Miles From Our Home: 2018 Canada ISOTed to December 1939

[stevep]

May 18, 2019 13:36:28 GMT lordroel said:

May 18, 2019 12:44:12 GMT pyeknu said:

LOL!  We all have memory problems, friend!

And yes, I do see civil war in the future for Japan.  It would be mostly centred on the Army vs. Navy rivalry.  Now, there'll be the fanatics on both sides, but the main goal in the case of both sides leaders would be to win the favour of the Heavenly Sovereign.  Given he'll probably start having major doubts about trying to expand his domain beyond what he's got now and given the sheer quagmire that China is becoming to his nation, he'll probably move to suggest that a pull-back would be desired.  Once Tôjô and his supporters hear that, they'll immediately think that "traitors" are moving to subvert their moves to create the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere from within, then start a crackdown.  That would give Navy leaders like Yamamoto the chance to protect His Imperial Majesty, which will set it off.

As to what happens afterwards...!

I do not think it will be a Civil War event, but more how things go in Japan, a coup, with the Navy doing it, the backing of the Emperor and the support of the Up-time Japanese living in Canada and maybe Canada as well with the promise that if they back out of China, then Japan will get Canadian oil.

Also i wonder if the Daqing Oil Field is now known to 1941 Japan.

  Lordroel

  The problem I see with this is that the army has the boots on the ground, literally in this case.  Also so much of its prestige and that of many of the leading figures in it are liked to the Chinese venture.  As such I suspect that there will be a lot of opposition and given previous political assassinations and the like its going to be messy.  If the reformers [aka non-lunatics] can get the emperor to step in, which was very much against tradition, it will help but even OTL with the mess that the country was in in 1945 the hard liners were willing to try a coup to prevent that so when the country isn't half destroyed and facing imminent invasion and Soviet attack there's still likely to be problems.  Hopefully more rational elements will win but its not going to be easy.

  Its getting towards a year since the POD so they probably have heard about the oil field, or at least some top officials will know.  This would complicate matters as it would increase Japanese desire to maintain control over its 'protectorate' there, as well as Korea but the former won't be popular with either Chinese bloc and the latter, given the brutality of the rule there will also be a matter of concern.  Would the allies, including Canada, be willing to accept Japanese control over those regions and oppose China and human rights pressures over the issue?  Or could some sort of 'independent' Manchuria be established and maintained with Japanese economic control/interests?

  Steve

[stevep]

May 18, 2019 13:45:31 GMT eurowatch said:

May 18, 2019 13:36:28 GMT lordroel said:

I do not think it will be a Civil War event, but more how things go in Japan, a coup, with the Navy doing it, the backing of the Emperor and the support of the Up-time Japanese living in Canada and maybe Canada as well with the promise that if they back out of China, then Japan will get Canadian oil.

Also i wonder if the Daqing Oil Field is now known to 1941 Japan.

Even if they wanted to, Japan has invested to much into China to back out now. There is to much national pride at stake to pull out, or they would have done it already when the US and DEI started their oil embargo. 
What would interest them would be the information that the US might not bother continuing the war against them if they were to invade only the Phillipines.

  a)  That is the big question, especially for the Japanese army and possibly some connected economic interests.

  b)  What makes you think that?  I can't see the US being anything but very angry that an American possession, even one their planning to give independence to, was attacked.  Also the Philippines were only attacked because Japan believed they had to fight the US to secure the territories they wanted in SEA.

[pyeknu]

Side Story: Capital Ideas for the Navy!

Ottawa, Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Bytown at National Defence Headquarters, Friday 4 April 1941, 10:20 AM...

"Admiral Holland! Come in, please!"

"A delight to come back, sir," Vice Admiral Sir Lancelot Holland declared after bowing his head formally. A twinkle appeared in the eyes of the native of Middleton Cheney in Northamptonshire as he added, "Getting the chance to live every day past the day I should have died is always a wonderful experience, I assure you," he added as Admiral Ron Lloyd came over, his hand out to shake that of the former commander of the Battlecruiser Force; after his flagship had been forced to put into the l'Installation de Maintenance de la Flotte Lauzon at Lévis the previous fall thanks to stripped turbines and lost propellers, Holland was reassigned as Royal Navy liaison to Maritime Forces Atlantic in Halifax.

Laughter filled Lloyd's office as the commander of the RCN waved his guest over to join his other guests. Both of them were United States Navy three-star vice admirals, one with the wings of a naval aviator and one without. Of course, Holland knew them both. "Admiral Richardson, Admiral Bellinger. A delight to see you both again," he declared as he offered his hand.

James Richardson was the first to shake the English officer's hand. "Good to see you again as well, Admiral Holland. How's the old girl turning out? Those wizards at Davie making her a missile ship?!"

Holland laughed before he shook Patrick Bellinger's hand. "Not as advanced as our hosts' ships, I assure you, Admiral. Good to see you, Admiral," he then greeted the South Carolinian who had been requested by Lloyd to become the senior American naval air advisor to the Canadian Forces. "Got the chance to solo on the Cyclone, I heard. How was it?"

"One hell of a sweet machine to handle, never mind all the bells and whistles on it," Bellinger noted as they took their seats. "I have to admit, it'll take us all YEARS to catch up to where our friends are at now." The man who was one of America's first naval aviators then shook his head before he gazed at his host. "You shouldn't be burdened by being the lone 'superpower' in this day and age, Admiral."

"We'll be definitely working to catch up, sir," Richardson added, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses.

Lloyd chuckled. "We here in Ottawa hope so. Ranks off, gentlemen," he then bade; that was the message the native of Taber in Alberta always gave to important naval officials from other nations to relax the titles and be people.

"We heard the news about Glace Bay, Ron," Richardson then stated as the visiting officers relaxed themselves. This had been the first meeting between the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and the senior officers from America and Britain since Operation: Nordhammer had begun a little over two weeks before. "President Roosevelt sends his condolences. How many were lost?"

"Twenty-six," Lloyd reported. "We may not recover the bodies, though." Shaking his head, the Albertan then added, "I sent the alert to FMF Niagara about getting a replacement built. Casper told me that they had laid the keel of the new Glace Bay within a week of the old one's sinking." As the visitors all gaped, their host added, "We'll have her in commission before the end of the year. Triple shifts in the dock and Stelco and Dofasco are offering the steel for the hull at double discounted rates. You don't know how much I appreciate you arranging with US Steel to send some production our way for refinement and use in the Navy, James."

"You vindicated me when the first hints of moving the Pacific Fleet to Pearl to head off the Japanese started circulating around Navy Headquarters before you all came back in time, Ron," Richardson declared as Bellinger and Holland nodded. "Any hopes about cooling things down in Tōkyō?"

Lloyd hissed out. "It'll probably plunge into a civil war. Mostly Navy versus Army."

And the helpless civilians of Japan and its occupied territories would be caught in the middle of such, his visitors knew. "Thank God we never had those sorts of rivalries in our services," Bellinger snarled. "I mean, having rivalries in gridiron is one thing! But actually going to ASSASSINATE your rival service's officers because they have different political views? I'm glad that Yamamoto's out on Nagato right now. He's in a perfect place to cool down those yahoos under Tōjō and keep their emperor protected."

"I still don't like the idea of Regina being out there alone, Ron," Richardson added. "Even if you pulled Obel-..." Here, the native of Paris in Texas shook his head. "Sorry! Even if you pulled Fortitude back and reassigned Resolve to the Atlantic Fleet, Regina has no damned armour on her to protect the crew." That had often been a big complaint about Canadian warships by down-timers from other navies. Yes, the technology was beyond impressive, but the fact that such ships couldn't realistically stand up in a gun fight was something that made even a man like Bellinger cringe; he liked the idea of carriers having protective armour around the vitals. "If it turns into a shooting war..."

"Her orders are to get the embassy staff out of Tōkyō ASAP if it starts up," Lloyd reported. "Her secondary orders — and this doesn't leave this room, gentlemen — is to support Admiral Yamamoto in rescuing the Heavenly Sovereign and his family from the Imperial Palace, getting them out to sea and safety." As the visiting officers nodded — the Canadians had gone out of their way to explain how vital it was to keep the safety of the Japanese head-of-state in mind in any future confrontation with that nation — the chief of the RCN then asked, "James, do you think you could ask Kim if we can forward-deploy Fortitude at Pearl once Preserver's commissioned?"

The Texan nodded. "To support the Imperial Navy and Regina if a bug-out occurs? He'll go for it."

The others nodded. Protecting the Heavenly Sovereign and his family would go a VERY long way in cooling things down in case a Japanese civil war started up over what the future could potentially mean for the island nation and the territories it currently occupied. "Well, enough of the dreary stuff, old man," Holland playfully scolded. "Using your terms, we have two senior naval warfare officers and a senior naval aviation pilot here, Ronald. What's going on?"

Before Lloyd could answer, the door to the office opened to reveal his opposite number in the Royal Canadian Air Force. "You haven't told them yet?" Al Meinzinger wondered as the visiting officers all stood for the former helicopter pilot, nodding politely.

Hands were shook, then the commander of the RCAF moved to take a seat to his host's starboard aft. "Was about to get to it, Al," Lloyd said with a smirk before he pulled up a remote control, aiming it at the large computer screen mounted on one wall. "Take a good look, Pat."

Bellinger looked over...then he whooped in delight. "You're building aircraft carriers?!" the South Carolinian demanded. On seeing both Lloyd and Meinzinger grin and nod, the veteran pilot laughed as he offered his hand for both senior officers to shake. "About damned time!" As the others politely applauded, he took his seat. "It'd be a while before we'd get used to the idea of flying those newfangled helicopters off destroyers! Right now, our technology's more leaning towards autogyros flying off a tin can!" He nodded to the three-dimensional design that had been drafted up by Fleet Maintenance Facility Fraser's crack team of architects, many of whom were either normally employed by Seaspan in their Vancouver shipyards or just graduated from university. "Having a good carrier or two will definitely protect any task force you send out. Much that the Cyclones are great birds..." He shrugged.

"That's a Charles De Galle-class, isn't it?" Richardson added. "The one the French in your time named after that tank general your friends under Jean-Marc like to talk about, right?"

"Same idea, but not nuclear-powered. We're nowhere near THAT stage, James," Meinzinger stated. "Once the last of the Tribal-class are in the water, we'll be going to build Bonaventure and Magnificent."

Bellinger smirked. He had spent much of his time in Canada at Shearwater learning the tricks of the maritime helicopter trade to pass on to his brother aviators in Washington and with the fleets at Norfolk and San Diego. Like Richardson, the South Carolinian was more than relieved that historical information about the future had saved the Pacific Fleet from being hung out to dry for the Japanese by deploying them to Pearl Harbour. While he was with 12 Canadian Air Group, he had also learned the history about Canada's post-World War Two naval air service and how that group of aviators did wonders flying off carriers smaller than a Yorktown-class...yet using maritime patrol aircraft the size of a North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber from their decks! The names of Bonaventure and Magnificent had factored heavily into those lessons. "I'm sure a lot of folks working under Craig in Halifax and Bob in Esquimalt will be damned happy. How soon could you have them in the water?"

"Mid-1944 at current estimates. Our friends from la Royale, both up-time and down-time, have been VERY happy to help," Lloyd declared as he gave his guests a knowing look, earning them understanding smiles in return. Regardless of how much the French government were grateful to the Canadians for helping save their country from Nazi occupation, France was always keeping in mind its own needs first. Staying as a world power given the rise of independence movements in the colonies was a priority in Paris right now, as it was in London and elsewhere. "As for command-and-control issues, Al and I've talked it over with Sid Connor in Shearwater. I'm sure you can guess the result of that one, Pat?"

A snort escaped the American. "He told me himself!" the South Carolinian declared. He had become good friends with Brigadier General Sid Connor, former commander of 12 Wing before its expansion into 12 Canadian Air Group; the current position title the veteran air combat systems officer had now had been navalized as Commodore (Air) Commanding Canadian Fleet Air Arm in the British style.

"What was that, Patrick?" Holland asked.

"'Let the damned people TRAINED to drive ships command them! My pilots fly AIRCRAFT!'"

Chuckles filled the room. In the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, it was the law that aircraft carriers had to be commanded by trained naval aviators; the pre-Unification Royal Canadian Navy had followed suit. However, in the modern Canadian Forces, pilots were always seen as belonging to the Air Force, even those flying support for the other three force-generating services. Given how complex aircraft had become in the time between "round one" of World War Two and "round two", it was more than understandable that pilots would have to concentrate on learning the skills that got them their wings at 15 Wing Moose Jaw...while naval warfare officers had to learn all the skills they needed to command warships at HMC Ships Niobe in Halifax and Rainbow in Esquimalt. Never mind what submarine officers had to learn at HMCS Grisle in Cornwallis!

