The consequences of an errant shell(story only thread)

[johnboy]

26 August 1940, Wilhelmshaven, German Reich

It was a disaster, though Raeder. Hitler had raged long and hard the previous day about the navy's "incompetence" and he had been hardly immune. Thankfully, the Luftwaffe's laughable performance in striking at the Royal Navy fleet had deflected some of the criticism onto Goering. He had tried to turn the argument even more full circle into an even bigger push for naval aviation seeing that Goering's Luftwaffe were seemingly no threat to enemy ships.

It was bad news, however. At Bremen, the two liners were both total write offs and would be scrapped for their steel value. At Wilhelmshaven, an assessment of Tirpitz was a likely delay in commissioning to early 1942, a real blow. The pocket battleship Scheer was possibly a constructive total loss. The battlecruiser Moltke, light cruiser Konigsburg and the destroyer Diether von Roeder had already been written off. The light cruiser Leipzig would require a year of repairs. The old pre dreadnoughts Hannover and Elsass were both completely destroyed and would be scrapped, which meant the last such ship, Schleswig-Holstein, would likely have to be converted to a target for the fleet. Two U Boats also destroyed. 1,565 men killed, 1,614 wounded. Many men had been caught below and had little chance in the capsized ships.

It was a bad blow, with no likely replacements. The two H Class battleships under construction had both been scrapped, "H" at Hamburg due to air raid damage and "J" because it was only 5 months along and unlikely to be completed. Only the now delayed Tirpitz, the carrier Peter Strasser and the last two Hipper Class cruisers were building. The pocket battleship Graf Spree was in refit. The remainder of the fleet, one battleship, one pocket battleship, one carrier and four heavy cruisers, were in the Baltic. He was relying on their upcoming early 1941 operation to restore the navy's prestige. That and submarines.

 

[johnboy]

28 August 1940, Riydah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

STAVKA had no plans to utilise the troops in their normal capacity so had acceded to the request to "loan" them. It was a combination of Russian pilots and aircraft and British pilots and aircraft, some 100 Imperial Russian Air Service TB-3 bombers, 80 RAF Whitley's and 11 Ensign transports, led by ten Whitley bombers, all escorted by six Bristol Blenheims.

The Russians had arrived in two stages and all had been staged out of Bayt al Falaj in Muscat, after flying through Tehran. For the men of the 3rd Airborne Brigade, of which four battalions had been committed to the operation, it was hoped to be a more low risk operation than the one two months ago that had decimated it's sister brigade, the 33rd. The two units were the only such two brigades in the Imperial Russian Army.

For King Abdulaziz ibn Abdul Rahman ibn Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Saud, the dash outside in response to the urgent shouts resulted in him being narrowly missed by a stick of bombs that exploded in the courtyard. Picking himself up and ignoring the ringing in his ears, he followed the pointing fingers. Parachutes. Hundreds of them over the capital.

The two old He-51 biplanes on patrol had been quickly shot down by the Blenheims after scoring a solitary success against a TB-3, with two more destroyed on the ground, along with an old Vickers Vimy. Abdulaziz had no means of escape and the capital was now only garrisoned by one company of troops with weapons no heavier than a machine gun, all others troops in action to try and halt the enemy tide of advance. For Abdulaziz and indeed the al-Saud dynasty, it smelled very much like the end.

 

[johnboy]

28 August 1940 Wilton-Fijenoord, Schiedam, Kingdom of the Netherlands

The old battlecruiser, the ex HMS Queen Mary, now the Rotterdam, had completed her AA fit and trials and was starting her way back to her old home, Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies. She was to accompanied by the new cruiser and destroyer Jacob van Heemskerck and Gerard Callenburgh respectively to reinforce the East Indies fleet.

 

[johnboy]

Battlecruiser Rotterdam

 

[johnboy]

31 August 1940, Kure Naval Base, Empire of Japan

They had war gamed the attack twice, once a stunning success and the second time a failure. It was a risky operation thought Yamamoto. The Shokaku and Zuikaku were both on trails, their air groups also working up. He had set the operation for the 17th November, with a possible alternate dates depending on weather.

