coming soon... the Aleutian Campaign, the conclusion of Operation Cartwheel, and the 3rd Russo-Japanese War plus another OTL World Leader bites this dust
hopefully tomorrow
hopefully tomorrow
"Goring's Reich" An Alternate World War II
- Thread starter galveston bay
- Start date
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- world war 2
The Germans will attack SU soon and it gives the UN the mandate to fight a war against the Nazis.
The Nazis probably wont get the cold war.
If you somehow manage to have the treaty for that organization be signed in Warsaw then it could be named ...
The Warsaw Pact.
If you somehow manage to have the treaty for that organization be signed in Warsaw then it could be named ...
The Warsaw Pact.
that isn't insane in this timeline
If you somehow manage to have the treaty for that organization be signed in Warsaw then it could be named ...
The Warsaw Pact.
I could see it.
I don't see something called the Warsaw Pact - just because the Nazis are still Nazis, and don't want a Slavic name/place associated with such an important endeavor. I could see the HQ being in Munich but the actual treaty being signed ceremoniously in Linz to honor the birthplace of the late great Fuhrer.
On another note, given what happened during the last truce the Soviets have to be expecting the Germans to launch another attack when the opportunity presents itself, and hopefully will not be caught as badly as last time. The upcoming Russo-Japanese War - I expect initiated by the Russians to try and regain what they can. The Japanese are now up to their eyeballs in their fight in the Pacific and have taken some very serious losses. The butter is eing spread very thin on the toast their remaining naval assets won't be much use in Siberia, and in any case there is simply not enough left over to move there without becoming naked elsewhere. Their land forces are likewise spread out, and moving significant forces to Siberia will be difficult due to naval issues and/or crap land transportation in China where forces are relatively close. Geography, demographics, and industry are all very much against Japan, especially with no European theater active.
On another note, given what happened during the last truce the Soviets have to be expecting the Germans to launch another attack when the opportunity presents itself, and hopefully will not be caught as badly as last time. The upcoming Russo-Japanese War - I expect initiated by the Russians to try and regain what they can. The Japanese are now up to their eyeballs in their fight in the Pacific and have taken some very serious losses. The butter is eing spread very thin on the toast their remaining naval assets won't be much use in Siberia, and in any case there is simply not enough left over to move there without becoming naked elsewhere. Their land forces are likewise spread out, and moving significant forces to Siberia will be difficult due to naval issues and/or crap land transportation in China where forces are relatively close. Geography, demographics, and industry are all very much against Japan, especially with no European theater active.
I was pondering the creation of an official empire but I just don't see the Nazis going for it although it would be a smoother way to incorporate the Europe into a nation state. But it requires a Kaiser, and while there are some in the family who are indeed pro-Nazi, many of the others were not. Plus the Monarchists got pretty discredited at the end of the last war. It does however fit into the whole 'completely redoing World War I with this time Germany winning" theme that makes up a lot of this timeline.
Hence the indecision in Berlin
and yes, Japan is in deep trouble... the tide has definitely turned
Fighting in the fog and cold: the Liberation of the Aleutian Islands May – September
Fighting in the fog and cold: the Liberation of the Aleutian Islands May – September 1943
The offensive against Japan as of late Spring 1943 now consists of five prongs. The two offensives aimed at Rabaul, the offensive in northern Australia, the Central Pacific offensive, the offensive in India and finally the offensive in the far northern Pacific. While the climate is horrible and campaigning very limited to non-winter months, this drive is aimed ultimately at Hokkaido with the Aleutians, Kamchatka and the Kuriles as stops along the way. The bombing of Seattle has also made it clear that as long as the Japanese have a carrier fleet, they cannot be allowed to retain bases within range of the North American West Coast.
Initial preparations
For the last 24 months, the Alaskan Highway connecting Fairbanks (and then Anchorage) has been constructed and improved, along with a chain of airfields and as of the fall of 1942 an all-weather four lane highway, as well as airfields with navigation aides and radar have been built. The ports of Anchorage, Seward, Juneau, and Sitka have been substantially improved as has port and base facilities at Kodiak, Cold Bay, and smaller airfields. The 11th Air Force (General Johnson, USAAF), with 2 groups of P38s, two Canadian Mosquito groups, as well as US Army groups of B25s, B24s and Canadian Lancaster bombers begin constant attacks beginning in February 1943 when the weather permits on Japanese held Dutch Harbor, Kiska and Attu, while the Alaskan Scouts, 1st Special Service Force, and the Canadian Special Boat Squadron as well as the US Navy UDT teams have been conducting reconnaissance missions throughout the Aleutian chain using submarines, boats and aircraft as transportation, and indeed by kayak in some cases.
General Crerar, commander of the 1st Canadian Army has been given the task of taking all three islands, and he is working for Admiral Kirk, USN, who is now theater commander of Allied Forces, North Pacific. Kirk has the 1st Fleet, commanded by Admiral Hewitt, with the battleships West Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, Arkansas, New York, and Texas, as well as the Canadian cruisers Calypso, Carodoc, Columbo, Capetown Dragon, Danae, plus 2 dozen American and 6 Canadian destroyers as well as nearly 220,000 tons of assault and transport shipping. Crerar has the Canadian 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Infantry Divisions (all volunteer units), the US 6th Infantry Division, the Canadian-American 1st Special Services Force (authors note: the Devils Brigade), the US Army 87th Infantry Regiment (Mountain), and 99th Infantry Battalion (separate) which consists of Norwegian-Americans. The last three units were raised and trained and equipped for the Invasion of Norway, which has been indefinitely postponed and have unusual equipment such as the Weasel, a light weight all terrain vehicle designed specifically to operate on snow, ice and tundra. Supporting this force is the Canadian I Corps (Burns) and the US XI Corps (Corlett) as well as the US Army 4th Amphibious Engineer Brigade (with landing craft, Duckws, and other special equipment as well as port and amphibious landing troops).
