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Another delay I am afraid. I got my hands on the Sharpe series in E-Book form. :(

Sharpe series... makes me want to start an AAR in the Napoleonic Age with an Imperial Guardsman as the main protagonist... ;) But I should probably finish the AAR I have now before thinking of creating a new one.

Nice update of a "summit on a summit", and I hope you gained something from your e-books for you AAR writing. :D
 
This is really an exceptional narrative AAR mate. I've only just found out about it and I've enjoyed it immensely.

One thing that drew my attention almost from the start (from the moment I read about a young officer being transferred to NID really :p), was how remarkably similar your writing style is to Tom Clancy's novel "Red Storm Rising", which is about a fictional conventional WWIII (one of the protagonists, a reserve officer, get's himself assigned to naval intel, so that's where I saw the initial connection). In both cases the war is approached from the perspective of multiple individuals, both high and low in the ranks, engaged in various aspects of the operations. One moment we are watching events from the perspective of a tank commander, whose point of view is rather limited to the next fight ahead, the next moment we are reading about a counter-intelligence op with broader repercussions and the next about highest level planning in No.10. It was in this Clancy novel that I first came across this writing style and, while it seems a bit haphazard at first, it is in fact exceptionally engaging. It really ends up giving you a global view of events at all levels, from the common soldiers, to the "masterminds", and it serves to firmly maintain your interest throughout. In my opinion your implementation of the style is very skillfully done. I eagerly anticipate the next installment. Cheers!

PS.: I sincerely hope, once this is over, you will consider merging your posts into a single pdf, like a book. I, for one, would certainly download it.

edit: From one anglophile to another: "Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!" :p
 
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Glad to have you aboard!
I admit, my initial idea for the NID thing came to me after I had once again read my battered copy of Red Storm Rising, and the style of writing, although not directly inspired by Tom Clancy or RSR, is indeed somewhat similar. I hope I can keep you entertained!
 
I have torn myself away from it all to work on the new update, and I hope to have it done tonight ( CET ). So be on your guard.
 
How far into the Sharpe series did we get? :rolleyes:
 
Le Jones About halfway through "Sharpe's Trafalgar"

TheHyphenated1 Good. Go to impulse at 08:00.

gaiasabre11 :D
 
Chapter 110

int20corps1.jpg



May 17th 1940

West Ham, London



The building was an old, not very imposing structure. The Borough of West Ham was a relatively poor part of London county, and Thetford road was no exception. The little old lady that owned the house had therefore been more than happy when the young couple had applied for the rooms she was renting out. The man had said he was working for the RSAF at Enfield, and she was apparently teaching at a local school. They had always paid their rent on time, hadn't brought any improper visitors to the house, although they seemed to be going out at set times and doing certain things as they always came back after about an hour. Still, they were a quiet, christian couple that seemed to have no undue vices, except that the man seemed to have a preference for classical radio music. Oh no, she did not complain. However she had not seen either of them for more than a day now, and she was slightly worried, as she had taken a liking to both of them. After two days without a sign of life, she decided that the windows in the two small rooms needed cleaning. So when she entered the upper floor, which she did rarely enough, thanks to the arthritis in her feet, noticed strange smell. Much to her surprise and consternation the door was not locked. Whatever the smell was, it was coming from the room. She opened the door, and what she was seeing would not leave her for the rest of her life. She hurried down the stairs as fast as she could. Mary Higgins from three houses down had a telephone.

