Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

May 14th, 1941

Paris - In application of the measures of November 12th, 1940, and Germany's demands concerning non-French Jews residing in France, a large round-up is organized in Paris. Three thousand people are targeted, but this was clearly a minimum and a "first step" before other raids. In accordance with the concept of the "surveillance administration", the execution is entrusted to the French police. There is only one problem: when the orders from Doriot, Laval's Minister of the Interior, come from the Place Beauvau to the Préfecture de Police (the PP), they are immediately countered by instructions distributed by the representatives (obviously very unofficial) of Mandel, Reynaud's Minister of the Interior, in Algiers.
From the morning on, nothing happens as planned: delays, non-transmission of orders, generalized confusion. The instructions of discretion are not really respected: "It was only just," said one witness, "that the cops were not preceded by the fanfare of the guardians of the peace." A real zeal strike! Speaking to one of the SiPo-SD members supervising
the pantomime, a Parisian police inspector admitted (while desperately trying not to laugh): "I'm sorry, we're not very efficient. That must be why we lost the war." In the end, the German officials responsible for the transfer have to make do with three hundred and forty-three unfortunate people, who are locked up in the Vel d'Hiv' before being deported. This is why, on the site of the Vel d'Hiv' (demolished in the 1960s), there are now two plaques: one in memory of the three hundred and forty-three deportees, of whom only twenty-seven returned, and the other in memory of the main organizers of the "zeal strike" of the French policemen, three of whom were identified, arrested and murdered by Darnand's SONEF before the Liberation.
As, in the provinces, the police refused to intervene against the maquis, under the pretext that it is a civilian administration and that such interventions are the responsibility of the military power, i.e., the gendarmerie (which had evaporated by three-quarters in the previous summer), Werner Best, head of the war administration under the military commander in France, has to adapt his concept of supervisory administration. From May 1941 to mid-1942, the repression of the Resistance results in the execution of hostages as a form of reprisals, but also by the launching of small clean-up operations against overzealous maquis, which the Wehrmacht is forced to take care of in person, with the sole support of a few French auxiliaries.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1941

Yugoslavia - Bypassing the rubble of encircled Kumanovo, the XL.AK (mot) attempts to advance towards Skoplje. In the evening, under the command of General Dentz, French, Greeks and Yugoslavs evacuate Kumanovo. Breaking the encirclement, they retreat to Skoplje itself, closely followed by the German units. These men, who had been defending Kumanovo since May 6th, were only supposed to hold out until May 9th, at best... We know that the name of Kumanovo remained for the French that of a victory, to the point that it was given to places and streets, as well as the Parisian metro station "Pont de Grenelle", today "Kumanovo-Grenelle"*.

* OTL Bir-Hakeim (Line 6)

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1941

Greece - The day is marked above all by the savage German air attacks directed against the Greek civilian population. Indeed, infuriated by the Greek resistance, which threatened to impose a postponement of Operation Barbarossa against the Sovie Union, and by the first bombardments of Ploesti, which concretize his nightmares, Hitler decides to break the morale of the Greeks by ordering the Luftwaffe to crush under the bombs the port of Salonika and the capital, Athens.
Salonika is hit four times. The port is severely damaged and the old Kilkis is sunk in the harbor.
Athens is attacked three times during the day and the civilian losses are very high. But the case is less simple than above Belgrade, because these bombings meet a strong opposition from the French, British and Greek fighter planes. This is why new attacks are carried out the following night, the German bombers using the fires ignited by the bombs of the day as landmarks. The almost total absence of night fighters allows this time the Luftwaffe to operate as it wishes. It is estimated that these twenty-four hours of Blitz caused the death of at least 15,000 civilians in Athens alone. But far from breaking the Greek morale, these attacks raise the anger of the whole population against
Germany - and allow American photographic reporters to take stunning nighttime pictures showing the Parthenon on a burning horizon.
These bombings on Athens have an important consequence on the military level. Besides the numerous damages caused to the port installations of Piraeus, the German bombs seriously damage the local railway network. However, this one was already at the limit of the saturation since the beginning of the campaign. The destructions inflicted put in danger the supply of the Franco-English expeditionary corps in food and ammunition and there is no question of soliciting more Greek railroads. As a result, the dispatch of the 5th Indian Division, the last large unit to be transferred from Egypt to Greece, is cancelled.
In Thrace, German forces try to bypass the defensive line established along the Nestos by attacking towards Drama through the mountains.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1941

Albania - The Axis forces try again to break the Anglo-Greek lines. General Messe's Italian Special Army Corps and the Skandenberg Korps attack; Rommel multiplies himslf at the front of the battle, but his opponents hold on to each inch of terrain and the advance is desperately slow.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1941

