Personally, I'm more impressed by Canda's ship-building capabilities and their pilots during WWII than by the use of their land forces, since because of small MP (11 million people in 1939) their contribution was bound to be minor. Of course they had their own heroes and distinguished units, but that was the case with the Free French, Australians, Indians, Poles etc. as well. On the strategic level, Canadian frigates and destroyers were much, much more important than their troops.
Strategically speaking, yes. Canadian units did perform very well in both wars on average on the ground, though, they deserve respect for that. But that's neither here nor there and quite off-topic. Update time.
You have done very well here. I've had this in my favourites bar for a little while but it was good to finally catch up. Looking forward to the update later today.
Thank you, a pleasure to have you on board. I hope you enjoy the update.
Chapter 3.2 - Facing the Hun
The day of reckoning had arrived - now Australia's military would face its greatest opponent in the mighty Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. Much speculation was made into just how well prepared the RAAF and RAN were; the results were somewhat lacking.
Australian bomber technology was outdated and lacking. Virtually the entire bomber fleet and related technologies were borrowed British designs and reserve bombers that the RAF no longer considered necessary for her requirements. These outdated planes would struggle to make an impact against the extremely potent, high-tech aircraft of Germany. The only redeeming feature was Australia's natively designed and produced airlaunched torpedoes, which were reckoned to be amongst the best in the Commonwealth and were designed for the kind of shallow water combat expected in the Channel, Mediterranean and around Indonesia.
Australia's native aircraft industry was booming, however. While her modern air force consisted primarily of Hawker Hurricanes and small numbers of British-Built Supermarine Spitfires, Australian military planners had commissioned a natively built fixed monoplane interceptor in light of recent clashes with the Japanese Navy. Although it was believed that the Japanese aircraft consisted mainly of outdated biplanes, it soon became clear that the Japanese Air Force held nothing but monoplanes when it faced the west. Japanese fighters were in fact so dangerous that they were rampaging across the Pacific - confidential reports leaked to the British suggested that as many as a dozen planes to shoot down a single Japanese fighter. RAF India's Spitfires fared little better, with a confirmed kill rate of 9½ British planes lost for every Japanese plane shot down. Australian commanders needed a new aircraft to combat this enemy fighter and it needed it soon.
Although Australian aircraft designs were relatively modern and on their way to becoming cutting edge, her pilots were not so well endowed. RAAF training methodologies were extremely outdated both in terms of piloting and ground crew; they had fared well against the Italians but it was assumed that against the dominant Luftwaffe, Commonwealth forces would not find such an easy task. RAN crews, however, sported a much better training regimen and organizational capacity. RAN pilots were feared as some of the best in the world and it was believed that the RAN would be able to compete with the best as long as modern planes continued to be produced in sufficient quantity.
On the homefront, Australia was a prime example of a modern industrial state. With an excellent educational system, well-organized military-industrial complex and strong development of scientific and electronic pursuits, Australia was believed to be outmatched Industrially and Economically speaking by only a few countries, pound per pound. Although investment in the economy had stalled with the high demands of the war, it was believed that resources would be reallocated to enhancing Australian industry sooner rather than later.
Her theoretical abilities, however, fell somewhat short of demands. Although she was well-practiced at transporting her supplies over vast distances, Australia had little experience in the difficulties of poor infrastructure. The disorganized and weak throughput of supplies in places such as Southeast Asia was going to enact a toll on the Australian troops already tired from weeks of fighting in the terrible jungle weather against an underground foe they could hardly grasp hold of.
German tanks punch a hole in the British lines in northern Hampshire, opening up the Home Counties to a determined assault.
But in Britain, the battle was firmly upon the ground and becoming more serious by the moment. German Armour broke through British lines and seized the town of Aldershot, further encircling Hampshire. British war planners believed that without Portsmouth, the British Isles could not be taken by the Wehrmacht whose supplies were flowing through Dover alone. Luftwaffe patrols maintained a close watch over the channel, preventing any easy incursions by British ships or submarines and relentlessly bombarding the British lines.
