@Wings
Great work for the translations.
If I may, the authors didn't mean "fat" when they used the french word "hâves", but meant "emaciated".
Thanks for your work.
Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation
- Thread starter Wings
- Start date
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Great work for the translations.
If I may, the authors didn't mean "fat" when they used the french word "hâves", but meant "emaciated".
Thanks for your work.
5308
August 21st, 1942
Moscow - A secret conference brings together Panteleimon Ponomarenko, first secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus, General Ivan Maslennikov and an NKVD officer, Vasily Zakharovich Korzh, a veteran of the Spanish War.
As head of the 29th Army, Maslennikov is slowly recovering from the fatigue of operation Borodino (and the sometimes brutal apostrophes of Zhukov) but proudly displays a new set of decorations. He was also, until the beginning of the war, chief of the border guards in Belarus: as such, he was familiar with the border region of Western Belarus, which had been taken from Poland in 1939. He has only moderate confidence in the Belarusians, even communists: in 1939, many militants of the KPZB (Communist Party of Western Belarus) went directly from Polish prisons to deportation camps of the NKVD, and the others remained suspects. But Maslennikov, who is said to be one of Beria's closest officers, knows that Stalin agreed to overlook man of the deviations that preceded Barbarossa. It is therefore with the greatest care that with Ponomarenko and Borj, he studies the possibility of creating an organization of partisans in Belarus, especially in the Pinsk region.
Korj knows well the reflexes of the Belarusian peasants: they don't like the Soviet officials, but they hate even more the Polish feudalists, and they are certainly furious against the Germans who not only refuse to give them back their collectivized land, but have begun to confiscate their crops and livestock on a massive scale. And then there are the Jews, who begin to hide in the forests to escape the tracking of the SS, and a number of soldiers and border guards, overwhelmed by the German advance at the beginning of the war and who had escaped capture by going into civilian clothes, but who are eager to return to the fight. A large number of executions of hostages by the fascist occupation forces have already been reported.
Maslennikov underlines the risks of the operation, but also its interest, "on an experimental basis": if the partisans manage to keep a low profile for a few months, they will then be able to cut off the lines of communication, which the invaders are taking such pains to re-establish, at the most opportune moment. At least, their threat will force the fascists to maintain several security divisions on their rear.
Ponomarenko is more sensitive to the political aspect. Didn't the Central Committee, following the inspiration of Comrade Stalin, issue a decree "On the organization of the partisan struggle behind enemy lines"? The Allies, especially the French, are infatuated with the Poles, it is important to show them that the people are united in the defense of the Soviet homeland, even in these disputed regions.
Kroj's plan is simple: a few dozen men, divided into small units, will cross the German lines north of Vitebsk and follow the thick forests of northern and western Belarus to the Pinsk marshes, where they will set up hiding places before the winter frost. Then, it will be possible to send them equipment and reinforcements, by light aircraft or by land. By then, the Fascists will probably have had time to repair the railroad tracks from Brest-Litovsk to Minsk and Gomel: they will have a surprise. Volunteers are already being recruited and they show an excellent morale, including the women.
Kroj avoids saying that these "founders", as they will be called later, have very little chance of returning alive. At the beginning of the war, when he was stationed in Pinsk, he had just enough time to evacuate his family to Kuban, at the foot of the Caucasus. He will experience mixed feelings, a few months later, when he learned that his two daughters had joined the 4th Cossack Cavalry Corps as stretcher bearers.
Moscow - A secret conference brings together Panteleimon Ponomarenko, first secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus, General Ivan Maslennikov and an NKVD officer, Vasily Zakharovich Korzh, a veteran of the Spanish War.
As head of the 29th Army, Maslennikov is slowly recovering from the fatigue of operation Borodino (and the sometimes brutal apostrophes of Zhukov) but proudly displays a new set of decorations. He was also, until the beginning of the war, chief of the border guards in Belarus: as such, he was familiar with the border region of Western Belarus, which had been taken from Poland in 1939. He has only moderate confidence in the Belarusians, even communists: in 1939, many militants of the KPZB (Communist Party of Western Belarus) went directly from Polish prisons to deportation camps of the NKVD, and the others remained suspects. But Maslennikov, who is said to be one of Beria's closest officers, knows that Stalin agreed to overlook man of the deviations that preceded Barbarossa. It is therefore with the greatest care that with Ponomarenko and Borj, he studies the possibility of creating an organization of partisans in Belarus, especially in the Pinsk region.
Korj knows well the reflexes of the Belarusian peasants: they don't like the Soviet officials, but they hate even more the Polish feudalists, and they are certainly furious against the Germans who not only refuse to give them back their collectivized land, but have begun to confiscate their crops and livestock on a massive scale. And then there are the Jews, who begin to hide in the forests to escape the tracking of the SS, and a number of soldiers and border guards, overwhelmed by the German advance at the beginning of the war and who had escaped capture by going into civilian clothes, but who are eager to return to the fight. A large number of executions of hostages by the fascist occupation forces have already been reported.
Maslennikov underlines the risks of the operation, but also its interest, "on an experimental basis": if the partisans manage to keep a low profile for a few months, they will then be able to cut off the lines of communication, which the invaders are taking such pains to re-establish, at the most opportune moment. At least, their threat will force the fascists to maintain several security divisions on their rear.
Ponomarenko is more sensitive to the political aspect. Didn't the Central Committee, following the inspiration of Comrade Stalin, issue a decree "On the organization of the partisan struggle behind enemy lines"? The Allies, especially the French, are infatuated with the Poles, it is important to show them that the people are united in the defense of the Soviet homeland, even in these disputed regions.
Kroj's plan is simple: a few dozen men, divided into small units, will cross the German lines north of Vitebsk and follow the thick forests of northern and western Belarus to the Pinsk marshes, where they will set up hiding places before the winter frost. Then, it will be possible to send them equipment and reinforcements, by light aircraft or by land. By then, the Fascists will probably have had time to repair the railroad tracks from Brest-Litovsk to Minsk and Gomel: they will have a surprise. Volunteers are already being recruited and they show an excellent morale, including the women.
Kroj avoids saying that these "founders", as they will be called later, have very little chance of returning alive. At the beginning of the war, when he was stationed in Pinsk, he had just enough time to evacuate his family to Kuban, at the foot of the Caucasus. He will experience mixed feelings, a few months later, when he learned that his two daughters had joined the 4th Cossack Cavalry Corps as stretcher bearers.
5309
August 21st, 1942
Albania - Four British S.O.E. troops parachute into an area held by an Albanian resistance group, but the drop does not go unnoticed for long. It did not surprise the Axis intelligence services: for several days, the Italian OVRA, the Abwehr of Admiral Canaris and the SD of Kaltenbrunner have noted that the broadcasting time in Albanian language has doubled on the radio of Cairo. It is clear that the British and the royalists in exile are preparing an action in Albania: the services of the Axis reinforce their surveillance of the small country.
Albania - Four British S.O.E. troops parachute into an area held by an Albanian resistance group, but the drop does not go unnoticed for long. It did not surprise the Axis intelligence services: for several days, the Italian OVRA, the Abwehr of Admiral Canaris and the SD of Kaltenbrunner have noted that the broadcasting time in Albanian language has doubled on the radio of Cairo. It is clear that the British and the royalists in exile are preparing an action in Albania: the services of the Axis reinforce their surveillance of the small country.
5310
August 21st, 1942
South Atlantic - The Type-IX submarine U-512, spotted by a JRF-5 of the S27 squadron in Cayenne, is sunk by a PBY-5 of the US Navy, also based in Cayenne.
The French naval staff for the Antilles reported to Algiers and to its Royal Navy and US Navy correspondents: "A very high level of German submarine activity has been observed in the Caribbean and neighbouring areas. Such activity could be interpreted as an attempt by the enemy to cut off essential communications between the north and south of the Americas. Reinforcements of ASM units are urgently needed."
In fact, it is the southward shift of German submarine patrol areas, whose operations on the northeast coast of the United States have become less successful than they were at the beginning of the year.
South Atlantic - The Type-IX submarine U-512, spotted by a JRF-5 of the S27 squadron in Cayenne, is sunk by a PBY-5 of the US Navy, also based in Cayenne.
The French naval staff for the Antilles reported to Algiers and to its Royal Navy and US Navy correspondents: "A very high level of German submarine activity has been observed in the Caribbean and neighbouring areas. Such activity could be interpreted as an attempt by the enemy to cut off essential communications between the north and south of the Americas. Reinforcements of ASM units are urgently needed."
In fact, it is the southward shift of German submarine patrol areas, whose operations on the northeast coast of the United States have become less successful than they were at the beginning of the year.
5311
August 21st, 1942
Battle of Singapore - IV
The Japanese attack Singapore again!
04:00 - The troops of the Imperial Guard Division (which, despite the reinforcements received, do not exceed the strength of a brigade) land on the beaches of Ubin Island (Pulau Ubin), between the northeast coast of Singapore and the Johor coast. It is met with strong resistance, but this could not last long, as the defenders are too few in number.
The final assault on Singapore is launched.
A few minutes later, five Japanese divisions land on the northern, northwestern and western coasts of Singapore itself. The simultaneous landing of the Japanese on such a wide front disperses the artillery fire of the defenders and limits their ability to concentrate their reserves on the threatened points. In addition, the advance of the attackers on several axes creates confusion and some units are in danger of being flanked.
In the extreme east of the front, east of the Causeway, the troops of the 27th ID are pushed back. Following Yamashita's orders, they do not insist and regroup to prepare a new attempt. But on the rest of the front, the 5th, 9th, 18th and 33rd Divisions set up strong bridgeheads.
To cope more effectively and to counteract the effect of the total control of the airspace and artillery fire from the arc of Japanese positions on the hills along the south bank of the Johore River, Malaya Command decides to withdraw its units back to their sources of supply, first to the northwest, then to the west. This strategy is preferred to any attempt to send reinforcements to the front line, as the First Siege had demonstrated the extreme difficulty of moving reinforcements and supplies to the front under enemy bombardment. Moreover, the troops settle on a firm ground, that had not been ravaged by the fighting in April and May, and where the troops have vegetation cover. Finally, the contraction of the front allows the artillery to better concentrate its defensive fire, as the Allies have the advantage of internal lines of communication.
According to III Indian Corps staff reports: "In the northern region, the Japanese used 11-inch and 9-inch howitzers for artillery preparation, installed in dug-in positions with a counter-slope, which made counter-battery fire difficult. Getting the right angle of fall for the shells, in the right direction and at the right range, was a big problem. So few of these huge howitzers were hit by our fire, but some spectacular results were observed on what must have been their advanced ammunition depots. However, the 9" and 11" shells so severely damaged the fortifications and entrenchments in the western part of the Pier area that an effective and economical defense in this area has become impractical.
East of the Causeway, the troops landed by the enemy suffered heavy casualties and were repulsed.
To the west, on the other hand, the left wing of the 9th Indian Division withdrew under enemy pressure from the "coast line" and the "hill line" of the April battles on the positions built in the rubber plantation covered hills just to the rear.
This area was not severely damaged during the April-May fighting and allows the defenders to be under cover of enemy observation, while offering them good observation posts. The plantations allow our reserves to hide and to intervene without being hindered by the air force, the Japanese trying to exploit their success against the coastal defenses to advance towards the interior of the island were met with violent counter-attacks led by the infantry of the 17th Indian Division and by the Australian tanks. (...)
In the western region, the 11th Indian Division withdrew fighting, according to the plans, on the Krangi-Jurong line. Unfortunately, a large part of the artillery defending the beaches (old British guns or captured Japanese guns) had to be abandoned after having very quickly consumed all its ammunition by firing on Japanese ships and on the targets spotted in Johore. In spite of all the efforts and the care taken in arranging the guns to facilitate their retreat, the artillerymen and their supporting infantry found that, under the present tactical conditions and after the heavy storms which had rendered most tracks impassable, they had no choice but to destroy the guns."
.........
07:00 - In his CP at Battery Johore, Major Higgins looks at the horizon, where he expects to discover the first ships of the Japanese fleet. Pengerang is about to fall and bombers, probably from aircraft carriers, have begun support raids on the northwestern part of the island.
07:30 - Hastings, white cap riveted on his head, reddish beard trimmed to the George V style and pipe in hand, enters the telemetry room and carefully pats the flanks of the major's two Dobermans, Apollo and Zeus, lying quietly at the back of the room.
Higgins, steel helmet "flat with beard" slightly tilted to the right side, thin mustache and bamboo stick under his arm, greets him cordially, offering the few Chinese auxiliaries present a caricatured scene to the glory of the Empire.
09:00 - Singapore's microscopic air force goes into action! A Fairey Fulmar, which took off earlier escorted by two Hurricanes, identifies two old battleships (Fuso or Ise class), accompanied by two cruisers and two destroyers. They are at 35,000 yards from the southeastern tip of the island and are heading west across the Singapore Straits.
10:00 - At the Johore Battery CP, the squalls of the southern monsoon hamper the observation, but the Japanese battleships should be visible soon, if the Fulmar observer has done his job well.
10:15 - On the battleship Yamashiro, which is heading southwest at 8 knots, the 14" (356 mm) turrets, pointing at maximum elevation on the starboard beam, engage land at a distance of approximately 25,000 yards.
10:17 - Eight columns of dust and smoke rise with a deafening noise around Changi Road. The first broadside from Yamashiro has just hit*.
10:30 - DD Akebono and Nenohi, which recklessly entered the eastern pass between Johore and Singapore, are attacked by the two 6" of Pengerang which throw their last shells before the Japanese troops storm the battery. Quickly surrounded, the destroyers move away towards the open sea.
11:00 - At the Johore CP, the 356 mm shells hit hard, but the immediate damage is only to the vegetation and the access roads, which are gradually strewn with craters. Visibility has improved and the rangefinders now have in their reticules two well identifiable silhouettes. The tower-poles worthy of a Buddhist temple of Yamashiro and Hyuga are clearly visible on the horizon. Higgins and Hastings have not attended the same school, but they have recently pooled their experiences to develop a sighting rule that takes into account their respective shooting tables. The measurement by depression dear to the artillerymen is thus embellished with the taking into account of the the height of the goal's mast, which is dear to the sailors. The superstructures so typical of Japanese battleships will facilitate the application of this technique.
11:30 - First simultaneous firing of the three guns of the Johore battery on the Yamashiro. The sheaves surround the battleship, but only the short shots can be seen. The speed of the two enemy battleships is well taken into account by the fire direction, thanks to the rake implemented by Hastings.
13:00 - Tekong's 9.2" (234 mm) impedes ground troop progress on Pulau Ubin. The cruisers Atago and Chokai then attack the battery by taking advantage of the shelter of the Pengerang Point, whose 6" have fallen silent.
The duels continue for several hours, the adversaries firing at a low rate and without being able to adjust their fire. The only tangible result is a near-miss by Tekong on the Atago, which causes some casualties and tears in the forward stack.
16:00 - The last four Swordfish from Sembawang take off for a torpedo attack on the Atago and the Chokai off Pengerang. No torpedoes are scored and one Swordfish is shot down, but Admiral Kondo himself, furious, calls Kakuta to explain that the enemy air force, which in theory has been totally annihilated, still exists! If, by misfortune, the scandalous inattention of the fighters of his aircraft carriers allowed a British torpedo plane to hit a ship of His Imperial Majesty, someone would have to pay the price!
17:00 - As the monsoon squalls return, the lack of visibility puts an end to the exchange of fire.
.........
All night long, the Royal Engineers repair the narrow ammunition supply tracks of the batteries, filling in the most troublesome craters and clearing some of the felled trees to clear the field for the guns. The electric and hydraulic cables that had been disconnected to allow the batteries to fire at 360° are reconnected, since they are going to fight against ships, thus in the conditions foreseen during their construction.
Battle of Singapore - IV
The Japanese attack Singapore again!
04:00 - The troops of the Imperial Guard Division (which, despite the reinforcements received, do not exceed the strength of a brigade) land on the beaches of Ubin Island (Pulau Ubin), between the northeast coast of Singapore and the Johor coast. It is met with strong resistance, but this could not last long, as the defenders are too few in number.
The final assault on Singapore is launched.
A few minutes later, five Japanese divisions land on the northern, northwestern and western coasts of Singapore itself. The simultaneous landing of the Japanese on such a wide front disperses the artillery fire of the defenders and limits their ability to concentrate their reserves on the threatened points. In addition, the advance of the attackers on several axes creates confusion and some units are in danger of being flanked.
In the extreme east of the front, east of the Causeway, the troops of the 27th ID are pushed back. Following Yamashita's orders, they do not insist and regroup to prepare a new attempt. But on the rest of the front, the 5th, 9th, 18th and 33rd Divisions set up strong bridgeheads.
To cope more effectively and to counteract the effect of the total control of the airspace and artillery fire from the arc of Japanese positions on the hills along the south bank of the Johore River, Malaya Command decides to withdraw its units back to their sources of supply, first to the northwest, then to the west. This strategy is preferred to any attempt to send reinforcements to the front line, as the First Siege had demonstrated the extreme difficulty of moving reinforcements and supplies to the front under enemy bombardment. Moreover, the troops settle on a firm ground, that had not been ravaged by the fighting in April and May, and where the troops have vegetation cover. Finally, the contraction of the front allows the artillery to better concentrate its defensive fire, as the Allies have the advantage of internal lines of communication.
According to III Indian Corps staff reports: "In the northern region, the Japanese used 11-inch and 9-inch howitzers for artillery preparation, installed in dug-in positions with a counter-slope, which made counter-battery fire difficult. Getting the right angle of fall for the shells, in the right direction and at the right range, was a big problem. So few of these huge howitzers were hit by our fire, but some spectacular results were observed on what must have been their advanced ammunition depots. However, the 9" and 11" shells so severely damaged the fortifications and entrenchments in the western part of the Pier area that an effective and economical defense in this area has become impractical.
East of the Causeway, the troops landed by the enemy suffered heavy casualties and were repulsed.
To the west, on the other hand, the left wing of the 9th Indian Division withdrew under enemy pressure from the "coast line" and the "hill line" of the April battles on the positions built in the rubber plantation covered hills just to the rear.
