Us details mu hahaha!I can imagine that Fester is juggling about 47 objects(chain saws, torches, feathers and cannon balls), while trying to maintain continuity and completeness before the Pacific part of the war goes hot. Collectively, we do tend to be picky about details, don't we?
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Story 0866
December 6, 1941 Malta
HMS Marlin was tied up alongside with HMS Mackerel. Across the harbor, the surface ships, three cruisers and six destroyers were making themselves ready. A bomber had spotted an Italian convoy going around the west end of Sicily. The report was incomplete as Italian fighters chased the twin engine scout away. Force K was ready to go to sea and intercept the supply ships that kept North Africa contested.
A few miles away, a dozen biplane bombers were also preparing to slash into the convoy. ASV radar kits were being checked out. The preferred attack would be at night as the fighters would be bedded down and the anti-aircraft gunners would be blind for the first few hundred yards of the run-in.
Malta’s war continued even as the submariners worked to reload torpedoes and make the minor repairs that any boat needed after successful combat patrols.
Story 0867
December 6, 1941 0815 Hawaiian time, Marine Corps Naval Air Station Ewa
The ready room was packed with Marine Corp and Navy flyers. There was a buzz in the air as junior officers speculated and offered their own opinions on the numerous rumors buzzing through the crowd like barnstormers at a county fair.
Josh was done speculating as that required too much thought and energy. He was tired as Cerberus Flight was averaging over four hours of flight time a day for the past week. His maintainers had been able to guarantee at least three of the four planes would be available on twenty minutes notice, but they were approaching exhaustion as well. Small repairs that normally would have taken twenty minutes were now taken hours as mistakes were being made and more importantly, the ready supply of uncommon spare parts was being run down. Already two Wildcats had become squadron donors. They would be repair and refurbished by ground crews on the trip to Samoa, but the squadron had been worked hard over the past two weeks. Speculation instead of flying meant doing a poor job at both.
“Gentlemen, the General wants to convey his respect at how hard the air component of the Samoa Force has been working during this exercise. Today’s briefing is an overview for the next three days of operations.
Intelligence has indicated that there are two Orange Force carrier groups at sea approaching our base. Group Alpha has at least one and potentially two aircraft carriers with cruiser and destroyer support will be approaching from the north. Group Bravo consists of two carriers with cruiser support. Bravo is approaching from the south west. Intelligence believes that this group is 24 to 36 hours ahead of the northern carrier group but is not certain.
Our mission for the next three days is to locate these carrier groups and destroy their ability to wage offensive actions against our positions. Friendly carrier forces are not available for at least the next ten days. Submarine support is possible but not probable.
Starting at noontime today, we will launch long range patrols. The Catalina squadron has insufficient aircraft to search the entire threat sphere. Therefore, Catalinas will search to from the South to the West out to a distance of 600 miles. Once the first carrier force is located, dive bombers escorted by fighters will attack the carrier group. A single flight of dive bombers will patrol to the north to a distance of 200 miles at dawn and before dusk just in case the enemy slips their Alpha carrier group in for a night time launch. Most bombers will be on the ground at 30 minutes readiness. Fighters will be split, twelve fighters will remain dedicated to local defense and all remaining fighters will escort the bombers.
Your squadron leaders will brief you on the details of the exercise.
Story 0868
December 6, 1941 Scapa Flow
King George V was the lead ship of the battle line of the British Home Fleet. She dropped anchor behind the island of Flotta and waited for her sister Duke of York to anchor astern of her. Once both of the new fast battleships were secured to their moorings, a coven of small craft made for the large, gray gunships to take men ashore for a few hours of rest and relaxation.
HMS Illustrious was the only useful carrier in Home Fleet at the moment. Glorious was part of the Fleet but she was mainly concerned with training new pilots to keep the front line squadrons at full strength. Illustrious had kept her air wing on board as the fleet would be back at sea soon enough.
Story 0869
December 6, 1941 1015 Hawaiian time Pacific Fleet headquarters
“Those Marines are training hard, I hope they’ll have enough time to recuperate and get their gear stowed for Samoa. Finding Enterprise and Saratoga as their graduation exercise before they deploy was a good idea” Admiral Short commented to his aide as they looked over the tranquil, shallow waters of Pearl Harbor as four Marine Wildcats roared past fleet headquarters gaining altitude.