Scotland Yard, London

The normal duty of Special Branch was expanded during wartime. Although the SOE and MI5 were taking over more and more of the counter-intelligence duties, Special Branch was still important enough to warrant liaison Officers, one in the form of a Lieutenant who wore the badge of the Intelligence Corps on his hat, called Clarence Walpole. He was tall and lean, and only when he walked could one see why he was not in France, as he was walking with a distinct limp, favouring and aiding his left leg with a cane. He had been given an Office alongside a Detective called Quentin Garside, and together they were working some of the fewer and fewer espionage related cases that came their way. For the most part they were chasing shadows, following up on reports be overeager civilians that reported someone who was repairing his radio so that he could hear the news, mistaking it for a wireless set. Although the two men despised each other, they were professionals enough not to let it influence their work. Garside was an older Detective, called back from retirement when the war had broken out. He was a man of medium height, and usually hid his grey and short hair under a bowler hat. Right now he was sipping tea and reviewing reports about the work of his part of the Branch. He had been out for most of the night and was understandably tired, but he was determined to do his bit, and had come in this morning anyhow. He saw the Lieutenant coming in and put the reports away. He had time to do those. Can I help you with anything, Lieutenant?” he asked, hoping that Walpole had something else to do. “I wanted to...” he never finished the sentence as the phone on Garside's desk was ringing. “Detective Inspector Garside..Yes...where?....yes, we are on our way.” He looked up at Walpole and said: “Well, Lieutenant we have work to do. It seems someone found a body.” “And why, pray tell, does this concern Special Branch?” “Because he had a hidden wireless set, that's why.” “Let's move it then, Detective.”

Soon they were walking towards the house, leaving the car behind them. The entrance was guarded by two constables and upon seeing the badges Garside and Walpole carried made no comment. The work that was being done by those two was none of their concern, although the involvement in a real espionage matter would make for some good stories. Garside walked up the stairs, while Walpole, hindered by his foot struggled to keep up. Up top the examiner was already there, having a look at the body that indeed was already smelling. By the time Garside stepped through the door, the body had already been put into a body bag, obscuring most of the smell. It were only two small rooms. One, the one Garside and Walpole were standing in, contained not much more than a bed and a small closet, the other was presumably doubling as a kitchen and living room. While Walpole inspected the wardrobe, Garside went into the other room. There he could see what had prompted the involvement of Special Branch: The burnt, but recognizable remnants of a wireless set. Someone had obviously attempted to destroy the evidence, but had made a hash of it, so that Special Branch had the evidence clear before it. All the damage that Garside could see at first glance was a heavily scorched, and when he touched it, his fingertips became black with the ashes. He examined the other side, and sure enough, there was a small plate, hidden away under the mantling of the speaker which said: “Made in Germany – Allgemeine Elektrische Gesellschaft, Berlin, Deutsches Reich, 1938”. This was reason enough to call in Special Branch he reasoned, and proceeded to examine the set with the utmost care. It surprised him that no one had bothered to remove the plate, but then again, no one was supposed to ever see it. And if someone did, the owner could always claim it was a pre-war purchase.

He carefully pried away the front of the set, always wary of traps, but halfway through decided that it might be better to leave that to the boffins at the yard. He rose from his kneeling position and went on to look through the rest of the room. It was relatively clean, given the circumstances and contained, aside from a small wood stove and a few cupboards, also the table, on which the wireless set was standing, a few chairs and nothing much else. On one of the chairs he saw the Times from three days ago, and when he picked it up, he saw that several scribbled notes had been hidden under it. He picked them up, and at first it did not make much sense to him all, although he knew what these most likely were. While he was trying to decipher the code, Walpole entered the room. “What did you find, Garside?” he asked, leaning against the frame of the door to take the weight of his throbbing leg. “It seems that our friend out there was working for the not-so-loyal opposition.” Walpole and Garside might not like each other personally but the both knew that the other was competent at the work they did, so Walpole just raised his eyebrows and said: “Anything good?” “Not really. I don't gather you have found some sort of codebook.....” Garside trailed off, and squinted at the paper he was looking at. “Hello.....I don't believe you speak German, do you, Lieutenant?” Walpole shook his head. “Not really, Detective.” Garside however did, and he was putting this ability to good use. “Luckily for us, he managed to decode at least some of it before he was killed. It is referring to intelligence on the whereabouts of... God almighty, this is on the whereabouts of the Dutch Queen!” Like all members of the intelligence community the two had heard of the top-secret rescue operation, though not, like most of the general population, through the press, but rather through an official brief that the Foreign Office had circulated. It didn't contain much more than what could be read in the paper, but still enough to make it secret. “So what, Garside, Jerry reads the papers too.” Walpole said, shrugging. “That may be so, Lieutenant, but this is dated almost three days ago, before anyone here knew.” “Bloody hell.” Walpole just said. “This means Jerry must have a source very high up, when they knew this fast, and that they must have a good source in Britain.” Walpole nodded, as he understood the implications. “And it stands to reason that the source killed him in order to cover his tracks.” Garside agreed and said. “We have no way to track him.”