This area was not severely damaged during the April-May fighting and allows the defenders to be under cover of enemy observation, while offering them good observation posts. The plantations allow our reserves to hide and to intervene without being hindered by the air force, the Japanese trying to exploit their success against the coastal defenses to advance towards the interior of the island were met with violent counter-attacks led by the infantry of the 17th Indian Division and by the Australian tanks. (...)
In the western region, the 11th Indian Division withdrew fighting, according to the plans, on the Krangi-Jurong line. Unfortunately, a large part of the artillery defending the beaches (old British guns or captured Japanese guns) had to be abandoned after having very quickly consumed all its ammunition by firing on Japanese ships and on the targets spotted in Johore. In spite of all the efforts and the care taken in arranging the guns to facilitate their retreat, the artillerymen and their supporting infantry found that, under the present tactical conditions and after the heavy storms which had rendered most tracks impassable, they had no choice but to destroy the guns."
.........
07:00 - In his CP at Battery Johore, Major Higgins looks at the horizon, where he expects to discover the first ships of the Japanese fleet. Pengerang is about to fall and bombers, probably from aircraft carriers, have begun support raids on the northwestern part of the island.
07:30 - Hastings, white cap riveted on his head, reddish beard trimmed to the George V style and pipe in hand, enters the telemetry room and carefully pats the flanks of the major's two Dobermans, Apollo and Zeus, lying quietly at the back of the room.
Higgins, steel helmet "flat with beard" slightly tilted to the right side, thin mustache and bamboo stick under his arm, greets him cordially, offering the few Chinese auxiliaries present a caricatured scene to the glory of the Empire.
09:00 - Singapore's microscopic air force goes into action! A Fairey Fulmar, which took off earlier escorted by two Hurricanes, identifies two old battleships (Fuso or Ise class), accompanied by two cruisers and two destroyers. They are at 35,000 yards from the southeastern tip of the island and are heading west across the Singapore Straits.
10:00 - At the Johore Battery CP, the squalls of the southern monsoon hamper the observation, but the Japanese battleships should be visible soon, if the Fulmar observer has done his job well.
10:15 - On the battleship Yamashiro, which is heading southwest at 8 knots, the 14" (356 mm) turrets, pointing at maximum elevation on the starboard beam, engage land at a distance of approximately 25,000 yards.
10:17 - Eight columns of dust and smoke rise with a deafening noise around Changi Road. The first broadside from Yamashiro has just hit*.
10:30 - DD Akebono and Nenohi, which recklessly entered the eastern pass between Johore and Singapore, are attacked by the two 6" of Pengerang which throw their last shells before the Japanese troops storm the battery. Quickly surrounded, the destroyers move away towards the open sea.
11:00 - At the Johore CP, the 356 mm shells hit hard, but the immediate damage is only to the vegetation and the access roads, which are gradually strewn with craters. Visibility has improved and the rangefinders now have in their reticules two well identifiable silhouettes. The tower-poles worthy of a Buddhist temple of Yamashiro and Hyuga are clearly visible on the horizon. Higgins and Hastings have not attended the same school, but they have recently pooled their experiences to develop a sighting rule that takes into account their respective shooting tables. The measurement by depression dear to the artillerymen is thus embellished with the taking into account of the the height of the goal's mast, which is dear to the sailors. The superstructures so typical of Japanese battleships will facilitate the application of this technique.
11:30 - First simultaneous firing of the three guns of the Johore battery on the Yamashiro. The sheaves surround the battleship, but only the short shots can be seen. The speed of the two enemy battleships is well taken into account by the fire direction, thanks to the rake implemented by Hastings.
13:00 - Tekong's 9.2" (234 mm) impedes ground troop progress on Pulau Ubin. The cruisers Atago and Chokai then attack the battery by taking advantage of the shelter of the Pengerang Point, whose 6" have fallen silent.
The duels continue for several hours, the adversaries firing at a low rate and without being able to adjust their fire. The only tangible result is a near-miss by Tekong on the Atago, which causes some casualties and tears in the forward stack.
16:00 - The last four Swordfish from Sembawang take off for a torpedo attack on the Atago and the Chokai off Pengerang. No torpedoes are scored and one Swordfish is shot down, but Admiral Kondo himself, furious, calls Kakuta to explain that the enemy air force, which in theory has been totally annihilated, still exists! If, by misfortune, the scandalous inattention of the fighters of his aircraft carriers allowed a British torpedo plane to hit a ship of His Imperial Majesty, someone would have to pay the price!
17:00 - As the monsoon squalls return, the lack of visibility puts an end to the exchange of fire.
.........
All night long, the Royal Engineers repair the narrow ammunition supply tracks of the batteries, filling in the most troublesome craters and clearing some of the felled trees to clear the field for the guns. The electric and hydraulic cables that had been disconnected to allow the batteries to fire at 360° are reconnected, since they are going to fight against ships, thus in the conditions foreseen during their construction.
5313
August 21st, 1942
Rabaul - Operation Wart is another attempt to recognize the port. This time, three B-17s of the USAAF have to fly over it at high altitude to distract the fighters, while two RAAF Beauforts fly over the coast, emerge over the island and photograph the port at low altitude. But heavy clouds hinder the execution of the plan. The B-17s attract the fighters (one B-17 is damaged), but the Beauforts have to face a thick cloud cover. After following the coast under the cloud base, between 900 and 1,500 feet, they are forced to fly along all of Simpsonhafen very low, much too low. A Beaufort, hit by flak, hits the ground at Vunapopo (the whole crew is killed). The other one accomplishes the mission. The expensive pictures show in the harbor the battleship Nagato, two heavy cruisers, transports and light boats. The battleship seems damaged, its seaplane hangar burned (left over from the bomb impact of August 14th) and many barges and a repair boat are paired with it.
.........
In the Slot - Warned by Australian seaplanes that a small Japanese convoy had left Tassafaronga the previous day at dawn, the Americans launch three Dauntlesses on reconnaissance. They soon spot the convoy, which is approaching the limit of the bombers' range. The nine available aircraft take off immediately. Still novices, the pilots launch themselves without much coordination. The big Saigon Maru is the most targeted, but in the confusion that reigns on the sea as in the air, it is the small Ka Maru that is hit. It receives a 500-pound bomb which is enough to send it to the bottom. A Dauntless is damaged by flak.
This first and modest victory is to delight the Americans and greatly worry the Imperial Navy, which immediately decide on massive retaliatory measures to allow the Army to finish it once and for all.
.........
Guadalcanal - A platoon of Marines launches a raid against the Japanese outpost line. It is repulsed but the attack is a milestone, bringing the fighting to a head for the first time since the defeat of the force commanded by Colonel Ichiki.
.........
Tulagi - Arrival of the first boats of the "Midget Fleet", officially named "New Zealand Support Flotilla". This is New Zealand's contribution to the naval campaign. These are 40 small warships and service boats that will provide the Allied squadrons with a vital but often neglected support: patrols, buoy laying, minesweeping, support in the hunt for submarines, etc. - trivial tasks.
Their fate would be anything but mundane.
The heart of this force is the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla, commanded from the beginning by Commander P. Phipps (RNZN), on the HMNZS Moa (Bird class, 825 tons, 14 knots, 1 x 4 inches, 1 x 20 mm). This small minesweeper, soon to be known as "Phipps' battleship", is accompanied by the following boats: Manuka (612 t., 10 knots, 1 x 12 pounds, 2 x Lewis), Humphrey (207 GRT, 10 knots, 1 x 4 inches, 2 x Lewis), Kaiwaka (169 GRT, 8 knots, 2 Lewis) and eight Naval Auxiliary Patrol (NAP) pleasure craft. These were towed from Noumea, where they had arrived on the deck of various transports. To the amazement of the U.S. Navy sailors present, each has its own crew, which usually includes the actual owner of the boat! These boats have been re-labeled "Royal New Zealandese Navy Volunteer Squadron" (RNZNVS), but it is impossible to imagine a stranger collection of small boats. These would soon become known as the "Get your boots off my woodwork" boats, but the Marines would soon learn that they could be called upon at any place, any time, no matter how dangerous it was - as long as they didn't damage the varnish on their planking.
The New Zealanders immediately began to exchange foodstuffs (in particular "New Zealand hams" - in fact, one-gallon bottles of Royal Navy rum) for automatic weapons of all kinds. The skipper of a NAP even tried to get a complete LVT from its crew, but Phipps will force him to return it once everyone has sobered up a bit.
Rabaul - Operation Wart is another attempt to recognize the port. This time, three B-17s of the USAAF have to fly over it at high altitude to distract the fighters, while two RAAF Beauforts fly over the coast, emerge over the island and photograph the port at low altitude. But heavy clouds hinder the execution of the plan. The B-17s attract the fighters (one B-17 is damaged), but the Beauforts have to face a thick cloud cover. After following the coast under the cloud base, between 900 and 1,500 feet, they are forced to fly along all of Simpsonhafen very low, much too low. A Beaufort, hit by flak, hits the ground at Vunapopo (the whole crew is killed). The other one accomplishes the mission. The expensive pictures show in the harbor the battleship Nagato, two heavy cruisers, transports and light boats. The battleship seems damaged, its seaplane hangar burned (left over from the bomb impact of August 14th) and many barges and a repair boat are paired with it.
.........
In the Slot - Warned by Australian seaplanes that a small Japanese convoy had left Tassafaronga the previous day at dawn, the Americans launch three Dauntlesses on reconnaissance. They soon spot the convoy, which is approaching the limit of the bombers' range. The nine available aircraft take off immediately. Still novices, the pilots launch themselves without much coordination. The big Saigon Maru is the most targeted, but in the confusion that reigns on the sea as in the air, it is the small Ka Maru that is hit. It receives a 500-pound bomb which is enough to send it to the bottom. A Dauntless is damaged by flak.
This first and modest victory is to delight the Americans and greatly worry the Imperial Navy, which immediately decide on massive retaliatory measures to allow the Army to finish it once and for all.
.........
Guadalcanal - A platoon of Marines launches a raid against the Japanese outpost line. It is repulsed but the attack is a milestone, bringing the fighting to a head for the first time since the defeat of the force commanded by Colonel Ichiki.
.........
Tulagi - Arrival of the first boats of the "Midget Fleet", officially named "New Zealand Support Flotilla". This is New Zealand's contribution to the naval campaign. These are 40 small warships and service boats that will provide the Allied squadrons with a vital but often neglected support: patrols, buoy laying, minesweeping, support in the hunt for submarines, etc. - trivial tasks.
Their fate would be anything but mundane.
The heart of this force is the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla, commanded from the beginning by Commander P. Phipps (RNZN), on the HMNZS Moa (Bird class, 825 tons, 14 knots, 1 x 4 inches, 1 x 20 mm). This small minesweeper, soon to be known as "Phipps' battleship", is accompanied by the following boats: Manuka (612 t., 10 knots, 1 x 12 pounds, 2 x Lewis), Humphrey (207 GRT, 10 knots, 1 x 4 inches, 2 x Lewis), Kaiwaka (169 GRT, 8 knots, 2 Lewis) and eight Naval Auxiliary Patrol (NAP) pleasure craft. These were towed from Noumea, where they had arrived on the deck of various transports. To the amazement of the U.S. Navy sailors present, each has its own crew, which usually includes the actual owner of the boat! These boats have been re-labeled "Royal New Zealandese Navy Volunteer Squadron" (RNZNVS), but it is impossible to imagine a stranger collection of small boats. These would soon become known as the "Get your boots off my woodwork" boats, but the Marines would soon learn that they could be called upon at any place, any time, no matter how dangerous it was - as long as they didn't damage the varnish on their planking.
The New Zealanders immediately began to exchange foodstuffs (in particular "New Zealand hams" - in fact, one-gallon bottles of Royal Navy rum) for automatic weapons of all kinds. The skipper of a NAP even tried to get a complete LVT from its crew, but Phipps will force him to return it once everyone has sobered up a bit.
5314
August 21st, 1942
Bulldog Track - The "Battle of Dead Chinaman" takes place shortly after the arrival of the Japanese and goes as Minchin planned. His men hold the center and repel two Japanese attacks, but the AIF soldiers covering the flanks did not fare so well: the Japanese have much more experience fighting in the jungle and easily repel them, with heavy losses. The survivors of Minchin's group - now less than 50 - are making their way to the rear. The performance of the AIF men dismays the staff, but perhaps less so than the publication by the press, a little later, of a report illustrated with photos, reported by two journalists who had followed the troops.
Kokoda Track - The 2/12th form three columns spaced 300 meters apart. They have to advance a thousand meters before stopping and forming a continuous front.
All day long, the fighting rages. The Japanese resist fiercely on the garden path and the columns of Captains Brocker and Harrison are stopped. They decide to launch a converging attack at dawn on the 22nd.
Milne Bay - In turn exhausted, the Japanese arrive in front of Halfway Creek, and stop.
Field, knowing that this position would be untenable once the enemy forces regroup, is already moving his men elsewhere. He finds a new defensive position, the flanks of which are well secured: it is a mountain pass, now indicated on the maps as Bloody Saddle.
Bulldog Track - The "Battle of Dead Chinaman" takes place shortly after the arrival of the Japanese and goes as Minchin planned. His men hold the center and repel two Japanese attacks, but the AIF soldiers covering the flanks did not fare so well: the Japanese have much more experience fighting in the jungle and easily repel them, with heavy losses. The survivors of Minchin's group - now less than 50 - are making their way to the rear. The performance of the AIF men dismays the staff, but perhaps less so than the publication by the press, a little later, of a report illustrated with photos, reported by two journalists who had followed the troops.
Kokoda Track - The 2/12th form three columns spaced 300 meters apart. They have to advance a thousand meters before stopping and forming a continuous front.
All day long, the fighting rages. The Japanese resist fiercely on the garden path and the columns of Captains Brocker and Harrison are stopped. They decide to launch a converging attack at dawn on the 22nd.
Milne Bay - In turn exhausted, the Japanese arrive in front of Halfway Creek, and stop.
Field, knowing that this position would be untenable once the enemy forces regroup, is already moving his men elsewhere. He finds a new defensive position, the flanks of which are well secured: it is a mountain pass, now indicated on the maps as Bloody Saddle.
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5315
August 21st, 1942
East Coast of Australia (Operation Oni, Phase 3d) - The DEs Haraden and Ringgold (two old American four-pipers sent with their fellows Abbot and Cowell to participate in the ASW battle on the Australian coast) accompany the USS Alcor to Sydney. At 09:00, the Alcor hits a mine (probably laid by I-122) and stops. Believing it to be a torpedoing, the DEs start to search for a submarine, but at 09:20, the Ringgold hits a mine. The bow is broken and the ship remains afloat thanks to the work of its rescue teams, but threatens to sink at any moment. The American sailors understand what is happening, but at 10:15, the Alcor, drifting, hits another mine and sinks.
The two DEs finally manage to get out of the minefield, but not without immense difficulties. The crew of the Ringgold accomplished a real feat by bringing it back to Sydney and beaching it in Watson's Bay with the help of a harbour tug. The old DE is later refloated, but it will only be used as a source of spare parts.
In Sydney, Port Jackson is closed while a mine-free channel is established.
From Research for Australian Official Histories, 1949, notes by Mr Norman
East Coast of Australia (Operation Oni, Phase 3d) - The DEs Haraden and Ringgold (two old American four-pipers sent with their fellows Abbot and Cowell to participate in the ASW battle on the Australian coast) accompany the USS Alcor to Sydney. At 09:00, the Alcor hits a mine (probably laid by I-122) and stops. Believing it to be a torpedoing, the DEs start to search for a submarine, but at 09:20, the Ringgold hits a mine. The bow is broken and the ship remains afloat thanks to the work of its rescue teams, but threatens to sink at any moment. The American sailors understand what is happening, but at 10:15, the Alcor, drifting, hits another mine and sinks.
The two DEs finally manage to get out of the minefield, but not without immense difficulties. The crew of the Ringgold accomplished a real feat by bringing it back to Sydney and beaching it in Watson's Bay with the help of a harbour tug. The old DE is later refloated, but it will only be used as a source of spare parts.
In Sydney, Port Jackson is closed while a mine-free channel is established.
From Research for Australian Official Histories, 1949, notes by Mr Norman
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5316 - Start of Operation Kegelrobbe
August 21st, 1942
Russian Front
- Baltic Sea
Operation Kegelrobbe (Grey Seal)
West of the Curonian Spit, around 01:00 - The small Soviet submarines M-77 and M-83 are patrolling between Ventspils and Liepaja. Unlucky, they do not spot the German fleet which passes forty nautical miles to the west, without regard for the Swedish waters of Gotland.
.........
Leningrad, 03:30 - Andrei Jdanov, first Secretary of the Party in Leningrad, sometimes, like many Soviet citizens, wakes up in the middle of the night: he is afraid that the door will open with two NKVD guards with Beria's glasses and mocking smile behind them. This time, the alarm siren reassures him: they are only German bombers.
While getting dressed, he asks on the phone to be put through to the air defense headquarters. He is already preparing his next communiqué for the radio: "The cowardly aggression of the fascist air force broke on the rock... the anvil... the armor... Well, we'll see". The duty officer, cautious, declares that the VVS have the situation under control and that the attack, pardon me, the fascist aggression, does not seem to be of exceptional gravity and is aimed at peripheral neighborhoods. Well, says Jdanov, a small blitz just good to impress the English or the Tunisians... But what if it hid something else? "Put all the aviation and flak in action. These bandits dare to touch the city of the Revolution! Tell General Sokolov to send me a report as soon as possible. And as soon as a fascist plane is shot down, I want the photograph on my desk within the hour!"
Jdanov has barely hung up the phone when he receives a new call: the Civil Defense of Karelia reports that a seaplane, or perhaps two, would have landed on the lake Ladoga, north of Shlissel'burg. Spies, saboteurs? A provocation from the Finns? Jdanov knows that President Risto Ryti and Marshal Mannerheim, head of the Finnish forces, chose (thanks to a real diplomatic a real diplomatic offensive of the Yankee capitalists) a cautious neutrality, but that certain elements of their army would like to turn Finland over to the Axis side.
