Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[Viper91]

Tarawa, December 12, 1942


A dozen Army B-24s took off. Their target was Kwajalein, more specifically the fighter field on Roi Namur. This was the third raid that the recently arrived bomb group had flown against the outer Mandates in the past week. None of the raids were anything comparable to the raids that the Army Air Forces doctrine writers had imagined. They were not massive hammer blows aimed at the sinews of industrial production nor the arteries of distribution. They were not carried out by armadas of bombers that blackened the sky like mosquitos in a Louisiana bayou in mid-August. Instead they were eminently pragmatic raids seeking to gain a sliver of an advantage here and a minor tilt of the table there which would make future operations ever so slightly more possible with current resources.

Between Tarawa and Wake, aircraft carriers really aren't needed to hit the Mandates unless or until the Army and Marines are ready to invade and take those islands and parmanently kick the Japanese out.

When are the first of the Essex and Independence class light carriers going to start arriving in the Pacific? Essex herself should already be undergoing her shakedown by now. I assume the Wasp will be in the Pacific soon, and within the next six months, the Sangammon light carriers might be deployed.

 

[fester]

Between Tarawa and Wake, aircraft carriers really aren't needed to hit the Mandates unless or until the Army and Marines are ready to invade and take those islands and parmanently kick the Japanese out.

When are the first of the Essex and Independence class light carriers going to start arriving in the Pacific? Essex herself should already be undergoing her shakedown by now. I assume the Wasp will be in the Pacific soon, and within the next six months, the Sangammon light carriers might be deployed.

Essex is due to use the Canal late January 1943

 

[Errolwi]

Those P-38s need drop tanks. They ought to be able to fully escort the bombers at least as far as Bremen.

Presumably they are still escorting by flying at the bombers' speed as well, which doesn't help.

 

[King Augeas]

Bremen, Germany December 12, 1942
The target was the U-boat construction and repair yards. Destroying boats here was easier than killing or routing around them in the North Atlantic.

Presumably this is written as the contemporary opinion...

 

[NORGCO]

Bremen, Germany

The target was the U-boat construction and repair yards. Destroying boats here was easier than killing or routing around them in the North Atlantic.
.

Ok, is there any truth to this?

Because I have always had the impression that bombing U-boat pens was a total waste of time and effort. It was in a 'Guiness Book of world records' that destroying them post-war required the largest conventional explosions ever.

That is I have always been under the impression that the reason that bombing U-boat pens was disguarded as a tactic was because all it did was make nasty scratches on the overhead bombproof shelters, and did not disturb the boats, crews, repair yards etc underneath in the slightest.

If it was actually working why did they stop doing it? It made them look like practice targets, attacked so that the USAAF could get some practical experience of running air raids to shake down their organisation and doctrine.

 

[pjmidd]

Ok, is there any truth to this?...

The pens at Bremen only started being constructed in OTL 1943 so any slips/repair yards would be standard dockyard ones so no bomb proof roofs etc.

 

[King Augeas]

As ever, the problem was actually hitting something valuable when your CEP is measured in miles...

And then repeatedly coming back and hitting it again to prevent the damage being measured in a handful of days.

 

[fester]

Presumably this is written as the contemporary opinion...

Completely contemporary logic justifying the target as this is the doctrinally appropriate way to beat Uboats with heavy bombers instead of long, low level patrols where weapons are seldom dropped.

 

[Viper91]

Essex is due to use the Canal late January 1943

I assume by that time USS Wasp and other escorts will also have finally arrived. That would give Nimitz 7 fleet carriers to work with.

Another thing of note, after looking up on wikipedia and elsewhere, OTL the light carriers Sangamon, and two of her three sister ships, the USS Suwannee and the USS Chenango, deployed to the Pacific at different dates in December of 1942 and January of 1943. OTL the Sangamons operated together as Carrier Division 22. If they've not already arrived in the Pacific, sending them at the same time as Wasp, Essex, and no telling what other warships would be a massive increase in the size and overall strength of the Pacific Fleet.

