The Kriegsmarine Gets Wings

I haven't had a chance to read the entire timeline yet but you do know that you have a picture of two different versions of the Grumman F9F here. The F8F was piston engine fighter that was being deployed in 1945 in OTL. In your picture the swept wing F9F-6 is leading a straight wing F9F-5.

Only IOTL. Here, the US Navy fast-tracked development of jet fighters just like the Royal Navy. The OTL F8F was butterflied away as a result.
 
Chapter Thirty-Seven

In 1954, the Royal Navy announced it could no longer afford to keep HMS Indomitable in reserve. Plans were made to send her to the breakers.

In response, a group of former crew members and officers banded together to form the HMS Indomitable Association, in hopes of raising enough money to buy her from the Royal Navy and preserve her as a museum ship.

But it was the government of Australia that proved to be Indomitable's salvation. The Royal Australian Navy wanted a larger carrier than HMAS Sydney, a Majestic-class light carrier that had been given to Australia in 1948 and served in the Korean War, but were not ready to purchase an Essex-class carrier from the United States.

On March 1, 1954, the Parliament of Australia voted to acquire Indomitable for 2 million Australian pounds. She entered Perth on July 2 to begin an extensive modernization. Her hull was lengthened and widened, her hangar height was increased to accommodate jet aircraft, and her axial flight deck was replaced with an angled deck with steam catapults. In addition, she was fitted with the modern Type 984 radar system. The process took two years and millions of pounds. Finally, on November 10, 1956-the 19th anniversary of her keel laying, HMAS Indomitable was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy with Captain Galfrey G.O.Gatacre in command.

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HMAS Indomitable on her shakedown cruise
 
Indomitable was built with an extra half hangar. How would that have affected her rebuild? Would it have made things easier or more complicated?
 
Chapter Thirty-Eight
In March 1953, Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin suffered a stroke. Although Stalin survived, the stroke led him to gradually retreat from an active role in governing the Soviet Union.

In September 1953, the British and Iranian government came to a settlement over Iran's nationalization of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Under the agreement, oil profits would be split 50/50 between Iran and Great Britain. The agreement greatly bolstered the position of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. In Britain, the agreement was harshly criticized by the Conservative opposition.

In the 1955 general election, the Labour Party managed to hold on to their majority in Parliament. Clement Attlee, after a decade as Prime Minister, stepped aside in favor of Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Gaitskell.

In July 1956, Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal. The move drew protests from Britain and France, who depended on the Canal for commerce. Prime Minister Gaitskell attempted to solve the crisis diplomatically, suggesting that the canal be turned over to United Nations control. Gaitskell's overtures were rebuffed by Nasser, and pressure for military action grew in Britain.

Finally, after securing an agreement of neutrality from US president Aiken-who in any case was preoccupied with domestic events-Gaitskell agreed to military action. On November 1, Britain, France, and Israel launched Operation Musketeer. HMS Vanguard, HMS Malta and HMS Africa, all fresh out of extensive modernization, were deployed to the eastern Mediterranean and launched airstrikes against Egyptian military and industrial targets with Westland Wyvern attack aircraft. The Wyverns were backed up by the Supermarine Scimitar fighter.

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A Westland Wyvern prepares for takeoff from HMS Africa.

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A Supermarine Scimitar in flight.

While the war raged in the air, British, French, and Israeli forces moved into the Canal area. By Christmas, the Anglo-French forces had re-established control over the canal. A desperate Nasser appealed to the Soviet Union for help, but Stalin-or more accurately, the bureaucrats governing in his name, demurred, wary of Nasser due to his past refusal to truly commit to the Warsaw Pact.

Finally, on New Year's Day 1957, the Egyptian government agreed to the terms originally laid out by Gaitskell. The Suez Canal was surrendered to control of the United Nations.

The victory in the Suez War was a great political victory for Gaitskell and the Labour Party, showing that they were committed to maintaining Britain's military strength.
 
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Another peek into the future.

site:althist.glo
Thread title: "Clipping the Kriegsmarine's wings: your thoughts"
Date: June 24, 2016

The High Road said:

So, has anyone read the alternate history web serial Clipping the Kriegsmarine's Wings by Jacob Starns? If so, what are your thougts?

