Yeah.
This officer [is] lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation. He acts without forethought as to probable results.
- Rear Admiral F.A. Braisted, July 15, 1943
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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Yeah.
This officer [is] lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation. He acts without forethought as to probable results.
- Rear Admiral F.A. Braisted, July 15, 1943
Little did he know that the Officer in question would become one of the greatest, most audacious crooks in history.
Typos
The Abwehr rolled up the entire Dutch SOE operation very efficiently. Neither side seemed to suspect it was being mirror imaged.
Apparently concern was raised by some depts in British Intelligence as early as 1942 - but for reasons of either interservice rivalry, miscommunication (See Cockle shell heroes) or maybe even as part of a larger 'game' the message never reached the specific dept responsible for the Dutch ops before it was far too late.
Story 2077
Ramree Island, Burma June 4, 1943
The small coaster went back out to sea. The ships’ boat was secured. Three swots and half a dozen native assistants had been deposited ashore. They were interested in studying the massive crocodiles that inhabited the mangrove swamps. Permission had been granted from the military governor of Burma, or at least his signature was on the letter prepared by a curious herptology loving war time only staff captain with the condition that the scientific team reported back on the weather at dawn, noon and nightfall.
It is a nod to the fact that an amazingly broad array of people were brought into the war effort on a hostilities only basis and random interests could be scratched on that basis. I meant only that in a hat tip to @Zheng He
My university geology lecturer said that is how the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was detected. The captain of one of the ships running convoys across the Atlantic was a geologist in peacetime, and ran the active sonar whenever he could. Found this enourmous mountain range running dead smack in the middle of the Atlantic. That in turn was important evidence for the Continental Drift Theory, which had been around for a while but discounted.
Wonder if Dieppe would have been any different with the KCL in the lead? *ROFLMAO*
on a more serious note, if these folks were to report the weather, did they have ANY equipment? I'd think they'd need a thermometer, barometer, and something to do wind direction and speed?
Story 2078
South of Rhez, Russia, June 5, 1943
Pick-axes swung. Pointed steel dug into the earth, loosening the soil. Next to each man with a pick-ax was a man with a shovel. He scooped the soil and flung it over his shoulder. This was the fourth line of trenches and anti-tank ditches this labor regiment had built so far. Each anti-tank ditch was wide enough to swallow a tank hole and deep enough to completely overtop the largest German tanks. The outer edge was slightly raised with antitank and anti-personnel mines placed a step or two from the straight edged lip. The inner edge had a slight slope leading up to a three meter thick soil berm. Bastions that would have been familiar to Vauban were cut into the steppe every kilometer. Anti-tank guns could poke through the holes and fire into the flanks of any fascist combat engineering vehicle or their supporting tanks even as mortars and machine guns kept the supporting infantry men cowering on the ground.
The whistle blew. The morning shift was over. Men found water and whatever shade they could before they ate their black bread and mid-day rations. Some private who still had not not learned better put on an incredible impersonation of the company commander arguing with the battalion commander. Twenty minutes later, he was on the team moving rocks out of the way.
The men worked through the afternoon. There were another twenty thousand men doing the same work up and down the lines, fortifying the bulge that the Red Army had pushed into the German lines that threatened an important but not critical railhead that supplied most of the 9th Army. The works had to be strong to resist an attack, but they had to look weak enough to invite an attack. Eleven miles behind the innermost anti-tank ditch, a new brigade of factory fresh T-34s manned by veterans of the Moscow and Don defenses laagered under canvas and netting after they detrained.
There were already Crocodiles at Dieppe
true, but they don't have teeth and are a lot lower to the ground
Story 2079
Northern Sicily, June 6, 1943
He felt his fingers, or at least he tried to. Heavy bandages made him itch. His thumb started to move and scratched the thin flesh on the side of his index finger. The lights were too bright as he fought through the morphine haze and croaked out a request for water. His tongue swelled with liquid and relief and his voice began to return. The army nurse, a consientious objector from a Mennonite family, smiled and adjusted the sling that kept his left arm stable. Ahh, that was slightly better as his shoulder relaxed. Soon sharp pins and needles pain stabbed him as blood re-entered capillaries and nerves checked back in with his brain.
An hour later, there was a commotion outside the tent flap of the non-critical ward. He cocked his ears and could hear officers and sergeants vehemently conversing. A moment later, the flap opened and a diva of a general walked in. Soon the man stopped at each bed, said a few words, clasped shoulders and hands when he could and patted legs when he was forced to. He arrived at his bed.
“Son, what’s your name?”
“Corporal Jaroshek, sir”
“What happened?”
“A mortar got me, the squad was advancing on the flank of a position and as we were heading through an olive grove, the Krauts started to throw mortars at us. I was slow getting down, and fragments got my left arm and my back, sir”
“How you feeling?”
“Fuzzy, I know that I’m in pain but I can’t actually feel it right now, if that makes sense?”
“I understand. Now let me hand you your Purple Heart for your bravery and in recognition of the enemy’s marksmanship.”
The wounded man chuckled as he had not thought about the Purple Heart as a recognition of the enemy fucking him and plans up. The general leaned over, pinned the medal to the pillow and shook his uninjured right hand in one smooth, well practiced motion. This was the seven hundredth Purple Heart he had personally handed out during the campaign and it would not be the last one of the day nor the campaign. The general moved down and started another conversation with another man who had lost his left leg to mine.
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