Chapter 217: Striking Blows for ‘Freedom’ (1 to 26 November 1943)
Foreword
After the bloodbath that was Red October, Turkey was hoping to shorten and strengthen its line and start preparing for the next offensive – the invasion of Italy. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Aras has flown to Moscow along with Field Marshal Calistar for a meeting of the principal Comintern belligerents on the Patriotic Front: the Soviet Union, Turkey and Romania. They will confer on the future prosecution of the war as winter approaches. Aras waits at the Embassy, with the Ambassador and senior S.I.T.H. Liaison Agent Boğafiltresi for the cable from Ankara with instructions on what line to take on the 'Finnish Question'.
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31 Oct 43 – Late Cabinet Meeting
The War Cabinet was meeting late. By 11pm, two key decisions had been taken. First, given solid Soviet gains in Poland and East Prussia and the large-scale movement of Romanian and Soviet forces into southern Poland, Turkey will accelerate its redeployment of units to the Vienna and Adriatic Sectors and strip the front as far as possible, including along the Slovakian border, but not creating any gaps in the line. Relief in place will be the order of the day.
Second was the matter of Finland. The Milli Şef heard out the arguments on both sides – for and against an intervention now.
NB: They are prudent to consider Turkey to be their greatest threat – even if it is an indirect one.
“Both sides have made persuasive points, but in the end it comes down to an issue of strategic judgement,” began Inönü, summing up. “There is some risk in asking our Soviet comrades to strike now, before the Germans at least are defeated, and while our relief-in-place in southern Poland is incomplete.”
About half the heads around the table nod cautiously.
“But there is also risk in waiting: the Finns may drift further towards the Allies and if they do, might they even join
them if attacked by the Comintern after Germany is defeated? Either way, the Axis line in Poland now looks very shaky after the destruction of Army Group North, even without the Soviet forces that achieved that reinforcing the line in Poland. And the Karelian sector of the Finnish border looks deserted, while the bulk of the Soviet forces that liberated Leningrad and Karelia have not yet left the area.”
Eyes are now fixed on the President as he clearly moves towards announcing his decision.
“We all want this war ended in a new world order –
our order – as soon as we can manage it. My assessment is Poland is rapidly falling to our Soviet allies, Finland is unprepared and the Soviets should have no more trouble dealing with them on a small ‘third front’ than they did eliminating the bratwurst-munchers last month in Karelia. Cable our Embassy in Moscow: Turkey advocates war with Finland without delay. General Secretary Stalin and I have discussed this matter previously and I have no doubt he will agree to this proposal should we put it to them at the current strategic discussions.”
In Moscow, the message was passed while Washington was also cabled. All the Comintern powers followed Turkey’s lead and Finland joined the Axis – but the Soviets would hopefully strike the final blow for freedom there and administer a second defeat to the Finns after the Winter War of 1939-40. Some initial offensive objectives on the Finnish border with Karelia and just back from it in Kouvola were suggested to ‘offer encouragement’.
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1 Nov 43
The Turkish manpower deficit stood at 40,000 men with a monthly gain of 19,700 as November began. Inönü kept a close eye on the figures most days, but now required only periodic reporting, unless the situation changed rapidly in the interim.
Two battles remained in progress as at midnight: enemy attacks on Gänserndorf
[-41%] and Eisenstadt
[-28%]. The Turkish redeployment from north-east to south-west continued with 7 Inf Div boarding trains in Krakow at 4am, headed for Ribnica (south of Ljubljana). 2 Armd Div did the same from nearby Chrzanow, leaving 4 Inf Div and 97 SD ‘Shev’ to hold the province while they waited for Soviet and Romanian troops to relieve them.
The defence of Eisenstadt was brought to a successful conclusion at 11am, though 2 Mot Div was now badly in need of reinforcement. To the north-east, 8 Inf Div and 4 US Mar Div were ordered to swap positions, to ensure the marines were kept out of likely combat and could begin their preparations for the proposed invasion of Italy, likely in early 1944.
