On the latter part you are very right. Both Rome and Bucharest have a list of people they want to "talk" to.
A New Balance
- Thread starter Jim Smitty
- Start date
Battle of the Strait of Otranto Part II
HMS Sealion
Straits of Otranto
April 5th 1939
Even through the British had been the nation during the interwar period who had pushed the hardest for restrictions on submarines didn’t keep them from building them. Then again, the Royal Navy had to find ways to be able to defend a number of oceans and seas from the Americans, Germans, the French, and Italians. Not an easy task even more so since they have to follow international treaties on capital ship tonnage. Even more so that some boats would work well in some areas and not others. The Mediterranean Sea was a critical life line in the British system and the massive Y Class Submarines[1] didn’t cut the mustard in the Mediterranean. It was where the S Class submarines came in.
The S Class was one of the smaller submarine classes currently in service with the Royal Navy. They had been designed from the word go with the idea they would primary be operating in either the Mediterranean or the North Sea. They handle fairly good in those restricted waters, but the problem was there wasn’t enough of them. HM Treasury had told the Royal Navy it couldn’t had everything it wanted. What happened was the Admiralty had decided to reduce submarine programs to allow for increase battleship production. Well that had been prior to the start of the war. With a war on the Exchequer was writing blank checks now, but it would take time to get the newly approve units into the fleet leaving only 18 S Class boats for action between the North Sea and Mediterranean.
HMS Sealion was one of one four S Class boats assigned to the Mediterranean. The rest were currently assigned to operations in the North Sea. They working with either relics from the Great War or boats designed to operate either in the Atlantic or Indian Oceans. But then again the Royal Navy was overstretched already as one of the keys they had been counted on had broken ties with the Empire. However, once they win this war there were plans do deal with the treason of the Imperial Federation. At the moment, they had to focus on knocking Germany and her allies out of the war. It was why she had been assigned to operate in the Adriatic.
It was hoped that the Italians would be less guarded in the Adriatic since the collapse of the Austro Hungarian Empire. They had to hurt the small Italian merchant fleet and attacking their convoys from Italian Libya to Europe was a challenge. So it was hoping the Adriatic would be a better hunting ground. However, what the Sealion and her crew found as they were crossing the Straits of Otranto was something very different. Unknown to them they had ran across the rear part of the Italian fleet that was being used to support the invasion of Corfu.
The Italians had two forces for the invasion of Corfu. The first was being led by the Roma Class Battleships which were the best battleships the Italians had. Then they had the older Andrea Doria Class and other older ships covering the rear part of the fleet. This was to keep the units under the protection of the Roma Class safe if the British or Greeks found the rear of the fleet. The Andrea Doria class had been slated to be modernized come 1941 or 42 once the Ammiraglio di Saint Class was ready to be commissioned. However the war ended that idea. So they were covering the tail end of this fleet.
After putting their boat into position the Sealion launched a full spread of torpedoes Caio Duilio. With the S Class having six tubes forward meant a full spread that major power behind it. True it wasn’t the power of the Y Class, but six torpedoes wasn’t nothing to laugh at either. Of the six torpedoes, three of them found their mark of the Caio Duilio. The Sealion would come away with only light shock damage after four hours of depth charging by Italian destroyers. The Caio Duilio through wasn’t as lucky as she took major damage from all three torpedo hits. It was only due to a super human effort by her crew that she made it back to port. This was largely thanks to the interwar years training of damage control and putting time into making the Italian Fleet a fleet that could change the British for control of the Med in wartime instead of banking on the idea of being a fleet in being.
[1] The Y Class is a truly massive bastard of a submarine. 12 tubes forward (8 are reloadable, 4 are external), 4 tubes aft, 4 inch deck gun. Basically the British Fleet Submarine
Straits of Otranto
April 5th 1939
Even through the British had been the nation during the interwar period who had pushed the hardest for restrictions on submarines didn’t keep them from building them. Then again, the Royal Navy had to find ways to be able to defend a number of oceans and seas from the Americans, Germans, the French, and Italians. Not an easy task even more so since they have to follow international treaties on capital ship tonnage. Even more so that some boats would work well in some areas and not others. The Mediterranean Sea was a critical life line in the British system and the massive Y Class Submarines[1] didn’t cut the mustard in the Mediterranean. It was where the S Class submarines came in.