He telephones to ask for reinforced surveillance measures on the north-western border.
The switchboards are full, and it is only at 06:45 that Jdanov receives precise information from the Gulf of Riga area. The typographers of the daily newspapers, who had just composed "Cowardly Fascist Aggression against Leningrad" have to rewrite their front page: "Cowardly Fascist aggression against Leningrad and Soviet Estonia".
The aggressors in question are a small group of BV 138 long-range seaplanes (nicknamed "flying clogs"). They dropped their bombs on the industrial suburb of Kolpino; they aimed at the tank factory but missed. One of them, while his teammates were bombing, dropped a dozen men, mostly anti-Soviet Estonians, on the Ladoga lake, with an outdated transceiver. The poor men try to hide from the NKVD for a few days. The last one will be denounced less than a week later by the "building's political leader", in other words the janitor, to a vague acquaintance in Leningrad.
On the way back, the seaplanes lose an aircraft disappeared at sea; another one will be damaged by a difficult landing, but could be repaired.
.........
Saaremaa, Estonian archipelago, 04:15 - The minesweeper (in fact, an armed trawler) Shuya has the reputation of a lucky ship. In ten weeks of operations in the Baltic, she has escaped all the torpedoes, bombs, mines and shells the Germans could throw at her. Its hull seems to digest iron, and its 21-K machine guns (an improved Russian version of a German weapon) claim to have shot down four Fascist planes, even if not all of them have been certified. But, tonight, her luck will change.
On her way back from a routine supply mission to Kuressaare, on the island of Saaremaa, the trained ear of the trawler pilot distinguishes a noise of engine coming from the south-east, against the wind. Light boats, perhaps minesweepers, trying to cut through the barrier parallel to the southern coast of Saaremaa. He fires a flare in the direction of the noise and the Shuya's gunners rush to their posts. Flares and tracer bullets fly off in all directions, drawing a curious fireworks display on the calm waters. Indeed, dragonflies appear in the flare's light! But the Shuya barely has time to adjust a burst when a 15 cm shell hits it at the bow, then a second one in the middle. The hull is smashed, the little boat sinks quickly, a machine gun firing until the last second. The light cruiser Leipzig, survivor of one of the first naval battles of the war in 1939, has just opened the score of the operation Kegelrobbe (Grey Seal).
06:30 - The day has dawned, but a curtain of artificial smoke veils the ships, which are hardly discernible. For more than an hour, the artillery of the German fleet (modest in fact:the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, the light cruiser Leipzig, the destroyers Z-23, Z-24, Z-26 and Z-28) pound the Soviet defenses. The Soviet batteries respond as best they can, but the duel is unequal. However, several barges fall victim to the artillery of the defenders or jump on mines, but the first wave of the 61. ID makes landfall west of Kuressaare, around the small fishing port of Nasva. The village, burned down, is fought over house by house. Further east, the 126. ID establishes another bridgehead from the beach of Sutu, which it manages to enlarge little by little; five small Pz-II tanks can even land.
The planes are rare around Saaremaa. Those of the Germans because Reichsmarschall Göring is not a lender, and those of the Soviets, for the North-Western command, because they are held up by the false alarm over Leningrad. Only a few seaplanes are fighting in the air. Connoisseurs can appreciate the duel between a German Ar 196, lighter and more mobile, to a MBR-2 M-34, better armed, but less agile. The MBR-2 arrives at wave level but it is forced to take altitude to fly over the German forces and his opponent can come and strafe him from underneath. Hard hit, the Soviet manages to reach safe waters, where the pilot is rescued.
07:00 - The Germans are able to form two bridgeheads: the one at Nasva, solid, but isolated by ponds, and that of Sutu, which stretches to the village of Pihtla.
A secondary detachment, supported by naval artillery, seizes the islet of Abruka, opposite Kuressaare.
07:40 - The Soviet submarines M-77 and M-83 take insane risks to cross the Irbe Strait, practically under the hulls of the Germans - the waters of the Gulf of Riga, whose depth does not exceed 54 m, offer few hiding places for submersibles. Alerted by radio with a delay, the two commanders understand that they are risking their lives for having let the invader through.
This temerity is rewarded: the M-83 drops a torpedo on a Siebel ferry coming from Riga with a reinforcement of troops. It misses it, then does it again (according to the Soviet manual of the time: launch torpedoes only one by one) and this time hits the ferry, which sinks shortly after. The escorts rush in, but luck is now with the M-83, which escapes the depth charges. Having fired its two torpedoes, it returns to Talinn on September 7th. As expected, the commander is subjected to a prolonged interrogation, but Admiral Tributs has him released after a few days - especially since the M-77 did not return. We need everyone!
11:00 - Ozerov gathers forces for a counter-attack. This one fails, but the Panzer IIs are destroyed by anti-tank guns and the Soviets succeed in stopping the enemy advance in the ruins of Pihtla. They thus prevent the Germans from immediately falling back on Kuressaare.
15:15 - A squadron of Soviet Pe-2s flies over the Sutu bridgehead and drops a few bombs, killing and wounding about twenty people. With another raid at 17:10, these will be the main actions of the VVS during this day. The mini-bombing of Leningrad and the unfounded fear of a Finnish aggression probably made the landing possible by diverting the Soviet air forces.
The following night, if the big German units withdraw to a safe distance, six torpedo boats and minesweepers patrol around the bridgeheads, occasionally spraying the Soviet lines.
The VVS, eager to make up for their absence during the day, launch a series of raids against the German flotilla (which gives nothing) and against the bridgeheads. All available aircraft, including the seaplanes of the navy and the training Polikarpov U-2. No one would have thought of using the U-2 in combat, but the Stavka does everything possible. The U-2 having the annoying habit of releasing very visible flame trails through their exhaust, the pilots stop the engine and arrive at the target in gliding. But the U-2s are used more for liaison than for harassing the enemy. Handy and robust, they can land on the small runways of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, carrying out several missions in the night.
Russian Front
- Baltic Sea
Operation Kegelrobbe (Grey Seal)
West of the Curonian Spit, around 01:00 - The small Soviet submarines M-77 and M-83 are patrolling between Ventspils and Liepaja. Unlucky, they do not spot the German fleet which passes forty nautical miles to the west, without regard for the Swedish waters of Gotland.
.........
Leningrad, 03:30 - Andrei Jdanov, first Secretary of the Party in Leningrad, sometimes, like many Soviet citizens, wakes up in the middle of the night: he is afraid that the door will open with two NKVD guards with Beria's glasses and mocking smile behind them. This time, the alarm siren reassures him: they are only German bombers.
While getting dressed, he asks on the phone to be put through to the air defense headquarters. He is already preparing his next communiqué for the radio: "The cowardly aggression of the fascist air force broke on the rock... the anvil... the armor... Well, we'll see". The duty officer, cautious, declares that the VVS have the situation under control and that the attack, pardon me, the fascist aggression, does not seem to be of exceptional gravity and is aimed at peripheral neighborhoods. Well, says Jdanov, a small blitz just good to impress the English or the Tunisians... But what if it hid something else? "Put all the aviation and flak in action. These bandits dare to touch the city of the Revolution! Tell General Sokolov to send me a report as soon as possible. And as soon as a fascist plane is shot down, I want the photograph on my desk within the hour!"
Jdanov has barely hung up the phone when he receives a new call: the Civil Defense of Karelia reports that a seaplane, or perhaps two, would have landed on the lake Ladoga, north of Shlissel'burg. Spies, saboteurs? A provocation from the Finns? Jdanov knows that President Risto Ryti and Marshal Mannerheim, head of the Finnish forces, chose (thanks to a real diplomatic a real diplomatic offensive of the Yankee capitalists) a cautious neutrality, but that certain elements of their army would like to turn Finland over to the Axis side.
He telephones to ask for reinforced surveillance measures on the north-western border.
The switchboards are full, and it is only at 06:45 that Jdanov receives precise information from the Gulf of Riga area. The typographers of the daily newspapers, who had just composed "Cowardly Fascist Aggression against Leningrad" have to rewrite their front page: "Cowardly Fascist aggression against Leningrad and Soviet Estonia".
The aggressors in question are a small group of BV 138 long-range seaplanes (nicknamed "flying clogs"). They dropped their bombs on the industrial suburb of Kolpino; they aimed at the tank factory but missed. One of them, while his teammates were bombing, dropped a dozen men, mostly anti-Soviet Estonians, on the Ladoga lake, with an outdated transceiver. The poor men try to hide from the NKVD for a few days. The last one will be denounced less than a week later by the "building's political leader", in other words the janitor, to a vague acquaintance in Leningrad.
On the way back, the seaplanes lose an aircraft disappeared at sea; another one will be damaged by a difficult landing, but could be repaired.
.........
Saaremaa, Estonian archipelago, 04:15 - The minesweeper (in fact, an armed trawler) Shuya has the reputation of a lucky ship. In ten weeks of operations in the Baltic, she has escaped all the torpedoes, bombs, mines and shells the Germans could throw at her. Its hull seems to digest iron, and its 21-K machine guns (an improved Russian version of a German weapon) claim to have shot down four Fascist planes, even if not all of them have been certified. But, tonight, her luck will change.
On her way back from a routine supply mission to Kuressaare, on the island of Saaremaa, the trained ear of the trawler pilot distinguishes a noise of engine coming from the south-east, against the wind. Light boats, perhaps minesweepers, trying to cut through the barrier parallel to the southern coast of Saaremaa. He fires a flare in the direction of the noise and the Shuya's gunners rush to their posts. Flares and tracer bullets fly off in all directions, drawing a curious fireworks display on the calm waters. Indeed, dragonflies appear in the flare's light! But the Shuya barely has time to adjust a burst when a 15 cm shell hits it at the bow, then a second one in the middle. The hull is smashed, the little boat sinks quickly, a machine gun firing until the last second. The light cruiser Leipzig, survivor of one of the first naval battles of the war in 1939, has just opened the score of the operation Kegelrobbe (Grey Seal).
06:30 - The day has dawned, but a curtain of artificial smoke veils the ships, which are hardly discernible. For more than an hour, the artillery of the German fleet (modest in fact:the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, the light cruiser Leipzig, the destroyers Z-23, Z-24, Z-26 and Z-28) pound the Soviet defenses. The Soviet batteries respond as best they can, but the duel is unequal. However, several barges fall victim to the artillery of the defenders or jump on mines, but the first wave of the 61. ID makes landfall west of Kuressaare, around the small fishing port of Nasva. The village, burned down, is fought over house by house. Further east, the 126. ID establishes another bridgehead from the beach of Sutu, which it manages to enlarge little by little; five small Pz-II tanks can even land.
The planes are rare around Saaremaa. Those of the Germans because Reichsmarschall Göring is not a lender, and those of the Soviets, for the North-Western command, because they are held up by the false alarm over Leningrad. Only a few seaplanes are fighting in the air. Connoisseurs can appreciate the duel between a German Ar 196, lighter and more mobile, to a MBR-2 M-34, better armed, but less agile. The MBR-2 arrives at wave level but it is forced to take altitude to fly over the German forces and his opponent can come and strafe him from underneath. Hard hit, the Soviet manages to reach safe waters, where the pilot is rescued.
07:00 - The Germans are able to form two bridgeheads: the one at Nasva, solid, but isolated by ponds, and that of Sutu, which stretches to the village of Pihtla.
A secondary detachment, supported by naval artillery, seizes the islet of Abruka, opposite Kuressaare.
07:40 - The Soviet submarines M-77 and M-83 take insane risks to cross the Irbe Strait, practically under the hulls of the Germans - the waters of the Gulf of Riga, whose depth does not exceed 54 m, offer few hiding places for submersibles. Alerted by radio with a delay, the two commanders understand that they are risking their lives for having let the invader through.
This temerity is rewarded: the M-83 drops a torpedo on a Siebel ferry coming from Riga with a reinforcement of troops. It misses it, then does it again (according to the Soviet manual of the time: launch torpedoes only one by one) and this time hits the ferry, which sinks shortly after. The escorts rush in, but luck is now with the M-83, which escapes the depth charges. Having fired its two torpedoes, it returns to Talinn on September 7th. As expected, the commander is subjected to a prolonged interrogation, but Admiral Tributs has him released after a few days - especially since the M-77 did not return. We need everyone!
11:00 - Ozerov gathers forces for a counter-attack. This one fails, but the Panzer IIs are destroyed by anti-tank guns and the Soviets succeed in stopping the enemy advance in the ruins of Pihtla. They thus prevent the Germans from immediately falling back on Kuressaare.
15:15 - A squadron of Soviet Pe-2s flies over the Sutu bridgehead and drops a few bombs, killing and wounding about twenty people. With another raid at 17:10, these will be the main actions of the VVS during this day. The mini-bombing of Leningrad and the unfounded fear of a Finnish aggression probably made the landing possible by diverting the Soviet air forces.
The following night, if the big German units withdraw to a safe distance, six torpedo boats and minesweepers patrol around the bridgeheads, occasionally spraying the Soviet lines.
The VVS, eager to make up for their absence during the day, launch a series of raids against the German flotilla (which gives nothing) and against the bridgeheads. All available aircraft, including the seaplanes of the navy and the training Polikarpov U-2. No one would have thought of using the U-2 in combat, but the Stavka does everything possible. The U-2 having the annoying habit of releasing very visible flame trails through their exhaust, the pilots stop the engine and arrive at the target in gliding. But the U-2s are used more for liaison than for harassing the enemy. Handy and robust, they can land on the small runways of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, carrying out several missions in the night.
5317
August 21st, 1942
Nove (a village in the Kaharlyk salient, northwest of Odessa) - Lieutenant Dimitri Ivanovich Aksonov had just turned nineteen. The cap with a metal star and the uniform of the Red Army looked like a joke on this big guy. Under the rift of his chestnut hair, which was always disheveled, his pale blue eyes gave him the air of a gentle dreamer.
The men he commanded were farm workers from a nearby kolkhoz. They had uniforms, Mosin-Nagant rifles and grenades. They did their best to turn the large village of Nove into a fortress. They dug anti-tank trenches and turned the houses into forts, surrounding them with sandbags and built barricades with the furniture... This caused a lot of gnashing of teeth among the local population, because the village was still not evacuated. In spite of some aerial bombardments, the local political leaders had estimated that the enemy would never reach Nove. The work in the fields should not stop under any circumstances, because the Soviet people needed bread as much as guns. And if the fascists were to come, the farm workers and their guns would stop them, as they had stopped the whites twenty years earlier, right?
A good Soviet citizen could only stand at attention when a political leader explained that the purity of communist ideals would allow amateurs armed with old rifles to stop tanks. Lieutenant Aksonov turned around when he heard a barn door slam.
A small woman with short black hair and smoky eyes had just emerged from the building in question, transformed into a workshop. She was wearing a tanker suit stained with grease and was uttering various curses against "a useless and resentful pile of metal.". Aksonov smiled to himself. In fact, they had an advantage against the enemy tanks. The object of mechanic Irina Dimitriovna Klirova's anger was a T-34...
The machine had been rejected by her unit because it suffered from recurrent suspension and clutch problems and ended up at their place.
- They are coming, comrade lieutenant!
The breathless female voice brought him back to more urgent thoughts. The young woman who had just spoken wore a blue cloth kerchief that concealed red hair.
- Comrade Sergeant?
- They are coming from the southwest.
Sergeant Darya Arseniovna Yeletcheva stretched out her arm toward the road, showing a column of men, women, and children, with a few animals. Some men were pulling handcarts. They were carrying their poor treasures, some furniture, some food.
- Tell the inhabitants about their accommodation, I will welcome them.
- Yes, comrade lieutenant.
Lieutenant Aksonov came down from the barricade and met the refugees who were fleeing from the areas conquered by the Germans and their Romanian henchmen. The leader of the pathetic column had been in charge of a kolkhoz located between Nove and Hradenytsi. He told of their ordeal. They had left the day before, when the first shots of the fascists had fallen on their farms. They had slept on the way and it had taken them all day to walk the five kilometers to Nove. The sappers were busy mining the fields and they could only walk along the road, because it was used by the Army and often bombed. They had to hide in the grass to escape the fascists and had witnessed violent fights. On several occasions, during their night march, they had come across piles of bodies. Finally, this morning, calm had returned. The crew of an armored car that they had come across had told them that the Romanians had been pushed back on the whole front and that three of their divisions had been destroyed!*
The survivors were exhausted, hungry, but above all shocked by the death of their relatives and the horrors they had experienced. As they were talking, the hum of engines made them look up to the sky. At first, no one was too concerned. For several days, they had only seen VVS aircraft had been seen for several days... but the formation, about twenty aircraft, came from the north. Aksonov recognized the gull wings of the Stuka.
- Enemy aircraft!
The alert cry surprised, then sowed panic. And it was hell... The explosions, the screams, the burning houses, blood on the road. It seemed to last forever. The bombers formed a circle in the sky, just above Nove. They were diving, bombing and strafing, and came up, and flowers of fire and dust swelled in thunder behind them.
The planes moved away, however, but the martyrdom of the village was not over. Four Bf 110's passed by, low to the ground, dropping leaflets. A few angry men fired their guns into the sky but one of the twin-engine planes broke away from the group to sweep the streets with its cannons and machine guns. Two men went down, literally chopped to pieces.
Sergeant Yeletcheva shouted to stop people from picking up the leaflets.
But his superior did not see it that way: "On the contrary, read them! You'll see that the USSR is the aggressor, that the fascists have come to rescue you. Then [with his hand, he pointed to the dead]... then remember what the promises of peace and freedom that the fascists make to you. Here is a simple village, with women and
women and children. But for them, civilians are targets. That is the truth! So, fight! If you don't do it for the USSR or for comrade Stalin, do it for your parents, for your friends. And if all these reasons are not enough for you... Fight for yourself. Never forget that the simple fact that you walk on the same ground as them, that you breathe the same air is enough for the fascists to condemn you to death. Your death, they have no other goal. Remember that!"
