Defending the Realm

Chapter One: Opening Moves
  • Hello all, I've been visiting this forum for quite a while now and I have decided to start my own timeline. So, without further ado, I present to you the first entry of my timeline, Defending the Realm.

    ***
    On June the 22nd 1940, the French Republic signed an armistice with Nazi Germany, leading to a German occupation of Northern France, an Italian occupation of the South East, and a rump French state, known as Vichy France, in the South, led by Philip Pétain – once a French war hero, now a collaborator with Hitler’s regime. This left only one power at war with Germany – the British Empire and Commonwealth.

    In the final days of the Battle of France, shortly after the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) at Dunkirk and before the fall of Paul Reynaud’s Government, Winston Churchill, recently appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, gave a speech to the House of Commons, declaring: ‘We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender’. This, more than anything, gave a clear indication that Britain would continue to fight Germany and Italy (known collectively as the Axis Powers, while Britain and her allies were known as the Allied Powers throughout the war) until they came out triumphant. In spite of this, however, the Nazi Government initially sent terms to Britain – these were quickly rejected by the determined British Government, and so the Second World War continued.

    In Berlin, Hitler ordered the preparation of an invasion of Britain, so as to conquer the United Kingdom and bring the war forcibly to an end. This plan, known as Operation Sealion, was incredibly demanding, and required many factors to be in place for it to be remotely feasible – most importantly, the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force) required air superiority over the English Channel and Southern Britain, so as to allow the invasion force to cross. This would never happen, so long as the British Royal Air Force (RAF) continued to hold supremacy over the Home Islands, and so Hitler ordered Hermann Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, to launch an aerial campaign over Britain to achieve air superiority.

    The subsequent aerial campaign became known as the Campaign in the Air, the first phase of the Battle of Britain. During the Campaign in the Air, the RAF and the Luftwaffe fought each other over the skies of Britain, in an event which would determine the eventual outcome of the Battle. The first phase of the aerial conflict, known as Kanalkampf, began on July the 10th, and saw the Luftwaffe organise bombing raids on British shipping in the Channel – the Germans were able to damage many convoys and other ships, yet as the aerial combat began to move on land, the tide began to turn in the RAF’s favour. During fighting above Southern England, the RAF held numerous advantages – for example, the Dowding System (named after Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding) allowed the RAF to quickly move to an area which was under threat, while RAF plans were able to fly flexibly while the Luftwaffe was in a strict formation, which hindered its ability to respond to RAF attacks. These advantages (along with several others) enabled the aircraft of the RAF, primarily the the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire, to defeat the aircraft of the Luftwaffe, primarily Messchermitt fighters and Juncker bombers, when the two sides entered combat. With these numerous advantages, the Campaign in the Air ended in a British victory, culminating with the Action of September the 15th, which saw the RAF, under the command of Keith Park, decisively defeat the Luftwaffe in a large-scale aerial battle. Following September the 15th, the Luftwaffe campaign was called off, and thus Britain had retained air superiority over the Channel and the Home Islands.

    In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in the War of the Air, Hitler was furious with Goering for failing to secure control of the skies, yet the Führer did not abandon his plans for Sealion. Since the Fall of France, Hitler had considered himself something of a military genius, and the Luftwaffe’s defeat had done nothing to bring down the hubris he had gained since entering Paris. In addition to this, Hitler was determined to strike east at his main enemy, the Soviet Union, and, in his mind, the only way to do this was to neutralise Britain first – regardless of the cost. This was something which the German leader speculated on for several days, until, on September the 21st, he came to the fateful, and largely misguided, decision that air superiority was not needed for Sealion to go ahead, and simply landing an army in Britain would be enough to scare the British Government into requesting terms. Historians have en masse criticised Hitler’s thinking in the past, and will inevitably do so in the future, so this work will not focus on something which has already been explained heavily elsewhere. When Hitler ordered Sealion to be launched, his generals initially urged their leader to re-consider, as such an invasion was impractical, especially since RAF control of the skies had not only been sustained, but reinforced. Yet Hitler refused to heed the advice he was given, insisting that the Luftwaffe was still in a position to combat the RAF while the battle took place, and so his generals, aware of what outright protest against the Führer would bring, reluctantly agreed to launch the plan.
     
    Chapter Two: Fighting on the Beaches
  • On September the 28th, the German Armada set off from several ports along Northern France and Belgium – Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Le Havre, and Cherbourg, with specific landing points designated across Southern England. Yet the vast majority of these forces would not land, for the British Royal Navy was quick to confront the invasion fleet – this triggered the second phase of the Battle of Britain, the Channel Campaign. As the landing vessels attempted to cross, Royal Navy ships continually bombarded them from sea, while the RAF launched a bombing campaign from the skies to assist the attack on the German fleet. Many German transports, barges, tugs, trawlers and motor-boats were crippled by the combined air-sea bombardment, and an even greater number were sunk to the bottom of the Channel. The Channel Campaign lasted throughout the day, and saw the invasion force devastated by the bombardment, while the ships which found themselves able to continue forward were slowed down significantly by the need to avoid bombs from the sky or from across the waves. Meanwhile, the numerous Luftwaffe planes carrying paratrooper regiments were mostly shot down by RAF planes which were not deployed in the bombing campaign. Thus, the Channel Campaign was, like the Campaign in the Air, a decisive victory for Britain.

    Eventually, in the evening of the 28th, a couple of German divisions from the 16th Army were able to make landfall along a few beaches in Kent, near Hythe, while a single paratrooper regiment landed near Brighton, and a single division from the 6th Army landed on a beach near Weymouth. Yet the British Army was quick to respond to the German invasion – the Southern Command, overseen by Lieutenant General Claude Auchinleck, had the V Corps under Bernard Montgomery and the VIII Corps under Harold Franklyn immediately march to the coast when news of the German crossing reached Britain. These corps were reinforced by troops from other areas of Britain, along with the Home Guard, which found itself preparing for the event which its members had been trained for since the guard’s creation. Immediately after the German soldiers stepped off of their landing craft, British troops began to open fire.

    At Brighton, the bulk of the German paratrooper forces were defeated quickly by British regulars and Home Guard troops nearby - yet some paratroopers were able to escape the battle and retreated into the English countryside, eventually being uncovered and arrested by British authorities in the days and weeks after the Battle. Meanwhile, at Weymouth, after an hour of fighting, the remnants of the German division were forced to surrender in the face of significant British pressure. Yet the heaviest fighting occurred along the Kentish beaches, where German forces came along in several waves and were defeated by British troops who were positioned at the top of the beach. Eventually, after several hours of fighting, and almost at dusk, the remaining German troops agreed to surrender – thereby ending the three final campaigns of the Battle of Britain (the Battle of Brighton, the Battle of Weymouth, and the Battle of Hythe). This brought the Battle of Britain to an end, in an overwhelming British victory – the threat of a German invasion had been vanquished and repulsed, at relatively minimal cost for Britain and at a significant cost for Germany.

    The Battle of Britain, in particular the Channel Campaign and the battles along the English Coast, resulted in heavy casualties and damage for the German military. Roughly 100,000 German troops were sent to cross the Channel as part of what would have been the invasion's 'first wave' - of these 100,000, 24,561 were killed during the landings while 20,439 were taken prisoner, while, during the Channel Campaign, 43,661 Germans were killed, and a remaining 11,339 troops were able to return to Nazi-controlled Europe. German military equipment and supplies were also heavily damaged during the botched invasion – the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe were heavily damaged in the Channel Campaign (along with the Campaign in the Air for the Luftwaffe). This put an end to Goering’s initial plans for a sustained bombing campaign over Britain, as the Luftwaffe had few plans available which could carry out such a task, while the damage caused to Germany’s surface fleet meant that the Royal Navy and Commonwealth navies could focus entirely on the threat of U-Boats in the Atlantic, without having to deal with a surface fleet.

    By contrast, British forces sustained minimal casualties from the Battle of Britain, particularly during the Channel Campaign and the fighting on the beaches. In the Channel Campaign, few RAF planes or Royal Navy ships were damaged significantly, while in the fighting on the beaches, only 563 Britons were killed and 322 were wounded.

    Both sides responded to the outcome of the Battle of Britain accordingly – in Berlin, Hitler and the Nazi Government looked at the losses sustained by the German military with utter horror. This, combined with the wounded pride and prestige caused by the failure of the invasion led to, for a brief period, speculation emerging that Hitler would be toppled as a result of the result of the battle. Yet such a coup never came, and instead the Nazi Government decided to launch a preemptive strike on the army officers which they believed would pounce at an opportunity to overthrow Hitler. This led to the Second Night of the Long Knives, which saw the SS and Gestapo round up multiple officers on charges of treason, using fabricated evidence to do so, before executing them. Amongst the military leaders executed were Goering and Erich Raeder, who, although not involved in any coup plots, were no longer deemed useful by Hitler, after the two men had overseen the destruction of the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine respectively.

    However, what was seen with horror in Germany was seen with absolute jubilation in Britain. For the British people, the victory in the battle lifted the threat of invasion which had been present since the fall of France, and the British Army had proved that the seemingly unstoppable German war machine could in fact be stopped. In London, people celebrated Britain’s victory in the Battle on the streets, and the country as a whole received a large morale boost - Britain had gave the Wehrmacht its first major defeat of the war, and had defended her home soil in the process. In the Commons, Churchill, who had boosted morale during the fighting by refusing to evacuate from London when news of the German force’s embarkation arrived (thereby setting an example for the rest of the Government to follow), paid respect to the soldiers, airmen and seamen who had defended Britain by declaring in a speech: ‘Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few’. Meanwhile, the Dominions and Britain’s colonies beyond the seas breathed a large sigh of relief.

