M4A3 with 90mm T26 turret, currently designated XM4G
*****
0600
27 September 1946
Training Field
Pope Airfield, Fort Bragg
Outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina
General Maxwell Taylor was particularly impressed with all the hard work that he and his planners had done in advocating for and utilizing this new and novel method of warfare: the new term coined for it by the powers that be was heliborne vertical troop insertion. General Taylor used a far simpler and more appropriate term: air assault.
Over the past couple of months, General Taylor and his counterparts in the USAAF on this project were working feverishly to convert the newly-reconstituted 13th Airborne Division to Air Assault status, adding the Sikorsky H-19B and Piasecki H-25C helicopters as integral air assets of the division. This move was unprecedented as all air units, regardless of size and mission, were controlled by the USAAF command structure in support of U.S. Army missions. The helicopter aviation regiments would be modeled after the cavalry in that their mobile units would be broken down by squadron, and each squadron was paired with an airborne battalion. Over the past three weeks, General Taylor has had the soldiers and airmen of the 13th Airborne Division (Provisional Air Assault) rigorously drilled, until they worked as a finely-oiled machine. Today would be their final exam and their exhibition to a very select group of generals and admirals, and congressmen, who approved the project, along with the Secretary of War, Robert Patterson. They would not fail.
With the launch of a star flare, the soldiers ran from their staging areas to the waiting, warmed-up, helicopters. As each helicopter was filled with soldiers and their equipment, they received clearance to take off, assuming a moderately dense formation while in flight to their target landing zone. As the helicopters made staggered landings, with H-19's carrying troops and H-25's carrying Jeeps and other light equipment, all offloading in an astonishing amount of time into the landing zone. In a matter of less than an hour, the division was assembled in the landing zone and had begun to establish their defensive perimeter, as they would have under actual combat conditions. General Taylor was rather impressed himself with the performance of the division, as was the Secretary of War, who congratulated the General on his hard work and proposed that he draw up plans to convert two more divisions to “Air Assault” status. With a salute and a handshake, the future of warfare had been changed yet again.
Chapter Twelve:
The Next Level
0630
10 October 1946
Drydock Slips 43 & 44
Newport News Naval Shipyard
Newport News, Virginia
The three experienced men stood amid the loud din of ship construction, and marveled at the two hulking hulls being refitted, at break-neck speed, from their original purpose: Iowa-class battleships. They looked in wondrous awe at the transformation as both ships had been razed to the deck-line, the former BB-65 Illinois and former BB-66 Kentucky were being converted into something resembling aircraft carriers, but different. These ships had been destined for an uncertain future until a couple months ago, and now, with work crews working in absolute secrecy around the clock, the ships were now nearing completion. Any doubt that these ships were bound to the usual protocols of trials and certification were laid to rest by a Presidential order that these ships be completed, and put in service immediately.
There was a test flight of the Army's new helicopters, H-19 and H-25, borrowed by the Navy, on behalf of the Marine Corps. The results were phenomenal. The most amazing part was that the tests were conducted off of three Essex-class aircraft carriers, off the coast of Newport News, Virginia. The irony could not have been lost on the Powers That Be. Three squadrons of 15 helicopters (10 H-19's and 5 H-25's) each were flown from ship to ship, then from ship to shore, in a coordinated operation. All of the helicopters were piloted by freshly-trained Naval Aviators, who passed the Army's new rotary-wing training program at Camp Rucker, Alabama, and in the last exercise, carried full complements of Marines with full combat loads, to disgorge them onto a target zone. To the admirals and Marine generals in attendance, this test was a resoundingly amazing success.
As a result, the two hulls that were destined to be built as modern floating long-range artillery batteries, were now slated to be built as combat assault ships. In other words, these ships were to be helicopter-carrying super-troopships, purpose-built to take the U.S. Marines' fight directly to the heart of the enemy. They would be known as the Peleliu-class Combat Landing Ship (Helicopter). The first two ships of this class would be LPD-1 Peleliu and LPD-2 Iwo Jima. All the while, their crews will be training aboard the three original aircraft carriers the tests were conducted on: CV-13 Franklin, CV-17 Bunker Hill and CV-20 Bennington. In the next stage of the experiment, a couple squadrons of Marine attack aircraft, the new BT2D Skyraiders, are going to be tested aboard each aircraft carrier. It is hoped that the new helicopter carriers would be able carry and coordinate their own close air support.
