October 15, Berlin
Carnaris once again begins to lay out the general German strategy for the next campaign.“Gentlemen, France is but a shell, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium have all fallen. Our actions have shaken the world and we will shake it once again before the end of 1940. This winter we will under the guise of weakening the British, we will truly be preparing for the assault on the Soviet Union. We’ve been picking up hints that the Soviets will be looking to occupy the nations of the Baltic. Under the guise of guaranteeing the independence of the Baltic States we will eliminate one of the three largest threats to the Fatherland. General Beck, your operation plans?”
“Gentlemen, Germany has won a great victory in the West, we will soon win a victory in the East. The time is ripe to sweep North Africa from the Allies. After discussions with Admiral Raeder I am convinced that we cannot invade the area from the sea, furthermore it will make far more sense logistically to conduct an overland invasion of North Africa via Turkey and Syria. To accomplish this we will utilize 18 full corps and 2 Headquarters units to coordinate the overall campaign from Turkey to North Africa. We’ve picked several corps that has combat experience in mountain regions. It’ll help in the early part of the campaign in Turkey but not so much once we get into the deserts of Syria and Lybia. Unfortunately we will not be utilizing the Luftwaffe much for the land operations as we will be diverting our dive bombers to attack British merchantmen and warships in the Mediterranean. Beyond that however there are indications from our communications intercepts that the Italians have been conducting negotiations with the Allies and are close to joining them,” Beck sighs and scratches his head. “That being said the Italian army will not pose much of an obstacle, but as usual their navy could pose a problem and block access to Sicily. Quite frankly we don’t have a whole lot that can challenge the Italian fleet in the Med least ship to ship. The Luftwaffe really wants to try out their new armor piercing bombs and anti-ship missiles I think.
Army Intelligence reports suggest that Syria and Lybia are only lightly defended by the Allies and the Italians and we should have sufficient forces for the initial push. Once we actually get into the Libyan Desert however, more mobile units should be trained and equipped. General Rommel will have the honor of commanding the 1st Mechanized Calvary Corps. Yes I know he’s junior to a lot of us, but lets see what he can do in North Africa.” Beck smiles like he has knowledge of some other world.
“Assuming that that the Italians join the British and the remnant French forces, our end goals for this campaign are nothing less than the total conquest of Italy, the establishment of a defensive line in the Egyptian desert, and the use of Turkish territory to act as a springboard into the Soviet Union and later into the subcontinent of India and into Indo-China where we can link up with our ‘secret’ allies in Japan. Of course they might not exactly care for us after we take Indo-China, but there isn’t much we can do about that right now. Persia, India, and Indo-China are still issues for mid to late 1940.” Beck finishes his presentation.
“Are there any concerns that we should be aware of at this moment? Ah Admiral Raeder you have something for us.” Carnaris says as he resumes control of the meeting.
“Yes, that is correct,” Raeder begins, “Gentlemen, I realize the need to defeat the Soviets in the East, however before we get too caught up in that shouldn’t we give some time and thought to the invasion of the British Isles? Gentlemen, it takes
years to build a proper warship, not the months that it takes for one of your infantry divisions to be equipped and trained.” Raeder looks around the table at the slightly confused faces. “If we are to conduct an invasion of England this fact is simple, we must build up a larger fleet so that we can protect the vulnerable invasion forces from the British Navy. There are other ways however that we might scatter or partially neutralize the British Fleet long enough for our transports to cross the Channel. There are still some units of the British fleet in the Med, if we can close the Med by capturing the Rock, well it won’t do much today, but if we must hunt the British down in the East Indies it will help. Two we can order our light dive bombers and tactical bombers to hunt down the British in the proximity of the French coast. Three, we can send the 1st Carrier Fleet out of the Baltic and begin engaging the enemy. We have had great success in the Baltic against the Polish fleet with our carriers, however I expect to take serious losses against the British fleet or at least damage severe enough that we will have to keep the fleet in dry-dock for months to complete repairs. Its hard to believe, but they really only have a 3:1 advantage in ships of the line, that is to say carriers, battleships, and battle-cruisers, that being said their escorts won’t be useful enough in a full fleet battle by themselves.