Naples - The Chief of Staff of the Regia Marina, Admiral Riccardi, pressed by Mussolini to "do something, anything, but right away", orders Admiral Angelo Iachino to set sail with "important forces" and to go to the Aegean Sea to sink (or at least disorganize) the Allied convoys carrying reinforcements to Greece.
"To reassure Iachino, Riccardi tells him, 'The Xth FliegerKorps has promised tosupport you." In fact, this is what the Luftwaffe command told him, but the Xth FliegerKorps is already fully committed in Albania to support the Skandenberg Korps and this task is much more important for the German airmen than the protection of a few Italian ships, which they saw more as useless junk than anything else." (Jack Bailey, A Great Blue Graveyard - The Naval Air Battle of the Mediterranean, New York, 1955).
This operation demands a lot from what is left of the Italian fleet. Between the attack on Taranto the previous August and Operation Merkur in February-March, the Regia Marina lost two old battleships (Conte di Cavour and Caio Duilio) and eight cruisers, while a modern battleship, the Littorio, and four cruisers are still under repair. Admiral Iachino decided to organize a fast raiding force around the battleship Vittorio Veneto and its escort, the 13th division of destroyers Alpino, Bersagliere, Granatiere and Fuciliere, led by the light cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli. He addsthe 1st cruiser division commanded by Admiral Carlo Cattaneo (commander in chief of the cruisers), with the heavy cruisers Gorizia (Admiral) and Pola (the Zara being unavailable), the 8th cruiser division under Admiral Antonio Legnani, with the light cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Eugenio di Savoia, and finally the 9th destroyer division: Vittorio Alfieri, Giosue Carducci, Alfredo Oriani and Vincenzo Gioberti. "Admiral Riccardi approved this organization, but orders that the group of the Vittorio Veneto should not engage east of the island of Gaudos, as Cattaneo's cruisers could search for possible targets further out in the Aegean Sea." (J. Bailey, op. cit.).

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1941

Over the French Channel coast - Two Spitfires of the 303rd Squadron (Polish), emerge from the cloud cover and shoot down a Ju 52 on a liaison flight. The German transport aircraft crashes near Saint-Omer. Among the victims is Generaloberst Ulrich Grauert, commander of the I. FliegerKorps. He is replaced a few weeks later by General der Flieger Helmuth Förster, while the different squadrons composing the unit have to fly to East Prussia.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1941

Yugoslavia - In Macedonia, German forces take the town of Mitrovica, finally cutting off any retreat by Yugoslav units still trying to reach the Skoplje area. Meanwhile, in the southeast, the infantrymen of the 8. Leichte ID, coming from Bulgaria, move towards Veles, threatening to cut off the defenders of Skoplje from Salonika.
At night, General Giraud decides to withdraw towards the Greek-Yugoslavian border. This withdrawal is perfectly executed by the French and Greek troops of General Dentz, who take the Vardar valley, as well as by the Yugoslav units that continue to fight in the region and retreat towards Monastir, although they do so only reluctantly.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1941

Greece - In Thrace, a German column reaches the Strymon river west of Drama, threatening to encircle the 2nd Greek Army. To counter this, General Papagos orders the latter to withdraw to the left bank of the Strymon. General Giraud deploys his armored forces (7th Armoured Division (UK), 1st Armored Division (FR)) between Alyakmon and Vardar, to counter a possible breakthrough of the allied defense lines by the panzers.
In the air, the Luftwaffe does not relax the pressure: two new air raids hit Athens. Thessaloniki is also hit by an air attack openly targeting civilians. This bombing causes a beginning of panic and the population begins to flee to Larissa. The port of Thessaloniki is now too dangerous to continue the landings; the cargo ships carrying the tanks of the 2nd DC will be diverted to Piraeus.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1941

Greek-Albanian border - While Rommel is exhausted in the mountains, his superior, General Geloso, finds a way to break the Allied front! A flotilla of torpedo boats and Italian destroyers simultaneously land some Italian infantry units (two battalions of the San Marco marine infantry regiment and two assault legions of Black Shirts) in the port of Igoumenitsa, on the Ionian coast, as well as in the island of Corfu. One and the other are practically not defended, following a problem of coordination between Greeks and British. Indeed, the Greek units that had been defending the area since the beginning of the operations were withdrawn (and sent to the front). British troops were supposed to replace them, but Wilson's staff claimed to have not been informed, and to have always thought that the exchange would only take place one or two weeks later...

