Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

August 12th, 1941

Blida - "Captain, there is at the entrance of the base a captain Dieulefit without a mission order who asks to see you.
- Let him in, it was I who asked him to come. Or rather, no. I'll get the radar technicians to hangar 3, bring the captain there.
A few minutes later, a group of men in different outfits meet up with a Glenn-Martin M-167F rather undressed, but not on the engine side, which is unusual in a maintenance hangar. Captain Pouyade introduces Captain Dieulefit to the technicians, mechanics, pilots and radar operators. Well, only to a part of the pilots, because those on alert last night are still sleeping!
The newcomer is shown the departures, explaining to him the principles of the English and their recommendations. From time to time, the engineer makes a face, in front of non isolated cables for example, or by noting the arrangement of the various elements. Then he is shown explanatory diagrams, but these contain little information about the components themselves.. However, one of these radars AI Mk IV, regularly breaks down since its arrival, is deposited and thrones on a workbench in an isolated room at the bottom of the hangar.
With its innards exposed, it is easier for the St. Cyrian to examine, and he can more easily understand the device. Accustomed to this type of equipment, he quickly spots a capacitor and asks a technician to replace it, which is quickly done. Miracle, or rather logic, the device works immediately. To everyone's satisfaction - this small operation increases at once the confidence of those present in the skills of the captain. So we do not contradict him when he expresses his concerns about the assembly on the plane, which moreover seems to him quite big for a fighter, even if it is a night fighter!
- You should see my brother Gus, the one who went to Polytechnique. He has greatly improved the planes of his group, the Breguet 693. I think that he could help you for the setting up the equipment. He had asked me for tips to make his on-board radios work better, and he had succeeded well, especially to eliminate the parasites.
- Ah that would be good indeed, we have quite a lot of parasites! Where is he based?
- In Oran, for the moment...
- Well, it will be difficult to bring him here without an official request, and it will take time. Mmmm... How would you like to go for a ride tomorrow to Oran in a Caudron Simoun?
- No problem, I gave my last report yesterday and I don't have any plans at my post, so I'm at your service, Pepito.

 

[Wings]

August 13th, 1941

Basra - Arrival by road of a convoy of two Humber command cars and four Bedford 3 tons QL trucks, particularly ugly but unwearable and everywhere. The sandy color of the vehicles is confused with the color of the dust that covers them. They bring, via Amman and Baghdad, the detachment of volunteers of the Arab Legion: a captain and two British lieutenants, two staff sergeants detached from His Majesty's forces (in partibus, as it were), six native non-commissioned officers and twenty-one soldiers.
The newcomers bring a touch of the picturesque. They are wearing a small red and white checked keffiyeh with small red and white checks held up by an oghal braided with silver threads, with the exception of four Cherkesses* , including a corporal, who keep their astrakhan talpak with piety despite the heat.
All of them wear desert boots and a khaki battle-dress, but the Bedouins are in abaya (their traditional dress) of the same shade, while the British have put on canvas pants and the Cherkesses a light drape breeches of Cossack cut with calf leather boots with sandalwood. On the other hand, the armament conforms to the rules and regulations, as if the Arab Legion was only one of the King's regiments among others: Webley pistol with white cord around the neck for the officers, Sten side-loader for the staff sergeants and a .303 Enfield rifle for the others, in addition to two FM Bren, two anti-tank rifles, an 81 mm Brandt mortar and an impressive supply of grenades.
Slim, anxious to prevent incidents, orders the Arab Legion to be stationed as far away from the Palmach group as possible. He has already assigned his 31 men, as a complement of mounted infantry, to the reconnaissance and support squadron of the 14th/20th King's Hussars, equipped with Daimler Dingo scout cars and Ford F30 heavy cars.
.........
London - The Royal Navy's Basra base has been in use since 1939. The Admiralty decides to give it a permanent character - for the duration, in fact: for the duration of the hostilities. Since Royal Navy shore establishments have the same status as ships at sea, it will have aname - HMS Euphrates - and a commander: Captain Richard Garstin OBE RIN, a rather old but valiant officer recalled to service in 1939.

* The Cherkesses, also called Circassians, belong to an ethnic group with a warrior tradition in the North Caucasus. To escape the Russian push to the south, they emigrated en masse to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. They remain today throughout the Middle East, notably in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and even Israel.

