The story continues to hint at how it will live up to its title.
Ghastly Victories: The United States in the World Wars
- Thread starter RamscoopRaider
- Start date
Seems to be pretty similar to-
Oh bugger. I suppose it's believable- Stalin did already have one famed general (Trotsky) rise in rebellion. Perhaps some other general could take his place, let's not get too "great man theory" happy. But stalin acting like this will leave the Red Army weaker in general. Perhaps some Winter War-equivalent will give them a wake-up call too late, at least?
Given the trend, I suspect that the Winter War, or equivalent, will be even messier than the one in our history. Perhaps someone will be provoked into getting rid of Stalin, but by the time they are (if they're successful), another purge may have begun.
I'm wondering with the purges that happened ITL, if the Russians will even field a sub gun ITL. They did have the PPD-34/40 but those were withdrawn pre-Winter War and only brought back once they saw what the Finns were doing with KP/-31 and even Stalin said why don't we have those. Here its possible they don't have any sub guns and have to do a crash program post Winter War.
At this point I have to wonder why the Red Army hasn't decided that since there seems no point to loyalty in the Soviet State: "I either get shot in the head for winning or put against a wall for losing, why not just go shoot them first?"
Admiral Matt
Gone Fishin'
If only he'd needed someone actually rising in rebellion. In our TL in this period he devastated the Soviet military before and after this period on the general principle that too much torture purging was better than not enough.
Specific targets included the entire set who innovated the doctrines of deep strike and maneuver warfare. In fact, that's likely why we even know of Zhukov as an effective leader in the first place. Stalin presumably sent a half dozen names to the grave IOTL that would be spoken of in hushed tones by another timeline's war nerds. Zhukov survived partly because he was a nobody during the first purges, making his reputation later.
Fear. Mind you, it could still happen, and is entirely plausible. I don't recall anything so far in this thread mentioning Stalin surviving this war...
Part 5-35 Mass Destruction
RamscoopRaider
Donor
…The largest scale use of chemical weapons in the leadup to and early phases of WWII was by the Japanese against the Chinese. Lacking in chemical warfare gear the Chinese were vulnerable to chemical weapons in a way that the major powers were not. The primary agents used against the Chinese were Sulfur Mustard and Lewisite, with limited quantities of Phosgene and Chlorine used to get rid of older munitions stockpiles…
…The Japanese use of chemical weapons fell under a legal technicality. According to the Japanese their actions in China were “restoring order at the behest of the legitimate government”, thus their use was legal similar to the use by the British, French, Italian and Spanish in putting down colonial rebellions. This “legitimate government” was, at the time of the war, only recognized by Japan and was functionally a puppet state with only nominal independence…
…Japanese chemical weapon use was relatively tightly controlled, with specific authorization from Tokyo needed for their use…
…The Japanese campaign against Wuhan saw their first attempt to use biological warfare in an operational manner. Cholera, Typhoid and Plague weapons were deployed in the operational area in front of Wuhan during July and August 1939 in an attempt to weaken the Chinese defenders. While outbreaks of disease did in fact impact the Chinese, they also impacted the attacking Japanese, especially during the operational pause forced by the border incidents with the USSR. As a proportion of the forces involved more Japanese soldiers were incapacitated than Chinese, though in terms of deaths the opposite was true due to better Japanese medical care.
The Wuhan campaign was thus the last attempt by the IJA to employ biological weapons in direct support of a campaign for several years. Afterwards the use of bioweapons in close proximity to Japanese troops was considered too risky. Use of biological weapons continued, but they were almost always aerially delivered at population centers away from Japanese forces or deployed by special units of highly trained ground troops not attached to other formations…
…Japanese field testing revealed that there most efficient agents for mass use were typhoid and paratyphoid fevers. These caused the most deaths for a given investment in resources…
…After 1939 a new strategy involving a new deployment method and mix of agents was developed by the Togo unit. Unlikely the indiscriminate attacks that previously characterized the Japanese biowarfare campaign in China this new strategy was targeted at a specific segment of the population in certain areas. It would prove far more effective than the previous methods of biowarfare that continued alongside it and would inspire at least one future government to copy and successfully employ it with an even more horrific choice of agents…
…By the end of 1939 preliminary research at Oxford university indicated that a potential antidote for Lewisite was in the making. This led both Britain and the United States, who placed a great reliance on the weapon, to start heavily investing in alternatives. In the United States great emphasis was placed on Cyanogen Chloride while Britain began introducing new classes of Mustard Gas such as O-Mustard, Nitrogen Mustards and Sesquimustard…
…In 1935 the Romanian physicist Stefania Mărăcineanu conducted the first experiments involving neutron bombardment to induce radioactivity. Mărăcineanu was attempting to one up the husband and wife Joliot-Curie team in Paris and their work with Alpha particle bombardment, which they had based on her research without her permission or knowledge. Her experiments discovered a large number of new radioactive isotopes as well as several anomalous results when she experimented with Uranium. Originally she believed that she had created an isotope of Protactinium, however repetition of her experiment by other scientists failed to find any Protactinium through chemical analysis. Instead it was reported that she had created element 93 based on the mystery isotope having similar chemical properties to Rhenium, something that the next element after Uranium was then, incorrectly, believed to have. In retrospect it had been Masurium produced from spontaneous fission of the Uranium ore that had been detected chemically, due to it actually having similar chemical properties to Rhenium. However the unknown isotope with a 23 minute half-life was eventually proven to be the 93rd element on the periodic table…
…Follow up experiments by Meitner and Hahn in Berlin discovered that contrary to Alpha Particles Neutron collisions could produce activity even with low energy levels, and that this was different than activity from neutrons with high energy levels. Light elements were found to be especially good at slowing down neutrons…
…Niels Bohr’s 1936 modification of exiled Soviet Scientist George Gamow’s liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus provided the theoretical basis for nuclear fission…
…Experiments in Paris and Stockholm detected an isotope with a 3.5 hour half-life and properties similar to Lanthanum from bombardment of Uranium with neutrons, the same isotope was later detected in bombardment of Thorium. At first this was thought to be a Radium isotope after two or one alpha decays respectively, but this was considered improbable by Lise Meitner and Niels Bohr. Indeed after the byproducts of the reaction had been chemically treated to remove Radium the 3.5 hour isotope was still detected. Chemical analysis of the products of the uranium bombardment seemed to produce Barium, Cerium and Lanthanum, rather than the expected Radium, Actinium and Thorium. This was out of left field due to the sheer differential in atomic mass not being explainable by any known radioactive process. Furthermore there was the unexplained presence of Krypton found in the experimental products…
