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Point
of departure
Point
of departure: There are three here, all of them in the realms of the
possible. The first is that the Greek Dictator Metaxas lives longer then
in our timeline - until the middle of 1942. The second is that British
commander in Malaya, Lt-Gen Percival is bitten by an insect at the start
of 1941 and is hospitalised with severe malaria. His replacement is Lt-Gen
William "Bill" Slim. The third POD I’ll come to later.
O’Connor’s
Raid
December 1940. British forces in Egypt start their "five-day
raid" against the Italians. To their astonishment the raid becomes a
major offensive that extends into Cyrenicea, destroying most of the
Italian 10th Army. Despite the massive diplomatic pressure that Churchill
is bringing to bear, Metaxas, who has just recovered from a major illness,
and whose health is very fragile, refuses to bring Greece into the war,
for fear of a German attack. Instead he accepts as much war material as
possible for a major offensive against the Italians in Albania. As a
result the Western Desert Force is not weakened, and O’Connor, having
destroyed the remains of the Italian 10th Army at Beda Fomm on
January 30th, bounces El Aghelia on February 1st 1941, heading
straight west for Tripoli.
Rommel arrives on February 15, a week ahead of elements of the 15th Panzer
division. To his horror he discovers Tripoli in complete chaos, with
scanty defences and Italian morale lower than their bootstraps. The
British commander, O’Connor, is scraping up every unit he can get his
hands on to beat the Germans to Tripoli, having been warned about this by
ULTRA decrypts. Every Matilda that can run and every gun that can be fired
is being loaded up and shipped west after some Herculean efforts on the
part of British & Australian engineers.
Rommel in the meantime is trying to organise the defence of Tripoli, but
is failing to get much in the way of Italian co-operation. An effort on
the part of Graziani to defend the Buerat position fails after O’Connor
outflanks it with the Australian 4th Division & then rolls up the
flanks. With another 18,000 Italian prisoners heading east, the defences
of Tripoli are looking very ragged, especially as LRDG (Long Range Desert
Group) forces are already in the area & are scouting it out.
By February 20, Rommel has assembled about a brigade’s worth of troops,
equipped with 30 Mark 3 Panzers. He has a few Pak 37 anti-tank guns, but
his only 88mm guns are still in ships unloading their cargo in Tripoli
harbour. The rest of his forces are still on their way. The only support
the Luftwaffe can provide are 5 Me110s and 2 Stukas, with everything else
still in ships ploughing their way toward Tripoli. He can call on the help
of some 30,000 Italian infantry and a small Italian tank force. However
Graziani is apathetic and regards the campaign as just being a matter of
time before the British overwhelm his defences. Morale is made worse after
an LRDG raid on an Italian airfield that sees the destruction of 32
planes. The unloading of the German and Italian ships in the harbour is
then disrupted by an air raid by 2 squadrons of Wellingtons, escorted by
Hurricanes. Rommel’s Luftwaffe support vanishes as the Me110s are
engaged by the Hurricanes and shot down.
O’Connor has now assembled the British 7th Armoured, 4th Australian, 6th
Australian and 4th Indian divisions. The growing Desert Air Force (DAF)
backs him up and the guns of the Mediterranean fleet led by Admiral
Cunningham. O’Connor plans to bounce the defences of Tripoli and smash
Rommel’s forces whilst they are still assembling.
O’Connor attacks on February 22, 1941, following a feint artillery
bombardment of the eastern defences. The main thrust is from the south,
with confusion being added by the LRDG, which makes a series of minor
raids. Although the Italian artillery fights well, the Italian infantry
rapidly crumbles. A counterattack by Italian M113 tanks is crushed by
British antitank fire.
"If you want to see a mobile
coffin, just look at some of the tanks the Italians produced. Death traps.
The armour was thin enough to allow a shell to pass through, but strong
enough to prevent it passing through the other side, so that it bounced
around. The crews never stood a bloody chance. We didn’t bury them, we
just opened the doors and poured the poor bastards out."
Australian author & veteran of the North African Campaign.
Faced with a collapsing southern flank, Rommel throws his panzers in, in a
desperate effort to gain a breathing space. His 30 panzers smash into the
flank of the Australian 4th Div, which rapidly pulls back to a patch of
high ground to the south. Just as Rommel is reorganising his troops for a
deeper attack against the British line of supplies, O’Connor arrives on
the scene.
He rapidly gauges the situation and summons 2 squadrons of Matildas to
launch a counter-attack. As he waits for their arrival he orders a battery
of 3.7-inch anti-aircraft guns to open harassing fire on the German tanks,
which are reforming several miles to his north. After threatening the
battery’s commanding officer with a transfer to the Kyber Pass unless he
obeyed orders, the battery opens up. After several misses, they then start
to make hits, wrecking a total of 8 panzers to the total astonishment of
Rommel, who immediately orders a hasty probe eastward to outflank the
guns.
His probe runs straight into the arms of the 14 Matildas of the B and C
squadrons of the 2nd battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment.
These slam into the right flank of the German force, knocking out five in
as many minutes. A wild tank battle then ensues, which one awed Australian
sergeant calls "A hell of a bloody bar fight."
Reduced to 7 panzers, Rommel desperately attempts to disengage and retreat
north, chased by the remaining 10 Matildas for a short time, until
O’Connor brought them back to support a renewed assault by the
Australian 4th Div. This crushes the Italian forces in front of them,
remnants of which fall back to the next line of defence. Unfortunately
there is no respite, as O’Connor then pushes the 4th Indian Div through
the Australians and breaks through this line as well, coming within sight
of the harbour of Tripoli.
Rommel now has just 6 panzers left, having lost one to a direct hit from a
British 25-pounder. He is now dismayed to hear that in his absence from
the combined HQ, a demoralised Graziani, faced with a collapsing
perimeter, mass surrenders and with British fighters shooting at anything
that moved in the harbour, has ordered all forces to surrender. Chaos
swiftly erupts as the Italians surrender but the Germans fight on.
Fighting lasts intermittently until 6pm, following the failure of a last
attack by Rommel to punch a hole in the tightening British grip on
Tripoli. Reduced to 2 panzers and a handful of weary men, Rommel is
eventually forced to bow to the inevitable and surrenders to a rather
surprised young Australian subaltern.
“As
I was standing there, a tattered figure staggered up to me and saluted.
Then he said with a wry grin that he wished to surrender. I asked who he
was. He replied: “I am the poor German bastard in charge of this
shambles. My men are too damned tired to fight any more. Can you please
take care of them? We have a lot of wounded.” About half an hour later I
escorted this courteous fritz to the new HQ to the south of the city.
O’Connor – short, dapper, tough as nails – was standing outside. He
looked at me, flicked an eyebrow at the fritz and said: “Who are you,
then?” The fritz snapped off a sizzling salute. “Major-General of
panzer troops Erwin Rommel,” he said, “Former commander of German
troops in North Africa.” The two men just looked at each other, the air
almost crackling between them. Then O’Connor grinned and saluted back.
“I read about your campaign in France, General.” Rommel replied:
“Yes, and you seem to have matched it here. A British Blitzkrieg,
general.” Godfrey Sullivan, The New Anzacs, p59, 1950.
Mediterranean Rumblings
The
fall of Tripoli was a disaster for the Italians, who had now lost the
whole of their North African Empire. Their holdings in East Africa were
now also under threat from a blitzkrieg-like offensive by General Alan
Cunningham, who was advancing into Abyssinia from multiple directions.
