Remember the Texas! The United States in World War II (an alternate history)

[Captain Seafort]

Buffaloes and Fulmars against -109s and -190s? I weep for those crews. And Vindicators. Jesus, those Air Groups are going to get slaughtered, even against weakened opposition

That assumes they're going in in daylight. If the FAA has been teaching the USN how to do night strike ops they could pull a couple of Tarantos.

 

[pjmidd]

You're talking about the ships. I was talking about the Air Groups. Those planes and pilots are going to get slaughtered going up against the LW.

Again this is 1941 , the defences have not been built up yet. Everything has been temporarily pared to the bone due to Barbarossa and we are talking a coastal target not one the LW has lots of time to line squadrons up on. The Germans don't have a proper integrated defence system like the British Dowling system , their reaction time probably means the LW only turns up after the first wave has hit . Fake them out with long range bombers that turn around against other targets and there will not be that many German planes in the area.

 

[galveston bay]

Germany prepares
Sadly for the Allies, the Germans are reading the American codes, specifically some of the naval codes, which has helped them so far in the tonnage war and now gives them ample warning of the build up of American ships and even likely objectives. The British air attacks on the Luftwaffe bases provides some confirmation. Fleigerkorps X is ordered to send 60 JU88 dive bombers, 20 Fokker TVIII torpedo bombers (floatplanes) and 20 He111 torpedo bombers from Greece and Sicily to northern Italy where they are prepared to move into range to strike Allied warships near France within 24 hours of a warning order. The Kreigsmarine also sorties several Uboats which are diverted from their tonnage war mission to positions allowing them to strike at enemy warships when a code word is issued and in the meantime act as scouts.

The surface fleet is also prepared for battle. Admiral Otto Ciliax has the Scharnhorst (his flag), Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen, 5 destroyers and 4 torpedo boats (small destroyers) pus a dozen E boats available to him. There is already a proposal to move the fleet from France to Norway, and he presses for a movement sooner and indeed plans are already in the works. General Adolph Galland of the Luftwaffe is ordered to hurry together a plan to cover that movement, and another 150 fighters are prepared. Operation Cerberus is set in motion, with a departure date of November 11, which will be a quarter moon and while no moon will be ideal, it is already clear that the Allies are preparing to move on November 15.

This turns out to be a critical miscalculation regarding the Allied date, which was originally set for that day but moved up two days as Stark and Roosevelt order that the carrier Yorktown and its escorts be sent to the Pacific no later than November 30 due to pressure from King and nervous politicians on the West Coast worried about the Japanese. Meanwhile the originally planned date for the German Channel Dash is postponed by a week due to difficulties in getting all the needed fighter cover into position.

German forces Operation Chariot/Cerebus
Local defenses
Coast artillery - Brest
Goulet Mound
4 x 150 mm (bunkers), 4 x 280 mm (bunkers), 2 x 220 mm (bunkers) maximum range 20,000 yards
(US 14/45 range is 23,000 yards) plus Flak and anti boat defenses

Coast artillery – St Nazaire
4 x 280 mm (bunkers) various anti boat and antiaircraft batteries

Kreigsmarine
at Brest BC Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, CA Prinz Eugen, destroyers: Z5 Paul Jacobi, Z8 Bruno Heinemann, Z14 Friedrich Ihn, Z15 Erih Steinbrinck, Z23, TB Mowe, Gref, Seeadler, Iltis

Wolfpacks
3 with 5 U-Boats each (western Bay of Biscay within a few hours steaming time (surface) a bit longer underwater (15 total)

Luftwaffe forces
Channel Coast
150 fighters, 40 various reconnaissance aircraft,
Within 4 hour reach of Atlantic coast airfields
120 fighters, 20 night fighters, 30 Stuka divebombers, 16 Me110 night fighters (flak suppression), 40 He111 (torpedo bombers), 30 FW200 (maritime patrol)
within 8 hours reach of Atlantic coast airfields
60 JU88 dive bombers, 20 Fokker TVIII torpedo bombers (floatplanes) and 20 He111 torpedo

 

[CalBear]

Given the date , not many 190's around, I'd be surprised if any are actually near Brest. Now I'm assuming the RAF will visit nearby airfields to slow down the German response which together with the time needed to set up an anti shipping strike and the fact none of the German units are specialist Anti-Shipping Units ( those are in the Med or in the East ) will mean its far less dangerous from an air attack point of view than people think.

