Composition of TF34

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I've been thinking about TF34 and what the compliment of ships would be. Clearly "anything that can float and make it back and forth across a late autumn Atlantic Ocean" would be a qualifier, but just for fun I looked at what military vessels might be pressed in to service.

This might dovetail into my "Proceedings for December 2000" I may write one of these days, but for now, bear with me.

First of all, we have the USS John Hancock, DD981. Assuming she made it this far into the war by dint of able crew and captain and not that she was laid up somewhere due to massive damage, then pressed into service in the last for TF34/OpOrd Omega, she ships with 19 officers and 315 crew. The fighting spaces on a ship are tight, so I doubt if any personnel who responded to OpOrd Omega will be on board, save for possibly newborn infants in the sickbay and high-ranking officers.

The weapon compliment for the ship is as follows:

2 x 5 in (127 mm) 54 calibre Mark 45 dual purpose guns
2 x 20 mm Phalanx CIWS Mark 15 guns
1 x 8 cell ASROC launcher (removed)
1 x 8 cell NATO Sea Sparrow Mark 29 missile launcher
2 x quadruple Harpoon missile canisters
2 x Mark 32 triple 12.75 in (324 mm) torpedo tubes (Mk 46 torpedoes)
1 x 61 cell Mk 41 VLS launcher for Tomahawk missiles

The Tomahawk cells may be empty at this stage in the war; hell all of the missile tubes may be empty. But I can't imagine they'd be out of 5in or 20mm.

I thought about what the Navy might be scraping the barrel to put afloat in 2000, and cast my thought back to WWII (or younger) reserve (non-fighting) ships. Crater-class Liberty ships still existed in the 1980s (indeed a few still exist today, in addition to two held in pristine condition as museums but we're Twilight:2000's alternate future!). Most were struck and scrapped from 1964-1974, but some (below) were returned to the Maritime Shipping Commission


Cassiopeia
Celeno
Phobos
Draco
Mintaka
Murzim
Caelum
Giansar
Alderamin
Appanoose

Each of these can carry approximately 500 troops "and vehicles", so if you delete the vehicles perhaps 1000 or so troops could be carried...?

Anyway, their armament was as follows:

• 1 × 5"/38 caliber gun
• 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun
• 2 × 40 mm guns
• 6 × 20 mm guns

and while in storage I doubt if the guns remained on, at least a few would be refitted.

However, these ships are problematic: if they are still in operable condition and wouldn't require more refitting than is feasible in a practical manner, given that using the bunker oil TF34 intends to for its trip home, the USN may want to keep them to form the backbone of a rebuilding Navy, moving relief supplies and evacuating people where the ships can reach.

Also, the ships may have been kept in storage in San Diego which I believe is a smoking crater at this time.

If they were dispersed to various shipyards, there's the question of getting them around the horn (I'm assuming the Canal got hit very hard and is unusable these days) if some were on the west coast. Possibly some were at the Navy shipyard in Jersey, but that's gone.

Ultimately I think most of the shipping is going to consist of cargo ships of various stripe that were already in Bremerhaven; I doubt the Mercedes-Benz company is going to be in any position to protest when a shitload of 1998 "S" series coupes and sedans are tossed overboard to make room for the valiant American allies.

[Legbreaker]

Something to bear in mind is that ONLY ships located in Europe will be a part of the task force. There's no way to get ships with empty fuel tanks from the US and back again, given the oil is located (presumably) somewhere around Bremerhaven.

We know USS John Hancock was the flagship of the operation, and so we can presume it would have a fairly full complement of crew (drawn from survivors of other ships to round it out as necessary). Weapons, ammunition and general repair level might not be up to prewar scratch, but as one of the few fighting ships still floating, chances are it's going to have received a substantial share of available naval resources (mostly salvaged from other more heavily damaged ships).

We also know the USS Tarawa was at least floating in Summer 2000 (Naval & Aviation handbook - the notes from the colour plate showing the Osprey). Given the Tarawa is a far more capable C3 ship than the John Hancock, it's not much of a leap to believe it's either immobilised from actions during the Marine landings in July, or (my personal belief) sunk of the Polish coast.

From the Last Submarine trilogy, we also know there's no submarines in the task force. Also, given the USS John Hancock is the flagship, it's logical that no larger warships are included. My guess is the bulk of the task force consists of civilian freighters and passenger ships (cruise liners, ferries). As a point of interest, the RMS Queen Mary was refitted for WWII and carried up to 15,000 troops at a time (holds the record of 16,082). It's peacetime capacity was 2139 passengers and 1101 crew.
Provided a similar size ship was available, it's conceivable only about a dozen ships (although more likely about 20) would be needed to transport the 40,000 members of TF34.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Something to bear in mind is that ONLY ships located in Europe will be a part of the task force. There's no way to get ships with empty fuel tanks from the US and back again, given the oil is located (presumably) somewhere around Bremerhaven.