The Japanese withdraw their remaining aircraft following the disastrous battles in the Central and Southern Pacific, as well as most of their naval forces, keeping only a few submarines and a destroyer squadron in the theater, as well as some destroyer transports to keep a trickle supplies flowing to the 16th Army which has the 35th Infantry Division at Dutch Harbor, and a brigade of the 36th Infantry Division at Attu and the rest of the division at Kiska. In addition the Imperial Navy has defense battalions at each island with coast defense artillery as well as Army and Navy anti-aircraft battalions on each island. The permafrost and tundra has made digging in difficult and supply shortages have prevented the defenders from building all of the concrete pillboxes and bunkers desired. In fact only a few have been constructed and unlike the deep entrenchments the Japanese establish elsewhere, the Japanese are sorely deficient. But this is still a powerful force and the Allies have their work cut out for them.
Allied air power begins to really effectively hit the Japanese beginning in April, and the arrival of Hewitt's old battleships allows Admiral Kirk to send them for extended bombardment missions against all three Japanese islands. The Japanese suffer heavy losses in equipment, supplies and structures, and personnel losses are serious over the months of April and May, but Kirk fails to get the naval battle he was hoping for as the sporadic Japanese supply convoys use the frequent fogs to slip in and out and in spite of the best efforts of the Allies, avoid detection.
The Landing at Attu and the Battle of Massacre Bay
The first Allied assault is the landing of the Canadian 1st Infantry Division, reinforced by the 99th Infantry Battalion and several companies of Alaskan Scouts and Special Service Forcemen on Attu on May 30. The Japanese commander is caught off guard, but his dug in troops endure the cold and the powerful bombardment for two weeks. Reduced to half his strength, on June 16, he orders a full scale counterattack (Banzai charge) against the 22nd Royals and West Nova Scotia Regiment, and in desperate fighting that is frequently hand to hand, the Japanese penetrate the line before a counterattack by service and support troops and the Seaforth Highlanders, as well as 5th Company/3rd Regiment of the 1st Special Service Force eliminate the attackers. In all Canadian casualties are 600 dead, 1200 wounded, with 30 Americans killed and another 200 wounded (mostly from the Norwegian battalion) and another 1,200 Canadians are evacuated for hypothermia, frost bite and pulmonary infections. Of the 6,000 man Japanese garrison, 143 are captured and the rest are killed.
Kiska
The next landing is by the 2nd Canadian Division and 6th Infantry Division at Kiska on June 25. This time the bombardment continues until the battleships literally run out of high explosives for their heavy guns while daily bombings by Liberators and Lancasters continues for a week. The Japanese have 14,000 men on the island, but nearly half are killed before the Allies come ashore. The survivors fight just as hard as they did on Attu, but this time the Allies have some LVTs armed with 75 mm guns, as well as the first use of the Weasel in combat, and better support results in fewer losses. The Canadians suffer only 1,000 casualties, including 200 dead, while American losses are 1,500, with 400 dead, but the entire Japanese force is eliminated after a final desperate counterattack on the US 20th Regimental Combat Team is blasted apart by well directed heavy machine gun, mortar and artillery fire. Only 300 Japanese are captured during the fighting which finally ends on July 18. General Burns, commander of the 1st Canadian Corps, is praised heavily in the American and Canadian press for his conduct of the battle.
Dutch Harbor
The Japanese realize that with the fall of the outer two islands, the continued ownership of Dutch Harbor is pointless. Worried that the Allies will simply bypass it and leave the garrison to starve, the Japanese conduct a series of evacuations that pull the entire 18,000 man garrison out with the final evacuation on the night of July 25. The Japanese lose three light transports and 3,000 men during the evacuation to American and Canadian submarines, and a destroyer rips its bottom out on an uncharted rock taking with her most of her crew. The final Allied landing on August 1, commanded by General Corlett is near letter perfect with the 1st Special Service Force, the 87th Mountain Regiment and the newly arrived African-American 555th Parachute Battalion as the initial assault force, and the Norwegian battalion and Canadian 3rd Infantry Division coming in behind with the newly available US 33rd Infantry Division as a floating reserve. This powerful force finds that other than the wreckage produced by a weeks worth of battleship and heavy bombardment, and a few traumatized seals, the island is deserted. The Japanese have abandoned nearly all of their equipment and all of their heavy weapons, but a reinforced division has escaped to fight another day.
The Road to Hokkaido
American and Canadian engineers soon begin converting the Aleutians into a springboard for the next phase of the North Pacific offensive which will begin in the spring of 1944, while the assault troops are sent to British Columbia and Washington State to refit. The teamwork of the American and Canadian troops in working well together, just like the partnership between American and ANZAC troops in the South Pacific are considered a major milestone in the postwar close relations between those nations and are justly celebrated to this day.
