Keynes' Cruisers

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Story 0309
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    • fester

    July 31, 1940 1945 near Torquay

    Eleven had gone up. Ten came back down.

    Ground crews raced towards the single engine fighters. This was the first operational sortie for the Polish pilots in their American fighters. The Curtis planes with their twin .50 caliber nose guns and a pair of lighter wing machine guns had gotten into a formation of German Heinkels and tore apart the bombers in a single dive. The heavy machine guns sent three planes to dot the southeastern market gardens and pastures. A dozen escorts had jumped the Hawks after the first attack and there a single Polish fighter scored a kill on an inexperienced German pilot while one of his squadron mates were shot down in the initial pass.

    The newly veteran pilots climbed out of their destriers and made the way to the ready room to discuss what worked and what did not. Darkness was falling and they would have time to rest and recover until they had to go back up two, three or four times tomorrow. They would hold the line for a week while the RAF Hurricane squadron that they replaced, rested and recovered with reinforcements straight from the conversion units and factory floors until it was their time to go back to the rear to take on new pilots and new machines.
     
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    • Story 0310
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    • fester

    August 1, 1940 Rangoon, Burma

    MV Kraken left the port. She had offloaded kits for another twenty eight CW-21 fighters that even now their buyers knew were obsolete but they were better than anything else that they had available. this was her second trip with the same cargo. In her empty holds, she had loaded rice and teak to bring to Singapore. From there, she would take tin and manganese ore back to California. It was a long, boring route but it paid well enough and the ports of the South Pacific were far more interesting and less expensive to have a good time in then the ports she typically saw from Vancouver to Panama.
     
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    • fester

    Unknown said:
    If the Germans got a broken nose in France, the Japanese are going to be in for nasty shocks come December of 1941...
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    This is not much of a divergence from OTL. The US was supplying the ROC fighter aircraft including the CW-21 at this time. The numbers are slightly higher but not by much.

    I figured I needed to have a hit for the China as I have not mentioned that chunk of the world in a while.
     
    Story 0311 -- The first of the 1937 cruisers joins the fleet
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    • fester


    August 1, 1940 Philadelphia Navy Yard
    The heavy cruiser USS Los Angeles left the dock. Today was another shakedown cruise down the Delaware and into the bay. She had been accepted by the Navy after half a dozen minor corrections to a final work order. The yard still would have her for another week before her sail away to Norfolk for commissioning. The Navy wanted a pair of 1.1 inch guns added to the stern. Observers who had been on campaign with the Royal Navy in Norway had sent back numerous reports that heavy guns could not skew fast enough and light machine guns could not punch hard enough to shoot down dive bombers.

    The two pound pom-pom did well when it worked. That was always the critical question, would the gun work. The same question applied to the quad 1.1 inch gun.

    The dual 1.1 inch gun was a simplified version of the full mount. It was lighter and simpler although it took up two thirds of the space of the full quad mount. The engineers had promised the extra space bought extra reliability but the gun crews would soon find out. Until then, Los Angeles was heading out to continue her training.
     
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    • Story 0312
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    • fester

    August 2, 1940 10:30pm Lowell, Massachusetts

    The last note held itself in the festive air of the basement of St. Michael’s parish hall. He looked at his wife, his beautiful wife as she smiled and kissed him quickly with the promise of more to come in just an hour after they drove down the river to a motel for a two night honeymoon. She was beautiful in her mother’s wedding gown, white lace covering her shoulders and smooth silk hugging her body. He pulled her tightly to him as he clumsily ended their last dance of the night.

    He looked up and saw his friends and his family, both old and new around them smiling and drinking home brewed beer and basement aged wine applaud the new young couple. His best friend and best man had collected all the envelopes of cards and cash to set them up with their new life. Elaine’s older cousin had a small three room apartment for rent a few blocks away from her parents. They would rent that once Patrick was back from the National Guard annual training. Until then, Elaine would live with her parents and prepare for her new life as a respectable married woman.

    The wedding came together quickly. Father Sean had waived requirements for his young parishioner as he knew the urgency as he could read the newspaper. Elaine’s parents had scrambled to pull together the reception with almost no notice. Thankfully a massive array of cousins and aunts and uncles were able to be mobilized.