[Notes: Well there we go. More Cloak and Dagger. But rest assured, we will be back with the Army very soon. Also, I hope no one minds that I am portraying the Abwehr as the bunch of sometimes clever but inept buffoons that they were. I can't respect anyone who is fooled by Operation Mincemeat.]
 
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Aye... Even Mussolini didn't buy Mincemeat :rofl:

Perhaps an indication that Italian intelligence services deserve more screen time to dazzle us with their superior skills. :rofl:

PS: No such thing as too much cloak and dagger :p
 
Ahhh, your cryptic responses earlier become somewhat clearer. I wonder how long Special Branch will keep this case before it gets taken from them and pushed further up the food chain?

And I second the request to be dazzled by Italian intelligence, Ian and Felix will need competent adversaries and perhaps Il Duce's finest can provide it..... :D
 
KiMaSa Indeed. Even today their intelligence services are probably better than ours. :(

Thomas Kenobi Good to hear.

El Pip Depends on how far up/deep inside this source is I should think.

As for the Italians...better pack the desert uniform. Thats all I can say.
 
HOLY GIANT CHAPTER, BATMAN!

Intermission #3



The dawn of time for military aviation is clearly World War One. Only here did both pilots and planes prove that they were more than the personal playthings for European monarchs. In the beginning though, recce flights with unarmed planes were the norm, only later did the flying aces we know emerge. The Royal Flying Corps was at the end of the war equipped with biplanes, that, while superbly manoeuvrable, were hampered by for even that time low speeds. In the inter-war years, after forming the Royal Air Force, Fighter Command was hampered by meagre defence spending and an Air Ministry that demanded 'save', unconventional, easy to produce and foremost cheap designs, as Britain was strapped for cash in the inter-war years. The Great Depression only made matters worse, for the War Office and the Air Ministry were even more reluctant to release any funds for the services. In effect the crisis stopped all development of military aviation in the United Kingdom, forcing Fighter Command to rely on aircraft like the Hawker Fury and the Gloster Gauntlet, all planes in the spirit of the Great War, but soon to be outpaced by their contemporaries. Times were changing, slowly but surely. When Prime Minister Baldwin visited the United States in early 1932, he was appalled by the state of the nation, and remarked upon returning that in his opinion the United States were 'like a block of sugar soaked with tea: still holding form but ready to dissolve at any moment.'. He would eventually be proven right, and when the United States of America fell into chaos, a very, very reluctant Baldwin saw himself forced to release funds to further the development of British military aviation for the sky grew darker as new threats began to materialize. Even though both sides in the war only deployed limited Air Forces for the simple lack of Aircraft, mainly relying on what the small USAAC had, and what the Communists had captured respectively. Even so, it showed that the age of the bi-plane was coming to an end, as the few P-26 Peashooters on both sides ruled the skies wherever they appeared. In the Unired Kingdom however the generally conservative and slow-acting Air Ministry insisted on another 'save' model, the Gloster Gladiator, and so the gap between Fighter Command and it's contemporaries in other nations widened for much of the early 1930s. However, once Germany started the re-armament in earnest, even the most cautious, staunch fans of 'splendid isolation' could no longer deny that something needed to be done, as Britain was falling ever farther behind. In 1936, when the UAPR militias and regulars were still cleaning up the last remnants of surviving US units, the Air Ministry therefore issued Specification F.36/34, or, for the uninformed a specification for a 'monoplane, all-metal fuselage fighter with eight guns and a retractable undercarriage. Many designs were presented to the Air Ministry, and the Ministry, suddenly desperate to make up for the lost time, and accepted various designs, among them also an obscure design by struggling seaplane maker Supermarine. In the end the Hawker design won out and was rushed into production at an unprecedented speed, after the long search for a suitable engine was answered by Rolls Royce, having ironed out the problems with the PV12 that was soon to become the iconic Merlin Engine.