Fighting in the fog and cold: the Liberation of the Aleutian Islands May – September 1943
The offensive against Japan as of late Spring 1943 now consists of five prongs. The two offensives aimed at Rabaul, the offensive in northern Australia, the Central Pacific offensive, the offensive in India and finally the offensive in the far northern Pacific. While the climate is horrible and campaigning very limited to non-winter months, this drive is aimed ultimately at Hokkaido with the Aleutians, Kamchatka and the Kuriles as stops along the way. The bombing of Seattle has also made it clear that as long as the Japanese have a carrier fleet, they cannot be allowed to retain bases within range of the North American West Coast.
Initial preparations
For the last 24 months, the Alaskan Highway connecting Fairbanks (and then Anchorage) has been constructed and improved, along with a chain of airfields and as of the fall of 1942 an all-weather four lane highway, as well as airfields with navigation aides and radar have been built. The ports of Anchorage, Seward, Juneau, and Sitka have been substantially improved as has port and base facilities at Kodiak, Cold Bay, and smaller airfields. The 11th Air Force (General Johnson, USAAF), with 2 groups of P38s, two Canadian Mosquito groups, as well as US Army groups of B25s, B24s and Canadian Lancaster bombers begin constant attacks beginning in February 1943 when the weather permits on Japanese held Dutch Harbor, Kiska and Attu, while the Alaskan Scouts, 1st Special Service Force, and the Canadian Special Boat Squadron as well as the US Navy UDT teams have been conducting reconnaissance missions throughout the Aleutian chain using submarines, boats and aircraft as transportation, and indeed by kayak in some cases.
General Crerar, commander of the 1st Canadian Army has been given the task of taking all three islands, and he is working for Admiral Kirk, USN, who is now theater commander of Allied Forces, North Pacific. Kirk has the 1st Fleet, commanded by Admiral Hewitt, with the battleships West Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, Arkansas, New York, and Texas, as well as the Canadian cruisers Calypso, Carodoc, Columbo, Capetown Dragon, Danae, plus 2 dozen American and 6 Canadian destroyers as well as nearly 220,000 tons of assault and transport shipping. Crerar has the Canadian 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Infantry Divisions (all volunteer units), the US 6th Infantry Division, the Canadian-American 1st Special Services Force (authors note: the Devils Brigade), the US Army 87th Infantry Regiment (Mountain), and 99th Infantry Battalion (separate) which consists of Norwegian-Americans. The last three units were raised and trained and equipped for the Invasion of Norway, which has been indefinitely postponed and have unusual equipment such as the Weasel, a light weight all terrain vehicle designed specifically to operate on snow, ice and tundra. Supporting this force is the Canadian I Corps (Burns) and the US XI Corps (Corlett) as well as the US Army 4th Amphibious Engineer Brigade (with landing craft, Duckws, and other special equipment as well as port and amphibious landing troops).
The Japanese withdraw their remaining aircraft following the disastrous battles in the Central and Southern Pacific, as well as most of their naval forces, keeping only a few submarines and a destroyer squadron in the theater, as well as some destroyer transports to keep a trickle supplies flowing to the 16th Army which has the 35th Infantry Division at Dutch Harbor, and a brigade of the 36th Infantry Division at Attu and the rest of the division at Kiska. In addition the Imperial Navy has defense battalions at each island with coast defense artillery as well as Army and Navy anti-aircraft battalions on each island. The permafrost and tundra has made digging in difficult and supply shortages have prevented the defenders from building all of the concrete pillboxes and bunkers desired. In fact only a few have been constructed and unlike the deep entrenchments the Japanese establish elsewhere, the Japanese are sorely deficient. But this is still a powerful force and the Allies have their work cut out for them.
Allied air power begins to really effectively hit the Japanese beginning in April, and the arrival of Hewitt's old battleships allows Admiral Kirk to send them for extended bombardment missions against all three Japanese islands. The Japanese suffer heavy losses in equipment, supplies and structures, and personnel losses are serious over the months of April and May, but Kirk fails to get the naval battle he was hoping for as the sporadic Japanese supply convoys use the frequent fogs to slip in and out and in spite of the best efforts of the Allies, avoid detection.
The Landing at Attu and the Battle of Massacre Bay
The first Allied assault is the landing of the Canadian 1st Infantry Division, reinforced by the 99th Infantry Battalion and several companies of Alaskan Scouts and Special Service Forcemen on Attu on May 30. The Japanese commander is caught off guard, but his dug in troops endure the cold and the powerful bombardment for two weeks. Reduced to half his strength, on June 16, he orders a full scale counterattack (Banzai charge) against the 22nd Royals and West Nova Scotia Regiment, and in desperate fighting that is frequently hand to hand, the Japanese penetrate the line before a counterattack by service and support troops and the Seaforth Highlanders, as well as 5th Company/3rd Regiment of the 1st Special Service Force eliminate the attackers. In all Canadian casualties are 600 dead, 1200 wounded, with 30 Americans killed and another 200 wounded (mostly from the Norwegian battalion) and another 1,200 Canadians are evacuated for hypothermia, frost bite and pulmonary infections. Of the 6,000 man Japanese garrison, 143 are captured and the rest are killed.