In the south, the two militia divisions had finished their recovery in Rijeka and were ordered to relieve the marine divisions currently helping to guard Ljubljana and Zagreb.
At 8pm, the Comintern partners conferring in Moscow agreed to expanded objectives for the offensive, to include the three principal Finnish centres
[ie VP cities] in depth.
Air Damage Report. Gänserndorf 310 (completed); Eisenstadt 198 (completed); daily total of 508. The next Axis air attack would not occur until 10 November.
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2 Nov 43
Victory in Gänserndorf came late that morning, a solid win: though the butcher's bill from these recent battles still flowed through to increase the manpower deficit.
That afternoon, the second new Yak-7 wing had almost finished its initial work up training: 2 AG (10 and 11 AFs) were sent forward from Beograd to the recently acquired air base at Szombathely and given a commander – MAJGEN Ersay
[Sk 1] and instructed to work up again to be ready for operations later in the month.
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3-6 Nov 43
By the night of 3 November, the three (gradually) returning divisions of the Far East Task Force was passing to the north of the Aral Sea on their way back to Turkey: those trains were pretty slow!
OTL Event: Russia. On 4 November, the Second Battle of Kiev began on the Eastern Front. [Comment: well, we’ve moved well past that in this ATL, though we did start a year earlier than Barbarossa.]
OTL Event: US. The U.S. War Department concluded a top secret analysis of American strategy in the war in the Pacific, and concluded that it would be impractical to attack Japan from mainland China. Instead, it was recommended that troops and equipment be shifted to the ongoing effort to capture islands within striking distance of the Japanese Home Islands. [Comment: and those guys are fast asleep in the ATL.]
On the afternoon of 5 November, Finland threw caution to the winds by agreeing to a German request to declare war on the Allies as well! There would be no British-Allied sympathy for the Finns now, if ever there had been any.
The quiet was broken early on the 6th when the Axis began a reckless assault on the Comintern forces guarding Cieszyn. For once, there were no supporting Axis air raids – a small mercy. The Soviet MAJGEN Karmanov of 317 SD initially led the defence, but he and his troops left five hours later, leaving the Turkish MAJGEN Bözer in charge and worsening the odds, exacerbated by an SS Division joining the enemy attack in reserve at the same time. The Turks dug in for a grim and unwanted defence.
News Report: Tokyo. The Greater East Asia Conference concluded in Tokyo on 6 November as Japan and its puppet states finished a two-day conference and issued a formal declaration of principles for the Japanese-occupied Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan's Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō chaired the meeting, along with Greater East Asia Minister Kazuo Aoki and Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu. Representing the other five Sphere members were: Zhang Jinghui, Prime Minister of Manchukuo; Wang Jingwei, President of the "Reorganized National Government of China"; Prince Wan Waithayakon, envoy from Japan's ally, the Kingdom of Thailand; Ba Maw, the Prime Minister of the State of Burma; and José P. Laurel, President of the Second Philippine Republic.
Participants of the Greater East Asia Conference from left to right: Ba Maw, Zhang Jinghui, Wang Jingwei, Hideki Tōjō, Wan Waithayakon, Jose P. Laurel, and Subhas Chandra Bose.
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7 Nov 43
After quieter conditions in the last few days, the manpower situation had improved somewhat after an initial spike, to a deficit of 38,900 (monthly gain 19,700) after the first six days of November. But the battle in Cieszyn, even without enemy air raids, remained an irritation, with the SS troops reinforcing the front at 9am that morning
[progress -38%].
307 SD reinforced Gänserndorf that afternoon, the Turks hoping to forestall a repeat of the heavy attacks there of the previous month. Then at 9pm, Bözer reported a hard-fought victory that saw the enemy take heavy casualties in Cieszyn when their attack failed.
9 Inf Div had been standing by while it recovered in Ruzemberok in case needed to relieve Cieszyn, but was now released for strategic redeployment to shore up the defence of Eisenstadt, another frequent target of the Germans during October.
