Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Bulldog Track - In a not-so-frequent display of common sense in any army, the Australian staff decides to give command of the defense of Bulldog to Captain Minchin, because he knows more about the enemy and the country. On the other side, as Minchin believes, the Japanese, numbering about 200 (as opposed to perhaps 120 Australian fighters), are short of supplies, exhausted and sick.
Yet it is these almost dying men who attack. Their first frontal reconnaissance attacks are met with crossfire from machine guns and two determined counter-attacks.
This energetic response disconcerts the Japanese, who decide to take a day to rest and reorganize.

Kokoda Track - After regrouping and distributing the men among the units, after having given them a half-day's rest and a hot meal (the first in a long time for most of them), the advance resumes. The Japanese withdraw quickly, leaving behind them corpses but not much more.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

East coast of Australia, 13:00 (operation Oni, phase 3) - The I-157 sees the convoy of troops north of Wollongong, but if this one comes more or less in its direction, it is covered by several aircraft which force the submarine to dive well before having reached an optimal interception position. Its commander does not hesitate to take risks and succeeds in approaching by diving to about 8,500 meters. He finds himself at an unfavorable angle but decides to attack because of the high value of the target.
13:50 - The I-157 fires eight Type 89 torpedoes set at 35 knots (for a maximum range of 10,000 meters), targeting the cruiser HMS Bermuda. The cruiser's lookouts see the wakes and the Bermuda abruptly shoots down to starboard, all the while issuing a warning message. One of the torpedoes explodes in the wake of the cruiser; the impact causes a slight leak and deforms a propeller, causing the shaft to vibrate and limiting the ship's speed to 22 knots. The rest of the salvo is avoided.
The I-157 observes the spray of water raised by the explosion and the crew is convinced that it hit the cruiser. They now have to escape, but in broad daylight, under a sky full of planes, it can only do so by diving, at 8 knots and with batteries already tired by a long approach. However, the DD Napier and Nizam are already heading in the direction from which the torpedoes came. They are mortified by the unpunished destruction of one of the liners entrusted to their care and, with the help of several aircraft, these veterans of the ASM fight in the Mediterranean are to fight hard all day and most of the night.
03:00, 27th - Having run out of batteries, the I-157 surfaces, hoping to take advantage of the darkness and bad weather to get out, but this time the radars of the destroyers detect it becomes chaos. The submarine is shot at and tries to dive again, but is executed by a salvo of depth charges from the Napier while it is at shallow depth. It emerges one last time for a few moments before sinking. The Australians find two survivors, including an officer.
From Research for Australian Official Histories, 1949, notes by Mr. Norman.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Shanxi, China - Multiple reconnaissance efforts have allowed the Imperial Army to locate most of the eleven allied airfields in the Yan'an area. A real air offensive is launched, with hundreds of sorties and a flood of bombing raids that soon weighs on the Japanese offensive capabilities. However, these bombs are not spent in vain.
During the first days, the Ki-45 Toryu attacks allow to recognize the main airfields. Then, Donryu bombers fly numerous missions, destroying fuel reserves on Y-2 and Y-4 airfields.
The greatest success is achieved on the 26th: 6 B-25s, 3 P-38s, 4 B-17Fs and 3 CB-17s carrying fuel are destroyed on the ground by a series of bombings. The reaction of the American fighters' response costs the Japanese 7 Ki-49 Donryu, 3 Ki-45 Toryu, 8 Ki-43 Hayabusa and 2 Ki-44 Shoki in exchange for 12 P-40s and 2 P-38s, but the CATF's actions in the region are mostly limited to reconnaissance and harassment during the following months.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Saaremaa - The positions of the two camps finish stabilizing while the Germans occupy more than two thirds of the island. On both sides of the front line, the minefields reach a considerable density.
On the Soviet side, the inaction does not last. Berzarin sends from Leningrad the 3rd Infantry Division and artillery units from Leningrad, thanks to a noria of small ships that sail from Haapsalu.
On the German side, on the contrary, the OKH, considering that the conquest of the last square meters of Saaremaa would not be worth the losses that it would be necessary to give, practically stops sending reinforcements. The shells are rationed and the garrison only responds parsimoniously to the red artillery fire. Any new offensive movement is excluded. However, the OKH does not blame the executants and notes a few names for the next promotions: Wöhler for the command of an army, Laux for the command of an army corps, not to mention the numerous Iron Crosses with or without oak leaves.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Operation Wirbelwind
Field Marshal von Reichenau establishes his command post at the junction of the XLIV and LV Corps, in a pasture named after a bitter herb: wormwood, in Russian, Chernobyl. The vanguards of the 56. and 9. ID are already in place in their canoes. But it is the Schaal Corps, isolated north of Pripyat, which will advance the first pawn on the chessboard.
02:15, northeastern tip of the Triangle - The border guards of the 9th Hungarian Division move in the woods near Retchytsa. accustomed to the tricks of the smugglers, they pass practically unnoticed. The German engineers, technically more advanced, clear the minefield of mines.
05:20, Retchytsa - It is only at this moment that the first cannon shot wakes up the garrison of the city: the 62. ID attacks. Diversion fire, with strong expenditure of smoke, make believe in another attack further west, between Khoiniki and Pripyat: it is only a feint.
.........
03:45, south point of the Triangle - At the signal, a multitude of wooden, metal and rubber boats (in fact, mostly wooden) emerge from their hiding places in the reeds. A heavy fire of cannons and machine guns stuns the Soviet outposts. At three points, the attackers cut the metal nets that block the secondary channels. They lose several boats, victims of fire from the shore or mines, but in some places they penetrate 2 km into the Russian lines and reach solid ground.
05:15 - The Russian regiment that held the entrance to the bridge (cut) of the railroad to Pripyat is caught between the 9. and 56. DI. It will fight a hopeless battle until 08:10; there will be almost no survivors. Already, the bulk of the 9. ID has bypassed the obstacle and advances eastward on two axes, along the railroad of Chernigov and by a forest road more to the south. The latter leads to new marshes and it is still necessary to borrow canoes, carried on the back of a man, to reach the dry ground. The ground is spongy and the men sink in it up to their thighs.
.........
07:10, center and north of the Triangle - General Tsiganov, warned, already organizes the retaliation.
But he does not take seriously the attack of the southern point, because the ground is too muddy for panzers, and everyone knows that the Fascists never attack without panzers: he sees it as a diversion to mask the main attack. He sends a battalion of tanks towards Retchytsa and keeps the other two in reserve around Khoiniki. A cavalry regiment is to clear the terrain south of Retchytsa and prevent an infiltration to the Slavutyt railroad bridge, over the Dnieper, while the other is to support the single infantry division defending the southern part of the Triangle, along the Pripyat River. The ground has had time to dry since the last rains and the Soviet reserves should be able to maneuver without too much difficulties.
