Ohh... The good doctor is in way over his head. He also handed A-M off to someone else in Paris and is not running her any more
- Status
Driftless
Donor
Depending on how you play this out..... Postwar, either this tale could be told in existential form by Camus, or spun into a Hollywood romantic drama (or tragedy) with Anne Blyth and a young Burt Lancaster.
David Flin
Gone Fishin'
My money's firmly on a tragedy. There's an awful lot of ways this could go very bad, and there aren't many ways through the briar patch.
A-M's real handler would be fuming if they knew about this re-establishing contact.
Fester, your story is still very good ! I really like that you take the time to develop some characters.
I have seen some typos :
On operation "Bathhouse", it's interesting to see the allies in the search of precision in Brest. In OTL, the RAF and USAAF wheren't very precise when it comes to bombing. The political cost to kill occupied civilians is far more important than for some German civilians (My grand-mother and her best friend where still resentfull of the US and the "Libératueurs", ie Vichy propagand, in the 90').
On the strategic level, if you knock out the heavy units of Germany, you can free up the Home Fleet for more active actions in the Med and in the Far East (and retire the R class battleships to free up manpower). If I were the Admiralty, at firtsd, I'd just give the minimum necessary ships to the Far East and use the rest to crush the Italians (but I admit that the "minimum necessary" could be quite a lot).
I have seen some typos :
-> It's Strasbourg in french or Straßburg in german (ß is there to replace "ss").
-> It's Lorient since the 18th century (the port was created to base the French East Indies Compagnie by Richelieu).
-> Gneisenau
On operation "Bathhouse", it's interesting to see the allies in the search of precision in Brest. In OTL, the RAF and USAAF wheren't very precise when it comes to bombing. The political cost to kill occupied civilians is far more important than for some German civilians (My grand-mother and her best friend where still resentfull of the US and the "Libératueurs", ie Vichy propagand, in the 90').
On the strategic level, if you knock out the heavy units of Germany, you can free up the Home Fleet for more active actions in the Med and in the Far East (and retire the R class battleships to free up manpower). If I were the Admiralty, at firtsd, I'd just give the minimum necessary ships to the Far East and use the rest to crush the Italians (but I admit that the "minimum necessary" could be quite a lot).
Story 1000 Invasion of Central Luzon
December 22, 1941, Dawn Lingayan Gulf
The large Japanese invasion convoys had taken their time in their approach to the beaches. There was little reason to hurry. Fighters continually circled overhead, and they had successfully defended the southern convoy from a flight of B-17s. Two large bombers were shot down and another left trailing smoke yesterday afternoon. A transport had slight splinter damage from a near miss, and a subchaser had been hit by friendly flak, but the air attacks failed. A night attack by a trio of Catalinas managed to torpedo the cruiser Takao. Both torpedoes failed to explode, although the outer skeg was dented by the impact which limited the ship’s speed to 24 knots before vibrations became too extreme.
The major threat to shipping had been mines. A transport with a battalion of infantry was listing and would soon be abandoned as she hit a mine eleven miles outside of the mouth of the Gulf. Post-war records would credit the kill to S-39. The recently laid minefields by Mine Squadron 2 would claim a pair of destroyers and a large stores ship. The minesweepers had been working since sunset to clear three pathways to Agoo, Caba and Bauang
The 14th Army was ready to land the decisive blow and secure the flanks of the new Southern Prosperity Area.
The eight men, an Americans and three long service Philippine Scout regulars along with four reservists providing security, huddled deep in their position near Agoo. They had been hiding for the past three days, waiting for this moment. Ten thousand men and dozens of ships were just offshore, no more than 5,000 yards away, and they were all heading towards these eight men.
“Foxtrot Prime, this is Foxtrot 17, the hens have arrived, repeat, the hens have arrived.”
“Roger that Foxtrot 17, the hens have arrived, do you see any cocks?”
“Dozens of cocks, of all sizes and speeds, they’re crowing”
“Let’s lay some eggs”
With that, the 155mm guns that had been brought up in support of the main body of the North Luzon force and the 26th Cavalry Regiment began to receive fire missions. Eight guns burped explosives into the sea. Seven were long, and one missed the targeted transport by at least 2,000 yards.
“Down 500 right 300”
A minute later, another salvo was fired, the grouping was a little looser from the Corps artillery, and the salvo was consistently short.
“Up 100, right 100” was the call before the Japanese ships started to make smoke to obscure themselves from the spotters that they knew had to be near the beaches. The artillery had not scored a hit yet, but they would soon enough.
The fifth salvo straddled the merchant ship. The next salvo had two high explosive shells detonate just 15 yards from the ship. The first hit was scored on the next salvo. A single shell exploded in the forward hold. A platoon of infantry, lined up like hogs at an abattoir, was destroyed. Five more salvos were fired until the Manishu Maru was burning from stem to stern, a company of infantrymen and three thousand tons of supplies lost to the invasion attempt.
