July 19th, 1940, off to coast of Algarve. At 7:41, a small recon aircraft lands on the RNS Sentinel, support carrier of the Red Torch Fleet. It had been sent on a routine patrol route, taking advantage of the early morning light, but the pilot came back too soon, almost in panic, reporting an incoming atack of far too many ships - so many he couldn't actualy garantee a number.
Sure enough, we had been cought off-guard! At 8:00, the Battle of Algarve starts.
78 German ships, nearly all of capital status, fire their guns on our brave sailors. Dispite their massive numbers, the surprise factor allowed them to position themselfs favourably - rookie sailors of the RNS Proletarian commenting our side had an even better position just because it was impossible to fire and not hit something, with so many targets!
Fortunatly Great Admiral Cunningham seemed to have prepared a rather cunning plan for the eventuality of ever finding the missing german fleet.
With quick manouvering and superb use of escort ships, disaster was avoided, with only one Light Cruiser and a handfull of Destroyers sunk - Minister Violet Lansbury even managed to turn the whole afair into a propaganda factor, proving both the bravery and skill of the Free British Sailor and the atachment felt by the Masses towards their Navy. Forever Free! Forever British!
Chief of the Navy Copeman, however, wasn't so optimist. After ordering medals to be issued to every men present at that Battle, he looked at the damage reports and early repair estimates and put his hands to his head. That was a third of the Republican Navy docked for a couple of months more, and while the German admiral had a bloody nose, 70 bloody nosed battleships could still do a lot of harm.
At least the RNS Red Torch was in good shape. She made her builders proud!
But it wasn't just on the shores of Portugal that the enemys of the People were fighting Freedom! Two days after the Battle of Algarve, Australasian armies atempt a disenbark in Free Timor!
Only quick action by part of our local Admiral avoids what would be a possibly irrecuperable loss to the Cause. Pity he fails to sink enough transports.
Meanwhile, in the Continent, we keep reducing more and more the Keizer's "reich", but not without great cost in lives and time. In Prussia, even with French help, we have a hard time resisting the Polish-Lithuanian-Weissrussian-Ukranian superior numbers, and are actualy pushed back a fair bit. Austria divides Serbia and breaksthrough into Greece.
Only at the end of August do we establish a firm front at the Danube - but this success at pinning down the last major German army concentration is offset by the hardship of mantaining a stable front back in Prussia, so violent are the Keizer's slave's atempts to claim control of certain territories back to their master - even at the cost of the (supposed) Germans living there. Bydgoszcz is a martyr province...
At the homefront, things look overall positive. Arthur Horner, in his quality of Armaments Minister, is delighted with comrade Lansbury's work on maximizing ours and especialy Germany's industrial capacity. But while this allowed for our repairs (especialy of ships) to procede at good pace, it also left Comrade Horner with a though decision: should we concentrate on providing our very best and newest guns, tanks and planes to the heroes already fighting, or should we use them to equip more men and give wins to more pilots?
He choses the second option, and a renewed investment is made in the Army and Air Force.
