Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

May 11th, 1941

Berlin - The music of the Führerbegleitbattalion, Hitler's personal escort* has been waiting at Tempelhof airfield since the beginning of the morning. But it is not until 14:30 that a
Ju 52 escorted by six Bf 109s finally lands. Out of it appear the Grand Mufti, with a triumphant beard, Rachid Ali al-Gaylani, who looks a little crumpled, and the inevitable Herr Grobba. They are welcomed by Joachim von Ribbentrop in person before reviewing the troops with him.
Josef Goebbels sent several teams from the Propagandaministerium to Tempelhof to immortalize, for all practical purposes, this historic moment. It is decided, however, by order of the Führer, that the arrival in Berlin of the three personalities would be kept secret for a few weeks, in order to mislead the Allied intelligence services - yet, thanks to a French prisoner, corporal Lucien Pluvier, head of a team of cleaners at the airport, these services are informed the very next day.

* Commanded until early 1940 by Rommel.

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1941

Tehran - Sir Reader Bullard confirms that the situation has not changed. Five German tankers of the Deutsche DampfschiffFahrtgesellschaft* are still present in Bandar Abbas.
present in Bandar Abbas. Since the summer of 1939, the large Iranian port has been home to the Marienfels, the first of the "Bürge"** series, the Hohenfels, the Wildenfels, the Sturmfels and the Weissenfels.
These five ships, weighing some 7,000 tons, were surprised by the declaration of war while they had just loaded or were preparing to load fuel oil, heating oil and gasoline.
In addition, four Italian vessels have also been sheltering under the neutrality of Iran since June 1940: the tankers Bronte (6,000 tonnes) and Barbara (4,500 tonnes) and the cargo ships Caboto (5,225 tons) and Hilda (4,900 tons).
According to the information transmitted by Sir Reader Bullard, these ships have their tank full of fuel and about two months of provisions in their refrigerators. They all went to the floating dock at least once to have their hulls serviced. Better still, their officers and crews have benefited from a change of crewsat the beginning of the year for the Germans and at the end of March 1941 for the Italians. The personnel (all civilians, of course) arrived by train via Istanbul. Sir Reader Bullard reminds us that he transmitted this information to London in good time - where apparently some did not see fit to follow it up.
From the British point of view, there are therefore nine enemy ships in Iranian waters, ready to set sail again at the slightest hint of a relaxation - through unforeseeable events - of the tight blockade held by the Royal Navy, as is tradition! The escapees could then, by sailing around Africa, transport their precious cargoes to a port controlled by the Axis (in occupied France in particular) or perhaps to a Spanish port, or even to Japan, going down to the Roaring Forties in the Indian Ocean, then going up through the middle of the Pacific after passing Australia and Tasmania from the south. On the way, insists Sir Reader, to whom his naval attaché has no doubt explained this to him, they could also supply privateers or submarines.
Moreover, Sir Reader Bullard, without affirming anything positive, indicates, as he has already done that the officers of the nine ships are suspected of engaging in espionage activities, in addition to various propaganda actions. In theory, according to international rules, they can only use their radios in the open, under the control of the Iranian authorities, and only for service communications with their shipowner or for relations of a personal or family nature. But it seems obvious that they transmit, some to the Abwehr, others to Supermarina, statements of allied movements on arrival or departure from Abadan - with the tacit approval, if not the active complicity, of the Iranians.
Finally, Her Majesty's ambassador estimates the number of German nationals present in Iran at about a thousand and less than 800 Italian nationals, mainly engineers and technicians.

* German Steam Navigation Company, with headquarters in Hamburg and operations in Bremen. It is more generally known as Hansa.
** Castles. By tradition, Hansa tankers were always named after a famous Burg. This series of Bürge should have numbered twelve tankers. The construction of the last two was prevented by the war.