H-19 Sikorsky
-----
In the much quieter confines of the shipyard superintendent's office, the three men spoke “We need to train as many Marines as possible, both riflemen and aircrew, to fight from these ships as effectively as we hope they can. They are an integral part of the new war plan.” said the Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz. Immediately, the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Alexander Archer Vandergrift, added “I concur, sir. With the new equipment, most especially the helicopters and attack aircraft, we should have an inestimable edge against our technologically-inferior enemy.” This drew questioning looks from Admiral Nimitz and the newly-promoted division commander of the 1st Marine Division, Lieutenant-General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller. “Sirs, I would like to volunteer the 1st Marine Division, less the 4th Marine Regiment, to train aboard these ships. There will need to be a trained cadre before we can deploy these ships. We have had these plans since before the end of the last war, but these helicopters are a useful new tool. To pass up on using them would be worse than negligent: it would be downright criminal. They can help us achieve objectives that much quicker, and lower the casualty rate from that resultant speed. I actually think that the Army has the right idea, for a change. It would behoove us to improve upon their idea.” said General Puller. The CNO and the Commandant of the Corps both nodded their agreement. “I'll have my office cut your division new orders, toot-suite, Chesty, but all the movements have to be kept hush-hush, among us only; no aides or assistants. So that means that the division can only be moved a little at a time, while elements from 5th Marine Division take their place at Camp Lejeune.
You'll also be training in conjunction with the Army's XIII Amphibious Corps” said General Vandergrift. General Puller nodded “Those doggies weren't so bad. They tend to know their stuff when it comes to landing on the beach” “Well, Chesty, if you like that, you're going to love this. The Army, in their infinite wisdom, decided to throw that outfit that liberated that POW camp in the PI last year, the 6th Ranger Battalion, into XIII Amphib Corps' chain of command. So I'd advise you to keep your eye out for Colonel Mucci and his antics” General Vandergrift chuckled. General Puller did not like the sound of the Commandant's chuckle, but as any good Marine would, he kept that to himself.
As the meeting broke up, General Puller noticed that the fan-decks of the converted battlewagons were cropped, and what looked like a loading well or bay, for embarking troops and equipment, was being built into the ships. Having noticed it, he made mention of it to Admiral Nimitz, who said “Son, this is the future of amphibious combat. These will be the flagships of a capital-sized class of first-strike ships. These were being planned during the last war, and now these plans will finally bear deadly fruit.” Generals Vandergrift and Puller nodded their agreement and all three headed back to the Pentagon.
LPD-1 USS Peleliu Receives First Flight of H-25 Helicopte
rs
End of Addendum One
The Red Sky
The Second Battle of Britain
Book Two
Of The
World War Three 1946 Series
First Edition
By
Harry Kellogg III
Copyright © 2014 Harry Kellogg III
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1505273113
ISBN-10:1505273110
I’ve lost another friend recently. He was one of many who inspired me to write. Nobody knew they were influencing me, but many were in their own way. Larry was a gentle man of enormous humor. He was an atheist yet when the time came to die he did it with courage and grace which leads me to believe he must have believed in some kind of afterlife despite his protests. I bet you a donut we will meet again Larry.
A few years ago I lost another friend who spent endless hours in college discussing Alternate History with me as we schooled each other and tried to outfox one another playing military simulations or war games. Chopper was a gentle soul with the heart of a lion who died of kidney failure while waiting for a donor.
This book is dedicated to Larry and Chopper.
To paraphrase:
Keep your friends close and your good friends closer.
Harry
Just a few words of clarification may be in order:
These books are not written in any traditional style. They are a combination of historical facts, oral histories, third person and first person fictional accounts. They read more like an oral history or an entertaining history book complete with footnotes.
There is no hero or character development to speak of. No central character on which the whole novel depends. The story is the story and not the characters. We hear from those who felt, saw, ran, lost, suffered and won. The story is told using the stories of everyday people, the techniques of reporters, oral historians, traditional historians, and politicians. Although told in short stories, vignettes and in an episodic manner, the novel builds on what has gone before.
I was inspired by "The Good War": An Oral History of World War Two by Studs Terkel (1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Fiction) and Cornelius Ryan's wonderful books "The Longest Day" and "A Bridge too Far". I was especially captivated by Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. Where the author explores the history of everyday objects and tells stories that captivate and educate all of us on the history of...well everything. Hopefully I have used their techniques of storytelling competently enough to entertain you for a few days.
Contents
Forward
Timeline for World War Three 1946
First
Prologue
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:
Chapter Fifteen:
Chapter Sixteen:
Chapter Seventeen:
Chapter Eighteen:
Chapter Nineteen:
Chapter Twenty:
Chapter Twenty One:
Chapter Twenty Two:
Forward
Book One - The Red Tide starts with the birth of Sergo Peshkova and ends with the Soviet Red Army in control of the majority of Western Europe and making slow but steady progress in breaking the NATO lines in the Pyrenees Mountains.
Our real departure from history is when Sergo is born in 1896. This is when the ribbons of time start to unravel; slowly at first and then faster and faster until the fateful day in 1943 when Sergo is bullied by Stalin at one of his infamous parties. It seems that Sergo has made himself an expert on all things’ aerospace from gliders to rockets. He has no formal training, but his native intellect and high IQ have enabled him to live through his encounter with the greatest mass murderer since Genghis Kahn and even flourish.