hurican1.jpg

The first production Hurricanes with No. 157 Squadron​

While the Hurricane was introduced in service in mid 1937, it would still take almost two years until the last units re-equipped from the Gloster Gladiator and it's contemporaries to the Hurricane. The Air Ministry was satisfied and returned to business as usual. However by mid 1938 Fighter Command had realized that while the Hurricane was a good workhorse and superbly suited to intercept unescorted Bombers, was a bit on the slow side compared to contemporary models in Germany, the UAPR and the Soviet Union, and that a faster plane was needed. The Air Ministry, and be extension the Treasury met this demand with horror and claimed that the RAF was trying to secure funds it did not need in order to surpass the other services in importance. While this was utter rubbish of course, Hugh Dowding, just having taken over Fighter Command, was convinced that the Air Ministry would release funds for a new development only with 'the utmost reluctance', even in the spirit of the slow re-armament the Government had started. A development from scratch was therefore out of the question. However a chance encounter on an Air Ministry corridor would change the matter and re-shape the face of Fighter Command forever. Three representatives from a small company called Supermarine were so desperate to accquire funds for their ailing company they seized the opportunity to talk directly to the AOCinC Fighter Command when he just happened to be coming down their way. Being shown pictures of the mock-up prototype and projected performance figures given the installation of an mid-range performance power plant, he eventually and very reluctantly agreed to a demonstration once the prototype was finished and released a small sum from Fighter Commands budget to keep the company afloat until the work could be finished. In his last years he was asked why he had done so and compared the difficulties for new designers and companys to get a foot in the door with the Ministry as even bigger than those that had faced the Royal Navy when HMS Warspite was moved from Bermuda back to London in 1966. Supermarine stayed alive and on 13th October began the long and fruitful friendship between Fighter Command, Supermarine and Rolls-Royce, and laying the foundation of the continued Existence of Supermarine beyond the post-war industry rationalisations.


When the Supermarine Spitfire first took to the air, it's speed, good looks and manoeuvrability dazzled many of those present, including Dowding, and once he and also Present Minister for Aircraft production had convinced the Prime Minister, the three men together circumvented the Ministerial Bureaucracy and had the Spitfire put into almost immediate production. The Air Ministry was not pleased, but as Beaverbrook was a Minister without actual Ministry, the Civil Service was powerless to do anything about it and could not prevent the proceedings which were the beginning of the end for the Air Ministry as a whole. The Spitfire entered Squadron service just in time for the beginning of the War, and so, whilst the Squadrons in France were equipped with the new Hurricane Mk.II, Home Defence rested on the shoulders of the Spitfire. Or at least it would, as Supermarine had nowhere near the capacity needed to equip the majority of Fighter Command with the plane. In a case of Irony that was even the subject of a film in 1974, Vickers was therefore commissioned to use most of it's shadow factories to produce the Spitfire, a plane that could have brought the company great wealth had they decided to go through with the deal and bought Supermarine in the 1930s. Even whilst the almost dead company was roaring into life again, Supermarine's chief Designer R.J. Mitchell was working on what would eventually become the Spitfire Mk.II. In the meantime however, the Second World War started. The Hurricane Squadrons in France were immediately faced with overwhelming numbers of German, Soviet and a smaller number of Czech Bombers, but superior tactics and aircraft, along with the significant French Air Force, enabled the Fighters in France to keep the Axis Air Forces at bay. It did however show that the Hurricane, even with revisions and the new Merlin Engine that had been introduced was becoming obsolescent when faced with the new generation of enemy fighters, namely the Bf-109F and the Soviet LaGG-3 that both started to appear over France in great numbers at that time. Hawker was therefore pressed to either improve the design further or loose the contract to Supermarine, something that the company could ill-afford. The team therefore went about improving the Hurricane, but much to their regret, they soon had to admit to themselves that it would be extraordinarily difficult, if not downright impossible to extract the needed performance from an Airframe that had almost been rejected by the Air Ministry on the grounds that it was too conservative!