07:20 - But after the morning fog had cleared, Ju 87s appear in the north of the Triangle and force the tanks to take cover, or to try. The Stukas may be old-fashioned, they are still very effective in the absence of enemy fighters and flak worthy of the name. Half a dozen tanks are destroyed or damaged, against one Ju 87 shot down and two damaged. Tsiganov has already requested air support from the 2nd Belorussian Front, which, for the moment, is turning a deaf ear.
.........
09:30, north-eastern tip of the Triangle - In the ruins of Retchytsa, the Russians, caught off guard by the attack of the 62. ID, are pushed back in the sector of the station. They believe they are already surrounded, which is almost true since the left (east) bank of the Dnieper is in German hands.
A little further south, the Hungarian border guards, joined at full gallop by Kampfgruppe Boeselager, reach the Loiev woods. There they are intercepted by the Cossacks of the 249th Red Cavalry Regiment, who immediately start fighting at their German counterparts. Colonel von Boeselager notes with irritation that the Cossacks are fighting with a lot of spirit.
10:30 - The 1st Battalion of the 95th Armored Brigade, with a large reinforcement of infantrymen emerges from the woods around Retchytsa and falls on the rear of the 62. ID. Keiner orders a staggered withdrawal to his starting positions. The T-26s crush the walls in such a noise, accompanied by the shots and the cries of assault of the infantry, that one can hardly hear the soft detonations of the German anti-aircraft guns. Schaal had prepared his ambush well: the 88 mm shells break the momentum of the Russian tanks. The tanks burn one after the other, to the point that their commander, with a heavy heart, orders the retreat. The infantrymen, on the other hand, continue on their momentum and some of them penetrate the German lines.
15:00 - The battle becomes inextricable. Colonel Baron von Seydlitz, very calm in his outpost, directs the firing of his batteries by field telephone when he is shot by a Soviet infantryman. It takes the Germans the whole afternoon to dislodge the men embedded in their lines.
In Retchytsa, black smoke hangs over the rubble. In Sovietskaya Street, the stretcher bearer Maria Petrovna Smirnova sweats blood and water to extract a wounded man from his burning tank. She will remember for the rest of her life the astonished look of the head nurse and zampolita [deputy political officer] seeing a heavy, sturdy tanker carried on the back of a slim, 48-kilogram girl with the look of a ballerina*.
.........
09:45, south of the Triangle - General Koch's German XLIV Corps has finally completed the reduction of the resistance islands around the railway bridge and on the road from Pripyat to Bragin. Koch must now prepare for the probable Red counter-attack; he has learned the hard way that the Reds have good tanks and know how to use them. Fortunately, he has taken control of several anti-tank ditches in very good condition. He pushes his troops to complete the defenses and lay mines. Sometimes it is enough to spot the Red ones and move them a little.
On his side, Koch has only two infantry divisions, the 56. ID, a good Saxon unit, and the 297. ID, Austrians that he considered as a bunch of good-for-nothing: they had not even been in France in 1940, that is to say! They are still good at building log roads in the mud, which will allow them to move the artillery. If Koch's forces succeed in establishing themselves, the rest of the 6th Army would have time to deploy and move its equipment through. In two hours, he has seen two waves of Stukas pass by, which probably slowed down the ardor of the Reds. But his position remains precarious.
16:00 - The 9.ID continues its exhausting crossing of the marshes. The railroad, dismantled and transformed into a log road by the Soviets, is the only solid track: otherwise, it is necessary to crawl through thick mud to dislodge the Russian infantrymen in ambush. The slightest wound could become infected, and von Schleinitz is worried about the condition of his men when they would emerge from the ordeal. Finally, they manage to bring their artillery within range of the other railway bridge, the one over the Dnieper. The Henschel 126 observation planes, which patrol the sky without being disturbed, do not report any arrival of reinforcements over the bridge.
It is almost too good to be true...
.........
14:45, Ripky (east of the Dnieper) - "Kirill Semyonovich, you are a fool! You want to teach me my job, perhaps?" - "I assure you, Ivan Vasilevich, you can see the smoke from here, they're bombing Retchytsa, and my outpost on the Slavutysh bridge has even even heard Stukas..." - "Well, let's admit it. Did they bomb it, your bridge?" - "No, but..." - "You see! That's the first thing they'd do if they wanted to take Bragin. It's a trap to get us to move our forces into the Triangle and clear the center. Their objective is clear: they want their revenge for Smolensk. First stage Smolensk, second stage Tula, third stage... No need to draw you a picture**. But the Russians are not idiots, contrary to what the Fascists believe. So, Kirill Semyonovich, come down to earth and don't worry about a little smoke." - "At your orders, Comrade General."
Major-General Kirill Semyonovich Moskalenko has just been properly yelled at by his superior, Lieutenant-General Ivan Vasilevich Boldin. The 15th Army, which is covering the 38th Army east of the Dnieper, is not allowed to support it. According to the instructions, it is not even allowed to inquire about its fate: communications have to go through the hierarchy, i.e. through the 2nd Belorussian Front, General Boldin, who is in charge of both armies. Moskalenko, with a deep sigh, hangs up the phone.
.........
15:40, center of the Triangle (Bragin) - Tsiganov understands, with a delay, that the expected attack west of Retchytsa would not come: on the contrary, it is in the south of the Triangle that the Germans expand their bridgehead.
In the northeast, the counter-attack on Retchytsa cost him nearly 2,000 killed and wounded and half of a tank battalion, without any concrete result.
About twenty kilometers to the east, the Cossacks confine the most advanced enemy units in the Loiev woods, without being able to reduce them. These units seem to have only light artillery, but they are a thorn in his side. Roughly speaking, they are separated by about thirty kilometers from the enemy vanguards advancing from the south towards the Slavutysh bridge. If the forces that reached the Loiev woods received reinforcements from the Gomel salient, the situation of the 38th Army could become critical.
The headquarters of the 2nd Belarusian Front send only vague and disappointing answers, and Tsiganov is unaware of what is happening elsewhere. Who knows if the Fascists have not launched a big offensive on another front, forcing the Stavka to leave Bragin to its fate? In any case, he will hold on, whatever happens. He orders his armored corps and part of the infantry to move towards Loiev. But most of his forces are moving on foot or on horseback, and he will not be able to gather them before nightfall.
.........
19:25, south of the Triangle - At sunset, von Schleinitz's 9. ID, joined by his artillery and by the first elements of the 294. ID, makes a first attempt against the Slavutytch bridge. But the fortified position west of the bridge is solid and repels three assaults.
The artillery fire blows up the temporary repairs of the bridge, making it impassable for the rolling stock. During the night, the artillery fire is repeated several times during the night to prevent the arrival of any reinforcements.
.........
23:30, north-eastern point of the Triangle - General Pintér, leader of the Hungarian corps, calls for a new attempt to break through the Soviet lines. He refuses to abandon his border guards (and the German cavalrymen) isolated in the Loiev pocket, while aerial observations indicate a concentration of Soviet forces against them. He talks about attacking with the remaining forces (either the 1st Mountain Division and some elements of the border guards) or, if he is refused any help, to ask for the evacuation of the Hungarian forces from Russia. Schaal takes his request very seriously. Besides, he thinks that if his men are tired, the Soviets are at least as tired. He decides that after a few hours of rest, the Höheres Kommando XXXIV will attack again, this time not through the city, but through the woods that surround it to the east.