The S Class was one of the smaller submarine classes currently in service with the Royal Navy. They had been designed from the word go with the idea they would primary be operating in either the Mediterranean or the North Sea. They handle fairly good in those restricted waters, but the problem was there wasn’t enough of them. HM Treasury had told the Royal Navy it couldn’t had everything it wanted. What happened was the Admiralty had decided to reduce submarine programs to allow for increase battleship production. Well that had been prior to the start of the war. With a war on the Exchequer was writing blank checks now, but it would take time to get the newly approve units into the fleet leaving only 18 S Class boats for action between the North Sea and Mediterranean.
HMS Sealion was one of one four S Class boats assigned to the Mediterranean. The rest were currently assigned to operations in the North Sea. They working with either relics from the Great War or boats designed to operate either in the Atlantic or Indian Oceans. But then again the Royal Navy was overstretched already as one of the keys they had been counted on had broken ties with the Empire. However, once they win this war there were plans do deal with the treason of the Imperial Federation. At the moment, they had to focus on knocking Germany and her allies out of the war. It was why she had been assigned to operate in the Adriatic.
It was hoped that the Italians would be less guarded in the Adriatic since the collapse of the Austro Hungarian Empire. They had to hurt the small Italian merchant fleet and attacking their convoys from Italian Libya to Europe was a challenge. So it was hoping the Adriatic would be a better hunting ground. However, what the Sealion and her crew found as they were crossing the Straits of Otranto was something very different. Unknown to them they had ran across the rear part of the Italian fleet that was being used to support the invasion of Corfu.
The Italians had two forces for the invasion of Corfu. The first was being led by the Roma Class Battleships which were the best battleships the Italians had. Then they had the older Andrea Doria Class and other older ships covering the rear part of the fleet. This was to keep the units under the protection of the Roma Class safe if the British or Greeks found the rear of the fleet. The Andrea Doria class had been slated to be modernized come 1941 or 42 once the Ammiraglio di Saint Class was ready to be commissioned. However the war ended that idea. So they were covering the tail end of this fleet.
After putting their boat into position the Sealion launched a full spread of torpedoes Caio Duilio. With the S Class having six tubes forward meant a full spread that major power behind it. True it wasn’t the power of the Y Class, but six torpedoes wasn’t nothing to laugh at either. Of the six torpedoes, three of them found their mark of the Caio Duilio. The Sealion would come away with only light shock damage after four hours of depth charging by Italian destroyers. The Caio Duilio through wasn’t as lucky as she took major damage from all three torpedo hits. It was only due to a super human effort by her crew that she made it back to port. This was largely thanks to the interwar years training of damage control and putting time into making the Italian Fleet a fleet that could change the British for control of the Med in wartime instead of banking on the idea of being a fleet in being.
[1] The Y Class is a truly massive bastard of a submarine. 12 tubes forward (8 are reloadable, 4 are external), 4 tubes aft, 4 inch deck gun. Basically the British Fleet Submarine
The Y Class is an enlarged OTL T-Class, and it does have handing issues, but at a 12 shot spread is worth it to the British.
Battle of the Strait of Otranto Part III
Taranto
Regia Marina Naval Base, Command Post
April 5th 1939
Ammiraglio Salvatore Bertoldo was currently in the watching the naval board on the table before him. He was the mastermind behind Operation Princeps which was currently in Operation Actium phase. The Actium phase of Princeps was the most critical phase of Actium. Once Corfu was in Italian hands they would have the ability to give air cover at much closer range than what could be offer. It also gave him a base of operations before putting an assault Vlore. However he already had bad news as the Caio Duilio had been torpedoed and from the reports he had seen its most likely a total lost if it made it back to port. He however was waiting for word on Ammiraglio di Squadra Duilio Ottaviano who had reported contact with the Greek fleet but so far had been limited contact with the Ottaviano since the first reports.
