Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

Berlin Zoo, April 21, 1945

The guns atop of the flak tower fired again and again. British guns responded shortly. Even as the gunners tried to kill each other, another two wings of Flying Fortresses began their bomb runs. The four engine bombers were flying, for them, low, only 10,000 feet above the city that had been their bane. The outer flak belts had fallen to the combined advances of a Canadian, British, American and French corps over the past three days. Determined defenders could have bought time with blood, but the militias that were guarding the west side of the city were not particularly determined. A few companies of Dutch and Danish SS volunteers had fought to the death. Their resistance broke when 9.2 inch guns were brought forward to fire over open sights in support of flame throwing tanks.

On the other side of the city, fighting was house to house. Regular army soldiers were holding the lines to allow as many Berliners to escape to the south and the west. There they might have a chance of surviving the first day of captivity without death or rape being the likeliest outcomes.

 

[fester]

Brandenburg, Germany April 21, 1945

The 1st Army forward headquarters had become chaos. General officers from six different nations were present, each with their own communications staff and map rooms. A Polish division was being trucked to the front to reinforce the French corps that had been shipped across two army groups. The Canadians and British officers were tucked in their own corner. They were monitoring probes on the northwestern part of the offensive. The major general in charge of the US VII Corps was drinking his coffee while being briefed by his intelligence staff. The general in charge of the army's artillery was heading to a side tent where he would be meeting with the Red Army artillery liaisons to deconflict the strike zones of both armies.

It was a clusterfuck of politics as every Allied nation with a force larger than a division would soon have a unit fighting in Berlin, or at least being close enough to Berlin to take part in the initial victory parade.

 

[fester]

East of Honshu, April 22, 1945

Four fleet carriers, all built before the war, dipped into the waves. USS Enterprise was the only ship on the flight schedule as her night air wing was better adapted to flying in utterly hideous weather conditions. The crews aboard Constellation, Yorktown and Lexington had a somewhat calm day as they could strip troublesome engines from Grummans and Douglases in the hanger decks or catch on fixing pipes that had been causing trouble in the forward head for the past two weeks. Around the big carriers, the battleships Indiana and Alabama stood watch while the cruisers Jacksonville, Billings, Roanoke, Newark and Lansing battled through the twenty foot seas. The dozen destroyers, half pre-war Bagleys and Gleaves which all had lost at least a turret and many had landed a torpedo tube mount to load up on light AA, and half a dozen Fletchers prowled the perimeter of the task force looking for submarines.

Deep inside each carrier, the squadron commanders were leading small work groups to prepare for strikes on Honshu once the weather cleared in sixteen to eighteen hours. It would be a standard package. Fighter sweeps at dawn, barrier patrols and free hunting fighters throughout the morning and several multi-squadron raids hitting airfields, ports and a trio of key strategic targets. If all went well, the lats seaplanes carrying any shot down air crews would be recovered before most baseball games were scheduled to start back home and the fleet would be disappearing back into the emptiness of the North Pacific ten hours after they had announced their presence.

 

[fester]

Berlin Zoo, April 22, 1945

A dozen infantry men started to fire. The German submachine gunner had a decent position on a second floor office. The 9mm rounds were going wild. It could be inexperience, it could be experience as the man stayed behind bricks and cover to merely harrass the advancing Poles or it could be piss poor manufacturing by slaves who had no reason to care that tolerances were slightly more than tolerated. It did not matter. The two Churchill tanks accompying the infantry platoon stopped. One fired sudden bursts of three or four BESA rounds while the other turret slowly rotated and the gun shifted slightly upwards until the twenty five pound howitzer barked twice. The building that was a potential strong point was opened to the air now.

 

[fester]

San Francisco, April 22, 1945

"Sorry dear, no one by that name has been admitted to the hospital today." The clerk looked at the young woman who spoke far too quickly and who used only twenty five lettahs as she spoke. She had come by the hospital desk for the past three days, asking if her husband had been landed yet.

"I appreciate your time, I'll come back again." Elaine smiled a wan smile. She had nowhere to be and nothing to do as she waited for Patrick. Perhaps there could be a show in Chinatown or drinks near the hotel? She would make do and mark time. She had enough time and for once enough money to not worry about spending a dollar on something that piqued her interest.