* Story by Maria P. Smirnova (Koukharskaïa), quoted by Svetlana Alexeievitch, La guerre n'a pas un visage de femme, Presses de la Renaissance, 2004.
** Ivan Vasilevich Boldin knows that walls have ears, especially in the USSR, so he avoided mentioning aloud the sacrilegious idea that the invaders might march on Moscow. Conversation quoted by Boris Chertok, Of Rockets and Men, 1999.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Kaharlyk Salient, northwest of Odessa - The 198. ID attack on the large village of Kaharlyk is an infantry assault supported by tanks and half-tracks SdKfz 251.
The Germans attack a village transformed into a ruinous field by several days of bombardment. While two Hanomag half-tracks are advancing in a street, Soviet soldiers are coming out of the basement where they had taken shelter to throw grenades towards the armored vehicles, exposing themselves to machine-gun fire from the tanks and from the infantrymen who follow.
Hit by a grenade, a half-track catches fire. Its wreckage is pushed aside by a Panzer IV F1. Firing its machine gun on the nearby houses, it climbs a pile of rubble before coming to a halt. In front of him, the street he was following is blocked by debris but mostly Czech hedgehogs. The tank turns to the right, towards the road that crosses the village from north to south.
Around him, German soldiers are cleaning one house after the other... A very dangerous exercise. Most of the time, it is necessary to wait for the shooting of the Soviets to discover which ruin is occupied. While a part of the Germans sprays the position, a small group bypasses the obstacle. It is necessary to infiltrate to a less defended facade and to throw grenades through the breaches. But the Soviet entrenchments cover each other. Men fall under the fire of Maxim machine guns hidden in the middle of the debris or of Dp-28 concealed in window openings.
The Panzer IV supports the frontal assaults by firing its short 7.5 cm. The tank is not safe from Soviet ripostes but if it is hit several times by anti-tank PTDR-41 guns, none of the projectiles pierce its armor.
The battle is not only on the ground. In the sky, Soviet LaGG-3 fighters and some Yak-1 fighters against Bf 109 and some Bf 110. The tracers cross each other in all direction. Like two swarms of furious bees, the aircraft chase each other in a deadly ballet. Sometimes, one of them disappears in a ball of flames or falls to the ground vomiting black smoke, ephemeral meteor that digs another crater. The VVS dominate the first hours of the confrontation, but they are unable to support the combat on the ground. The bombers that dare to do so are mostly shot down.
In Kaharlyk, a surviving Hanomag advances at the head of an infantry column. He has just crossed the old church (transformed into a people's house) when an impact shakes him violently, destroying its engine. About sixty meters away, the servants of a 45 mm anti-tank gun hurry to load another shell. The soldiers aboard the SdKfz 251 have just enough time to get out before another shell hits the cabin.
The Germans fall in fact from Charybdis into Scylla! The Soviets have prepared an ambush, letting the enemy advance. The destruction of the half-track is the expected signal of the assault.
Attacked on three sides, sometimes engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the soldiers in feldgrau suffer heavy losses. Only the intervention of the Panzer IV F, then of a Pz IV D, allows to save the situation. However, the second tank is destroyed shortly afterwards while trying to advance towards the center of the village, sprinkled with Molotov cocktails thrown from the upper floors and finished off with a shell in the engine by the anti-tank gun that its servants had carried on their arms to be able to shoot close enough.
The Panzer IV F is unhitched by an RPG-40 anti-tank grenade and is transformed into a kind of fixed fortification. Its cannon and machine gun block several Soviet counter-attacks but finally, a PTDR-41 shot at close range manages to pierce its armor and set it on fire.
The furious assaults of the Soviets continue. They cost them a lot, but the Germans also suffer heavy losses.
The intervention of two Flakpanzer I allows to push back the Reds. These anti-aircraft tanks are ineffective against aircraft, but their 20 mm cannon are deadly against infantry.
The fighting continues for several hours around the main square. The Germans are unable to advance: each time they seize a house or a key point - the cemetery, the ruins of the church - a Soviet counter-attack drives them out. But the Luftwaffe succeeds in securing control of the sky. Stukas fall screaming, unloading their bombs with deadly precision. The only aerial bombardment of the day, because already, above the battlefield, the VVS have brought in new reinforcements and the various aircraft intermingle in a melee of redoubled fury.
The losses accumulate on both sides. Another half-track is destroyed by a grenade during an attempt to bypass the Soviet support points.
Finally, a frontal attack supported by a new half-track is able to break through the Russian defenses. The anti-tank gun is destroyed by mortar fire. The German infantry charges on the ground beaten by the machine guns, in the middle of the grenade shards. Just as they are about to attack a new rampart of sandbags, a frightening noise suspends for a moment the struggle. A fighter with a red star, on fire, engine screaming, hits the ground in a dazzling explosion. The men who have thrown themselves to the ground are flown over by the black shadow of its winner.
Galvanized by this spectacle, the soldiers of the Reich rise up and, with a final push, seize the enemy's entrenchment. Unfortunately, the place is exposed to the plunging fire of the Soviets into the ruins of the nearby houses. The reinforcements are harassed before reaching the position and the Red Army counter-attacks again, pushing the Germans back to the church square and destroying the SdKfz 251 that was supporting them.
When evening falls, the 198. ID has only seized a few blocks of houses, at the cost of heavy losses. The soldiers sheltered in the rubble will spend a terrible night, all the more distressing as the news spreads by word of mouth. General Albert Burck is seriously wounded! The rumor is well and truly founded. At the end of the afternoon, the general came closer to the fighting. An Il-2 having escaped the Bf 109s strafed the road: It missed the car, but it zigzagged and hit a truck. The condition of the wounded is critical... General Burck will die on September 7th as a result of his injuries.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Sardinia - Shortly after midnight, the attack force commanded by Admiral Rawlings (RN) begins shelling the port of Cagliari. The battleship MN Richelieu and the heavy cruisers HMS Exeter, MN Algerie and USS Tuscaloosa pound the harbour until 02:00.
At dawn, the B-25s of the 11th and 31st EB, escorted by the Mustang IIs of the 5th EC and the P-51A/Bs of the 33rd and 79th FG attack the areas surrounding Cagliari.