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8-9 Nov 43
Liaison reports from the Soviets, supplied through Agent SkitalecS3 early that morning, showed Turkish faith in the Soviet’s offensive in Poland appeared to have been well placed. Some good gains had been made since the beginning of the month (dotted green line on the map below), with both Danzig and Warsaw now both becoming isolated and the Axis line being composed of more Italian than German fighting formations in that sector. Either the Germans would transfer more divisions from the Turkish front to defend the Fatherland, or the war may end sooner than it might have otherwise.
10 Nov 43
7 Inf Div finished their relocation to Ribnica at 6am and marched from the railhead on to Kostel, building the line their in preparation for an eventual offensive to take Trieste. An hour later, 2 Armd Div also arrived in Ribnica, but they were held there as a sector reserve for the time being.
At 2pm, Axis air raids began on Trencin (Slovakian border). But there was no ground assault: they seemed to be aiming at a Soviet Guards division that had taken up position there, as their colleagues advanced on Novy Jicin. The Turkish troops in Trencin were ‘collateral damage’ – it also meant the casualties would be shared, so probably about half those recorded would have been the Soviet (not an EF) division.
At 2pm 6 Mil Div relieved 1 US Mar Div in Ljubljana, the latter moving south to eventually link up with their comrades. The same was done in Zagreb at 8pm, 8 Mil Div relieving 6 US Mar Div.
Air Damage Report. Trencin 203 (one raid that night, harassment).
News Report: Hamburg, Germany. The four ‘Lübeck martyrs’ were executed after being convicted of treason in show-trials by Nazi Germany's "People's Court". Three Roman Catholic priests (Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange) and an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, were taken to the guillotine at Holstenglacis Prison in Hamburg. The four beheadings were performed at intervals three minutes apart and the bodies were cremated a few days later. [Comment: Many hoped the same guillotine could be found after the Nazi hierarchy was placed on trial for their egregious crimes when the time came.]
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11 Nov 43
Japanese funded partisans rose in the Dodecanese once more at midnight. They would eventually be defeated and dispersed by the garrison troops two days later (Turkey 6/2,914; Partisans 89/3,050 troops killed).
With the air raids in Trencin intensifying, 6 Inf Div was ordered out to Nitra at 1pm, though it would take some time to escape the aerial assault. Given there were now two Soviet divisions manning Zilina to its north, old Wehib Pasha’s 1 Armd Div was also ordered away from the border as a precaution.
Air Damage Report. Trencin 466 (shared).
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12 Nov 43
The next formation to be ‘thinned out’ from the north was 4 Inf Div in Chrzanow: Turkey had decided there would be no more blood spilt to try to retake Katowice, which was left to the Comintern partners. 97 SD ‘Shev’ was left as the last screening unit when at 2am MAJGEN Tunaboylu’s men began to redeploy all the way to Cakovec, near Zagreb.
177 SD (EF), still knocked about from its desperate defence of the province in October, was sent to a ‘sweeper’ position in Terchova, as Turkey increasingly left the Slovak-German border to the Soviets. 3 Inf Div in Cieszyn was given the same orders.
Soviet reports advised some advances had been made in northern Finland and one province on the north of the Karelian line by 5am. A small Finnish offensive had taken a province north of Lake Ladoga, but Soviet forces were
en route to round them up. There was still no Finnish unit sighted along the entire Karelian sector.
In southern Poland, the Comintern partners had now put the steamroller into second gear. Warsaw was now further isolated and a breakthrough to its south was driving towards Lodz through a gap in the enemy line, with significant forces on the way to reinforce the advance.
With some increased battle tempo in the last few days, the Turkish manpower deficit hovered at 42,900. Not growing quickly, nor trending down yet, though average daily casualties were far fewer than the month before.
The reinforcement of the defences in the Vienna sector continued with the arrival of 9 Inf Div in Eisenstadt at 6am.
Air Damage Report. Trencin 448 (shared).
OTL Event: Darwin, Australia. The final aerial bombardment of the Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, took place. Starting on February 19, 1942, Darwin had been bombed on 63 different occasions by Japan before the tide had turned during World War II. [Comment: alas, the Japanese attack on Australia in this altiverse has proven far more substantial.]
