AKA - A perfect time for a bunch of really bored submariners with too much time on their hands to meet some people with a love of explosions.
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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McPherson
Banned
Different strokes... for different folks.
The two nations had different doctrines and experiences. The British would find it not workable in PACFLT or ALAMO FORCE.
What has the Irish DF at The Siege of Jodotville have to do with special swimmer ops in WW2?
McPherson
Banned
Ineptitude? This is the link it should have been.What has the Irish DF at The Siege of Jodotville have to do with special swimmer ops in WW2?
My only comment, aside from the mistake in the link is that it would have been done differently based on training, circumstance and access to different methods and ways of doing things. What worked in Europe would get you killed in the Pacific and vice versa.
So--has anyone tried to torpedo a train? (by waiting for it to cross a bridge and torpedoing the bridge as the train crosses.) IIRC, someone at least tried to do just that, but I don't recall if that was real or just urban legend. Then you have to guestimate how many tons the train was; Japanese trains were smaller than American ones. (Well, almost everyone's trains were smaller than American ones, with the exception of the Russian trains.)
I know USS Barb sent a boat party ashore to Japan to blow up a train by putting a bomb on the tracks and USS Bowfin supposedly torpedoed a bus by having a torpedo hit the dock it was driving on, but I don't recall any sub torpedoing a train.
USS Barb (SS-220) - Wikipedia
USS Bowfin - Wikipedia
In the original timeline, on the 8th August, 1942, the Royal Navy submarine Unbroken is claimed to have shot up a train on an Italian coastal line with her 3" deck gun. (Unbroken: The Story of a Submarine, chapter 5)
Story 2499
Near Oran, Algeria, April 27, 1944
Artillery batteries were firing rapidly. Shells, a mixture of high explosive and smoke, shrouded a thin ridge line that once was covered in trees. Beneath them on a narrow plain infantry men, many natives of the southern part of the Metropole, a few escapees from the homeland, and even more expatriates and voyagers who had come to the colors of France since her fall advanced in between clumps of tanks. The Shermans would move forward from cover and into cover while the rest of the section covered them with machine gun bursts and the occasional 75 millimeter high explosive shell. Engineers were clearing lanes through anti-tank minefields and funny looking combat vehicles were driving forward with massive bundles of wood on top of them to fill in an anti-tank ditch. Bridgelayers were not far behind.
As the infantry were within a quarter mile of the ridge line, most of the artillery shifted. The gunners paused for a few minutes to clear their work spaces and then they took new orders from observers who were either in modified Shermans or in the air above the division's advance in Piper Cubs. Artillery soon began to seek out road junctions and a narrow part of a wadi where enemy reinforcements would have to come. Even as the heavy guns of the division shifted fire to the rear, a battalion of field guns continued to fire smoke at the ridge line. Half a squadron of French flown Thunderbolts bombed and strafed the ridge as they flew parallels to it. The infantry attacked up the hill.
An hour later, the exercise was over. The division had completed its last full scale maneuver before it would be locked into its camp with almost no one going out and very few people coming in. They were ready. Their compatriots in the 1st Army of Liberation were coming to be honed to a sharp edge. Rest and recovery was needed more than another day on the exercise fields. Mechanics would go over their tanks with a fine tooth comb. Every rifleman would clean his rifle to a standard that would not disappoint a sergeant who had been in service since the Marne. Every radio operator would make sure that the sets were functional and a spare set of batteries procured. Everyone would be ready.
Soon, soon enough, this would no longer be an exercise.
Artillery batteries were firing rapidly. Shells, a mixture of high explosive and smoke, shrouded a thin ridge line that once was covered in trees. Beneath them on a narrow plain infantry men, many natives of the southern part of the Metropole, a few escapees from the homeland, and even more expatriates and voyagers who had come to the colors of France since her fall advanced in between clumps of tanks. The Shermans would move forward from cover and into cover while the rest of the section covered them with machine gun bursts and the occasional 75 millimeter high explosive shell. Engineers were clearing lanes through anti-tank minefields and funny looking combat vehicles were driving forward with massive bundles of wood on top of them to fill in an anti-tank ditch. Bridgelayers were not far behind.
As the infantry were within a quarter mile of the ridge line, most of the artillery shifted. The gunners paused for a few minutes to clear their work spaces and then they took new orders from observers who were either in modified Shermans or in the air above the division's advance in Piper Cubs. Artillery soon began to seek out road junctions and a narrow part of a wadi where enemy reinforcements would have to come. Even as the heavy guns of the division shifted fire to the rear, a battalion of field guns continued to fire smoke at the ridge line. Half a squadron of French flown Thunderbolts bombed and strafed the ridge as they flew parallels to it. The infantry attacked up the hill.
An hour later, the exercise was over. The division had completed its last full scale maneuver before it would be locked into its camp with almost no one going out and very few people coming in. They were ready. Their compatriots in the 1st Army of Liberation were coming to be honed to a sharp edge. Rest and recovery was needed more than another day on the exercise fields. Mechanics would go over their tanks with a fine tooth comb. Every rifleman would clean his rifle to a standard that would not disappoint a sergeant who had been in service since the Marne. Every radio operator would make sure that the sets were functional and a spare set of batteries procured. Everyone would be ready.
