Keynes' Cruisers

[fester]

October 17, 1938 Cramp and Sons Philadelphia

DD-131 USS Buchanan steamed past the row of merchant ships loading for dispatch to Europe and the Near East, guided by a pair of tugboats. She was going into drydock for the next three months. A comprehensive overhaul of machinery was the main course of business. Her rear armament was being experimentally re-arranged. The 3 inch anti-aircraft gun was gone. The aft 4 inch gun took its place while it was being replaced by a quad 1.1 inch mount. She would not be as good as new when she left the caisson, but she would be in far better shape in three months than she had been in years.

Thirty of her sisters had already been overhauled and updated. Eight had been converted into minelayers, and sixteen had seen their engineering spaces reworked. Those ships had lost a boiler and 10 knots of speed to gain the range to be a convoy escort.

 

[mudhead]

...and sixteen had seen their engineering spaces reworked. Those ships had lost a boiler and 10 knots of speed to gain the range to be a convoy escort.

Seems similar to the modifications to the RN's V & W class destroyers, some of which which lost the single boiler room in return for extra fuel bunkers and accomodation space, to enable them to function as longe range escorts. Like the US ships, their maximum speed fell by about 10kts, but proved efficient escorts - since the main function was ASW, and Asdic worked poorly (if at all) over 20 kts, the fall in speed mattered little.

 

[fester]

Seems similar to the modifications to the RN's V & W class destroyers, some of which which lost the single boiler room in return for extra fuel bunkers and accomodation space, to enable them to function as longe range escorts. Like the US ships, their maximum speed fell by about 10kts, but proved efficient escorts - since the main function was ASW, and Asdic worked poorly (if at all) over 20 kts, the fall in speed mattered little.

Bingo, the USN is taking some of the 4 stackers with the worse machinery and only doing a partial refit to save funds

 

[fester]

November 1, 1938 the White House

“Franklin, we’re going to get hurt next Tuesday, but I think we’ll still have a working New Deal Majority” Harold Ickes was relieved as he said this. Polling had been all over the place as the economy slowed its rapid growth that fueled their victories in 1936. In 1938, the economy grew a hair, just 0.1% for the first three quarters of the year. Unemployment had increased by half a point over the course of the year. Industrial utilization had declined as new facilities came on line without new orders. The agricultural bill would juice production in the farming states, while the military had picked up some of the slack for heavy industrial production.

“Harold, I know, I am worried about the Great Lakes, those seats are our most vulnerable and our targeted spending there never had any truly visible projects. Philadelphia and New Jersey are seeing ships, California has seen more airplanes coming off the factory floor, and Illinois is seeing artillery pieces. Cleveland just sees a little more steel being sent to the shipyards even as steel production declines. We prevented large drops, people aren’t seeing new jobs. I’m worried, as the clouds of war are coming.

Everyone but us is involved in Spain. Edgar is keeping an eye on the Lincoln and Washington Battalions. Italy is digesting Abyssinia while Japan is getting more aggressive in China. Germany has thrown off the shackles of Versailles while France and Britain are just waking from their slumbers. We have the latent strength but we have never been able to mobilize that strength until after a crisis. An unfriendly Congress can make gaining that strength more difficult.”

 

[stubear1012]

I am enjoying this timeline. Is there any benefit to increasing the National Guard in terms of size, training, and equipment? I though I read some where that General Marshall had a program where the certain National Guard units from large states received extra training and equipment. The thinking was that it would allow these units to be raised to Regular Army standards faster in time of war. The economic benefit would be more spending on uniforms, boots, ammunition, food, and so on. Plus it there is any upgrading of the National Guard Armories then that would be construction spending.

I am looking forward to seeing how this timeline develops.

Regards

Stubear1012

 

[fester]

I am enjoying this timeline. Is there any benefit to increasing the National Guard in terms of size, training, and equipment? I though I read some where that General Marshall had a program where the certain National Guard units from large states received extra training and equipment. The thinking was that it would allow these units to be raised to Regular Army standards faster in time of war. The economic benefit would be more spending on uniforms, boots, ammunition, food, and so on. Plus it there is any upgrading of the National Guard Armories then that would be construction spending.

