Against all Odds: The British Empire in World War Two

Let's just say that the Japanese will soon be...distracted, shall we say, by events somewhere else. It might or might not involve some of these ships with flat decks...

Raaritsgozilla That alas who knows who knows.....

Raaritsgozilla I did actually consider having the Germans turn him into their Manchurian candidate when he was imprisoned by them, but as El Pip put it so splendidly, they couldn't tie their shoes without setting them on fire.

stevep Hehehe.

I caved...

Chapter 322​

It was the fourth day after the encounter between Edgehill and the Japanese Destroyer though the four Allied Carriers moving and their escorts moving north knew nothing about that yet. Under the command of Vice Admiral Somerville in person HMSs Implacable and Formidable, along with HMAS Melbourne and HMS Indomitable were about to begin Allied operations in the Philippine Islands. True, no more than a few air-raids on Mindanao and a few local Japanese outposts but the exercise was not to actually hamper Japanese operations on the ground, not just yet. The real objective of this operation was to both inflict attrition on the local Japanese air assets as well as draw them away from elsewhere.


Somerville wished he could have taken Battlegroup Able-Seven with him, but that would have left Australia only covered by Illustrious and Victorious, and these two ships needed some refitting after the last round of attacks on the mandates. And anyway, Rear Admiral Shepard had grudgingly admitted that Bonaventure needed considerable work-up time and some exercises together with Vimy Ridge before anyone could think of employing her in a Battlegroup against a real enemy.


Still, between them they had more than 360 aircraft (if one counted spares) and he knew that by this time next year he could easily field a force twice this size without having to leave any of the Fleet's other responsibilities uncovered.[1]


If anything, the Ozzies were itching to be included this time as Melbourne had spend the last two raids on the mandates on 'Home Defence' even though their participation on the sinking of the Yamato had partially made up for that.

Right now however everyone who could aboard the four Allied Carriers and their escorts watched as the RNZN Seafire Squadron took off from Melbourne to investigate a rather strange coded message that had been received and that the Admiral had personally decoded.

Shortly afterwards he had ordered Melbourne, the western-most Carrier, to turn into the wind and launch one of her precious fighter Squadrons as soon as possible. The Kiwis had been on five-minute alert so it were their fighters that roared off the deck with orders to search along a certain bearing for any ships attacked by Japanese aircraft and aid that vessel to the best of their strenght.

RNZN Seafire preparing for take-off​

“I've been wondering why the Nips didn't send any significant force out to search for us.” Somerville said to his Flag-Captain as they both watched the fighters form up and fly off towards Borneo.


“You mean they may have been looking for someone else?”

When Somerville failed to answer, his Flag-Captain decided to risk something and asked:

“Sir, what was in that message?”

“It was sent in an obsolete code that we only use for tactical messages these days, and that even I could decode on my own. It's probably still sending but the gist of it is this.”


He handed his Flag-Captain the message. Upon reading it the Captain looked at his Admiral and said:

“With all due respect Sir, but what makes you think this is real?”

The Captain was suspecting an elaborate trap.

“Oh it could most certainly be a trap, but what you don't know and I only know because I am technically second in line for ABC's job is that we actually do have a ship of that name on the list.”



At the same time Lieutenant Commander Franklin, Royal New Zealand Navy, Callsign Buster Red Actual, was listening into the wireless frequency the message had been sent on, in code at first but now in plain language. Plainly the operator was either scared or busy enough with other things to tap it out in code.

Now it was a voice, had been for the last quarter of an hour.

“Mayday Mayday Mayday, this is the Royal Navy Auxiliary Vessel Edgehill. We are under attack by Japanese aircraft at...”


He flicked it off and concentrated on keeping formation. The eighteen Seafires were arranged in the standard two-pair formation that their land-based brethren used and it was Blue Four that spotted them first and as the planes banked they saw something that made them all reach for their throttles.

Even as all the planes went to War Emergency Power they could see in the distance how a group of at least ten Bettys was taking turns at making runs towards a single ship. He could see black puffs in the air, so someone was still fighting back, but the rear of the vessel was on fire and she was noticeably down by the stern. Still underway though but nut answering to his hails.