However although weakened, Mussolini’s position was not threatened.
Furious, he demands new offensives in Albania against the Greeks and in
the Mediterranean against the British fleet. Hitler is also furious.
Rommel used to command his bodyguard, and the crushing of German forces,
albeit heavily outnumbered forces, in the battle of Tripoli makes
headlines around the world and encourages Yugoslavia to downplay
negotiations to join the Axis. However the loss of Libya also means that
the surviving troops from Rommel’s forces who failed to get there on
time (and who also survived a renewed offensive by British submarines from
Malta) could join in for Barbarossa, scheduled for May 1941.
The destruction of Italian North Africa has another effect. The French
North African Empire watches the Italian humiliation with great glee.
Their forces are still quite strong, and they have useful contacts with
both the Free French and the British. The British recovery has shown that
the war was by no means over. Serious thought is given to the chances of
re-entering the war, especially as Laval has gathered most of the reins of
power and is effectively running Vichy France, sidelining a humiliated
Petain. The French commander in chief in North Africa, General Weygand,
has always had political ambitions. Now he starts to reconsider his view
that Germany would win the war.
Matters take a more serious turn when word reaches Vichy that Weygand has
made informal contact with De Gaulle. A furious Prime Minister Laval
dispatches the Anglophobic Admiral Darlan to Algeria to investigate.
President Petain dispatches his own messenger, Admiral Chantilly, from the
Toulon fleet.
Darlan’s plane never makes it and vanishes in a storm, the victim of
engine failure. Chantilly arrives and consults with Weygand. Both agree
that there is a good chance that French North Africa could resume the war,
especially if Italy is knocked out. They also agree that Laval is
dangerously pro- German and has too much control in France.
Chantilly returns to Vichy and talks to Petain. He is evasive about
Weygand’s plans and is contemptuous about Laval. His words find a
welcome audience; Petain has been wishing that he could be rid of Laval
for some time. Encouraged by Chantilly, who returns to the Toulon fleet to
sound out some of his captains about resuming the war, he fires Laval.
Hitler does not want any unexpected stirrings of independence from Vichy
and cracks down hard. Petain is forced to reappoint Laval and effectively
grant him even more power. Laval is now out for revenge. He knows that
something is going on in French North Africa, he suspects Chantilly of
disloyalty and he regards Petain as an inconvenient figurehead who would
make a really great martyr.
On February 15, 1941 Marshal Petain is killed in a car crash just outside
Vichy itself, after a trio of figures shoot out the tyres of his car.
Laval announces that the deed was the work of the British, hoping to curry
favour with Hitler by stirring France into declaring war on Britain.
However things start to go wrong when one of the assassins is captured and
is revealed to be a right-wing French army officer who is also Laval’s
military aide. Realising that they are facing a coup by Laval, the Vichy
Government splits. French North Africa repudiates Laval and declares
itself separate from Vichy. There are anti-Laval riots all over Vichy
France, as people mourn Petain. Laval panics and calls Hitler, who decides
that enough is enough and that he cannot have any distractions in his
rear, especially with the invasion of Russia approaching. The German army
in Northern France heads south to occupy this troublesome area.
Chantilly acts quickly. Rule of law has broken down and the murder of
Petain has outraged the fleet. Crammed with pro-Weygand Vichy soldiers the
Toulon fleet makes a break for French North Africa. Surviving a brief and
ineffectual bombing raid by Vichy planes, they succeed in making it to
Weygand, who makes an appointment to meet Wavell at the Libyan-Tunisian
border. There he announces that he has formed a French Government in
exile, dedicated to the liberation of mainland France. He generously
offers the post of Secretary of Defence to General DeGaulle, whose nose is
promptly put very much out of joint. DeGaulle flies to Algeria where he
forms a loose alliance with Weygand that gradually settles into a grudging
friendship. French colonial governments in Indo-China, Syria, Dakar,
Lebanon and various islands quickly throw in their lot with the new
Alliance.
Churchill is delighted. France appears to be reviving, DeGaulle is off his
hands and Britain has rearmed. British technical experts fall upon the
German tanks captured at Tripoli with great interest. The Matilda is a
good tank, but is too slow and under gunned. The new tanks on the
development drawing board are progressing well, with the Churchill about
to enter production. Despite industrial objections, Labour minister and
former head of the TUC Ernest Bevin gets the plans for the much better
Comet and Challenger tanks to have electrically welded, sloping hulls.
British tank design takes a massive leap forward and plans for the new
Centurion tank are advanced. Another positive discovery is the fact that
the 3.7 inch AA gun is a tank killer. Churchill squashes
inter-departmental squabbling about its use as production is stepped up to
make it the equivalent of the German 88mm gun.
The Far East
Moreover
the capture of North Africa and the continuing campaign against Italian
East Africa means that large forces can be moved to reinforce the Far
East, where the Japanese are becoming restive. Lt.-General Percival, the
Chief of the Imperial General Staff’s choice for the post of commander
of the Malayan garrison is desperately ill in a Singapore military
hospital with malaria. Churchill reviews the candidates for Percival’s
replacement. He picks Maj.-General Bill Slim, who is quickly promoted to
Lt.-Gen and sent off to his new position.
"Slim, or Uncle Bill as he was
known, was a revelation. He blew into the post like a gust of wind, and
set up training exercise after training exercise in the jungles and
mountains of Malaya. One brigadier complained at the Japs would of course
stick to the roads and could be stopped with roadblocks so all this new
jungle training was rubbish. He was called in and got a roasting that
scared the shit out of him. When he made the mistake of complaining again
he ended up on a very slow boat to Port Stanley. And then the floodgates
opened and Winnie sent us lots of nice presents, like Matildas by the
score and guns by the tonne. The RAF in Malaya before was a joke. When it
switched over in Malaya from Brewster Buffalos to Spits and Hurribombers,
no one was laughing any more. Especially not brother Jap, who got more and
more worried as he looked south." Robert Harris, The
Gates Of Singapore Are Barred, pp136.
More
and more troops are now available for the garrison of Malaya, with the
arrival of British, Indian, Australian and Canadian units. Slim had taken
a cool look at the defences of Malaya and Singapore. For one thing, too
many guns in the latter are pointed seawards. He starts to refortify.
Singapore is to be the last stand position, should Malaya fall. However
Malaya itself has some good positions. Slim starts to fortify the line
Bukit Mertajan-Mt Chama-Kape Kerangganu. Previously this had been thought
too far with the forces available. Now he has the men, Slim makes a start.
He also starts to train his men in the arts of jungle fighting. The
arrival of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, the brilliant New Zealander
who played a big part in winning the Battle of Britain, is a big boost as
AOC Malaya. Park appeals to London for more planes, more AA guns and more
facilities. He gets them, as Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellingtons start
to arrive, along with some Sunderland flying boats and Swordfish
torpedo-bombers. The latter are obsolete but can take a surprising amount
of punishment.
Balkan
Entanglements
For Hitler all of this is proving a distraction to the goal of 1941 - the
destruction of the Soviet Union. The year has so far been unpleasantly
wet, leading to widespread flooding in Poland and the Ukraine. It will
take time for the rivers to return to normal levels and ground to dry out,
time that sees the invasion date pushed back from May to June.
