Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

February 10th, 1943

Adriatic Sea - Near the mouth of the Neretva, the ship NB 1-Partizan attacks a convoy of German barges and sinks two of them despite the fire of improvised gunboats. Its commander is Lieutenant Commander Josip Cerni, one of the few officers of the Royal Yugoslav Navy who had joined the ranks of the Titists.
Damaged, the Partizan reaches the island of Vis under the cover of night. The chief of the French garrison on the island, the frigate captain Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves, has the ship repaired and the wounded treated. General Frère is informed and asks that Captain Cerni be taken to Algiers.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Stratford - Lagadec has an original encounter.
"I dare to say that I now master the beast very well. It's true, with our amputated wings, she is a little slower, but the loss of speed is only about 3 mph (barely 5 km/h) and the plane has a slightly higher roll rate.
Tonight, on my way back to the parking lot, I am blocked for a moment by a strange Corsair that is being pulled in a hangar, on a cart, because it is equipped with strange clogs instead of wheels. In fact, it is a Corsair seaplane! It has two floats hung under the wings by streamlined fairings and a keel (also in triangle) in place of the tail wheel.
I've never flown a seaplane and even less a hydro fighter, but with the 2,000 horsepower of the PW, this one must have interesting performance, even if it must be less maneuverable."
The prototype of the Corsair with floats will never be built in series, as well as all the hybrid machines imagined in the panic of the campaign of the Solomons. If the Japanese were forced to use seaplanes, the US Navy had from the beginning of 1943, with its numerous escort aircraft carriers, enough to provide its planes with runways wherever necessary. The Floatfires had been a useful addition, but their time had passed.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Between Salween and Sittang - Nearly all of the Japanese 55th Division passes through the Salween. Only one regiment of the 12th Division and two of the 71st remain on the right bank.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Beamu - The unloading of the Karsik continues, under a solid aerial umbrella.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Attu - The 4th SNLF is obviously too weak for the task at hand. The Japanese admirals doubt that adding part of the 3rd SNLF would be enough to solve the problem: the Americans are apparently numerous, well entrenched and well supplied.
Even more worrying, in the long run: taking advantage of a lightning strike, twelve B-25s and as many B-26s attack the Japanese positions on Attu. They did not see the battle fleet, which was cruising offshore and were very clumsy when it came to attacking the last ships anchored near the shore, but the camps at the entrance to Massacre Valley are ravaged. Eight Zeros on patrol attempt to intercept them, but are surprised by the presence of an escort of a dozen P-40s from Amchitka. Two P-40s and a Zero are shot down.
At mid-day, the Japanese retaliate with a G4M [Betty] raid against the American positions. Then, in the afternoon, the two aircraft carriers launch about twenty bombers against the Yankees, but the effects of these two raids are not very spectacular, although the P-40s that tried to protect the ground troops are kept at bay. Worse: when the aircraft return, an A6M and a B5N fail to land and are destroyed - these are not the first the first of the campaign, but this time the crews are killed.
By this time, Kakuta and Hosogaya have already accepted the fact that the ships of both forces will have to leave the waters of Attu, running out of fuel and crew fatigue. If the Navy does not want to face a humiliating defeat, it will have to ask for help from the Army - an almost equally shameful solution. Nevertheless, by presenting it well - "We conquered a bridgehead, we are handing over to you to finish the job, so we will have Kiska for the Navy and Attu for the Army" - the honor would be safe. This is what the two admirals advise the Navy staff in a message masterpiece of allusive style (and, let's say it, of hypocrisy), neither of the two signatories wanting to take responsibility for this semi-failure.
Expecting this message for several days, Admiral Nagano (without forgetting to keep Yamamoto informed) immediately transmits his agreement. The fleet sets sail after sunset.
.........
Kiska - A new American air raid attacks the Japanese positions: P-38 (from Adak) strafe the hydrobase. They destroy an A6M2-N, the only E13A1 and a Daihatsu barge and damage the rudimentary installations. Two A6M2-N on patrol succeed in shooting down one of the fast twin-engine planes.
.........
In front of Attu - Before heading south, the Chikuma and Tone each launch two of their E13A1s [Jake] to reinforce the Kiska seaplane base, where they will be very welcome!
This brings the total number of A6M2-Ns and E13A1s to six.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Battle of the Rezekne salient
Soviet Front (northwestern sector) - The command of the 2nd Baltic Front (General Kirill Meretskov) is ordered to prepare an offensive aimed at the hinge of Army Groups North and Center of the German front. The aim is, on the one hand, to distract German forces from the battle of Gomel, on the other hand, to destroy the Rezekne salient, in the east of Latvia, in order to cut the railroad line from Riga to Vitebsk and to block one of the Axis routes to Moscow. But the means are closely measured: the Stavka has not finished reconstituting the stocks spent the previous year and resources are already being held back for future major operations.
The 39th Army (General Alexei Zigin) should be the tip of the device.
Until then stationed in Leningrad, it has just replaced the 4th Shock Army, sent back to the rear after Zvezda for reconstitution.
The offensive is launched on both sides of the city of Rezekne: to the south-east of the Lubans lake and north of the Raznas lake. But the German resistance, reinforced by thick minefields and numerous concrete support points, is stronger than expected. Only the 39th Army manages to advance, and at the cost of heavy losses.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Operation Eisbär (Polar Bear)
Battle of Gomel - The intensity of the fighting increases again. Soviet side, Kurasov and Shuikov set up their headquarters in the city itself, venturing closer to the fighting. The first one takes charge of the defense of the stadium, while Shuikov went around the destroyed areas around the train station to galvanize the soldiers, already informed of the decision taken by Stalin.
In the rear, Vatutin is choking with rage. The strong concentration of German artillery in Skitok prevents the free movement of convoys to the north. In addition, he has to take in a new decision of the Stavka: it is necessary to stop all movement of forces from the Kiev region to Gomel. After reflection, the commander of the Kiev Front realizes that such information would probably mean that the assets of the 5th Army and the 17th Motorized Army are being saved for another use.
On the German side, Model notes that the street fighting caused significant losses in vehicles in the face of a clinging infantry. He orders to keep only the best protected assault guns in the city, despite the protests of the commanders of the infantry units. The German assaults have to make do with the support of the artillery and the Luftwaffe, which is back in force. They concentrate on the train station and the stadium. In the north of the city, the marshalling yard and the railway installations are cleaned up, but everything is rendered unusable by the fighting.

