Chapter 2.1 - The "Phony" War
Stalin did not take the defiance of the Baltic states lightly.
Lithuania was first to fall, followed by Latvia next and Estonia last.
The Autumn Baltic War was a bloody affair as the Soviets faced bitter resistance in the invasion. Grinding combat led to tens of thousands of Soviet casualties accrued over the course of a month and a half of bloody fighting. Thanks in part to the chaotic state of the Red Army following the Great Purge, the USSR would face grim reality in its inability to swiftly defeat such a small, unimportant series of countries. Nonetheless, defeated they were and the Balts were returned into Russia's sphere as memberstates of the USSR. Stalin was so incensed at the Balts that he instituted a harsh crackdown on the countries and, for them, the time of troubles was just beginning.
RAAF and British aircraft encountered stiff resistance over the Atlantic.
After the Fall of Poland, Germany began to realize the heavy toll that the RAF and Royal Navy was exacting on its coastline. Bombers based out of RAF bases and Lille had been terrorizing the Saar and Hannover regions, but now the tide was turning. The German Luftwaffe was a fearsome opponent, with a large number of planes and well-trained pilots. Dangerous engagements would erupt in what became known as the North Sea Campaign, a struggle between the Empire and the Reich for control of both countries' all important territorial waters. Unable to sortie out of Wilhelmshaven with a real chance of success, the Kriegsmarine was forced to lurk in the Baltic where it could not be easily struck. This did not, however, stop German u-boats from terrorizing the English Channel, nor her aircraft from hunting down British ships and engaging them.
German, British and Australian aircraft clash over the North Sea in one of the peak battles.
Australian forces performed adequately in the skies, but the war was rapidly taking its tolls. Nearly half of her Sunderland bombers had been shot down or damaged to the point of recall, nearly 150 planes lost in told over the initial 3 months of the war. Most of the crew were either lost in the atlantic or interned by Dutch patrols off the coast of Holland. The Netherlands was committed to neutrality and, like in the past Great War, would arrest any violating its territorial sovereignty and hope to survive this war unscathed. Australian Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires were far less touched, and had covered the bombers adequately so far. There were worries about Germany's ability to outpace the Allied forces in aircraft production as so far the number of planes shot down seemed roughly equal on each side. The British found themselves unable to safely venture into the North Sea, but the Germans were suffering the same. The Campaign was, thus far, as much of a stalemate as the silence of the Western Front.
The ANZAC Expeditionary Army had finished assembling in France at long last. The force numbered just over 100,000 at present, of which roughly 40% were New Zealand troops. Australian Command was prepared to defer to the British for overall strategic command for the time being, but they remembered the difficulties of working with the British in the Great War. Although the Maginot Line was lightly defended, the German defences - supposedly called the Siegfried Line - was not so weakly held. British High Command was still trying to convince the French to support a general assault into the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland, to try and stop the Reich before it could muster its full forces together. Australian Infantry was well-supported by heavy artillery and support units, while the New Zealand formations were lighter and more mobile, giving the Army a flexible force in wartime.
Australian Army production was continuing. Although the bulk of her military budget of late had gone into the Navy and Air Force, her Army was expanding through necessity. In late November an order was placed for a run of Vickers-designed light tanks, to be built in Australia herself. The intention was to slowly develop Australia's motorized cavalry into armoured cavalry, enabling her to field a force which could meet the armoured divisions of the Germans on a more equal footing. The retrained Australian cavalry had adapted to motorized warfare, but not to armoured warfare - it was hoped that Australia could modernize her military that far while still keeping up with her other extensive requirements.
News broke in Australia on December 2nd that former Prime Minister Joseph Lyons had died of a heart attack. Although he had not been a popular Prime Minister late in his career, his loss was mourned by the state. Eager to unite the country, the propaganda press rapidly used the chance to hail and glorify the Australian cause.
Increasingly, the Australians required fuel for convoys to Europe and for the navy, air force and newly motorized cavalry. The establishment after nearly half a year of ongoing negotiations had sealed a final contract to bring large quantities of crude out of the Persian Gulf and to refineries. This large supply would be sufficient to build up a large stockpile of fuel for future operations.
Australian soldiers on Parade in Reims, France.
