Keynes Cruisers

[fester]

February 19, 1940 Karelia

1,500,0000 shells, 60,000 men wounded, 26,232 men dead, 400 tanks not recoverable, 175 bombers destroyed. The Red Army had bled hard.

They won.

The Mannerheim line was broken.

Over the past ten days, the defenders never had a chance to rest. They never had a chance to recover. They never had a chance.

The II Corps pulled back ten miles to a secondary defensive position. The corps was a fractured remnant. It’s heavy artillery battalions had been plastered by Soviet airstrikes. Finnish Fiat fighters tried to protect the heavy guns, but they were swarmed by I-16 fighters. Mines, snipers and engineers with plentiful explosives delayed the Soviet pursuit, buying the exhausted corps time to re-entrench.

Diplomats were already in discussions in Stockholm to end the war. The Finnish Army was still willing but increasing unable to fight.

 

[fester]

February 22, 1940 Georgia Tech

His eyes scanned the precisely typed grade list. The mechanics professor always listed his grades by score not by name, so there was no easy way to quickly find his success. He knew not to look at the top, As his eyes continued to flow down the sheet of paper, his classmates faded away as they saw their scores. Sighs of relief came from those who were worried, while one boy kicked a trashcan as he was graded much lower than he thought he should have been. Ted could not find his name on the first page. The second page was the page of failure. The top score was a barely acceptable 73. He was not at the top of the list. Sixty-eight.

“Damn it” was the only thought in his head and he apologized to himself for swearing in his soul. Engineering had been a struggle for the past seventeen months. It was a promise to get out, but soon he would be forced out. He could build with his hands and read plans but the math and the ability to walk through a project always eluded him when he was told what to solve. The tall, broad shouldered, always popular young man backed away from the bulletin board, away from the crush of the other hopeful students and wandered.

The campus in February was desolate and it provided few options to comfort a student who would soon be advised to find a different career than that of an engineer. He could go back to Appalachia, or he could move to Atlanta. There was a third option, the Navy was recruiting young men with some college, good reflexes and good eyes. If he could talk to a recruiter before his final grades disqualified him, he might have an option.

 

[fester]

February 23, 1940 Narvik Norway

The dock area was busy. Two freighters were loading ore from Sweden. One ship was being nudged into the final loading spot in the harbor by tugs. Another ship had left a few hours ago and still steaming down the high walled fjords. A small coaster had arrived from Oslo.

Four men were on vacation. They had flown from London to Oslo three days ago and then arranged for a hike along the Narvik Fjord. The coaster had delivered them, along with hundreds of tons of coal to the critical port city.

A guide had been hired to take them through the waist deep snow. Before they departed for the fresh mountain air, they all headed to a small hotel a few blocks away from the harbor. The very fit, strong men in their mid-thirties moved with military precision, one man taking point and the others spread out just enough so that a single burst would not get all of them on the sidewalk. There was no threat besides that of ice on the sidewalk and falling snow from the roofs. All of the “American” tourists quickly bunked down in their rooms and headed down to the common room for a hearty meal of fish stew and freshly baked bread. Tomorrow would be a hard day. And the day after that would be just as difficult as they were due to spend a few nights in lean toos and other impromptu shelters further up the fjord.

 

[fester]

February 27, 1940 Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

USS Lexington settled on the dry dock blocks as the sea was slowly pumped out of the refit chamber. A small army of machines and workers armed with rivet guns would descend on her tomorrow to begin a four month refit and minor reconstruction. The reconstruction restrictions from the treaties were no longer in effect. The United States Navy knew it needed as many effective carriers as it could muster but there was still time for Lexington and her younger sister Saratoga to lose the vestiges of their battlecruiser past.

The plans were complex. New torpedo bulges would be installed, boilers would be repaired and refurbished, the large, heavy cruiser like turrets removed from the flight deck and replaced with the fleet’s new medium weight dual purpose five inch guns, more light anti-aircraft guns would be added in deck side sponsons, and some armor would be removed from the belt.. A new radar would be fitted once the factories had finished building the first production sets.

