Keynes' Cruisers

[fester]

December 19, 1941 somewhere off Central Africa

Joseph Smith and several hundred other men had earned their status as trusty shellbacks instead of neophyte polliwogs that morning. The Captain had allowed the ceremony as Victorious was steaming fast in an area with minimal enemy activity. She was on time for her trip to Durban.

 

[fester]

December 20, 1941 Norfolk Virginia

Two large American carriers, Yorktown and Constellation, as well as their little sister Wasp were loading supplies for overseas deployment. HMS Indomitable and HMS Furious were also furiously loading supplies. The entire combined fleet had returned to port after two days of exercises including a night time strike by the FAA and a dawn strike on Norfolk by the American dive bombers. After refueling and reprovisioning (including a mysterious box car full of chocolate bars) they were ready to depart as well. The five carriers along with the only modern, fast American battleships, Washington, and nine cruisers, eighteen destroyers and two fast oilers were due to depart tomorrow.

The lower decks speculated that they would be reinforcing the Pacific Fleet while the junior officers thought they were heading to the Mediterranean as dozens of large semi-armor piercing bombs were loaded into the magazines. Warm weather gear and cold weather gear was being loaded. Several boxes of phrase books in Arabic and Norwegian were shipped aboard as well. The senior officers were enjoying the speculation as they knew where Task Force 3 was going and they wanted rumors buzzing about like nuggets on a graduation flight to throw off any eavesdroppers.

The US Atlantic Fleet would make a dash across the Atlantic and join with their now official allies of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet which was exercising near Ireland to block the Atlantic from Tirpitz. From there, six fast carriers, three American, three British, would be covered by three modern battleships and a battlecruiser. They would rendezvous and train for weeks north of Ireland, occassionally nipping back into Scapa Flow. The RAF would watch Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were still at Brest, France.

A single raid against Norway was planned in mid-January as a practice event and then they would wait for the weather and the moon to cooperate.

Wasp unloaded her scouting squadron and replaced those fifteen planes with sixteen Wildcats from Hornet. Yorktown and Constellation each offloaded half of their Devestator bombers. Each ship took on another eight Wildcats from Ranger. Operation Bathhouse would be the first major combined Allied offensive of the war.

 

[fester]

December 20, 1941 0712 Manila time, Fort Stotsenburg

Private Rolando Cabling tapped his foot impatiently as the American supply officer looked over the forms on his clipboard one more time. Didn’t he know that the Japanese would have a fighter sweep coming through in the next hour. Trucks were some of their favorite targets now that airfields in Central Luzon were almost empty of American pursuit planes. Green trucks were slightly more preferred targets but any truck was an inviting target.

Finally, the officer nodded at him. His requisitioned green Studebaker was carrying 5,000 pounds of rice and ten crates of .30 cal ammunition. He had to get to Bataan and then return to the fort by night fall. He would be traveling with his buddy Felix who had been cleared to leave fifteen minutes ago with a similar cargo load. Convoys had been tried early last week but once the Japanese gained air superiority, convoys just allowed for more efficient strafing.

Supplies were still moving south to Bataan while they were also flowing north to the Northern Luzon Force’s reserve divisions. It was quasi-controlled chaos.

 

[Driftless]

December 18, 1941 0800 Norfolk Virginia
(snip)
As the dive bombers retreated to their carriers 140 miles out to sea, umpires and observers noted the issues with the attack. The Army Air Corps had detected the attacking waves with their radar. If they had been ordered to scramble, four fighter squadrons could have ripped into the lightly escorted bombers. B-26s based at Langley were all ready to take off and engage the “enemy” carrier force. The first wave came in five minutes late. The second wave that was only American aircraft was forty five minutes late. They were supposed to strike as a closed fist but they instead slapped like an offended gentleman requesting the opportunity to defend his honor.

As the umpires and observers went through the exercise, they found that the radio intercept teams had heard the strike force assembling and could locate the carriers to a one hundred square mile box as the pilots and the carriers were much too chatty.

By lunch time, the first draft of observations were agreed upon. In the harbor, USS Ulrich had been ready for a high speed run to the fleet. The seven observers walked up the gangway and the destroyer opened up her engines for a 28 knot high speed run to rendezvous with the fleet. Operation Cardinal, the first stage reading for Bathhouse, would have another chance tomorrow morning.

Lessons being learned...

December 20, 1941 Norfolk Virginia
(snip)
A single raid against Norway was planned in mid-January as a practice event and then they would wait for the weather and the moon to cooperate.

Wasp unloaded her scouting squadron and replaced those fifteen planes with sixteen Wildcats from Hornet. Yorktown and Constellation each offloaded half of their Devestator bombers. Each ship took on another eight Wildcats from Ranger. Operation Bathhouse would be the first major combined Allied offensive of the war.