At this stage the government believed it unlikely that the United States would come to Russia's aid, or indeed the British with their negligible Eastern Fleet and their European commitments, although sanctions could certainly be predicted from the British at the very least.

Japan had a huge amount of ships under construction, three battleships, two battlecruisers, three aircraft carrier, two light carriers, one seaplane carrier, seven light cruisers and 16 destroyers, so they hoped to enter the war well prepared.

 

[johnboy]

1 September 1940, US Signals Intelligence Service, Arlington Hall, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America

Lieutenant Francis Ravens detection of the patterns of key setting had provided the final leg up necessary to gain entrance to PURPLE, the Japanese high security diplomatic cypher. RED, the predecessor to PURPLE, had already been broken some years before, as had the Japanese navy fleet code, called JN-25, just eight weeks ago. The U.S was only days away from full access to PURPLE, which would enable them, with the mastery of the other two codes, to have an excellent insight into Japanese intentions.

Unbeknownst to William Friedman, the head of the U.S Signals Intelligence Service, in the St Petersburg Admiralty Building, Room 66, Yuri Linnik had his own team working on the same problem, presently without success.

 

[johnboy]

1 September 1940, USS Constellation, off Wake Island

Whilst her two near sister ships exercised, Admiral James Richardson read the preliminary reports on the survey of Wake Island aboard his flagship. The old ship had conducted speed trails post her 1939-40 rebuild and had proven herself still capable of just over 32 knots. There was plenty of scope to upgrade the PAN-AM runway that had been constructed in 1935. It was completely unsuitable for a any sort of fleet base, although it was possible MTB's may be able to access the inner lagoon with great care, but even that would be risky.

Basing large numbers of men on the island would bring it's own issues due to the fact that their was no fresh water available on site at all. The Japanese "basing" in Thailand had inspired the U.S.N to start looking at reinforcing it's own Pacific possessions.

 

[johnboy]

3 September 1940, Al-Saud family compound, Riydah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Colonel Mikhail Rogachev's 33rd Airborne Division had fought a deadly little 24 hour battle to take the town and, in particular, the al-Saud family compound. Like most parachute operations, casualties had been heavy. The English Blenheim fighters and Whitley bombers had cut off all roads leading to the town and destroyed four vehicles attempting to escape.

As his men had began to organize after the jump, they had rapidly started to put pressure on the Saudi army unit defending the city. His deputy, Major Tanov, as per the operational orders, had rapidly moved to cut off the al-Saud compound from the city itself.

It had taken 10 hours of heavy house to house fighting to eliminate the Saudi company defending the city at a cost of 98 casualties, including 41 killed. That left the compound itself. Concentrated fire from his 107mm mortars had battered down the amount of return fire and even the troops 37mm Spade mortars had proven very effective in the stony, hard ground.

It had taken another 12 hours and 82 more casualties to take the whole compound, many of the al-Saud's sons and al-Saud himself fighting to the last. It was dirty work, in some cases women and children mixing with those who resisted and becoming casualties themselves.

His men had then held the city against a counter attack from around 700 lightly armed irregulars on the 1st and 2nd before a "flying column" of motorised units of the Royal Iraqi army had arrived on the morning of the 3rd. These had taken the remainder of the al-Saud family away, probably to an uncertain fate in Rogachev's own mind.

 

[johnboy]

6 September 1940, Raghadan Palace, Amman, Kingdom of Syria

King Abdullah of Transjordan contemplated the situation. With the last organised al-Saud opposition surrendering yesterday, the Saudi Arabian war was over. That would shortly mean the removal of the two British, one Australian, one Armenian and one Russian division from what was now effectively Hashemite territory, as it had been prior to 1925. All three surviving sons of Hussein bin Ali were present at the meeting. The male line of Ali, their older brother and former King of the Hejaz, had died out.