Meanwhile in Greece, the Greek Army is almost ready for its spring
offensive against the Italians. Large amounts of munitions have been
bought from Britain, including a force of 50 Matilda tanks. It is a small
number, but they are considerably better than the L10 tanks that the
Italians have deployed. The Greeks confidence is high. They have weathered
the winter well, and outthought and outfought the Italians, whose men were
at the end of their tether.
On April 2, 1941 the Greek offensive opened with a massive bombardment of
the Italian lines south of Qukes. With a huge hole blown in the Italian
Lines, the Greeks punch through with their tanks, crushing an attempted
counter attack by L10s. The Greeks push on, driving the Italians before
then and bouncing the Qukes-Elbasan mountain pass to descend on the rear
of the Italian army. By now panic is enveloping the Italian commanders in
Albania, as they try to stop the torrent of Greeks from cutting their army
in two. They fail. On April 10 the Greeks reach the Adriatic at the town
of Kavaje, With few useable harbours for supplies the cut off section of
the Italian army surrenders three days later. The day after that General
Botazzi, commander of the Italian Army of Albania, asks for an immediate
armistice. Despite orders from a furious Mussolini to stand and fight (Botazzi’s
reply of "Tell the Duce that he should stand and fight here himself,
instead of ranting in Rome. We asked for guns and he gave us
paperwork," causes a great deal of eyebrow raising) Italian forces
capitulate on April 16th 1941.
In an extremely smart move Metaxas follows up by asking Hitler to
negotiate a peace between Greece and Italy. Hitler does not want to
humiliate Mussolini, but he does want peace in this area, in order to
prevent the British from intervening.
However Mussolini is now in severe political trouble, because April 16th
started what was to be become known in Italy as ‘The Week of Woe.’
By
the middle of April, the British had smashed the Italian army of Abyssinia
to pieces. On April 18, the Duke of Aosta, CinC Abyssinia, surrenders
after the battle of Addis Ababa, which had seen Cunningham join forces
with General Platt, who had advanced out of the Sudan, and then
comprehensively defeated the Italian army.
Aghast
at the loss of the last part of his African Empire and fully aware of the
mutterings against him that were filling the political circles of Rome’s
high society, Mussolini realised that he needed a high profile success to
tide him over. On hearing that a Greek convoy was due to sail from Corfu
to Cephalonia on the 22nd, he orders the Italian battle fleet
to sail and destroy it.
His
orders are greeted with consternation by the Italian naval command, which
had lost heart since their defeat at the battle of Cape Matapan the
previous year. Faced with a firing squad, Admiral Campioni orders the
fleet to get ready to put to sea. Campioni can summon up the battleships
Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, and a patched up Guilio Cesare, as well as 6
cruisers and 14 destroyers.
As
the orders went out to get to sea, eager British ears were listening in.
Admiral Cunningham, the elder brother of General Cunningham, is now based
in Tripoli with the Mediterranean Fleet and is champing at the bit to
finish off what he had started at Cape Matapan. He can call on the
battleships Warspite, Malaya, Barham, Valiant and Ramillies, as well as
the aircraft carriers Formidable, Illustrious and finally Ark Royal, which
had just passed through the Mediterranean partly under the watchful eyes
of the French. Cunningham also has 6 cruisers and 18 destroyers.
Campioni
sails on the 20th. Cunningham had left harbour the previous
day, unseen by enemy eyes. Campioni hoped to catch the Greeks at dawn,
with them lit by the predawn light, and his forces in the gloom.
Cunningham also hoped to catch the enemy unawares – with another night
attack.
By
2am on the 22nd, Campioni is feeling his way in the dark
towards Corfu, when suddenly three star shells exploded above his battle
line. Seconds later huge plumes of water are erupting on every side of his
flagship Littorio. Cunningham has arrived.
Cunningham
had made his approach as stealthy as possible, tracking his prey by radar.
By now all of his major warships are equipped with this, and he was able
to gain an excellent idea of the position of the enemy and crossed their
T. The British ships are also highly trained at night engagements, while
their Italian opponents are not to the same degree. Finally, at a range of
8 miles the big battleships swung their turrets around, tracking their
prey, before opening fire.
The
second salvo from all five British battleships slam into Littorio and
reduce her to a wreck in seconds, Campioni being killed outright in the
blast. The Italian battle line is forced to swing to either side of the
blazing battleship to avoid it, enabling the British to get a better
glimpse of their spread. By now Warspite is engaging Vittorio Veneto,
Barham and Malaya are taking on the Guilio Cesare, while Valiant and
Ramillies engage the Italian cruisers.
“I
was on the bridge when I saw a great glow appear on the horizon, like a
huge red fire. Seconds later we heard the sound of explosions, like a
great drum was being beaten.
I looked at the captain and said ‘My god, what is happening out
there?’ And he said: ‘Men are dying.’ Lt Spiro Alexander, Royal
Hellenic Navy, The Desperate War
P58.
Guilio
Cesare lasts ten minutes before it succumbs crushed by the 15 inch and 16
inch shells that obliterated its upper works. It sinks at 3.40am, 10
minutes before the Littorio. Vittorio Veneto, targeted by all five British
battleships, blows up at 3.50am after a shell from Barham penetrated its
forward magazine and rips it in half. Of the rest of the Italian fleet, 2
destroyers and a cruiser survive, limping back to Taranto the next
morning. Cunningham’s fleet is cheered into Tripoli, having suffered a
total of 235 casualties. Italian losses have never been determined
exactly.
The
battle of Paxoi (the nearest landfall) seals Mussolini’s fate. Most of
the Italian fleet has been wiped off the face of the earth, and Italy’s
African Empire has been lost, along with a total of almost half a million
men.
On
April 24th the Fascist Grand Council meet. Mussolini is quietly
invited to retire, leaving under armed guard for an unknown destination.
The King of Italy invites Marshal Azzani to become Prime Minister. Top of
his agenda is an immediate appeal to Britain and Free France for an
armistice.
This
comes as a deeply unpleasant shock for Hitler, who has lost his best –
if rapidly weakening – ally in Europe. However time is too short. Halder,
the chief of staff of the OKW informs him that he cannot take over Italy
and hit Greece and attack Russia, all at the same time. Russia must take
precedence. Hitler grits his teeth. He sends Von Ribbentrop to Athens to
negotiate an end to the Italio-Greek war and quietly starts to fortify the
Brenner Pass. Perhaps, out of this whole mess, he can dampen down this
Balkan entanglement and start to get Italy back on side. He also orders
Admiral Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, to find out where this new
Italian Government has hidden Mussolini.
In
the meantime the fight against the British and their gathering allies must
go on. On May 1, 1941, Bismark sorties from the Baltic, in an attempt to
wreak havoc in the Atlantic. Admiral Lutjens would have preferred to wait
another two weeks until the cruiser Prinz Eugen is also ready, but Admiral
Raeder, his CinC, orders him to go anyway. The Fuhrer is impatient for
some action.
Bismark
is spotted in the Kattegut on May 2 by an alert Danish agent, who radios a
warning to London. He is backed up by a Norwegian agent a few hours later
when Bismark passed Bergen. The Home Fleet mobilises at once. There are
three possible avenues of entry to the Atlantic – the Denmark Strait,
the Iceland-Faeroes gap and the Faeroes-Shetland gap. The CinC of the Home
Fleet, Admiral Tovey, is faced with some hard decisions. He decides to
send HMS Hood and King George V to the first, Prince of Wales and Repulse
to the second, and a screen of cruisers to the last. After some additional
thought he adds the carrier HMS Victorious to the Denmark Strait group,
commanded by Vice-Admiral Holland.
