Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

Bourne, Massachusetts, November 26, 1942

Four boys leaned their bikes against the bridge. Their stomachs were full of turkey and potatoes and cranberries and apple pies but they needed to get out of their house as their older brothers and uncles and fathers talked about the draft, talked about their time in France and talked about the uncertainty of the future. These boys merely had to worry about passing seventh grade.


Underneath them, a steady stream of ships, Empire and Liberty as well as older tramp steamers, headed north to Massachusetts Bay. They stood on the bridge, the cold winds biting into their wool mittens, chilling their fingers. Some day their brothers would be on those ships heading to places that they could not yet find on a map.

 

[fester]

Sunda Strait, November 27, 1942

USS William B. Preston slowly steamed through the strait. A small coastal convoy was in front of her and a Dutch cruiser group had gallivanted past her heading south to a training area on the far side of Java. There was no excitement in this journey, merely a movement at a steady, efficient fourteen knots. Her skipper had been ordering daily anti-aircraft and damage control drills and those drills would be doubled until the ship arrived at the great naval base on the Johor Channel where more comprehensive and comprehensible orders would be given. There was no good reason for an American seaplane tender to go to Singapore --- no American Catalinas were there and most of the British flying boats were Sunderlands.

 

[Constantine Paleologos]

Singapore, November 26, 1942

A quartet of B-24s landed on one of the best runways in all of Malaya. They had been sent to India for special duty. They had left the front to deliver mail and now they were returning with passengers. A gangly sunburned lieutenant came out of the back hatch of the second bomber. As his feet hit the ground, he winced slightly as his back flared up. He stopped and came to attention as he stepped out of the direct exit pathway and then snapped a regulation salute to the far too senior office waiting on the airfield apron. The salute was returned casually and the lieutenant did something very dangerous: he started to think. Why would such a senior man come to greet refugees and cast-off crew members of a pair of Mediterranean PT squadrons? They were no-bodies trained to fight some of the smallest craft. What were they getting into?


This train of thought was progressing quite nicely until his eyes saw a far more important target; a WREN with great legs. Now he had identified a worthwhile objective that his service obligations would merely be an impediment and a challenge.

That should make it all the more difficult for the Germans, yes? The French in 1940 were rearming at a quick pace and produced more materiel than the Germans in the first months of 1940 before Gelb.

 

[Alanith]

That should make it all the more difficult for the Germans, yes? The French in 1940 were rearming at a quick pace and produced more materiel than the Germans in the first months of 1940 before Gelb.

Did you quote the wrong post perchance? I don't see what that one has to do with the German's half a world away.

 

[Driftless]

This train of thought was progressing quite nicely until his eyes saw a far more important target; a WREN with great legs. Now he had identified a worthwhile objective that his service obligations would merely be an impediment and a challenge.

As an older and wiser gentleman once told me "Young man, there are no brains in the head of a pecker....."

 

[Unknown]

With regards to the Singapore update, I see JFK is being JFK (if that's him)...

 

[sloreck]

Hints of some sort of PI resupply here - PT boat crews without boats and new British Fairmiles "loaned". Seaplane tenders weren't tankers but did have fuel storage. Could be...

 

[Viper91]

At the very least, setting up so a squadron of Catalinas can make the journey to and from Bataan isn't a bad idea. You might not get lots of equipment in, but some odd or specialized equipment or one off stuff could be flown in. A PBY would be able to get in and out faster then even the fastest ship or submarine, and free up limited space aboard submarines for more generalized or bulk cargo. Flying in say parts for a radar set or range finders for artillery might be useful, but would probably be more of a one off type shipment. Use a PBY for odd one off shipments like this, if it can carry equipment, which could allow submarines to prioritize food, medicine, ammunition, and other more general supplies.

Using a PBY could also help about removing key personnel and equipment. You could do it with a much faster turnaround time then a submarine

 

[Killer in]

If they could get a few Sunderland's in too. That would be massive help.

 

[Butchpfd]

Hints of some sort of PI resupply here - PT boat crews without boats and new British Fairmiles "loaned". Seaplane tenders weren't tankers but did have fuel storage. Could be...

Numerous times in the Southwest Pacific, ADs and AVDs served as tenders for PT boats. The Pt' s engines were closer to Aaircraft engines then any other US Navy engines at The time.

 

[RanulfC]

Driftless wrote:

As an older and wiser gentleman once told me "Young man, there are no brains in the head of a pecker....."

A wise lady once noted to me that there is only enough blood in a man’s body to run one “head” at a time and the male brain is often starved for oxygen…

Randy

 

[fester]

Southwest of Tarawa, November 27, 1942

Sunlight spilled across the forward third of the flight deck of USS Constellation. Another second and another ten yards of the flight deck was bathed in sun. The two carriers in the task force was pushing through a squall line at an efficient eighteen knots. Three battleships and their escorts were ten miles to the south and barely visible while the other carrier task group was still hidden in the squall line to the north.