"So what wonders from the future are you bringing out, Alexander?" Holland asked.

"Right now, we're looking at the 'Super Hornet' versions of the CF-188," Meinzinger stated. "That's the fast attack bird. Boeing Canada has the designs and are moving to prepare production. We'll also consider bringing back the CP-121 Tracker or a variant of same to serve as both a COD bird..." — noting the confusion on Richardson's and Holland's faces, the former commandant of the Royal Military College in Kingston explained — "...'carrier on-board delivery' cargo aircraft..." — at their nods, he carried on — "...as well as maritime patrol and anti-submarine duties. Also, she'll have CH-148 Cyclones and be able to carry the CH-147 Chinhook in a pinch."

"That is one bloody hell of a versatile aircraft," Holland noted. "We had two injuries due to the issues with Hood as we were coming into Lévis. A Chinhook flew out to us to get them to the base hospital at Valcartier." At the two American officers' querying looks, the Northamptonshire native added, "They made it." As they nodded in understanding, he then gazed on Lloyd. "What about rumours of amphibious landing ships? Given what happened with Nordhammer went down..."

Lloyd smirked as he tapped the remote, allowing the image of the future Bonaventure-class carriers to disappear, replaced by what looked like a smaller carrier with a much larger superstructure and a "ski jump" launching ramp at the bow. ""Tokto'?" Richardson asked. "Where did that come from, Ron?"

"The South Koreans," his host answered, earning him surprised looks from the visiting officers. "This is called an LPH: That means 'Landing Platform, Helicopter'. A carrier with an aft launching pad at the waterline — a 'well deck', it's called — to launch landing craft to get troops ashore. She has enough berthing space for an infantry battalion, plus hangar space for up to fifteen helicopters and other aircraft. You've heard of the Harrier, haven't you, Pat?"

"That fighter jet that lands and takes off like a helicopter?" Bellinger asked. "Developed in Britain and used in that war with Argentina in the 1980s. Copied by Douglas Aircraft's future incarnation for the Marines to use. Boeing Canada would have the design specs now, right?"

"We'll designate her the CF-128V Harrier once she's in service," Meinzinger explained. "We'll need to 'borrow' some squadron numbers from the FAA in the 870 series to flesh out two squadrons plus a considerable number of replacements. We'll have four of these beauties," he added as he waved to the design of what was planned to be called the Mount Logan-class ships, to take names from various mountains in the Dominion. "Of course, we'd want more..."

"But we have to keep this in mind," Lloyd added as he made a shuffling move with his fingers.

Knowing snorts answered him from the down-time officers. Money. It always factored down to how much Parliament or Congress was willing to shell out for the military. And given how notorious the Canadian Parliament could be when it came to the Forces, especially in peacetime...! "Well, that will be quite good in the long run," Holland asked. "But why ask for me to come here, Ronald? I'm not a naval pilot like Patrick, much less experienced in mixed types of naval warfare as James. Why am I here?"

"You served on cruisers after you left Britannia before the Great War," the chief of the RCN noted. "Aboard Eclipse and Hampshire, I believe." At the nod from the native of Northamptonshire, Lloyd moved to key the remote to reveal a third design, this one clearly a very enhanced cruiser that looked like a larger and beefier version of an Iroquois-class missile destroyer now being built on the ways at Lévis beside Holland's flagship. "We want six inch guns for this class of cruisers we're planning; the Nova Scotia-class. You're in on this as well, James. I want to get the best type of light cruiser gun for this class, then turn it over to Rheinmetall in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu to improve on. Of course, you guys will get the chance to use it as well on future builds. Guns are a hell of a lot easier to use than missiles."

The three visitors nodded. After the Shift, Canada had immediately engaged in secret work to upgrade ships, aircraft and land vehicles used by the Allies and the Americans to help them on the road to catch up technically with the Dominion. Doing THAT had earned them a lot of good will from Washington to London to Paris despite all the fears the social advances Canada had undergone in the seventy-plus years between 1945 and 2018 when the country was shifted back in time had unleashed among citizens of the Allied powers and the United States. Of course, the improvements in ballistics had done wonders when it came to tank guns and how easily they could rip apart the panzers in Europe once the first enhanced weapons had been introduced in the field.

"I'm surprised that popinjay Goebbels over in Berlin hasn't screamed out at you people for 'holding a good Aryan company hostage' to make weapons for your own military," Holland then quipped.

Laughter filled the room...

To be continued...! 

[lordroel]

May 19, 2019 15:17:41 GMT pyeknu said:

Side Story: Capital Ideas for the Navy!
Ottawa, Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Bytown at National Defence Headquarters, Friday 4 April 1941, 10:20 AM...

"Admiral Holland! Come in, please!"

"A delight to come back, sir," Vice Admiral Sir Lancelot Holland declared after bowing his head formally. A twinkle appeared in the eyes of the native of Middleton Cheney in Northamptonshire as he added, "Getting the chance to live every day past the day I should have died is always a wonderful experience, I assure you," he added as Admiral Ron Lloyd came over, his hand out to shake that of the former commander of the Battlecruiser Force; after his flagship had been forced to put into the l'Installation de Maintenance de la Flotte Lauzon at Lévis the previous fall thanks to stripped turbines and lost propellers, Holland was reassigned as Royal Navy liaison to Maritime Forces Atlantic in Halifax.

Laughter filled Lloyd's office as the commander of the RCN waved his guest over to join his other guests. Both of them were United States Navy three-star vice admirals, one with the wings of a naval aviator and one without. Of course, Holland knew them both. "Admiral Richardson, Admiral Bellinger. A delight to see you both again," he declared as he offered his hand.

James Richardson was the first to shake the English officer's hand. "Good to see you again as well, Admiral Holland. How's the old girl turning out? Those wizards at Davie making her a missile ship?!"

Holland laughed before he shook Patrick Bellinger's hand. "Not as advanced as our hosts' ships, I assure you, Admiral. Good to see you, Admiral," he then greeted the South Carolinian who had been requested by Lloyd to become the senior American naval air advisor to the Canadian Forces. "Got the chance to solo on the Cyclone, I heard. How was it?"

"One hell of a sweet machine to handle, never mind all the bells and whistles on it," Bellinger noted as they took their seats. "I have to admit, it'll take us all YEARS to catch up to where our friends are at now." The man who was one of America's first naval aviators then shook his head before he gazed at his host. "You shouldn't be burdened by being the lone 'superpower' in this day and age, Admiral."

"We'll be definitely working to catch up, sir," Richardson added, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses.

Lloyd chuckled. "We here in Ottawa hope so. Ranks off, gentlemen," he then bade; that was the message the native of Taber in Alberta always gave to important naval officials from other nations to relax the titles and be people.

"We heard the news about Glace Bay, Ron," Richardson then stated as the visiting officers relaxed themselves. This had been the first meeting between the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and the senior officers from America and Britain since Operation: Nordhammer had begun a little over two weeks before. "President Roosevelt sends his condolences. How many were lost?"

"Twenty-six," Lloyd reported. "We may not recover the bodies, though." Shaking his head, the Albertan then added, "I sent the alert to FMF Niagara about getting a replacement built. Casper told me that they had laid the keel of the new Glace Bay within a week of the old one's sinking." As the visitors all gaped, their host added, "We'll have her in commission before the end of the year. Triple shifts in the dock and Stelco and Dofasco are offering the steel for the hull at double discounted rates. You don't know how much I appreciate you arranging with US Steel to send some production our way for refinement and use in the Navy, James."

"You vindicated me when the first hints of moving the Pacific Fleet to Pearl to head off the Japanese started circulating around Navy Headquarters before you all came back in time, Ron," Richardson declared as Bellinger and Holland nodded. "Any hopes about cooling things down in Tōkyō?"

Lloyd hissed out. "It'll probably plunge into a civil war. Mostly Navy versus Army."

And the helpless civilians of Japan and its occupied territories would be caught in the middle of such, his visitors knew. "Thank God we never had those sorts of rivalries in our services," Bellinger snarled. "I mean, having rivalries in gridiron is one thing! But actually going to ASSASSINATE your rival service's officers because they have different political views? I'm glad that Yamamoto's out on Nagato right now. He's in a perfect place to cool down those yahoos under Tōjō and keep their emperor protected."

"I still don't like the idea of Regina being out there alone, Ron," Richardson added. "Even if you pulled Obel-..." Here, the native of Paris in Texas shook his head. "Sorry! Even if you pulled Fortitude back and reassigned Resolve to the Atlantic Fleet, Regina has no damned armour on her to protect the crew." That had often been a big complaint about Canadian warships by down-timers from other navies. Yes, the technology was beyond impressive, but the fact that such ships couldn't realistically stand up in a gun fight was something that made even a man like Bellinger cringe; he liked the idea of carriers having protective armour around the vitals. "If it turns into a shooting war..."

"Her orders are to get the embassy staff out of Tōkyō ASAP if it starts up," Lloyd reported. "Her secondary orders — and this doesn't leave this room, gentlemen — is to support Admiral Yamamoto in rescuing the Heavenly Sovereign and his family from the Imperial Palace, getting them out to sea and safety." As the visiting officers nodded — the Canadians had gone out of their way to explain how vital it was to keep the safety of the Japanese head-of-state in mind in any future confrontation with that nation — the chief of the RCN then asked, "James, do you think you could ask Kim if we can forward-deploy Fortitude at Pearl once Preserver's commissioned?"

The Texan nodded. "To support the Imperial Navy and Regina if a bug-out occurs? He'll go for it."

The others nodded. Protecting the Heavenly Sovereign and his family would go a VERY long way in cooling things down in case a Japanese civil war started up over what the future could potentially mean for the island nation and the territories it currently occupied. "Well, enough of the dreary stuff, old man," Holland playfully scolded. "Using your terms, we have two senior naval warfare officers and a senior naval aviation pilot here, Ronald. What's going on?"

Before Lloyd could answer, the door to the office opened to reveal his opposite number in the Royal Canadian Air Force. "You haven't told them yet?" Al Meinzinger wondered as the visiting officers all stood for the former helicopter pilot, nodding politely.

Hands were shook, then the commander of the RCAF moved to take a seat to his host's starboard aft. "Was about to get to it, Al," Lloyd said with a smirk before he pulled up a remote control, aiming it at the large computer screen mounted on one wall. "Take a good look, Pat."

Bellinger looked over...then he whooped in delight. "You're building aircraft carriers?!" the South Carolinian demanded. On seeing both Lloyd and Meinzinger grin and nod, the veteran pilot laughed as he offered his hand for both senior officers to shake. "About damned time!" As the others politely applauded, he took his seat. "It'd be a while before we'd get used to the idea of flying those newfangled helicopters off destroyers! Right now, our technology's more leaning towards autogyros flying off a tin can!" He nodded to the three-dimensional design that had been drafted up by Fleet Maintenance Facility Fraser's crack team of architects, many of whom were either normally employed by Seaspan in their Vancouver shipyards or just graduated from university. "Having a good carrier or two will definitely protect any task force you send out. Much that the Cyclones are great birds..." He shrugged.

"That's a Charles De Galle-class, isn't it?" Richardson added. "The one the French in your time named after that tank general your friends under Jean-Marc like to talk about, right?"

"Same idea, but not nuclear-powered. We're nowhere near THAT stage, James," Meinzinger stated. "Once the last of the Tribal-class are in the water, we'll be going to build Bonaventure and Magnificent."

Bellinger smirked. He had spent much of his time in Canada at Shearwater learning the tricks of the maritime helicopter trade to pass on to his brother aviators in Washington and with the fleets at Norfolk and San Diego. Like Richardson, the South Carolinian was more than relieved that historical information about the future had saved the Pacific Fleet from being hung out to dry for the Japanese by deploying them to Pearl Harbour. While he was with 12 Canadian Air Group, he had also learned the history about Canada's post-World War Two naval air service and how that group of aviators did wonders flying off carriers smaller than a Yorktown-class...yet using maritime patrol aircraft the size of a North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber from their decks! The names of Bonaventure and Magnificent had factored heavily into those lessons. "I'm sure a lot of folks working under Craig in Halifax and Bob in Esquimalt will be damned happy. How soon could you have them in the water?"