Doesn't need to be 190s, although those would be bad on toast. Emils alone, even Dora variants of the 109 will chop Buffaloes and Fulmars to pieces, along with whatever bombers are assigned to the carriers.

Brest is outside of the operating radius of the Spitfire, so there will be no help available from Fighter Command. Bombers can come from 300-400 miles away (for that matter so can Emil-7 since they have the drop tank) and be there in under two hours.

1941 carriers didn't tangle with land based aircraft much, when they did it tends to go badly

 

[galveston bay]

authors note
Allied codebreaking is well known of course. Less well known however is how successful the Germans were at it during the War in the Atlantic, particularly regarding American naval codes (thats irony for you) and British maritime shipping codes.

Codebreaking isn't 100% certain by any means, thus the wrong expected dates for the Germans here and while Ultra has made some ground, a lot of the German response is by land communications networks in terms of the response above, with some radio traffic but not all of that is being read, and even less put together for the puzzle that matters in the above.

Exciting times ahead

 

[galveston bay]

Also might want to take a look at shuttle time for Luftwaffe anti-shipping assets. The Luftwaffe's fighters may not have legs, but the bombers do okay.

I factored in ferry time, as well as communications times and the time to actually respond and bomb up aircraft in the response times for the Luftwaffe for this

 

[Captain Seafort]

The surface fleet is also prepared for battle. Admiral Otto Ciliax has the Scharnhorst (his flag), Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen, 5 destroyers and 4 torpedo boats (small destroyers) pus a dozen E boats available to him...Operation Cerberus is set in motion, with a departure date of November 11, which will be a quarter moon and while no moon will be ideal, it is already clear that the Allies are preparing to move on November 15.

Hmm. I'm not sure if the Twins were available in early November. Gneisenau took a pasting from the RAF in late April (pre-PoD, repair time unknown) and Scharnhorst took four months to repair after being badly damaged by a raid in late July (which admittedly might have been butterflied). Do you have details when they became operational again?

 

[galveston bay]

Hmm. I'm not sure if the Twins were available in early November. Gneisenau took a pasting from the RAF in late April (pre-PoD, repair time unknown) and Scharnhorst took four months to repair after being badly damaged by a raid in late July (which admittedly might have been butterflied). Do you have details when they became operational again?

there damage did not effect their powerplants or speed, and ready or not, they are going as the alternative is to be target practice for the Allied navies or air forces or both

 

[McPherson]

Operation Chariot
July-September 1941
Admiral Kimmel arrives in London in early July and begins talks with the British Admiralty. After a couple of weeks of evaluating British actions to date, reviewing German dispositions and those of the British, and dealing with important administrative matters, he brings in Admiral Pye when he arrives with the US battle fleet. The most pressing surface threats the British face are the battleship Tirpitz and a pair of pocket battleships and a cruiser in the Baltic that can potentially move to Norway and threaten the convoys to the Soviet Union, and the 3 German heavy ships currently at Brest.

