Chapter 34 : Unternehmen 'Rheinübung'
AussenMinisterium (State Department), Berlin - 1941, April the 22nd - 1330
Meeting between Foreign Minister von Ribbentropp and Admiral Canaris, Abwehr Chef (Head of Intelligence).
- "Admiral Canaris. It's always a pleasure to see you but I have a lot to do and...
- Herr Reichsminister, we have a problem. I mean, a very serious one !
- ...............?
- Do you remember the conversation we had in october last year ?
- About Spain and France bsw. the French State ?
- Exactly. At that time, I told you it was obvious that General
Franco didn't want to engage his country on our side. Well, my agents confirmed it.
Despite all our "seduction" efforts, the Spanish leader seems to distance himself from us. And it's getting worse as time goes by. If nothing is being done, we might have a serious problem over there in a year or two.
- Don't you think you're overreacting, Admiral ?
Before Christmas, the USSR will be down and the whole european continent will be under our control. Spain won't be able to do much against it. Besides, spanish armed forces don't pose a threat of any kind to ours.
- Spain is a stepping board to continental Europe, Herr Reichsminister, and England isn't beaten yet. Don't forget it...
- The Brits are busy enough in Africa to make us troubles elsewhere and they also have to defend their homeland. Please stop seeing monsters in every closets, Admiral.
What did you want to tell me about France ? Are the French also plotting against us ?
- No, Herr Reichsminister. Our collaboration politic seems to pay off, at least for now, but our gains are very small.
- So what do you complain about ?
- It will take a lot of time before France could be considered "reliable", Herr Reichsminister. And I would like to remember you that this country do possess strong armed forces in some sensitive places overseas, not to mention on continental Europe too. How would the French react IF the Brits, or someone else, attempted a landing in France or in its african territories ?
Vichy forces in France
Vichy forces in North Africa
Vichy forces in Lebanon-Syria
- Mhmmmmm... ' never thought about this...
What would you recommend, Admiral ?
- Considering the political evolution in western Europe, it wouldn't be a bad idea to reinforce our forces over there. May be to prepare a reaction force in case something "wrong" happen.
- Well... With Ansatz '
Barbarossa' about to be launched, I don't think that something could be done right now. But I will put your recommendations to the
OKW. Thank you, Admiral."
Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition, Berlin - 1941, April the 25th - 0900
Reichsminister Fritz Todt meets and his Secretary of State Günther Schulze-Fielitz.
- "Günther... Did you read the last report of Großadmiral Raeder ?
- The one on convoy losses, Herr Reichsminister ?
- Yes, this one. Do you think it's an isolated case ?
- It's hard to tell, Herr Reichsminister, for I'm not a naval expert.
The Royal Navy is back... again.
However, it occurs at the same time as what we could call a resurgence of the Royal Navy. A friend of mine, working at the
OKM, told me that british ships made a strong comeback in the Channel within the last four weeks.
- Well... If it's really the case, the chance are very high that our convoys will suffer more losses in the next months.
- That's a possibility we must take into account, Herr Reichsminister.
- Mhmmmm... It's not that simple, mein lieber Günther. We can't simply decide to produce more freighters.
Doing so, we must divert materials and production efforts, which could be more useful in other sectors of our economy... to face CONCRETE threat or needs.
Convoys to Norway under attack
- Herr Reichsminister : we lost 5 freighters in the last 10 days. That's concrete ! All our escorts are currently assigned to our Norway convoys ; that's concrete too !!!
We're really in need of new ships.
- That's also what
Raeder is asking for in his report.
All right. We're going to change our production schedule. Please inform General
Fromm that the ErsatzHeer will suffer some delivery delays because of "case of force majeure". Wrap it in the usual polite crap and add my sincere apologies.
- Jawohl, Herr Reichsminister."
Hauptquartier des Deutsches Afrika-Korps, Tobruk - April the 30th - 1630
General Rommel, CO DAK, meets Generalmajor Gause, his Chief of Staff.
- "Herr General ! That was, again, Governor-General of Libya Gariboldi on the phone. He sounded like a man pretty close to an heart attack.
