The Kriegsmarine Gets Wings

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Chapter Seventeen

As the battle for Guadalcanal heated up in the Pacific, Allies planned their next move against the Axis in Europe.

The Soviet Union, still fighting for their lives against Nazi Germany, pressured the western Allies to open a second front to divert German forces away from the Soviets.

The Americans wanted to start the new front in occupied France, but the British felt it was too soon to challenge the Nazis in Europe. Instead, the British proposed landing in northwest Africa, which was under the control of the pro-Axis Vichy regime in southern France. The invasion was codenamed Operation Torch.

The Allied forces landed in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers on November 8. Among the warships supporting the invasion was the aircraft carrier USS Ranger. Over the course of three days, Ranger's pilots launched 496 sorties; damaging two French warships and destroying close to 90 Vichy French Air Force aircraft, most of them on the ground. But on November 11, the same day Casablanca capitulated to the Allies, disaster struck the US Navy when Ranger was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-130, going down with 90 of her crew.

Despite the loss of Ranger, Operation Torch was a success for the Allies. By November 12, all of French Morocco and Algeria was brought under the control of the Allies.

Enraged by Vichy France's failure to hold on to North Africa and fearful of an Allied invasion through the French Mediterranean, Hitler ended the de jure independence of the Vichy government, sending the Wehrmacht into Vichy territory and disbanding its armed forces.

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Chapter Eighteen

On October 26, the Battle for Henderson Field came to an end with the IJA repulsed with heavy losses. Faced with another stinging defeat, the Japanese refused to give up on recapturing Guadalcanal. On November 11, the IJN assembled a convoy to deliver soldiers and supplies to Guadalcanal. To clear the way for the convoy, the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, the light cruiser Natori, and 11 destroyers were sent out under Vice Admiral Hiroaki Abe to neutralize the Allied fleet guarding Guadalcanal and bombard Henderson Field.

To counter the Japanese force, the Americans assembled the heavy cruisers USS San Francisco and USS Portland, the light cruisers USS Helena, USS Atlanta, and USS Juneau, and eight destroyers under Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan. The British contributed the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and destroyer HMS Express under Admiral Tom Phillips.

The opposing forces met in the waters off Guadalcanal in the early morning darkness of November 13. The Allied ships first detected the Japanese force on radar at 01:24. Unfortunately, Callaghan failed to take advantage of this, and the range between the Allied and Japanese fleets continued to close. Finally, at 01:48, the Japanese destroyer Akatsuki illuminated Atlanta with her searchlight. Immediately, several ships on both sides opened fire. Callaghan, caught by surprise, gave the order "Odd ships fire to starboard, even ships to port"-forgetting the fact that none of the ships had been assigned numbers. Phillips gave a far more laconic order: "Fire, you fools!"

Akatsuki was the first Japanese ship to come under fire. Her crew managed to get off two torpedoes and a few shells before being overwhelmed by Allied gunfire. She sank shortly before 02:00 with the loss of all but 18 of her crew. However, one of her torpedoes struck Atlanta, seriously damaging her engines. Shortly afterward, the cruiser was hit by gunfire from the Japanese destroyers and Natori-and friendly fire from San Francisco, who was also taking hits. She drifted out of the battlezone as her crew worked frantically to save her.

The destroyer USS Laffey passed in front of Hiei, firing broadsides with all of her guns-even her AA guns-scoring several hits. One 5-inch shell impacted the bridge, killing Abe along with most of the ship's senior crew. Laffey paid the price for her daring attack, being hit by a single 14-inch shell from Hiei and several smaller shells from the Japanese destroyers before being sunk by a torpedo from the destroyer Teruzuki with heavy loss of life.

After being attacked by Laffey, Hiei found herself under fire from Prince of Wales and Repulse. The two British ships pounded her relentlessly. Within 15 minutes of the first 14-inch hit, Hiei was a floating wreck. In turn, Repulse suffered heavy damage herself from gunfire from Hiei and Kirishima.

After nearly 40 minutes of frenzied battle, the two sides disengaged and retreated at 02:26. In addition to Akatsuki, the Japanese lost the destroyer Yuudachi-which had gone down in an intense duel with Portland-and suffered damage to the destroyers Amatsukaze, Ikazuchi, and Murasame. Hiei would be sunk the next morning as she limped towards Rabaul by torpedo bombers from USS Enterprise. On the Allied side, Atlanta was judged to be a total loss and scuttled by her crew the next morning. Juneau and Repulse would be sunk by the submarines I-26 and I-168 respectively while en route to Espiritu Santo (in Juneau's case) and Sydney (in Repulse's case) for repairs. The destroyers USS Barton, USS Cushing, USS Laffey, and USS Monssen were all sunk in the battle, and Portland and San Francisco were temporarily out of action due to battle damage. Rear Admiral Callaghan was dead-killed onboard San Francisco. Fortunately for the Marines on Guadalcanal, the Japanese chose to withdraw the transport convoy. The Allies had again bought more time for Guadalcanal, but at a heavy price.

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Chapter Nineteen

The defeat of Abe's force did nothing to dissuade the IJN from attempting to retake Guadalcanal. On November 14, Vice Admiral Mikawa led a force consisting of the heavy cruisers Choukai, Maya, Kinugasa, and Suzuya along with the light cruiser Isuzu and six destroyers to Guadalcanal to bombard Henderson Field from 01:55 to 02:30. As Mikawa's force retreated at daybreak, it was attacked by aircraft from both Henderson Field and USS Enterprise, sinking Kinugasa and heavily damaging Maya.

At the same time, another Japanese bombardment force centered on Kirishima under Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo was sent to Guadalcanal. Besides Kirishima, the force consisted of the heavy cruisers Takao and Atago, light cruisers Natori and Sendai, and nine destroyers. To counter this force, the Americans sent the battleships USS Washington and USS South Dakota under Rear Admiral Willis Lee, escorted by four destroyers. Once again, the American force was augmented by HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Express.

As Kondo's force approached Guadalcanal on the night of November 14, it was split into several smaller groups. Sendai led the first force along the east shore of Savo Island. Sendai's group spotted the American ships at 23:00. Lee's force briefly engaged Sendai but scored no hits.

At 23:22, the American destroyers began engaging the group led by Natori. The cruiser and her accompanying destroyers responded with gunfire and torpedoes, and within 10 minutes minutes two destroyers-USS Walke and USS Preston-had sunk and a third, USS Benham, had lost her bow to a torpedo hit (she would sink the next day).

Washington and South Dakota engaged the group led by the destroyer Ayanami. As South Dakota steamed towards the Japanese, her electrical system began to malfunction and she became separated from Washington. With most of her vital systems unavailable, South Dakota made an easy target for Kirishima and her escorts. The crippled battleship took several hits from the Japanese guns, inflicting severe damage. In return, her gunners managed to get off a few salvos using local control, scoring hits on Atago and Takao.

Unbeknownst to the Japanese, Washington and Prince of Wales had gotten into a perfect firing position. The two battleships opened fire on Kirishima five minutes after midnight. In seven minutes, Kirishima was hit by nine 16-inch shells from Washington, 17 14-inch shells from Prince of Wales, and close to eighty 5 and 5.25-inch shells from the two ship's seconday batteries. The multiple hits reduced Kirishima to an immobile wreck, and she was finished off by two torpedoes from Express at 00:20, taking 400 men with her-including Vice Admiral Kondo, who was killed by a hit to the bridge.


USS Washington fires on Kirishima.

With Kondo dead, the Japanese fleet retreated at 01:00. In addition to Kirishima, the Japanese lost the destroyer Ayanami. Despite this, the Japanese were eventually able to land around 2,000 troops on Guadalcanal-a small fraction of the original reinforcements sent. The two naval battles off Guadalcanal marked the end of Japanese efforts to reinforce the troops fighting for the island. More importantly, it marked the shift of the Japanese posture from offensive to defensive.

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Chapter Twenty

On November 19, the Soviet Union launched Operation Uranus, aimed at encircling the German forces besieging Stalingrad. The operation started by destroying the Romanian and Hungarian forces protecting the Germans. By November 23, the Sixth Army was totally trapped in the city.

On November 30, the IJN sent eight destroyers to Guadalcanal to deliver food to the IJA troops. The Americans countered with a force consisting of five heavy cruisers and four destroyers. The opposing fleets clashed off Tassafaronga in a furious night action. The Japanese managed to sink the heavy cruiser USS Northampton and severely damage two other cruisers with their torpedoes. In return, the Americans sank the destroyer Takanami. Despite winning a tactical victory over the US Navy, the Japanese failed to resupply the troops on Guadalcanal. Ultimately, the Japanese decided to abandon Guadalcanal on December 31.

On December 10, the keel of HMS Malta, at the time the largest carrier design created by the Royal Navy, was laid down at John Brown & Co. in Clydebank.

Meanwhile in Germany, Hitler formulated Operation Regenbogen, his latest plan to disrupt shipping between Britain and Russia. A force was assembled to intercept the next convoy to Murmansk. The fleet consisted of the battleship Tirpitz-sister ship to the slain Bismarck and a perputual boogeyman to the Admiralty-the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the "pocket battleship" Lützow , the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen, and six destroyers. The force was commanded by Vice Admiral Oskar Kummetz aboard Tirpitz.

