“On Shaky Ground”
{June 15 – Aug 8, 1940}
The BEF-France
By the
16th of June our two MOT-Corps were all in
Nice awaiting transports. As I mentioned already, to cover the evacuation of this force, we stationed the RN 1st Battle-Cruiser Fleet southeast of the port in the
Ligurian Sea. This same fleet had patrolled to the west of these waters and it was believed the sea-lanes along the southern coast of France were free of RM warships. However, at
noon on the 16th, we soon found otherwise.
An Italian fleet, consisting of the BB Conte di Cavour, 5 Heavy-Cruisers and 4 screens engaged our escort-fleet, led by BCs Repulse & Renown with 6 screens. Once this engagement was underway 1st Combined fleet was routed to the area. The move was a long shot and proved so.
The sea-battle was still raging 13 hours later when at 1:a.m. the next day, a small French fleet, made-up of the CV Bearn, the Battleship Bretagne (how fitting that name) and 3 Light-Cruisers arrived in the sea-zone and began firing welcomed salvos. This engagement did not end until 3:00 p.m. on the
17th.
I mentioned our being “Lucky” earlier. HMS Repulse sank RM Bolzano, HMS Renown sank RM Pola . Had the French not engaged? We would have lost more ships and sank fewer.
We were surprised at sinking the transport and cannot help but wonder if this was actually
an Italian assault force that bumped into our escort-fleet instead of coming out to attack?
However, we had a “2nd lucky-break” when two bombing attacks on our transport fleet, as the ships fled the port at
Nice, came very close to sinking two vessels but didn’t sink either. All were loaded with Motorized. This fact makes the action of the French Navy in the sea-battle the obvious reason for a complete success with our suffering only the loss of one DD-Squadron.
By the
22 June, German forces had nearly surrounded
Paris. British High Command decided to send Harding’s II Motorized to
Dieppe in an effort to hold the French left flank and halt the German blitz down the coastline. As fate would have it, our transports did not make it in time. This proved disastrous because General Hilpert’s 2.Panzer-division beat us there. Instead of catching tired German infantry out in the open, as we thought possible when the mission began, we were forced to land at
La Havre instead. Upon landing, we soon found the French units on our right-flank were already in full retreat. In a disparate action we attacked across the river with our entire Corps. We found the German armor fresh and ready for battle and in addition, a newly arrived 87.Infantry division was there to stop our crossing. If that was not bad enough, Stukas soon rained bombs on our shocked seasick men. Our fighters scrambled but were too late to prevent the loss of 83 men before gaining the skies. We lost 2,400 men total to the enemy’s 529. The river-crossing was much of the reason for so bad a loss but the fact is our Motorized is far inferior to all German-wheeled-units. We were stopped cold in our motorized-tracks and unable to go anywhere except back to the transports. Had we have stayed any longer, we would have been isolated by the sweeping, right German front. This was not comforting and there was much worse...Paris was burning.
The Fall of France
Germany began its campaign in the West in early May. As of the 19th, German units had not crossed into France. For nearly three months an ill-equipped and ill led French Army fought the invaders.
There were two main causes for the fall of our most important ally. The first was the divided conditions of the Government and the French people. The second was that the French army was led by Generals that were mostly relics from WWI and because of that fact, the command & control capabilities of French high-command was nearly limited to the methods and strategy of the former war. There was one striking exception and he, in later years, would become President of France.
The Government surrendered on 7 August, 1940
Our two dejected MOT-Corps were eventually ordered to Bengasi.
With the fall of France, our Beirut GAR marched to Tel Aviv.
Britain soon enacted Destroy the French Fleet & TFH and Destroyers for Bases.
The Mediterranean
The RN 1st Battle-Cruiser Fleet was very heavily damaged and sent to the shipyards of
Glasgow. Our failed BB rescuers however did have their own engagement, when in route to the sea-battle, in finding a large Italian sub-squadron that had been wrecking havoc on our supply-lines. The RM soon lost two of those three subs-groups. Since 1st Cruiser was heading home, our strongest battle fleet, 1st BB, led by HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson was sent to the Med. 2nd Combined Fleet returned from the
Red Sea and was sent to blockade
Malta’s sea-lanes.
In the contest of sinking shipping, Italy is winning the battle. With only minor success elsewhere we sent a SS squadron to prey in the
Gulf of Sidra west of
Bengasi. Upon arrival, a convoy was quickly found but it had too large an escort to attack.