Although the tanks were a much-lauded and dangerous part of the Wehrmacht, most of the hard work was being done by the infantry on the ground who had to dislodge well-entrenched British soldiers.
On the ground, Wehrmacht forces enacted punishing defeats on the British across the line, but the going was not easy for them. The British forces along the line outnumbered them and held the home advantage of familiarity. They fought from dense hedgerows, from crowded industrial-era streets and from every orchard, every barn, every church. Although the City of London was in flames from repeated artillery shelling and bombing runs by Göring's bomber fleet, the Union Jack still flew proudly over the city's streets and tens of thousands of British and Allied troops held the north bank of the River Thames firmly against German advances from the south. Although Hitler was angry with the British for their defiance, he ordered bombers to avoid iconic London landmarks for the time being and to focus on industrial and commercial hubs - he hoped that he could make them surrender soon and did not want to invoke their wrath just yet. Every soldier who died here was one less gun on the Eastern Front when the inevitable war with Stalin came.
ANZAC troops push towards the Kra Isthmus even without the support of their new armour.
In Asia, however, good news reached the ANZAC forces for a change - in spite of numerous reinforcements, the Thai Army was being pushed back by a relentless assault spearheaded by the New Zealand Cavalry. With the support of Australian heavy artillery, the Corps had seized the valuable supply port at Nakhon and was pushing up the Malay peninsula towards the Kra Isthmus. Although early casualties had been high, it seemed now that Siam alone could not stand against the modern training and equipment of Australia and New Zealand. Australian commanders hoped to dine in Bangkok by Spring - a lofty goal, considering progress so far, but one that the Allies perceived as very possible.
Three divisions of fresh ANZAC troops arrive in Britain, ready to contribute to the fighting in the East.
Meanwhile at Plymouth, the bulk of the New Zealand Infantry and the 1st Australian Cavalry arrived to engage the German Army and try to salvage the situation for Britain. Bringing almost 30,000 men into combat would be a great boon for a British Army with numerous weak points, but that alone might not be enough to defeat the Germans. Hitler's army was still placing huge pressure on London at the expense of everything else and although the defence was holding so far, taking the Imperial Capital would be a huge victory for the Reich, perhaps even more than the Fall of Paris. British morale was predicted to crumble should this happen.
HMAS Vanguard and her taskforce left within the day to return to Sicily and guard the evacuation of the island, but the trip would be hazardous. On the evening of the 20th, news came in that the fleet had been attacked by German forces.
The battle had been short but bloody - a German Taskforce under the direct command of Großadmiral Raeder sortied out of Brest to engage a reported British fleet moving south from Plymouth. Consisting of the pocket battleship
Schleswig-Holstein, the Heavy Cruiser
Graf Spee and several squadrons of destroyers, the Germans were not expecting to meet the heavy resistance of the RAN taskforce this soon. Although the Germans attempted to close in and engage the Australians and did so with limited success, they could not breach the RAN's defensive perimeter and get at the soft transports, instead taking serious damage to the
Graf Spee and losing a number of her escorts to dive bomb attacks from the
Vanguard's aircraft. The distraction, however, was enough for other foes to take advantage. Vice Admiral Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, a German Admiral and Submarine Ace of great reputation and skill, heard of the battle from just a few kilometers west of its location. Racing east, he found the Australian fleet heavily distracted by its skirmishing with the Kriegsmarine and vulnerable to a strike by his U-boats. Before the Australianss in escort could respond to the threat, three of their troop transports, a frigate, two supply ships and a single destroyer had been torpedoed. A second volley of torpedoes would result in nothing conclusive and the mauled Kriegsmarine taskforce retreated from the battle, happy that at least some damage had been done. Admiral Colvin was frustrated at the success of the German ambush, and maintained a watchful eye against the U-Boats for the remainder of the trip. They feared - quite rightly - that the Germans were tailing them, and on one occasion
Vanguard's patrol aircraft spotted and successfully sunk a German submarine. The Kriegsmarine had bloodied them, but in terms of military vessels sunk Australia was winning.