    Yet both Britain and Germany both recognised that the war was not yet over, and so both sides began preparing their next moves.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Three: The Battle of Dakar
  • Throughout September 1940, the British people’s attention was almost entirely dedicated to the unfolding Battle of Britain. Yet this was not the only major theatre of the war which saw action during that month – in West Africa, British and Free French forces were preparing for an assault on Dakar, the capital of the Vichy French colony of Senegal and a valuable port.

    After the Fall of France in June, the French Empire overseas had entered something of a state of disarray, as France’s colonial governors were unsure as to whom they should declare their allegiance – the Vichy French Government had been established on the mainland, yet the French Resistance under Charles de Gaulle had also been set up in June, meaning there were two possible French entities to which the colonies could declare for. Eventually, most colonial governors decided to declare their support for Vichy France, while only Cameroon and Equatorial Africa decided to take the risky option and join Free France. As a result, the majority of the French Empire was under Axis control, and thus Britain and her allies faced the task of securing control of said colonies (along with the overseas possessions of Italy) to prevent Hitler exploiting them.

    It was decided by British and Free French generals to target the port of Dakar, for numerous reasons. One significant factor was that it would provide the Royal Navy, along with other Commonwealth navies and the ships of the former French navy which had joined Free France, a new base on the Atlantic. Another advantage of securing Dakar was that it could potentially lead to Vichy French control over West Africa unravelling, thereby allowing the Free French to secure a sufficient base of operations to function a government-in-exile. So, in late September, British and Free French forces (assisted by the Australian heavy cruiser HMS Australia).

    Allied forces arrived at Dakar on September the 23rd, and attempts by de Gaulle and the Free French to have the Vichy French administration in Senegal peacefully turn sides quickly failed – this led to the British and Free French naval forces present organise operations to take Dakar by force. While Royal Navy ships confronted the Vichy French fleet present, Free French troops landed at Rufisque, near Dakar, with the intention of advancing towards the city from land. In spite of heavy fire from Vichy French troops, the Free French forces were able to establish a beachhead, and thus began to advance towards Dakar [1].

    Meanwhile, at sea, British forces were able to successfully neutralise the Vichy French ships – several components of the Vichy French fleet were destroyed, including the submarine Bévéziers [2], thereby allowing the Allies to gain naval supremacy surrounding Dakar. Eventually, by the 25th, the battle was over, and de Gaulle’s forces had succeeded advancing towards the port and forcing the Vichy French to retreat – after the capture of Dakar, Pétain’s Government in Vichy gave the order for Senegal to be abandoned as a whole, and thus the Free French gained a new base. Amongst the Free French troops who played a significant part in the capture of Dakar was one Henri Orléans, the Orléanist claimant to the (defunct) French throne, who had joined the French Armed Forces in 1939 and, after the Fall of France, had joined the Free French. This would just be the start of one of several events which would involve Henri before the war came to a closure.

    Following the capture of Dakar (and, by an extension, Senegal as a whole), de Gaulle established a Free French administration for the colony, and, during the rest of September and early October, consultation began between British and Free French officers in Dakar on the Allies’ next move in West Africa, and the potential capture of the rest of the Vichy French colonies in the region - a goal which seemed close to fruition, given the troops available to the Allies now that Britain no longer needed to focus the majority of its resources on defending the British Isles.

    ***​

    [1] In our timeline, the Free French landing was partly hindered by fog, which caused it to fail. In this timeline, no such fog occurs, and thus the landing is a success.

    [2] In our timeline, this submarine torpedoed the British battleship HMS Resolution, causing significant damage to it – in this timeline, it is destroyed before then, and thus Resolution remains in service throughout the battle, thereby giving extra support to the Allies.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Four: British Response and Operation Compass
  • After the last German troops surrendered and thus the Battle of Britain came to a close, the British Government under Churchill began to plan the Empire’s next move – Germany had been significantly damaged by the botched invasion, and thus Britain had numerous options for how to proceed forward. While plans were drawn up by Britain’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, however, political events were also taking place in the Home Islands.

    Had the war not occurred, then a general election would have been scheduled for either 1939 and 1940 – yet the outbreak of war, and the subsequent threat of invasion, led to Acts of Parliament being passed which prolonged the existing Parliament’s lifetime, allowing the Government to focus entirely on the war effort. However, now that Britain was free from the possibility of invasion and secured, many voices in both Parliament and the Government began to suggest that a general election should take place – after all, if Britain was safe, then why should British democracy be suspended? Both Churchill and his Deputy (and Labour Leader), Clement Attlee, eventually came to agree with this argument, and so, in late October, Churchill requested a dissolution of Parliament from King George VI, thereby allowing writs to be issued for a general election in November.

    Prior to election day, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberals (the three main parties in the wartime National Government) agreed that, regardless of the election outcome, the National Government should continue until the war was at an end. When polling day did indeed arrive, the British electorate, boosted by the recent wartime victories and Churchill’s leadership, with a turnout of 77.4%, voted decisively for the status quo. Both the Conservatives and Labour saw increases in support, a rare occurrence in British politics, while third parties (in particular the Liberal National and National Labour Parties, who were heavily associated with appeasement) saw drops in support. With the National Government returned by an overwhelming landslide, Churchill, delighted that he had secured a mandate and that the British people had endorsed the war effort, remained Prime Minister, while the Cabinet and Government Ministries remained largely the same. Detailed results of the 1940 general election are as follows:

    upload_2017-9-19_10-32-3.png

    While the election campaign took place (and after it), the British Government and senior military officials focused on what Britain’s next move in the conflict with Germany should be. In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Britain, some eager voices suggested that a counter-invasion should be staged, and British troops should land in Northern France to repulse the Germans from the country. However, while this idea was initially contemplated, it was decided that such an assault would be difficult to pull off, even after the casualties sustained by Germany in the Battle of Britain, and it could end up with Britain in the same situation as Germany after the botched attempt at Sealion.

    So, instead, it was agreed by the War Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that Britain’s focus for the time being would be on North Africa – in particular, evicting Italy from Libya and (once that goal was achieved) assisting Free French efforts to capture the remaining Vichy French colonies in West Africa. Both objectives were made easier by the fact that Britain could afford to deploy more men overseas, now that the threat of invasion was gone and, as a result, fewer troops needed to be kept in the Home Islands. So, an extra five divisions, numbering 75,000 men were sent to Egypt to assist the upcoming British offensive to repulse Italian troops from Egypt and advance into Libya, code-named Operation Compass. These extra troops meant that the British and Commonwealth forces scheduled to take part in Compass now numbered roughly 111,000.

    Compass began on December the 9th 1940, as the British forces in Egypt under Field Marshal Archibald Wavell and General Richard O’Connor began to advance, quickly repulsing Italian forces from Egypt after the Battle of Sidi Barrani between the 10th and the 11th. From there onwards, British and Commonwealth troops began to advance further, with Sollum and the Halfaya Pass being captured by British forces on December the 13th, at which point fighting began to take place in Italian territory. The next major engagement of Compass was the Battle of Bardia, which occurred between New Years’ Eve and New Years’ Day – the 45,000 Italian troops defending the port were ultimately defeated by the 22,000 British and Australian troops, under the command of Australian Lieutenant General Iven Mackay [1]. Once Bardia was captured, the next target for the Allies was Tobruk, which the British 7th Armoured Division and the Australian 19th Brigade reached on January the 2nd, and captured by January the 17th.

    Throughout January, British and Commonwealth troops continued to advance into Libya, securing several victories over the Italian forces defending numerous coastal cities. Eventually, by January the 26th, Italy gave the order to evacuate Cyrenaica, putting the region under British control. Yet Compass was not done yet – after the Italian forces were ordered to retreat, British and Commonwealth troops worked to intercept them, and were successful in doing so, leaving the Italian Tenth Army essentially destroyed. By February the 5th, British and Commonwealth troops had reached El Aghelia, and from there O’Connor planned a final push to capture further territory from Italy before Compass came to an end. On February the 6th, British and Commonwealth troops advanced beyond El Aghelia, and fighting began between Allied and Italian troops for control of the town of Ra’s Lanuf. Fighting between the two sides was fierce, as the Allied troops were determined to gain control of the town, while the Italian troops were desperate to maintain control - however, the Italian forces were eventually forced to retreat further, allowing the British troops, led by O’Connor, to enter the town.

    Between the 6th and the 11th, further engagements between British and Italian forces took place for control of the port of Sidra and the town of Bin Jawad. Once again, both sides fought with significant determination during the two respective battles, yet eventually Britain once again came out triumphant, and orders were given for Italian troops to retreat. At this point, most Italian troops were ordered to retreat to the city of Sirte, and thus Wavell faced the option of ordering the continuation of Compass further to capture the city. However, Wavell decided against the idea, as the number of Italian forces stationed in Sirte meant that taking the city would be a costly endeavour, and Compass had already extended well passed its original goal, to force Italian troops out of Egypt, and many of the British and Commonwealth vehicles and equipment were starting to need repairs. And so, British and Commonwealth troops in Bin Jawad ceased their advance, and instead began fortifying their gains – well over half of Libya had been secured by the Allies through Compass, and plans were drawn up for a further offensive to completely push the Italians out of Libya by the end of 1941. Yet this would have to wait until the vehicles and equipment worn out in Compass were either repaired or replaced. In the meantime, a large number of British troops who took part in Compass were sent away from Libya to the Balkans, to assist Greece in its campaign against German and Italian forces [2].