…Exiled German scientists Otto Frisch and Lise Meitner examined the results of the chemical analysis. Looking over the math they found that Uranium was a barely stable atom, balanced on a knife edge between electric repulsion and the nuclear forces holding it together. A small push such as a neutron colliding with it could knock it over the edge, theoretically producing two smaller atoms. Given that together Krypton and Barium had the same number of protons as Uranium and that both were found in large concentrations they believed that they had the answer. The only problem was that the two new atoms would repel each other electrically and acquire a high velocity, which necessitated a source of energy. Looking over the relative atomic weights of Krypton, Barium and Uranium they found the two lighter elements combined had .2 proton mass less mass than Uranium, and plugging in Einstein’s E=MC2 formula that produced exactly the energy they had expected. Nuclear fission had just been discovered…
…Exiled Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard looked over the results produced by Meitner, Frisch and their colleague Hahn and realized that the fission of Uranium into Barium and Krypton produced multiple neutrons. In a sufficiently dense mass of Uranium a fission reaction would thus undergo a chain reaction, producing immense amounts of energy. This could be the famed nuclear power source that many had been pondering since the discovery of radioactivity. It could also, Szilard realized, be used to release immense amounts of energy in an uncontrolled manner, creating a bomb of unimaginable power…
…Szilard foresaw that a second world war was in the offing in 1939 and urged his fellow physicists, who he was aware were working in the direction of a nuclear chain reaction, not to publish their research. He feared that whoever did would end up repeating Fritz Haber’s enabling of chemical warfare in WWI but on a grander scale. Most of his colleagues listened, however the Joliot-Curies in Paris insisted on publishing their research in early 1940, thus making the possibilities of atomic weapons widely known…
…It is to the good fortune of humanity that Hitler and the Volkists behaved as they did with regards to science. Their innate distrust of the subject led to a reduction in research funding, causing a steady drop in the number of German doctoral students, shrinking their available talent pool. Furthermore actions in the name of racial purity and political unity led to many prominent scientists fleeing the country and taking their talents elsewhere. This combined to leave Germany punching far below her former weight in many scientific fields, most prominently and importantly in physics….
-Pandora’s Children: Weapons of Mass Destruction, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012
…The Japanese use of chemical weapons fell under a legal technicality. According to the Japanese their actions in China were “restoring order at the behest of the legitimate government”, thus their use was legal similar to the use by the British, French, Italian and Spanish in putting down colonial rebellions. This “legitimate government” was, at the time of the war, only recognized by Japan and was functionally a puppet state with only nominal independence…
…Japanese chemical weapon use was relatively tightly controlled, with specific authorization from Tokyo needed for their use…
…The Japanese campaign against Wuhan saw their first attempt to use biological warfare in an operational manner. Cholera, Typhoid and Plague weapons were deployed in the operational area in front of Wuhan during July and August 1939 in an attempt to weaken the Chinese defenders. While outbreaks of disease did in fact impact the Chinese, they also impacted the attacking Japanese, especially during the operational pause forced by the border incidents with the USSR. As a proportion of the forces involved more Japanese soldiers were incapacitated than Chinese, though in terms of deaths the opposite was true due to better Japanese medical care.
The Wuhan campaign was thus the last attempt by the IJA to employ biological weapons in direct support of a campaign for several years. Afterwards the use of bioweapons in close proximity to Japanese troops was considered too risky. Use of biological weapons continued, but they were almost always aerially delivered at population centers away from Japanese forces or deployed by special units of highly trained ground troops not attached to other formations…
…Japanese field testing revealed that there most efficient agents for mass use were typhoid and paratyphoid fevers. These caused the most deaths for a given investment in resources…
…After 1939 a new strategy involving a new deployment method and mix of agents was developed by the Togo unit. Unlikely the indiscriminate attacks that previously characterized the Japanese biowarfare campaign in China this new strategy was targeted at a specific segment of the population in certain areas. It would prove far more effective than the previous methods of biowarfare that continued alongside it and would inspire at least one future government to copy and successfully employ it with an even more horrific choice of agents…
…By the end of 1939 preliminary research at Oxford university indicated that a potential antidote for Lewisite was in the making. This led both Britain and the United States, who placed a great reliance on the weapon, to start heavily investing in alternatives. In the United States great emphasis was placed on Cyanogen Chloride while Britain began introducing new classes of Mustard Gas such as O-Mustard, Nitrogen Mustards and Sesquimustard…
…In 1935 the Romanian physicist Stefania Mărăcineanu conducted the first experiments involving neutron bombardment to induce radioactivity. Mărăcineanu was attempting to one up the husband and wife Joliot-Curie team in Paris and their work with Alpha particle bombardment, which they had based on her research without her permission or knowledge. Her experiments discovered a large number of new radioactive isotopes as well as several anomalous results when she experimented with Uranium. Originally she believed that she had created an isotope of Protactinium, however repetition of her experiment by other scientists failed to find any Protactinium through chemical analysis. Instead it was reported that she had created element 93 based on the mystery isotope having similar chemical properties to Rhenium, something that the next element after Uranium was then, incorrectly, believed to have. In retrospect it had been Masurium produced from spontaneous fission of the Uranium ore that had been detected chemically, due to it actually having similar chemical properties to Rhenium. However the unknown isotope with a 23 minute half-life was eventually proven to be the 93rd element on the periodic table…
…Follow up experiments by Meitner and Hahn in Berlin discovered that contrary to Alpha Particles Neutron collisions could produce activity even with low energy levels, and that this was different than activity from neutrons with high energy levels. Light elements were found to be especially good at slowing down neutrons…
…Niels Bohr’s 1936 modification of exiled Soviet Scientist George Gamow’s liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus provided the theoretical basis for nuclear fission…
