12-19 October '39 - The last voyage of the Reserve Fleet
"...gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us.."
- William Shakespeare, 1599 -
(Funeral parade for the Reserve Fleet)
Good afternoon, chap, glad to see you again. Sorry I didn't have time to greet you at the funeral service but these days are just so hectic. The last two weeks have been bloody, so many young men have died, with no grounds being made.
Once more into the meat-grinder. Pardon my crudeness. The date is October 19th, and the war has last for 1 month and 3 weeks. So, I guess the first order of business should be to look at the aftermath of the Ambush at Kattegat. Then we should talk about the Air Battle of Heligoland Bight, oh, I see I caught your attention. The world's biggest air battle, cost us a small fortune in fuel, and men...
Right, so Northern Patrol finally catches up with the last two ships of The Reserve fleet - Carlisle, and Curlew - and set sail to rendezvous with Home fleet. Looks like the total tally is 2600 men dead and 200 captured by the Germans. Also, as you no doubt know, Admiral John Tovey goes down with the HMS Argus.
Northern patrol meets up with Home Fleet. Both set sail for Norwich, England. Home fleet is escorting them. The public back home are shocked and angry.
The Reserve fleet finally arrives in Norwich, we hush it up well enough, no need for the British people to see their heroes battered and bruised. The two ships will be repaired and merged into the Northern Patrol when the time comes.
Funeral this Sunday: The funeral and parade was made for the 2600 men who lost their lives, for Vice-Admiral John Tovey, and for the people, to let them deal with the grief and troubles of being at war, again. Oh, and also, Captain Claud Hampton of HMS Carlisle looks to be nominated for a Victoria Cross. Leading the HMS Curlew, and thus indirectly the HMS Carlisle through the massacre by launching a direct attack on the enemy. A move that cost the captain his life. After holding out against the enemy bombardment, the surviving two ships made a daring escape trough the front line. The tactic was Claud Hampton's brainchild and saved the lives of the men on board, The two ships pushed through the attacking force and moved south towards the Northern Patrol causing the enemy to break off their pursuit. An artillery shell damaged the bridge and mortally wounded Hampton in the process, yet he captained the ship through for 2 hours before succumbing to his wounds.
October 18:
Yesterday: We've been dreading this. Debates in the House of Commons. Fortunately the government won confidence, and the hearts and minds of the Honourable gentlemen. In fact, and quit bizarrely, Churchill came out of this the winner. Chamberlain was under the most fire and Churchill defended him and even received some praise from former PM David Lloyd George for predicting the war.
Chamberlain:
"We do not set ourselves up as being infallible, as being above receiving help from others who are willing to help. Let us then before these trials come upon us put all our strength into the work of preparing for them, and we shall thus steadily increase our strength until we ourselves are able to deliver our blows where and when we will."
Churchill:
"Let me say that I am not advocating controversy. We have stood it for the last 10 days, and if I have broken out, it is not because I mean to seek a quarrel with Honorable Gentlemen. On the contrary, I say, let pre-war feuds die; let personal quarrels be forgotten, and let us keep our hatreds for the common enemy. Let party interest be ignored, let all our energies be harnessed, let the whole ability and forces of the nation be hurled into the struggle, and let all the strong horses be pulling on the collar."
David Lloyd George:
"Is there anyone in this House who will say that he is satisfied with the speed and efficiency of the preparations in any respect for air, for Army, yea, for Navy? Everybody is disappointed. Everybody knows that whatever was done was done half-heartedly, ineffectively, without drive and unintelligently. For three or four years I thought to myself that the facts with regard to Germany were exaggerated by the First Lord of Admiralty, because the then Prime Minister—not this Prime Minister—said that they were not true. The First Lord of Admiralty was right."
"We did not take any measures that would guarantee success. This mission, was made dependent upon this half-prepared, half-baked force, without any combination at all between the Airforce and the Navy. The right Honorable Gentleman spoke about the gallantry of our men, and we are all equally proud of them. It thrills us to read the stories. All the more shame that we should have made fools of them."
"The nation is prepared for every sacrifice so long as it has leadership, so long as the Government show clearly what they are aiming at and so long as the nation is confident that those who are leading it are doing their best."
So, chap. We are still in charge of this government,
but it was not the solid victory we were hoping for. Chamberlain's job is hanging in a thin thread right now, I fear another mistake will send the whole deck of cards tumbling down.
We have done some changes in the production lines. There are several brigades we need to make ready to be deployed to the BEF in order to bolster our defences against the coming tide. The Anti-air and Radar were put on hold until November. We've also heavily cut down on factory output and are currently putting a lion share into upgrading our troops. Jerry has a state of the art war machine and we need both our Norway campaign force and our BEF to be in tip top shape when the blow comes. Also we have decided to stockpile some more oil, cancelling our deal with USSR.
MOVEMENT:
The BEF is of course first priority and always scrutinised to updates. In fact many things have changed these last 2 weeks and our operation is looking a bit different than last time. After the Ambush At Kattegat, the War Cabinet decided to take more decisive and direct control. Egypt, Australia, And New Zealand were given direct military orders of utmost importance. Italy seems to be mobilising and we wish to cover these borders. Egypt was ordered west with her 3 inf. and as soon as China fleet is done in India it will be ordered to set sail for Australia. There it will pick up Australian and New Zealand divisions, 12 in all, for deployment in North Africa and France. Canadian troops are also on route for France.