They needed to be both politically as well as dynastically smart, thought Abdullah. First, the former Saudi Arabia, shortly to be restored to it's former name, the Hejaz. He had eliminated the male members of the al-Saud dynasty root and branch, hoping to quell any lingering feelings there. One thing the Hashemite dynasty was short of was male heirs. His brothers each only had one son in Syria and Iraq, respectively. He himself in Transjordan only had two. There was also the increasing pressure of the British for the establishment of some sort of Jewish homeland within his own territory. This was a request that was political suicide and something he had no intention of acquiescing to.

The best way to forestall any further pressure in regards to this was to formalise the situation that de facto existed already. With the Saudi's gone, it was necessary to quickly establish a new regime in the former Saudi Arabia. Following that all four Kingdoms would declare war on Germany. There was little need to make an active contribution as such. As long as they were British allies, the British themselves could hardly force a Jewish solution upon them. Besides, he intended to propose the British use their own possession of Aden for such a purpose, an offer he was quite sure they would not take up.

Certain border adjustments were also to be proposed by Abdullah as the head of the family, namely parts of Syria to go to Transjordan and parts of Hejaz in the North to be placed under Syria, cutting down the vast area for the new King to administer, which must in all likelihood be his second son Naif. The boy was about to marry and he thought perhaps he could pick a second wife for him from the surviving al-Saud daughters.

 

[johnboy]

Middle East Border Adjustments showing all four Hashemite Kingdoms of Hejaz, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq

 

[johnboy]

8 September 1940, Banski dvori, Zagreb, Kingdom of Slavonia

Andrej Gosar had been the new Prime Minister for only five months, only the second Slovenian to fill the role since 1918, replacing Vladimir Maček. The King had three hours with the Prime Minister during his weekly visit and there was currently much to discuss.

The last twelve months since the death of Alexander of Serbia had seen a dramatic decrease in the level of tension with Serbia, which was just as well as Slavonia was in an unenviable position, a large border with Germany to the North and an even larger one with Hungary to East. A reduction of tensions with Serbia was an almost essential part of foreign policy with threats everywhere except Italy to the West. Even there, some Italian politicians still coveted Zadar with it's large Italian population.

Much of the issue of the Kingdom's geographic position and the threat, firstly of Serbia to the South in the 1920's, and then Germany to the North in the 1930's, had quelled much opposition for separate Croat and Slovene states. Tomislav, born an Italian prince, had generally kept out of direct involvement in politics but had insisted in a decentralized structure for the government as far as practicable. Whilst Zagreb was the capital and housed the parliament of the kingdom, Ljubljana had not been ignored and housed the mint, as well as the departments of Agriculture, Forestry, Education and Religious Affairs. Indeed, whilst Banski dvori was his own official residence, both himself and his family, in particular his two girls, preferred his other estate, Tivoli Castle in Ljubljana and spent a great deal of time there.

In a sense his own country and Italy were in the same boat, watching the struggle going on in Russia and waiting to see the outcome. Whilst his sympathies, much like those of Italy, were with the British and Russians, it would be suicide to declare on Germany at present, with no large scale support likely to come and both potential allies seemingly largely engaged.

The country had instead quietly concentrated in building what it could for it's own defense. Wisely, in his opinion, building a small and efficient navy, army and air force rather than utilising a large untrained army. Industrially, the country had developed and the coastline had started to draw significant amounts of revenue through tourists in the 1930's, although this had nosedived during the war. That is what made the next week important, as Peter of Serbia had accepted an invitation to visit. He was hoping some time alone at Tivoli with the 17 year old boy King may warm relations further with Serbia. With those thoughts still swirling in his head, he heaved his 199cm frame out of the chair and went in search of his wife.

