David Flin
Gone Fishin'
Since the team under discussion were in North Africa, I rather doubt jungle rules apply.
I was basing my comment on having done it for 13 years as a Royal Marine Commando in a variety of terrain.
- Status
Since the team under discussion were in North Africa, I rather doubt jungle rules apply.
I was basing my comment on having done it for 13 years as a Royal Marine Commando in a variety of terrain.
Because that is what they did in OTL --- secure an all weather supply Lend Lease supply line
Not if they've got a Sergeant they're not - the Indian Army term was, and is, Havildar, so the unit involved will be one of the British battalions.
Regarding 10th Indian Div, have they got their OTL GOC?
This is a very large change from OTL. More and better trained and experienced troops led by General Montgomery. I think this would open a lot of possibilities especially if adequate numbers of modern fighters can be sent to Malaya.
With less losses for the Royal Navy in TTL will more ships be sent to the Far East? Can the supply lines to Singapore be kept open without unsupportable losses? Will the RN do better in this TL if they sortie against the Japanese invasion fleet? No Prince of Wales and Repulse debacle?
What are the new American fighters? P-40s? Will the Malaya command receive still more aircraft in particular fighters?
With this more powerful army and a more capable commander are we going to see some version of Operation Matador?
With the Japanese forces struggling and suffering heavier losses in TTL thereby causing any available reinforcements to be redirected to Malaya perhaps Burma can hold out until the arrival of the Monsoon? Can the supply lines be kept open to Rangoon?
This update has inspired many questions.
They aren't planning on raiding some islands and s̶t̶e̶a̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ sinking a weather reporting boat are they?
Story 0721
August 20, 1941 West of Strasbourg 0300
He stretched in bed. He looked out the window and saw the pale strands of moonlight dance among the leaves of the tree in his backyard. Two minutes later, his bladder was empty and he was tucking himself back into bed.
A heavy, impatient hand pounded on his door. The doctor in him was roused. Someone had to have gotten hurt tonight. As he went to the door, three German soldiers were waiting there.
“Herr Doktor, you are needed at the base camp”
Seven minutes later, he was adequately dressed and had his brown leather bag of supplies in his hand. As he stepped out of the door and towards the motorcycle side carriage, he wondered what the problem was.
The two motorcycles took off at high speed. The driver had minimal care for his life as he whipped around the rural roads hoping that no farmer was industrious and moving his milk to market early. At the camp, there was a commotion and screams of pain. Half a dozen men were in various states of shock and pain. A large van had tipped over, crushing one men and wounding the rest. First aid had been applied, but the camp had no one else with more training as one medic was among the injured and another medic was on leave.
Seven hours later, the doctor had stabilized all of the wounded men. Four would need to be shipped to the hospital, ambulances had been summoned for further care. The other two men would be on light duty. As he was cleaning up his supplies, the reserve officer in charge of the site thanked the doctor for his assistance to the Reich and invited him to come back for dinner and drinks at his convenience. The doctor agreed.
The ride back to his house was far less harrowing than the ride to camp. He was taken past Anna Marie’s parent’s farm. Half a dozen foreign laborers were working the near field. They were well fed and evidently well treated. He had examined them a month ago when they had been sent to the family. Besides the trauma of capture, they were in good enough shape. Now as the motorcycle entered the village, he wondered what was happening at the camp and how he could develop a relationship with the commander of the Luftwaffe installation.
Story 0722
August 21, 1941 Straits of Messina
Two battleships, four heavy cruisers and three light cruisers were steaming in three columns. Fiume led Conte de Cavour and Caio Duillo while the other two columns were homogeneous. A half dozen destroyers were in front of the powerful force pinging the sea bottom wildly in a vain search for British submarines. Minesweepers had cleared the channel the night before and they were re-certifying the route now.
Six miles to the south of the Straits, HMS Upholder started to creep east to a spot where a lucky zig instead of a zag might allow her to line up a shot on the fast moving enemy fleet. If nothing else could be accomplished, she could radio in a sighting report for Malta and the Fleet. The fleet zagged and nothing heavier than a second class destroyer entered torpedo range of the small submarine. They proceeded at high speed around Calabria before turning to the northwest at a sharp twenty knots. They would refuel at Otranto and then dash to Corfu to creep to Planos before they had to make their final run-in to their target.