As Bertoldo was waiting for a further report from Ottaviano his mind was going over the intelligence reports he had on the Greek Navy. The Greek Navy wasn’t spending a lot of time at sea prior to the war. Rumor in intelligence circles were the Greeks were going through another bankruptcy and they were going through a fight with British Banks over how to make their budget stable. The Greeks have bad histories defaulting on loans and it was in another default cycle right now. So the Greek Navy was currently not in the best shape training wise. This idea was being confirmed by the Italian Air Force as it was reporting the Greek Air Force was out of shape even through it was flying modern aircraft that were the equal to the Italian Aircraft being flown in this war. The Italian Army wasn’t confirming this through. Then again it’s a lot easier to train soldiers for little money than it was pilots and sailors.
Then a radio operator hand Bertoldo a teletype. “Vittoria!” He calls out. The landing operations were behind schedule but they would be starting in the next hour. But Ottaviano was claiming victory in this teletype that Bertoldo was reading. One Greek Battleship was sinking, the other was limping home. Two more Greek light cruisers and a Greek destroyer were sunk with more damaged. Ottaviano was claiming only mild damage to his ships save for a trio of destroyers. One was sinking the other two were in danger of sinking. Ottaviano could had a greater victory if he would had given chase, but his job wasn’t done so he allowed the Greeks to escape for now.
Regia Marina Naval Base, Command Post
April 5th 1939
Ammiraglio Salvatore Bertoldo was currently in the watching the naval board on the table before him. He was the mastermind behind Operation Princeps which was currently in Operation Actium phase. The Actium phase of Princeps was the most critical phase of Actium. Once Corfu was in Italian hands they would have the ability to give air cover at much closer range than what could be offer. It also gave him a base of operations before putting an assault Vlore. However he already had bad news as the Caio Duilio had been torpedoed and from the reports he had seen its most likely a total lost if it made it back to port. He however was waiting for word on Ammiraglio di Squadra Duilio Ottaviano who had reported contact with the Greek fleet but so far had been limited contact with the Ottaviano since the first reports.
As Bertoldo was waiting for a further report from Ottaviano his mind was going over the intelligence reports he had on the Greek Navy. The Greek Navy wasn’t spending a lot of time at sea prior to the war. Rumor in intelligence circles were the Greeks were going through another bankruptcy and they were going through a fight with British Banks over how to make their budget stable. The Greeks have bad histories defaulting on loans and it was in another default cycle right now. So the Greek Navy was currently not in the best shape training wise. This idea was being confirmed by the Italian Air Force as it was reporting the Greek Air Force was out of shape even through it was flying modern aircraft that were the equal to the Italian Aircraft being flown in this war. The Italian Army wasn’t confirming this through. Then again it’s a lot easier to train soldiers for little money than it was pilots and sailors.
Then a radio operator hand Bertoldo a teletype. “Vittoria!” He calls out. The landing operations were behind schedule but they would be starting in the next hour. But Ottaviano was claiming victory in this teletype that Bertoldo was reading. One Greek Battleship was sinking, the other was limping home. Two more Greek light cruisers and a Greek destroyer were sunk with more damaged. Ottaviano was claiming only mild damage to his ships save for a trio of destroyers. One was sinking the other two were in danger of sinking. Ottaviano could had a greater victory if he would had given chase, but his job wasn’t done so he allowed the Greeks to escape for now.
Point of No Return
Bern
Federal Palace
April 7th 1939
The Federal Chancellor of Switzerland was looking at the ambassadors of the Third French Empire and the Italian Kingdom. Standing beside them was the Charges from the German and Belgian Embassy. The German ambassador might been standing here but on one key point, the man was dead now. He had been assassinated yesterday. It was just the latest in a string of attacks on diplomatic personal from these nations. Then had been other attacks on their economic live lines as well. A week ago an explosion destroyed the Lötschberg Tunnel which at the time had a German train bound to Italy filled with coal. If he had any guess they were over it.
