Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

Essen, Germany November 2, 1943

The last Lancaster turned away. One more aircraft was supposed to be behind the bomber that was the raid's tail end Charlie. However a night fighter had scored a kill against a Lancaster that was flown by a pilot on only his second mission. The pilot of the true trail end Charlie was on his ninth raid and he was twitchy as he found ways to slide the big four engine bomber to clouds and dark spots without thinking. It was how the other pilots who had survived more than a few raids flew. No one really talked about this, it just was.

Even as the mighty Merlins accelerated the now far lighter bomber away from the target, the city beneath him was on fire. The pathfinders had laid a good set of markings right over the Krupp works. The few longs slammed into the barge and rail repair yards. By mid-morning, the German damage assessment officers would be sending reports that were even more pessimistic than the estimates that the RAF and MEW bomb damage assessment teams had projected.

 

[mudhead]

Essen, Germany November 2, 1943

I can't find a reference to anything that Bomber Command did on this night, not even in the National Archives.

 

[fester]

I can't find a reference to anything that Bomber Command did on this night, not even in the National Archives.

OTL Bomber Command did not raid ESSEN that night.

OTL Bomber Command was getting ready to start the Battle of Berlin. ITTL that is also the case, but a Ruhr raid as a strategic spoof to keep German attention away from Berlin was ordered in.

Primary point was the distinction between fresh meat rookies and the experience of combat vets contributing to differential survival rates.

 

[Sam R.]

Every extra plane home is a pilot with more experience.

 

[mudhead]

OTL Bomber Command was getting ready to start the Battle of Berlin. ITTL that is also the case, but a Ruhr raid as a strategic spoof to keep German attention away from Berlin was ordered in.

So basically the Bomber Barons are still firmly in the saddle.

 

[fester]

So basically the Bomber Barons are still firmly in the saddle.

Pretty much

 

[Draconis]

Being at the rear of the bomber stream was not a good place to be. By the time the last of the the RAF bombers were arriving at the target area the Luftwaffe controllers would have vectored everything they had flying to that area as they would have been certain by that point which city was the actual main target. During a raid the RAF flew many diversion and spoof missions to confuse the German fighter controllers but eventually it would become evident where the RAF main force was being sent.

 

[AlanJWhite]

Being at the rear of the bomber stream was not a good place to be. By the time the last of the the RAF bombers were arriving at the target area the Luftwaffe controllers would have vectored everything they had flying to that area as they would have been certain by that point which city was the actual main target. During a raid the RAF flew many diversion and spoof missions to confuse the German fighter controllers but eventually it would become evident where the RAF main force was being sent.

View attachment 566097

Agreed. The Bomber Stream tactic which gave all craft in the main attack the same entry point into the German defensive lines
but dividing the attackers into sections separated by short intervals shortened the elapsed period of a raid
from as much as 3+ hours to less than 90 minutes.
Combined with spoof and diversions it helped the RAF a LOT.

However, the last section to arrive was always more vulnerable, especially once the Germans adopted Wilde Sau tactics
that allowed fighters (including some single-seat day fighters) more freedom of action
separately from Zahme Sau night fighters under GCI and fitted with their own Radar (Wild Boar cf Tame Boar)

Given the overall rate of attrition and churn of the Bomber Command personnel,
there is no way that any specific 'last to arrive' section' could be all "old lags"
but I honestly doubt that within that vulnerable section (usually taken from one squadron or a wing)
that a newbie crew would be assigned absolute "tail-end charlie" (at least by a competent commander)

 

[fester]

Pearl Harbor, November 3, 1943

Chief Swanson looked over his shoulder. USS Arizona led her division mates down the channel and past Diamond Head. The other slow battle division was already in open water with a destroyer squadron of pre-war destroyers assuming their escort position. He turned again and saw that the paint job he had strongly suggested had been completed. Half a dozen Japanese flags were painted beneath a bastardized recognition silhouette of a VAL and five large exploding shells were each a foot high. The battleship had been active in the Philippines campaign, and had spent time in dry dock to be ready for the next lunge across the vast emptiness of the Pacific. The last 1.1 inch quad mount had been removed. Any open space on deck had been filled with new Bofors and Oerkilions. Every berthing compartment was overflowing with men as the additional anti-aircraft guns and radars had only added crew requirements. What once had been a fairly spacious ship had shrunk.

Six hours ahead of the chief, the three carrier task groups of 3rd Fleet were forming up. Each was centered around a veteran carrier; Yorktown, Essex and Constellation. One or two more large carriers including the just repaired Lexington joined the veterans and the groups were rounded out by a converted cruiser that could provide local defense and patrolling capacity. Thirteen fast carriers were screened by five modern battleships, eleven cruisers and thirty four destroyers. Most of the ships in this fleet had not yet joined the fleet when the war had started. Most of the men who were carrying out the first step of a grand offensive had been civilians when Pearl Harbor had been bombed. All of the aircraft aboard the fleet carriers had not yet entered production when the few Grummans and Curtisses rose from Ewa, Ford Island and Hickam Field on a Sunday morning twenty three months ago.