The battery in support of the Northern Luzon Force was quickly hooked up to their limbers and Studebaker trucks as the guns were pulled out of their position before the inevitable Japanese fighter sweep could catch them in the open. Dummy guns were mounted haphazardly in place to attract an attack.
South of the landing beaches, the six eight inch rail road guns slowly traversed. Another spotter had sighted at least a battalion of infantry landing just west of Rosario. Japanese ships were shelling the beaches and ripping up the wires that connected the outpost lines to the artillery positions. The original battle plan would have had the reserve divisions fighting and probably dying on the beaches, but now only a thin crust of observers with enough infantry to allow them to run with some degree of protection was near the shore. Engineers had spent the past week preparing demolitions with the intent of pinning the Japanese to the coast where heavy artillery could pound them day and night while the North Luzon Force would be able to concentrate near the Agno River.
The six rail road guns fired. 1,500 pounds of steel went over the heights of bombers and then tipped over and dove for the beaches. Two shells went long and splashed water harmlessly on Japanese landing barges. Two shells went short and ripped open a stand of palm trees. The other shells landed on the narrow shingle and ripped open lives and took away dreams. The next salvo was even tighter and the final four shells from each gun were clustered almost as if this was school shoot. Even as the last shells were fired, the rail artillery was being made ready to move into well prepared hides. The standing order was for those guns to only fire once every four hours in the daylight so that the Japanese could not pounce on them.
Last edited:
Story 1001
December 22, 1941 Northwest Malaya
The Japanese attacks had finally succeeded. Or at least they succeeded in taking the forward defensive positions near Jitra. Ten days of heavy fighting had worn down one Indian brigade and made the other four brigades full of experienced veterans. The decision to withdraw had been made by General Montgomery the previous morning as not enough artillery ammunition could be brought forward to the main defensive zone. Japanese fighters and bombers had become quite proficient attacking supply convoys. Plentiful artillery was a critical ingredient in dealing with Japanese infiltration attacks.
By now, the Indian battalions had started to develop a play book. One third of their strength would be held in reserve a few minutes behind the main defensive line. As soon as an infiltration attack was detected, the reserve would immediately counter-attack while the company or battalion called in artillery. Once the counter-attack forced the Japanese columns to deploy for battle, the artillery could chew them up. Experienced gunners from the 5th Division usually had their first shells on target within four minutes of the call for assistance while the best crews in the 11th Division were supporting their infantry within seven or eight minutes.
The last major infiltration was by a Japanese battalion that ran into the reserves of the the Ghurka brigade. A bayonet and khukri charge forced deployment and then every gun in the division pounded the exposed Japanese battalion. The next morning, stretcher and intelligence parties counted over four hundred Japanese bodies.
The 5th Division would cover the 11th Division as it moved south to new positions near Sungain Petani. Once the 11th had re-established themselves, the veteran 5th would retreat as well. There was a promise of a fresh brigade from the 9th Division that would allow for a modicum of rest if there was not an aggressive Japanese pursuit.
Across the battle lines, there was no inclination to pursue. Artillery ammunition was too short, gasoline was too sparse, and the few tanks and bicycle infantry battalions were too few worn out to push through booby trapped grounds that the British gunners had pre-registered. Quiet instead won the day as the Japanese tentatively advanced into the well prepared positions that had stopped them for a week more than they could afford to fight.
Story 1002
December 22 1941 , 1000 Manila Time, near Agoo
The team was in their fifth observation hole of the morning. Seven ships would never leave the bay due to artillery and mines. Another four 155mm rounds landed on the soft sand of the beach, steel scything at waist height, adding smoke and noise to the battle. An urgent adjustment was telephoned in. The wires were still working as they had been buried under 3 feet of dirt over the past week, arteries of knowledge leading to the heart of the force's firepower. Radios were a somewhat unreliable back-up, but the spotters would rely on the wires for as long as they could.
The Japanese regiment had established a small beachhead on the shingle. Destroyers and gunboats were getting closer and closer to pour their fire in against observation posts near the beaches. Most were empty as the observers and their reservists acting as protectors had fallen back. A few positions were never evacuated as Japanese infantry would pound a position with a combination of knee mortars, anti-tank guns, naval gunfire, and then use whatever cover to flank a the position before rushing them for hand to hand, face to face fighting with cold steel and hot blood. This method had been successful in allowing the Japanese toehold to evolve into a pocket that edged northwards into the town.
The defenders hunkered deeper into the holes when they heard the steady thrum of airplane engines. Japanese fighters and light bombers had been working over their positions every half hour. But this time, it was a flight of two PAF P-26s that roared out of the mountains. Machine guns blazed as they strafed the beach head and dropped a pair of 100 pound bombs apiece. One plane left trailing smoke while the other ran as fast as he could to the airfields south of Manila.