I won’t lie, I have some doubts about the invasion of England, but a short campaign in the spring/summer of ’40 in the Soviet Union will not so overtake our industrial capacities so as to leave nothing for the additional warships we may need for the invasion of England. I just don’t know where to guide the German people once the Soviets fall, England falls, Scandinavia falls, we will be very safe from attack I should think. Perhaps OKW will provide us with some guidance for strategic targets.
November 1, 1939 German occupied Bulgaria
XXII. Armeekorps
After the last three major invasions I was starting to worry about the General Staff. Austria, we were formed 3 days before the attack, Poland a week, France we get orders to move out the day after
we invade Belgium. This time around we are setting up two weeks early and have much better equipment than last time.
Weiss looks over to where the company is setting up
This time around we all have automatic weapons, every section has upgraded Panzerschrecks and we have wire-guided anti-panzer missiles on quite a few of our jeeps, not that the Turks have Panzers. I think, I hope.
What do the Turks have? It looks a whole lot like the equipment that the Poles and French had earlier this year, amazing how much and how little can actually change in half a year.
I’m not worried about what the Turks or Syrians have. It’s the Tommies I’m worried about.
“Move out!”
The initial easy fighting in Turkey came to a rapid change once the terrain changed to mountains and there were far more places for a stubborn defender to hide and bleed his attacker one more time before retiring again.
By the 3rd of November Istanbul had fallen to units of the
Heer however the Allied cause was about to be bolstered by the addition of another country to their ranks.
The Italians, having been humiliated 5 years ago at the hands of Germany had finally found a time to strike. Unfortunately all that was left of the Grand Italian Empire was Rome, Sicily, the former Albanian state, and some desert in North Africa. Rome fell again quickly as the
Heer had surrounded the Eternal City shortly after the invasion of France. Unfortunately the
Regia Marina that is the Italian Navy had sufficient surface combatants to prevent any seaborne attack on either Sicily or the Lybian desert. Unable to obtain military access from Egypt for a full scale strike, the Italians continued to dig in prepare once again for the German onslaught that was yet to come.
Italian interference was limited to a single division which after being transported to the Italian island of Rhodos, invaded German occupied Turkey before being crushed by a full Corps of German infantry.
Three weeks after the war in Turkey began, Germany annexed the nation. Some say that they were simply ensuring that no Turkish units were left remaining to act as partisans or to continue fighting under a different flag.
Militia having arrived by this time to protect the vulnerable beaches and supply routes the Germans continued their Blitz South, into Syria. The Syrians alone and without serious British support, fell just three days after Turkey as German units rushed for the Egyptian border.
Less than a week later with the German army breathing on their doorstep, the Egyptian leadership broke any semblance of neutrality and threw their lot in with the British.
It was the wrong choice.
Less than a month later the German Afrika Corps consisting of a large number of infantry and one Corp of Mechanized Calvary under the command of Lt. General Rommel had cut a swath through the Suez Canal, through Alexandria, through Cario, to the southernmost deserts of Egypt, and had begun pushing into Italian territory once again. All this without significant British resistance.
“Where are the British? Where is Montgomery? Are they so desperate that they only can rely on the Italians!” cries an exasperated Rommel as he realizes the Brits are bottled up in the deserts of the Sudan and he must drive
West to conquer North Africa.
"L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!" Rommel shakes his head and looks over the Suez, “Guess that they lost something since the time of Nelson.”
December 19, Channel Approaches
“Admiral our scout planes have reported the presence of over 25 British warships grouped into three fleets. They are currently attempting to close and identify ship types,” comes the report from a young ensign in the CIC room of the aircraft carrier
Seydlitz.
Raeder begins to think,
Now we can show the British exactly what German ships can do
“Begin preparing for anti-ship aircraft operations,” Raeder calmly orders. We’ll see how our naval Stukas do against British warships. “
And how well our SAMs do against the British fighters and bombers.
Twenty Minutes Later
“Our scout planes report 5 Carriers, 3 Battleships, and numerous screening vessels sir,” reports the ensign from before. Suddenly the bridge is loud with the sounds of officers giving reports.