The Germans in the Baltic are out of reach except for air attack, and the British RAF does not seem to be interested, as (in his view) is wasting time trying to bomb German cities. The ships in Brest however are within reach. Intelligence reports that 65% of the Luftwaffe is facing the Russians, including the bulk of their bomber force. Another 20% is deployed in the Mediterranean and Balkans, with 10% (mostly fighters plus the training establishment) is in Germany. That leaves only about 5% of the Luftwaffe in France, and according to intelligence, that amounts to 150 long range bombers and recce aircraft supporting the Uboat arm, another 150 fighters spread across France and the Low Countries, and only around 30 or so Stuka divebombers and a similar number of He111 torpedo bombers. Intelligence also shows that the heaviest guns defending Brest or St Nazaire (site of the Normandie dock) are 280 or 220 mm guns, which reach out to around 20,000 yards. The most serious threat on the coast of France are minefields and the Royal Navy has a large number of vessels available to deal with those.

Admiral Kimmel is well aware that there is a serious threat of war in the Pacific, and he knows that once a war starts, there is a high likelihood his fleet and indeed some of the carriers belonging to Nimitz will be transferred to fight the Japanese. There is a narrow window of opportunity available. He is determined to seize it. A plan is sent to Admiral Stark and Admiral Pound requesting assets from the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and US Atlantic Fleet in mid September. That plan is that presented to the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Although viewed as risky, and Roosevelt is nervous about those risks, Winston Churchill is enthusiastic. Roosevelt signs off on it at the end of the month and preparations soon begin.

September 1941
British RAF aircraft begin frequent photo reconnaissance missions over the German held French ports, while RAF bombers and fighters begin hitting German airfields throughout France, even conducting night attacks using Bomber Command which is temporarily pulled from missions to German for this purpose. The Luftwaffe fights back as well as ever, and losses are heavy on both sides, but numerous German bases are severely battered and losses to Luftwaffe ground personnel and infrastructure begin to mount. Periodic missions by Bomber Command into Germany also occur to prevent the Luftwaffe from shifting forces from the homeland, while the pace of fighting in the Mediterranean, North Africa and Russia prevent reinforcements from that quarter. By the end of the month, Operation Indra has managed to whittle down the Luftwaffe in France by 50% in terms of operational and serviceable aircraft and the bombers in particular have been pulled back out of fighter range of England.

Meanwhile, the Americans and British have formed W and Y forces, consisting of two groups of carriers and their escorts. Two American (Wasp and Yorktown) and two British (Ark Royal and Victorious) are the heart of the two groups (each consisting of a British and American carrier) along with the needed cruisers and destroyers to escort them, and are exercising together east of Bermuda well away from trade routes and likely Uboats. Meanwhile the Americans have formed their battleships into two task groups, and the British add in the Ramillies, Resolution (fresh out of refit in the United States), and Revenge, giving the Anglo Americans a total of 10 battleships plus escorting destroyers to form X and Z forces. Combined Operations proposes a commando raid to support Operation Chariot but Kimmel feels it adds too much complexity to an already risky operation and persuades Admiral Pound to veto it. In addition to the 4 main forces to be involved, the Home Fleet also prepares to provide support should the Germans sortie into the North Sea or make a run for the Atlantic, while Force H cancels a proposed run to Malta in October to provide back up if the there is a run toward the Bay of Biscay and Atlantic.

The objective is simple in spite of the complexity of the many pieces. The Allies will wreck the German naval bases at St Nazaire and Brest, and eliminate as many German warships as possible while they are in harbor or attempting to escape. The British Royal Air Force and Anglo American carriers will provide air cover while also attacking those same bases. Although the massive submarine pens will likely survive, the base infrastructure that supports them will be destroyed or massively damaged and thus reduce the effectiveness of the German UBoat offensive to a measurable degree. If complete success is achieved, then the Kriegsmarine will lose half of its heavy surface warships and the ability to support them from France, providing substantially less flexibility (and threat) from them, and at the same time freeing up numerous Allied heavy ships for other missions. In the worst case, the Allies might lose one or more battleships and fail to achieve this mission. However it strikes Churchill as exactly the daring plan that Nelson and Fisher would admire and push for, and he persuades Roosevelt that it is worth the risk.

The stage is set for the first Anglo American offensive of World War II.

Estimated losses...