"There's supposed to a hospital ship arriving tonight from the Western Pacific, so maybe he is on it."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

 

[fester]

Eastern Pacific, April 22, 1945

The ship's engines thrummed. Patrick had gotten used to the routine. Stay in quarters during the night and during general drills, attend rehabilitation sessions after breakfast every day and after lunch three days a week, see the doctor on Tuesday and Friday and then play cards, watch movies and bullshit with dozens of other junior officers who had been wounded. He was part of the walking, slowly and awkwardly, but still walking wounded. Others had never left their bunk except when orderlies picked them up to wash them before rotating them. Half a dozen men were adjusting to life without vision or hearing. But most were able to mostly function. Tomorrow, a row of ambulances would take them to the hospital where some would have more surgery, and all would have more rehabilitation scheduled. But before that, he had to pack away his clothes, his books, and his letters. He would make a run to the purser to deposit one more good night of cribbage. Between cribbage and poker, he had enough to buy most of a house in cash. Maybe he would stay in Lowell, but there were towns up and down the Merrimack Valley where his wife could have a yard where the kids could play and he could buy a car and head to work every morning driving an almost new sedan.

 

[fester]

Berlin, April 23, 1945

Deep underground, a gun shot rang out.

And then another shot was fired.

 

[fester]

4 miles east of Berlin, April 26, 1945

Slim Williamson looked up. There was commotion outside as a trio of Jeeps had just arrived with the drivers looking as if they had plentiful experience avoiding revenue agents in the hollows of Appalachia. One of his regimental commanders almost fell flat on his face as he tried to sprint out. He snapped a quick salute and waited for the report. The radio message was vague that there was an offer to parley.

"Sir, I've got half a dozen German generals at my HQ, they want to surrender."

"Just our sector?" He asked, not holding his hope that he would be wrong.

"No sir, everywhere and everyone all at once...."

"Callahan, get a secure link to Corps and Army HQ... Wilson, get those Krauts here ASAP, find some cigarettes and coffee for them as we're going to be talking. Montague, call off the noon time attack.... boys, let's not get anyone else killed in the next couple of hours...."

 

[fester]

San Francisco, April 26, 1945

"Damn this is too bright" Patrick grumbled to his wife as they left the hotel for the first time in two days.

"We need food, we've been burning a lot of delicious calories lately dear." Elaine stopped, pulled her husband's arm so that his cheek was now in reach of her lips and placed a quick kiss that was chaste enough for public consumption but promised a return to their reunion activities. She winced slightly as the pace picked up. Walking was pleasurably painful.

An hour later, they had eaten and were taking in the late morning sun along Market Street, a bustle at the corner newstand started. A murmur was starting along the streets. A minute later, someone opened the door to one of the shops and turned the volume on a radio to its loudest.

"JUST IN--- COMPLETE AND UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF ALL GERMAN FORCES HAS BEEN ANNOUCED... REPEAT, THE COMPLETE AND UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF ALL GERMAN FORCES HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED BY THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. GENERAL EISENHOWER WILL RELEASE A STATEMENT SOON."

The two lovers looked at each other. Patrick wrapped one arm around his wife's waist and the other supported her head as he tilted her and leaned in for a kiss that would, in other circumstances, lead to either public indecency charges, or a deep throated moan. A few yards from the oblivious couple, a Chronicle photographer took a picture that would soon establish his career.

 

[fester]

Washington DC, April 27, 1945

"Mr. President, Mr. President, you have guests arriving in an hour." The White House butler paused and waited for a response. The President usually was up and about by now, even if he was merely reading in the Residence.

He had gone to bed six hours ago after a flurry of cables across the Atlantic. There had been a short celebratory session of drinks and cigars among his military advisors, Congressional leaders and a few Cabinet members. Germany first had succeeded. And then there were long discussions as Japan still needed to be finished off. The Vice President had advocated for siege and perhaps a demonstration of the outputs that were being built in New Mexico. He had been vague about what was happening in the desert as not everyone had been cleared for the project. He had only been briefed in over Christmas. Others were convinced several armies would need to be landed over the next year with casualties that would soon equal what the country had already suffered throughout the entire war to date. That was a decision the President would need to make over the next few weeks, assuming the test program worked.

The butler tapped his foot. This was almost unheard of for the President to not at least acknowledge his presence. The bodyguard at the door looked at the butler. They both nodded. The President was in bed, alone, deeply tucked into his covers. The bodyguard moved quickly and checked for a pulse. His fingers rested on the cool skin of the former President's neck and felt nothing. He shook his head. The butler immediately walked quickly out of the bedroom and down the hall to notify the head of security and then the chief of staff.

 

[fester]

San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 28, 1945

USS Valley Forge, CV-46, slowly left the harbor. Two Sumner class destroyers waited for her outside the harbor. Soon the three ships were heading to open water where flight operations could commence and the shakedown cruise could be one day closer to the end than the beginning.

 

[fester]

Near Niigata, Japan, April 29, 1945

USS Trutta accelerated into the murky night. She was needed 100 miles south to play lifeguard for a B-29 raid. The other boats in her wolf pack would take adjacent stations where the flyboys could safely ditch if they were brought down during their fire raids.