“All Buster aircraft, there's no fighter escort. Help yourselves, Gentlemen but keep alert. They might be getting some friends soon enough.”

The fighters paired off and before he and his wingman joined the soon desperate dogfight he called it in. This was not a trap and they would soon need someone on the surface to help. The course of the Battlegroup would take them past this position soon enough anyway, so it was easy to detach a Destroyer or two.

The first sign the Japanese had that they were no longer masters of this sky was when two of their number burst into flames. On bridge of the steadily sinking Edgehill only Takahashi and Felix were in any shape to notice what was going on. At their feet Goodchild was rapidly bleeding to death in spite of a rough tourniquet on the remnants of his left arm, Ian was passed out near the back with what had to be a concussion along with his broken arm and half a dozen minor but bloody wounds.

“What the bloody...” was all that Felix managed to utter in the total chaos around him as the Japanese bombers began to fall from the sky in flames.


What was going on?

This question was immediately answered as he saw two Seafires who seemed to be sporting New Zealand markings race by at wave-top level at less than forty yards distant from his slanting deck.

What were they doing there? Was the fleet out?

These were questions for later though as the litany of damage reports around him continued even as the New Zealanders shredded the Japanese attack force.

“What's that wireless look like sparks?” he yelled into the corridor.

“No joy on the speakers, Sir!” came the yell back, “we're still transmitting but that's about it.”

Felix let loose a string of curses and oaths.

“Well then sparks, transmit in the clear and let's hope the Kiwis pick it up! Message begins: 'Have been attacked by Japanese bombers, sinking'. Add our position for good measure.”

“Aye, aye, Sir!”

The last of the Betties fell into the sea like a meteorite and one of the Seafires made a slow pass to starboard, wiggling it's wings.

“Someone raise another ensign!” Takahashi ordered no one in particular. The old one had been shot away long ago and between fighting the fire and a loosing battle to keep the old freighter afloat it had yet to be replaced.

His heart almost flew out of his chest when over the sound of everything going on around him he could hear a faint voice with that odd accent.

”...peat, this is Buster Flight, calling Edgehill, do you copy?”

“Tell them the situation, sparks!” Takahashi ordered before Felix could do so and he could almost see the rating picking up the microphone.

Relief flooded through him as he knew that not only would he most likely live, the Fleet was close.

Just how close he wouldn't know when Takahashi shook him awake in his chair an hour later when two Destroyers were along-side.


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Comments, questions, rotten tomatoes?

Now I must say I had an entirely different plan. This update was supposed to be three or four long and describe a long run down the western side of Borneo towards Singapore. I decided to axe that when I realized it ran contrary to what I was trying to achieve. I am not at all happy with how this turned out, but if I hadn't posted it now I would have spend another week rewriting it again and again.


[1] Just as the USN got a large influx of Essex-Class ships IOTL in 43-44, the British will get several Implacables in 1944.

ViperhawkZ Well....

El Pip I try to avoid those wherever I can, and I seem to be failing consistently.

Raaritsgozilla I'm told you lot sound a bit like Australians but I somehow can't hear the difference. No offence intended.

Agreed. I pride myself on being able to understand most accents in the UK and being able to say (most of the time) where they come from, but aside from that...

Both Ian and Felix will be sent home ASAP, not only because they are both wounded to a degree but also because their Lordships want to debrief them.

The second mission has indeed been scrapped. Originally they were supposed to be stranded with Chinese partisans on Formosa.

While the Japanese are by now indeed aware that there are British Carriers out and about they don't know how many though, and it's not that deep into Japanese territory.



The black spot is roughly where the CVBG met Edgehill, and the red line is roughly the area of secure Japanese control. As you can see the Phillipines aren't all that deep into Japanese territory but so far they figured the Allies wouldn't risk their Carriers in the face of the considerable Air Power in the Islands.

What Cunningham knows is that the Japanese fleet is busy fighting the Americans, as both sides know the Allied priority has to be in South-East Asia and the Japanese are at the moment unwilling to risk their Carriers in those waters (unlike the Allies who have no other choice) and rely on their land-based planes. The raid is part of an effort to force the Japanese to spread out more.


