The Channel Pact - Germany&UK Coop AAR

US strife seemed to be neverending. Failing to conquer Newfoundland by conventional means, US submarines backed up with AOF reinforcements began a sealane interdiction campaign against the British Merchant Fleet. During the month of November, British convoy losses across their entire empire doubled, creating serious problems for the Channel Pact: Both Germany and the United Kingdom were dependant on the vast British convoy fleet, which transported over 80% of all vital goods and apparel used in the Channel Pact war industry.​

USS Tiru

14`20 N, 169`31 W (roughly 250 km south of Johnston Atoll)
20 Jun 1945

It was 03h00 outside, and the sea remained inkily black and quiet. The dull lighting of the sonar glowed in the face of the sonar officer, Ensign Mel Balpend.

“Ping…ping…ping…”

“Ensign,” asked Captain John Philip Cromwell, perched in his chair. He was a Medal of Honor winner from the recon mission to the Cap Verde Islands, having rammed his sub into the British destroyer HMS Quail to protect the secret orders it contained. He and his crew had swam to or been washed ashore and would have been lost or captured, had the Americans not taken the island from the Brits in 1943.

The sonar remained blank.

“Still nothing sir.”

The Tiru, along with two other Balao-class submarines, had been ordered to the Central Line Island gap, between Johnston and Palmyra Atolls, to hunt Channel Pact shipping.

Cromwell fingered his orders, though he had already read through them a dozen times.

4630 NAV ENCRYPT 345

To USS Tiru, USS Scalpin, USS Piper (TF Toenail)
STOP

Orders follow STOP
Proceed to Central Line Islands STOP
Commence convoy raiding operations as of 10 18h00 Jun 1945 STOP
Continue mission until relieved by TF Bootstrap STOP

Actions upon major fleet discovery: radio contact and disengage if able STOP

Commander’s Intent STOP
Sinking Britain’s merchant marine will put a stranglehold on the expansion CP forces, and keep her from supplying an army in the Americas. STOP
Intel states British convoys for Pacific garrisons run west, through the Atlantic and around the southern tip of South America, giving Alliance forces plenty of opportunity for intercept. STOP

Good Luck and Happy Hunting END

0353 NAV ENCRYPT 456

Cromwell lost himself in his thoughts. “Stalking convoys has been very profitable, our wolfpack having sunk two vessels in the last week. From the intercepted and decoded radio traffic, we’re really putting a crimp in those limey bastards plans. We just might be able to win–”

“Contact sir, bearing 175 degrees. They thought they could ditch us by travelling in our wake but we got ‘em!” chirped in Balpend, his enthusiasm cracking his voice.

Several objects had appeared on the sonar aft of the sub.

“All hands, this is the captain speaking. Man your posts, battlestations”

From the pattern on the sonar, it appeared that the convoy was unescorted.

“Come about,” declared Cromwell to his helmsman. ‘Let’s go hunting.”


14`20 N, 169`31 W (roughly 250 km south of Johnston Atoll)
15h15 GMT
20 Jun 1945

“Range one-point-niner kilos,” shouted Balpend.

‘What the hell are they thinking, bringing unescorted transports out like this?’ thought Cromwell. ‘Do the limeys want us to sink them? If so, fine by me.’

“We’re lead, let the others take the flanks,” Cromwell announced as the Sculpin and Piper took positions to port and starboard of the Tiru respectively

“Fish one and two away!” The weapons non-com, Petty Officer Second-class Arlen Graber’s voice cracked through the ships' intercom system.

The torpedoes sped gracefully through the water away from the Tiru, snaking after the transports.

The Scalpin and the Piper also released two torpedoes, creating a wide spread into the fleeing mass of transports,

The torpedoes silently snaking through the water to deal death to whomever or whatever crossed their path.


------------

“Incoming!”

Ordinary Rank Driscoll barely had time to raise his head to the verbal alarm when here was a dull thud against the hull beneath his feet.

“Whew”, he thought. “A mite close that one was.”

He thanked God for the dud rate of American torpedoes, which remained stunningly high. Driscoll wasn’t going to argue with it though, given that that singular feature was probably the greatest reason any Royal Navy convoys were still on the seven seas. Continuing to scan for torpedoes, or for the telltale periscopes of the craft that launched them, the murky darkness hid them from his sight, but not for long.

For a moment the area lit up like daylight just before an explosion picked him up and threw him against the deck.

“Holy shite!” Driscoll looked up as the Terra Nova, an oil tanker, blew sky high.

He lurched upright and continued scanning, sincerely wishing for the rest of the convoy to pass unharmed.

---------

“Hit! There’s a hit!”

Cheers erupted on the bridge of the Tiru.

The plume of fire shot upwards, arcing into the night, before dying down to a dull glow.

The remaining convoys scattered, leaving the stricken ship to die alone.

“Sir, I see men in the drink. Should we pick them up?” asked his green, XO Jimmy Carter, straight out of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.

“Nah, fuck the Pactists, let ‘em swim to shore. It’s only what, 250 klicks to dry land?”

“But sir, the waters are shark-infested and-"

“-that’ll make things interesting, I know.”

The Tiru’s wolfpack disappeared into the night, taking with it another kill.​

Thomas E. Dewey proved to be an even greater anti-Pact hardliner than his precessor was, going to excessive means in order to gear America up for what he called ‘The ultimate war’. The United States Army was already much larger than the Reichswehr in divisions, while conscription was being pushed to the maximum, forcing all men between the age of 17 and 50 into the army nation-wide. The only ones to escape inevitable conscription were sons of high-placed magistrates and Congressmen, or simply relatives of people with enough money to buy off the Office of Conscription. This social unequality, along with increasing poverty due to the enormous war effort, neglecting supply of consumer goods led to rising tensions within the US, as protesters and rioters regularly crashed with the newly established ‘Riot police’, in some cases even using excessive violence against the population to keep them under control.



​

The Norfolk riot, subdued with the help of US sailors stationed at the port
​

In the meanwhile, nationwide hysteria was growing, as people feared that more Ironsides had managed to infiltrate the USA, and were simply waiting to commit more ‘acts of terrorism’, as the government called them. In the streets, both military and police began an increased control procedure to be able to filter out any infiltrated Pact spies or commandos when discovered, as ID checks and random house searches became increasingly frequent. In the US, a lot was changing.



In Australia, German forces landed a surprise attack on US Forces stationed in Townsville from the inland. Highly mobile Panzer units rapidly piereced American lines and began wreaking havoc upon the defence force, but were eventually forces to retreat due to superior US numbers and AA equipment.


Near the Flemish Cap, the Kriegsmarine had managed to sink three vital US CVL’s, along with the Heavy Cruiser USS Salt Lake City.




In the meanwhile, german fleets began raiding the area around the Carribean, hunting for hiddan AOF submarine bases used in the submarine warfare campaign of the US.

Halfway through November, another decisive battle took place in the Grand Banks between the British Atlantic Command, led by Grand Admiral Burrough, and the USN 2nd Fleet, led by Grand Admiral Nimitz.​