Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

Crete December 4, 1942

Africa Shell tied up at the ever expanding port on the south side of the island. Dozens of anti-aircraft guns, American and Commonwealth manned, pointed skyward beneath their netting and nestled tightly in sandbag revetments. American laborers, almost all Negroes from Alabama and Mississippi, quickly boarded the small tanker. The ship’s crew helped them set up hoses and pumps. Within an hour, the forward tanks full of aviation gasoline and the aft tanks full of pool petrol were being emptied to a set of on-shore storage tanks. Within a day, the aviation fuel was being pumped across the island via a freshly laid six inch pipeline.

On the other side of the island, RAF 205 Group crews went to their briefing huts. Weather maps were circulated and it was evident that tonight’s targets could not be on in Albania or Yugoslavia. As the operations officers and spooks outlined the defenses and German radar warning lines, the objective became clearer and clearer, a set of chemical factories in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. At least it was not the Romanian oil industry which had become an on again and off-again target for the thirteen squadrons of the group with regular losses from thickening defenses.

 

[fester]

Scunthorpe, England December 5, 1942

The mighty blast furnaces were in operation today. Fresh ore from French North Africa had been arriving as ships ballast from the supporting forces of Operation Torch and beyond for weeks now. It had finally arrived at one of the greatest mills in the world. The open hearths would soon be producing high quality alloys. Vanguard and Audacious were slotted to receive structural steel from this series of pours.

 

[Killer in]

Isn't that ore some of the best in the world at the time ?

 

[diesal]

Scunthorpe, England December 5, 1942

The mighty blast furnaces were in operation today for primary production of high quality steel instead of merely recycling scrap or melting down the poor quality local ore. Fresh ore from French North Africa had been arriving as ships ballast from the supporting forces of Operation Torch and beyond for weeks now. It had finally arrived at one of the greatest mills in the world. Vanguard and Audacious were slotted to receive structural steel from this series of pours.

Very minor nitpick you don’t melt ore you smelt it. Do love the timeline though.

 

[fester]

Isn't that ore some of the best in the world at the time ?

Yep!

2 very minor take-aways from this post:

1) At least some of the war built ships that are projected to have a long peace time life will be built with better quality metal than they did in OTL
2) Some of the British pre-war trading patterns are incrementally returning to normal
a) OTL the UK imported quasi-finished steel from the US to optimize on ship-ton-miles
b) Keeps some more trade in the Sterling area/out of Lend Lease

 

[Unknown]

Like how Crete's expanding and is becoming a thorn on the underbelly of the Axis...

 

[Alanith]

Yep!

2 very minor take-aways from this post:

1) At least some of the war built ships that are projected to have a long peace time life will be built with better quality metal than they did in OTL
2) Some of the British pre-war trading patterns are incrementally returning to normal
a) OTL the UK imported quasi-finished steel from the US to optimize on ship-ton-miles
b) Keeps some more trade in the Sterling area/out of Lend Lease

Don't worry, I have every confidence in the ability of the post war governments to fuck it all up.

 

[Draconis]

Here is a map showing the extent of the Japanese Empire in OTL 1942.

In festers' Keynes Cruisers TL by December 1942 things are vastly different. As I'm not able to draw a new map I'll point out the differences verbally. There is a lot less red in TTL. In the South West Pacific New Guinea and the Solomon islands are controlled by the Allies. The Japanese do hold New Britain and have a base there at Rabaul. But it is a far lesser installation than OTL and is under American pressure. The Americans have made an advance into the Gilberts by capturing Tarawa and they still hold Wake Island.

In the South all of the DEI are in Allied hands except for Borneo and the Celebes. This opens the shipping route across the top of Australia from ports like Sydney and Brisbane to Sumatra and Java. Ships can sail through the Torres Straits with little danger. American forces hold Timor in the DEI.

The British and Commonwealth forces hold Malaya and Burma and are in the process of pushing the IJA out of Siam/Thailand. The great port of Singapore is available for Allied use. So are the ports of the DEIs in Sumatra, Java and Timor. The port in Timor will need some repair. These ports and islands can be reached by shipping from the West and East unmolested.