Sicily - Comiso and Messina are attacked by French DB-73s from Malta (23rd and 25th EB) and by American B-25s and B-26s (12th and 340th BGs for the former, 17th, 319th and 320th BGs for the latter). French, British and American fighters based in Malta, Gozo and Pantelleria escort them.
These two powerful attacks meet a desperate reaction from the fighters of the Regia Aeronautica. The latter lose 17 planes against six bombers and seven allied fighters. On the ground, after those of Trapani, the grounds of the complex of Comiso suffer a lot.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1942

Peloponnese - Megara is attacked again, this time by 36 French B-25B/C of the 12th EB and 48 Beaumonts of the 234th and 237th Bomber Wings of the RAF, covered by a massive escort: 48 Hurricanes II of Sqn 3, 335(H), 336(H) and 450 (RAAF), 24 Kittyhawks of Sqn 94 and 260, 24 Spitfire V from Sqn 112 and 250 and 16 Mustang II from GC III/6. The Luftwaffe reacts with all its forces. Between flak and German fighters, the Allies lose three bombers (2 Beaumont and 1 B-25) and eight fighters (3 Hurricanes, 3 Kittyhawks, 1 Spitfire and 1 Mustang). The JG 27 loses only 4 Bf 109F. However, the superiority of the 109Fs comes to an end: Hurricane and Kittyhawk are being replaced in the allied forces.

Northern Greece - The area between Larissa and Volos is assaulted by the NA-73 and NA-92 FGA of the 2nd EC during several "Mandragore" operations. Eleven German and Italian aircraft are destroyed on the ground, as well as two Bf 109F which try to intercept the North American fighters at very low altitude. The 2nd EC loses three planes (two shot down by the flak and one in air combat).

 

[Wings]

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Northern France - A new large-scale sweep targets the JG-2 and JG-26 airfields north of the Seine river. The attack combines heavy (B-17) and medium (Beaumont) to Tornado fighter-bomber strikes.
The Luftwaffe defends itself energetically and the Fw 190s shoot down nine aircraft (five Spitfires, two Tornado and two Beaumont) but lose seven of their own. The commander of JG 2, Walter Œsau, is himself shot down and wounded after a five-minute duel with the commander of JG II/1, Christian Martell.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Paris - The Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF), presided over by Eugène Deloncle, was created a little more than three months after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Although several ministers of the Laval government, starting with Jacques Doriot and Marcel Déat, were the inspirers, the initiative received only lip service from Laval himself, until it was officially approved by the German ambassador Otto Abetz. Even afterwards, Laval forbade government officials from joining the LVF. Moreover, Hitler did not want military collaboration with the "New French State" and the extra-governmental status of the LVF therefore suited the Germans. The organizers said they were expecting one hundred thousand fighters, but in the two years of the LVF's existence, only 13,000 men enlisted. Three to four thousand finally joined the pseudo-division Charlemagne of the Waffen SS. Four to five thousand others deserted as soon as the risk of seeing fire became clear. The others - a little more than 5,000 men commanded in the field, not by Deloncle, but by Colonel de Planard were mainly used by the Germans as auxiliary troops in the anti-partisan fight, on the Russian front... or elsewhere.
Other Frenchmen were to enlist directly under the German uniform from 1943 onwards.
Thus, nearly 2,000 Frenchmen joined the Anti-Bolshevik Volunteers' Automobile Transport Corps of the Luftwaffe (der NSKK Transport Regiment Luftwaffe), which was quickly transformed into a combat unit, 4,000 in the Todt organization and even 200 in the Kriegsmarine. But in these three cases, the motives appear to be much more diverse and in any case less political than in the case of the LVF and the Division Charlemagne.
Political collaboration with the occupying forces goes beyond the military framework, but the precise number of people involved remains unknown today.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Battle of Singapore - IV
Tekong, Pulau Ubin - On Tekong, the last survivors of the 1st Singapore Brigade on the island are eliminated - the Japanese take almost no prisoners.
On both islands, the Japanese spend the rest of the day reorganizing and preparing for the upcoming landing at Changi. Generals Masao Watanabe and Takuma Nishimura receive their orders: they must launch their men on Singapore the day after tomorrow.
.........
Singapore - The Commonwealth Staff completes the deployment to the Changi sector of the two Chinese Volunteer Brigades. These two brigades are reinforced by survivors of the 1st Singapore Brigade (mostly of Chinese descent) and especially by the companies of the Dalforce, which serve as their reserve.
Like the two brigades, the men of the Dalforce are divided into pro-Kuomintang (1st Brigade) and pro-Communist (2nd Brigade). It took the British some time to realize that this division was necessary to obtain units capable of fighting in an organized manner. Finally, the two brigades are trained separately to avoid political differences.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Guadalcanal - The APDs USS McKean and Gregory are on a new supply mission. They unload the material transported at Red Beach.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Bulldog Track - The Japanese launch their usual envelopment maneuver, but they run into the Australians, who have moved in on the Japanese flanks the previous evening. Disoriented, the Japanese will have to clean their flanks for three days, which will see fierce fights by small groups of two or three men. Suddenly, they find themselves on the defensive, just what Minchin wants.

