Chapter 28 : 'Seelöwe'
PropagandaMinisterium, Berlin - 1940, July the 4th - 0930
PropagandaMinister Dr. Goebels meets Abwehr Chef Admiral Canaris (Head of Intelligence)
- "Herr ReichsMinister. The french newspapers don't lie. It has been confirmed by our contacts to the spanish marine attaché in Alger.
Yesterday, the Royal Navy opened fire on its former french allies at Mers-el-Kébir, near Oran.
- Whaaa !!! How could such a thing happened ?
- Since the armistice between France and Germany, the United Kingdom is very much concerned about the possibility of us taking control of the French fleet. Despite the assurances given by the Armistice terms at Article 8 paragraph 2 as well as by Admiral Darlan, the British government feared this possibility. They set up an operation to take the French ships into British control or destroy them.
The british commander apparently delivered an ultimatum to the french Admiral Gensoul. The French were given the possibility either to sail with the Brits to continue the fight against us, or to sail with reduced crews to a British or a US port, or... to scuttle their ships.
- It seems they choose none of these possibilities.
- Indeed, Herr ReichsMinister. As consequence of that, at 17:54, the british fleet opened fire.
According to our sources, the french battleship
'Bretagne' exploded and sank. Both
'Provence' and
'Dunkerque' battleships have been damaged and ca. 1.300 french sailors have been killed.
- Too bad for them, but good for us and my Propagandastaffeln, Admiral. It surely will rekindle anglophobic feelings in France and make our occupation easier.
- That's a way to see the things, Herr ReichsMinister. On my humble opinion, it mainly demonstrated Britain's resolve to continue the war, alone if necessary..."
Reichskanzlei, Berlin - 1940, July the 7th - 1430
The Führer meets Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
- "I hope it's important, Ribbentrop, I have plenty of work !
- Sicher doch, mein Führer. It's about Romania.
As you know, mein Führer, the Pact I've signed with Minister Molotov last year recognized the Soviet "interests" in Bessarabia. Because France and the United Kingdom guaranteed the independence of the Kingdom of Romania, the USSR didn't dare to move but now that France surrendered and British forces are out of continental Europe, the assurances that both countries had made to Romania are meaningless and the Soviets took advantage of it.
They sent an ultimatum and Romania agreed to give up Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Two thirds of Bessarabia are now combined with a small part of the Soviet Union to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The rest (Northern Bukovina) has been apportioned to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
- Diese verfluchte kommunistische Schw...!!!
Romania and her oilfields are vital to the Reich's war effort. We have to do something !
- No need to, mein Führer. These unfavorably resolved territorial disputes caused the popularity of Romania's government to plummet. 3 days ago, Ion Gigurtu was forced to take the Iron Guardist minister, Horia Sima in his government. With the help of General Antonescu, and some suppport from us, no doubt the country will set course towards the Axis camp. Romanians aren't Slavs, after all...
- Keep an eye on that, Ribbentrop. I want Romania to joign the Anti-Komintern Pact as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'll check with General Fromm to send a german military mission over there.
What about Yougoslavia and Bulgaria ?
- We're working on it, mein Führer. Willy-nilly, they'll eventually joign our side too..."
OKL Hauptquartier, Berlin - 1940, July the 12th - 1030
GeneralOberst Milch, GeneralInspektör der Luftwaffe, meets General Hans Jeschonnek, Chief of Staff.
- "General Jeschonnek... I've heard there was an other air raid last night ?
- Indeed, Herr GeneralOberst.
Siegen, once again ; 300 british medium bombers...
- I really don't get it. Why
Siegen ? Apart from the railroad, there's nothing valuable there...
- A lot of the inhabitants are workers of the numerous steel mills of the Ruhr. Since everytime the Brits tried to attack the Ruhr, they've been quite "warmly" welcomed, may be this time, they were looking for a much softer target...
Reichsluftverteidigung (Air defense)
Anyway, it went bad for them. Though most of our fighters are now deployed on the Channel coasts, The reception was quite good. We still need to improve our interception tactics but we've been able to concentrate about 700 air defense fighters, either Me-109 or Me-110.