At
dawn on May 5 the cruiser Norfolk glimpses a strange shape in the fog in
at the northern end of the Denmark Strait. She investigates, spots Bismark,
and ducks back into the fog, her radio screaming a sighting report at full
blast. Holland takes a good long look at the situation. Hood has weak main
aft armour, so he must make the full use of her powerful 15-inch guns,
which equal Bismark’s 15-inch guns. He decides to alter course so that
his force meets Bismark at dawn the next day, crossing the German T.
At
4.30am on May 6 the British ships pick up Bismark on their radar. They are
hidden in the western horizon, while Bismark is lit by the eastern
pre-dawn light. Furthermore thanks to bad operational instructions about
the use of radar, Bismark has her own radar shut down to prevent
detection. At 4.35am the two British battleships fire broadsides at
Bismark, straddling her at once. The second broadside from Hood smashes
into the direction layer machinery on Bismark’s forward section. She is
now effectively blind and is trying to close the gap in order to open up
her stern arcs of fire. Hood and KGV start to pound Bismark mercilessly
with 15-inch and 14-inch shells, destroying her forward superstructure and
killing Lutjens and Captain Lindemann. Although she manages to open up her
stern arcs, she is pounded to pieces, with a fatal hit on Dora turret from
the delighted crew of Norfolk, supported by HMS Suffolk which arrives
rather late.
The
coup de grace is delivered by Victorious as the raw but eager crews of her
swordfish sink five torpedoes into her starboard side. Bismark sinks at
7am, although many survivors of her crew insist that she was scuttled.
“It
was very quiet in the wardroom after Bismark went down. She was a lovely
ship, magnificent even, but given a terribly dark soul by her masters. A
beautiful ship built for a monstrous cause. But there was another reason
for our silence. As we sat there young Mountcalm came in pale as a ghost.
We asked what was wrong and he said that he had just found an unexploded
German shell close to the starboard torpedo launchers. We all went quiet
then. If it had gone off, the torpedoes would have gone with it, and
possibly the main magazine, taking the whole ship with it. A week after we
docked the word went round that we were off to the USA for a refit. We all
knew that it was about bloody time.” Robert Chalmers, Allied
Hammer, Pp126-127, 1955.
Barbarossa
Shrugging
off his losses, Hitler declares his resolve to attack Russia. British and
Greek intelligence both supply Stalin with more than enough evidence of
the Wehrmacht’s plans, but he ignores them. Hitler, he thinks, will not
attack, as he has too much to lose from the attempt. This is a serious
mistake.
Hitler
has now massed a total of 115 infantry divisions, 15 motorised infantry
divisions, 1 cavalry division and 20 armoured divisions (15th
Panzer had replaced the 30 panzers it had lost in the abortive African
campaign). He can also call upon the up to strength and fully trained
German parachute forces, although some forces have been left to guard the
German-Italian and German-Yugoslavian borders.
The
German attack falls upon the surprised Soviet forces on schedule in the
pre-dawn darkness of Sunday June 22, 1941. Within three days the first
Soviet operational echelon has been slashed to pieces and the panzers are
thundering eastward.
By
the end of the first month, morale is high in the German camp. The best of
the Soviet forces have been annihilated on the frontier, the Germans have
taken most of the Baltic States and Belorussia and are starting to press
deep into the Ukraine. Stalin starts to move more and more men into the
Kiev bulge in order to hold the city and try to outflank the Germans.
Hitler
also has his eyes on Kiev and, to the dismay of his generals, orders that
the Kiev salient be pinched off. Much to his disgust, Guderian, the tank
genius who crushed the French, rumbles south instead of east. At the same
time Hitler starts to listen to Goering, who is desperate to boost his
standing after the defeat over Britain the previous year. Planning begins
for a paratrooper assault near Leningrad.
In
the middle of this mass of plans, the news from Rome comes as a dreadful
shock. On August 17, 1941 Italy signs an armistice with Britain and the
Free French. The status of the Italian Empire – as was – is put on
hold, Italy agrees to cease all offensive actions and German forces are
invited to return home. As soon as possible. Now.
Hitler
is annoyed but not totally surprised – he had no faith in an Italian
government that did not contain Mussolini. He diverts another two
divisions from France to fortify the Alpine passes and continues to focus
on the Russian Front.
The
Allies are delighted – the Mediterranean is open again. The siege of
Malta is lifted and the Italian fleet is no longer a threat. Churchill
immediately decides to send more forces to the Far East. Warspite, Barham
and Valiant, along with Illustrious and Formidable, pass through the Suez
Canal heading for Singapore. The new Far Eastern fleet is commanded by
ABC, with Admiral Harwood taking over in the Med, in charge of a joint
British-Free French fleet. Reinforcements for the Far Eastern Fleet are
soon on the way; Prince of Wales, Repulse, Royal Sovereign, Revenge, Ark
Royal, Eagle and Furious.
There
is another effect from the Italian armistice. A pro-British Italian naval
officer, no longer shackled by his allegiance to his former allies, has a
quiet word in the ear of the returning British ambassador. He mentions
that the German B-Dienst intelligence group seems to be having some
success in decoding the main Royal Naval convoy code... The code is
changed at once to a machine-based version that B-Dienst, despite their
best efforts, cannot break. Suddenly the German U-boat arm is blind.
The
Germans decide to keep the pressure on in Russia however. In September,
amidst vicious fighting, the Kiev salient falls, costing the Red Army
almost 750,000 men. The panzers turn north again. The objective –
Moscow.
In
the far north also, things are moving again. The 15th panzer
division (which still boasts tans from life in the Mediterranean) smashes
into the Soviet defences around Leningrad. Its’ success sparks Operation
Northern Light – as General Kurt Student’s paratrooper and air landing
divisions take to the skies to the east of the city, to cut the rail lines
supplying the Russian forces and cause chaos. The Soviets are stunned but
quickly recover – but the diversion of effort away from the front line
costs them dearly. Although Students forces are roughly handled and are
pushed south of the railway lines, Leningrad becomes indefensible. The
population is evacuated quickly and the Germans smash their way in. By
October 12 the Swastika flies over the city of Peter the Great. Although a
terrible blow to Russian morale, the fall of Leningrad actually helps them
out, as the men from the city are used to bolster the front line near Lake
Lagoda. Furthermore the losses suffered by Student cripples the German
paratrooper arm and horrifies Hitler.
The view from
Tokyo
In
Tokyo, anxious eyes are looking south. The British presence in Malaya is a
worry, especially at the French in Indochina have rallied to the Free
French government. There are plans to occupy Indochina as well, but a rare
flash of sanity breaks over Tokyo and it is decided that they cannot
occupy everywhere all at the same time. The Free French cannot afford to
get involved in a war here, as their eyes are on the liberation of France.
Japan and the Free French agree to an uneasy neutrality.
Japan
must have access to the raw materials that abound in the Dutch East
Indies, most importantly the oil. But the risk is growing. The Japanese
naval CinC, Yamamoto, takes a hard look at the situation. The British Far
Eastern fleet now assembling in Singapore is a threat. However the US
fleet at Pear Harbour is the bigger threat – it is larger and will
probably threaten Truk or the Marianas in the event of war. He continues
to make plans for a strike against Pearl Harbour and fights off pressure
to divert strength against Singapore. Training intensifies on the Hiryu,
Soryu, Akagi, Kaga, Shokkaku and Zuikkaku.