USS Wasp and HMS Ark Royal (air attack and or submarines.)
USS Arkansas and USS New York and HMS Ramillies. (same again)
Possibly 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers, and a whole flock of minesweepers. (dive bombers a la Crete.)

in exchange for the twins and a drydock and half a dozen U-boats and maybe a Luftwaffenbombergruppe (45 planes?).

The CREAM of the USNAS will be utterly destroyed.

Kimmel's court martial will be the stuff of legends. He might actually be shot for this one.

Using the available aircraft in a bombing scenario proposed upthread the only way to reach the Romanian oil Fields is by overflying Turkey for about 400 miles from the northernmost part of Syria. This is likely to arouse Turkey's ire.

It most certainly will.

IMO the bombing idea is unworkable due to range with a useful warload (in perfect conditions the aircraft would literally be landing on fumes, assuming cruising speed is selected and zero evasive action or increased throttle was used). With sufficient fuel to ensure range under combat conditions the aircraft (Martin B-26, initial production run) will be limited to its forward bomb bay. These were designed to carry two 1,000 pound bombs in the forward bomb bay, although field modifications could possibly be made to accommodate 3-4 500 pound bombs.

That is my planning assumption.

The difficulty is that less than 200 aircraft have been produced by October of 1941 and a number of those had the normal teething problems, mainly related to landing gear/new pilot error so the total available airframes are around 150. This is insufficient to destroy the Romanian oil fields. In late summer of 1943 the U.S. raided Ploiesti with heavy bombers (177 B-24, 163 made it to the target) each carrying 4,000 pounds of bombs (roughly double the possible bombs that-26 could deliver) . The entire complex was not destroyed, around half of it was undamaged, the rest of the capacity was up to full production/storage before October. B-24 losses, including write-off that made it back to North Africa were around 70%.

Who botched that planning? Lewis H. Brereton

In theory, and it is only theory, the Tidal Wave has to be a schnell bomber raid and it has to be massive. I estimate no less than a 1000 plane raid. Hence one has to strip down the Marauders and use bomb-bay fuel tanks and one needs long range fighter escort to get through the estimated 150 or so fighters in the Rumanian and LW local IADS. The Original Tidal Wave went after the wells. I want the REFINERIES and the rail yards, too. Blow it all up and set it on fire. Fire ruins catalytic fractionators and pumping machinery. I expect heavy losses. About 35-40%.

When can I have 1000 usable Marauders? Late 1942?

authors notes
Kimmel planned to begin aggressive raids and perhaps attempting to seize the Marshal Islands as soon as possible when the Japanese attacked, assuming that Pearl Harbor was a safe base of course. He is aggressive enough to suggest this, and keep in mind that the USN did attack a heavily defended port with a fleet present during Operation Torch when they sank a chunk of the Vichy French fleet at Casablanca. This is a much bigger hammer than was directed at Casablanca.

When did Kimmel lesson learn this one? TORCH is a year after Pearl Harbor.

Also, it is to be noted, that TORCH was mounted beyond LW range. It was still a touch and go with FAA and USNAS fighters having to beat off feeble AdA attacks. CHARIOT looks like a sink-ex. Moreso because all that RAF activity has alerted the Germans something is headed their way> They can EASILY flood the LW west to airfields in Brittainy and Normandie in anticipation of an operation like CHARIOT.^1 Also, SIGABBA and USN signals may be secure, but B'Dienst has the British RN communications penetrated. This is NTG from a tactical operations fleet at sea evolution.

^1 Someone is going to point out the same can be done with Tidal Wave. LET IT. I want a fighter battle to KILL LW pilots Preferably in Asia Minor. This has to help the Russians and the RAF in their own air battles. That is why I want to orient the LW into the wrong place at the wrong time. If the oil field torches off, that is a bonus, but I want to deplete LW fighters early on. Now one knows why I want the P-38 fixed?