Saratoga was scheduled for the same refit over the summer. Pacific Fleet would only be short a single carrier at any time. Enterprise, Yorktown and one of the older conversions would be a sufficient force to deter Imperial Japan until the fall of 1940.

 

[fester]

March 1, 1940 Port Said

The troopers were tied up at the piers. They had proceeded at high speed from Bombay to Aden independently. Once at Aden, the old Hawkins and Danae escorted the ships through the Red Sea to the mouth of the Suez Canal. Two brigades of Indian infantry with artillery and other supporting elements were on board the critical convoy. They were ready to fight but as of now, there was no one to fight. Instead, they would garrison Egypt and train to fight in Northwestern Europe once greener units could be brought to Egypt and seasoned.

The Western Desert Force now had two weak divisions with appropriate supporting units assembled.

 

[fester]

March 2, 1940 All over America

Nine B-17’s rumbled over the Kansas prairie, flying together for the first time as a complete squadron after that last aircraft had been delivered from Seattle a week ago.

The 7th Cavalry received another train load of M2 Medium tanks. These had incorporated some of the lessons of the fighting in Poland. The rear firing sponson mounted machine guns and the trench clearing bullet deflectors were removed. The new tanks only needed five men instead of six that the early models needed.

USS Atlanta and USS San Diego were laid down this morning. Both of the cruisers would be smaller than the contemporary large light cruisers. 6,650 tons, sixteen five inch guns in four blocks of paired twin dual purpose turrets would provide their punch. The design was pared down from the original winner. Two directors had been removed and the torpedo battery was only six tubes. Space for depth charges and sonar was included but they would not be built with that equipment. The Navy needed fast scouts and destroyer leaders to replace the aging Omaha class ships. The eight Atlanta class ships would meet this requirement by late 1942.

Trains rumbled on. Steel was being forged across the nation from Minnesota’s finest ores, coal was being turned into coke, the Texas oil fields and Mississippi Valley refineries kept on adding workers and shifts as the world’s warriors kept on demanding more and more. The New York bankers were busy moving money around to free up cash for the Allies without making direct loans. A small cabal of negotiators had discrete conversations at fine steakhouses about the lease and sale of some of the Imperial colonial crown jewels to finance more imports.

War was good for the economy especially as no Americans had to do the bleeding, screaming and dying.

 

[fester]

March 7, 1940 12:01 Local Time east of Viipuri

Silence broke out. One last rumble of artillery fire echoed throughout the forest. One last buzz of a flight of Red Air Force bombers overhead as they returned to base.

Silence.

Men whose heads had not appeared above ground during daylight in three months waited for a few more minutes of silence. The bravest or the least sane risked themselves. Their heads popped over the trenches.

Silence as no sniper shots rang out. Silence as no machine guns opened up. Silence as no artillery came crashing down on their revealed positions. The ceasefire was holding.

Silence

The Finns would have to abandon the current defensive position. The armistice called for the Soviets to take control of the Karelian Isthmus to within 10 miles of the city of Viipuri. Hanko would be leased as a forward base for the Soviet Baltic Fleet. The shoreline of Lake Lagoda would be entirely controlled by the Soviets. A peninsula by Petsamo would be seized by the Soviets but the northern port remained Finnish.

A mouse had roared, but the red bear stomped the nuisance.

 

[fester]

March 10, 1940 Tromso Norway

A battalion of reservists were on leave in the port city. They had been mobilized in November to observe the Finnish border and to guard against overly aggressive Soviet moves. During that time, they mostly manned a series of outpost lines and conducted ski patrols to make sure the soft Norwegian neutrality was respected. Earlier that day before the battalion was released for three days, the first Norwegian volunteers crossed back over the border from Finland. Some of them had fought, some of them had died but most were still being prepared for the front when the peace treaty was signed.

