The Channel Pact - Germany&UK Coop AAR

Both in the Atlantic as in the Pacific, the Merchant Fleet was taking blow after blow, reducing the number of full-strength British convoys every day. Even while large, the RN was helpless, as it was tangled up fighting an unequal battle against the USN, leaving little to no ships to spare for ASW missions. On top of that, US engineers had managed to design an American answer to the Elektroboot, a submarine nearly invisible for British radars. Annoyed by the situation, Prime Minister De Nil ordered specialists at the state-controlled Birmingham University to come up with an improved radar, while British coast guard ships were detached to fight in the submarine war. Because of this emigration of British and German naval and air forces, Europe became more and more exposed as a continent, making it a viable target for an AOF offensive.


Better news arrived from Australia, where AOF forces were being pummeled by Rommel’s advancing army. While stopped near Brisbane, Rommel pushed further South, threathening over 110 AOF divisions with encirclement and annihilation. Remembering the Japanese their downfall in Indochina in ’44, AOF forces desparately dashed southwards, hampered by a chronic lack of supplies and equipment.



The Western front looked even worse for Australia. Attacked by two sides, AOF forces attempted to hold ground in Brisbane, while under heavy bombardment from the Pact-controlled Outback deserts.


Further West, German forces were penetrating into the Carribean, aiming to spread the naval front further Southwards, where more shallow waters could possible hamper US fleet movements.


In a move not expected by the AOF, Donitz ordered Germany’s only remaining Carrier Fleet into the Antilles, smashing through weaker AOF fleets with ease. Even after being battered in the Blitz, German forces refused to give up the Atlantic war, and the Kriegsmarine was recovering rapidly.
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After the victory at Brisbane, Pact forces under Rommel and Montgomery closed in to deliver a final blow to the weakling enemy forces which were trapped in Australia. It was the Second Battle of Coff's Harbour (April 12th 1946).

Rommel and Montgomery's troops were progressing quicker than expected and that hardly a week since the fall of Brisbane. As it was the trademark of the Fox, he kept the infantry divisions moving along the coast under Monty, while Rommel took the tank divisions and raced straight through the dusty plains. Montgomery on the other hand, was not very happy with this role of having to fake the main attack while Rommel moved to place his panzers to deliver the killing blow.

Much of Monty's chagrin came from the nonchalant display of good humour deployed by the German who, before departing to take command of the mobile force, told him a with a huge grin:

-You see, Monty, we are going to going to take part of the greatest battle in Australia, a story so great that you will keep repeating to your grandchildren until you bore them to sobs! Be sure of keeping them fixed to the ground with your extraordinary tactics while I come to hit them on the flank... You know what? I feel like being in a Western film, as if the Aussies were the Indian tribes and I the cavalry to rescue your boys.

And, perhaps, it was that "idea" of being rescued by the Panzers that drove Monty mad. So, he did not just pinned down the enemy, but attacked them with all their might: gathering all the field and heavy guns of his forces to tear up the center of the enemy line, then he released his few mobile forces through the gap followed by the infantry formations.

Although it worked in the beginning, the sheer concentration of forces in a small area, plus the lack of a good infrastructure to keep the advance brought it to a stand still. Anyway, it opened the way to Rommel's attack: as most of the enemy forces were facing Montgomery's attack, when the panzers rolled over the plains they found an empty flank. The defenders, trusting to their own minefields to protect their flank and rear, were caught by surprise by Rommel. By late morning the Pact armoured units had advanced more than 40 kms into the regions surrounding Coff’s Harbour. The fate of the last defenders of Australia was thus settled and the campaign was over after the AOF forces vanished under repeated air strikes carried out by British Vampires and German Me262's. With the seas ruled by the support fleet gathered around the HMS Invincible, HMS Malta and HMS Audacious carriers and no chance to be rescued, it was just a matter of days until the last enemy forces surrendered and Coffs Harbour would fall into Pact hands.


After the fall of Coff’s Harbour, allmost all of the industrial bulwarks of Australia had fallen into Pact hands. Whatever was left of the ravaged country had been bombed flat by British strategic bombers, or simply pillaged for supplies by desparate AOF forces on their retreat. With only the area around Sydney remaining, US President Dewey ordered the evacuation of as many expeditionary forces as possible, after which detachments of the US Pacific fleet broke through Pact naval superiority in the Southern Australian Seas to begin the full-scale evacuation. Without enough ships or aircraft in the area to prevent the Pacific Fleet from gaining the upper hand, the race for Sydney began, Pact forces attempting to destroy as many AOF divisions as possible while the AOF retreated to Hawaii.​