Rank and File
A Clerk’s War
4th and 5th December 1939
Diplomacy always bemuses me. I can never understand the subtlety of diplomatic negotiations, where what you say actually means something completely different. I suppose I am just an old soldier, who tells it as he sees it. Take the latest memorandum from the Foreign Ministry, which is about which countries most support our policies. Australia, Persia and Yunnan. How on earth did that happen? And even though these countries have similar policies to us, neither Australia nor Persia will even open talks with us, and none of them will trade with us. We did send a delegation to Yunnan, and surprisingly, they have decided to join the Axis. That should interest our Japanese allies: a border on India.
In the real world, General Höpner has sent 4th Leichte Panzer Division into the forests of Aubusson, hoping that the 15th Infantry Brigade and its tank regiment, and the motorised 33rd Infantry have not set up ambushes for his tanks along the narrow roads. In his attack plan, Höpner put a lot of reliance on his Marder II tank destroyer brigade, but they won’t help him against anti-tank guns. Still, I imagine he is under a lot of pressure to move south, and he could be lucky: the French are quite likely more occupied with withdrawing through the woods to set up roadblocks and camouflaging gun-sites. 4th Leichte has plenty of infantry, so maybe they can flush out any rearguards.
Battle of Aubusson
Loading a Marder II: there are some complaints that these early models have too high a silhouette (2.6m metres) and that the upper armour is too thin, leaving the crew exposed.
Over Montlucon, d’Arnaud de Vitrolle attempted to disrupt our bombers, but did not realise what his single Groupe de Chasse was heading into. He found the not only were Dörstling’s bombers escorted by two geschwader of Messerschmitts, but that Christiansen has also sent Westwall 1 and 2 to help. Outnumbered four to one in fighters alone, the French did not have a chance.
General Ruoff finally persuaded his superiors that it was time for the “Vorwärts” motorised division to get back into action, and they were immediately in action. His assigned target was the Central Military District Division, a lightly armed unit that included a cavalry brigade. The CMD had been ordered to hold Gentioux-Pigerolles, the adjacent province to Aubusson, and the Army of the Ardennes obviously hopes to smash a gaping hole in the front.
Battle of Gentioux-Pigerolles
All of this occurred before daylight. As dawn arose, exciting news arrived. Forward scouts from units of the Westwall Army reported that the French had left the key province of Mulhouse unguarded. Perhaps the fighting to the west (retaking Lunéville) had led to a shortage of combat troops in the Maginot. No-one really cared about the reason: a critical target was suddenly available. General Andrae, commander of the Westwall Army, ordered General Föhrenback to send his VII Armeekorps to seize the vacant fortifications, but it would take days for the entrenched infantry to move forward in force. If only we had a unit that could take advantage of this heaven-sent opportunity.
Mulhouse: The Opportunity
1st Fallschirmjäger Division has been marching for days, from Paris (where it had been on R&R after the Channel Island invasion) to the forward airbase at Les Riceys. Heeresgruppe West had been contemplating throwing the Fallschirmjägers miles forward to capture either Digoin or Toulouse. Both of these were considered very risky, Digoin because it had a strong garrison and we were not sure whether ground troops were able to launch a supporting attack, and Toulouse because reconnaissance flights could not determine whether it was garrisoned at all. Risky or not, the decision had been made that the Fallschirmjägers were to attack one or the other, and the order had already been given that they were to board their Ju 52 transports. But it was no longer necessary to choose the lesser of two evils: the situation in Mulhouse was tailor-made for skills of the Fallschirmäger. The order went out immediately, from the very top: the drop zone would now be Mulhouse. Our men would parachute onto the top of the Maginot Line!
As Lt-General Abernethy took the heavily laden Ju 52s of 1st Truppentransporterfliegerkorps eastwards into the dawn, there was an uneasy calm over the Reichskanzlei. There had been no time to organise a fighter escort, and everyone knew that if Basset’s interceptors found the slow moving and virtually defenceless “Tante Jus” that we could lose a whole division in minutes. When word came in that the Armée de l’Air was mounting an attack, there was an audible groan throughout the building. But it was followed by relief: the report was from central France, from Aubusson. D’Arnaud de Vitrolles’ was again taking his single Groupe, chasing Schwartzkopff’s 2nd Kampffliegerkorps.
Air Battle of Aubusson
Mulhouse: The Solution
At last the news we (and probably the whole of OKH) had been waiting for: General Dietl was on a faint and crackling radio from Mulhouse. All three of his regiments were on the ground, and were busy winkling out the few French soldiers remaining in the massive fortifications. He had instructed his men to start digging. 1st Fallschirmjäger would not move, it would hold Mulhouse until relieved.
An abandoned casemate, guns still ready: what were the French doing?
Fallschirmjägers take up a defensive position in Mulhouse
Perhaps buoyed by the successful Maginot mission, for the first time in weeks the Luftwaffe intercepted a French bombing attack. Christiansen’s 4th Jagdfliegerkorps took on Jauneaud’s bombers over Sancergues, reducing the impact on 29.Infanterie (mot) and 33.Infanterie as well as destroying 34 enemy aircraft. Both Generals Blaskowitz and Brandt were effusive in their thanks, as the continuous French raids made the assault on defensive positions in Sancoins much more dangerous.