 

[Wings]

February 11th, 1943

Italian Front - Since the interruption of Operation Violin, a precarious calm reigns on the entire front.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Princeton-Washington, D.C - Expected in the federal capital, Madame Chiang Kai-shek makes the trip from Princeton aboard a plane piloted, at her request, by Zhang Ruifen (Katherine Cheung for the Westerners), the first Chinese to have obtained her pilot's license in the United States. Zhang had been a friend of the late Amelia Earhart and although she had stopped flying commercially the previous year, she is well known in the Chinese community in the United States and regularly participates in activities to raise funds for the Chinese war effort against Japan. Upon arrival in Washington, the inevitable Life reporters are on deck to collect comments and photographs.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Stratford - Romantic Lagadec...
"This Friday, a short flight to our future home at Quonset Point with Danny and two Englishmen. Purpose of the handling: to pass our apparatuses to the shooting range to harmonize the weapons on board. The other planes will come tomorrow. It is necessary: a shooting session is on the program for next week.
Our armourers and some US mechanics preceded us yesterday by truck. The novices will be able to check the usefulness of the .50 adjustment wedges!
I let Buck lead the way - I'm dreaming a little, there was a letter from Anne-Marie in the mail just before we took off."

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Swiss border - A group of 19 young Alsatians, refractory to the incorporation by force into the Wehrmacht, tries to cross the border. Unfortunately for them, they are intercepted by German patrols. Three of the young men, who were able to obtain weapons, sacrifice themselves to allow the others to escape. They shoot a German soldier before being massacred, but their courage does not prevent the border guards from capturing almost all of their companions, only one of whom managed to cross into Switzerland.
On the express orders of Gauleiter Robert Wagner, the other fifteen are sent to Struthof - twelve of them lose their lives there. In addition, about fifty people, members of the families of the young men (most of whom came from the village of Ballersdorf) are imprisoned in the camp of Schrimeck; the older ones do not survive.
The Laval government, through the voice of Gaston Bergery, issues a timid protest about the imprisonment of the families; this only irritates the Germans, for whom what is happening in Alsace is an internal matter for the Reich!