With a heavy heart it was therefore decided to send the well-loved 'Hurry' to it's deserved retirement and start afresh. By February 1940, after a mere month of design time, the Hawker Typhoon was ready for production, except that it faced a problem similar to the one the Spitfire had faced: the lack of a suitable Power Plant. The Merlin was out of the Question, as Rolls-Royce was more than busy with deliveries as they were, and the only others immediately available were radial engines or did not have the needed performance. In the end it was decided to use an upgraded Napier Sabre, which, whilst only slightly more powerful than the contemporary Merlin and less than the new Merlin III, was more than able to give the performance needed. The Hawker Typhoon, just like it's 'mother', the Hurricane, was born out of need, and rushed into production far sooner than anticipated, and therefore the design had many faults that normally would have been ironed out in a lengthy testing process. When the first planes were sent to France in early May 1940, there was no time to do anything about it, as the Axis launched Case Yellow. The Typhoon fought, and fought well, but by the time Operation Morning Fury began, several faults had emerged. None of them were life-threatening to the pilots or impeded combat performance as long as the planes were handled properly. The main problem was the feeding mechanism for the two Hispano 20mm cannons in each wing that supplemented the four .303 Machine Guns. When the pilot was forced to manoeuvre quickly, it could happen that the feeding mechanism jammed, a problem that also plagued the Spitfire Mk.III that was equipped with two of the same cannons each. When it was finally made to work, the Typhoon proved to be a formidable foe for the Axis Aircraft that tried to wrestle control of the skies of France from the Allies, so feared that Adolf Hitler was furious and ordered a German version to be developed which would eventually lead to the Focke-Wulf FW 190. For the next few years the Typhoon Squadrons would take considerable weight of the shoulders of the Spitfire, although the latter was in service in much higher numbers, but especially during the Battle of Britain, when Fighter Command was heavily outnumbered, both Aircraft defended the skies over the United Kingdom with unprecedented ferocity.

Hawker_Typhoon_3_ExCC1.jpg

Unidentified Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ic, the first version with 'pure' cannon armament​

The Typhoon served for many years with Fighter Command, but in late 1942 Hawker, ever desperate to keep ongoing contracts with the RAF, proposed an 'upgraded' version of the Typhoon, with more power, a heavier armament and longer endurance. Initially named 'Typhoon Mk.II' while in development, the plane became more and more different from the original, and eventually the Air Ministry, in a last act of defiance, insisted that the plane be re-named lest it be confused with the Typhoon. Introduced in mid 1943, the Hawker Tempest was a formidable aircraft, and soon was the fear of the few Axis Bomber crews that still dared to venture into British Airspace at the time. Powered with a Napier Sabre II that produced 2,180 hp the Tempest shouldered most of the Air Defence of the United Kingdom in these later years of the war, when many of the Spitfire Squadrons were moved to other fronts, where the longer range was more important than over Europe. Like the Hurricane it did not fetch as much of the public attention and glory of the Spits and their Fleet Air Arm brethren, the service was essential, both as a CAS plane and as a fighter for it kept Britain save and the damages at a minimum. It served only for a limited time, because by the end of the year, it was already eclipsed in performance by the Gloster Meteor Mk.I, despite attempts to re-engine it with the new Napier Sabre V, making it the last piston-engined Interceptor to be accepted for Fighter Command.

