Keynes' Cruisers

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    • fester


    December 17, Donets Basin

    Artillery shook the ground. Three dozen Hurricanes and a regiment of PE-2 bombers dropped their loads on the far side of the Mius River. Smoke shells soon blanketed both banks and men were coughing as they hustled through the thickening smoke while carrying assault boats in their hands.

    Men and boats entered the cold water and even as the first paddles were making contact, Romanian machine guns laced deadly threads blindly across the river and mortar teams dropped shells at logical assembly points. There were no surprises as both armies had fought and scouted the entire river line over the past three months.

    One company was destroyed in the first seven minutes as machine guns and mortars sank every boat. A few men in the assault echelon were able to make it to a shore but most were either killed outright or were pulled underneath the cold river water as they could not escape their combat packs nor their heavy winter clothing.

    Another two companies made it across in somewhat functional order. They started to exploit their bridgehead until a battlegroup of a dozen R-35 tanks counter-attacked and forced the bridgehead back into the river. Some of the men were able to paddle to the eastern shore. A few of those survivors would survive NKVD judgement, most were killed as few surrenders were accepted.

    By the end of the day, the front near Rostov had stabilized along the Mius.
     
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    • Story 0970
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    December 18, 1941 south east of Wake Island

    Enterprise was the scouting carrier for the day. Twelve miles away, Saratoga held onto the Sunday punch. Contact was not expected as the two carriers were forming a protective barrier between Wake Island and the Marshall Islands. Lexington was due to fly off the rear echelon of VMF-221 to bring the fighter complement of the island back to at least fifteen functional aircraft. The four light transports, all destroyer conversions were due to arrive just after nightfall. They would dash into the dredged lagoon, unload and make a run for the open seas by early morning.

    As VS-5 scouted to the south, one of the Dauntlesses spotted a Japanese submarine. The scout bomber dove and placed the five hundred pound bomb square on the engineering section of the old diesel boat. She sank with her entire crew going to the bottom within a minute. The patrol bomber turned around and landed on Enterprise even as a replacement was warming up their engine to cover the sector vacated.

    Five hundred and seventy miles to the north of the atoll, Hiryu and Soryu were making their way south to support the second assault.
     
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    December 18, 1941 Moscow

    Even more trains were hurriedly unloaded. Two trains carried the fuel and shells and food that an army needed. Another trio of trains lugged one hundred tanks and sixty three artillery pieces as well as the trucks needed to move and supply that gear with the fuel and shells that they would consume. The tanks and trucks and artillery were brand new gear fresh from factories further east. The numbers were vastly insufficient to replace the losses already suffered in the offensive, but they could keep a few more units up to almost effective strength. A steady stream of iron and oil went forward to replace the mangled carcasses and broken bodies that war created. The last train held another regiment of infantry, mostly reservists with a few new draftees integrated into the units that were lightly leavened with men who had been wounded in the summer and the fall as their original units were destroyed.

    West of the city, there was selective quiet. The north had stalled as fresh German divisions had arrived from the rear and reserves to create a shell behind which frontline divisions could retreat and recover to. In the center, a French regiment of volunteers had been selling their lives dearly to stop a two division attack. Another day and the material advantages would guarantee victory, but each hour made sure that German units could pull back in slightly better order. And in the south, a steady set of blows were being exchanged between the attacking Front and the 2nd Panzer Army. The snow storms kept both air forces on the ground but there were enough trucks to guarantee a steady trickle of supplies, most importantly petrol, but also ammunition, to allow the Panzer divisions to pounce on exposed flanks and lazily commanded spearheads. Each time, the counter-attacking Germans would press their blow as far as they could before they ran into heavy defenses. A series of meeting engagements and ambushes were bleeding out the Mechanized Corps even as they took some of the ground that had been lost in November. Each meter taken had more Soviet tanks burning than German tanks abandoned.

    The offensive would continue. Another push was being planned once the weather got even worse. Siberian and TransBaikalian troops could handle bone chilling, piss freezing temperatures better than the fascists, so that is when they would attack. A cold front was coming soon enough, and then they would attack once again.
     
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    • Driftless

    Driftless

    Donor
    The British contingency planned for a channel dash, but didn't pick up on the actual departure immediately. Some times your enemies schedule doesn't co-operate with your plans...
     

    duckie

    Rorke said:
    This does not bode well for the American torpedo squadrons in Bathhouse. *Cough* Devastators *Cough*
    Click to expand...

    Why Not, as long as somebody keeps enemy fighters of there backs, the Devastators should preform there function well, aka bring a torpedo close to an enemy ship. They are faster than the Swordfish
     
    Rorke

    Rorke

    duckie said:
    Why Not, as long as somebody keeps enemy fighters of there backs, the Devastators should preform there function well, aka bring a torpedo close to an enemy ship. They are faster than the Swordfish
    Click to expand...
    The German AA guns are calibrated to shoot at faster bombers, so the Swordfish will be too slow to effectively shot down. The Devastators are within the calibrated speed
     

    Zheng He

    fester said:
    No major change to the VT Squadrons on USN carriers. Still 12-15 aircraft.

    Buffalo and Vindicators have been replaced by more modern aircraft in this timeline this point.
    Click to expand...

    I thought you moved the TBDs off of the carriers or is that only in the Pacific Fleet or am I confusing your TL with Galveston Bay's?
     
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