 

[Wings]

August 13th, 1941

Beirut - The violence of the previous week's crackdown has at least the deterrent effect that the authorities of the Mandate wanted. It is enough for the appearance of about thirty French gendarmes, with musket and revolver but in kepi, and a platoon of Cherkesses on foot, also without helmet, to put an end to the attempt of demonstration of a few hundred people in the heart of the Lebanese capital, on the Place des Canons (today Martyrs Square). There are no reports of incidents or gatherings in other cities in Syria or Lebanon.
It is true, however, that the governor of the vilayet of Soueida and the circle commanders of the Druze Jebel, always attentive to the smallest symptoms of fever since the rebellion of 1925-1927, report some agitation in some villages of the mountain, always the same ones, populated by Druze or Christians. But they think that the presence of two or three companies of Lebanese chasseurs or of the colonial army - "to show one's strength is not to have to use it" according to the lesson of Gallieni - will be able to overcome them easily.

 

[Wings]

August 13th, 1941

Naxos - The Luftwaffe continues its attacks with small formations of Ju 88. During the day, eleven German aircraft areshot down against the loss of only three Hurricanes.
Nevertheless, the bombers obtain a real success, with the destruction of the CXAM radar installed in the island. At dusk, the Abdiel leaves Rhodes and rushes at high speed towards Naxos, where it lands the reserve radar, which will be operational twenty-four hours later.

 

[Wings]

August 13th, 1941

Oran-La Sénia - A small Caudron decorated with the NAF colors of the French Air Force lands in front of the hangars of SNCAC-Breguet Aviation. The two uniformed officers who get out of it go straight to the runway office and technical room. Soon, a man comes out of the second hangar and joins the duo. White coat, not very white, blue uniform pants underneath, a lieutenant's cap on a round head with a little bit of shaggy hair, but whose eyes sparkle, here is Gus Dieulefit, equal to himself.
- Hi, bro! Still angry with the uniform, it seems?
- Well, what do you want to do with a tie in an airplane cockpit during maintenance, I swear! How are you doing, big brother?
- Fine! This is Captain Pierre Pouyade, I don't know if you remember, one of my comrades from Saint-Cyr?
- Oh yes! The singer of the improved Tonkinoise! We called you Pepito, didn't we?
- That's right, and they still do! Even my pilots use it...
- Your pilots?
- I lead the GCN I/13, which now includes the III/13, by the way.
- Aha, night hunting?
- Yes, and since we're in trouble, Robert said you could help us?
- In what way?
- Installation of our radio detection equipment. Nothing is working properly...
- Parasites?
- Among others. And untimely breakdowns.
- In which plane?
- Glenn 167F.
- But that's a bomber, not a fighter...
- Yes, but they have been transformed for night hunting or assault, with extra weapons in the nose, and there is room for electrical equipment.
The engineer shakes his head in frustration...
- To think that we have our Breguets which rot to do nothing...
- They are also bombers!
- Assault planes, captain, planned at the beginning for the heavy fighter duties. The bomb bay was put in place of the third man and a tank, but it is reversible. And usable.
- Well, there are no more available...
- What you say! Apart from four specimens here which are used to study modifications, there are ten that are oxidizing at the Oujda IBC, which can't do anything with them, since they are not two-seater at the controls.
- Really? We should do a test... Anyway, for the moment we have our Glenn and their not so efficient equipment. If you can do something...
- I'm going to see if my supervisor will let me go. Come with me, we're working on my old plane right now, completely rebuilt and modernized, and we're working on eliminating that damn radio interference. Well, on our side, it's not too bad, but we should also improve the conditions of the ground stations!
The three men continue to discuss while going towards the other hangar, where soon Pepito's eyes soon distinguish the silhouette of a twin-engine plane perched high on its wheels. The machine seems heterogeneous: some parts are painted with wear marks, like the biggest part of the fuselage, others not, certainly more recent. A second aircraft with dismantled hoods placed just behind on trestles, looks like the first one by its variegated aspect, but only some painted panels remain, among which those with badges. In front of Pouyade who wonders, Gus makes the presentations.
- In front, the 697 with 14N48/49 engines, modified according to the lessons that I could withdraw from the fights. Behind, my 1008 born 693, which became a 695 with its Pratt R-1535, and is about to become a 700. You have to admit that from the original 1008, there is not much left, even the structure has been redone almost everywhere.
- It's much smaller than a Glenn.
- Yes, and lighter, although it is reinforced compared to the 693.
- What did you change?
- First of all, the armor. All the undersides have been thickened, that's what was taking the most, especially on the wings. New self-sealing fuel tanks with a larger capacity for the more greedy 14N, too. Additional armor for the two crewmen, only the pilot was a bit protected on the first ones.
- You've increased the armament, right?
- Yes and no. Yes, because the two gondolas with the 20 mm guns did not exist on the 693s, and no because this assembly was done in a squadron on the directives of Bergerot and myself. But now, it is better integrated in the fuselage. Three 20mm, plus the two 7.5s, it's a blast, I can tell you !
- I can imagine. And are all existing aircraft like this?
- In school, there must be a few that don't have the gondolas, but it's easy to do, now. There are plenty of extra 20 mm!
"Pepito" squints his eyes and remains silent for a few moments, thinking. Even without radar, these planes could be very useful in night hunting... More than the Defiant, in any case! Gus confirms: "Don't forget that at the beginning, they are studied as fighters!"
Pouyade continues to detail the improvements made. The engine covers of the 14N have been modified on the principle of the LeO's Mercier. They have brought a real gain in speed with the contribution of power, the plane exceeding the 520 km/h with 4 300 m, altitude of recovery of the Gnome, and this in spite of the weights. Because other things are reinforced, in particular the famous landing gear, cause of many accidents or incidents. But also a more subtle shielding, that of the ignition circuits of the engines: The magnetos have been studied closely, but unfortunately the American manufacturer has not yet responded to requests for modifications. "Order thousands of them, we can do something!" the Americans replied. "The ones we manufacture work without complaint from aircraft manufacturers." This response was of course passed on to the ministry, but without result for the moment. The implacable logic of numbers.
Informed of the arrival of the two soldiers, the chief engineer introduces himself to the two men. Explanations, discussions, questions, answers. The civilian makes a slight pout, then makes a decision.
- I agree to leave Gus with you for as long as it takes, and I'll even add his colleague Bergerot, because together they are formidable... At all levels! But I put a condition on it !
- What condition? I'm not the decision maker for everything...
- That you take the 697 with you for testing. It is ready to fly in several configurations, but the staff and the ministry are turning a deaf ear. It is difficult to erase a reputation. If you try it and it works for you, it can change things.
- Uh, I didn't bring a pilot with me!
- Gus will fly it, he's used to it, and has enough hours on it, he'll even serve as your instructor for the tests.
- Really? Then no problem, anyway, according to the description, I'm interested.
- So, it's a deal! Of course, we will only inform our hierarchies in bits and pieces or afterwards, they would be able to forbid us.
- Mr. Breguet?
- Oh no, not him, he certainly agrees, by hierarchy, I mean the Ministry of the Air Force and your staff. That said, stay with us tonight, we can load your Simoun and the 697 with the equipment that our colleagues will need, and you can leave tomorrow morning.