"Mid-1944 at current estimates. Our friends from la Royale, both up-time and down-time, have been VERY happy to help," Lloyd declared as he gave his guests a knowing look, earning them understanding smiles in return. Regardless of how much the French government were grateful to the Canadians for helping save their country from Nazi occupation, France was always keeping in mind their own needs first. Staying as a world power given the rise of independence movements in the colonies was a priority in Paris right now, as it was in London and elsewhere. "As for command-and-control issues, Al and I've talked it over with Sid Connor in Shearwater. I'm sure you can guess the result of that one, Pat?"

A snort escaped the American. "He told me himself!" the South Carolinian declared. He had become good friends with Brigadier General Sid Connor, former commander of 12 Wing before its expansion into 12 Canadian Air Group; the current position title the veteran air combat systems officer had now had been navalized as Commodore (Air) Commanding Canadian Fleet Air Arm in the British style.

"What was that, Patrick?" Holland asked.

"'Let the damned people TRAINED to drive ships command them! My pilots fly AIRCRAFT!'"

Chuckles filled the room. In the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, it was the law that aircraft carriers had to be commanded by trained naval aviators; the pre-Unification Royal Canadian Navy had followed suit. However, in the modern Canadian Forces, pilots were always seen as belonging to the Air Force, even those flying support for the other three force-generating services. Given how complex aircraft had become in the time between "round one" of World War Two and "round two", it was more than understandable that pilots would have to concentrate on learning the skills that got them their wings at 15 Wing Moose Jaw...while naval warfare officers had to learn all the skills they needed to command warships at HMC Ships Niobe in Halifax and Rainbow in Esquimalt. Never mind what submarine officers had to learn at HMCS Grisle in Cornwallis!

"So what wonders from the future are you bringing out, Alexander?" Holland asked.

"Right now, we're looking at the 'Super Hornet' versions of the CF-188," Meinzinger stated. "That's the fast attack bird. Boeing Canada has the designs and are moving to prepare production. We'll also consider bringing back the CP-121 Tracker or a variant of same to serve as both a COD bird..." — noting the confusion on Richardson's and Holland's faces, the former commandant of the Royal Military College in Kingston explained — "...'carrier on-board delivery' cargo aircraft..." — at their nods, he carried on — "...as well as maritime patrol and anti-submarine duties. Also, she'll have CH-148 Cyclones and be able to carry the CH-147 Chinhook in a pinch."

"That is one bloody hell of a versatile aircraft," Holland noted. "We had two injuries due to the issues with Hood as we were coming into Lévis. A Chinhook flew out to us to get them to the base hospital at Valcartier." At the two American officers' querying looks, the Northamptonshire native added, "They made it." As they nodded in understanding, he then gazed on Lloyd. "What about rumours of amphibious landing ships? Given what happened with Nordhammer went down..."

Lloyd smirked as he tapped the remote, allowing the image of the future Bonaventure-class carriers to disappear, replaced by what looked like a smaller carrier with a much larger superstructure and a "ski jump" launching ramp at the bow. ""Tokto'?" Richardson asked. "Where did that come from, Ron?"

"The South Koreans," his host answered, earning him surprised looks from the visiting officers. "This is called an LPH: That means 'Landing Platform, Helicopter'. A carrier with an aft launching pad at the waterline — a 'well deck', it's called — to launch landing craft to get troops ashore. She has enough berthing space for an infantry battalion, plus hangar space for up to fifteen helicopters and other aircraft. You've heard of the Harrier, haven't you, Pat?"

"That fighter jet that lands and takes off like a helicopter?" Bellinger asked. "Developed in Britain and used in that war with Argentina in the 1980s. Copied by Douglas Aircraft's future incarnation for the Marines to use. Boeing Canada would have the design specs now, right?"

"We'll designate her the CF-128V Harrier once she's in service," Meinzinger explained. "We'll need to 'borrow' some squadron numbers from the FAA in the 870 series to flesh out two squadrons plus a considerable number of replacements. We'll have four of these beauties," he added as he waved to the design of what was planned to be called the Mount Logan-class ships, to take names from various mountains in the Dominion. "Of course, we'd want more..."

"But we have to keep this in mind," Lloyd added as he made a shuffling move with his fingers.

Knowing snorts answered him from the down-time officers. Money. It always factored down to how much Parliament or Congress was willing to shell out for the military. And given how notorious the Canadian Parliament could be when it came to the Forces, especially in peacetime...! "Well, that will be quite good in the long run," Holland asked. "But why ask for me to come here, Ronald? I'm not a naval pilot like Patrick, much less experienced in mixed types of naval warfare as James. Why am I here?"

"You served on cruisers after you left Britannia before the Great War," the chief of the RCN noted. "Aboard Eclipse and Hampshire, I believe." At the nod from the native of Northamptonshire, Lloyd moved to key the remote to reveal a third design, this one clearly a very enhanced cruiser that looked like a larger and beefier version of an Iroquois-class missile destroyer now being built on the ways at Lévis beside Holland's flagship. "We want six inch guns for this class of cruisers we're planning; the Nova Scotia-class. You're in on this as well, James. I want to get the best type of light cruiser gun for this class, then turn it over to Rheinmetall in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu to improve on. Of course, you guys will get the chance to use it as well on future builds. Guns are a hell of a lot easier to use than missiles."

The three visitors nodded. After the Shift, Canada had immediately engaged in secret work to upgrade ships, aircraft and land vehicles used by the Allies and the Americans to help them on the road to catch up technically with the Dominion. Doing THAT had earned them a lot of good will from Washington to London to Paris despite all the fears the social advances Canada had undergone in the seventy-plus years between 1945 and 2018 when the country was shifted back in time. Of course, the improvements in ballistics had done wonders when it came to tank guns and how easily they could rip apart the panzers in Europe once the first enhanced weapons had been introduced in the field.

"I'm surprised that popinjay Goebbels over in Berlin hasn't screamed out at you people for 'holding a good Aryan company' hostage to make weapons for your own military," Holland then quipped.

Laughter filled the room...

To be continued...! 

A great sidestory pyeknu

[pyeknu]

Side Story: When the Counts Came to Canada!


Toronto, Canadian Forces Base Trenton Detachment Downsview (the former Canadian Forces Base Toronto), Thursday 15 May 1941, 07:10 AM...

"Good morning, Doctor Eckener."

Hearing that voice, the native of Flensburg perked before he turned, then he smiled as one of the many civilian volunteers who flocked to help the Canadian military even if they weren't fit to put on a uniform wheeled up on his motorized chair. "Herr Unteroffizer Pendelton," the former president of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin before his effective sidelining by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933 said with a smile as the former administration clerk who had served both on ship and in an army signal regiment at the time of the end of that "cold war" that Canada and the western half of Germany had been involved in against the Soviet Union moved to wheel into the lineup inside the recently-constructed mess hall just to the west of the old Downsview Airport. "I see you're not wearing that artificial leg of yours."

William Pendelton sighed. "The stump's flaring up," the native of Welland near Niagara Falls admitted before a smiling woman from one of Toronto's many charity groups moved to serve a good breakfast. Having lost his right leg below the knee to diabetes-induced osteomylytis near the end of 2013, there was no hope in hell that he'd be able to get into uniform when the Shift happened and people were called to serve. Fortunately, because he still had a lot of knowledge about military matters because of his old service — which he still marvelled that he had been able to endure given issues with his weight and his imagination going overboard from time to time which distracted him from his duties — that allowed him to join the civilian staff hired to help support 8 Wing Detachment Toronto and its many units. Reaching down to rub his inflated stump, Pendelton sighed. "Have to watch what I eat these days. Nurses want me to keep the protein intake up to heal that wound on my left foot, but it's hard not to indulge on the good stuff."

Doctor Hugo Eckener laughed as they moved down the the chow line to be served, then they headed over to one table. The old grounds of what had been RCAF Station Downsview before Unification had been reclaimed by the military after the Shift, mostly to allow Bombardier's local works to continue developing aircraft for the Forces near their many parts suppliers in Ontario; it also served as a mustering point for a mobilized Fourth Canadian Division, whose headquarters were on the northeast side of the grounds near the intersection of Allan Road and Sheppard Avenue. The new buildings set up for the Downsview Detachment were on the west side of the old Northern Railway mainline connecting Union Station to Barrie which bisected the old base property, right behind what some talking heads were now calling the largest building by volume in Toronto: The main hangar of the newly-formed Bombardier-Zeppelin Canada Ltd, which would serve as the Canadian branch of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin once peace was restored and the people who fled Friedrichshafen a year ago today could go home.

Thinking about what had happened to Ferdinand von Zeppelin's apprentice who had strove to develop safe, reliable air transport via rigid airship in the early part of the Twentieth Century — often against the demands of the Treaty of Versailles, not to mention the hazards of using hydrogen as a lifting gas for such craft — Pendelton could only shake his head. He had been one of several history buffs who got onto various chat lines over the last two years to press to find some way to deliver a symbolic victory against idiots like Hitler and his clique, something that would act as a nasty slap in the face to those genocidal monsters now driving Germany into ruin, never mind what was going on in occupied Poland.

And much that such had been a mad lark of fantasy at first, it had caught the attention of both the Canadian Forces and Global Affairs Canada.

What had happened next was a virtual replay of the events in Tom Clancy's The Hunt For Red October!

When Pendelton loaned Eckener and his fellow "defectors" copies of the Welland native's favourite novel, the Germans got a very good laugh. "It is a pity Herr Clancy wasn't alive and in Canada when die Verschiebung happened!" Hans von Schiller, last captain of Germany's most successful airship, commented after he had read the translation of the work, using the German name for the mind-boggling idea of shifting an entire COUNTRY and its population back almost eighty years in time to one of the darkest ages of human history. "He would have gladly written the story about us and how we escaped!"

Indeed, the whole idea behind "Operation Clancy" — which had been Canadian Joint Operations Command's amusing code-name for the literal snatching of Deutsche Luftschiffe Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin II from right under the noses of the Luftwaffe and the Nazis — could have come straight out of some alternate-history tale written for entertainment on the Internet!

****

It had started after Fall Gelb had been launched on 10 May 1940...

If the whole issue concerning Operation Weserübung hadn't slammed it home to idiots like Hermann Göring and his fellow chiefs of service in Berlin, what happened when the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe moved in on the Low Countries would ram it home HARD!

There was a new sheriff in town.

And he wasn't taking no crap.

Especially from no stupid Nazis!

Horrified by the appalling losses that all elements of the Reich's armed forces were taking thanks to the Allies — with the exemplary help of 3 Canadian Air Division and the First Canadian Army — the former captain of DLS Graf Zeppelin had secretly contacted his old employer at his home in Friedrichshafen concerning what was happening and why. By then, the Canadian embassy in Switzerland had been contacted by known and unknown parties who didn't care for the Nazis as a whole and certainly didn't care for the idea of their country literally being smashed into nothingness by a force whose capabilities seemed well to the right of magic! With the forces of the Schutzstaffel being far too busy trying to keep news of the hideous levels of casualties from the civilian population, it had been easier than expected for Eckener's wife Johanna to make it to Bern and ask for asylum for her husband and herself.

The Canadian Forces attaché there then made an interesting counter-offer. On learning that both Grafs were still intact in their hangars in Frankfurt — obviously, the order hadn't come down from the head of the Luftwaffe to have the two zeppelins scrapped for their aluminum, which could be recycled into new aircraft hulls — it was proposed that if such was possible, the Grafs would be made airworthy again and flown across the lines directly into France, then routed north and west to Royal Air Force Station Cardington north-northwest of London in Bedfordshire, the last intact and relatively operational airship field in Europe outside Germany. Once there, the ships would be reinflated with helium and allowed to proceed to Canada, asylum granted to all who asked for it.

Much to the Canadians' surprise, a lot of current and former employees of both Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei (the operating sister company of the airship works) had similar ideas.

By the time Eckener and von Schiller had got to Frankfurt to see if such was possible, the gas cells on both zeppelins had been inflated and systems were being checked over in preparation for a night flight across the Rhine close to Baden-Baden, where they would then be under the safe protection of the Maginot Line defences and the French armed forces. At the same time, people in Friedrichshafen were prepared to secretly cross Lake Constance — where DLS LZ-1 had been launched forty years before in the first flight of a rigid-hull airship — and claim asylum in Switzerland before moving on to Canada.

It had gone like clockwork.