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1941

Bulgaria - As the LeO-451s begin to deploy to Crete, the Coronation/Couronnement heavy bombers launch another raid. Due to the military situation in northern Greece, this raid targets the rail yards of Sofia and Plovdiv to disrupt the logistic chain of the Wehrmacht. The attack on Plovdiv totally surprises the Bulgarian air defense and obtains a great success. As for the raid on Sofia, it hits its objective, but the German fighters shoot down four Stirlings and seven others are severely damaged.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1941

Eastern Mediterranean - In the afternoon, an RAF Sunderland based in Malta spot the Italian fleet, 120 nautical miles west of Cape Ténare (or Matapan). Admiral Andrew Cunningham immediately transmits the information to the French command, which orders a convoy heading towards Volos to divert to the Kassos Strait. This convoy is
covered by the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, which carries at this time a largely French air group (AC1 and AC2 flotillas of the Aéronavale with a total of 18 Grumman G-36A fighters, AB2 squadron with 8 Douglas SBD-1 dive bombers and 6 Swordfish from the FAA for ASW combat). All the SBDs and part of the G-36As are in the hangar, partially dismantled.
The 2nd French Squadron, centered on the battleships Bretagne, Provence and Lorraine and stationed at Benghazi since May 3rd, is put on alert. However, the three old battleships being much slower than the Italian ships and much weaker than the Vittorio Veneto, Admiral Jacques Bouxin, who commands the squadron, decided to leave, but without venturing north of a line Tunis-Derna. At that moment, he considers a night battle (because the darkness could allow him to approach the enemy and would cancel out the advantage that the Italian battleship had over the superior range of its guns).
At 19:00 (local time), Admiral Cunningham leaves Alexandria with the aircraft carrier Formidable (12 Fulmar IIs, 12 Albacores and 10 G-36As of the AC3 squadron, permanently on the flight deck), the battleships Barham, Valiant* and Warspite and eight destroyers. The Eagle is ordered to join these forces as soon as the convoy it has passed the Kassos Strait.
The French cruisers Colbert, La Galissonière and Jean-de-Vienne, as well as the destroyers Vauquelin, Cassard and Kersaint, which have just escorted convoy "Tiger" to Volos, temporarily join the Aegean Squadron (cruisers HMS Ajax, HMAS Perth and MN Emile-Bertin, destroyers Guépard, Lion, Valmy, Vauban and Verdun, and four destroyers of the Royal Navy), under the command of Admiral Pridham-Wippell.
This force passed through the Kithiria Strait (Kythera) and takes up position 30 nautical miles south of the island of Gaudos, off the southern coast of Crete.

* Back in the Mediterranean, as the threat of German privateers had largely diminished since the return to Germany of the Scheer and the Hipper.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

North: the allied offensive - Gondar area - Lieutenant Messmer's diary - "This time, the Australians were able to break through the external network of the north! The air force made a good showing yesterday and the shells are raining less. As far as we are concerned, we are hanging on, as we have been for the last two days."