Training
is also intensifying on board the ships of the Far Eastern fleet.
Cunningham has seen the strength of the airplane during his time in the
Mediterranean. His aircraft carriers carry fewer planes then the Japanese
carriers, but are better armoured. However he has struck up an excellent
relationship with Park and knows that as long as he stays inside range of
land-based aircraft, he will have good cover. Especially with the new
Seafire, the naval version of the Spitfire, arriving in larger numbers.
There are also a small number of the new Martin-Baker MB3 fighters
appearing. Production of these has started in the UK, after a spectacular
demonstration of the performance of the prototype of the plane.
Slim
and Park are also training their forces, Slim boosted by the enthusiastic
behaviour of his new subordinates Orde Wingate and Alan Cunningham, both
fresh from Abyssinia.
By
the middle of November the Axis is sinking into the mud, or rather the
snow. The onset of the Russian winter is starting to cripple German forces
in the east as they pound on the defences of Moscow. Italy is out of the
war and is running out of places to hide Mussolini. And Japan is running
out of oil and is champing at the bit to start a war that Yamamoto knows
it cannot win.
Having
won his battle against the Japanese chiefs of staff, Yamamoto reluctantly
starts to get things in gear. On schedule the First Air Fleet under the
command of Admiral Nagumo leaves harbour. It heads eastward.
Other
Japanese forces also leave harbour. These head south, including five troop
transports escorted by a cruiser and five destroyers. In the event of war
the men on these transports will be needed by General Yamashita, the
commander of the Japanese forces in Thailand that are slated for the
invasion of Malaya.
On
December 7th, 1941 Nagumo strikes at Pearl Harbour, sinking
four US battleships, and inflicting heavy damage on the remainder of the
US Pacific Fleet. USS Arizona explodes, Oklahoma capsizes, California and
West Virginia both settle on the bottom.
However
the Southern Operation sees the wheels come off quickly. The Japanese
landing forces off Khota Baru are spotted by the submarine HMS Darkness,
which sends in a sighting report. Permission is given to fire and ISS
Haguro, the cruiser escorting the Japanese forces, gets 4 torpedoes in its
guts. It swiftly sinks. In the meantime Park and Cunningham scramble their
forces. With a protective umbrella of Hurricanes, Spitfires and Seafires
over it, the Far Eastern Fleet sorties. It rapidly finds the Japanese
forces off Khota Baru and sinks them all. A desperate but piecemeal attack
by Japanese planes from Siam is crushed by the British air cover.
At
the same time US forces in the Philippines are bombed by the Japanese,
with Macarthur’s air forces being smashed to bits. Recriminations
swiftly start to fly. Japanese forces do not invade Indochina, but do mass
along its borders in an effort to bring pressure on the Free French
government.
Meanwhile
in Russia the situation is getting desperate for the Germans. The battle
for Moscow is not going well, as the Soviets feed in divisions from
Siberia. The Germans dig in for the winter instead, seeing Guderian
dismissed for daring to suggest that German forces should pull back to a
more defensible line. The Blitzkrieg has come to a halt for the first
time. However, other offensives are being set up. Plans for the final
solution to the Jewish question step up a gear.
Into Malaya
The
Japanese attack into Malaya is crippled from the start due to the loss of
the reinforcements that the Japanese Army was awaiting at Khota Baru. Led
by Yamashita the Japanese press southwards. Slim meets them with a series
of ambushes and attacks all along the line. The Commonwealth forces have
been practising for months in this area and the training pays off.
Yamashita sees his forces start to shrink as the British, Australian,
Indian, New Zealand and Canadian forces start to chip his army to death.
Although Yamashita has seen what the war in Europe is like – especially
the blitzkrieg - he lacks the resources to do anything similar. His tanks
especially are no match for the British Matildas, which steadily smash his
tank units to pieces. By the start of January 1942 Yamashita is faced with
the brutal fact that if he continues to advance he will be defeated.
Losses are far too high, the RAF has bombed the bridges back into Siam and
he is low on every kind of supply. Matters are made worse when the British
Far Eastern fleet sorties on January 8th and starts to shell
his eastern flank. With no air support he cannot retaliate, and his
advance grinds to a halt.
This
is what Slim has been waiting for. He has deliberately pulled back to
blood his men and to draw the Japanese away from their lines of supply.
Better still he now has air superiority over the battlefield, as the
Spitfires and MB3s cut down the few Zeros that are able to make it. Slim
counterattacks all along the line and routs Yamashitas tired, badly
supplied and starving men. By January 15th the British have
pushed beyond their start lines and are in the southern tip of Siam and
are linking up with their forces in Burma, which have not been threatened
at all so far. The British hammer north to the line of the Phet Buri River
where they pause to get their logistics in order.
However
things in the Philippines are far from OK. Macarthur has been pushed
steadily back to the Bataan peninsula and is screaming for reinforcements
and help. The nearest Allied force is in Malaya, but the British cannot do
much.
The
Japanese High Command on the other hand is impatient for more action. It
starts to make plans for paratrooper landings in Indonesia. Yamamoto is
also ordered to hit the British Far Eastern Fleet. He orders Nagumo to
refit and resupply his first carrier fleet. Nagumo is forced to leave
Shokaku and Zuikaku behind to refit as they have both suffered minor
damage after the battle for Wake Island. The omission is a fatal mistake.
On
January 27th the British submarine HMS Defiant spots the
Japanese fleet as it passes into the South China Sea and radios warning of
its arrival.
Cunningham
and Park immediately order a massive search of the area. At 13.22 Nagumo
force is spotted. The Far Eastern fleet has already sortied. The British
have the advantage. They can co-ordinate an attack at the right time with
everything that they can throw at the Japanese, whose spotter planes have
failed to find the British fleet. The Spitfires, Wellingtons, Swordfish,
MB-3s and the tiny numbers of new Mosquitoes arrive almost at the same
time, forcing the surprised Japanese forces to split their fire.
Kaga
explodes and sinks a few minutes afterwards, following a direct hit by a
fully laden and fatally wounded Wellington piloted by Sqn-Ldr Ewan MacBeth.
MacBeth is awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Hiryu
takes three torpedoes, which gives her a 15-degree list. Worse, Soryu and
the cruiser Mogami collide as they both turn to avoid a spread of
torpedoes. Both stop dead in the water...
“As
I looked over the sea I could see that they were doomed. In battle speed
is life and they were both still in the water. Then someone shouted
‘More of them! No! Where are our fighters?’ next to me. I turned to
see Genda standing there, trembling with fury, tears running down his
oil-covered face. I looked over to port. Three shapes were winging their
way across the waves, like dragonflies, engines roaring. I had never seen
these twin-engined fighter-bombers before – these were sleek and deadly
Mosquitoes. Each planted a torpedo in the water with a deadly grace and
then their noses flashed with fire as their cannons opened up. I could see
a kind of smoke erupt along the deck of Soryu as their shells hit the
carrier. And then they were gone. Seconds later two plumes of water
erupted along Soryu’s side and she shook. Even from my spot on the Hiryu
I could see her shake. We had lost the battle and defeat tasted very
bitter.” Lt-Commander Fuchida, “Death in the South China Sea,”
pp101-102, 1959.