Kiska
The next landing is by the 2nd Canadian Division and 6th Infantry Division at Kiska on June 25. This time the bombardment continues until the battleships literally run out of high explosives for their heavy guns while daily bombings by Liberators and Lancasters continues for a week. The Japanese have 14,000 men on the island, but nearly half are killed before the Allies come ashore. The survivors fight just as hard as they did on Attu, but this time the Allies have some LVTs armed with 75 mm guns, as well as the first use of the Weasel in combat, and better support results in fewer losses. The Canadians suffer only 1,000 casualties, including 200 dead, while American losses are 1,500, with 400 dead, but the entire Japanese force is eliminated after a final desperate counterattack on the US 20th Regimental Combat Team is blasted apart by well directed heavy machine gun, mortar and artillery fire. Only 300 Japanese are captured during the fighting which finally ends on July 18. General Burns, commander of the 1st Canadian Corps, is praised heavily in the American and Canadian press for his conduct of the battle.
Dutch Harbor
The Japanese realize that with the fall of the outer two islands, the continued ownership of Dutch Harbor is pointless. Worried that the Allies will simply bypass it and leave the garrison to starve, the Japanese conduct a series of evacuations that pull the entire 18,000 man garrison out with the final evacuation on the night of July 25. The Japanese lose three light transports and 3,000 men during the evacuation to American and Canadian submarines, and a destroyer rips its bottom out on an uncharted rock taking with her most of her crew. The final Allied landing on August 1, commanded by General Corlett is near letter perfect with the 1st Special Service Force, the 87th Mountain Regiment and the newly arrived African-American 555th Parachute Battalion as the initial assault force, and the Norwegian battalion and Canadian 3rd Infantry Division coming in behind with the newly available US 33rd Infantry Division as a floating reserve. This powerful force finds that other than the wreckage produced by a weeks worth of battleship and heavy bombardment, and a few traumatized seals, the island is deserted. The Japanese have abandoned nearly all of their equipment and all of their heavy weapons, but a reinforced division has escaped to fight another day.
The Road to Hokkaido
American and Canadian engineers soon begin converting the Aleutians into a springboard for the next phase of the North Pacific offensive which will begin in the spring of 1944, while the assault troops are sent to British Columbia and Washington State to refit. The teamwork of the American and Canadian troops in working well together, just like the partnership between American and ANZAC troops in the South Pacific are considered a major milestone in the postwar close relations between those nations and are justly celebrated to this day.
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The War at Sea 1943
New technologies
The Allies and the Axis both bring new weapons and innovations to the war at sea in 1943. The Allies radically improve radar, developing the proximity shell which detonates in close range of attacking aircraft, millimeter band radar suitable for deployment aboard small craft, submarines and aircraft, improved centimetric band radars, and develop the combat information center for more effectively controlling air defense and antisubmarine warfare. They also develop the Leigh Light, a powerful airborne searchlight for maritime patrol aircraft, as well as the Hedgehog, a forward firing mortar that on detonates if it hits a submarine which reduces lost contact issues previously experienced when using depth charges and the resultant noise disrupting sonar tracking.
The Allies also have sent dozens of new American destroyer escorts, Canadian corvettes as well as over two dozen escort carriers, with more coming all the time. These new carriers, carrying Wildcat (Martlet) fighters and Avenger bombers serve as the core of escort groups for the most vital convoys, while support groups, built around older carriers like the Hermes and Eagle, are available to assist convoys under the heaviest attack.
In the air, the Allies have 15 American groups of Liberators, 6 of Canadian Liberators, as well as 20 RAF Coastal Command Liberator groups, while all three still operate groups of flying boats and other aircraft such as the Halifax and Wellington. Most of these are in the Atlantic, but they can be found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well. The Australians and New Zealanders as well as the Free French are also operating several groups of various maritime patrol aircraft, usually Catalina, Sunderland and Hudson maritime patrol aircraft. All of these aircraft are heavily armed for strafing attacks, carry a substantial load of depth charges or bombs and many also are armed with rockets and some even carry the new homing torpedoes.
Against this the Japanese have built more of submarines, but they have not markedly improved them while the Germans and Italians are using their same old models, but both are developing new ones that should see service in 1944. The Axis have however added more anti-aircraft guns and many now carry air search radar, while the Germans are also using the new homing torpedo. The new innovation for the Japanese is airborne radar in small quantities for night torpedo attack squadrons, first used in the Marshall Islands battle, while the Germans have added much the same capabilities as the British to the small number of aircraft they have devoted to maritime patrol missions. The Germans have developed a new weapon, the Fritz X guided bomb but have not used in combat before the Armistice occurs. The Americans and British are developing similar weapons.
The Tonnage War – Atlantic February – April 1943
When the Truce comes to an end, the Kriegsmarine as 500 type VII and 100 Type IX submarines, while the Italians have 10 submarines suitable for action in the Atlantic. They find themselves facing nearly 2,000 Allied escorts, thousands of aircraft, and the former Big Gap in the mid-Atlantic that was a problem in 1941 is long gone. The new escort groups with carrier support and the support groups available to reinforce big convoy battles results in devastating losses for the Uboat Wolf Packs, as even during night hours aircraft can show up at any time, and the determination to force convoys through instead of rerouting them brings the Germans to battle. The result is 200,000 tons of shipping lost in two months, along with 34 escort ships including the escort carrier USS Card, but 80 Uboats are sunk, twice that number are damaged, and the entire Italian force is wiped out.
