forward on the two small hills that overlooked the landing beaches and the Japanese Naval Air Service airfield that had been the primary objective of the first week.

By nightfall, the Marine battalion had succeeded in taking another four hundred yards of the hill complex. They were a third of the way done. Reinforcements slowly moved from the beach to the front line overnight to replace a ruined rifle company and to keep the push going. Once the hills were cleared, the rest of the landing force would have a secure northern flank and they would be able to dominate the flats of the island over the next week.
 
Ishigaki, Japan March 4, 1944

The flame thrower tank jerked forward. A loud explosion signaled that an anti-tank round had been defeated by the armor on the front glacis. The tank platoon and the infantry company that were to be supported by the specialist tanks and an engineering platoon began to pour an ungodly amount of steel and lead up the hill. A minute later, American mortars began to drop a combination of smoke and high explosive shells on the area where a hint of smoke was seen. The attack slowly moved forward on the two small hills that overlooked the landing beaches and the Japanese Naval Air Service airfield that had been the primary objective of the first week.

By nightfall, the Marine battalion had succeeded in taking another four hundred yards of the hill complex. They were a third of the way done. Reinforcements slowly moved from the beach to the front line overnight to replace a ruined rifle company and to keep the push going. Once the hills were cleared, the rest of the landing force would have a secure northern flank and they would be able to dominate the flats of the island over the next week.
Think it should read Ishigaki, Okinawa not Japan
 
Story 2451
Seattle, Washington March 5, 1944

SS John Sevier arrived at the docks. She had sailed from this city months ago loaded with ammunition and spare parts for the army that had landed in Luzon. She had taken the long swing around, first to Hawaii, and then Samoa and then through the Coral Sea before arriving at Darwin where a small convoy was formed. Half a dozen merchant ships escorted by a pair of Australian built minesweepers and a second hand Dutch destroyer brought her safely to Singapore. A larger convoy left that citadel ten days later with cruisers and destroyers as guardians to Palawan where a portion of her cargo was needed. Four days later, she headed to Subic Bay where her holds were emptied.

She then rode high at anchor for another week until a convoy was available for the journey back to Singapore. Tin, rubber, manganese and wood filled her cavernous holds. Eleven days after arriving she left again. This time, she was escorted by American warships that led her and seventeen other heaily laden merchant ships through the San Bernidino Straits. In those straits, a pair of gunboats claimed a submarine kill. The convoy lost the heavy escorts once they were two hundred miles east of Luzon but the gunboats and destroyer escorts stayed with them to Guam. There, she refueled and her crew swept a doubleheader in softball before her master took her back to sea to steam independently home. As she approached the Straits of Juan de Fuca, a wooden Coast Guard patrol boat led her through the minefields and past the boom defenses and into the port. Longshoremen were soon ready to unload the riches of the Orient from her hull even as her crew collected their earnings and made plans for an assault on the waterfront bars.
 
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That reminds me of the old Paranoia game. Troubleshooters were sent to infiltrate the Wobby secret society, but there were no Wobblies. On reporting that, they were executed for failure to perform their duties.
Soon enough, some troubleshooters decided to create the Wobblies rather than be executed for treason. The society grew, but the entire secret society consists of members of other secret societies and troubleshooters spying on it. (A slightly exaggerated version of the Communist party in the 1950's, when urban legend says that most of the ones that managed to pay their dues were FBI infiltrators.)
The 1908 novel The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton was the original template for this. Tom Sharpe nicked it for the second of his farces about apartheid South Africa, Indecent Exposure.
SS John Sevier arrived at the docks
Well, that's an interesting change. In OTL that ship was torpedoed and sunk by U-185 just off the coast of Cuba in 1943.
SS John Sevier details
 
(A slightly exaggerated version of the Communist party in the 1950's, when urban legend says that most of the ones that managed to pay their dues were FBI infiltrators.)
Well, the Secretary for Contacts with Foreign Communist Parties was! He also brought over the annual Soviet subsidy, which the FBI counted and noted the serial numbers on the bills before handing them over to the CPUSA. And the FBI (indirectly) paid a lot of Gus Hall's bills!
 
Story 2452
Santa Fe, New Mexico March 7, 1944

Three men climbed out of the small twin engine transport plane. They had enough time for a bite to eat and a bathroom break before they needed to reboard for another four hours of flying over the desolate and beautiful nothingness of most of the state. Several more candidate sites needed to be at least glanced at for basic suitability before intensive, ground based surveys and inspections would be worthwhile. They had time. They had time today, and they had time in the future as the rest of the eggheads were very confident in promising that the package would not be delivered quickly, but also that there would be a delivery. They had to do this right as their program was costing the government the same as a new fleet or a brand new bomber. So, half an hour later and a few pints lighter, the men clambered aboard the transport and prepared to take more notes as the pilot wondered why he was flying tourists around the state for the first time in three years.
 
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