Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

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Story 1726
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    • fester

    Kotelnikovo , Russia December 20, 1942

    Divisional heavy batteries fired again. Shells split open. Fragments pinged off of tanks and sliced open men. Another salvo landed. Gunsights were ruined, antennas cut and infantry was on the ground making themselves as small and as well hidden as possible. Eleven Panzers, the working tanks of a battalion fired, their long guns seeking out Soviet T-34s and Churchills that were cresting a slight rise in the steppes. Shells slammed into armor and spall ripped open men. The panzers moved forward and fired again before the first Soviet tanks were able to fire back. Several more German rounds hit the Soviet tanks while none of the off the hip shots fired by the Red Army Guards tankers managed to hit their attackers. The Germans pushed the counter-attack another three miles.


    By nightfall, nine Panzers were still able to fight. One was a complete loss and the last one had already been dragged back to the workshops. Twenty three burned out Soviet tanks littered the battlefied as the last of the Soviet spearheads had been smashed. The 1st Panzer Army had advanced and then retreated almost 100 miles in each direction. Two Soviet tank armies had been hamstrung and a rifle corps gutted.


    Yet, the 1st Panzer Army was a spent force as less than 120 tanks would be ready for battle in the morning. Most of the losses would eventually be recovered and refurbished in the workshops near Rostov. but Army Group South’s ability to seize the initiative was gone. What had been a fine halberd was now a mere club; lethal when well used but blunt and counterable with enough armor and mass.
     
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    • Story 1727
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    • fester


    Port Blair, Andaman Islands December 22, 1942


    What had been a small airfield a year ago suitable for emergency medical evacuations and the transport of high value prisoners had become a critical airbase. Engineers and laborers including convicts from the Black Water prison had spent the past year expanding the runways and building fuel dumps. The hard surfaced runway was now being used by a squadron of Ansons, another of Hudsons and a third of Blenheims. The seaplane base was overcrowded with Catalinas and Sunderlands.


    The flying boats were keeping a close watch over the invasion convoy that had passed through the waters. The Far East Fleet was far away, the heavy forces concentrating in the Java Sea, so only local forces and the light escorts of old cruisers and obsolete destroyers screened the 8,000 men who would be fired from the sea and into the vital organs of the enemy at impossibly and ungentlemanly close range. Few submarines had been seen in the Bay off Bengal. German signals were heard just as frequently as Japanese signals. The intercepts had identified at least two submarines that might be a threat a week ago, so the amphibians maintained their watch as the assault ships headed east at eleven knots.
     
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    • Story 1728
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    • fester


    North Atlantic December 21, 1942

    HMS Campbeltown’s bow broke through bracingly cold waves. Water washed over the decks. Exposed men grunted as the shock did not move them. They were used to these conditions. Another merchant ship was on fire. The merchant gunners were firing at a possible periscope with everything that they had. A dozen guns from almost as many angles were firing, misses, near and far, churning up the water. Flares were being fired to alert escorts and an emergency turn added to the chaos.

    The destroyer slowed. Her ASDIC was pinging. The soundman called out a firm contact and attack procedures were started even as HMS Bayntum approached to assist. The Hedgehog was made ready and as the old destroyer ran down the track, every man who could find cover forward of the bridge went behind a shield. Suddenly, the bombards were launched, twenty four explosive rounds flew out in an ellipse. They arced through the air before punching through the waves. Men watched and waited.

    Seconds passed. Nothing happened.

    Then one, two, three explosions, dirty gray water mushrooming on the surface. Oil stains marred the sea, slightly calming the waves. The Hedgehog was secured as gunners waited. Thirty seconds after the explosion, sharp eyed sailors saw darkness ascending. Seconds more every gun aboard the old destroyer was rapidly turning towards the spot where the bow of a damaged U-boat was about ready to poke through the surface. The damaged hunter broached like a wounded baleen whale and stayed above the waves for a few seconds. Men had started to scramble out of the hatches and into the frigid sea. No boats were launched, no rafts were thrown over the side. Eight men entered the sea with the thin chance of rescue before the U-boat’s buoyancy failed and she started to rapidly sink again. The destroyer’s captain watched the death spasm of his target with disinterest even as he ordered engines to stop and a whale boat to be made ready. The men in the water had little hope of rescue, but the sea demanded that he try.

