Dark Earth: The History of the Aircraft Carrier

That is correct. The Dutch carriers initially pull out to Britain and are transferred to the Far East as tensions with Japan rise and, concomitantly, the relative threat of the German surface fleet is reduced by the Norwegian Campaign, the Battle of the North Sea and Operation Lightning. Whilst the Kriegsmarine presents a threat as a fleet in being, it can be covered by the Nelsons and the most recently commissioned battleships.

The newest French carriers eventually go east with the Grand Fleet.

simon darkshade,

Thanks for the additional detail. I'm only really checking in once a day currently hence my delayed response but definitely enjoying the universe your created.

Steve

But concentrating your forces as we have seen in OTL Battle of Midway means that the Japanese in one single battle can lose the majority of their carriers while the USN and RN if i am right are based around Task forces. 

The circumstances of the USN and RN are different due to the locations they will be operating in; the USN have a lot more space.

In the next phase of 1941, we’ll see how carrier operations in the narrow seas of the Mediterranean go against a prepared land based air force as the Luftwaffe deploys to Sicily. This will have a bearing on how the RN will subsequently fight its carrier war against Japan in 1942 and 1943 in similarly ‘enclosed’ seas.

This will be different from the USN in @ in the open Pacific and from the success of the RN off Norway. Both the Germans and British are learning from each other and evolving their tactics and how they employ their weapons.

Some general notes:
- Free France fighting on from Algeria changes some of the scope of convoys to Malta, but as they are fighting a broken backed war, they do not have the fighters with sufficient range, nor the numbers, nor the pilots to provide complete air cover over convoys. The RN and Marine Royale still have to provide carrier escort in the Western Med, particularly in the Sicilian Narrows.
- Similarly, they do not have the strength to push forward from the Mareth Line, but hold it with static infantry. Between that front, Morocco, Southern Spain and an ad hoc division in Egypt, there isn’t any real capacity for French offensive action until 1942, when supplies have built up from America and units have been rebuilt.
- Mainland Greece falls in 1941, but Crete is held by a very strong garrison, whilst the Bulgarians try to break through the defences of Constantinople, which gets hit heavily from the air.
- The Spanish-Portuguese War drags in the British, French, Italians and eventually the Germans, leading to retreat and defeat in 1941, an Andalusian bridgehead, a decisive sea battle in early February 1941 and then a royalist lead counter coup against the fascist junta.
- It is the turn of the Turks in April.
- The RN starts heading east in May, right after a certain German battleship is sunk by HMS Hood & co.
- There is an Austro-Hungarian force alongside the DAK.
- Even though the British Empire seems to be much more powerful, it is really tapped out to counter its foes by the end of 1941. It has to maintain Fighter Command and the Home Fleet in Britain; build up a new BEF for a return to France; fight holding actions in Norway, Spain and Iraq/Syria; put its major land effort into the Western Desert Campaign; hold Malta and Crete; fight the Battle of the Atlantic; build up Bomber Command and strike Germany; attack Western Europe with the Commandos; clear out Italian East Africa and fight a low level conflict in West Africa; fight the naval and air Battle of the Mediterranean; build armies in Malaya and Burma; and get the main fleet to Singapore.
- As such, the roles of Canada, Australia/New Zealand, South Africa/Rhodesia and India take on even greater import than in @.

That is the ‘Ottoman Front’, where a small force of Commonwealth troops holds the Turkish advance:

“The Valiant had carried on as the main tank in use on the Middle Eastern front and in service with the Indian Army from mid 1940. They countered the superior numbers of Ottoman and German P40s and Panzer IIs during the defensive battles of October and November whilst General Lawrence’s Ninth Army and the Israeli Army under General Trumpeldor built up their strength for Operation Swiftsure. Two newly arrived regiments of Crusader tanks formed the vanguard of Lawrence’s right hook through the Syrian desert alongside the epic advance of Lieutenant General Sir Charles Ratcliffe’s cavalry corps.”


Ninth Army is primarily from the British Indian Army (4 infantry divisions), plus two British, one Commonwealth and one Indian cavalry divisions; a composite South African/Rhodesian infantry division and a British motorised division; and two British armoured brigades.