    Meanwhile, the Italian forces in Libya were left in a state of disarray, having lost a significant amount of land and having their morale gravely hit. Mussolini initially requested German aid to possibly repulse the Allied advances, yet Germany, still licking its wounds from the Battle of Britain, refused its ally’s request for aid. And so, the Western Desert Campaign entered a pause for the time being.

    ***​

    [1] Due to the greater number of British troops, the Allies are advancing faster in this alternate Compass than in our timeline’s Compass, while Allied victories are far more decisive in this timeline.

    [2] The Balkan Campaign goes the same as our timeline, aside from that, in this timeline, British and Greek troops are able to hold Crete, as Germany, having had most of its paratrooper regiments destroyed in the Battle of Britain, is unable to stage an invasion of the island.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Five: Operation Hammerhead
  • As previously mentioned, Compass had seen British and Commonwealth troops secure large swathes of Libya, with Italy being forced to send all its remaining forces in the region to Sirte to recover. Upon the end of Compass, British officers had the Allies’ newly-won gains fortified, while planning was made for a renewed offensive to completely evict the Italians from Libya. This was code-named Operation Hammerhead, and required significant reinforcements, for it would result in a large push into the remaining portion of Libya by British and Commonwealth forces. By the time Hammerhead was established, the Balkan Campaign was at an end, and thus many of the divisions removed from Libya to successfully defend Crete were returned to the Western Desert Campaign, yet this would not be enough for Hammerhead to be the decisive engagement it needed to be - indeed, this led to a greater number of troops being required, as Italy was also able to re-deploy its available troops in Libya now that fighting in the Balkans had ceased. So, Wavell sent a message to Churchill, requesting further forces to assist the drive into Western Libya. Fortunately for Wavell, Britain still had enough divisions to spare, given that (as previously mentioned) the threat of a German invasion of the British Isles remained non-existent. In the end, an additional five British divisions, numbering roughly 75,000 men, were granted to Wavell for Hammerhead, along with new vehicles and equipment to replace those lost in Compass, and so, throughout mid-1941, preparations were made to launch the plan.

    Hammerhead was launched on September the 4th 1941, and saw two British corps advance towards Sirte - the XIV Corps, led by Bernard Montgomery (who had rose in prominence within the British Army following his successful defence of Hythe during the Battle of Britain), and XV Corps, led by Richard O’Connor [1]. The objective of the two corps was to encircle Sirte (thereby trapping the majority of the nearby Italian forces), which would subsequently be besieged, while the rest of the British and Commonwealth armies would proceed to advance further into Libya, eventually reaching Tripoli, where the bulk of Italian resistance was expected to lie. Rodolfo Graziani, the head of the Italian Army in Libya (and also one of the most senior fascists in the Italian Government), had three Italian divisions advance from outside Sirte and confront one of the two corps, with the hope that it would delay their advance and allow many of the Italian troops in Sirte to escape. In the end, the Italian divisions sent by Graziani chose to confront XIV Corps, leading to the Battle of Sirte, which took place over several hours on the 4th. Although the three Italian divisions were superior in numbers to the single British corps, ultimately Montgomery’s forces had superior firepower, while many elements of the Italian Army remained un-mechanised. So, the Battle ended in a British victory, with the British and Commonwealth advance only slightly slowed down by the Italian assault.

    This led to the Second Battle of Sirte, as both the XIV Corps and the XV Corps reached their respective positions, and began to besiege the city, while Royal Navy ships arrived outside the city and began to blockade it from the sea, thereby preventing the Italian forces inside from securing reinforcements or supplies from Italy. The battle, which lasted from the 5th to the 12th of September, eventually resulted in the Italian forces, with little hope of being able to break the siege, surrendering, allowing Montgomery and O’Connor to enter Sirte, while Italians defending the city were left as prisoners of war.

    While the engagements around Sirte occurred, the remaining British and Commonwealth forces focused on advancing further into Libya. On the 6th, Australian and British forces under the command of Leslie Morhead reached the city of Misurata, and were sent to capture the city. The two divisions, numbering roughly 30,000 men, under Morhead’s command, engaged the two Italian divisions of a similar size defending the city, and so the Battle of Misurata began. However, as with most other battles during the Western Desert Campaign, the Allies came out triumphant, as a result of superior equipment, and so the Italians retreated from Misurata on the 8th, allowing Morhead’s troops to enter the city. From this point onwards, British and Commonwealth troops began to advance towards their final target – Tripoli. As the Allies advanced from Misurata towards Tripoli, resistance from the remaining Italian forces became fiercer, as Graziani was under strict command from Mussolini to prevent the capture of Tripoli at all costs. Between the Battle of Misurata and the imminent Battle of Tripoli, the Battle of Al-Khums took place on the 12th, and lasted for several days, yet eventually, on the 15th, the Allies were able to capture the city.

    At this point, Montgomery and O’Connor had returned to the front-line with their two corps, thereby giving the British and Commonwealth troops set to assault Tripoli an additional boost in men. On the 17th, the Allies reached the outskirts of Tripoli, and it is estimated at this point that the total number of British and Commonwealth troops present was around 154,500, whereas the Italian troops inside Tripoli numbered roughly 96,500 men. When the Allies reached the outskirts of Tripoli, the Battle subsequently began, as four separate corps (Montgomery’s XIV Corps, O’Connor’s XV Corps, Alan Cunningham’s XVI Corps, and Claude Auchinleck’s XVII Corps [1]), encircled the city from separate points – Montgomery from the east, O’Connor from the southeast, Cunningham from the southwest, and Auchinleck from the west. Meanwhile, further Royal Navy forces arrived at Tripoli and began bombarding the city’s defences from sea, so as to weaken its defences.

    The battle lasted from the 17th to the 29th of September, during which British forces consistently bombarded Italian defences within Tripoli, while the Italian defenders continually fired back, hoping to make the task of besieging the city difficult enough that the Allies would, at least temporarily, withdraw. Yet no such event occurred, and by the 29th, the Italian troops’ morale had completely sunk, while the defences of Tripoli had been damaged to the extent that the Allies could easily force their way into the city within a day or two. And so, Graziani reluctantly gave the order to wave a white flag over Tripoli. The Battle of Tripoli was over, in a decisive Allied victory.

    The British and Commonwealth commanders present subsequently entered the city to accept the Italian surrender, and thus Tripoli came under Allied control. By capturing Tripoli, the Allies gained numerous advantages – the remaining 95,000 men inside the city, including Graziani, surrendered to the British/Commonwealth forces, while some equipment and vehicles present inside the city were secured by the Allies – while many of these were behind Allied weaponry and equipment technologically, some proved to be rather useful, such as the remaining Italian motor vehicles, which was one field in which Italian forces held an advantage, and thus British and Commonwealth troops were able to utilise them upon putting them in Allied service (indeed, at one point, Montgomery used a former Italian motor vehicle captured in Tripoli). Yet the largest gift granted to the Allies by the capture of Tripoli was the collapse of Italian resistance in the remaining parts of Libya. Tripoli was not far from the border with Vichy French colonies, and so the remaining Italian forces still stationed in Libya were ordered to either evacuate from Libya and return to Italy, or move west into friendly Vichy French territory. And so, Britain and the Commonwealth had completely secured Libya – Operation Hammerhead, and by extension the Western Desert Campaign, was over in a significant Allied victory. Capturing Libya provided numerous advantages for Britain – as well as providing a morale boost (although not as significant as the boost to morale caused by the Battle of Britain), the former Italian colony had significant oil reserves which would be utilised by the Allies for the war effort.

    From Rome, however, a very different view was taken – Mussolini was terrified at what the ramifications of losing Libya would be for his rule. Italy’s grip on its colonies was quickly unravelling [2], while the only Italian gains in Europe had come about as a result of German intervention, and, as a result, many Italians felt humiliated by their poor performance in the war effort. The Duce now feared internal unrest against his rule – for while Mussolini felt obliged to carry on the war on the side of the Axis, many Italians did not, and soon enough Mussolini would discover that the foundations of his power were in fact softer than he had previously believed.

    ***​

    [1] Fictional corps created between Compass and Hammerhead.

    [2] The East African Campaign goes the same as our timeline, and thus the Allies are able to secure control of Italian East Africa by November 1941.
     
    Chapter Six: Operation Tannenbaum
  • Defeat in the Battle of Britain left significant changes on Germany – in a single day, the Germans had seen their navy and the air force crippled, and their soldiers humbled. The aftermath of the Battle, therefore, was just as significant in Continental Europe as it was in Britain.

    As 1941 dawned, Germany was in quite a state – the destruction of the river barges in the Battle of Britain meant that the economies of certain occupied territories where the barges had been extracted from (such as the Netherlands) entered a significant downturn, and thus the Nazi Government found itself deploying more troops to occupied territories to prevent uprisings breaking out. Meanwhile, in France and Poland, outcome of the Battle was met with secret joy – Resistance fighters knew that the enemy occupiers could be beaten, and so, throughout 1941, German forces in occupied Europe found that the number of attacks and sabotage operation organised by Resistance forces drastically increased. The impact of the defeat did not end domestically – the crippling defeat endured by the Wehrmacht meant that German plans for an invasion of the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa (which had always been the Nazis’ main goal), had to be delayed, with its launch date moving from June 1941 to June 1942.

