HMS Hood taken from HMS King George V during the battle of the Wilhelmshaven approach.
1938, the First Year of the War
After Checkoslovakia had been annexed by the Reich Germany declared war on Poland. Poland -part of the allies- called its allies to war, and the next day a British and French decleration of war was handed to the German embassies in London and Paris respectively. Following this unprovoked act of agression on Poland Sweden and Turkey and Luxemburg joined the allies.
The French army advanced into Belgium and Luxemburg as outlined in the 'Dyle plan'. In the mean time the Polish army was being annihalated. Half of its troops were still on the Russian boarder, and thus the front was under manned. German Panzer units moved trough the gaps in the Polish Army in the South. After advancing hundreds of kilometers the German Southern thrust swung north. The Polish Army was caught in a giant pocket between Warsaw, Germany, East Prussia and Danzig. It held out for two more weeks after which Poland was occupied by Germany. However, the Polish sacrifice had not been for nothing. Dozens of divisions had by now positioned themselves in defensive positions running from the northern end of the maginot line, trough Luxemburg and the little bit of Belgium between Luxemburg and Holland. This extremely strong defensive position was to be held for a long time yet.
The North Sea battlefleet set out from Scapa Flow on the declaration of war to patrol the Wilhelmshaven area. After having patrolled for two weeks the German fleet was spotted by a merchant navy ship leaving from holland. It sent the message to the admiralty. Soon Somerville was shadowing the German High Seas fleet. The two fleets formed a line of battle. The Royal Navy had
HMS Hood in the front of the line, followed by
King George V,
Prince of Wales,
Rodney,
Nelson and
Royal Oak. The German fleet consisted of the battleships
Ludendorff,
Tirpitz,
Bismarck, several Heavy Cruisers of the Hipper class and a few light Cruisers. Hood fired the first shells from her mighty 15 inch guns at 09.41. The first German battleship in the line; Ludendorf was struck four shells fro Hood and exploded in a spectacular fashion. The
Tirpitz, right behind the Ludendorf had to manouvre erraticly to avoid the buring hulk of Ludendorf. Three light Cruisers and the Heavy Cruisers
Admiral Hipper and
Blucher tried to cover the
Tirpitz, but were struch by shells from
Rodney and
Nelson. In the choas that followed two Destroyers;
HMS Crecy and
HMS Ghurka. They launched torpedos at
Tirpitz which struck the ships amidship. Soon making water and unable to continue fire the ship was abandoned, altough it took a other two and a half hours for it two sink. A other Garman ship, a light cruiser was also smached as Rodney turned her 16 inch guns on the smaller ships. In the meanwhile Admiral Sheer and Admiral Graf Spee fired at Hood, destroying its superstruckture. Still able to to make 12 knots, Hood limped out of the line of battle. However, the Kriegsmarine had had enough and turned away under a smokescreen. This major victory for the Royal Navy boosted the spirits of the allies at the beginning of the war. Making the Royal Navy much bolder for the rest of the war, and defeating a major defeat on Germany after the destruction of Poland.
Bomber Command also started air raids on Germany. Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg were each attacked by 400 bombers. Industry and anti aircraft guns were suppressed within two days of bombing and powerplant and synthetic rubber factories were next on the list. With hardly any interceptors above Germany, and only light flank the bombers had about two months of free reign. After that several Jagdgeschwader turned up, and started mauling bomber command. As winter came, Bomber Command orderd the heavy planes to return to base to regain strenght for a new air assault at the start of the new year.