 

[fester]

Gulf of Thailand, December 13, 1942

The sea was studded with splashes. A pair of strafing Beaufighters pulled up after they flew over the cargo ship. Her deck was awash with blood as the anti-aircraft gunners had no vertical cover. Flattening themselves on the deck offered some, insufficient, protection. Small fires were already started from the storm of 20 millimeter high explosive shells punching through the thin deck. Six Beauforts bore in with their torpedoes. Other ships in the convoy were firing wildly and widely at the attackers. It was to no avail. All six torpedoes entered the water smoothly. The three thousand ton merchant ship under the best of circumstances might have been able to dodge some of the torpedoes, but with her captain dying, her first mate dead and a twenty two year old officer now at the helm, she stood no chance. Three torpedoes made the five hundred yard run straight and true. Even before the first torpedo hit, some men were jumping over the side. Others hit the deck to prepare themselves for shock and then their world was twisted upside down and sideways as the warheads blasted great holes into the steel skin. Four minutes later, the ship had split into two and the after third was already under water.

 

[fester]

Kotelnikovo , Russia December 14, 1942

The battle groups organizing themselves around this small city had an authorized strength on paper of at least four hundred tanks and two hundred guns. There should have been over 50,000 soldiers eating hot soup, checking their weapons one last time and trying to hide from their sergeants and field officers for a few more minutes of writing a letter home or taking a relaxing piss without worrying about looking over their trucks’ transmission one last time. That strength was last achieved in July 1941. Since then, losses always outpaced replacements and replenishment.


The divisions had almost achieved full strength last June before the summer offensive kicked off. Fighting into the Caucuses had worn the divisions down to regiments and regiments down to battalions. One hundred and forty four tanks were ready. Fuel tanks were filled for the first time in weeks as well as a full complement of shells. The twenty three thousand other soldiers had full bellies and copious amounts of ammunition. A few miles behind the assembled mass, the commander of the 1st Panzer Army shook his head as one of his corps commanders reported that he would be delayed in kicking off a supporting attack by six hours as the Luftwaffe supply flights were still being held by the weather. That prong of the attack would not hold up the rest of the counter-offensive.


The Soviets had driven Army Group B back from the gates of Stalingrad and over the Don River. Most of the Romanian 3rd Army had been destroyed with scattered remnants absorbed by the retreating 8th Italian Army or still fighting desperate last stands against tertiary formations of Red Army soldiers who were mopping up the rear. The southern flank of the Soviet offensive had pushed back the 4th Romanian Army but that army had been stiffened by the 48th Panzer Corps. At least eleven divisions including three German divisions were completely destroyed and over 100,000 men had been lost so far to the concerted double envelopment attempt of the Red Army. However the southern flank was still hanging in the air and this was the target of the 1st Panzer Army’s spearheads.


An hour later, a five minute artillery bombardment kicked off the offensive as white smocked infantry clung to the sides of white painted tanks.

 

[fester]

Leningrad, December 15, 1942

Heavy artillery screamed overhead. The steel shells arced above the lines before tipping over in the thin, cold air and slamming down. Some shells failed as manufacturing to precise specifications without enough food to pay attention led to duds but most succeeded, shredding evergreen trees into toothpicks and digging holes in the frozen ground. Frontal Aviation bombers were returning from raids on crossroads and German reserve positions even as Naval fighters were strafing trenches that were not being shelled.

Tatianna was in an overwatch position, her rifle casually braced on sandbags that offered her a window that was twelve inches wide and three inches tall to see the world. Her spotter was a foot away from her, scanning the German forward positions carefully, pointing out likely machine gun nests. So far she had fired three times that morning, and she would claim two kills; a replacement who paid for his inexperience and a company commander who was trying to rally his men. She continued to scan as artillery clouded her vision. Smoke shells shrouded part of the German position moments before whistles started to blow. Assault teams that had been crawling through the German minefields to approach the barbed wire soon began to detonate clean lanes through the obstacles. The local detonations alerted German defenders to their danger and soon machine guns started to fire and riflemen began to scurry to reinforce weaknesses and prepare counter-attacks against any penetrations.


She entered a fugue state of search, seek, see, sight, squeeze. Whenever a German machine gun nest threatened to hold up an advance, her spotter gave her the location and a minute later, local silence resumed as two or three Germans were draped over their guns. Riflemen were being overwhelmed as their base of fire was silent for critical moments. Sometimes the machine guns could be brought back into action but only after Soviet soldiers advanced, sometimes, they were being overwhelmed. Her last shot of the morning went over the right shoulder of Leningrad defender and into the throat of a German twelve feet away from him. The German had been leading a counter-attack that suddenly tripped over itself, the delay allowed an assault platoon to shift half a dozen men a few dozen meters to the left to absorb the shock and then counter the counter-attack.