…Experiments in Paris and Stockholm detected an isotope with a 3.5 hour half-life and properties similar to Lanthanum from bombardment of Uranium with neutrons, the same isotope was later detected in bombardment of Thorium. At first this was thought to be a Radium isotope after two or one alpha decays respectively, but this was considered improbable by Lise Meitner and Niels Bohr. Indeed after the byproducts of the reaction had been chemically treated to remove Radium the 3.5 hour isotope was still detected. Chemical analysis of the products of the uranium bombardment seemed to produce Barium, Cerium and Lanthanum, rather than the expected Radium, Actinium and Thorium. This was out of left field due to the sheer differential in atomic mass not being explainable by any known radioactive process. Furthermore there was the unexplained presence of Krypton found in the experimental products…
…Exiled German scientists Otto Frisch and Lise Meitner examined the results of the chemical analysis. Looking over the math they found that Uranium was a barely stable atom, balanced on a knife edge between electric repulsion and the nuclear forces holding it together. A small push such as a neutron colliding with it could knock it over the edge, theoretically producing two smaller atoms. Given that together Krypton and Barium had the same number of protons as Uranium and that both were found in large concentrations they believed that they had the answer. The only problem was that the two new atoms would repel each other electrically and acquire a high velocity, which necessitated a source of energy. Looking over the relative atomic weights of Krypton, Barium and Uranium they found the two lighter elements combined had .2 proton mass less mass than Uranium, and plugging in Einstein’s E=MC2 formula that produced exactly the energy they had expected. Nuclear fission had just been discovered…
…Exiled Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard looked over the results produced by Meitner, Frisch and their colleague Hahn and realized that the fission of Uranium into Barium and Krypton produced multiple neutrons. In a sufficiently dense mass of Uranium a fission reaction would thus undergo a chain reaction, producing immense amounts of energy. This could be the famed nuclear power source that many had been pondering since the discovery of radioactivity. It could also, Szilard realized, be used to release immense amounts of energy in an uncontrolled manner, creating a bomb of unimaginable power…
…Szilard foresaw that a second world war was in the offing in 1939 and urged his fellow physicists, who he was aware were working in the direction of a nuclear chain reaction, not to publish their research. He feared that whoever did would end up repeating Fritz Haber’s enabling of chemical warfare in WWI but on a grander scale. Most of his colleagues listened, however the Joliot-Curies in Paris insisted on publishing their research in early 1940, thus making the possibilities of atomic weapons widely known…
…It is to the good fortune of humanity that Hitler and the Volkists behaved as they did with regards to science. Their innate distrust of the subject led to a reduction in research funding, causing a steady drop in the number of German doctoral students, shrinking their available talent pool. Furthermore actions in the name of racial purity and political unity led to many prominent scientists fleeing the country and taking their talents elsewhere. This combined to leave Germany punching far below her former weight in many scientific fields, most prominently and importantly in physics….
-Pandora’s Children: Weapons of Mass Destruction, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012
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Why is my gut saying someone is going to weaponize Ebola or smallpox or some hybrid of the two?
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Ebola is a pretty lousy bioweapon, yeah Zaire has that 90% lethality rate but it isn't that transmissible, you need fluid contact or to basically be in the face of someone terminally ill. Hybridizing the two is basically impossible as they are basically as distantly related as viruses can be, with Ebola being an RNA virus and Smallpox being an encapsulated DNA virus with a swiss roll type structure, you can't even directly swap genes between the two as they don't even use the same type of genetic material
Yeesh the first half of this chapter is terrifying, both in what's immediately described and in the dark foreshadowing it includes. Well done. I know the Japanese used chemical weapons in china OTL, but with how normalized they are in this mad world I suspect they've been more liberal with them. The stuff about the A-bomb is comparatively mild, since that rodeo happened OTL too.
Just what is that "specific segment of the population" the new Japanese strategy targets? That sounds like a nasty euphemism.
Just what is that "specific segment of the population" the new Japanese strategy targets? That sounds like a nasty euphemism.
Part 5-36 Naval History
RamscoopRaider
Donor
…Late 1939 saw it become apparent to most powers that a major war was coming and thus the naval buildups that had been underway since the mid 1930’s went into a fever pitch…
…On September 1st 1939 Hitler gave the order that with war imminent no new vessels larger than a light cruiser be laid down, and then only those of the smaller type Germany had planned, rather than the pseudo heavy cruisers that were under consideration. Construction on larger vessels would continue, including the very recently laid down battleships Albrecht von Wallenstein and Dietrich von Bern. Instead construction of light units, the large torpedo boats/small destroyers of the Elbing class, their 700 ton coal powered minesweepers and especially their U-Boats increased. The latter had been deliberately held down to stay at the level of the French submarine force, with war imminent that requirement was discarded.
The new U-Boat construction was primarily of 5 types. The most numerous was the Type VI, a 650-800 ton design meant for mass production and operating in the approaches to the Irish Sea. Next most numerous was the Type III, a 450 ton vessel meant for coastal defense and shallow water offensive operations ala the WWI UB and UC boats. Thirdly were the 11-1200 ton Type VIII large submarines, meant for long range operations. Related were the 1800 ton Type IX long range minelaying boats, which were functionally stretched type VIII boats. Lasty and rarest were the 4800 ton Type X cruiser submarines, with 4 128mm guns for commerce raiding and a floatplane scout…
…The British saw the German increase in U-Boat production and took it with appropriate alarm. In December 20 1000 ton escort destroyers were ordered along with an addition 6 sloops. Furthermore design work started on a class of austere ASW escorts for covering coastal traffic on the east coast of England, something faster and more capable than a trawler but cheaper than a sloop or destroyer…
…Realizing that they may have to conduct large scale shore bombardment again the turrets from the scrapped large light cruiser Courageous were used to build a pair of new monitors. It was further proposed to use turrets from the scrapped battlecruiser Tiger and Battleships Iron Duke and Benbow for additional monitors, however given limitations in building capacity it was decided to wait for the completion of the first pair to do so…
…There was a brief proposal in 1939 to scrap the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Warspite and reuse their guns for new battleships. The ships of the King Edward VIII class were delayed by both a shortage of armor and guns, the newer Conqueror class would be built at a slower rate, only two ships a year, meaning that the armor shortage would be alleviated, but the gun issue would remain. By scrapping the older battleships their guns and mountings could be reused in new battleships, and allow an extra pair of battleships to be squeezed in before 1945. These ships would be at least as good as the Admiral class battlecruisers and would be adequate against all but the newest enemy vessels. The Queen Elizabeth and Warspite were considered to be only good for convoy escort and shore bombardment, something the less worn out R class ships could do more cheaply, thus their loss was considered acceptable.