On December 22, Convoy JW 51B departed Loche Ewe for Murmansk. The convoy consisted of 15 merchant ships, escorted by the elderly battleship HMS Royal Sovereign the destroyers HMS Onslow, HMS Obedient, HMS Obdurate, HMS Oribi, HMS Orwell, and HMS Achates; the corvettes HMS Rhododendron and HMS Hyderabad; the minesweeper HMS Bramble, and two trawlers under the command of Captain Robert Sherbrooke on Royal Sovereign. Distant cover was provided by the light cruisers HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica under Rear Admiral Robert Burnett.

The German plan called for the fleet to divide in two and attack separately. The group led by Tirpitz would distract the escorts, while the group led by Lützow would attack and sink the merchant ships. Crucially, Hitler ordered Kummetz to avoid any situation that risked damage to his ships.

On December 30, JW 51B was spotted by a U-boat in the Barents Sea. Immediately, Kummetz's force was sent out to intercept it. On December 31, Obdurate spotted Tirpitz and her escorts coming in from the west at 08:20. Immediately, Royal Sovereign, Onslow, Obdurate, and Obedient peeled off to intercept the incoming threat. Orwell, Oribi, Achates, and the corvettes were ordered to stay behind and make smoke. Royal Sovereign's group charged Tirpitz's group guns blazing.

The boldness of the British attack came as a shock to Kummetz, who ordered his group to return fire. Royal Sovereign was the first to register a hit when she landed a 15-inch shell on Tirpitz. In the ensuing melee, Royal Sovereign would take a severe beating but she managed to give as good as she got. Sherbrooke himself was severely injured by shrapnel, at one point being blinded in one eye. To keep the Germans off-balance, the British destroyers repeatedly feigned torpedo attacks, each time driving the Germans further away from the convoy. Meanwhile, Bramble fired on Admiral Hipper with her two 4-inch guns. Hipper returned fire, severely damaging the smaller ship. Bramble continued to fight until she was sunk by the destroyer Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt with all hands.

Meanwhile, Lützow's group found the main body of the convoy and opened fire. However, the smoke screen made finding targets very difficult, and no hits were scored. Oribi detached from the convoy to make a torpedo run on Lützow herself. The destroyer managed to score a single hit on the pocket battleship, severing her bow forward of the forward 11-inch turret. Oribi paid the price for her valor when two 8-inch shells from Prinz Eugen struck her amidships, causing heavy damage. Eugen in turn was hit by a salvo from Orwell that disabled her radar, leaving her blind in the arctic night. Achates for her part continued laying down smoke even as shells from the German destroyers crashed into her. Even the corvettes joined in on the fighting, with Hyderabad peppering the superstructure of Prinz Eugen with her 4-inch guns before being disabled by shells from the German destroyers.

At 11:35, Sheffield and Jamaica joined the fight, scoring several damaging hits on Admiral Hipper and Tirpitz. By this point, Royal Sovereign had been pounded nearly into oblivion. However, she had managed to heavily damage Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and scored quite a few hits on Tirpitz. Royal Sovereign would eventually sink at 11:45 after being hit with torpedoes from the German destroyers, taking nearly a quarter of her crew with her. Meanwhile, Obedient managed to nail Tirpitz with a single torpedo on her bow before being hit by the battleship's secondary guns. At the same time, Oribi was sunk by a German torpedo and Achates went under from accumulated gunfire damage. Finally, Kummetz made the decision to retreat at noon. As the Germans retreated, Eckoldt was sunk by a torpedo from Sheffield, going down with all hands. The order to retreat came too late for Lützow, which was sunk by a torpedo salvo from Jamaica as she attempted to rejoin Kummetz's fleet.


Artist's rendition of the sinking of Friedrich Eckoldt.

The tale of Convoy JW 51B went around quickly in Royal Navy circles. The crews of the ships involved were praised for turning back a superior enemy force. Captain Sherbrooke, who lost an eye in the engagement, was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions in the battle. While there was some consternation over the fact that Tirpitz and the other Kriegsmarine heavies had gotten away, the Admiralty could take comfort in the fact that they would be out of action and no longer a threat for the time being.

Hitler was furious when he learned of the results of the battle. Not only had Kummetz failed to sink any of the merchant ships, he had gotten two of his own ships sunk and several others heavily damaged, all to an inferior force. At this point, Hitler lost all faith in the Kriegsmarine surface fleet, ordering that all surface warships scrapped and that the Kriegsmarine focus solely on U-boats. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, the now-disgraced supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine, resigned and was replaced by Karl Dönitz, the commander of the U-boat arm. Despite being an advocate of submarines over surface warships, Dönitz convinced Hitler to keep the surface fleet as a fleet in being. However, all work on surface warships under construction was stopped, including the carrier conversions.


A still from the 2004 British film Hell on High Water, a dramatization of the Battle of the Barents Sea, where Hitler reacts to the news of Kummetz's defeat. The original scene, where Hitler lashes out at the Kriegsmarine leadership over their so-called weakness and treason, became a pop-cultural phenomenon when YouTube users began making videos that replaced the original subtitles with humorous captions related to current events.

[lordroel]

Keep up the updates, like you timeline very much.

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Chapter Twenty-One

On January 10, 1943, the final phase of the Battle of Stalingrad began when Soviet troops launched an all-out attack against the Sixth Army.

On January 14, Japan began Operation KE, the evacuation of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal. A battalion was delievered to the island to act as a rearguard for the evacuation. On January 20, the Japanese troops began to withdraw westward.

The Allies mistakenly believed that the Japanese were preparing another assault on Guadalcanal. They responded by sending a reinforcement convoy to the island, escorted the heavy cruisers USS Chicago, USS Louisville, and USS Wichita, the light cruisers USS Montpelier, USS Columbia, and USS Cleveland, eight destroyers, and two escort carriers under Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen. USS Enterprise and HMS Indomitable, following 250 miles behind Giffen, provided air cover.

The Allied convoy was detected and tracked by Japanese submarines. On the evening of January 29, 16 G3M bombers attacked Giffen's fleet. The bombers managed to put two torpedoes in Chicago, rendering her immobile. In return, two bombers were lost to American AA fire.


USS Chicago, down by the stern following Japanese torpedo attacks

The next day, as the fleet tug USS Navajo towed Chicago back towards friendly waters, she was attacked again by 11 G4M bombers. This time, the bombers were met by F4Fs from Enterprise and the escort carriers and Supermarine Seafires from Indomitable. Nine out of eleven bombers were shot down by the defending fighters. However, a few G4Ms managed to release their torpedoes. One hit the crippled Chicago, but it fortunately turned out to be a dud. Navajo was not so lucky, being hit by two torpedoes and sinking at 16:20. The destroyer USS La Vellette was also hit by a torpedo in her forward engine room, causing serious damage. Wichita took over towing Chicago, and Giffen's fleet headed back to Nouméa for repairs.

With Giffen's withdrawal, the Japanese were able to evacuate their men from Guadalcanal from February 2 to February 7.

At the same time in Europe, the Battle of Stalingrad ended on February 2 with the German Sixth Army surrendering. Like Guadalcanal did with the Japanese in the Pacific, the defeat at Stalingrad marked the shift of the Wehrmacht from an offensive to defensive posture.

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Chapter Twenty-Two

On March 1, American and Australian bombers sank a Japanese convoy delivering troops to New Guinea in the Bismarck Sea.

On April 18, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was killed when his plane wass shot down by American fighters over Bougainville. His death was a huge blow to the IJN.

By May 1943, the Allies had totally driven the Axis from Africa. Meanwhile, the British and Americans had begun discussing their next move. The Americans favored an immediate invasion of France. The British, on the other hand, wanted to go for the "soft underbelly" of Europe-Fascist Italy. Eventually, the British plan won out.

First, plans were drawn up for the invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky. To keep the Axis from catching on, the Allies began a campaign of deception to convince the Axis that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia. It worked, as the Germans and Italians concentrated their defensive strength on those locations.

On July 9, Allied forces made the first landings on Sicily. The Axis forces resisted furiously, but the Allies pushed on.

On July 25, Italian king Victor Emmanuel III attempted to summon Prime Minister Benito Mussolini for dismissal. Mussolini, however, had sensed that the king had turned against him, and on the morning of July 26, the Italian Royal Family awoke to find themselves under house arrest in the Villa Ada by Italian Army troops. Mussolini proclaimed over radio that the king had suffered a "mental breakdown" and was unfit to rule.

Disaster struck the Royal Navy on the morning of August 2. As HMS Hermes was conducting strikes on airfields in the northwest part of Sicily, she was torpedoed and sunk by the U-boat U-505. After sinking the carrier, U-505 made a quick escape from her escorting destroyers. U-505's commander, Peter Zschech, later claimed to have sunk an Illustrious-class carrier.

By August 17, the Allies had secured Sicily. The Allies then began preparing for the invasion of mainland Italy.

On August 30, HMS Implacable was commissioned. Her sister ship HMS Indefatigable would be commissioned on September 18.

On September 3, the first Allied landing, codenamed Operation Baytown, was made at Calabria.

On September 8, as the Allies prepared landings at Salerno and Taranto the Regia Marina gathered a force in a desperate attempt to stop the invasion. Led by Admiral Carlo Bergamini aboard the battleship Roma, the force consisted of the three Littorio-class battleships-Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, and Roma-the WWI-vintage battleship Andrea Doria and her sister ship Caio Duilio, the cruisers Eugenio di Savoia and Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta, and eight destroyers. The fleet set sail from Genoa at 4:30 on the morning of September 9 bound for Salerno, where the bulk of Allied invasion forces were to be landing.