Over the next couple of weeks, most of the 6th Division would be pulled back from the frontier and allowed to rest. The Norwegian volunteers who had seen combat would be spread throughout the division. There were no officers and only a few sergeants who had gone to Finland against the expressed orders of the Norwegian government but even the corporals and privates could provide some stiffening of the division.

 

[fester]

March 12, 1940 Quincy Massachusetts

USS Wasp left the fitting out pier for the last time. She was commissioned the day before. Her air group of new Grumman Wildcat fighters, Vindicators and Devastators was still working up in Virginia but she would be spending the next three weeks training her ship’s company between the Gulf of Maine and the Outer Banks. The new destroyers USS Watkins and USS Grau would join Wasp once she cleared Fort Warren and entered Massachusetts Bay.

 

[fester]

March 13, 1940 17,000 feet above Sedan, France

The German twin engine bomber stayed steady. There was no anti-aircraft fire to disturb the photo run. The observer spotted a section of French fighters struggling to climb to altitude. They had at least another minute before they would be level with the bomber and several minutes to catch up to him as he would soon turn and run away at maximum military power.

The Luftwaffe had been running photo-reconnaissance flights all over Northern France for the past month. A loud, vigorous debate had been going on about whether to execute the Manstein Plan through the Ardennes, a deliberate attack on the Maginot Line or an armored Schiefflien Plan revival through Belgium. Sedan was the key. If the Meuse could be forced, then the Manstein plan would be preferable. The French high command knew the vulnerability. They had placed three divisions here, and they were in the long slow process of digging in.

However the process was far slower and less effective than it should have been. What should have been steel reinforced concrete dug-outs and copulas were log and dirt bunkers. What should have been a multitude of vertically protected artillery positions there were just clearings near the main roads with firm firing surfaces pounded into the ground. The photos were clear, the Meuse could be forced.

 

[fester]

March 15, 1940 3rd Army Headquarters, Atlanta Georgia Umpire school

Thirty seven men sat attentively in the lecture hall. Major Mark Clark was in front of the room, pointing energetically at a chalk board that had been covered in near hieroglyphics. To the men, mostly captains with a few majors and a pair of lieutenant colonels, the writing was clear. It was how a battalion was supposed to take a lightly defended hamlet from the march. Fire support was to be coordinated with scouting elements, companies were to be spread out to avoid enemy indirect fire support while still being able to concentrate quickly at the point of attack. Medical and supply elements were needed as soon as the battle had been completed. Intelligence and military police units would be on hand to quickly interrogate prisoners and allow the battalion commander to make their next decision based on what could be discovered quickly. Commanders were expected to expose themselves to the same danger as their men as combat could not be controlled from the rear.


Umpire school had been going on for over a month. The US Army was getting ready for war. Over the spring and the summer, all the corps would be operating in the field for the first time in years. Louisiana would be the focal point as two corps would be ready to engage force on force with the full panoply of modern technology and equipment, or at least as much as the slowly mobilizing factories could supply.


The Louisiana maneuvers would be a good chance to test equipment aggressively. The cavalry brigades with their tanks and the newly forming armored regiments would be used as breakthrough and exploitation forces. Infantry would be armed for the first time with semi-automatic rifles. Artillery battalions were mostly equipped with Great War 75mm guns but a few batteries were due to field the new 105mm guns. Aircraft were expected to fight great mock dogfights over Shreveport and bombers could be expected to destroy marshalling yards.


More importantly, the men of the Army were to be tested. The leaders would be placed under stressed. The fog of war would at least lightly descend. Some men could succeed. Others would definitely fail. It was the job of these umpires to determine who the next war’s generals would be and who should be left home despite a sterling peacetime record.

 

[fester]

March 15, 1940 Atlanta, Georgia

Thirty seven men sat attentively in the lecture hall that the 3rd Army headquarters had recently rented. They aggressively took notes and tried to follow the chalk flying onto the board.