Sergo is what in modern terms would be classified as a social outcast. In another place and time he would have been the village idiot but as our story will show, in this alternate history, he is anything but. He has a genius to conceive of and run an industrial empire, much like a Henry Ford or a William Boeing.
For all his talents Sergo is a recluse that sends memos to Stalin putting his suggestions and ideas to paper, often unable to articulate them in person. Through Stalin, his ideas and dreams grow to fruition and the Soviet aerospace program starts producing weapons capable of defending the Soviet Union from the American B-29 Super Fortress.
Starting early in 1946 the Soviets have delayed the US production of atomic bombs by assignation and then the final solution for the Soviets is a release of the entire supply of US polonium by the spy DELMAR, killing and incapacitating virtually the whole American atomic bomb program brain trust and at the same time destroying the total supply of polonium in the world.
This systematic crippling of the US atomic program and Sergo’s missile defense systems convinced Stalin that the time might be right to fulfill his deepest ambitions and once and for all rid Western Europe of capitalism. Combined with the rapid demobilization of US, French and British forces, he is convinced that the time is right and strikes on May 2nd, 1946.
In a lightning and classic Soviet Deep Battle, the Soviet Armed forces quickly break through the weak and untrained US, British and French occupying forces and run a classic flanking maneuver designed to trap the remaining western forces against the English Channel.
By combining Germany secret weapons programs, stolen US and British inventions Sergo and his captured German scientists and a talented stable of prisoners, saved from the gulag, started to produce the first successful ground to air and air to air guided missiles. Based on the German Wasserfal and X4 programs married with a new guidance system of a stolen US design. The missiles soon proved lethal to America’s first attempts at strategic bombing against the USSR using the atomic bomb.
Unknown to the US and Britain the Soviet spy master Lavrentiy Beria had an extensive spy network throughout the British high command and the US nuclear program. In addition, there were many blue-collar workers in France, England and the US that were sympathetic to the Communist cause.
These maids, cooks and janitors passed on fleeting bits and pieces to the NKVD and by putting all these little snippets of knowledge together the Soviets spy masters could predict where the US major bombing raids would attempt to attack next.
By using this foreknowledge and the few missiles the Soviets had managed to manufacture, it could be made to look like they had thousands. By thwarting the first several USAAF raids with a combination of bluff, guided missiles, Yak, Lag and MiG fighters, they are able to halt the most effective weapon the US has…the strategic bomber.
In an ill-thought-out attack, the US loses one of its remaining atomic bombs when it attempts to bomb Leningrad. Sergo’s missiles are waiting and the raid is intercepted by hundreds of fighters, air to air and ground to air missiles. The losses are heavy and the US suspends its bombing campaign until they find a possible solution. In addition, a heavily damaged but complete unexploded US Mark III atomic bomb is recovered from the water off the coast of Leningrad where it was to have been used to destroy the city.
In a unique use of sea power the newly named North Atlantic Treaty Organization lures the Soviet forces into range of the largest fleet of modern battleships ever assembled. As the immense Soviet armored columns race to crush the few remaining opposing forces in France, a steel curtain of hundreds of 14 and 16 inch shells rains death and destruction on a level only equaled by massive batteries of artillery or possibly an atomic bomb. Caught in the open the Soviet forces are slaughtered.
This only provides respite from the Soviet onslaught for a matter of weeks, however. As the Red Army juggernaut continues
its march to the Mediterranean Sea, the forces of NATO desperately gather behind the imposing peaks of the Pyrenees Mountains on the border of France and Spain and dig in.
In a show of ill-advised nationalism Charles DeGaul breaks away from the French army and with a few divisions’ attempt to halt the Soviet forces on the Maginot Line. They are trapped and almost slaughter to a man. This, however, slows up the Red Army for another crucial few weeks. It is just enough time for the NATO forces to form a very weak defensive line in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain.
The war for air superiority is basically a stalemate with both sides giving as good as they take. Without air superiority, the US and British armor are no match in the open country for the superior numbers and weight of the Soviet heavy tanks and the retreat continues. Finally, the Soviet red wave crashes against the peaks of the Pyrenees Mountains and comes to a crashing halt. The dug in heavy tanks and infantry of the NATO forces combined with the unassailable peaks of the mountains brings the Soviet Army to a slow but steady grinding offensive that temporarily brings pause to their swift advances.
Italy falls to Soviet pressure and Greece will soon follow and become occupied. Stalin is trying for a political solution and attempting to take England out of the war by using the carrot and the stick. This sets the stage for a possible Second Battle of Britain.
Meanwhile, the US is apparently having difficulties convincing its citizens and corporations to make the sacrifices necessary to once again fight to liberate their European cousins. From Finland to Toulouse in France, the iron curtain of Communism has fallen on all of Western Europe as the NATO allies desperately try to counter the sheer size of the forces of the USSR.
***
World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First Page 51