- I would feel the same if I were him. The situation of our Italian friends doesn't look good.
- Two major defeats in a week... That's the least we can tell, Herr General. However, we have to admit that they offered a strong resistance at
El Hammam : the Brits needed almost a month to push them back.
- It was a lost battle from the very beginning, mein lieber Gause. I warned General
Bettoni, CO
10a Armata, but he didn't want to listen. He even refuse to establish a defensive fallback position in
El Alamein... just in case.
We see the result today.
British counter-offensive in the desert
- At least, General
Grazioli listenned to your advices and established a line of defense at
Abu Haggag, east of
Marsa-Matrûh. It looks like The Brits have been stopped there.
- They haven't been stopped, Gause. They choose not to move forward, which is quite different. The infrastructure in this region must have suffered from the last battles ; it would have been dangerous for them to carry on an offensive if the supply cannot be forwarded to their troops on the frontline.
- I understand, Herr General, but what are we supposed to do now ?
- The Italians don't need us right now. As the Brits say : "wait and see..."
OKM Hauptquartier, Berlin - 1941, May the 1st - 1045
Großadmiral Erich Raeder, OBdM, meets Admiral Lütjens, CO Geschwader 'Bismarck'.
- "Aaaah... Lütjens, what a pleasure to see you. Are you satisfied with your news toys ?
- The '
Bismarck' and '
Prinz Eugen' can hardly be qualified as "toys", Admiral. But yes, I'm pretty much satisfied : they're great ships and I look forward to see them in combat.
- Well... your dream will become true very soon, mein lieber Lütjens.
Both you and I believe that the primary method to achieve the defeat of England is the blockade using traditional commerce raiding tactics, founded upon surface combatants...
- That's true, Admiral, but until now, only Dönitz and his submarines achieved some significant success... and the Luftwaffe too.
- Exactly. Press releases and official statements only mention the U-Boote and the Luftwaffe. The upcoming Ansatz '
Barbarossa' won't make things better with all eyes turned East.
- The Kriegsmarine won't be part of it ?
- We're only going to play a small and supporting role in this operation. Nothing significant.
Therefore, if we want to avoid budget cuts for capital ships, we need to score a major success with surface warships before '
Barbarossa'. A success that might impress upon the Führer !
- What do you intend to do ?
Hilfskreuzer on their way
- First, I ordered our 3 available Hilfskreuzer (HSK) to sail from Bordeaux this morning. HSK 5 '
Pinguin' and 7 '
Komet' will join patrol zones in Middle and South Atlantic as the HSK 8 'Kormoran' will join HSK 3
'Widder' so they can raid both entrances of the Strait of Malacca, near Singapore.
In a second time, we will conduct two major operations in the North Atlantic, using both
Geschwader 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau' -Unternehmen '
Berlin II'- and your Geschwader with the '
Bismarck' and '
Prinz Eugen' -Unternehmen '
Rheinübung'-
The goal of these joint operations is to conduct an intensive anti-shipping campaign, within the range of the land-based aircrafts of the Luftwaffe.
Unternehmen 'Rheinübung'
You will first rebase your Geschwader in
Bergen, which you're going to leave at dawn on May the 22nd. To avoid detection, you'll sail around Iceland and then south through the Denmark Strait. At that time,
Hoffman will sail out from
Brest with the
Geschwader 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau'. Both your Geschwader will then operate in the area between the
South Porcupine Plain and the
Western Charcot Seamount.
The
2. U-Flotille will be patrolling in this zone too and will provide you some support. Aircrafts of the
Fliegerführer 'Atlantik' will be on readiness.
- What kind of enemy forces are to be expected, Admiral ?
- They're some HK-Groups operating in this part of the Atlantic but they're no match for your ships. One CVL/BB-centered group has been sighted from time to time. We estimate he's conducting ASW operations from England to Gibraltar. The
7. U-Flotille has been attacked by this group two weeks ago...
British HK-Group in action
As a matter of precaution, however, we asked the Luftwaffe to launch some airstrikes against british ports just before the operation so to distract them. This part is named '
Frühlingsreise'.