    He did not care as his wife smiled at him as they walked out of the basement and walked into their new life.
     
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    • Story 0313
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    • fester


    August 3, 1940 Panama City

    Every bar was crowded tonight. The Army was on leave for the weekend and the Navy was shifting ships from the Pacific to the Caribbean for a training exercise. USS Yorktown’s flight deck crew managed to get into a brawl with an infantry platoon over the company of several young women while USS Chicago’s engineers managed to talk their way into one of the finer establishments within three hundred miles.

    Tomorrow morning the Task Force would pass through the Canal to rendezvous with the Atlantic Fleet for two weeks of steaming before starting the Fleet Problem.
     
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    • Logan2879

    Logan2879

    fester said:
    August 1, 1940 Philadelphia Navy Yard
    The heavy cruiser USS Los Angeles left the dock. Today was another shakedown cruise down the Delaware and into the bay. She had been accepted by the Navy after half a dozen minor corrections to a final work order. The yard still would have her for another week before her sail away to Norfolk for commissioning. The Navy wanted a pair of 1.1 inch guns added to the stern. Observers who had been on campaign with the Royal Navy in Norway had sent back numerous reports that heavy guns could not skew fast enough and light machine guns could not punch hard enough to shoot down dive bombers.

    The two pound pom-pom did well when it worked. That was always the critical question, would the gun work. The same question applied to the quad 1.1 inch gun.

    The dual 1.1 inch gun was a simplified version of the full mount. It was lighter and simpler although it took up two thirds of the space of the full quad mount. The engineers had promised the extra space bought extra reliability but the gun crews would soon find out. Until then, Los Angeles was heading out to continue her training.
    Click to expand...

    Just a quick question USS Los Angeles (CA-??) what is her number please? Also what class does she belong to Northampton Class, New Orleans class, or Wichita class?
     
    Logan2879

    Logan2879

    Ryan said:
    why would the US pay Vichy France to maintain their navy?
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    My opinion is that if french sailors were paid by the US and not the Vichy, when the US enters the war the french fleet would join on the american side. Also since the US is paying the french to maintain their navy well at least get the battleships Richelieu and Jean Bart in drydocks in the states and finish their construction by the summer of 1941
     

    fester

    Logan2879 said:
    Just a quick question USS Los Angeles (CA-??) what is her number please? Also what class does she belong to Northampton Class, New Orleans class, or Wichita class?
    Click to expand...
    In this timeline CA 46. She is a repeat Witchita that was funded in the Index "preamble" as part of the POD.

    Update: CA 51
     
    Last edited:

    LostCosmonaut

    Hopefully the CW-21 performs a bit better than it did OTL, I've got a bit of a soft spot for it. True, it was poorly armored and weakly armed, but it does at least have a ridiculous (for the time) rate of climb.
     
    JudgeKing

    JudgeKing

    fester said:
    In this timeline CA 46. She is a repeat Wichita that was funded in the Index "preamble" as part of the POD.
    Click to expand...

    The hull number 46 was already taken by the Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Phoenix before the POD. USS Los Angeles would be designated as CA-51.

    USS Phoenix (CL-46) - laid down April 25th, 1935
    USS Boise (CL-47) - laid down April 1st, 1935
    USS Honolulu CL-48) - laid down December 9th, 1935
    USS St Louis (CL-49) - laid down December 10th, 1936
    USS Helena (CL-50) - laid down December 9th, 1936
     

    fester

    JudgeKing said:
    The hull number 46 was already taken by the Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Phoenix before the POD. USS Los Angeles would be designated as CA-51.

    USS Phoenix (CL-46) - laid down April 25th, 1935
    USS Boise (CL-47) - laid down April 1st, 1935
    USS Honolulu CL-48) - laid down December 9th, 1935
    USS St Louis (CL-49) - laid down December 10th, 1936
    USS Helena (CL-50) - laid down December 9th, 1936
    Click to expand...
    Thank you. What I get for replying from my phone instead of my spreadsheet from hell
     

    fester

    LostCosmonaut said:
    Hopefully the CW-21 performs a bit better than it did OTL, I've got a bit of a soft spot for it. True, it was poorly armored and weakly armed, but it does at least have a ridiculous (for the time) rate of climb.
    Click to expand...
    There will be a few more built but it is what it is
     
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