 

[Wings]

August 14th, 1941

Tehran - From the beginning of his reign, Reza Shah has been committed to "building by example" the Iranian people in general and the soldiers of his armies in particular.
Today, ruthless, the sovereign refuses to pardon two soldiers of the Khuzestan Division who were sentenced to death for abandoning their post: they fell asleep during the night watch, a sleep to which opium, they spontaneously confessed to the court martial, was not foreign. The two unfortunate men are hanged at the end of the day in front of the Golestan Palace. The Shahinchah orders that their corpses remain exposed to the public eye, with a sign around their necks detailing their crime, for forty-eight hours.

Basra - In August, the average temperature in the region reaches 41° in the shade, with 85% humidity but not a single day of rain; the atmosphere is full of sand, dust, salt... and mosquitoes. Slim, concerned about the morale of his troops who are starting to get nervous with the wait, armed to the teeth, in such trying climatic conditions, and even more worried about discipline, he ordered the unit commanders to practice one hour of drill every morning, before sunrise, then one hour every evening, after sunset.
For his soldiers, he feels, idleness would be worse than cholera and castapia. In return for this takeover, all the personnel (except the sentries, whose duty will be limited to one hour, as well as the officers and non-commissioned officers of the day) will be put at absolute rest between 12 and 16 hours.
Alternating the carrot and the stick, Slim prescribes a deduction of one week's pay for all those who, falsely claiming the difficulties of the moment (notably a shortage, quite real, of Gillette blades and beard soap), fail to shave - and he decides, at the same time, that tea would be served at will. Slim, without daring to write it in so many words, expects the Ordnance to follow. It will have to provide, in quantities greater than the supply tables predict, tea, milk,* sugar, drinking water and fuel for boiling - all of which are almost impossible to find in the region (except for water, and even then), which it will have to import at great expense, and not without danger, over tens or hundreds of miles, even thousands of nautical miles.
.........
Muscat - Commodore O'Driscoll announces to his commanders, more than half of whom wear the broken stripes of the RNVR (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve)** on their sleeves, that he intends to organize a demonstration of force the next day, shortly before dusk, in front of Bandar Abbas. He wants to sail his flotilla - or at least, all that it would be possible to distract from the permanent missions of HMS Al Jilali and the necessary maintenance or repair tasks - to a line drawn across the town of Suza, on the island of Suza, on the island of Qushm, passing, by day on the way out and by night on the way back, three miles just in front of the Iranian port.
O'Driscoll's objective is twofold, he says. First, to impress the Iranians and, more importantly, the Germans and the Italians, in order to prevent them from trying to leave.
Secondly, with a bit of luck, to bring the teams of the numerous Iranian batteries that cover the entrance to the port, especially the ones on Hormuz Island and Larakh Island, to get angry and reveal the locations of the searchlights coupled to the guns - even if it means taking the risk of receiving the shells fired by an impulsive person.
O'Driscoll works out all the practical details with his officers, fixes the times with them and has everyone handed out informed maps, then he asks the ritual question, "Where is the sun, gentlemen?" To which the youngest of the officers replies, "Well below the yardarm, Sir".
Thereupon, in abaya and turban, two native servants bring whisky, gin, soda, orange juice and ice. And the rite continues with the loyal toast*** to the health of King George VI, followed, in honor of "Victor," by a toast to President Lebrun - who would be surprised. This is followed by multiple rounds.