 

[johnboy]

12 September 1940, Pinsk, Russian Empire

Major General Roman von Ungern-Sternberg had quite literally whipped these these deserters, thieves and worse into shape. They now stood ready to deliver the planned counter blow to the German forces on the Central Front. The Russian army, at least in the North and Center, had retreated gradually until the German were now pressing up the flanks of the Pripet Marshes. He would be released to lead the counter offensive tomorrow. On this side of the marshes, his own 666th Punishment Division, along with 1st Guards Armoured Division, with over 300 T-36 heavy tanks, would lead the charge. One armoured, four infantry and two Cat C divisions waited to exploit the hoped for breakthrough. His men knew there was no going back, they faced machine guns to the front and rear, however, he had made it clear that any that survived eight such engagements could be rehabilitated and transfer out to a regular unit.

To the South of the marshes, a similar situation existed, with seven divisions stockpiled from reserves, waiting to counterattack. It was hoped this attack would take the pressure off the North-Western Front, where the Germans had made substantial progress rapidly, trapping five divisions in the Courland peninsula and directly threatening Riga. It was likely that these divisions would have to evacuated by the navy, which would be a dicey operation. This had resulted in the sacking of General Mikhail Drozdovsky and his replacement by Georgi Zhukov, who had been promoted to full general. In the North, at least, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky's basic strategy of giving ground in exchange for time was in danger of coming apart.

Where as the Germans had continued to advance in almost all areas, in the South General Alexander Yegorev's Bessarabian Front, with support from the British BEF, had stopped the Germans cold outside of Odessa and despite repeated attacks, had badly bloodied the mixed German and Romanian forces in a bitter battle of attrition.

 

[johnboy]

14 September 1940, Admiralty, St Petersburg

Admiral Eduard Pantserzhanskiy had no choice but to listen to the entreaties of the army, the government and in the finish, the Empress as well. With 100,000 troops and far many more civilians trapped in the Courland pocket, the navy would be required to attempt a rescue in what could only be described as a high risk operation.

Two embarkation points would be used, Libau and Ventspils. He had placed essentially all of the Baltic Fleet at the disposal of the operation. His main worry was no carriers, therefore he would have to rely on the Air Service to keep German aircraft off his back.

His covering force would consist of the newly commissioned Ukrania, the newly repaired Pyotr Velikiy and the battlecruiser Sinope, two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and 12 destroyers and he had tasked eight submarines to scout ahead of the fleet and intercept any German warships that tried to intervene, in addition to six already on patrol.

To evacuate those trapped, a disparate flotilla of smaller craft was backed by six light cruisers and 18 destroyers, as well as two 2,000 ton Baltic Ferries and the two 10,000 ton liners Svyataya Anna and Svyataya Maria, formerly on the St Petersburg-London-Cherbourg run before the war and refitted as AA ships in June/July, as well as the Imperial yacht Standart. The largest ship committed to the operation was the old 18,000 ton armoured cruiser Dvenadsat Apostolov, normally an Arctic Fleet unit but trapped in the Baltic at the start of the war.

The air service had promised the transfer of three squadrons of it's latest I-18 fighters to the pocket as well as a squadron of the much in demand Pe-2 heavy fighter. Dawn would bring it all into clearer focus he thought, as the ships formed up in the twilight and started on their journey.

 

[johnboy]

14 September 1940, Zalukahiv, Russian Empire

Colonel Karl Lorenz's Grossdeutschland Regiment had barely managed to fight it's way out of encirclement and escape the trap. Whilst his own formation had been hit by repeated "human wave" attacks on the 13th, his left flank, covered by the 110th Infantry Division had almost dissolved when attacked by over 200 of the heavy Russian tanks.

The Grossdeutschland had had to fight it's way out, suffering over 50% casualties and being reduced to only 11 tanks, only being saved by the introduction of the 5th Panzer Division, which had been badly bloodied itself by the Russian counterattack.

With similar counter blows to the South of the Marshes that had resulted in the complete encirclement of two divisions, as well as the stiffening of Russian resistance in front of Riga, the whole German advance on the Eastern front had ground to a complete halt.