Unknown to any man in the room through a few had their hunches this was all the work of the OGPU. Switzerland had been prior to the war a favorite base of operation for the OGPU because Switzerland lacked a counterintelligence arm and the nations that border Switzerland respected Swiss neutrality. As such they used Switzerland as their base of operations to run major operations out of. It only took a few changes to their standard operation procedure to allow them to perform these operations. Now they were simply running wild in Switzerland.
The French Ambassador took the lead, “Monsieur Couchepin, the lack of internal security within your nation is deplorable. Our diplomats are targeted by gunmen at will in your nation. Our economic interest are attacked by unknown persons. The situation is simply deplorable and must change and change now.”
Noticing the insult of calling him monsieur instead by his proper title, Federal Chancellor Couchepin tried to counterpunch, “I can give you my word that the Federal Police is doing everything in their power to bring these anarchist to justice Monsieur.”
“Your best is not good enough.” The German Charge spoke in perfect French. “Its been almost two months since the first attack on our diplomats and not the first person is in prison. Now our citizens have been caught in the cross hair of these so called anarchist. The body count is rapidly climbing yet your Federal Police do nothing Monsieur! Even a half blind feldgendarmerie could had found these people where they could be rotting in jail now!” The German Charge was not in the best mental state as the ambassador was his friend and godfather to his children.
The French Ambassador took back over, “As my German friend has stated, we have no faith in your Federal Police at this point Monsieur.”
At that point a chill when down the spine of the Federal Chancellor Couchepin. “Unless you do something about this in the next 72 hours we will take matters into our own hands Monsieur.”
Federal Palace
April 7th 1939
The Federal Chancellor of Switzerland was looking at the ambassadors of the Third French Empire and the Italian Kingdom. Standing beside them was the Charges from the German and Belgian Embassy. The German ambassador might been standing here but on one key point, the man was dead now. He had been assassinated yesterday. It was just the latest in a string of attacks on diplomatic personal from these nations. Then had been other attacks on their economic live lines as well. A week ago an explosion destroyed the Lötschberg Tunnel which at the time had a German train bound to Italy filled with coal. If he had any guess they were over it.
Unknown to any man in the room through a few had their hunches this was all the work of the OGPU. Switzerland had been prior to the war a favorite base of operation for the OGPU because Switzerland lacked a counterintelligence arm and the nations that border Switzerland respected Swiss neutrality. As such they used Switzerland as their base of operations to run major operations out of. It only took a few changes to their standard operation procedure to allow them to perform these operations. Now they were simply running wild in Switzerland.
The French Ambassador took the lead, “Monsieur Couchepin, the lack of internal security within your nation is deplorable. Our diplomats are targeted by gunmen at will in your nation. Our economic interest are attacked by unknown persons. The situation is simply deplorable and must change and change now.”
Noticing the insult of calling him monsieur instead by his proper title, Federal Chancellor Couchepin tried to counterpunch, “I can give you my word that the Federal Police is doing everything in their power to bring these anarchist to justice Monsieur.”
“Your best is not good enough.” The German Charge spoke in perfect French. “Its been almost two months since the first attack on our diplomats and not the first person is in prison. Now our citizens have been caught in the cross hair of these so called anarchist. The body count is rapidly climbing yet your Federal Police do nothing Monsieur! Even a half blind feldgendarmerie could had found these people where they could be rotting in jail now!” The German Charge was not in the best mental state as the ambassador was his friend and godfather to his children.
The French Ambassador took back over, “As my German friend has stated, we have no faith in your Federal Police at this point Monsieur.”
At that point a chill when down the spine of the Federal Chancellor Couchepin. “Unless you do something about this in the next 72 hours we will take matters into our own hands Monsieur.”
