Addendum to Chapter XXIV-XXVI
The Eyes of Dover and Ears of Malta
The War was still looming on, and though UK had heard from the US diplomats that the administration was making more and more efforts to join the Allies, Britain still stood alone. They did not have the armoured might of the Wehrmacht, and could not hope to defeat them in open battle, but they had something more. Intelligence. Since 1938, large listening stations had been built in Dover and Malta. Even before the outbreak of the war, they stood ready. When the officers and mathematicians working at Bletchley Park broke the Enigma, they had so much information that they did not know what to do with it all.
The entire defensive structure of Italy was laid bare. They had obviously chosen to defend on the beaches. Most of the beaches were defended by single milita brigades, or so it was thought.
Since Operation Gamey, the Germans had chosen to withdraw from coastal areas, denying the Brittish army any easy prey. After the fall of France, UK had supported two Underground resistance movements in occupied France, and they had grown exponentially.
However, after the fall of the Regia Marina, Zidston Churchill was insistent that the next targets had to be Italian- Sicily and Sardinia. Sicily was chosen to be attacked first, as the troops in Sardinia were thought to be unable to withdraw.
On Jan 11th, the invasion was launched. The motorised infantry that attacked still had problems before coming ashore, and UK had no active marine divisions. Had the beaches been defended by regular Italian troops, it could have been a bloody affair.
However, once the troops came ashore, their superior training, equipment and tea supplies tipped the scales. The important port of Taranto soon fell, and after just two weeks the Italian and German defenders were rushing to the sea to try to get over to mainland Italy. What they found was a full RN SAG waiting for them, attacking any ferry that even tried to exit the ports. Attacks from the RA damaged a few ships, but nothing seriously.
With their retreat cut off, the morale of the defenders plummeted. They surrendered a few days later. It was belived that somewhere around 50k troops surrendered in Sicily.
The RN also had the upper hand at the war below the sea. The submarine wolfpacks that had put the fear of God in the Brittish merchant marine, now found themselves the hunted. Convoy losses were lower than they had since the start of the war, and Axis submarines were now most often sunk when encountered.
Then, in the beginning of February, It was time for Operation Mincemeat, the invasion of Sardinia, and later Greece. In a twist of fate, an officer with the full plans for Operation Mincemeat in a briefcase chained to his wist fell overboard from a transport outside Italy. His corpse was washed up on shore, but Italian and German intelligence officers thought it to be a ruse- it was just too convenient to be true. Sardinia was defended by troops whose sole purpose had been to delay any attack untile the RM could engage the attackers. The troops stationed here had not seen their home since the war started, and once the Tommys were ashore, the defence crumbled like a scone at teatime.
Within just a week, Sardinia was liberated. Now Italy would not be able to harvest her rich mines of rare materials anymore!
Authors note:
Why does Sardinia produce so much rares? What does it represent?
However, by then, even more important news came from Washington. The Emipre of Japan had declared war on the United States of America!
Knowing that the largest industrial nation in the world now had joined them in the struggle ensured the Brits that they would, ultimately, emerge victorious. It further strenghtened their resolve to win the war.
UK and USA had a plan how to defend ready. US paratroopers would land in the Phillipines, and the RN would attack from India and the USN would ferry troops from the US mainland.
However, Cunninghams gloomy predictions came true- he encountered a strong IJN taskforce of five fleet carriers- the Italians had obviously informed the Japanese of RN tactics. After a day long battle, both taskforces had to retreat, with no sunk ships on either side. Cunningham had to retreat to Alexandria. After encountering heavy IJN resistance, the USN chose to retreat rather than risk their troop transports. The Phillipines, and the US airborne troops, were doomed.
Knowing that the United States were on their side enabled the UK administration some... leeway in how it handled foreign affairs.
First, knowing that the Greeks were close to joining the Axis, Britain quickly "liberated" Greece. It what would become known as the "One day war", they quickly captured the government and military leaders and changed leadership to something more democratic. Most Greeks did not even know that they were invaded until weeks later.
Also, the ungrateful Sauds of Saudi Arabia refused to let the RN use their Red Sea harbours. In Operation Laurence, two motorised divisions trekked through the entire desert and attacked Riyad. More men died from thirst than from the meagre defence put up by the Saudi irregulars. A more receptive cousin was crowed a day after the fighting stopped, and Saudi Arabia was now back in the fold. When Oman was liberated from the Japanese, total control of the Suez canal was in the hands of the Brittish.
However, Russia was still hard pressed. If Stalingrad fell, it would be next to impossible to break the German defence of France, and many then thought that a diplomatic solution would have to be sought. The Allies would have wanted to wait, but they did not have time- they had to act, even though their troops and doctrines were not up to the standard they would have wanted. March 16th, they launched Operation Overlord- the invasion of France. UK would invade from the Atlantic coast, USA from the Med, into Vichy France.
Initally, the troops advanced quickly, and were aided by large uprisnings of partisans from the French resistance.
However, it was soon obvious that the German troops were formidable opponents, and they fought a skillfull fighting retreat. Encirclements and counter encirclements were legio. A French armoured division was surrounded and destroyed, and some German infantry and paratroopers were encircled. However, the Allies knew they had to take Paris. Or else, if Archangelsk and any other important city fell, the fighting spirit of the free world would be broken, and they would be forced to discuss peace term. They pressed on, trying har to get the all-important encirclement.
And then, they got it. Over twenty German divisions captured around Paris. If they broke them, Germany would have no defences until the Rhine.
But the best laid plans... After less than a day, the Wehrmach had broken trough the encirclement, slowly retreating east.
Authors note: Germany had two players during this session. I think we all thought that lucky, otherwise I think Dapne would have been overloaded. Its no fun winning because of players making game breaking mistakes under pressure.
And then, disaster struck. In the weeks previous the USN had been scouted by IJN submarines, and they told the Brits that they had lost six fleet carriers, six battlehips and all escorts during a several days long battle in the Pacific. The IJN then launched an invasion of Honolulu. If Pearl Harbour was lost, it would mean total Japanese dominance in the Pacific. It could not be allowed. The RN kept two task forces in the US west coast, and now they set sail. They knew that they were all that stood between the Japanese and the West, and they knew that many of them would not return.
During a massive battle outside of Pearl Harbour, they attacked the IJN invasion taskforce, and took them by surprise. The HMS
Queen Elizabeth suffered several torpedo hits and was sunk, but the transports carrying troops were easy targets outside their beaches. Many, many were sunk and went down with all hands.
However, the IJN naval supremacy was too great, and both the SAG and the CV taskforce were forced to retreat into Pearl Harbour, badly damaged.
It seemed the IJN had suffered enough, and retreated, allowing the RN to bravely run away, limping back to safer ports. Neither the USN nor the RN understood why the IJN CVs were such killing machines. Nothing seemed to harm them. No answer to them appeared to the Navy staffs than to build even more CVs.