Returning to the Spitfire, when we last left it, it was being re-worked into the Mk.II. This particular model was supposed to be the definitive Spitfire for at least the next two years, following estimates by both MI6 and Fighter Command itself that the Axis powers had nothing comparable in their arsenals. They were in for a rude awakening in January 1940, as a Squadron of Mk.IIs was pounced and almost obliterated by a similar number of Bf-109Fs and LaGG-3s, which clearly outperformed the Mk.II. Once again emergency measures were taken, and once again Supermarine rode to the rescue. The Mk.III was standing by. Whilst it closed the performance gap somewhat, the heavier guns and superior communication technologies gave it an edge over it's adversaries. The Mk.II and III are explained in much more detail in the later chapters of this book, but by the time the Mk.III was introduced, Prime Minister Churchill, fed up with the constant emergency measures and the ( perceived ) incompetence and slowness of the Air Ministry, took drastic action. By promoting Sir Hugh Dowding to the Chief of the Air Staff and cutting the competences of the Air Ministry even further, he made it clear that he expected that something was to be done about this situation. Backed by the King, he said during a conversation with Dowding that the British Empire would never have the numbers on it's side, therefore superior technology had to do the job, a policy that in a way is still in effect today. Much to his surprise, he was informed by Dowding that a new version of the Spitfire was already close to production. Dubbed the Spitfire Mk.V, it would replace the Mk.III in a few months, and using the new Merlin XXI, would give Fighter Command a 'dastardly fast' and 'bloody good' plane that was to be faster than anything the Axis had. And indeed, when the Mk.V was introduced, the performance gap between the Mk.V and the contemporary Axis Fighters was so great that Fighter Command managed to win the Battle of Britain despite being heavily outnumbered. Together with the Hawker Typhoon, the Spitfire Mk.V is rightfully credited as the saviour of Britain in the darkest hour the British Empire has ever faced. For this reason the Battle of Britain Memorial south of Biggin Hill consists of a Spitfire Mk.V and a Typhoon, carved out of stone, side by side guarding British Airspace. With the Mk.V Fighter Command finally had the edge, and would not loose it again for the rest of the War. The Spitfire Mk.V was a revelation and set the tone for British Fighter planes for years to come, a combination between good endurance thanks to tanks under the wings, heavy armament and great speed. Pilots that tested both the Mk.III and the Mk.V claimed that the Mk.V was not as manoeuvrable as the Mk.III, but that was only to be expected as the new Merlin Engine was somewhat heavier than it's predecessor, but this was offset by the greater speed and the high endurance that allowed the Spitfire to fly almost as far as Rostock when every hard-point had a tank instead of guns or rockets. The price for this endurance was that the wing needed to be re-designed. Mitchell was hard pressed to fit the new machinery, especially the pumps for the new tanks, into the old C-Type wing, and eventually decided that it could not be done. The wing of the plane was completely re-designed, which was the cause of the initial delays in the programme, and in the end all that remained of the old wing were the metal parts that gave it it's characteristic elliptical form. Plans to remove them to improve low-altitude performance had been shot down, as it was claimed that the old Mk.IIIs had performed well enough low down and that the increased power of the Merlin XXI was more than enough to set off the drag. There was also a ground-attack version of the Mosquito, operating in small, freely hunting packets over the entire front, so a optimized, low-altitude version of the Spitfire was deemed unnecessary. At the same time the Fleet Air Arm finally recieved the navalized 'Seafire' variant that soon became the scourge of the enemy Carrier fighters.

The Mk.V was also adapted for desert use and for service in the Far East. These depot-level modifications were known as the Mk.VI and VII respectively, but they were only Mk.Vs with filters and other specialized Equipment. The Mk.V served with distinction for many years and went through many revisions of the basic model, but just like it's contemporary, the Hawker Typhoon it met the end of it's useful service life by 1943. R.J. Mitchell, still weakened by the Influenza he had contracted while in the Desert, was fast back at work, and he and his team decided that a complete overhaul of the regular design was needed. To improve the pilot's area of vision, the rear fuselage was dropped and a 'bubble' canopy installed (although this would not be implemented in series production until the Mk,XII). The wing was lengthened to raise high-altitude performance, while the traditional form of the wing was kept, armament increased with the newest version of the 20mm cannons that had a higher rate of fire. The biggest change however was the introduction of the Merlin Mk.II ( not to be confused with the Merlin II ) as the powerplant. There had been talk of equipping a version of the Spitfire with this engine as early as 1939, but problems with the development and the fact that Rolls-Royce had little resources left for development, had delayed the engine. In the end the Merlin Mk.II had only one part in common with the 'normal' version: the screws that held the manufactures plate in place. The new Spitfire Mk.X was unveiled in May 1943, and equipped the first Squadrons on the front later that same year. Once again the 'definitive' model was to be the last piston-engined fighter, and the Mk.X, along with it's versions, the Marques XI through XVIII, was replaced by the Gloster Meteor Mk.III in summer 1944. Photo-reconnaissance versions served for many years after the war, with the last Spitfire mission flown by a PR.154 during the Indonesian Emergency in 1956.