Soon, soon enough, this would no longer be an exercise.
Story 2500
Kuroshima, Japan April 28, 1944
The first airfield was open for emergency landings. The strip currently was only 5300 feet long and 100 feet wide. Packed earth was in between the steel mats that constituted the actual runway. 4,000 construction troops were still hard at work on the main strip and a strip three hundred yards to the north. Both would eventually be 10,000 foot strips that were two hundred feet wide with enough fuel and hard stands to support a super heavy bombardment wing. That progress would not be complete for another two months at least, and then tankers and supply ships would need to lighter the consumables ashore before the bombers would show up.
Off to the north, half a dozen Marine fighter squadrons were operating off of the captured Japanese airfield while an entire Army fighter group of Mustangs had settled in at another brand new fighter field near the landing beaches. A few hold-outs were still in the hills that ran along the western edge of that island, but they had no artillery, no mortars and the sight lines to the airfields were obstructed by Marine occupied hills. They were a nuisance who could starve, die or surrender at their convenience as they were incapable of stopping the transformation of the island that they had been tasked to defend from being converted from farms into a massive airfield complex.
The first airfield was open for emergency landings. The strip currently was only 5300 feet long and 100 feet wide. Packed earth was in between the steel mats that constituted the actual runway. 4,000 construction troops were still hard at work on the main strip and a strip three hundred yards to the north. Both would eventually be 10,000 foot strips that were two hundred feet wide with enough fuel and hard stands to support a super heavy bombardment wing. That progress would not be complete for another two months at least, and then tankers and supply ships would need to lighter the consumables ashore before the bombers would show up.
Off to the north, half a dozen Marine fighter squadrons were operating off of the captured Japanese airfield while an entire Army fighter group of Mustangs had settled in at another brand new fighter field near the landing beaches. A few hold-outs were still in the hills that ran along the western edge of that island, but they had no artillery, no mortars and the sight lines to the airfields were obstructed by Marine occupied hills. They were a nuisance who could starve, die or surrender at their convenience as they were incapable of stopping the transformation of the island that they had been tasked to defend from being converted from farms into a massive airfield complex.
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Driftless
Donor
I got a "A Passage to Marseilles" vibe there, even though there's no Devil's Island escapee's listed.
Story 2501
San Fernando, Luzon April 28, 1944
Three big flying boats, painted midnight blue taxied to be close to their tender. They had landed just minutes ago after a long sortie up the Straits of Formosa. A small minefield was refreshed near Matsu and a tiny coastal convoy of four traders and a single sub-chaser had been spotted. The sighting had been sent out to other prowling cats and a pack of submarines that were near the northern tip of Formosa.
Three big flying boats, painted midnight blue taxied to be close to their tender. They had landed just minutes ago after a long sortie up the Straits of Formosa. A small minefield was refreshed near Matsu and a tiny coastal convoy of four traders and a single sub-chaser had been spotted. The sighting had been sent out to other prowling cats and a pack of submarines that were near the northern tip of Formosa.
Story 2502
East bank of the Pivdennyi Buh River , April 29, 1944
Three thousand guns broke the darkness of the night. Each gun had at least one hundred shells stockpiled nearby for the morning. Behind the gunners, several hundred rocket launching trucks were ready. The first salvo from those rockets would be high explosives aimed at the forward German and Romanian defenses. The second salvo would be almost entirely smoke to cover hundreds of rubber rafts being paddled across the broad river.
By nightfall, four rifle divisions had beachheads at least eight hundred yards deep on the far bank. Two of the beachheads were wide enough to accept the lead elements of tank brigades while the pioneers were already busy building ferries and bridges. The riflemen continued to push forward to secure defensive positions for the anti-tank guns to be sited and the anti-tank minefields to be laid. There would need to be a German counter-attack against these thin but expanding positions for if crossings could be secured, the entire southern German army group would be in a moment of crisis. And once that counter-attack came, the real battle would begin.
Three thousand guns broke the darkness of the night. Each gun had at least one hundred shells stockpiled nearby for the morning. Behind the gunners, several hundred rocket launching trucks were ready. The first salvo from those rockets would be high explosives aimed at the forward German and Romanian defenses. The second salvo would be almost entirely smoke to cover hundreds of rubber rafts being paddled across the broad river.
By nightfall, four rifle divisions had beachheads at least eight hundred yards deep on the far bank. Two of the beachheads were wide enough to accept the lead elements of tank brigades while the pioneers were already busy building ferries and bridges. The riflemen continued to push forward to secure defensive positions for the anti-tank guns to be sited and the anti-tank minefields to be laid. There would need to be a German counter-attack against these thin but expanding positions for if crossings could be secured, the entire southern German army group would be in a moment of crisis. And once that counter-attack came, the real battle would begin.
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Pretty sure tbe Dnepr was crossed by the Soviets in late summer 1943 both OTL and TTL. After Kursk
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