Over half of the attacking force was destroyed and the damages to the town are very minor. In a couple of weeks, everything will be all right."
MarineMinisterium, Berlin - Same day - 1700
Meeting between GroßAdmiral Raeder, CinC Navy (OberBefehlsHaber der Marine) and Generaladmiral Otto Schniewing, Chief of Naval Command Office.
- "Admiral ? We just received the final reports. Unternehmen '
Wikinger II' has been a success but we got lucky once again. May be we shouldn't pull the string too much Admiral...
- What happened ?
- As you know, Unternehmen
'Wikinger' left a british squadron still patrolling in the
Kattegat Area. Admiral
Lütjens established a battle plan to get rid of it.
The Geschwader "
Deutscland-Admiral Scheer", "
Lützow" and "
Admiral Hipper" were to sail from
Wilhelmshaven to meet the british squadron in the
Kattegat Area. In the meantime, Admiral
Lütjens with the Geschwader "
Scharnhorst-Gneisenau" and "
Schlesswig-Holstein Schlesien" was to sail from
Kiel and do the same. We expected to outnumber the british ships and to destroy them...
- But something went wrong, gell ?
- Yeap ! Off the western
coasts of Jutland, our Geschwader sailing from
Wilhelmshaven bumped unexpected into an other british squadron centered on the battleship
'Nelson' !
- And ?
- Like I previously said, Admiral... We got lucky. Both cruisers '
Blücher' and '
Königsberg' have been heavily damaged and we sank some british destroyers. However, due to the damages sustained, our
Geschwader were forced to sail back to
Wilhelmshaven...
- And, of course, Admiral
Lütjens was informed right away ?!!
- Hummm... Not exactly, Admiral. It seems we had some communication problems and Admiral
Lütjens hasn't been notified that our Wilhelmshaven's Geschwader did turn back...
- So he went alone with two battlecruisers and two old junks against a british carrier fleet ?!!
- With two battlecruisers only, Admiral... It seems both '
Schlesswig-Holstein' and '
Schlesien' couldn't follow and fell behind. Admiral
Lütjens entered the fight alone.
- Is it me or something is not turning right in this Navy ?!! Did you all become insane or what ?!!
- Thanks God,
Geissler's
X. Fliegerkorps had just rebased in Denmark. The Luftwaffe could provide a decent air support to our ships while its fighters neutralized the british carrier air groups.
It appears that one british light aircraft carrier has been sunk as well as two, may be four, light cruisers and probably some destroyers too. But the real good news is that the british surviving ships left the area and sail back to their home ports. The Danish Straits are now free of british presence !
- And what about our ships ?
- All heavily damaged but on their way to
Wilhelmshaven. like I said... Lucky !
- You bet !!! I'll have to go to
Wilhelmshaven right now to congratulate Admiral
Lütjens. Such heroic acts deserve a promotion.
May be I should consider appointing him as the new commander of the newly commissionned
'Bismarck'..."
OKW Hauptquartier, Berlin-Wünsdorf - 1940, July the 19th - 1745
Meeting between (General-)Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the OKW and General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the OKW General Staff.
- "Herr GeneralOb... Sorry, Herr Feldmarschall. Congratulation for your well-deserved promotion !
- Danke sehr, mein lieber Jodl. But you deserved to be congratulated as well : from Generalmajor to General der Artillerie...
- Quite nice to see when one's work is rewarded, Herr Feldmarschall.
- Well... I'm afraid we're going to have a lot to do in the next months : England rejected the peace offer the Führer has made.
As consequence... This !
Directive Nr 16 : Unternehmen 'Seelöwe'
- Not a big surprize, Herr Feldmarschall, and our last reorganization was made with such a thing in perspective. Reichsmarschall Göring already ordered a similar reorganization of the Luftwaffe and both
Luftflotten 2. and
3. are relocating in airfields near the coast. According to him, it won't take long before the sky will be cleaned up of enemy aircrafts.
