Here we go again!
Chapter 2.7 – Dancing in Africa
Operations near Benghazi began in good spirits. Italian troops bunkered in the hills were under-supplied and equipped mostly with outdated Great War weaponry. The Australian 3rd Corps was still untested in battle, and this was planned to be her proving ground. With both superior firepower and numbers, the Italians were forced to fall back on virtually every front. Lt. General Mackay was preparing a plan to march east and trap the Italian forces assaulting Egypt near Tobruk. With just hours remaining before the planned start of the operation, Field Marshall Cyril Bingham-White called off the attack.
Sardinia, left undefended by the Australians, had been recaptured by Italian landings.
Cagliari had been occupied by a brigade of Italian commandos on May 17th, forcing the Australians to rethink their force deployments. It was predicted that the Italians would be fighting hard to keep the city. British High Command viewed Sardinia as a threat to her shipping lanes, and the Australians were worried about Italian bombers. Three divisions from the 3rd Corps supported by New Zealand cavalrymen would be mobilized to retake Cagliari with overwhelming force. Although the Australians were concerned about how much material they had to move back and forth to make this a reality, British commanders reassured them that they would have the full support of the Royal Navy in the operation.
Several air raids were attempted on Palermo from the base at Cagliari, and that was enough to convince the Australians that immediate action needed to be taken. Thanks to either luck or to incompetence of the Italian pilots, no ships were damaged in the raids, although port infrastructure was left damaged and some sailors were killed. The Australians found it difficult to scramble fighters in time for a change, but clouds of flak shot down numerous bombers and forced a general retreat as the
Vanguard's own fighters took to the skies in protection of their ship.
Cosenza became the site of a pitched battle between Australian and Italian forces as the Commonwealth troops advanced up the Italian peninsula.
The 7th and 23rd Australian divisions advanced as quickly as possible into Italy, but soon met heavy resistance at the town of Cosenza. Here, an entire division of Italian infantry had dug in expecting the worst. The town would suffer from constant shelling by Australian howitzers and mortars. The ruined piles of rubble made life just as difficult for the attackers as it did for the defenders as destroyed buildings made movement into the city difficult. Snipers took up positions in whatever positions they could and entrenched Italian infantry were proving difficult to push back.
There was little in the way of fighting on the Alpine Line, where both sides were heavily dug in and fortified.
Meanwhile on the Alpine Line, the Italians appeared to have given up any pretense of assault on the French defensive positions. More and more troops were being pulled off of the line, including many of Italy's best-equipped divisions. French command was still suspicious of an assault, however, and refused to shift troops north to face the Germans.
On May 26th, the Australians finally abandoned the assault on Cosenza. It was a disappointment to ANZAC command, their first true defeat as all objectives of the push remained in Italian hands. On May 28th, Australian air reconnaissance detected movements of armour to the south, along with large numbers of infantry. The Australian generals requested permission to retreat, but High Command was insistent that they remain a little while longer.
On the seas, another brief battle was fought, and again a victory was earned by the Australians.
HMAS Vanguard was once again in action, escorting fleets of transports on their way to Cagliari to retake the important Sardinian city. A scout plane reported late in the afternoon of May 29th that they had seen a British merchant in flames and that several Italian submarines were also spotted on the surface.
Vanguard immediately ordered a strike.
The operation was a great success, with four submarines and an Italian supply ship sunk from the air while undergoing resupply. The Italians attempted revenge as two more stalked the fleet, but they overestimated their own capabilities and were picked up by the flotilla's sonar. The destroyer
HMAS Vampire claimed one with its depth charges, and the last was picked off by one of the
Vanguard's dive bombers. The Italians had learned the hard way how deadly Australia's navy really was.
Australian forces were hitting Cagliari hard, frustrated at fighting this battle all over again.
The very next morning a large convoy of Australian transports appeared on the shores of Sardinia. Under air cover from
HMAS Vanguard and with the help of the fleet's many guns, the Australians descended on the beaches at Tortoli without much in the way of resistance. The Italians were soon surrounded and trapped in Cagliari with only a minimum of supplies thanks to Britain's overwhelming naval superiority.
The 7th and 23rd Australian divisions fall back towards Reggio di Calabria and the ferry service to Messina.
June 3rd, the order everyone was waiting for finally came through. Bingham-White had accepted that the Australians were not going to make any further progress into Italy, and that the longer they remained in the open, the greater the risk of being defeated and losing two divisions was. A general retreat was sounded across the line. There was a fear that the Italians and Germans were going to assault the Australians once they were no longer in the shelter of their safe lines, but that fear never materialized. For whatever reason, there was no forthcoming assault and almost no Australian munitions or equipment was lost in the retreat.
Rodolfo Graziani was believed to be Commander of the Italian Mediterranean Army.
Although the Australians were permitted to retreat to the vital port, they were shadowed by Italian tanks and infantry and several short skirmishes between the Regio Aeronautica and the RAAF occurred over Calabria. Finally, General Rodolfo Graziani sent a message to the Australian commanders, demanding that they surrender or be destroyed by the joint Italian-German forces. Reggio was expected to be a deathtrap, but the Australians responded by laying down heavy covering fire. The
HMAS Vanguard and her escorts, freed from their escort duties near Sardinia, were responsible for covering the Strait of Messina and they would guard the transports departing Reggio to the death.