Outnumbered
four to one, some Japanese bombers try to strike at the British fleet,
after a belated report from a spotter plane. Three Val dive bombers
somehow survive the British fighters and flak to make an attack on the
Furious. One bomb misses, one explodes on the flight deck and one fails to
detonate. The hit is minimised by the armoured deck and an hour later the
carrier is recovering planes, at about the same time that the Soryu sinks.
Hiryu lingers for a few hours longer. The only surviving carrier is Akagi,
which retreats northward at full speed.
Cunningham
sends a message to London, which is passed on to Washington by a delighted
Churchill: “First repayment put down for Pearl Harbour.”
The Battle of
Bataan
By
now Macarthur’s’ forces are penned into Bataan and are running rapidly
out of food and ammunition. The Americans plead with the British to send
aid to the Philippines, but ABC is reluctant to send his forces into an
area where there is no friendly air cover. Several fast destroyers make
the perilous journey to Bataan, but they can only carry a fraction of the
supplies that the Americans desperately need. Worse, the Japanese start to
lay mines in the approaches. After one sinks the RN destroyer HMS Agrippa,
packed with wounded, the effort switches to using submarines.
The
US government is caught in a cleft stick. The loss of Bataan and the
capture of Macarthur will be a terrible blow. But to get Macarthur out
might be difficult and will certainly start political recriminations.
Also, he is not widely regarded as being as asset, many in the newly built
Pentagon regarding him as a theatrical has-been.
By
February 30, 1942 the situation is critical. Reluctantly FDR orders
Macarthur to leave the Philippines. He and his family are evacuated by the
US submarine Archer to Singapore, leaving General Wainright in charge of
the shrinking perimeter. On arrival Macarthur immediately demands that the
British launch an offensive to relieve the Philippines. After a three-hour
briefing session from ABC and Park he emerges looking a lot older and
wiser, The American-Philippine force is on its own for the time being.
Wainright
digs in harder in Bataan and prepares for a hard fight. But to his
surprise the Japanese also start to dig in and the pressure starts to
ease. Horrified by the failure to take Malaya, which could have fatal
repercussions for the invasion of Indonesia, Tokyo starts to pull some of
its soldiers out of the Philippines to reinforce the battered remnants of
Yamashita’s army in Siam. It would have preferred to remove troops from
China, but those pesky Chinese have failed to be beaten and have launched
a new offensive with supplies donated from the Americans and British via
the Burma Road. British and American submarines operating out of Singapore
start to feast on Japanese ships, although the American subs are having
terrible trouble with their torpedoes.
American
and British planes start to arrive in Bataan – first a trickle and then
a steady stream. The Allies gain parity and then air superiority. Things
start to look better when on March 18th a British convoy,
escorted by the Far Eastern Fleet, arrives with desperately needed
supplies.
“I
saw something today that still makes me cry – a tin of Limey bully beef.
A year ago I’dve thrown it away and screamed for real chow. But today
every lump of the lovely stuff is heaven. There are Limey officers here
and there, some of them wearing blue for their air force. I guess they all
gaped a bit at how thin we are. I heard that more food and ammo is coming
in. God knows how they made it. Maybe we’ll make it. Maybe. Still, one
day at a damn time. But we got folks out there coming for us. And the Nips
won’t beat us. We’re gonna beat them.” Diary of Sgt William
Jackson, USMC, March 20th, 1942.
More
planes start to land along the coast of Borneo, as a part of the new ABDA
(American-British-Dutch-Australian) command that is being set up.
Macarthur is in the running for the supreme command, or rather is letting
everyone know that he is the natural candidate. Churchill wants Alexander
and as the Empire has the most troops on the ground in South-East Asia,
Roosevelt agrees. Macarthur sulks.
The
Japanese high command reviews the situation. Bad though it is, it is not
irretrievable. The fleet is still in existence and there is always the
forthcoming strike on Indonesia. Plans for island hopping in Micronesia
are put on hold. At least they don’t have to worry about the American
Pacific fleet, do they?
They
have another think coming, as the Americans have been champing at the bit
for months to strike back for Pearl Harbour. The Limeys have done a bit,
but its time for some real American payback. On March 20, after frantic
training and hurried planning, 16 B-25s lumber off the decks of the USS
Hornet, 500 miles from Tokyo. Led by Lt-Colonel James Doolittle, the
planes carry out a short but psychologically devastating raid on Tokyo and
Yokohama.
Horrified,
ashamed and incredibly angry, Tokyo does some rethinking. The attack on
Indonesia will go ahead, with paratroop landings on schedule. But Yamamoto
is ordered to strike back against the American fleet, to bring about a
decisive action that will take the Americans out of the picture in the
Pacific.
Yamamoto
sits down and does some hard thinking. The near destruction of Nagumo’s
forces in the Battle of the South China Sea was a catastrophe. Hundreds of
trained pilots and excellent ground crew had been lost, as well as those
three precious carriers. He now had just three fleet carriers left,
although more were coming off the launching bays in Japan. He also had 10
light carriers and of course Japans untouched battleship force. But where
to strike at the Americans? The Philippines are out – there is only a
fraction of the American fleet there and besides there is also the British
fleet. Allied submarines are also swarming over the area, sinking anything
that looked slightly Japanese.
But
east? With the fall of Guam and Wake, the nearest points occupied by the
Americans were Midway and the Aleutians. The weather was too unpredictable
for the latter, and besides hitting Alaska would be like attacking Moscow
by bombing Sevastopol. But Midway... a strike there could draw out the US
fleet, ripe for plucking, especially if it came down to the superior
number of planes and battleships the Japanese could bring in. It might
even lead to an invasion of Hawaii. Yamamoto starts to make his plans.
Into the
Ukraine
Hitler
is also making plans. The year got off to a bad start, with desperate
Soviet attacks that panicked his spineless generals into recommending a
withdrawal. Some hard orders to stand and fight had nipped that in the
bud. With Leningrad taken and Moscow still in range, there was still all
to play for in the east. There are encouraging reports from the
Einstatzgruppen about their activities. And the oil fields of the Caucasus
and the grain of the Ukraine are beckoning enticingly. The summer could
see German troops on the Volga! A general attack like last years, all
along the front is out of the question – there are neither sufficient
resources nor the men to do it. The Heer has been battered. But an
offensive in one area is still possible. Hitler makes up his mind. The
Ukraine it is. He orders preparations to commence for an attack in the
south.
Stalin,
however, pre-empts him with his own offensive, also in the south, around
Kharkov.
The
Soviet offensive is an utter disaster, meeting fierce German resistance
and seeing a large chunk of the Soviet army under General Vlasov being cut
off and forced to surrender. This makes it easier for the German
offensive, which kicks off on June 28th, following a short
sharp campaign in the Caucasus that results in the fall of Sevastopol. The
German army rampages eastward, led by the 6th Army and the 4th
Panzer army. Progress is good, as the Red Army gets the hell out of the
way. Stalin rages but is now more willing to listen to his best general,
Zhukov, who had warned him that the counter-offensive would fail.
Hitler’s
offensive is a curiously evolving one, as his chiefs of staff struggle to
make sense of his changing orders. 4th Panzer army and 6th
army both suffer a great deal of logistical confusion as they cross paths.