Hmmmm... Depending on timing of events, that Norway raid might be more than a practice?

 

[Butchpfd]

December 20, 1941 Norfolk Virginia

Two large American carriers, Yorktown and Constellation, as well as their little sister Wasp were loading supplies for overseas deployment. HMS Indomitable and HMS Furious were also furiously loading supplies. The entire combined fleet had returned to port after two days of exercises including a night time strike by the FAA and a dawn strike on Norfolk by the American dive bombers. After refueling and reprovisioning (including a mysterious box car full of chocolate bars) they were ready to depart as well. The five carriers along with the only modern, fast American battleships, Washington, and nine cruisers, eighteen destroyers and two fast oilers were due to depart tomorrow.

The lower decks speculated that they would be reinforcing the Pacific Fleet while the junior officers thought they were heading to the Mediterranean as dozens of large semi-armor piercing bombs were loaded into the magazines. Warm weather gear and cold weather gear was being loaded. Several boxes of phrase books in Arabic and Norwegian were shipped aboard as well. The senior officers were enjoying the speculation as they knew where Task Force 3 was going and they wanted rumors buzzing about like nuggets on a graduation flight to throw off any eavesdroppers.

The US Atlantic Fleet would make a dash across the Atlantic and join with their now official allies of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet which was exercising near Ireland to block the Atlantic from Tirpitz. From there, six fast carriers, three American, three British, would be covered by three modern battleships and a battlecruiser. They would rendezvous and train for weeks north of Ireland, occassionally nipping back into Scapa Flow. The RAF would watch Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were still at Brest, France.

A single raid against Norway was planned in mid-January as a practice event and then they would wait for the weather and the moon to cooperate.

Wasp unloaded her scouting squadron and replaced those fifteen planes with sixteen Wildcats from Hornet. Yorktown and Constellation each offloaded half of their Devestator bombers. Each ship took on another eight Wildcats from Ranger. Operation Bathhouse would be the first major combined Allied offensive of the war.

The infamous Cavite chocolate order still bounces around like the Flying Dutchman, on it's way into navy legend!

 

[Killer in]

Oh Jerries in trouble now

 

[Driftless]

The infamous Cavite chocolate order still bounces around like the Flying Dutchman, on it's way into navy legend!

This situation would come under the heading: when legend meets reality, print the legend....

At some point, the chocolate evolves into an entire ship load as the tale gets told and re-told.

 

[RyderWest]

Isn't USS Ulrich now USS Watkins? And Watkins is with the British-American fleet in Singapore?

 

[fester]

Isn't USS Ulrich now USS Watkins? And Watkins is with the British-American fleet in Singapore?

Updated!

 

[RyderWest]

Updated!

USS Whitson (DD-435), a Gleaves-class destroyer and the last destroyer class before the Fletchers.

 

[fester]

December 20, 1941 40 miles north of Legaspi, Luzon

Japanese fighter planes circled over the port. Half dozen B-17s flying from Del Monte Field had already bombed the harbor at first light, sinking a single subchaser and destroying half a dozen lighters.

An infantry regiment had landed two days earlier to minimal opposition. They had already started sending patrols up the rail and road ways that would eventually take them to the capital. Demobilized men from the 51st Division had been running north with messages that the Japanese had landed and that they were coming. Overnight, a regiment from the 2nd Constulbary division had been railroaded from the central reserve position near Lamon Gulf and they detrained in Nara. The two lead battalions had started to dig in near the rail line. The last battalion was the central reserve with one company mounted in commandeered civilian cars. They would respond to a Japanese attack along the road or the rails with an immediate counter-attack. Mortar teams were digging in and shells were being taken out of the infantrymen's packs. No artillery was available, the divisional commander could not split his artillery battalion because there were not enough trained men to run two fire direction centers.

The last company headed south at dawn to establish contact.

As the convoy approached Baao Lake, the vanguard was ambushed. Heavy machine guns started to fire into the engines and drivers compartments of half a dozen Packards and Studebakers. Somehow a Ford sedan was not hit and the five men in the vehicle were unharmed as it skidded into a roadside ditch. The main body of the convoy stopped short of the ambush and men scrambled out of the vehicles and spread out on both sides of the road. Light mortar shells from the Japanese spearhead started to harvest blood in the field as the mortar crews systemically walked shells north to south and then south to north again. A thirty yard wide stretch of field was the target of the mortar teams even as the machine gunners and riflemen made sure that the lead elements could not safely retreat.