(From The Heroes of Odessa, Ilya Ehrenbourg, Editeurs Français Réunis, 1950)
Nove (a village in the Kaharlyk salient, northwest of Odessa) - Lieutenant Dimitri Ivanovich Aksonov had just turned nineteen. The cap with a metal star and the uniform of the Red Army looked like a joke on this big guy. Under the rift of his chestnut hair, which was always disheveled, his pale blue eyes gave him the air of a gentle dreamer.
The men he commanded were farm workers from a nearby kolkhoz. They had uniforms, Mosin-Nagant rifles and grenades. They did their best to turn the large village of Nove into a fortress. They dug anti-tank trenches and turned the houses into forts, surrounding them with sandbags and built barricades with the furniture... This caused a lot of gnashing of teeth among the local population, because the village was still not evacuated. In spite of some aerial bombardments, the local political leaders had estimated that the enemy would never reach Nove. The work in the fields should not stop under any circumstances, because the Soviet people needed bread as much as guns. And if the fascists were to come, the farm workers and their guns would stop them, as they had stopped the whites twenty years earlier, right?
A good Soviet citizen could only stand at attention when a political leader explained that the purity of communist ideals would allow amateurs armed with old rifles to stop tanks. Lieutenant Aksonov turned around when he heard a barn door slam.
A small woman with short black hair and smoky eyes had just emerged from the building in question, transformed into a workshop. She was wearing a tanker suit stained with grease and was uttering various curses against "a useless and resentful pile of metal.". Aksonov smiled to himself. In fact, they had an advantage against the enemy tanks. The object of mechanic Irina Dimitriovna Klirova's anger was a T-34...
The machine had been rejected by her unit because it suffered from recurrent suspension and clutch problems and ended up at their place.
- They are coming, comrade lieutenant!
The breathless female voice brought him back to more urgent thoughts. The young woman who had just spoken wore a blue cloth kerchief that concealed red hair.
- Comrade Sergeant?
- They are coming from the southwest.
Sergeant Darya Arseniovna Yeletcheva stretched out her arm toward the road, showing a column of men, women, and children, with a few animals. Some men were pulling handcarts. They were carrying their poor treasures, some furniture, some food.
- Tell the inhabitants about their accommodation, I will welcome them.
- Yes, comrade lieutenant.
Lieutenant Aksonov came down from the barricade and met the refugees who were fleeing from the areas conquered by the Germans and their Romanian henchmen. The leader of the pathetic column had been in charge of a kolkhoz located between Nove and Hradenytsi. He told of their ordeal. They had left the day before, when the first shots of the fascists had fallen on their farms. They had slept on the way and it had taken them all day to walk the five kilometers to Nove. The sappers were busy mining the fields and they could only walk along the road, because it was used by the Army and often bombed. They had to hide in the grass to escape the fascists and had witnessed violent fights. On several occasions, during their night march, they had come across piles of bodies. Finally, this morning, calm had returned. The crew of an armored car that they had come across had told them that the Romanians had been pushed back on the whole front and that three of their divisions had been destroyed!*
The survivors were exhausted, hungry, but above all shocked by the death of their relatives and the horrors they had experienced. As they were talking, the hum of engines made them look up to the sky. At first, no one was too concerned. For several days, they had only seen VVS aircraft had been seen for several days... but the formation, about twenty aircraft, came from the north. Aksonov recognized the gull wings of the Stuka.
- Enemy aircraft!
The alert cry surprised, then sowed panic. And it was hell... The explosions, the screams, the burning houses, blood on the road. It seemed to last forever. The bombers formed a circle in the sky, just above Nove. They were diving, bombing and strafing, and came up, and flowers of fire and dust swelled in thunder behind them.
The planes moved away, however, but the martyrdom of the village was not over. Four Bf 110's passed by, low to the ground, dropping leaflets. A few angry men fired their guns into the sky but one of the twin-engine planes broke away from the group to sweep the streets with its cannons and machine guns. Two men went down, literally chopped to pieces.
Sergeant Yeletcheva shouted to stop people from picking up the leaflets.
But his superior did not see it that way: "On the contrary, read them! You'll see that the USSR is the aggressor, that the fascists have come to rescue you. Then [with his hand, he pointed to the dead]... then remember what the promises of peace and freedom that the fascists make to you. Here is a simple village, with women and
women and children. But for them, civilians are targets. That is the truth! So, fight! If you don't do it for the USSR or for comrade Stalin, do it for your parents, for your friends. And if all these reasons are not enough for you... Fight for yourself. Never forget that the simple fact that you walk on the same ground as them, that you breathe the same air is enough for the fascists to condemn you to death. Your death, they have no other goal. Remember that!"
(From The Heroes of Odessa, Ilya Ehrenbourg, Editeurs Français Réunis, 1950)
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5318
August 21st, 1942
Sicily - Syracuse is in turn the target of French B-25s and American B-26s. As during the raid on Catania, the Italian fighters avoid attacking this formation of 108 bombers well escorted by 160 fighters. The port and various military installations are hit hard. At the same time, Agrigento and Porto-Empedocle are bombed by Beaumonts of the RAF and DB-73 of the Armee de l'Air.
These new attacks provoke loud complaints from the local leaders of the Fascist Party, because the morale of the population has fallen to a level not seen since 1922. At the end of the day, Mussolini solemnly ordered the command of the Regia Aeronautica in Sicily to "break once and for all these infamous and scandalous attacks against the Cities and the People of Italy."
Sicily - Syracuse is in turn the target of French B-25s and American B-26s. As during the raid on Catania, the Italian fighters avoid attacking this formation of 108 bombers well escorted by 160 fighters. The port and various military installations are hit hard. At the same time, Agrigento and Porto-Empedocle are bombed by Beaumonts of the RAF and DB-73 of the Armee de l'Air.
These new attacks provoke loud complaints from the local leaders of the Fascist Party, because the morale of the population has fallen to a level not seen since 1922. At the end of the day, Mussolini solemnly ordered the command of the Regia Aeronautica in Sicily to "break once and for all these infamous and scandalous attacks against the Cities and the People of Italy."
5319
August 21st, 1942
Western Greece and Albania - The Allied air force now has two airfields on the island of Zanthe (Zanthe-1 and 2). The target of the day for the planes based there is again Durrës (Durazzo), the only port allowing the transit of supplies to Greece from Italy by sea, now that the Gulf of Patras-Corinth is closed. The first attack is carried out by Yugoslav aircraft: 15 Vultee Vengeance dive bombers (GCCS V/22) escorted by 16 P-39D and 16 Hawk-87 (P-40E) of GC II/80 (Y) and III/80 (Y). Shortly before noon, Durrës is attacked again, this time by 18 Beaumonts and 9 Blenheims of the 238th Bomber Wing of the RAF, escorted by 16 Mustang II of the GC I/6. At the end of the day, a last raid is conducted at low altitude by 27 French DB-73 (Boston III), escorted by 16 Mustang I of the GC II/6 and 16 P-39D of the GC I/80 (Y).
Courageously, what remains of the "Comando Albania" of the Regia Aeronautica faces up to it. It is the Sezione Intercettori Tirana, with 12 Fiat CR.42 (of which 10 operational), and the 70° Squadriglia Autonoma, with 7 Fiat CR.42 CB (fighter-bombers). Out of seventeen aircraft engaged, nine are lost (4 during the first raid, 5 during the second). They succeed in shooting down a P-39 and damaging two Hawk-87s (which are considered irreparable).
A Vengeance and a DB-73 are shot down by flak.
These three attacks - in particular that of the dive bombers - cause great damage to the port of Durres.
Western Greece and Albania - The Allied air force now has two airfields on the island of Zanthe (Zanthe-1 and 2). The target of the day for the planes based there is again Durrës (Durazzo), the only port allowing the transit of supplies to Greece from Italy by sea, now that the Gulf of Patras-Corinth is closed. The first attack is carried out by Yugoslav aircraft: 15 Vultee Vengeance dive bombers (GCCS V/22) escorted by 16 P-39D and 16 Hawk-87 (P-40E) of GC II/80 (Y) and III/80 (Y). Shortly before noon, Durrës is attacked again, this time by 18 Beaumonts and 9 Blenheims of the 238th Bomber Wing of the RAF, escorted by 16 Mustang II of the GC I/6. At the end of the day, a last raid is conducted at low altitude by 27 French DB-73 (Boston III), escorted by 16 Mustang I of the GC II/6 and 16 P-39D of the GC I/80 (Y).
Courageously, what remains of the "Comando Albania" of the Regia Aeronautica faces up to it. It is the Sezione Intercettori Tirana, with 12 Fiat CR.42 (of which 10 operational), and the 70° Squadriglia Autonoma, with 7 Fiat CR.42 CB (fighter-bombers). Out of seventeen aircraft engaged, nine are lost (4 during the first raid, 5 during the second). They succeed in shooting down a P-39 and damaging two Hawk-87s (which are considered irreparable).
A Vengeance and a DB-73 are shot down by flak.
These three attacks - in particular that of the dive bombers - cause great damage to the port of Durres.
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5321 - Brazil enters the war [Short story]
August 22nd, 1942
Rio de Janeiro - Since the political-military agreement signed on May 23rd between the United States and Brazil, Germany has lost all hope that the Brazilians will remain neutral. The Allies air bases serve as a relay to Africa and the Yankees begin to provide military aid to the country, especially in the form of maritime patrol aircraft. Considering the importance of the region for the supply of NAF, the French even agreed to delay the delivery of three of their Catalinas to allow the Brazilians to dispose of them more quickly. The Kriegsmarine thus launches a violent submarine campaign along the Brazilian coast, whose merchant fleet suffers numerous losses.
In one week, the U-511 alone sinks seven ships, causing more than 600 victims.
This is too much: the Brazilian government declares that the country is now in a state of belligerence. The state of war between Brazil on the one hand, and Germany and Italy on the other, will be effective on the 31st.
Rio de Janeiro - Morino de Deos got off his bunk, a very small folding bunk, and massaged his stump. Sometimes his absent leg hurt, either in his ankle - probably from wearing the chain - or in his calf. It is true that the pain was often symmetrical, it is strange a phantom member, it would be necessary for him to pass to a Drogaria to buy some Jesuit Balm, that was the only thing that could calm him down.
He looked at his watch, snorted, and chose a soft sailor's cap from the top of the shelf, a woolen cap from the Andes, then simply girded his stump with it, passed his left arm in the shoulder strap and secured his black wooden pestle, a rare Amazonian wood with a copper circle guilloche at its end, a beautiful piece that did not replace his leg of course, but took its place for all, men as well as D...,he quietly finished dressing with the khaki brown cotton outfit, pants and short-sleeved shirt, that the Brazilians like when they go to work outside. He would not lack of work today, a barrack boy, especially the one in the Copacabana fort, always has a lot to do !
He hobbled to the next bunk and woke up Rosario who was slacking off like every mornings of a bourrade on the shoulder before going towards the toilet, damn, already 04:15, the call in one hour, it was necessary to hurry up! They were sleeping in an old room which sheltered in its depths ammunition for the antique collection of museum pieces that were rusting peacefully in a useless retreat; this too shallow and poorly protected could only serve as a dwelling, but it was a well tempered and quite acceptable.
He climbed the thirty-nine steps in a more than respectable time for a one-legged man, put his head through the opening and looked out at the promise of dawn, which was gently illuminating the ocean: in the distance, he could distinguish the whole bay up to the fort of Leme which would soon save him but he had nothing to say, the force of destiny would have said the Padre Antonio... He scanned the horizon, squinting his eyes, almost as far as Niteroi, and in any case the numerous cargo ships that were waiting for their tugs, there were many people in the bay of Guanabara and it had been like that for more than a year, the port must have been full of unheard of riches from the other Americas and Brazil was sending a lot of goods to the world at war, which devoured them with disarming ease.
He kept a close eye on the old 1876 Hotchkiss revolver gun that he had been maintaining because he had been trained on it, and which was mounting an obsolete guard facing the sea, he corrected the position of the five-tube muzzle blast, the war was far away but less than a month ago, a cargo ship had been sunk off the coast, the country had shuddered with sadness and rage - sadness because the wreck had been spitting out bodies for two weeks and rage because it was flying the Brazilian flag, the sixth in three days, for a total of more than 600 deaths! Of course, Germany was suspected, but no proof could be brought and in total, thirteen freighters had been sunk since the beginning of the year...
A sudden rumble made him look up, a beautiful blue bird was flying over the number eleven hold: the Buarque, named after the first torpedoed freighter, a PBY Catalina, had been bought in the United States by popular subscription, even Morino had paid his share like all the Cariocas. The plane, commanded by Lieutenant Alberto Martin, known as Torres, turned southeast with a roar, it finished its training today and would start its anti-submarine patrol missions tomorrow.
Morino mentally wished him good luck.
He left the cargo bay and headed for the parade ground, which was still deserted at this early hour, only a lone sentry was pacing around the flagpole, a little conscript who was finishing his classes, the kid looked a bit nervous, he seemed embarrassed of his Mauser and was dancing a rather pitiful dance. Morino, fatherly, approached him and asked gently what he could do for him, the boy whispered a few unintelligible words, almost throwing his rifle in his arms, before disappearing into the bushes that lined the parade ground - gravely, Morino followed him and began to follow the gravel he had raked the day before. With his pestle, he left an unnoticed trace of the most peculiar strangeness on which the Comandante of the fort, Major Joaquim Justino Alves Bastos, who was also an early riser, did not fail to fall on as soon as he climbed the stairs from the entrance below, a little jewel this entrance, paved with marble with the arms of the artillery and all covered with calcadaõ in the purest Manueline style. The Comandante called Morino to ask him in a very jovial tone if he had returned to duty, to which the other replied that the sentry, who was ill, was unavailable for the moment and that it was necessary to keep watch, although his status as a civilian barracks guard theoretically prevented him from doing so, but the Fatherland seemed more than in danger!
The fort was beginning to come alive, the gravel raking crew made a noticeable appearance and chased the two men to the flagpole on a small mound; Morino, clutching his Mauser, began to be flooded with memories, good and bad but memories, his youth was grabbing him by the throat without any mercy, trampling his poor present, he couldn't tell if it was the familiar mass of the rifle or the smell of grease that troubled him but it was firmly established that he had enlisted in 1920, had been a gunner at the Copacabana fort, chief brigadier of the Osorio gun, promoted to sergeant in charge of the gun - but that was before, before the fifth of July 1922- sinister day if ever there was one.
Sergeant Eusebio, the post commander, came forward, greeted the Comandante, assured him that the troop was ready for the salute to the flag and surreptitiously took the rifle entrusted to Morino - a very nice trick, one that reveals a long experience of military blunders. The Comandante gravely took his place and the trumpeter, leaning towards the sky, sounded his music into the sun.
.........
Looking very worried, the major walked with small steps towards the entrance of the fort, nothing was going right in this sad month of August, the recruits were falling like flies, there were a little more than thirty in the infirmary, the fort was unhealthy and the hierarchy knew it, but there was more and more talk of going to enter the war and it was not the time to oppose the effort that would follow and then there were the two 75s whose brakes had been sent to the arsenal for overhaul, they still had a more than respectable firepower with its double turrets of 305 and 190 but it had lost a precious capital, the one of the rapid fire... And to finish, he received this evening the military attachés who were still in post in Rio, in spite of all the departures due, among others, to the hostilities, it was necessary to him to count on about thirty guests with inevitable animosities - that should be interesting!
He had a genius idea, he was going to make a meal of seafood and fish, he went down the stairs with a much more confident step, responded to the two sentries in traditional dress with a very stylish salute and went to his office to give the first orders of the day.
A quarter of an hour later, Morino and Rosario, followed by a dozen conscripts armed with baskets of all colors, were scouring the fish market of the Arpoador, it fell well, it adjoined the fort and in a quarter of an hour all the necessary was bought. There remained the question of spirits, and that was a real problem.
.........
Three kilometers away, reserve lieutenant Jossaume got down from his sofa after a very constructive night of duty, where he had done absolutely nothing; he took a quick shower and headed for the office where a hearty breakfast was waiting for him as always.
Reflecting, he dipped his toast in his bowl of black coffee but he had made his decision, it would be this evening since he was of chore for the reception of the attachés to the fort of Copacabana, he would ask for asylum and then that's it! But he would not arrive empty-handed, he would make a nice gift to Fighting France.
Jossaume had been mobilized in September 39 directly to the embassy, he had left without too much regret his teaching position at the French high school in Rio, but he had quickly been saddened after the Grand Demenagement: the general who commanded the French military mission in Brazil had chosen the NEF, followed by the colonel and the two captains, there were obviously careers to be protected! As the months went by, Jossaume had taken the measure of his comrades, the general had left without being replaced, the colonel had succeeded him and, hoping for a promotion, did not hesitate to do the most menial tasks, while the two captains were absent more and more often for missions as vague as endless, in short, Jossaume did everything in the absence of the one and the other, while his temperament carried him more and more towards those of Algiers, the power of circumstance of the NEF indisposed him to the highest point because he sensed its illegitimacy, no, decidedly, his decision was taken!
He entered the cipher room with a languid step and went off to talk to the cryptographer on duty, who told him what the colonel had ordered him to transmit five days earlier, which was edifying and strengthened, if it were needed, the lieutenant's resolve.
........
Morino do Deo had not always been dressed in brown cotton and had not always been busy buying fish, but he had once made a mistake by giving in to his sentimental side. In 1922, he had participated in the Copacabana fort insurrection, that of the Tenentista, directed against the oligarchs of the old Brazilian republic, he had followed his officer, lieutenant Siqueira Campos, who was to find the fine wound at the corner of Atlantica Avenue and Barroso Street, of the seventeen men who accompanied him, only one besides him had returned alive, lieutenant Gomes. Morino and Rosario had followed the others with some delay, a providential delay due to a more than late awakening of Rosario who had somewhat abused the cachaça but this delay had saved their lives, as they ran like mad to catch up their comrades, the very close explosion of a shell from the battleship Minas Gerais, which was bombing the fort, had knocked them out for the count at the exit of the exit of the portico giving on the Atlantica avenue, they had woken up framed by the bayonets of the loyalists.
The rest was sad, they were sentenced to thirty years of hard labor at the military court, as the offenses had been committed in Rio, they would serve their sentence until 1952 in Ilha Grande, a regulatory prison of the federal state.