    Thirty minutes later, two live survivors were being held below as the only quasi-trained medical rating attempted to combat hypothermia. Three bodies were brought aboard as well; they would be committed to the sea later that day. The destroyer picked up speed to resume position with the convoy even as the bosun was organizing a work crew to paint a second U-boat of the voyage underneath the wheelhouse where this success would join the other kills she had claimed and confirmed.
     
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    • sonofpegasus

    Small detail, the hedgehog was a spigot mortar, so there are no launch tubes! just rows pf spigots onto which the hollow tails of the mortar bombs a slid.
     

    diestormlie

    Damnably unsporting of those Axis Chaps to surrender before the Allies had the chsnce to have a proper crack at them.
     
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    fester

    diestormlie said:
    Damnably unsporting of those Axis Chaps to surrender before the Allies hadhthe chsnce to have a proper crack at them.
    Click to expand...
    The Allies had been taking a good hard crack at them. The daily H&I artillery allotment was 5,000 to 10,000+ shells and 200+ fighter bomber to medium bomber sorties. That is just normal harrassment operations. Large scale operations (several have occurred) are 100,000 shell days with 1,000+ sorties in BAI or CAS
     

    diestormlie

    fester said:
    The Allies had been taking a good hard crack at them. The daily H&I artillery allotment was 5,000 to 10,000+ shells and 200+ fighter bomber to medium bomber sorties. That is just normal harrassment operations. Large scale operations (several have occurred) are 100,000 shell days with 1,000+ sorties in BAI or CAS
    Click to expand...

    I may not have been entirely serious with that comment.
     

    Draconis

    One wonders whether the German Commander at Cap Bon had recently received a promotion to Field Marshall. And had the good sense to ignore the veiled suggestion. Anyway the surrender would surely be the best possible Christmas present for everybody, including what civilians that may have been trapped in the area.
     

    Draconis

    The old 4 stacker Campbeltown is having an illustrious career in TTL. Sinking 2 U-boats is a big accomplishment. Possibly more useful than wrecking a drydock?

    Squid and Hedgehog. Superior weapons than depth charges. The sonar/asdic operator won't lose the contact during an attack if they miss. And if they hit? Even just one hit can sink a U-boat.
     

    Draconis

    fester said:
    Port Blair, Andaman Islands December 22, 1942

    The flying boats were keeping a close watch over the invasion convoy that had passed through the waters. The Far East Fleet was far away, the heavy forces concentrating in the Java Sea, so only local forces and the light escorts of old cruisers and obsolete destroyers screened the 8,000 men who would be fired from the sea and into the vital organs of the enemy at impossibly and ungentlemanly close range. Few submarines had been seen in the Bay off Bengal. German signals were heard just as frequently as Japanese signals. The intercepts had identified at least two submarines that might be a threat a week ago, so the amphibians maintained their watch as the assault ships headed east at eleven knots.
    Click to expand...

    I'm guessing they are going to land somewhere on the West coast at roughly the same latitude as Bangkok. What a bad surprise for the Japanese. Where will the IJA get the units to face this sudden invasion on their flank? The IJA is already tied down in the Kra isthmus and in Burma.
     

    fester

    Draconis said:
    The old 4 stacker Campbeltown is having an illustrious career in TTL. Sinking 2 U-boats is a big accomplishment. Possibly more useful than wrecking a drydock?

    Squid and Hedgehog. Superior weapons than depth charges. The sonar/asdic operator won't lose the contact during an attack if they miss. And if they hit? Even just one hit can sink a U-boat.
    Click to expand...
    She has firm claims on a third kill (https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/keynes-cruisers.388788/page-92#post-14556178) and at least another possible https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/keynes-cruisers.388788/page-468#post-17421958
     

    Butchpfd

    Wow.. Sounds great for the assault forces, even better for the Italians and Germans, they get to live and get fed, and Another nail in the Axis coffin!
     

    Unknown

    Just realized something--films like The Railway Man and Bridge on the River Kwai are butterflied away, due to the Allies' doing much better against Japan ITTL...
     
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