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Spain - The appointment of a monarchist who did not carry the Phalange in his heart to the ministry of the Interior soon had consequences. Many of those close to Súñer, such as the General Director of Security (Count Mayalde) or the Governor of Madrid (Miguel Primo de Rivera) are ruthlessly replaced. The monarchist and the phalangist press exchanged biting jibes, revealing a division that makes the little Spanish people question the solidity of the regime.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Berlin - Admiral Lütjens advises the Kriegsmarine staff that his naval group is ready for action. In return, he receives the green light for Operation Rheinübung.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Eastern Mediterranean - At first light, Admiral Iachino decides to launch a reconnaissance seaplane. The aircraft spotted the Aegean Squadron 50 nautical miles east of the Italian fleet, and identifies it (quite accurately) as "a CA, 4 CLs and escorts".
Iachino then orders Admiral Cattaneo to abandon his planned mission of sweeping the Aegean Sea to attack the Allied squadron while trying to draw it back to the guns of the Vittorio Veneto. This is the beginning of a cat and mouse game where the two fleets will try to play the role of the cat.
07:30 - HMS Ajax, leading the Aegean Squadron, spots Cattaneo's ships.
07:52 - The Italian heavy cruisers Pola and Gorizia opened fire at 22,000 m. At this distance, only the Colbert can retaliate. Pridham-Wippell then decides to head east to attract the Italian cruisers towards Cunningham's battleships. Duly informed, the latter orders them to move as fast as possible, but the Warspite's engines can only make 22 knots.
08:00 - The battle moves eastwards. The Italian fire is fairly accurate, but only the Colbert and the Jean-de-Vienne are hit, once each, but not seriously.
09:15 - Desperate to catch up with his opponents, Cattaneo decides to turn back westwards to join Iachino and his battleship. Pridham-Wippell, informed by the French ships at the end of the line, assumes that an Italian cruiser has been damaged, and changes course again to follow his enemy. This time he orders his ships in two columns, the
Colbert (always the only one to fire) at the head of one, Ajax at the head of the other.
10:55- An aircraft is seen (probably a seaplane for fire control) above the allied cruisers.
11:12 - As Pridham-Wippell recounts in his memoirs, "huge wreaths around the Colbert and Ajax indicate that something big is firing at us." This is the Vittorio Veneto, which has just opened fire at 28,000 m. The distance is decreasing rapidly and both cruisers are framed by the "uncomfortably accurate" fire of the Italian battleship.
11:40 - Pridham-Wippell turns around again, but the Colbert is damaged by two near-misses, and her speed drops to 28 knots. " was faced with a very unpleasant choice: to shamefully leave the Colbert to be slaughtered alone, or to bravely stay with her and face the destruction of the entire squadron!"
However, informed minute by minute, Cunningham, who is still 80 nautical miles to the east, decides to launch an air attack as soon as the Vittorio Veneto is reported.
12:05 - The first Swordfish flies over the Allied cruisers. During this time, themechanics of the Eagle feverishly prepare the Dauntless bombers, as they can only be stored in the hangar of the ship at the cost of dismantling a wing.
12:15 - The Swordfish attack the Italian fleet. This attack does not produce any concrete results, but signals to Iachino that a powerful Allied formation is probably supporting the cruisers, as an aircraft carrier rarely moves alone. Knowing that a defeat would not be forgiven, the Italian admiral gathers all his people and sets course at 300, to the great relief of Pridham-Wippell and his men.
For a moment, it seemed that the engagement would have no further consequences...
15:25 - New air attack, carried out this time jointly by the Albacore of the Formidable and the Dauntless of the Eagle. The Garibaldi receives a 250 kg bomb and above all, the Vittorio Veneto is hit at 15:30 by a torpedo launched by Commander Stead's Albacore. He is killed with his observer by the battleship's flak, which shoots down his plane before he could even see his torpedo hit the Italian flagship in the rear (this was the only plane lost that day by the allied naval aviation). This single mosquito bite is enough to immobilize the large ship. When it breaks down, the battleship attracts other insects: the last dive bombers of this second wave, which hit it twice. A bomb strikes in particular near the rear chimney, destroying or obstructing the air inlets of the engine room.
16:30 - Thanks to the efforts of its mechanics, the Vittorio Veneto is moving again, but without being able to exceed 15 knots. Encouraged, the planes of the Formidable and the Eagle renew their attacks.
19:30 - At the last light of day, the heavy cruiser Pola receives a torpedo which seriously damages the propellers and rudder, bringing the ship to a halt. Iachino decides to continue westward with the Vittorio Veneto. At first he leaves only two destroyers with the wounded Pola, but this is to condemn the ship.
20:30 - Assuming that he is only facing cruisers and an aircraft carrier (he probably believes that allied battleships would already be there if they were in the vicinity), he asked Cattaneo to stay and assist the Pola with his three other cruisers and his four destroyers. But Cunningham is only 35 nautical miles from the cruiser.
21:00 - Warned by Cunningham, Admiral Bouxin decides to try to intercept the damaged Vittorio Veneto.
.........
21:45 - Ajax's radar detects "a large vessel in disarray" which is believed to be the Vittorio Veneto. Pridham-Wippell reports it to Cunningham, whose squadron is now close by and who decides to attack in the middle of the night.
21:57 - The Gorizia approaches the stopped Pola, and Admiral Cattaneo orders to prepare to tow the cruiser, convinced that there is no enemy vessel in the vicinity.
22:10 - The radar of the Valiant detects the Italian cruisers in turn: the Pola is still stopped, the other three in line, very close and at reduced speed... The three battleships and the three battleships and the cruisers with radar open fire at close range on an enemy unaware of the danger. Years later, Admiral Cunningham wrote in his memoirs, "A Sailor's Odyssey": "The condition of the Italian cruisers ravaged by our shells was indescribable. We saw whole turrets and pieces of hulls spinning in the air before crashing into the sea. In a short time, the four ships were nothing but blazing torches, burning from bow to stern."
After a few moments of stupor, the four Italian destroyers try to counterattack, but are repulsed by the fire of the English and French destroyers, which send the Oriani and the Carducci to join their cruisers at the bottom of the Mediterranean. The debris of the Gorizia sink at 23:15 (with Admiral Cattaneo), and those of the Eugenio Di Savoia ten minutes later. The Garibaldi's men do their best to save their ship, but it is hit by two British torpedoes that give it the coup de grâce and it sinks at 02:40. More fortunate than Cattaneo, Legnani survives; taken in by a British destroyer, he is taken prisoner. The Pola is scuttled and sinks at 04:03, after French and British destroyers have picked up most of the crew. Only the Alfieri and the Gioberti escape the massacre.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Greek-Yugoslav border - During the day, the French, Greek and Yugoslav forces retreating from Skoplje are joined by fresh troops: two Australian infantry brigades supported by the tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade.
The German armoured columns that follow the Vardar valley suffer heavy losses by attacking in a marshy zone the defense line set up by the Commonwealth troops. It seems that the men of the XL.AK (mot) are persuaded to have put their adversaries in a complete rout. The appearance of fresh troops and new armoured vehicles is a real shock for them! At the end of the day, the front is stabilized, in the middle of smoldering German and English carcasses.
The Yugoslav troops gathered in Monastir pass the Greek border, not without having left some bottlenecks in the rear-guard, and come to reinforce the allied defenses at Veve and Florina.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Ohrid - The same evening in Ohrid, near the Albanian border, the young king Peter II, after having listened to the mass said by the patriarch Gavrilo, embarks with his family and his government in a Sunderland seaplane of the RAF: the lake is the only "ground" still usable. The ex-regent Paul is on the trip: there is no question of leaving the Germans enough to form a Quisling (or Laval, depending on the references) government. The prince half-heartedly deplores the abandonment of his collection of master paintings, which, no doubt, will be added to Göring's treasure... The British military attaché, General Adrian Carton de Wiart, glares at him with his unique eye. The young king is more intimidated than ever by this impressive figure, who rants and raves in half a dozen languages. He finds his colors only once in flight. He is a little ashamed of this, as he leaves behind his invaded country, but the young king loves planes*.

