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Railway guns are kinda cool in an anachronistic kind of way. But not too anachronistic back in 1941 to be used effectively in this ATL against the main Japanese landings at Lingayen Gulf. If all 8 of them could have been run up to within 12 to 15 miles of the Japanese beachhead with enough ammo to shell heavily that first night at the landed concentrations of troops and supplies it could have seriously damaged the IJA offensive capability.
Then the railway guns could have been towed away in the predawn darkness to hide somewhere to avoid air attack the next day. If enough 8" HE shells were available to allow a fire mission like that. And then to be used again at the Lingayen Gulf beachhead or some other imperative target.
Of course this presupposes that there were railway tracks within the 8" railway gun shelling range of where the landings took place.
Then the railway guns could have been towed away in the predawn darkness to hide somewhere to avoid air attack the next day. If enough 8" HE shells were available to allow a fire mission like that. And then to be used again at the Lingayen Gulf beachhead or some other imperative target.
Of course this presupposes that there were railway tracks within the 8" railway gun shelling range of where the landings took place.
The Pearl Harbor veterans had spent the time in transit aboard Lexington figuring out how to beat the nimble Japanese fighters. The Grummans were steady and heavy gun platforms but they could not turn.
In fairness to the F4F it was actually pretty maneuverable fighter (as was the P-40), it just isn't remembered as such because it is compared to the Zero which was optimized for low speed handling. Then again, no Allied fighter to include the Spitfire could turn with a Zero at low speeds so the Wildcat was hardly an anomaly in this regard.
In fairness to the F4F it was actually pretty maneuverable fighter (as was the P-40), it just isn't remembered as such because it is compared to the Zero which was optimized for low speed handling. Then again, no Allied fighter to include the Spitfire could turn with a Zero at low speeds so the Wildcat was hardly an anomaly in this regard.
And just as fire happy as the Zero.
Another disadvantage of the Zero IIRC is the limited ammo for the two 20mm cannons, with only 60 rounds for each gun, and the backup of two 7.7 mm machine guns isnt really gonna pierce a Wildcats armor anytime soon.
Story 0996
December 22, 1941 Southeast of Moscow
Waves of men came out of the snow. The storm silenced movement. The storm hid the approaching wave until the attackers were ready to be seen. Machine gun teams had moved two hundred meters forward before lying down and setting up their machine guns. They waited for the Germans to fire so that the rest of the attacking battalion could advance as far as possible without an alert.
First one, and then a second German observation post were overrun. Bayonets and rifle butts were used instead of grenades and bullets. German soldiers who should have been paying attention to their front instead were paying more attention to trying to keep warm enough to not lose toes or noses or fingers to the biting cold. In each of those posts, at least one man’s eyes were scanning the front but the thick snows falling and his shivering teeth worked to make him effectively blind.
In the center of the attack, a German listening post had a trio of somewhat alert men. One of them was able to fire a green flare, another threw a grenade while the last man fired his rifle before running back to alert the rest of the position. He escaped even as a dozen Russian infantrymen overwhelmed the rest of the position in a short rush. All along the front, Russian machine guns started to fire as riflemen and sub-machine gunners moved as fast as they could forward. They had already penetrated the outpost line without casualties.
German machine gunners began to fire against their Soviet counterparts and then men began to yell in alarm and pain as the attackers hit the thin strands of wire in front of the German strong points. Artillery from both sides began to crash down. German artillery selectively fired at suspected assembly points while Soviet artillery sought to separate the sector under attack from any German counter-attacking forces.
The offensive continued as the fighting became bitterly close near a nameless village southeast of Moscow.
Waves of men came out of the snow. The storm silenced movement. The storm hid the approaching wave until the attackers were ready to be seen. Machine gun teams had moved two hundred meters forward before lying down and setting up their machine guns. They waited for the Germans to fire so that the rest of the attacking battalion could advance as far as possible without an alert.
First one, and then a second German observation post were overrun. Bayonets and rifle butts were used instead of grenades and bullets. German soldiers who should have been paying attention to their front instead were paying more attention to trying to keep warm enough to not lose toes or noses or fingers to the biting cold. In each of those posts, at least one man’s eyes were scanning the front but the thick snows falling and his shivering teeth worked to make him effectively blind.
In the center of the attack, a German listening post had a trio of somewhat alert men. One of them was able to fire a green flare, another threw a grenade while the last man fired his rifle before running back to alert the rest of the position. He escaped even as a dozen Russian infantrymen overwhelmed the rest of the position in a short rush. All along the front, Russian machine guns started to fire as riflemen and sub-machine gunners moved as fast as they could forward. They had already penetrated the outpost line without casualties.