    Although German forces were able to successfully invade Yugoslavia and Greece April 1941, this victory was weakened somewhat by the inability to capture Crete, while the invasion of these countries failed to lift the morale of the German people – it was seen (correctly) as Germany rescuing its ally, Italy, from catastrophe, rather than an event on par with the Battle of France. And so, with morale amongst Germans at a significant low, Hitler and the Nazis recognised that, although they had eliminated the threat from within the Government via the Second Night of the Long Knives, discontent with the Nazi regime was simmering below the surface amongst the German people, and no amount of propaganda or brainwashing could sort such discontent out. Therefore, it was decided that a major German victory was needed, one which would occur quickly and come across as decisive, to boost morale and support for the regime. It was eventually decided by the Nazis to launch Operation Tannenbaum – an invasion of Switzerland.

    Hitler and other prominent Nazis had made no secret of their disgust for Switzerland in the past, and so, when the Führer announced to his joint Chiefs of Staff that Tannenbaum was to be launched during mid-1941, there was little surprise. There was, however, a large degree of wariness – Hitler’s orders had cost the German military significantly during the botching of Sealion, and so there was scepticism as to whether or not an invasion of Switzerland would be worth the expected cost. Yet none of these concerns were raised, at least not in front of any prominent Nazis, for the officers in the German military still remembered the Second Night of the Long Knives vividly, and were aware of Hitler’s wrath. So, preparations to launch Tannenbaum were put in place, and German troops began to move towards the Swiss border.

    On July the 23rd, Tannenbaum was launched. The German 12th Army, numbering roughly 150,000 men, under the command of Wilhelm List, began to advance into Switzerland from Southern Germany, with the intention of capturing Zurich, and then advancing southwest to Bern. While the German forces began to march into Switzerland, the Luftwaffe began assaults on major Swiss cities – this was the first major action of the German air force since the Battle of Britain. Yet, as List’s troops would soon find out, the Swiss had been conducting their own preparations in the event of a German invasion.

    The defence of Switzerland had been put in the hands of General Henri Guisan, who had begun the mobilisation of the Swiss armed forces almost immediately after the war broke out in September 1939, and eventually the Swiss army numbered roughly 430,000 soldiers, along with another several hundred thousand in reserve if necessary. Guisan developed a strategy known as Defence du Reduit (‘National Redoubt’), whereby Swiss forces, if German troops captured the flat lands of Switzerland where most population centres stood, would retreat to the Alps and continue to fight the Germans in a terrain which heavily favoured defence. Soon enough, Guisan found this strategy was put to the test.

    Unsurprisingly, List was able to capture Zurich, yet only after heavy fighting which took place between July the 25th and August the 1st. And even after the largest city in Switzerland was captured, the Germans found themselves with the unenviable task of maintaining control over the city – Swiss forces which were stuck behind enemy lines began a guerrilla warfare against German forces, often conducting night-time raids against German patrols which damaged German morale. This was another aspect of Guisan’s strategy – Swiss soldiers were ordered to dismiss all proclamations that the Swiss Government had surrendered as Nazi propaganda, and continue to fight, even if the entire country was occupied. As a result, List and the 12th Army found that such attacks were not limited to Zurich, as when they advanced into other areas of Switzerland, similar attacks and raids occurred.

    On the 3rd, List and the 12th Army began to advanced out of Zurich and towards Bern, which was captured on 9th. Yet, once again Swiss forces which had not retreated from the city in time continued to hassle the Germans through similar strategies to those deployed in Zurich. This resistance frustrated List incredibly, who had initially hoped that the Swiss Government would surrender upon the capture of the nation’s capital – yet no such surrender came, and instead Guisan launched National Redoubt, with most Swiss forces entering fortifications in the Alps to continue resistance against the Germans. As a result of this, List now had to advance into the Alps, a task made incredibly difficult by the fortifications made by the Swiss, which had been constructed along nearly the entirety of the Alps’ borders within Switzerland. Initially, the German forces hoped that an Italian offensive into Switzerland would relieve a large amount of pressure on them – such an offensive began on the 10th, as three Italian divisions, numbering roughly 45,000 men, began to march into Swiss territory. Yet, after an initial advance which saw the Italians successfully capture Lugano on the 14th, Italy soon found itself in a similar position to Germany – unable to penetrate Swiss defences along the Alps.

    Eventually, starting on the 12th, List decided to embark on a strategy of constantly attacking Swiss fortifications, with the intention of gradually wearing down the Swiss forces until they could no longer hold the line and had to retreat. This strategy continued throughout August and September (both German forces in the North and Italian forces in the South used this strategy), until, by September the 22nd, Swiss soldiers along the fortifications began to run low on ammunition, and consequently List and the 12th Army were able to penetrate the Swiss defensive line, and soon enough brutal fighting took place in the Alps, as the remaining Swiss forces continued to hassle the Germans and Italians as they advanced through the mountains. Yet, by the end of October, even these soldiers were running low on supplies and munitions, and so, on October the 30th, List declared Switzerland to be completely under Axis control.

    Shortly after the end of Tannenbaum, occupied Switzerland was partitioned between the Axis Powers – German-speaking Switzerland was directly annexed into the Third Reich, Italian-speaking Switzerland was directly annexed by Italy, while French-speaking Switzerland was jointly occupied by German and Italian troops (the Vichy French Government protested that they should receive a share of the spoils, yet when their demands were rebuked, Pétain once again went quiet, recognising that the Vichy state could do little to assert its demands). The invasion of Switzerland had cost the Germans 47,189 men, and the Italians 11,681 men, significant casualties for invading a country the size of Switzerland, while the amount of ammunition spent on destroying Swiss fortifications in the Alps was also heavy. Yet fighting in Switzerland did not end with the partition of the country – the Swiss Resistance, well-armed and following Guisan’s order to ignore all reports of a Swiss Government surrender, organised a prolonged guerrilla warfare, often ambushing German patrols and destroying ammunition and other supplies brought to Switzerland by the Germans. Meanwhile, the Swiss were inspired by the story of their Government’s escape – Guisan, and other senior military figures, were able to escape the Alps in disguise and, by trekking through rural France, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, where they secured a ship to London, and formed the Swiss Government-in-exile. Consequently, Germany found itself having to pour more and more troops into Switzerland simply to perform garrison duties, yet this did not end the Swiss’ determined resistance.

    Of course, in Germany itself, none of this was reported – upon the 12th Army’s return to Berlin, Goebbels and the Ministry of Propaganda were quick to portray Tannenbaum as a quick and decisive route, and a show of Germany’s military might. As a result, the German people, with few other available news sources, believed this, and so the Nazis had achieved their morale-boosting exercise. Yet while this had been achieved, the Nazi Government was aware that Tannenbaum was in fact something of a pyrrhic victory, and the resistance of the Swiss people would continue.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Seven: The End of 1941
  • As 1941 drew to a close, several events of significance occurred which shall be discussed in a single chapter dedicated to the final months of the year.

    The first of these came as a direct result of Tannenbaum, and the Nazi conquest of Switzerland. The fact that Switzerland had declared neutrality upon the outbreak of the war in 1939 and had done little to provoke Germany sent shudders down the spines of the other neutral nations of Europe – it was clear that neutrality would not protect them from the Wehrmacht, and that waiting for the war to come to a close was simply no longer an option. And so, the remaining neutral European nations – Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, and Spain – began mobilising their armed forces in preparation for a possible incursion by the German military (although, in the case of Ireland, many Irish soldiers had already mobilised themselves and left to volunteer in the British Army - consequently, when de Valera ordered the mobilisation of Irish forces to take place, he found the Irish Army rather bare).
    The second event came from beyond Europe in East Asia.

    It is at this point, at the end of 1941, that a general overview can be provided of the situation in East Asia, and the United States’ attitude towards it – for, while the Second World War was raging in Europe, the Second Sino-Japanese War was also taking place. The war began in July 1937, as Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, hoping to conquer the nation and solidify Japanese dominance in East Asia. Although the war initially saw Japanese advances deep into Chinese territory, it eventually devolved into a brutal war of attrition, characterised by atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking.

    Yet, by 1941, Japan faced a new problem – the international community’s reaction to their actions. After Japanese troops invaded French Indochina in September 1940, the United States, wary of Japanese actions, imposed an oil embargo on Japan in August 1941, so as to put pressure on the Japanese Government to withdraw from Indochina and cease its conflict with China. The US embargo soon had its intended effect, as Japanese oil supplies, which had already been running low, soon began to become scarcer, and many in the Japanese Military began to speculate on drastic action to secure oil – namely, attacking the US and the Allies to secure oil in the Dutch East Indies. Eventually, Japan began preparing for an attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour so as to force a war between them and the Allies. Yet, in October 1941, an event occurred in northern China which changed the dynamic of East Asian affairs entirely.

    In October, civilians in the Liaoning province of Manchuria noticed a suspicious liquid bubbling above the surface in several areas – initially the people who discovered this liquid were reluctant to inform anyone else, yet eventually (how exactly has since been lost to history) authorities in Manchukuo learnt of the discovery, and, soon enough, geologists were deployed from Japan to investigate the ‘liquid’ discovered in Manchuria. Several tests were conducted, and it quickly became clear to Japan that oil had been discovered in Liaoning [1]. By November, equipment had arrived in Liaoning to start the drilling of the oil, and soon enough the long process of extracting oil began, with oil reaching Japan in earnest in 1945.