As the Italian fleet got closer, the British sent the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal, HMS Illustrious, HMS Formidable, HMS Inflexible, and the light carrier HMS Unicorn. At 08:00, the Italians found themselves under attack by a wave of 40 Fairey Barracuda torpedo/dive bombers. The battleships found themselves the center of the bomber's attention. Doria was hit by three torpedoes and four bombs, Littorio was hit by four bombs and one torpedo, Duca d'Aosta was torpedoed once, Caio Duilio took four bombs, Veneto was bombed once, and Savoia took three bomb hits. The second wave arrived 30 minutes later. Savoia was torpedoed four times and sank at 08:55. Doria was hit by four more torpedoes and two bombs. Her captain gave the order to abandon ship, and Andrea Doria sank at 08:57. Duca d'Aosta also took heavy damage from dive-bomb attacks.

The third wave of Barracudas arrived at 09:00. At this point, the Regia Aeronautica had finally sent fighters as air cover. However, the third wave had Seafires for fighter escort, and the Italian fighters were driven away with heavy losses. Littorio was torpedoed three more times, leaving her dead in the water. Veneto was hit by two bombs, and Duca d'Aosta was torpedoed twice and sank at 09:14. Two destroyers were also sunk by torpedo attacks.

The final wave of bombers arrived at 09:30. Duilio was hit by two bombs aft of her third turret. The immobile Littorio, her crew still frantically trying to get her steaming again,was hit by an armor-piercing bomb on her no. 4 6-inch turret. The resulting explosion set off a chain reaction that resulted in the magazine for her no. 2 main turret exploding. Littorio split in two and sank at 09:35 with the loss of nearly 1,300 men.


Littorio explosion, photographed from an Italian destroyer.

At that point, the British carriers found themselves under attack themselves by Regia Aeronautica planes, forcing them to suspend strikes to deal with the attacking aircraft. With the air attacks ceasing, Bergamini pressed on with his remaining ships. Three destroyers were sent back to Genoa carrying the survivors of the ships already lost.

At 10:00, Bergamini's force made contact contact with with Vice Admiral A.U. Willis's surface force, consisting of the battleships HMS Warspite, HMS Valiant, HMS Nelson, and HMS Rodney escorted by three cruisers and eight destroyers. Willis crossed the Italians' T, allowing him to bring the full force of his guns to bear on the Italians. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, all three Italian battleships sustained heavy damage. In return, Nelson and Warspite both received multiple hits themselves. At 10:30, Nelson and Rodney launched torpedoes at the Italians. Caio Duilio was hit four times, and Roma received three hits. The two crippled ships were finished off by torpedoes from the destroyers. Bergamini went down with Roma. At that point, Veneto and the remaining destroyers disengaged and limped back to Genoa. After the battle, Nelson was detached from the fleet and ordered to head back to Gibraltar for repairs. As the Italians retreated, Willis's fleet was attacked at 10:50 four Dornier Do-217 bombers from Sardinia equipped with Fritz-X guided bombs. One penetrated Nelson deck and exploded in her forward magazine. Nelson was blown in two and sank shortly before 11:00 with nearly 1,300 casualties. Warspite also received a hit that detonated in her No. 4 boiler room. She was later towed to Malta for temporary repairs before returning to England.

The news of the Italian defeat reached Rome despite attempts by Mussolini to censor it. Immediately, huge protests broke out all over the city. With the Carabinieri refusing to suppress the citizens' revolt, Mussolini fled Rome for Salo, leaving the Italian Royal Family behind. Immediately, Victor Emmanuel announced the unconditional surrender of the Kingdom of Italy on September 10. Mussolini responded by declaring the abolition of the monarchy and the formation of the Italian Social Republic in Salo. Although Mussolini's republic claimed all of Italy, it only controlled the northernmost third of the country, and even that was only maintained with German help. Meanwhile, German forces in Italy responded to the kingdom's surrender by forcibly disarming the Italian armed forces and continuing the fight against the Allies on their own. Rome was occupied by the Heer and Victor Emmanuel was once again put under house arrest.

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Chapter Twenty-Three

From November 2 to November 11, the Allies conducted a massive bombing assault on the Japanese naval base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain near New Guinea. The raid succeeded in crippling the IJN warships stationed in Rabaul, preventing them from interfering with the Allied invasion of Bougainville. HMS Indomitable was among the Allied carriers participating in the bombing. The Allies would continue to bomb Rabaul regularly for the remainder of the war.

On November 20, USMC troops landed on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. In the ensuing three-day battle, the Marines would take heavy casualties to fanatical Japanese resistance before finally securing the island.

On December 26, Scharnhorst was damaged by the Soviet submarine S-101 while hunting for convoys in the North Sea. The battlecruiser was forced to return to port in Norway, just missing the convoy JW 55B and its escorts-the battleship HMS Duke of York, four cruisers, and nine destroyers.

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Chapter Twenty-Four

On January 22, 1944, the Allies landed in Anzio, the first step to the liberation of Rome. The Allies would advance towards Rome over the next five months, finally liberating the city on June 4.

On February 16, the Allies launched Operation Hailstone, an attack on the Japanese naval and air base on the island of Truk, to keep the IJN from interfering with the invasion of Eniwetok on February 17. HMS Indomitable was among the Allied warships participating in the attack. Her Barracudas sank the light cruiser Katori and destroyer Maikaze. They also crippled the light cruiser Agano, leaving her wide open for a torpedo strike from the submarine USS Skate. Indomitable's airgroup destroyed 40 Japanese aircraft during the raid, further contributing to the draining of the IJN's air arm.

In America, USS Montana was commissioned on February 29.

Back in Europe, the Allies began plans for Operation Overlord, the invasion of occupied France. By May, 1.5 million American troops had arrived in Britain in preparation for the landings,scheduled for June 6. The regions of Normandy in the north and the Côte d'Azur in the south were chosen as the site of the main landings. To ensure lessened resistance from the Germans, the Allies launched a campaign of deception to convince the Germans that the Calais region was the true target of the invasion. As part of this operation, small boats and RAF bombers approached Calais as part of a faux-invasion fleet on the day of the Normandy landings.

In response to the threat of invasion, Hitler ordered the Scharnhorst twins-the only German capital ships in operational condition after repeated British air raids-to leave port in Norway and head towards the Netherlands to be in a position to intercept the invasion fleet. The twins departed Trondheim on the morning of May 5, with a meager escort of three destroyers. The fleet was commanded by Admiral Otto Cillax.

One hour into their journey, Cillax's fleet was spotted by the submarine HMS Vandal. Vandal launched two torpedoes at the fleet, sinking the destroyer Z31. In spite of this, Cillax pressed on.

The next morning, the German fleet was intercepted by an Allied force consisting of the battleships HMS Rodney, HMS Anson, HMS Duke of York, and the French battleship Richelieu, backed up by the cruiser HMS Jamaica and four destroyers under the command of Admiral Bertram Ramsay. The first shots were fired by Rodney at 06:35. The Germans responded, touching off what would be the last big-gun capital ship battle in Royal Navy history.

Gneisenau was the first ship to be hit by British gunfire. In return, her gunners scored hits on Rodney and Duke of York. Scharnhorst's gunners targeted Richelieu, setting off an intense duel with both ships scoring several hits on each other. Anson found herself targeted by the destroyers Z33 and Z37.

Over the next two hours, the two sides hammered at each other with their guns. Though the Germans put up a valiant fight, they were simply outgunned. By 08:45, Scharnhorst was crawling along at nine knots with only a single functional main turret and fires in multiple places and Gneisenau was reduced to two functional secondary turrets. In a last-ditch effort, the twins unleashed torpedoes against the Allied ships. Richelieu was hit once in her bow, and Duke of York was hit twice amidships. The British responded with their own torpedoes in turn. Scharnhorst sank at 09:00, taking 1,905 men with her, including Admiral Cillax. The remaining German ships turned to disengage, but Gneisenau and Z33 were also hit by torpedoes and sank shortly after 09:15. Only Z37 survived to limp back to Norway, ending the naval threat to Operation Overlord.


Torpedomen from HMS Jamaica, credited with delivering the killing blow to Scharnhorst, gather on the deck of the cruiser to celebrate their victory.

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Chapter Twenty-Five

On June 6, Allied forces landed on the shores of Normandy in the largest amphibious military operation in history. Over the next two months, the Allies would fight across northern France over fierce German resistance.

In Britain, HMS Audacious was commissioned in June 8. Her sister ship HMS Irresistible would be commissioned on September 1.


HMS Audacious shortly after her completion

The Audacious class became the first carriers to deploy the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, the De Havilland Vampire


The De Havilland Vampire marked the beginning of a new era in naval aviation

In the Pacific, the US Navy prepared to invade the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands. Taking the island would sever communication links between Japan and its occupied territories, as well as provide a base for the new B-29 strategic bomber to conduct strikes on the Japanese homeland.