Doenitz is already calling off the battle when the Armistice occurs, badly shaken at his losses and disturbed by how little result was gained at such a cost. A cost that includes his son.
Tonnage War – Pacific
The Japanese however are far less skilled in Anti-submarine warfare and indeed have barely started routine merchant shipping convoys when the Truce ends. They have also remained tied to the notion that submarines are there to support the battlefleet instead of using them as commerce raiders. The Americans on the other hand, along with small numbers of British, French and Dutch submarines have no such notions while Allied escorts are far more deadly to the larger and thus slower-diving Japanese boats (compared to German Type VII boats). The result is a painful lesson in modern naval warfare for the Japanese and the lesson that Mahan is not the only thinker who should be consulted about the war at sea. At the cost of 6 American, 1 Dutch and 1 British boat, the Allied submarines sink 1.5 million tons of Japanese shipping in the 11 months after the truce in 1943, and by the end of 1944 will sink another 2.1 million tons (although 8 American, 2 British and a Free French submarine will be lost as well). Among the losses are 150,000 tons of assault shipping, cutting in half the Japanese ability to make assault landings or for that matter, evacuate troops in a hurry, and several major warships are sunk along with the nearly 40 Japanese escort vessels lost between the end of the Truce and the end of 1944. This is not even counting the Japanese losses to other causes, such as air attack.
As of the end of the Truce the Japanese had 5.9 million tons of shipping and they build only 700,000 tons of shipping in the 23 months after the Truce. Imports begin to fall, and oil imports plunge especially as the Americans in particular focus on Japanese oil tankers, sinking nearly half the fleet in 23 months. Meanwhile more and more submarines are added to the Allied force, and the torpedo problems that plagued the US Navy in 1941 and 1942 are finally resolved completely by late 1943.
For Japan this is a far worse disaster than the loss of the Battle Line in the Marshall Islands. Now the very fabric of the economy is under assault and Japanese wartime production begins to unravel.
The Fast Carrier Raids
After the end of the Marshalls Campaign the 3rd Fleet is given to Admiral Towers, who has been all but begging for a sea command since the start of the war and who was the head of the US Navy aviation component when the war began. Nimitz is send to the Pacific in May after Admiral King suffers a stroke that sends him home (authors note: a stroke he had historically in 1947 but he is under more pressure in this timeline). Admiral Kimmel finally gets to leave his job as American representative on the Combined Joint Chiefs and takes over the command of the US Atlantic Fleet. Nimitz keeps Spruance as his chief of staff, but orders him to focus on planning of invasions planned for 1944 when more amphibious shipping is available. He also orders Lee to take a rest and makes Admiral Kincaid commander of the surface forces (and thus second in command) while making Admiral Soc McMorris, who won the Battle of Kula Gulf in the Solomons, the chief of staff to Powers.
3rd Fleet July – October 1943
Carriers: Essex, Hornet (II), Saratoga (II), Intrepid, Bunker Hill, (Oriskany, Cabot joining in September and October), Light carriers: Independence, Princeton, Belleau Wood, Cowpens, Monterrey, battleships Iowa, New Jersey, Washington, North Carolina, Massachusetts (South Dakota, Alabama rejoining the fleet in September and October), 5 anti-aircraft cruisers, 5 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers, 20 destroyers (10 more destroyers join the fleet when the additional carriers do). Supporting this is a fleet train with dozens of support ships along with several escort carriers and 30 more destroyers.
The Great Raids
The Fast Carriers leave Pearl Harbor with 10 carriers and their escorts as well as 600 aircraft and head into the Pacific. They hit Truk first, which is already under steady attack by the 8th Air Force B24s operating out of new bases in the Marshall Islands. Next is Wake Island, which is worked over thoroughly followed by the Marshall Islands and then the Caroline Islands where a convoy of 8 destroyers and 12 transports carrying troops and artillery en route to reinforce the fortress at Truk is discovered and only 3 of the escorts manage to escape in the Battle of the Caroline Islands (85,000 tons of shipping are sunk and over 13,000 Japanese are killed in this one sided massacre). The Carrier based Hellcats also shoot down dozens of Japanese Army and Navy aircraft in the battle as the Japanese attempt to protect the convoy in vain. That the USS Seawolf sinks two of the surviving destroyers (resulting in another 2,000 Japanese deaths) is just the icing on the cake.
Battle of Lae / Nassau Bay
After a brief bit of refitting at Kwajalain in early September, the 3rd Fleet heads south, working over Rabual and then hammering Japanese airfields at Lae, Wewak and Hollandia, and providing distant cover to Allied landings at Lae and Nassau Bay in October when the Australian 8th Infantry Division and US 7th Infantry Division are landed by Admiral Wright, who has as fire support the battleships New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, Tennessee, and California plus numerous cruisers and destroyers from the US, British, Australian, New Zealand and Free French Navy. This operation is also the air assault combat debut for the US Army, which drops the 11th Airborne Division on the Japanese airfield and then flies in the bulk of the 32nd Infantry Division as well. General Short, commander of the US 6th Army, is killed in this battle in a plane crash somewhere in the New Guinea highlands, and General Patch is hurriedly given command of the battle which results in the destruction of 8,000 Japanese troops at the cost of 4,000 Australian and American casualties. In support of the landing, the US 41st Infantry Division is landed at Cape Gloucester, the southern tip of New Britain, and this clears the way for an advance up the New Guinea northern coast.
