Against all Odds: The British Empire in World War Two

Kurt_Steiner Hence the Cavalry joke.

stevep Methinks the French General described the Charge of the Light Brigade as it was.

As for the isthmus, at it's narrowest point it's less than 5km wide, and the objective of the raid would be to blow up as much of the railway line as possible.

stevep said:

Kurt

You're referring to the most famous one, but there were a few others. Such as the decision of the C-in-C not to storm Sevastopol immediately on arriving because it would probably cost hundred's of lives, or the general mess of the logistics. Mind you we still did a lot better than the poor Russians.

Steve

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I made the Cavalry Joke because that is the most well-known one.

It's slowing down considerably, what with RL and my other projects...

“You do realize that we can't make the Army go faster, do you?”

Felix was torn from his thoughts and saw that Ian was still looking at the road in front of them. He opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Ian before he could form a word.

“Normally I wouldn't mind you moping over that girl, but don't let it influence our work.”

Felix was about to give a heated reply, but then realized that Ian did have a point. Besides, even if he ever saw her again, the chances that she did anything but hate his guts was beyond slim.

And anyway, Ian deserved better from him. They knew each other far too well for Felix to hid his feelings, but at the same time Ian saw no reason to tell anyone much of Felix' normally cheery exterior had become so much of an act.

“Fair enough.”

And for the first time in weeks, his smile was genuine and really reached his eyes.

“So, we there yet?”

“Almost, my child.”

“Good. Wake me when we get there.”

With that, Felix leaned as far back as the Landy's seat would allow, pulled his Royal Marine beret over his eyes, and was snoring loudly within less than a minute.

Ian just grinned. Felix was not only his best friend, but also quite literally family, if only by marriage. Because of that he had been worried about Felix since they had returned from Germany. Felix wasn't yet back to his old self, but that was only to be expected in a war that went on and on, and showed no signs of ending. Emotional entanglements couldn't help at all, but it was better than falling into combat fatigue, or shellshock or whatever it was called this year, like so many people Ian knew. Far too many of his school friends suffered from it, if they were still alive in the first place.

Felix at least had one more reason to live, and Sandra would never know just how much Felix' recovery after his time in German captivity had depended on Sean, her and his parents. Ian didn't pretend to be a psycho-analyst or even any sort of doctor, but he had known the nightmares that Felix had tried to conceal from the rest of the world and how they had slowly, and almost completely, disappeared during the time they had spent in Britain.

He chuckled to himself and would have almost missed the turn-off to the camp where the 4th Battalion of the South-Essex Light Infantry was encamped.

It would take him another half hour along this secondary country road to reach camp, but there would be no more forks, so he drove the Land Rover on auto-pilot and went back over the briefing.

Even with all that had happened since he had witnessed the announcement of the unholy alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union, this had to be close to taking the cake.

Even with the entire battalion, taking a Bavarian castle thirty miles behind the front had to be among the craziest ideas. When Ian, with all due respect, had pointed this out, the Officer from the Field Marshal's staff had replied that the orders had come straight from London, unusally even by-passing most of Alexander's staff.

What had worried the both of them even more was that no one knew just what exactly the Nazis were doing there.

Or why this fell under the responsibilities of Paperclip and not the SAS.

That at least had yielded an honest answer. The SAS was otherwise engaged, and before he suggested a Squadron of Lancasters with ten ton bombs, he needed to know that someone in London desired to know just what exactly the Germans were doing there, as with all the secrecy, even certain...sources knew almost nothing at all.

The castle and even the town around it was under complete, direct SS control, going so far as to evict the local population and use the village to house...someone. High-altitude reconnaissance Mosquitoes had taken pictures several times over the last three months and had shown considerable construction going on, including a direct high-capacity power connection to a powerplant and a smaller one, presumably oil burning, nearby.

Ian could still remember what the Brigadier had said.

“Therefore you will take the entire battalion. Major Gordon will accompany you, as he is the Battalion Commander, but you will lead this mission.”

For once it had been a clear division of labour.

Still, this whole thing was...

Felix interrupted his train of thought. “I agree with you, it really isn't.”

“What? Ian asked.