These guys will be heading so far in the opposiye direction.
Kido Butai is to the north....
Well, maybe not this guys.
If I understand correctly they might be patrolling to the North at dawn in September 7.
By the way and since I think this is my first post in the thread: this is an amazing AH storyline. One of my favourites.
It looks like the US carriers will be off to the south, a good thing since they will be out of range of the much larger KB. The bad news is the Catalinas will be searching 180 degrees out from where the KB is approaching. OTOH the flight of dive bombers, which as I understand it will be armed with real ordnance, will be searching in the right area and distance. The KB launched from 200-250 nm out from PH, so they could certainly spot the incoming planes and depending on the weather and geometry, spot the KB proper. If they are not, at least they will be able to report what they see (and I certainly hope they at least have ammo for their guns). Between the patrolling dive bombers and the much improved radar and fighter direction system which has been being exercised a lot, PH should get a fair bit of warning. Between the Marine airborne patrol (armed I assume) and any Army airborne patrols the initial attack will certainly not be as organized as OTL and there will be losses. Depending on the warning time, I wonder how many ground alert fighters will get off for the first wave, certainly the second wave will get hit.
Good news, the AA batteries on ships and on land should be up and ready if they get the warning it appears they would ITTL. Bad news, expect more blue-blue shoot downs.
Good news, the AA batteries on ships and on land should be up and ready if they get the warning it appears they would ITTL. Bad news, expect more blue-blue shoot downs.
Donald Reaver
Donor
We know that the carriers i.t.t.l. are not in port which is good, but is there a possibility the training exercise could give them away to the Japanese if there is loose radio chatter?
Why yes, there just might be some SBD's flying to the north of Oahu with a 6 AM take off time.
Story 0870
December 6, 1941 1800 Hawaiian Time, Kido Butai
Darkness would soon fall to protect the fleet. The six carriers of the attack force were lancing their way through heavy seas as they continued to close on the Hawaiian Islands from the deserted northern approaches. No American ships or aircraft had been sighted at all during the voyage and none were expected to be sighted tonight as the American patrol line never extended much past 200 miles from Pearl Harbor.
Pilots congregated in their squadron ready rooms as the intelligence officers reviewed known American defenses one last time and quizzed all of the aircrews dedicated to striking the fleet on target recognition as it was known that the Americans had several large auxiliaries that fleetingly looked like battleships stationed at Pearl Harbor. The operational plan was reviewed one last time, and each pilot knew his role.
Story 0871 Force Z goes to Sea
December 7, 1941 1000 Singapore Time
Three groups of warships headed to sea. The first group was Force Y and it was small, lean, and old. Danae, Dragon, Durban, light cruisers designed after Jutland during the First World War, steamed smartly along with their six terrier destroyers past the Johor batteries an hour ahead of the main fleet of Force Z.
Force Y’s mission was to patrol the east coast of Malaya up to the border with Siam. If an opportunity presented itself, Force Y could penetrate the Gulf of Siam to attack enemy invasion convoys. Force Y never expected to be more than 100 miles from the coast and no more than thirty minutes from fighter cover.
The heavy ships of Force Z departed later in the evening led by Prince of Wales and Repulse. The light cruisers Mauritius, Kenya and Liverpool trailed behind the capital ships as four modern destroyers screened the heavy ships. Force Z would find some sea room to the southeast of the bastion and then act as a distant covering force against any invasion’s heavy units. The two capital ships were the equal of any that the Japanese had as they could outrun the 16 inch armed Nagato class, and out slug the 30 knot Kongo class battlecruisers. Against the Ise and Fuso class ships, Admiral Phillips was confident that he could outrun or out slug any of those ships depending on the circumstances he faced. The RAAF promised to provide rotating air cover for the fleet from their single Mustang squadron and three Buffalo squadrons based on the east coast of Malaya as well as a squadron of Hudsons for general spotting and anti-submarine patrol work.