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1941

Atlantic Ocean - Things go wrong for the three blockade-runners that left from the Canary Islands following the lucky Burano. They are intercepted by British ships on patrol: the Sangro from May 1st by the ocean boarding vessel (OBV) HMS Cavina*, the Recco on May 3rd by the HMS Hilary**, and finally the Gianna M. on May 11th by the same Hilary.
Only the Gianna M., which is taken to Belfast, will be used in the British merchant fleet under the name of Empire Control. The Recco is able to scuttle itself to avoid capture. As for the Sangro, entrusted by the Cavina to another ferryman, the HMS Camito***, and on its way to Gibraltar with its new keeper, it is sunk on May 6th, with the latter, by the submarine U-97 (Udo Heilmann).

* 6,907 GRT, 15.75 knots, 2 x 152/50 mm guns and 1 x 76/40.
** 7,403 GRT, 15.5 knots, 2 x 152/50 and 1 x 76/45 gun.
*** 6,833 GRT, 15.5 knots, same armament as the Cavina.

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1941

Yugoslavia - In Serbia, the German troops that have taken Belgrade begin to redeploy westward, to prevent the constitution of a defensive reduction around Sarajevo, and towards the south, to attack Skoplje from the north.
In Macedonia, Yugoslav units in rout, coming from Nis by theNovi Pazar-Mitrovica road, are gradually gathering around Skoplje. The fighting continues around Kumanovo, partly encircled by the German forces, whose numerical superiority starts to be felt, as the elements (on foot) of the last division of the XL. Korps, the 73.ID, arrives. Calm returns to Strumitsa, where the SS give up continuing their bloody and useless attacks. Marshal List, furious to see his troops trampled in these two sectors and impatient to reach the upper Vardar valley, launches one of his last reserves, the 8. Leichte ID*, through the mountains of the Bulgarian-Macedonian border, in the direction of Veles.

* Recently created in imitation of the 5. Leichte ID, which has proven itself in Corsica.

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1941

Greece - In Thrace, the Luftwaffe attacks Salonika several times and very violent air battles breaks out between Allied and German aircraft. The Greek command decides to send the old (very old) battleship Kilkis* to Salonika to support the anti-aircraft defense of the port and, if necessary, to serve as a floating battery against the German forces. Indeed, the Metaxas line begins to give way under the shells of the heavy artillery of the Heer and the Greek forces are preparing to withdraw behind the Nestos, around the town of Drama.
In Piraeus, the troops of the 7th Armoured Division feverishly participate in the unloadingof their new tanks brought by the "Tiger" convoy. Tabor by tabor, the goums of the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division embark in Athens in trains that take them to the Aliakmon line.
At Athens-Tatoi three new Commonwealth fighter squadrons arrive on Tomahawk (Sqn 250 of the RAF, Sqn 3 of the RAAF and Sqn 1 of the SAAF). The RAF in Greece
(BAFG), under the command of Air Commodore J.H. D'Albiac (Air Officer Commanding, Greece), now has nine fighter squadrons (four Hurricanes, three Tomahawk and two Blenheim), seven light bombardment squadrons, one medium bombardment squadron and two cooperation squadrons.
For its part, the Armée de l'Air deployed two fighter squadrons (six groups on Hawk-81), two independent fighter groups (one on D-520M in the Dodecanese and one on Maryland modified into long-range fighters) and eight light bomber groups (two of which are in the Dodecanese), all under the command of Air Corps General René Bouscat. Moreover, the Greek fighter units are now mainly re-equipped with Grumman G-36A (F4F-3 Wildcat) in ground version.

* The Kilkis is a pre-dreadnought built in the United States at the very beginning of the century. It served in the US Navy under the name of USS Mississippi (BB23).

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1941

Cagliari - The Ju 88 Martini Express is back in the air, this time to try to cross the Algerian coast and to validate the positioning of the guidance beam emitted by the station on the island of San Antiocco. The full moon, already high in the middle of the night, facilitates the crossing of the coast and the fast ascent which follows to pass above the Little Kabylie. Once over the mountain range, the plane heads west, flying over the rugged terrain by maintaining itself at thousand meters of altitude-ground, with the assistance of a prototype of radio-altimeter*, until about fifty kilometers of Algiers. As foreseen, the French radars "do not look behind them" and the progression, just like the return by the same way, is done without bad surprise.
The itinerary to attack Algiers with the minimum risk of being spotted is outlined - it will be necessary to refine it, according to the probable circumstances of the attack and the characteristics of heavily loaded bombers. Two more flights will allow us to collect the necessary data.
On May 23rd, the Martini Express and its crew of specialists will return to Rechlin.