Bypassing the enemy
After the heavy casualties in the Marshall Islands and the Aleutian campaign which shows that bypassing the enemy pays big dividends, Eisenhower and Nimitz agree that reducing Truk and Rabaul does not require a direct assault. The shortage of amphibious assault shipping is also a factor, and so is the desire for a speedy advance into the Japanese Empire while the Imperial Navy is still recovering from the defeat in the Marshall Islands. Truk and Rabaul will be bypassed and left to wither on the vine. Eisenhower will advance up the New Guinea coast, with Wewak and Hollandia and the Admiralty Islands as his objectives for the next six months, while assembling shipping and troops for the landing at Dili, Ambon and Sorong to follow. This should put him in position to establish airbases for the 10th Air Force to strike at Japanese oil production, which both theater commanders have directives from the Combined Chiefs to acquire as soon as possible. This also puts Eisenhower in position to move on Borneo and the Philippines after that. Nimitz will be moving on Saipan, Guam, Yap and Ulithi in the summer of 1944, while also supporting the North Pacific offensive which is to take place at the same time against Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka.
The Anglo-Indians are now under the direction of Field Marshall Alexander (newly promoted), commander of the South Asian Theater, and Admiral Somerville is flown to the meeting at Pearl Harbor to meet with Nimitz and Eisenhower. The British plan is for a landing in the Andaman Islands in January 1944, with an invasion of Sumatra at Medan timed for June 1944. This combined pressure on four major fronts will overstretch the Japanese and place bases within range of their principal oil supplies. This also puts the British in position to invade Malaya and places them in the Japanese rear as the Indian Army moves into Burma and then Siam.
New technologies
The Allies and the Axis both bring new weapons and innovations to the war at sea in 1943. The Allies radically improve radar, developing the proximity shell which detonates in close range of attacking aircraft, millimeter band radar suitable for deployment aboard small craft, submarines and aircraft, improved centimetric band radars, and develop the combat information center for more effectively controlling air defense and antisubmarine warfare. They also develop the Leigh Light, a powerful airborne searchlight for maritime patrol aircraft, as well as the Hedgehog, a forward firing mortar that on detonates if it hits a submarine which reduces lost contact issues previously experienced when using depth charges and the resultant noise disrupting sonar tracking.
The Allies also have sent dozens of new American destroyer escorts, Canadian corvettes as well as over two dozen escort carriers, with more coming all the time. These new carriers, carrying Wildcat (Martlet) fighters and Avenger bombers serve as the core of escort groups for the most vital convoys, while support groups, built around older carriers like the Hermes and Eagle, are available to assist convoys under the heaviest attack.
In the air, the Allies have 15 American groups of Liberators, 6 of Canadian Liberators, as well as 20 RAF Coastal Command Liberator groups, while all three still operate groups of flying boats and other aircraft such as the Halifax and Wellington. Most of these are in the Atlantic, but they can be found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well. The Australians and New Zealanders as well as the Free French are also operating several groups of various maritime patrol aircraft, usually Catalina, Sunderland and Hudson maritime patrol aircraft. All of these aircraft are heavily armed for strafing attacks, carry a substantial load of depth charges or bombs and many also are armed with rockets and some even carry the new homing torpedoes.
Against this the Japanese have built more of submarines, but they have not markedly improved them while the Germans and Italians are using their same old models, but both are developing new ones that should see service in 1944. The Axis have however added more anti-aircraft guns and many now carry air search radar, while the Germans are also using the new homing torpedo. The new innovation for the Japanese is airborne radar in small quantities for night torpedo attack squadrons, first used in the Marshall Islands battle, while the Germans have added much the same capabilities as the British to the small number of aircraft they have devoted to maritime patrol missions. The Germans have developed a new weapon, the Fritz X guided bomb but have not used in combat before the Armistice occurs. The Americans and British are developing similar weapons.
The Tonnage War – Atlantic February – April 1943
When the Truce comes to an end, the Kriegsmarine as 500 type VII and 100 Type IX submarines, while the Italians have 10 submarines suitable for action in the Atlantic. They find themselves facing nearly 2,000 Allied escorts, thousands of aircraft, and the former Big Gap in the mid-Atlantic that was a problem in 1941 is long gone. The new escort groups with carrier support and the support groups available to reinforce big convoy battles results in devastating losses for the Uboat Wolf Packs, as even during night hours aircraft can show up at any time, and the determination to force convoys through instead of rerouting them brings the Germans to battle. The result is 200,000 tons of shipping lost in two months, along with 34 escort ships including the escort carrier USS Card, but 80 Uboats are sunk, twice that number are damaged, and the entire Italian force is wiped out.
Doenitz is already calling off the battle when the Armistice occurs, badly shaken at his losses and disturbed by how little result was gained at such a cost. A cost that includes his son.
