Chapter 6: An unexpected attack
With France in Italian hands, almost the entire Continent was denied to the United Kingdom. Germany wasted no time in denying the rest of the North Sea coastline to the UK either. A matter of hours after France fell, Hitler turned his hungry gaze upon Belgium.
Germany rapidly advanced upon Belgium's army, easily defeated Luxembourg, and by the end of May, just under a month since the war against Belgium began, it was annexed by the Third Reich.
But for at least one officer, the fall of Belgium and the seizure of the European possessions of the Netherlands represented not a tragedy, but opportunity. Silent Bill Harris received a long overdue promotion to Lieutenant Commander and was given his choice of assignments. After sitting behind a desk for the first few months of the war, Harris eagerly wrote to his uncle Stephen regarding his new fortune:
William Harris to Stephen Harris said:
Dear Uncle Stephen,
I have, finally, gotten the assignment I craved. I will be in the fight! Sir Ernie is a frightfully decent chap, and very kind, but I am too young to sit on my hands in London while my cousins and brothers fight for the Empire. As you know, Uncle, I have always wanted to fly, ever since you told me your stories of the Royal Flying Corps in the Great War. I, too, shall fly. I am to be the Deputy Commander of one of the
Ark Royal's Air Groups! I cannot tell you how excited I am. I am to begin flight school next week and I will leave when the
Ark Royal is fully modernized. We are due to receive new radar and more powerful anti-aircraft weapons, based on our experiences against the Japanese.
We are using the
Ark Royal as the core of a new fleet, bound for India. Admiral Fraser, previously a cruiser squadron commander, has been appointed the commander of the new "Indian Carrier Fleet." In addition to his old cruiser squadron and the
Ark Royal, we are to receive a second carrier, the
Illustrious, in the next few days. That will bring the full complement to two carriers, three heavy cruisers, a few light cruisers, and some destroyer flotillas. Only the very best officers will serve, Uncle, and I will be part of it!
Send Aunt Janet my love,
William
The month of May, 1939, was also known for one other complication. While the Royal Marine Corps was running the last few Italian divisions to ground, a brigade slipped past British lines and "restored" the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. The Marines were told in no uncertain terms that the "independence" of Ethiopia was at an end, and that they would either obey the laws of the British Empire or be annexed.
Sergeant Larry Quentin of the Marines described the situation as "dull police work." There were no significant battles fought in the campaign; simply each division of the Marines pushing south and west to take Addis Ababa, while isolating and eliminating the Italians.
By the end of July, a new, more docile regime sat in Addis Ababa, while transports were filled with Italian prisoners due for return to Alexandria.
Hitler's desire for conquest could not be slaked, and even with British success in Africa came a horrible price in Europe. On the same day (9 July 1939), Germany declared war on Yugoslavia and Greece; by the first week of August, Yugoslavia had succumbed, although portions of Yugoslavia were handed to Hungary as payment for their services.
Silent Bill Harris (who was given the call sign 'Megaphone' by the CAG Commander, as a way to needle Harris' silence in most situations) sat in Bournemouth fuming, having successfully completed his training. He was eager to see action, and was not the quietest man in the room when Admiral Fraser announced their departure, first for the port of Edd (where they would take on supplies as well as pick up the Royal Marines), and then ultimately to retake India. The scheduled day was 29 July 1939. Although the newest possible radar had not been installed, the need to push back against the Japanese was powerful, and once India's islands had been reclaimed, further modernization could take place.
As the new fleet, accompanied by a squadron of transports, made its way south, Harris listened eagerly for news of home. As the second in command, he often led training missions during the night (both to improve his experience with night flying and, more importantly, to give him a chance to work out tactics with his squadron), which left him plenty of time during the day to listen to the radio. The news that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a non-aggression pact (which would allow them to divide up Poland) shocked and alarmed everybody aboard the
Ark Royal.
The news that the Jerries and Bolshies would sign any kind of agreement was simply incredible, yet for Harris and his friends, it was merely another piece of news. Even letters from home could not deter them from their task, although one from his Uncle Stephen gave Silent Bill pause.
From Stephen Harris to William Harris said:
Dear Bill,
I hope this letter finds you well. Nasty bit of business with those damned Reds, but I never trusted that Stalin chap, not for a minute. Did you know that your father was an officer on one of the destroyers during the Allied Intervention back in 1918? It's true. I shouldn't wonder if you and your mates won't be sailing to sink some Bolshie ships after you're done with the Japanese, see if you don't.