The defensive barrier Japan built in OTL does not exist in this TL. The Western side of it from Borneo to Indochina is porous and under great pressure. The Southern side from Sumatra to New Guinea doesn't exist in any meaningful way. The Eastern side is still very dangerous with the many fortified island bases and the presence of major elements of the IJN plus numerous air units of the IJN and IJA.

There are a lot more options here for the Allied commanders that didn't exist in OTL. However the Imperial Japanese Navy remains a serious threat.

 

[mudhead]

RAF Group 205

205 Group.

 

[fester]

 

[Driftless]

There are some pretty large areas of "no-mans land and sea"

 

[AtlanticCanuck]

I was looking at the new maps and I noticed that south east China is not occupied by the Japanese at this time in this TL. South east China is a lot closer to Bataan than anything else the allies control. If the Burma road is open to get supplies into China, they should be able to run an air supply route from south east China to Bataan. It is about 700 miles from Hong Kong to Bataan. The Japanese only control the coast. Set up an airbase about 300 miles inland. Shuttle the transport planes into there from Burma. Re-fuel them and then, at night, have them fly to Bataan. In 1942 there are a lot more planes that can do a 2000 mile round trip than can do the 3000 mile round trip from Singapore to Bataan. Just a thought.

 

[fester]

I was looking at the new maps and I noticed that south east China is not occupied by the Japanese at this time in this TL. South east China is a lot closer to Bataan than anything else the allies control. If the Burma road is open to get supplies into China, they should be able to run an air supply route from south east China to Bataan. It is about 700 miles from Hong Kong to Bataan. The Japanese only control the coast. Set up an airbase about 300 miles inland. Shuttle the transport planes into there from Burma. Re-fuel them and then, at night, have them fly to Bataan. In 1942 there are a lot more planes that can do a 2000 mile round trip than can do the 3000 mile round trip from Singapore to Bataan. Just a thought.

SE China is non-controlled land. Furthermore air supply of tonnage at 2000 miles is miniscule

 

[Driftless]

There are some pretty large areas of "no-mans land and sea"

And to amend my original post.... No Man's Land or No Man's Ocean doesn't mean it's all vacant. I would imagine some spots are hotly contested: South China Sea (especially south of Indochina), the Solomon Sea, etc.

 

[sloreck]

Ocean is only "occupied" in the sense of what ships are on any bit of it and how far they can see. Where you have areas where there is no land/islands, especially where air patrols are limited at best, there is no control. Areas are controlled only insofar as land based air can patrol the area or naval strength is overwhelming for one side or another, or the distance for an intruding force is so great it can't be supported logistically. An example would be the Allies sending submarines near Japan, and the Japanese sending submarines to Hawaii or even the US West Coast - but trying to do so with surface ships can't be done, and any surface ships would need refueling.

 

[Major Major]

I was looking at the new maps and I noticed that south east China is not occupied by the Japanese at this time in this TL. South east China is a lot closer to Bataan than anything else the allies control. If the Burma road is open to get supplies into China, they should be able to run an air supply route from south east China to Bataan. It is about 700 miles from Hong Kong to Bataan. The Japanese only control the coast. Set up an airbase about 300 miles inland. Shuttle the transport planes into there from Burma. Re-fuel them and then, at night, have them fly to Bataan. In 1942 there are a lot more planes that can do a 2000 mile round trip than can do the 3000 mile round trip from Singapore to Bataan. Just a thought.

I don't know about supplies -- though you might be able to send something on fast motorboats, the way the British shipped ball bearings out of Sweden.


But more to the point, you could bomb the Japanese in the Philippines. Not tactical support, that's a little much, but a few B-24s coming over and bombing a supply dump or a headquarters will keep them annoyed. And the guys on Bataan might see them flying over, and feel a little less isolated. (Though they might shake their fists at those flyboys in the lap of luxury, ignoring them.)