Imperial Patriot said:

To start with, the POD is plausible. The construction of the Graf Zeppelin class faced immense opposition from both the Luftwaffe, which didn't want the Kriegsmarine infringing on their territory, and from pro-battleship admirals within the Kriegsmarine who viewed the aircraft carrier as a boondoggle. It's not unreasonable to believe that work on the carriers would be abandoned given sufficient pressure.

However, the British response is baffling to say the least. Even though Graf Zeppelin is still launched before being abandoned, the British take none of the steps they took IOTL in response to their launch. Instead of two extra Illustrious-class carriers, we get only one. Even more strangely, the OTL Implacable class is replaced by what is basically a gussied-up Illustrious class while the real Implacable design-ITTL referred to as the Audacious class-doesn't enter service until the 1950s. To top it off, development of jet aircraft is slowed to the point that the Royal Navy doesn't get its first jet aircraft until the early 1950s.

Neophyte said:

The author seems to have something of an inordinate fetish for battleships. He actually has HMS Glorious sunk by gunfire from Scharnhorst. No carrier captain would ever be stupid enough to let battleships close in to gun range. Also, his version of the sinking of Bismarck sounds a little fishy to me. Basically, the Royal Navy battleships not only fight the ship that sunk their flagship in a single blow head-on, but win without suffering a scratch. The RN would not be so stupid to engage Bismarck in a surface action after the disastrous fate of HMS Hood, and even if they would, it wouldn't be the curbstomp Starns portrays it as. Also, the US Navy spends the resources poured into the OTL Constellation class on two extra Iowa-class battleships and two so-called "large cruisers." Oh, and HMS Vanguard is completed as a battleship-in 1946!

Bemused Mancunian said:

His portrayal of TTL Royal Navy in the Pacific Theatre is rather insulting to say the least. First, the Admiralty sends Force Z to the Far East without a carrier to provide air cover after HMS Indomitable strikes a coral reef in the Caribbean. Starns tries to handwave the lack of a substitute carrier by saying the Admiralty was preoccupied with keeping an eye on Tirpitz, but even then you'd think they'd realized that giving Force Z air cover was more important than keeping an eye on a ship that the Germans had no will to use. The deployment of two capital ships without air cover goes as well as you'd expect, with both HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse getting sunk by torpedo bombers with no friendly planes to defend them.

While the curbstomping of ABDA in the absence of the capital ships is accurate to OTL, the alt-Indian Ocean Raid is just more Britscrew. Basically, the RN fails to catch the Kido Butai, suffers more losses, then retreats from the Far East altogether and doesn't come back until the Imperial Japanese Navy has been broken by the almighty US Navy. Disgraceful.

Admiral Cunnigham said:

What I find most depressing is the decline of TTL's Royal Navy after the war. Basically, the Fleet Air Arm is allowed to wither due to lack of interest because it never achieves its OTL successes in the war. By TTL's 21st century, the RN is reduced to using "through-deck cruisers" in place of proper carriers. The fact that the British public acquiesces to the fall of the Senior Service is hard to swallow.

Imperial Patriot said:

It's not just the Navy-Britain in general seems to be far worse off than OTL. Instead of evolving into the OTL Imperial Commonwealth, the British Empire falls apart completely after the war. There's still a "Commonwealth of Nations" consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other dominions, but it's pretty much toothless. Also, instead of OTL's special relationship, Starns's world basically has the American's saying "jump" and Britain replying "How high, dear lad?" A very depressing world to live in.
 
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Chapter Thirty-Nine
After assuming the presidency in June 1954, George Aiken lived up to his promise to push for desegregation.

On August 18, the Voting Equality Act, which banned poll taxes and literacy tests, was passed by the House of Representatives over the strident opposition of Southern Democrats. When the Act reached the Senate on October 1, Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell launched the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single senator, speaking for a record 24 hours and 21 minutes. Despite Russell's efforts, the VEA passed the Senate on October 3 by a margin of 54-46. The act was signed into law by President Aiken a week later.

The governments of the Southern states did all they could to preserve segregation. On January 30, 1955, a group of 10 African-American children were blocked from entering an all-white elementary school in Columbia, South Carolina by the Columbia police. In response, Aiken ordered the 101st Airborne deployed to Columbia to ensure's the students' safe entrance.

