Keynes' Cruisers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reader mode

Errolwi

Monthly Donor
mudhead said:
I don't think Ansons were used in this area IOTL. IOTL 19 Group covered this area: from Wiki -
Click to expand...

OTL it was Hudsons on the relevant patrols, including one with a faulty ASV radar. I don't think Ansons used radar, assume a simple slip-up in the mind of our fine author :)
 

fester

mudhead said:
I don't think Ansons were used in this area IOTL. IOTL 19 Group covered this area: from Wiki -

Squadron/ Aircraft/ Station
No. 22 Squadron RAF/ Bristol Beaufort/ RAF St Eval
No. 86 Squadron RAF/ Bristol Beaufort/ RAF St Eval
No. 209 Squadron RAF/ Consolidated Catalina/ RAF Pembroke Dock
No. 217 Squadron RAF/ Bristol Beaufort/ RAF St Eval
No. 224 Squadron RAF/ Lockheed Hudson/ RAF St Eval
No. 254 Squadron RAF/ Bristol Blenheim/ RAF Carew Cheriton
No. 502 (Ulster) Squadron/ RAFArmstrong Whitworth Whitley/ RAF St Eval
No. 10 Squadron RAAF/ Short Sunderland/ RAF Mount Batten
No. 1404 (Meteorological) Flight RAF/Lockheed Hudson/ RAF St Eval
No. 1417 (Leigh Light Trials) Flight RAF/ Vickers Wellington/ RAF Chivenor
No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit RAF/ Bristol Blenheim/ RAF St Eval (B Flight)
Click to expand...
Yoiu are right, it was Hudsons...
 
Story 1117
  • Index

    • fester

    February 5, 1942 2300 Clydebank, Scotland

    Duke of York's repairs had taken slightly longer than anyone had anticipated as shock damage was discovered on her radar and it needed to be re-aligned and secured again. Even as the technicians and the dockyard workers were making the battleship ready for sea again, her Captain had her crew running hard through training exercises for the past week. A few men had been lucky enough to be granted five day leave passes. Most of the men did not need to spend their money on beer in the bars near the shipyard as the civilians were willing to cover the tab for the killers of Tirpitz. The sailors did not correct the mis-interpretation of the facts especially if those misperceptions were coming out of the mouth of young or not so young women.

    The break to repair the damage from the end of that battle had come to an end. Four Home Fleet destroyers would join the battleship at midnight when she had left the Clyde and then they would head north before entering the North Sea. The battleship would bypass Scapa Flow and head to a temporary anchorage at Hull. The Admiralty was convinced that the two German battlecruisers at Brest could not and would not stay there for much longer. Now that Tirpitz was no longer a concern, more risks could be run with capital units. If there was a reasonable chance of interception, Duke of York would be available to move in support of the Nore Command to close the Channel while Home Fleet would block the North Atlantic Gap.
     
  • Index
    • Dalekiller

    Dalekiller

    fester said:
    February 5, 1942 15 miles west of Corregidor

    The old destroyer minelayer USS Sprosten was twisting and turning wildly. She had delivered 200 tons of food, 484 barrels of gasoline, 2,500 75mm shells and 6,200 pounds of medical supplies to the besieged at Bataan. Smoke came from both the funnels and a small fire on the fantail.

    A pair of Japanese destroyers had spotted her twenty minutes ago and had opened fire three minutes later. A single shell had struck the old converted destroyer. A few more minutes might save her as a line of squalls was rapidly advancing from the west. She could disappear there.
    Click to expand...

    Poor dumb shites. They have no idea what's coming for them
     

    Oldbill

    fester said:
    February 5, 1942, south of Ras Lanuf, Libya

    The Commonwealth armies had a simple plan that had worked for them three times. Hold the Italians and Germans attention to the well watered and well supported coastal roads and then slip a force through the desert and into the rare. There were variations upon that play which had moved the front from Mersa Matruh to Ras Lanuf but they were variations only.

    A string of strong points and outposts stretched deep into the desert. And at one of them an artillery battery resumed firing at the notch between two dunes even as the battalion’s mortars fired over the dune and attempted to walk shells in on the reverse slope. Machine guns sent brightly colored tracer bullets towards a cluster of enemy infantrymen who had been probing the lines and looking for prisoners.

    Artillery could not range in on a small outpost. Friendly soldiers were defending themselves with grenades, bayonets and rifle butts even as the raiders were attacking likewise. A few men crumpled as they were isolated from their mates and overwhlemed by the enemy and a tiny counter-attack of two or three men moving forward from a position of momentary safety failed. Elsewhere in that oupost, those counter-attacks cleared trenches, section by section.

    An hour later, wounded men were being brought back to the hospitals in ambulances that were burning precious fuel. The war diaries of Panzer Armee Afrika and the 8th Army both noted that patrolling was active in the southern desert.
    Click to expand...

    Typo in second sentence, should read "rear" vice "rare".
     

    Peg Leg Pom

    Hopefully by the time Duke of York and The Twins meet they'll have faced stiffer resistance than 6 unescorted Swordfish and already sustained significant damage. If no Duke of York had better have a few friends close by or it's not going to end well.
     
    Driftless

    Driftless

    Donor
    If this version of the Channel Dash occurs in bad weather/night, then the Duke of York with tuned up radar should be a serious threat to damage the twins. That, and get those Dover Strait coastal guns dialed in as well....
     
    Not James Stockdale

    Not James Stockdale

    Did the Germans have to conduct any pre-Dash minesweeping in the Strait? If that is disrupted or prevented (if it happened at all), there would be bigger problems than the British coastal guns.
     

    Errolwi

    Monthly Donor
    The extra attention might mean that the Brits notice the gradually increasing German jamming, unlike OTL.
     
    Logan2879

    Logan2879

    Peg Leg Pom said:
    Hopefully by the time Duke of York and The Twins meet they'll have faced stiffer resistance than 6 unescorted Swordfish and already sustained significant damage. If no Duke of York had better have a few friends close by or it's not going to end well.
    Click to expand...

    I'm seeing USS Washington having to fight the twins with HMS Duke of York in the channel.
     

    fester

    Errolwi said:
    The extra attention might mean that the Brits notice the gradually increasing German jamming, unlike OTL.
    Click to expand...
    There really is not much extra attention. In OTL there were multiple Coastal Command aircraft scouting daily ( one just had a bum radar as the Twins left Brest) and at least one submarine playing sweeper near the goal.

    The big difference is DoY is much further south and the Admiralty is far more willing to run a risk with her as Tirpitz is not capable of being part of a fleet in being.

    The RN does not need to play an international cap with a short roster; hell they have a guest player on loan from across the way.
     

    Marquis

    The English Channel is about the most horrid place to fight a naval battle in Europe. Massively variable depths, shifting sands, short distances, naval aviation, fast attack craft, chokepoints and minefields. This could be a bloodbath.
     
    Hood

    Hood

    ElMarquis said:
    The English Channel is about the most horrid place to fight a naval battle in Europe. Massively variable depths, shifting sands, short distances, naval aviation, fast attack craft, chokepoints and minefields. This could be a bloodbath.
    Click to expand...
    Just sit there and wait for the Twins outside the channel.
    Also, when's the Mighty Hood coming back online?
     
    Reader mode
    Top
    Status
    Not open for further replies.
    Top