Something tells me that Germany, France and Italy may invade and divide Switzerland between themselves along linguistic lines.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
Are they really thinking of invading the Swiss? Because even Hitler realized that was a bad idea(along with other more monetary reasons as well). I'm hoping all they push for is having their intelligence services take over with full authority which I could see the Swiss actually agreeing to. Maybe even having to still pay for the investigation as well. Though I could also see the Chancellor telling them that they could just pull out all their diplomats and such until the soviets are caught. Yes a potentially disastrous move especially economically but it could save the nation.
Cryostorm
Monthly Donor
That may be true, but that was one nation that was already occupying more land than itself had, if all three nations that bordered Switzerland decided they wanted it gone there is not much it could do about it in the long run. Swiss independence relies on not being worth the effort and having nations willing to help in an attack, but since every nation willing to help is already at war with said neighbors that threat is not what it used to be.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
True but until Smitty says otherwise we have to be under the assumption this is still the same(or close to it) Switzerland, that when asked what would happen if an army of a million Germans soldiers were to invade and be opposed by 500 thousand swiss soldiers that the would "shoot twice and go home".
I think there's actually an effective way to beat Switzerland in a war if the Central Powers are choosing to go that route. All they need to do is simply institute a total blockade of the country. Nothing gets in or out on both land and in the air. With Austria being annexed by Germany the Swiss are bordered on all sides by the central powers. Switzerland is an export-heavy nation due to the rough terrain and Switzerland has not yet become a prime center of the global economy. If you blockade them and bomb the hell out of the Swiss using the Luffwaffte, French Air Force, and Regia Aeronautica, then Switzerland will get economically crippled and surrender within less than a year.
Well, Germany and co. think that they are in a good position...and more or less at the moment they are right and so they can concentrate in the switzerland problem. Frankly i doubt that anybody want to really invade the place, too problematic and it's also an important economic patner to all bordering nation.
Said that, IMVHO with the looming hostilities with the URSS and patners nobody want a nation descended in chaos right in the middle of the three allied nation; so the menace is exactely what they said: Resolve the situation otherwise we send troops to do your job and they will be a lot less nice than your policemen...not we are searching an excuse to invade and divide the nation.
Probably there will be an official offer to sent help regarding the investigation...and the Swiss goverment will be extremely pressured to take it otherwise there will be consequence.
Said that, IMVHO with the looming hostilities with the URSS and patners nobody want a nation descended in chaos right in the middle of the three allied nation; so the menace is exactely what they said: Resolve the situation otherwise we send troops to do your job and they will be a lot less nice than your policemen...not we are searching an excuse to invade and divide the nation.
Probably there will be an official offer to sent help regarding the investigation...and the Swiss goverment will be extremely pressured to take it otherwise there will be consequence.
The Swiss still love their accuracy as somethings never change, but they are lacking AFVs and a modern AF. Well they were trying to fix the latter when the war started and found their aircraft orders being taken over by the nations that were building said aircraft.
And Like @Kaiser Chris said, air power is key to winning any war against the Swiss.
If there is going to be a war against the Swiss stay tune...
Not to same degree as per OTL. There was no crack down on Jewish peoples as per OTL. So they are still keeping their money in their own nations instead of running stuff to foreign banks. The Swiss however still have major banking operations ITL.
In need of some input here.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/next-major-timeline-project.428522/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/next-major-timeline-project.428522/
Operation Panther
London
10 Downing Street
April 9 1939
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was listening to his admirals brief him on Operation Panther. Panther was their plan to invade Norway, one of the few nations who weren’t in this cluster fuck of a war that was being fought right now. It was only one of three European nations not in the war but it owned the critically important port of Narvik. It was this port that allowed the Swedish to supply the German war machine iron ore during the winter months. Granted the Baltic Sea was thawing out right now, but everyone in this room knew it would take more than a year to end this war with the Germans. Further control of Narvik would help defend the convoys to Murmansk and Archangelsk. Those convoys were running machine goods to the Soviets who in turn was paying for those machine goods with resources. Then there was it would allow the British to strike at Sweden and possibly knock Sweden back on its feet if not force the Swedish out of the war.