    Historians have emphasised the discovery of oil in Liaoning for a variety of reasons – yet the most important was that it enabled Japan to successfully escape the US oil embargo, and therefore led to the abandonment of Japanese plans for an attack on the US. Although supplies of other resources Japan lacked as a result of other embargoes, such as scrap materials, remained scarce, the discovery of oil was seen by the Japanese Government as enough, for the time being, to turn its attention away from war with the US. Meanwhile, Japan was able to solve its shortage of rubber, another precious resource made sparse by the embargoes, by pressuring Thailand, a generally pro-Japanese nation, to declare war on China in February 1942, thereby allowing the Japanese to gain access to rubber from Thailand. And so, no conflict came between the US and Japan at the end of 1941, and for the time being the two remained hostile to one another, albeit at peace.

    Yet for how long?

    ***​

    [1] Our timeline’s Liaohe Oil Field.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Eight: British Technology
  • Thanks to @Some Bloke for providing me with the ideas for the Griffon engine and the Burney Gun.

    ***
    It is at this point, at the dawn of 1942, that it is appropriate to observe the development of British technology during the war, for numerous major strides were made by British engineers which ultimately had a significant impact on the outcome of the war.

    After the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain, emphasis in Britain began to shift from constructing existing models (which was considered the norm in order to have an air force, navy, and weaponry sufficient to fend off an invading army), to developing new weapons and technology to provide the Allies with a new edge over Axis forces.

    One of the first technological advancements made during 1941 was the Griffon engine for the new variant of Supermarine Spitfires. The Griffon engine, developed by Rolls-Royce, had first been tested in November 1939, and throughout 1940 and early 1941, British engineers worked on adapting the new engine to a new Spitfire variant. The work, largely overseen by aircraft designer Joseph Smith, came to an end on July the 18th 1941, when the new Spitfire had its first flight – the Griffon-engine powered Spitfires would subsequently be introduced into the RAF in June 1942, and proved to be extremely valuable, with the Griffon-engine proving to be capable of improving the Spitfire’s performance significantly.

    Another area of technological improvement made by British engineers came in the field of anti-tank weaponry. During the first years of the war, work had been underway in Britain for the development of a new anti-tank gun, known as the 3.45 inch RCL – or, Burney Gun as it was commonly known [1]. The Burney Gun, named after its designer, Sir Dennis Burney, was developed by the Broadway Trust Company, and was developed as a recoilless weapon which had a range of 1000 yards. Initially, however, the development of the Burney Gun encountered several problems, which led to the project coming close to being scrapped, yet an unusual event occurred which saved the Burney Gun and ensured it would enter production – the Battle of Crete. When German paratroopers landed on the island, they were easily repulsed by the British and Greek defenders (German parachute regiments were yet to recover from the Battle of Britain), which gave the Allies control over multiple German equipment which had been taken with the paratroopers to the island. Amongst the equipment secured by the Allies was the 7.5cm Leichtgeschütz 40, a recoilless gun which bore numerous similarities to the Burney Gun.

    As a result of this, several Leichtgeschütz 40s were transported back to Britain and given to the Broadway Trust Company, which began reverse engineering several so as to improve the Burney Gun. Eventually, modifications were made to the Burney Gun based on the German model, including the adoption of a lighter, and more effective, 75mm shell, which enabled the Burney Gun to be transported with relative ease by soldiers using it. Having refined his new weapon so as to make it more effective and efficient, Burney had his new Gun mass-produced, and by 1942, British soldiers on the frontline were using the Burney Gun against enemy tanks, and, overall, the weapon proved to be quite effective.

    Yet the most significant technological development worked on in Britain during the war was also, by far, the most difficult to develop – a weapon which utilised uranium fission, or, as it was also known, an ‘super bomb’ [2]. The origin of the British programme to create a nuclear weapon came in March 1940, when Rudolf Periels and Otto Frisch, at the time working for notable physicist Mark Oliphant at the University of Birmingham, issued what has since been called the Frisch-Periels Memorandum. In the Memorandum, the two scientists provided numerous calculations which demonstrated the feasibility nuclear weapon, and at the end of the memorandum, they urged Britain to develop a nuclear weapon before Germany, as it would ultimately be crucial to the outcome of the war (as it happened, Britain needn’t have worried about the German nuclear programme, as it was actually in a state of disarray). The memorandum the two scientists issued was read by Churchill, who decided to respond to it by establishing the MAUD Committee in June 1940, which would investigate whether or not Frisch and Periels’ calculations were in fact, and whether or not a super bomb was possible. Just over a year later, on July the 15th 1941, the MAUD Committee issued two reports, which confirmed that the Frisch-Periels Memorandum was indeed correct, and a super bomb was indeed feasible. Having received concrete confirmation of the super bomb’s feasibility, Churchill ordered that a British nuclear programme be established, headed by Wallace Akers, which took the name ‘Tube Alloys’, to mislead spies.

    Initially, work on Tube Alloys was conducted within Britain, and the scientists inside the programme focused on numerous issues which blocked the development of the super bomb. Yet, by early 1942, it was evident that continuing to station Tube Alloys in the British Isles was a risk-filled move, as there was a possibility that German spies would be able to discover the programme, or that, if a super bomb was created and tested, German radars would be able to detect it, and would therefore be alerted of Britain’s progress with its nuclear programme. Therefore, Churchill and the Government decided in August 1942 to re-locate Tube Alloys to Canada – not only would this prevent the Nazis from learning of the nuclear programme, yet it also held several other advantages. For example, the vast, uninhabited wilderness in Northern Canada was an ideal location for the testing of a super bomb, if the programme successfully developed one, while re-locating to Canada also ensured that British nuclear co-operation with the United States could expand. Ever since the Tizard Mission in August 1940, information sharing between the Tube Alloys programme and the American nuclear programme, the S-1 Executive Committee, had increased until, after Tube Alloy’s re-location to Canada, US President Franklin D Roosevelt agreed to fold the S-1 Executive Committee into Tube Alloys and so, from 1942 onwards, British, Canadian and American scientists worked jointly within the Tube Alloys programme. This, combined with the Lend-Lease Agreement (whereby the US agreed to provide supplies to Britain), and the Atlantic Charter (a policy agreement signed between Churchill and Roosevelt on their respective countries' attitudes towards the war), was one of the many areas of the increasing informal alliance between Britain and America which was emerging as the war continued.

    ***​

    [1] See the Wikipedia article on the weapon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance,_RCL,_3.45_in

    [2] This was the name given to a nuclear weapon in the Frisch-Periels Memorandum.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Nine: The Liberation of French Africa
  • Following the Battle of Dakar in 1940 and the British victory in the Western Desert Campaign in 1941, de Gaulle and the Free French began to persistently request that Churchill and the British Government organise landings along the coast of Algeria, so as to ensure that the rest of French West Africa would fall under Allied control. Initially, however, Churchill and Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, were reluctant to organise any amphibious landings in North Africa, as, although the Royal Navy was easily the dominant naval force and there was little threat from either the Kriegsmarine nor the Regia Marina, there was an issue of prior lack of experience of the British, Commonwealth and Free French forces in amphibious landings – and the German failure in Sealion had shown the dangers of such inexperience. So, it February 1942, it was resolved by the British Government to instead organise landings on the island of Madagascar, in order to drive off the Vichy French forces on the island and to gauge how Allied soldiers would fare in such a landing. Such a decision was opposed by de Gaulle, who continued to advocate for an immediate landing in Algeria, yet was supported by British and Commonwealth generals. It was agreed that a British division, under the command of Robert Sturges, would land on the island, supported by a brigade of Free French troops under the command of Henri of Orléans.

    The Battle of Madagascar, as it came to be known, began on April the 7th, as Allied forces landed along the beaches of far north Madagascar, near the city of Diego-Suarez, which was an important strategic site, both for the Vichy French to defend and for the Allies to capture. The British division and Free French brigade proceeded to advance towards the city, and captured it two days after landing. From Diego-Suarez, the Allies began to advance southwards, and throughout the campaign held a strong numerical advantage – the number of British troops present was roughly 15,000, while the number of Free French troops present was roughly 2000, giving the Allies a combined force of 17,000 men. By comparison, the Vichy French garrison on the island was only 8000 strong, with a limited amount of equipment and supplies. Consequently, by June the 8th, Vichy French forces were given the order to evacuate their remaining holdouts on the southern portion of the island, and so the Battle of Madagascar came to an end in an Allied victory.

    Having witnessed British and Free French troops successfully stage an amphibious landing, Churchill and Brooke now had the confirmation they needed that landings in North Africa could indeed take place – much to the delight of de Gaulle. Preparations for said landings, code-named Operation Battleaxe, took place between mid-May and late-July, and by September, it was agreed that plans for Battleaxe had been refined and were ready to be put into action. The operation called for three landings along Vichy French Algeria and Morocco – a Western Task Force, consisting of two Free French divisions, would land in Morocco, a Centre Task Force, consisting of two British divisions, would land near Oran, and finally an Eastern Task Force, consisting of a further two British divisions would land near Algiers [1]. The date of Battleaxe’s landings was scheduled for August the 20th 1942, and so the necessary forces were assembled.

