Chapter 225
The wounding of Field Marshal Rommel in the car crash had done the Axis no good, but even if he had not been lying in the field hospital unable to move due to a leg broken in two places and a cracked rib, hating every moment of it the situation would have been dire at best. Estimates had it that the British forward tank units were less than fifty miles from the swiss border, and Milano was reporting regular air attacks. The Allies were apparently trying to soften up the city. But unknown to them the city was undefended and crammed full with refugees. Berlin and Moscow alike had pressed von Thoma to defend it anyway and at all costs. However von Thoma had pointed out that even if he managed to move units fast enough over the shattered transportation network would be hard enough even if it wouldn't be bombed daily, also given that co-ordination between the forces to the west and east of the Allied breakthrough was next to impossible given the conditions any attack made by either side would most likely be repulsed. In the west the French 7th Army had joined up with the northern covering force and relieved the Marines (who were supposed to go to the Far East) and only the need to resupply and consolidate the position (especially for the tanks) prevented the Allies from driving straight for the French border. In the west what remained of the Gustav Line was buckling under the weight even as the Soviets and to a lesser extent the Germans threw in reinforcements from Austria and occupied Yugoslavia. That this only exacerbated the insurgency in the mountains of the balkans would have consequences many years down the line, but for the moment it provided OB Süd with an additional reserve of forces. Ironically even though they had the greater numbers the Axis forces were unable to send more at the moment. Hitler insisted on not cancelling Weserübung and in the Far East Operation Thunderstroke was about to be launched which in itself would have made reinforcements impossible at the time even without the distances involved. Operation Thunderstroke will be examined later, at the moment it suffices to assume that the Red Army was in the rather uncharacteristic position of finding itself short on Operational units. This however did not mean that the Allies just rolled through Italy without meeting resistance in this first week of May. Von Thoma consulted with Rommel before the Field Marshal flew back to his native Heidenheim to recuperate among his family, and decided that the remaining line units would conduct a fighting withdrawal to a rough and arbitrarily drawn line that ran from some dozen miles west if Tirana near the Swiss border from where it followed the valley of the Oglio river, ran along the shore of Lake Iseo to where the mountains and began to turn back into hills, then south-east north of Brescia along the edge of the higher mountain ranges until it met with the shore of Lake Garda near the old Headquarters of OB Süd at Salo. On the eastern bank it ran from roughly two to three miles north of the settlement that had given the lake it's name, ran west, crossing the Adige valley, running towards the coast past Lonigo and Monselice, reaching the sea near where the modern-day E55 bridge crosses the bay of Venice.
German Anti-Tank troops retreating after the breakthrough
Canadian soldier belonging to the 42nd Highlanders of Canada
Hitler was less than pleased with Venice, the biggest prize remaining in Italy thus placed almost within Artillery range, but upon being questioned in regards to this von Thoma pointed out that his forces were not only split between two fronts about to become separated in the long term, but also that this was the line where the terrain was most advantageous to the defenders. He also begged the Führer to release 20th Mountain Army under General der Gebirgstruppen[1] Dietl (2nd, 3rd, 6th German Mountain Divisions, to be joined eventually by three Soviet Mountain Rifle Divisions which would also bring a promotion to Generaloberst) for use in either the Alps in the east or to shore up the critically short forces in the west. Hitler of course refused over the objections of the OKW. Another problem was where to employ these elite Mountaineers. In the west, where the French were obviously gearing up to drive into their homeland and thus prevent France from falling and having Germany with her back against the wall, or in the east where the rest of the allies were forcing the Axis forces to retreat. Von Thoma was ordered to Berlin to consult with the Führer, but cited the unclear situation in the air as the reason why he could not fly and the unacceptably long time away from the front as why he couldn't take the train. Coerced by his staff and a surprisingly far-sighted Goebbels convinced him that the interim General should have time to at least try and get the front stable again. This also opened up the question of what to do with Rommel. Hitler was displeased about the loss of Italy and would have liked to send the Field Marshal to some backwater posting, but for the moment the man was still too popular within the general populace and the Army itself.