“Sir, radar reports enemy bandits 50 miles out.”
“We still need to close another 100 miles before we can launch our own aircraft sir!” shouts Air Ops.
“Is there any chance that we can get air cover from the
Luftwaffe?” Raeder asks.
“Not likely sir, most of the
Luffwaffe is off in Turkey or patrolling the territory over France, there is little that they can spare sir,” the CAG responds.
“Very well gentlemen,” says Raeder, “Close the distance to the enemy fleet and to all air defense batteries, the order is to fire at will!”
Raeder wasn’t completely thrilled with the fact that his heavier anti-air guns had been replaced with rockets that had yet to prove their worth at sea, though they had been tested many, many times on land.
Still, the fact is that we are firing on them from over the horizon. That has to have some effect on them.
“Time to engagement range?” Raeder asks already knowing the answer, too dammed long.
“Five hours sir, as long as they don’t continue to reposition to stay outside our range.”
It was too long indeed, as the British Fireflies and Barracudas continued through murderous, if less than perfect SAM fire. As they continued half of the Barracudas dove for the deck in preparation for torpedo attacks, while the rest of the British airplanes clawed at the sky to gain altitude for dive bomb attacks while German guns and their VT fused shells laid down a murderous concentration of flak and short ranged SAMs.
The British aircraft sticking to their doctrine began their runs on the four carriers at the center of the German formation. The torpedo planes flew low, below the decks of the German Heavy Cruisers, and shielded by the enemy warships managed to sneak in and seriously damage the carriers
Clausewitz,
Strasser, and
Graf Zeppelin with their torpedo attacks but were unable to sink them or prevent them from continuing air ops. The dive bombers and fighters up high were far less lucky as the unprotected aircraft suffered hit after hit from the concentrated flak and SAM batteries that did not have to worry about striking their own warships.
“Mein Gott!” exclaims Admiral Raeder as he is knocked off of his feet when the
Seydlitz takes no less than 4 torpedo hits from the British Barracudas, “Damage Report!”
“Sir the boilers are damaged and we can only barely make flight speed, there are fires over the ship, but they are coming under control. The
Zeppelin and the
Clausewitz have taken serious damage from torpedoes,” he stops as the AAA guns and the SAMs on the other warships begin firing at the retreating British warplanes. “And they are unlikely to begin flight ops until they have been repaired in port. The rest of the fleet has taken only minimal damage.”
We took down
half of their aircraft before they could get into firing range, and only one damaged squadron has returned to the British carriers.”
Raeder thinks for a moment, “Gentlemen, there are four hours of daylight left, far too little left for the British to launch another attack. We will immediately begin heading for the French coast until just after dusk, then we will make our way into aircraft range of their fleet. Prepare the pilots for a dawn attack on the British fleet.
The Next Day, 06:00 Hours
After an attack by advanced naval variant aircraft, the best the German navy can muster are cloth bi-planes with their aerial torpedoes and light bombs. Despite this and their losses the previous afternoon, the German bi-planes drove their attack home with a furious vengeance through the heavy anti-air fire and in doing so seriously damaged the carriers Courageous and Glorious, the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant. Perhaps more importantly one bomb dropping through an open hatch on the Battleship
Barham struck a stockpile of stored anti-aircraft ammunition which detonated and exploded her main magazines and caused her to sink.
Following their first and last attack on the British fleet both fleets both sides sail for the nearest friendly port. For the Germans it is a realization that airpower can truly dominate the seas and that many more fleets are necessary to fulfill continuous combat operations against the British. The British however have lost a vital capital ship as well as several escorts and just a little bit of the numerical advantage that they still have.
North Africa, December 21
By the 21st of December the Africa Korps had driven to the southern reaches of Egypt having long since captured Cario and into Italian controlled Lybia. The Egyptians without funds and supplies finally lay down arms and begin marching through the burning sands to Cario under the watchful eyes of the German MPs.
As the year ends 18 squadrons of aircraft are transferred to the south of Italy where large stockpiles of anti-ship Fritz-X missiles and other more and less advanced anti-ship munitions were stockpiled. Their orders, sink the
Regia Marina and all of the convoys headed to Lybia.