Tonnage War – Pacific
The Japanese however are far less skilled in Anti-submarine warfare and indeed have barely started routine merchant shipping convoys when the Truce ends. They have also remained tied to the notion that submarines are there to support the battlefleet instead of using them as commerce raiders. The Americans on the other hand, along with small numbers of British, French and Dutch submarines have no such notions while Allied escorts are far more deadly to the larger and thus slower-diving Japanese boats (compared to German Type VII boats). The result is a painful lesson in modern naval warfare for the Japanese and the lesson that Mahan is not the only thinker who should be consulted about the war at sea. At the cost of 6 American, 1 Dutch and 1 British boat, the Allied submarines sink 1.5 million tons of Japanese shipping in the 11 months after the truce in 1943, and by the end of 1944 will sink another 2.1 million tons (although 8 American, 2 British and a Free French submarine will be lost as well). Among the losses are 150,000 tons of assault shipping, cutting in half the Japanese ability to make assault landings or for that matter, evacuate troops in a hurry, and several major warships are sunk along with the nearly 40 Japanese escort vessels lost between the end of the Truce and the end of 1944. This is not even counting the Japanese losses to other causes, such as air attack.
As of the end of the Truce the Japanese had 5.9 million tons of shipping and they build only 700,000 tons of shipping in the 23 months after the Truce. Imports begin to fall, and oil imports plunge especially as the Americans in particular focus on Japanese oil tankers, sinking nearly half the fleet in 23 months. Meanwhile more and more submarines are added to the Allied force, and the torpedo problems that plagued the US Navy in 1941 and 1942 are finally resolved completely by late 1943.
For Japan this is a far worse disaster than the loss of the Battle Line in the Marshall Islands. Now the very fabric of the economy is under assault and Japanese wartime production begins to unravel.
The Fast Carrier Raids
After the end of the Marshalls Campaign the 3rd Fleet is given to Admiral Towers, who has been all but begging for a sea command since the start of the war and who was the head of the US Navy aviation component when the war began. Nimitz is send to the Pacific in May after Admiral King suffers a stroke that sends him home (authors note: a stroke he had historically in 1947 but he is under more pressure in this timeline). Admiral Kimmel finally gets to leave his job as American representative on the Combined Joint Chiefs and takes over the command of the US Atlantic Fleet. Nimitz keeps Spruance as his chief of staff, but orders him to focus on planning of invasions planned for 1944 when more amphibious shipping is available. He also orders Lee to take a rest and makes Admiral Kincaid commander of the surface forces (and thus second in command) while making Admiral Soc McMorris, who won the Battle of Kula Gulf in the Solomons, the chief of staff to Powers.
3rd Fleet July – October 1943
Carriers: Essex, Hornet (II), Saratoga (II), Intrepid, Bunker Hill, (Oriskany, Cabot joining in September and October), Light carriers: Independence, Princeton, Belleau Wood, Cowpens, Monterrey, battleships Iowa, New Jersey, Washington, North Carolina, Massachusetts (South Dakota, Alabama rejoining the fleet in September and October), 5 anti-aircraft cruisers, 5 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers, 20 destroyers (10 more destroyers join the fleet when the additional carriers do). Supporting this is a fleet train with dozens of support ships along with several escort carriers and 30 more destroyers.
The Great Raids
The Fast Carriers leave Pearl Harbor with 10 carriers and their escorts as well as 600 aircraft and head into the Pacific. They hit Truk first, which is already under steady attack by the 8th Air Force B24s operating out of new bases in the Marshall Islands. Next is Wake Island, which is worked over thoroughly followed by the Marshall Islands and then the Caroline Islands where a convoy of 8 destroyers and 12 transports carrying troops and artillery en route to reinforce the fortress at Truk is discovered and only 3 of the escorts manage to escape in the Battle of the Caroline Islands (85,000 tons of shipping are sunk and over 13,000 Japanese are killed in this one sided massacre). The Carrier based Hellcats also shoot down dozens of Japanese Army and Navy aircraft in the battle as the Japanese attempt to protect the convoy in vain. That the USS Seawolf sinks two of the surviving destroyers (resulting in another 2,000 Japanese deaths) is just the icing on the cake.
Battle of Lae / Nassau Bay
After a brief bit of refitting at Kwajalain in early September, the 3rd Fleet heads south, working over Rabual and then hammering Japanese airfields at Lae, Wewak and Hollandia, and providing distant cover to Allied landings at Lae and Nassau Bay in October when the Australian 8th Infantry Division and US 7th Infantry Division are landed by Admiral Wright, who has as fire support the battleships New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, Tennessee, and California plus numerous cruisers and destroyers from the US, British, Australian, New Zealand and Free French Navy. This operation is also the air assault combat debut for the US Army, which drops the 11th Airborne Division on the Japanese airfield and then flies in the bulk of the 32nd Infantry Division as well. General Short, commander of the US 6th Army, is killed in this battle in a plane crash somewhere in the New Guinea highlands, and General Patch is hurriedly given command of the battle which results in the destruction of 8,000 Japanese troops at the cost of 4,000 Australian and American casualties. In support of the landing, the US 41st Infantry Division is landed at Cape Gloucester, the southern tip of New Britain, and this clears the way for an advance up the New Guinea northern coast.
Bypassing the enemy
After the heavy casualties in the Marshall Islands and the Aleutian campaign which shows that bypassing the enemy pays big dividends, Eisenhower and Nimitz agree that reducing Truk and Rabaul does not require a direct assault. The shortage of amphibious assault shipping is also a factor, and so is the desire for a speedy advance into the Japanese Empire while the Imperial Navy is still recovering from the defeat in the Marshall Islands. Truk and Rabaul will be bypassed and left to wither on the vine. Eisenhower will advance up the New Guinea coast, with Wewak and Hollandia and the Admiralty Islands as his objectives for the next six months, while assembling shipping and troops for the landing at Dili, Ambon and Sorong to follow. This should put him in position to establish airbases for the 10th Air Force to strike at Japanese oil production, which both theater commanders have directives from the Combined Chiefs to acquire as soon as possible. This also puts Eisenhower in position to move on Borneo and the Philippines after that. Nimitz will be moving on Saipan, Guam, Yap and Ulithi in the summer of 1944, while also supporting the North Pacific offensive which is to take place at the same time against Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka.