Australians met the first serious Italian opponents since the Invasion of Libya began, at the city of Al Jawsh.
On the same day that Rodolfo Graziani dispatched his demands for a surrender, Italy was suffering heavily in the desert. Although the offensive from Benghazi had been halted, Italian forces were still under heavy pressure from the New Zealand divisions near Tripoli. A fierce battle erupted in one of Libya's southernmost cities, Al Jawsh, as poorly equipped Italian forces tried to resist the ANZAC push.
New Zealand infantry storm a fortified Italian position during the Battle of Al Jawsh.
The Italians suffered heavy casualties as the Kiwis relentlessly pushed their way into Al Jawsh. Unlike Cosenza, the Italians did not have the same kind of heavy firepower to make the most of the Italian environment. What the Kiwis did lack in heavy artillery, they made up for with manoeuvrability and excellent modern equipment. They had been well-trained in preparation for this kind of warfare and the Italians were proving to be little match as Al Jawsh was taken street by street.
News reached ANZAC Command on the 6th of June that Cagliari had fallen to Australian troops. The Italians had held out unusually long, and had to be flushed out of numerous homes before surrendering. The battle was not bloody in terms of men killed, but casualties were high as wounded accumulated at a worrying rate. In retrospect, Australian commanders believed they were very lucky to have lost so few men in the Cagliari push. Italian forces were well-trained and equipped here, but their supply lines were weak and they lacked the kind of heavy artillery to compete with the heavy Australian divisions. As the last troops were pushed against the bay, they surrendered rather than face death.
The withdrawal to Messina had been a success, despite Italian harassment.
Although Mussolini had demanded that no Australian be allowed to leave Italian soil alive, Graziani had utterly failed to block the ANZAC escape from Reggio. Attempts by the Regia Marina to sortie out of Bari had been repeatedly blocked by a large Royal Navy taskforce and the
HMAS Vanguard and her escorts offered heavy fire support to the evacuating fleet. Miraculously, the Australians escaped to Messina mostly untouched, even though much of their equipment had to be evacuated under fire. It was a great operational victory for the Australians, but many commanders felt that the battle never should have happened to begin with.
The Battle for Al Jawsh continues as the Italians attempt to retake the city.
In Africa, the Italians were unhappy with their progress. On June 13th, Italian forces launched a counterattack into Al Jawsh, clearly determined to retake the city. This continuation of the already bloody Battle of Al Jawsh was seen as a last-ditch effort by the Italians to seize some kind of supply base before they were systematically annihilated by the New Zealand forces. Unlike the Italians, the Kiwis were well-trained and equipped with fine modern arms. The town would not be retaken without immense casualties on the Italian side.
Despite the lack of a real offensive out of Benghazi, Operation Deep Blue's impact on the war had been a resounding success.
ANZAC operations had cut off Italian supply lines and greatly weakened Italy's fighting capacity. As troops had been recalled to try and deal with the forces around Tripoli and Benghazi, the British had made an immense breakthrough. Piercing the Italian line at Ad Diffah on the 20th, they not only thrust the Italians back, but completely surrounded and defeated them at Tobruk on the 30th. With the Italians' last major port gone, they were completely without hope of victory in the African Campaign. General Rodolfo Graziani was stripped of his command and relegated to desk duty while a more suitable replacement for Mussolini's Mediterranean campaign was sought out.
July 4th in France. The Allies are struggling to hold back the grey tide of German forces.
On the morning of the 4th of July, the situation in Europe seemed bleak. German forces were concentrating their armoured thrusts into a large pincer that threatened to swallow the surviving elements of the Maginot Line. French General Maurice Gamelin boldly declared that he would not permit the Germans to encircle his army, and poured reinforcements against the spearheads in an attempt to blunt their momentum. No attempt was made to evacuate the forces or Gamelin's HQ in Strasbourg. British forces urged a counter-attack aimed at Metz in order to force the Germans to pull back, but the French lacked the manpower required for such a demanding operation. Morale was at an all-time low as Allied commanders desperately sought some kind of path to victory, but no one expected the events later that day...
The United States of America, led by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed a formal Declaration of War against the Empire of Japan, declaring that the people of Asia were crying out for the same freedom and independence that Americans everywhere were enjoying on their own Independence Day. Citing Japan's numerous war crimes both in China and Korea, the world's most populous democracy and greatest industrial workhorse had turned itself towards war.
May 13th-July 4th
ANZAC Expeditionary Army:
959 soldiers killed in action
Royal Australian Air Force:
4 Hawker Hurricanes lost
Royal Australian Navy:
1 Hawker Nimrod Carrier Planes lost
2 Gloster Sea Gladiator Carrier Planes lost
1 Australian merchant sunk
Regio Esercito:
2,213 soldiers killed in action
5,404 soldiers captured
Regio Aeronautica:
3 Fiat G-50 fighters
17 Cant Z.501 Gabbiano patrol bombers
12 Cant Z.506B Airone patrol bombers
Regia Marina:
6x Submarines
2 Italian merchants sunk
1 Italian frigate sunk