In the very early morning of 15 May, Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin II had launched from Frankfurt, heading southwest for the eastern part of France. By the time both zeppelins were passing over the future Bundesautobahn 5 within thirty minutes of launch, CF-188 Hornets of 425e Escadron d'Appui Tactiques from Bagotville hit the airfield with storms of CRV7 rockets, a few AGM-84 Harpoon air-to-surface missiles and GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bombs, virtually obliterating the old zeppelin hangars and causing a mini-firestorm over the field that would put it out of commission for months. By the time dawn came, the two Grafs were safely over French aerospace and being escorted by CH-172 Lakota gunships from 181e Escadron d'Hélicoptères d'Attaque of Mirabel clear of potential interception by the Luftwaffe before turning towards the English Channel. Both Grafs would land at Cardington late that day, completely safe and sound and in the hands of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The Nazis didn't get the news until the BBC put out the story of Hugo Eckener and his relieved old co-workers and family members meeting Winston Churchill at Cardington the very next morning!

Then, one of the pilots from the Alouettes — it was Major Riel "Guns" Erickson, one of the stars of the Discovery Channel's 2008 documentary series Jetstream, filmed when she had been at 410 Squadron at Cold Lake learning the tricks of flying the Hornet — dropped a dud Paveway guided package on the headquarters of the Reichsluftfarrtministerium in Berlin. Inside was a simple note:

To "Fatso" Göring,
Since you and the half-nut you call "Führer" seem to rate Doctor Eckener's creations as nothing more than "flying weißwürste", we decided to take them off your hands.
You're welcome, by the way.
(signed)
The Royal Canadian Air Force/L'Aviation Royale Canadienne

To say Adolf Hitler suffered a mild case of apoplexy after hearing about this was putting it...

...well mildly!

****

The distant thrumming noise of turboprop engines caused Pendelton to blink before he turned as an avionics systems technician from 8 Air Maintenance Squadron's detached flight at Downsview came in. "Herr Doktor! Meine Damen und Herren!" he called out in accented German, bowing his head politely. "Der Graf Zeppelin kommt jetzt herein." He then turned to wave everyone outside.

The elderly Eckener was on his feet right away, offering his arm to his wife as they stepped out of the mess hall to stand outside, staring north as a familiar silver shape loomed in the sky over the eastern part of nearby Vaughan. As Pendelton wheeled himself out to look, he spared a glance inside the massive new hangar that Bombardier had built on the grounds between their Toronto workshops and the open soccer pitches of the Downsview Park Sports Centre on the old path of Runway 08/26. Already within said hangar was the lost Hindenburg's sister ship, which — after being converted to fly on helium lifting gas thanks to the help of Eckener's contemporary Doctor Barnes Wallis, designer of His Majesty's Airship R100 that had flown across to Montréal in the summer of 1930 — had been analyzed, torn apart and rebuilt by Bombardier's staff in Toronto with the help of HUNDREDS of aircraft enthusiasts from across the nation who wanted a chance to touch a piece of history.

As for the older Graf Zeppelin — which had to undergo considerable modifications to be flown on helium gas across the Atlantic to Canada — she had been stored at another hangar on the grounds of Canadian Forces Base Borden, where both aspiring air force technicians and experienced hangar crew from the nearby School of Aerospace Engineering and Technology had joined with another crowd of enthusiasts to rebuild the famous zeppelin to make her as truly safe as possible.

And now...

"Congratulations, Doctor," the former administration clerk stated, offering his hand.

Eckener blinked, then shook Pendelton's hand. "Ah, William...we can't congratulate ourselves yet," he warned before he turned to gaze once more on his rebuilt greatest creation. "Not until Germany is free and safe..." He smiled as Johanna hugged his other arm. "Then we can celebrate..."

To Be Continued...!

[lordroel]

May 19, 2019 21:56:06 GMT pyeknu said:

Side Story: When the Counts Came to Canada!


Toronto, Canadian Forces Base Trenton Detachment Downsview (the former Canadian Forces Base Toronto), Thursday 15 May 1941, 07:10 AM...

"Good morning, Doctor Eckener."

Hearing that voice, the native of Flensburg perked before he turned, then he smiled as one of the many civilian volunteers who flocked to help the Canadian military even if they weren't fit to put on a uniform wheeled up on his motorized chair. "Herr Unteroffizer Pendelton," the former president of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin before his effective sidelining by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933 said with a smile as the former administration clerk who had served both on ship and in an army signal regiment at the time of the end of that "cold war" that Canada and the western half of Germany had been involved in against the Soviet Union moved to wheel into the lineup inside the recently-constructed mess hall just to the west of the old Downsview Airport. "I see you're not wearing that artificial leg of yours."

William Pendelton sighed. "The stump's flaring up," the native of Welland near Niagara Falls admitted before a smiling woman from one of Toronto's many charity groups moved to serve a good breakfast. Having lost his right leg below the knee to diabetes-induced osteomylytis near the end of 2013, there was no hope in hell that he'd be able to get into uniform when the Shift happened and people were called to serve. Fortunately, because he still had a lot of knowledge about military matters because of his old service — which he still marvelled that he had been able to endure given issues with his weight and his imagination going overboard from time to time which distracted him from his duties — that allowed him to join the civilian staff hired to help support 8 Wing Detachment Toronto and its many units. Reaching down to rub his inflated stump, Pendelton sighed. "Have to watch what I eat these days. Nurses want me to keep the protein intake up to heal that wound on my left foot, but it's hard not to indulge on the good stuff."

Doctor Hugo Eckener laughed as they moved down the the chow line to be served, then they headed over to one table. The old grounds of what had been RCAF Station Downsview before Unification had been reclaimed by the military after the Shift, mostly to allow Bombardier's local works to continue developing aircraft for the Forces near their many parts suppliers in Ontario; it also served as a mustering point for a mobilized Fourth Canadian Division, whose headquarters were on the northeast side of the grounds near the intersection of Allan Road and Sheppard Avenue. The new buildings set up for the Downsview Detachment were on the west side of the old Northern Railway mainline connecting Union Station to Barrie which bisected the old base property, right behind what some talking heads were now calling the largest building by volume in Toronto: The main hangar of the newly-formed Bombardier-Zeppelin Canada Ltd, which would serve as the Canadian branch of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin once peace was restored and the people who fled Friedrichshafen a year ago today could go home.

Thinking about what had happened to Ferdinand von Zeppelin's apprentice who had strove to develop safe, reliable air transport via rigid airship in the early part of the Twentieth Century — often against the demands of the Treaty of Versailles, not to mention the hazards of using hydrogen as a lifting gas for such craft — Pendelton could only shake his head. He had been one of several history buffs who got onto various chat lines over the last two years to press to find some way to deliver a symbolic victory against idiots like Hitler and his clique, something that would act as a nasty slap in the face to those genocidal monsters now driving Germany into ruin, never mind what was going on in occupied Poland.

And much that such had been a mad lark of fantasy at first, it had caught the attention of both the Canadian Forces and Global Affairs Canada.

What had happened next was a virtual replay of the events in Tom Clancy's The Hunt For Red October!

When Pendelton loaned Eckener and his fellow "defectors" copies of the Welland native's favourite novel, the Germans got a very good laugh. "It is a pity Herr Clancy wasn't alive and in Canada when die Verschiebung happened!" Hans von Schiller, last captain of Germany's most successful airship, commented after he had read the translation of the work, using the German name for the mind-boggling idea of shifting an entire COUNTRY and its population back almost eighty years in time to one of the darkest ages of human history. "He would have gladly written the story about us and how we escaped!"

Indeed, the whole idea behind "Operation Clancy" — which had been Canadian Joint Operations Command's amusing code-name for the literal snatching of Deutsche Luftschiffe Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin II from right under the noses of the Luftwaffe and the Nazis — could have come straight out of some alternate-history tale written for entertainment on the Internet!

****

It had started after Fall Gelb had been launched on 10 May 1940...

If the whole issue concerning Operation Weserübung hadn't slammed it home to idiots like Hermann Göring and his fellow chiefs of service in Berlin, what happened when the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe moved in on the Low Countries would ram it home HARD!

There was a new sheriff in town.

And he wasn't taking no crap.

Especially from no stupid Nazis!

Horrified by the appalling losses that all elements of the Reich's armed forces were taking thanks to the Allies — with the exemplary help of 3 Canadian Air Division and the First Canadian Army — the former captain of DLS Graf Zeppelin had secretly contacted his old employer at his home in Friedrichshafen concerning what was happening and why. By then, the Canadian embassy in Switzerland had been contacted by known and unknown parties who didn't care for the Nazis as a whole and certainly didn't care for the idea of their country literally being smashed into nothingness by a force whose capabilities seemed well to the right of magic! With the forces of the Schutzstaffel being far too busy trying to keep news of the hideous levels of casualties from the civilian population, it had been easier than expected for Eckener's wife Johanna to make it to Bern and ask for asylum for her husband and herself.

The Canadian Forces attaché there then made an interesting counter-offer. On learning that both Grafs were still intact in their hangars in Frankfurt — obviously, the order hadn't come down from the head of the Luftwaffe to have the two zeppelins scrapped for their aluminum, which could be recycled into new aircraft hulls — it was proposed that if such was possible, the Grafs would be made airworthy again and flown across the lines directly into France, then routed north and west to Royal Air Force Station Cardington north-northwest of London in Bedfordshire, the last intact and relatively operational airship field in Europe outside Germany. Once there, the ships would be reinflated with helium and allowed to proceed to Canada, asylum granted to all who asked for it.

Much to the Canadians' surprise, a lot of current and former employees of both Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei (the operating sister company of the airship works) had similar ideas.

By the time Eckener and von Schiller had got to Frankfurt to see if such was possible, the gas cells on both zeppelins had been inflated and systems were being checked over in preparation for a night flight across the Rhine close to Baden-Baden, where they would then be under the safe protection of the Maginot Line defences and the French armed forces. At the same time, people in Friedrichshafen were prepared to secretly cross Lake Constance — where DLS LZ-1 had been launched forty years before in the first flight of a rigid-hull airship — and claim asylum in Switzerland before moving on to Canada.

It had gone like clockwork.

In the very early morning of 15 May, Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin II had launched from Frankfurt, heading southwest for the eastern part of France. By the time both zeppelins were passing over the future Bundesautobahn 5 within thirty minutes of launch, CF-188 Hornets of 425e Escadron d'Appui Tactiques from Bagotville hit the airfield with storms of CRV7 rockets, a few AGM-84 Harpoon surface-to-air missiles and GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bombs, virtually obliterating the old zeppelin hangars and causing a mini-firestorm over the field that would put it out of commission for months. By the time dawn came, the two Grafs were safely over French aerospace and being escorted by CH-172 Lakota gunships from 181e Escadron d'Hélicoptères d'Attaque of Mirabel clear of potential interception by the Luftwaffe before turning towards the English Channel. Both Grafs would land at Cardington late that day, completely safe and sound and in the hands of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The Nazis didn't get the news until the BBC put out the story of Hugo Eckener and his relieved old co-workers and family members meeting Winston Churchill at Cardington the very next morning!

Then, one of the pilots from the Alouettes — it was Major Riel "Guns" Erickson, one of the stars of the Discovery Channel's 2008 documentary series Jetstream, filmed when she had been at 410 Squadron at Cold Lake learning the tricks of flying the Hornet — dropped a dud Paveway guided package on the headquarters of the Reichsluftfarrtministerium in Berlin. Inside was a simple note:

To "Fatso" Göring,
Since you and the half-nut you call "Führer" seem to rate Doctor Eckener's creations as nothing more than "flying weißwürste", we decided to take them off your hands.
You're welcome, by the way.
(signed)
The Royal Canadian Air Force/L'Aviation Royale Canadienne

To say Adolf Hitler suffered a mild case of apoplexy after hearing about this was putting it...

...well mildly!

****

The distant thrumming noise of turboprop engines caused Pendelton to blink before he turned as an avionics systems technician from 8 Air Maintenance Squadron's detached flight at Downsview came in. "Herr Doktor! Meine Damen und Herren!" he called out in accented German, bowing his head politely. "Der Graf Zeppelin kommt jetzt herein." He then turned to wave everyone outside.

The elderly Eckener was on his feet right away, offering his arm to his wife as they stepped out of the mess hall to stand outside, staring north as a familiar silver shape loomed in the sky over the eastern part of nearby Vaughan. As Pendelton wheeled himself out to look, he spared a glance inside the massive new hangar that Bombardier had built on the grounds between their Toronto workshops and the open soccer pitches of the Downsview Park Sports Centre on the old path of Runway 08/26. Already within said hangar was the lost Hindenburg's sister ship, which — after being converted to fly on helium lifting gas thanks to the help of Eckener's contemporary Doctor Barnes Wallis, designer of His Majesty's Airship R100 that had flown across to Montréal in the summer of 1930 — had been analyzed, torn apart and rebuilt by Bombardier's staff in Toronto with the help of HUNDREDS of aircraft enthusiasts from across the nation who wanted a chance to touch a piece of history.