“This whole thing. Within what you could normally expect from our current posting. We both promised Sandra we wouldn't do this sort of thing any more.”

Oh yes, Felix was indeed almost back to his old self. “Your father was in the U.S. Army. She should know better.”

“Oh I agree, but I also think that the both of us are not looking forward to her wrath descending upon us when she finds out that we are taking a battalion of Her Majesty's Light Infantry on a suicide mission behind the lines. Again.”#

Ian laughed at the all to accurate description of his wife's wrath. “I won't tell her if you don't.” Felix just grinned and nodded, while his friend merely thought of his family. Felix knew that Ian was debating with himself about pulling some strings to get them to Italy, but each time he was close to doing it, either he, via a very winding road, asked Felix to talk him out of it, or did it himself.

“Well, your theory that somewhere there is a puppet master hell-bent on sending us into the most ridiculous of situations, in and around this bloody war, seems to hold true.”

“It most certainly does. As for your earlier question, the camp is about a mile up the road.”


Felix sat up straight in his chair and re-adjusted his beret. “What else do we know about this Gordon?”

“We will need to hold onto our tempers.”

Felix sighed. “I thought as much when I read his file. Luckily for us, you outrank him, and as far as he knows, we both are Royal Marines and not with the Andrew.”

The file they had both been given two days ago showed that Gordon would hate the assignment, he wanted a combat command and not one to, as Ian was sure he would put it, shepherding a bunch if spies around the German countryside, a place where the battalion would most certainly run into the enemy and shortly be overwhelmed.

At least he was not a glory hound, but that had to be expected, as one would never be assigned to a posting like this, or so he hoped at least.

Then again, he did outrank that officer in any case, and most of the men had worked with Operation Paperclip for quite some time now, so would know what sort of work the mission would entail.


Turning into the camp after being checked by the sentry, Ian could see that Gordon was supervising the loading of ammunition and supplies. Ian stopped the car.

“Say Ian, that castle isn't called Wolfenstein by any chance?”

Ian was taken aback by the apparent non-sequitur and only looked at Felix. “Where the bloody hell is that coming from, and no.”

Felix shrugged. “Don't really know, just seemed like the thing to ask.”

“Fair enough. And it's not the Castle of the Eagle either. That is very clichéd, and frankly, I dislike those old invasion panic novels anyway.”

“I see,” Felix replied, and the tone of voice he had told Ian he didn't need to look around to see the satisfied smirk, “so that's why you have about two dozen of them on your bookshelf in London, right?”

“Those are purely for research, old boy. On how not to write a novel.”

Felix said nothing more. He knew of the manuscript that Ian was working on in his all too rare free time, and also that he had started it while thinking that Felix was dead. He had yet to read it, but he knew that Ian had been doing it to keep a hold on his sanity and, judging by the way he talked about it, because he had fallen in love with that island.

The vehicle they were in stopped near the command post and they prepared to get out.

“Well, let's go earn the Queen's shilling.” Ian reached for his rifle while Felix shouldered his shotgun. Thus armed, they stepped out of their transportation and walked towards Gordon.

Kurt_Steiner Too far north.

stevep Strange that.

Well, given that lately I've taken to demolishing the pet niches of various Reich fanboys, and that this is SS owned... it might give you a hint.

(No, it's not against forum rules.)

MarcusAurelius1 said:

Ummmm... errrr... I'm guessing that means the Star of David is involved? hmy:hmy:

Marc A

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That would be against the rules, I'm afraid. Since it is, I have to settle on ridicule.

Chapter 359​

21st May, 1943

“So, General, care to tell me what the bloody hell happened to your Division?”

On the other end of the line the commanding Officer of what was left of the 2nd Armoured Division was sure to be sweating bullets. Field Marshal Alexander might be in Vienna for the week, but he might as well have been in his headquarters in Rome, he would have been just as intimidated.

“It was an ambush, Field Marshal. They had far more guns and rocket launchers than was usual for a German Infantry Division.”

Alexander clamped down on the rising anger he felt, and decided that for the moment ripping the unfortunate's head off wasn't conductive and wouldn't change the fact that one of his precious Armoured Divisions would be out of action for at least the rest of the year. He had already decided to relieve the General in question. The man didn't have the balls to be an Armoured Commander, not in this day and age, and had only gotten the job because he had been the only one available when the previous commander had been killed.