* This prototype will become the FuG101, that the Armée de l'Air will copy after the war.

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1941

North: the allied offensive - Gondar area - Diary of Lieutenant Messmer - "At last, here is Gondar, in spite of the sand, the mud and the pouring rain, and everything the Italians found to delay us. The end of the game is approaching."

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1941

Kirkuk, 10:00 - General Massiet, as military governor of the northern provinces, hands over the city of Kirkuk to "Bill" Slim at the end of a Franco-British ceremony. In fact, it is Colonel Arbuthnot who is to act as commander of the arms.
11:00 - All airworthy aircraft of Stehlin's FAML participate in a flypast.
11:30 - The Mobile Company of the Marine Fusiliers from Latakia moves to the vanguard on the road to Mosul where all the units of the DML will regroup before taking the road back to Syria and Lebanon, mission accomplished.

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1941

Scapa Flow - Vice-Admiral L.E. Holland takes command of the "1st Battlecruiser Squadron" (HMS Hood and MN Richelieu).

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1941

Macedonia - The battle for Skoplje and Kumanovo is gaining in intensity. The French infantry, supported by its "self-propelled" anti-tanks (still the 47 mm on trucks), delivers
in Kumanovo a street fight until the end of the day, inflicting serious losses to the Germans.
As German armored vehicles accompanied by mechanized infantry start to move south from Belgrade towards the south, French and British bombers attack the Leskovac-Skoplje road, the main axis of progression of the enemy units coming from Belgrade; at the same time, the Luftwaffe sends Ju 87s to bomb the defenders of Kumanovo. Curiously, both sides seem to neglect the enemy air presence, and both the Blenheims and the Stukas suffer terribly under the blows of the enemy fighters.
.........
Athens - During a meeting of the allied staff, General Giraud announces the arrival in Salonika of important elements of the 2nd Armored Division in Salonika.
But Giraud has to warn the British and Greek commands that, without the sending of reinforcements (which was hardly possible), the position of the Armée d'Orient in Skoplje would soon be untenable. It will then be necessary to withdraw the 2nd Greek Army and the Dentz Detachment on the Aliakmon line, around Mount Olympus. Giraud has the 1st Armored Division and 86th DIA (still incomplete) to cover the maneuver, but he needs more resources. General Wavell promises the support of the 7th Armoured Division and two brigades at Gevgelidja, on the Greek border, on the Vardar River, to cover the retreat if Skoplje was to be abandoned.

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1941

Albania - The Skandenberg Korps fails to break through the Anglo-Greek defenses in the mountains and the front stabilizes again south of Gyrokaster.

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1941

Crete - The Allies launch Operation "Coronation".
"In the Cretan night, the rumbling was born, rose, and grew louder, until it made the sky and the earth vibrate. The goats woke up and began to turn around in panic.The shepherd rushed to calm his animals: "No, no, my beautiful ones, it is not the god Shaker of the Earth (fortunately the priest in the village could not hear him!). He sends us neither eruption, nor tidal wave, nor earthquake... They are only flying machines of foreigners, there is nothing to fear." He grabbed two of the most worried goats by the neck and held them close to him as the voice of the 288 engines drifted away to the sea, northward, carrying 36 Short Stirlings with endless fuselages and 36 belly-shaped Consolidated LB-30s (B-24s) to the north. "Nothing for us to worry about," mused the shepherd. "But over there, there are people who will know the wrath of Poseidon... " Eleven hundred km of flight further, the heavy bombers appeared at dawn above the oil fields and the refineries of Ploesti. The Romanian and Bulgarian air defenses were totally surprised, only a lucky shot from a battery of flak could destroy a single Stirling (the English planes flew lower than the LB-30). The bombardment was thus done as in the exercise, on targets too beautiful to miss, and the installations of the Creditul Minier were seriously damaged by the messengers of Poseidon... " (Operation Coronation - Allied bombers against Hitler's oil, special issue 15 of Fanatique de l'Aviation, 2000)

