29 May - 5 June '40 - The battle of Belgium
"The French soldier dies for victory and defeat, while the British army now stands idly by."
- General Maurice Gamelin, 3rd June 1940 -
(London)
Come in, old boy. So sorry for the late meeting, but the War cabinet has had plenty of things to discus today. As a result that meeting went a bit longer than I had thought. I'll have Ms Darling fetch some refreshments for us before she leaves for the night.
Some rather important events transpired this week and we are now at a most critical point of the war. The French have lost too many soldiers, and we are unsure of how much longer they can withstand the German punishment. RAF has reached the breaking point. And Africa is a slowly unfolding conundrum.
THE WAR AGAINST ITALY:
WE NOW GUARANTEE GREEK INDEPENDENCE:
Early this week, the government officially issued a statement guaranteeing the sovereignty of Greece. The Balkans have long been under the greedy eyes of the Axis and fascist powers. Greece now needs our help, our strength at their backs. The terrain there makes it ideal for defence without the need to tie down too many soldiers. However, our strength is rather depleted at it is. Hopefully, we have deterred any further aggression on her borders.
ITALIAN NAVY SINKS 10 MORE FRENCH DESTROYERS:
God damn it, at this rate there will be neither a French or a Italian fleet in the Mediterranean sea. Not that I'm complaining about the latter, but the Italians seem to be dishing out the heavier punishment. We need the French to be able to continue to patrol those seas. We are stretched thin as it is.
Some better news on our front. The blockade of the North sea is still being enforced with a 99% success rate. This week we sank another 27 Italian merchant ships and 5 escort ships. This turned into a rather pesky battle. One that caused Home Fleet some damage.
HMS FURIOUS SENT TO NORWICH FOR REPAIR:
The HMS Furious was one of those ships that took the brunt of that battle. Thankfully we have reinforced Channel Force and though the air carrier will be missed, she is not essential for our blockade. In fact, there are a few larger ships docked for repair as of now. Don't worry though, it's all apart of our regular cycling of ships. HMS Furious will be back before you know it, and to be honest, The North sea is the only part of the war that has been a walk in the park lately for our brave boys. Long live Dudley Pound!
ITALY PULLING OUT FORCES FROM AFRICA?:
This is a rather interesting turn of events. This week French naval forces engaged a smaller Italian force off the coast of Tripoli, where they sank 2 transport ships. Are the Italians attempting to re-mobilise forces to Rome? If they are, it is imperative that we cut them off. I'd rather have those 15 Italian divisions stranded in North Africa than see them reinforce North Italy.
AUSTRALIAN FLEET IN THE MEDITERRANEAN:
Therefore the Australian Fleet, which newly rebased to Alexandria for Mediterranean operations was sent to the coast of Tripoli to prevent any further Italian evacuation. If they are to attempt to cross over they will have to go through some rather heavy naval firepower.
However, as Churchill pointed out at the recent meeting, this fleet we have in place is not equipped to handle a strong submarine attack. And that is what the Italians are packing. The Australian fleet will only be good at stopping the transport ships, and the odd battleship fleet. What a gambit we run, chap.
ROYAL NAVY SUBMARINE FLEET ALSO IN THE MEDITERRANEAN:
Down from the far North Baltic seas, another fleet we diverted to the Mediterranean is the Royal Navy Submarine fleet. Another measure to prevent any sea fairing mobilisation from the enemy. Their main mission however is to destroy what convoys that make it through the primary blockade of the North sea. We will starve Mussolini and his boys out!
Speaking of which, we have some unconfirmed information from SIS agents deep within Italy that we seem to be causing some rather critical energy problems to the Italians. If these news are to believed, we can contribute this to our successful blockade, and that means we must priorities this strategy and keep at our guns, old boy! If Italy is truly suffering from supply crisis this early in the game? Well my gosh! We might have them by the neck!
LONE BRITISH INDIAN CAVALRY RUSHED TO THE ITALIAN FRONT:
Time is the name of the game, and we are throwing in everything we have as fast as we can. General Francis Tuker was newly assigned a lone British Raj cavalry which was hastily diverted from North Africa by our Mediterranean fleet which picked them up near the
Battle of Sidi Barrani. They landed in Genoa, Italy today, and were immediately sent to Alessandria to reinforce in case of a counter-attack from Italy. We are betting everything on this horse now. By attacking Italy HARD we might be able to relieve both North Africa and the Western Front in the matter of a month. But we must keep up the pressure. General Tuker's division is a rather poor and outdated one, but it will help the French do their job, which is to push forwards into the Italian heartland.
THE WAR AGAINST GERMANY:
RAF AND ARMÉE DE L'AIR, CLOSE TO BROKEN:
The bloody Huns... Air Chief Marshall Charles Portal told Churchill in no uncertain terms that the RAF is broken. That if the Armée de l'air is not, then it will be within the next week. France alone lost 75 more fighter planes in one battle this week.
Look at these numbers just from 5 days of battle. It's unreal, it's unfathomable. Churchill has promised him 400 new RAF fighters and more important 400 freshly trained RAF pilots next week. But the United Kingdom alone has lost 2600 aircrafts within 1 year of this war. And the Luftwaffe factories seem to churn out plane after plane. As the war of the air is about to be lost, we need the RAF more than ever..
Hm... More unfathomable news.... France has lost 200 000 men these last weeks. Netherlands and Belgium 150 000 each. I know, I know! These numbers just numb you after a while. France is reaching her breaking point. But...
Miraculously...
Antwerp and Brussels were both successfully defended, and the Nazi bastards repelled. The newly promoted General Charles De Gaulle proved instrumental in driving the Huns out of Antwerp. What a bloody marvel of a man! The victory was short-lived though, as they have been forced to retreat to Brussels in order to reinforce the troops there who have come under a German counter-attack.
Between you and me, chap. These men have done more than enough. Churchill needs to get Gamelin's men out of the Lowlands. Pull back behind the Gort line, let us take it from here.
The war against the Soviets has taken a backseat to the German invasion these last weeks. We do have our eyes on Turkey, as we have sent agents down there to give us a clearer picture on what chance the Russians have at invading that nation as a springboard to reach us.
The USSR is a tough nut to crack, old boy. All we know now is that they are gearing up with everything they have. If the alliance with Germany still stands, then we must destroy their fleet power. And create a defensive line all through Europe. There is no way we are marching in on Moscow. But could we cut them off, slow them down, and starve them out?
FAILURE TO FUND PARTISANS IN STALINGRAD:
Control and his boys have been busy though. However they have not been successful, as yet another partisan group was stopped from growing into a fully fledged force. this time in Stalingrad. Churchill was rather quiet when asked the question: "how do we beat the Russians?"
CHINA FLEET FINALY HUNTING FOR SOVIET SUBMARINES:
At last our experimental anti-submarine group was ready to begin operations of the coast of South-Africa. This week alone we lost 3 merchant ships there, so it's about high time that we are now finally able to patrol those waters. Hopefully within the next few weeks China fleet will be successful in flushing out the pesky Soviet Wolfpack.
And that is it, old boy. Get home before dawn, and tell your missus I am truly sorry for having kept her husband here for so long during these ungodly hours.
Drive safe, and
England Expects.