41sqdn-spit141.jpg

Spitfire Mk.XII in January 1945​




“Fighter Command through the Ages, Volume #2 of 4, “World War Two”, Kenia Imperial Press, 2001”

[Notes: Merlin Mk.II = OTL Griffon Engine. Also El Pip, I fear my Air Porn will never be as good as yours. I have decided to completely dispense with the tech tree from the game, as it does not make any sense at all in terms of the story of this AAR, especially so in the later years. This does not mean that you will see Challenger 2 tanks in 1942, I simply replace technologies from the game with those that make more sense in my opinion. The Seafire is one such example. And in case you want to know, HMS Warspite will take the place of HMS Belfast. I've seen this done with Hood, and according to the author, Warspite would well fit in the space. In these post-war rationalisations ( I haven't yet fully worked them out, but I know they are needed. ) independent companies will most likely be 'encouraged' by the Government to merge many of the smaller companies in to several bigger firms that can compete internationally. So far these are: Supermarine, Avro, de Havilland, Vickers and perhaps Farey. This list, or rather the last two entries are most likely subject to changes in the future. My idea for the BoB memorial is a central spire of about four feet height, with two arms going left and right from the top, with a Typhoon and a Mk.V fastened to the end of each respectively.]
 
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Bf-109Fs, Hawker Typhoons by Feb 1940, Spitfire Vs by the Battle of Britain! The air force research is getting a lot more attention in TTL than it did in ours.

The Hawker Tempest Mark V was my personal favourite kite from that era, ever since I first found out about it in the combat flight simulator IL-2 Sturmovik. With it's 2,180 hp she is a beauty to fly, both in air combat, where she excelled in the boom-and-zoom tactic, and in ground attack missions, where she can dive to release 2,000lbs of bombs and then climb back out of the range of smaller calibre AA in under 2 minutes. Not to mention the quad 20mm Hispano cannons, that could make mincemeat ( :p ) of every air target.

All in all a great update mate. It was a treat for aviation buffs like myself.
 
Some nice little hints as to the progress of the war alongside the nice little alt-history lesson. well done.
 
Awesome intermission.

I always love reading those. :)
 
Excellent update, as others have mentioned the teasers about the progress of the war and the post-war world are tantalising. I wouldn't worry about the quality of your air-porn if you keep producing updates like this. :D

On the nitty gritty nice to see Mitchell live on for a few more years than OTL and very interesting to see operational jet squadrons so early (late 1943 / very early 1944 if I'm reading correctly). Such a leap could have some interesting ramifications on the end of the war, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that all pans out as well.
 
Thomas Kenobi At least at the moment. If/when France falls, then I will have to put my focus on Army. Glad you liked it.

BritishImperial Thank you!

humancalculator To be honest I always write these when I need time to plot out the normal narrative.

El Pip Good to hear.

Mitchell indeed lives longer, hence the different route the Spitfire is taking. Dunno when he dies, but it will be after the war, that's for sure. As for the Jets, "eclipsed in performance" means that the meteor is flying, but will be introduced in large-scale service pretty much as in OTL, perhaps even a bit later, a) because I am still strapped for IC that I can allocate to upgrades, especially at that time, meaning that it will be researched but the Squadrons not upgraded and b) and this is the narrative explanation, the threat-picture is different, and the [Censored due to Spoiler alert and Official Secrets act] decides that the Meteor is not so urgent and it therefore gets more time to work up, iron out the bugs ( which I am sure it had ) and to generally improve the design.
 
[Notes: Well there we go. More Cloak and Dagger. But rest assured, we will be back with the Army very soon. Also, I hope no one minds that I am portraying the Abwehr as the bunch of sometimes clever but inept buffoons that they were. I can't respect anyone who is fooled by Operation Mincemeat.]

No offense taken :D. That whole thing about actually putting yourself into the job wholeheartedly was a memo that they seem to have missed entirely...

Of course Mincemeat was executed so thoroughly and so well that to come down too hard on the Germans for believing it is almost not giving the Brits their due. I mean, ticket stubs for crying out loud!

Excellent updates!