Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

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Story 1866
Central Kra Isthmus, January 14, 1943

A dozen Canadian Pattern trucks slowed. A gunner with orange cloth paddles directed them to the right side of the road. Each truck parked. The next driver would then leave at least thirty yards of space to make sure that any Japanese mortar attack had to be lucky at least once per truck.


Within minutes, dozens of shirtless men had assembled. Hand trucks were ready as crates were unloaded. Each crate contained a fraction of a second of fire for the field artillery regiment. A quarter mile away, all the working guns in the regiment started a stonk. All the work that was being done to unload these trucks that had started their day in Patani was being consumed in a few minutes after a patrol had found yet another Japanese hardpoint that no one was interested in assaulting.


Two hours later, the empty trucks headed south. Half a dozen men were in the back of the lead truck for the first four miles before they hopped off and headed to briefing. As they adjusted their uniforms, the last dozen Fairey Battles in front line service passed overhead. The light bombers had just completed another milk run. Nine tons of bombs had been dropped on one of the few still supplied artillery batteries in the largest Japanese pocket. Even if no secondaries were seen, the bombs rattled the guns and shook delicate and precise equipment.
 
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I wonder what the K/D ratio is for this campaign? Given the disparity in capability between Commenwealth and Japanese arty this must be one of the most lopsided campaigns in modern warfare.
 
@fester if the RAF had 20 shillings more budget or less shite (Hampdens, Whitleys, Manchesters), the P.24 Monarch Battle should have gone into production. It would have given the Battle a reliable equal-torque 2500hp.

fairey-p24-monarch-battle-gb-front.jpg
 
In this environment the Japanese Army is going to have a major disease problem very quickly. No supplies (medical), poor nutrition, and a jungle are a very bad combination. Even if a lot don't die, and they will, soldiers with dysentery or malaria have markedly reduced effectiveness. Look at the conditions the Japanese in New Guinea had once they were cut off and under this sort of pressure. Medieval barely begins to describe it. Expect the sick who drop out to be left to die, and those in hospital to be allowed to die to conserve rations.
 
Cambridge, England January 13, 1943

Eighty men marched down the streets and away from the university. They saluted the colors and their superiors. Rifles were tight on their shoulder and eyes were held to the front. As they passed outside the town and turned towards a small field, they saw a table for tea had been set up. Their commander and his superior both spoke for a few minutes. This Home Guard company was being demobilized. Certificates of thanks and appreciation were handed out almost as readily as exemptions from further national service. The men were then released for tea tonight and then they would be released back into the labs and workshops that were needed to produce the weapons of 1944 and 1945.
A nice touching ceremony, but I'm a bit puzzled by the idea of releasing the men from duty to return to labs and workshops. As the Home Guard was always part-time, the men would already be at work there.

Unless I've misread the post and you mean they no longer need to spend time away from the civilian life to train and stand guard?
 
A nice touching ceremony, but I'm a bit puzzled by the idea of releasing the men from duty to return to labs and workshops. As the Home Guard was always part-time, the men would already be at work there.

Unless I've misread the post and you mean they no longer need to spend time away from the civilian life to train and stand guard?
Exactly ---
There are 168 hours a week --- these are skilled men. They are spending a good 40 to 60 hours a week in labs. GEtting another 8 to 12 good hours a week in labs/workshops is far more valuable than having these men stand guard on a bridge for a night.
 
There are 168 hours a week --- these are skilled men. They are spending a good 40 to 60 hours a week in labs. GEtting another 8 to 12 good hours a week in labs/workshops is far more valuable than having these men stand guard on a bridge for a night.
And waiting for an invasion that will never come.
 
Cambridge, England January 13, 1943

Eighty men marched down the streets and away from the university. They saluted the colors and their superiors. Rifles were tight on their shoulder and eyes were held to the front. As they passed outside the town and turned towards a small field, they saw a table for tea had been set up. Their commander and his superior both spoke for a few minutes. This Home Guard company was being demobilized. Certificates of thanks and appreciation were handed out almost as readily as exemptions from further national service. The men were then released for tea tonight and then they would be released back into the labs and workshops that were needed to produce the weapons of 1944 and 1945.

That's about a year early, they handed back their weapons and explosives in 1944 but didn't fully disband until 1945.
 
That's about a year early, they handed back their weapons and explosives in 1944 but didn't fully disband until 1945.

Actually OTL the general stand down was in December 1944 with full disbanding 31 December 1945

so for this platoon iTTL far nearer 2 years.

I'm not sure that there was ever a policy of selective disbanding of the Home Guard
though I do know that individuals with special skills were released from other forms of national service
(The best known cases are the experienced actors released to make propaganda)

and that conversely civilians in normally reserved occupations could be accepted for national service if they volunteered and demonstrated a rare aptitude
(one case is James Wight the country vet who applied to the RAF and was accepted for training.
Wight is better known by his pseudonym James Herriot and among many other tales published a fictionalised account of his time as Vets might Fly)

So perhaps the idea is not unreasonable ... certainly it is sensible if the right staff are released ;)
 
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...the last dozen Fairey Battles in front line service passed overhead. The light bombers had just completed another milk run. Sixteen tons of bombs had been dropped...
I think this may be a bit much - max bombload was 1000lbs internal, and an extra 500lbs external on occasion.
 
