Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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Just remembered the Japanese have barely touched Malaya.
The UK's probably better off economically, you're right.
The UK's probably better off economically, you're right.
Yeah, the UK's gonna have less of a financial hole than they did OTL, with Malaya still in British hands...
On a side note, decolonization will still happen; it'll just take a different form (India's independence was already done before the PoD, though it might be different in some respects ITTL) than OTL...
On a side note, decolonization will still happen; it'll just take a different form (India's independence was already done before the PoD, though it might be different in some respects ITTL) than OTL...
Yesterday: a sale at a local church hall. For 50p, I picked up a pb of Avenging Angels: Soviet Women Snipers on the Eastern Front 1941-45, by Lyuba Vinogravada. 2018 Maclehose ed of a 2017 original.
Had a look, and it seems very good - based on extensive interviews, archive research, and secondary sources. Recommended, from my initial sweep through it.
The same author has also produced Defending the Motherland: The Soviet Women Who Fought Hitler's Aces (2015), and, with Antony Beevor, A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-45 (2005). Not seen the first, but the latter is very interesting.
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Story 1731
Southeast England, December 25, 1942
He was alone. The battalion Christmas dinner had gone well, every man who was in barracks had the choice of turkey, ham or goose with almost all of the fixings. Rough men who were ready to kill and to die broke into song that would make choir directors tremble as the key had been lost to their enthusiasm. As they drank their authorized pints, the singing got louder and the skill got worse. Men were leaving barracks to head to the villages and towns near by; shuttle buses and trucks were ferrying men to and from the churches and the pubs. The luckier men were being invited into the homes of locals whose daughter would keep them warm and happy overnight.
He was alone as he read the letter from his wife. She was looking forward to his leave as he had a twenty day pass coming up just after the New Year. His son added in his impatient and imprecise scrawl another page of writing and pictures for his father to see. She continued onto the fourth and fifth page as his parents were fine but his Da was slowing down more than normal; the cold and wetness of the fall had taken a toll where a good wintering in Ibiza would have been ideal but now was impossible. As he read the letter again, he kept the tears in as he chose to smile instead.
He was alone. The battalion Christmas dinner had gone well, every man who was in barracks had the choice of turkey, ham or goose with almost all of the fixings. Rough men who were ready to kill and to die broke into song that would make choir directors tremble as the key had been lost to their enthusiasm. As they drank their authorized pints, the singing got louder and the skill got worse. Men were leaving barracks to head to the villages and towns near by; shuttle buses and trucks were ferrying men to and from the churches and the pubs. The luckier men were being invited into the homes of locals whose daughter would keep them warm and happy overnight.
He was alone as he read the letter from his wife. She was looking forward to his leave as he had a twenty day pass coming up just after the New Year. His son added in his impatient and imprecise scrawl another page of writing and pictures for his father to see. She continued onto the fourth and fifth page as his parents were fine but his Da was slowing down more than normal; the cold and wetness of the fall had taken a toll where a good wintering in Ibiza would have been ideal but now was impossible. As he read the letter again, he kept the tears in as he chose to smile instead.
Story 1732
Bizerte December 26, 1942
Half a dozen troop ships were loading at the piers. They had deposited the men for another armored division that had completed their training in Texas and Oklahoma and now were needed to rebuild II Corps into the 7th Army. New corps headquarters were being set up in any hotel or school or seminary building that could be found. Divisional commanders were being shunted aside to secondary public buildings including. General Patton was the lord and high commissioner of Americans in Tunisia even as he was trying to bring his green formations up to speed with his veterans.
The first great challenge was getting rid of the prisoners of Cape Bon. 142,328 men and officers had surrendered. Nine divisions had been destroyed. Most of the men were fit to move. They had marched out under their own officers’ commands and discipline to the assembly areas where trucks and trains began to send them all over North Africa after a hot meal, shower, and a medical check. The Italian and German field hospitals that had been filled with the sick and the wounded had been flooded with American, British, French, Polish and Canadian medical professionals. The field hospitals were slowly processing the wounded out, but there was no hurry yet.
The ships in the harbor were loading 11,000 prisoners. Most would eventually be taken to Alabama; the luckier men were heading to Indiana and Ohio where they would be given the choice of working on the farms in the region or sitting in barracks. By now, half of the military police battalion that had been mostly raised from the Bronx had found at least a cousin among the men they guarded. Smart officers knew that as soon as they told their sergeants to be reasonable, a thriving black market of the little luxuries that the prisoners had been denied for years due to the effective British blockade would evolve. Chocolate and good tobacco had already gained currency and appreciation.