* English tea is not conceivable without milk, except in the Royal Navy where it is mixed with rum, and in Scotland where the traditional toddie - recommended in winter, and for the treatment of all sorts of ailments - is a mixture, in more or less equal parts, of tea and whisky.
** The Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve is composed of civilians who, since peacetime, have devoted several weeks each year to training and perfecting the function of watch leader, gunnery officer or equivalent (mechanical engineers, commissaries, doctors, etc.), after an initial stay of two to six months in the Navy, ashore and on a ship, depending on the knowledge already acquired and the specialties. Their stripes are "broken", while those of the Royal Navy officers, active and regular reserve (former active officers), wear continuous stripes, like those of the French Navy.
*** All Britons, civilian and military, stood for the loyal toast, except for officers and petty officers of the Royal Navy who, both on board and on land, remain seated: a reminder of the time when wooden ships did not offer roofs of a sufficient height- it would have been unseemly to bend one's head, or worse, to knock it, when toasting to the health of the sovereign.

 

[Wings]

August 14th, 1941

Alger - The National Defense Council decides to reinforce the French forces based in Indochina "as much as possible, without compromising operations in Europe".

 

[Wings]

August 14th, 1941

Naxos - The Luftwaffe launches continuous attacks by small formations to harass the defenders. However, the day offers the allied fighters operating in Crete and Rhodes a well earned respite.

Berlin - The weather over Crete and the Cyclades isvery good, but in Berlin the HQ conference about them is stormy. Refusing to take the blame for a failure, General Löhr takes the offensive: "The continuation of air attacks is totally futile, since ground forces cannot be landed in Crete or even in Naxos!"
He is harshly reprimanded by Göring: "Don't be ridiculous, Löhr! Our air offensive has won a very important victory! In a few weeks, the Luftwaffe has forced the enemy to the defensive and annihilated all air threats against Greece, Romania and the Balkans in general! The pilots and crews of our Luftwaffe have, as usual admirably accomplished their task!
- There is no question of denying the courage and efficiency of our men, Herr Reichsmarschall! But in order to sustain the results of their efforts and to definitively annihilate the enemy's air threat in the region, it would be necessary to deploy 600 additional fighter aircraft and their crews to Greece every month. In the absence of such reinforcements, which our logistics on the ground would have a hard time supporting anyway, it is simply impossible to continue our offensive at the current pace. However, if this rhythm must slow down without having occupied the Cyclades and Crete, the enemy will gradually rebuild his offensive capabilities.
The Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, General Jeschonnek, deftly comes to Löhr's rescue: "It is not impossible to maintain our air offensive at a high rate, my Führer, but you must be aware that such an effort would not be without strategic consequences. To continue the offensive until the end of the year by sending to the Balkans the reinforcements requested by General Löhr would prevent the Luftwaffe from supporting a major ground operation until the Summer of 1942, potentially even delay it till that Autumn."
Hitler is touched by this clear hint, and reacts immediately: "Could your Luftwaffe at least ensure the defense of the Balkans until the end of 1942 in the present conditions, I mean without us controlling Crete and the Dodecanese?"
Cornered, both Löhr and Jeschonnek reluctantly agree to guarantee that with the forces that the regional logistic network allows to maintain in a permanent way, it will be
possible to contain the enemy's offensive potential at least until the summer of 1942. These forces are: the II FK in Bulgaria and Northern Greece, the V FK in Central Greece and the Regia Aeronautica in southern Greece, plus the Xth FK in southern Italy.
Hitler finally resigns himself to this idea as a lesser evil, but he demands that General Löhr, to whom he puts the responsibility of the failure over the Aegean Sea and Crete, leaves the region. Löhr does not even protest, relieved, in fact, to be relieved of this high-risk command. Göring then suggests that the Luftwaffe's organizational chart in the Balkans be redesigned. He proposed that a new LuftFlotte, the 6, and to appoint Field Marshal Kesselring as its commander, in view of his "great victory in Merkur" (the Reichsmarschall doesnot mention the very high losses suffered by the Luftwaffe on this occasion).
"Good!" announces Hitler. "So, Field Marshal Kesselring will maintain an offensive posture as long as his forces would allow him to do so, then he would go on the defensive. The establishment of an air defense over the area will be accelerated. Apart from these forces, the Luftwaffe will have to be ready to support a large-scale decisive operation as early as the spring of next year. This historic operation will settle once and for all, among other things, our oil and raw material supply problems."
This conference marks the real end of the Battle of Crete, even if the daytime raids against Naxos and Maleme, and the night raids against Chios, Heraklion and Rhodes will continue until mid-September, but at a very reduced pace.
Kesselring, who is in Warsaw, receives the order to go immediately to Athens with his staff.
As for Löhr, he remains at the head of LuftFlotte 4. From September to October, this one will be redeployed to Romania, but several units have to spend a few weeks in Germany and Austria to reconstitute their numbers.
Moreover, after having hesitated for a long time, because he still has a certain distrust of the Prussian Junkers, Hitler accepts another proposal from Göring: to appoint at the head of the LuftFlotte 2, replacing Kesselring, the talented general Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen (cousin of the famous Manfred, the "Red Baron" of the First War). The latter will be replaced at the head of the VIIIth FK by Generalmajor Martin Fiebig.