However this proposal was killed before it could be implemented. It would produce ships that while of adequate speed and protection would lack firepower compared to the already second class King Edward VIII’s and thus be third class vessels in the long term. Secondly it would in the short term deny the Royal Navy a pair of heavy convoy escorts, not something they wanted with war on the horizon. Finally the Royal Navy preferred to use the slip ways that would be building these ships to build an extra pair of aircraft carriers instead and ordered such by the end of the year…
…With budgetary limitations being removed in the wake of the Vicenza Conference and the near war scare the French navy took the chance to try and decisively get ahead of the Italians. While unable to accelerate their capital ship program given infrastructure complaints, they were able to restart construction of Heavy cruisers. A pair of 15,000 ton vessels were ordered with 9 8” guns, 14 100mm AA guns and excellent armor. They would use the machinery plant from the 18,000 ton Montgolfier class carrier, the first unit of which was laid down the year prior, but would make 33.5 knots rather than the 33 of the carrier. Another trio of 9,000 ton light cruisers was further authorized to give the French a superiority over the Italians there as well
Supporting these were a new tranche of heavy destroyers, 3500 ton monsters with 8 138mm and 4 100mm guns and a 39 knot speed. These were as well armed as the newest Italain cruisers, if not as fast or well protected. A further set of 2,000 ton Avisos was ordered for convoy protection as well. The size of the Heavy cruisers and destroyers was a major deviation from the treaty system, but it was justified by the existence of the German Panzerschiffe and the large number of 4000 ton Italian cruisers being laid down…
…The Italain navy saw that war was imminent and began a crash program to build large torpedo boats for sea denial and a class of corvettes to escort convoys to Libya. The former were 1000 ton vessels, while the latter were 750 ton vessels, both featuring many common components for ease of production. The designs were quickly licensed to the Spanish, who were looking to restart naval construction to replace their civil war losses…
…As their first pair of Littorio class battleships was completed the Italians looked at would follow the second pair. A proposal for 16” guns had been considered, but it had been decided that while an improvement over their 15” guns, it would not be a significant enough one to justify developing a new gun in the absence of the Treaty system. It was then proposed that a 17” gun be developed, as that would be a significant enough improvement. It was also a small enough improvement over a 16” gun, that the British had and French were developing, that they would not feel compelled to counter with a larger gun of their own.
Development of that gun would take time, and therefore the Italians decided that for their 7th and 8th post WWI battleship they would simply stretch the Littorio class to add a fourth 15” turret. The new design would be 50,000 tons, reach 31 knots, have a slightly improved armor scheme and replace the mixed 152mm and 100mm battery with 16 135mm DP guns. These would be followed by a 17” armed class of battleships, projected to be 52,000 tons, later in the decade…
…In 1939 the United States restarted orders for Heavy Cruisers. The 15,000 ton Columbus class vessels broke the old Treaty limits, but were justified on the basis of the Japanese presumably lying on the size of their new heavy cruisers. Like most new vessels of the post treaty era the increase in tonnage came mainly from adding back stability, seaworthiness and growth room, though AA armament was increased heavily as well.
The Columbus class was intended as a stopgap for a future design. The failure of the Treaty System caused the US to reevaluate what it wanted in a future heavy cruiser. Armament in particular was reconsidered, with the Treaty having artificially limited it. Proposals were made for designs with 12 8” guns, or for various amounts of 10” or even 12” guns for a treaty unlimited cruiser. Analysis soon showed that regarding armament 12 8” guns were inferior to 9 10” guns which were themselves inferior to 6 12” guns. This suggested that a future heavy cruiser should be armed with 12” guns and the development of such a gun was authorized. Until that could be completed the 8” gun would remain the standard heavy cruiser weapon…
…In 1939 the United States restarted large scale submarine construction. There had been a serious argument on what shape that construction should be. Most experienced submarine officers wanted a 1600-1800 ton design, smaller than the large submarine of the 20’s, but still capable of long range operations in the Pacific theatre. The General Board however wanted to build 800 ton coastal submarines to replace the R and S class submarines leftover from WWI, arguing the smaller austere vessels would be cheaper, easier to build more maneuverable and better suited for shallow water operations. In the end the latter argument won out, mostly by pointing out that everybody else was building such submarines, though a limited number of larger boats would be built as well…
…In 1939 testing of the domestic 1.1” autocannon revealed that it was barely adequate as an AA weapon. It could not be used for terminal defense like the .30 and .50 caliber machine guns it replaced in American service, and lacked the range to truly cover the gap between the 5” guns and machine guns. It was furthermore proving highly unreliable.
Competition was thus started for replacements to the weapon, with both a long range heavy autocannon and a short range light autocannon being needed. For the former the USN tested 40mm Bofors, British 2 pounder, Breda 37mm and the Army’s 1.5” gun. For the latter the Swiss Solothurn ST-5, Swiss Oerlikon, Danish Madsen, Italian Breda and a domestic Colt design derivative of the M-2, all 20mm weapons…
…In 1939 three of the most important arms tests of the interwar period occurred. In Japan many old freighters and barges were targeted in a series of tests off Hokkaido to demonstrate the new oxygen fueled torpedoes and better refine their tactics. Against stationary targets it was found that while accuracy at 11km and 22km was expected, that at 33km and 41km was far less than expected. This resulted in a doctrinal shift to closer firing at higher speed, and a slight modification to the gyros to avoid nose wander at long range.
In the United States funding was finally found for a series of live fire tests of the magnetic exploder used in the teen series of torpedo. These tests, off Central California and North Carolina, showed that the magnetic exploder functioned as designed, at least in those locations. Most testing however was done with the destroyer launched version, only a single shot from a submarine was conducted, as well as only a handful of drops from aircraft, all done particularly low and slow.
Finally in Germany there was a demonstration of their newest submarine torpedo on old freighter by a submerged U-Boat in front of Hitler himself in the Jade Bight. This proved particularly significant when all torpedoes failed to detonate on time, if at all. With such a public failure the Kriegsmarine was forced to rapidly modify its standard torpedo to fix the now revealed flaws…
…In 1939 the Japanese ordered their fourth pair of fleet carriers. Functionally armored deck versions of the previous Soryu class, the new Unryu class vessels would be 30,000 ton ships and the first of eight planned armored fleet carriers, to supplement the six unarmored carriers they had built or building and the eight shadow carriers they could convert from subsidized liners or submarine tenders. A variant of the design, smaller, simpler, unarmored and more austere, was prepared at the same time as an emergency fleet carrier, that could be rapidly built to supplement the superior designs…
…To match the Japanese buildup the United States ordered three additional carriers in 1939. The first was a repeat of the preceding Intrepid class of 25,100 ton carriers. The latter pair were a new 30,000 ton design, the Bonhomme Richard class. It had been proposed to use the extra 4900 tons to armor the flight deck, but the General Board preferred to expand aircraft capacity instead. Additional armor was fitted, but at the hangar deck level so that it could trip bomb fuses and set them off before they could pierce the armor deck protecting the machinery spaces and magazines. The Bonhomme Richard class would be the first fleet carriers to feature deck edge aircraft elevators. The feature had been tested on the converted collier USS Wright after her rebuild following a 1932 collision and found to be extremely useful. A minimum of two additional members of the class were planned to be ordered in 1941…
-Excerpt from Naval History Between the Wars, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2007
I didn't mean to write this much, it just happened. Anyways there may not be an update for this TL next Sunday. I don't have a day off until then so that may require bumping Tomorrows Pen to Sunday, leaving this update cancelled
…On September 1st 1939 Hitler gave the order that with war imminent no new vessels larger than a light cruiser be laid down, and then only those of the smaller type Germany had planned, rather than the pseudo heavy cruisers that were under consideration. Construction on larger vessels would continue, including the very recently laid down battleships Albrecht von Wallenstein and Dietrich von Bern. Instead construction of light units, the large torpedo boats/small destroyers of the Elbing class, their 700 ton coal powered minesweepers and especially their U-Boats increased. The latter had been deliberately held down to stay at the level of the French submarine force, with war imminent that requirement was discarded.
