CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE - Part Three
Engame for Operation Musketeer
Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned.
God make thee mightier yet!
On Sov'ran brows, beloved, renowned,
Once more thy crown is set.
Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
Have ruled thee well and long;
By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
Thine Empire shall be strong.
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
Thy fame is ancient as the days,
As Ocean large and wide:
A pride that dares, and heeds not praise,
A stern and silent pride:
Not that false joy that dreams content
With what our sires have won;
The blood a hero sire hath spent
Still nerves a hero son.
Land of Hope and Glory
Royal Airborne Army Headquarters
Nørresundby, Denmark
October 18, 1939
10:00 a.m.
Striding in to what had in more peaceful times been a lecture hall for a small Lutheran college and was now a conference room for the British Paras, General “Boy” Browning suppressed a grin as he watched the assembled officers leap to their feet. He could not have asked for a better group of officers to lead into combat, these men proving beyond the shadow of doubt that the fighting spirit and ability of the British soldier was the same as it was during the time of the Iron Duke, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.
Watching their General march up the dais in the front of the room, the Regiment and Battalion commanders of the Royal Airborne Army waited with as much patience as possible for men in the last stages of being besieged. Reaching the podium that awaited him, Browning removed his grey kid gloves and in a completely unexpected and unusual move, unbuttoned his uniform jacket that was still immaculate despite the Paras being in almost continuous combat for a fortnight and a half. Loosening his tie and unbuttoning the top button on his uniform blouse, Browning placed his hands on his hips.
“Chaps, thank you for arriving promptly, I won’t hold you long as we all know Jerry will be trying to punish even more after Major Drake’s bold demolition of the Limfjord bridge in the middle of their attack four days ago.”
Waiting several seconds as the assembled officers cast approving glances at a tired looking Malcolm Drake, Browning continued briskly.
“First the bad news. Straight off, the Royal Marines are not coming back and the General Staff is not sending anyone else, so we’re on our own. It seems that Jerry’s U-boats have playing havoc with the merchant marine and even the Royal Navy has been taking losses, so the North Sea has effectively cut off. No one is coming in and no one is coming out. Our dear French friends… well, we love the French, don’t we lads?”
“It seems the French,” the General continued after allowing his officers to express their affections for their ally, feelings that were shared by a clear majority of the British Empire,
“are steadfastly guarding the frontier and are proud to report that they are tying down many, many divisions of Jerry’s best troops.”
“Aye, sure they be,” a disgruntled Australian accented voice called out from the center of the room.
“Now lads, let’s not be harsh,” Browning commanded.
“Besides, I’d rather you direct your energies into keeping the Germans on their side of the Limfjord, thank you very much. Now moving on, our area of operations are not the only bleak spot in Europe these days. Despite our forcing the German General Staff to transfer enough divisions from Poland to react to our little excursion into northern Germany, they were able to reinforce General von Lebb’s Heeresgruppe C with sufficient forces to allow von Lebb to kill the Polish counter offensive and recapture Toruń two days ago. And while the Jerry’s were moving closer to Warsaw again, the Hungarians continued their rape of Yugoslavia with the capture of Zenica and Uzice. So we're not the only ones having a rosy time of things, what?”
Taking a pause, Browning looked about the room at the tired and battle sore men before him. Despite being pounded for eleven straight days by eight of Germany’s best divisions, all of which were fresh and close to their own supply depots, his Paras still shone with the pride that comes from not only holding their own against superior numbers, but also inflicting significant casualties to that superior host. Pulling a sheet of folded paper from his jacket pocket, Browning unfolded it while speaking.
“The information that I just shared with you could have passed on to you gentlemen by courier, of which you are all aware, so you are all, I can safely conclude, wondering the real reason why I called you in from the front for this meeting.”
Holding the sheet of paper, now unfolded, in front of him, the Para General smiled slightly.
“The first reason is this. A message from His Majesty that I felt should be shared with all of you, and for you to share with the men. Let me read it for you.
'All your countrymen have been following with pride and admiration the courageous resistance of the Royal Airborne Army during the continuing fighting of the last one and a half fortnights. Faced by circumstances outside their control in a position of extreme difficulty, they are displaying a gallantry which has never been surpassed in the annals of the British Army. The hearts of everyone of us at home are with you and your magnificent troops in this hour of peril.'
So, if any of the lads in the lines might be thinking that we Paras have been forgotten by England, please enlighten them.”
Glancing toward the man in the uniform of a colonel of the Danish Royal Army that had followed him into the hall, Browning heaved a heavy sigh at the sad look upon the officer’s face and then looked back to his assembled officers.
“You can also pass the word that we will not be staying in Denmark for much longer.”
Impacted by the meaning of their General’s offhand pronouncement, the assembled officers looked to their mates sitting next to them or leaned forward toward Browning expectantly. Col. Walingsham of the Royal Paras cleared his throat and mentioned politely yet skeptically,
“You did say that the North Sea was closed to shipping, did you not General? Are you planning to follow in the footsteps of Xenophon*?”
“And if I were, Colonel,” Browning asked with an arched eyebrow. While his face portrayed the look of a slightly outraged superior, behind that façade Browning was glad to see that at least one of his officers had not yet become numb to reality. As much as he would have liked to executed a modern day version of the ancient Greek’s triumphant, Browning knew better than most of the assembled officers of the impossibility of that feat from occurring.