Kokoda Track - Alola is reached after thirteen kilometers of grueling trail. At this point, the track splits in two: the northwestern branch goes to Isurava, Deniki and Kokoda, the northeast branch to Fila and Kobara; Kokoda and Kobara are connected by a track that goes eastward to Oivi and Wairopi. The RAAF bombs Wairopi, a key point in the Japanese supply line, where it destroys the bridges almost as fast as the Japanese are building them. It seems that the enemy reinforcements do not get past Oivi. But before that point, it is necessary to ensure that Kokoda is taken.
Wootten sends the 2/10th, preceding the 2/12th, still exhausted, towards the northwest. The men cross Isurava and reach Deniki at dusk. The 2/9th - hardly rested - marches towards the northeast and reaches Fila at about the same time. During the night, the track connecting Deniki and Fila is recognized and communications established between the two forces. Kokoda is ripe.

Milne Bay - The Japanese complete repairs to Gurney's field and the few roads in the area, on which they are driving captured vehicles, which they have also had to repair, most of which had been more or less sabotaged. The unloading of their supplies is now more or less complete, in spite of the air attacks of the RAAF, whose Boomerangs destroy several depots and sink two small transports (former fishing boats of 200 tons), at the cost of further losses. Port Moresby has only the minimum number of aircraft needed to defend itself and the key positions on the Kokoda airstrip.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Operation Wirbelwind
02:30, north-eastern point of the Triangle (Retchytsa) - In the darkness, the German-Hungarians make a new attempt to break through the Soviet lines. They cross the railroad line (disused, and for good reason). At the top of the line, a Hungarian detachment comes across unoccupied tanks parked in the middle of the woods and set them on fire: five tanks less. The attackers have a temporary advantage, because they know that everything they encounter in front of them is an enemy, while the defenders are in doubt. The Soviet infantry responds in some disorder, with many fratricidal shots, but, contrary to the hopes of Schaal, they hold on tight. When day breaks, the attackers have improved their position by a few kilometers and cut the main road to Khoiniki and Bragin, but the deployment of T-26s prevents them from venturing into the open terrain that separates them from Loiev. However, the night attack disturbs Tsiganov's plans, who hesitates to launch his offensive. He sends some of his tanks and infantry to reinforce Retchytsa's defenses.
09:00, south of the Triangle - Having regrouped his forces, Vierow launches an attack supported by supported by Stukas, not towards the bridge of Slavutytch, too well defended, but a little further north, towards the road that connects him to Bragin. He takes the new defense line that the Soviets had begun to form. An infantry regiment is surrounded with its back to the Dnieper, but some of the Russians can cross the river by swimming or by boat. They are immediately sent to reinforce the defense of the bridge.
11:00, east of the Triangle (Loiev woods) - Tsiganov finally launches his attack against the German-Hungarians. He pushes the enemy back a few kilometers to the southwest, but stops after two hours. The absence of reactions from the other side, from the Gomel sector held by the Germans, surprises him. He now knows that he is facing mostly Hungarians, and he concludes that the Germans have sacrificed their allies to divert his attention from a new offensive to come. He brings his armored corps back north and sends part of his cavalry to the south, where the situation is more and more worrying.
17:00, West and South of the Triangle - In the west, Koch continues his preparations. He now has all his artillery and thinks he will be able to attack towards Bragin the next day. In the south, the cleaning of the last Soviet islands occupies the Germans during the whole day. The Soviets still hold a small sector around the bridge and a line in the middle of the swamp, a dozen kilometers to the north.
20:30, southeast of the Triangle - Lieutenant Karitski, 237th Cavalry Regiment, is making his men hate him. Not only has he been working soldiers and horses all evening to build barricades of tree trunks, but he is harassing everyone, including officers, to put out the cigarettes. Karitski, a peasant from Belarus, is used to lashing out: he has been running a farm in the southern Urals, in a region full of former kulaks and other deportees who were resistant to discipline. This time, his anger is justified, because the regiment is camped on a large fuel depot! Usually, fuel is stored near the railway stations, but the stations of Pripyat and Mozyr are in the hands of the Fascists and the one in Retchytsa is on the line of fire. As a result, the reserves are in buried barrels, partly in Bragin, partly in this wooded swamp near the Dnieper, where the supplies arrive at night by barge. The camouflage would be perfect if there were not this persistent smell of fuel oil! The Fascists are two steps away: if they had the idea to bring dogs, they would find the hiding places in a few minutes...
The information ends up going to the headquarters of General Tsiganov who becomes pale: without fuel, his entire armored brigade is doomed in the short term. He comes in person to the place and gives the order to dig up the barrels to take them to a less exposed position. The work lasts all night.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Kaharlyk Salient, northwest of Odessa - The fighting does not stop at nightfall. The German soldiers cannot sleep amidst intermittent gunfire and waste entire magazines shooting at shadows. But this shooting is not always useless. Small groups infiltrate under the protection of darkness. Five or six men at most, armed with grenades and "pe-pe-sha" (as the Soviets call their machine pistol PPsh-41), but mostly armed with knives. If they discover a lone fascist, his fate is sealed. They don't just kill him, they take his gun, his belt and his boots. Sometimes they don't kill, when they have to bring back a "tongue" - a prisoner who is going to be interrogated, often vigorously.
.........
Around 01:00, the Germans perceive a rumor... an indefinable noise that rises from the part of the village that the Soviets still control. The shooting of flares reveals that hundreds of soldiers are trying to reach the east of Kaharlyk. An attack? The Germans open fire, the Soviets return fire and the violence of the exchange of fire increases during the following half hour. The mortars intervene more or less blindly.
From 03:00 onwards, things gradually calm down.
.........
At first light, the Soviets charge through the square. The artillery of the 198. ID thunders, sowing the ground with craters, riddling the ruined houses with shrapnel. The main street is cut by a barricade. An MG-42 is installed there, its servants feed it and its bullets are going to sow death in the ranks of the ghosts covered with dust who emerge from the explosions shouting "Живой Сталин" (Long live Stalin).
Soviet artillerymen return fire from the German guns with rockets - theshrill singing of Katyusha does not stop for a moment. The houses collapse around the defenders, bricks, tiles and beams fly! However, the first assault is repulsed.
A small lull is broken by the sound of tracks in the middle of the ruins. A BT-7M emerges, bumping into the craters. Its turret spits out a 45 mm shell that hits the machine gun of the main barricade. Raised and turned over, the gun falls back on the shredded bodies of the servants. The DT machine gun of the Soviet tank then methodically strafes the other defenders of the barricade. But two soldiers sheltered behind Czech hedgehogs align the tank with their Panzerbüchse 39 and hit it three times.
The 7.92 mm anti-armor bullets easily pierce the light armor of the BT-7M. After a few moments, the three crewmen get out crying their eyes out!
The Patrone 318 SmKH-Rs-L'spur cartridge fired by the PzB 39 indeed contains a small pellet of tear gas. The Russians are persuaded to be victims of an asphyxiant gas.
The German bullets do not leave them time to understand their error.
A new wave of the Red Army breaks through the German positions, taking out the barricade before having to retreat, leaving only corpses entwined in death to hold trenches and low walls of sandbags. A hail of murderous bullets falls on the soldiers of both sides, who seem to dance under the impacts before collapsing in a scarlet puddle. However, new silhouettes in brown uniforms continue to emerge from the smoke, screaming like the devil. This time, a BA-10 machine gun advances among the infantrymen. It goes around the barricade but it is stopped a few meters further by the anti-tank guns.
The Germans finally launch a counter-attack supported by two Pz III Gs, whose protective skirts glitter under the impacts of bullets. One of the German tanks destroys a second BT-7M before being set on fire by an M-37 anti-tank gun, but the other one crushes the gun under its tracks. The confrontation lasts until the evening, but the Germans finally push back the exhausted Soviets and complete the occupation of the center of Kaharlyk.
While advancing towards the south of the city, the Germans come up against Romanian elements who infiltrated from that side. "Clash" is the most accurate expression: seeing in front of them soldiers who are not wearing German uniforms, the men of the 198. ID open fire without warning. Three Romanians fall; one of the survivors shouts: "Ziehen sie nicht, wir sind Rumänisch!" (Don't shoot, we are Romanians). A phrase that many non-German Axis soldiers had taken the precaution of learning, as their allies usually shot before thinking.
By nightfall, Kaharlyk had fallen, but the cost is high. The Germans count nearly six hundred dead, compared to more than 1,700 killed for the Soviets.
Moreover, the Romanians notice that the Soviet positions west of the city had been abandoned during the night - it is their passage through Kaharlyk around 01:00 that had provoked the previous night's fighting. In fact, about 3,900 Soviet soldiers managed to escape from the encirclement.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Sicily - Agrigento and Porto Empedocle are the targets of the day. The Beaumonts of the RAF, the DB-73 of the Armee de l'Air and the A20C of the USAAF are relentless, escorted by 228 fighters.
The Regia Aeronautica does not react anymore. Unfortunately, the bombing of Agrigento hits residential areas, and more than 700 civilians are killed or wounded.