    However, before Battleaxe was launched, it was agreed by the British High Command that it would be beneficial for Vichy troops to be drawn away from the North African coast when the landings took place, and so it was agreed that, five days prior to Battleaxe, British forces from Libya under the command of Montgomery, who had been promoted to the position of Field Marshal since the conclusion of the Western Desert Campaign, would push into Tunisia. On the 10th, the Tunisian Campaign began, as Montgomery and his recently formed 10th Army (consisting of several of the corps which had took part in Operation Hammerhead) launched a surprise attack into Tunisia, with the intention of capturing the coastal city of Zarzis. The Battle of Zarzis lasted from the 10th to the 12th, and eventually resulted in the Vichy French and Italian forces [1] defending the city retreating to the Mareth Line – a series of defensive fortifications designed to prevent an invasion of Tunisia.

    This led to the Battle of Mareth, which lasted from the 13th to the 19th. Initially, attempts by the 10th Army to break the line and force the Vichy French and Italians to retreat were repulsed, and thus a stalemate ensued. However, as Battleaxe began and many Vichy forces were re-directed to Algeria and Morocco, Montgomery and the British were able to successfully penetrate the Axis defences and, on the 19th, the Mareth Line collapsed. This forced the Vichy French and Italians to retreat further into Tunisia, having lost their key defensive position, while Montgomery and the 10th Army entered the nearby the city of Gabés.

    From Gabés, Montgomery intended to push further north towards the major city of Sfax, where the bulk of Axis resistance in Tunisia was now concentrated following the collapse of the Mareth Line. Between the 20th and the 22nd, British forces advanced towards Sfax, encountering little resistance aside from a few Vichy French companies which had not retreated as far following the collapse of the Mareth Line. On the 22nd, the Battle of Sfax began, as Montgomery and the 10th Army began to assault the city, while the Vichy French and Italian defenders, consisting of three divisions, attempted to repulse the British attacks. By the 27th, however, resistance around Sfax had collapsed in the face of the 10th Army’s numerical and technological superiority, and so the Vichy French and Italians one again retreated, while Montgomery and the 10th Army entered the city triumphant.

    It is at this point that an overview of the events of Battleaxe can be described.

    On the 20th, Battleaxe began, as Royal Navy ships transported the divisions to their necessary targets – as previously mentioned, the Royal Navy easily held naval superiority, and so no interruptions came during the travel towards French North Africa. Once the fleets reached their separate targets, the landings began. As the separate Task Forces landed, they encountered varying degrees of resistance from the Vichy French garrisons holding the colonies – the Western Task Force and the Centre Task Forces encountered less resistance than the Eastern Task Force, which was attempting to capture Algiers, the capital of Vichy French Algeria and therefore the centre of Vichy French resistance. By the 21st, British forces in the Centre Task Force had been able to secure control of Oran, while the Free French Western Task Force secured Casablanca on the same day and Safi the following day. On the 22nd, fighting came to a close near Algiers, as the British Eastern Task Force was eventually able to advance, and the Vichy French, suffering from low morale and a shortage of equipment, surrendered, allowing British Field Marshal Harold Alexander [2], who held the overall command of the Allied forces performing Battleaxe, to enter Algiers and accept the surrender of the Vichy French Governor. And so, multiple strategic cities on the North African coast had been secured by the Allies – yet Battleaxe was not at an end yet.

    When news of the Allied landings reached the European Continent, the Vichy regime knew that its days were numbered – on the 22nd, the German forces in occupied France, on the orders of the Nazi Government, which now believed that Vichy France was nothing more than a dead weight after its failure to defend North Africa, initiated an invasion of Vichy France, codenamed Case Anton. The invasion was swift, yet, before the Germans could fully conquer the Vichy state, Pétain’s Government ordered the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon, preventing the Germans from securing it. In the months following Anton, Hitler and the Nazi Government proceeded to re-organise France and the Low Countries now that it was completely German-controlled – this included the establishment of two new Nazi puppet states, the SS State of Burgundy (consisting of French-speaking Switzerland, eastern France, and Belgium) (which was directly controlled by Heinrich Himmler), the SS State of Brittany (consisting of the French province of Brittany), while the rest of France continued as a German-occupied zone.

    News of the initiation of Anton reached the Vichy French forces in North Africa on the 24th. At this point, the British and Free French forces had pushed forward from their initial landing points and were advancing with significant pace – by the 26th, the entirety of the Algerian and Moroccan coast was controlled by the Allies. At this point, Vichy morale was extremely low, while many French forces still loyal to the Vichy regime were now uncomfortable with the fact that they now served the Third Reich, rather than a French Government. As a result of this, defections began en masse to the Allies from not only the beleaguered Vichy soldiers but also the governors of the remaining Vichy French colonies. As a result of this, by the 31st, the entirety of French West Africa was under Allied control – including the remaining portions of Tunisia, in which the local Vichy governor, Jean-Pierre Esteva, had defected on the 28th, allowing Montgomery and the 10th Army to easily finish off any remaining Italian troops in the colony.

    The conclusion of Battleaxe brought an end to the Liberation of French Africa in an Allied victory. Shortly after the campaign came to an end, de Gaulle and the Free French Government moved their headquarters from Dakar, where it had been based since 1940, to Algiers, while Free French ranks swelled with recruits from the former Vichy armies in West Africa. Meanwhile, British troops had gained significant experience in amphibious landings, and so the British Government began preparing the Empire and Commonwealth’s next move in its fight against Nazi Germany.

    ***​

    [1] Like in our timeline, many Italian troops retreated to Tunisia after the end of the Western Desert Campaign.

    [2] As a minor side-note, in this timeline, Harold Alexander is granted the title Earl of Algiers, rather than Earl of Tunis.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Ten: The Fall of Mussolini
  • While Battleaxe was taking place and the Allies were making the final push to evict the Axis from North Africa, several key events were occurring inside Continental Europe which shall be discussed in this chapter.

    As previously mentioned, the Nazis’ main objective was an invasion of the Soviet Union, which was code-named Operation Barbarossa. The failure of Sealion had resulted in the launch date of Barbarossa being postponed from May 1941 to May 1942, yet in April 1942, Hitler was informed that the Operation would have to be delayed once again – the invasion of Switzerland had proved to be a drain on German resources, with a large amount of munitions and supplies being wasted on attempting to force through into the Alps. As a result, the Wehrmacht did not have the correct equipment to launch Barbarossa, and so it would have to be delayed until August. This infuriated Hitler, who entered a fit of rage shortly after hearing the news, yet it would soon become apparent that the Führer would have to delay Barbarossa once again, as a result of events involving his ally, the Duce.

    Since the Italian entry into the war in June 1940, the people of Italy had become more and more dissatisfied with Mussolini and the Fascist Government – all of Italy’s colonial possessions had been lost, while any Italian gains made in Europe were as a result of German intervention, and so they could hardly be described as Italian victories. This, combined with a major oil shortage in Italy which occurred as a result of losing Libya and overall dissatisfaction with the totalitarian regime established by Mussolini, meant that, by 1942, the Fascist Government was a bubble doomed to burst. And on July the 14th, just that happened.

    King Victor Emmanuel III had been under pressure from his close family to remove Mussolini from office for a long period of time, as, the longer he remained Prime Minister, then more associated the Monarchy would be with the disastrous Fascist regime. On the 12th, a major protest erupted in Rome against Mussolini, which had to be squashed with a large amount of violence by soldiers and police officers loyal to the Duce. Upon hearing news of the riots and bloodshed, Victor Emmanuel came to the conclusion that dismissing Mussolini was necessary to ensure the survival of Italy. And so, on the 14th, when Mussolini attended an audience with Victor Emmanuel, the King proceeded to dismiss Mussolini, ordered his arrest, and renounced the thrones of Ethiopia and Albania, so as to distance himself from the actions of the Fascist Government.

    This dramatic turn of events in Rome was followed up shortly afterwards by further decisions by the King - the members of the Grand Council of Fascism, a body established by Mussolini to run the Italian Government, were put under house arrest, while Victor Emmanuel invited Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, who had previously served as Prime Minister of Italy during the First World War, to form a new Government and become Prime Minister on the 15th. A day after accepting the King’s invitation, Orlando took his first major decision as Prime Minister, which was to request an armistice with Britain and the other Allied Powers, thereby allowing Italy to exit a conflict which was bringing about its own demise.

    However, as it happened, Churchill and the British Government were unable to give a response to Orlando’s armistice request – for Hitler and the Nazi Government in Berlin soon learned of the overthrow of Mussolini, and the Führer immediately ordered action to be taken to reinstate the Duce in Rome. And so, on the 17th, twelve German divisions under the command of Erwin Rommel launched a full-scale invasion of Italy, which proved to be rather quick, due to the fact that the Italian Army was in something of a state of disarray following the overthrow of the Duce. By the 19th, German troops entered Rome, forcing Orlando and Victor Emanuele to flee to Naples. Upon securing the Italian capital, German forces released Mussolini from prison, yet, as it happened, the Duce would not receive the reinstatement he initially expected – as Mussolini was escorted from prison by ten German soldiers, an anti-Fascist partisan was able to enter the proximity of the former Prime Minister, and shot two bullets – one hit Mussolini’s chest, and the other hit his neck. Immediately afterwards, the partisan was shot dead by a German officer, while Mussolini fell to the floor. The former Duce had breathed his last.