- Well... It looks good on paper, Admiral, but things rarely go as planned. What if problems occur ?
- In any case, your priority is to preserve your combat capacity as much as possible, mein lieber Lütjens. Bring back your ships !!!"
Hauptquartier der Luftflotte 3, Paris - 1941, May the 23rd - 0900
General Sperrle, CO Luftflotte 3, on the phone with General Coeler, CO IX. Fliegerkorps.
- "Na, Coeler ? Was the first stage of our operation '
Frühlingsreise' successful ?
- It depends on what you would call a success, Herr General...
- The
OKL ordered us to launch series of air strikes against the british airbases and ports of the southern coast. This in order to keep our british "friends" busy while the
Geschwader 'Bismarck' breaks into the Atlantic.
- Well... Herr General... You can tell the
OKL that Operation '
Frühlingsreise' ends today !
- Explain !
Terrific reception in Dover !
- That's quite simple, Herr General. We've lost
140 fighters and
63 bombers yesterday, just to neutralize the airfield of
Dover. It is crawling with british fighters over there !
- But... if
Dover is neutralized, aren't you able to carry on ?
-
Dover isn't the sole airfield with fighters in the area, Herr General. Both
JagdFliegerFührer 2. and
3. really had a hard time trying to cover my bombers. May be I could continue the operation but the casualties are going to be murderous and our fighters won't no longer be able to participate to the defense of the Reich's air space, should a bombing raid occured.
With most of the Luftwaffe rebased in the East, we don't have enough fighters anymore, Herr General, nor enough bombers to conduct such operations. It's a pity : with a little more airplanes we could have been able to take care of the battleship '
Royal Sovereign'. She was in port at
Dover when we attacked...
- You took a wise decision, Coeler. I don't blame you. I'm afraid the Kriegsmarine will have to do without us.
- At least, my boys gave some work to do to the british repair teams ; It's going to take a while before
Dover can be fully operational again..."
OKL Hauptquartier, Berlin - Same day - 2300
General Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffen Chief of Staff, on the phone with General Kammhuber, CO NachtJagdDivision.
- "Ja... My aircrafts just finished landing, Herr General.
- It seems you had a tough night, doesn't it Josef ?
- Actually, the night has been tough for the british bombers. Over 80 of them won't come back.
- Air control told me they went after
Aachen this time, right ?
Retaliation strike over the Reich
- That is correct. They sent medium bombers, from
Portsmouth very likely. They flew at low altitude in the Rhine valley and we haven't been able to intercept them before they reached their target.
If I may interject, Herr General,
Sperrle did the right thing when he stopped the operation '
Frühlingsreise'. Without the fighters of
Jagdfliegerführer 2, the damages on
Aachen would have been much more important.
- That's my opinion too. We really need more fighters to defend the Reich's air space !
- And a good air defense organization too, Herr General.
- You seem to know the drill, mein lieber Kammhuber. Think about it and write me a report with your suggestions for a better air defense organization."
Schlachtschiff 'Bismarck', North Atlantic - 1941, May the 25th - 1130
Admiral Lütjens, CO Geschwader 'Bismarck' speaking to Kapitän-zur-See Lindemann, CO 'Bismarck'.
- "I'm sorry Admiral but it's not possible to increase our speed. 20 knots, that's all we can do and it's already a miracle we're still able to move after all the damages we sustained.
- Kapitän : we have the entire Royal Navy chasing us and we're too far from the French coast to get air support. If we can't put some distance between the Brits and us, we're dead !!!
- This entire operation was doomed from the very beginning, Admiral. Actually, we should be dead already. The Brits perfectly knew we were at sea and where to catch us !
- We could have dealt with the british squadron we met last night, Kapitän. The HMS '
Royal Sovereign', even with a carrier escort, was no match for the '
Bismarck'.
- British aircrafts hurt us very bad noneless...
Besides, it's well known that british battleship squadrons don't operate alone. The reinforcements they received this morning had to be expected. We may have had a chance if we could have joined the
Geschwader 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau' but it was to far away in the south.
- And now ?
- We are 220 nautical miles away from
Saint-Nazaire, Admiral. 11 to 12 hours...