 

[fester]

Palawan, November 4, 1943

HMS Manxman and HMS Abdiel entered Shark Fin Bay where a small but rapidly growing naval base had been established once the Americans had secured the island. Half a dozen modern Royal Australian Navy destroyers were at anchor along with a dozen submarines and twice as many wooden hulled coastal combatants. The two mine layers were the largest warships in the harbor even as half a dozen cargo ships were being held until sufficient escort to Marivales could be assembled. The mine layers were high in the water. The two cruisers had laid a total of seven fields off the old colony. Almost three hundred mines had been deposited in the shipping lanes. Their bunkers were light after a six hour sprint in and another six hour sprint out at thirty six knots. The engineers would have thirty six hours to make repairs while the mine holds were reloaded and the fuel tanks filled before another mission off of the French Indochina coast would start.

 

[diestormlie]

I think Manxman is one of my favourite members of the TL's Cast.

 

[Driftless]

Pearl Harbor, November 3, 1943
(snip)

Six hours ahead of the chief, the three carrier task groups of 3rd Fleet were forming up. Each was centered around a veteran carrier; Yorktown, Essex and Constellation. One or two more large carriers including the just repaired Lexington joined the veterans and the groups were rounded out by a converted cruiser that could provide local defense and patrolling capacity. Thirteen fast carriers were screened by five modern battleships, eleven cruisers and thirty four destroyers. Most of the ships in this fleet had not yet joined the fleet when the war had started. Most of the men who were carrying out the first step of a grand offensive had been civilians when Pearl Harbor had been bombed. All of the aircraft aboard the fleet carriers had not yet entered production when the few Grummans and Curtisses rose from Ewa, Ford Island and Hickam Field on a Sunday morning twenty three months ago.

That paragraph made me think of Popeye.... (odd, I know, but there you are...)

 

[Draconis]

I wonder where those combined USN Task forces are heading for. ("Patience, Grasshopper.") And I also wonder what is going to happen with the City of Manila.

 

[kmmontandon]

Palawan, November 4, 1943

HMS Manxman and HMS Abdiel entered Shark Fin Bay

HMS Manxman sure is busy in '43, between this and the Indian Ocean TL ...

 

[Draconis]

HMS Manxman sure is busy in '43, between this and the Indian Ocean TL ...

Maybe fester and Zheng He are arguing over who's turn it is that day to get HMS Manxman.

 

[fester]

Maybe fester and Zheng He are arguing over who's turn it is that day to get HMS Manxman.

I stole this scene from Zheng He's Sunda Strait run --- I was planning to use submarines and bomber gardening but realized I had a better in-theatre choice once ZH started writing.

 

[fester]

Singapore, November 5, 1943

HMAS Hobart slowly entered the dry dock. She had been in the yard for two weeks already, and would be in dry dock for five days to scrape her hull, repair a few plates that had been damaged by a near miss and do eighty three other tasks that were needed to keep a warship at peak efficiency. Once her repairs in the dry dock were done, HMNZS Leander would take her place. But release from the dry dock would not be enough to have the light cruiser rejoin the fleet. She had another twenty four days worth of repairs scheduled to install two new radars and upgrade her anti-aircraft batteries again.

At least the crew would have plenty of time to run ashore as the civilian yard workers needed space to do their work quickly and effectively.

 

[fester]

Bombay, India November 5, 1943

HMS Ultimatum, Upright and Unseen passed the harbor defense vessel manned by Indian volunteers. The look-outs waved as the small submarines slowly cruised to open water. Overhead a patrol plane circled the warships as they turned eventually turned south in a safe transit lane. Their first destination was Ceylon and then Singapore and finally their new war station of the South China Sea where they could patrol the Formosan littoral for Japanese merchant ships.

 

[Driftless]

Singapore, November 5, 1943

HMAS Hobart slowly entered the dry dock. She had been in the yard for two weeks already, and would be in dry dock for five days to scrape her hull, repair a few plates that had been damaged by a near miss and do eighty three other tasks that were needed to keep a warship at peak efficiency. Once her repairs in the dry dock were done, HMNZS Leander would take her place. But release from the dry dock would not be enough to have the light cruiser rejoin the fleet. She had another twenty four days worth of repairs scheduled to install two new radars and upgrade her anti-aircraft batteries again.

At least the crew would have plenty of time to run ashore as the civilian yard workers needed space to do their work quickly and effectively.

Those cruisers being able to rotate through the body-and-fender shop at a pace where all reasonable reasonable repairs and upgrades are done in logical fashion is a measure of how ascendant the allied navies are. There's no panic driven "get-em-in-get-em-out" mindset at work.

 

[fester]