Can the FAA refuel on USN carriers? Or can the RN carriers refuel at see? Perhaps, if needed, from US carriers?
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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Can the FAA refuel on USN carriers? Or can the RN carriers refuel at see? Perhaps, if needed, from US carriers?
All good questions.
This looks like the sort of situation where the fact that engineering teams in Britain and the USA made different decisions about what was the best connection for a fuel hose - preventing British fuel lines connecting to American fuel supplies - would become rather important.
I keep remembering how Apollo 13's crew were endangered because the team that designed the CO2 filters in the Lunar Module chose a different shape from the ones in the Command Module. Then it suddenly became an 'if we can't put the square peg in the round hole we die' situation and they kludged up an adaptor out of bits of litter in the capsules. I get the horrible feeling that something like that could happen here.
After all, it is not like the US Navy and the RN had ever thought they would need to refuel each other's ships when they were designing them. They were more used to considering how to sink each other's ships then support and supply them. Admiral King still seemed to think that way from all accounts.
Why was he left in charge when developing a positive working relationship with the RN was necessary for the war effort anyway? Surely an important job existed where he wouldn't have to do teamwork with people he would rather be strangling with their own intestines?
I look forward to hearing how this works out. Or doesn't, as the case may be.
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Ahh so all they need need is a bunch of lads who identify as Plastic paddys one day a year LOL
I resemble that remark BTW
I resemble that remark BTW
Story 1800
USS Enterprise, 1900 January 2, 1943
The flight deck was closed. The last plane had been brought below. Half a dozen aluminum skeletons had been pushed over the side. The fleet was changing course from the southeast to southwest. Screws slowed from a flight operations speed of twenty eight knots to a far more efficient twenty two knots. The deck division had another hours worth of work before they could turn in for dinner and a few hours of sleep. Task Force 16 was scheduled to rendezvous with the tankers to top off the destroyers and refill the avgas tanks aboard the carriers. It would not be a complete refueling but enough to keep Admiral Kinkaid’s ulcer under control.
Below the flight deck, work crews were repairing dozens of battle damaged aircraft. Some fixes were simple. A quick patch and a wing was whole again. Others required ripping out an engine and either repairing blown cylinders or replacing the entire P&W. All of the spare aircraft that had been lofted overhead were down on the deck and being checked out. Aircraft from Saratoga and Lexington had landed aboard Enterprise and her sisters. Those bombers would flesh out the ranks in the morning.
Above the busy mechanics, a small cluster of men brought up several canvas covered bodies from sick bay. They rested near an anti-aircraft gun mount where a five inch shell was placed into the bottom of each sack and a sailor threaded a needle around the top of the sacks. The last stitch was through the nose.
The Chaplain began a brief service. Pilots and air gunners leaned on each other as their own mortality was being reflected. Friends and crew mates were being committed to the deep tonight. Others would just never be coming back as their aircraft had been shot down attacking battleships and carriers or had just disappeared sometime between take-off and expected landing times. Tomorrow they could be in the bag.
The flight deck was closed. The last plane had been brought below. Half a dozen aluminum skeletons had been pushed over the side. The fleet was changing course from the southeast to southwest. Screws slowed from a flight operations speed of twenty eight knots to a far more efficient twenty two knots. The deck division had another hours worth of work before they could turn in for dinner and a few hours of sleep. Task Force 16 was scheduled to rendezvous with the tankers to top off the destroyers and refill the avgas tanks aboard the carriers. It would not be a complete refueling but enough to keep Admiral Kinkaid’s ulcer under control.
Below the flight deck, work crews were repairing dozens of battle damaged aircraft. Some fixes were simple. A quick patch and a wing was whole again. Others required ripping out an engine and either repairing blown cylinders or replacing the entire P&W. All of the spare aircraft that had been lofted overhead were down on the deck and being checked out. Aircraft from Saratoga and Lexington had landed aboard Enterprise and her sisters. Those bombers would flesh out the ranks in the morning.
Above the busy mechanics, a small cluster of men brought up several canvas covered bodies from sick bay. They rested near an anti-aircraft gun mount where a five inch shell was placed into the bottom of each sack and a sailor threaded a needle around the top of the sacks. The last stitch was through the nose.
The Chaplain began a brief service. Pilots and air gunners leaned on each other as their own mortality was being reflected. Friends and crew mates were being committed to the deep tonight. Others would just never be coming back as their aircraft had been shot down attacking battleships and carriers or had just disappeared sometime between take-off and expected landing times. Tomorrow they could be in the bag.
The morbid ceremony of death at sea. I can see the film scene version of this...
Story 1801
West of Parepare, 1945 January 2, 1943
USS Quincy slowed. The run to the south was over.
The forward signalman blinked the light quickly several times and then slowly twice and then quickly again. The challenge had been accepted. Turrets shifted back to the central line and away from the Royal Navy destroyer that was the vanguard of an incredible amount of firepower heading north. A second brief message was passed with orders for the three cruisers and their escorting destroyers.
Quincy and her consorts headed south. They would be the rear guard for the battle fleet. The Dutch cruisers were too weak to be in the van of a gun battle where armoured piercing shells might not even be activated when hitting their thin armor. Instead they would make sure that no Japanese destroyers were able to get a surprise torpedo run in.
USS Quincy slowed. The run to the south was over.
The forward signalman blinked the light quickly several times and then slowly twice and then quickly again. The challenge had been accepted. Turrets shifted back to the central line and away from the Royal Navy destroyer that was the vanguard of an incredible amount of firepower heading north. A second brief message was passed with orders for the three cruisers and their escorting destroyers.
Quincy and her consorts headed south. They would be the rear guard for the battle fleet. The Dutch cruisers were too weak to be in the van of a gun battle where armoured piercing shells might not even be activated when hitting their thin armor. Instead they would make sure that no Japanese destroyers were able to get a surprise torpedo run in.
Story 1802
Northwest of Parepare, 2002 January 2, 1943
The guns aboard USS Washington barked again. Another star shell exploded in the southern sky. Half a dozen searchlights were focusing. A dozen voices were on a dozen radios screaming at the idiots aloft.
The Avengers from Indomitable broke off. A Scottish brogue apologized and then headed north.
The guns aboard USS Washington barked again. Another star shell exploded in the southern sky. Half a dozen searchlights were focusing. A dozen voices were on a dozen radios screaming at the idiots aloft.
The Avengers from Indomitable broke off. A Scottish brogue apologized and then headed north.
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