Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reader mode
Story 2621
  • Index

    • fester

    Clydebank, Scotland October 11, 1944

    The Royal Navy's newest carrier had a wet hull for the first time. HMS Vanguard had been launched by the Crown Princess just moments ago. She would soon be towed to the fitting out basins before shaking down in the first half of 1945. The Admiralty had plans for an all-British air group with new aircraft still being produced in factories and not even being released to the first squadrons to transition. They had time. The big battleship converted into a carrier would not be ready to land a Seafire or a SeaHornet until early summer anyways.
     
    Last edited:
  • Index

    • Finbarr the Fair

    fester said:
    Clydebank, Scotland October 11, 1944

    The Royal Navy's newest carrier had a wet hull for the first time. HMS Vanguard had been launched by the Crown Princess just moments ago. She would soon be towed to the fitting out basins before shaking down in the first half of 1945. The Admiralty had plans for an all-British air group with new aircraft still being produced in factories and not even being released to the first squadrons to transition. They had time. The big battleship converted into a carrier would not be ready to land a Seafire or a SeaHornet until early summer anyways.
    Click to expand...
    Damn

    Sounds like she'll again be just too late for the fighting. But should have a longer post-war career.
     

    calvinhobbesliker

    fester said:
    Brest, USSR October 10, 1944

    Three exhausted divisions had not picked up their rifles in weeks. Instead the riflemen, machine gunners and sappers had been converted into a massive labor force. Every hour, another train arrived. Every hour, another train headed back east. Every minute a dozen trucks left the complex gates to a series of warehouses and open air supply dumps. The Red Air Force controlled the sky above the every growing concentration of the shock armies. Lights were kept on day and night as another offensive was being prepared. There was a short stretch in the fighting season left. Corps and armies that had rolled across the southern steppes had enough time to recover and reposition north. The juncture of the Southern Ukrainian Fronts with the British led armies coming out of Greece had also shrunk the distance that needed to be covered. Forces were now approaching the general density that Stavka had been dreaming about for years. Soon, the lights would be out and the riflemen who had become laborers would pick up their arms again, but until then, more trains needed to be unloaded.
    Click to expand...

    Wait, have the Russians linked up with the British somewhere in the Balkans, or is this only saying that it'll likely happen soon?
     
    Story 2622
  • Index

    • fester

    Around Kent, England October 12, 1944

    A whistle blew. Hundreds of paratroopers slowly stood up. The more nimble men helped their squad mates find their feet. Soon sticks began to assemble and waddle towards the always too narrow jump doors of the dozens of Dakotas lined up on the runways. Their engines started to turn over even as their human cargoes were finding positions that were only somewhat uncomfortable. Load masters checked weight distribution and within an hour, the brigade started to take the air. Ahead of the parachute infantry carrying transports were a steady stream of larger transports carrying air droppable heavy equipment or towing large gliders. By mid morning four brigades were ready to descend from the sky to seize a pair of bridges twenty miles in front of a corps that had already started their advance to relieve the jumpers and their gliderborne compatriots.
     
  • Index

    • jlckansas

    fester said:
    Around Kent, England October 12, 1944

    A whistle blew. Hundreds of paratroopers slowly stood up. The more nimble men helped their squad mates find their feet. Soon sticks began to assemble and waddle towards the always too narrow jump doors of the dozens of Dakotas lined up on the runways. Their engines started to turn over even as their human cargoes were finding positions that were only somewhat uncomfortable. Load masters checked weight distribution and within an hour, the brigade started to take the air. Ahead of the parachute infantry carrying transports were a steady stream of larger transports carrying air droppable heavy equipment or towing large gliders. By mid morning four brigades were ready to descend from the sky to seize a pair of bridges twenty miles in front of a corps that had already started their advance to relieve the jumpers and their gliderborne compatriots.
    Click to expand...
    Large gliders, are they Hamilcar type or something else like just a Horsa? Are they using any of the C54's for this or only C47 types?
     

    NotBigBrother

    Monthly Donor
    fester said:
    By mid morning four brigades were ready to descend from the sky to seize a pair of bridges twenty miles in front of a corps that had already started their advance to relieve the jumpers and their gliderborne compatriots.
    Click to expand...
    I hope these bridges will be not too far.
     

    Butchpfd

    They are only going 2 bridges instead of 3, and the ground attack has started before take off, rather then after the airborne units were on the ground. That puts them ahead of OTL Market Garden.
     
    Story 2623
  • Index

    • fester

    Nijeman, Netherlands, mid-afternoon October 12, 1944

    Another Tiger tank started to brew up. It had absorbed a dozen hits and claimed a pair of Shermans before the rest of the platoon had managed to get to its flanks and the Firefly commanded by Captain Stanley sent three quick rounds into its exposed thinly armored sides. The last one was just for good measure. Within minutes, riflemen and machine gunners were running forward again even as the sappers were within an hour of completing a Bailey bridge.

    Ahead of XXX Corps was the last bridge that they had to take. The regimental and brigade commanders were just getting word that the paratroopers had come down in the right landing zones and were on the move to seize their objectives. Six miles and then the entry way to North German Plains would be theirs. Six more miles.
     
  • Index

    • fester

    kmmontandon said:
    More of a reasonable advanced seizure of key tactical ground than an over-large, over-extended spearhead, then.
    Click to expand...
    yep, Allied airborne doctrine has evolved significantly differently TTL than OTL as there were real world examples of overly ambitious clusterfucks (NORWAY) and significant examples of short term advanced seizures to pave the way for exploitation forces (Netherlands, Smolensk) but no examples of daring coup de main attacks working (CRETE had 2 dozen German paratroopers dropped on it for a final confirmatory recon patrol).
     
    Story 2624
  • Index

    • fester

    Northern Tonkin Province, French Indochina pre-dawn October 13, 1944

    The last man exited the Dakota. A dozen parachutes were open for the guerilla team. Another few dozen chutes were slowly bringing down critical medical supplies, radio batteries, mines and submachine guns. There was a small Japanese airfield in the middle of the valley that the American paratroopers would take care to avoid as they would be heading to the hills to meet with a large number of guerilla leaders.
     
  • Index

    • mudhead

    1638482980261.png
    A recommendation: The Last Valley, Martin Windrow's 2005 book about the campaign, is fantastic, one of the best military histories I've ever read.
     

    Mr Carrot

    fester said:
    Around Kent, England October 12, 1944

    A whistle blew. Hundreds of paratroopers slowly stood up. The more nimble men helped their squad mates find their feet. Soon sticks began to assemble and waddle towards the always too narrow jump doors of the dozens of Dakotas lined up on the runways. Their engines started to turn over even as their human cargoes were finding positions that were only somewhat uncomfortable. Load masters checked weight distribution and within an hour, the brigade started to take the air. Ahead of the parachute infantry carrying transports were a steady stream of larger transports carrying air droppable heavy equipment or towing large gliders. By mid morning four brigades were ready to descend from the sky to seize a pair of bridges twenty miles in front of a corps that had already started their advance to relieve the jumpers and their gliderborne compatriots.
    Click to expand...
    Larger transports? What are we talking about here? C46? Or a British transport plane built due to butterflies?
     
    Reader mode
    Top
    Status
    Not open for further replies.
    Top