Further Norway was home to one of the few molybdenite mines in Europe. It was a resource that was critical to armor production and high strength steel production. The primary source of molybdenite for the British currently was the Imperial Federation, but they had been increasing difficult to work with every passing week. Further the US was making a bit to take control those shipments by out bidding the British for those resource even through pre-war the US accounted for over 60% of the world’s molybdenite production. The only other mines of molybdenite that wasn’t controlled by someone the British were fighting where in the Soviet Union. But even the Soviets could only spare so much molybdenite. This gave the molybdenite mines at Knaben even more importance as the British needed more molybdenite than it was currently imported to feed its war machine. Granted the Norwegians were selling molybdenite to the British but at inflated cost. Since the start of the war the price of ton of molybdenite ore from Knaben had more than tripled and was still going up.
Then there was the geo-political factor. Denmark already have caved to demands from Berlin. They had officially turned over control of Bornholm to the Swedish. On paper they had handed over control of the Faroe Islands to the Germans. Then they had entered the war against them. This had started after they had occupied the Faroe Islands. They however were claiming that the Germans were using the Faroe Islands as a resupply point for their submarines and that Germans had broken Danish neutrality first. Very few people outside the British alliance was believing that story at the moment.
Beside what has happened in Denmark, Switzerland was about to be invaded as well. To the British what was happening in Switzerland was a mystery but frankly they didn’t care. From the intelligence reports they were seeing the Belgians, French, Italians, and Germans had been moving troops and aircraft to their borders with the Swiss. They were getting intelligence reports the Swiss were mobilizing their army as the demands from the Belgians, French, Italians, and Germans ended tomorrow. That demand was find the bastards who were attacking them in Swiss territory or our troops will do it for you. The Swiss were stating they were looking for these people but they weren’t about to allow foreign troops have police powers in Switzerland. So it was looking like they were on a crash course to a war.
The key to Operation Panther was what was the Swedish Army doing. The Norwegians had only partly mobilized since the start of this clusterfuck of a war. Their equipment was outdated, badly outdated in a number of cases. So it was really coming down to the Swedish Army. And their intelligence put the bulk of the Swedish Army around Stockholm getting ready to deploy to Grand Duchy of the Baltic to help fight the Soviets. That accounted for over half of their army. Another quarter or so of their army was in Norrbotten County setting up a defensive line there incase the Finnish fell to the Soviets. The rest of it was spread out on the long Norwegian-Swedish border and garrison duty on the Gotland and the Aland Islands. That meant it would take a while before the Swedish Army could come into play.
Churchill was listening to the plans. It called for division size lands at Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, and Stavanger. There were smaller landing forces elsewhere in Norway. Then it called for these forces linking up and attacking Oslo. It would also force the Kaiserliche Marine to sortie to defeat these landing efforts. They believe they could defeat the Kaiserliche Marine in a battle of control of the North Sea. This would free up units to go retake control of the central and western Mediterranean. Then with Europe defeated they might be able to sue for something like Status Quo Peace terms with the Americans. Or that was the thinking of the admirals who had come up with Operation Panther.
After listing to the admirals who came up with Operation Panther Churchill reached for his humidor. He opened it and pulled out a Honduras cigar. He took a pair of cigar cutters and placed the tip in the trash before lilting a match to smoke it. After taking a few puffs off the cigar he made up his mind on Operation Panther. “How long before can you launch Operation Panther?”
“By the end of the month sir.”
“Very well launch Operation Panther.”