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13 Nov 43
Not long after 1 US Mar Div pulled out of Ljubljana to Ribnica, the Italians decided to assault the reconstituted defences with an Alpini division, using offensive air support. The second line Soviet and militia troops would have their mettle tested, but the terrain and numbers were in their favour.
Air Damage Report. Trencin 435 (shared).
OTL Event: US. Construction was completed on the XP-80, the prototype for the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the first successful American jet fighter, 140 days after the work had started. An earlier attempt, the Bell P-59 Airacomet, had been tested but not put into service. The project was so secret that only five of the more than 130 people working on it knew that they were developing a jet aircraft.
The original XP-80 prototype Lulu-Belle.
OTL Event: Russia. One week after the Red Army had recaptured Kiev, the German Wehrmacht began a counter-attack that would last for forty days before being abandoned.
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14 Nov 43
The fighting in Ljubljana continued all day, while air strikes also began there while continuing at Trencin. So far this month, only Italian bombers had been involved and German TAC would not be seen at all in November. Turkish Air Force analysts deduced that their bombers at least had shifted their attentions to Poland. The defenders of Ljubljana were holding strongly, even after the German 7th Infanterie reinforced the attacked from Celje in the north (a cross-river effort)
[-25%]. At the same time, 6 Inf Div finally escaped to Nitra from the Italian air strikes in Trencin.
Air Damage Report. Trencin 348 (completed, total of 1,900 shared over five days); Ljubljana 420; daily total 768 (some shared).
OTL Event: East of Bermuda. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS William D. Porter inadvertently fired an armed torpedo at the battleship USS Iowa. "If this wasn't bad enough," author Kermit Bonner would note later, "the Iowa was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and all of the country's World War II military brass ..." (on their way to the Cairo Conference). The Iowa and its escort were fifty miles east of Bermuda, and a demonstration of torpedo accuracy and range was being performed for the Commander-in-Chief. Torpedoman Lawton Dawson had failed to remove the explosive primer from torpedo tube three, a prerequisite for target practice. As soon as the torpedo was launched, it made the unique sound of an armed weapon, which was speeding directly toward the Iowa. The radioman on board the W. D. Porter was able to signal the Iowa to turn right to evade the approaching bomb in time, and the torpedo detonated beyond the battleship. The entire crew of the W. D. Porter was placed under arrest and held at Bermuda. Although Dawson would be sentenced to 14 years of hard labour, President Roosevelt intervened and asked that he not be punished for the accident.
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15-16 Nov 43
The fighting continued all through the 15th in Ljubljana.
Air Damage Report. Ljubljana 578.
By early on the 16th, half the Krakow-Vienna line had been taken over by the Comintern allies, with the defences in and around Vienna well strengthened and rested, if not all yet back up to full strength. The Soviets had advanced into Novy Jicin in what may be the start of a new spearhead.
With the situation there well in hand, at 1am 13 Inf Div was redeployed from Cieszyn, which now had a Soviet rifle division in place to help hold it. Bözer’s depleted division (7,544 men out of its 11,000 man establishment) was trucked south to Körmend. And in Karelia, the Soviets were now advancing unopposed on a wide but as yet shallow front (four provinces taken west of Lake Ladoga).
More thinning out in Slovakia began at 10am, with 4 US Mar Div pulled off the border, it and 4 Inf Div falling back south to Trnava (just east of Bratislava), to hold while any Axis reaction was gauged and to ensure the Soviets took up the slack.
At 11am, 3 Mtn Div was relieved in Novo Mesto by the recently arrived 7 Inf Div and MAJGEN Diskoerekto soon had his troops marching into the battle at Ljubljana. Seven hours later, after a few days of persistent fighting, the enemy escalated their attack on Ljubljana when Italian armour joined the battle in reserve at 3pm
[increasing the enemy attack progress, which had been falling off, by 10%].
This finally prompted a spoiling attack from Cerknica, Köldecan leading the hardened troops and IS-2s of 17 Inf Div, supported by 217 SD. Two hours later, the attack on Ljubljana was broken off and the spoiling attack, its job done, was also halted.