Major Mark Clark, one of the chief instructors, was in front of the room, pointing energetically at a chalk board that had been covered in near hieroglyphics. To the men, mostly captains with a few majors and a pair of lieutenant colonels, the writing was clear. It was how a battalion was supposed to take a lightly defended hamlet from the march. Fire support was to be coordinated with scouting elements, companies were to be spread out to avoid enemy indirect fire support while still being able to concentrate quickly at the point of attack. Medical and supply elements were needed as soon as the battle had been completed. Intelligence and military police units would be on hand to quickly interrogate prisoners and allow the battalion commander to make their next decision based on what could be discovered quickly. Commanders were expected to expose themselves to the same danger as their men as combat could not be controlled from the rear.

Umpire school had been going on for over a month. The US Army was getting ready for war. Over the spring and the summer, all the corps would be operating in the field for the first time in years. Louisiana would be the focal point as two corps would be ready to engage force on force with the full panoply of modern technology and equipment, or at least as much as the slowly mobilizing factories could supply.

The Louisiana maneuvers would be a good chance to test equipment aggressively. The cavalry brigades with their tanks and the newly forming armored regiments would be used as breakthrough and exploitation forces. Infantry would be armed for the first time with semi-automatic rifles. Artillery battalions were mostly equipped with Great War 75mm guns but a few batteries were due to field the new 105mm guns. Aircraft were expected to fight great mock dogfights over Shreveport and bombers could be expected to destroy marshalling yards.

More importantly, the men of the Army were to be tested. The leaders would be placed under stressed. The fog of war would at least lightly descend. Some men could succeed. Others would definitely fail. It was the job of these umpires to determine who the next war’s generals would be and who should be left home despite a sterling peacetime record.

 

[fester]

March 16, 1940 Stavanger Norway

Snow whipped through the air. Drifts piled up along the recently cleared runway. Two Curtis fighters were preparing for take-off. One had been flown the day before while this would be the first assembled flight for the second Hawk. Four Douglas biplane torpedo bombers were also on the runway. If the weather held, they were scheduled for an afternoon training mission. Sleipner had left port earlier in the morning for another neutrality patrol. She would be the target of the biplanes.

A steady stream of American tourists had flown through Stavanger's Sola airport. A DC-2 sat on the runway. Four more tourists, two single men, and a married couple in their early forties had arrived that morning. The young men wanted to learn how to cross country ski while the couple had been casting about for a boat to charter to see the beautiful sights along the approaches to the fortress. A fishing captain agreed to take them aboard for three days. He was paid with enough gold to allow him to not work for another week.

 

[fester]

March 16, 1940 Bodo and Oslo Norway

One man had died in the grounding of Orizaba. The rest of the crew had been rescued by the Norwegian destroyer Troll. She had delivered the men to the docks of Bodo where the harbor master had arranged for them to put up in a local inn until safe transport could be arranged to deliver them to Oslo or beyond. Most of the men drank their stress and worries away with overpriced and weak beer.

The captain and the purser had not. A message was drafted for delivery to the German Embassy in Oslo. Their ship had been attacked by a British cruiser in Norwegian waters while a Norwegian warship stood by. They had been sure they had made it over the line with several hundred meters to spare before Effingham fired her truncated broadside at them. Furthermore, there were numerous British and Allied ships in port. It was evidently a build-up to take Norway into the Allied camp. The message carried by the purser and he had flown to Oslo in a floatplane in the evening of the fifteenth.

By mid-morning, the German Embassy had forwarded the message to Berlin.

 

[fester]

March 18, 1940 Fore River Shipyard, Quincy Massachusetts

The shipyard was quieter today than it had been in months as the flurry of activity to get Wasp ready for fleet service had ceased last week. Half of the work crew that had completed fitting out and post-trial repairs had been ordered to take two weeks of paid vacation. Exhaustion was a clear danger of industrial accidentals that would kill workers and more importantly delay delivery.

Four hundred additional workers had been allocated to speed the completion of the future USS Massachusetts. Big Mami was still more of an idea with an intention of becoming a warship rather than a warship. The Navy wanted her ready by the end of February 1942 and they were willing to pay for speed. Another tranche of ship fitters and steel workers moved to a smaller building way as another destroyer would be laid down at the end of the week along with a freshly ordered stripped down Altoona class gunboat. The new ship replaced the steam turbines with diesels and removed the super firing forward five inch gun mount. It was replaced with a single three inch anti-aircraft gun. Three other ships of this design had been ordered. A sister would also be completed in Quincy while Bath would build the other two.