Army Group South has been split into Army Group A in the south and Army
Group B in the north. At first Stalingrad is to be ignored until the
Soviet field armies have been destroyed. But with the Soviets retreating
faster than the Germans can advance, this changes. Hitler suddenly orders
a quick advance to take the city. On August 1, with the Soviet 62nd
army still crossing over to the eastern side of the Volga, 6th
Army sweeps into the city. In the meantime Army Group A reaches the oil
fields of Maikop, although the oil derricks and pumping facilities are
still smouldering.
Hitler
is jubilant. The Volga! He orders a short pause to help Army Group B to
gather its breath and sort out its supply lines, before continuing on to
Astrakhan. This will split the Soviet Union in two, isolating the
Caucasus. There is always the possibility of attacking the British in the
Middle East via Persia as well... The General Staff protests that this
will leave the Heer dangerously spread out, with over-extended flanks and
a long logistical chain that will be highly vulnerable. Hitler dismisses
these arguments. The Russian, he says, is finished.
The
Russian, or to be more accurate the Georgian, is far from finished.
Despite the loss of the prestige name of Stalingrad, Stalin is listening
carefully to Zhukov. The Germans are massively overextended already and
appear to be getting ready to stick their heads even further into the
noose. 62nd Army is ordered to stage a fighting withdrawal to
Astrakhan, where it will hold the city no matter what. To stiffen some
spines, General Chuikov is placed in charge. In the meantime, preparations
are made to form a large reserve secretly to the north of the Don-Volga
passage.
Balaclava in
the Channel
In
London on August 3, 1942, a phone rings on the desk of Professor R.V.
Jones, Scientific Director of Intelligence. He picks it up to hear a
contact of his at a British radar station near Dover tell him that the
Germans appear to be steadily stepping up their jamming of his equipment
but that no-one at the Admiralty will believe him. Jones thinks hard and
then puts in a call to a contact of his own who just happens to live in 10
Downing Street and who is doing his packing to depart for the Casablanca
Conference. Churchill, intrigued, calls the Admiralty and tells them to
keep a close eye on the Channel. The Admiralty jumps to it and also calls
the photographic reconnaissance department of the RAF. At 7am on June 5th
a spitfire lands near Portsmouth with a full load of film following a
sortie over Brest. When the film is developed the WAAF in charge of it
runs for her supervisor. The photos show that smoke is issuing from the
funnels of the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, which has been stuck in
port for more than a year. Close by is her sister ship the Gneisanau,
where there also appears to be some suspicious activity.
One
senior naval officer scoffs at the thought of the two ships trying to make
a break for Germany via the Channel. Then news comes in that the Germans
are sweeping lanes through the minefields in the Channel. The scoffing
stops immediately.
The
two German battlecruisers are indeed making a break from Brest to Germany.
Admiral Ciliax has thought up the plan and has broached the idea to the
Fuhrer, who describes it as “bold.” However Admiral Raeder is against
what he describes as “a totally mad plan thought up by that idiot Ciliax.”
For
Raeder this is coming at totally the wrong time. To makes matters worse
his only other heavy ship, the Tirpitz, is hors de combat. The previous
week a bunch of mad British sailors in three small mini-submarines
penetrated the Tirpitz’s heavily guarded Norwegian anchorage. Two of the
subs were spotted and destroyed along with one crew, the other crew being
captured. But a third actually got under Tirpitz and placed two huge
explosive charges under her stern before getting clean away. When the
charges went off they lifted the battleships’ stern almost out of the
water. Tirpitz remains afloat but two propeller shafts are heavily
damaged, both rudders are blown off, one engine is so much scrap metal and
there is a 30ft by 20ft hole in the hull, resulting in massive flooding.
There is also a fear that the keel has been damaged, but exact details are
unavailable until it can be examined in dry-dock.
Tirpitz can be repaired, but only in a German dry-dock as there is
nothing in Norway that can take her, so she will have to be towed there by
tugs.
Raeder
is not a happy man at all. He would be even unhappier if he could hear
some of the conversations being held in London. Churchill is incredulous
but delighted. He tells the Admiralty that the Germans are trying to
recreate the battle of Balaclava, with its charge of the Light Brigade, in
the Channel. Orders go out to RAF Coastal Command and to the various naval
units in the area. Especially to the submarines.
The
two German battlecruisers set sail at 6am on August 8th,
escorted by 8 destroyers and a cloud of fighters led by German fighter ace
Adolf Galland. Cold eyes are already watching them. At 9am the first
British attack starts in the form of a swarm of spitfires and MB3s, as
well as Mosquitoes. Galland is soon screaming for help as his fighters are
quickly overwhelmed. The Luftwaffe tries to reinforce him, but it’s a
bit difficult with what one German pilot describes as “half the bloody
RAF” waiting behind the clouds. The German fighter cover is shredded but
Ciliax, who is present on the bridge of the Scharnhorst, decides to press
on. Galland paddles back to France in his rubber dinghy.
At
10.41am the Free French submarine Surcouf, which has been loitering
carefully in the area, finally gets into a perfect firing position. It
launches a total of 6 torpedoes at Gneisanau. Only two hit, but both
impact the bow of the vessel, causing serious damage. Gneisanau starts to
lag as the destroyer escorts try but fail to find the Surcouf. At 11.04,
with the entire German formation starting to straggle, the leading ships
enter the first of the gaps in the minefields present in the Channel.
Unfortunately
the RAF has been a bit busy here and has dropped new mines in the gap. At
11.25am Scharnhorst hits a mine that damages its own bow. Gneisanau plows
on and then hits another, which causes moderate flooding. The destroyer
Z-21 hits a mine that breaks her back and swiftly sinks.
By
now the RAF has total control in the air over the ships and the first
coastal command planes are turning up. Surprisingly they concentrate on
the German destroyers at first, shredding two with rockets and sinking two
more with torpedoes. Ciliax suddenly realises what is going on. The German
destroyers are equipped with Asdic. No destroyers means no protection
against British submarines. However he has to watch as the British planes
finish off the remaining three destroyers. And then turn their attention
onto the German battlecruisers, destroying ack-ack emplacements and doing
their best to kill as many crewmen as possible..
The
submarine HMS Superb now gets in on the act. It is actually within the
minefield, an act of either extreme bravery or extreme stupidity,
depending on your point of view. It fires a full spread of four torpedoes
and then dives. One hits Scharnhorst; another hits the stern of Gneisanau,
which causes a catastrophic failure of the welds that hold the stern on.
Gneisanau, already in trouble, is stopped dead in the water, with engine
and boiler rooms flooding and electrical power on the point of failing. No
power – no guns. Coastal Command planes gather like a wolf pack. At
12.59pm she sinks.
Scharnhorst
presses on, as Ciliax tries to make for the nearest port, LeHavre. However
the British planes are relentless. In the last real hurrah of the
swordfish, 15 planes of 52 squadron deliver a pinpoint attack that sees 5
torpedo hits at the cost of 4 planes. Finally, at 2.40pm, Scharnhorst has
had enough. She tiredly rolls over and capsizes off the coast of Normandy
before slowly sinking.
Ciliax’s
body is washed up a few days later, assuaging Raeder’s rage slightly. He
now has just one heavy unit, the Tirpitz, which is about to be towed by
three tugs to Germany, with an escort of 5 destroyers.
