Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

Beckum, Germany March 3, 1945

"How are the provisional platoons doing?" Brigadier General Williamson asked his chief of staff. The Big Red One had fought hard to close the northern edge of the Ruhr pocket over the winter. Heavy fighting in bad weather against a very motivated opponent that was willing and able to put together sudden spoiling attacks and larger counter-attacks to contest every outhouse and fence line had sapped the rifle companies of their strength. The veteran units were ones that had been reconstituted in January with perhaps a few men per company who had been on the line since the summer. The regular replacements from America were not enough to keep up with demand, so a call for volunteers among the labor and lines of communication men had gone out just after Christmas. Eight thousand men, almost all Negros or Spaniards had volunteered. They all had the standard six week conversion course and formed eighty five overstrength replacement platoons spread among seven divisions.

"No worse than any other raw replacement platoon. They're all willing to get stuck in and fight hard even if not always well...." his chief of staff had been concerned too, but the reports were promising or at least not terrifying.

"Very well, tomorrow we'll move the 26th Infantry Regiment into line with the objective of Diestedde for the day after that... let's move the cavalry in that direction this afternoon...."

 

[fester]

Krakow, Poland March 4, 1945

Every gun assigned to the two southern Soviet Fronts had been firing for the past twenty minutes. The earth was shaking like a drunk on the second day of an involuntary dry-out. A hundred thousand shells had already been fired. Hundreds of thousands more would be fired before the infantry started their advance through the minefields that the pioneers, penal battalions and Polish partisans had spent the night clearing. Behind them three Tank Corps were ready to exploit the first wedges in the German crustal defenses. Another thousand tanks would be committed once the German reserves had been committed. The operational objective was Katowice, with an intermediate stop line of Wroclaw where the boundary between this attack and the main attack from Warsaw would be maintained.

 

[fester]

Vienna, Austria March 5, 1945

"Prepare a breach, PREPARE A BREACH." The section was by now a well rehearsed team. The light machine gun team was also the high explosive team. A few blocks of plastique were quickly laid on a wall away from the weight bearing beams. The detonator cord was laid across the floor while the rifle team, who had lost most of their rifles and acquired a bewildering array of shotguns and Stens along with a triple issue of hand grenades, pressed forward. The corporal looked. Everyone was ready. His three fingers became two, and then one. The det cord worked. A man sized mouse hole was created. Half a dozen grenades went through the hole, their explosions were followed almost immediately by a trio of short bursts from the lead submachine gunners and a shot gun blast.

No opposition was found in the liberated room. The machine gun team quickly followed. The Bren gunner found a comfortable enough position where his weapon would soon control the next three blocks. Other sections in the company were working their way through the position even as the Australians and South African divisions on either side of the Coldstream Guards also pressed their attack against the remnants of a diehard Panzergrenedier division.

 

[drakensis]

Coldstream Guards, not Cold Stream Guards.

 

[Finbarr the Fair]

Coldstream Guards, not Cold Stream Guards.

I suspect the dreaded autocorrect has struck again.

 

[AlanJWhite]

I suspect the dreaded autocorrect has struck again.

my oldest girl, who is dyslexic, relies on various "intelligent" tools when online and refers to them as auto-INcorrect

 

[mudhead]

Vienna, Austria March 5, 1945

A story I was told many years ago that might be true.

Some Soviet soldiers in Austria at the end of the war were bewildered by a certain item of bathroom furniture. They decided that it must have been one of those refrigerator things they'd heard about - and put some of their food in. Then, somehow, the flush was operated. Enraged, they shot the occupants of the building.

John Erickson, the great historian of the Red Army (among other things) served in Austria post-war, as an aide and interpreter on the Control Commission and a bit later worked for the War Crimes Tribunal. I remember him saying that most Soviet vehicles looked "as if they'd been given serious attention by a Glasgow football crowd".

 

[fester]

Mombassa, Kenya March 6, 1945

The harbor was not as busy today as it had been three years ago. Ships were still entering and leaving frequently but now they were sailing independently so there were few ships that were deep in the water staying in harbor for more than a low tide or two. One of the ships leaving carried the entire manpower of the recently de-activated 265 Squadron. The Catalinas had been handed back to the Americans who wanted those aircraft for operations in the Pacific. The air crews would return to Liverpool via Suez and Gibraltar where the long service men would be demobilized and the men with plenty of time and missions left would backfill slots that were now empty as the drafts that the RAF typically expected had been diverted to form infantry replacements.