The Anglo-Indians are now under the direction of Field Marshall Alexander (newly promoted), commander of the South Asian Theater, and Admiral Somerville is flown to the meeting at Pearl Harbor to meet with Nimitz and Eisenhower. The British plan is for a landing in the Andaman Islands in January 1944, with an invasion of Sumatra at Medan timed for June 1944. This combined pressure on four major fronts will overstretch the Japanese and place bases within range of their principal oil supplies. This also puts the British in position to invade Malaya and places them in the Japanese rear as the Indian Army moves into Burma and then Siam.
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coming this week.. the 3rd Russo-Japanese War, German preparations, and India as well as China and Vietnam
but that is it for now... 5 AM comes early
but that is it for now... 5 AM comes early
Penny for The Guy
Banned
May I Sincerely Hope
That the 1st Special Service Force does not suffer the same casualty rate (600%) as OTL.
That the 1st Special Service Force does not suffer the same casualty rate (600%) as OTL.
There does not seem to have been a peace treaty after all. The 'Truce' which was previously discussed was in early 1943, now a year later we have an armistice in late 1943 but it's clearly stated that the peace talks were doomed from the beginning - the Allies are just stalling and later Germany gave up on them as well.
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Trying to go from the Aleutians to Hokkaido is a real no-go. The weather is atrocious both sea and air. The distance from the westernmost of the Aleutians that could support much of a logistical base is significant, approximately 1600 miles from Attu to Hokkaido. At a minimum the Allies would need to secure not just one but several of the Kuriles - the distance from Attu means only long range bombers can attack Hokkaido not mediums or fighters. Carrier air, given the conditions in that part of the world, can be very iffy.
OTL the weather conditions in the Aleutians were so bad that flying was only feasible a relatively small percentage of the year. It's one thing to fly locally or even maritime patrols, but to send long range bombers on a 3000+ mile trip means no matter how good the weather is at take off, what it will be when the bombers are coming home may be very different. Having lifeguard subs along the route from the Marianas to Japan, as well as divert fields like Iwo Jima and later Okinawa won't happen until the USA gets some Kuriles. Lifeguard subs in the Bering Sea are not as useful as in the Pacific as sea states are bad, and survival times for crewmen even in life rafts are quite short.
Sending B-24's from the Aleutians to Hokkaido on missions is doable, though not sure what in Hokkaido is worth bombing. The cost in aircraft and aircrews will be high, and the logistical effort quite taxing. Maybe hopping along to some of the former Soviet islands might be useful, but more than that??? There is a reason the extreme north Pacific was not the focus of much effort by the USA, and once your prevent the Japanese from being able to use Aleutians to support actions against the west coast, mission accomplished...
OTL the weather conditions in the Aleutians were so bad that flying was only feasible a relatively small percentage of the year. It's one thing to fly locally or even maritime patrols, but to send long range bombers on a 3000+ mile trip means no matter how good the weather is at take off, what it will be when the bombers are coming home may be very different. Having lifeguard subs along the route from the Marianas to Japan, as well as divert fields like Iwo Jima and later Okinawa won't happen until the USA gets some Kuriles. Lifeguard subs in the Bering Sea are not as useful as in the Pacific as sea states are bad, and survival times for crewmen even in life rafts are quite short.
Sending B-24's from the Aleutians to Hokkaido on missions is doable, though not sure what in Hokkaido is worth bombing. The cost in aircraft and aircrews will be high, and the logistical effort quite taxing. Maybe hopping along to some of the former Soviet islands might be useful, but more than that??? There is a reason the extreme north Pacific was not the focus of much effort by the USA, and once your prevent the Japanese from being able to use Aleutians to support actions against the west coast, mission accomplished...
it doesn't matter if it is possible, what matters is that the Japanese think it might be tried
B24s and B25s from Kiska did launch a few missions at the Kuriles before everyone realized that it was a waste of time and energy
as it is, it won't even be seriously planned until January-Feb 1944 and by that point there are likely to be other things to consider elsewhere
Having the option of moving in however if the Soviets do well in their planned winter offensive once spring comes is the major point for the Allies... depends on what the Japanese do in reaction to that. A major army in Alaska does however force the Japanese to consider the Great Circle Route as a serious threat.
pretty much sums it up... it was the British who threw in the towel, much to the intense annoyance of the Soviets, Americans and Free French
and the disgust of the Canadians and Anzacs. South Africa however is another issue and I will be getting to them
NoMommsen
Kicked
and don't forget, that the japanes did a similar stunt with pearl harbour. So : such a possiblity WILL be somewhere in their mind.
Bingo and the Japanese were concerned about the US going that route. That is why they captured Attu and Kiska in the OTL. The bit about that operation being a diversionary attack to distract the US from the move toward Midway is a total myth. The capture of the outer Aleutians was an integral part of the larger operation to establish an impregnable defense perimeter.