I am looking forward to seeing how this timeline develops.

Regards

Stubear1012

Miniscule changes to the national guard. Where in Otl a Guard unit in 1940 might have 15% of its rifle strength shouldering wooden blanks, this timeline might have it at 12%. I have a thread on national guard plausibility check up on the writers forum that has some details on where I have the NG

 

[fester]

November 8/9, 1938 Germany

A large scale pogrom sanctioned and supported by the Government started in Germany. Thousands of Jewish owned businesses were ransacked and hundreds of assaults and rapes occurred. Jewish communities were devastated as thousands were taken to concentration camps. The trickle of refugees that had been leaving Germany soon became a flood seeking a path out.

November 9, 1938 the White House **

The results were being collated in the West Wing. There was no way to hide the reality that yesterday was a painful day for the Democratic Party. Democrats had lost fifty one seats and only picked up seven for a net loss of forty four House seats. Republicans had picked up two minor party seats as well. Losses were spread throughout the country, but the Great Lake states were the epicenter of the public rebuke of the Democrats and the Roosevelt stagnation. Ohio elected ten new Republicans yesterday. Pennsylvania turfed nine Democrats. Five seats lost in Indiana and Wisconsin, three seats lost in both Minnesota and Illinois, two seats in Michigan.

The Senate saw five new Republicans win seats. The only good news was a pair of squeakers that looked to be holds in Wisconsin and Connecticut. Wisconsin could have been worse but Progressives and Democrats had reached an informal agreement to not compete against each other in certain House seats and the Senate race. There were three or four House races where a split anti-Republican vote would have elected a Republican.


** In OTL, the results were 71 House seat pick-up for Republicans and 7 Senate seats instead of +53/+5 in this TTL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1938

 

[fester]

November 22, 1938

USS Cimarron (AO-22) was launched into the Delaware River from the shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania. The US Navy had bought her directly from Standard Oil of New Jersey for use as a fast fleet tanker. Once she had completed fitting out and shaking down, she would be assigned to the Atlantic Fleet to support the fast carrier groups. Seven of her sisters would be joining her in the next year as the Navy saw the value of large and fast oil tankers that did not hinder the strategic speed of the carrier groups. Ten oil tankers would be completed for civilian usage but retain easy conversion to military supply ships in case of emergency.

 

[Unknown]

Good update. Waiting for more...

 

[fester]

December 10, 1938 Gibbs and Cox

Three designs were almost ready for submission to BuShips competition for the eight ship requirement for a flotilla leader. The first design was 7,200 tons with three twin six inch guns and four twin five inch anti-aircraft mounts. The next design was the favored design. 6,100 tons with eight twin 5”38 caliber mounts with three forward and aft, superfiring and a wing turret on each broadside. A slightly larger and more stable variant was the final design. She would be 6,500 tons at light load with the turrets re-arranged so there would be four pairs of twin turrets of dual purpose five inch guns. Each cardinal direction would have a single block of the new dual purpose guns with a dedicated director.

 

[fester]

December 13, 1938 Haiphong, French Indochina

The stevedore swore as his partner's foot shifted. The heavy crate lurched and all of the weight went against his thighs for a moment. Finally his partner regained his footing and another crate came off the ship. Unloading this freighter was a slow and dangerous job as no one wanted to drop a crate. A dozen Boeing Peashooters were on board as well as enough ammunition to supply a corps for a month.

An American freighter had arrived three days ago and Chinese government officials swarmed over the ship’s manifest. A few American “volunteers” had arrived on a tramp steamer from Manila a week ago and they were anxious to see their pursuit planes. Chinese government officials were anxious to get everything off loaded and onto the waiting freight trains that needed to hurry north.

December 27, 1938 Lowell, Massachusetts

The young man, more a boy than a man but he imagined himself as older and more responsible than he truly was stepped out onto the busy main street of the mill town. The cold wind bit through his thin coat and his fingers tensed in a losing fight against the cold. Moth eaten wool mittens gamely did their best but fingers were exposed. He hunched down and drove his body through the wind along Merrimack Street, past City Hall and the Library, past a half dozen century old mills where a single shift had steady work and a second shift occassionally was being called.