 

[Wings]

August 14th, 1941

Gibraltar - The P-32 having been reported missing, the P-33 (Lt R.D. Whiteway-Wilkinson) leaves the 8th Flotilla to join the 10th in Malta. It will be followed one week later by the Ursula (Lt A.J. Mackenzie), bringing the 10th Flotilla to nine ships. As for the 8th, it is reduced to three Dutch submarines and HMS Talisman.

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Washington - Lord Halifax, perhaps not quite recovered from Roosevelt's philippic at the July 26th meeting, suddenly becomes concerned about the fate of Canada in a letter dated July 14th to Winston Churchill. He recalled that the President had expressed his concern for "the true interests of America ... yes, of America, and not just the United States."
According to the ambassador, the United Kingdom must beware of a modern resurgence of the Monroe doctrine. It could lead the US administration to try to put Ottawa under trusteeship, which would then have to be seen as a first step towards annexation. There would be little need for a pretext: the White House could flatter its public opinion, which is still largely isolationist, by claiming that it is only a matter of pressuring Britain to repay British debts In an alarmist tone, Lord Halifax points out that at the State Department, we persist to say that the Anglo-American treaties of 1818 and 1846, which fixed the boundary between Canada and the United States and settled many disputes, were and remain, in reality, as "unequal" as those concluded by the European powers with China. "I fear that a revision of these conventions will very soon be required," writes Lord Halifax, without detailing the elements that lead him to think so.
He also indicates that, according to "a financial source who is necessarily well placed" - which is Henry Morgenthau, whom Halifax disliked, for all sorts of reasons, as everyone in Washington and London knows - the United States is determined to use the circumstances to push Great Britain to liquidate the bulk of its assets in Latin America, for the benefit, of course, of American business. "I'm already noticing," he notes, "a reduction in the possibilities of maintaining our assets or relieving our deficits. For example, a drop in sugar orders to Jamaica, offset by an equivalent increase in purchases from Cuba."
Some will claim that Halifax wants to make a point with this alarmist letter after the Argentia conference, in which he had not participated.

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Washington - Following the Atlantic Conference in Argentia, the Concorde protocol is ratified by the United States. Doctors Vannevar Bush and James B. Conant take place
within the commission of follow-up of the Concorde project.
This ratification of the protocol is not done without strong reticence on the part of the military and certain members of the Roosevelt administration, supporters of the "America First" policy.*
It took all the authority of Roosevelt, concerned above all to obtain results as quickly as possible, to impose full cooperation with the European teams.
On the same day, the American administration creates the "S-1 Committee", responsible for coordinating the work carried out in the United States**.

* They would have their revenge on August 1st, 1946, when the McMahon Atomic Energy Act was passed, the Truman administration denounced the Concorde clauses and the application of the embargo on the technical and practical data of the Manhattan Project.
** This Committee would naturally be in relation with the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) that Vannevar Bush created in December 1941, after Pearl Harbor, to mobilize American scientific resources for the war effort. This office innovated in a wide range of technological and military fields: bombs, military vehicles, medical equipment, etc. Some of the research would prove useful for atomic bombs, in particular to improve the detonators and explosives necessary to trigger the chain reaction.

