United Kingdom 1940-1942
After the Fall of France there was a lull in the fighting. UK used this precious time to reinforce her garrisons in India and Egypt. The Royal Navy was infused by a substantial number of new destroyers to avoid the threat of starvation and blockade, a lesson from the Great War. Fortifications were constructed in strategic places and preparations were made for the fight to come.
OPERATION THUNDERSTORM
The Vichy fleet, some 24 squadrons in strength, was a potential threat to UK’s possessions in the Mediterranean and to convoy shipping here. Operation Thunderstorm was designed to use some of the large quantities of forces in North Africa to raid the province and city of Marseilles forcing the Vichy fleet to scuttle or sally to engage the combined might of the Royal Navy. The forces were to withdraw before substantial German reinforcements were sent to the theater. 9 German infantry divisions and 2 Vichy divisions of inferior quality defended France’s Mediterranean coast. Italian intervention was perceived as the greatest risk to the operation but the Royal Navy was judged as able to counter that threat. This operation was ready to go off at short notice.
As was to be expected the Japanese soon sent a Declaration of War to the British Embassy in Tokyo. Hong-Kong, Singapore and the Malayan Peninsula were soon overrun. The victorious Japanese soon began a cautious advance into the Jungles of Burma heading for the Indian border. British resistance in all these areas was very light. The Imperial Japanese Navy heavily supported amphibious operations against Dutch Colonial forces in Indonesia. The limited Australian help available was not able to stem the tide and soon the Cutch Empire was annexed an incorporated with Nazi Germany and Japan. Another free Democracy falling under the boot of the oppressors!
Soon the Japanese army found the British main line of resistance, stretching from the Coast of Calcutta to the Mountains of Tibet. Some 25 Indian and British Infantry divisions were here holding the line. For fear of the superior Japanese naval air the Royal navy was fearful to support her Indian possessions. To lose the Royal navy at this point would spell disaster for the entire Commonwealth! India would have to resist without naval support!
The Japanese soon took advantage of their naval superiority and their ability to launch a strong attack anywhere along the immense Indian coastline. Calcutta was chosen as their landing point and soon 29 Japanese elite divisions were engaging the 12 defending British divisions. Luckily 12 motorized infantry divisions held in reserve behind the front line arrived just in time to turn the battle and drive the Marines back into the sea once more. London cheered at the splendid news that India was saved for now!
This victory could hardly change the development in other areas. One after one the island possessions of the Commonwealth fell in the pacific. Soon the Japanese landed in New Zeeland and quickly overran our Commonwealth brother nation. Would the setbacks in Asia never ever end? Seemingly so since shortly thereafter Australia and the Philippines fell to the Japanese.
Meanwhile in Europe the summer of 1941 saw tension rising between Germany and USSR. Large troop concentrations were gathered along the frontline. It was expected that the two totalitarian states would crash sooner or later. The Operation Thunderstorm forces were put on high alert. USSR had an immense air fleet at their disposal; some 10.000 planes in all but the Germans fielded more than 5.000 fighters to counter this threat with.
The United States had in secret talks with the British cabinet announced that German domination of the Euro-Asian continent was unacceptable and that Japanese aggression in the pacific was nearing the point where the American public opinion was in favor of war against the Axis. This would mean a tremendous relief for the limited and extended British forces.
From time to time the bomber command, consisting of 300 aging Bombers would strike bold raids into France but as soon as heavy fighter cover was present the squadrons would have to abort with heavy casualties. These pinpricks hardly did any damage to the German war effort at all. Their implication was at a morale level if anything even if some raids would devastate the industries of Köln and Wilhelmshafen for limited periods of time.
Finally Germany launched their massive invasion of Russia called operation Barbarossa. Within weeks the German spearheads was reaching the outskirts of the Russian capital. During the advance British representatives finally convinced the United States that their entry in the war was necessary to save Democracy and in August 1941 the US entered into the British alliance and declared War on the axis powers.
The American chief of staff immediately advised action against Festung Europe to relieve pressure from the Russians. Operation Thunderstorm already under way was quickly redesigned under the name of Operation Intruder to consist of further advances into Vichy territory after the initial landing. The British supreme command was however weary of the superior German Panzer formations when advancing inland leaving the safety of the coast behind them.
The landing in Marseilles went smoothly enough. The 6 defending German divisions stood little chance against 24 British infantry divisions and 12 Free French divisions, jubilant at finally returning to their own soil. The advance northwards annihilated the Vichy and German forces in the area and soon neared the former Maginot line that the Germans now had manned and extended to defend westwards as well. The Vichy fleet decided to fight but was totally annihilated within hours outside the port of Marseilles. Operation Intruders main objective was secured.
Meanwhile the Americans had landed with their infantry in area of Caen. Encountering little resistance they liberated the West of France including Paris and France was declared reconstituted and Vichy ceased to exist. The advance continued into Belgium but now German armored formations started to show up from the Eastern front.