The skipper shook his head. This was not the duty that he had signed up for when he signed up to qualify for his dolphins a decade ago. During the half dozen war patrols on older boats, there were enemy ships to sink and minefields to lay. Two weeks on patrol in the Sea of Japan had led to only a pair of contacts that were possibly worth a torpedo. Queenfish sank a coal fired tramp freighter that might have displaced eight hundred tons while the other coastal convoy of three merchant ships and a pair of patrol boats slipped behind known minefields and escaped pursuit. The submarine had been active, four nights of surface gun actions had sunk over a dozen fishing boats for perhaps thirty five tons of damage to the enemy's war economy.

Now they just had to wait for bombers to crash. He knew his crew would soon wish that they had fired at least a few torpedoes to free up a few additional racks.

 

[fester]

Berlin, April 30, 1945

The heavy thrum of diesel engines replaced the sounds of a Scots piper leading a battalion. Dozens of hastily cleaned and expediently repaired T-34 tanks followed by the same number of Studebakers holding tired infantrymen who would rather be sleeping, eating, or fraternizing with their defeated enemies slowly rolled past the reviewing stand set up along the steps of the newly conquered Reichstag. At the far end of the reviewing stand, General Williamson tensed his right shoulder slightly to bring a little more blood into circulation as his fingertips had seldom left his forehead for the past hour as rows upon rows of troops wearing a dozen countries' uniforms had marched down the streets of the defeated city and empire. They had walked past the entire civilian population of Berlin who had been ordered to observe. None of the Allied Powers wanted to do this again in another generation, so the German people see that they had been defeated by the overwhelming force of arms of their enemies rather than through the treachery of their generals or their citizens.

A pause in the long row of Soviet tanks came at last. His arm came down to rest at his side. Soon a hundred B-17s and an equal number of B-24s came low in rows of four. They flew with their bomb bay doors closed but their machine gunners ready and alert at only 4,000 feet. Once they had passed and a wing of Spitfires had zoomed climbed over the center city, the ground parade continued. The next segment was led by the 1st Battalion of the Jewish Brigade Group. Those soldiers marched behind their white and blue brigade flag with barely concealed contempt and rage at the civilians who had enabled their people's horrors. A battalion from Poland and then a New York National Guard company that had been formed from recruits on the Lower East Side and Prospect Heights followed the Jewish Brigade. The entire column was silent as they marched to the victor's beat.

 

[fester]

San Francisco, May 1, 1945

"Lt. Donohue, you're recovering nicely.... we'll need you here four mornings a week for rehabilitation sessions, but the rest of your time is yours and your wife's time to do as you wish until you get discharged from the hospital and receive new orders. " Patrick smiled as he heard the doctor tell him that he was almost free. The scuttlebutt was that all of the men in the hospital would be discharged from both the hospital and the colors at the same time. He doubted that. Too many men here knew too much, and there was still a tremendous demand for replacements in the Pacific. One of the men in his room was a Navy officer who had been wounded during an air attack on his destroyer minelayer. He thought that the invasion of Kyushu would make Normandy look like a training exercise against light opposition. Divisions would be coming from Europe, and those men would need to be familiarized with what the Japs did and didn't do, and who better than veterans who had seen it all. Patrick was convinced that this little break from reality where all he did was his wife, eat, sleep and relax would come to an end soon enough and he would be placed in a battalion that had fought in Germany to spread his knowledge around to men who had seen a different elephant than he had.

But until then, he had an eager wife waiting in the hospital lobby. She had two tickets to a play she had wanted to see and then they would spend some time looking for a small apartment that they could rent month to month instead of paying for a hotel room. Today would be a good day.

 

[fester]

Portsmouth, May 2, 1945
HMS Coventry would never go to sea under her own power again. She had been ordered to the Royal Dockyards for preparation to be placed into ordinary. Two world wars had worn her out. The engineers were happy when they could coax twenty six knots out of her knackered equipment as she shook and shuddered as if she was having a whole body orgasm when the captain called for twenty seven knots or more. She was a moaner in high seas. Now, her crew would be allocated to other tasks. The scuttlebutt on the waterfront was that the crews of ships built before the youngest hostilities only sailors birth would be decommissioned. There was no longer need to protect Atlantic trade from surface raiders or even submarines where any warship was enough of a threat. The old ships lacked the range and the firepower to survive near Japan, they had little need and less life to give.

By the next morning, the dock yard engineers had already laid out plans with the ship's officers to strip her of the few advanced electronics, her more than adequate light anti-aircraft batteries and a substantial portion of the ship's galley equipment. Some would be placed into long term war reserves while most would be manhandled across the harbor to equip far more modern ships that would soon be heading east to reinforce the British Pacific Fleet.