On June 12, the US Navy began carrier strikes on the Marianas. The next day, naval bombardment of Saipan began. In response, the IJN gathered a force of six fleet carriers (Shoukaku, Zuikaku, Taihou, Unryuu, Hiyou, Jun'you), five light carriers (Ryuuhou, Chitose, Chiyoda, Nisshin*, Mizuhou*), six battleships (Nagato, Mutsu, Yamato, Musashi, Kongou, Haruna), supported by 17 cruisers, 27 destroyers, 24 submarines, and six oilers under Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa.

Ozawa's force was spotted heading towards the Marianas by the submarine USS Flying Fish on the night of June 15. The sub's crew reported their finding back to the main US Fleet at Saipan. In response, the US Navy gathered Task Force 58 under the command of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher, consisting of eight fleet carriers (USS Enterprise ,USS Hornet, USS Essex, USS Lexington, USS Bon Homme Richard, USS Bunker Hill, USS Yorktown*, USS Wasp), eight light carriers (USS Manila Bay*, USS Cowpens, USS Belleau Wood, USS Bataan, USS Cabot, USS Monterey, USS San Jacinto, USS Princeton) seven battleships (USS Washington, USS North Carolina, USS South Dakota, USS Indiana, USS Alabama, USS Iowa, USS New Jersey), supported by 21 cruisers, 58 destroyers, and 28 submarines. The Royal Navy, as always, contributed with the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, battleship HMS Prince of Wales, and four destroyers.

First contact was made on the morning of June 19, when IJN aircraft flying out of Guam spotted and attacked TF 58. Belleau Wood's F6F fighters were the first to respond to the threat. In the ensuing skirmish, 35 Japanese aircraft were shot down in exchange for one F6F.

At 10:00, American radar picked up a large Japanese strike group moving in. The American carriers launched all available fighters to intercept the Japanese. The first group of F6Fs met the Japanese strike, consisting of 68 aircraft launched from Ozawa's carriers, at 10:36. The Japanese ended up losing 56 aircraft in exchange for only one American aircraft and a single hit on South Dakota. At the same time, a floatplane from Prince of Wales spotted Ozawa's fleet.

At 11:07, a larger strike consisting of 107 aircraft was picked up on American radar. Again, F6Fs intercepted the strike and shot down all but one of the Japanese planes. At the same time, Indomitable-located to the south of both the Japanese and American fleets-launched her own strike, 15 Barracudas escorted by 12 Seafires.

At 11:22, as Shoukaku was recovering planes from the first strike, she was struck by three torpedoes from the submarine USS Cavalla. The torpedo hits started massive fires in her hangar which in turn detonated aircraft ordnance, and Shoukaku sank shortly after noon, taking over a third of her crew with her.

At 13:00, the third wave of Japanese planes was met by American fighters. The Americans managed to shoot down 28 out of 47 planes.

At 13:30, Indomitable's strike arrived over the Japanese fleet. Taihou, Ozawa's flagship, was the first target. The carrier was struck by two armor-piercing bombs. The hits caused a massive explosion that seemed way out of proportion to the ordnance used. Unbeknownst to both the British and her own crew, Taihou had in fact suffered a gas vapor leak from her avgas tanks due to a torpedo hit from the submarine USS Albacore several hours earlier, while the Japanese were launching their second strike. The bombs had ignited the vapors, which had been allowed to spread due to poor damage control. The mortally wounded carrier sank two hours later after a second explosion. Out of a crew of 2,150, only 500 survived. Ozawa briefly considered going down with his ship, but his crew convinced him to evacuate, and he transferred his flag to the destroyer Wakatsuki. The destroyer Samidare was also sunk when her stern was blown off by a bomb hit that detonated her depth charges, going down with only five of her crew surviving. In return, the British lost three Barracudas and two Seafires, while shooting down sixteen A6Ms. When they returned at 15:30, the British pilots found Indomitable under attack by G4M bombers from Yap. The bombers were shot down, but not before Indomitable sustained moderate damage, forcing her to turn back towards Australia for repairs.


A G4M hitting the water and exploding after being shot down by Indomitable's CAP, photographed from one of the screening destroyers.

In the meantime, a fourth Japanese strike, launched between 11:00 and 11:30, had failed to find the Americans and had split and turned towards Guam and Rota. The group bound for Rota, consisting of 18 aircraft, stumbled upon Bunker Hill and went in for the attack, only to be intercepted by her CAP. All but one of the attacking aircraft were shot down, without getting a single hit on Bunker Hill. The Guam-bound group, consisting of 49 aircraft, almost made it but were intercepted by 27 F6Fs while landing. 30 planes were shot down, and the remainder were damaged beyond repair.

At the end of the day, the Japanese had suffered massive casualties in both planes and aircrew. Allied losses were light in comparison-aside from the British planes lost in the attack on Ozawa's fleet, the Americans lost 23 planes to enemy action and six to operational causes.

On June 20, the Americans managed to get the location of Ozawa's fleet and launched a strike of 240 aircraft at 16:30. The American strike reached the Japanese at 18:30. TBFs from Belleau Wood attacked and sank Hiyou, while TBFs and SB2C dive bombers from Hornet sank Mizuho. The remaining Japanese carriers took damage from bomb hits. The Americans lost 20 planes to both Japanese fighters and AA fire while shooting down 35 A6Ms.

As the American planes turned back towards TF 58, many planes began to run out of fuel. 80 aircraft were lost to fuel exhaustion. As night fell, Mitscher ordered the fleet to turn on their searchlights to help the pilots find their way back to the carriers. This was risky because it exposed the carriers to air or submarine attack. Fortunately, Mitscher's decision paid off, and 140 of the aircraft were recovered. Ozawa's force retreated later that night, ending the largest naval air battle in history.

The Allies didn't realize it at the time, but the battle off the Marianas had almost totally defanged the IJN carrier force. With so many planes and pilots lost and little capacity to replace them, the IJN carriers would never threaten the Allies again.

*1. converted into light carrier after Midway
*2. managed to avoid getting sunk by USS Drum and was converted into a light carrier after Midway
*3. OTL USS Hornet CV-12
*4. OTL USS Langley CVL-27. The original Langley managed to avoid getting sunk off Java and was converted into an escort carrier.

[lordroel]

Your are busy, keep it up.

[silentrunner]

Chapter Twenty-Six

On June 13, Germany began attacking Britain with the V-1 Flying Bomb. Over the next four months, 9,521 V-1s would be launched against targets in Britain.

On June 22, the Soviet Union, having succeeded in driving German forces out of most of its territory launched Operation Bagration, an effort to liberate western Belarus. In Ukraine, the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive was started to drive out the remaining Wehrmacht forces, now reduced to holding only the northwest portion of the SR.

In Germany itself, discontent was growing with Hitler in the Wehrmacht. Germany's fortunes had steadily gone south since the defeat at Stalingrad. A plot against Hitler had been taking shape since September 1943. A group of Wehrmacht officers planned to kill Hitler, form a new government, and seek peace with the Western Allies so that Germany could focus on fighting the Soviet Union. The plan was codenamed Operation Valkyrie.

On July 20, Hitler was holding a conference in his Wolf's Lair complex in East Prussia. The plotters sent Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg to the conference with a briefcase containing two bombs. A few minutes into the conference, Stauffenberg excused himself and left his briefcase behind. Shortly after Stauffenberg left, both bombs in the briefcase exploded, killing Hitler and everyone else in the room.


The interior of the Wolf's Lair after the explosion.

In the initial hours after the explosion, confusion reigned across Germany as both the Nazi party leadership and the conspirators rushed to confirm Hitler's death. The plotters went on to the next stage of their plan-getting rid of the Hitler loyalists. However, the Nazi party was not going to give up power so easily.

First, Hitler's death was covered up and orders were issued in his name to resist the plotters. To further the deception, radio broadcasts were made by an actor impersonating Hitler, loudly proclaiming his survival and denouncing the traitors to the Nazi regime.

The ruse worked, as the plotters found no support from the Wehrmacht, whom they assumed would fall in line behind them. By the end of the month, Operation Valkyrie had failed. All of the plotters were rounded up and executed. Hitler was succeeded by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler. Himmler, recognizing that the Allies would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender, vowed to continue the fight.

[silentrunner]

Chapter Twenty-Seven

On August 15, the Allies began Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. The Allied forces would push north over the next month.

On August 25, Paris was liberated by the Allies.

On September 9, the first V-2 rocket hit London, killing three.

On September 10, USS Midway was commissioned. Her sister ship USS Coral Sea would be commissioned on October 27. The third and final ship in the class, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, would be commissioned in April 1946.


USS Midway on her shakedown cruise.

On September 14, the Soviets began the Baltic Offensive to drive the Wehrmacht out of the Baltic republics.

On September 17, the Allies began Operation Market Garden, an attempt to invade Germany via the southern Netherlands. Despite a promising start, the operation turned out to be a dismal failure.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, the US geared up for the liberation of the Philippines. The island of Leyte was selected as the landing zone for the invasion. The landings would covered by Admiral Thomas Kinkaid's Seventh Fleet, consisting of the battleships USS Montana, USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS Mississippi, USS Maryland, and USS West Virginia, 11 cruisers, 86 destroyers, and 16 escort carriers. More distant cover would be provided by the Third Fleet under Admiral William F. Halsey, consisting of nine fleet carriers (USS Hornet, USS Essex, USS Lexington, USS Intrepid, USS Wasp, USS Enterprise, USS Yorktown, USS Ranger*, USS Hancock), six battleships (USS Washington, USS Massachusetts, USS South Dakota, USS Alabama, USS Iowa, USS New Jersey), 15 cruisers, and 58 destroyers.