 

[fester]

Marseilles France, December 15, 1942


The knife was never seen. Strong hands pulled the collaborator’s body tight onto the blade as the sharp edge went between ribs, cutting open lungs and liver. A final twist punctured a chamber of the heart. As the body was losing its life and going to the floor, the powerful wrists of the killer flexed and pulled the blade out. He wiped the tool clean on his target’s clothes before inserting the sharp, reliable friend into a carrying case. The man in the resistance dragged the body to the corner of the small room and threw some burlap sacks over the corpse. This was not an incredibly well positioned hiding place, but it would buy him a few hours to escape.


He checked his clothes for blood and saw none. A moment later, he walked out the door and wiped his forehead alerting the surveillance and warning team that the job had been done. Another collaborator and German informant was now dead. This was the seventh French citizen that the counter-intelligence teams of the southern resistance had to kill; more were being watched and being fed either meaningless scraps or information on the communists. The former sergeant had become one of the lead wetwork specialists as he could get close without attracting attention and kill with neither pleasure nor hesitation. The few men who killed with pleasure scared everyone else around them. They were out of control and therefore dangerous.


The body was not discovered until the next morning. By that time, Jacques D’Orlong was meeting with other members of the surveillance team who had their eye on a young horizontal who might be more than just a bedwarmer.

 

[Driftless]

Marseilles France, December 15, 1942

The body was not discovered until the next morning. By that time, Jacques D’Orlong was meeting with other members of the surveillance team who had their eye on a young horizontal who might be more than just a bedwarmer.

I see a perilous familial encounter in the future.... This can't end well, no matter what.

 

[fester]

Warsaw, December 16, 1942


Twenty pounds ago, she was gorgeous.

Now, she was tired, haggard and thin as she dominated the pause in the meeting with her silence and her presence.

“No matter what we do, we will not see another year alive here. Our choices are simple; fight and die, or surrender our dignity and then die. I know where my choices lie, the question then is a simple choice, how do we fight well? I am not an expert. I am not a soldier. I am not a warrier. I will defer to those that are experts, soldiers and warriors but I will not cede my dignity in the false hope of survival.”

The men and women, few over the age of forty, arrived at their decisions --- they would fight once they could guarantee a chance to inflict pain on their exterminators. They would not be able to liberate the city nor even liberate the ghetto, but they could make the Germans pay. Runners soon went out to the few black market contacts that had been willing to work with the Warsaw Jews --- weapons and digging equipment would be needed. A radio message was sent to the government in exile based in London, weapons were needed. They would fight once they were ready. Until then, they would block the German ears and blind the German eyes in their community.

 

[Unknown]

The body was not discovered until the next morning. By that time, Jacques D’Orlong was meeting with other members of the surveillance team who had their eye on a young horizontal who might be more than just a bedwarmer.

This ain't gonna end well. At all.

 

[mudhead]

Kotelnikovo , Russia December 14, 1942

Army Group South had somewhat greater tank strength than the panzer divisions - 4 of the 5 Motorized divisions (All except 60 - 3, 16, 29 & 5SS) had a single battalion Panzer detachment, 88 tanks at full strength, incorporated. They were a much more powerful proposition than in previous campaigns.

 

[sloreck]

For an excellent read about the Warsaw ghetto read the "The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow". He was the head of the Warsaw Judenrat (Jewish Council). It is a difficult re4ad as he tried to mediate with the Germans, not knowing how hopeless it was from the get go. Once the Germans began the major deportations from the Ghetto, he committed suicide in November, 1942.

 

[fester]

Lashio, Burma December 16, 1942

Coolies threw boxes onto Dodge trucks. Several crates of obsolete Boys anti-tank rifles thudded on the floor of the last four trucks of this segment of the convoy. Each box containing rifles was attached to another crate carrying a hundred rounds per gun. After a lunch of rice and fish, the drivers mounted up and started their long journey into China.

 

[Donald Reaver]

Lashio, Burma December 16, 1942

Coolies threw boxes onto Dodge trucks. Several crates of obsolete Boys anti-tank rifles thudded on the floor of the last four trucks of this segment of the convoy. Each box containing rifles was attached to another crate carrying a hundred rounds per gun. After a lunch of rice and fish, the drivers mounted up and started their long journey into China.

Should be nasty against any Japanese tank they meet, or nasty as a sniper rifle.