CHAPTER SEVENTY
Despite the almost nightly bombing raids conducted by the RAF over northern Germany, the last month and a half of 1939 was dominated by an uneasy calm as Germany reinforced it’s armies in Denmark and Poland for the final assaults to crush the Poles and the Danes. The defenders of those two nations, worked feverishly to forestall the impending doom, obtaining as much assistance as was possible from the British and the nations of Scandinavian nations of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
A lonely bomber heading toward a rallying point prior a raid on Germany
Concurrently with these uneasy actions, the French maintained their strong reinforcement of the Maginot Line and other fixed fortifications and consulted with the other Allies about how best to prosecute the war against Germany and her allies, Hungary and the newly formed Croatia.
These consultations always progressed favorably until the discussions reached the topic of command of troops on French soil. The government of Marshal Pétain maintained that any foreign troops fighting in France must fall under the overall command of the French High Command, and the remaining Allies maintaining, at the behest of the British, that if that was the case, there would be no foreign troops deploying to France. It was a constant friction that caused no amount of stress among the Foreign Ministry diplomats of all the Allied governments, and it is a testimony of the ability of those diplomats (and rumors persist of the actions of the British Empire’s Office of Imperial Intelligence) that the Alliance did not break apart on those dark months.
The dawning of the new year, 1940, brought promise as the RAF was able to declare operational a complete now command within Bomber Command, Strike Command B, commanded by Air Marshal Raymond Collishaw, and comprising four full wings of the newest Vickers Wellington medium bombers, some of which still had wet paint upon their wings and fuselages as they arrived at their new bases in near York.
The newest addition to Bomber Command, the Vickers Wellingtons of Strike Command B
The dawning of the new year brought news that while not having a direct impact upon the war between Germany and the Allies, did cause a great deal of disquiet in the capitals of anti-Communist nations, especially very anti-Communist London. On the far side of the Baltic, the leader of Latvia, Kārlis Ulmanis, faced with twenty-five thousand troops of the Red Army perched on little Latvia’s frontier, caved in to demands from Moscow and ceded the provinces of Riga, Gulbene, Dagaupulis, Jekapils, Jelgana, and Mazirbe to the Soviet Union.
The Red Army marches into Latvia
Again, it seemed to the subjects of the British Empire, that Communism was on the march, and Parliament was the scene of a great many debates on the merits of ceasing the war against Germany and turning the forces of the Empire against Communist Russia. Into this rapidly growing debate, growing in ferocity with each exchange between supporters of Oswald’s British Union of Fascists and the other members of both the English and rapidly growing Imperial Parliaments, the Crown refused to step.
On the very next day, January 3, 1940, arguments for a cessation of hostilities with Germany died with the news of a third naval battle taking place in the Helgoland Bight, one in which the outcome not only shocked the Royal Navy but the entire world.
Excerpt from The Death of Nations
By Edgar Bryce Fellows
Paris University Press, 1960
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Up next: I recommend gathering up some supplies, the next set of posts are going to be very story driven. Hopefully they will be well enjoyed, if not, just sing out and let me know so I can craft some better wordsmithing, eh? Look for the beginning in the next day or so.