- Destroying the RAF is one thing. My main concern, as well as the one of Admiral
Raeder, is the mighty Royal Navy. From their bases in Orkney Islands or in the Sea of Ireland, british warships can enter the Channel within few hours, destroy our invasion forces and/or severe our supply lines.
Needless to point out that, despite the success of the past weeks, the Staff of the Kriegsmarine is all but enthousiastic ; most of their ships need to undertake long repairs and according to the Kriegsmarine's Chief of Staff, it is very unlikely he can commit the required forces to support the operation.
- At least, the ground elements are ready. Feldmarschall
von Brauchitsch gave me the list of the units allocated to the
HeeresGruppe A, in charge of the invasion.
- Let's see this...
All together,
30 divisions among them
6 are armored/motorized. Mhmmm... I guess it should be enough to establish the required bridgeheads on the coast and to drive to
London.
The
9. Armee, starting from the Normandy, will land in the area around
Portsmouth-Bornemouth and will then push West and North-West towards
Plymouth and
Bristol.
The
16. Armee, starting from the Pas-de-Calais and some belgian ports, will land in
Dover and will then drive to
London.
The
Luftlandekorps of the Luftwaffe is standing by and some units of the
6. Armee too.
- Don't expect too much from them, mein lieber Jodl. Our Fallschirmjäger are still recovering from the Western Campaign and most units of the
HeeresGruppe B will redeploy to Poland real soon.
4. Armee at first, then the
6. Armee.
- The Führer wants to attack the USSR, Herr Feldmarschall ?
- I have a small discussion with him on this topic and if you want my opinion, he's thinking about it.
We'd better get back to work on
Unternehmen 'Fritz' and the sooner, the better..."
Hauptquartier der ErsatzsArmee, Leipzig - 1940, July the 25th - 1000
GeneralOberst Fromm, Befehlshaber der ErsatzsArmee, meets General von Oven, General Inspekteur der ErsatzsInfanterie.
- Herr General ! They really did become crazy in Berlin !!!
- Still busy with the set-up of the new Panzerdivisionen, mein lieber von Oven ?
- Busy ?!! It's a real headache. especially if you consider the short amount of time they grant us...
10 new divisions until X-Mas !!! They still believe in Santa Claus or what ?
- Actually, it's going to be 11, sort of... but the last one should be merely a light division.
- Even better...!!!
- Well... It seems General
Lutz managed to do his part and...
- Herr General !!! With all due respect, General
Lutz's only concern is to provide the Panzer-Regiments and even on this point, he simply "cheated" for the most part.
- Sorry but I don't get it...
- It's quite simple, Herr General. How do you make 20 Panzerdivisionen when you already have 10 with 2 Pz-Rgts each ?
You simply remove one in each existing division and tadaaaa !!! You've got 20 panzerdivisionen with one Pz-Rgt each.
- Don't you think it's a bit exaggerated, von Oven ? He only took 6 Pz-Rgts from the existing divisions and set up 6 other brand new regiments.
- And now, it's up to us to find enough men and equipment to turn these regiments into combat-ready Panzerdivisionen.
As if I hadn't enough issues with the 7 infantry divisions I have to turn into motorized ones !
- I thought it was 8 ?
-
60. ID (mot.) got his 92. IR back. It's now a full combat-ready division.
- Sehr gut, von Oven.
And I feel confident you already have some ideas to fulfill our task, gell mein Lieber ?
- Well... combining, disbanding and/or upgrading some of the existing units and using some of the captured French equipment, we should come to some positive results, Herr General.
- Let's review it.
- All right :
11. PzD
We're going to use the Pz-Rgt 15 of the 5. PzD. Unfortunatly, its old Pz35-38 need to be replaced by more modern PzIII, so it's going to take some time.
The infantry will be the one of the already existing 11. Schützen-Bgd and its support units will be provided by new units which just completed their basic training.
12. PzD
Basically, we're going to use the bulk of the 2. ID (mot.) and add the newly formed Pz-Rgt 29.