Half a dozen troop ships were loading at the piers. They had deposited the men for another armored division that had completed their training in Texas and Oklahoma and now were needed to rebuild II Corps into the 7th Army. New corps headquarters were being set up in any hotel or school or seminary building that could be found. Divisional commanders were being shunted aside to secondary public buildings including. General Patton was the lord and high commissioner of Americans in Tunisia even as he was trying to bring his green formations up to speed with his veterans.
The first great challenge was getting rid of the prisoners of Cape Bon. 142,328 men and officers had surrendered. Nine divisions had been destroyed. Most of the men were fit to move. They had marched out under their own officers’ commands and discipline to the assembly areas where trucks and trains began to send them all over North Africa after a hot meal, shower, and a medical check. The Italian and German field hospitals that had been filled with the sick and the wounded had been flooded with American, British, French, Polish and Canadian medical professionals. The field hospitals were slowly processing the wounded out, but there was no hurry yet.
The ships in the harbor were loading 11,000 prisoners. Most would eventually be taken to Alabama; the luckier men were heading to Indiana and Ohio where they would be given the choice of working on the farms in the region or sitting in barracks. By now, half of the military police battalion that had been mostly raised from the Bronx had found at least a cousin among the men they guarded. Smart officers knew that as soon as they told their sergeants to be reasonable, a thriving black market of the little luxuries that the prisoners had been denied for years due to the effective British blockade would evolve. Chocolate and good tobacco had already gained currency and appreciation.
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As Mattis has said, a beer and a cigarette will get you more good information than waterboarding. OTL the luckiest German POWs were those who went to the Upper Midwest - lots of folks, even second and third generation, who spoke German and would be sympathetic to the prisoners who were "soldiers" and not Nazi fanatics. Many in stories in Wisconsin about German POWs who worked on farms during the war, and many stayed afterwards. I expect it is the Italian prisoners who have the most cousins in a Bronx raised unit, the big German collection in NYC was in Yorkville in Manhattan...
Story 1733
Pearl Harbor, December 27, 1942
USS Minneapolis was going to war again. She had been torpedoed just a few miles south of Diamond Head by a Japanese submarine during the raid on Pearl Harbor. She was never in danger of sinking but she needed nine months in the yard. She got new anti-aircraft guns, dual purpose 5" 38's replacing the lighter anti-aircraft guns. Half a dozen twin Bofor mounts and a pair of quad Bofor mounts replaced the Chicago Pianos and the utterly useless .50 caliber machine guns. Near her funnels every square inch of flat deck space was being claimed by brand new Swiss designed cannons. Far above the deck, brand new radars would be able to probe the sky. Her weapons had improved. Now the question was her crew. She had lost the vast majority of her pre-war professional volunteers except for a cadre of chiefs and division chiefs. A dozen fresh from OCS ensigns and JGs had arrived over the past six months along with hundreds of brand new landlubbers who had started to vomit in sea state three. Training ashore and training afloat had filed off the roughest edges, and now they would enter the crucible to test their temper.
Several hundred yards behind the heavy cruiser, a pair of shipyard fresh light cruisers that were larger and more powerful than their older sister followed. USS Cleveland and Montpelier still smelled like new ships as they had just used the Panama Canal weeks ago to come to their fighting fleet. Ahead of three cruisers, a division of new Fletcher class destroyers would probe the waves for submarines. These seven ships would stop to refuel in Noumea before heading to meet the fast carrier forces to reinforce their screen. Admiral Bode with his brand new flag had the force scheduled to shoot and train almost daily on the voyage to the front.
USS Minneapolis was going to war again. She had been torpedoed just a few miles south of Diamond Head by a Japanese submarine during the raid on Pearl Harbor. She was never in danger of sinking but she needed nine months in the yard. She got new anti-aircraft guns, dual purpose 5" 38's replacing the lighter anti-aircraft guns. Half a dozen twin Bofor mounts and a pair of quad Bofor mounts replaced the Chicago Pianos and the utterly useless .50 caliber machine guns. Near her funnels every square inch of flat deck space was being claimed by brand new Swiss designed cannons. Far above the deck, brand new radars would be able to probe the sky. Her weapons had improved. Now the question was her crew. She had lost the vast majority of her pre-war professional volunteers except for a cadre of chiefs and division chiefs. A dozen fresh from OCS ensigns and JGs had arrived over the past six months along with hundreds of brand new landlubbers who had started to vomit in sea state three. Training ashore and training afloat had filed off the roughest edges, and now they would enter the crucible to test their temper.