A Navy Privateer flying from the ever expanding airfield on Tarawa circled overhead. An Avenger and USS Gwin had combined for a kill the previous day on a Japanese submarine that had been caught with its periscope up for too long in front of the carriers. Intelligence suspected that there was a submarine picket line somewhere and every effort was being made to force those boats down.

An hour later, the recently released from the dockyard Enterprise turned into the window to recycle the task force Wildcat and Avenger patrols. Four fighters and two bombers went up to replace the six planes that were keeping an eye for snoopers, scouts and assassins. All of Constellation’s air group was on stand-down for the day and the dive bombers aboard Enterprise also had a relaxed schedule. Tomorrow all five carriers of the Pacific Fleet would hit Rabaul hard, and the admirals wanted to be able to throw haymakers instead of jabs.

 

[Some Bloke]

USS Gwen?
Gwen who? :-D

 

[Derek Pullem]

USS Gwen?
Gwen who? :-D

Gwin - but you knew that

 

[fester]

USS Gwen?
Gwen who? :-D

damn autocorrect

 

[fester]

Bataan, November 27, 1942

For the first time in weeks, Japanese artillery landed near Captain Ibling. He was holding onto his helmet and making himself small in the trenches. Most of the company was underground with a few men still in sandbagged foxholes. All of the men were skilled at making themselves as small as possible.

Two dozen rounds exploded near the company’s position. Most of the rounds were short but a few landed on the lip of the trench line. The shell fragments would have killed any man standing in the zig-zagging trench but that part of the line was emptied as men huddled in the dugouts specifically made for protection against harassing artillery. Even as the last shells were exploding, heads started to poke up and machine gun barrels tracked back and forth while riflemen called for corpsmen as they stabilized their wounded mates. Screams of pain came from one fighting hole as two men had their backs and buttocks scraped with shrapnel. Over the next ten minutes, runners from all platoons reported back to the captain that nothing was seen advancing into open sights and casualties were light.

By mid-afternoon, the damage to the position had been repaired and every man had a small lunch, half of their pre-war lunch as they were on short rations and most men preferred nearly normal breakfast and suppers and a snack for lunch instead of any other arrangement. No more artillery fell on the regiment even as Japanese guns fired another harassment mission against a chunk of the front three miles away.

 

[fester]

Lille, France November 28, 1942

Everyone who could was huddled in basements and shelters. The air raid sirens had gone off twenty minutes ago as the German radar and the French civilian aircraft spotters had confirmed a raider of almost seven dozen American heavy bombers with a fighter sweep in front. Targets were numerous and dense in Northern France but it was evident that Lille’s railyards were the target from radio intercepts and radar tracking. Anti-aircraft guns were tracking the sky, smoke pots were being lit and the fire and rescue brigades were on alert. Bombs started to fall. Factories shook and houses broke open. Bombs landed in a fan pattern with a central locus on the railyards on the south side of the city but stretching out into the country side as well as the eastern residential blocks. As the bombers turned back for England, half a dozen were visibly damaged and another two had been seen to have crashed. An almost equal number of Spitfires and FW-190s were also burning on the ground.

 

[fester]

Woensdrecht, Netherlands, November 28, 1942

Half a dozen American crewed B-25s climbed for altitude. As they reached 1,500 feet, they tipped back over and dove through the flak reaching out for them. One bomber never pulled out as a full clip of 20 millimeter shells ripped into the bodies of the pilot and the co-pilot. The other five bombers released strings of general purpose bombs with short fuses. As they left the field, secondary explosions were seen by the rear gunner. Half a dozen German day fighters were visibly ruined and more were likely to have been damaged.

 

[jlckansas]

Woensdrecht, Netherlands, November 28, 1942

Half a dozen American crewed B-25s climbed for altitude. As they reached 1,500 feet, they tipped back over and dove through the flak reaching out for them. One bomber never pulled out as a full clip of 20 millimeter shells ripped into the bodies of the pilot and the co-pilot. The other five bombers released strings of general purpose bombs with short fuses. As they left the field, secondary explosions were seen by the rear gunner. Half a dozen German day fighters were visibly ruined and more were likely to have been damaged.

No one has para frags here or is it just a we haven't thought of that yet in Europe?
Also anyone thinking of an all gun nose yet on the B25 for a mission like this?

 

[Crowbar Six]

No one has para frags here or is it just a we haven't thought of that yet in Europe?
Also anyone thinking of an all gun nose yet on the B25 for a mission like this?

They were largely used for anti-shipping strikes iirc. All those .50 cal's would chew up even a destroyer.