Note the British are providng relatively expendable battleships for this by the way. The RN has a very sizeable minesweeping force and if its defended it can sweep sufficient mines for the gunships to operate within range of the targets. The key issue is air cover. The carriers can stand off and provide fighter cover for the gunships, while the RAF can provide air cover for them. Hammering the Luftwaffe first also weakens the air response by the Germans who at this point have moved most of their aircraft trained in naval strike missions to the Med and Norway and the Baltic, leaving the commerce raiding FW200s and He111s (and few of those) in France, to support the Uboats, and a few Stukas and FW190s training for harassment missions at the UK.

Yeah... See my comments on the slaughter of the USNAS.

This is a workable plan. The Germans lack guns that can do a lot of damage against the American and British gunships available, being only 11 inch weapons although the German accuracy is outstanding. Obviously the Allies will try to use spotter planes, and that will be a problem (I wouldn't want to fly a float plane near France) against a strong defense. But if the gunships have a wealth of photos to plan with, they can fire at pre planned locations and use radar and spotter planes to better target the German ships.

Based on the PACFLT results with early shore bombardments during the Gilberts and Marshalls raids? Expecting accurate naval gunfire in 1941 at about 20,000 meters against shore targets earns Kimmel that firing squad.

Historically the Allies never had the available ships to try this... but without Pearl Harbor and lacking a war in the Pacific yet, they have the resources available now. It is indeed risky

That is putting it mildly. I would rather ram a cut down four stacker into the St. Nazaire dry-dock.

But the payoffs if successful are worth it

Actually, I do not think so. The exchange, even if the Allied forces come away one battleship down is not worth the estimated damage to be realistically expected.

Oh dear God!

So much worse than I expected!

Total fighter cover will be a coupe squadrons of Buffaloes and some Fulmars.

Joy.

Actually my expletive deleted string after I war-gamed this one was a bit more colorful.

Buffaloes and Fulmars against -109s and -190s? I weep for those crews. And Vindicators. Jesus, those Air Groups are going to get slaughtered, even against weakened opposition

Annihilation.

Given the date , not many 190's around, I'd be surprised if any are actually near Brest. Now I'm assuming the RAF will visit nearby airfields to slow down the German response which together with the time needed to set up an anti shipping strike and the fact none of the German units are specialist Anti-Shipping Units ( those are in the Med or in the East ) will mean its far less dangerous from an air attack point of view than people think.

That is beyond sustained RAF fighter cover radius. And as I pointed out, the LW can flood west this early from their homeland reserve.

 

[Captain Seafort]

there damage did not effect their powerplants or speed

Yes it did. Gneisenau had severe damage to the starboard propeller and shaft and two flooded turbine rooms. Scharnhost suffered some damage to the starboard shaft and several holes in her lower hull from through-and-throughs. I'm not convinced moving Cerberus up three months is doable unless Gneisenau's historical damage was repaired by then and Scharnhorst's is butterflied.

 

[galveston bay]

Yes it did. Gneisenau had severe damage to the starboard propeller and shaft and two flooded turbine rooms. Scharnhost suffered some damage to the starboard shaft and several holes in her lower hull from through-and-throughs. I'm not convinced moving Cerberus up three months is doable unless Gneisenau's historical damage was repaired by then and Scharnhorst's is butterflied.

I missed that.... further review shows the Scharnhorst has already been repaired sufficiently to make the trip at her speed, the Gneisenau also appears sufficiently repaired to make the trip by November, and I am going to assume with the September warning of an impending attack, further repairs will be rushed to get her ready for sea. Further repairs to both will have to wait until they reach Germany. There was a drydock that was used for both as they both took damage below the waterline as you mentioned.

 

[galveston bay]

Estimated losses...



The CREAM of the USNAS will be utterly destroyed.




When did Kimmel lesson learn this one? TORCH is a year after Pearl Harbor.



Yeah... See my comments on the slaughter of the USNAS.