German machine gunners began to fire against their Soviet counterparts and then men began to yell in alarm and pain as the attackers hit the thin strands of wire in front of the German strong points. Artillery from both sides began to crash down. German artillery selectively fired at suspected assembly points while Soviet artillery sought to separate the sector under attack from any German counter-attacking forces.
The offensive continued as the fighting became bitterly close near a nameless village southeast of Moscow.
Story 0997
December 22, 1941 0400 Alexandria
The harbor was in an uproar.
The shore patrol had captured two Italian combat swimmers two hours earlier. Somewhere on some ships, something might be happening.
The larger ships had certified divers aboard. They had been scrambled over the past ninety minutes. Half a dozen teams were already in the water. Queen Elizabeth and Formidable had already been declared safe, although Queen Elizabeth was in desperate need for a good hull scraping. Warspite had been certified safe up from her rudders to B-turret. Four pairs of divers were completing the final inspection. Eagle’s divers had just entered the water minutes ago. They had been allowed a run ashore and the mad scramble to sanitize the harbor had begun while the men were attempting to negotiate the affections of affordable women.
HMS Sussex shook. A charge detonated seven feet from her inner-port propeller. Dirty harbor water rushed into the skeg and along the shaft, cascading into several rooms along the drive train. Within minutes, her stern was touching the bottom of the harbor as her crew rushed to isolate the damage and minimized the flooding. Even as Sussex fought to stay afloat, a pair of detonations shook Eagle. Both of her central shafts were ruined within seconds. Three minutes later, HMAS Norman was crippled.
Two divers were killed by the shock waves sent out by the mines that crippled Eagle. They were only yards away from discovering the explosives when they detonated. Another two dozen men aboard the crippled ships would die from either drowning in the flooding or infections transmitted by the dirty harbor water which they stood in for hours as they controlled the flooding.
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So all battleships are safe so far. Just damage a old carrier, a heavy cruiser, and a destroyer. Eagle aircrafts are going to join HMS Formidable aircrew and will be over 50 aircraft.
Story 0998
December 22, 1941 in the Celebes Sea
Four torpedoes streaked forward. The Japanese invasion convoy had been lightly escorted. O-19 had been stalking the convoy for hours now and finally the best solution had presented itself. She fired her forward tubes at a large transport and then started to spin so that her aft tubes could bear. Those four torpedoes followed ninety seconds behind the first wave of attackers. They were aimed at a small tanker.
Three torpedoes struck and detonated in the first salvo while the second salvo would only see one torpedo explode. Even before the attack had been carried home, the Dutch submarine dove as deep as she safely could to wait out the inevitable counter-attack. The depth charges that came after her were accompanied an hour later by the transport carrying most of an artillery battalion and a tankette company.
Formidable was already packed to the gunwales with aircraft. She did not have a lot of spare capacity. Eagle's air wing could provide a floating reserve/replacement pool of trained pilots.
Warspite and Queen Elizabeth both rolled high to escape the attack.
Death toll is a bit higher though, 26 dead compared to 8 dead IOTL.
Well, thats gonna sting a little.
Since the tanker was hit, we'll assume the best outcome for the Japanese is that she loses some of her cargo but eventually makes it to her destination, although her ability to carry captured POL back to Japan or further forward is limited. Of course if the torpedo hits in the right spot, the tanker may burn/sink. Between 12/7 and the date of this submarine attack the Japanese have been whittled down significantly more than OTL. The forces used OTL were, by any measure, marginally adequate at best and inadequate as a median, for the tasks they were assigned and actually accomplished. Logistics, always a Japanese low point, was inadequate period. Only good luck, and a combination of poor leadership and marginal forces on the Allied side, allowed the Japanese to be as successful as they were. Even rolling sixes every time won't allow the Japanese to approach their success OTL - before you factor in the better leadership, more and better forces on the Allied side. If they roll some low numbers things will get very ugly very quickly.
Story 0999
December 22, 1941 Strasbourg
He could have pulled in a favor from the Luftwaffe unit that had adopted him as their unit doctor. The reservist commanding the odd collection of draftees and technicians would have loaned him a staff car for the evening and even a driver if he was so bold to ask. Yet, the young doctor merely borrowed a neighbor's horse and buggy. He drove the carriage into the town and made sure the horse was well fed and happily neighed as he placed the blanket over her shoulders and tied her to the post.