Finally, ten American ships in Task Force 10 left the harbor. Three cruisers and four modern destroyers were the main body, but three old four stackers accompanied the force. They were heading to an exercise area to spend a day with Force Z. After that, they would head to Endau for further training.
Three older British destroyers were still at anchor in the harbor along with USS Marblehead and USS Whipple as minor but needed repairs were being made to all of these ship
Three groups of warships headed to sea. The first group was Force Y and it was small, lean, and old. Danae, Dragon, Durban, light cruisers designed after Jutland during the First World War, steamed smartly along with their six terrier destroyers past the Johor batteries an hour ahead of the main fleet of Force Z.
Force Y’s mission was to patrol the east coast of Malaya up to the border with Siam. If an opportunity presented itself, Force Y could penetrate the Gulf of Siam to attack enemy invasion convoys. Force Y never expected to be more than 100 miles from the coast and no more than thirty minutes from fighter cover.
The heavy ships of Force Z departed later in the evening led by Prince of Wales and Repulse. The light cruisers Mauritius, Kenya and Liverpool trailed behind the capital ships as four modern destroyers screened the heavy ships. Force Z would find some sea room to the southeast of the bastion and then act as a distant covering force against any invasion’s heavy units. The two capital ships were the equal of any that the Japanese had as they could outrun the 16 inch armed Nagato class, and out slug the 30 knot Kongo class battlecruisers. Against the Ise and Fuso class ships, Admiral Phillips was confident that he could outrun or out slug any of those ships depending on the circumstances he faced. The RAAF promised to provide rotating air cover for the fleet from their single Mustang squadron and three Buffalo squadrons based on the east coast of Malaya as well as a squadron of Hudsons for general spotting and anti-submarine patrol work.
Finally, ten American ships in Task Force 10 left the harbor. Three cruisers and four modern destroyers were the main body, but three old four stackers accompanied the force. They were heading to an exercise area to spend a day with Force Z. After that, they would head to Endau for further training.
Three older British destroyers were still at anchor in the harbor along with USS Marblehead and USS Whipple as minor but needed repairs were being made to all of these ship
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Story 0872
December 7, 1941 1200 Luzon
PT-34 was cruising at 12 knots north along the western coast of the Luzon, puttering past the mouth of Lingayen Gulf. She and the other five wooden mosquitos of MTBRON-3 had been busy over the past week laying mines near the entrance to Manila Bay. Now she and two sisters, PT-35 and PT-41, were fully armed with four torpedoes and an unauthorized overload of .50 caliber ammunition. A few more hours and the little boats would pull into Vigan to refuel and then allow the half American, half Filipino crews to rest. By morning on the 8th, they would be on their way to their patrol station amidst the islands of the Luzon Strait.
PT-34 was cruising at 12 knots north along the western coast of the Luzon, puttering past the mouth of Lingayen Gulf. She and the other five wooden mosquitos of MTBRON-3 had been busy over the past week laying mines near the entrance to Manila Bay. Now she and two sisters, PT-35 and PT-41, were fully armed with four torpedoes and an unauthorized overload of .50 caliber ammunition. A few more hours and the little boats would pull into Vigan to refuel and then allow the half American, half Filipino crews to rest. By morning on the 8th, they would be on their way to their patrol station amidst the islands of the Luzon Strait.
Story 0873
December 7, 1941 2030 Manilla Time aboard S-39
“LT, I see something off the port bow, real low and fuzzy”
“Give me direction and get plotting started on this contact, McMahon”
“330, range unknown, close to the horizon, call it 6,000 yards”
“Sonar, have anything there?”
“Nothing sir”
“Let’s go to battle stations, surface”
The crew of the submarine scurried rapidly as they got out of their bunks. Lt. Jorgenson threw on his pants and made it to the conning tower in under three minutes as he had to wait a moment while two men brought up the ready shells for the 4 inch gun.
“Situation #1?”
“Unknown contact, 6,000 yards at 330, sonar has nothing”
“Very good, make speed 10 knots and come to and let’s get a good identification on the contact before we call it in. Comms, get a message ready but do not send until I release the message.”
The old submarine started to increase speed and her ungainly bow pierced the waves for the next twenty minutes until the unknown contact was identified as a friendly Filipino fishing boat that had been seconded to the Army coastal patrol forces. She was acting as a sentinel and tripwire for the Lingayen Gulf defenses.