 

[fester]

Guam, May 3, 1945

USS Essex turned into the wind again. Soon the factory fresh hotrods from Grumman were in the landing pattern. Compared to their older cousins, they were slim and sleek, compared to most other companies, they were still from the Iron Works. Soon the newly equipped squadron was all on the deck. The carrier turned back out of the wind. Three destroyers and the large ship headed for more sea room before flight operations would resume and the carrier air group would train for the day.

 

[fester]

El Segundo, California May 5, 1945

Three new aircraft had come off the line that morning. They would be checked out and then transferred to the naval test flight facilities back east. Already three other prototypes were being put through their paces, and another half dozen machines were being built. The Navy and Marines wanted this bomber and were willing to pay for it.

Other parts of the line were starting to slow down. Orders from 1944 were being completed but more recent orders had either been cancelled or delayed which was just a polite euphemism for future cancellations. The factory managers were already beginning to make decisions on who needed to be kept through a potential lean peace. Negros then women and then Mexicans unless someone had a truly unique skill that could not be readily replaced was the work order. A few white men would be let go as they had proven to be persistently unpleasant or incompetent, but within two years, the plant floor staff would look like it would have in 1939.

 

[fester]

Hiroshima Bay, Japan May 6, 1945

The German naval officer looked at the bay. It was fairly crowded. The few remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy road at anchor, sitting high with nearly empty fuel tanks. The cruisers were still manned and capable to act as anti-aircraft batteries. Dozens of merchant ships, including the one that he had been on in 1939 before it sought safety in Japanese waters were tied up to the docks. Again, most were riding high. The only ships that were continually moving were the coal fired minesweepers. American and British bombers routinely reseeded minefields that denied almost every port on the Home Islands or on the east shore of the Sea of Japan. When the bombers neglected a minefield, the American submarine wolfpacks would lay their own. Many had started to go on patrol with only half the regular torpedo load because there were too few targets worth a fish.

Half a dozen ships were gnarled and mangled after they had limped into the harbor after mine strikes. They had been shoved to the far side of the harbor to be deliberate targets for ambitious bomber pilots. In peace time, they might be repaired, eventually, but now, they were merely emptied and the ship yards focused on ships that could be back at sea by the end of the year.

He shook his head. None of those ships would ever leave sight of land. The blockade was tighter than anything the Royal Navy had ever achieved in 1918 and it was only getting tighter as American destroyers and cruisers were now raiding the fishing fleets just outside the range of the coastal defense batteries. He had starved then, and millions around him were starting to starve now. All he could do was wait while his adopted home became frail and his homeland remained prostate.

 

[fester]

Kamaishi, Japan May 7, 1945

The fifteen year old boy strained to look through his binoculars. The coastal defense battery had been fully manned for an hour when a fishing boat managed to fire flares before it was likely destroyed. There had been a string of other flares fired by the fleet of wooden wild food hunters. He put the heavy optics down for a moment, stretched his back and then resumed his search.

Finally, there were bumps on the horizon. He waited a moment and counted one, two, three, four....

He recounted. And then he called out the sighting ten seconds after the bumps became evident.

Around him, the rest of the battery started to become a buzz of excitement and fear. The old six inch guns were likely adequate to scare off American cruisers, destroyers or submarines. But against anything bigger, it would not matter. More men began to look at the point that the boy had called out. They soon confirmed the sightings and added more and more. Large ships began to change course even as smaller ships became visible.

The long naval rifles were loaded and waiting. The Type 45 15cm gun would be outranged by the behemoths but perhaps they could kill a destroyer or a cruiser. Firing solutions were being generated even if the targets were 4,000 meters or more out of range. The boy did not know if his stomach was upset from the lack of food or from fear, but he knew that he had done his duty. His thoughts were broken as half a dozen battleships opened fire on the city that the battery defended. Each battlewagon fired from only a single turret as they sought the range before beginning to demolish half a dozen factories.

Twenty seven thousand yards away aboard USS North Carolina, Seaman Jaroschek waited for orders to man his Bofors tub. The Skipper had briefed the mission to the entire crew on the 1MC --- yes, they were intending to destroy half a dozen strategic factories, but they were also looking to provoke air attacks to be eaten up by a dozen carriers worth of fighters waiting for a brawl.

 

[fester]

Kena, Czechoslovakia, May 8, 1945

The platoon leader moved slowly as he called an orders' group with his squad leaders. Ten minutes later, the leaders of an infantry platoon from the Pennsylvania National Guard, were gathered by a tree. Lt. Jaroschek broke the news -- two privates were dead. The jeep that they had been driving back from Prague had been t-boned by a deuce and a half. The MPs had determined that all five men in the vehicle had been hammered. The other three men were in surgery with a chance of one of them being coherent tomorrow morning.

The platoon and the company were restricted to camp until further notice.