Just before Christmas, large parades and training manoeuvres were executed across Northern France for much of the "Phony War." The name was given because, although the Allies and Germany were now at war, very little in the way of actual fighting occured. No major offensives were made and neither side was willing to commit the bulk of its air or sea forces this early into the war. British Command however wanted to test the German fighting capability, and so they sent the one force they knew had outperformed any other in the Great War - the ANZAC Expeditionaries.
On December 27th, in what would later be called the 'Christmas Offensive', the Australians launched a large-scale, probing offensive into the German Rhineland. The battle would be brief, but intense - the Australians were soon outnumbered as Germans launched counterattacks against the Maginot Line. With just two divisions of French infantry garrisoning the Maginot border, the Australians were bound to face extreme difficulties. The British objective was to capture the city of Pirmasens approximately fifteen miles to the north. British intelligence had underestimated the strength of German defences, and the Australians would only make it twelve miles into Germany before their offensive was blunted. Heavy artillery barrages traded sides, and the skies above the Rhineland turned into a battleground between the RAAF and the Luftwaffe. The offensive lasted just five days before the Australians deemed that further dedication to the assault would result in disaster. The 6th Panzer division would arrive to reinforce the region and, although the Australians had adequate anti-tank equipment, they lacked armour of their own. With the refusal of the French to commit forces of their own to an assault into Germany, the offensive was called off and the Australians staged a strategic withdrawal back across the Rhine. In just a day, ANZAC left few traces of their presence and disappeared like ghosts.
Although the Christmas Offensive was an operation doomed to failure, the Australians had once again proven their mettle against the Germans. The battle was a bloody reminder of why Britain's companions from down under were so feared twenty-one years prior; German infantry suffered huge casualties in their attempted counterattacks as the Australians dug in heavily, laid ambushes and fought bitterly and fearlessly against the enemy onslaught. The assault on Pirmasens itself was a fools' hope, and the Australians had proved unable to crack the defensive lines around it. Nonetheless, Australia found the Germans a less than intimidating opponent on foot, greater concerns were raised about encounters with the German armoured columns. The German tank crews and commanders seemed very skilled and the vehicles themselves were nimble and quick both on and off the roads. While no strategic objectives had been gained, the British made valuable gains in terms of evaluating German military potential.
In January, Australian morale had been bolstered by the daring raid, and across the border, reconaissance planes and radio listening posts indicated large movements of German troops. They had clearly been rattled by the Australian attack, and were planning some kind of operation to try and crack the French defensive line before the Allies advanced in more force. The French and British both believed the assault would come through Belgium, and Britain was hard at work debriefing the Australians in the hopes of gleaning some kind of key weakness in the German Army.
As February rolled on, however, the Australian newspapers were a buzz with sightings of an unidentified ship east of Brisbane. Taken from a sailboat by an amateur photographer, the picture was soon in every newspaper in the Empire, rumoured to be a Japanese ship dangerously close to Australia's own territorial waters. The Royal Australian Navy immediately denied that a Japanese warship could have snuck up on them unannounced.
The picture that had set the British media ablaze.
As panic began to spread through Australia, the government knew that they had to take some kind of action. There had been a great deal of fear that Japan, Italy and Hungary would join the declaration of war on Poland and turn this into yet another global war. Although this action had never manifested, the sighting of the unidentified ship near Brisbane had convinced the Australian public that the Japanese were planning a sneak attack. On February 17th, 1940, Admiral Colvin made an official statement regarding the mystery ship. She was the HMAS Vanguard, originally specified as a battleship, her plans were converted to a carrier early in 1939 as the Australian Navy felt that aerial force projection on the wide waters of the Pacific would serve them - and the Empire - better than yet one more set of British big guns.
In short, she wasn't Japan's carrier - she was Australia's, and she was ready for war.
Oct 1939-Mar 1940:
Australian Army Casualties:
1,352 Australian Army deaths
Australian Navy Casualties:
3 Australian merchants sunk
3 Australian frigates sunk
Australian Air Force Casualties:
157 Short Sunderlands lost
21 Hawker Nimrod lost
72 Hawker Hurricanes lost
9 Supermarine Spitfires lost
German Army Casualties:
1,467 German Army deaths
~Est 12 German tanks lost
German Navy Casualties:
22 Kriegsmarine merchants sunk
German Air Force Casualties:
~Est 100 Messerschmitt Bf109s lost