* In fact, the Sunderland belonged to a squadron of the RAAF. The Australian writer and pilot Ivan Southall romanticized the episode in his book "Mission to Yugoslavia", one of the adventures of his favorite hero Lieutenant Pym.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Northwestern Greece - During the night of the 16th to the 17th, a squadron of six Greek destroyers, the Vasileus Georgios I, Vassilissa Olga, Hydra, Spetsai, Psara and Kountouriotis, attack the Italian ships that are supplying the troops landed at Igoumenitsa, on the north-west coast of Greece. The Italian torpedo boats Polluce and Pallade (survivors of the Tyrrhenian Sea battles) and the minelayer Durazzo are sunk by gunfire and torpedoes, but Italian speedboats torpedo and sink the Hydra.

Greek Destroyer RHS Hydra, Naval Battle of Igoumenitsa, May 16th, 1941.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Bulgaria - In the afternoon, the LeO-451 based in Crete accomplish their first raid on the Plovdiv train station. In the absence of modern fighters on site and the Flak being for once "rather absent" as the crews say, the bombing is very precise. On the way back, their speed allows the elegant bombers to escape the interception by the Bf 110s that took off when the bombing was announced.
During the night, fifteen French LB-30 attack the same target, with success, because the fires ignited by the LeO-451 always burn and facilitate the aiming.
.........
Romania - The same night, eighteen Stirlings of the RAF attack Ploesti without losses, but without great results, their target being partially masked by clouds.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1941

Alger - Four GMC trucks with tarpaulins and visibly loaded with equipment leave the port,attracting only a fleeting glance from the Petty Officer maneuvering the gate. If he had paid a little more he would have seen that the khaki paint was a different color on the doors and the hood than on the rest of the body, that stenciled inscriptions were still visible in places, and most importantly, that the number of dents and scratches they had were incompatible with new equipment, or maintained with the elbow grease generously spent by the Army.
All this does not escape the notice of the officer at White House airfield, where the trucks arrive half an hour later. But he draws the wrong conclusion: "It was high time", he thought, "that the Army saved money by buying used vehicles from the Americans!" And he too misses an important detail: if the driver of the first truck is a miltary man, like the sergeant who accompanies him, it is not the same for most of the occupants of the three other vehicles, civilians who, moreover, speak with a strong accent. It is true that the officer in question has to deal with the mission order that the sergeant hands him, that he must, according to the instructions, immediately call the officer on duty. The latter thoughtfully lifts his cap,scratches his head and rereads three times the document countersigned by two generals of two different branches before calling for Captain Lefèvre, commander of the field's anti-aircraft unit, who arrives a few minutes later, perched on his bicycle from Saint-Etienne. Quickly understanding what it is all about, Lefèvre signals the driver of the first truck to follow him to a far end of the field. Maison-Blanche enters the electronic age...