The new U-Boat construction was primarily of 5 types. The most numerous was the Type VI, a 650-800 ton design meant for mass production and operating in the approaches to the Irish Sea. Next most numerous was the Type III, a 450 ton vessel meant for coastal defense and shallow water offensive operations ala the WWI UB and UC boats. Thirdly were the 11-1200 ton Type VIII large submarines, meant for long range operations. Related were the 1800 ton Type IX long range minelaying boats, which were functionally stretched type VIII boats. Lasty and rarest were the 4800 ton Type X cruiser submarines, with 4 128mm guns for commerce raiding and a floatplane scout…
…The British saw the German increase in U-Boat production and took it with appropriate alarm. In December 20 1000 ton escort destroyers were ordered along with an addition 6 sloops. Furthermore design work started on a class of austere ASW escorts for covering coastal traffic on the east coast of England, something faster and more capable than a trawler but cheaper than a sloop or destroyer…
…Realizing that they may have to conduct large scale shore bombardment again the turrets from the scrapped large light cruiser Courageous were used to build a pair of new monitors. It was further proposed to use turrets from the scrapped battlecruiser Tiger and Battleships Iron Duke and Benbow for additional monitors, however given limitations in building capacity it was decided to wait for the completion of the first pair to do so…
…There was a brief proposal in 1939 to scrap the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Warspite and reuse their guns for new battleships. The ships of the King Edward VIII class were delayed by both a shortage of armor and guns, the newer Conqueror class would be built at a slower rate, only two ships a year, meaning that the armor shortage would be alleviated, but the gun issue would remain. By scrapping the older battleships their guns and mountings could be reused in new battleships, and allow an extra pair of battleships to be squeezed in before 1945. These ships would be at least as good as the Admiral class battlecruisers and would be adequate against all but the newest enemy vessels. The Queen Elizabeth and Warspite were considered to be only good for convoy escort and shore bombardment, something the less worn out R class ships could do more cheaply, thus their loss was considered acceptable.
However this proposal was killed before it could be implemented. It would produce ships that while of adequate speed and protection would lack firepower compared to the already second class King Edward VIII’s and thus be third class vessels in the long term. Secondly it would in the short term deny the Royal Navy a pair of heavy convoy escorts, not something they wanted with war on the horizon. Finally the Royal Navy preferred to use the slip ways that would be building these ships to build an extra pair of aircraft carriers instead and ordered such by the end of the year…
…With budgetary limitations being removed in the wake of the Vicenza Conference and the near war scare the French navy took the chance to try and decisively get ahead of the Italians. While unable to accelerate their capital ship program given infrastructure complaints, they were able to restart construction of Heavy cruisers. A pair of 15,000 ton vessels were ordered with 9 8” guns, 14 100mm AA guns and excellent armor. They would use the machinery plant from the 18,000 ton Montgolfier class carrier, the first unit of which was laid down the year prior, but would make 33.5 knots rather than the 33 of the carrier. Another trio of 9,000 ton light cruisers was further authorized to give the French a superiority over the Italians there as well
Supporting these were a new tranche of heavy destroyers, 3500 ton monsters with 8 138mm and 4 100mm guns and a 39 knot speed. These were as well armed as the newest Italain cruisers, if not as fast or well protected. A further set of 2,000 ton Avisos was ordered for convoy protection as well. The size of the Heavy cruisers and destroyers was a major deviation from the treaty system, but it was justified by the existence of the German Panzerschiffe and the large number of 4000 ton Italian cruisers being laid down…
…The Italain navy saw that war was imminent and began a crash program to build large torpedo boats for sea denial and a class of corvettes to escort convoys to Libya. The former were 1000 ton vessels, while the latter were 750 ton vessels, both featuring many common components for ease of production. The designs were quickly licensed to the Spanish, who were looking to restart naval construction to replace their civil war losses…
…As their first pair of Littorio class battleships was completed the Italians looked at would follow the second pair. A proposal for 16” guns had been considered, but it had been decided that while an improvement over their 15” guns, it would not be a significant enough one to justify developing a new gun in the absence of the Treaty system. It was then proposed that a 17” gun be developed, as that would be a significant enough improvement. It was also a small enough improvement over a 16” gun, that the British had and French were developing, that they would not feel compelled to counter with a larger gun of their own.
Development of that gun would take time, and therefore the Italians decided that for their 7th and 8th post WWI battleship they would simply stretch the Littorio class to add a fourth 15” turret. The new design would be 50,000 tons, reach 31 knots, have a slightly improved armor scheme and replace the mixed 152mm and 100mm battery with 16 135mm DP guns. These would be followed by a 17” armed class of battleships, projected to be 52,000 tons, later in the decade…
…In 1939 the United States restarted orders for Heavy Cruisers. The 15,000 ton Columbus class vessels broke the old Treaty limits, but were justified on the basis of the Japanese presumably lying on the size of their new heavy cruisers. Like most new vessels of the post treaty era the increase in tonnage came mainly from adding back stability, seaworthiness and growth room, though AA armament was increased heavily as well.