From October 12 to October 16, the US Navy bombed airfields in Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands to keep aircraft stationed there from interfering with the invasion.

On October 20, US Army forces landed on Leyte. In response, the IJN activated Operation SHO-GO. The operation went as follows: the IJN carriers would lure the American carriers covering the invasion away, allowing two other fleets to converge on Leyte and destroy the invasion forces.

The Japanese fleets involved in the operation would be:

• The Northern Force, under Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, consisting of the fleet carriers Zuikaku and Unryuu, the light carriers Nisshin, Chitose, and Chiyoda, the light cruisers Isuzu, Ooyodo, and Tama, and nine destroyers. Because of the severe losses inflicted on the IJN's air arm, all five carriers had only 150 aircraft between them. They would approach the Philippines from the north to get the attention of the Third Fleet.
• The Center Force, under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, consisting of the battleships Yamato, Musashi, Nagato, Mutsu, Kongou, and Haruna; the battleship/carrier hybrid Shinano; the heavy cruisers Atago, Takao, Maya, Choukai, Haguro, Suzuya, Kumano, Tone, Chikuma, and Ibuki; the light cruisers Noshiro and Yahagi, and 15 destroyers. They would reach Leyte via the San Bernardino Strait to the north.
• The Southern Force, under Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura, consisting of the battleship/seaplane carrier hybrids Fusou and Yamashiro; the heavy cruiser Mikuma; and four destroyers. This fleet would be backed up by the Second Striking Force under Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima consisting of the heavy cruisers Nachi and Ashigara, the light cruiser Abukuma, and four destroyers. They would reach Leyte through the Surigao Strait in the south.
  

The fleets departed from their anchorages-the Northern Force from Japan, the other forces from Brunei-on October 22.

As Kurita's force passed the island of Palawan in the pre-dawn hours of October 23, they were attacked by the submarines USS Darter and USS Dace. Atago and Maya were both torpedoed and sunk rapidly.

On the morning of October 24, the Center Force was spotted entering the Sibuyan Sea and attacked by aircraft from Enterprise and Hornet at around 08:00. At 10:30, more aircraft from Intrepid and Constellation attacked and scored hits on Nagato, Yamato, Musashi, and Shinano. Shinano's air group of eight A6M fighters tried to fend the attackers, but the American pilots swatted them aside mercilessly, shooting down all eight A6Ms while losing only two SB2Cs and one F6F in return. More SB2Cs from Intrepid and Appomattox attacked attacked around 11:00, scoring six hits on Shinano. Minutes later, Shinano was attacked by TBFs, receiving three torpedo hits. Two and a half hours later, 29 aircraft from Essex and Lexington attacked Kurita's fleet. Shinano was hit by four bombs and four torpedoes. The next wave arrived two hours later, once again concentrating on Shinano. The stricken battleship was struck by four bombs and three torpedoes. The final wave arrived a few minutes later, scoring 13 bomb and 11 torpedo hits. At this point, Kurita turned around to escape the air attacks, leaving the mortally wounded Shinano to fend for herself. She would eventually sink at 19:30 while attempting to sail back home. The Americans, for their part, lost 21 aircraft-18 to AA fire in addition to the three shot down by Shinano's fighters. In addition to Shinano, the American pilots also heavily damaged Takao forcing her to turn back towards Japan.

It was a this point that Halsey made a grave mistake. At 16:40, Ozawa's decoy force was spotted by Third Fleet aircraft. Assuming that the Center Force no longer posed a threat and eager to destroy the remnants of Japan's carrier fleet, Halsey decided to go after the Northern Force. Despite having promised earlier to leave Task Force 34-the Third Fleet's battleships-to guard San Bernardino Strait, Halsey, assuming that the enemy carriers had full air wings, ended up taking his battleships with him to provide AA support for his carriers, leaving the San Bernardino Strait open.

Meanwhile, Nishimura's Southern Force steamed towards Surigao Strait with the Second Striking Force close behind. As Gozen was being bombed, a small force of bombers from Enterprise attacked the Southern Force, but inflicted negligible damage. At 22:36, Nishimura found his fleet under attack by PT boats. Now concerned about what lied ahead, Nishimura launched his battleships' E16A floatplanes shortly after midnight to find and bomb any more enemy forces. The strike got off to rough start-out of 22 planes launched, four crashed shortly after takeoff due to spatial disorientation. The remaining eighteen planes stumbled upon the Seventh Fleet's Support Force under Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf, consisting of Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Mississippi, Maryland, and West Virginia, at 02:00. The Japanese pilots went in for the attack. Unfortunately, their night-bombing skills turned out to be lacking-unlike the British, the Japanese relied on the Mark 1 Eyeball instead of radar like the British-and only six bombers managed to hit their targets, two hits on West Virginia, three on Mississippi, and one on Arizona. In return, eight planes were shot down by the battleships' AA. Meanwhile, Nishimura's force continued to endure attacks by PT boats. While the small boats did not inflict any actual damage, they did keep Nishimura off-balance and let Oldendorf know what he was facing. At 03:00, the Southern Force was attacked by destroyers. Fusou and Yamashiro were both torpedoed. Yamashiro was able to keep steaming, but Fusou was brought to a stop and sank thirty minutes later with heavy casualties. Two destroyers were also sunk and a third was crippled and sank later. At 03:16, the surviving ships were picked up by West Virginia's radar. Oldendorf's battleships lined up and crossed the T of the Southern Force. West Virginia opened fire at 03:53 at a range of 22,800 yd, followed by Oklahoma, California, Maryland, and Mississippi, with Arizona being the last to join in. Yamashiro returned fire, but without the superior fire control systems utilized by the American battleships, was unable to score any hits at the extreme range the Americans were firing from. Yamashiro and Mikuma were both crippled by multiple 14 and 16-inch shell hits. Nishimura ordered a retreat, but Yamashiro was torpedoed again as she turned to disengage and sank at 04:20. Both Fusou and Yamashiro suffered heavy loss of life-only 10 crew members from each ship survived to make it back to Japan. More crew survived the actual sinkings only to either drown after refusing rescue by the Americans or get killed by Filipinos after swimming to Leyte. Nishimura was among the dead, haven chosen to go down with Yamashiro. Shima's force, which had become separated from Nishimura in the PT boat attacks which had claimed Abukuma, encountered the survivors of the Southern Force-the destroyer Shigure and cruiser Mikuma-and decided to turn back when they learned of the slaughter the Americans had inflicted on the Southern Force. Mikuma would be sunk by air attack the next morning while limping back to Brunei.

As Nishimura's force was being annihilated near the Surigao Strait, Kurita's Northern Force had turned back around and passed through San Bernardino Strait at 03:00 on October 25.

With the departure of Halsey's Third Fleet, all that stood between Kurita and the Leyte landings was the Seventh Fleet's Task Group 77.4-eighteen escort carriers divided into three groups of six, each group screened by three destroyers and four destroyer escorts. The three groups were codenamed Taffy 1, Taffy 2, and Taffy 3.

The nearest group to the incoming Center Force-Taffy 3 under Rear Admiral Clifton F. Sprague, stationed east of the island of Samar-got wind of the approaching force when a pilot spotted Kurita's ships at 06:37. Taffy 3 consisted of six escort carriers (USS Fanshaw Bay, USS St. Lo, USS Gambier Bay, USS Kalinin Bay, USS Kitkun Bay, and USS White Plains), three destroyers (USS Hoel, USS Heermann, and USS Johnston), and four destroyer escorts (USS John C. Butler, USS Samuel B. Roberts, USS Dennis, and USS Raymond). However, Taffy 3 also had something the other Taffies didn't-USS Montana under Captain Peter K. Fischler, which had assigned to shore bombardment and had been stationed with Taffy 3 by Admiral Kinkaid in a moment of foresight in case any enemy capital ships tried to interfere with the landings.

Immediately, Sprague ordered his escort carriers to launch all available aircraft and for the destroyers and destroyer escorts to make a smoke screen for the carriers. At 07:00, Yamato opened fire at a range of 20 miles. Kurita ordered a "general attack", meaning each of his ships were to pick their targets on their own.

Montana was ordered to draw the attention of the Japanese battleships. At 07:05, she opened fire on the nearest battleship, Musashi, scoring at least three hits before being struck by six 18-inch shells from Yamato and Musashi.

At 07:10, the commading officer of Johnston, Commander Ernest Evans, ordered the ship's crew to steer her towards the Japanese cruiser line. The destroyer released a torpedo salvo. Two torpedoes struck Kumano, causing the bow to separate from the ship. The cruiser immediately fell out of line, with Suzuya stopping to render assistance. Another torpedo struck Nagato, damaging her port propeller shaft. As Johnston turned away, she was struck by an 18-inch shell from either Yamato or Musashi, causing heavy damage. Johnston retreated into a rain squall while her damage control crews worked to get the ship back in fighting condition.