As for the older Graf Zeppelin — which had to undergo considerable modifications to be flown on helium gas across the Atlantic to Canada — she had been stored at another hangar on the grounds of Canadian Forces Base Borden, where both aspiring air force technicians and experienced hangar crew from the nearby School of Aerospace Engineering and Technology had joined with another crowd of enthusiasts to rebuild the famous zeppelin to make her as truly safe as possible.

And now...

"Congratulations, Doctor," the former administration clerk stated, offering his hand.

Eckener blinked, then shook Pendelton's hand. "Ah, William...we can't congratulate ourselves yet," he warned before he turned to gaze once more on his rebuilt greatest creation. "Not until Germany is free and safe..." He smiled as Johanna hugged his other arm. "Then we can celebrate..."

To Be Continued...!

Another good side story pyeknu.

[pyeknu]

May 20, 2019 14:53:46 GMT lordroel said:

May 19, 2019 21:56:06 GMT pyeknu said:

Another good side story pyeknu .

Soon as I'm back from the doctor's today, another's coming.  It'll be focused on Hood's arrival in Canada.  And HMCS Manitoulin will get to guest star.

[pyeknu]

Apologies for the delay, but I wasn't really feeling up to the mood to write stories.  I'm doing that now.

Oh, another apology:  HMS Hood won't appear in this one.  I got my dates and times mixed up and decided to delay this story to May of 1941.  HMCS Manitoulin is in this story, having just been commissioned a couple months before.  I subbed in the French dreadnought GC Paris instead.

Anyhow...

****

Side Story: The City of Lights Encounters the Cave of Spirits...!


On the North Atlantic, approximately 700 kilometres southeast of Cape Race on Newfoundland, Thursday 15 May 1941, 2:45 PM (Paris time: 7:15 PM)...

"Damn! She's got a lovely ride, doesn't she?!"

"Lot better than the Flower-class ships could be in these types of sea, sir!"

A laugh escaped the second-class chief petty officer that just stepped onto the pilotage platform of His Majesty's Canadian Ship Manitoulin. "Hah! Bite your tongue, Jackson!" the ship's coxswain snapped at the leading seaman at the helm of the heavily-modified platform support vessel that had been re-purposed as both minesweeper and mine hunter...never mind her being able to carry a helicopter of all things in a pinch as well! "This is NOTHING compared to when the Witch of November hits Superior!"

Rue laughter escaped the other Canadians on the bridge of the fifth of the Anticosti-class mine warfare ships and the first ship built at Thunder Bay from keel up in decades. Standing close to where the officer of the watch was at the front centre of the futuristic control platform for the six thousand tonne craft, Captain (Engineering) Sidney Herbert could only shake his head at such banter between the various ranks on the bridge of Lieutenant (Navy) Mark Jones' command. Then again, given that all personnel on Manitoulin were members of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve — a good number just fresh out of training at the stone frigate serving as the minehunter's parent ship, HMCS Wanapitei — the familiarity which would have had the master-at-arms, the chief boatswain's mate and the regulating petty officer on Herbert's last ship spitting fire in outrage was understandable. Obviously, in the seventy years and more that the Canadian senior service evolved since "round one" of the Second World War, the need for such rigid discipline even in a war zone was now seen as unnecessary.

Shaking his head as he shifted his footing to remain steady on the heaving deck — Manitoulin was currently heading east in a choppy northwest sea, with waves crashing over the rounded edge of her up-swept bow; given her design had been based on a support craft for those offshore oil rigs Herbert had seen off Newfoundland in previous voyages, that she could handle worse than sea state five said much to the fine architects and engineers at Fleet Maintenance Facilities Niagara and Thunder Bay — the senior engineer on Vice Admiral Sir Lancelot Holland's staff brought up his binoculars to scan the partially cloudy day to the east. The minehunter had been built at the astonishing speed of eight months from keel laying to commissioning at Sault Sainte Marie; given it was what the Canadians called a MILCOTS — "military commercial off the shelf" — concept before being reworked, it didn't surprise the native of Ashstead in Surrey that she and her sisters had got into the water so fast. Hearing the horror stories of how far down Canadian shipbuilding dropped before the Shift — then gaping in awe at how fast the Dominion recovered after that, especially with the assistance of tidal waves of Americans who came north to work in a freer country and were ready to sacrifice all for their new homeland — it didn't surprise Herbert that Manitoulin and her older sisters Anticosti, Moresby, Graham and Baffin had been commissioned so swiftly. And with eleven more of the class — Wait! Twelve are coming...! Herbert corrected himself on remembering what happened to HMCS Glace Bay nearly two months ago — soon to commission in, the RCN would be able to send a considerable force over to Europe to clear out the mines strewn around the coastline and harbours by the Kriegsmarine to ensure the land forces could press on and damn hell WIN this blasted war...

His attention was caught when the open-voice wireless mounted close to the navigation plot table ahead of the OOW's position clicked on. "...vessel bearing ahead of us, this is French battleship Paris," a voice called out in accented English. "Royal Canadian Navy vessel ahead of us, this is French battleship Paris. Please respond with authentication code."

The officer of the watch, Sub-Lieutenant Jody Sanders from Gore Bay, took up the wireless microphone and put it before her lips. "Grand Cuirassé Paris, voici le Navire Canadien de Sa Majesté Manitoulin," she spoke in the native language of the crew of the approaching Colbert-class dreadnought, now a dark pyramid-like shape dead ahead. "Elle est retrouvée."

"Quoi? L'Éternité."

"C'est la mer allée..."

"...avec le soleil." Laughter then echoed over the waves. "Your French is excellent, Madame! I thought Manitoulin was an English-speaking ship."

"Mon Canada comprend le Québec, Monsieur!" Sanders called back, earning her laughter from crews on both the minehunter and the approaching battleship. After a quick glance at the computer screen displaying everything on the surface to a range of a hundred miles, she nodded. "Maintain course and present speed. We'll wheel around and fall in on your port bow, one cable's distance."

"Understood. Is the weather this lively all the way to the Gulf?"

A laugh responded from the native of Gore Lake. "I'll put it this way, sir: You're not on Lake Superior in November!"

Rueful laughter escaped the others on the bridge as Herbert gave some them a curious look. What the ruddy hell does THAT mean...?!

"Bridge, Sonar!"

Sanders reached over to tap for intraship communications. "Bridge, go!"

"Sonar contact, bearing one-one-six, range eight-six-oh-oh metres, depth thirty, course two-seven-two, speed eight. Designate contact Spirit-Nine. She's heading right at Paris, ma'am," the master seaman in charge of Manitoulin's considerable underwater sensory — Herbert immediately thought "ASDIC" when he thought about that system even if the Canadians more often preferred to use a passive sensory approach than go active — announced. "Engine noise makes her a Type Seven, possibly Seven-Bravo."

"Shit!" Jones snapped. "Action stations!"

"Action stations, aye!" the boatswain mate of the watch called back.

As the alarm sounded off, Herbert grabbed the safety rail as Sanders ordered the powerful little ship over to starboard to get her into the wind...

****

Nearly nine kilometres away...

"Captain! Second vessel is moving to starboard! Increasing speed!"

"What engine type?"

The sonar operator manning Kriegsmarineschiff U-47's gruppenhorchgerät shook his head. "Sounds like diesel drive, but it..." He shook his head again. "The propellers sound as if they're in tunnels...!"

"Periscope depth! Five degrees up!"

"Five degrees up, sir!" the helmsman called back.

Immediately, one of the surviving commanders of Karl Dönitz's well-trained silent service moved to bring up the well-oiled optical pipe to gaze at what just entered his chosen battle zone. Having survived a harrowing cruise around the British Isles — often hovering underwater without moving whenever ANYTHING that sounded like any of those accursed Halifax-class ships was in the area with their damned Cyclones that could pick off a submarine with ease — in hope of doing ANYTHING to impede sea trade between Canada and her allies, Korvettenkapitän Günther Prien relaxed himself as he peered through the lens. Picking out his original target — sinking the old French battleship so far from home wouldn't really do much in the long term, but it would send a message that the Kriegsmarine was still in the game even if they just had a few handfuls of U-boats left — he then swept to port to focus on...

What on Earth...?!

Prien scowled. Having done something of a short-range reconnaissance of the area around the Grand Banks, he had seen several vessels of this type operating close to those huge steel oil rigs anchored into the ocean bed. While having not attacked them, he noted they were relatively slow craft obviously meant for cargo or equipment delivery to the platforms. He had been tempted to strike at one, but that would have raised a hornet's nest from the Canadians; Prien wasn't going to push matters given that he still wanted to have enough fuel to return home or at least make neutral Spain for internment. Yet...!

A hum escaped the native of Osterfeld as he took in the details. Yes, she was in the pearl grey of a Royal Canadian Navy vessel, pendant 715 under the bridge. One gun mount forward — smaller that the souped-up Bofors mounted on a Halifax — a large cargo shed amidships tucked into twin funnels and mine sweeping gear aft. "A minesweeper...?" he then chuckled before taking a casual look around.

"The only such craft the Canadians have are those small 700-series vessels," the executive officer noted as Prien finished his scan, then gestured to have the scope lowered; he had made sure that U-47 had levelled off perfectly as could now be noticed by the craft's rocking in the near-surface swell.

"Obviously a new class. We'll still proceed, then break east and go deep," Prien calmly advised. "Make depth fifty metres for torpedo attack!"

With that, the submarine responsible for the sinking of HMS Royal Oak began her descent...

****

Aboard Manitoulin...

"Bridge, Sonar, she's diving! Still on course to intercept Paris!"

"Idiot!" Jones snarled. "Wheel up the hangar! Get that whirlybird airborne!"

"Aye, sir!" Sanders called back. "Boatswain's mate, flight stations!"

"Flight stations, aye, ma'am!"

****

Four kilometres away...

As lookouts on Paris watched, the block-shaped segmented structure after of Manitoulin's twin funnels began to retract forward, revealing something that had come to scare the bedevil out of any German submarine commander, especially if the commanding officer of any Halifax-class frigate decided to play a game of cat and mouse with the accursed sharks that would have tried to starve Britain into submission had history gone the "old" path, with France prostrate before the Nazi monsters and their chief ally alone. As soon as it was safe when the CH-148 Cyclone tied to the doughty minehunter's deck was clear of obstruction, its tail assembly and five-bladed propeller were unfolded for action. One sharp-eyed fellow on the old dreadnought's foretop was quick to note that two torpedoes were being lifted out of a hidden magazine tucked under the hangar deck to be secured to the helicopter's hull.

Men on the bridge spotted that as well. "Amazing," her captain mused. "If that vessel is meant to hunt mines, why carry an aircraft of all things...?"

"Flexibility?" her executive officer — who had spoken to the minehunter's very nice lady officer on the new wireless system the Canadians had fitted on Paris some months before — proposed. "One of the technicians who helped with the update of our wireless systems stated that minehunters in their version of the war against the Boche more often served as escort ships."

"They're going to launch that thing in this sea?!" the navigation officer wondered.

Silence fell as Manitoulin steadied herself on course just as her helicopter's propellers began to spin rapidly. As the deck crew got clear of the machine after removing all the restraints keeping it tied down, the Cyclone began to buck noticeably; the witnesses on the battleship knew these machines were always brought down via a "beartrap" system built into the flight deck that literally pulled the craft down safely and securely onto its mothership regardless of sea state. After acquiring enough power, the helicopter began to rise from the deck...just as the cable securing it to Manitoulin was winched out to allow her to rise steadily clear of the gyrating hull below her...

****

On Manitoulin...

"Say again, Mark?!"

"Try not to sink this bozo, Lane," Mark Jones ordered to the Air Force lieutenant piloting the Cyclone now having let go of the haul-down line that had secured it to its mothership. "This guy came all the way out HERE unseen and untouched. No sense slaughtering the crew if they made it this far out!"

A laugh answered him. Nearby, even the lone Royal Navy captain on the bridge was nodding at that show of humanity by Manitoulin's captain. "Roger that, sir," Lieutenant Lane Edwards, a junior pilot who trained at 920 "City of Mississauga" Squadron at 8 Wing Detachment Downsview before being assigned as the minehunter's senior pilot and chief air officer called before tilting his machine right towards where the enemy sub was. "What's her depth right now, Carlie?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Spirit-Nine now level at fifty metres, sir!" Corporal Charlene Norton called up from her station.

"Make torpedo depth seventy! Detonate them right under the keel!"