 

[fester]

March 19, 1940 Kiel 0800

The Kriegsmarine had been preparing for war for over a year now. The heavy surface ships had gone to sea as raiders and cruisers. Now they would be going to sea as conquerors. Staff officers had been planning for a coup de main to occupy Norway against a superior foe for months now. In February, the fleet had practiced the initial plans in the Baltic. It was audacious as only two battlecruisers were available to face off against the powerful Royal Navy’s Home Fleet, but it was plausible that success could be achieved even if the Kriegsmarine’s surface fleet was reduced to trawlers and torpedo boats after the campaign. Five divisions would be landed up and down the Norwegian coast. The goal was to overwhelm resistance before the allies could respond. Once forces were ashore, mining and submarines would be used to keep the Royal Navy away. Last minute repairs were scheduled as the fleet would go to sea in a week for final training and then the operation would be launched two weeks after the rehearsal had been completed.

 

[fester]

March 19, 1940 Brittany France, Camp Coëtquidan

Smoke rolled through the fog covered valley. The bark of artillery had ceased and the smoke screen was thick and persistent, gray and white clouds hanging mere feet off the ground in a bank a hundred yards wide. Tracks creaked as a battalion of French tanks along with a regiment of Series B infantry crossed the ridge line. Their objective was a village nine hundred yards down the ridge. So far the Poles had not responded to the heavy infantry tanks despite their two probes. The exercise judges declared that three had been lost in a minefield laid out on the most obvious path. Another six had already broken down. French mechanics were trying to either repair the simple problems or pull the chars back to the workshops for more complex work.

Suddenly, the advanced stopped cold. Umpires were shocked as two dozen Polish 75mm guns along with the division’s full complement of anti-tank guns began a rapid fusillade into the flanks of the French advance. The nearest anti-tank positions were only three hundred meters while the heavier guns were firing over open sights at five hundred meters. Four, five or six heavy guns focused on a single tank.

Infantrymen had been lying in the fields, camouflaged beneath wool blankets covered in hay and debris. The night had been cold but they stayed still. Machine guns chattered and within minutes, the French tanks were judged to have been destroyed as they fought as individuals, unable to concentrate on the cavalcade of fire that picked them off one by one. The supporting French infantry was shocked by the flanking fire. Some attempted to charge the ambush positions, some dropped and found cover, while other units milled about as their officers and sergeants screamed conflicting orders.

At the end of the morning, the Poles held their position. Their French opponents had been forced back to the starting line after losing over half their tanks. The Polish senior officers smiled predatory smiles when they met with their French counterparts. They were almost ready to join the line although the French reservists were not. They too would be committed soon. Rumor had it that the Poles would have advanced and final training in the north while their companion French Series B division would go to a quiet part of the Maginot Line to act as an interval division.

 

[fester]

March 20, 1940 Near Trondheim

Crisp air formed breath clouds in front of the snowshoeing men. Two guides and a pair of American tourists were working their way along a ridge line. They had been in the snow for the past eight hours and had made good time and good distance. They could see the smoke and smell the hearty food cooking in the small fishing hamlet ahead. Tonight they would eat well and rest at the tavern of owned by the lead guide’s brother in law before heading back to the city in the morning. After their week vacation, they would be taking a passage back to Scotland at the end of the week.

“Bit beautiful mate, we have nothing like this at home” the smaller red headed man said to his partner.