The Columbus class was intended as a stopgap for a future design. The failure of the Treaty System caused the US to reevaluate what it wanted in a future heavy cruiser. Armament in particular was reconsidered, with the Treaty having artificially limited it. Proposals were made for designs with 12 8” guns, or for various amounts of 10” or even 12” guns for a treaty unlimited cruiser. Analysis soon showed that regarding armament 12 8” guns were inferior to 9 10” guns which were themselves inferior to 6 12” guns. This suggested that a future heavy cruiser should be armed with 12” guns and the development of such a gun was authorized. Until that could be completed the 8” gun would remain the standard heavy cruiser weapon…
…In 1939 the United States restarted large scale submarine construction. There had been a serious argument on what shape that construction should be. Most experienced submarine officers wanted a 1600-1800 ton design, smaller than the large submarine of the 20’s, but still capable of long range operations in the Pacific theatre. The General Board however wanted to build 800 ton coastal submarines to replace the R and S class submarines leftover from WWI, arguing the smaller austere vessels would be cheaper, easier to build more maneuverable and better suited for shallow water operations. In the end the latter argument won out, mostly by pointing out that everybody else was building such submarines, though a limited number of larger boats would be built as well…
…In 1939 testing of the domestic 1.1” autocannon revealed that it was barely adequate as an AA weapon. It could not be used for terminal defense like the .30 and .50 caliber machine guns it replaced in American service, and lacked the range to truly cover the gap between the 5” guns and machine guns. It was furthermore proving highly unreliable.
Competition was thus started for replacements to the weapon, with both a long range heavy autocannon and a short range light autocannon being needed. For the former the USN tested 40mm Bofors, British 2 pounder, Breda 37mm and the Army’s 1.5” gun. For the latter the Swiss Solothurn ST-5, Swiss Oerlikon, Danish Madsen, Italian Breda and a domestic Colt design derivative of the M-2, all 20mm weapons…
…In 1939 three of the most important arms tests of the interwar period occurred. In Japan many old freighters and barges were targeted in a series of tests off Hokkaido to demonstrate the new oxygen fueled torpedoes and better refine their tactics. Against stationary targets it was found that while accuracy at 11km and 22km was expected, that at 33km and 41km was far less than expected. This resulted in a doctrinal shift to closer firing at higher speed, and a slight modification to the gyros to avoid nose wander at long range.
In the United States funding was finally found for a series of live fire tests of the magnetic exploder used in the teen series of torpedo. These tests, off Central California and North Carolina, showed that the magnetic exploder functioned as designed, at least in those locations. Most testing however was done with the destroyer launched version, only a single shot from a submarine was conducted, as well as only a handful of drops from aircraft, all done particularly low and slow.
Finally in Germany there was a demonstration of their newest submarine torpedo on old freighter by a submerged U-Boat in front of Hitler himself in the Jade Bight. This proved particularly significant when all torpedoes failed to detonate on time, if at all. With such a public failure the Kriegsmarine was forced to rapidly modify its standard torpedo to fix the now revealed flaws…
…In 1939 the Japanese ordered their fourth pair of fleet carriers. Functionally armored deck versions of the previous Soryu class, the new Unryu class vessels would be 30,000 ton ships and the first of eight planned armored fleet carriers, to supplement the six unarmored carriers they had built or building and the eight shadow carriers they could convert from subsidized liners or submarine tenders. A variant of the design, smaller, simpler, unarmored and more austere, was prepared at the same time as an emergency fleet carrier, that could be rapidly built to supplement the superior designs…
…To match the Japanese buildup the United States ordered three additional carriers in 1939. The first was a repeat of the preceding Intrepid class of 25,100 ton carriers. The latter pair were a new 30,000 ton design, the Bonhomme Richard class. It had been proposed to use the extra 4900 tons to armor the flight deck, but the General Board preferred to expand aircraft capacity instead. Additional armor was fitted, but at the hangar deck level so that it could trip bomb fuses and set them off before they could pierce the armor deck protecting the machinery spaces and magazines. The Bonhomme Richard class would be the first fleet carriers to feature deck edge aircraft elevators. The feature had been tested on the converted collier USS Wright after her rebuild following a 1932 collision and found to be extremely useful. A minimum of two additional members of the class were planned to be ordered in 1941…
-Excerpt from Naval History Between the Wars, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2007
I didn't mean to write this much, it just happened. Anyways there may not be an update for this TL next Sunday. I don't have a day off until then so that may require bumping Tomorrows Pen to Sunday, leaving this update cancelled
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Dear god look at that naval build up.
Also I feel sorry for the bubbleheads ITL, BuOrd will likely refuse to hear that there are any flaws with the ITL Mk 14.
Also I feel sorry for the bubbleheads ITL, BuOrd will likely refuse to hear that there are any flaws with the ITL Mk 14.
One hell of a naval buildup. Tthat 4K ton German 'cruiser sub' is one heck of a beast alright. On par with some of Japan's schemes. And it will probably be even more useless, given its likely operational area. Great chapter, and sorry to hear about your busy schedule.
If the USA decides on the coastal submarines, they'll be off to a bad start for the submarine campaign against Japan.
That Japan has torpedoes that can travel 20km, and even tested accuracy out to fourty-one kilometers, is crazy. Their obsession with out-ranging their opponents is at full swing I see. TTL's long-lance will be a beast. Speaking of which, seems the USN's torpedoes are at least partially functioning. But given the paucity of tests of the sub-launched version, we've no guarantee they won't still have clown moments.
If the USA decides on the coastal submarines, they'll be off to a bad start for the submarine campaign against Japan.
That Japan has torpedoes that can travel 20km, and even tested accuracy out to fourty-one kilometers, is crazy. Their obsession with out-ranging their opponents is at full swing I see. TTL's long-lance will be a beast. Speaking of which, seems the USN's torpedoes are at least partially functioning. But given the paucity of tests of the sub-launched version, we've no guarantee they won't still have clown moments.
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Okay typo is fixed
@Jim Smitty has the right of it. The OTL Mark 6 Magnetic exploder, used in the Mark 13/14/15 torpedoes, was extensively tested and worked when tested. The thing was, like a problem with the German magnetic exploders of the period, the Earth's magnetic field is not uniform and the strength of that matters, when the strength of the testing area differs from that of the use area...
The Long Lance is basically the same as OTL, the OTL Long Lance had a range of 40.4 km at its lowest speed setting
@Jim Smitty has the right of it. The OTL Mark 6 Magnetic exploder, used in the Mark 13/14/15 torpedoes, was extensively tested and worked when tested. The thing was, like a problem with the German magnetic exploders of the period, the Earth's magnetic field is not uniform and the strength of that matters, when the strength of the testing area differs from that of the use area...
My bad. The things that people actually tried in real life continue to amaze me. And thanks for the clarification on the Mark 6.