"Roger that, sir!" the junior airborne electronic sensor operator from Parry Sound said with a grin as she tapped controls on the master computer that was now feeding target information into the two Mark 46 Mod 5 torpedoes begin slung by their machine...

****

Underwater, minutes later...

"We have the range now, Captain!"

"Flood tubes!" Prien barked out. "Fire on my mark!"

"Aye, sir...!"

"TORPEDOES IN THE WATER!"

The whole control crew snapped over as one as the operator of U-47's sensory apparatus leaned out of his small work station. "Where?!" Prien barked.

"Bearing two-six-nine, range six thousand metres, depth seventy, speed forty, Captain! Two torpedoes, possible Type Forty-sixes!"

"SCHEISSE! ZYKLON!" the executive officer snapped. "PERISCOPE DEPTH!"

"PERISCOPE DEPTH, AYE!" the helmsman barked as he pulled back on the control column while others moved to vent tanks...

****

Approaching from the west...

"She's going shallow, sir!"

"Keep the fish on her, Carlie!"

"Yessir! This pig boat ain't getting away from MY little kitties!"

The flight crew all laughed on hearing that...

****

Underwater...

"HARD TO PORT! PREPARE TUBES ONE AND TWO!"

People immediately leapt into action as they sensed Prien's intentions now.  He would swing U-47 on the strange Canadian warship and send her down with two torpedoes, depriving that damned hummingbird-like killing machine now obviously homing in on them of a landing platform; there was no way in Hell that not even the most reckless of Canadian pilots would DARE land a CH-148 Cyclone on Paris' cluttered decks! That didn't assure his gruppenhorchgerät operator very much. "Torpedoes shifting to follow and close, Captain! Depth now fifty metres!"

Prien blinked. "Fifty?! You sure?!"

"Ja!"

Relief crossed the faces of many in the submarine's control cabin. "We won't be damaged badly if they detonate, Günther!" the executive officer hissed.

"Inexperienced weapons handlers," the native of Osterfeld declared with a smile. Finally, something going RIGHT for a change! "Bring her directly to bear on the Canadian ship, fire on my command!"

"Jawohl!" many voices chanted back...

****

Approaching from five hundred metres over the waves...

"Oh, no, you don't, you little sneaky mice..." Charlene Norton said as she tapped the roller that controlled the torpedoes own elevators, bringing them up on a slow ascent right at the target submarine's keel, watching on her board as the moving red hollow circle on the display indicated the effective damage wave of her Mark 46s. "Just a bit more...!" she then trilled as the first circle crossed over the target marker an instant before the second torpedo came into blast range.

"Have a fun ride, boys!" she snapped as she hit the detonation switch...

****

Underwater...

The weapons detonated at thirty metres' distance from the submarine's rudder and propeller assembly, causing massive shockwaves to slam into the craft's stern with the force of a tidal wave. U-47 was pitched forward down as her steering vanes and propeller shafts crumpled under such a blow, the waves also cracking massive holes to allow water to blast into her aft compartment containing the electric and diesel motors, not to mention her stern torpedo tube. Up forward, Prien was pitched right into the deckhead from the impact, that snapping his neck before he collapsed in a gasping heap on the deck. The executive officer's eyes went wide on seeing the torrents of water pouring into his boat's most vital space, then he spun around. "VENT ALL TANKS! SURFACE! SURFACE QUICKLY!"

The crew sprang into action as people pulled levers to empty the ballast tanks and send the submarine to the surface while others ran aft to help the engineers get to safety and seal that compartment...

****

On Manitoulin...

"Bridge, Sonar! We got her!"

"Report!" Jody Sanders ordered.

"Detonation of two fish just aft and under her, ma'am. Diesels are shut down and we're hearing both flooding and hull-popping noises...!"

"Submarine surfacing, bearing red six!" a lookout screamed from the open door leading to the port observation platform where one of Manitoulin's pair of M2 machine guns were mounted.

"Main gun's manned?" Mark Jones demanded.

"Aye, sir!"

"Train on her as we approach! Boatswain mate, sound rescue stations!"

"Rescue stations, aye!"

Gonging echoed through the minehunter as Sanders ordered flank speed ahead to approach the just-surfaced and mortally wounded U-boat...

****

In two hours, it was all over...

U-47 would be allowed to sink after the survivors were pulled aboard Manitoulin and Paris for a short trip to Fleet Maintenance Facility Argentia on the southern shores of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. There, the crew would be turned over to the custody of military police personnel assigned to HMCS Fort Carbonear in Saint John's and internment until war's end. Of her crew of sixty officers and men, eight died of wounds taken when the Cyclone's torpedoes had detonated; included among the dead was Günther Prien. To the surprise of the Germans, they had been allowed to retrieve what valuables they had aboard their ship before abandoning it; much to the shock of the submarine's executive officer, all Manitoulin's captain wanted also was U-47's navigation log.

"We've known for DECADES how to break your Enigma codes, Lieutenant," Mark Jones explained to the flustered submariner when he lost all decorum and actually asked the Canadian officer about that.

Much also to the Germans' surprise, the dead recovered from their ship weren't buried at sea but sealed in the minehunter's makeshift morgue, which was one of the cold storage rooms in the keel for perishable foods. Once they arrived at Argentia two days later, the dead were escorted off the ship and turned over to the control of personnel from the office of the provincial Chief Medical Examiner; because of this particular situation, all provinces with coastlines were given the right to have their coroners examine war dead regardless of national origin. After the bodies were released, they would be buried on land in temporary graves until war's end and eventual repatriation to Germany.

To the shock of U-47's survivors, Manitoulin's crew even mounted a proper side party to pipe off their captain's remains as they were carried ashore.

As the prisoners were escorted away from the ship by personnel from Fort Carbonear for processing and eventual dispatch to Saint John's, Jones watched them go from the flight deck just aft of the extended hangar housing his ship's only real offensive weapon. Standing beside him was Sidney Herbert. Sensing what the native of Ashstead wanted to ask, the native of Espanola sighed. "The Royal Oak is avenged, sir. That was the boat who did it."

Herbert started before he grimly nodded. "Given how vicious your Army friends are being to the Waffen SS on the Continent, you surprised me by treating their captain so properly, Mark."

A nod responded. "Sir, I'm nowhere CLOSE to trying to judge someone from Germany because he's part of Hitler's club. All I know right now is that guy — after what he pulled at Scapa in '39 — was gutsy enough to drive his boat out HERE! He probably knew it was high odds that he'd never make it home! His crew knew that as well!" Jones shook his head. "Were they all fanatics? The shore patrol folk will determine that. But you and I both have to admit that being that brave to come that far..."

The veteran engineer nodded. He had seen Jody Sanders' report on U-47's final voyage to the Grand Banks. "True. What now, Captain?"

"I have to write a letter to Admiral Dönitz through the Red Cross in Geneva." Seeing the dropped jaw from Sir Lancelot Holland's squadron chief engineer, Jones chuckled. "As we were coming back, I remembered a story from our version of World War Two I once read about on Wikipedia. Your people and the Royal Marines mounted a raid at Saint-Nazaire in 1942, just a couple months ago our time. Rammed an old American destroyer full of explosives into the Normandie Dock to make sure Tirpitz couldn't use it if she ever broke out of the fjords in Norway. Escort boats that helped guide that tin can in were shot to pieces by the local torpedo boat force. One Marine sergeant stayed at his post even after he was fatally wounded in that fight. The captain of the torpedo boat that took him ashore after it was all done was so impressed, he contacted the senior British commander that was captured and recommended a proper bravery decoration for what that sergeant did. Poor guy — he was a sapper before he went into the Commandos, actually — wound up getting the Cross for it."

At the British engineer's approving nod, the Canadian reserve naval warfare officer who had worked on lakers for Algoma Central in civilian life nodded towards the prisoners being herded off for internment. "Like I said, sir, I'm nowhere close to trying to judge someone for being a Nazi. But if their people are willing to do that for us, shouldn't we be doing the same thing for them?"

Herbert nodded again. "Good point..."

To Be Continued...!

[lordroel]

May 26, 2019 21:19:37 GMT pyeknu said:

Apologies for the delay, but I wasn't really feeling up to the mood to write stories.  I'm doing that now.

Oh, another apology:  HMS Hood won't appear in this one.  I got my dates and times mixed up and decided to delay this story to May of 1941.  HMCS Manitoulin is in this story, having just been commissioned a couple months before.  I subbed in the French dreadnought GC Paris instead.

Anyhow...

****

Side Story: The City of Lights Encounters the Cave of Spirits...!


On the North Atlantic, approximately 700 kilometres southeast of Cape Race on Newfoundland, Thursday 15 May 1941, 2:45 PM (Paris time: 7:15 PM)...

"Damn! She's got a lovely ride, doesn't she?!"

"Lot better than the Flower-class ships could be in these types of sea, sir!"

A laugh escaped the second-class chief petty officer that just stepped onto the pilotage platform of His Majesty's Canadian Ship Manitoulin. "Hah! Bite your tongue, Jackson!" the ship's coxswain snapped at the leading seaman at the helm of the heavily-modified platform support vessel that had been re-purposed as both minesweeper and mine hunter...never mind her being able to carry a helicopter of all things in a pinch as well! "This is NOTHING compared to when the Witch of November hits Superior!"

Rue laughter escaped the other Canadians on the bridge of the fifth of the Anticosti-class mine warfare ships and the first ship built at Thunder Bay from keel up in decades. Standing close to where the officer of the watch was at the front centre of the futuristic control platform for the six thousand tonne craft, Captain (Engineering) Sidney Herbert could only shake his head at such banter between the various ranks on the bridge of Lieutenant (Navy) Mark Jones' command. Then again, given that all personnel on Manitoulin were members of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve — a good number just fresh out of training at the stone frigate serving as the minehunter's parent ship, HMCS Wanapitei — the familiarity which would have had the master-at-arms, the chief boatswain's mate and the regulating petty officer on Herbert's last ship spitting fire in outrage was understandable. Obviously, in the seventy years and more that the Canadian senior service evolved since "round one" of the Second World War, the need for such rigid discipline even in a war zone was now seen as unnecessary.

Shaking his head as he shifted his footing to remain steady on the heaving deck — Manitoulin was currently heading east in a choppy northwest sea, with waves crashing over the rounded edge of her up-swept bow; given her design had been based on a support craft for those offshore oil rigs Herbert had seen off Newfoundland in previous voyages, that she could handle worse than sea state five said much to the fine architects and engineers at Fleet Maintenance Facilities Niagara and Thunder Bay — the senior engineer on Vice Admiral Sir Lancelot Holland's staff brought up his binoculars to scan the partially cloudy day to the east. The minehunter had been built at the astonishing speed of eight months from keel laying to commissioning at Sault Sainte Marie; given it was what the Canadians called a MILCOTS — "military commercial off the shelf" — concept before being reworked, it didn't surprise the native of Ashstead in Surrey that she and her sisters had got into the water so fast. Hearing the horror stories of how far down Canadian shipbuilding dropped before the Shift — then gaping in awe at how fast the Dominion recovered after that, especially with the assistance of tidal waves of Americans who came north to work in a freer country and were ready to sacrifice all for their new homeland — it didn't surprise Herbert that Manitoulin and her older sisters Anticosti, Moresby, Graham and Baffin had been commissioned so swiftly. And with eleven more of the class — Wait! Twelve are coming...! Herbert corrected himself on remembering what happened to HMCS Glace Bay nearly two months ago — soon to commission in, the RCN would be able to send a considerable force over to Europe to clear out the mines strewn around the coastline and harbours by the Kriegsmarine to ensure the land forces could press on and damn hell WIN this blasted war...

His attention was caught when the open-voice wireless mounted close to the navigation plot table ahead of the OOW's position clicked on. "...vessel bearing ahead of us, this is French battleship Paris," a voice called out in accented English. "Royal Canadian Navy vessel ahead of us, this is French battleship Paris. Please respond with authentication code."

The officer of the watch, Sub-Lieutenant Jody Sanders from Gore Bay, took up the wireless microphone and put it before her lips. "Grand Cuirassé Paris, voici le Navire Canadien de Sa Majesté Manitoulin," she spoke in the native language of the crew of the approaching Colbert-class dreadnought, now a dark pyramid-like shape dead ahead. "Elle est retrouvée."

"Quoi? L'Éternité."

"C'est la mer allée..."

"...avec le soleil." Laughter then echoed over the waves. "Your French is excellent, Madame! I thought Manitoulin was an English-speaking ship."