But the lull lasted only four hours, the Italians renewing the attack at 10pm, with the German 7th Infanterie joining in reserve an hour later as the air strikes continued. 17 Inf Div and 217 SD were still reorganising from their recent spoiling attack and 3 Mtn Div was still on the road to Ljubljana.
Air Damage Report. Ljubljana 291.
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17 Nov 43
By the early morning of the 17th, the rate of advance in Poland had picked up: Danzig and Warsaw were not only in Soviet hands, but the advance had passed beyond them. Lodz was now in danger of being cut off and occupied.
A Soviet T-34/85 knocked out during the successful assault to take Danzig, 17 November 1943.
The 7th Infanterie reinforced the Ljubljana attack at 1pm
[-30%]: MAJGEN Devyatov was now starting to get a little worried as his division and the militia began to tire. But a few hours later, 17 Inf Div had finished their short reorganisation and this time paired up with 2 Mtn Div to launch another flank attack on Kranj.
It quickly ended the enemy’s attack, but this time they carried on with it, to better secure the western approach to Ljubljana.
Air Damage Report. Ljubljana 503 (completed, total of 1,792 over four days).
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18 Nov 43
The manpower deficit early on 18 November sat at 40,100 with a monthly gain of 19,800: a trend of a shallow recovery, but continuing sporadic operations were preventing a quicker improvement.
At midnight, 2 Armd Div – back to almost full strength and organisation – was ordered to move up from its reserve position in Ribnica to Cerknica. This was in anticipation of both more Italian offensives (there being a large concentration of enemy units in Nova Gorica) and also for later operations to secure Trieste, when called for. Meanwhile, the assault on Kranj continued, as 3 Mtn Div still marched to Ljubljana.
At 11am, MAJGEN Diskoerekto’s men finally pulled into Ljubljana – and were immediately thrown into the attack on Kranj. This immediately caused the enemy to break and flee: 17 Inf Div held in place in Cerknica, while 2 Mtn Div kept pushing forward to occupy Kranj. The idea was to have the two mountain divisions concentrate in the hilly terrain of Kranj and be in position if required to push into the mountainous terrain to its north in any future offensive.
Air Damage Report. Cerknica 492 (defensive support for Kranj).
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19 Nov 43
MAJGEN Türkes’ 2 Mtn Div slipped into Kranj at midnight, but were soon under a concerted Axis attack that may well have succeeded
[-73%] before 3 Mtn Div could arrive. With 17 Inf Div still reorganising, 217 SD put in a hasty spoiling attack – which caused the attack on Kranj to be halted rather unexpectedly just an hour later. Semenyuk quickly halted his own attack before casualties mounted, very pleased with the results for so few casualties on the ground.
However, the Italians were now striking both Cerknica and Kranj from the air. These two provinces would prove to be a bloody focal point of activity for the following week.
At 11am, the fast-moving and powerful 2 Armd Div arrived in Cerknica – and soon found itself in action. This time, the wily Axis commanders launched a coordinated attempt to retake Kranj, cleverly having an Italian armoured division make a holding assault on Cerknica (though in poor weather and against heavier Turkish armour) while their main force simultaneously attacked the still isolated 2 Mtn Div in Kranj. All while offensive air support continued to hit both locations. By the time another Italian mountain division joined the attack on Kranj that night, the odds were getting difficult for Türkes
[from -66% to -75%], though his division still had plenty of fight left in it.
Turkey assessed that the Slovakian border was safe enough by 10pm on the 19th to put 3 Inf Div on trucks in Handlova and begin a strategic redeployment down to Ormoz, near Zagreb.
Air Damage Report. Cerknica 481 (switched to attack support); Kranj 598 (attack support); daily total of 1,079 killed.
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20 Nov 43
The day began with some truly momentous news: the biggest addition to the Comintern since Romania occurred at midnight, when Stalin declared the liberation of Poland, albeit with limited borders. For example, land annexed into Greater Germany but since liberated by Russia in and around Danzig was not included, nor that annexed by the Soviets in western Poland as part of the infamous 1939 pact with Germany. For now, anyway, the old government led by Paderewski would govern the new Federal Socialist Republic of Poland.