However,
there is another enemy out there – the weather. Germany has no reliable
way to forecast the weather as its’ weather ships in the North Atlantic
have been sunk by the RN and USN. August 8th dawns fine and
clear in Norway as the Tirpitz is ponderously towed down the coast. By 10
however clouds are forming on the horizon and by 1 pm a summer storm front
– the remains of a Caribbean hurricane – is about to hit. Towing a
ship as big as the Tirpitz in a storm is a difficult operation to put it
mildly and the Germans quickly start to look for a fjord deep and safe
enough to take the battleship. The nearest is miles away and it is
impossible to hurry too much for fear of a towline parting. By 9pm the
ships are almost within range of a safe deep fjord, but the destroyers are
having a hard time keeping afloat, let alone keeping station. Tirpitz is
wallowing heavily, taking it green over her bows as her skeleton crew work
to keep her straining bulkheads and patches intact in her battered stern.
At
9.21pm disaster strikes in the form of a freak wave. All three lines snap
and Tirpitz starts to broach. Worse is to follow.
“We
felt it through our feet, as the noise of the storm was too loud for
anything else – a kind of wrenching shriek, followed by a lurch. Then
the handset shrilled loudly. I picked it up.
“’She’s
flooding, she’s flooding,’ screamed Hagen down the line from his place
in the damage control room. ‘I think the keel is broken, her back is
breaking! I’m getting everyone up now, we can’t do a thing here. Get
everyone out of her!’ I turned to the captain, who blanched as I blurted
out the news.
“’Abandon
ship,’ he said slowly and then looked out into the storm. ‘Between the
ship and the storm we are dead.’” Joachim Hellings, “Battleship
Tirpitz”, p231, 1958.
The
damage to keel from the British minisubs was far greater than the
engineers had suspected. Ordinarily she would have held together, but when
combined with the regular impacts of the storm waves and the lateral
movement caused by her broaching, Tirpitz’s keel finally gives way and
her back breaks. Very few of her crew survive, with a handful making it
through the tempest to one of the escorting destroyers. Tirpitz sinks
quickly.
Raeder
has lost the last of his big units, with the only survivors of the German
surface fleet being a few cruisers and pocket battleships, the latter
being little more then glorified heavy cruisers. Germany now has nothing
that can go up against the British home Fleet.
Churchill
is told of the sinking as he is getting onto a plane to go to the
Casablanca conference. He grins and says: “Between the Royal Navy and
King Neptune, corporal Hitler is getting some lessons on who rules the
waves!”
The Casablanca
Conference
The
western allies meet in Casablanca on August 10th 1942 to do
some planning. Despite some equivocation from the French (squashed after
DeGaulle takes the French chief of staff away and mutters something that
sounds suspiciously like “Sedan” in his ear) a combined chiefs of
staff meeting is set up. Roosevelt, Churchill and Weygand take their own
hard looks at the situation.
The
British are riding high at the moment. The Malayan defence force (renamed
4th Army) has beaten off the Japanese invasion, although there
have been some hints that the Japanese are planning an attack on
Indonesia. The Western Desert Force (renamed 3rd Army) is ready
for action and has been reinforced and resupplied. 1st and 2nd
Armies are waiting in Britain for deployment and the new Churchill and
Challenger tanks are entering service. The forces in Burma are being
strengthened by Indian troops and have been renamed 5th Army.
Training has been revolutionised by Lt-Gen Montgomery, whose methods are
tough but are working at getting complete co-operation between all arms.
Everyone agrees that he is immensely annoying, but also that he is very,
very, good at his job. The 1st Canadian army is also almost
ready for deployment.
Tests
on the new Meteor jet aircraft are encouraging. Most important of all, the
U-boats have taken a severe battering from the French and British navies
and with the addition of the US navy they are running for their collective
lives. Enigma has been broken and Ultra is supplying Western Approaches
with regular plots of U-boat movements. Top secret plans for artificial
harbours, code-named “Mulberries”, are being finalised and
construction is starting. And the commander of Bomber Command,
“Bomber” Harris, has been told to create a new squadron to use the new
bombs that have been thought up by inventor Barnes Wallis. He calls them
earthquake bombs for some reason...
The
French also have some cause for satisfaction. The North African Army is
growing by the day as new recruits come in, to be armed with guns from
Britain and tanks from America. There is a steady trickle of men coming in
from metropolitan France, smuggling themselves over the borders to Spain
or Italy. The French Navy is concentrating, with ships coming in from all
over the overseas empire. And the French Airforce is being resupplied with
new planes from Britain and America.
The
war has united America in a way that Roosevelt had only dreamed about. The
economy is booming, the tanks, ships and planes are rolling off the
factory lines and shipyards and the US Army has tripled in size. Bataan is
still holding out, by its fingertips sometimes, but it is holding out. The
question is, where to use America’s newfound strength?
There
are two options open to the Allies. One is an invasion of France on the
Riviera coastline. The other is an invasion on the north coast. Sir
Frederick Morgan, the Chief of Staff to the still-unnamed Supreme Allied
Commander (Cossac for short) is called on to give his report. The British
have been planning for the return to the continent since 1940. An assault
on the Pas-de-Calais would be the shortest route to Paris and the Rhine,
but would be the most obvious choice to Hitler. Normandy is a much better
bet – more ports could supply the beachhead and a port like Cherbourg or
Le Havre could be captured soon.
But
the best choice of all is the South of France. If Corsica could be
captured, this would give a natural stronghold that could supply any
beachhead with air cover. Troops could travel to North Africa more easily
than to the British Isles, which had a limited amount of space. The
Channel is small and easily monitored, the Med is not. Fleets could hide
under air cover more easily than in the Channel. In the meantime, an
elaborate bluff could be played out. Taking Corsica would alarm the
Germans. But if they were then made to believe that it was all a ruse to
disguise preparations for an invasion from Britain..... There would be
problems naturally. The Spanish would pass on news of any troop transports
or fleets passing through the Straits of Gibraltar.
However,
the three leaders order planning to start at once for the liberation of
France. A target date is set of July 1943. There is a lot of work to do.
In
the meantime some decisions also need to be made about who is going to
command what. Alexander is CinC of South East Asia Command (SEAC), while
Nimitz is CinC Pacific (CINCPac). The difficulty is where to draw the
dividing line... should it be east or west of the Philippines? Macarthur
even wants a South West Asia Command to be set up, with him in charge and
the ABDA fleet reporting to him. He is horrified to learn that no, instead
he is to report to Alexander as he will be under SEAC for the time being.
Furious that his 8th Amy is under anyone else but him, he
complains bitterly to the press. Roosevelt puts up with this... for now.
In
the Mediterranean, the obvious choice for a supreme commander is Wavell.
He gets on well with Weygand and has the full confidence of Churchill
after his great successes in North and East Africa.
Then
there is the matter of the invasion forces soon to start massing in
Britain. Who should command them? Roosevelt and Churchill have both
promised the job to their respective chiefs of staff, Marshall and Brooke.
With only a year and a half to go, a decision is needed but is not
absolutely vital yet. One thing is for sure – the commander of the
British and Commonwealth forces earmarked for the invasion will be
Montgomery. He is still irritating people with his foibles, but training
has improved immeasurably.
One
final decision comes out of the meeting. A South West Asia Command is to
be finally set up. It is made up mainly of British, New Zealand and
Australian troops around New Guinea and is commanded by General (later
Field-Marshal) Blamey |