Part 5-37 Into the Abyss
RamscoopRaider
Donor
…With the Non-Aggression Pact with the USSR seeming to be holding after its first month, and the situation in Europe looking troublesome enough for holding it to remain in Stalin’s best interest, the Japanese resumed their attack on Wuhan. Both they and their Chinese opponents had used the two months of down time sparked by the Nomonhan incident to prepare for the coming clash.
In the Chinese case most of the preparation had come in the form of building defenses and training hastily raised troops. While ammo remained at enough of a premium that extensive improvements in marksmanship were not possible, discipline, morale and fieldcraft were ,along with tactical articulation. Furthermore rush deliveries of hastily imported equipment and Soviet aid were integrated, most prominent were several squadrons of I-17 biplanes and one squadron of I-18 monoplane though the most important might have been a consignment of 150,000 old British gas masks, ineffective against the newest German war gasses but still useful .
For the Japanese the delay had given them time to fix their strained logistical situation and for trailing units to catch up. While no reinforcements arrived before October 24th, supplies of ammunition, fuel and spare parts were continuously sent. The usual precarious supply situation of Japanese force in inland China was for once notably absent because of these stockpiles. The Japanese were able to repair the vehicles that had broken down on the march and to bring up their heavy artillery, which had mostly been left behind in the rapid advance up the Yangtze.
On October 28th the Japanese launched their renewed offensive up the Yangtze. The plan was for seven divisions to launch a diversionary thrust up the northern bank of the Yangtze, while four divisions would attack Wuhan from the south after traversing the Wanjialing hills. Almost immediately things began to deviate from their plans.
In the South, where the Chinese had deployed their best quality infantry, the Japanese found themselves facing a dug in enemy in rough terrain. They had planned to use gas to deal with such dug in positions, but for once the Chinese forces in the area had proper protection from chemical attack. As a result the Japanese were only able to advance slowly. North of the river however the Japanese diversionary attack had performed better than expected. The Chinese fieldworks had been built assuming that the Japanese would use the same artillery that they had mostly been using, primarily 70 and 75mm field pieces, supplemented occasionally by heavier 100, 120 and 150mm pieces. Instead the Japanese were using a much larger quantity of 150mm guns than expected, supplemented by a number of 240 and 280mm siege guns. This heavy firepower allowed the Japanese to breach the Chinese defensive lines ahead of their schedule.
The advance up the north bank of the Yangtze allowed a slightly lagging up the opposite bank by exposing Chinese defense lines to cross river artillery fire from the rear. This resulted in the capture of Hwangshih on November 22nd and the subsequent collapse of the Chinese defensive plans. The fall of Hwangshih meant the Japanese could threaten the south side of Wuhan without having to go through the hills at Wangjialing. Therefore the Chinese troops, who had done an excellent job of holding off the Japanese so far, were withdrawn to counterattack and retake Hwangshih. The November 30th counteroffensive proved to be a major failure, the elite 7th Group Army was thrown into the teeth of Japanese artillery from both sides of the Yangtze and gunboats within the river and while they pushed the Japanese back, the Japanese were able to retain the city center and resume their attack…
…Supporting the Wuhan operation the IJN led a major landing operation in Canton, to cut off the Chinese supply lines to the outside world. 60,000 tons a month of foreign supplies came from Hong Kong, which unlike the neighboring city of Canton the Japanese could not blockade. This was thirty times as much as came from the Soviet Union and a vital lifeline for the Chinese. Attempts to cut it off by strategic bombing had failed, necessitating a land attack. 3 divisions of the IJA, along with the IJN’s SLNF were allocated, along with a squadron of heavy cruiser for coastal bombardment and two seaplane tenders, two light and four fleet aircraft carriers for air support. On November 15th the Japanese carriers launched a synchronized preemptive strike on the Chinese airbases defending the region, establishing air supremacy and providing practical experience for their aircraft carrier doctrine.
This strike was followed up by an amphibious landing at Bias Bay the next day, with the 200mm guns of the heavy cruisers suppressing the handful of 120mm Chinese coastal batteries in the area. The SNLF stormed ashore, quickly followed by the IJA. The defending Chinese were primarily militia and quickly routed. The few Chinese regulars put up a strong fight, but most of them had been transferred to the defense of Wuhan, resulting in an insufficient number to stop the Japanese. Sham Chun fell on the 21st, cutting off the rail lines from Hong Kong and fulfilling the Japanese objective. Canton itself would last into the New Years, but without the rail line from Hong Kong its value was minimal…
…Large scale back and forth fighting occurred on South of the Yangtze until December 12th. The Chinese were taking increasingly heavy casualties as their supplies were running low and they were forced to through poorly equipped troops into the fight, where they were highly vulnerable to Japanese chemical weapons. On the 12th however the Japanese were able to take the railroad center of Sinyang a hundred miles north of Wuhan. A wide flanking maneuver launched early in November from Nanking, the attack had already captured Hefei and routed most of the Chinese defenders, poorly equipped survivors of the 5th military area.
A desperate defense of the Dabie mountain passes ensured, but Japanese use of poison gas against these unprepared troops allowed them to break through on the 20th. In doing so they had rendered Wuhan indefensible by placing a major force on the wrong side of its riverine defenses. This was only acted upon on December 25th when Xiaochang fell to the Japanese, who were now less than 50 miles north of Wuhan. Rather than risk losing even more forces to a possible encirclement, the decision was made to evacuate. Factional rivalries between KMT generals meant that not all units were notified until the 28th and the evacuation of many units was hindered by politics. Furthermore much of the KMT’s heavy equipment was lost as there was not sufficient transport to evacuate it, or said transport being diverted to more frivolous items. In addition the remnants of the KMT Navy that had assisted in the defense of the city were scuttled to prevent capture.
The Japanese would finally capture the city on the 31st. They had suffered 40,000 dead and wounded, with 110,000 cases of illness. The Chinese lost over a quarter million dead, a half million sick and wounded and fifty thousand captured. The Chinese Air Force was decimated, reduced to training units, a few old harassment units and the squadrons defending Chungking. The KMT’s remaining armor and heavy artillery was lost, along with many veteran troops. The loss of Wuhan’s war industries, combined with the loss of the Taiyuan arsenal shortly after the fall of Peking, made China almost completely dependent on foreign supplies.