 

[Driftless]

Mombassa, Kenya March 6, 1945

The harbor was not as busy today as it had been three years ago. Ships were still entering and leaving frequently but now they were sailing independently so there were few ships that were deep in the water staying in harbor for more than a low tide or two. One of the ships leaving carried the entire manpower of the recently de-activated 265 Squadron. The Catalinas had been handed back to the Americans who wanted those aircraft for operations in the Pacific. The air crews would return to Liverpool via Suez and Gibraltar where the long service men would be demobilized and the men with plenty of time and missions left would backfill slots that were now empty as the drafts that the RAF typically expected had been diverted to form infantry replacements.

Conceivably, by the time they land in Liverpool, could some of those skilled air crews wind up being diverted back to the Pacific, as the need in Europe may be even more drastically curtailed? Join the RAF, see the world?

 

[fester]

Conceivably, by the time they land in Liverpool, could some of those skilled air crews wind up being diverted back to the Pacific, as the need in Europe may be even more drastically curtailed? Join the RAF, see the world?

There is that possibility.
Who is to say that the high and the mighty in their wisdom are always efficient?

 

[fester]

RAF East Kirkby, March 6, 1945

The new bombers had seemed similar enough to the old aircraft that the design was derived from until 75 Squadron had started to fly. The first mission carrying Grand Slams had been flown yesterday. Docks in Danzig had been the target and the early morning photo run had suggested decent success for a first mission.

 

[Crowbar Six]

RAF East Kirkby, March 6, 1945

The new bombers had seemed similar enough to the old aircraft that the design was derived from until 75 Squadron had started to fly. The first mission carrying Grand Slams had been flown yesterday. Docks in Danzig had been the target and the early morning photo run had suggested decent success for a first mission.

Hah, the Lincoln makes it's appearence.

 

[Crowbar Six]

And months earlier than in OTL.

 

[Aristomenes]

It seems the Western Allies are faring better than IOTL against Germany while the Soviets are behind in comparison IOTL. The Iron Curtain will most likely be some hundred kms to the east ITTL.

 

[Seawolf]

It seems the Western Allies are faring better than IOTL against Germany while the Soviets are behind in comparison IOTL. The Iron Curtain will most likely be some hundred kms to the east ITTL.

That would put it on....the German-Polish Border or there about? Maybe into Poland itself?

 

[VanOwen]

That would put it on....the German-Polish Border or there about? Maybe into Poland itself?

I believe that the author had previously referenced the post war British Army of the Elbe instead of Rhine. So take away from that what you will.

 

[Aristomenes]

This map from Wikipedia shows the OTL border between East and West Germany plus the areas of East Germany which were evacuated by the Western Allies in July 1945. I would think that ITTL the border between the Western Allies and the Soviet will run along the Elbe river and perhaps even more to the East.

 

[Seawolf]

Still, if Iron Curtain is going to drop in Poland, that means that the Soviet Union won't get the huge boost to their industrial capacity that they got OTL by looting German factories. This means that its going to be a very different Cold War.

 

[fester]

Near Calais, France March 7, 1945

Most days were quiet. A battery or two might fire harassments barrages near dawn or just before dinner to keep the Germans uncomfortable and sleep deprived. The Germans would occasionally send a few shells in the general direction of a patrol or an outpost to encourage the Free Czech and Belgian besiegers to not be too aggressive. But over the past six months, the war on this small sub-front had a quiet certainty even as men died and bodies were broken.

This predictability was broken in the middle of the afternoon. Out to sea the steady stream of Victory, Liberty and Empire ships that had set sail from Halifax, New York and Gibraltar to feed the ever hungry maws of two army groups was disrupted. A pair of mines had evidently broken loose from their chains and exploded against the hull of a ship carrying the new American 90mm armed tank. Minesweepers, harbor patrol craft, launches and flying boats were hurrying to the flaming ship to rescue the men who had crowded into the one functional life boat before the cold rough water of the Channel could claim them.

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Even when everything is going right war has a way of throwing a wrench into things. Keep up the good work!