This piece is dedicated to Richard 'Dick' Winters (*21st January 1918 - † 2nd January 2011) May he his golden jump wings never fail.
Chapter 274
General Freyberg had established temporary headquarters in Tirana. On 1st September he had been given startling news. Apparently the heads of State of the minor Axis nations that had been his greatest headaches had both made public speeches where they both ordered their Armed Forces to commence combat operations against the Axis powers. With the bulk of both armies ashore he had halted the advance at the Albanian borders and now waited for orders as to what he was supposed to be doing. Barring no grave reversals and if they really put their feet down his advance South African and Australian units would be able to reach the edge of the Bulgarian-occupied areas by the day after tomorrow, but other than that his means of aiding the Axis nations if so ordered were limited.
At the very least the Albanian Government in exile which had formed itself in London around the exiled former Minister of Education and expatriate Albanians of reasonable affluence had taken over the most basic reigns of Government, so with luck Freyberg would soon be able to use his Military Police for something other than basic public order duties.
He'd had to stop himself from pestering Alexander for more information, the Field Marshal had been as baffled as everyone else when the news had reached the Allied powers.
What he did not know that hasty messages and negotiations had taken place in the Allied leadership. For once the French were easily persuaded and a week after the Romanian Coup amidst news of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia the Swiss were asked to convey a reply to the initial joint message, containing the terms agreed upon.
The former Axis nations were to immediately cease all hostilities to Allied Air, Naval and Ground Forces wherever encountered.
They were to immediately withdraw any and all troops from Yugoslavia towards their pre-war borders.
Their Armies were not to move beyond their national borders, in return the Royal Air Force would offer support wherever possible.
Some had wanted to add mandatory elections and the installation of some form of Democratic system, but Churchill had vetoed this, pointing out that these countries were unstable enough already and that in any case the Allies would have enough political clout to press for such reforms at a later date. A more immediate problem was that especially the Romanians were under increasing pressure and had started to fall back from the border with Soviet-occupied Bessarabia. There were few things that could be done quickly as the Air Force was already flying long-range attacks from fields in Italy, and until these assets could be moved into Romania that was about as much as was to be expected.
Only one formation in the Allied order of battle was deployable fast enough: The Paras.
The Allied Parachute Corps had grown immensely since the humble beginnings of 6 Experimental Parachute Brigade in Wales some years ago. By now the 6th and 1st Airborne Divisions[1] had been joined by the Independent Polish Parachute Brigade that was usually attached to the 6th and the Dutch-Belgian 1st Parachute Regiment which was not available as it was on it's way to the Dutch East Indies. As was slightly more than two Divisions worth could be deployed within hours if the order was given early enough in the day.
Still, the Para Officers around General Browning were glad that it was too late on the 1st to deploy via Parachute, something no one relished doing in that terrain even in daylight. Instead the planning Staff around Colonel Hackett worked for the next fourty-eight hours flat to gather what intelligence there was and formulate two plans, one for Parachute insertion and one through several key airfields in central and northern Romania[2] that were well known the Allies thanks to the attacks against Ploesti that were...had been flown from time to time.
It was on 3rd September 1942 then when the Commanding General of the 11th Romanian Infantry Division, his chief of Staff and the Commander of the local Air Force District were standing at the railing of the observation platform of one of the towers and looked south-west. Overhead a Squadron of IAR-80s and a Squadron of British Mosquitoes were watching each other, the Romanian pilots still being very impressed with the speed of the twin-engined aircraft.
“Any word, General?” the Army General asked his Air Force counterpart.
“Nothing, Sir.”
“Then why would they want to meet us at an airfield of all places? I mean if they are deploying aircraft then wanting to use some of our biggest airfields makes sense, but all they told me was that it wasn't going to be that.” the Air Force Officer's Chief of Staff said.
The two highest-ranking of the group knew in a way what was coming, arranging it had been a nightmare and very, very rushed, but the British had insisted that this was the quickest way to get at least some boots on the ground. He knew that the Germans and Soviets also experimented with units of that sort but would it really work without extensive preparations?
The planes overhead withdrew, so it was time. A low growl of engines could be heard to the south-west, many, many engines. Soon the source of the noise came into view. Planes, many twin-engined planes, and as they came closer the men on the ground could see that the majestic formation consisted of a virtual cloud of transport Aircraft, for they were British Dakotas bringing in the advance units of the 6th Airborne Division. Some had towed gliders, some had flown alone, because below the stream of Dakotas heading for the other fields some were coming in to land at this one.
“My god....” the Air Force Officer said at this display of material wealth, “if we ever had that much.....”