    While these events transpired in Rome, in Southern Italy, the German invasion force continued to advance. By the 21st, Naples had been captured by Rommel’s forces, forcing the King and the Italian Government to once again flee, this time to Palmero on the island of Sicily. Yet the German divisions refused to cease their advance, and by the 25th, the entirety of the Italian Peninsula had been overrun. Initially, Orlando requested that British troops be sent to Sicily so as to reinforce its defences in the event of a German attack – yet Churchill had to refuse this request, due to Britain’s pre-occupation with preparations for Battleaxe at the time. As a result of this, Victor Emmanuel and Orlando agreed to abandon Sicily and retreat to Allied-controlled territory to form a Government-in-exile. The exiled Italian Government arrived in Malta on the 27th, and subsequently flew to London, where they were greeted with warmth by the British Government, who allowed the Italians to form a Government-in-exile from the city.

    Meanwhile, Germany subsequently re-organised its new Italian possessions – Northern Italy (including Italian Switzerland) was directly annexed into Greater Germany, so as to (according to the Nazi propaganda machine) ‘restore the borders of the First Reich’, while Central and Southern Italy became a German puppet state, the Italian Social Republic [1], which was governed by a junta of Fascists who had previously played a significant role in Mussolini’s Government. As a result of this, the Nazis had eliminated another potential threat on the Continent, but at a cost – the diversion of troops to invade Italy meant that Barbarossa was once again delayed, from August to September. However, many senior German officers agreed that launching the invasion in September would condemn it to failure, as it was too close to the start of the harsh Russian winter – and so, Barbarossa was delayed yet again to May 1943. As a result of this, the German invasion of Italy was, for the Nazis, something of a pyrrhic victory.

    **​

    [1] As a side-note, the Italian troops mentioned in the previous chapter which took part in the Tunisian Campaign were serving the Italian Social Republic.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Eleven: The Battle of the Dodecanese
  • During the Second World War, major surface naval campaigns proved to be few and far between – in 1939, the first year of the conflict, the Battle of the River Plate took place, which saw the Royal Navy successfully defeat the Kriegsmarine in South America. In 1940, the Battle of Britain left the Kriegsmarine virtually annihilated, unable to challenge British naval supremacy at sea, and consequently surface battles became rather scarce between 1940 and 1942 – instead, the naval focus of the war was on the Battle of the Atlantic, which saw German U-Boats attempt to starve Britain through commerce raiding – however, by 1941, it was clear that Britain was also moving towards triumph in the Atlantic, as the deciphering of the Enigma code by Alan Turing enabled the creation of sophisticated Bombes, which gradually began to reduce the U-Boat threat. Indeed, by the end of 1941, it was clear that the Battle of the Atlantic was a British victory.

    As a result of this, aside from a further U-Boat attacks (which were becoming rarer), naval warfare almost subsided entirely – that was, until October 1942, when the Admiralty Department determined that new action needed to be taken by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. This was the capture of the Dodecanese Islands, which was now controlled by the Italian Social Republic, reinforced by the Germans, in the aftermath of the invasion of Italy. For the Admiralty, it was paramount that the Dodecanese were secured by the Allies, as it was possible that the German forces could use the islands as a landing pad to launch a renewed attack on Crete, which was jointly controlled by Britain and Greece – in addition to this, Allied control of the Dodecanese could potentially enable the Royal Air Force to achieve air superiority over the Balkans, enabling the bombing of German military targets in the region. When A.V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty, pitched the idea to Churchill and the War Cabinet, the Prime Minister agreed to launch the plan – it was agreed that the Royal Navy would bombard German and Italian defences on the islands, and also eliminate any potential Kriegsmarine or Regia Marina ships near the Dodecanese, thereby enabling Allied parachute regiments to land on the islands and, with supplies being able to reach the paratroopers through the sea, secure control.

    On November the 14th, the Battle of the Dodecanese began, as a Royal Navy fleet, consisting of 11 destroyers, 3 battleships, 4 cruisers, and an aircraft carrier, under the command of Admiral Bertram Ramsay, approached the main island of the Dodecanese, Rhodes. The Royal Navy fleet was also assisted by 2 cruisers from the Regia Marina which had joined Free Italy [1], along with a single Free French battleship. By contrast, the Kriegsmarine fleet located nearby the Dodecanese and in port on the islands consisted of 4 destroyers, 2 battleships, and a single cruiser. In addition to this, thanks to the Allied presence on Crete, the Royal Air Force held air superiority over the southern portion of the Aegean Sea, and could consequently attack German forces as the two fleets came into combat with one another.

    The naval engagement unfolded over two days, as both sides fired at one another. The Royal Navy was able to gain an advantage early on in the battle, and sunk two German destroyers, the ZI-4 Friedrich Inn and the ZI-5 Hermann Schoemann (both former Regia Marina ships forced into the Kriegsmarine after the German invasion of Italy), and damages the German cruiser, the Seydlitz (another former Regia Marina ship), which was forced to withdraw from the battle as a result and return to mainland Greece to seek repairs. On the second day of the engagement, the Royal Navy continued to inflict damage on the remaining destroyers and battleships, while the Kriegsmarine was only able to damage a single British ship, HMS Havock, which duly sought repairs in Crete after the end of the battle. Eventually, by the afternoon of the 15th, the remaining Kriegsmarine ships retreated from the Dodecanese, effectively leaving the waters surrounding the islands under Allied control.

    As the naval conflict near the Dodecanese was coming to a conclusion, British and Commonwealth paratroopers began landing on the islands – to be specific, the three largest islands of the Dodecanese, Rhodes, Kos, and Karpathos, assisted with air support from RAF bombers, which assisted the paratroopers as they worked to take control of the islands. On Rhodes, the British parachute regiment, consisting of roughly 1600 men, faced two Italian brigades consisting of roughly 7000 men – fighting took place between the 15th and the 18th. During the Battle of Rhodes, many Italian soldiers, unwilling to serve under a Nazi puppet, defected to the Allies as the battle progressed, which dwindled the number of Axis troops on the island – this, combined with British technological superiority during the battle and the general state of disarray which the Italian Social Republic’s army was in following the German invasion, led to the Italian defenders surrendering, enabling the British commander, Lieutenant General Carton de Wiart [2], to assume control of the island.

    Meanwhile, the landings on Karpathos were relatively straightforward for the British paratroopers, under the command of Colonel Airey Neave (who had only recently escaped a Prisoner of War camp in Germany), – as with Rhodes, the Italian soldiers guarding the island were in a state of disarray, with numerous defections to the Allies occurring, which significantly aided the British advance. Therefore, after only a day of fighting, the remaining troops loyal to the Italian Social Republic on Karpathos surrendered, putting the island under British control. The landings on Kos were undertaken by Canadian paratroopers, who fought against the Italian brigade, numbering roughly 3500 men, between the 15th and the 17th – the battle unfolded in a similar fashion to Rhodes and Karpathos, and the Canadian troops were after a few days able to subdue to the Italian forces depleted by defections. This left the three major islands of the Dodecanese under Allied control.

    Between the 16th and the 20th, British and Greek troops landed on the other minor islands of the Dodecanese, where there were small populations and therefore few defending troops, using Landing Craft Assaults which had previously been used by the Allies during Battleaxe. This resulted in the Dodecanese fully coming under Allied control, and therefore brought the Battle of the Dodecanese to an end in a decisive victory from the Allies. Between late-1942 and mid-1943, new air bases were constructed on the most northern islands of the Dodecanese, which enabled the Royal Air Force to strike Axis targets in the Balkans – initially these were only limited to Axis military positions in Bulgaria, yet, in December 1943, an RAF raid was able to bomb Romanian oil fields, which was a crucial source of oil for Germany and other Axis countries. As a result of this, over 1943, the RAF and other Allied air forces began to gradually establish aerial dominance over the Balkans, thereby granting the Allies another crucial advantage as the war continued forward.

    ***​

    [1] This is the term which shall be used to describe the Italian Government-in-exile and the forces loyal to them from now onward.

    [2] In this timeline, since Italy is driven out Libya sooner than in our timeline, when de Wiart's plane crashes in the Mediterranean, he is rescued by Allied troops in Libya, rather than being arrested by Italians. As a result of this, de Wiart continues to serve in the British Army during the entirety of the conflict.
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter Twelve: Establishing the Plan
  • The year of 1942 had seen major gains for the Allies – the liberation of French Africa being the main gain of the year, yet the capture of the Dodecanese and the establishment of aerial superiority over the Balkans were also key Allied achievements. Yet, as the year dawned to a close and 1943 began, the leaders of the Allies began to wonder a key question – what would be the next move? There were numerous options open to Britain and her allies, yet a common idea espoused by generals and politicians alike was staging a landing somewhere in Europe, so as to ‘bring the fight to the Germans’. Of course, there were difficulties in staging landings anywhere along the Continent – Churchill was amongst the sceptics to organising a campaign in Europe, due to the potentially high casualty list such a campaign would result in. However, Churchill was eventually convinced by Brooke, who insisted that, if such a campaign were to take place in 1943, then the British Army would ensure that no life would be wasted and great care would be taken in planning and preparations. In addition to this, as Brooke’s argument went, landing in Europe would also result in many neutral nations who were previously wary of Nazi Germany following the invasion of Switzerland to finally tip over the edge and declare war on the Axis Powers.