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

North: the allied offensive - Gondar area - The serious business begins. The Australians will attack from the north, the Belgians and the Ethiopian partisans from the west and the French from the south.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

London - The War Cabinet decides that the situation in Iran should definitely be considered unsatisfactory.
Following a military committee chaired by Winston Churchill himself, the CIGS, Sir John Dill, the First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, and the Chief of Staff of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, send a joint message to General Wavell in Cairo and to C-in-C India, General Sir Claude Auchinleck, in Delhi. They are ordered to coordinate to prepare a plan to occupy Iran from the sea to Tehran in order to overthrow Shah Reza Palahvi and replace him with a power more favorable to the Allied cause.
They are also asked to study the possible possibilities of action against Turkey from Iraq and Iran, should Ismet Inönü place his country on the side of the Axis.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

Yugoslavia - Units of the XLVI.AK (mot) enter Sarajevo without fighting. Among the victors, Private Uwe Müller is relieved: "If only it could be like this forever. What a pity that in Belgrade they had to be knocked out. The Luftwaffe guys didn't go at it gently. We even had a hard time getting through the city because of the ruins. Klaus wouldn't have liked it...".
The Yugoslav government takes refuge in Skoplje, from where General Simovic issues an appeal to all units still in a fighting condition to join him.
In Kumanovo, the Germans, unable to take the town, have nevertheless practically succeeded in encircling it.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

Greece - The German troops coming from Bulgaria reach the sea at Alexandroupolis. They are shelled by the old Kilkis, supported by the old destroyers Aetos and Ierax*.

* These two ships were built in 1911 in Great Britain for the Argentine Navy, but were bought by Greece in 1912 with their sister ships Panther and Léon. All of them, except the Panther, were requisitioned in Greek ports by the French Navy between 1916 and 1918. They were modernized in the United Kingdom in the 1920s.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

Romania - The second "Coronation" raid launched against Ploesti meets Romanian and Bulgarian fighters. But these are old PZL-24s. None even manages to approach the LB-30, which fly too high, and those which can catch up with the Stirlings are pushed back by the powerful defensive armament of the British heavy bombers.
However, German Bf 110s intercept the raid on the way back, destroying 3 Stirlings and 2 LB-30.
.........
Alger - In order to reinforce the tactical bombing means of the allied forces in the Balkans, the Armée de l'Air command decides to send to Crete the 23rd and 31st Bombardment Wings, equipped with LeO-451s, to Crete. The four groups (60 aircraft) are deployed in Crete, as the airfields of mainland Greece are already saturated by the squadrons of the RAF and Armée de l'Air.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

Alger - Third German air attack in eight days, or rather in eight nights. Fourteen planes attack the Maison-Blanche airfield again, and miss it again. On the other hand, the flak finally records a success (after almost 12,000 shells fired!): a He 111, left engine on fire, is forced to land at sea. The crew is picked up the next day by a French Navy patrol boat. His interrogation will allow to foresee more or less according to the phases of the moon, the dates of the next visits of the Luftwaffe and to estimate with relief that Algiers will be able to profit from two good weeks of tranquility.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1941

Off the coast of Messina, 20:30 Italian time (18:30 GMT) - The torpedo boat Pegaso reports that it has depth charged a submarine and observed a very large oil slick shortly afterwards. After the Italian armistice, it will be established that her victim was the HMS Undaunted (Lt J.L. Livesey), sunk at the very beginning of her first Mediterranean patrol. This is the first loss of the 10th Flotilla.
.........
Alexandria - The submarine HMS Torbay (Lt-Cdr A.C.C. Miers) reinforces the part of the 1st Flotilla operating in the Aegean Sea.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1941

North: the allied offensive - Gondar area
Lieutenant Messmer's diary - "No note on May 13th, there was a lot to do. We have gained a foothold in the south in the defense network set up by the Italians. If the Belgians and the Australians did not have the same fortune, their actions mobilized all the enemy reserves. But since this morning, our adversaries have been mounting counter-attack after counter-attack. For the moment, we are holding."