Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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Story 2349
Wake Island, December 12, 1943
The lagoon was overcrowded. Two harbor tugs were leading a pair of GATOs through the channel between Wilkes and Wake. Outside of the channel a damaged assault transport waited her turn to enter. The Japanese gunners managed to land a trio of 5.5 inch shells against the transport. USS Maryland and USS Nashville then proceeded to bury that defense battery under steel and Avengers from Lexington followed up with a squadron strike. The damage was enough to start fires and put half a dozen men into Neptune's embrace and another two dozen in sick bay. If there was a strong enough need, the assault transport could and would have been able to participate in another assault beyond the one on Saipan and Tinian but now she was back to the atoll for repairs.
Inside the lagoon, half a dozen tenders were busy tending to their flocks of submarines, destroyers, minesweepers and flying boats. Five of those ships had been in the lagoon for over a year now, and the baseball league was quite competitive. They had been joined over the past two months. Four floating drydocks were nested in tight where the main island bent. One had a submarined damaged by depth charges cradled. Two destroyers were undergoing repairs after bomb damage and the fourth had a fast minelayer lifted out of the water for a routine refit. A dozen assault and transport ships were anchored where the old Pan Am hotel had been before the war. Two repair ships were busy along with a single crane ship.
Other ships were due to arrive later in the afternoon, so the transport skipper waited patiently for the submarines to go forth on their patrol before following the yard tug into the lagoon and over to the repair section.
The lagoon was overcrowded. Two harbor tugs were leading a pair of GATOs through the channel between Wilkes and Wake. Outside of the channel a damaged assault transport waited her turn to enter. The Japanese gunners managed to land a trio of 5.5 inch shells against the transport. USS Maryland and USS Nashville then proceeded to bury that defense battery under steel and Avengers from Lexington followed up with a squadron strike. The damage was enough to start fires and put half a dozen men into Neptune's embrace and another two dozen in sick bay. If there was a strong enough need, the assault transport could and would have been able to participate in another assault beyond the one on Saipan and Tinian but now she was back to the atoll for repairs.
Inside the lagoon, half a dozen tenders were busy tending to their flocks of submarines, destroyers, minesweepers and flying boats. Five of those ships had been in the lagoon for over a year now, and the baseball league was quite competitive. They had been joined over the past two months. Four floating drydocks were nested in tight where the main island bent. One had a submarined damaged by depth charges cradled. Two destroyers were undergoing repairs after bomb damage and the fourth had a fast minelayer lifted out of the water for a routine refit. A dozen assault and transport ships were anchored where the old Pan Am hotel had been before the war. Two repair ships were busy along with a single crane ship.
Other ships were due to arrive later in the afternoon, so the transport skipper waited patiently for the submarines to go forth on their patrol before following the yard tug into the lagoon and over to the repair section.
Story 2350
Bonn, Germany 1539 December 13, 1943
Flak gunners relaxed. Shell casings were collected and ready ammunition stores were replenished. Two squadrons of RAF twin engine bombers had dropped their loads on the airfield. One had crashed just outside of the fence line. Another seemed to be severely damaged by the hail of steel flung skywards. Yet those losses would be more than acceptable to the RAF. Half a dozen night fighters were destroyed, another pair would likely become hanger queens. Far more vitally, a pair of high capacity bombs exploded within yards of the slit trench that had been sheltering half a dozen skilled mechanics and a man who could coax incredible performance out of any finicky radar set like it was a seventeen year old girl who wanted a man to pay attention to her for the first time. No pilots were lost in the raid; they had sheltered in a steel reinforced concrete bunker that was buried under half a dozen meters of earth but the squadrons that had been fighting the RAF's raids against Berlin would be lucky if they were half as efficient tonight as they had been on the last good flying night.
Nine hours later, several hundred RAF heavies began their run into Berlin. The crews noticed that the night fighters were active but not as pervasive as they had been earlier in the offensive. Luck and several offensive counter air missions had paid off.
Flak gunners relaxed. Shell casings were collected and ready ammunition stores were replenished. Two squadrons of RAF twin engine bombers had dropped their loads on the airfield. One had crashed just outside of the fence line. Another seemed to be severely damaged by the hail of steel flung skywards. Yet those losses would be more than acceptable to the RAF. Half a dozen night fighters were destroyed, another pair would likely become hanger queens. Far more vitally, a pair of high capacity bombs exploded within yards of the slit trench that had been sheltering half a dozen skilled mechanics and a man who could coax incredible performance out of any finicky radar set like it was a seventeen year old girl who wanted a man to pay attention to her for the first time. No pilots were lost in the raid; they had sheltered in a steel reinforced concrete bunker that was buried under half a dozen meters of earth but the squadrons that had been fighting the RAF's raids against Berlin would be lucky if they were half as efficient tonight as they had been on the last good flying night.
Nine hours later, several hundred RAF heavies began their run into Berlin. The crews noticed that the night fighters were active but not as pervasive as they had been earlier in the offensive. Luck and several offensive counter air missions had paid off.
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Driftless
Donor
By now, the dynamited and dredged spoil from the formerly shallow lagoon should constitute enough fill for it's own small island.....
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When it's time to move forward in this ATL will the USN skip Ulithi Atoll and use Manila Bay as a forward anchorage? After Manila is liberated. Manila Bay will need some work however but it's a near perfect harbour and location.