    And so, the planning began for a British and Commonwealth landing in Europe – yet this opened up a crucial question: Where to land? Of course, many Governments-in-exile who learnt of British preparations immediately made their own case for their respective nations – de Gaulle and the Free French argued vehemently for landings in France, as the most logical stepping stone towards Germany itself, while Orlando and the Free Italians argued for Sicily and then the Italian mainland, due to its vulnerable position. However, both of these options posed serious flaws for a landing – Northern France was essentially impenetrable due to a series of Nazi-built fortifications known as the ‘Atlantic Wall’, which would lead to a bloodbath for any British, Commonwealth, or Free French troops which attempted to land on the beaches. Meanwhile, Italy, while lacking any series of major coastal fortifications, had only recently been invaded by the Germans, and would therefore be host to numerous divisions still stationed there – which would make a landing incredibly difficult. There was, however, one site which offered potential for an Allied landing – Greece.

    For a variety of reasons, Greece was an ideal location for a landing by British and Commonwealth troops – one was that, with Crete and the Dodecanese under Allied control, there was an easy route to land in Greece. Another was that, unlike Italy and France, there was not a significant number of German troops located in Greece – indeed, the large majority of the country was occupied by the Italian Social Republic (although, as time passed, more German divisions were performing garrison duties in Italian-occupied Greece, due to the proven instability of the Social Republic’s forces). In addition to this, since the capture of the Dodecanese, the RAF held air superiority over the Balkans, and so there would be little worry about the Luftwaffe (still in the process of re-building) potentially attacking Allied troops as the stormed the beaches. With these advantages, it was agreed by the British Joint Chiefs of Staff and Churchill’s Government that, in either mid-to-late 1943 or early 1944, landings would take place in Greece – the first strike by the Allies on the Continent.

    And so, preparations began, starting in December 1943, for a British and Commonwealth landing in Greece, codenamed Operation Overlord. It was agreed that there would be seven landing sites on the Peloponnese Peninsula, which by far the most strategically sound location to land, due to its isolation from the rest of Greece, with the only land route connecting the peninsula to the rest of Greece being the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. The seven landing sites were planned to be as follows – Site A was near a remote village of Fokiano, located close to another, more populous village, called Poulithra. Site B was located near another village, Limin Ierka. Site C was close to the Cape of Maleas, although, in order to avoid the mountains which surrounded the cape, the landing would take place a few miles west of the cape, near the Agia Marina Paralia Petrified Forest – this would enable the soldiers landing to land on a flat beach, rather than a dangerous mountain, and instead advance between the mountains to reach flatter land to advance from. Site D would be the only landing not to take place on the Peloponnese, and would instead take place on the island of Kythira, an island south of the Peloponnese – this was due to the fact that, if all the landings took place on the peninsula, any Axis troops on the island would prove to be a thorn in the Allies’ side. The next landing site was Site E, which was located on beaches near the two villages of Leimonas and Elos. Site F was located near the Cape of Matapan, where, like Site C, there was the issue of mountainous terrain, which the landing troops were planned to navigate through by landing west of the cape, and advancing along the coast, thereby avoiding the mountainous areas. The final landing site was Site G, and was located near the village of Agios Nikolaos.

    upload_2017-10-1_18-16-48.png

    Above: A map displaying the Allies’ planed landing sites. Dark blue indicates how far each landing force was planned to advance by the end of the first day of Overlord.

    It was agreed that by British and Commonwealth commanders that the landings would be split between them. Site A would be undertaken by Montgomery’s XIV Corps, Site B would be undertaken by Auchinleck’s XVII Corps, Site C would be undertaken by Harry Crerar’s I Canadian Corps, Site D would be undertaken by Brian Horrock’s XVIII Corps, Site E would be undertaken by Thomas Blamey’s I Corps, Site F would be undertaken by Bernard Freyberg’s II New Zealand Corps, and Site G would be undertaken the sole corps of the Greek Government-in-exile, headed by Alexander Papagos. Combined, the landing force in Greece was planned to number roughly 350,000 soldiers in total.

    Detailed plans were laid out for how the Allied forces would advance upon landing on the Greek coast – after establishing beacheads, it was agreed that the corps from Sites A, B and C would advance towards the first target of Overlord – Sparta – from the west, crossing the Parnonas mountains from the west to reach the city. Meanwhile, the corps from Sites F would approach Sparta from the south before linking up with the corps advancing from the west before reaching the city, while the corps from Sites F and G would advance towards Sparta from the east by crossing the Taygetos mountains. After all corps reached Sparta, the city would be besieged (if not already abandoned by the Germans and Italians), and, once captured, the Allied corps would split, with half going west, once again crossing the Taygetos, to capture Kalamata, and then proceeding north to capture Pyrgos. Meanwhile, the other corps would immediately advance north, with the intention of capturing Tripoli and then moving northeast to capture Corinth, thereby blocking the remaining Axis troops in Greece from accessing the Peloponnese, and leading to either the abandonment or the surrender of the remaining areas which the Allies had not yet liberated. During this period of advanced by ground forces, it was also planned for RAF planes to bomb Axis targets in the region, utilising aerial superiority, while it was also agreed that British parachute regiments would, in conjunction with the Royal Navy, land in and capture the Cyclades, in a fashion similar to the capture of the Dodecanese. This would conclude Overlord, and at that point the British and Commonwealth Governments would determine whether or not to launch a further offensive to push beyond the Peloponnese and capture Athens.

    The plans for Overlord were concluded in July 1943, and thus only two actions needed to be taken by Britain before the landings would take place – first, set a date for the landings, and, second, utilise intelligence and spies inside Continental Europe to ensure that the Nazi Government was under the impression that landings would take place elsewhere. These two actions would take place during mid-1943, and shall be discussed in the next chapter.
     
    Chapter Thirteen: Operation Mincemeat and Final Preparations
  • As previously mentioned, as the Allies prepared to bring Overlord into effect, a priority for Britain was to ensure that as few German and Italian troops would be defending the Peloponnese as possible. In order to achieve this aim, British intelligence officers aimed to deceive Germany through a plan code-named Operation Mincemeat [1] – under this plan, the body of a homeless man named Glyndwr Michael who had recently died was obtained by Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley, two members of British intelligence, who duly dressed up the body as a member of the Royal Marines. In addition to this, allegedly ‘top secret documents’ were placed inside the body’s uniform, revealing that the Allies intended to land in Normandy and Brittany in late 1943. With the approval of Churchill and the British Government, the body was then transported to the Mediterranean in April 1943, where it was dropped into the sea near the Spanish coast. As the officers intended, the body was retrieved by Spanish fishermen, who duly sent it to the Spanish Government. When the documents were uncovered inside the body, Franco ordered that copies be sent to Berlin, so as to give warning to Hitler, before the body was sent back to Britain. Mincemeat proved to be a success, as, when the documents reached Hitler, he immediately ordered that significant reinforcements be sent to defend Northern France, at the expense of the Balkans, in particular Greece.

    From this point onwards, Hitler, whose mental health was deteriorating as the war progressed, became convinced that landings would take place in Northern France, and rejected any request for reinforcements by generals outside of France. Indeed, the Führer went so far as to order the delaying of Barbarossa once again, to May 1944, in order to combat what he deemed the ‘imminent threat’ of Allied landings in France. The German belief that landings would take place in Normandy and Brittany was reinforced in June 1943, when a general election took place in Ireland which resulted in the toppling of Eamon de Valera’s Fianna Fail Government and its replacement with a Fine Gael-Labour Coalition, led by Richard Mulcahy [2] as Taoiseach – Mulcahy, a long advocate for Ireland joining the war, duly passed through the Dáil Éireann a motion declaring war on Germany. After this, Mulcahy’s Government signed a treaty with Britain enabling the Royal Navy to use the former treaty ports of Spike Island and Berehaven for the duration of the war. This turn of events led to the Nazi Government believing that Irish ports would be used to assist Allied landings in France, and so it appeared that their decision to move extra divisions to Northern France was vindicated.

    Meanwhile, the British Government was delighted that their deception strategy had proved to be an effective one, and so a date was set for Overlord’s launch – October the 3rd 1943. This provided time, from July when Overlord’s planning was concluded, to send the necessary soldiers to the Eastern Mediterranean to prepare for the operation’s launch. As the numerous divisions arrived in Crete, several coastal villages on the island were evacuated for the time being, so as to allow British, Commonwealth and Greek troops to conduct mock landings, due to the physical similarity of Crete and the Peloponnese Peninsula – this granted the Allied forces a general idea of how the landings would be carried out. It is important to note that, during this time, the exact location of the Overlord landings was kept strictly secret from the Allied forces who would be undertaking the operation, so as to prevent any Nazi spies in Crete ruining the carefully orchestrated British deception tactics. Instead, soldiers were simply not told the location of the landing sites – or, if necessary, they were informed that the landings would take place in Central Greece, with the intention of capturing Athens immediately.

    Eventually, the launch date for Overlord drew closer and closer to the Allied corps on Crete and, on the evening of the 2nd, the commanders present informed their soldiers of their true destination. And so, shortly afterwards, the soldiers present retired to bed for the night and woke up long before sunrise, ready to carry out their task.

    Operation Overlord was about to commence.

    ***
    [1] This was a plan from our timeline to deceive Germany on the Allies’ landings in Sicily – in this timeline it is used to deceive the Germans on the Allies’ landing in Greece.

    [2] In this timeline, W.T. Cosgrave resigns earlier, and consequently Richard Mulcahy leads Fine Gael into the 1943 general election.
     
    Top