“That's still no reason to walk right into their bloody ambush as if you had yet to graduate Sandhurst!” Alexander exclaimed, “You did graduate Sandhurst, didn't you?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Well, then you should have remembered that sometimes even those lower in rank than you have the right idea.”

Alexander was referring to the conversation he had had with the man's senior Regimental commander, the Colonel had smelled the trap for what it was and had tried to tell his General, but the imbecile had dismissed it, after all, one's inferiors did not offer advice to those above their own station. It wasn't the first time this had happened either, but now the pot was full. Too many men had died to ignore this any longer, his connections be damned.

The (admittedly brilliantly planned and executed) ambush by the German 375th Infantry Division had shattered then 2nd Armoured as a fighting force, and only the timely intervention of the Army reserves had salvaged the situation.

He listened to the man making excuses and shifting blame for another fifteen minutes before he had enough at last.

“General, you will pack up what belongings you might have, had what your incompetence left of the Division to your second and report to Rome for reassignment, and sharpish, is that clear, General?”


Without waiting for an answer, Alexander slammed the phone down. He considered what to do next, his tour of the...

“Excuse me, Sir. Something's building.”

The Brigadier was worried, so Alexander was as well. The situation centre in the lower parts of what had once been the Austrian Ministry of War.

“So?”

“We have been getting reports on increased pressure all along the line, Sir, for the last two hours, and now the 21st and 23rd Army Groups report increased radio traffic in their sectors, along with even heavier attacks.”

“And why was I not told of this earlier?”

“We had no clear picture, nor any proof that it was more than a coincidence.”

Alexander's grimace turned into a grin. “And you acted correctly, Brigadier.”

“Sir....”

The Brigader's face went ash grey.

“Sir, the 21st and 23rd are each reporting separate Corps-sized attacks against the Army Group border. Armour, Infantry, land, air, the lot. The 9th and 10th Armies are getting the worst of it, and...” he swallowed, “the 10th Army reports that several forward units have already been overrun.”

~**---**~


The Axis counter-attack of Spring-Summer 1943 was the not largest Axis attempt at breaching the Allied lines, but only surpassed in size by the Battle of the Fulda Gap in late summer 1944 and, later, the Battle of the Vistula. It was among the most successful though, benefiting from Allied overconfidence and the general state of unpreparedness for a serious Axis attack. The plan had been to attack at three points at once, the Wehrmacht in the west, the Soviet Northern Front in Poland and the Bessarabia Front in Romania. However, the attack in Poland was started four days late and executed only half-heartedly by an Army stripped of many of it's best units, giving the Polish Forces time to prepare, while the southern wing ran into Romanian and Commowealth Forces that were standing on the defensive anyway after the reliving the pocketed Allied troops, waiting for the Romanian and Bulgarian Forces to finish retraining.


The last days of May 1943 were clearly the most difficult and costly for the Allied Forces in that year, though recent research suggests that had Field Marshal Alexander not been in Vienna to react quickly, the bulge torn into the Allied front could have been much worse. As it was, the next thirteen days would see the Allies pushed back nearly everywhere along the front, though the 30th and 40th Army Groups managed to keep the front intact, sometimes utilizing old Czech fortifications.


Millions were engaged in one form of combat or another, this figure rising when the French faced a massive counter-attack of their own in the Alps. In the Air, the Luftwaffe and Red Air Force proved to be far more aggressive than they had been for months, and for the first time since the resumption of hostilities after the winter they had the initiative, with the Allied Air Forces scrambling to both defend the Army and provide close air support. Even though Hitler's expectations that the attack would throw the Allies back beyond the Alps was never a really realistic one, it delayed Allied war plans by at least a year.

In the three weeks following the first attack, the Allies suffered almost twice as many casualties of all forms than in the previous three months, and more would follow. The chronical manpower shortages that would plague the Allies in the last two years of the war had their foundation here.

It also saw the introduction of several new weapons systems in Axis service, from the Panzerschreck 2, a copy of the British PIAT, new marques of half a dozen planes, while acellerating several British and Allied projects, among them what would lead to the Centurion Battle Tank.