This was one of the most concrete geopolitical proofs so far that the tide of the war had turned irrevocably against the Axis in Europe. And it seemed to bear out the assessment made at the beginning of the month that the Soviets could handle the offensive against Germany and the invasion of Finland perfectly well. STAVKA had maintained its equilibrium admirably.
A Polish soldier waves the national flag in Warsaw, after the new ‘independent’ Federal Socialist Republic was proclaimed by the Soviet Union and Polish partisans [no game effect, though there were Polish partisans in the field at the time] on 20 November 1943. [Comment: it took until January 1945 to liberate Warsaw in OTL.]
For Turkey, the manpower deficit had fallen to 38,800, but the loss of Krakow to the liberated Poland had reduced the monthly recruitment rate to 18,900.
[NB. I’m glad I didn’t bother throwing any more troops at Katowice or other southern Polish population centres.]
Some reassurance was found when 3 Mtn Div arrived to join their comrades in Kranj at 9am
[reinforcement chance 3.3%], but the attack was still a serious one
[attack odds reduced to -53%] and the holding attack on Cerknica
[-18%] still prevented their intervention.
As it happened, Diskoerekto’s men were quick to reinforce the front line, which they did by 3pm, but the assault on Kranj continued. Finally, at 11pm the enemy holding attack on Cerknica was defeated and by 1am the next morning 2 Armd Div and 217 SD’s hastily arranged spoiling attack on Nova Gorica had succeeded in relieving Kranj and was called off as quickly as it had begun. The manpower deficit had risen a little by then, but remained under 40,000 – for the time being.
Air Damage Report. Cerknica 521 (completed – total of 1,494 killed over three days); Kranj 590; daily total of 1,111 killed.
News Report: London, UK. British Fascist Leader Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife Diana Mitford were released from prison after three years of incarceration as a threat to national security. Home Secretary Herbert Morrison explained that the controversial release was on medical grounds – Mosley was ill with phlebitis – as well as his no longer being considered a threat. Mosley and his wife were to stay under house arrest.
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21 Nov 43
At 2am, the realignment south continued, with 13 Inf Div (Bözer) joining the reinforced HQ 3rd Corps (Cakmak), 10 Inf Div (Noyan) and 176 SD (Ryzhow) in Körmend, where they now faced a thinned German line.
When 4 Inf Div reached their reserve position at Trnava in Slovakia at 3am, they too were deemed surplus to requirements there and were sent down to Sopron, where the prospects for an opportunistic offensive seemed to be growing.Three hours later, 4 US Mar Div also arrived in Trnava and were put on trains to relocate all the way to the port of Pola, where Turkey’s marine assets would now begin to concentrate, starting with the arrival there of 6 US Mar Div two hours later.
Air Damage Report. Kranj 664 (completed – total of 1,852 killed over three days).
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22-23 Nov 43
The recent fighting and air strikes had caused a spike in the manpower deficit to 43,700 by the 22nd, though there were hopes of improvement with no ground combat or air raids currently in progress on the Turkish front.
18 Inf Div reinforced Kostel at 3pm – another part of the Turkish build-up in front of Trieste.
Italian interest in Kranj remained however, with another large assault made late on 23 November (though without air support this time). But the added strength of 3 Mtn Div plus a quick spoiling attack by two of Turkey’s strongest units – 2 Armd and 17 Inf Divs – soon saw the effort abandoned with only light casualties on each side.
24 Nov 43
This period of quiet did indeed have a quite dramatic effect on the manpower deficit, which was down to 36,500 by the morning of the 24th. However, it would continue to fluctuate with op tempo, primarily now in the Adriatic Sector for Turkey.
Turkish airmen would benefit from improved ground crew training (though only lifted to basic Great War One level proficiency) for their TAC crews, if they were able to get into the fray once again during the planned offensives. But research was now devoted to ‘bread and butter’ logistics, as supply demands were again soaking up a large proportion of Turkish industrial capacity and doctrine was lagging. An invasion of Italy would only stretch the supply system further.