13. PzD
Same as for the 12. PzD but we're going to use the 13. ID (mot.) and add it the Pz-Rgt 4 of the 2. PzD.
In both case, assets left-over will return to their parent Wehrkreise.
14. PzD
The Pz-Rgt 36 will come from the 4. PzD and the bulk of the division will be formed from the 4. ID provided, of course, enough trucks can be found to fully motorize infantry and artillery units. Same goes for the Panzerjäger-Abteilung (AT).
15. PzD
Same thing as for the 14. PzD but we're going to use the 33. ID and the Pz-Rgt 8 will come from the 10. PzD. Same issues too...
16. PzD
Using the bulk of the 16. ID as the Pz-Rgt 2 will be provided by the 1. PzD.
Remnants of the 16. ID will be used to form the new 16. ID (mot.)
17. PzD
Using the 33. Id and the newly created Pz-Rgt 39.
In all three cases (14, 15 and 16. PzD), the Pz-Rgts also need to be upgraded. With only one regiment instead of two, we obviously need better tanks.
Assets left-over of the 4, 27 and 33. ID will return to their parent Wehrkreise.
18. PzD
This is one of the divisions which is going to keep 2 Pz-Rgts (18 and 28. Pz-Rgt, both newly created). The infantry will be provided by one regiment of the 3. ID and the other one by the 14. ID. The Art-Rgt 18 is still to be set-up...
19. PzD
It will be formed using the newly created Pz-Rgt 27 and the 19. ID.
20. PzD
Newly created Pz-Rgt 21. 18 and 36. ID will provide each one Inf-Rgt. The support units are currently being set up.
5. Leichte-Division
Men and equipment for the support units are ready. As soon as the 3. PzD will have upgraded its two Pz-Regiments, it will give one of them, Pz-Rgt 5, to this division.
- Sounds good to me, von Oven, great work !
What about the Panzerdivisionen which have lost one of their Pz-Regiment ?
- They're going to get a motorized Inf.-regiment to replace it. Originnaly planned for motorized infantry divisions, 6 of them are almost ready.
9. PzD's TO&E remains unchanged and the 6, 7 and 8. PzD will keep their 2 Pz-Rgts structure.
- Pz38 for them, right ?
- Jawohl, Herr General. That's the reason why they keep their 2 regiments. Our industry won't be able to produce enough PzIII for every division...
- Do you think all these Panzerdivisionen will be ready before the end of the year ?
- I think so, Herr General. Unfortunatly, we're going to experiment some delays for other formations. It will affect the motorization of some infantry divisions.
- What divisions have been chosen ?
-
3, 10, 14, 16, 18, 25 and
36 IDs, Herr General. It won't be a major organization concern.
Since the 3, 14, 18 and 36 already gave up one of their regiments to form the new PzDs, so we just need to focus on providing them enough transportation means.
The 10. ID will give one of its regiments to the 16. ID and the 25. ID will do the same to the 4. Gebirgsjäger-Division.
We're within schedule for all the support units of these divisions. We just need trucks, Herr General... A lot of them !!!
- I think it's going to be a major concern for everyone. I've heard that Himmler wants to develop his SS-Security forces in Poland as well as some of his Waffen-SS units : 11 regiments, among then 5 fully motorized ! Guess who's going to be given priority ?
Rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet 101, 102 and 103
- At least, it will benefit the restructuration of our security forces in the East, Herr General. The SS needs us as much as we need them to complete the
RHGs (Rear-area Security groups) !
- Have you made progress on that point ?
- Yeap. We're going to split 3 infantry divisions, the
207, 213 and
221 IDs. Each will form the bulk of three new Sicherungs-Division ; we simply need to add some support/service units and we're going to have 9 brand new Sicherungs-Divisionen, Herr General.
- Great work, von Oven. The OKW is pretty much concerned with our eastern borders. I've heard the
18. Armee is being redeployed to East Prussia and they're rumors we might "turn to the East" in a very near future...
What about our Gebirgsdivisionen ?