Desperate counterattacks by the Thais were only slowing Australian progress at the cost of many Axis lives and would lead to the risk of their units being completely shattered and overrun. It almost seemed like Siam wanted to lose the war.
Meanwhile in Siam the breakthrough continued as Thai forces were virtually in danger of becoming overrun by rapidly advancing Australians. Although the Kiwis of New Zealand were unused to the harsh terrain, Australian forces had trained in the tropical conditions of Queensland, Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea for exactly this kind of encounter. They were well-equipped for Jungle Warfare and prepared for the worst. In spite of rainstorms and repeated Thai ambushes, the Australians moved with surprising speed and confidence through the terrible terrain. Weather, disease and the jungle itself seemed to do more damage to the advancing ANZAC forces than any opposition military could, but through it all the Australians managed to make the most of it and keep morale high. They were tired and most had a poor grasp of exactly where they were. Some seemed to think that Bangkok might lie just over the next hill and that the nightmarish conditions were almost over. The truth was that the jungle had only just begun to take its toll and this test of Australian morale was only just beginning.
Bostock's Bombers conduct the daring Cherbourg Raid - although it had little real war impact, it was well-captured by aerial photographers and a film crew and caused large amounts of superficial damage. This made it a great propaganda piece for the Allied Forces, who believed the tide was turning against the Kriegsmarine.
Meanwhile on the 21st a daring raid was struck out by General Bostock's Short Sunderlands against the Kriegsmarine. Pummeling the French port of Cherbourg with bombs, they caught the Luftwaffe completely by surprise and were able to deal heavy damage to the port facilities.
KMS Schleswig-Holstein was struck by a bomb although damage was not as severe as it looked from the air and two more destroyers were hit, one of which exploded violently due to a bomb landing directly on one of the guns' magazines. As Luftwaffe fighters began to close in on their position, Bostock ordered an early retreat rather than risk losing more of his bombers than necessary. The raid was deemed a complete success by Allied High Command although it had little real impact on the Kriegsmarine's fighting strength. The Allies would continue to underestimate the German Navy's operational capacity and what it was actually capable of.
ANZAC forces arrive on the front lines but the German Offensive is headed north and east, giving them plenty of time to prepare themselves for a counterattack into their flank.
German forces continued to pile the pressure onto British lines, but there was plenty more to come for all sides. The newly arrive ANZAC troops had regrouped and reorganized themselves at Reading, plugging one of the last holes in the German lines. As the German armour continued to punch into the Home Counties, a plan was hatched to push directly into the advancing German spearhead from the west. With enough pressure, it was hoped that the Australians could force the Germans to either retreat or see their armoured spearhead cut off. The loss of an armoured division would be key in the attempts to seize
During the Battle of Hove nearly 1,000 British soldiers lost their lives in a desperate push to try and retake Sussex from the Germans. A further 3,000 would be pulled off the line due to injury, but the British fought hard for their country.
Buoyed by the arrival of ANZAC reinforcements, the British began to counterattack along the south coast. Elements of the British Army pressed heavily from Hampshire into Sussex in the hopes of retaking the town of Brighton from a substantially weakened German force. It was the first proper offensive the Allies had conducted in the Battle of Britain so far and High Command hoped that they could retake the port at Dover, cutting the entire operation off from its main supply line. The operation was optimistic to say the least and overestimated the firepower and numbers that Britain could bring to bear against their invaders.
The man responsible for the British defensive strategy: Field Marshal Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd, a decorated veteran of the Great War.
The entire defence was being mustered by the once-retired Field Marshal Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd. With a shortage of officers available due to many captured in the Battle of France, a large number of Great War veterans had been mobilized to try and muster some kind of leadership in the face of German attacks. It was deemed a messy operation and Montgomery-Messingberd had a poor understanding of the modern Army to say the least. Every small success he claimed was usually due to German failures and against the heavily mechanized German forces he had no real answer. British motorized divisions were not used to their full potential and simply manned the line like regular units. His subordinates were furious but there was little that they could do as the Relic held seniority above the other officers and still had the support of the government.