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

London - An over-coded telegram, emanating not from the Foreign Office but from 10 Downing Street - which indicates that it was, if not written, at least aims at, and most probably proofread word by word, by Winston Churchill himself - informs Sir Reader Bullard and Wavell (with a copy to to Auchinleck) that the text of the British ultimatum, which will be communicated to them on the 18th in the morning (in GMT), should be given to the Shahinchah forty-eight hours later, on the 20th.
According to the good British rule, the telegram specifies that the two officials, in a position to juge on the ground better than the War Cabinet, are free to decide for themselves, depending on the situation, on the procedure . London suggests, however, that Sir Reader could return to Tehran for the occasion, but he would only stay there for twenty-four hours, thus without waiting for the expected answer, the last deadline, for the 23rd at midnight - if answer there should be, which belongs to the domain of conjectures. But failing that, Downing Street says, Sir Reader could informally entrust the text to Iran's chargé d'affaires in Cairo, who would be responsible for transmitting the contents to Reza Shah.
.........
Cairo - The essence of the Downing Street telegram is summarized to Cunningham (who will send it to Slim and Graham) by a telex from Wavell, in agreement with Sir Miles Lampson and Sir Reader Bullard. Countenance's staff now knows that the operation would be launched on the 24th, unless there was a last-minute hazard, meteorological or otherwise, which would require a postponement to the 25th.

Bandar Abbas - Commodore O'Driscoll implements the demonstration of force organized with his commanders. The X7 Victor-Schœlcher, on which he had hoists his mark (the white gonfanon with a scarlet St. George's cross attributed to his function), HMS Niger and HMS Sharpshooter, without prejudice to various elements of the naval dust based in Muscat, pass and repass in a line in front of the great Iranian port at the limit of territorial waters. O'Driscoll orders that Her Majesty's ships fly the small flag and their gigantic Battle Ensign, while an endless war flame floats from the mast of the "Victor", also under the small flag. The gun crews - even those of the 7.7 machine guns - have ostensibly taken up their posts, in fire suits with helmets and life jackets, and, for the larger calibers, anti-burst hoods.
As the commodore had hoped, the Iranian coastal gunners do not resist the temptation to turn on the searchlights, whose readings are immediately transcribed on the maps.
They will be a precious help for the crews of the reconnaissance planes which, from the next day, they had to take close-up photographs of their locations.

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Rabat - Before leaving Morocco for the Levant, the next day, General Catroux is received in audience, at his request, by Sultan Mohamed Ben Youssef. The meeting, in the presence of General Eugène Mittelhauser, Resident General in Morocco, is purely formal. Catroux considers it necessary, he explains to Mittelhauser, to take protocol leave of the Cherifian sovereign. He also takes the opportunity to question the Resident General about his experience in the Levant.
No one, it is true, has ever reproached the General for not watching his back, nor for neglecting the human, even personal, aspect of political relations.

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Iceland - American forces land in Reikjavik to "ensure the security of the island" and to provide support to the Royal Navy and the French Navy. As no German landing was really feared, these forces are mainly composed of an engineer battalion in charge of building and protecting the small local airfield in order to base long-range reconnaissance aircraft (and, later, ASW aircraft). In addition, in the Atlantic Charter, the US Navy has to start escorting convoys to the "Ocean Meeting Points".

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Durban (South Africa) - The small aircraft carrier HMS Hermes docks for a well-deserved refit. She was rammed and damaged by the auxiliary cruiser HMS Corfu, first repaired in Simonstown, she will be restored to health before heading for Singapore...

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Aegean Sea - The Luftwaffe launches small attacks against Naxos and Chios, but also against the ground of Maleme, in Crete. It loses eleven planes, against four allied fighters.

 

[Wings]

August 15th, 1941

Blida - What can a militant atheist engineer do on a religious holiday? He works of course, and quietly! Fortunately the guards were warned, notably during the arrival of the Breguet 697 the day before, but it was nevertheless necessary to let this surprising individual enter the hangars. It is true that the faded outfit of Gus does not plead in his favor, even with two strings! And as in the hangar, he has quickly put down his uniform to keep only shorts and an undershirt because of the ambient temperature, this does not help, but makes the mechanics on duty and in charge of the preparation of the alert planes for the night smile.
Conscientiously, Gus notes on a notebook. What he sees on the Glenn, what he doesn't like, the questions to ask the technicians who have experience with the system. The English installation diagram is also dissected, as well as the repaired device that has not moved from its workbench. The notebook is gradually filled with fine writing, sometimes interspersed with drawings or sketches.
Considering the summer heat, only the necessary personnel is on base, to the great irritation of the engineer-pilot, who would have liked to meet sufficiently informed people. Two of the Glenn are however alert, and Gus can thus see arriving some technicians in the relative coolness of the falling evening, when it is necessary to begin to prepare the planes for the night watch. To his great satisfaction, he gets answers to his questions, and he can then converse with the alert crews, and thus note their feelings and desiderata. At the moment when the mechanics heat the engines, open hoods, the engineer rushes with a small device, obviously home-made, that he walks along the running engine. A good preparation for the next day.

