Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

The Western Pacific, December 30, 1944

He dreamed. He dreamed of meeting his wife and her meeting him in need and urgency. He dreamed of another time and another place. He dreamed to avoid thinking of the furious combat that was happening almost every day over the fleet and over the island where the Marines and the Army looked like tiny ants below as the Corsairs of his squadron swooped in to bomb, rocket and strafe anything that looked like cover for the Japanese defenders. Of the twenty eight pilots in the squadron who had started this campaign, nineteen could be counted on to fly tomorrow. He had already written three letters, and knew that the hope of a pilot being merely missing delayed the reality of needing to write another pair of letters once the submarines checked in and reported that they had not picked up any Marine flyboys. Three men would never fly again, another might after a year of rehabilitation while a twenty year old was on light duty for another week. Almost everyone had been stood down for at least a day during the campaign. Their edges had become dull through the routine of combat and stress. So he dreamed of happier times.

As he rolled over on his mattress, the steady thrum of the engines changed pitch. They deepened. The gong started to sound. His head cleared. As he tightened the strap on his helmet, the ship began to heel hard starboard. He leaned into the bulkhead as he pulled his pants on. The ship violently shook and threw him hard against the curtesy hatch that had separated his cabin from the passage that housed the rest of the officers of the Marine fighter squadron.

USS Bon Homme Richard slowed and began to flood as the two torpedoes created a sixty foot hole near the bow. Josh ignored the pain in his likely to be broken wrist as he made way to his battle station where his, and the rest of the pilots' jobs were to stay out of the way and to maintain water and air tight integrity as needed. Within an hour, all the pilots had been accounted for, half a dozen broken bones and everyone else bruised. Three enlisted mechanics were missing in the chaos, but the squadron was still mission capable once the ship's 9 degree list could be corrected and her propellers could move her forward at a pace greater than that of a mediocre collegiate sprinter.

 

[Major Major]

Conical Hill, Okinawa Japan December 29, 1944

the air groups of five carriers swept in o lay down a field of napalm,

Ah yes. Napalm.
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
It smells like , , , victory.

You know someday this war's gonna end.

 

[fester]

Baltic Sea, near Danzig, December 31, 1944

Eight Lancasters turned to the northeast. The operational conversion unit had completed their primary mission of decoying a bomber stream an hour earlier. Now they had completed their secondary mission of reseeding a garden that had already claimed a pair of coasters since the last time it had been seeded. Twenty minutes later, the bombers were slowly climbing for altitude to head home where there might be a promise of a good beer and a warm bed to celebrate the new year where there was a hope of victory.

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Ah yes. Napalm.
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
It smells like , , , victory.

You know someday this war's gonna end.

Charlie don't surf.

Not that this is exactly a hot take but Duvall's incredible in that scene. He's batshit crazy but reserved, he cares about his men and civilans but has no qualms firebombing a village and losing dozens of lives to clean up a beach. He's just walking around with no shirt just because he can. His line delivery of "Someday this war's gonna end" is so perfect and so filled with about fifteen different emotions (wistfulness, regret, fear, pride, just to name a few) that it remains one of the great line deliveries of that or any era.

 

[Driftless]

Baltic Sea, near Danzig, December 31, 1944

Eight Lancasters turned to the northeast. The operational conversion unit had completed their primary mission of decoying a bomber stream an hour earlier. Now they had completed their secondary mission of reseeding a garden that had already claimed a pair of coasters since the last time it had been seeded. Twenty minutes later, the bombers were slowly climbing for altitude to head home where there might be a promise of a good beer and a warm bed to celebrate the new year where there was a hope of victory.

This post made me think of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff sinking in January 1945. That sinking was the result of a three torpedo hits from a Soviet submarine. This TL is entering the timeframe where that same chaotic collapse of the Reich in East Prussia and Poland is in full swing.

Also part of that OTL chaos was the mad scramble of the Nazis to secure the looted artworks and other valuables they stole from museums and individuals earlier in the war. "The Monuments Men" book and movie tells the tale of the counter-efforts by the western front Allies to thwart the Nazi thieves (and worse in many instances)

 

[173rd LRRP]

Well as long as the artillery is working g for you and not for them -

I twice came under US artillery as LRRP. Spotted by aerial artillery observer. “Oops!” Said no one. No one admitted to blunder of calling in rounds in a declared Ranger Box. 155 mm are impressive

second time was just out a km on a OP. A battalion 4.2 “ mortar decided to walk a road we were spending g the night by. Fortunately we were in radio contact. Mortar guys claimed no one had informed them of OP

 

[Winestu]

Ah yes. Napalm.
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
It smells like , , , victory.

You know someday this war's gonna end.

I prefer cordite in the afternoon….

 

[fester]

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands January 1, 1945

The garrison of the colony had shrunk again. Two light coastal defense guns with a few dozen gunners and a platoon of infantry from Wales was all that was left. The construction company, the other two infantry platoons and the gunners that had previously manned four other guns were now on an Empire ship that had loaded beef and leather from Buenes Aires before swinging by the outpost in the middle almost nowhere. Reinforcements, and more importantly, trained replacements were needed for the 21st Army Group. The edges of the Empire were being stripped of trained manpower as saboteurs, weather stations and scouts were deemed to be, at most, an inconsequential threat.

Garrisons from Gibraltar, Aden, Jamaica and Bermuda would soon be reduced again to support the final thrusts into Germany.