In the end though it were the Allies that presented the solution when late on the 12th a forward patrol of Infantry was met with the Italian voices of several Swiss border guards. The fact that the Allies had cut Italy in half didn't matter much for events playing out in the Pacific at the same time, but they did persuade Hitler to cancel Weserübung and generally all further offensive operation in the German area of Command until the Allies in Italy had been dealt with. It wasn't until after the war that Denmark, Sweden and Norway would know how close they had come to be dragged into the war at this point in time. Field Marshals Halder, von Rundstedt, the Soviet Military Representative and a few key members of the Abwehr and OKW planning group met with the Führer on the 13th to determine the command situation, because it was clear that OB Süd couldn't cover the front anymore with the old brief from when the Allies had first invaded. The older two Field Marshals argued that Rommel, whom they considered an upstart and far too reckless Officer to be trusted with anything more than a Corps, be relieved and sent somewhere where he couldn't do much damage, while the planning staff and the Soviet representative argued that he had shown considerable skill in defensive operations, having held the Allies for as long as he had and with the forces available and thus should be retained as OB Süd or at least be given a similar command. It was then pointed out by a Paratroop Colonel on the group that while the Field Marshal might have displeased the Führer, in the eyes of the German people Rommel was the Hero who had helped smash France and held the Allies for a long time.
The Problem was that while Hitler favoured keeping both battlefronts under the auspices of OB Süd, the OKW argued for a split command (but just how the split was to be done was something else entirely) and the Soviet was still wondering if Stalin would ever allow so much opposition by his top Generals. Hitler was about to dismiss the Officers when he apparently had come to a decision after all. He decreed that the command was to be split thus, Army Group Southern France under OB West, using the follow on forces earmarked for the cancelled Invasion and some additional Mountain Forces currently undergoing final training, along with forces currently part of the general strategic Reserve in France, and that Rommel would eventually take over this command once he was able to work again. OB Süd would move it's Headquarters to Vienna and there conduct the defence of the Alpine regions until a general counter-attack could be arranged. To this end 10th Mountain Army would be allocated to OB Süd, after all the defence of the Fatherland was of prime importance, and Rommel was more than competent enough as an Army Group Commander.
On the Allied side the news of the cutting up of Italy was met with muted elation. The news from the Far East was exceptionally bad, considering that a Convoy was currently at sea carrying critical supplies that were needed at Singapore, above all replacement Aircraft, and had been forced to turn back.
The Japanese plan was weeks behind schedule at least the parts in Burma. Singapore still held, but unfortunately so did the line in central Burma. Fortunately for them the Burma front required little in shipping, so the attack on the DEI could go in as planned, even somewhat earlier since the initial Naval Battles against the Americans had gone better than expected.[2]
However the unexpected resistance of Singapore and the presence of considerable air-power there forced the Japanese to try and neutralize them at least to the degree that they were unable to interfere with any Japanese landing operations near Sumatra and Java. The landings in northern Borneo were outside of Fighter Range and could be covered by Japanese Air-Power from Carriers operating south of the Phillipines where the last remnants of the local Army were holed up in the old American Fortress of Corregidor, besieged behind their last defensive line and expected to surrender any day now.
To facilitate at least temporary Air superiority in the south the Japanese hoarded an (for the time) impressively large number of Aircraft there, stripping the Kwantung Army and the Central China Army almost completely bare of fighters and bombers, and launched a sustained air campaign against Singapore during the last weeks of April and almost immediately the fighters protecting Singapore were fighting for their lives. During three weeks of brutal air combat RAF Malaya Command was effectively knocked out. Pilot losses were heavy, with fourteen killed and seven wounded, among the latter also Wing Commander Dashwood. However, aircraft losses were much more severe and strangeling to the defence. Replacements were hoarded in underground shelters, but they needed to be assembled and the attacks that had knocked out two of the three main airfields and heavily damaged the third had also killed a lot of the support personnel so that even if the pilots had not been dead, there would have been no one to assemble and maintain their aircraft. The wireless transmitters and the telegraph cable were still active, and replacements were requested – to be sent aboard the abortive convoy from reserves and the Royal Australian Air Force. What also worked again after the repairs to the above-ground parts was the main RDF station on the Island, and as soon as it detected the Japanese Invasion forces on the 12th the news went to India and then Australia and Batavia as unconfirmed since AM Browning was unwilling to risk even one aircraft on that day. British Borneo was attacked on the 12th and virtually overrun within less than two weeks, against resistance only by militias that melted away into the jungle as soon as the Japanese threatened to overwhelm them. Borneo would not be a happy place for occupier and occupied alike. On Sumatra the Japanese would meet more resistance. The Dutch had one Regular Brigade on Sumatra, the main force was stationed on Java where three Divisions had been formed with another two stretched out over the rest of the Dutch East