Warships in need of an ATL story

Salamis completed around 1930-32, the plan at the time called for 27 knots speed, greatly improved deck armor (5in IMS) and torpedo defences plus modern secondaries. It shows upp at Matapan along with the Greek light fleet, then escapes to Alexandria to fight on when the Germans invade. Come 2019 she's a museum together with Averof at Phaleron.
 
I wonder if the Melbourne having a longer career would effect the writing of ABC.

ABC?

What I was thinking is ordering skyhawks and trackers in 1959 and having a couple of deployments to Vietnam: one covering Op Hardihood and another one or two war deployments as requested by the USN in 1966 and 67.
 
Singapore had a new naval base specifically designed for capital ships, which I don't think Wellington had. I doubt that it would take any time at all to base USN ships there, just a delivery of supplies.
 
ABC?

What I was thinking is ordering skyhawks and trackers in 1959 and having a couple of deployments to Vietnam: one covering Op Hardihood and another one or two war deployments as requested by the USN in 1966 and 67.
Sorry A(rthur) Bertram Chandler (wiki) the Australian sci-fi author. A favourite of mine and the last legal master of the Melbourne, while it was awaiting scrapping.
 
Hrm. Another thought: the US is hard pressed during the start of Vietnam - they need gunfire support but, due to crisis elsewhere, they can't devote the Iowa class to the role due to tensions elsewhere.

With no other option, the last three Standard battleships are brought back into service, with Tennessee, California, and West Virginia are called back into service to serve as platforms. The old barges comport themselves well and, though attempts are made to sink the slow targets, they shrug off the intermittent attacks and continue serving as fire support.

After the war, one remains in South Vietnam while the other two head home (the former leaving a year or two later), and thanks to the refits done to bring them into service, they remain in the reserve until the eighties, at which point all three of them find new homes as museum ships.
 
Sorry A(rthur) Bertram Chandler (wiki) the Australian sci-fi author. A favourite of mine and the last legal master of the Melbourne, while it was awaiting scrapping.

You learn something every day. ABC wrote his stories well before his time on Melbourne, so I doubt that the two would impact on one another. However I think if Melbourne did fire some shots in Vietnam it could change Australia's military trajectory for decades.
 
You learn something every day. ABC wrote his stories well before his time on Melbourne, so I doubt that the two would impact on one another. However I think if Melbourne did fire some shots in Vietnam it could change Australia's military trajectory for decades.
He started writing early in WW2, but he used his (fairly idle) time on Melbourne to complete at least one novel, To Keep The Ship. That has Grimes forced, by
financial necessity, to take on "the lowest space job of them all", caretaker captain of a decommissioned orbiting spaceship.
 
Have Lexington and Saratoga completed as battlecruisers instead of aircraft carriers. Bonus if you get them into action against either a Kongo class or the German Twins.

Somebody wrote a story about 10-12 years ago (maybe even longer) where at least one of the Constitution's was completed as a BC and was present at Savo Island. I actually printed out a copy (well-illustrated) but can't find the darn thing. Don't remember who the author was at all, does anybody know what story I'm talking about?
 

SsgtC

Banned
Hrm. Another thought: the US is hard pressed during the start of Vietnam - they need gunfire support but, due to crisis elsewhere, they can't devote the Iowa class to the role due to tensions elsewhere.

With no other option, the last three Standard battleships are brought back into service, with Tennessee, California, and West Virginia are called back into service to serve as platforms. The old barges comport themselves well and, though attempts are made to sink the slow targets, they shrug off the intermittent attacks and continue serving as fire support.

After the war, one remains in South Vietnam while the other two head home (the former leaving a year or two later), and thanks to the refits done to bring them into service, they remain in the reserve until the eighties, at which point all three of them find new homes as museum ships.
Couple problems though: none of the Iowas were even in commission during Vietnam. All four had been decommissioned between 1957 and 58. New Jersey was specifically recommissioned to provide NGFS. Even if all four of the Iowas are busy elsewhere (which requires a big POD on its own), why would the Navy bring back a Standard when it's got two North Carolinas and four South Dakotas all in reserve?
 
Couple problems though: none of the Iowas were even in commission during Vietnam. All four had been decommissioned between 1957 and 58. New Jersey was specifically recommissioned to provide NGFS. Even if all four of the Iowas are busy elsewhere (which requires a big POD on its own), why would the Navy bring back a Standard when it's got two North Carolinas and four South Dakotas all in reserve?

Fair enough. It'd have that issue as well - you'd have to have every other warship either being needed somewhere else for some reason.

Best reason I could think of is that thanks to their WW2 retrofits, many parts of the Standards are newer than the other two warships. Combine that and a desire to use up the ammunition for the older ships (vs that for newer ships that could be put back into service) and the older vessels require less crew and are much less of a loss than the other warships (effectively using them as large artillery barges vs high speed warships). So both a cost conscious estimate on top of everything else.

But yeah, it's pretty farfetched.
 
Ok one more,
HMS New Zealand survives till WWII say she is kept as a DAC post WNT as a second class squadron flagship like OTL USN/IJN ACs.

Then we get to enjoy the power of the piupiu and hei-tiki.........
 
How about an ATL reverse battle of Savo Island ie the Japanese lose four cruisers and the Americans lose one cruiser I wonder how Canberra,Quincy, Vincennes and Astoria's stories would play out(assume Chicago's torpedo hit was fatal)
 
How about an ATL reverse battle of Savo Island ie the Japanese lose four cruisers and the Americans lose one cruiser I wonder how Canberra,Quincy, Vincennes and Astoria's stories would play out(assume Chicago's torpedo hit was fatal)
I think that battle would have to be in daylight.
 
One scenario I've been thinking of is entitled "Everyone Gets a Battleship" and revolves around the TF 34 battleships at Samar. Halsey takes only Iowa, New Jersey, Biloxi, Vincennes, and Miami with the fast carriers to Cape Engano, where the faster SAG makes contact with Ise and Hyuga. Ching Lee stays behind to cover the San Bernardino Strait with Washington, Massachusetts, South Dakota, Alabama, Wichita, New Orleans, Santa Fe, and Mobile. This would pit four US Treaty battleships against the clearly superior Yamato, the slightly inferior Nagato, and the clearly inferior Kongo and Haruna.

ATL battleships that could go to Samar include a surviving, post-rebuild Hood, an early completion Vangaurd, the Jean Barts and Littorios of course, or maybe a one-off Montana. Since the PT boats and destroyers at Surigao Strait could have handled that situation by themselves, Oldendorf taking the Standards north would have made an interesting fight. The three Japanese dreadnoughts would have been at an individual disadvantage but Yamato was designed to fight outnumbered against Standards.
 
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