“I would counsel against it, sir,” Walingsham replied after a moment’s thoughtful pause.
“Glad to hear that, Walingsham,” Browning replied with a wide smile.
“No, we are leaving in the same manner that we arrived, gentleman. We are leaving by way of the RAF’s Air Transport Command.”
Quickly realizing the General’s plan, Drake allowed his fatigue to overrule his common sense.
“No disrespect, General, but how are we going to pull off the feat of removing all four Regiments from our main line of defense, move them back to the airfields, load them on the Albatross’, and then take off all without the Germans getting wise to the plan and rushing into the vacuum?”
Ignoring the startled looks that played between himself and the young newly promoted major, Browning silently re-appraised the King’s former ADC.
Operating on only several hours of sleep over the last week, and the lad still recognizes the problem before the majority of his brother officers, Browning thought while crossing his arms across his chest.
Not only is he a tiger in battle, his excellence in small unit tactics have followed him to battalion level. This young man will go far, I think, if he stays lucking and he isn’t laid low by a bullet before this all over. Uncrossing his arms when he realized that several seconds of pained silence had passed, Browning planted his fists back upon his hips and removed his gaze from Drake and cast it about the rest of the men in the room.
“Major Drake has raised a very serious question, gentleman, and one that I’m surprised that more of you haven’t raised yourselves. My compliments, Major, on having the fortitude to make your point.”
Beginning to pace in front of his officers while a very startled Drake realized what he had done, Browning explained away the question that had been raised.
“At the moment, the Albatross’ are crossing the North Sea with a heavy escort of fighters and should be beginning to land within the next several hours. Approximately one hour prior to their landing, this Army’s attached artillery brigades will begin a massive bombardment of the far shore of the Limfjord, keeping Jerry’s head down and by mixing in smoke rounds with the masking our withdrawal, the boarding of the aircraft and the departure of the Albatross.”
“What of the artillery, General,” a battalion commander from the Royal Highland Paras asked as Browning finished.
“We will be forced to abandon our cannon, in order to expedite our withdrawal,” came the heavy answer, "
but only after each battery has fired off it’s stock of shells and then spiked their guns. No sense in adding to Jerry’s arsenal, what?”
“My apologies again, General,” Drake said while his mind fought the engagement and sought out potential problems.
“What shall we do if Jerry suspects something and begins crossing the Limsfjord before we have completed the evacuation? Who will be delegated to fight the rear-guard action?”
“No apologies needed, Major Drake. You seem in top form this morning, my compliments again, sir,” Browning replied with a respectful tip of his head.
“To answer your question, I direct your attention to Colonel Anker Høyer-Larsen of the Royal Danish Army.”
Stepping forward, Høyer-Larsen smiled sadly.
“Gentleman, on behalf of His Majesty, Christian X, I wish to thank you for the service you have done for Denmark in assisting in the defense of our borders. It is, however, now time for you to return to Britain so that you may recoup and take the fight to the Germans another day. To that end, His Majesty and the General Staff have been able to conglomerate enough survivors of our regiments mauled from the invasion to create a full strength regiment to support the Dronningens Livregiment* that along with several militia units are currently moving into the area as we speak. Under the command of Prince Knud, these units will take up positions just behind your current dispositions and hold fast as you and your Paras pass through. If the Germans do catch on and attempt to cross over, Prince Knud wants you all to know that we shall, no matter the cost, buy enough time for the last aircraft to depart safely.”
“What of Copenhagen, and His Majesty,” Colonel Jack Frost of the Royal Highland Paras asked with a show of concern toward the Danish capital and Royal family.
Surprised and cursing himself for being surprised at the concern echoed in the looks on Frost’s brother officers, the Dane glanced toward General Browning who gave a quick nod of his head.
“Copenhagen is in good hands, Colonel. The Slesvigske Fodregiment* is has been reinforced by the arrival of the Norrlands dragonregemente*, Jämtlands fältjägarregemente*, and the Västergötlands storregemente* from our friends in Sweden. I do not doubt that Denmark will fall under the German jackboot, gentleman,” Høyer-Larsen smiled grimly,
“we will make a tough enough fight of it that you will have an easy go of it when you return to the Continent.”
“Gentlemen, I will be frank,” General Browning said as the Danish officer stepped back toward the door.
“Despite my firm belief that this operation will go off without a hitch, it will be a dicey affair. However, I have confidence that we will be able to succeed and I plan on being on the last Albatross just to ensure that we do succeed. Any questions?”
Seeing, after taking the time to slowly scan the faces looking back at him, that each officer understood that the gamble they were about to take was the only one that would take them back to England without going by way of German POW camps, Browning finished.
“Now, I bid you to return to your Regiments, when you hear the word, move out quickly. Until we are once more all in England, may God hold us in the palm of his hand.”
* - Xenophon – just check out this:
Xenophon
* -
Dronningens Livregiment - Queen's Life Regiment
* -
Slesvigske Fodregiment - Schleswig Foot Regiment
* -
Norrlands dragonregemente - Norrland Dragoon Regiment
* -
Jämtlands fältjägarregemente - Jemtia Field Ranger Regiment
* -
Västergötlands storregemente - Westrogothia Grand Regiment
Up next: Some rational for the little Danish... expedition.