 

[johnboy]

15 September 1940, Admiralty, Whitehall, United Kingdom

Admiral Dudley Pound watched Churchill's heavy lidded eyes raise at the barb. He was wondering if his forthright thoughts on the Eastern Fleet and Singapore had gone down well. He had clearly stated that in his opinion "Brooke-Popham was not the man for the job and that the state of the air forces in the Far East was poor at best and that the fleet was conspicuous only by it's weakness."

"Well Pound. You have gone out on a limb, may as well saw it off, go on." Churchill said, pouring himself a brandy and then another for the First Lord before going silent.

Admiral Sir Dudley Pound pressed on. "We smashed a part of the German threat with Hades and our raids there, we have dealt with their commerce raiders and with the threat, if not gone, now abated to some extent and little immediate pressure in the Mediterranean, we can afford to redeploy to the Pacific and Indian Oceans and give the Eastern Fleet some teeth. Currently the Australian and New Zealand navies have a larger presence than we do."

"So, you wish to redeploy some battleships?"
"Yes, Prime Minister, but not just battleships, only a balanced fleet will do."
"What do you propose?"
"With three Queen Elizabeth Class in Home Fleet, plus Incomparable and the first three Lion Class, I think all three of the Admirals can be cut free. Our fleet carriers are unsuitable for anti submarine warfare so I would send the three ships with both big Anson Class carriers, as both now have the new Gallants, as well as supporting cruisers and destroyers. As it is we have just commissioned Formidable and will soon have Victorious so they can probably release the two Ansons." I would look at trying to transport some more modern aircraft to Malaya and Singapore as well, probably using the carriers as ferries. Plus submarines, we need to have a force of submarines operating in the area to scout."

"Well, most of of spare air assets are going to Southern Russia, but I can look into what else may be available. Aside from these accursed night bombing, things have been quiet on the air front. Thought you had trouble with those big quad turreted beasts? Who do you propose to command this newly enlarged Eastern Fleet anyway?"

"Cunningham sir, he's an aggressive, competent sort. Plus the issues that were suffered initially with the quads on the Admiral Class have been largely worked out years ago."
"All right then Pound, can't say I'm not in agreement. Things are looking blacker in the East every week. I'll have a think about Brooke-Popham after I talk to Portal."

 

[johnboy]

17 September 1940, 45 miles North of Libau, Baltic Sea

Where as the first nights evacuation had essentially gone as planned, Vice Admiral Filipp Oktyabrskiy's forces had soon come under attack on the second night. As dawn broke, he knew that last night's torturous process of getting men and women onto ships had been slow, far to slow. It was not until 0446 that the last ships had cast off and with the dawn at 0655 he was no where near far enough North for his own liking.

At least the Admiralty had made arrangements which their charcoal coloured friends in the Air Service had actually honored and by 0745 the last of the civilian ships and his battle fleet which were covering them were comforted by the sight of firstly three Pe-2's at 0710 and then 20 I-18's at 0722. This was all to the good, as at 0744 a large formation of German aircraft were inbound. This translated into 30 He-111's, 28 Ju-87's and four Ju-88's, all escorted by 24 Me-109's in what was clearly a major effort. The experienced German pilots of the Me-109's were able to keep the I-18's at bay, exchanging five machines each in a swirling fight. It was only two late arriving I-18's and the three Pe-2's that were able to engage the bombers. The Pe-2's carved down five of the He-111's with their heavy nose armament and the two I-18's that did arrive engage the Stuka's, downing three. However, most of the gull winged bombers attacked unimpeded and many scored hits, hits that for the civilian shipping were quite devastating.

