Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
- Thread starter fester
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Right now no.
Subic facilities are wrecked. Guam has no facilities. The USN and RN have a forward refueling, resupply and recreating base on Palawan to dominate the South China Sea and trade near the Formosan Strait. The USN PacFlt boats are using Wake (replaces the role OTL Midway played) as a forward operating base with multiple tenders in the lagoon to maximize their effective combat time per patrol. Sooner rather than later, at least one USN sub-tender will head to Guam but that won't be until after Christmas.
I had to do a little digging so as to understand your "natural enemies" comment. And the USS Hickory is a fictional ship?
Correct, USS Hickory is an austere version of the Erie class gunboat/Treasury class cutter in this timeline.
Same here, on initially reading that update I was left very confused at what problems those living in Piedmont had with Griffins.
One is a submarine tender, the other is a destroyer tender. Thus, they are support ships for natural enemies.
Manila Bay is currently an artillery free fire zone. The Japanese hold Cavite.
As Driftless said. We can happily wait. It's no good if it becomes a chore instead of a hobby. It'll be interesting to see how your TL plays out but there's no rush.
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Story 2337
Lajes, Azores November 26, 1943
The squadron commander looked away. The radar screen was empty except for a single blimp that was an hour out from the airfield as it made a long, slow ferry crossing to North Africa. Buccaneer-3 was not coming back. He, and many other men in the anti-submarine patrol squadron had started their watch on the radar screen two hours after Buccaneer-3 was overdue. No one worried about the first hour. Of the six aircraft that had gone up this morning to cover four separate convoys, one arrived an hour ahead of time as the bomb-bays were empty after dropping a Fido mine against a U-boat. The U-boat managed to dodge the mine, but Buccaneer-6 circled for hours until it was relieved by an escort carrier's Avengers. Another aircraft arrived back at the field four minutes late. The other three bombers arrived within an hour of the planned landing time. The big, four engine bombers always had plenty of fuel reserves for these long, lonely, overwater flights. One hour was nothing, two hours was usual, three and four hours were stretching things.
The squadron commander would not, could not, declare the aircraft lost and the entire flew crew missing for several more hours but the odds were now not in their favor. They had been seen protectively circling the convoy and departed nearly on time. Somewhere in the six hundred mile flight home, the four engine bomber likely fell into the sea.
The squadron commander looked away. The radar screen was empty except for a single blimp that was an hour out from the airfield as it made a long, slow ferry crossing to North Africa. Buccaneer-3 was not coming back. He, and many other men in the anti-submarine patrol squadron had started their watch on the radar screen two hours after Buccaneer-3 was overdue. No one worried about the first hour. Of the six aircraft that had gone up this morning to cover four separate convoys, one arrived an hour ahead of time as the bomb-bays were empty after dropping a Fido mine against a U-boat. The U-boat managed to dodge the mine, but Buccaneer-6 circled for hours until it was relieved by an escort carrier's Avengers. Another aircraft arrived back at the field four minutes late. The other three bombers arrived within an hour of the planned landing time. The big, four engine bombers always had plenty of fuel reserves for these long, lonely, overwater flights. One hour was nothing, two hours was usual, three and four hours were stretching things.
The squadron commander would not, could not, declare the aircraft lost and the entire flew crew missing for several more hours but the odds were now not in their favor. They had been seen protectively circling the convoy and departed nearly on time. Somewhere in the six hundred mile flight home, the four engine bomber likely fell into the sea.
As I recall being a pilot or crew for maritime patrol was almost as dangerous as a job as it got in WWII
I recently saw a documentary on the story of a group of men in the medical corps who landed in the first wave of the Anzio landings. two points that came up were how they were constantly being shot at when going to get the wounded and that they normally went without weapons so I would defiantly add their job as a super dangerous job.
McPherson
Banned
The joke ran...
Shoot the radioman, first, because he can call in Arty Artillery and Rupert Fly-guy to ruin the party.
Shoot the medic, second, because he can patch them up.
Shoot the sergeant, third, because he is experienced and he can direct their fight.
But leave the 2nd Loonie alive, because of his stupidity. He will figure out the one way to make it easy for you to get all the rest of them.
It would depend greatly on where you were flying out of and where you were patrolling. Flying long patrols at low altitude over the North Atlantic from Canada, Iceland and Great Britain and facing the atrocious North Atlantic weather was dangerous. The weather was a bigger danger there than the U-boats.
Flying from Cornwall to patrol over the Bay of Biscay the weather not so bad but the danger from flak from surfaced U-boats and the threat from the Luftwaffe fighter patrols was higher. However I think the British eventually preferred to use Beaufighters and Mosquitoes for those missions. Planes which the pilots could use to defend themselves adequately against what planes the Luftwaffe could send out.
Now patrolling the skies over the peaceful placid waters of the Caribbean Sea? That's training missions. If you see a U-boat you can radio in the entire world on it. At least after 1942. And you just have to look out for the occasional hurricane.
But WW2 flying always carried a high intrinsic risk. From faulty engines or airframes. Poor or rushed maintenance. Sketchy or faulty weather forecasts. Navigational errors.
Incompetent pilots. (Yes, sad to say this happened too.) And in the case of our putative Buccaneer-3 with its many fuel tanks and complex fuel piping, a fuel leak followed up by an inflight explosion. Not an unknown occurrence with Liberators and Privateers.
Or maybe the poor fellows ran into a severe line squall they couldn't get over or around. In those days so many pilots and aircrews went out and never returned for reasons never determined.
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Story 2338
Central China, November 27, 1943
The trio of heavy machine guns ceased firing. A minute or two later, riflemen walked through the kill zone. Single shots rang out over the next several minutes as the Chinese soldiers looted the bodies of the Chinese Communist guerrilla column that had its point men too close to the other twenty seven peasants. The officers would soon congratulate themselves on the third successful action against enemies to the nation.
Tomorrow, the three hundred Nationalist soldiers would patrol for Japanese patrols, but tonight they would rest.
The trio of heavy machine guns ceased firing. A minute or two later, riflemen walked through the kill zone. Single shots rang out over the next several minutes as the Chinese soldiers looted the bodies of the Chinese Communist guerrilla column that had its point men too close to the other twenty seven peasants. The officers would soon congratulate themselves on the third successful action against enemies to the nation.
Tomorrow, the three hundred Nationalist soldiers would patrol for Japanese patrols, but tonight they would rest.
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