So! have a look at the new and improved Operation Bernard:
OPERATION BERNARD
-Corps IV (Gen. Gort) will orchestrate the operation and cover Dunkirk in case of evacuation. 1 British, 7 British Raj Div.
-Corps V/Commonwealth Force (Commander Brooke-Popham) oversees the Commonwealth Force in Lille. 3 Canadian, 4 British Raj, 2 Australian div. Also, he is in charge of The Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force that will be providing close air-support.
-Corps II (Gen. Brooke) will cover Hirson with 9 British div.
-Corps I (Gen. Dill) will cover Fulda. 9 British div.
-Corps III (Gen. Adam) reinforced with British units from Alexandria will cover Lorgwy and the Ardenne. 9 div.
All in all 44 div. 10 wings. with additional 5 as reinforcement.
Also we have drawn up the evacuation plans in case the Huns were in fact to break through the tough French defence. Operation Dynamo:
OPERATION DYNAMO
The Royal Auxiliary fleet, escorted by Portsmouth Command and Channel Force, will ferry 2 corps at the same time. Cutting the evacuation down to 3 round-trips for all 44 div. 3 evacuation alternatives have been chosen, ranked from best to worst scenario.
A Evacuation route - Dunkirk to Dover
B Evacuation route - Cherbourg to Portsmouth
C Evacuation route - Brest to Plymouth
Are you ready for another headache? Stalin has decided to shake his fist at every neighbour he has. Most of the smaller nations like Estonia, and Latvia, now also Finland, are under claim. What claims you ask? Well as far as we can see some are military access, others are territorial dispute, like in the case of Finland. The nation is of course rejecting their claim. Another puzzle for our Foreign Minister Halifax to solve.
Here's some news that turns my stomach. 5 British submarines were sunk at Kattegat this week. 250 men lost. god damn it! They were on a Convoy raid in North Jutland. How they ended up all the way down in Kiel is beyond me. We are trying to keep a low profile on this disaster. No one needs
another funeral parade or debate in the House of Commons. The German fleet has been well off the last 10 days, no words from Hitler and his propaganda machine, but no doubt it will come next week. Our job then will be to do a full reassessment of the Royal Navy, someone will have to go as a result of this disaster, and my eyes are on Admiral Pound.
Ok, I guess it's time to speak about what was to be the greatest aerial fight in the history of man.
The Air Battle of Heligoland Bight
Air General Tedder's wing was on a routine mission off the coast of Groningen. they were only there to cover our ships engaged in the blockade. What he spot was something different: 3 tactical bombers on route to Britain. He engages them and keeps them occupied while we scramble 3 fighter wings and send them his way.
they meet up and Air General Bowhill takes command of the battle. This turns into several fierce dogfights so we scramble even more. We can only send our bombers to provide some additional support. but my god, man what a fight it was!
We lose 58 fighter planes but shoot down 101 nazi bombers. Luftwaffe was on route to Britain, our fighters no doub stopped them. Dowding and Newall believes they will be back. Controll brings us a formation plan from Sholto Douglas called the "Big Wing", Dowding and Newall aren't too enthusiastic about it. The War Cabinet forces it through with certain modifications.
The Heligoland Wall is about to be erected. Massive amounts of fuel is administered to the operation. The job goes to Air Marshall Brooke-Popham of the British Raj. 15 wings are in Helioland Bay, take that in my friend. 1500 planes are engaged in this operation. Dienekes once said that the Persians had enough arrows to blot out the sun. Well if that was the case, the Lord let the bay lay in perpetual darkness this week as rain and storm fell down.
The Germans walk straight into our trap
The biggest air battle in the history of mankind is about to commence. A wall of metal wings, guns, and angry British pilots ready to avenge the ambush at Kattegat crash down on the Germans.
We shot down 72 fighters, unfortunately our bombers are picked off with ease and we take a toll of 54 bombers, including 17 heavy bombers. All in all this week we took down 173 german planes... Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Jerry!
Nomination for a Victoria Cross is to go to James Brindley Nicolson for courage in the face of the enemy. Nicolson's Hawker Hurricane was fired on by a Messerschmitt Bf 110, injuring the pilot in one eye and one foot. His engine was also damaged and the petrol tank set alight. As he struggled to leave the blazing machine he saw another Messerschmitt, and managing to get back into the bucket seat, pressed the firing button and continued firing until the enemy plane dived away to destruction. Not until then did he bail out into the ocean, MIA all yesterday, then we got word he had been picked up by a Dutch fishing boat. Tough kid, he's in a hospital in the Netherlands for the time being.
As clever of an idea as it was, the Heligoland Wall is to be no more, the fuel alone was a nightmare, and the death toll is too high. we might not do so "well" if they return in clear weather. Dowding has suggested falling back to Britain and scramble the fighters when necessary, if it is over British soil we will have the AA guns at our backs, and there should be a lot of them ready by 1940. We have decided to pull the fighters back to UK and maintain air supremacy there. all Tacs and Strats are to be grounded in Lille. That seems to be it for this week. Oh, before I forget. I'm a bit of sentimentalist, so I'd like to send with you the poem I gave the members of the War Cabinet today. What comfort can we find, but in our dear Kipling.
“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
Tuck your family in tonight and know they sleep comfortably because of our young men guarding the wall.
England Expects.