At 07:50, Sprague belatedly ordered the screening destroyers to make torpedo attacks. Hoel loosed a partial torpedo salvo at Mutsu, scoring a hit on her rudder. Seconds later, Hoel was struck by several 8 and 5-inch shells, knocking out three of her 5-inch guns, stopping her port engine, destroying her radar, and depriving her of steering control. Heermann also responded to the order, launching seven torpedoes at the Japanese cruisers, though only one actually found its mark, hitting Haguro. Three more torpedoes were launched against Musashi, one of which hit the forward bow. Heermann's final three torpedoes were directed against Yamato. The massive ship managed to dodge all three, but in the process ended up turning north away from the battle. With Yamato-and Kurita-temporarily out of the battle, the Japanese began to lose the initiative. Montana shifted her fire to Nagato, scoring at least eight hits. Nagato was then hit by two torpedoes from Dennis, while Raymond scored one hit on Musashi and John C. Butler landed a torpedo hit on Haguro.

As Montana continued to duke it out with the Japanese battleships, the cruisers continued their assault on the escort carriers. At 08:10, Chikuma scored the first hits on Gambier Bay. As the carriers' air groups harassed the Japanese with bombs and gunfire, the carriers themselves fought back with their "stingers"-a 5-inch gun mounted on the stern used mainly for AA fire. Meanwhile, the pilots attacked the ships with general-purpose bombs, rockets, and even depth charges.

At 08:15, Samuel B. Roberts scored a torpedo hit on Choukai, hitting the cruiser's starboard shaft and causing her to slow drastically. After that, Roberts engaged Chikuma, scoring several hits on her superstructure. To even the odds, Roberts's crew removed the limiters on her boilers, increasing her top speed from 24 to 28 knots.

At 08:18, Montana was struck by four 16-inch shells from Mutsu. Montana returned the favor, hitting Mutsu with seven 16-inch shells. Johnston joined in, scoring 15 hits of her own.

At 08:40, the crew of Hoel abandoned the battered destroyer after she had taken nearly 50 hits of varying calibers. She would eventually sink at 08:55, the first Taffy 3 ship to sink.

Also at 08:40, the Japanese destroyers attempted a torpedo attack against the escort carriers, Evans ordered the Johnston's crew to intercept them. Johnston succeeded in stopping the torpedo attack, scattering the destroyers with her gunfire.

Meanwhile, Montana continued to fire on the Japanese battleline. Kongou, Musashi, Nagato, and Mutsu had all sustained varying degrees of damage from the lone American battleship. Still, the Japanese had managed to draw some blood. Gambier Bay was on her last legs, and the other carriers had taken hits. But the carriers managed to get in one good hit-a 5-inch shell, generally attributed to White Plains, hit Choukai and detonated her torpedo tubes, further crippling the cruiser.

At 08:51, Kongou finally got a bead on Samuel B. Roberts and scored several damaging hits that doomed the small ship. Roberts was abandoned at 09:35 and sank thirty minutes later. Gambier Bay sank at 09:07 after sustained fire from the cruisers and Yamato.

Though she had contributed to the sinking of Roberts, Kongou's triumph did not last long. At 09:00, another salvo from Montana struck her hard. Her turrets fell silent and her machinery was ruined. Her crew was ordered to scuttle the ship, and at 09:15, Kongou rolled over and sank.

The sinking of Kongou was the last straw for Kurita. The constant air attacks by the pilots and the fanatical resistance of the surface combatants had convinced him that the Third fleet had not in fact taken Ozawa's bait and was actually fighting him right there. At 09:22, Kurita ordered the Center Force to retreat. Nagato and Mutsu, the most heavily damaged battleships, were ordered to return to Brunei while the remaining forces were to head northwest back to Japan. Before they departed, the Center Force sank one last ship-Johnston went under at 10:10 after being surrounded and fired on by several destroyers. The fate of Commander Evans remains unknown to this day-some say he went down with the ship, others say he evacuated but drowned when his lifeboat sank due to shrapnel damage. Task Force 77.4.3. had triumphed and the Leyte invasion forces saved, but at great cost. Four ships had gone down, and the remainder-with the exception of Kitkun Bay and St. Lo-had all taken heavy beatings. Montana had sustained multiple 14, 16, and 18-inch shells, but her superior armor had allowed her to tough it out. As Kurita's force retreated, one of her sailors reportedly said "Damn it, boys, they're getting away!"

While Taffy 3 fought for its life to the south, the Third Fleet met Ozawa's decoy force near Cape Engaño. With only skeletal air groups, the carriers proved to be easy meat for Halsey's fliers. Zuikaku, Nisshin, Chitose, and Chiyoda were all sunk and Unryuu was severely damaged. The cruiser Tama and the destroyers Akizuki and Hatsuzuki were also sunk.


Zuikaku burning after multiple bomb and torpedo hits.

While Halsey mopped up the remnants of the IJN carrier force, Admiral Kinkaid tried desperately to find a solution to Taffy 3's predicament. Kinkaid sent a message to Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz back in Hawaii, asking support from the Third Fleet's battleships. Concerned, Nimitz sent a coded message asking where Halsey's battleships were.

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS.

The parts preceding the "GG" and following the "RR" were meant as security padding, but "The world wonders" was thought to be part of the message and left in by Halsey's radio officer. As a result, Halsey thought Nimitz was berating him for not leaving his battleships to guard the landings and sulked while the battle continued to the south. Finally, Halsey gathered Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, Alabama, and Washington along with three cruisers and eight destroyers and sent them south under the command  of Vice Admiral Willis Lee to catch Kurita's fleet. At the same time, aircraft from Taffy 2 mopped up the crippled Chikuma while Choukai was scuttled by the destroyer Fujinami.

Halsey came too late to catch the main Center Force but he did manage to catch Nagato, Mutsu, and the three destroyers escorting them just east of San Bernardino strait. The two crippled battleships did their best to fend off Halsey's force and actually managed to inflict moderate damage on Iowa and Alabama and light damage on the other American battleships, but the fight with Montana had already taken their toll, and the guns of Iowa and New Jersey together with those of the cruisers and destroyers quickly reduced the already-wounded battleships to floating scrap heaps. Musashi and Nagato were finished shortly after 14:00 by torpedoes from the American destroyers, bringing an end to the last battleship-on-battleship confrontation in history. New Jersey had the honor of being the last battleship in history to score hits on an enemy battleship when she poured a final salvo into the burning Nagato just before she sank.

As Kurita and Ozawa took the remnants of their fleets back to Japan, the Japanese unleashed their new weapons-the kamikaze. At 10:47, as Montana was picking up survivors from Taffy 3's four lost ships, several aircraft came and dived on the escort carriers. St. Lo was struck by an A6M, touching off fires and explosions that destroyed the carrier. Despite the relentless attacks, the crew of Montana managed to rescue nearly 600 sailors from the waters of the Philippine Sea.

In addition to the losses sustained by Taffy 3, the USN lost USS Princeton to land-based dive bombers while attacking airfields on Luzon. Nonetheless, the US Navy had successfully defended the landings on Leyte, and had broken the back of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

* OTL USS Franklin CV-13

[silentrunner]

Chapter Twenty-Eight

As the Allies closed in on Germany from both sides, Himmler formulated a plan that he believed would allow Germany to triumph once and for all.

Himmler believed that an attack on America's civilian population would cause it to turn against the war effort and pressure the American government to agree to an armistice. Without America to support, Himmler reasoned, the rest of the Western Allies would also throw in the towel, freeing up Wehrmacht forces for the Eastern Front.

Preparations for the plan, codenamed Operation Götterdämmerung, began on November 24, when the Germans announced that Peter Strasser had been lost to a fire caused by a plane crashing during a training accident. Photos were produced of the burning carrier. In reality, the burning ship was a passenger liner that had been worked on to superficially resemble an aircraft carrier. The deception worked, as the British assumed that Strasser was no more.

On December 21, Peter Strasser departed Tromsø shortly before 01:00. The carriers' air group had been modified-the Fi-167 compliment was cut in half to make room for five additional Bf-109s and five more Ju-87s. The Fi-167s were fitted out with ASW equipment to defend against Allied submarines. But most importantly, the Ju-87s were loaded with bombs containing tabun gas. Strasser's voyage to the American Eastern Seaboard would take across the North Atlantic, close to the boundary between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans before going south. New York City was selected as the target. Strasser was given just enough fuel for a one-way trip. Once they had launched all of their planes, the crew would surrender the ship and turn themselves over to the Americans, being promised that the German government would negotiate their release after the armistice with America. Nobody worried about recovering the aircrew after the attack-they had all been chosen based on their willingness to die for the Reich. Rear Admiral Erich Bey was chosen to lead the operation.

To ensure that the British didn't catch on to Strasser's departure, Tirpitz set sail from Tromsø ahead of Strasser accompanied by the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen, the light cruiser Köln, and four destroyers under the command of Vice Admiral Helmuth Brinkmann. The decoy force was spotted by RAF reconnaissance aircraft west of Bergen on the morning of December 21. The Royal Navy sent the aircraft carriers HMS Irresistible, HMS Ark Royal, and HMS Implacable, and the light carriers HMS Colossus, HMS Glory, and HMS Ocean, escorted by 10 destroyers. At 11:20, the first strike reached, Brinkmann's force, consisting of 36 Barracudas escorted by 12 Seafires and 16 of the new Vampire jets. Tirpitz was hit by seven bombs and three torpedoes during this strike, while Admiral Scheer took one torpedo and four bombs and Admiral Hipper took two torpedoes. The second wave, arriving shortly before noon, was met by eight Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters. They faced the 10 Vampires in the world's first jet-on-jet air confrontation. Three Vampires were shot down in exchange for four Me-262s. The remaining four managed to get through and shoot down four out of 24 Barracudas before being shot down by either Seafires or Barracuda gunners. The remaining Barracudas pressed on the attack. Tirpitz received four torpedoes and six bombs, Hipper took five bombs, Prinz Eugen was hit by two bombs, and the destroyer Z34 was sunk by two torpedoes. The third wave, consisting of 25 Barracudas escorted by eight Vampires and seven Seafires. Tirpitz was hit by four bombs and four torpedoes, going down at 12:45. Hipper was hit by two torpedoes and two bomb and went under at 12:42, along with the destroyer Z39. The fourth and final wave, consisting of 15 Barracudas, concentrated on Scheer, hitting her with two torpedoes and five bombs. Admiral Scheer sank shortly after 13:00. Finally, the remainder of the decoy force turned around and headed back to Tromsø, confident that they had done their job.