Several hundred yards behind the heavy cruiser, a pair of shipyard fresh light cruisers that were larger and more powerful than their older sister followed. USS Cleveland and Montpelier still smelled like new ships as they had just used the Panama Canal weeks ago to come to their fighting fleet. Ahead of three cruisers, a division of new Fletcher class destroyers would probe the waves for submarines. These seven ships would stop to refuel in Noumea before heading to meet the fast carrier forces to reinforce their screen. Admiral Bode with his brand new flag had the force scheduled to shoot and train almost daily on the voyage to the front.
Yep, the Bronx battalion is marching an Italian division to the troop ships.
Driftless
Donor
My dad talked about German POW's at (then)Camp McCoy in western Wisconsin that were taught to play baseball. Balls hit to the outfield, would often be run back in rather than thrown and baserunners would be tagged out by contact, rather than being relayed to the appropriate base. Nuances hadn't been picked up yet. He also figured that there was more to the situation than what met the eye, in the way runners might be tagged out. For some, it was just touching them with the ball, for other runners, the ball was flung at them with great force from close range...... MP's were the umps and would prevent things from going too far.
A novella about German POWS in the US (Oklahoma, in this case)
It's a sequel to:
The story moves to Detroit for Up In Honey's Room.
Are they planning on taking these new cruisers straight into combat or does the carrier force not have anything planned for a while?
Carriers are in SW Pac at the moment. The cruisers will rendezvous while an operation is to kick off
My dad was an airplane mechanic in the USAAF in North Africa and Italy. He told me stories about 2 Italian POW's that were assigned as laborers to him...he called them his "Two Giuseppes". He tried to teach them to play catch and they would throw the ball over each other's head..and thought it was stupid. When they found out he was from Chicago one of them said, "Al Capone he a good guy, no?" and "I have cousin in Cicero". After the war they sent him letters with pictures of their families. Gees dad, fraternize much?
Story 1734
Timor Sea December 27, 1942
Five aircraft carriers, three battleships, nineteen modern cruisers and thirty four destroyers steamed westward. They were split into three battle groups; two carrier focused and then the battle line. The carriers had a coterie of cruisers and a squadron of destroyers apiece while the battle line was heavy on light cruisers and light on heavy cruisers as they needed the ability to force destroyers back.
Eleven miles to the east, the Far Eastern Fleet slowed and began the slow process of rendezvousing with the Americans. Four fast carriers and three battleships were the core. They had covered the eastern flank of the Malayan offensive, ready to sting any Japanese naval riposte that never emerged from the protected anchorages of Truk and Palau. Now the combined fleets were getting ready to cover the first great amphibious counteroffensive. But before they could turn north, they needed to fly and prepare to fight together. Admirals Spruance and Somerville had, by now, become parts of each others’ brains. The American cruiser force was well drilled with the cruisers of the Far Eastern Fleet and the Combined Striking Force. But the American heavies had, so far, in the Pacific, fought their own war. This battle would no longer be only an American offensive or a British parry but an allied offensive.
Dozens of bosun chairs were being made ready as critical meetings were to be held on half a dozen warships that ideally had both space and a good whiskey selection.
And then the fleet would be ready to head north under the combined command of Admiral Fletcher aboard USS Yorktown.
Five aircraft carriers, three battleships, nineteen modern cruisers and thirty four destroyers steamed westward. They were split into three battle groups; two carrier focused and then the battle line. The carriers had a coterie of cruisers and a squadron of destroyers apiece while the battle line was heavy on light cruisers and light on heavy cruisers as they needed the ability to force destroyers back.
Eleven miles to the east, the Far Eastern Fleet slowed and began the slow process of rendezvousing with the Americans. Four fast carriers and three battleships were the core. They had covered the eastern flank of the Malayan offensive, ready to sting any Japanese naval riposte that never emerged from the protected anchorages of Truk and Palau. Now the combined fleets were getting ready to cover the first great amphibious counteroffensive. But before they could turn north, they needed to fly and prepare to fight together. Admirals Spruance and Somerville had, by now, become parts of each others’ brains. The American cruiser force was well drilled with the cruisers of the Far Eastern Fleet and the Combined Striking Force. But the American heavies had, so far, in the Pacific, fought their own war. This battle would no longer be only an American offensive or a British parry but an allied offensive.
Dozens of bosun chairs were being made ready as critical meetings were to be held on half a dozen warships that ideally had both space and a good whiskey selection.
And then the fleet would be ready to head north under the combined command of Admiral Fletcher aboard USS Yorktown.
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