.........
The Comandante made his seating plan with the names and ranks that the embassies had kindly communicated to him.
There was a plethora of senior officers and even two generals, only the little French lieutenant posed a problem for him because he was the only officer of his rank, he was not going to make him eat separately, no, it was necessary to rethink the whole table by setting it up, for example, on the place d'armes, a large square table or better, a hexagonal table, that would solve the problems of service, common in the fort, and would allow to obey the laws of precedence, it was much more practical than in the book and would not bother the gunners, he would put the small lieutenant opposite and himself would be surrounded by the two generals, and then the ranks would be distributed in reverse hierarchical order, everything was so simple.
.........
They had been transported to the prison by boat, they had seen nothing of the island, the prison had its own landing stage. Then they learned the difficult rules of prison life, they were chained two by two at the ankles by a four-meter chain that allowed them a ridiculous autonomy: the prison was crowded, the oligarchs condemned in turn and the politicians were carefully mixed with the common criminals, the atmosphere was abominable, at night, in cramped and suffocating cells, only one of the two pairs slept while the other kept watch to avoid robberies and assaults. They wore a black cloth outfit with matching caps, they were working hard to rebuild a stone aqueduct that carried the water from the mountain with ridiculous means, as if it didn't matter. There were also the punishments pronounced for peccadilloes, the responsible automatically involved his partner, who suffered the punishment with him. The worst were the wet cells at the very bottom of the prison building, the prison had been built in other times and slaves from Africa were "acclimatized" there, the sick were quarantined in the wet cells but very few came out.
Among the dregs of the earth there were some small diamonds, they had met the one nicknamed "the little accountant", he had denounced a huge scandal in Saõ Paulo to his superiors, who had buried him under false testimonies that had earned him forty years of hard labor. Broken by this injustice, the little accountant lost his mind little by little, he had been given as a cellmate another simple mind but who protected him fraternally, the little accountant had learned many things from Morino and some others, but he was wasting away more and more. One day in the winter of 1926, in mid-August, they were vegetating in their damp cell when the tide began to rise, they could not know it but it was a big coefficient, more than 110, the consequences were visible towards midnight, they had to desert the lower banks and there were only two levels left before the ceiling of the gaol, the men were worried about the flow of the water that was flooding the relegation, but what revolted them most was the noise of the crabs, as big as watermelons, which fell by the two window wells whose bars, arranged in quincunx, easily let them through, the little accountant began to get agitated, he chattered his teeth while groaning dully and then he stiffened and jumped into the black water with a great cry, the crabs rushed while his partner shouted to warn the sentry, when this one showed his head in the upper transom, it was to announce that she would open the door only after the ebb tide, when it was done, the sentry could only vomit abundantly when he saw what the simpleton was dragging at the end of his chain. Life resumed its course, filthy in its daily monotony, in 1928, Rosario was very sick, exhausted by the diarrhea, he nearly bit it at the end of June but was saved by the consumption of roots that Morino dug up for him, then there wass the episode of the laundry, in July 1940, that made almost eighteen years, to one month, that they were there.
.........
The Comandante had not thought about laundry, it would take immaculate tablecloths with the dishes of the fort, he had run out of glasses, due to the reception of the Russians a year earlier, these muzhiks had broken everything to him, he needed reinforcements and perhaps human reinforcements for the service, no, his conscripts in traditional dress would be enough for that, but for the glassware and the drinks, it was going to be slightly more complicated, what to serve? With seafood and fish, champagne was a natural choice, but where to find it in this time of war? The Comandante had another flash, he knew of an establishment in the city center that could, for a fee, provide him with champagne. the Café Colombo could not refuse him anything, its availability in this matter was more than considerable and the resources of the slush fund of the fort to the height of the said availabilities.
.........
Lieutenant Jossaume, thoughtful, put on his number one outfit, it's true that it suited him, he looked good in a pastel blue spencer and red pants of the African Army, the evening dress of the model 38, since 1910, the various attempts of standardization had all failed miserably, certainly the scalloped braids had disappeared but the ensemble still looked good! Courageously, he walked to the exit of the room and found Almo, the embassy's butler, who whistled with admiration but advised him in his ampouled French to put on a shirt because otherwise the ladies on the way, would not leave him in peace and would burn him with incendiary glances, knowing the reputation of the woman in Brazil and of the Carioca in particular, Jossaume sighed and went to pass on his shirt, it would thus be necessary for him always to sacrifice himself, then he reflected calmly on the fact that there would be, ineluctably, only males at the reception of the military attachés.
.........
Laundry, in the prison, was a monthly activity and was the only distraction granted to the prisoners who, in groups of ten, accompanied by a single sentry, went down along the wall of the relegation the big arroyo that opened on the black sand beach of Dos Raios, if the sentry was human, they could even take a bath in the sea. On that day of July 40, Morino and Rosario were leading the way, naked as worms and clutching their and clutching their clothes tightly, the arroyo was widening as it approached the beach, it was even taking on some depth and the men walked with precaution on the side, except Morino who was walking in the middle of the arroyo because he was enjoying the freshness of the water, and suddenly his right leg sank to his knee in something warm and slimy.
.........
The fort had been built in 1908 at a time of great change in the Americas and in the world, the Brazilian army was coming out of a long period of stagnation, probably historically consecutive to the atrocious victory against Paraguay, which had lost in this suicidal endeavour eighty per cent of its male population in that suicidal war. In any case, the Brazilian army was reformed and energetic measures were taken to ensure the safety of one of the treasures of the capital, Rio de Janeiro. This treasure was the Guanabara Bay.
This natural bay, which had sheltered a whole part of the history of Brazil, constituted one of the most beautiful anchorage of the Americas, with its natural depth going from 8 to 18 meters, its protection was of strategic order for the country. The inauguration of the work had taken place in 1914, it was located on a rocky spur, the Arpoador, which separated the neighborhoods and beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, on the site of a beautiful chapel which had become gradually empty and of which there remains a trace in the oratory of the work. The fort itself was a gigantic mass of concrete, thousands of cubic meters, the average thickness approaching ten meters thick. Two steel turrets with domes up to three meters thick had been ordered to the establishment Krupp in the good city of Thyssen, the one, named Duque de Caxias, had two pieces of 305 mm, they sent a projectile of almost half a ton to more than 23 kilometers of distance and were named Barroso and Osorio, this turret overhung the 190 mm turret, named André Vidal, both turrets could fire at 360°. The fort still had two barbette turrets of 75 mm with lateral retraction located on both sides of the spur and able to fire on 180°,
The rest of the structure included barracks for the troops, a fire calculation room, a signal room, magazines and a storage room, a transmission room, magazines for the gargousses and the projectiles, workshops, an electric factory and maneuvering engines, numerous small specialized outbuildings and, finally, the office of Comandante.
.........
Jossaume girded his kepi, secured his belt and looked at the clock, "Nine o'clock", he wanted to ask Almo to order him a cab but gave up, a little walk would calm his nervousness; he took his pretty pigskin briefcase and went down the stairs, crossed the first secretary whom he greeted gravely and passed the door held by a security guard, the garden was simply disturbed by the whistles of admiration of the gardeners, while turning Jossaume realized that the female staff was lined up at the windows and were making little complicit or perhaps even conniving signs, the prestige of the uniform is not an empty word! The ascent of the Avenue de l'Atlantique in the middle of a crowd of socialites, onlookers and even bathers seemed to him the longest, the women in Rio have a rather astonishing way of showing their interest by staring intensely at the object of their curiosity, at the beginning it was embarrassing but one ended up getting used to it, on the other hand, what disturbed him was the small crowd that followed him... He hurried on until a light honk made him turn his head, a pretty black car with an open door came up to him, and he was able to see it. his "colleague" on the Algiers side, a captain in a black artillery uniform, ceremoniously invited him to get in, after a laborious start, the conversation became very animated.
........
Morino did not understand, at first, what could happen to him, the first moment of surprise, he tried to pull his leg up without succeeding, something was holding him back and even sucking him in, he put his two hands on it but his left leg, also engagedin the middle of the current began to slip, then an atrocious pain pierced him at the level of the knee, he began to howl, Rosario dropped his clothes and tried to run towards his friend, but he had not done it for a long time and missed well to fall in the arroyo, as he saw that Morino was dragged, he made at all costs a dead turn with the chain around a huge stump, unfortunately catching his right arm under it, and then was joined by the other convicts who came together to pull on the chain, but nothing happened, Morino screamed more and more and continued to sink, the sentry saved everything, she had gone up the whole column at a run and had immediately noticed that the prisoner, or rather his leg, was surrounded by a red cloud which was certainly blood, he approached cautiously, aligned his rifle on the convict's leg and fired three times, three major consequences, Morino's leg was blown off at the calf, the thing that was carrying Morino was wounded and the sentry, who was still pointing his rifle, saw something very big disappearing into the sea in a huge swirl, and fired two more shots.
.........
The Comandante was exultant, everything was going well, and to top it all off, the two Frenchmen had arrived together, and although they had passed through the door separately, the chief of service had confirmed to him that they had arrived in the same car, no dispute to fear, he made a short speech which pleased a lot by its concision but which would have scandalized the three Axis attachés, Japanese, Italian and German, who would surely have been overly formalized by a banal allusion to the forces of evil that threatened Brazil - but the American pressure on the regime of Getulio Vargas had prevailed, diplomatic relations had been broken off in January, the Comandante thought very hard about an inevitable entry into the war and proposed a general round of caipirinha before passing to table, carrying away the support of the assembly! The atmosphere warmed up after the first round and this was followed by two others, the caipirinha is somewhat treacherous and tongues began to loosen, in particular that of the artillery captain of Algiers who interceded for Jossaume, who absolutely wanted to speak to the major, what was said afterwards is not known to us but it weighed heavily on the course of the evening. The Café Columbo, an old establishment if there ever was one, had seconded a chef and six seconds who were working in the southeast corner of the parade ground, near the administration buildings, the hexagonal table was beautifully set with white tablecloths and napkins, candlesticks, the fort's armorial tableware and a beautiful set of champagne flutes, everyone sat down in a most sympathetic hubbub and the meal could begin, while the corks were popping.
.........
Morino had always been lucky, it was a fact! From the terrace of the prison, three men with serious faces had contemplated the scene, they were the director of the prison, the governor of the island and the second medical inspector of the prison administration. The warden opened the door and transferred Morino and Rosario to the infirmary, the medical inspector had learned his trade the hard way, first in Manaos and then on the French front, as a volunteer in an American ambulance, and could boast of a good practice because of the work he had done! He immediately noticed the cyanotic complexion of the wounded man and the pitiful state of his leg, with those huge bite marks just above the knee and lint underneath, the other wounded man was better but very shocked, he made Morino lie down on the big wooden table and sat Rosario on a chair, then the guards held Morino firmly while the doctor opened his kit and took out the saw, the whole thing was over in four minutes, suture of the stump included, Morino was laid down in a bed and Rosario was freed from the chain, he could not remain attached to a severed member, the doctor then took care of Rosario's arm and then cleared his throat while washing his hands, he had decided to plead the cause of the two men to the governor and the director, he hoped to remove the piece quickly if one can say.
.........
Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Steinhoff was exultant, the message he had received two days earlier was very clear, the Copacabana fort would be unable to fire at distances of less than 250 meters for at least another seventy-two hours. There were two or three Axis submarines in operation in the area - the Neuland operation had recently been extended to the outskirts of Rio with Milchkuh submarines (supply vessels), the Kriegsmarine wanting to disrupt the important traffic that had been developing for two years between South America - and in particular Brazil - and North Africa, still French and still fighting. His ship, the U-511, was the closest to the Brazilian capital, 32 miles at the most, and as evening set, it was getting dark, we had to pick up the pace and we would be in position by half past one in the morning: there were more than fifty ships on both sides of the bay and if he could force his way in, he would make a massacre.
.........
The Comandante held the book in his hands, turning it over and over, staring intently at Jossaume.
It was a great gift to Brazil, and he would surely be granted asylum in exchange, until then he would stay at the fort where he would be housed until the authorities decided on his case, but there was no doubt about the outcome, for you couldn't find a copy of a government's encryption keys under a horse's hoof, even a very contested government like the one of the NEF, but first he had to talk to the naval attaché of the United States of America, which had three bases in Brazil, maybe those damn naval and air patrols would give something!
.........
The medical inspector took the two men with his boat back to Angra dos Reis where he entrusted them to the care of the nuns who ran the maritime infirmary, where they were pampered for almost a year, their days punctuated by daily visits from the federal police, who controlled their presence, and on the other hand, Padre Antonio, who was more concerned about their souls. After three months, Morino's prosthesis was delivered and he walked again after six months of constant effort, the prosthesis was magnificent, a black wood all encircled with copper and the grace of the two convicts fell on the anniversary of their incarceration and, on the advice of the Padre, they were directed to a congregation in Rio where they set out to find work, there was no lack of it in these times of strong growth due to the war in Europe. Brazil was exporting a lot since 1939! They first tried their luck on the seaside, the beautiful houses of colonial style gave way inevitably to vertiginous buildings in pre-stressed concrete, but their various infirmities were opposed to it, it was the same for the trade which requires a certain mobility, the restoration or the lemonade were disadvised by the addictive temperament of Rosario, once more the Padre pulled them out of their predicament by sending them to the fort of Copacabana, to a certain major Bastos who sought barrackers, the business was quickly concluded, paid, lodged, fed and dressed moreover, the two companions plunged in delights not of Capua but at least of Rio.
.........
Kapitänleutnant Steinhoff was a bold man, but despite his young age he had a certain caution, and rightly so: he had been spotted twice by the American air force in the days before. Climbing alone in the bathtub, he went into semi-dive and electric propulsion to go up the beach of Ipanema at a good distance then he began to approach the rocky spur, it was not necessary to be below 150 meters, because the reefs would not forgive, but at 200, it would be nevertheless below the range of shooting of the 190 pieces, as for the 75, they could only remain mute for lack of brakes ! He had carefully studied the map, as it indicated, the fort looked like a big concrete cake in the shape of an old tennis racket placed on the rock, weak lights glowed in the left angle of the second part, which sheltered the barracks of surface, he took out his binoculars of their case to see it more clearly.
.........
Morino turned over in his bunk, agitated by an unpleasant dream, the medical inspector was sawing his leg with a sardonic grin and with an abominable noise, he sat up suddenly, panting and sweating at the temples, there was a noise, a kind of regular high-pitched humming sound that seemed to come out of the walls, he put on his prosthesis, climbed the 39 steps and he saw him, a kind of whale's nose in the process of fanning, one sometimes saw them but it was not the season, no, it was something else, there was a man at the top, madre de D..., a submarine, there was a very old wooden box in the staircase, three steps down, Morino opened it and hurriedly pressed the big red button, the rest was more complex.
.........
The siren really surprised everyone, but reflexes and procedure took over, the well-trained crew of the fort returned the beating turrets in less than two minutes, but the firing officer gave hopeless conclusions: the target, perfectly identified, was below the fort's capabilities and the two turrets could only follow it without being able to fire! Morino almost ran to the old Hotchkiss gun with five tubes, unlocked it and removed the muzzle blast and the protective covers while Rosario snapped on the first magazine, then he leaned on the shoulder pad, raising the rear sight and Rosario turned the crank.
.........
The most surprised was surely the Kapitänleutnant, an incredible firecracker seemed to come out of the fort, along with an abundance of gray smoke, and the water began to bubble over the front of his ship with metallic noises, right on the anti-aircraft room, he shouted his orders, surface and propulsion to the diesels, they were spotted, it was necessary to obliquely towards the north and present the rear to this thing that was shooting at them to retaliate with its 105 mm gun.
.........
The major was speechless at the sound of the old Hotchkiss, he ran to the room, followed by all the military attachés, and had arrived there when Rosario was firing at the sight of the submarine turning north and Morino's explanation caused a sort of noria to form, made up of officers who passed twenty-kilogram magazines from hand to hand along the 39 steps on the twelve meters of difference in height, the two captains had replaced the gunner and shooter and purveyor and the two generals commanded the fire, one of them, the Chinese had drawn his saber and was pointing it at the target, shouting things that were difficult to understand, the other, the Portuguese, with binoculars in his eyes, was very clearly giving the fuses with an icy voice: the bathtub was touched in full, the submarine was still turning when it was hooked by an infantry fire, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the post, sergeant Eusebio, had arranged his conscripts in the shelter of the railing of the quay and opened a musketry of hell on the piece of oupe, the submarine was going to retort when it was framed by very high sheaves, the Leme fort had just woken up with its 280 short, the Kapitänleutnant did not insist because he was reaching the 200 meter line, he went back to diving and electric propulsion, the 190 opened fire but the salvo, calculated for the diesel speed, was unfortunately too long, two salvos from the fort of Leme fell, as for them, a little short, hampered by the smoke of the old Hotchkiss, the submarine had disappeared and the Comandante, overexcited, invited everyone, including the barrack boys and the postmaster, to a general round.
Jossaume, who had already used and abused the various spirits available that evening, was sleeping like a blissful man in a deckchair, his little book clutched to his chest - he had not perceived anything of the events.
.........
The U-511 was sunk in the morning of the 22nd around 09h00, by 23° 47' of south latitude and 42°57' of west longitude, three planes had led the hunt but it is the Buarque of lieutenant Roberto Martin, known as Torres, twenty-two years old, which carried the blow, an American destroyer rescued twelve survivors out of forty-nine men, Friedrich Steinhoff was among them.
In the afternoon, Brazil entered the war.
.........
.........
Jossaume spent three months at the fort, Brazil granted him asylum before handing him over to the representatives of Algiers, he appeared before a jury of honor which cleared him of any wrongdoing and, as he knew the place well, he was assigned by authority to the new residence of the "France combattante" which succeeded the elements of the NEF in the same premises. He ended the war, exhausted, with the rank of captain. Thereafter, he did not resume his position at the French high school, nor did he return to France, because he had made a rich and beautiful marriage with a charming native woman.