Prinz Eugen photographed in Tromsø, after the liberation of Norway.

On December 29, Strasser finally reached the launching point for her aircraft. The first wave was launched at dawn. By 08:30, all 18 Ju-87s and eight Bf-109 fighter escorts had been launched. The strike encountered its first opposition 50 miles out, as airfields in Connecticut scrambled fighters to meet the incoming threat. During the run to New York, nine Ju-87s and seven Bf-109s were shot down. The surviving aircraft began reaching their targets and dropping their payload over Brooklyn and Queens at 08:40. The bombers struck just as many Americans were heading to work. While many had managed to reach shelter when the air raid sirens, many more were either caught outside or had assumed the sirens were another drill and simply took cover in their cars or the nearest building. When the nerve agent began spreading in the streets, these people were the first to suffer the effects. Within hours of the first bombs landing, nearly 950 people had died from the gas. Many more would die in the following days and others would survive but continue to deal with the after-effects-both physical and mental-for the rest of their lives. In total, seven bombs were dropped on New York. None of the pilots that released the bombs survived-all were shot down shortly after releasing their payload.

Meanwhile, the USAAF had located Strasser and sent 10 B-25 bombers escorted by 15 P-51 fighters. The eight Bf-109s left to provide CAP for Strasser put up a brave fight and managed to shoot down three P-51s and damage one B-25, but the Americans were relentless and pressed the attack. The carrier was hit by three torpedoes and five bombs. Peter Strasser capsized to starboard and sank at 09:20, taking 790 crew with her, including Rear Admiral Bey.

[silentrunner]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Himmler had hoped that Operation Götterdämmerung would shock America into throwing in the towel. Unfortunately, the attack merely strengthened the American public's will to defeat Germany. When Himmler attempted to make a final offer for peace the day after the attacks, a furious President Roosevelt rebuffed him.

In response to the use of chemical weapons on American soil, Roosevelt authorized the use of chemical weapons on German cities. The first German city to feel the wrath of the Americans was Wilhelmshaven. On January 5, 1945, USAAF bombers dropped mustard gas on the city, killing nearly 2,000 people. Before the war was over, nearly three million Germans would die in mustard gas attacks.

While the USAAF rained hell on German cities, the Heer continued the struggle against the Allied armies on the ground. The Battle of the Bulge in Belgium marked the first use of chemical weapons on the ground. Pretty soon, the Western Front resembled the previous World War, with both sides slinging gas at each other. The march to the Rhine became a brutal slog for the Allies. In the east, the Red Army marched across Poland, reaching the Oder River by February 2.

As the Allies closed in Germany from both sides, Himmler was making plans to preserve the German nation after its inevitable defeat...

On March 29, the Western Allies finally crossed the Rhine into the German heartland. Two weeks later, the Red Army mounted an attack on Berlin. The German capital would hold out for five more weeks before surrendering on May 7. The same day, the last German holdouts in northern Italy surrendered. But when the Soviets marched into Berlin, Heinrich Himmler was nowhere to be found. The Fuhrer had last been seen in Kiel on April 14. With his disappearance, there was no German authority left to make an organized surrender to the Allies-individual units would could continue to hold out until May 31, when the last Heer unit surrendered in the ruins of Munich, marking the end of fighting in the European Theater. Himmler's fate would remain a mystery for decades before the full picture was revealed.

In the late 1980s, documents were discovered revealing that Himmler had boarded a Type XXI U-boat and attempted to flee to Argentina. Evidently, he hoped to melt into Argentina's German population, wait until the moment was right, then resurface and make a triumphant return to Germany and take back the reins of power. Whether his plan would have succeeded is extremely doubtful, as the Argentine government would most likely turn him over to the Allies as soon as they realized he was in their midst. But that became a moot point as Himmler's boat-U-3008-failed to arrive at its destination. Three days after Himmler's departure from Kiel, the destroyer HMS Cavalier, conducing ASW patrols in the North Sea west of Denmark, spotted the wake from a U-boat snorkel and attacked with depth charges. In 1992, a submarine wreck was found at the spot of Cavalier's encounter. The wreck was confirmed to be that of U-3008, answering the question of what had happened to Heinrich Himmler.

[silentrunner]

Chapter Thirty

Despite the overwhelming defeat suffered by the IJN at Leyte Gulf, Japan was not ready to give up on Leyte just yet. From November 21 to December 11, 1944, Japanese and American destroyers fought a series of intense skirmishes in Ormoc Bay to the south of Leyte as the Japanese tried to bring reinforcements and supplies to Leyte. The Americans were able to prevent the Japanese from getting through and sank six Japanese destroyers in exchange for losing three destroyers of their own.

On December 20, the Royal Navy launched a raid on oil refineries in Japanese-held Sumatra in the East Indies. Over the next month, three more raids would be launched against Sumatra.


An oil refinery on Sumatra burns after strikes from HMS Indomitable.

Meanwhile, the United States was preparing to invade the island of Iwo Jima to serve as a stepping stone for the eventual invasion of Japan. The island had been subjected to fierce naval and air bombardment since June 15, 1944. D-Day for the invasion was scheduled for February 19, 1945. A small snag was encountered when Rear Admiral William Blandy, the commander of the US Navy forces assigned to provide naval gunfire support, said he could only conduct bombardment for three days before the landing. This was unacceptable to Major General Holland Smith, the man in charge of the landings themselves, who had requested 10 days of bombardment. The Royal Navy lept to the rescue, offering to conduct bombardment for seven days before letting the Americans take over three days before the landings. In his memoirs, Maj. Gen. Smith would express gratitude to the British, contrasting their response with that of the US Navy.From February 9 to February 16, HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Howe shelled Iwo Jima together with four cruisers and six destroyers before the Americans took over on February 16. When D-Day came on February 19, the US Marines landed on Iwo Jima-and were shocked at the fanaticism of the defending Japanese. Over the course of the battle for Iwo Jima, nearly 6,000 Americans would die and over 18,000 would be wounded before the island was declared secure on March 21. In addition to the casualties on the ground, the British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle and American escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea were both sunk by kamikaze attacks on February 21 while providing air support for the Marines. USS Saratoga was also struck and severely damaged by two kamikazes. As the destroyer USS Jenkins tried to render aid, she was sunk by the Japanese submarine RO-500. Saratoga survived, but was forced out of action for the remainder of the war.


USS Bismarck Sea explodes after being struck by kamikaze.

With Iwo Jima subdued, the Americans would turn their attention to the island of Okinawa. The first big landings were made on April 1. The US Navy under Admiral Raymound Spruance provided shore bombardment and air support, while the British carriers, organized as Task Force 57 under Admiral Bernard Rawlings were stationed to the west, attacked airfields on the Sakishima Islands to prevent them from lauching kamikaze attacks against the Americans.

In an attempt to be seen as doing something to fend off the invasion, the IJN formulated Operation Ten-Go. The battleship Musashi-Yamato had briefly been considered, but was passed over due to mechanical trouble-was to head towards Okinawa, beach herself, and fire on the American invaders until she was destroyed. To divert American attention away from Musashi, a decoy force consisting of the carriers Unryuu, Amagi, and Hakuryuu (the aircraft carrier built on the fourth Yamato-class hull) would approach Okinawa from the northwest while Musashi and her escorts approached from the northeast.

On April 6, Musashi, escorted by the light cruiser Yahagi and eight destroyers (Hatsushimo, Kasumi, Yukikaze, Isokaze, Hamakaze, Asashimo, Suzutsuki, and Fuyutsuki)departed from Tokuyama under the command of Vice Admiral Seiichi Ito. Simultaneously, the decoy force under Vice Admiral Ryuunosuke Kusaka departed from Nagasaki escorted by the light cruiser Sakawa and the destroyers Sakura and Tachibana. (According to later Japanese accounts, Kusaka agreed to lead the decoy force to get Itou to agree to the operation.)

On April 7, both Ito and Kusaka's fleets were detected by American reconnaissance aircraft. The presence of two separate enemy fleets posed a dilemma to Spruance. He could send his battleships after Musashi and go after Kusaka's force with their own carriers, but that would leave the Marines on Okinawa deprived of crucial naval gunfire support. Eventually, the decision was made to have the British carriers-HMS Indomitable, HMS Ark Royal, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Glorious, and HMS Audacious-go after Kusaka's fleet, while the American carriers of Task Force 58-USS Midway, USS Yorktown, USS Bennington, USS Essex, USS Bunker Hill, USS Hancock, USS Belleau Wood, USS San Jacinto, and USS Bataan-would tackle Musashi.