UK forces, supported with plentiful air-support, made a well coordinated assault on the Maginot line in Colmar and soon could use the former French fortifications to stabilize the front against the Swiss border. France seemed secured for the allied course in a matter of weeks. What a splendid success!
At this time an attempt at breakout from the Baltic with the Kriegsmarine supported by subs was attempted. It encountered a rag tag blockading force consisting of French and British submarines, leased obsolete Russian ships and some ships from other occupied countries. The Royal Navy knew this wasn’t much but it had been judged enough to contain the Germans and so showed to be the case. The severely damaged German fleet had to retreat to Aarhus to lick its wounds. The ad-hoc British naval force likewise sailed to England to repair. A single Canadian squadron stayed in place to act as a look out.
The American supreme command inquired what naval forces were available in the North Sea. We could only report that the only seaworthy forces available were 8 lightly damaged submarine squadrons and that rest and refit was needed at present. Still it was promised that this force was to protect an American invasion of Aarhus. The invasion went as planned but the German fleet refused to scuttle and after sallying soundly defeated the small submarine force. Cut off from their supply and transports a German counterattack eliminated the landing 10 American divisions.
German armored formations was engaging the US and Canadian troops on the Atlantic side of the front. Attacks and counterattacks were launched. At the end the heavy armored German formations came out on top and large Allied formations were surrounded and forced to surrender, the larger parts in inland Paris and Brussels. 6 French divisions and maybe as much as 20 Canadian divisions were lost in this debacle. The British troops on the Swiss border felt a certain anxiety for being encircled as well in their current position. Being fortified in the Alps with a well-defended retreat route to the Mediterranean it was decided against an evacuation.
Instead Republican Spain, well supplied with British arms and technology, still grateful for being saved from Franco’s legions during the Spanish civil war but British troops agreed to join the crusade against the Fascists after some persuasion. Intermediate quality Spanish troops soon bolstered a defensive line in Southern France. Shortly after this the rag tag allied Atlantic fleet sallied and sunk the rest of the Kriegsmarine. Only their U-boot arm escaped and fled to Amsterdam.
Unfortunate enough as the French campaign had shown to be it had allowed the Red army to liberate Moscow just weeks after the Wehrmacht had occupied the Russian capital. The victorious Russian forces now evicted the German army the same way it had come only months before. Soon the Eastern front line once again was at the polish border where Barbarossa once had started. From here an invasion of Germany proper was undertaken and Russian spearheads soon reached Munich and Berlin.
After the victory against the Americans German troops barely made it backt to their capital and saved the city and begun pushing the Red hordes back again. Yugoslavia and Greece was overrun by USSR but those gains were in gain since Germany managed to push all the way to the Black sea effectively cutting the entire Balkans off from the Russian mainland. In may 1942 the Russian line is running from Königsberg in the north to Odessa in the south.
During Operation Intruder in France the Royal navy was undertaking an offensive in the Indian ocean to clear it from raiding Japanese subs and the provocative occupation of the island of Diego Garcia south if India’s coast. After changing hands a couple of times it now is in British hands. The Royal navy now decided to liberate Port Blair south of Rangoon, garrisoned by 2 Japanese divisions. The 200 ships heading for the tiny island soon encountered thousands of attacking naval bombers and torpedo bombers. More than 70 squadron were involved in the attack. Luckily the extremely well developed Anti-Air systems of the Navy carried the day and quickly decimated the attacking airforces while taking light losses. No ships were sunk and the air squadrons retreated to refit and repair.
Possibly to stem this naval offensive the Japanese forces along the Indian border attempted a land offensive into the mountain province of Tezpur next to the Burmese/Indian border from multiple directions. 24 Japanese divisions are involved in the battle presently raging against the determined 21 defending British divisions. Incoming Japanese tactical bombers intended to sway the battle to the advantage of the Japanese were rudely dismissed by a large quantity of Spitfire squadrons. Will Tezpur hold against the Japanese onslaught?
Since the entry of the war UK has supplied her allies with resources and supplies in huge quantities. The British government had had certain expectations that it would be the other way around once our Western Cousin finally woke up but this proved to be wrong. Many a truck, uniform and weapon with Russian soldiers are of British manufacture and the iron, rubber and coal feeding her industries in many instances have come from Britain’s far flung empire. We are happy to be able to make such a grand contribution to our comrades in arms for the final victory!
In May 1942 the struggle is an even one. Japan is master of the orient but still hasn’t conquered India. Germany is pushed back on the Eastern front and has lost large parts of France but is slowly pushing the Russians back whence they came from. Italy has managed to construct a huge submarine fleet consisting of 172 squadrons in the Mediterranean but will they be able to retake their Balkan possessions from Russia? Russia, an industrial giant standing on foreign soil. Still her entire armored forces have been annihilated and Germany is now prepared to utilize her terrible heavy tank formations against her. The United States with unlimited resources and vast manpower can surely make the battle turn to the way of the righteous. In their midst stand the British Empire, simultaneously occupying France, guarding her home islands, watching the Italian borders in Africa and the Middle East, guarding India from the Japanese and patiently working towards victory. And victory my friends, will be ours!