Rio de Janeiro - Since the political-military agreement signed on May 23rd between the United States and Brazil, Germany has lost all hope that the Brazilians will remain neutral. The Allies air bases serve as a relay to Africa and the Yankees begin to provide military aid to the country, especially in the form of maritime patrol aircraft. Considering the importance of the region for the supply of NAF, the French even agreed to delay the delivery of three of their Catalinas to allow the Brazilians to dispose of them more quickly. The Kriegsmarine thus launches a violent submarine campaign along the Brazilian coast, whose merchant fleet suffers numerous losses.
In one week, the U-511 alone sinks seven ships, causing more than 600 victims.
This is too much: the Brazilian government declares that the country is now in a state of belligerence. The state of war between Brazil on the one hand, and Germany and Italy on the other, will be effective on the 31st.
Rio de Janeiro - Morino de Deos got off his bunk, a very small folding bunk, and massaged his stump. Sometimes his absent leg hurt, either in his ankle - probably from wearing the chain - or in his calf. It is true that the pain was often symmetrical, it is strange a phantom member, it would be necessary for him to pass to a Drogaria to buy some Jesuit Balm, that was the only thing that could calm him down.
He looked at his watch, snorted, and chose a soft sailor's cap from the top of the shelf, a woolen cap from the Andes, then simply girded his stump with it, passed his left arm in the shoulder strap and secured his black wooden pestle, a rare Amazonian wood with a copper circle guilloche at its end, a beautiful piece that did not replace his leg of course, but took its place for all, men as well as D...,he quietly finished dressing with the khaki brown cotton outfit, pants and short-sleeved shirt, that the Brazilians like when they go to work outside. He would not lack of work today, a barrack boy, especially the one in the Copacabana fort, always has a lot to do !
He hobbled to the next bunk and woke up Rosario who was slacking off like every mornings of a bourrade on the shoulder before going towards the toilet, damn, already 04:15, the call in one hour, it was necessary to hurry up! They were sleeping in an old room which sheltered in its depths ammunition for the antique collection of museum pieces that were rusting peacefully in a useless retreat; this too shallow and poorly protected could only serve as a dwelling, but it was a well tempered and quite acceptable.
He climbed the thirty-nine steps in a more than respectable time for a one-legged man, put his head through the opening and looked out at the promise of dawn, which was gently illuminating the ocean: in the distance, he could distinguish the whole bay up to the fort of Leme which would soon save him but he had nothing to say, the force of destiny would have said the Padre Antonio... He scanned the horizon, squinting his eyes, almost as far as Niteroi, and in any case the numerous cargo ships that were waiting for their tugs, there were many people in the bay of Guanabara and it had been like that for more than a year, the port must have been full of unheard of riches from the other Americas and Brazil was sending a lot of goods to the world at war, which devoured them with disarming ease.
He kept a close eye on the old 1876 Hotchkiss revolver gun that he had been maintaining because he had been trained on it, and which was mounting an obsolete guard facing the sea, he corrected the position of the five-tube muzzle blast, the war was far away but less than a month ago, a cargo ship had been sunk off the coast, the country had shuddered with sadness and rage - sadness because the wreck had been spitting out bodies for two weeks and rage because it was flying the Brazilian flag, the sixth in three days, for a total of more than 600 deaths! Of course, Germany was suspected, but no proof could be brought and in total, thirteen freighters had been sunk since the beginning of the year...
A sudden rumble made him look up, a beautiful blue bird was flying over the number eleven hold: the Buarque, named after the first torpedoed freighter, a PBY Catalina, had been bought in the United States by popular subscription, even Morino had paid his share like all the Cariocas. The plane, commanded by Lieutenant Alberto Martin, known as Torres, turned southeast with a roar, it finished its training today and would start its anti-submarine patrol missions tomorrow.
Morino mentally wished him good luck.
He left the cargo bay and headed for the parade ground, which was still deserted at this early hour, only a lone sentry was pacing around the flagpole, a little conscript who was finishing his classes, the kid looked a bit nervous, he seemed embarrassed of his Mauser and was dancing a rather pitiful dance. Morino, fatherly, approached him and asked gently what he could do for him, the boy whispered a few unintelligible words, almost throwing his rifle in his arms, before disappearing into the bushes that lined the parade ground - gravely, Morino followed him and began to follow the gravel he had raked the day before. With his pestle, he left an unnoticed trace of the most peculiar strangeness on which the Comandante of the fort, Major Joaquim Justino Alves Bastos, who was also an early riser, did not fail to fall on as soon as he climbed the stairs from the entrance below, a little jewel this entrance, paved with marble with the arms of the artillery and all covered with calcadaõ in the purest Manueline style. The Comandante called Morino to ask him in a very jovial tone if he had returned to duty, to which the other replied that the sentry, who was ill, was unavailable for the moment and that it was necessary to keep watch, although his status as a civilian barracks guard theoretically prevented him from doing so, but the Fatherland seemed more than in danger!
The fort was beginning to come alive, the gravel raking crew made a noticeable appearance and chased the two men to the flagpole on a small mound; Morino, clutching his Mauser, began to be flooded with memories, good and bad but memories, his youth was grabbing him by the throat without any mercy, trampling his poor present, he couldn't tell if it was the familiar mass of the rifle or the smell of grease that troubled him but it was firmly established that he had enlisted in 1920, had been a gunner at the Copacabana fort, chief brigadier of the Osorio gun, promoted to sergeant in charge of the gun - but that was before, before the fifth of July 1922- sinister day if ever there was one.
Sergeant Eusebio, the post commander, came forward, greeted the Comandante, assured him that the troop was ready for the salute to the flag and surreptitiously took the rifle entrusted to Morino - a very nice trick, one that reveals a long experience of military blunders. The Comandante gravely took his place and the trumpeter, leaning towards the sky, sounded his music into the sun.
.........
Looking very worried, the major walked with small steps towards the entrance of the fort, nothing was going right in this sad month of August, the recruits were falling like flies, there were a little more than thirty in the infirmary, the fort was unhealthy and the hierarchy knew it, but there was more and more talk of going to enter the war and it was not the time to oppose the effort that would follow and then there were the two 75s whose brakes had been sent to the arsenal for overhaul, they still had a more than respectable firepower with its double turrets of 305 and 190 but it had lost a precious capital, the one of the rapid fire... And to finish, he received this evening the military attachés who were still in post in Rio, in spite of all the departures due, among others, to the hostilities, it was necessary to him to count on about thirty guests with inevitable animosities - that should be interesting!
He had a genius idea, he was going to make a meal of seafood and fish, he went down the stairs with a much more confident step, responded to the two sentries in traditional dress with a very stylish salute and went to his office to give the first orders of the day.
A quarter of an hour later, Morino and Rosario, followed by a dozen conscripts armed with baskets of all colors, were scouring the fish market of the Arpoador, it fell well, it adjoined the fort and in a quarter of an hour all the necessary was bought. There remained the question of spirits, and that was a real problem.
.........
Three kilometers away, reserve lieutenant Jossaume got down from his sofa after a very constructive night of duty, where he had done absolutely nothing; he took a quick shower and headed for the office where a hearty breakfast was waiting for him as always.
Reflecting, he dipped his toast in his bowl of black coffee but he had made his decision, it would be this evening since he was of chore for the reception of the attachés to the fort of Copacabana, he would ask for asylum and then that's it! But he would not arrive empty-handed, he would make a nice gift to Fighting France.
Jossaume had been mobilized in September 39 directly to the embassy, he had left without too much regret his teaching position at the French high school in Rio, but he had quickly been saddened after the Grand Demenagement: the general who commanded the French military mission in Brazil had chosen the NEF, followed by the colonel and the two captains, there were obviously careers to be protected! As the months went by, Jossaume had taken the measure of his comrades, the general had left without being replaced, the colonel had succeeded him and, hoping for a promotion, did not hesitate to do the most menial tasks, while the two captains were absent more and more often for missions as vague as endless, in short, Jossaume did everything in the absence of the one and the other, while his temperament carried him more and more towards those of Algiers, the power of circumstance of the NEF indisposed him to the highest point because he sensed its illegitimacy, no, decidedly, his decision was taken!
He entered the cipher room with a languid step and went off to talk to the cryptographer on duty, who told him what the colonel had ordered him to transmit five days earlier, which was edifying and strengthened, if it were needed, the lieutenant's resolve.
........
Morino do Deo had not always been dressed in brown cotton and had not always been busy buying fish, but he had once made a mistake by giving in to his sentimental side. In 1922, he had participated in the Copacabana fort insurrection, that of the Tenentista, directed against the oligarchs of the old Brazilian republic, he had followed his officer, lieutenant Siqueira Campos, who was to find the fine wound at the corner of Atlantica Avenue and Barroso Street, of the seventeen men who accompanied him, only one besides him had returned alive, lieutenant Gomes. Morino and Rosario had followed the others with some delay, a providential delay due to a more than late awakening of Rosario who had somewhat abused the cachaça but this delay had saved their lives, as they ran like mad to catch up their comrades, the very close explosion of a shell from the battleship Minas Gerais, which was bombing the fort, had knocked them out for the count at the exit of the exit of the portico giving on the Atlantica avenue, they had woken up framed by the bayonets of the loyalists.
The rest was sad, they were sentenced to thirty years of hard labor at the military court, as the offenses had been committed in Rio, they would serve their sentence until 1952 in Ilha Grande, a regulatory prison of the federal state.
.........
The Comandante made his seating plan with the names and ranks that the embassies had kindly communicated to him.
There was a plethora of senior officers and even two generals, only the little French lieutenant posed a problem for him because he was the only officer of his rank, he was not going to make him eat separately, no, it was necessary to rethink the whole table by setting it up, for example, on the place d'armes, a large square table or better, a hexagonal table, that would solve the problems of service, common in the fort, and would allow to obey the laws of precedence, it was much more practical than in the book and would not bother the gunners, he would put the small lieutenant opposite and himself would be surrounded by the two generals, and then the ranks would be distributed in reverse hierarchical order, everything was so simple.
.........
They had been transported to the prison by boat, they had seen nothing of the island, the prison had its own landing stage. Then they learned the difficult rules of prison life, they were chained two by two at the ankles by a four-meter chain that allowed them a ridiculous autonomy: the prison was crowded, the oligarchs condemned in turn and the politicians were carefully mixed with the common criminals, the atmosphere was abominable, at night, in cramped and suffocating cells, only one of the two pairs slept while the other kept watch to avoid robberies and assaults. They wore a black cloth outfit with matching caps, they were working hard to rebuild a stone aqueduct that carried the water from the mountain with ridiculous means, as if it didn't matter. There were also the punishments pronounced for peccadilloes, the responsible automatically involved his partner, who suffered the punishment with him. The worst were the wet cells at the very bottom of the prison building, the prison had been built in other times and slaves from Africa were "acclimatized" there, the sick were quarantined in the wet cells but very few came out.
Among the dregs of the earth there were some small diamonds, they had met the one nicknamed "the little accountant", he had denounced a huge scandal in Saõ Paulo to his superiors, who had buried him under false testimonies that had earned him forty years of hard labor. Broken by this injustice, the little accountant lost his mind little by little, he had been given as a cellmate another simple mind but who protected him fraternally, the little accountant had learned many things from Morino and some others, but he was wasting away more and more. One day in the winter of 1926, in mid-August, they were vegetating in their damp cell when the tide began to rise, they could not know it but it was a big coefficient, more than 110, the consequences were visible towards midnight, they had to desert the lower banks and there were only two levels left before the ceiling of the gaol, the men were worried about the flow of the water that was flooding the relegation, but what revolted them most was the noise of the crabs, as big as watermelons, which fell by the two window wells whose bars, arranged in quincunx, easily let them through, the little accountant began to get agitated, he chattered his teeth while groaning dully and then he stiffened and jumped into the black water with a great cry, the crabs rushed while his partner shouted to warn the sentry, when this one showed his head in the upper transom, it was to announce that she would open the door only after the ebb tide, when it was done, the sentry could only vomit abundantly when he saw what the simpleton was dragging at the end of his chain. Life resumed its course, filthy in its daily monotony, in 1928, Rosario was very sick, exhausted by the diarrhea, he nearly bit it at the end of June but was saved by the consumption of roots that Morino dug up for him, then there wass the episode of the laundry, in July 1940, that made almost eighteen years, to one month, that they were there.
.........
The Comandante had not thought about laundry, it would take immaculate tablecloths with the dishes of the fort, he had run out of glasses, due to the reception of the Russians a year earlier, these muzhiks had broken everything to him, he needed reinforcements and perhaps human reinforcements for the service, no, his conscripts in traditional dress would be enough for that, but for the glassware and the drinks, it was going to be slightly more complicated, what to serve? With seafood and fish, champagne was a natural choice, but where to find it in this time of war? The Comandante had another flash, he knew of an establishment in the city center that could, for a fee, provide him with champagne. the Café Colombo could not refuse him anything, its availability in this matter was more than considerable and the resources of the slush fund of the fort to the height of the said availabilities.
.........
Lieutenant Jossaume, thoughtful, put on his number one outfit, it's true that it suited him, he looked good in a pastel blue spencer and red pants of the African Army, the evening dress of the model 38, since 1910, the various attempts of standardization had all failed miserably, certainly the scalloped braids had disappeared but the ensemble still looked good! Courageously, he walked to the exit of the room and found Almo, the embassy's butler, who whistled with admiration but advised him in his ampouled French to put on a shirt because otherwise the ladies on the way, would not leave him in peace and would burn him with incendiary glances, knowing the reputation of the woman in Brazil and of the Carioca in particular, Jossaume sighed and went to pass on his shirt, it would thus be necessary for him always to sacrifice himself, then he reflected calmly on the fact that there would be, ineluctably, only males at the reception of the military attachés.
.........
Laundry, in the prison, was a monthly activity and was the only distraction granted to the prisoners who, in groups of ten, accompanied by a single sentry, went down along the wall of the relegation the big arroyo that opened on the black sand beach of Dos Raios, if the sentry was human, they could even take a bath in the sea. On that day of July 40, Morino and Rosario were leading the way, naked as worms and clutching their and clutching their clothes tightly, the arroyo was widening as it approached the beach, it was even taking on some depth and the men walked with precaution on the side, except Morino who was walking in the middle of the arroyo because he was enjoying the freshness of the water, and suddenly his right leg sank to his knee in something warm and slimy.
.........
The fort had been built in 1908 at a time of great change in the Americas and in the world, the Brazilian army was coming out of a long period of stagnation, probably historically consecutive to the atrocious victory against Paraguay, which had lost in this suicidal endeavour eighty per cent of its male population in that suicidal war. In any case, the Brazilian army was reformed and energetic measures were taken to ensure the safety of one of the treasures of the capital, Rio de Janeiro. This treasure was the Guanabara Bay.
This natural bay, which had sheltered a whole part of the history of Brazil, constituted one of the most beautiful anchorage of the Americas, with its natural depth going from 8 to 18 meters, its protection was of strategic order for the country. The inauguration of the work had taken place in 1914, it was located on a rocky spur, the Arpoador, which separated the neighborhoods and beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, on the site of a beautiful chapel which had become gradually empty and of which there remains a trace in the oratory of the work. The fort itself was a gigantic mass of concrete, thousands of cubic meters, the average thickness approaching ten meters thick. Two steel turrets with domes up to three meters thick had been ordered to the establishment Krupp in the good city of Thyssen, the one, named Duque de Caxias, had two pieces of 305 mm, they sent a projectile of almost half a ton to more than 23 kilometers of distance and were named Barroso and Osorio, this turret overhung the 190 mm turret, named André Vidal, both turrets could fire at 360°. The fort still had two barbette turrets of 75 mm with lateral retraction located on both sides of the spur and able to fire on 180°,
The rest of the structure included barracks for the troops, a fire calculation room, a signal room, magazines and a storage room, a transmission room, magazines for the gargousses and the projectiles, workshops, an electric factory and maneuvering engines, numerous small specialized outbuildings and, finally, the office of Comandante.
.........
Jossaume girded his kepi, secured his belt and looked at the clock, "Nine o'clock", he wanted to ask Almo to order him a cab but gave up, a little walk would calm his nervousness; he took his pretty pigskin briefcase and went down the stairs, crossed the first secretary whom he greeted gravely and passed the door held by a security guard, the garden was simply disturbed by the whistles of admiration of the gardeners, while turning Jossaume realized that the female staff was lined up at the windows and were making little complicit or perhaps even conniving signs, the prestige of the uniform is not an empty word! The ascent of the Avenue de l'Atlantique in the middle of a crowd of socialites, onlookers and even bathers seemed to him the longest, the women in Rio have a rather astonishing way of showing their interest by staring intensely at the object of their curiosity, at the beginning it was embarrassing but one ended up getting used to it, on the other hand, what disturbed him was the small crowd that followed him... He hurried on until a light honk made him turn his head, a pretty black car with an open door came up to him, and he was able to see it. his "colleague" on the Algiers side, a captain in a black artillery uniform, ceremoniously invited him to get in, after a laborious start, the conversation became very animated.
........
Morino did not understand, at first, what could happen to him, the first moment of surprise, he tried to pull his leg up without succeeding, something was holding him back and even sucking him in, he put his two hands on it but his left leg, also engagedin the middle of the current began to slip, then an atrocious pain pierced him at the level of the knee, he began to howl, Rosario dropped his clothes and tried to run towards his friend, but he had not done it for a long time and missed well to fall in the arroyo, as he saw that Morino was dragged, he made at all costs a dead turn with the chain around a huge stump, unfortunately catching his right arm under it, and then was joined by the other convicts who came together to pull on the chain, but nothing happened, Morino screamed more and more and continued to sink, the sentry saved everything, she had gone up the whole column at a run and had immediately noticed that the prisoner, or rather his leg, was surrounded by a red cloud which was certainly blood, he approached cautiously, aligned his rifle on the convict's leg and fired three times, three major consequences, Morino's leg was blown off at the calf, the thing that was carrying Morino was wounded and the sentry, who was still pointing his rifle, saw something very big disappearing into the sea in a huge swirl, and fired two more shots.
.........