The first wave of American aircraft reached Musashi and her escorts at 12:30. Musashi received four bomb hits and three torpedoes. Yahagi was hit by a single torpedo that wrecked her engines. Hamakaze was sunk after receiving one bomb and three torpedo hits. Suzutsuki sustained a torpedo hit that severed her bow.

The next wave of aircraft attack at 13:20. Musashi was struck by five torpedoes and eight bombs. To correct the resulting list, her crew flooded the starboard engine and boiler rooms.

At 14:00 the third and final strike arrived. Yahagi, haven taken a total of six torpedoes and twelve bomb hits, was finished off by one last torpedo. The destroyers Isokaze and Kasumi also sunk after taking several bomb and torpedo hits.. Asashimo was sunk with all hands after falling behind due to engine trouble. Musashi herself took four torpedoes and five bombs. Realizing his ship was doomed, Itou ordered Musashi's crew to abandon ship. As Musashi capsized to port, the fires from the multiple bomb hits reached the magazine for her No. 1 turret, causing a massive explosion that could be seen from up to 100 miles away. According to the memoirs of George H.W. Bush-who was one of the torpedo bomber pilots during the attack-when his rear gunner saw the explosion, he turned to Bush and said "What a sad waste of such a beautiful ship."


Musashi explosion, photographed by an American pilot.

While the Americans were busy with Musashi, the British sailed out to destroy Kusaka's carriers. Kusaka struck first, sending out 30 kamikaze aircraft against Rawlings's fleet. However, the efforts of the British Vampire jet fighters ensured that only one aircraft actually managed to get through, which promptly struck Indefatigable on the aft flight deck. In return, Rawlings sent 60 Barracudas escorted by 15 Vampires and 20 Seafires after the Japanese carriers. The Japanese CAP tried their best to fight off the attackers, but it was no use. All three carriers were sunk, along the destroyer Sakura. In return, the British lost just three Barracudas in exchange for 22 out of the 28 fighters defending the Japanese carriers.

With both fleets having been destroyed, the surviving escorts returned to port. Though victorious, the Allies also sustained a few heavy licks. Several ships were damaged by kamikaze attacks, and HMS Glorious was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58 shortly after launching her contribution to the strike against Kusaka's fleet. Nearly all of the surviving IJN warships would be confined to port for the remainder of the war. President Roosevelt sent his congratulations to Spruance and Rawlings for stopping the naval threat to Okinawa, awarding Presidential Unit Citations to both Task Force 58 and Task Force 57. It would be the last award Roosevelt gave to a Navy unit. On April 12, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. Roosevelt was succeeded by his vice-president, Harry Truman.

With the IJN dead and buried, the ground war continued to rage in Okinawa. Over 12,000 Americans were killed in combat and approximately 34,000 were wounded before the island was declared secured on June 22.

On June 8, the Japanese cruiser Ashigara was torpredoed and sunk by the submarine HMS Trenchant while ferrying IJA troops from Java to Singapore. It was the last sinking of a large IJN warship at sea. On June 15, HMS Indomitable was severely damaged by a kamikaze attack conducted by a Ki-32 bomber which crashed into her island, killing her captain and destroying much of her air traffic control facilities Another kamikaze crashed into her aft elevator shortly afterwards, leaving her unable to bring up planes from the hangar. Indomitable was forced to retire to Australia for repairs, where she would end up sitting out the final months of the war in dry-dock in Darwin.

On July 24, the US Navy launched a strike on the IJN naval base at Kure. The battleships Haruna, Hyuuga, and Ise, the cruisers Aoba, Tone, and Ooyodo were all heavily damaged and ended up partially sunk in the harbor. A second raid on July 28 further damaged the ships, ensuring that the Japanese would never be able to repair them.

In the meantime, the US was searching for a way to defeat Japan without invading. The experience at Iwo Jima and Okinawa had soured the US military on the idea of an invasion of the Home Islands. The answer lied in the atom. On July 16, the first nuclear bomb was detonated in the deserts of New Mexico. On August 2, the city of Hiroshima was destroyed by the "Little Boy" atomic bomb, dropped by the USAAF B-29 bomber "Enola Gay". One week later, the city of Nagasaki was destroyed by the larger "Fat Man" bomb. The advent of the atomic bomb, combined with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the Kurile Islands, convinced the Japanese Emperor Hirohito to announce the surrender of Japan on August 15. Over the next two weeks, Japanese forces throughout Southeast Asia and China would lay down their guns and surrender to the Allies. On September 2, a Japanese delegation met with US General Douglas MacArthur on the deck of USS Montana to sign the official Japanese Instrument of Surrender. After six years and tens of millions of lives lost, World War II had come to an end.

[orvillethird]

Wow- a brilliant and detailed history. How will the peace go? No doubt Germany will get a harsher treatment...

[silentrunner]

Interlude: The fate of Yamato

Yamato came away from her only surface action at Samar heavily battered, but not before getting in some licks of her own. Her gunners were credited with scoring six out of 20 hits on Montana, along with hits on Gambier Bay, Johston, and Hoel, most of the latter two being with her secondary guns.

The Imperial Japanese Navy had originally planned to sortie Yamato to Okinawa to counter the American invasion, but trouble with her engines due to battle damage from Samar nixed that idea. Ultimately, her sister ship Musashi went in her place.

When the US Navy raided Kure in July 1945, Yamato sustained minor damage despite being the biggest target. After the capitulation of Japan, Yamato was turned over to the Allies along with the rest of the surviving IJN fleet. For the next nine months, Yamato was kept in Pearl Harbor as the US Navy studied her. The Americans, having previously thought the Yamato class to carry 16-inch guns, were shocked to learn the true size of Yamato's guns.

Once the Americans were done with Yamato, they planned to use her as a test subject in Operation Crossroads. However, the intervention of several officers-including Rear Admiral Clifton F. Sprague, the commander of the force that fought against her at Samar-ultimately convinced the US Navy to spare Yamato from the Bomb. On New Years Day 1947, after having her battle damage fixed up, Yamato was moored in Pearl Harbor-right next to the wreck of USS Pennsylvania. On April 7, the second anniversary of her sister ship's loss, Yamato was opened to the public as a museum ship. Over the next few years, she would be joined by the Nevada-class battleships, USS Arizona, and USS West Virginia, all survivors of the December 7 attack. Today, the Pearl Harbor Battleship Museum attracts thousands of visitors every year. On Yamato's bridge is a plaque commemorating the casualties on both sides of the Pearl Harbor attack.

[silentrunner]

Chapter Thirty-One

With the end of the Second World War, the Royal Navy began looking to the future.

On September 7, HMS Malta was commissioned. Her sister ship HMS New Zealand was commissioned on October 15. The last two ships in the class, HMS Africa and HMS Gibraltar, would see their entries into service delayed until 1950 and 1951 respectively. The Malta-class was the biggest class of carrier built for the Royal Navy to date, measuring 897 feet long, 115 feet wide, and displacing 58,600 tons at deep load. But more importantly, the Malta-class was the first carrier class built specifically with jet aircraft in mind, with reinforced flight decks and elevators, more powerful catapults, and arresting gear capable of handling the higher landing speeds of jet aircraft.

With the ascendancy of the aircraft carrier, the RN looked to cut loose its big-gun fleet. The elderly Queen Elizabeth class, Revenge class and HMS Renown would all be decommissioned between 1945 and 1948. All would eventually be scrapped save for the legendary HMS Warspite, which was retained as a museum ship in the city of Plymouth where she was built. The slightly younger Nelson-class was decommissioned in 1946 and sent to the breakers. The King George V class would hang around for a little longer, being decommissioned in the early 1950s. Prince of Wales and Duke of York would be preserved in Portsmouth and and Brighton respectively, while the rest were sold for scrap.

The oldest carriers, HMS Argus and HMS Furious, were retired in the autumn of 1945. Argus would be preserved in Ryde while Furious was scrapped. HMS Ark Royal was decommissioned in June 1946 and preserved in Cardiff Bay. Work on the Majestic-class light carriers-a modification of the preceding Colossus class, was suspended. They would eventually be completed in the 1950s and sold to the Commonwealth realms and other foreign navies.

In November 1945, HMS Indomitable returned to Britain. The ship received a hero's welcome due to her exploits in the Far East. She would eventually be decommissioned with the rest of the Illustrious class in 1947, and would remain in mothballs until 1950, when the government of Australia made an offer...

[silentrunner]

Chapter Thirty-Two

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With the end of WWII, Europe began the process of rebuilding.

In Britain, the Labour Party, having came into power in July 1945 under Clement Attlee, began a program of political and economic reform. The beginnings of a welfare state were put in place. Along with domestic reform, the Labour Party also sought to overhaul Britain's Imperial system, starting with the Empire's "Crown Jewel", India. On August 15, 1947, Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act, creating the dominions of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The dominion of Burma would gain independence a year later. The foundations of the British Imperial Commonwealth were laid.

In Italy, King Victor Emmanuel III died of a heart attack on September 19, 1945 and was succeeded by his son Umberto II. A week later Benito Mussolini, who had been imprisoned since the fall of the Italian Social Republic in May, was executed by hanging one week later. King Umberto did much to rehabilitate the Italian monarchy after the taint of the Mussolini years, and would be credited with ensuring the monarchy's survival in the post-war years.