Indies. The weakness of the defence of Sumatra would be the source of discontent between the Dutch and their allies, because the Japanese Naval Infantry Division took the undefended islands off the coast of Sumatra, Bangka Island most prominent, within hours on the 14th, while the remaining men landed and quickly established a beachhead against minimal Dutch resistance. For no less than four days the Japanese landed men and equipment without so much as a small patrol being conducted by the Dutch. Letting the Japanese land unopposed was probably the correct course of action but what happened next was a sign of the inexperience of the KNIL as it was in the Dutch East Indies at the time. The Allied effort was 'Europe First' and after much and long haggling and arguments the Dutch had agreed that it might be fortunate to liberate the homeland first, and to that end some of the most experienced officers and men had been bled away to Italy. Pulling them out like the Australians were doing (having reduced the AIFE to a single Infantry Division and in independent Tank Brigade) wasn't an option, because the Government had decided that this was to be the main effort. Attempts to recruit the Native population even more like the British had done it proved to provide less than satisfactory numbers, so the defences of the Dutch East Indies were less than strong.
The next two or three days were a lull and allowed the Japanese to land the rest of the Division without hindrance and capture most of the coastal low-lands in this potentially very agricultural area. The only form of combat were several ill-faited formations of Dutch Bombers that tried to attack the landing beaches, only to run into massive ackack and fighters from the three carriers that cruised in the Karimata Strait and would also provide air cover for the landings on Java.
When the Japanese moved out from their Bridgehead they found that amazingly the Dutch Commander had not, like it would have been proper and like in fact the British had done it in Malaya set up a flexible position to whittle them down but were instead strung out along a huge part of the Japanese perimeter, stringing themselves out needlessly and allowing the Japanese to outflank the Dutch position.
This was what then happened when the Japanese Division advanced. The Dutch main line of resistance was well chosen as a location, but they had far from enough men to defend it properly. The Japanese were using tactics that the Marines, many of them veterans from China, had used for years and soon began to infiltrate inbetween the Dutch strongpoints that were too distant from each other for mutual support. Soon the Japanese began to attack the Dutch strongpoints from behind and one by one they were taken out. Over the next two days the Japanese were contending themselves with chopping up the Dutch Brigade. Some of the Allied Soldiers made it out of the combat area alive, but most were killed or taken prisoner, a fate some times even worse. By the time the second Japanese landing on Java was made, Sumatra had effectively fallen, organized resistance by military formations had ceased for the moment. While there would be some guerrilla fighting, it was nothing like it was in the occupied British and French colonies – the Dutch hadn't fully gained control over much of the DEI until the turn of the century, and had, for example never fully pacified Ace in spite of the end of the war there in the early 1900s. Unlike in Malaya and Burma the locals were thus not as inclined to form the ubiquitous militias that made life so hard for the Asiatic Pact in these countries, instead most of them met the Japanese with indifference, not seeing them as more than yet another Imperial power that came to their land. As the Japanese began to occupy the Island without much interference from the Allies, they just tried to adapt to the new situation like they had done since the first Europeans had landed here.
On Java the situation was different. Here the defence was far stronger, and the first Australian units had arrived. The defence was commanded by a Dutch veteran who had fought in the defence of the Netherlands in 1940 and later been in Italy as the Commander of the Dutch Land Forces. Lieutenant General Gerardus Johannes Berenschot[3] had been less than pleased when called back in 1938 to take over I Corps, but what he had seen there had been very instructive and when returning to the Dutch East Indies a few months before the Japanese entry into the War he had done his best to 'weed out the dead wood' to use a British ideom. He had been partially successful, but the needs of the front in Europe still left him short of men. He was a cautious commander and now he regretted to send a single Brigade under a Commander old enough to be his father to Sumatra, but there was nothing to be done. If the rumours were right, the Japanese and Chinese could together field almost seven more or less Naval Infantry divisions, and he was to defend the most important Island of the Dutch East Indies against them with less than three. He had begged the Government to grant the locals similar concessions as the British had in order to increase the recruitment figures, but no such luck had been forthcoming so far. His deployments reflected both military and political constraints. He had refused to place all of his forces in a static defensive line west of Batavia as the Governor-General had ordered. Berenschot had been forced to remind the man that he wasn't in the Army nor more than the political head of state of the Colonies, which gave him no more than an advisory capacity. Something else that was running for the Allies here was the greater density of Dutch settlement and the generally closer Australia, which not only allowed them to raise greater stay-behind forces but also to get at least some support from Australia, the first few Battalions of which had already landed, but there wouldn't be much more coming until the Australian Forces were back from Europe. He didn't see his prospects as very good, but he was determined to defend what remained of his homeland to the best he could anyway.
