Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
- Thread starter fester
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Oh no.... Not good
You have to wonder: in that time of chaotic re-constitution of order, how many of those vigilante actions had some semblance of "rough justice" and how many were old vendettas tarted up to look holy, and how many were just random acts of violence.
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Story 2805
Western Pacific, 1525 Local March 20, 1945
"Jaroshek, move your ass!"
The recently promoted sailor grunted an acknowledgement. He was moving his ass. The mount captain could see him hauling the clips from the 40 millimeter magazine. There was a chain of men refilling the ready ammunition that had been fired during the last air raid--- half a dozen Jills had lined up to attack Yorktown. They had flown long, straight, low and slow to give their weapons the best chance of connecting. That course also meant that the entire fury of the fleet's automatic weapon firepower could be adjusted and led into each bomber. Four bombers were in the water at least twenty five hundred yards short of the carrier. Only only one torpedo was launched with any accuracy. It missed the dodging carrier by two football fields.
They had a few minutes of rest. The machine gun officer had always done a good job of keeping the gun crews informed. If they looked hard enough to the horizon, they could see contrails and perhaps fireballs as the next raid was being intercepted. Until then, they would reload and wait.
"Jaroshek, move your ass!"
The recently promoted sailor grunted an acknowledgement. He was moving his ass. The mount captain could see him hauling the clips from the 40 millimeter magazine. There was a chain of men refilling the ready ammunition that had been fired during the last air raid--- half a dozen Jills had lined up to attack Yorktown. They had flown long, straight, low and slow to give their weapons the best chance of connecting. That course also meant that the entire fury of the fleet's automatic weapon firepower could be adjusted and led into each bomber. Four bombers were in the water at least twenty five hundred yards short of the carrier. Only only one torpedo was launched with any accuracy. It missed the dodging carrier by two football fields.
They had a few minutes of rest. The machine gun officer had always done a good job of keeping the gun crews informed. If they looked hard enough to the horizon, they could see contrails and perhaps fireballs as the next raid was being intercepted. Until then, they would reload and wait.
Story 2806
South of Nagasaki, Japan March 20, 1945
Two squadrons of B-24s accelerated south. Two fresh minefields had been laid. Now the bombers could run back to Okinawa's newly operational airfields. The rest of the bomb group would garden tomorrow as a milk run for operations over Imperial Japan were due to commence in a week.
Two squadrons of B-24s accelerated south. Two fresh minefields had been laid. Now the bombers could run back to Okinawa's newly operational airfields. The rest of the bomb group would garden tomorrow as a milk run for operations over Imperial Japan were due to commence in a week.
That's "épuration sauvage" for you ("wild purge") : punishing women for the "crime" of falling in love or simply use the only ressource they had to survive in a country where scarcity was the norm.
That resentment and sometimes hate built up after four years of harsh occupation is understandable (France wasn't Poland but the Germans remained ruthless).
That, in the heat of battle and liberation, notorious collaborators who fought for the Germans and oppressed their own countrymen (i.e "Militiamen"), were summarily executed may be understandable (albeit definitely not commendable).
But shearing woman like sheep and putting manure between their legs because they just slept with someone (no denunciation, no collaboration, just sleeping) was utterly disgusting. And often done by "brave" men who had just realized they had been resistance fighters their whole life when Free French or US tanks were about to enter their city...
General Leclerc had these words about French resistance fighters in August 1944: "10% of them are admirable, 25% of them are acceptable. The rest? Scum and sham." Guess who were the "scum and sham"...
Story 2807
Antwerp, Belgium, March 20, 1945
The all clear sounded.
Half a dozen buzz bombs had been shot done by the flak belt outside of the city. One exploded yards from an empty lighter, modestly damaging it. Another blew up in the middle of a cleared channel. Three more overflew the city.
The all clear sounded.
Half a dozen buzz bombs had been shot done by the flak belt outside of the city. One exploded yards from an empty lighter, modestly damaging it. Another blew up in the middle of a cleared channel. Three more overflew the city.