Southern Italy - Brindisi is attacked by 18 DB-73 and 18 Bristol Beaumont from Zanthe, escorted by 16 Mustang I, 16 Hawk-87 and 16 Mustang II in high cover.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Greece - The SBD-3s of the Armee de l'Air attack the port of Piraeus, under the protection of the Mustang II of the GC III/6 and Spitfire Vs of the 243rd Wing. The Italian minesweeper RD-22 is sunk, as well as three coasters and five Siebel ferries. The Luftwaffe shoots down a Spitfire V and a Mustang II, but loses two Bf 109F. This attack is the last one carried out by the SBD-3 of the AB12 and AB16 flotillas. The next day, the two units discreetly leave K1 for Malta, where they will join the other forces deployed for Torch.
Leivadia and Corinth are attacked by the Aegean Air Force, which loses five aircraft and shoots down three enemy fighters (two Bf 109F and one MC.202).
The French Mustang I based in Lesbos continue during this time their low altitude raids against German airfields in the Athens area. They shoot down five Bf 109F and two MC.200 for the loss of three planes.
In the evening, Major Neumann, commander of JG 27, appeals to Field Marshal Kesselring: "I don't even have forty operational fighters and my pilots are exhausted. The Italians did what they could, but it was not much - and even then, they didn't hesitate to tell me that their place would be in Sicily rather than in Greece. We need reinforcements!" But Kesselring can't do anything. Most of the fighters of JG 53 are redeployed to Romania to protect Ploesti - the oil wells and refineries have suffered terribly under the attacks of the previous weeks, and the OKW makes it clear that there is no question of such a catastrophe happening again. As for the 84 fighters of the JG 77 (Xth FliegerKorps), they have to protect northern Greece and Bulgaria.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1942

Rome - At the end of the evening, Mussolini meets with several high-ranking fascist leaders (Farinacci and Grandi in particular) to reflect on the Italian internal situation. Indeed, the protests against the regime are growing every day. Local strikes against the continuation of the war took place in the north of the country, even in some FIAT factories. Around the boardroom table, the mood is gloomy, because the strategic situation in Italy and even in Germany looks grim (see Axis situation). Only Farinacci insists, claiming that the government and the Party show "the last vigor against the defeatists and the communists".

 

[Wings]

The situation of the Axis powers in Europe on the eve of Operation Torche/Torch
According to Laurent Marec: "Une Guerre Totale - Les grands choix stratégiques de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale".

At the end of August 1942, the war was turning sour for Berlin and Rome. If this was not yet very visible for Germany, it was for Italy - and for the Italians! German forces were still on the attack in the Soviet Union, even though they were suffering heavy losses. But Italy's will to fight had been broken. Not only was the country's military situation difficult, but its political situation was deteriorating week by week.