On
18 June 1st Combined fleet was ordered to the sea off
Rodi. Our Indian-infantry had finally arrived in
Alexandria and we would try again to remove the Italians from the
eastern-Mediterranean sea. By 14:00 on
19 June our fleet was in place and the assault started. Unfortunately, thunder-storms moved up from
Crete and we would pay a heavy price. By the time our infantry was ashore and fighting it was midnight. I was glad I had sent both Indian divisions and not only one, as I first considered in making a double-assault on
Rodi & Dodecanese. I doubt we would have gained either.
Midday on
21 June, ships anchored in
Rodi came out of port and RM Flume was sunk. The same day DD Flint sank two more SS squadrons adding to Italy’s growing losses of warships. Flint had 3 now but cheers fade quickly.
RN battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth & HMS Royal Sovereign along with the heavy-cruisers London & Hawkins patrolled waters east of
Sicily in the
East Central Mediterranean Sea. On
23 June this move, paid dividends, when a small RM fleet led by BB Giulio Cesare was found. Soon our CAGS were attacking their ships and Italian bombers from
Cantania were after ours. We sent in fighters over
Cantania but we stopped them too late and the CL HMS Carlisle was lost. We got some payback when our CL Cardiff torpedoed the burning wreck of the CA RM Bari and CL Dauntless sank a DD squadron. The remainder of the Italian fleet, including the Giulio Cesare made it safely to port in
Messina.
On
24 June we decided to send our best CV fleet into the Med and sent 2nd CV with its older CV and CVL to patrol the
Western Approaches to the
Channel to hopefully find the German surface raiders. Powerful 1st BB fleet moved to the waters south of
Malta, anticipating RM fleet-actions to come. Heavily damaged CAs London and Shropshire were sent to
Glasgow for repairs.
On
26 June, near midnight, part of the 1st Battleship fleet, DD Ipswich got it first SS-41a. Several days later
2 July DD Wick also got its 1st kill, sinking SS-12a. While
Rodi was under our attack, a repaired Guilio Cesare came out of port on
3 July only to pull back.
Three days later, on
6 July, two prizes came out to fight.
HMS Barham had the honor of sinking Littorio. The badly damaged CA Sussex was sent to
Alex.
In the first hour of
7 July, one of Italy’s top Admirals, A.D. Camponi, led a force consisting of BB Caio Duilio against the Barham & Warspite led
Rodi invasion fleet but soon withdrew.
The land battle for Rodi ended early morning with heavy British loss. We lost 1,219. Italian dead 545 and 6,453 captured. Our two transports were flooded, another moment longer, we would have lost the invasion. However, our troubles were not over, 1st Combined fleet was heavily damaged and to our surprise, Admiral Camponi still had his fleet in the area and before I could withdraw our crippled fleet, big-guns flashed again. 14” shells from HMS Barham sank the heavy cruiser RM Gorizia. Both sides lost 2 DD groups but I must say losing the successful
Flint and Grimsby DD squadrons were very sad losses.
With the victories at
Rodi, we anticipated the Italian fleet heading to
Dodecanese. Warspite was a wreck, it and 18th DD squadron were rushed to
Alexandria. Since BB Barham, CL Galatea and 2 remaining DD-flotillas were ship-shape, this small fleet chased the enemy towards Dode. Until the 1st Battleship & 2nd CV Fleets could arrive to these seas, they would have to contain these ships. Our fresh fleets arrived and we sent CAGs from Illustrious and Formidable and bombed the port. Nelson & Rodney waited off-port like hungry wolves.
Planes from Illustrious sank SS-43a & RM Vittorio Veneto,
Planes from Formidable sank RM Guilio Cesare
Now that our CAGs had to leave the battle, we grabbed 2 sound transports, 14th Indian-infantry division from
Rodi and assaulted
Dodecanese. Nelson and Rodney still lay in wait for the battered RM ships achored at port. To the west, while the landing took place, a SS-group of ours was found by Italian NAVs in the
Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea forcing us to send them to
Alex for repairs.
On
20 July Dodecanese fell and the RM came out into the
Central Aegean Sea. In the afternoon, we lost 1 DD-group as HMS Rodney sank RM Tireste. Our “Pride” the battle-cruiser HMS Hood sent down the newly arrived Italian battleship RM Andrea Doria and a DD-group. And DD-Wick sent three torpedoes into the battered hulk of RM Conte di Cavour making a 5th Italian battleship sank during the time spanning this report.
26 July brought 2 RM sub-group sinkings near Tobruch in the Gulf of Bomba. DDs Barrow and Lairg had their first kills.
The Mediterranean Sea now grew quiet. The RM’s surface-fleet capability had been gutted.
North-Africa
Our march west continued with
Bengasi taken on
20 June. It wasn’t much of a battle with our light tanks driving into the city from the NW. We lost 6 men, the Italians 238. A counter-attack quickly failed adding 1 Brit and 45 Italians to the list of dead. Both our NAV-wings were re-based to the airfield there.