"Mon Canada comprend le Québec, Monsieur!" Sanders called back, earning her laughter from crews on both the minehunter and the approaching battleship. After a quick glance at the computer screen displaying everything on the surface to a range of a hundred miles, she nodded. "Maintain course and present speed. We'll wheel around and fall in on your port bow, one cable's distance."

"Understood. Is the weather this lively all the way to the Gulf?"

A laugh responded from the native of Gore Lake. "I'll put it this way, sir: You're not on Lake Superior in November!"

Rueful laughter escaped the others on the bridge as Herbert gave some them a curious look. What the ruddy hell does THAT mean...?!

"Bridge, Sonar!"

Sanders reached over to tap for intraship communications. "Bridge, go!"

"Sonar contact, bearing one-one-six, range eight-six-oh-oh metres, depth thirty, course two-seven-two, speed eight. Designate contact Spirit-Nine. She's heading right at Paris, ma'am," the master seaman in charge of Manitoulin's considerable underwater sensory — Herbert immediately thought "ASDIC" when he thought about that system even if the Canadians more often preferred to use a passive sensory approach than go active — announced. "Engine noise makes her a Type Seven, possibly Seven-Bravo."

"Shit!" Jones snapped. "Action stations!"

"Action stations, aye!" the boatswain mate of the watch called back.

As the alarm sounded off, Herbert grabbed the safety rail as Sanders ordered the powerful little ship over to starboard to get her into the wind...

****

Nearly nine kilometres away...

"Captain! Second vessel is moving to starboard! Increasing speed!"

"What engine type?"

The sonar operator manning Kriegsmarineschiff U-47's gruppenhorchgerät shook his head. "Sounds like diesel drive, but it..." He shook his head again. "The propellers sound as if they're in tunnels...!"

"Periscope depth! Five degrees up!"

"Five degrees up, sir!" the helmsman called back.

Immediately, one of the surviving commanders of Karl Dönitz's well-trained silent service moved to bring up the well-oiled optical pipe to gaze at what just entered his chosen battle zone. Having survived a harrowing cruise around the British Isles — often hovering underwater without moving whenever ANYTHING that sounded like any of those accursed Halifax-class ships was in the area with their damned Cyclones that could pick off a submarine with ease — in hope of doing ANYTHING to impede sea trade between Canada and her allies, Korvettenkapitän Günther Prien relaxed himself as he peered through the lens. Picking out his original target — sinking the old French battleship so far from home wouldn't really do much in the long term, but it would send a message that the Kriegsmarine was still in the game even if they just had a few handfuls of U-boats left — he then swept to port to focus on...

What on Earth...?!

Prien scowled. Having done something of a short-range reconnaissance of the area around the Grand Banks, he had seen several vessels of this type operating close to those huge steel oil rigs anchored into the ocean bed. While having not attacked them, he noted they were relatively slow craft obviously meant for cargo or equipment delivery to the platforms. He had been tempted to strike at one, but that would have raised a hornet's nest from the Canadians; Prien wasn't going to push matters given that he still wanted to have enough fuel to return home or at least make neutral Spain for internment. Yet...!

A hum escaped the native of Osterfeld as he took in the details. Yes, she was in the pearl grey of a Royal Canadian Navy vessel, pendant 715 under the bridge. One gun mount forward — smaller that the souped-up Bofors mounted on a Halifax — a large cargo shed amidships tucked into twin funnels and mine sweeping gear aft. "A minesweeper...?" he then chuckled before taking a casual look around.

"The only such craft the Canadians have are those small 700-series vessels," the executive officer noted as Prien finished his scan, then gestured to have the scope lowered; he had made sure that U-47 had levelled off perfectly as could now be noticed by the craft's rocking in the near-surface swell.

"Obviously a new class. We'll still proceed, then break east and go deep," Prien calmly advised. "Make depth fifty metres for torpedo attack!"

With that, the submarine responsible for the sinking of HMS Royal Oak began her descent...

****

Aboard Manitoulin...

"Bridge, Sonar, she's diving! Still on course to intercept Paris!"

"Idiot!" Jones snarled. "Wheel up the hangar! Get that whirlybird airborne!"

"Aye, sir!" Sanders called back. "Boatswain's mate, flight stations!"

"Flight stations, aye, ma'am!"

****

Four kilometres away...

As lookouts on Paris watched, the block-shaped segmented structure after of Manitoulin's twin funnels began to retract forward, revealing something that had come to scare the bedevil out of any German submarine commander, especially if the commanding officer of any Halifax-class frigate decided to play a game of cat and mouse with the accursed sharks that would have tried to starve Britain into submission had history gone the "old" path, with France prostrate before the Nazi monsters and their chief ally alone. As soon as it was safe when the CH-148 Cyclone tied to the doughty minehunter's deck was clear of obstruction, its tail assembly and five-bladed propeller were unfolded for action. One sharp-eyed fellow on the old dreadnought's foretop was quick to note that two torpedoes were being lifted out of a hidden magazine tucked under the hangar deck to be secured to the helicopter's hull.

Men on the bridge spotted that as well. "Amazing," her captain mused. "If that vessel is meant to hunt mines, why carry an aircraft of all things...?"

"Flexibility?" her executive officer — who had spoken to the minehunter's very nice lady officer on the new wireless system the Canadians had fitted on Paris some months before — proposed. "One of the technicians who helped with the update of our wireless systems stated that minehunters in their version of the war against the Boche more often served as escort ships."

"They're going to launch that thing in this sea?!" the navigation officer wondered.

Silence fell as Manitoulin steadied herself on course just as her helicopter's propellers began to spin rapidly. As the deck crew got clear of the machine after removing all the restraints keeping it tied down, the Cyclone began to buck noticeably; the witnesses on the battleship knew these machines were always brought down via a "beartrap" system built into the flight deck that literally pulled the craft down safely and securely onto its mothership regardless of sea state. After acquiring enough power, the helicopter began to rise from the deck...just as the cable securing it to Manitoulin was winched out to allow her to rise steadily clear of the gyrating hull below her...

****

On Manitoulin...

"Say again, Mark?!"

"Try not to sink this bozo, Lane," Mark Jones ordered to the Air Force lieutenant piloting the Cyclone now having let go of the haul-down line that had secured it to its mothership. "This guy came all the way out HERE unseen and untouched. No sense slaughtering the crew if they made it this far out!"

A laugh answered him. Nearby, even the lone Royal Navy captain on the bridge was nodding at that show of humanity by Manitoulin's captain. "Roger that, sir," Lieutenant Lane Edwards, a junior pilot who trained at 920 "City of Mississauga" Squadron at 8 Wing Detachment Downsview before being assigned as the minehunter's senior pilot and chief air officer called before tilting his machine right towards where the enemy sub was. "What's her depth right now, Carlie?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Spirit-Nine now level at fifty metres, sir!" Corporal Charlene Norton called up from her station.

"Make torpedo depth seventy! Detonate them right under the keel!"

"Roger that, sir!" the junior airborne electronic sensor operator from Parry Sound said with a grin as she tapped controls on the master computer that was now feeding target information into the two Mark 46 Mod 5 torpedoes begin slung by their machine...

****

Underwater, minutes later...

"We have the range now, Captain!"

"Flood tubes!" Prien barked out. "Fire on my mark!"

"Aye, sir...!"

"TORPEDOES IN THE WATER!"

The whole control crew snapped over as one as the operator of U-47's sensory apparatus leaned out of his small work station. "Where?!" Prien barked.

"Bearing two-six-nine, range six thousand metres, depth seventy, speed forty, Captain! Two torpedoes, possible Type Forty-sixes!"

"SCHEISSE! ZYKLON!" the executive officer snapped. "PERISCOPE DEPTH!"

"PERISCOPE DEPTH, AYE!" the helmsman barked as he pulled back on the control column while others moved to vent tanks...

****

Approaching from the west...

"She's going shallow, sir!"

"Keep the fish on her, Carlie!"

"Yessir! This pig boat ain't getting away from MY little kitties!"

The flight crew all laughed on hearing that...

****

Underwater...

"HARD TO PORT! PREPARE TUBES ONE AND TWO!"

People immediately leapt into action as they sensed Prien's intentions now.  He would swing U-47 on the strange Canadian warship and send her down with two torpedoes, depriving that damned hummingbird-like killing machine now obviously homing in on them of a landing platform; there was no way in Hell that not even the most reckless of Canadian pilots would DARE land a CH-148 Cyclone on Paris' cluttered decks! That didn't assure his gruppenhorchgerät operator very much. "Torpedoes shifting to follow and close, Captain! Depth now fifty metres!"

Prien blinked. "Fifty?! You sure?!"

"Ja!"

Relief crossed the faces of many in the submarine's control cabin. "We won't be damaged badly if they detonate, Günther!" the executive officer hissed.

"Inexperienced weapons handlers," the native of Osterfeld declared with a smile. Finally, something going RIGHT for a change! "Bring her directly to bear on the Canadian ship, fire on my command!"

"Jawohl!" many voices chanted back...

****

Approaching from five hundred metres over the waves...

"Oh, no, you don't, you little sneaky mice..." Charlene Norton said as she tapped the roller that controlled the torpedoes own elevators, bringing them up on a slow ascent right at the target submarine's keel, watching on her board as the moving red hollow circle on the display indicated the effective damage wave of her Mark 46s. "Just a bit more...!" she then trilled as the first circle crossed over the target marker an instant before the second torpedo came into blast range.

"Have a fun ride, boys!" she snapped as she hit the detonation switch...

****

Underwater...

The weapons detonated at thirty metres' distance from the submarine's rudder and propeller assembly, causing massive shockwaves to slam into the craft's stern with the force of a tidal wave. U-47 was pitched forward down as her steering vanes and propeller shafts crumpled under such a blow, the waves also cracking massive holes to allow water to blast into her aft compartment containing the electric and diesel motors, not to mention her stern torpedo tube. Up forward, Prien was pitched right into the deckhead from the impact, that snapping his neck before he collapsed in a gasping heap on the deck. The executive officer's eyes went wide on seeing the torrents of water pouring into his boat's most vital space, then he spun around. "VENT ALL TANKS! SURFACE! SURFACE QUICKLY!"

The crew sprang into action as people pulled levers to empty the ballast tanks and send the submarine to the surface while others ran aft to help the engineers get to safety and seal that compartment...

****

On Manitoulin...

"Bridge, Sonar! We got her!"

"Report!" Jody Sanders ordered.

"Detonation of two fish just aft and under her, ma'am. Diesels are shut down and we're hearing both flooding and hull-popping noises...!"

"Submarine surfacing, bearing red six!" a lookout screamed from the open door leading to the port observation platform where one of Manitoulin's pair of M2 machine guns were mounted.

"Main gun's manned?" Mark Jones demanded.

"Aye, sir!"

"Train on her as we approach! Boatswain mate, sound rescue stations!"

"Rescue stations, aye!"

Gonging echoed through the minehunter as Sanders ordered flank speed ahead to approach the just-surfaced and mortally wounded U-boat...

****

In two hours, it was all over...

U-47 would be allowed to sink after the survivors were pulled aboard Manitoulin and Paris for a short trip to Fleet Maintenance Facility Argentia on the southern shores of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. There, the crew would be turned over to the custody of military police personnel assigned to HMCS Fort Carbonear in Saint John's and internment until war's end. Of her crew of sixty officers and men, eight died of wounds taken when the Cyclone's torpedoes had detonated; included among the dead was Günther Prien. To the surprise of the Germans, they had been allowed to retrieve what valuables they had aboard their ship before abandoning it; much to the shock of the submarine's executive officer, all Manitoulin's captain wanted also was U-47's navigation log.

"We've known for DECADES how to break your Enigma codes, Lieutenant," Mark Jones explained to the flustered submariner when he lost all decorum and actually asked the Canadian officer about that.

Much also to the Germans' surprise, the dead recovered from their ship weren't buried at sea but sealed in the minehunter's makeshift morgue, which was one of the cold storage rooms in the keel for perishable foods. Once they arrived at Argentia two days later, the dead were escorted off the ship and turned over to the control of personnel from the office of the provincial Chief Medical Examiner; because of this particular situation, all provinces with coastlines were given the right to have their coroners examine war dead regardless of national origin. After the bodies were released, they would be buried on land in temporary graves until war's end and eventual repatriation to Germany.

To the shock of U-47's survivors, Manitoulin's crew even mounted a proper side party to pipe off their captain's remains as they were carried ashore.