“Well the Rockies are impressive, but this reminds me more of Alaska than anything. Better food though”. His companion grunted these words in between steps and breath as the snowshoes required all of his attention and energy. Snowshoe training was better punishment physical training than mountain running and the command sergeant major tucked away that thought for future use when he needed to get his British Columbia regiment whipped into shape. Another hour of work the small group arrived at the hamlet

The tavern was small. It was easily mistaken for a slightly large house as there was a sign mostly covered in snow. Seven men and a single woman were in the tavern. She was of an indeterminate age as she had lived a happy but rough life. She could have been twenty-seven or she could have been forty-seven. As she nodded to a table, the four snowshoers stretched their tired muscles and allowed their backs to pop and decompress from the hard work they had done.

Three men, obviously fishermen from their weather beaten faces and most impressively thick forearms, played cards at a table jammed against the back wall near the stove. A steady stream of insults in Norwegian erupted whenever a card was misplayed or a bluff not called. The other table had four extremely fit men. Two of the men were locals, they were familiar with the bar maid and at ease in the tavern.

The other two men were sullen, faces pinched and bodies posed for action as soon as they assessed the new party. One man kept an eye on the new group while the other took a spoonful of soup to his mouth. And then they alternated keeping watch and eating while failing to hide the fact that they were keeping watch.

As the "American" tourists sat down for a warm meal, they also eyed the other table. Professional recognition was instant. Hard men knew hard men. The red haired man asked his Norwegian guide to ask the other groups’ guide where the tourists were from.

Four minutes later at the price of a beer, the intelligence was delivered back to the table --- they were "Swiss" tourists who were on snowshoeing vacation.

 

[fester]

March 21, 1940 Rock Island Arsenal

The whistle blew.

Workers put down their tools. A few foremen and skilled craftsmen spent a few more minutes finishing a critical installation but most of the workers on the arsenal’s floor stepped back from the multitude of steel beasts that they had been working on today. Seventy carcasses were being assembled. Half were intended for the Polish army in exile and the other half were destined for Fort Knox. The latest tranche of M2A1 Medium tanks had been shipped out at the start of the month. Two medium tanks were being assembled but the engineers were crawling over them and ordering changes as more and more information was coming back from field testing. The newest medium tanks were to be shipped to France. Those tanks were improvements on the Army’s standards. Good ideas in theory but not in practice had been removed. Extra bustles and storage racks had been welded onto the rear of the turret. Their sisters would continue to be modified as experience dictated the changes.

By 5:30, the factory floor was empty. A line lingered by the pay office as workers collected their earnings for the week. Eighteen hundred families counted on the arsenal and the job office was starting to have trouble filling all of the positions with smart, hard working, white men.

Half a dozen men met after work at a diner near the main gate. They were heading to Detroit to talk with Ford and Chrysler to see what tricks they could pick up from the mass production auto industry and to see if the car makers had any interest in making tanks. The men would leave on Sunday afternoon, a short train to Chicago and then a run along the lakes to Toledo before heading north to Detroit. Final arrangements were made before they left to enjoy a truncated weekend.

 

[fester]

March 22, 1940 Lowell, Massachusetts National Guard Armory

“Left, lift, Right, lift Left”

A shuddering stomp of boots hit the ground each time the company sergeant called the cadence. C Company of the 182nd Infantry Regiment was drilling. Private Donohue was in a fugue state. His mind was active enough to hear the cadence and his feet moved in time with the feet of the men to the left and right of him. His eyes were straight and his chin was up. A Springfield rifle was on his shoulder at the proper angle but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Elaine had promised to meet him at the armory in a few hours. Once drill was over, they would head to the movies again. She was wonderful and adventurous and inquisitive and everything else that he could ever want in a girl. As the short strength company marched, he had to suppress a smile or two as he thought about the tangle of sweaty arms and wrinkled clothes they had shared on Thursday night. Any night that they both did not have to work, they found a way to spend together. Some nights, she came over to visit him and his Ma, other nights, her family welcomed and fed him. Once or twice a week, they could head out on their own. No one had given the relationship a name yet, but there was a relationship.

Two more hours of marching and drill until he had to turn in his rifle to the armory and catch a trolley to the Highlands above the falls. He did not care as his foot hit the ground in time. Life was good with Elaine, and there might be a future as well as an enjoyable present.