The similarity of the Carriers has been dealt with by saying that Inter-war the RN, with more money at hand and knowing that the USN would be an enemy rather than an ally in any trans-atlantic War needed to get the most bang for the buck and did away with a few things that plagued RN carriers IOTL. Because of this for example the Illustrious-Class has more hangar capacity and a different armour-arangement and the TTL Implacable is actually partially based on plans for the American People's Republic Class ( = Essex) that NID managed to...uhm..acquire. A lot is also procedure changes, i.e. deck parks and things.

The Implacable Class is slightly smaller than the Essex, but that's due to a different internal arrangement. The aircraft issue is ignored and I play those as they are IOTL, i.e. RN Carrier tactics are dictated by the short range of the Seafire. At least until the Sea Fury arrives, which, btw will shortly see the first flight of the prototype.

Another small time jump.

1st March 1943

Chapter 323​

The citizens of Vienna could hear Artillery thundering in the distance and the veterans among them knew that under normal circumstances it was far too early in the year for large-scale fighting that required this sort of fire. The engagement currently under way could be likened to the early stages of the Battle of Gettysburg where minor forces of both sides had clashed somewhere utterly unexpected and through calling for more and more reinforcements to deal with greater enemy numbers had gone on to involve the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac in the battle that would see the heroic defence of Little Round Top and the Confederate High-Water Mark.


When Field Marshal Rommel had gone to bed a mere five hours before he was awoken he had left orders that only a minor reconnaissance sweep south of Vienna had been ordered and now three of his Divisions seemed to be entangled with the bulk of the British 9th Army. He was at a loss how to prevent a major action short of trying to raise Field Marshal Alexander on the wireless and arrange a temporary truce because of where the fighting was taking place. He would likely never know if he'd been had, but he had the distinct impression that the British had deliberately sought this engagement out. They must have known if they held and counter-attacked the probing of General Hartmann's 375ers that the large but untried Division would fall back towards Vienna and that the threat to the city itself could not be ignored.

They had to be able to read the same maps he did and it was irony certainly not lost on any military man with a classical education that if the British continued along that road and then turned left they would be able to attack Vienna from the Kahlenberg where in 1683 the forces of the Holy League had fought the Turkish Forces besieging the same city. He was in a position similar to that of the Ottoman General at the time and if they re-deployed their forces somewhat the Allies would even be able to field several Polish Regiments that traced their lineage back to the famous winged Lancers that had been so important on that day.




The Battle was at this point totally beyond the control of either General. The 375th had called for and gotten the support from elements of three additional Division, mostly in the form of Artillery and now there was a fierce gunnery duel in hand between the Axis and Allied gunners which kept both from doing much to support their other forces.

Luckily for the Germans it was too early yet for large flying operations so for once it was down to the men on the ground and Hartmann's Grenadiers were fast learners. Rommel's new Chief of Staff, General-Leutnant Erich Marcks[1] opined that if the 375th broke or was driven away from it's position Field Marshal Alexander just might seize the opportunity and unleash the 8th Army towards Vienna.


What he couldn't know was that this exactly was what Alexander was doing. Reports from the front indicated that the German Infantry Division was faltering in spite of being supported by several other units, including at least a company's worth of brand new T-34/85s.

Because of this 11th Armoured Division, such as it was, was moving, as were all the reserve formations of the 9th. Most of the air assets on call for today had already been given orders to go and support and Alexander was sure that the three Squadrons of Indian Hurribombers would be very effective, even though they were due to exchange the venerable old Hurricanes for a variant of the Typhoon made by the same company.

Hawker Typhoon undergoing field testing with No.111 Indian Squadron[2]​

Weather was on the side of the defenders however. The snow was melting which turned the rivers into something else entirely and while the mud was never as bad as in, say, Russia it severely hampered the speed at which the Tanks, lorries and assorted vehicles couldn't move as fast as was normally possible but these troops were a far cry from the British Army that had fought in France in 1940, even from the one that had landed in Italy all those months ago.


The veteran Regiments pressed on, determined to defeat the enemy.