Last edited:
Story 1003
December 22, 1941 1500 Wake Island
Thirty one bombers were being watched by another dozen carrier based fighters. Eleven Wildcats had climbed for altitude to jump the raid from Hiryu and Soryu. This time, the Japanese fighters had been split into two clusters. Three shotais were five thousand feet above the bombers while two shotais held a close, weaving escort in front of the bombers. The Grummans had a slight number advantage on the high escort but the Zeroes did their job. Four escorts and three interceptors created fiery oil slicks in the north Pacific Ocean even as bombers pressed in. A section of Wildcats dove and flamed a single level bomber before being chased by a trio of the closely escorting Zeros
The freshly reinforced garrison waited. Anti-aircraft fire began to pepper the attacking bomber formations, mechanically fused 75mm shells going off slightly ahead and below the attackers. The lighter machine guns and the battery of 37mm Brownings waited until the aircraft came close.
Within minutes, three dive bombers were in the lagoon, but L battery’s two five inch guns were wrecked, the a previously damaged Wildcat became a hangar queens and half a dozen machine gun positions were smeared with blood.
The Japanese did take the positions in Jitra, but nine to ten days behind OTL (and the British basically controlled their own movements ITTL), and I see that my prediction that they're bleeding in both Malaya and the Philippines are correct.
Even if they're victorious in the Philippines or Malaya (which is iffy at this point), its going to cost so much that it'll be pyrrhic...
Even if they're victorious in the Philippines or Malaya (which is iffy at this point), its going to cost so much that it'll be pyrrhic...
The British can do battle on their own terms, from the look of it.
That never happened IOTL, as the Japanese had the advantage all the way from invasion to surrender.
The attack by the P-26s did several things. At least some Japanese were killed and wounded, some equipment was destroyed, and the morale of the defenders was lifted. Now the Japanese have to plan to defend the beach heads against air attack, because every attack, even if the damage is limited, forces troops to take cover, unloading to stop, etc. The drip, drip, drip of delays and losses throws the timetable further behind schedule, and bleeds the limited resources and logistics. The transports now on the bottom here (and elsewhere) are a tremendous loss even thought the Japanese don't realize it yet. The defense of Bataan and the Southern PI get stronger every day.
In Malaya, IMHO the Japanese are already screwed. OTL with everything going right they were within a few weeks at best of having to cease attacking Singapore due to supply issues. Now they have lost/used more supplies and they are at least a week or more behind schedule. Nobody knows it yet, but even if from this point on everything goes at the same pace as OTL, and it won't, the Japanese simply cannot take Singapore. Perhaps the only issue will be how far south they get.
In Malaya, IMHO the Japanese are already screwed. OTL with everything going right they were within a few weeks at best of having to cease attacking Singapore due to supply issues. Now they have lost/used more supplies and they are at least a week or more behind schedule. Nobody knows it yet, but even if from this point on everything goes at the same pace as OTL, and it won't, the Japanese simply cannot take Singapore. Perhaps the only issue will be how far south they get.
Yeah, that's going to be the huge difference in the battle for Malaya; this probably lessens the invasion of Burma (which will have butterflies on postwar Burma; Burma likely avoids its OTL fate here), which in turn lessens (if not eliminates) the Bengal Famine from 1942-1944, and that will have effects on postwar India ...
Heck, if this TL goes that long, I'd like to see TTL's postwar world...
Story 1004
December 23, 1941 0700 250 miles south, southeast of Wake Island
The two carriers were steaming hard to the north. The craggy faced admiral was chomping his cigar. Lexington was due to join Saratoga and Enterprise by 0800. Every destroyer had refueled the previous day. The morning search flown by Enterprise’s VS-5 had, so far, found nothing. Wake Island had suffered from another raid by carrier planes the previous afternoon. Captured Japanese air crews had indicated that they were flying from two carriers that had raided Pearl Harbor earlier in the month.
Now where were they?
Was this just a raid, or a preparation for an invasion? The three carriers had eight heavy cruisers and a trio of light cruisers in direct support along with two dozen destroyers. Admiral Spruance aboard Northampton was making plans to forming a surface action group with Cruiser Division 5’s three heavy cruisers and the three light cruisers along with almost all of Destroyer Squadron 6. Enterprise would tuck herself in with Saratoga’s escorts if Task Force 98 was dispatched.
The search pattern was to the a third of the circle between Wake and just south of west of the task force. The Marine fighters had not seen any Japanese carriers within 50 miles of the island. Catalinas flying from Midway had not detected any Japanese forces between Midway and Wake. Odds were that the Japanese carriers were to the north or north west of Wake and this morning’s search would find nothing.
If These were not just raiders but preliminary support for another invasion attempt then the transports had to be somewhere? There would not be enough time to assemble transports from Japan, but transports from Saipan or the Marshalls were possible. The previous strikes in the Marshalls had not seen any concentration capable of supporting an invasion.
Once Lexington had joined the fleet, he would have VS-2 scout 175 miles to the southwest of the task force to look for an invasion convoy. His priority would be enemy carriers but he would take an invasion convoy if spotted.
Last edited:
- Status