The constables were experienced anti-guerrilla fighters. They were well trained men who were used to operating as a team. Most of them men had been under fire before but all of that training was insignificant given the amount of firepower that they now faced. Guerillas in the outlying islands seldom operated in platoon size groups and almost never had modern crew served weapons. The Japanese advance guard was at least company strong and it had plenty of support. As the fire fight evolved, the two light machine guns, both Lewis guns, were able to establish a base of fire and allow some men to recover from the initial shock of the ambush even as the advance guard was overrun by a bayonet charge.

An hour later, half a dozen runners had been dispatched to Nara while the rest of the company collapsed their positions into an ever shrinking circle. Dead men's pockets were looted for spare clips, bodies used as cover and helmets held tightly as the Japanese weight of attack increased yet again as a pair of 70 millimeter battalion guns were brought forward. The shelling started to break up the impromptu, hasty defense so what was a little more than two platoons in a coherent whole quickly became a dozen scattered teams and individual strong points. Machine guns again started to fire staggered bursts as the Japanese mortar teams moved forward and a platoon was seen marching through a field 1,000 yards away. That platoon took an hour to get into position 500 yards north of the Filipino position.

It was obvious to everyone in the muddy fields that a full scale assault was almost ready to be set off. The Filipino advance guard was running low on ammunition and had no working heavy weapons. It could stop a single determined assault of Boy Scouts. The young lieutenant looked at his reality and ordered every man to throw their weapons down and their hands up.

 

[Bob in Pittsburgh]

He might be slightly offended - Yuri Oganessian courtesy of wikipedia.

Thanks Derrek. He looks harmless; but so did Harvey Weinstein.

 

[Draconis]

Chemistry nerd - that's really cool as it shows how they are formed. But they are up to element 118 now (the position underneath Radon) called Oganesson .

Exciting thing is if the "island of stability" forecast at element 120 actually happens - then we might have superheavy elelemtns which actually hand around for more than a millisecond (think years!)

So far no "island of stability" elements have ever been detected using astronomical spectroscopy. They are a theoretical possibility but if Mother Nature isn't able to build them through high energy processes like neutron star mergers or supernovae it's hard to see how we can produce them artificially. We're still struggling with controlled fusion. But who knows what the future may hold.

Edit. Or the "island of stability" elements aren't really all that stable and decay into undetectability within minutes after their synthesis. No one knows yet.

 

[Winestu]

As far as Bathhouse goes, I still say that going after the U-boats is a better “bang for your buck” than concentrating on S & G.

Now if the Allies have enough aircraft, and it looks like they do, then they can go after all of them.

As a side note, a really successful Bathhouse will force the Luftwaffe to relocate aircraft to defend coastal areas that the Allies could, but may never, attack. That would effectively remove those aircraft from the main combat zones (Russia, the Med., etc.).

I wonder how Hitler & Raeder are going to react to all this once they realize how big a mistake it was not to pursue or even address carrier aviation?

Also, I would love to see the epileptic fit Hitler has when he hears that two of his beloved big ships were sunk in/wrecked in port.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Getting rid of the German capital ships frees up the Home fleet for service elsewhere.

 

[vl100butch]

I noticed that another mysterious boxcar of Hershey bars showed up!!!

Wonder how well they'll go down with the British...the Brits I know all detest Hershey!

 

[fester]

I noticed that another mysterious boxcar of Hershey bars showed up!!!

Wonder how well they'll go down with the British...the Brits I know all detest Hershey!

Think about the rationing....

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Chemistry nerd - that's really cool as it shows how they are formed. But they are up to element 118 now (the position underneath Radon) called Oganesson .

Exciting thing is if the "island of stability" forecast at element 120 actually happens - then we might have superheavy elelemtns which actually hand around for more than a millisecond (think years!)

Mind you, the Neptunium and Plutonium squares really ought to be grey.....

 

[Draconis]

December 20, 1941 40 miles north of Legaspi, Luzon

It was obvious to everyone in the muddy fields that a full scale assault was almost ready to be set off. The Filipino advance guard was running low on ammunition and had no working heavy weapons. It could stop a single determined assault of Boy Scouts. The young lieutenant looked at his reality and ordered every man to throw their weapons down and their hands up.

Good luck to them. Lessons will be learned about how the IJA conducted itself.

 

[Gunner's_Quadrant]

Wasp unloaded her scouting squadron and replaced those fifteen planes with sixteen Wildcats from Hornet. Yorktown and Constellation each offloaded half of their Devestator bombers. Each ship took on another eight Wildcats from Ranger. Operation Bathhouse would be the first major combined Allied offensive of the war.

This is an early change in USN air group composition. It took the USN until late summer/early fall 1942 to begin increasing the number of fighters in the carrier air group.
The AARs from Coral Sea and Midway pointed to a need for more fighters for CAP and escort duties, in OTL just not enough Wildcats available to increase size of air groups. In fact, USN had trouble just keeping up with attrition until Grumman's production ramped up.