- the
1. Gebirgs-Division just received his engineer btn.
2. and
3. Gebirgs-Divisionen are back from Norway and also get some support units added.
The
6. will be ready next month ;
4. and
5. in September. No issues on that point, Herr General.
To a lesser extend, same goes for our 4 light infantry divisions. They should be ready in October-November.
Infantry divisions of the 13, 14 and 15th mobilization waves are currently deploying for the most part. The only concern is about the ones of the 10, 11 and 12th mobilization waves. I already ordered to postponed the formation of the 10th wave's divisions... Not enough equipment available.
11 and 12th waves units should be ready for next Spring.
- And the security/occupations forces in France, Belgium and Netherlands ?
- Netherlands have been taken care of, Herr General, and the command structure for both France and Belgium is also in place. Unfortunatly, we won't be able to create the 13 security regiments the
OKW required for these two countries. Our drawers are empty, Herr General. We can't even provide replacements for the casualties sustained during the Western Campaign !
- Is it that bad ?
- We're very short of men and officers, Herr General. The last reorganization forced us to create much more headquarters as expected. Something huge is underway...
(NotA : over 40 new HQs created => MP 0 ; Officers 93%)
I was already obliged to disband our 4 Stellungs-Divisionen from the
7. Armee and unless we start to disband some divisions in the East, for the next months, we won't be able to set up any more units...
- I'll see that with the Führer in person..."
OKH Hauptquartier, Berlin-Wünsdorf - 1940, July the 28th - 1330
Meeting between Feldmarschall von Brauchitsch, Chief of the OKH, and General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff.
- "Mein lieber Halder, I just come back from an
OKW meeting ; things aren't looking good for our italian friends.
- I'm not surprized, Herr Feldmarschall.
Tobruk has fallen ?
- Not yet... but it's only because the Brits are outnumbered 1 to 4 ! Should they receive some reinforcements, and believe me they will, the italian front will collapse in less time to say "spaghetti".
The Führer and the
OKW agreed that we should set up an german expeditionnary corps and to have it ready to be sent over there. Just in case...
- After all the reports I read, I was expecting something like that but right now, only one division was planned... "sort of" : the
Infanterie-Division zbV "Afrika"
- It won't be enough...
- I fully agree on that, Herr Feldmarschall. May be we could join the
5. Leichte-Division...? It has a strong Pz-Regiment, experienced crews, and fast support units. Ideal for the desert warfare.
- Still not enough : we need a powerful "iron fist", not only capable to stop the enemy but also with the capability of launching strong offensives.
- A full Panzer-Division ? I know that 10 new divisions of this type are being set up right now but I doubt the
OKW will authorize one of them to go in Afrika, Herr Feldmarschall. Not after the casualties the Regia Marina suffered within the last month. The italian Navy seems to go from one defeat to the other !
- This aspect has been put on the table during the meeting. General
Jeschonnek, the Luftwaffen Chief of Staff, agreed to send some air units over there too. Not only to support our troops but also to help neutralizing the Royal Navy and its "hornest's nest", Malta !
Geissler's
X. Fliegerkorps will start to deploy in Sicily next month.
- Then... If the OKW agrees, the
15. PzD could also be used as part of this expeditionnary corps. However, none of these units will be ready before November ; special desert equipment for the desert must be developped and distributed among the divisions too...
And last but not least, we also need the right man to lead this "
Afrika-Korps"
- Well... The first name to come in my mind is
von Manstein.
- Herr Feldmarschall !!! I don't think he...
- Ja, ja, ja... I know you don't like the man, mein lieber Halder. However, he's one of the most competent officer we've got. Ideal for this task...
- With all due respect, Herr Feldmarschall, he's not the only one. Look at these generals of the
XV. AK (mot.) :
Lemelsen,
Crüwell,
Rommel ! They performed very well during the Western Campaign and I feel confident they're as suited for the task as von Manstein... and a lot less arrogant.
- I grant you that. I'll put their names on the list I'll give to the Führer."