He went into the train station and waited. He had received Anna Marie's letter a few days earlier, she would be home visiting her parents for a week and she would like to see him. Her train was due to arrive in the early evening and an escort home would be quite welcomed. So he waited and waited with a thin broth soup to warm him after the first hour. Trains were running haphazardly on time, some would make the schedule to the second and others would be delayed by a day due to either air attacks or increasingly more common sabotage. Signals were being ripped out, nails and bolts removed from the tracks, water towers emptied. Very few people were dying from these attacks but sand was being thrown into poorly lubricated gears.
The screech of brakes and the shaking of the ground was heard before he could actually see her train. It was a short train, a dozen passenger cars and another dozen box cars on a run from Paris to Frankfurt. The first half a dozen cars were full of German soldiers. Some were on holiday leave to see their families before returning to occupation duties in France and Belgium, others were in formed units heading to reinforce the Eastern Front. Men hurried off the train and then civilians started to emerge.
Where was she? He looked up and down the platform. Families were looking for the water closet, couples were seeking warm soup and cabs, young men who had some how managed to avoid conscription strode purposefully out of the station. Half a dozen young women in drab overcoats and confident airs walked as a pack. And then a singular young women left the last passenger compartment. He had to look at her until everyone around him looked at him and his gauche violation of discrete etiquette. That could not be Anna Marie, that could only be Anna Marie. He had not seen her in eight months since she had left for Paris and at least two lovers. She was not a girl who had a flight of fancy towards the town doctor who had saved her from shame. She was a woman, a young one, but woman still now, and would he match up to her expectations now that her horizons had widened?
He needed more time to think, he needed more time to process, but he lost that time as she wrapped herself in an enthusiastic and barely acceptable embrace.
"My doctor, I missed you so much"
"My girl, I missed you too" and then they stopped talking as they sought the connection that they had missed for months.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in the buggy and started to head to the countryside. Neither one could stop talking, neither one could stop their hands from finding a resting spot upon the other. Eight months of seperation, eight months of disparate lovers, eight months of danger, and the night was more than that eight months. As they turned towards Anna Marie's parents' farm house, she invited the good doctor in for dinner and a chance to meet her parents.
He could have pulled in a favor from the Luftwaffe unit that had adopted him as their unit doctor. The reservist commanding the odd collection of draftees and technicians would have loaned him a staff car for the evening and even a driver if he was so bold to ask. Yet, the young doctor merely borrowed a neighbor's horse and buggy. He drove the carriage into the town and made sure the horse was well fed and happily neighed as he placed the blanket over her shoulders and tied her to the post.
He went into the train station and waited. He had received Anna Marie's letter a few days earlier, she would be home visiting her parents for a week and she would like to see him. Her train was due to arrive in the early evening and an escort home would be quite welcomed. So he waited and waited with a thin broth soup to warm him after the first hour. Trains were running haphazardly on time, some would make the schedule to the second and others would be delayed by a day due to either air attacks or increasingly more common sabotage. Signals were being ripped out, nails and bolts removed from the tracks, water towers emptied. Very few people were dying from these attacks but sand was being thrown into poorly lubricated gears.
The screech of brakes and the shaking of the ground was heard before he could actually see her train. It was a short train, a dozen passenger cars and another dozen box cars on a run from Paris to Frankfurt. The first half a dozen cars were full of German soldiers. Some were on holiday leave to see their families before returning to occupation duties in France and Belgium, others were in formed units heading to reinforce the Eastern Front. Men hurried off the train and then civilians started to emerge.
Where was she? He looked up and down the platform. Families were looking for the water closet, couples were seeking warm soup and cabs, young men who had some how managed to avoid conscription strode purposefully out of the station. Half a dozen young women in drab overcoats and confident airs walked as a pack. And then a singular young women left the last passenger compartment. He had to look at her until everyone around him looked at him and his gauche violation of discrete etiquette. That could not be Anna Marie, that could only be Anna Marie. He had not seen her in eight months since she had left for Paris and at least two lovers. She was not a girl who had a flight of fancy towards the town doctor who had saved her from shame. She was a woman, a young one, but woman still now, and would he match up to her expectations now that her horizons had widened?
He needed more time to think, he needed more time to process, but he lost that time as she wrapped herself in an enthusiastic and barely acceptable embrace.
"My doctor, I missed you so much"
"My girl, I missed you too" and then they stopped talking as they sought the connection that they had missed for months.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in the buggy and started to head to the countryside. Neither one could stop talking, neither one could stop their hands from finding a resting spot upon the other. Eight months of seperation, eight months of disparate lovers, eight months of danger, and the night was more than that eight months. As they turned towards Anna Marie's parents' farm house, she invited the good doctor in for dinner and a chance to meet her parents.
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You might want to rewrite this: doctors rarely happily neigh when placing blankets on horses.
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