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Between Salween and Sittang - The 55th Indian Brigade and the Public Force complete the cleaning up of the area where the 89th Japanese Rgt was located, which is virtually wiped out.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Cochinchina, Operation Tenzu - The Japanese begin a vast sweeping operation along the section of Colonial Road 1 that links Phnom Penh and Saigon. The day before, indeed, the explosion of a mine as a military convoy passed by destroyed a truck, killing several soldiers. As this is far from being the first incident of this kind, the Japanese command decides to launch Operation Tenzu.
At daybreak, the soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division, deployed in a fan pattern, advance in the fog-covered rice fields where the buffaloes are wading. Around noon, they approach Tran Bang, fifty kilometers northwest of Saigon, in the heart of the insecure zone. The plain is now flooded with sunlight.
Many of the soldiers are young recruits who had come directly from Korea. They are not very motivated and not yet used to the climate. The small metal canister that is their only supply of water quickly runs out and, in spite of the caps with neck protectors, sunstroke threatens. The superb morning prescription is only a memory. If the veterans of China and of the campaign of 41-42 campaign hold their positions, the young recruits trail more than three hundred meters behind.
Nevertheless, Tran Bang is surrounded and on either side of the village they could now see distinctly, the exhausted soldiers can see their comrades approaching, like dots against the cerulean blue of the sky. Suddenly, bullet holes make the dust rise around the infantrymen. The veterans fall to the ground, taking shelter behind the meager relief, the rookies stray, several fall. The officers bark orders and point to the runaways who move from one square to another, while the intensity of the enemy fire increases. Type 96 FMs fired short bursts. After a few minutes the Viets do not return fire. Led by their officers, katana brandished, Nambu pistol pointed, the Japanese penetrate Tran Bang from all sides. House by house, the soldiers break down the doors with their rifle butts and search. But they find nothing.
All the houses are empty. Only a few corpses, stripped of all weapons, are found.
Orders and counter-orders are exchanged on the radio. In Saigon, the staff officers pick up small flags on maps and argue about where to find the enemy*.
Gradually, the sun shifts to the west. Many of the recruits are content to rush to the wells and drink their fill before collapsing in the shade. The officers let this happen, understanding that they could do nothing about the thirst. Fortunately, there are enough men used to the rigors of war to establish a security perimeter around the city. The night settles in amidst the croaking of thousands of frogs and buffalo toads that populate the nearby rice fields, croaking punctuated, from time to time, by gunshots - there are not only batrachians in the rice fields.

* At that time, the command of the Japanese occupation troops was not yet aware of the importance of the network of underground passages linking the various Vietminh strong points.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Beamu - After unloading, the Karsik takes the road back at dawn, still surrounded by its escort.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Guadalcanal - A dozen F4U-1s from VMF-124 (Major William E. Gise) land at Henderson Field - thus half of this unit, the first to be equipped with Corsairs*. This is the first assignment of this aircraft to the front line, but it is under the colors of the USMC and not the US Navy, as the latter had temporarily abandoned it.
Indeed, the qualification tests on aircraft carriers carried out in October 1942 revealed several major problems, which led to a flight deck ban until further notice. This ban did not bother the Navy too much, which started to receive its first F6F Hellcat. On Guadalcanal, the Corsair is eagerly awaited and the first mission takes place the same day.

* The VMF-124 left the east coast for Nouméa in early January on the SS Lurline, a luxury liner, while its aircraft were transported by the cargo ship USS Kitty Hawk. The unit received the valuable support of a technical representative from the Chance-Vought company, who was assigned to the unit for the duration of its stay at the front.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Tokyo - During a rather tense session of the Imperial General Staff, General Hagime Sugiyama, Chief of Staff of the Army, somewhat condescendingly accepts the Navy's proposal. It is true that refusing would have been difficult, whereas accepting allows the Army to gain a small advantage in the ongoing struggle for influence with the Navy.
By the end of the day, the creation of the Attu Occupation Force is complete. It would be composed of the 301st and 303rd Independent Infantry Battalions (each about 1,200 men strong) and commanded by Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki. The two battalions will be taken from the forces stationed in the Kuril Islands.

Dutch Harbor - To one of his officers who confirmed that the reconnaissance had found no trace of the Japanese fleet, Admiral Norman Scott replieswith a smile: "I would like to think that they had run away when they learned that I had been appointed to the area, but I'm afraid it's more of a victory for Admiral Bering!" However, he is not too happy.
Believing that "the Japs would soon show their faces", he orders, after having discussed it with Buckner (Alaska Defense Command) and Brown (7th ID), to prepare a convoy of reinforcements and supplies for Attu as soon as possible.