- Lots of things could happen during this time.
- In 6 hours, we will be in range of our land-based aircrafts of the
FliegerFührer 'Atlantik'. If no further breakdown occurs, and with a little bit luck, we should make it, Admiral..."
Panzerschiff 'Scharnhorst', Brest - 1941, May the 31st - 1330
Kapitän-zur-see Hoffmann, CO 'Scharnhorst', meets Generaladmiral Saalwächter, CO MarineGruppenKommando West.
- "Hoffmann ! You don't know how happy I'm to see you back in one piece.
- Verflucht, Admiral ! We had them ! WE HAD THEM !!! And you know the worse ?
- Go ahead.
- It was the same british group that Lütjens met a week ago... to one exception : apparently, the HMS '
Royal Sovereign' stays in port for repairs and we had the HMS '
Rodney' instead.
- Not the best exchange I can dream of... with her 406mm guns.
Hard time for 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau'
- 406mm or not, we almost had her, as well as the CVL '
Mars'.
- Well... I heard the Luftwaffe helped you a lot, right ?
- You're right, Admiral. The guys from
Fliegerführer 'Atlantik' and
KG 40 performed pretty well. I really don't understand how the Brits managed to flee...
- May be it was the wrong week for the Kriegsmarine, mein lieber Hoffmann. I feel confident it will be better the next time.
- We're going to wait for a while, Admiral. The 'Scharnhorst' has been heavily damaged : it will require some time before she can take the sea again."
Panzerschiff 'Scharnhorst', Brest - 1941, June the 7th - 0700
Kapitän-zur-see Hoffmann, CO 'Scharnhorst', meets Kapitän-zur-See Fein, CO 'Gneisenau'.
- "Fein ! Is it just me or are we really cursed at the moment ?
- I must say we lack of luck really bad.
May be you should have wait until your ship was fully repaired before trying to engage naval combat again.
Bad luck for Hoffman...
- A single cruiser and some destroyers ! Come on, Fein ! We should have torn them to pieces.
All these british ships... Once for all, they should stop prancing around just under our nose.
- At least, those ones won't be able to cause any trouble before a long time. And may be their buddies will think twice before sailing so close from the coast.
- I still wonder why the Luftwaffe wasn't able to find them...
- Night operations aren't their strong point. The new radars are coming though ; it sure will help in a near future...
- May be we should consider improving our naval tactics. That wouldn't hurt either, Fein."
Hauptquartier des Deutsches Afrika-Korps, Tobruk - June the 20th - 1000
General Rommel, CO DAK, on the phone with General Fröhlich, CO Italuft.
- "Na Rommel, still sunbathing in
Tobruk ?
- There's nothing much else to do here, Herr General.
- What's going on with our Italian friends ? Their new offensive is progressing well ?
- Mhmmmm... hard to say, Herr General. They have made some progress, that's true but for how long, that's the question.
Road engineers have a lot to do
A month ago, on May the 14th, they managed to push back the Brits from their position at
El Alamein but it took them almost a month to reach
El Hammam.
- One month to make 50km ?!! Was the british resistance that harsh ?
- They fought well, that's for sure but the main problem is the logistic.
El Alamein and
El Hammam have been taken and retaken three times already. The main coastal road no longer exist and the numerous minefields don't help either.
I advise them to stop but General
Bettoni insisted to move further to
Abu Keifu.
- And ?
- And I just got the confirmation that the italian vanguards at
Abu Keifu have been attacked by the Brits and that they're retreating to
El Hammam.
Wer nicht hören will... muss fühlen.
- This come-and-go game has to stop, General Rommel. You should take care of the situation by yourself. The Brits must be kicked out of Egypt... and of
Malta.
- Do you have some problems with the british aircrafts in
Malta, Herr General ?
- They bombed the harbour of
Naples last week with the result that the transports lent to us by the Regia Marina have rebased in
La Spezzia. Very useful over there...
- You just experienced the joys of the German-Italian cooperation, Herr General.
- I'm tired of this crap. I'll ask Reichsmarschall
Göring to authorize an operation against
Malta."