Story 2351
27 miles north of Truk Lagoon, December 14, 1943
USS Darter went back under the waves. Dawn was coming. The battery banks were full. The air was fresh. The coffee was fresh. The look-outs found their mugs and their watches were coming to an end. It was another night of motoring on the surface, looking for breaks in the waves and hints of smoke hiding against low level clouds. The sonar shack had heard little beyond biological contacts. The radar teams saw nothing. For two weeks, the submarine had been patrolling off of what had been a significant pre-war Japanese base. A six ship convoy had evaded them the second afternoon of the patrol. Since then, nothing above seven hundred tons had been seen on the sealanes from the Japanese Home Islands to the bastion that had been garrisoned by well over an infantry division and most of an air flotilla.
USS Darter went back under the waves. Dawn was coming. The battery banks were full. The air was fresh. The coffee was fresh. The look-outs found their mugs and their watches were coming to an end. It was another night of motoring on the surface, looking for breaks in the waves and hints of smoke hiding against low level clouds. The sonar shack had heard little beyond biological contacts. The radar teams saw nothing. For two weeks, the submarine had been patrolling off of what had been a significant pre-war Japanese base. A six ship convoy had evaded them the second afternoon of the patrol. Since then, nothing above seven hundred tons had been seen on the sealanes from the Japanese Home Islands to the bastion that had been garrisoned by well over an infantry division and most of an air flotilla.
Why does seemingly every WWII airforce protect the pilots and aircrew on the ground and not the equally as important ground crews when they design their airbases. Seriously you'd think they'd have learned by the end of the war
You're boggle here would be assuming this wasn't an issue AFTER WWII as well
Somewhat seriously it's because in most cases the pilots/aircrew are harder to come-by/replace than the more advanced trained and experienced aircrew. In practice this is actually a point since it's harder to get a replacement pilot than a replacement technician who's normally mostly trained 'on-the-job' in any case. This can of course be found in extreme at some points by personal experience being as a radar technician for the AWACS. The two Airmen I went through the general radar training course with showed up on base the same day I did and were immediately treated as royalty because they wore flight suits.
Meanwhile in Gulf War 1 we ground crew helped construct the aircrew shelters and then were turned to constructing what were far to hopefully called "above ground slit trenches" between the aircraft (open) hard stands for our own shelter. Note, no overhead cover, a single sandbag width in each wall and a small 'expansion' at one end with a stored piece of plastic tarp for 'protection' against a chemical attack. Reason for this set up? Well if one plane gets hit then the burning fuel will be 'stopped' by the 'trench' and won't reach the next aircraft over! See? Simple...
The little fact that the taxiway runoff doesn't do that, (fuel would run towards the middle of the taxiway and likely 'pool' up right where the ground crew is sheltering) wasn't considered relevant nor the fact that this didn't protect the ground crews OR the aircraft. Command's mind was made up... Till we had a little incident where, shall we say, we ran an impromptu 'combat evaluation exercise' where said "slit trench" did not even slow down one hurtling-to-get-under-cover NCO, (and can neither confirm or deny it was my fat bottom
) went THROUGH both side of the "trench" and said impact causing a domino of one entire 'wall' of the structure...12 hours later all the ground crew had 'proper' shelters I dare say a bit better than that of the aircrews
Randy
I actually interpreted this on a first read as the Japanese having somehow sneaked a shore battery onto Wake.
They did but everyone ignored it till someone realized it was NOT just the Marines being 'peevish' with the Navy... Boy did that cause a row... (The Marines still bought the Japanese gun crew a round of drinks after the whole thing was over.. Because, you know it was the Navy after all...
)Randy
Story 2352
Marcus Island, December 15, 1943
The US strike aircraft left. There was very little left worth strafing and even less worth bombing. What remained was not worth the risk of riflemen and machine gunners scoring a one in one thousand hit.
Two hours later, the American fleet carriers turned back to the east after the last bomber landed. They were heading home to Pearl Harbor to rest, repair, replenish. Another staff and another set of Admirals had already convened to plan what a renamed fleet would do in late January.
The US strike aircraft left. There was very little left worth strafing and even less worth bombing. What remained was not worth the risk of riflemen and machine gunners scoring a one in one thousand hit.
Two hours later, the American fleet carriers turned back to the east after the last bomber landed. They were heading home to Pearl Harbor to rest, repair, replenish. Another staff and another set of Admirals had already convened to plan what a renamed fleet would do in late January.
Story 2353
Dufftown, Scotland, December 16, 1943
The Americans were exhausted. They had humped their way through the Scottish Highlands for the past four days. A valley overlooking a beautiful lake where a decrepit castle occupied an incredibly strong defensive position had given almost every man the creeps as they kept on marching with full packs. The cold from the North Sea had penetrated into the bones of the thousand infantrymen and engineers. At the end, they had to conduct an assault crossing of the small river just above the town's distilleries before hot food, warm coffee and dry socks were passed out like Halloween candy. The 101st Assault Division was training now, trading sweat for hopefully blood that could be avoided next spring.
The Americans were exhausted. They had humped their way through the Scottish Highlands for the past four days. A valley overlooking a beautiful lake where a decrepit castle occupied an incredibly strong defensive position had given almost every man the creeps as they kept on marching with full packs. The cold from the North Sea had penetrated into the bones of the thousand infantrymen and engineers. At the end, they had to conduct an assault crossing of the small river just above the town's distilleries before hot food, warm coffee and dry socks were passed out like Halloween candy. The 101st Assault Division was training now, trading sweat for hopefully blood that could be avoided next spring.
Major supply convoys can go directly from the West Coast to the Philippines. Escorted by a sufficient number of DEs and a CVE or two what is there to stop them? Nothing.
So they're following the same practice as OTL, with different Command Staffs alternating with the same fleet (TF38/58).
You'd need to refuel/swap out the DEs roughly halfway there in order to keep their fuel levels acceptable though
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