Based on the PACFLT results with early shore bombardments during the Gilberts and Marshalls raids? Expecting accurate naval gunfire in 1941 at about 20,000 meters against shore targets earns Kimmel that firing squad.



That is beyond sustained RAF fighter cover radius. And as I pointed out, the LW can flood west this early from their homeland reserve.

Regarding Torch... not so much as the example of a successful action so much as a willingness by the USN to attack a defended port. Its more about a willingness to try it more than anything else.

As far as the cream of the USNAS... arguably that is the Pacific, or training. Losses at Midway were effectively 100% in torpedo aircraft, and around 50% for dive bombers and fighters.. (the Hornet especially had a bad day for its air group). Painful but not a permanent reduction to the USNAS (and I am not even factoring in the carrier qualified Marine squadrons).
"workable" by the way has more to do with the mindset of the commanders more than actuality. THEY think its workable.

Yeah, beyond fighter range is indeed a real problem and the principal reason this is risky (from the mind set of the commanders going in). The British remember Crete but Churchill is pushing so the RN will find a way.

Getting rid of the twins and a CA does however half the remaining German surface fleet which is why this will be attempted. Losing some Standards is not a serious problem for the USN long term, nor is the RN losing R class. The carriers are the more valuable component here and the commanders think they are taking prudent measures to ensure they are at a relatively safe distance from the action. You will just have to see if they are right

 

[galveston bay]

FYI, I am trying to avoid using hindsight as much as possible and using the attitudes and knowledge available to commanders of the time period for this, so no massive raid on Ploesti until there is such a thing as the 12th Air Force

 

[BrockSampson]

So if this leads to a Pyrrhic victory for the Allies is there a chance that Churchill will get a lot of blowback for endorsing such a risky operation? Surely someone either in Parliament or in the press would put forth a complaint along the lines of, “First Gallipoli and now this!”

 

[marathag]

So if this leads to a Pyrrhic victory for the Allies is there a chance that Churchill will get a lot of blowback for endorsing such a risky operation? Surely someone either in Parliament or in the press would put forth a complaint along the lines of, “First Gallipoli and now this!”

US can afford to toss away the entire 1941 surface fleet. That's been proven over countless Midway TLs.
The Germans and Japanese couldn't make good on their losses before USN Spam rolls out

 

[McPherson]

US can afford to toss away the entire 1941 surface fleet. That's been proven over countless Midway TLs.
The Germans and Japanese couldn't make good on their losses before USN Spam rolls out

Ships are not the issue. Trained manpower, especially scarce naval specialists, is.

 

[CalBear]

Estimated losses...

USS Wasp and HMS Ark Royal (air attack and or submarines.)
USS Arkansas and USS New York and HMS Ramillies. (same again)
Possibly 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers, and a whole flock of minesweepers. (dive bombers a la Crete.)

in exchange for the twins and a drydock and half a dozen U-boats and maybe a Luftwaffenbombergruppe (45 planes?).

The CREAM of the USNAS will be utterly destroyed.

Kimmel's court martial will be the stuff of legends. He might actually be shot for this one.


It most certainly will.

That is my planning assumption.

Who botched that planning? Lewis H. Brereton

In theory, and it is only theory, the Tidal Wave has to be a schnell bomber raid and it has to be massive. I estimate no less than a 1000 plane raid. Hence one has to strip down the Marauders and use bomb-bay fuel tanks and one needs long range fighter escort to get through the estimated 150 or so fighters in the Rumanian and LW local IADS. The Original Tidal Wave went after the wells. I want the REFINERIES and the rail yards, too. Blow it all up and set it on fire. Fire ruins catalytic fractionators and pumping machinery. I expect heavy losses. About 35-40%.

When can I have 1000 usable Marauders? Late 1942?

When did Kimmel lesson learn this one? TORCH is a year after Pearl Harbor.