 

[Driftless]

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands January 1, 1945

The garrison of the colony had shrunk again. Two light coastal defense guns with a few dozen gunners and a platoon of infantry from Wales was all that was left. The construction company, the other two infantry platoons and the gunners that had previously manned four other guns were now on an Empire ship that had loaded beef and leather from Buenes Aires before swinging by the outpost in the middle almost nowhere. Reinforcements, and more importantly, trained replacements were needed for the 21st Army Group. The edges of the Empire were being stripped of trained manpower as saboteurs, weather stations and scouts were deemed to be, at most, an inconsequential threat.

Garrisons from Gibraltar, Aden, Jamaica and Bermuda would soon be reduced again to support the final thrusts into Germany.

That peripheral defense sounds like a job for "Dad's Army" and their kin.

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands January 1, 1945

The garrison of the colony had shrunk again. Two light coastal defense guns with a few dozen gunners and a platoon of infantry from Wales was all that was left. The construction company, the other two infantry platoons and the gunners that had previously manned four other guns were now on an Empire ship that had loaded beef and leather from Buenes Aires before swinging by the outpost in the middle almost nowhere. Reinforcements, and more importantly, trained replacements were needed for the 21st Army Group. The edges of the Empire were being stripped of trained manpower as saboteurs, weather stations and scouts were deemed to be, at most, an inconsequential threat.

Garrisons from Gibraltar, Aden, Jamaica and Bermuda would soon be reduced again to support the final thrusts into Germany.

Wonder who those poor bastards pissed off back home to be stuck on penguin counting duty in the Falklands.

 

[173rd LRRP]

Wonder who those poor bastards pissed off back home to be stuck on penguin counting duty in the Falklands.

Penguins were not shooting at them

 

[ThatRomanFanatic]

A very different Cold War and a very different set of decolonization wars as well. Likely to not have a Korean War for a multitude of reasons and the Chinese Civil War is going to be very different....

HOHO!

 

[NotBigBrother]

Wonder who those poor bastards pissed off back home to be stuck on penguin counting duty in the Falklands.

"When you count penguins, penguins count you."
Friedrich Nietzsche (that he said if he would said that).

 

[fester]

Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, January 2, 1945

The half dozen Corsairs circled at 20,000 feet. The radar operators had kept them under tight control. Below them, the pride of the Marine Nationale began a turn to the northeast at a steady 12 knots. The three ships stabilized their courses, and a moment later, the six quad turrets erupted. Targets inside the bay were soon straddled, and then shells began to strike home.

Once the bombardment was over, half a dozen squadrons flying from Siam continued to work over the naval facilities inside the bay.

 

[fester]

Near Shanwei, Republic of China January 3, 1945

HMS Queen Elizabeth's four turrets slowly turned. The plotting room had a new target for them. The gun crews were going through their drill as they had done so more than a thousand times. Focus was intense but at the same time automatic as hands moved by rote and feet moved without needing commands from the brain. All guns were ready well before the solution had stabilized. She fired half salvos every thirty seconds for the next ten minutes until the spotting aircraft had called in a confirmation that the Japanese hard point was now rubble.

Her three sisters replicated her actions as the hundreds of assault transports, landing ships and small craft that had supported landings from Burma to Morocco, as well as Greece to Normandy moved ever closer to shore to launch three divisions that would eventually liberate Hong Kong. It would be an eventually as the city was too well fortified to take by a direct assault. The few beaches were covered by enough artillery and strewn with enough mines and wire to make veterans of Ypres think this could be too much.

 

[Trevayne]

Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, January 2, 1944

The half dozen Corsairs circled at 20,000 feet. The radar operators had kept them under tight control. Below them, the pride of the Marine Nationale began a turn to the northeast at a steady 12 knots. The three ships stabilized their courses, and a moment later, the six quad turrets erupted. Targets inside the bay were soon straddled, and then shells began to strike home.

Once the bombardment was over, half a dozen squadrons flying from Siam continued to work over the naval facilities inside the bay.

Near Shanwei, Republic of China January 3, 1944

HMS Queen Elizabeth's four turrets slowly turned. The plotting room had a new target for them. The gun crews were going through their drill as they had done so more than a thousand times. Focus was intense but at the same time automatic as hands moved by rote and feet moved without needing commands from the brain. All guns were ready well before the solution had stabilized. She fired half salvos every thirty seconds for the next ten minutes until the spotting aircraft had called in a confirmation that the Japanese hard point was now rubble.

Her three sisters replicated her actions as the hundreds of assault transports, landing ships and small craft that had supported landings from Burma to Morocco, as well as Greece to Normandy moved ever closer to shore to launch three divisions that would eventually liberate Hong Kong whose defenses were too tough and whose landing beaches were primarily figments of imagination where they were not a minefield that would have given veterans of Ypres an impression that perhaps it was possible to have too many mines and too may rows of wire.

Err, I assume those dates are 1945.

 

[fester]

Err, I assume those dates are 1945.

Nope, in universe ISOT/Ship Shape events

Or the dangers of me writing when I'm doing data cleaning

 

[Mr Carrot]

whose defenses were too tough and whose landing beaches were primarily figments of imagination where they were not a minefield that would have given veterans of Ypres an impression that perhaps it was possible to have too many mines and too may rows of wire.

@fester good updates but can you alter the wording or syntax a bit here not entirely clearly what you mean.

 

[fester]

@fester good updates but can you alter the wording or syntax a bit here not entirely clearly what you mean.

Will do. A direct assault in Hong Kong is not feasible is my meaning

 

[Seawolf]

The three ships stabilized their courses, and a moment later, the six quad turrets erupted. Targets inside the bay were soon straddled, and then shells began to strike home.

I take it that the thee Battleships here are the Dunkerque sisters and Richelieu?