The 2,200 ton Baltic Ferry Strelka had taken two 250kg bomb hits and gone under quickly. His own flagship had taken a hit but was not seriously damaged. The liner Svyataya Anna had taken a hit and was on fire but able to proceed. The old armoured cruiser Dvenadsat Apostolov had also taken a hit but stood up well. One of his destroyers had been lost but what would really take explaining was the Standart. Three hits, including one in the engine room, had started fires that quickly spread throughout the mahogany and oak paneling of the Imperial yacht and had brought her to a halt, well alight. He had not the time necessary to delay and had ordered her scuttled after rescue operations. Hopefully explaining this away would be someone other person's job. In the meantime, he still had at least two nights of rescue runs to go, runs that were likely to only get more expensive.

 

[johnboy]

Imperial yacht Standart

 

[johnboy]

18 September 1940, Reval, Russian Empire

Filipp Oktyabrskiy's forces had again taken another beating. The Germans had again attempted to intervene on the morning of the 18th but this time it was the Luftwaffe that had been handled roughly, losing 14 Stukas, 11 bombers and 12 fighters to a very strong escort of over 40 I-18’s and 16 Pe-2’s as well as ship's AA in exchange for the loss of 16 fighters in a swirling, extended combat.
However, his losses were severe yet again, this time due to some brilliant offensive minelaying by the Kriegsmarine. He had lost a light cruiser, five destroyers, two minesweepers, three auxiliaries and five small civilian craft mainly in fields laid close inshore, although one destroyer sighted torpedoes and had seemingly been a U Boat victim. Things were not going well, although so far, at least the German surface fleet had been content to stay in harbour.

Sadly, some of the men lost had been unable to be picked up and had to be left. It was a brutal business, but he could not risk his larger ships further in the fields, which would have to be swept during the day. Tonight he intended to have a little surprise ready for the Germans and was leaving the big heavy cruisers Imperator Pavel I and Imperator Alexander I to patrol the swept areas in what he hoped was a little ambush of his own.

 

[johnboy]

19 September 1940, off Libau, Baltic Sea

Imperator Alexander I had taken the lead as she was the only one of the heavy cruiser class that had been fitted with surface search radar. It was just a few minutes past midnight and his two big cruisers and two Gromkiy Class destroyer leaders ghosted through the darkness until the port flanking destroyer switched on it's searchlight.

It immediately illuminated both German ships and the mine-layer Brummer was immediately hit by three of the nine shells from the heavy cruisers first salvo, one blowing A turret completely over the side. Her sister had immediately engaged the ironically named Tannenburg, a conversion of a pre war Baltic ferry. Her slab side immediately absorbed four eight inch hits and two 4.7 inch. It was a one sided fight and within three minutes both ships were little more than blazing wrecks, Brummer's mines "cooking off" and breaking the back of the 3,000 ton ship.

 

[johnboy]

25 September 1940, Kure Naval Base, Japanese Empire

Admiral Yamamoto inspected the progress on the giant 20.1 inch guns. The navy would have to be the shield that protected Japan. With the Russian operation pending in less than two months the yard was busy constructing six guns and a spare for the fourth ship of the Yamato "Class", with two already nearing completion. It was a loose classification at best, as the third ship, Shinano, had deleted the wing 6.1 inch turrets in place of two extra 5 inch mounts and was a transitional ship to the one currently under construction at Kure. Both Yamato and Musashi had commissioned, the Musashi only last week. This ship, Kozuke, really a class in itself would use the Yamato hull shape and layout, the same propulsion plant and similar underwater protection, but a different armament and with no aircraft handling facilities. She had been under construction at Kure for over a year.

Twin 20.1 inch guns rather than triple 18.1 inch. The same two 6.1 inch turrets as Shinano but 54 of the new 3.9 inch guns in 27 twin turrets. Slightly heavier armour than the Yamatos at a cost of one knot in speed and 380 miles range. She was meant to be a transitional ship to the new A-150 Class that would now likely not be built. As it was, the Kuzuke was 2,100 tons heavier than the Yamato at 70,300 tons.

It seemed like the Russian operation was also going to be followed by Push South with a declaration on England as intelligence indicated a retaliatory declaration on Japan in any case. The primary target was to be the oil fields of Burma.