Also, it is to be noted, that TORCH was mounted beyond LW range. It was still a touch and go with FAA and USNAS fighters having to beat off feeble AdA attacks. CHARIOT looks like a sink-ex. Moreso because all that RAF activity has alerted the Germans something is headed their way> They can EASILY flood the LW west to airfields in Brittainy and Normandie in anticipation of an operation like CHARIOT.^1 Also, SIGABBA and USN signals may be secure, but B'Dienst has the British RN communications penetrated. This is NTG from a tactical operations fleet at sea evolution.

^1 Someone is going to point out the same can be done with Tidal Wave. LET IT. I want a fighter battle to KILL LW pilots Preferably in Asia Minor. This has to help the Russians and the RAF in their own air battles. That is why I want to orient the LW into the wrong place at the wrong time. If the oil field torches off, that is a bonus, but I want to deplete LW fighters early on. Now one knows why I want the P-38 fixed?

Yeah... See my comments on the slaughter of the USNAS.

Based on the PACFLT results with early shore bombardments during the Gilberts and Marshalls raids? Expecting accurate naval gunfire in 1941 at about 20,000 meters against shore targets earns Kimmel that firing squad.

That is putting it mildly. I would rather ram a cut down four stacker into the St. Nazaire dry-dock.

Actually, I do not think so. The exchange, even if the Allied forces come away one battleship down is not worth the estimated damage to be realistically expected.

Actually my expletive deleted string after I war-gamed this one was a bit more colorful.

Annihilation.

That is beyond sustained RAF fighter cover radius. And as I pointed out, the LW can flood west this early from their homeland reserve.

Be early 1943 before there are that many B-26 of all models. Took two years to crank out the first 1,000, then things started to pick up (last two production batches, in mid 1942 accounted for about 1/4 of all B-26B. The first "C" didn't roll of the assembly line until August of 1942

 

[Butchpfd]

I cannot state that his First World War service was not "good". His time in Russia seems "mixed". In Ireland, during the Troubles, he seems to have functioned, either "well" or incompetently depending on whose viewpoint and what political bias one follows. I am in the 'rat bastard incompetent" camp on that one, but then I am NOT a fan of imperialists and I have a bias as to prisoner interrogation methods and meeting terrorism with terrorism.

In the interwar years, Arthur Percival attended the right schools, acquired the right Mentors and punched the right tickets. He even produced a staff study for William Dobbie, then general commanding in the Settlements, on his, Percival's new acquired "specialty", that would earn him his Lieutenant Generalcy. The British were unfortunate enough to plan the Malaya defense based on its inherent idiocies and defects contained as to geography, means and battle space management inside that study. And of course they gave the command to Percival who cooked it up. Grade F across the whole spectrum by US Navy War College standards. Whatever heartburn I have about Brooke Popham as a commander and an op-artist; he in response to that Percival idiocy, actually formulated a scheme of his own called "Matador"; that actually had a snowball's chance in hell of working. That was, to Invade the Kra Peninsula into Thailand and thwart the IJA at the waters edge in the Thailand beach sites that the Eastern Command knew were the only sites where the vulnerable invading Japanese could come ashore and establish safe lodgments unmolested.
=========================================================
I suppose a "brave" commander could have executed Matador immediately when MacArthur of all people told him; "Hey, we see convoys headed your way, watch out." (How could Mister Corncob Pipe miss the Formosa air raids headed his way, himself? Another topic but I have two names, Sutherland and Brereton to throw at you.) When Shenton Thomas, Brooke Popham and Percival met to decide about Matador, it was a split vote with Percival the decider. What did he decide? You guessed it. No guts.
=========================================================
Anyway, drawing up plans and being good at "staff" and becoming a respected paper pusher does not make one a commander or troops leader. Not even playing cricket well qualifies one. One wants that commander? One follows the Slim and Montgomery career tracks instead. Troops, schools, staff. troops, etc.: and put the man into tight corners on the battlefield and in peace time service and watch him punch his way out of each tight spot. Percival started out that way, then after his brief stint in Russia, something went horribly wrong in the man and he became an apple polisher. After Ireland he avoided the tight spots and greased through.