The Comandante was exultant, everything was going well, and to top it all off, the two Frenchmen had arrived together, and although they had passed through the door separately, the chief of service had confirmed to him that they had arrived in the same car, no dispute to fear, he made a short speech which pleased a lot by its concision but which would have scandalized the three Axis attachés, Japanese, Italian and German, who would surely have been overly formalized by a banal allusion to the forces of evil that threatened Brazil - but the American pressure on the regime of Getulio Vargas had prevailed, diplomatic relations had been broken off in January, the Comandante thought very hard about an inevitable entry into the war and proposed a general round of caipirinha before passing to table, carrying away the support of the assembly! The atmosphere warmed up after the first round and this was followed by two others, the caipirinha is somewhat treacherous and tongues began to loosen, in particular that of the artillery captain of Algiers who interceded for Jossaume, who absolutely wanted to speak to the major, what was said afterwards is not known to us but it weighed heavily on the course of the evening. The Café Columbo, an old establishment if there ever was one, had seconded a chef and six seconds who were working in the southeast corner of the parade ground, near the administration buildings, the hexagonal table was beautifully set with white tablecloths and napkins, candlesticks, the fort's armorial tableware and a beautiful set of champagne flutes, everyone sat down in a most sympathetic hubbub and the meal could begin, while the corks were popping.
.........
Morino had always been lucky, it was a fact! From the terrace of the prison, three men with serious faces had contemplated the scene, they were the director of the prison, the governor of the island and the second medical inspector of the prison administration. The warden opened the door and transferred Morino and Rosario to the infirmary, the medical inspector had learned his trade the hard way, first in Manaos and then on the French front, as a volunteer in an American ambulance, and could boast of a good practice because of the work he had done! He immediately noticed the cyanotic complexion of the wounded man and the pitiful state of his leg, with those huge bite marks just above the knee and lint underneath, the other wounded man was better but very shocked, he made Morino lie down on the big wooden table and sat Rosario on a chair, then the guards held Morino firmly while the doctor opened his kit and took out the saw, the whole thing was over in four minutes, suture of the stump included, Morino was laid down in a bed and Rosario was freed from the chain, he could not remain attached to a severed member, the doctor then took care of Rosario's arm and then cleared his throat while washing his hands, he had decided to plead the cause of the two men to the governor and the director, he hoped to remove the piece quickly if one can say.
.........
Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Steinhoff was exultant, the message he had received two days earlier was very clear, the Copacabana fort would be unable to fire at distances of less than 250 meters for at least another seventy-two hours. There were two or three Axis submarines in operation in the area - the Neuland operation had recently been extended to the outskirts of Rio with Milchkuh submarines (supply vessels), the Kriegsmarine wanting to disrupt the important traffic that had been developing for two years between South America - and in particular Brazil - and North Africa, still French and still fighting. His ship, the U-511, was the closest to the Brazilian capital, 32 miles at the most, and as evening set, it was getting dark, we had to pick up the pace and we would be in position by half past one in the morning: there were more than fifty ships on both sides of the bay and if he could force his way in, he would make a massacre.
.........
The Comandante held the book in his hands, turning it over and over, staring intently at Jossaume.
It was a great gift to Brazil, and he would surely be granted asylum in exchange, until then he would stay at the fort where he would be housed until the authorities decided on his case, but there was no doubt about the outcome, for you couldn't find a copy of a government's encryption keys under a horse's hoof, even a very contested government like the one of the NEF, but first he had to talk to the naval attaché of the United States of America, which had three bases in Brazil, maybe those damn naval and air patrols would give something!
.........
The medical inspector took the two men with his boat back to Angra dos Reis where he entrusted them to the care of the nuns who ran the maritime infirmary, where they were pampered for almost a year, their days punctuated by daily visits from the federal police, who controlled their presence, and on the other hand, Padre Antonio, who was more concerned about their souls. After three months, Morino's prosthesis was delivered and he walked again after six months of constant effort, the prosthesis was magnificent, a black wood all encircled with copper and the grace of the two convicts fell on the anniversary of their incarceration and, on the advice of the Padre, they were directed to a congregation in Rio where they set out to find work, there was no lack of it in these times of strong growth due to the war in Europe. Brazil was exporting a lot since 1939! They first tried their luck on the seaside, the beautiful houses of colonial style gave way inevitably to vertiginous buildings in pre-stressed concrete, but their various infirmities were opposed to it, it was the same for the trade which requires a certain mobility, the restoration or the lemonade were disadvised by the addictive temperament of Rosario, once more the Padre pulled them out of their predicament by sending them to the fort of Copacabana, to a certain major Bastos who sought barrackers, the business was quickly concluded, paid, lodged, fed and dressed moreover, the two companions plunged in delights not of Capua but at least of Rio.
.........
Kapitänleutnant Steinhoff was a bold man, but despite his young age he had a certain caution, and rightly so: he had been spotted twice by the American air force in the days before. Climbing alone in the bathtub, he went into semi-dive and electric propulsion to go up the beach of Ipanema at a good distance then he began to approach the rocky spur, it was not necessary to be below 150 meters, because the reefs would not forgive, but at 200, it would be nevertheless below the range of shooting of the 190 pieces, as for the 75, they could only remain mute for lack of brakes ! He had carefully studied the map, as it indicated, the fort looked like a big concrete cake in the shape of an old tennis racket placed on the rock, weak lights glowed in the left angle of the second part, which sheltered the barracks of surface, he took out his binoculars of their case to see it more clearly.
.........
Morino turned over in his bunk, agitated by an unpleasant dream, the medical inspector was sawing his leg with a sardonic grin and with an abominable noise, he sat up suddenly, panting and sweating at the temples, there was a noise, a kind of regular high-pitched humming sound that seemed to come out of the walls, he put on his prosthesis, climbed the 39 steps and he saw him, a kind of whale's nose in the process of fanning, one sometimes saw them but it was not the season, no, it was something else, there was a man at the top, madre de D..., a submarine, there was a very old wooden box in the staircase, three steps down, Morino opened it and hurriedly pressed the big red button, the rest was more complex.
.........
The siren really surprised everyone, but reflexes and procedure took over, the well-trained crew of the fort returned the beating turrets in less than two minutes, but the firing officer gave hopeless conclusions: the target, perfectly identified, was below the fort's capabilities and the two turrets could only follow it without being able to fire! Morino almost ran to the old Hotchkiss gun with five tubes, unlocked it and removed the muzzle blast and the protective covers while Rosario snapped on the first magazine, then he leaned on the shoulder pad, raising the rear sight and Rosario turned the crank.
.........
The most surprised was surely the Kapitänleutnant, an incredible firecracker seemed to come out of the fort, along with an abundance of gray smoke, and the water began to bubble over the front of his ship with metallic noises, right on the anti-aircraft room, he shouted his orders, surface and propulsion to the diesels, they were spotted, it was necessary to obliquely towards the north and present the rear to this thing that was shooting at them to retaliate with its 105 mm gun.
.........
The major was speechless at the sound of the old Hotchkiss, he ran to the room, followed by all the military attachés, and had arrived there when Rosario was firing at the sight of the submarine turning north and Morino's explanation caused a sort of noria to form, made up of officers who passed twenty-kilogram magazines from hand to hand along the 39 steps on the twelve meters of difference in height, the two captains had replaced the gunner and shooter and purveyor and the two generals commanded the fire, one of them, the Chinese had drawn his saber and was pointing it at the target, shouting things that were difficult to understand, the other, the Portuguese, with binoculars in his eyes, was very clearly giving the fuses with an icy voice: the bathtub was touched in full, the submarine was still turning when it was hooked by an infantry fire, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the post, sergeant Eusebio, had arranged his conscripts in the shelter of the railing of the quay and opened a musketry of hell on the piece of oupe, the submarine was going to retort when it was framed by very high sheaves, the Leme fort had just woken up with its 280 short, the Kapitänleutnant did not insist because he was reaching the 200 meter line, he went back to diving and electric propulsion, the 190 opened fire but the salvo, calculated for the diesel speed, was unfortunately too long, two salvos from the fort of Leme fell, as for them, a little short, hampered by the smoke of the old Hotchkiss, the submarine had disappeared and the Comandante, overexcited, invited everyone, including the barrack boys and the postmaster, to a general round.
Jossaume, who had already used and abused the various spirits available that evening, was sleeping like a blissful man in a deckchair, his little book clutched to his chest - he had not perceived anything of the events.
.........
The U-511 was sunk in the morning of the 22nd around 09h00, by 23° 47' of south latitude and 42°57' of west longitude, three planes had led the hunt but it is the Buarque of lieutenant Roberto Martin, known as Torres, twenty-two years old, which carried the blow, an American destroyer rescued twelve survivors out of forty-nine men, Friedrich Steinhoff was among them.
In the afternoon, Brazil entered the war.
.........
.........
Jossaume spent three months at the fort, Brazil granted him asylum before handing him over to the representatives of Algiers, he appeared before a jury of honor which cleared him of any wrongdoing and, as he knew the place well, he was assigned by authority to the new residence of the "France combattante" which succeeded the elements of the NEF in the same premises. He ended the war, exhausted, with the rank of captain. Thereafter, he did not resume his position at the French high school, nor did he return to France, because he had made a rich and beautiful marriage with a charming native woman.
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5322
August 22nd, 1942
Albania - Delegates from six small Albanian parties meet at the villa of former Prime Minister Mehdi Frashëri. The bey has politely (or cautiously?) absented himself, and it is his younger brother Mid'hat who presides over the session. The recent air attacks on Durrës have convinced them that Italy is less and less able to protect Albania. It is time to ensure the future of the Albanian nation by constituting a "Balli Kombëtar", a National Front (the appellation is very well worn in Europe at that time) and to arm itself for any eventuality. Commander Spiro Moisiu, the most resolute soldier of the group, already had a plan to disarm the Italian garrisons in the south of the country.
- We must act quickly," says Mid'hat Frashëri. "Otherwise, the Allies will hand Albania over to the Serbs and the Greeks, and what's left of it they'll give back to King Zog, that vain peacock.
- My men are ready," replies Major Moisiu. "They will rise at the first signal."
Moisiu avoids telling his associates, most of whom are from the landlord class, which lieutenant he has just recruited: a certain Mehmet Shehu, a former officer of the Spanish International Brigades, recently escaped from France via Italy. A Red, then! Without a doubt a rogue, but with valuable combat experience.
Albania - Delegates from six small Albanian parties meet at the villa of former Prime Minister Mehdi Frashëri. The bey has politely (or cautiously?) absented himself, and it is his younger brother Mid'hat who presides over the session. The recent air attacks on Durrës have convinced them that Italy is less and less able to protect Albania. It is time to ensure the future of the Albanian nation by constituting a "Balli Kombëtar", a National Front (the appellation is very well worn in Europe at that time) and to arm itself for any eventuality. Commander Spiro Moisiu, the most resolute soldier of the group, already had a plan to disarm the Italian garrisons in the south of the country.
- We must act quickly," says Mid'hat Frashëri. "Otherwise, the Allies will hand Albania over to the Serbs and the Greeks, and what's left of it they'll give back to King Zog, that vain peacock.
- My men are ready," replies Major Moisiu. "They will rise at the first signal."
Moisiu avoids telling his associates, most of whom are from the landlord class, which lieutenant he has just recruited: a certain Mehmet Shehu, a former officer of the Spanish International Brigades, recently escaped from France via Italy. A Red, then! Without a doubt a rogue, but with valuable combat experience.
5323
August 22nd, 1942
Battle of Singapore - IV
Extract from the III Indian Corps (Western Region) staff reports - "After some energetic fighting, the 11th Indian Division withdrew from its forward positions on the Krangi-Jurong main line, with excellent observation posts on the ridges and hills. From these positions, they could direct plunging fire on the Japanese infantry trying to take cover in the positions abandoned by the Indian units, as well as on the Japanese infantry trying to continue their attack on our much stronger second defensive line, which was much stronger. Better still, the enemy has advanced so far that he is now out of range of support from his artillery positioned on the north shore of the Straits of Johor."
.........
For their part, the artillerymen of the heavy batteries have not been inactive, even if it is not there, that the fate of the island is actually at stake.
06:30 - The day has barely dawned on a clear horizon, the Johore battery opens fire at 44,000 yards on the battleships Yamashiro and Hyuga well before the latter reached their firing positions in the Singapore Straits. Higgins and Hastings decide to use the maximum range to test the opponent. At this distance, the shot is necessarily inaccurate and Kondo does not change his orders for the day.
07:00 - The Fulmar and its escorting Hurricanes fly over the Straits. The first one transmits valuable information on the position of the sheaves surrounding the Japanese battleships before being chased by a Zero patrol. One Hurricane is shot down, the other two are saved by the strict instructions of the fighters: no question of moving away from the escorted ships!
09:07 - The two battleships are in good range, the duel really starts again. The 356 mm plough the ground around the Johore battery, but the casemates resist well.
11:00 - The firing elements are transmitted to the Buona Vista battery, where Gready is with the major battery commander. The two 15" enter the dance, with the advantage of being out of range of a replica of the battleships.
12:05 - Johore stops firing to take cover in the casemates, as the enemy fire is becoming more intense and precise. But Buona Vista continues and places at least two near-misses on the Hyuga.
13:00 - Kongo thinks he has finished with Johore, which remains silent. The cruisers Atago and Chokai move closer to the eastern tip of the island to fire more accurately, while the battleships are positioned further west, to attack Buona Vista.
13:33 - Higgins and Hastings take advantage of the distance between the battleships to resume firing with Johore, this time aiming at the cruisers. Meanwhile, Gready keeps the battleships busy.
14:02 - After a few adjustment shots, Johore places three shots on target on the Chokai. One of them hits the blockhouse, another destroys the forward chimney and the third ignites a fire in the front boiler room. Hard hit (and the consequences could have been much worse), the ship retreats eastward at 18 knots. The Atago joins the two battleships.
15:00 - Yamashiro, Hyuga and Atago shell the Buona Vista, but find themselves in a position to be targeted by the two 15" batteries. A hit on the Hyuga disables its A turret - taking advantage of a squall, Kondo retreats eastward past the Straits and out of range of the British batteries.
17:30 - At the Johore Battery CP, Major Higgins' Chinese orderly, Private Chang, triumphantly enters the telemetry room with a bottle of Benedictine in his hand: "This is the last one, Sir! Chang was saving it for a special occasion!"
- Excellent idea, Chang! We will share it with our sailor friends!
18:00 - At the long bar of the Raffles, two majors of the Royal Artillery and two corvette captains of the Navy offer a round of Singapore Sling until the bottle of Bénédictine is exhausted. To the health of His Majesty George VI!
.........
During the night, in Johore as well as in Buona Vista, the Royal Engineers teams are busy with constructing earthworks of great magnitude to recreate as they can the accesses to the 15" guns on a ground made lunar by the ploughing of the Japanese shells. Some casemates are damaged and the service buildings are almost all destroyed. The Royal Artillery deplores seven dead and about twenty wounded. But the fire direction bunkers, the ammunition redoubts and guns are intact.
.........
In the South China Sea, the cruiser Chokai returns to Kuching at 18 knots on two tree lines instead of four, escorted by two destroyers. Its main fire direction is destroyed, as well as two boilers. She is practically out of action - another example that a ship is more fragile than a fort...
From our special correspondent in Singapore - "The port is a vast field of ruins on which the shadow of defeat hangs over. Sappers are completing the work of Japanese destruction. The few installations spared by bombs and shells were destroyed by mines. The Shell tanks, punctured, spill the remains of their contents that men set on fire with phosphorus grenades. "The Japs won't have enough to fill a lighter," a sapper tells me with a big smile. There are so many sunken ships in the naval base that you can almost walk across it on dry land. If the Japanese want to base naval units there, they will have to have the draught of a pedal boat. He doesn't offer me tea, but whisky recovered from a warehouse (one of the few bottles that escaped looting by the Japanese during the First Siege). I accept with pleasure and we toast, dry, to our respective health, to that of the king and his family, and to the coming victory.
I realize that for two days I have not seen the sky. The atmosphere of the city is saturated by the smoke of the fires and the dust raised by the explosions. All this forms a kind of bell of dark clouds but from which no rain drips. Here at the water's edge, a few gusts of wind disperse the smoke a little and I can again distinguish brief glimpses of real blue sky. My sapper went to sink a ferry that was already half destroyed. He left me a sealed bottle of Loch Lomond as a gift.
I share it a little further with a team of Australian artillerymen, the servants of a flak battery. We drink it while they sing Waltzing Matilda with ardor. This song is really the national anthem of their hearts, especially since the Matilda tank became the terror of the Japanese. "Too bad we didn't have a few dozen more around here," laments a room manager. He is from Sydney. The others are from Queensland. They wear their quilted cotton hats for coquetry, never helmets. They are all bare-chested and in shorts. They look a little more fit than my British soldiers of the other day. Perhaps they are more hardy or have unsuspected resources.
One of them really looks like a convict - a worthy heir to the first settlers. He doesn't smoke, he chews. In Australia, he works as a herdsman on a farm in Queensland. He tells me stories about life there. At the end of the war, all he wants to do is return to that wild solitude, far from everything. Some who, like him, work in the bush, abound in his direction. They speak about their life of bushman and tell about the characters they met. Gold diggers, kangaroo or rabbit hunters, itinerant priests and policemen. If they do not profess a huge respect for the authorities, two characters escape their mockery.
The first is an Irish Catholic priest. When a bushman comes to his town to party, he taxes him a certain amount, depending on the bushman's means. A herd owner will easily pay five times as much as a simple herdsman. When the bushman has drunk the rest of his money, Father Patrick detoxifies him with hot soup and a few drops of whiskey. Then he pays the bushman for clothes and equipment and the man goes back to look for work. They will meet again, perhaps, in a year. All have for Father Patrick with the deepest affection and the greatest respect.
The second character is a Queensland police inspector, a mixed Anglo-Aboriginal man. One of the soldiers present was arrested by him many years ago for a petty theft. If he has less friendship for him than for Father Patrick, he recognizes him as an exceptional personality. The man bears the unlikely name of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Those who know him attribute to him almost magical faculties of analysis and deduction.