 

[naraht]

August 12th, 1941

Muscat, under the sun - Commodore O'Driscoll has enough humour to cope with the poverty of the means allocated by the Eastern Fleet to HMS Al Jalali to patrol his segment of the Bombay-Karachi-Aden-Suez route, to monitor the landings of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and to maintain the blockade of Bandar Abbas, from which there is no question of letting the German and Italian ships escape, moored there since the summer of 1939 or the spring of 1940.
For the attack on Bandar Abbas, its flotilla, before the arrival of the French X7, had nothing more powerful than two Halcyon-class minesweepers, which he indulgently called "my exotic boats". The HMS Niger and Sharpshooter are poorly armed (two guns, four 12.7 machine guns, 7.7 firecrackers, a few depth charges and an asdic) and slow (17 knots all up in calm seas). It is on the Sharpshooter that O'Driscoll has so far hoisted his mark. Still, he is happy not to have to settle for the yacht HMS Seabelle (1,057 tons, 2 x 76 mm and a few machine guns), the last ship of any tonnage in his squadron.
For the rest, in addition to three dhows (local boats) with motors, a harbour tug, two service barges, two tankers, a barge, a dredger and its cutter, two motor boats, two whaleboats without engine and its motor launch of function, O'Driscoll received only a dozen launches. Most of these craft are Fairmile B-type gunboats. HMML-1006, 1014, 1016, 1018, 1019, 1041, 1042 and 1052 constitute the 104th Motor Launch Flotilla. The Fairmile Bs (112 feet, only 20 knots but a range of 1,500 nautical miles) are armed with a 3-pounder Hotchkiss, two Lewis 7.7 mm and 12 depth charges; they are equipped with an asdic. They suffer from an extremevulnerability due to their wooden construction and lack of armor. Their crew does not have any protection worthy of the name.
Eureka-type Higgins boats complete the fleet. They are 36-ft boats armed with two machine guns and capable of carrying machine guns and capable of transporting 36 men in arms or a light vehicle and of disembarking them via a ramp onto a beach - which could well make them of great importance in the planned assault. But there are only five of them!
Fortunately for him, O'Driscoll is one of those who believes that poverty is not vice. He perceives the weakness of his forces as a challenge to be taken up. Assured by the quiet pride of the British sailors of the quality of his officers, petty officers and crews, he chooses to forget that Their Lordships' order of battle does not refer to his ships as ships, but, with contempt, boats only*. They will be enough, he believes, to fulfill all his missions: to forbid the entry of the Gulf to the enemy ships and the exit to those who are there, to protect the road to India and the routes for the transport of black gold against raiders, U-boats and Italian submersibles, and to rescue Allied and even neutral ships in danger in the Gulf, and, as soon as Countenance is launched, to take Bandar Abbas by force in order to capture, disable or sink anything flying the flag of Iran, the Reich or Italy.
Faithful to the practices handed down by Admiral Nelson and his "band of brothers", O'Driscoll informs his commanders that he would meet with them to explain his plans on the 14th after sunset (the ominous 13th was not an option, and in the Royal Navy, the wardroom only drinks when the sun is "well above the yardarm or well below").
.........
London, early morning - The British government is never reluctant to defy logic - that of the Continentals, that is: an article in the Financial Times lifts the veil on the "reasons" that led Whitehall to postpone the delivery of a final ultimatum to the Shahinchah. What is more bizarre is that it is under the pen of its Chief Stock Exchange correspondent, head of the stock exchange section, and therefore an important figure in the newspaper (this section alone represented a good quarter of the editorial content), but a priori better informed about business than high politics, that the great daily of Economy comments on the increase of movements involving the shares of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's shares and the rise of the stock which intrigued, the day before, the brokers.
The columnist believes he can say that it is the logical consequence of the evolution, considered favorable and even promising by some wise investors, of an Anglo-American bargaining process that is still underway. On the sidelines of the Argentia conference, he writes, the Foreign Office and the State Department have agreed on the terms of a convention according to which the United States would leave the field in Iran open to the British, subject to the respect for the rights of U.S. companies - which in plain English means that the exploitation and management of Iran's oil resources will remain under the control of the City, closely supervised, in this case, by the British government. In return, Britain would have committed itself to finally recognizing de jure the sovereignty of the Sauds over Mecca and Medina - to the detriment, therefore, of its faithful ally Emir Abdullah of Transjordan - and, moreover, to refrain from interfering in the very juicy business of the California-Arabian Standard Oil Co.
The journalist specifies that the result of these "more discreet than secret" negotiations, already endorsed ex officio by Anthony Eden and by Cordell Hull, still have to be signed by Winston Churchill. His Majesty's Prime Minister will also have to submit it to the whole War Cabinet, if only because of the necessary legal facade in Whitehall, which would allow him, behind the scenes, all sorts of pragmatism. Franklin D. Roosevelt would also have to give him his explicit approval - but, for the sake of imperative political convenience on the banks of the Potomac, after having informed, no doubt "by the fireside", the leaders of the Democratic majority and the Republican minority of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Indeed, the President must now, more than ever, appear to be treating with as much consideration as leniency the America First supporters, who have not disarmed and have still not digested the Lend-Lease deal, which some see as a provocation and others as a betrayal.
Moreover, according to sources that it is careful to keep in the shadows - without further clarification - the Financial Times slips that Algiers, informed ab initio of these talks, then kept informed of their progres day by day, if not hour by hour, has given the British side carte blanche to conduct them as well as possible - on the condition, on the one hand, that France continues to recieve ne varieur its quota of Iranian black gold and, secondly, that the participation of the CFP*'s stake in Anglo-Iranian, estimated at around 10%, is not called into question.
.........
Washington, late morning - The White House Press Office and the State Department spokesman refuse to confirm or deny the information released ten hours earlier (given the time difference) by the Financial Times. They are limiting themselves, on both sides, to point out to American journalists and foreign correspondents (and especially, not without malice, to the British and the French) that the article in question is widely picked up by Reuters and Havas Libre "without any intervention of the censors", it is argued with a smile - which, from London and Algiers, it is suggested, is equivalent to a confirmation.
.........
Alger, in the evening - Roland de Margerie is not a party goer or a night owl. He does, however, shortly after a surprise appearance at the Aletti bar, where he knows he can meet the elite of French journalists and accredited correspondents over a cognac, an anisette, a gin and tonic or a whisky and soda, before sharing a glass of champagne at midnight: even more than in the good old days of peace, expense accounts are good in wartime.
Margerie, without holding a press conference in the form, nevertheless tells his guests, to whom the secret funds offer a general tour, then two, that France welcomes the spirit of inter-allied cooperation now demonstrated by London in the Iranian crisis.
Skilled in the handling of the off the record, he takes advantage of the occasion to dot the i's: "Our friends have been careful, for several weeks, to inform us of their movements and to ask our opinion, even our approval," he says. "The government, and myself in particular, believe it, can only congratulate ourselves, Madam*** and Gentlemen, on this happy development."
It could not be more courteously signified that the War Cabinet, which had dared to treat France as a negligible quantity with regard to Iran, had to eat its hat. Repent, sinner!