As for the Axis Powers, it was here that the unified command structure began to fall apart. While Hitler and the OKW, for once in agreement with most of the field commanders, wanted an all-out offensive everywhere where their troops met those of the Allies, Stalin and thus STAVKA were far too concentrated on the already practically frozen Chinese front, a state that would remain so until the Chinese State began to crumble, so only scant attention and resources were left for the Soviet part.

The German Army Group Centre had been augmented heavily, sporting twenty of the Wehrmacht's best and strongest Divisions (among them Panzergrenadierdivision Großdeutschland, the SS Leibstandarte and Rommel's own 7th Panzer Division), against twelve Allied Divisions, during the first week at least, and the success had by the attack tells of this, forcing Alexander to call in several reserve Divisions before their time.

Red Army participation was far more remote, in Poland four weak Rifle Divisions made a half-hearted attempt to roll up the flank of the exposed Allied line and were beaten off by a combination of Hungarian Infantry, British and Polish Cavalry.

Farther south the Soviet Bessarabia Front attacked with far more vigour, but Candian, Romanian and ANZAC troops strongly voiced their displeasure at this prospect, and so this attack did not achieve much either.

Aside from considerably prolonging the war, the biggest short-term consequence of this attack was that it forced Field Marshal Alexander to seriously re-evaluate his war planning. Modern historians consider what followed the biggest war-time shakeup of the leadership of an Army in the field. Alexander replaced all of his planning staff (with the exception of then-Colonel Hackett, who had considered an attack like this 'likely'), along with all five of his highest ranking Intelligence Officers.

He went even so far as to offering Churchill his resignation once the situation had been stabilized enough, though the Allied Committee rejected this, on the grounds that not a single Intelligence asset had forewarned him. Still, it can be assumed that this was when several within the Imperial General Staff and the Allied Staffs began the now famous behind-the-scenes campaign to replace him.

The actual events during the offensive will be detailed in later chapters of this book, but suffice it to say, a great many reputations were made and broken over the next weeks.

Field Marshal Alexander's emotional reaction is well-documented, his ad-libbed “never again be caught unawares” speech made to a despaired and scared Staff in Vienna on the 27th is well documented, as is his quick decision to move his headquarters to Schönbrunn Castle instantly, instead of “after Nuremberg”.

Kurt_Steiner Problem is, TTL the Wehrmacht is smaller overall, so theoretically at least, they can at least double the size. MInd you, how much worth these units would be, considering they'd have crap training at best...

stevep To an extent, yes. It's just that he believes the Germans will hold the Allies in the west until he can bring the Army back from China, and no one in Moscow has the balls (or the insanity, take your pick) to tell him otherwise. Re Manpower: It will never be as bad as it was OTL for the Brits, i.e. disbanding rear units to keep front up to strength, but there won't be any new ones, and existing units will have to wait longer than usual for replacements. Re overseas manpower: I did give myself two-thirds of the lost overseas MP from offmap, IMO in this instance not a cheat but a workaround around a bugged feature which, btw, was fixed in Arsenal of Democracy. Frankly, it makes no sense that Britain shouldn't have access to India's MP.

MarcusAurelius1 Not quite the Battle of teh Bulge. The Battle of Kharkov is the closest equivalent in terms of strategic impact. The "Battle of the Bulge", with corresponding collapse of the Wehrmacht, comes later.

Hackett isn't an intel type, he's one of Alexander's chief planners. His carreer was saved by his frequently voiced concerns that if he were the OKW, he would have launched a massive attack already. Previously he was somewhat pushed to the sidelines when this thing stopped being a mainly British affair due to inter-allied politics, but this will put him on the top spot again. Yes, he'll still write World War 3.

That some want Alexander axed won't be influenced by such immaterial things like there being no one to replace him. There's about half a dozen people believing they can do better, each with his own faction to support him.

The good Colonel will remain with the 7th.

Oh he will be. I'd have to look at my notes, but IIRC I put him into the RCCM, and those Marines are about to invade Vietnam after the rainy season. Mind you, how they'll do without helicopters and 60s pop music remains to be seen.