Your Aunt and I are very well indeed. We put flowers on your dad's grave the other day; I know Al would have been proud of you, son. We are.
The government's even keeping old folks like us busy, don't you know. We're to organize scrap metal drives, to help make sure we can keep the factories running.
They say that the Nazis and Italians have submarine patrols in the Med and North Sea; even though our boys sink some now and again, they always have more. Damned unsporting of the rotters. Still, we shall persevere. You be careful, lad, that your ship doesn't get torpedoed by a U-boat! God knows what we would do without you.
Give 'em Hell, Bill!
Uncle Stephen
Silent Bill had no submarines to worry about, however. The Japanese, incredibly, were spotted off the coast of the Horn of Africa shortly after the fleet arrived in Edd, and the Indian Carrier Fleet was ordered to engage. Admiral Fraser, who was struck ill during transit, had been left behind in Edd, leaving J. H. D. Cunningham in command of the fleet.
The Japanese gave a lesson in respect to the Royal Navy, sinking two cruisers at the cost of a single transport squadron.
The British had underestimated the Japanese desire to push to the west, and in rapid succession, British East Africa and Dubai were under attack by Japanese Marine divisions.
Harris had personally done well, leading attack runs on the
IJN Nagato, but none of the runs had significantly crippled the battleship. Rumors began to spread across the
Ark Royal that reinforcements were on the way: Lord Mountbatten was taking a division of battleships to Alexandria for repair and modernization, and they would soon join the Indian Carrier Fleet in engaging Japanese forces off the coast of Africa.
Mountbatten's battleships first encountered the Japanese in September 1939, where they crossed paths with the feared Yamamoto and his division of battleships; his flagship, the carrier
Kaga, was an old but respected vessel. The ships the Royal Navy was facing were not the newest and best, which only caused consternation: where were the most powerful ships, if not supporting the landings in Africa?
The titanic clash saw both the UK and Japan lose significant forces: the British lost their most powerful ship of the war to that point, the
HMS Warspite, who had given exemplary service in World War I. In exchange, however, the British sank not only the heavy cruiser
Kongo, the pride of the Japanese fleet, but a Japanese battleship, the
Mutsu.
High command realized that, in order to shut down the Japanese without taking such heavy losses, a new strategy needed to be devised. They would have to eliminate the bases Japan had used to reach Africa. Silent Bill Harris and Larry Quentin, who'd never met before, would end up close personal friends as a result of this new strategy, beginning with the campaign to retake Dubai from Japan.
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Perhaps the greatest struggle I had during this update (and the next one) was the amount of convoys I was losing, regularly, to German/Japanese/Italian submarines. I believe (although I am not completely certain) that my losses there were the reason I had so little metal. Worse still, I didn't have much of a money surplus either (because the AI kept trading for fuel instead -- I eventually turned off automatic trading for that reason). If you're not familiar with HOI3, losing metal means losing factories and the ability to produce more. I started some lines of destroyers and cruisers at this time, although eventually I got even better models and scrapped the old. A portion of my IC was poured into escorts and convoys, but the best strategy will be shutting down those blasted convoy raiders.
Strategically, I never in my wildest dreams assumed Japan would go after Africa. That they didn't wasn't so awful: it did give me vulnerable divisions to pick off, one by one, but as you can see, I gravely overestimated my abilities and took some punishing losses. I'd particularly forgotten how much of a toll simple transit could take on ships. During the course of the update, I sunk lots of German and Italian transports, destroyers, and cruisers, but I had a devil of a time finding and sinking their submarines. I did take about four squadrons total, but there were clearly many, many more left.
One of the things I undersold in the update (because it wasn't that important yet) was my completion of more RAF fighters. I held off on the "Our Finest Hour" decision until I needed it, and while Germany did try some naval bombing, 9 wings of fighters (in three squadrons) rapidly put a stop to that. I'm not sure where their own fighters/bombers were going.
Re: Greece, the only reason Germany didn't conquer (and hasn't conquered) them is because they moved their capital to Crete, which is well patrolled by yours truly. They've still set nary a boot on Norwegian soil.
If you found this update slightly dull, I apologize, but things will be
much more exciting next update. I might get that finished this weekend!
You do have a point, in that I might want to even consider some BCs or BBs to pair with the carriers, but it will obviously take quite a while to build them. 