He failed. The recruiter had been honest with him two weeks ago when he first walked into the office to join the Marines. He had bad teeth, bad eyes, and a body broken from poor nutrition in the past nine years. The Marines were looking for good men, not just any man. The sergeant was skeptical that the skinny boy of 139 pounds and a sunken chest could past the physical but the earnest pleading and the desperate need to leave the city was evident, so a physical was scheduled.

The doctor poked and prodded at him, listened to his heart, his chest, his stomach. A cardiac abnormality was found, a skipped beat that had never bothered him but would explain why he was occasionally short of breath during his one and only year playing football at Lowell High School. Those were idyllic days, his two years of high school before he had to drop out to work and support his family. If he hurried, he could make it back to the machine shop at the mill where he was being taught to be a loom mechanic before lunch. His foreman had agreed to turn a blind eye to his absence this morning and Mr. Papadopolous was not a man he wanted to take advantage of as his kindness was a rare event.

 

[mudhead]

Hit the road, Jack.

 

[fester]

Hit the road, Jack.

And don't you come back no more.... actually Jack made it to Columbia... might be his cousin

 

[fester]

January 1, 1939 Kure Naval Arsenal, Japan

The steel for the keel of the new cruiser Asama was piled in a series of sheds around the building slip. The cruiser would be a modified Mogami class vessel, a little bit larger and a lot more stable as weight was moved lower on the ship and the armor redistributed slightly more efficiently. Most Japanese construction capacity was devoted to the super battleships of the Yamato class as well as the new carriers but the American cruiser build-out demanded a response even if it was an inadequate response. If there were no construction problems, she would be ready to join the Fleet in 1942. By then the architects would be ready with an improved Ibuki class heavy cruiser.

January 14, 1939 Guantanamo Bay

The shore patrol was busy tonight. Three American heavy cruisers and four destroyers were in port. Joining them were a pair of older British light cruisers and a French colonial sloop. The three navies were on reasonably friendly terms and they had spent the time to organize a night of boxing matches and tug of wars for the men to blow off some steam. A Scottish lightweight won the night as he actually knew how to fight given that he boxed in Berlin's Olympics before joining the Royal Navy. Everyone elses' skills were visibly inferior to his and it showed to even the drunkest eye. After the boxing matches, thousands of sailors with some money in their pockets went out in search of beer and girls. Most of the men were successful in only finding beer. Frustrations led to a few words being exchanged and more than a few punches followed. Most missed but a few connected until several bars outside the main gate had to be emptied.

The next day, the American and British cruisers went to see for a day of scouting line drills. Each navy had different ways of accomplishing the same task and the officers took note of what worked and what did not from their peers.

 

[fester]

February 3, 1939 San Diego, California

VF-3 was notified that they were to send six pilots and forty ground crew to Long Island, New York for manufacturer training on the new Brewster Buffalo fighter. Saratoga was due to get a full complement of sixteen of the hot new fighters by late summer.


February 11, 1939 Delaware Bay

USS Buchanan had been released from the yard a few days ago. She had taken on board her crew and loaded stores before commencing post-refit acceptance trials. The first few days were easy days. Steering was confirmed, forward sprints and reverse stops had been undertaken, damage control drills to confirm that steam could still be moved like a magician’s distraction hand. Steam had been building in the boilers for hours as the black gang lovingly cared for their fiery beasts and fickle tea kettles for this moment. Now her Skipper grinned as his ship was about ready to go to flank speed to confirm the results of the engineering refit. Last year she started to shake and her engines strained to push her over thirty four knots for more than four or five minutes.

“All Ahead Flank, three bells” the skipper called out.

“All Ahead Flank, three bells. Aye sir” The helmsman repeated the order and then he pushed the ships’ telegraph. Within seconds the engineers confirmed the order. Soon the large bronze propellers bit into the gray choppy water as valves were fully open, oil quickly burned and the boilers released vast amounts of highly pressurized steam to the turbines. Maximum designed RPM was reached on both shafts and then a few more RPM’s were made as the propellers cavitated.

The bosun called out "33 Knots and accelerating, 34 knots and accelerating, 34.5 knots and accelerating" until the ship’s log recorded a speed of 35.9 knots, a few tenths of a knot over her design speed.