Mm. That leaves out any of those ships then.

We know USS John Hancock was the flagship of the operation, and so we can presume it would have a fairly full complement of crew (drawn from survivors of other ships to round it out as necessary). Weapons, ammunition and general repair level might not be up to prewar scratch, but as one of the few fighting ships still floating, chances are it's going to have received a substantial share of available naval resources (mostly salvaged from other more heavily damaged ships).

We also know the USS Tarawa was at least floating in Summer 2000 (Naval & Aviation handbook - the notes from the colour plate showing the Osprey). Given the Tarawa is a far more capable C3 ship than the John Hancock, it's not much of a leap to believe it's either immobilised from actions during the Marine landings in July, or (my personal belief) sunk of the Polish coast.

From the Last Submarine trilogy, we also know there's no submarines in the task force. Also, given the USS John Hancock is the flagship, it's logical that no larger warships are included. My guess is the bulk of the task force consists of civilian freighters and passenger ships (cruise liners, ferries). As a point of interest, the RMS Queen Mary was refitted for WWII and carried up to 15,000 troops at a time (holds the record of 16,082). It's peacetime capacity was 2139 passengers and 1101 crew.
Provided a similar size ship was available, it's conceivable only about a dozen ships (although more likely about 20) would be needed to transport the 40,000 members of TF34.

While I don't want to open up the debate again about Tarawa being sunk (which sadly seems most likely, beached is the only other possibility), could it be that the Tarawa has gone into own cantonment, like units that refused the OpOrd Omega in the first place and become a 39000 ton high tech pirate ship?

[Legbreaker]

Extremely doubtful. Floating, the Tarawa is just too damn valuable to leave out of formal military hands. All sides would want to lay claim to it and you can guarantee a SF raid or two would be on the cards.
Look at the USS City of Corpus Christi and the efforts made to recover it - and it doesn't have a fraction of the capability of an amphious landing ship (even if it is nuclear powered).
If the Tarawa couldn't be reclaimed for TF34, there's a high probability in my mind it would have been sunk. It would even warrant using one of the few remaining aircraft to throw the last couple of missiles at it.
If Nato didn't finish it off, you can bet the Pact would give it a good go - having what is a essentially a light aircraft carrier/military base located just off the Vistula delta would be a totally unacceptable prospect, even if immobile. Sure it only operates VTOL and STOL aircraft, and fuel is low, but just the capability alone is a scary prospect for the Pact leadership, especially since they can't exactly attack and overrun it with tanks and infantry like a conventional airstrip.

[Rainbow Six]

Other than the Hancock, I'm not aware of any other vessel, Naval or civilian, being specifically identified as part of TF34. Personally, I'd be inclined to go along with the views already put forward, i.e. that the bulk of the fleet would be civilian vessels.

I think its almost analagous to Battlestar Galactica (or at least the original film from the 70's - I never saw the remake / reboot so don't know if it differs)...you have a lone warship escorting a ragtag civilian fleet to its destination...here the John Hancock is the Galactica.

And who knows, maybe there's a Pegasus out there somewhere...

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

I think its almost analagous to Battlestar Galactica (or at least the original film from the 70's - I never saw the remake / reboot so don't know if it differs)...

The remake is actually pretty good in the first couple of seasons at least. You really get the feeling of desperation from the survivors and the shoelaces and chewing gum holding everything together shows through nicely too.

[Canadian Army]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

I thought about what the Navy might be scraping the barrel to put afloat in 2000, and cast my thought back to WWII (or younger) reserve (non-fighting) ships. Crater-class Liberty ships still existed in the 1980s (indeed a few still exist today, in addition to two held in pristine condition as museums but we're Twilight:2000's alternate future!). Most were struck and scrapped from 1964-1974, but some (below) were returned to the Maritime Shipping Commission


Cassiopeia
Celeno
Phobos
Draco
Mintaka
Murzim
Caelum
Giansar
Alderamin
Appanoose

I checked on the Crater-class Cargo Ship using NavSource Online (http://www.navsource.org/) and I found all of the ships listed were scrapped, and I also found that out of the 63 Crater-class ships built, none would in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, because they are all scraped or destroyed. However there would be still a number of Liberty and Victory Ships available, here is a list:

Liberty ship
SS Arthur M Huddel
SS John W. Brown
SS Jeremiah O'Brien

Victory ship
SS American Victory (Tampa, Florida)
SS Lane Victory (Los Angeles, California)
SS Red Oak Victory (Richmond, California)
SS Earlham Victory (Brownsville, Texas)
SS Pan American Victory (Brownsville, Texas)
SS Rider Victory (Brownsville, Texas)
SS Winthrop Victory (Brownsville, Texas)