But an increasing number of Axis forces was converging towards the battle but then the lack of experience of the 375th told as King's Jewish Legion found and ruthlessly exploited a crack in the German position. Between two Battalions of the same Regiment a gap had opened up when they had withdrawn on opposite sides of a creek and someone had discovered a narrow path that was not guarded. Within minutes 1st Company of 3rd Battalion of the Alon[3] Infantry Regiment were moving along the path without orders and by the time the news had filtered up to General Slim most of the Battalion was already seeping into the rear areas of the two German Battalions and making a great nuisance of themselves.

History has not recorded how Slim reacted to this but having no choice he threw the remainder of the Legion's Infantry portion into the fray while other units would distract the Germans on both sides of the creek.

Not surprisingly the two German Battalions broke after only a short time of being virtually surrounded and suddenly there was a significant gap and true to form and his reputation Slim did not bother to ask for permission and threw his mobile units into it to seize the opportunity as long as it was there.


When news that Allied Tanks were moving in behind them reached everywhere, even when in fact it was only two Regiments of dismounted motorized Infantry supported by half a dozen Churchill II Assault Guns, the Division broke.


General Hartmann was aware of this but no order could get his troops to stop running once the Anglo-Jewish Mercenaries were driving into their rear areas and the organic Panzer Company that his Division had or rather had had was no longer a factor as the enemy had torn their old Panzer IV to shreds.

The crossroads in the rear were not all that well-defended but once it had become apparent that the Division was broken and the enemy had a near undefended road towards Vienna the flanking Divisions attacked the salient within at about 09:00 in the morning but by that time 12th Armoured Division and 44th Infantry had enough elements in position to stop them cold with the help of the liberal application of close air support.

Confused fighting followed for most of the day as General Slim's troops laboured and fought to keep the salient open and press on towards Vienna and at the same time Field Marshal Alexander was doing his level best to support the impromptu offensive, half angry at Slim for forcing his hand before he felt he was ready and on the other hand glad the man had been able to see and recognize the fleeting opportunity.



On the other side of the front Rommel was already giving orders to evacuate his command from Vienna.


With a heavy heart also realized he was forced to abandon these three Divisions to their fate. Because what made him decided to give up Vienna was not the bulge the units identified as the British 9th Army but more the fact that what had to be frantic and unplanned attacks were suddenly launched all along the frontage of his own bulge. By mid-day the light but persistent fighting was raging along the frontage of the 8th Army as well and surprisingly enough the two British Gurkha Divisions were slowly but intently battering their way through the 150th Mountain Rifle Division and the 10th SS Mountain in spite of weather and terrain and there the Allies were forcing a second breach as the 150th was forced to retreat north and the 10th SS south.

It was impossible that the British would try to force mechanized forces through that area but if the two Divisions were allowed to run rampant thing would go from bad and near-enveloped to total disaster and three full Divisions and parts of two others enveloped and no one organized enough to help them. There was always the possibility of pulling back into Vienna itself and fighting in the city.

The Führer had issued orders to that effect but not for the first nor the last time Rommel's headquarters was suffering communications difficulties which were of course fully understandable considering the total chaos that reigned in the staff quarters inside the city.

So instead even as his staff began burning papers Rommel issued two sets of orders. One for his staff to relocate and that effective immediately they were the staff of Army Group Centre, while one to the civil authorities, long since under martial law, was to offer no resistance to the enemy, 'lest it incite the Asiatic enemy to act with violence until the city can be liberated'.


He doubted that this would happen this year. The Allies were too strong to push back without first seriously bleeding them and he could not do that with four Divisions in this confined space. The way to beat them was a war of manoeuvre, one of the meeting engagement the Soviets loved so much. Much more mechanized than the average German, let alone Soviet Division most of the British and Allied units could move faster but to turn this against them one needed space, something not to be had in the south of Austria.

Vienna was declared an open city on 1st March 1943 at 16:44 and two hours later as it began to darken British forward units stood where the Prinz Eugen and the Polish King had stared down at the Turkish Army.

The same view in spring 2011​

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Comments, questions, rotten Tomatoes?


[1] Whom most of you probably know as the chap in “The Longest Day” who figured out Overlord.

[2] This is actually item #2 on the list of things that I'd do totally different if starting this thign over. She'd be a CAS plane from the start and not a Hurricane replacement in the Interceptor role. Mind you, it does make sense if the Tiffie follows a similar evolution.

[3] Oak