By adding supply-convoys to
Tobruch and
Bengasi we were now down to 60 free convoys and of course giving more targets for Axis warships. With our units in North-Africa all on wheels and also our large naval forces I was afraid if I did not increase supply, our moving front might stall.
At 13:00 on
29 June, IV Corps, evacuated from
Nice and took
Misurata. The Italians had only
Tripoli left.
1 July our forces pushed through
Djibouti; we had 3 dead Italy 74. From
Misurata we immediately struck west into Zliten, soon winning the battle on
3 July. Loss of 24 vs 167 enemy.
On
11 July, II Motorized struck Tripoli and held by the 13th
All we had to do now was round up the hungry and weak. 74,033 Italian dead or captured to our losses at about 500 men. Our armor is good in North Africa - if only it was on the fields of Europe.
On
28 July We sent our NAVs from Bengasi to port-strike Siracusa, each group sank sub-flotillas. Once we get the RM down in the Med, the German raiders now having a “happy time” in our home-waters are going to run into a lot more angry, experienced RN warships.
East-Africa
It was decided to send a less fuel consuming x2Mot Corps down to
Berbera. If possible Lt. General Beck would first reclaim the french port of
Obock and then move on
Edd. He could not keep both so
Edd was priority and if taken, Italy would lose it’s only port on the east coast of Africa. Beck won battles in
Zeila 15 dead 141 killed and then took
Obock; we lost 6, the enemy 42 in the French town.
Edd was taken on 16 July without loss. And a small convoy started.
On
26 June we attacked from
Mombasa into
Lamu but were soon defeated by the river losing 260 men to 199. The attack was called off because we did not want to lose
Mombasa. We must be patient.
Home-Command
* We began having dogfights over
channel-ports. In
Dover we wondered what the Luftwaffe was up to? but we soon learned the remnant of the Polish Navy was repairing there.
* Grim times at home. We keep finding German subs but are sinking none now.
* Late on
26 July, CA Exeter, and three CLs, Durban, Emerald & Despatch (an HK squadron)were all lost in
Galway Bay when a German surface fleet led by BC Schlesien and CA Hipper was met. This was terrible news since losing this entire sub-hunting group further damages our efforts to win the convoy war. BBs Ramallies and Resolution were sent to the now dangerous sea-zone and once 1st Cruiser repairs, that fleet will patrol around Scapa-flow.
The
26th again proved a terrible day for the RN at home. The Deutchland was found sailing alone but before it could be sank it escaped to
Dieppe. Then, in the
Northern Celtic Shelf, Admiral Donitz commanding BC Schlesien, Pocket-BB Scharnhorst CA Hipper & CLs Koln and Konigsberg, that had earlier that day destroyed our 4 ship HK squadron to the north, found another 3 ship HK squadron of ours. We sent everything at this fleet but lost a DD squadron. In trying to get our two damaged ships home, a Norwegian fleet became mixed-up in the contest and we lost another DD while Norway lost the CA KNM Eidsvold and one of their DD Groups. The only German loss on this rampage was CL Koln. The Capetown made it to Glasgow but was more a floating water-logged tub than a CL. We sent everything to track this fleet down but without success.
* On
30 June CL Capetown was added to a new HK group but would need repairs first.
* Norway remains quiet. Three Infantry-brigades have joined our MOT in the capitol.
* We have had to wait a long time for BB Prince of Wales...maybe by Christmas?
*
8 July German bombers hit our port of
Hull. Our Norway-transport fleet was there and had to re-base at
Rosyth in Scotland; the docks at
Hull received moderate damage. Also, air-battles over the Channel are increasing but so far the RAF is holding its own.
* On
27 July, with both now available, we began building SpART & AC brigades to improve our wheeled units. We need so damned many! But must build them in series...one at a time. Convoys, DDs and Fighters are without question, top-priority and we need to build so much else! Goodness me.
* We finally researched
Schwerpunkt 2 so it and also
Blitzkrieg 3 are both being pursued.
* By the
end of July, Dover, Malta and Singapore all received better Radar...that effort continues.
* We still seriously lack GARs. A few are in queue and one is currently deploying at
Alexandria and another making the long voyage to
Calcutta.
* As of
8 August we only give 10 LL to Norway.
With all the sinkings and the newly added convoys to 6 ports we are down to
40 free. We have 100 convoys coming on
19 August, I hope they make it in time and another 50 coming
6 Oct.. We are already at “minimum convoy status” and can pare nothing except supply routes. With the complete capture of North Africa we can now gain back several but we need to create a much larger cushion.
Britain stands alone with 184 brigades.
- Story to follow soon.