Story 0722a
August 22, 1941 Hong Kong
She was an oddity. An armed yacht that had been brought into service as an expedient measure in 1917 and then never released. USS Isabel had been busy over the past six months as she had spent time on the French Indochina coast during the Japanese invasion, and also went through the Formosa Straits on a round-about journey to deliver mail and men to the 4th Marines in Shanghai. She was the eyes and ears of the Asiatic Fleet with more sea miles underneath her hull than any other ship.
Her skipper gave his compliments to the officer of the deck for the fine job he did in bringing her against the dock. Fifteen minutes later, the first work crews were already ashore to buy fresh food and arrange for a refueling from Royal Navy supply tanks. Ten minutes behind the chief supervised work gangs, the skipper and the primary passengers, Colonel Fertig of the Army and Commander Slocum from Admiral Hart’s staff, ambled down the gangway to the waiting staff cars. They were due to meet with their counterparts of the Hong Kong garrison.
The yacht left the next morning. The meetings were pleasant but the passengers learned little useful. The garrison of five battalions of mostly second line troops was sufficient to maintain law and order in the colony and create enough of a ruckus that accidental conquests were out of the picture but they could do little else. The garrison commander, after several gin and tonics, broached the question of evacuating some of his forces to Manila if his position was untenable and there were no other viable options. That was worthy of discussion.
Last edited:
No, it is a fictional conversation. I've updated to indicate it happened after several drinks so it is plausibly deniable. The difference in TTL and OTL for Hong Kong is OTL British prestige is far higher so the political pressure that led to the reinforcement of Hong Kong will be far less (the Canadians still want someplace to fight but that can be addressed elsewhere). The GOC Hong Kong knows he has an untenable position and knows that there are not sufficient reinforcements in the pipeline to actually allow him to hold his position until relieved. So his thought process is how does he accomplish his peace time mission while preserving as much of his force as possible so that if they die, they die doing something useful instead of uselessly holding a forlorn hope.
Also try to get military dependents and nurses, out, also prepare for evacuation of other high value civilians.. re Hart and the 4th Marines, I believe that by summer of 1941, he stopped sending replacements and instead keeping them for the 16th Naval District Marine battalion, which OTL became part of the 4th when withdrawn to the Phillipines.
Last edited:
Driftless
Donor
This entry made me think of counterpoint events from back in 1898 with Commodore Dewey leaving Hong Kong for Manila Bay:
Last edited:
Driftless
Donor
That Hong Kong garrison is definitely in a tough spot. There's significant Japanese forces in every direction, except towards the Philippines (pre-war). It would be a helluva operation to extract themselves from Hong Kong under fire and cross the 700 miles of the South China Sea to Manila. No practical hope of getting to Malaya or Singapore directly.
So @fester what do you have in mind for C Force in this timeline?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Force
Story 0723 Red Air Force raid on Polesti August 23, 1941
August 23, 1941 Sevastopol
The long runways north of the fortress were busy. A full regiment of heavy bombers stumbled forward into the sky, their engines straining to lift the bombers full of fuel and overloaded with bombs to altitude. A regiment of fighters was circling at 12,000 feet waiting for the dawn raid that the Luftwaffe preferred. There were no raiders this morning. The fighters waited until the bombers departed and then they turned north and dove for the deck. Thirty minutes later, they strafed a Romanian infantry company that was attempting to cross the Dnieper Delta near Kherson. Flak claimed one fighter.
The rest of the regiment landed at the small, improvised strip. Mechanics climbed on a dozen machines that either had new problems or were due for a rapid maintenance check. The rest of the planes were refueled, re-armed and new pilots climbed into the machines for another mission.
Six hours laters, most of the regiment of heavy bombers returned. They had been jumped by several Romanian fighters near the target of Ploiesti. Two had been shot down by the fighters, and another two had been lost to flak. One just disappeared. They had managed to drop their bombs onto the refinery in good weather from 12,000 feet. Secondary explosions were seen and at least three large black, billowing clouds were visible from 30 miles away as the regiment flew home.
Story 0724
August 24, 1941 Alberta
Shipments had been delayed. The tank regiment was supposed to have received the last Montreal built Valentine tanks two weeks ago. Instead those seventeen tanks along with twelve tanks that were due to be shipped to Australia for their nascent armoured formations had been diverted. Instead of having enough modern tanks for the entire regiment to train on, they were still doubling up. A and B squadrons had Valentines on even number days while C squadron had to use old American surplus vehicles from the First War before switching on alternating odd number days. Those diverted tanks were heading to Vancouver for shipment to Vladivostok.
- Status