At the same point the victory had been costly for the Japanese as well. They had planned on the capture of Wuhan ending Chinese resistance, not on Chiang retreating to Chunking and continuing to fight. Now their logistics lines were further extended, their stockpiles were lower, they had taken heavy losses and they were seemingly no closer to victory than before…
-Into the Abyss: The leadup to the Second World War, Harper and Brothers, New York, 2009
Okay so I did manage to write an update for this, merry Christmas to all and bah humbug to those who leave their grocery shopping to the 24th
In the Chinese case most of the preparation had come in the form of building defenses and training hastily raised troops. While ammo remained at enough of a premium that extensive improvements in marksmanship were not possible, discipline, morale and fieldcraft were ,along with tactical articulation. Furthermore rush deliveries of hastily imported equipment and Soviet aid were integrated, most prominent were several squadrons of I-17 biplanes and one squadron of I-18 monoplane though the most important might have been a consignment of 150,000 old British gas masks, ineffective against the newest German war gasses but still useful .
For the Japanese the delay had given them time to fix their strained logistical situation and for trailing units to catch up. While no reinforcements arrived before October 24th, supplies of ammunition, fuel and spare parts were continuously sent. The usual precarious supply situation of Japanese force in inland China was for once notably absent because of these stockpiles. The Japanese were able to repair the vehicles that had broken down on the march and to bring up their heavy artillery, which had mostly been left behind in the rapid advance up the Yangtze.
On October 28th the Japanese launched their renewed offensive up the Yangtze. The plan was for seven divisions to launch a diversionary thrust up the northern bank of the Yangtze, while four divisions would attack Wuhan from the south after traversing the Wanjialing hills. Almost immediately things began to deviate from their plans.
In the South, where the Chinese had deployed their best quality infantry, the Japanese found themselves facing a dug in enemy in rough terrain. They had planned to use gas to deal with such dug in positions, but for once the Chinese forces in the area had proper protection from chemical attack. As a result the Japanese were only able to advance slowly. North of the river however the Japanese diversionary attack had performed better than expected. The Chinese fieldworks had been built assuming that the Japanese would use the same artillery that they had mostly been using, primarily 70 and 75mm field pieces, supplemented occasionally by heavier 100, 120 and 150mm pieces. Instead the Japanese were using a much larger quantity of 150mm guns than expected, supplemented by a number of 240 and 280mm siege guns. This heavy firepower allowed the Japanese to breach the Chinese defensive lines ahead of their schedule.
The advance up the north bank of the Yangtze allowed a slightly lagging up the opposite bank by exposing Chinese defense lines to cross river artillery fire from the rear. This resulted in the capture of Hwangshih on November 22nd and the subsequent collapse of the Chinese defensive plans. The fall of Hwangshih meant the Japanese could threaten the south side of Wuhan without having to go through the hills at Wangjialing. Therefore the Chinese troops, who had done an excellent job of holding off the Japanese so far, were withdrawn to counterattack and retake Hwangshih. The November 30th counteroffensive proved to be a major failure, the elite 7th Group Army was thrown into the teeth of Japanese artillery from both sides of the Yangtze and gunboats within the river and while they pushed the Japanese back, the Japanese were able to retain the city center and resume their attack…
…Supporting the Wuhan operation the IJN led a major landing operation in Canton, to cut off the Chinese supply lines to the outside world. 60,000 tons a month of foreign supplies came from Hong Kong, which unlike the neighboring city of Canton the Japanese could not blockade. This was thirty times as much as came from the Soviet Union and a vital lifeline for the Chinese. Attempts to cut it off by strategic bombing had failed, necessitating a land attack. 3 divisions of the IJA, along with the IJN’s SLNF were allocated, along with a squadron of heavy cruiser for coastal bombardment and two seaplane tenders, two light and four fleet aircraft carriers for air support. On November 15th the Japanese carriers launched a synchronized preemptive strike on the Chinese airbases defending the region, establishing air supremacy and providing practical experience for their aircraft carrier doctrine.
This strike was followed up by an amphibious landing at Bias Bay the next day, with the 200mm guns of the heavy cruisers suppressing the handful of 120mm Chinese coastal batteries in the area. The SNLF stormed ashore, quickly followed by the IJA. The defending Chinese were primarily militia and quickly routed. The few Chinese regulars put up a strong fight, but most of them had been transferred to the defense of Wuhan, resulting in an insufficient number to stop the Japanese. Sham Chun fell on the 21st, cutting off the rail lines from Hong Kong and fulfilling the Japanese objective. Canton itself would last into the New Years, but without the rail line from Hong Kong its value was minimal…
…Large scale back and forth fighting occurred on South of the Yangtze until December 12th. The Chinese were taking increasingly heavy casualties as their supplies were running low and they were forced to through poorly equipped troops into the fight, where they were highly vulnerable to Japanese chemical weapons. On the 12th however the Japanese were able to take the railroad center of Sinyang a hundred miles north of Wuhan. A wide flanking maneuver launched early in November from Nanking, the attack had already captured Hefei and routed most of the Chinese defenders, poorly equipped survivors of the 5th military area.
A desperate defense of the Dabie mountain passes ensured, but Japanese use of poison gas against these unprepared troops allowed them to break through on the 20th. In doing so they had rendered Wuhan indefensible by placing a major force on the wrong side of its riverine defenses. This was only acted upon on December 25th when Xiaochang fell to the Japanese, who were now less than 50 miles north of Wuhan. Rather than risk losing even more forces to a possible encirclement, the decision was made to evacuate. Factional rivalries between KMT generals meant that not all units were notified until the 28th and the evacuation of many units was hindered by politics. Furthermore much of the KMT’s heavy equipment was lost as there was not sufficient transport to evacuate it, or said transport being diverted to more frivolous items. In addition the remnants of the KMT Navy that had assisted in the defense of the city were scuttled to prevent capture.
The Japanese would finally capture the city on the 31st. They had suffered 40,000 dead and wounded, with 110,000 cases of illness. The Chinese lost over a quarter million dead, a half million sick and wounded and fifty thousand captured. The Chinese Air Force was decimated, reduced to training units, a few old harassment units and the squadrons defending Chungking. The KMT’s remaining armor and heavy artillery was lost, along with many veteran troops. The loss of Wuhan’s war industries, combined with the loss of the Taiyuan arsenal shortly after the fall of Peking, made China almost completely dependent on foreign supplies.
At the same point the victory had been costly for the Japanese as well. They had planned on the capture of Wuhan ending Chinese resistance, not on Chiang retreating to Chunking and continuing to fight. Now their logistics lines were further extended, their stockpiles were lower, they had taken heavy losses and they were seemingly no closer to victory than before…
-Into the Abyss: The leadup to the Second World War, Harper and Brothers, New York, 2009
Okay so I did manage to write an update for this, merry Christmas to all and bah humbug to those who leave their grocery shopping to the 24th
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