Also at midnight, the latest British spy to attempt to infiltrate Turkey was apprehended. He was found lurking in Beograd and was given his ticket to ride on the Midnight Express by his ‘Guest Conductor’ for the trip … the dreaded Darth Kelebek himself. The man lived – in a manner of speaking – but was nothing but a blithering wreck by the time he was stretchered off the train in Ankara.
“I see he gave the Dark One good sport during the trip,” noted one of Kaya’s secret policemen queasily as he supervised the poor man’s transfer to the Kelebek Ward at the Interior Ministry's clandestine ‘infirmary’ in Ankara, run by the severe ‘Big Nurse’ Ratched. Not too many inmates ever ‘flew away’ from there!
Nurse Ratched ‘treats’ the latest British spy in the Kelebek Ward of the Secret Policy Infirmary, located in the basement of Kaya’s Interior Ministry in Ankara. After his capture by Kelebek and ‘critical care’ by Ratched, he would indeed be well and truly ‘neutralised’!
The Italians attacked Kranj yet again early that morning. Though the initial assault was not too heavy, the Italian Air Force again sprang into action in support. 2 Mtn Div had little organisation remaining, but 3 Mtn Div was fresh and willing to fight. For the moment, no spoiling attack on Nova Gorica was deemed necessary and this remained the case as the battle continued throughout the day.
Air Damage Report. Kranj 608 (attack support).
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25 Nov 43
The balance in Kranj changed at 1pm on the 25th, when three more fresh and full-strength Italian divisions joined the attack in a reckless assault just as their 4a Alpini had looked like it was fading but 2 Mtn Div was barely hanging in. This prompted an immediate blitzing flank attack by all three Comintern divisions in Cerknica, which very quickly shut down the Kranj attack, in which the Italians had suffered heavy losses. The spoiling attack was quickly shut down as well, when the enemy improved their odds by concentrating on the defence of Nova Gorica.
A brief probe on Kranj from Jesenice (north-west of Kranj) by the Italian 132a Armoured division at 6pm was quickly called off after making no headway (Turkey 9/25,049; Italy 23/7,996 killed).
Air Damage Report. Kranj 543 (completed – total of 1,115 killed over two days).
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26 Nov 43
Replacement demands must have caught up with the Turkish personnel managers, as the deficit had shot back up to 43,000 by the morning of the 26th, continuing a trend that had applied since the beginning of the month.
1 US Mar Div joined the 6th in Pola at 2am, along with Major ‘Wraith’ Loggins, there to inspect their camps and oversee their revision training in amphibious methods – which would have to be adapted to Turkish naval equipment and doctrine for any future landings.
Cerknica was further reinforced by the arrival of 19 Inf Div at 10am, as the Adriatic build-up went on. At 2pm, 1 Armd Div was put aboard trains in Tata and ordered to concentrate down in Kostel, ready for the planned Trieste offensive.
And with Eisenstadt now adequately guarded the battered 2 Mot Div was finally and mercifully pulled off the front line for desperately needed R&R. They had recovered their organisation, but establishment strength was only just over 50% overall, while their SP artillery and TD brigades had been effectively wiped out in the October fighting and barely rebuilt since due to the general manpower shortages. But otherwise, the build-up south of Vienna was progressing well.
The day ended with relative quiet along the Turkish front which now effectively stretched only from Vienna to the Adriatic at Rovigno. Monthly casualty comparisons will be made in the next chapter, but so far they have been less than a quarter of October levels, at an average of around 470 per day, including ground combat and air raids, compared to almost 2,000/day over the whole of October.
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Coming Up: Would this state of relative peace continue until the end of the month? Would Turkey’s intentions be defensive or aggressive and what would the Italians try next, if anything? Only time would tell
[I know of course, but am saying nuthin’ 
]. The end of the month would bring further updates on the Polish-German front as Germany was put on the ropes, plus news on the invasion of Finland and British reporting on the Mediterranean, India, Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand.