10 Downing Street
April 9 1939
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was listening to his admirals brief him on Operation Panther. Panther was their plan to invade Norway, one of the few nations who weren’t in this cluster fuck of a war that was being fought right now. It was only one of three European nations not in the war but it owned the critically important port of Narvik. It was this port that allowed the Swedish to supply the German war machine iron ore during the winter months. Granted the Baltic Sea was thawing out right now, but everyone in this room knew it would take more than a year to end this war with the Germans. Further control of Narvik would help defend the convoys to Murmansk and Archangelsk. Those convoys were running machine goods to the Soviets who in turn was paying for those machine goods with resources. Then there was it would allow the British to strike at Sweden and possibly knock Sweden back on its feet if not force the Swedish out of the war.
Further Norway was home to one of the few molybdenite mines in Europe. It was a resource that was critical to armor production and high strength steel production. The primary source of molybdenite for the British currently was the Imperial Federation, but they had been increasing difficult to work with every passing week. Further the US was making a bit to take control those shipments by out bidding the British for those resource even through pre-war the US accounted for over 60% of the world’s molybdenite production. The only other mines of molybdenite that wasn’t controlled by someone the British were fighting where in the Soviet Union. But even the Soviets could only spare so much molybdenite. This gave the molybdenite mines at Knaben even more importance as the British needed more molybdenite than it was currently imported to feed its war machine. Granted the Norwegians were selling molybdenite to the British but at inflated cost. Since the start of the war the price of ton of molybdenite ore from Knaben had more than tripled and was still going up.
Then there was the geo-political factor. Denmark already have caved to demands from Berlin. They had officially turned over control of Bornholm to the Swedish. On paper they had handed over control of the Faroe Islands to the Germans. Then they had entered the war against them. This had started after they had occupied the Faroe Islands. They however were claiming that the Germans were using the Faroe Islands as a resupply point for their submarines and that Germans had broken Danish neutrality first. Very few people outside the British alliance was believing that story at the moment.
Beside what has happened in Denmark, Switzerland was about to be invaded as well. To the British what was happening in Switzerland was a mystery but frankly they didn’t care. From the intelligence reports they were seeing the Belgians, French, Italians, and Germans had been moving troops and aircraft to their borders with the Swiss. They were getting intelligence reports the Swiss were mobilizing their army as the demands from the Belgians, French, Italians, and Germans ended tomorrow. That demand was find the bastards who were attacking them in Swiss territory or our troops will do it for you. The Swiss were stating they were looking for these people but they weren’t about to allow foreign troops have police powers in Switzerland. So it was looking like they were on a crash course to a war.
The key to Operation Panther was what was the Swedish Army doing. The Norwegians had only partly mobilized since the start of this clusterfuck of a war. Their equipment was outdated, badly outdated in a number of cases. So it was really coming down to the Swedish Army. And their intelligence put the bulk of the Swedish Army around Stockholm getting ready to deploy to Grand Duchy of the Baltic to help fight the Soviets. That accounted for over half of their army. Another quarter or so of their army was in Norrbotten County setting up a defensive line there incase the Finnish fell to the Soviets. The rest of it was spread out on the long Norwegian-Swedish border and garrison duty on the Gotland and the Aland Islands. That meant it would take a while before the Swedish Army could come into play.
Churchill was listening to the plans. It called for division size lands at Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, and Stavanger. There were smaller landing forces elsewhere in Norway. Then it called for these forces linking up and attacking Oslo. It would also force the Kaiserliche Marine to sortie to defeat these landing efforts. They believe they could defeat the Kaiserliche Marine in a battle of control of the North Sea. This would free up units to go retake control of the central and western Mediterranean. Then with Europe defeated they might be able to sue for something like Status Quo Peace terms with the Americans. Or that was the thinking of the admirals who had come up with Operation Panther.
After listing to the admirals who came up with Operation Panther Churchill reached for his humidor. He opened it and pulled out a Honduras cigar. He took a pair of cigar cutters and placed the tip in the trash before lilting a match to smoke it. After taking a few puffs off the cigar he made up his mind on Operation Panther. “How long before can you launch Operation Panther?”
“By the end of the month sir.”
“Very well launch Operation Panther.”