I think this may be a bit much - max bombload was 1000lbs internal, and an extra 500lbs external on occasion.
Yep, my math failed me this morning... will update this in a second!

I was thinking 12 bombers each carrying 1.5Klbs = 18 tons so a metric/Imperial conversion issue.
 
Yep, my math failed me this morning... will update this in a second!
I was thinking 12 bombers each carrying 1.5Klbs = 18 tons so a metric/Imperial conversion issue.

Metric/Imperial conversion eh? Oh well, at least you weren't fueling an airliner. :)

325px-Gimli_glider.JPG


The famous Gimli Glider.
 
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There's an example I like to use towards why the Japanese refusal to surrender extended towards being encircled.

At Khalkin Gol, an understrength and encircled Japanese recon unit put up such a furious defense that it took five whole days for the Soviets to smash through.

Then their commander ordered a breakout on the fifth day, saving two-thirds of his men after a skilful defense. Then-General Zhukov himself remarked that he'd want to give the Japanese commander a medal.

That talented Japanese commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Eiichi Ioki.

His reward was to be swiftly branded a coward by his superiors for having "disgraced the army by fleeing the battlefield" and ordered to commit seppuku. As per standard practice, he did so.

Meanwhile, General Michitaro Komatsubura, who was in charge of the entire battle, was always criticized for losing it, but never for ordering his men to stay put and not break out.

And nobody in Tokyo ever questioned the decision to not retreat as wasteful, meaning that the IJA was perfectly fine with losing two-thirds of their troops at the Manchurian border for the sake of bushido.

There you go, that's the Imperial Japanese attitude to encirclements: no surrender in any situation, encirclement be damned.
 
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There's an example I like to use towards why the Japanese refusal to surrender extended towards being encircled.

At Khalkin Gol, an understrength and encircled Japanese recon unit put up such a furious defense that it took five whole days for the Soviets to smash through.

Then their commander ordered a breakout on the fifth day, saving two-thirds of his men after a skilful defense. Then-General Zhukov himself remarked that he'd want to give the Japanese commander a medal.

That talented Japanese commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Eiichi Ioki.

His reward was to be swiftly branded a coward by his superiors for having "disgraced the army by fleeing the battlefield" and ordered to commit seppuku. As per standard practice, he did so.

Meanwhile, General Michitaro Komatsubura, who was in charge of the entire battle, was always criticized for losing it, but never for ordering his men to stay put and not break out.

And nobody in Tokyo ever questioned the decision to not retreat as wasteful, meaning that the IJA was perfectly fine with losing two-thirds of their troops at the Manchurian border for the sake of bushido.

There you go, that's the Imperial Japanese attitude to encirclements: no surrender in any situation, encirclement be damned.
Just the enemy any good general would want to fight, because you'd always know where he would be...right where you left him.
 

Stories like this make me wonder how the hell Japan did as well as it did in OTL in the first place. Did every Allied commander chug lead paint while juggling multiple Idiot Balls for years on end or something?

If someone wrote a timeline on this site that had the IJA/IJN as successful as they were in OTL people would should "ASB!" from the metaphorical rooftops. Proof that indeed the truth is stranger than fiction.
 
Stories like this make me wonder how the hell Japan did as well as it did in OTL in the first place. Did every Allied commander chug lead paint while juggling multiple Idiot Balls for years on end or something?

If someone wrote a timeline on this site that had the IJA/IJN as successful as they were in OTL people would should "ASB!" from the metaphorical rooftops. Proof that indeed the truth is stranger than fiction.
That and some good old rasicm
 
I think severely underestimating the Japanese around the start of the Pacific War really did them in, plus the racism.

According to Chinese and Taiwanese historiography, apparently seasoned Nationalist generals and officers tried to give the Allied commanders pointers on fighting the Japanese. Given that they'd firmly familiarized themselves with their enemy after four years of total war, they gave pretty sound advice.

It was usually stuff like "the Japanese will get bloodthirsty and abandon their supply lines to focus on attack", "the typical Japanese machine gun nest is structured like so and so", and "they always get very tired after marching, attack before they can recover." Most of all, they tried to emphasize that the Japanese were still a mechanized, professional, European-style army with ridiculously high morale and a functioning centralized command, despite being outgunned by the Western Allies.

But although the more junior ranks listened, the higher-ups dismissed or ignored Chinese advice. I think the Western Allied perception of the Japanese from late 1941 into early 1942 was "crazed blade-wielding eastern horde we can stop with a platoon".

That said, I personally take this with a grain of salt, because as with Chinese culture, Chinese historiography is heavily nationalistic (I have too much experience with said nationalism). Nevertheless, it's a good little tidbit.

Also, the IJA's infantry were basically light infantry masquerading as a typical modern infantry division with support companies. Hence why they tended to get exhausted after marching.
 
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