As the prisoners were escorted away from the ship by personnel from Fort Carbonear for processing and eventual dispatch to Saint John's, Jones watched them go from the flight deck just aft of the extended hangar housing his ship's only real offensive weapon. Standing beside him was Sidney Herbert. Sensing what the native of Ashstead wanted to ask, the native of Espanola sighed. "The Royal Oak is avenged, sir. That was the boat who did it."

Herbert started before he grimly nodded. "Given how vicious your Army friends are being to the Waffen SS on the Continent, you surprised me by treating their captain so properly, Mark."

A nod responded. "Sir, I'm nowhere CLOSE to trying to judge someone from Germany because he's part of Hitler's club. All I know right now is that guy — after what he pulled at Scapa in '39 — was gutsy enough to drive his boat out HERE! He probably knew it was high odds that he'd never make it home! His crew knew that as well!" Jones shook his head. "Were they all fanatics? The shore patrol folk will determine that. But you and I both have to admit that being that brave to come that far..."

The veteran engineer nodded. He had seen Jody Sanders' report on U-47's final voyage to the Grand Banks. "True. What now, Captain?"

"I have to write a letter to Admiral Dönitz through the Red Cross in Geneva." Seeing the dropped jaw from Sir Lancelot Holland's squadron chief engineer, Jones chuckled. "As we were coming back, I remembered a story from our version of World War Two I once read about on Wikipedia. Your people and the Royal Marines mounted a raid at Saint-Nazaire in 1942, just a couple months ago our time. Rammed an old American destroyer full of explosives into the Normandie Dock to make sure Tirpitz couldn't use it if she ever brok@pyeknue out of the fjords in Norway. Escort boats that helped guide that tin can in were shot to pieces by the local torpedo boat force. One Marine sergeant stayed at his post even after he was fatally wounded in that fight. The captain of the torpedo boat that took him ashore after it was all done was so impressed, he contacted the senior British commander that was captured and recommended a proper bravery decoration for what that sergeant did. Poor guy — he was a sapper before he went into the Commandos, actually — wound up getting the Cross for it."

At the British engineer's approving nod, the Canadian reserve naval warfare officer who had worked on lakers for Algoma Central in civilian life nodded towards the prisoners being herded off for internment. "Like I said, sir, I'm nowhere close to trying to judge someone for being a Nazi. But if their people are willing to do that for us, shouldn't we be doing the same thing for them?"

Herbert nodded again. "Good point..."

To Be Continued...!

Nice story

[pyeknu]

Quick question to everyone: In talks to expand the Saint Lawrence Seaway, how big should the new locks be? New Panamax size? Even bigger?

[redrobin65]

Jun 2, 2019 19:24:45 GMT pyeknu said:

Quick question to everyone: In talks to expand the Saint Lawrence Seaway, how big should the new locks be? New Panamax size? Even bigger?

Probably Panamax, but why would the gov't want to expand the Seaway now? It would be very expensive and detrimental to local ecology. A good amount of merchant shipping can travel partway down the system, and with the smaller size of current merchant shipping, more would be able to do so for the time being.

[redrobin65]

March 20th, 1941, Duisburg, Germany

Canadian troops had landed on the eastern side of the Rhine on the 19th, and were advancing at a steady pace. II Corps was supposed to destroy German forces in the city before marching eastwards.
Duisburg was defended by the German 45th Infantry Division, which was one of the better formations in the Heer. Though they suffered from most of the German Army’s logistical and manpower problems, morale in the 45th was reasonable. In addition, the division wasn’t made up of barely-trained conscripts; they had seen combat in Belgium the previous year.

The Canadian 5th Mechanized Division was mostly made up of pre-Shift reservists and new recruits. Coming from the Maritime provinces, the 5th was tasked with capturing Duisburg. Though they were well-equipped and trained, many of the troops were inexperienced.

The Germans had put up quite a fight when the Canadians crossed the Rhine on the 19th. The 13th Brigade was in the center with the 14th and 15th on the northern and southern flanks. The 45th Division had managed to hold up the Canadian attackers at the Rhine for about forty minutes before the defending battalions were pulverized by concentrated artillery and airstrikes.

The Canadians advanced throughout the day, facing stiff resistance from the Germans. German troops used the tight alleyways and ruined buildings to rain down fire on the attackers. The Canadians, by contrast, called in artillery and airstrikes to wipe out entire city blocks.

The fighting in Duisburg continued throughout the night, with the Germans being pushed to the center of the city. Canada’s technological advantages over Germany regarding fighting in the dark were showing; night vision equipment was of great help to the attackers.

The 5th Division won the Battle of Duisburg at 11:30 AM on the 20th when the 45th Division withdrew from the city. The Germans had suffered more than 2,000 casualties; the Canadians 390. The 5th Division would rest before moving eastwards.


Canadian wounded being evacuated by helicopter.

Dusseldorf had fallen to the 4th Canadian Division, who, with the rest of I Corps, were making much better progress than their counterparts to the north of them. Moving east, the Canadians repelled several German counterattacks before surrounding Wuppertal early in the morning of the 21st, trapping two German infantry divisions.

This left the German VI Corps in an awkward position. Their pair of infantry divisions, the 211th and 293rd, were encircled in Wuppertal, leaving only the 12th Panzer Division outside the city. The Panzer force was ordered to break through the cordon and allow the rest of VI Corps to escape.

The 12th attacked just after noon, with its two regiments (the 25th and 26th) pushing in the direction of Schwelm, which was defended by elements of the 11th Armoured Brigade-Group. The German attack quickly bogged down. The new Cougar C2s used by The Elgin Regiment and the anti-tank missiles from 1st Battalion, The Essex and Kent Scottish destroyed many of the Panzer 35/38ts that the Germans used before they could even get into range. The two small infantry battalions attached to the 12th Panzer Division were unable to make much progress in the face of heavy Canadian resistance. Two hours later, the commander of the 12th Division called off the attack, having lost 120 tanks and thousands of men. Low on ammunition, food, and fuel, the German divisions trapped in Wuppertal surrendered at 5:00 PM.

The mixed Allied Army had made admirable progress as well. Australian troops had captured Cologne, pushing the German formations in their path eastwards. The German First Army was in a lot of trouble here; their XXI Corps was facing off against a mixed Polish, South African, and French corps that was double its size.

French troops were pushing towards major German cities like Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The Armee de l’Air was able to strike targets with total impunity due to the absence of the Luftwaffe. Germany’s trio of field armies in this sector were outnumbered and outgunned by the seven French armies coming their way.

March 21st, 1941, Flensburg, Germany

They were never supposed to be fighting on land; they were supposed to be at sea! Unfortunately for them, here they were.

The 1st Kriegsmarine Division had marched northwards into Denmark, and was supposed to attack Allied forces, which had not gone very well for them. Marching in columns due to the lack of vehicles, the Navy Division was spotted by an RAF Blenheim returning from a bombing run, and radioed the sighting of the troops. Dozens of Allied aircraft homed in for their bombing and strafing runs. Artillery got in on the action too, pummeling the sailors as they desperately took cover.

The sailors had had enough, and retreated back to Flensburg while being pursed by Allied troops. A brief (failed) stand was made before the Allies approached the city with a request for its surrender. For the men who had seen their comrades blown apart without the ability to do anything about it, the request was gladly accepted.


The Allied NEF in Jutland and Germany, which consisted of Canadian paratroopers with an armoured brigade group, another Norwegian division, and a brigade of Royal Marines, continued to move southwards. Their objective was the Kiel Canal.

[lordroel]

Jun 15, 2019 14:23:42 GMT redrobin65 said:

March 20th, 1941, Duisburg, Germany

Canadian troops had landed on the eastern side of the Rhine on the 19th, and were advancing at a steady pace. II Corps was supposed to destroy German forces in the city before marching eastwards.
Duisburg was defended by the German 45th Infantry Division, which was one of the better formations in the Heer. Though they suffered from most of the German Army’s logistical and manpower problems, morale in the 45th was reasonable. In addition, the division wasn’t made up of barely-trained conscripts; they had seen combat in Belgium the previous year.

The Canadian 5th Mechanized Division was mostly made up of pre-Shift reservists and new recruits. Coming from the Maritime provinces, the 5th was tasked with capturing Duisburg. Though they were well-equipped and trained, many of the troops were inexperienced.

The Germans had put up quite a fight when the Canadians crossed the Rhine on the 19th. The 13th Brigade was in the center with the 14th and 15th on the northern and southern flanks. The 45th Division had managed to hold up the Canadian attackers at the Rhine for about forty minutes before the defending battalions were pulverized by concentrated artillery and airstrikes.

The Canadians advanced throughout the day, facing stiff resistance from the Germans. Many LAVs fell victim to anti-tank guns hidden in the rubble. German troops used the tight alleyways and ruined buildings to rain down fire on the attackers. The Canadians, by contrast, called in artillery and airstrikes to wipe out entire city blocks.

The fighting in Duisburg continued throughout the night, with the Germans being pushed to the center of the city. Canada’s technological advantages over Germany regarding fighting in the dark were showing; night vision equipment was of great help to the attackers.

The 5th Division won the Battle of Duisburg at 11:30 AM on the 20th when the 45th Division withdrew from the city. The Germans had suffered more than 2,000 casualties; the Canadians 390. The 5th Division would rest before moving eastwards.


Canadian wounded being evacuated by helicopter.

Dusseldorf had fallen to the 4th Canadian Division, who, with the rest of I Corps, were making much better progress than their counterparts to the north of them. Moving east, the Canadians repelled several German counterattacks before surrounding Wuppertal early in the morning of the 21st, trapping two German infantry divisions.

This left the German VI Corps in an awkward position. Their pair of infantry divisions, the 211th and 293rd, were encircled in Wuppertal, leaving only the 12th Panzer Division outside the city. The Panzer force was ordered to break through the cordon and allow the rest of VI Corps to escape.

The 12th attacked just after noon, with its two regiments (the 25th and 26th) pushing in the direction of Schwelm, which was defended by elements of the 11th Armoured Brigade-Group. The German attack quickly bogged down. The new Cougar C2s used by The Elgin Regiment and the anti-tank missiles from 1st Battalion, The Essex and Kent Scottish destroyed many of the Panzer 35/38ts that the Germans used before they could even get into range. The two small infantry battalions attached to the 12th Panzer Division were unable to make much progress in the face of heavy Canadian resistance. Two hours later, the commander of the 12th Division called off the attack, having lost 120 tanks and thousands of men. Low on ammunition, food, and fuel, the German divisions trapped in Wuppertal surrendered at 5:00 PM.

The mixed Allied Army had made admirable progress as well. Australian troops had captured Cologne, pushing the German formations in their path eastwards. The German First Army was in a lot of trouble here; their XXI Corps was facing off against a mixed Polish, South African, and French corps that was double its size.

French troops were pushing towards major German cities like Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The Armee de l’Air was able to strike targets with total impunity due to the absence of the Luftwaffe. Germany’s trio of field armies in this sector were outnumbered and outgunned by the seven French armies coming their way.

March 21st, 1941, Flensburg, Germany

They were never supposed to be fighting on land; they were supposed to be at sea! Unfortunately for them, here they were.

The 1st Kriegsmarine Division had marched northwards into Denmark, and was supposed to attack Allied forces, which had not gone very well for them. Marching in columns due to the lack of vehicles, the Navy Division was spotted by an RAF Blenheim returning from a bombing run, and radioed the sighting of the troops. Dozens of Allied aircraft homed in for their bombing and strafing runs. Artillery got in on the action too, pummeling the sailors as they desperately took cover.

The sailors had had enough, and retreated back to Flensburg while being pursed by Allied troops. A brief (failed) stand was made before the Allies approached the city with a request for its surrender. For the men who had seen their comrades blown apart without the ability to do anything about it, the request was gladly accepted.


The Allied NEF in Jutland and Germany, which consisted of Canadian paratroopers with an armoured brigade group, another Norwegian division, and a brigade of Royal Marines, continued to move southwards. Their objective was the Kiel Canal.

Great to see a new update redrobin65

Seven French Armies, did they have that amount in 1940 before the fall of France.

[redrobin65]

The French had eight armies, but many were made up from second line formations and not fully trained or equipped. Here, the seven armies are the ones attacking; they have two more at home.

[stevep]

Jun 15, 2019 15:15:20 GMT redrobin65 said:

The French had eight armies, but many were made up from second line formations and not fully trained or equipped. Here, the seven armies are the ones attacking; they have two more at home.

  They haven't suffered the appalling loses of OTL and would have had the chance of recruiting new forces, including from the colonies.  Also with more technology available they would be able to get similar firepower with less men, hence quite possibly the manpower strength of the armies could be smaller while still being at least as powerful if not more so.