Take a look at Operation TIDAL WAVE -- which was technically a disaster, too many B-24s lost for no long-term reduction of production from Ploesti. The bombers flew 1000 miles to Ploesti and 1050 back. And the Japanese defenses won't be anything like the setup at Ploesti.

(The German defender, General Alfred Gerstenberg, was recorded as looking up at the criss-crossing bombers, amazed at the elaborate coordination this took. Up above, the bomber pilots were cursing out the screwup which had led them to go flying every which way -- several of the groups had made a navigational error and had to get back on course.)

The Halverson Detachment of 13 B-24s reached Egypt in June 1942. They could in this case go on to Liuchow (Liuzhou) and operate from there.

 

[Draconis]

But more to the point, you could bomb the Japanese in the Philippines. Not tactical support, that's a little much, but a few B-24s coming over and bombing a supply dump or a headquarters will keep them annoyed. And the guys on Bataan might see them flying over, and feel a little less isolated. (Though they might shake their fists at those flyboys in the lap of luxury, ignoring them.)

Take a look at Operation TIDAL WAVE -- which was technically a disaster, too many B-24s lost for no long-term reduction of production from Ploesti. The bombers flew 1000 miles to Ploesti and 1050 back. And the Japanese defenses won't be anything like the setup at Ploesti.


The Halverson Detachment of 13 B-24s reached Egypt in June 1942. They could in this case go on to Liuchow (Liuzhou) and operate from there.

It would be a hell of a lot easier to support a group or two of B-24s in China, especially with the Burma Road still open, then trying to support a wing of B-29s supplied by the Hump airlift as was attempted in OTL. The B-24s are available now. They could be escorted partway to the P.I. until clear of the Japanese air defenses along the Chinese coast and then met up with again on the way home. As I don't think P-38s even with 300 gallon drop tanks and the Lindbergh cruise technique would have the range to escort the bombers the entire flight distance.

If they could hit the major Japanese held airbases on Luzon they could do a lot of damage at least for the first few missions until the surviving planes are better dispersed, hidden in revetments and camouflaged. If the Filipino and American guerillas could locate where supply and ammo dumps and other targets are precisely located and pass the info on to the American command that would provide good intel on where else to bomb in Luzon and maybe the Northernmost Visayas.

Ports, warehouses and ships would be other important targets. Of course there would also be a great demand for missions in China as well.

 

[fester]

Boston December 5, 1942

Fog was rolling in off the dirty waters of the hahba. Snow has beating down and the northeast wind whipped little flecks of ice and barely soft snow into her face. Elaine bent over into the wind like an aircraft trying to take off from one of the carriers being built in Quincy as she struggled to walk to the department store in Downtown Crossing.

She stopped, unexpectedly as a man cut her off.

“I’m sorry miss…” he muttered as he was pulling his sailor’s cap tight over his eyes. He was a thin, young man with a hint of a French accent. Elaine looked at him more closely and a sudden spark of recognition went between them as she saw a classmate from elementary school in front of her.

“Ti Jean -- let’s get inside, get warm and get a cup of coffee while you tell me what you’ve been up to… I’m just here looking for some new gloves, that can wait.”

The young man smiled and in a grand gesture swept the cold, heavy air with his arm to point towards an imaginary carriage that awaited his old friend.

 

[sloreck]

Oh my it seems Elaine is likely to be falling in to a pattern here. First the charming naval officer, now an old friend (yet another sailor - you know how those are).

 

[fester]

Oh my it seems Elaine is likely to be falling in to a pattern here. First the charming naval officer, now an old friend (yet another sailor - you know how those are).

This is just a friendly coffee and no more. I felt a need to say hi to Jack Kerouac as he is also a Lowellian and was passing through Boston at about this time before he shipped out on another merchant convoy. Every interaction between Elaine and Jack Keruac will be G-rated. Just a long delayed shout-out to one of the first comments in the thread.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/keynes-cruisers.388788/page-2#post-12715949