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Three white protestors in Columbia are driven away by 101st Airborne troops.

The Columbia incident was just one of many throughout the South as state governments did their best to defy Brown v. Board of Education. Many public schools were privatized to take advantage of the loophole that exempted private schools. In addition, the Ku Klux Klan mounted a campaign of terror against Southern blacks.

Heading into the 1956 election, the Democratic Party found itself divided. The Northern progressive wing generally supported Aiken's civil rights measures while the Southern wing viciously opposed it. The issue ultimately fractured the party-the Northern faction nominated California Senator Pat Brown while the Southern faction nominated Senator Russell. The divided opposition allowed Aiken to comfortably win re-election. In a famous speech on the campaign trail in Knoxville, Aiken responded to claims that segregation was a matter of states' rights by declaring "States' rights end where human rights begin."

On June 28, 1957, President Aiken signed the Civil Rights Act into law, formally dismantling the "Jim Crow" laws that had held African-Americans back since the end of Reconstruction. The act was fiercely resisted in the South, where whites took the streets in a wave of riots that resulted in at least 140 deaths and millions of dollars in property damage in what was later known as the Summer of Hate. Nonetheless, Aiken had paved the way for the end of institutional racism in America.
 
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Chapter Forty
On July 20, 1957, Joseph Stalin died of congestive heart failure. The Politburo selected Mikhail Suslov to replace him as General Secretary. Suslov was well-known for his hardline adherence to communist ideology. He demonstrated this the following August, when Romania attempted to move out of the Soviet Union's orbit. The Soviet army ruthlessly crushed Romania's bid for freedom, drawing widespread condemnation from the West.

On September 8, Ghana became an independent dominion in the British Imperial Commonwealth. Sierra Leone would follow on October 19, followed by Nigeria on January 1, 1958.

On November 6, the Fairey Rotodyne made its first flight. Combining the vertical takeoff and landing and hovering capabilities with the cruising performance of a turboprop aircraft, the Rotodyne was intended for the civilian market, but the noise generated by the rotor tip-jets deterred civilian buyers. Nonetheless, the Fleet Air Arm expressed interest in the Rotodyne as an ASW and transport aircraft. The first Royal Navy Rotodynes entered service in February 1959 as carrier onboard delivery aircraft. The ASW version would follow six months later.

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While unsuccessful in the civilian market, the Fairey Rotodyne would have a long and fruitful career in the Royal Navy.
 
The Rotordyne an amazing aircraft! It would have also undoubtedly seen service with the RAF. In Project Cancelled by Derek Wood there's a copy of the drawings for the PT428 missile (which got ditched for the Mauler system, which then got cancelled so Rapier ended up instead) and in one it shows the entire system and how it would load in a Rotordyne. In your TL I could see the RN get around 20 for COD and training, approx 100 in place of Sea King, another 30 or so for commando ops as it is a big beast and the RM will also be wanting something a bit more tactical. RAF oh maybe about 75? Then overseas sales crop up... Not in your TL I suppose the best might have been that the RN might have ended up with about 30 all told and RAF a similar number.
 
Chapter Forty-One
On October 8, 1959, the citizens of the United Kingdom went to the polls to elect a new government. After 14 years in power, the Labour Party had begun to wear out its welcome and the Conservatives managed to secure a majority, with Rab Butler becoming Prime Minister. Despite the hopes of many on the right, Butler chose not to mess with the welfare state set up by Labour.

In 1960, America prepared to elect a new president. Incumbent president Aiken was barred from seeking a third term by the 22nd Amendment. To succeed him, the Republicans chose Michigan Congressman Gerald R. Ford. The Democrats chose former California governor James Roosevelt, son of FDR. In response to the nomination of another liberal, the Southern conservative wing of the Democrats broke off to form their own party, the American Values Party. The new party nominated Senator Strom Thurmond as its candidate.

While Roosevelt campaigned on his family name and his accomplishments as governor of California, Ford campaigned on his war service as a sailor in the US Navy and Thurmond campaigned on rolling back civil rights legislation. Come Election Day, Roosevelt was able to triumph over Ford and Thurmond to become the 36th President of the United States.
 
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