* The launches of all types are designated only by a number following, according to their armament, the prefix HMMTB, HMMGB or HMML, and not the traditional HMS.
** Compagnie Française des Pétroles, created in 1924 with both public and private capital to manage France's share (25%) in Iraq's resources. It was the ancestor of the Total group.
*** Geneviève Tabouis is present, naturally.

One only hopes that Ms. Tabouis managed to get her family out of France iTTL.

 

[Wings]

August 16th, 1941

Ankara - A Franco-British diplomatic mission begins important talks with the Turkish government. These discussions revolve around the definition of the notions of "neutrality" and "non-belligerence". The Turkish government seeks to obtain arms before the end of the year; the United Kingdom promises to sell Turkey forty Hurricane I to Turkey before the end of November and the French to transform the 39 MS-406 that are still owned by the Turkish army.
The Turks agree all the more readily because they know they can obtain Hispano-Saurer 12Y-51 engines, which, given the aerodynamic modifications of the the MS-410 (fixed radiator, propulsive exhaust pipes...), should give an aircraft capable of more than 570 km/h at 5 800 m and reaching 6 000 m in 7 minutes, even if it will be limited in pure speed by its aerodynamics dating from 1935. Transformed from February to July 1942 and unofficially named MS-420, these aircraft arevery good air superiority aircraft. Until the American deliveries after the war, they will constitute the cream of the Turkish air force.

 

[Wings]

August 16th, 1941

Moscow - The British military attaché, Brigadier Noel Mason-Macfarlane, announces to the staff of the Red Army, under the seal of secrecy, that the triggering of Countenance
is now planned for the 24th.
For about ten days, at the request of the Soviet side, which wants to keep up appearances with the Germans, all communications from the British about the planned operation against Iran have been channelled exclusively through the "technical" levels of both sides: the third secretary of the embassy via obscure underlings of the Foreign Office for what concerns the strictly diplomatic aspects of the affair, and the military attachés, each in his own field, via the staffs of the Red Army for the army and aviation, and the Red Flag Fleet for the navy.