The Balkan Alliance fails to eliminate the pocketed German Armour as reinforcements secure a narrow path of supply. They continue to be pushed back slowly on every front.
Meanwhile in Yugoslavia, the situation was turning dire. The attempted pocketing of the German spearhead had failed as Axis forces relieved the armour from its overextended position. The Balkan Alliance was rapidly becoming overextended and defeat was turning into a matter of when, not if. Britain herself could offer nothing but apologies to the Yugoslavians as all spare resources were being funneled back to Britain for the sake of defending the Homeland.
The push to retake Brighton succeeds and Sussex falls back into British hands. The men of 6th Corps are exhausted from the push and outnumbered - the planned advance into Kent is called off for the time being.
In spite of Montgomery-Massingberd's weaknesses, a victory was finally won at Brighton. The town fell back into British hands on the morning of the 25th - Christmas Day would be celebrated by Brighton's citizens under their own country's flag. On the same day, New Zealand troops launched a heavy and direct assault against the German positions around Aldershot while the Australian 1st Cavalry swung north to try and cut off any reinforcements from the Panzer division in Slough. The operation, although still in its early days, was looking to be successful. Other places were not so lucky. Kent, Surrey and large sections of East Anglia were still in German hands three weeks after the first German landings. Although British Naval presence had increased following the surprise invasion, it was still insufficient to overcome the Luftwaffe's air advantage and reinforcements continued to arrive in Dover. A stalemate had been drawn, but now the British needed to push the Germans back into the sea before German reinforcements could arrive by sea or air.
General Guderian in a command post somewhere near the front lines. Although he seems to radiate personal confidence, it is well known that the General was worried for his men and highly critical of the poor supply and support he received from the mainland.
Although the Germans were struggling to meet their achieved objectives, the blame lay not within the Generals on the ground, but within the command structure back home. General Heinz Guderian, the Theater Commander on the ground in Britain, was constantly frustrated by Hitler's stubborn unwillingness to negotiate. The Führer had multiple times ordered all available forces in Britain to attempt an encirclement and capture of London against Guderian's advice. The General and his staff insisted on taking Portsmouth and Hull to strengthen their supply lines and render vulnerable the industrial heartland of the English North. Hitler did not believe this would offer the kind of political victory that London would bring and refused the plan. When Guderian informed him that at double the current number of divisions would be required to ensure victory in Britain and that their current situation was impossible and foolhardy, the Führer was incensed with his words and nearly relieved the General of his command, only holding back due to his immense popularity on the home front. Fall Seelöwe had started strongly, but now stuttered in the face of increasing difficulty. It seemed only a matter of time before British reinforcements overwhelmed the landing force and drove nearly 150,000 German men off the shores of England and back into the sea...
December 11th-December 28th
Royal Australian Army:
891 Soldiers killed in action
Royal Australian Navy:
3x Troop Transports sunk
1x Frigate sunk
2x Merchant Ships sunk
1x Destroyer sunk
Royal Australian Air Force:
24x Short Sunderland Bombers lost
8x Hawker Nimrod Carrier Planes lost
3x Gloster Sea Gladiator Carrier Planes lost
15x Hawker Hurricane Fighters lost
12x Supermarine Spitfire Fighters lost
6x Blackburn Skua Dive Bombers lost
German Wehrmacht:
541 Soldiers killed in action
34x Tanks destroyed
5x Tank Destroyers destroyed
German Kriegsmarine:
9x Destroyers sunk
1x Submarine sunk
3x Merchant Ships sunk
German Luftwaffe:
14x Messerschmitt 109 Fighters lost
3x Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstorer Fighters lost
Royal Thai Army:
1,590 Soldiers killed in action
Royal Thai Air Force:
3x Mitsubishi Ki-21-Ib Bombers lost
Good luck with the exam and hope to see this updated shortly thereafter!