Story 2808
Stratford, Connecticut March 20, 1945
Another production bird was on the flight line. Three engineers were checking out a recently made tweak to the design. The screws had a few extra threads that they thought would be enough to stop the inspectors from complaining about this particular problem. Flight tests would start tomorrow when the regular shifts arrived.
Another production bird was on the flight line. Three engineers were checking out a recently made tweak to the design. The screws had a few extra threads that they thought would be enough to stop the inspectors from complaining about this particular problem. Flight tests would start tomorrow when the regular shifts arrived.
A Lycoming-built Wright radial wouldn't be a bird, and they wouldn't be changing the design of the Sikorsky-built Vought Corsairs, so this must be a Sikorsky helicopter.
Reminds me of a story of my great-grandfather, who was in the ORA and then eventually rallied London.
He was with the 1st Army (5e DB IIRC) in Alsace in winter 1944-1945. They liberated several Alsatian towns, including one where they eventually broke camp. Of course there were the usual "purges" with the men either locked up or shot and the women shaved with Nazi crosses painted on their foreheads.
Not a shortage of resistance fighters then.
Except...the germans counter-attacked about three days later, and the battalion of my grandfather asked for every abled fighter to stop the German advance.
He said he "never saw so many resistance fighters disappear into thin air, when there were so many that proclaimed themselves as such just a few days before". He guessed that "it was easy to be a resistance fighter when going against an unarmed woman but a lot harder to be one when going against an enemy that shot back".
Read a quote some years back from a British company commander who fought through France, Netherlands and into Germany.
It went something along the lines of ‘The number of Germans who were members of the Nazi Party was proportional to the number of Frenchmen who were members of the Marquis’
My Dad was U.S. Army CIC(Counter Intelligence Corps) assigned 1 x 12 man 3-4 officers, 8-9 NCO Minimum Corporals or Tech 2s. to each Division and 2 to Corps, and a Platoon at Field Army. These were the men who interrogated prisoners to find Nazis, SS and Gestapo, and true collaborators. They also took official evidence of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. These were the men who in reality who went out with line infantry on patrols to collect prisoners and documents. Unlike movies these men all had Combat Inf badges. Also had to speak at least 2 European languages( My dad German Hebrew, and Yiddish- Litvack)In my dads unit, 5 men were Jewish.
If Ann Marie had not been picked up this is mob action for it's own sake. Since she was an Allied source, she may have a safe conduct notice in her file somewhere.
If Ann Marie had not been picked up this is mob action for it's own sake. Since she was an Allied source, she may have a safe conduct notice in her file somewhere.
But the Germans effectively doubled her. Her best hope postwar is the Germans burnt her files and SOE didn't miss any of her records when they destroyed their files in 1945.
War is not over and what she did with the germans was not where she was at. She should by now have a Safe conduct pass if not have a minder locally to keep track of her.
On the one hand, the vigilante "justice" meted out by a literal mob of pissed off people more interested in avenging old grudges than anything else sucks for Anna Marie.
On the other hand, if she gets out of this war with nothing worse than a bad haircut and shunned neighbors she should count her lucky stars. It could have ended way worse for her over the past five or so years.
On the other hand, if she gets out of this war with nothing worse than a bad haircut and shunned neighbors she should count her lucky stars. It could have ended way worse for her over the past five or so years.
Yep, she had to make a bunch of shitty choices with consequences that could still come at her with no one in power who would be willing to give anything more than an incidental damn about her.
NotBigBrother
Monthly Donor
That's 'Maquis'. Maquis were guerillas, marquis is an aristocracy title.
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Doubled agents are effectively like someone stuck in the middle of the road. They can get hit by traffic going both ways.
If she reports the attack someone in Allied (or worse still French) intelligence might be able to put 2+2 and make collaborator at best and traitor at worse.
She made the absolute best decisions she could I agree, but bad things happen to good people all the time.
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