The Japanese however were determined not to give the Allies the chance to put in the reinforcements that were coming to the theatre. They knew as well as the Dutch and the Commonwealth that time favoured the Allies, even though they had managed to fight the Americans to a draw for the moment and thus forced them onto the defensive. The Japanese Navy knew that the British were assembling their Carriers in preparation for a large-scale Naval Battle to be fought in the area between the coast of Indochina and Borneo. By the time they had decided to push forward with the landings on Java, Combined Fleet Headquarters estimated that they had at most four days left before the British forced the Flores and Java Seas. It was (correctly) estimated that Admiral Cunningham could at best send four to five of his Carriers without compromising the defence of Australian Waters, and so it was said that the Japanese would have an advantage if land-based aircraft were factored in. And so, on the 16th the second landing was made on Java near the western edge of the Island, in a wide bay to the north of Serang, fifty miles west of the centre of Batavia.
Soldiers of the Japanese 5th Infantry Division crossing a creek
Immediately upon landing the Japanese knew that it would be different here. The fleet rushed the first three Divisions ashore, but even so the Carriers left before the landings were completed, all the while the bridgehead was under sporadic mortar and light Artillery fire and the forward patrols fought a series of vicious small unit actions with the Dutch. Berenschot was aware that with his forces the defence of Batavia would be a close run thing at best and would most likely do more to destroy what forces he had than the Japanese. Even so he would not give up the city without a fight and had thus deployed one of his Divisions to cover the city, which it would defend until the Japanese were thrown back into the sea. At least officially, because the Dutch knew from Intelligence reports passed on by the British that the Japanese 5th Infantry Division had been sent to reinforce this Army group, so by now the Dutch were outnumbered three to one if rumours were true. Unlike on Sumatra the Japanese hadn't been able to land without hindrance, and the troops here knew that they would really have to fight for it, and this was hammered home when over the next two days it became clear that a strong Dutch rear guard force was in the area. It was 2nd Brigade of the 3rd KNIL Infantry Division and contained some of the best and most experienced Allied troops. Their orders were clear even to the Japanese, they were to slow them down to give the rest of 3rd Division along with the 21st and 114th Australian Infantry Regiments a chance to dig defensive positions west of Batavia.
The Japanese 5th Infantry Division had indeed been sent to the theatre and was now cautiously moving out towards the capital of the Dutch Colony. The men were motivated. It wasn't because their Officers had told them that they were there to liberate the local tribes from European Colonial oppression, they were because they no longer had to charge into British Machine guns and Artillery near Singapore. The Division was still considerably understrength as the result, but they were experienced in fighting an enemy more challenging that the rabble the Chinese Army had been and also the only Army Division that could be transferred quickly enough. So instead of going to the Philippines for garrison duty they had boarded the assault transports near Saigon and then spent a few very uncomfortable days on the ships. Here the Japanese were also boosted by the presence of the 3rd Tank Regiment, a unit freshly pulled out of Manchuria for the express purpose of this landing.
[Notes: To raise quality, I have decided to write slower. I hope it'll show in the future. ]
[1] General of Mountain Troops
[2] Honestly I am surprised that it took the AI this long to make a move. Mind you, normally they are at Imphal by this time too...
[3] Obviously his plane didn't crash into a suburb of Batavia in October 1941. TBH, I didn't know that he was seen as a rather gifted General (according to Wikipedia at least) until I was searching for a proper picture. All I knew was that he had commanded the KNIL earlier on.