Sea sprayed the exposed men on deck but some hid behind the new gun shields on the four inch guns as Buchanan was free. She sprinted southeast to the open Atlantic, past the majestic Cape May lighthouse and left dozens of slow practical merchant ships in her wake. She was free.

Thirty minutes of exiting freedom, she slowed down to ahead full for a four hour high power fun. The engineering watch worried and observed with trepidation as pressures went through her plant that had not been tried in years as she had been babied to coax more life out of her machinery. Few problems emerged. The port turbine seemed to spin a touch faster than the starboard turbine, and the ship had a slight vibration above thirty three knots but compared to how she shook at twenty nine knots before her refit, it was barely noticeable.

Three more days of trials and a week of minor repairs in Philadelphia were on tap. After that she would rejoin the fleet in the Gulf of Mexico for the spring problems.

 

[docfl]

thousands of sailors with some gold in their pockets went out in search of beer and girls. Most of the men were successful in only finding beer.

The US sailors would have have green backs or silver, no gold in circulation at that time.

 

[fester]

thousands of sailors with some gold in their pockets went out in search of beer and girls. Most of the men were successful in only finding beer.

The US sailors would have have green backs or silver, no gold in circulation at that time.

Updated/ Thanks

 

[mudhead]

IOTL Buchanan was refitted at San Diego and recommissioned on 30/9/39, CO LT Jeane R Clark, joining DesRon 32 in the Atlantic on Neutrality Patrol.

Looks like she's in fine condition - a town in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, will have to buy its own bell.

The RN had some problems with these in ASW; they had a big turning circle (that long stern), and there were initial mooring difficulties, as the screws projected outside the beam.

 

[fester]

IOTL Buchanan was refitted at San Diego and recommissioned on 30/9/39, CO LT Jeane R Clark, joining DesRon 32 in the Atlantic on Neutrality Patrol.

Looks like she's in fine condition - a town in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, will have to buy its own bell.

The RN had some problems with these in ASW; they had a big turning circle (that long stern), and there were initial mooring difficulties, as the screws projected outside the beam.

And that is the type of change I am going for; marginal changes that individually are not earthshaking

 

[fester]

March 3, 1939 Mare Island Naval Shipyard


USS Walker, formerly DD-163 and now DM-24, slowly steamed out of the shipyard for the last time. She had escaped her fate to become a water barge and instead had been converted into a fast minelayer. Seven compatriots were already at San Francisco. The eight ships would cruise to Baja California, then onto the Canal Zone with port visits scheduled in Peru and Chile. After returning to the Canal Zone, they would head to the Philippines to reinforce the Asiatic Fleet in early July. A tender would meet them in Manila Bay. She would sail with two merchant ships carrying bombs and replacement engines for the Army Air Corps.

March 29, 1939 2108 north of Abucay, Bataan Luzon


“General Lim, we were able to move the entire company along over Mount Natib west of Abucay. It was rough, but we could do it and no one on the coast would be able to see us. Give us a couple of mules and we could get mountain guns up there to command the Peninsula. Sir, you have to let us try it and give the 31st a bloody nose”

The young Philippine Scout captain waited for a response. Two regiments, one American and one Scout were engaged in some of the largest maneuvers of the past decade on the Bataan Peninsula. The Scout regiment’s objective was to take Abucay while the American infantry regiment was to hold that town as well as the crossings over the river in front of the town. Three companies had been tasked to aggressively patrol and the last company arrived back to the bivouac just twenty minutes ago, six hours later than expected.

“Are you sure we can get the regiment over the mountain?”

“Yes sir”

“Very well, get your men fed and rested. They’ll take the lead at 0330 tomorrow morning.

The next morning the third battalion of the regiment made an ungodly amount of noise and an artillery battery “fired” several harassment missions against the American outpost line. The Scouts had been surprised at how light the 31st’s patrols were. Instead they were willing to receive an attack on a narrow, well registered front.

The other two battalions and a battery of British mountain guns had left their assembly areas five hours earlier.

By mid day, the flanking column collapsed the American lines and the umpires stopped the exercise with the Scouts decisively winning.

Three more days of field exercises were held for both the Scouts and the 31st before they were taken back to their garrisons.