Hitler still believed...
Certainly, Hitler and the German high command still believed in victory. They still hoped to "finish with Russia once and for all" even if the date of this achievement was constantly postponed. However, they had no choice. A war with the USSR while the Allied forces in England and the Mediterranean were increasing in volume was the worst possible situation. The four days of air raids of Operation Blowlamp against Ploesti had confirmed that oil was the Achilles heel of the Third Reich. Ukraine had to be conquered, not only for its agricultural and industrial resources, but as a stage on the road to the oil fields of Baku and the North Caucasus. This meant that as many forces as possible had to be concentrated against the Soviet Union. In fact, 70% of the Wehrmacht was deployed against the Red Army. Only 70%, one could say: but it was necessary to protect the coasts of France and Norway, not to mention Belgium, Holland and Denmark.
.........
France was a sensitive point in Hitler's strategy. Laval's pro-German government, nicknamed "the Three Ds" (Darnand, Déat, Doriot), was a pale copy of a true fascist dictatorship, even if it had the brutality of one, and it was supported by only a small part of the population and the administration. Without the presence of fifteen to twenty German divisions spread throughout the country, the Three Ds would have collapsed very quickly. But there was no question of Germany letting go of this curious ally: France, however reluctant, provided about 7 percent of the gross "national" product of the Third Reich (as per Allan Millward's work) and this contribution had become vital to the German war effort.
Norway was an old obsession of Hitler. He constantly feared that the British would land there, either in the north, to cut off the Swedish Iron Road (old memory of the Narvik operation), or in the south, at Bergen and Stavanger, from where North Germany would be vulnerable. The protection of Norway therefore also required its share of German military resources.
.........
All this did not leave the OKW with very large forces to assign to the Mediterranean theater. In April and May, Hitler and the general staff had hoped that Rommel's brilliant counter-offensive in the Peloponnese would push the Allies back to the sea. But Operation Pericles had shattered these hopes. The situation in the Peloponnese meant to keep significant forces in Greece, and it was even necessary to deploy some units in Romania, to protect the oil fields, and in Bulgaria, to dissuade the Turks from launching themselves in an ill-considered adventure. Indeed, the bloody failure of the landing of Limnos (Theseus) had shown the German weakness on the Aegean theater of operations, and Hitler really feared that it could push Turkey to join the Allies. Moreover, Theseus had cost the Führer one of his few reserve units capable of being deployed quickly to any part of Europe.
In Italy, Hitler and the OKW could only hope that the Regio Esercito would prove capable of containing a new Allied offensive in the Mediterranean theater long enough for the German troops could be redeployed from Russia to the Mediterranean after the "final victory" in the East. At the end of August, General Halder envisaged that the decision would be made on the ground from September-October, which meant that at best it would not be possible to send large numbers of German troops from the Russian front to the Mediterranean front before early 1943. The Nazi leaders repeatedly assured Mussolini of German solidarity, but they did not send him any tangible military means, because they could not do without any.