S39 motored away and continued to charge her batteries.
Story 0874
December 6, 1941 1822 Hawaiian Time 425 miles bearing 240 degrees from Pearl Harbor
Lt. John Thach looked down at the lumbering patrol plane that had been shadowing the Enterprise group for the past half hour, ducking in and out of clouds. If the roundel was not a white star with a blue background, he would have lit up the snooper fifteen minutes ago but he was happy to see friendly faces and more importantly, local air cover appear.
The Pacific was becoming an increasingly unfriendly lake as the Japanese were moving medium bombers into the Marshalls and their seaplane patrols were becoming extremely aggressive. Enterprise had seen two seaplanes overflying international waters near Wake the previous week. Fighters had been scrambled and Ensign Daniels buzzed one of the Emily’s at twenty feet of separation which earned him a dressing down in public and a quiet Bravo Zulu by the CAG as he was standing a punishment watch in PriFly.
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Story 0875
December 7, 1941 1455 Clark Air Base
Two B-17s took off from Clark AIr Base. They were heading north to patrol the waters of Luzon Strait. For the past two weeks, the Far East Air Force was operating as if they were at war. Crews were sleeping in tents near the dispersed revetments that protected every single aircraft, dummy aircraft and hangar queens were moved several times a day with intriguingly misplaced sections of camouflage altered to attract the attention of any Japanese photo interpreters, and patrols to the edge of Formosan territorial waters were being run daily.
The Japanese air fleet in Southern Formosa had taken to scramble a shotai of Nate fighters to track and harass the American patrol planes, but so far no incidents had occurred. The bombers’ guns were all tied to a neutral position and could not track moving fighters without wires being cut, and the Japanese fighters maintained at least several hundred feet of distance.
Today’s patrol would be just another patrol with an observer spending too much time looking through his binoculars trying to count ships in Takao harbor.
Two B-17s took off from Clark AIr Base. They were heading north to patrol the waters of Luzon Strait. For the past two weeks, the Far East Air Force was operating as if they were at war. Crews were sleeping in tents near the dispersed revetments that protected every single aircraft, dummy aircraft and hangar queens were moved several times a day with intriguingly misplaced sections of camouflage altered to attract the attention of any Japanese photo interpreters, and patrols to the edge of Formosan territorial waters were being run daily.
The Japanese air fleet in Southern Formosa had taken to scramble a shotai of Nate fighters to track and harass the American patrol planes, but so far no incidents had occurred. The bombers’ guns were all tied to a neutral position and could not track moving fighters without wires being cut, and the Japanese fighters maintained at least several hundred feet of distance.
Today’s patrol would be just another patrol with an observer spending too much time looking through his binoculars trying to count ships in Takao harbor.
Story 0876
December 6 2100 Hawaiian Time, Marine Corps Naval Air Station Ewa
“Four Catalinas will launch at 0500 to localize the contact and guide a strike in. The Dauntlesses, escorted by Charon and Goofy flights will attack the Contact 1 tomorrow morning. Goofy will fly top cover and Charon will sweep in front of the strike.
We will take off at 0615 and we expect to arrive overhead by 0820. We will rendezvous at Point Elbow and then fly to the task force location. The dive bombers will attack with the sun at our backs. The target is the carrier, any heavy cruisers will be secondary targets. Cerberus and Pluto flights will cover our airfield against any surprise attacks for if we are in range to strike them, they can strike us and our airbase does not move.
Reveille will be 0430 tomorrow, get a good night sleep after your squadron leaders brief you.
Good hunting men, and dismissed”
Story 0877
December 7 noon Singapore Time Force Y off Mersing
Force Y’s four oldest destroyers were spreading out into a scouting line, each little ship five miles from their closest peer. Six miles behind the scouting line, three old light cruisers were closely escorted by two slightly more modern destroyers.
Force Y was moving north at twenty one knots with the intention of arriving off of Kota Bharu by late evening. From there, Admiral Palliser intended to aggressively patrol the southern reaches of the Gulf of Siam for three days before he began to send ships into port for fuel and fresh water.
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