A Third Rater.

Might even call him William Westmoreland.

Re; Air raide headed for PI. Mac A assure e commander USFFE, absolutely refused too allow

The M7 got hit bad with mission creep from replacing the M3 light to a Medium, and the US already had a perfectly acceptable Medium in the form of the M4, so the Bettendorf Tank Arsenal hardly did a thing during the war
14 ton T7 of 1941 with M3 styled turret

27 ton T7E5 with new hull, and 75 mm gun

Best thing out of the program was the Transaxle and Engine were on fast release rails, for quick replacement that later was used with the M18 Hellcat

The Bettendorf Tank plant, was an offshoot of the Rock Island Arsenal built by IH., it was not even begun until June of 1942.

 

[galveston bay]

Allied Forces Operation Chariot
Force Z Admiral Kimmel commanding (destination Bretagne coast near Brest)
BB West Virginia (Adm Kimmel), Maryland, New Mexico, Mississippi, California, Nevada, (R Adm Bagley), CL Philadelphia (R Adm Theobold screen commander), DD Phelps, Worden, Aylwin, Dale, Farragut, Monaghan
Plus 12 RN MTB

Force Y Admiral Pye commanding (destination approaches to St Nazaire)
BB Idaho (Adm Pye), Oklahoma, RN BB Revenge (R Adm Stuart Bonham Carter), Ramilies, Resolution, CL Phoenix (R Adm Hewitt, screen commander), Porter, Drayton, Flusser, Lamson, Mahan, Cushing,
Plus 12 RN MTB

Force M (minesweeping force) (Brest approaches)
8 RN minesweepers, covered by 4 RN L class destroyers, CL Dido

Force N (minesweeping force) (St Nazaire approaches)
8 RN minesweepers, covered by 4 RN L/M class destroyers, CL Scylla

Force W Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch (carrier force)(150 miles west of Brittany in Celtic Sea)
CV Yorktown, RN CV Victorious, RN CL Charybis, USN CL Helena, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Phoenix USN CA Wichita (R Adm Giffen screen commander)
DD McDougal, Winslow, Moffett, Sampson, Davis, Jouett, Somers, Warrington

Available aircraft: 27 F4F-3 Wildcat, 18 TBD, 36 SBD Dauntless, 30 Fulmar, 6 Albacore plus 10 SOC floatplanes aboard USN cruisers

Force Y (carrier force) V Adm Neville Seyfriet commanding (also commands Force W) (150 miles west of St Nazaire in Bay of Biscay)

CV Wasp (R Adm Cooke USN commanding air), RN CV Ark Royal, RN BC Renown, RN CL Nigeria, Kenya, Manchester, USN CA Quincy, Tuscaloosa, RN DD Ashanti, Intrepid, Icarus, Foresight , Fury, Derwent, Bramham, Bicester, Ledbury, Pathfinder, Penn (RN ships drawn from Force H) (R Adm Burrough RN commanding screen)

Available aircraft: 27 F2A Buffalo, 18 TBD, 18 USMC F4F-3 Wildcat, 18 Devastator VB, 18 Fulmar, 36 Swordfish

Additional support: 4 sloops, 2 ocean going tugs near Penzance

Fighter cover: 120 RAF fighters (able to reach Force W, and the tugs, but nothing else)

Coastal Command strike force:
(from RAF Coastal Command) 60 Beaufort, 40 Beaufighter, 40 Blenheim fighters (also provides cover to Force Y) also 20 Hudson for ASW patrol and reconnaissance

 

[galveston bay]

authors note: The Yorktown just got its Wildcats and Dauntlesses before steaming east for this operation,. The RN has a lightly different airgroup for the VIctorious

The Allies are going after both objectives at once, with a heavier punch aimed at Brest