But Italy was at the end of its rope!
However, the Italian situation in the summer of 1942 was critical, both from a political and a military point of view.
In June 1940, Mussolini had taken the decision to enter the war against the formal advice of the military leaders (see 1940). Despite the catastrophic unpreparedness of Italy's ground and air forces, he hoped to secure a place at the table of the German victory feast at little cost.
The French government's decision to continue the war revealed the Italian bluff. The Alpine campaign appeared to be a bloody failure from the start, but the worst was yet to come.
By early summer, the Allies were striking back in Africa. The French Army of North Africa and the Commonwealth forces in Egypt had few resources, but they were still more than the troops in Libya, especially after their sea lines of communication were cut off by the Allied fleets. Within three months, Italy's presence in North Africa was a memory, and the Italian forces had lost 200,000 men and all their equipment.
Even before the fall of the last Italian stronghold at Misurata, the attack on Taranto by British and French forces dealt a terrible blow to the prestige of the fleet and the Duce. Then it was Sardinia, whose last defenders surrendered on September 18th. But despite an approach by Badoglio, Victor Emmanuel III refused to fire Mussolini without a decision in this sense of the Great Fascist Council.
Yet each season brought its own set of defeats. In autumn, Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands fell, despite a courageous defense. In winter, the Italian Empire of East Africa collapsed. The last Italian units in the region did not surrender until later, but the Italian and Fascist colonial dream was over.
Without the success of the Merkur airborne operation, which allowed in February-March 1941 the recapture of Sardinia and the capture of Corsica, the fascist regime would probably have collapsed in the spring of 1941. In February, on his own initiative, Marshal Badoglio had considered to arrest Mussolini. Italian fascism was a shadow of its former self. The cost of living in Italy was rising rapidly and the situation of the majority of the population was becoming more and more difficult. After years of sterile internal conflict, the anti-fascist movement was finally gaining strength.
Then Greece attacked the Italian forces in Albania, and Mussolini had to call on Hitler for help again. The Wehrmacht's invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece gave a new respite to an already doomed political regime, but the Italian fleet was practically destroyed in the series of tough battles in the spring of 1941. Even for Mussolini's closest aides, it was clear that Italy no longer had a say in the conduct of operations.
.........
In March 1942, when the Allied forces landed in the Peloponnese, Mussolini proclaimed that the Italian soldier would show his worth to the world. But if the Italian units fought very well, especially in Gythion and Sparta, they were destroyed and with them the best of the Italian army disappeared. At the end of March, the morale of the troops and the population fell to an all-time low. Rommel's counter-offensive seemed for a moment to be the miracle he had hoped for, but it soon ran out of steam.
In June, the Allied forces again took the offensive, pushing the Axis troops back towards the Corinth Canal. Operation Pericles and its sequel Ajax (the landing at Zanthe) signaled the end of the Axis hopes of eliminating the Allied forces from the Peloponnese. The Italian elites had to consider the probability of a new enemy landing, this time on the national territory.
.........
This threat cast a shadow over the forecasts of the Italian general staff since the destruction of the Italian army in Africa and the capture of Sardinia. Since October 1st, 1940,
Mussolini had launched a program of coastal fortifications to "preserve the sacred soil of Italy." This program concerned Sicily and Calabria as a priority, and it was extended to Sardinia once the island was recovered by Italy in the spring of 1941.
But in 1942, if it was clear that an Allied attack was imminent and that it would bring into line incomparably more powerful forces than in 1940, the planned fortifications were far from being completed. However, the work had consumed up to 50% of the Italian concrete production and 20% of the steel production. But their realization had been severely compromised by widespread corruption in local Fascist Party organs. The fortifications that were actually built were more often built where the work could be assigned to companies owned by people close to the Fascist leaders, rather than at points chosen for military needs. An important part of the building materials had been diverted; as a disgusted Dino Grandi would write in the summer of 1942: "The sacred soil of Italy was assimilated to luxurious properties built at great expense in the vicinity of Rome or Naples."
The general staff was well aware that the fortification program was far behind schedule.
Before being dismissed, General Count Cavallero had written to Mussolini that only 45% of the fortifications had been completed and that less than a third had received the planned armament. In fact, only the western part of Sicily, facing Tunisia, had been seriously fortified.
.........
In such a context, the Italian elites expected the worst. The business community had begun to divorce itself from the fascist regime as early as May 1942 when Cini, a very representative of Italian big business, had left the government. On several occasions since the beginning of the year, Marshal Badoglio had approached the king to discuss the elimination of Mussolini. Even among the fascist leaders, men like Grandi and Ciano had begun to look for a way out that would allow Italy to withdraw from the war.
In the population, the mood was even more unfavorable to the war and to Mussolini's government. The war had never been popular. Moreover, fighting against a Franco-British alliance was one thing, but fighting the United States was another. The ties between Italy and the United States were strong. Italian emigration to the Americas had been a very important event the late nineteenth century, and emigrants and descendants of emigrants living in the United States described American society in very favorable terms.
When it became clear that American forces were concentrating in North Africa and that Italian soldiers would have to fight the United States directly on the battlefield, support for the war fell lower than it had ever been in all strata of Italian society. This development led to a revival of the anti-fascist movements.
Once very divided, they began to organize in early 1942. Sporadic protests against the war and the regime began in March. At the end of August, strikes interrupted the operation of factories in Milan, Bologna and Turin for several days.
Mussolini himself was ill (probably suffering from a gastric ulcer of partly psychosomatic origin). Increasingly isolated, he spoke only to a very small circle of people, most of whom were part of the "Petacci clan", the relatives of his young mistress Clara Petacci. Nevertheless, he was not unaware that Italian society had broken away from the fascist regime. When it became clear that the Allies were regaining the strategic initiative, he began to re-establish his hold on the country's politics. Shortly after the failure of Rommel's counter-offensive in the Peloponnese on April 17th, he appointed a new police chief, Chierici, a former "squadriste". Then, he asked Heinrich Himmler for help in creating a new armored division modelled on the Waffen-SS units. In 1942, what was supposed to become the "M Division" (for Mussolini) was still only a brigade, but a very powerful brigade. Finally, on August 16th, he dismissed General-Count Cavallero from his position as chief of staff of the Army, and replaced him the next day by general Ambrosio. With the latter, Mussolini hoped to have at the head of the Army an efficient and above all obedient servant.
However, Ambrosio was soon to prove that, although he was a good professional, he had little sympathy for Germany or even for Mussolini. As soon as he was appointed, Ambrosio actively pursued the establishment of the 1st Army or Armata di Levante (Army of the East), a powerful force charged with defending southern Italy against a possible landing near Taranto or Bari. This is not surprising, since he was the designer of this force, with as Cavallero (and Messe). But he had a personal conception. In fact, he ordered general Messe, who had been appointed head of this Army, to keep his forces safe from the powerful allied naval artillery and to avoid sacrificing them if victory was not in sight. Ambrosio made it clear to Messe that he had been given command of the very heart of the Italian Army. Now that the troops of Greece had been largely destroyed and the Regia Marina was only a shadow of its former self, the Armata di Levante was all that was left to defend Italy's vital interests in the war.
In reality, Ambrosio had been in contact with the entourage of King Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Badoglio even before his appointment. Like most Italian officers, he was deeply mortified by the way the Germans caricatured the Italian forces' firepower and the fighting they were doing. He knew that the fall of Italy's African possessions in 1940-1941 was in no way a reflection of poor troop quality, but a lack of supplies and modern equipment. He knew that the Regia Marina had been bled dry to support German land offensives and that its ships had been slaughtered in an attempt to rescue German airborne troops. He knew that, without the desperate resistance of the Italian troops in Sparta, the Allied forces would have reached the Corinth Canal before Rommel could organize the defense of the northern Peloponnese. But German officers (and Rommel, in fact, was the first) were quick to blame the Italians for every failure and to keep the glory of any success for themselves.
In his meeting with Mussolini on August 17th, Ambrosio told the Duce that he should be very firm with the Germans. Mussolini did not react, and Ambrosio hoped for some weeks that the Duce would try to withdraw Italy from the war without too much damage. He knew well that if Italy negotiated a unilateral cease-fire with the Allies, the result would be catastrophic for the Italian troops closely intertwined with the German forces in Yugoslavia and Greece. To some extent, he still trusted Mussolini's good relations with Hitler to negotiate a possible modus vivendi on Italy's future role in the war.

What could Germany do?
The German leaders gradually realized Mussolini's political weakness in the spring of 1942. Himmler, while promising to help Mussolini set up the "M Division", began to organize his own intelligence networks in Italy to keep him informed of the local situation. From the end of April, the SD and the Abwehr operated in Italy without the knowledge of the Italian government.
Militarily, however, Berlin's options were limited. The vast majority of the army was deployed in the USSR. Large garrisons were needed elsewhere in Europe, and in Greece, the fighting continued.
However, units had to be found to form a sort of expeditionary corps to ensure Italian loyalty, or at least control of "useful Italy". Some of these units began to move towards northern Italy at the end of the summer, ostensibly to train in the region and to help the Italian army train new armored forces to reinforce the units sent to southern Italy. Other divisions garrisoned in southwestern France, near Brive and Montpellier, were ordered to move closer to the border, by settling near the zone of occupation granted to the Italian army in France. At the same time, top secret instructions were written for the German generals in Greece and in the Balkans...
The actors of one of the darkest dramas of the war were being set up.