The disaster that struck Singapore exposed everything. Men and things alike. Some have shown unsuspected resources to face the events. Rarely do we have the opportunity to observe such a collection of characters laid bare. Such as one believed strong collapsed under the bombs and one who seemed insignificant turned out to be a magnificent fighter and even a leader. But all in all, the island's defenders are doing well, very well. If the nobility must be a spur to virtue - nobility obliges, doesn't it - Singapore has more nobles than the whole of Britain."
Ray O'Brady, for The Times of London
Battle of Singapore - IV
Extract from the III Indian Corps (Western Region) staff reports - "After some energetic fighting, the 11th Indian Division withdrew from its forward positions on the Krangi-Jurong main line, with excellent observation posts on the ridges and hills. From these positions, they could direct plunging fire on the Japanese infantry trying to take cover in the positions abandoned by the Indian units, as well as on the Japanese infantry trying to continue their attack on our much stronger second defensive line, which was much stronger. Better still, the enemy has advanced so far that he is now out of range of support from his artillery positioned on the north shore of the Straits of Johor."
.........
For their part, the artillerymen of the heavy batteries have not been inactive, even if it is not there, that the fate of the island is actually at stake.
06:30 - The day has barely dawned on a clear horizon, the Johore battery opens fire at 44,000 yards on the battleships Yamashiro and Hyuga well before the latter reached their firing positions in the Singapore Straits. Higgins and Hastings decide to use the maximum range to test the opponent. At this distance, the shot is necessarily inaccurate and Kondo does not change his orders for the day.
07:00 - The Fulmar and its escorting Hurricanes fly over the Straits. The first one transmits valuable information on the position of the sheaves surrounding the Japanese battleships before being chased by a Zero patrol. One Hurricane is shot down, the other two are saved by the strict instructions of the fighters: no question of moving away from the escorted ships!
09:07 - The two battleships are in good range, the duel really starts again. The 356 mm plough the ground around the Johore battery, but the casemates resist well.
11:00 - The firing elements are transmitted to the Buona Vista battery, where Gready is with the major battery commander. The two 15" enter the dance, with the advantage of being out of range of a replica of the battleships.
12:05 - Johore stops firing to take cover in the casemates, as the enemy fire is becoming more intense and precise. But Buona Vista continues and places at least two near-misses on the Hyuga.
13:00 - Kongo thinks he has finished with Johore, which remains silent. The cruisers Atago and Chokai move closer to the eastern tip of the island to fire more accurately, while the battleships are positioned further west, to attack Buona Vista.
13:33 - Higgins and Hastings take advantage of the distance between the battleships to resume firing with Johore, this time aiming at the cruisers. Meanwhile, Gready keeps the battleships busy.
14:02 - After a few adjustment shots, Johore places three shots on target on the Chokai. One of them hits the blockhouse, another destroys the forward chimney and the third ignites a fire in the front boiler room. Hard hit (and the consequences could have been much worse), the ship retreats eastward at 18 knots. The Atago joins the two battleships.
15:00 - Yamashiro, Hyuga and Atago shell the Buona Vista, but find themselves in a position to be targeted by the two 15" batteries. A hit on the Hyuga disables its A turret - taking advantage of a squall, Kondo retreats eastward past the Straits and out of range of the British batteries.
17:30 - At the Johore Battery CP, Major Higgins' Chinese orderly, Private Chang, triumphantly enters the telemetry room with a bottle of Benedictine in his hand: "This is the last one, Sir! Chang was saving it for a special occasion!"
- Excellent idea, Chang! We will share it with our sailor friends!
18:00 - At the long bar of the Raffles, two majors of the Royal Artillery and two corvette captains of the Navy offer a round of Singapore Sling until the bottle of Bénédictine is exhausted. To the health of His Majesty George VI!
.........
During the night, in Johore as well as in Buona Vista, the Royal Engineers teams are busy with constructing earthworks of great magnitude to recreate as they can the accesses to the 15" guns on a ground made lunar by the ploughing of the Japanese shells. Some casemates are damaged and the service buildings are almost all destroyed. The Royal Artillery deplores seven dead and about twenty wounded. But the fire direction bunkers, the ammunition redoubts and guns are intact.
.........
In the South China Sea, the cruiser Chokai returns to Kuching at 18 knots on two tree lines instead of four, escorted by two destroyers. Its main fire direction is destroyed, as well as two boilers. She is practically out of action - another example that a ship is more fragile than a fort...
From our special correspondent in Singapore - "The port is a vast field of ruins on which the shadow of defeat hangs over. Sappers are completing the work of Japanese destruction. The few installations spared by bombs and shells were destroyed by mines. The Shell tanks, punctured, spill the remains of their contents that men set on fire with phosphorus grenades. "The Japs won't have enough to fill a lighter," a sapper tells me with a big smile. There are so many sunken ships in the naval base that you can almost walk across it on dry land. If the Japanese want to base naval units there, they will have to have the draught of a pedal boat. He doesn't offer me tea, but whisky recovered from a warehouse (one of the few bottles that escaped looting by the Japanese during the First Siege). I accept with pleasure and we toast, dry, to our respective health, to that of the king and his family, and to the coming victory.
I realize that for two days I have not seen the sky. The atmosphere of the city is saturated by the smoke of the fires and the dust raised by the explosions. All this forms a kind of bell of dark clouds but from which no rain drips. Here at the water's edge, a few gusts of wind disperse the smoke a little and I can again distinguish brief glimpses of real blue sky. My sapper went to sink a ferry that was already half destroyed. He left me a sealed bottle of Loch Lomond as a gift.
I share it a little further with a team of Australian artillerymen, the servants of a flak battery. We drink it while they sing Waltzing Matilda with ardor. This song is really the national anthem of their hearts, especially since the Matilda tank became the terror of the Japanese. "Too bad we didn't have a few dozen more around here," laments a room manager. He is from Sydney. The others are from Queensland. They wear their quilted cotton hats for coquetry, never helmets. They are all bare-chested and in shorts. They look a little more fit than my British soldiers of the other day. Perhaps they are more hardy or have unsuspected resources.
One of them really looks like a convict - a worthy heir to the first settlers. He doesn't smoke, he chews. In Australia, he works as a herdsman on a farm in Queensland. He tells me stories about life there. At the end of the war, all he wants to do is return to that wild solitude, far from everything. Some who, like him, work in the bush, abound in his direction. They speak about their life of bushman and tell about the characters they met. Gold diggers, kangaroo or rabbit hunters, itinerant priests and policemen. If they do not profess a huge respect for the authorities, two characters escape their mockery.
The first is an Irish Catholic priest. When a bushman comes to his town to party, he taxes him a certain amount, depending on the bushman's means. A herd owner will easily pay five times as much as a simple herdsman. When the bushman has drunk the rest of his money, Father Patrick detoxifies him with hot soup and a few drops of whiskey. Then he pays the bushman for clothes and equipment and the man goes back to look for work. They will meet again, perhaps, in a year. All have for Father Patrick with the deepest affection and the greatest respect.
The second character is a Queensland police inspector, a mixed Anglo-Aboriginal man. One of the soldiers present was arrested by him many years ago for a petty theft. If he has less friendship for him than for Father Patrick, he recognizes him as an exceptional personality. The man bears the unlikely name of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Those who know him attribute to him almost magical faculties of analysis and deduction.
The disaster that struck Singapore exposed everything. Men and things alike. Some have shown unsuspected resources to face the events. Rarely do we have the opportunity to observe such a collection of characters laid bare. Such as one believed strong collapsed under the bombs and one who seemed insignificant turned out to be a magnificent fighter and even a leader. But all in all, the island's defenders are doing well, very well. If the nobility must be a spur to virtue - nobility obliges, doesn't it - Singapore has more nobles than the whole of Britain."
Ray O'Brady, for The Times of London
5324
August 22nd, 1942
Ironbottom Sound - Iishi is scouting off Tulagi again, as he would like to sink the "floating battery" Astoria. But he notes with boredom that Tulagi Bay is cut off by a "patrol barrage" - it is the HMNZS Humphrey and two NAP launches.
.........
Guadalcanal - The Imperial Navy launches fifteen G4Ms escorted by eighteen Zeros against Henderson Field. The raid's approach is detected by the coastwatchers just in time for the takeoff of a dozen Wildcats, which were added to the patrol of four aircraft that was routinely maintained. After a brief melee, three Wilcats, two Zeros and four Bettys are shot down. The bombing does some damage to the runway (quickly repaired by the Marines) and destroy three Dauntless on the ground (after cannibalization, nine bombers remain operational).
.........
Tulagi - At the end of the day, a long-awaited reinforcement arrives: the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3, better known as MTB-ron 3*. This torpedo boat squadron, the first to arrive in the South Pacific, replaces the Dutch speedboats, which are sent to New Guinea. It is commanded by Lt-Cmdr Alan R. Montgomery, who hopes to show the brass that the Savo Island area is a perfect playground for his walnut shells. As night falls, PT-38, 46, 48 and 60 sway gently at their anchors in front of Tulagi. They are supported by a workshop ship, the converted yacht USS Niagara (1,923 tons), but this one remains in Noumea. It is planned to reinforce them mid-October with PT-37, 39, 45 and 61.
* The MTBron 3 should not be confused with the homonymous squadron present in the Philippines at the very beginning of the war and much more known, because its history was told in the 50's by the movie They were expendable.
Ironbottom Sound - Iishi is scouting off Tulagi again, as he would like to sink the "floating battery" Astoria. But he notes with boredom that Tulagi Bay is cut off by a "patrol barrage" - it is the HMNZS Humphrey and two NAP launches.
.........
Guadalcanal - The Imperial Navy launches fifteen G4Ms escorted by eighteen Zeros against Henderson Field. The raid's approach is detected by the coastwatchers just in time for the takeoff of a dozen Wildcats, which were added to the patrol of four aircraft that was routinely maintained. After a brief melee, three Wilcats, two Zeros and four Bettys are shot down. The bombing does some damage to the runway (quickly repaired by the Marines) and destroy three Dauntless on the ground (after cannibalization, nine bombers remain operational).
.........
Tulagi - At the end of the day, a long-awaited reinforcement arrives: the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3, better known as MTB-ron 3*. This torpedo boat squadron, the first to arrive in the South Pacific, replaces the Dutch speedboats, which are sent to New Guinea. It is commanded by Lt-Cmdr Alan R. Montgomery, who hopes to show the brass that the Savo Island area is a perfect playground for his walnut shells. As night falls, PT-38, 46, 48 and 60 sway gently at their anchors in front of Tulagi. They are supported by a workshop ship, the converted yacht USS Niagara (1,923 tons), but this one remains in Noumea. It is planned to reinforce them mid-October with PT-37, 39, 45 and 61.
* The MTBron 3 should not be confused with the homonymous squadron present in the Philippines at the very beginning of the war and much more known, because its history was told in the 50's by the movie They were expendable.
5325
August 22nd, 1942
Bulldog Track - The defenders of Dead Man's Pass retreat to Bulldog. There, thanks to the airfield, there is what is (by jungle standards) an abundant supply reserve, guarded by a company of AMF and a squad of AIF, between which there is the most cordial enmity. However, Minchin's orders were followed, and defensive positions are prepared along a stream, two miles from the field.
Kokoda Track - Late at night, before the 2/12th launch their attack, the Japanese take the lead. One company goes on the attack in the Bowl. The exhausted men desperately cling to the area and bloody hand-to-hand combat takes place in the thick vegetation of the Bowl.
The 2/12th's attack is delayed, then starts around noon after a heavy mortar preparation.
However, the Japanese immediately launch another company on a counterattack. It is a bayonet charge of men screaming with frenzy; it takes an hour of furious hand-to-hand combat to overcome it - and the losses are heavy. Under a hail of rifle grenades, the columns of the 2/12th throw themselves on two points of the Japanese defensive perimeter and the right wing is caught in a vice. Despite the intensity of the defensive fire, the Australians advance relentlessly. "We went straight at them, firing from the hip, under a shower of grenades of all kinds. The leading men were killed crossing a creek, but others continued to advance, moving continuously from tree trunk to tree trunk, and we went right into the middle of their positions. All of a sudden, the Japs started to run away. They dropped their weapons and stumbled away through the thick brush. It was a kind of murderous blind maneuver. They ran more or less at random, squealing like pigs being slaughtered, while we chased them, shot them in the back and finished them off with bayonets..." (Diary of Corporal Archibald Pettigrew)
Milne Bay - Both sides consolidate their forward positions at Halfway Creek and secure their flanks and rear. On the Australian rear is Dahuni Bay, where work is being urgently undertaken to build depots and basic port facilities: this will be Mullins Harbour. A major supply problem is solved by the arrival of forty pearl fishing boats from the Broome oyster farm. These boats are immediately put at the service of the army, as well as a certain number of small refugee boats (sailing and motor praos, small coasters), collected in the ports of the northern coast of Australia.
The position of Halfway Creek is untenable in the long term: it could be turned south, crossing the Maiwara River. Field does what he can, establishing a screen of patrols and a solid position at the village of Dagama, three kilometers west-southwest of the confluence of Halfway Creek and the Maiwara, covered by three or four smaller strongpoints to the east. But this solution can only be temporary. Field's problem is that the position of Col, above Halfway Creek, can also be turned, if the Japanese pass through the flat terrain to the south, between sea and mountains. His response would be to launch aggressive patrols on that side.
Fortunately, the ground in this sector is soft, sometimes swampy, and planted with sago palms, all of which greatly hinder the movement of troops outside the tracks that descend from the heights.
Bulldog Track - The defenders of Dead Man's Pass retreat to Bulldog. There, thanks to the airfield, there is what is (by jungle standards) an abundant supply reserve, guarded by a company of AMF and a squad of AIF, between which there is the most cordial enmity. However, Minchin's orders were followed, and defensive positions are prepared along a stream, two miles from the field.
Kokoda Track - Late at night, before the 2/12th launch their attack, the Japanese take the lead. One company goes on the attack in the Bowl. The exhausted men desperately cling to the area and bloody hand-to-hand combat takes place in the thick vegetation of the Bowl.
The 2/12th's attack is delayed, then starts around noon after a heavy mortar preparation.
However, the Japanese immediately launch another company on a counterattack. It is a bayonet charge of men screaming with frenzy; it takes an hour of furious hand-to-hand combat to overcome it - and the losses are heavy. Under a hail of rifle grenades, the columns of the 2/12th throw themselves on two points of the Japanese defensive perimeter and the right wing is caught in a vice. Despite the intensity of the defensive fire, the Australians advance relentlessly. "We went straight at them, firing from the hip, under a shower of grenades of all kinds. The leading men were killed crossing a creek, but others continued to advance, moving continuously from tree trunk to tree trunk, and we went right into the middle of their positions. All of a sudden, the Japs started to run away. They dropped their weapons and stumbled away through the thick brush. It was a kind of murderous blind maneuver. They ran more or less at random, squealing like pigs being slaughtered, while we chased them, shot them in the back and finished them off with bayonets..." (Diary of Corporal Archibald Pettigrew)
Milne Bay - Both sides consolidate their forward positions at Halfway Creek and secure their flanks and rear. On the Australian rear is Dahuni Bay, where work is being urgently undertaken to build depots and basic port facilities: this will be Mullins Harbour. A major supply problem is solved by the arrival of forty pearl fishing boats from the Broome oyster farm. These boats are immediately put at the service of the army, as well as a certain number of small refugee boats (sailing and motor praos, small coasters), collected in the ports of the northern coast of Australia.
The position of Halfway Creek is untenable in the long term: it could be turned south, crossing the Maiwara River. Field does what he can, establishing a screen of patrols and a solid position at the village of Dagama, three kilometers west-southwest of the confluence of Halfway Creek and the Maiwara, covered by three or four smaller strongpoints to the east. But this solution can only be temporary. Field's problem is that the position of Col, above Halfway Creek, can also be turned, if the Japanese pass through the flat terrain to the south, between sea and mountains. His response would be to launch aggressive patrols on that side.
Fortunately, the ground in this sector is soft, sometimes swampy, and planted with sago palms, all of which greatly hinder the movement of troops outside the tracks that descend from the heights.
5326
August 22nd, 1942
Russian Front
Northern sector and Baltic Sea
Operation Kegelrobbe
Saaremaa, 05:40 - Ground fighting resumes.
In the morning, the Germans reach Kuressaare. The small town is strongly fortified and the attackers suffer heavy losses, but they are well organized and, one by one, the underground shelters are cleaned with flamethrowers. Ozerov thinks of launching a new counter-attack, but the return of the twoo German cruisers, well supplied with shells, dissuades him.
09:40 - A new shelling against the German flotilla is met with intense flak and a barrage of balloons. A plane is lost, without result. From noon onwards, the Luftwaffe, if it has no ground support aircraft available, provides a fighter cover which allows the attackers to advance without fearing air attacks.
Islands of resistance hold out in Kuressaare until the evening.
At the end of the day, the Germans reach the wooded area in the north of the island and approach the Lihulinna fort in the northwest.
23:50 - The Germans attempt a night attack on the fort of Lihulinna. But its old Vauban-like bastions can still resist an insufficiently equipped attacker: the assault detachment, decimated, withdraws.
Russian Front
Northern sector and Baltic Sea
Operation Kegelrobbe
Saaremaa, 05:40 - Ground fighting resumes.
In the morning, the Germans reach Kuressaare. The small town is strongly fortified and the attackers suffer heavy losses, but they are well organized and, one by one, the underground shelters are cleaned with flamethrowers. Ozerov thinks of launching a new counter-attack, but the return of the twoo German cruisers, well supplied with shells, dissuades him.
09:40 - A new shelling against the German flotilla is met with intense flak and a barrage of balloons. A plane is lost, without result. From noon onwards, the Luftwaffe, if it has no ground support aircraft available, provides a fighter cover which allows the attackers to advance without fearing air attacks.
Islands of resistance hold out in Kuressaare until the evening.
At the end of the day, the Germans reach the wooded area in the north of the island and approach the Lihulinna fort in the northwest.
23:50 - The Germans attempt a night attack on the fort of Lihulinna. But its old Vauban-like bastions can still resist an insufficiently equipped attacker: the assault detachment, decimated, withdraws.
- Status