The twelve gliders in this group headed for the flat grassland to the west of the base while the Dakotas circled around, coming in to land one after another. The first Dakota to land immediately taxied towards the control to, making way for more even as the stream continued to roar overhead. The Army General then vacated his position and took the steps of the stairs leading downwards two at a time, trading dignity for speed of reinforcements.
As he stepped out of the control tower, the first Dakota came to a halt and the door opened. British Paratroopers piled out of it. When the only Officer of the plane walked up to him the General noted the odd unit insignia.
The Officer was incredibly young for his rank, as he wore the insignia of a Captain and yet seemed to be barely older than the General's own son. The British Officer drew a salute that would have done the Changing of the guard in front of the Palace proud and then introduced himself.
“Captain Richard Winters, 101st Parachute Regiment, 6th Airborne Division. Sir, General Gale and Colonel McAuliffe are with the Gliders and would like to see the ranking Romanian Officer as soon as possible.”
“General, the Romanian Officers are here.”
“Thank you Captain...”
“Winters. 101st.”
Salutes and introductions were exchanged and Winters went off to form up his own Company. He found his second in command, an incredibly tall Lieutenant from Boston whose blonde hair betrayed his German heritage, in fact behind closed doors the men were known to joke that he would make the perfect Waffen-SS recruit. However he was a good Officer who, in spite of his faults had distinguished himself during the various operations the Regiment had taken part in.
The ad-hoc nature of the mission had the 6th flown into Romania without a clear mission except to 'delay the enemy advance for as long as possible', so while his Staff scratched all the units together General Gale and his Romanian counterpart figured out just where the Division was to go.
In the end the Paras were sent to the river crossings north and east of Roman, as the Siret was the linchpin in the defensive line that the Romanians were holding against the Soviets and Germans of the Soviet Bessarabia Front, and in the nick of time. While the Axis forces there hadn't had plain sailing like in Poland[3], the resistance wasn't as strong as one would expect in an Allied Army, so confidence was high when they followed the retreating Romanian troops of 1st Army across the river. However they were in for a rude awakening when the 101st and 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Regiments held one crossing, the next one up north being held by the 7th (Light Infantry) and 12th (Lancashire) Parachute Regiments held the next one up north, with the remainder of both Brigades being the reserve for these crossings. The rest of the Division, most namely the Royal Gurkha Airborne Rifle Brigade covered the northern flank of the Division and held the connection to 1st Para which in turn held the connection to the Romanian XI Corps that held the Mountains in this area.
The Axis forces had been completely unaware of the presence of the British Paratroopers until reports of massive British air activity filtered back to the HQ of the Bessarabia Front in Odessa and a lot of the planes were identified as the Dakotas the British Paras were known to use.
However, most hadn't faced either German, Soviet or British Paras even in manoeuvres and dismissed them as glorified light Infantry, surely an armoured thrust would break through them with ease, even if the Tanks used were mostly early-model T-34s, not the new T-34/85 that most of the frontline units were now starting to be equipped with.
They were in for a rude surprise. The first indication that something was wrong was when the lead tank across the bridge defended by the 101st was brewed up after being hit by two PIAT rounds just after crossing the Bridge, therefore temporarily blocking it, then again when four more T-34 were hit in the sides or the turrets when they tried to suppress the British and lined up along the opposite river bank to that end.
After this the Soviets used Artillery fire to cover an Engineer vehicle that cleared the Bridge, but when the Column that had at last bothered to deploy dismounted Infantry entered the village on the other side of the river, the Paras executed a textbook ambush in built up areas and cut the attack to pieces with almost no loss to themselves before calmly going about blowing up the bridge, leaving the Soviets only with a nearby ford that was so deep that infantry had to swim across at this time of the year, effectively sealing this crossing and keeping the Soviets on the other side of the river, as up north the 1st Division and the Poles fought a German thrust by an unidentified Motorized Division, a task in which they were assisted by a Squadron's worth of Romanian Panzer IV that were painted with bright and very noticeable British-style roundels in the Romanian colours lest they be mistaken for Germans. Still, it was a rather odd experience for the British Paras who were used to shoot at anyone with the angular forms of the German vehicle.
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Comments, questions, rotten tomatoes?
[1]The 6th has seniority, as it is a direct descendant of that experimental unit.
[2] As Romania then was. OTL some of these would probably be in Moldavia.
[3] After all, Case Yellow and Case Red were both hard fought battles thanks to a stronger BEF and a Belgium that didn't fold and in fact held Brussles long enough for all Axis plans to be shot to hell and back again.