Final Air Battle of Sancergues
As the 4th December came to a close, there was a feeling throughout the administration in Berlin that it marked a turning point. The French were now beaten, they just didn’t know it. The capture of a section of the Maginot would shatter any perception of invincibility, and just one more push would see the Republic collapse. Analysis by our political experts showed that we now held 47.4% of all French economic and cultural centres were under our control, while national unity had declined to 48.6%. The French Government was 97.5% of the way to surrender. To concentrate our attacks on vital centres, Österreich Army removed Besancon from its list of objectives, while the Army of the Ardennes added Digoin to its list. It won’t be long now.
Oberbefehlshaber of the Luftwaffe Göring must have sensed that it was time to throw everything into the battle, as at midnight no less than 1200 bombers took off simultaneously to hammer French positions. 3rd Schlachtfliegerkorps (Udet) hit Dijon, 2nd Schlachtfliegerkorps (Löhr) bombed Sancoins, 1st Schlachtfliegerkorps (Kesselring) and 5th Kampffliegerkorps (Müller-Michiels) made a combined attack on Montlucon, 4th Kampffliegerkorps (Grauert) headed for Aubusson and 2nd Kampffliegerkorps (Schwartzkopff) was assigned Gentioux-Pigerolles. An hour later Brand and 3rd Gebirgsjäger Division moved into Gray, taking on the respected General Wilson and his 46th North Midland Division. Air reconnaissance revealed that the irrepressible Belgian 1ère Division de Cavellerie was in the rear areas of Gray, still trying to regain a semblance of order and repair its damaged vehicles.
Jauneaud, although having been given a hiding on the 4th, reappeared over Sancergues before dawn on the 5th, perhaps hoping to avoid any early fighter patrols. It was not to be. Christiansen had worked out the French bombing pattern and three times during the day he met the Groupes de Bombardement as they tried to assist their comrades in Sancoins. By the time of the last raid, at 7PM, the French were down to a total of 145 aircraft, from their original 200. No air force can replace losses of that magnitude without withdrawing from combat for a significant period. Christiansen’s Westwall 1 and 2 geschwader were not unscathed: about 20 fighters were lost to the machine guns of the French bombers, a testimony to the enthusiasm with which our pilots pressed home their attacks. A total of 524 casualties were inflicted in this one series of raids.
There was one other new battle on the 5th, in the province of Lure. This is not a significant area, and as far as I can gather General Jodl has been instructed to simply tie up some French units to ensure they cannot react to the parachute landings in their rear. Our 14.Infanterie is fairly evenly matched to the 11th Infantry, and no breakthrough is expected. I hope Jodl has told his front-line commanders to not press attacks too hard: we don’t need unnecessary casualties at this point in the campaign.
The Führer must have told the experts to prepare a daily report on the political stability of the French Government, because right at the end of the day we received a single sheet of paper. We had not taken any more French territory, but their National Unity had declined marginally to 48.5%. They are now only 2.3% from opening peace negotiations.
With all the excitement of the past couple of days, I had completely forgotten a package that arrived from the Wehrmacht. As you would expect, they monitor the performance of all senior officers, in the Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. With many officers in continuous action, the evaluation of their competence has been steadily increasing, due to the amount of experience they have gained in combat. Several of them are close to reaching a new level of skill, something that will be valuable in the years to come.
Heer: officer evaluation
Luftwaffe: officer evaluation
Kriegsmarine: officer evaluation
Unterseebootsflotte activity report
Breton Coast:
2 transports (UK): Plymouth – Belmopan (von Nordeck)
Coast of Galicia:
1 escort (UK): Dubai – Plymouth (Wolf)
Bombing Summary
Luftwaffe
Montlucon: Dörstling with 1st, 5th and 6th Kampffliegerkorps (2 x Bf 109E, 6 x Ju 88):
NIL
Aubusson: Schwartzkopff with 2nd Kampffliegerkorps (1 x Bf 109E, 2 x Ju 88):
91
Gentioux-Pigerolles: Grauert with 4th Kampffliegerkoprs (1 x Bf 109E, 2 x Ju 88):
106, 281
Aubusson: Müller-Michiels with 2nd and 5th Kampffliegrkorps (1 x Bf 109E, 4 x Ju 88):
245, 308
Montlucon: Kesselring with 1st Schlachtfliegerkorps (2 x Ju 87B):
167
Sancoins: Udet with 3rd Schlachtfliegerkorps (2 x Ju 87B):
115
Dijon: Udet with 3rd Schachtfliegerkorps (2 x Ju 87B):
113, 144, 155
Sancoins: Löhr with 2nd Schlachtfliegerkorps (2 x Ju 87B): 101, 94, 166
Montlucon: Kesselring with 1st Schlachtfliegerkorps, 5th Kampffliegerkorps (1 x Bf 109E, 2 x Ju 87B, 2 x Ju 88):
143, 159, 281
Aubusson: Grauert with 4th Kampffliegerkorps (2 x Ju 88):
58, 142, 266
Gentioux-Pigerolles: Schwartzkopff with 2nd Kampffliegerkorps (1 x Bf 109E, 2 x Ju 88):
111, 133, 244
Armée de l’Air
Sancergues: Jauneaud with 2 x TAC:
58, 168, 98, 95. 174, Abort
Unternehmen Stahlknüppel at end of 5th December 1939: the Final Countdown has begun