Attu and Kiska - The American bombers attack the Japanese troops on Kiska as well as on Attu, but between the clouds, the snow showers and the intervention of the A6M2-N of Kiska, the results are mediocre. A B-25 and a P-40 are shot down by "Rufe" near Kiska and a B-26 crashes on Attu. On the other hand, a "Rufe" is shot down by the P-40 escort and another one is destroyed while landing (the pilot is saved), while a "Jake", leaving for reconnaissance, disappears without a trace.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Operation Eisbär (Polar Bear)
Battle of Gomel - Redeployed and cooled down a bit the previous day and night, the 81. ID is sent back into the furnace and manages to drive the Soviets out of the stadium.
The fall of this position is hard felt on the ground, especially since, Model, sensing a flutter in this sector, orders his supports to abandon the rest of the city to concentrate their efforts in this area. A real chain reaction follows: the Soviet riflemen have to abandon not only the area around the stadium, but also the districts further south, along the river. In the evening, the elements of the 81. ID had moved almost six hundred meters to the south.
Taking note of the closure of the road Kiev-Gomel and to strengthen his device, Model also recalls a large part of von Thüngen's forces, south of the city. They are ordered to advance towards the southern suburb of the city to cut off the Red retreat.
In the Soviet camp, the deterioration of the situation on the ground leads to reflection.
It is true that the panic has been stopped by the officers and the commissars, but the morale of the troops seems to be very precarious. In agreement with Konev - who will fiercely deny it in his Memoirs - Kurassov orders his staff to prepare a plan to evacuate Gomel.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Odessa Front - "The NKVD trucks were back, bringing back exhausted men... But it was not exhaustion, at least not only. The Soviet soldiers, silent, seemed to be elsewhere.
Dmitri Aksonov hesitated for a moment.
- Sergeant Romanenko, send the men on duty to rest.
- Yes, Comrade Captain.
- When this is done, you'll come and report to me.
The non-commissioned officer - a very young man - shuddered before nodding slowly.
- At your orders, Comrade Captain.
Dimitri returned to his "office," a very pompous word for a square hole dug in the ground and propped up with wooden planks. A table made with the means of the day supported a typewriter. Corporal Tatiana Stepanovna shared the room with her officer. Earphones on, she never left the American radio and the field telephones, scrupulously monitoring the conversations. This short-sighted and unattractive girl was nicknamed the owl because of her thick glasses.
Taking off his quilted jacket and gloves, Dimitri made himself a little more comfortable in the relative warmth. While he was pouring tea from the samovar, Sergeant Romanenko lifted the old blanket that was trying to keep the cold outside from entering the shelter. All sat down on two mismatched chairs salvaged from the ruins, each holding a dented quarter.
- Was it hard, Comrade Sergeant?
Romanenko nodded heavily.
- They were civilians, comrade... The old man, he had witnessed ...
- Comrade Romanenko, I do not understand what you say! Start from the beginning. I want a proper report on the task that was entrusted to you, I remind you, by comrade Commissar Bolotchinov.
The rebuke shook Romanenko a little, and he blushed as he realized that what he had just said made no sense.
- Yes, Comrade Captain, excuse me, Comrade Captain.
He took a deep breath and then spoke again in a slightly more relaxed manner.
- A few days ago the NKVD received a testimony from Comrade Deresz, the old man who accompanied Comrade Bolotchinov the day before yesterday. Last November, Deresz saw a group of Romanian soldiers enter a wood with civilians dressed as city dwellers. There was shooting... then the Romanians left without the civilians.
Dimitri Aksonov stiffened. Yes, he had been expecting this kind of story and already knew what he was going to hear. It was... there were rumors, after all. Only, he would have preferred not to know for sure... that it remained rumors.
- Carry on, Comrade Sergeant.
- Yes, Comrade Captain. So we were assigned the task of finding and dig up the bodies, search them for identification.
- And did you succeed?
- They were men, women, children and old people of both sexes. They were naked. Most of the men must have been Jews... they were circumcised.
- I see...
.........
Sergeant Romanenko was heard as early as 1944 by the Soviet commission charged with Nazi war crimes on the soil of the USSR. He also testified at the Nuremberg trial in 1947. The massacre of Jews in Ukraine is today known as the "Holocaust by bullets". Despite numerous judicial investigations, this episode of the Holocaust remains little known in the West and poorly documented. Fortunately, the Nazis and their allies never controlled the whole of Ukraine and especially not Kiev, its capital. Also, the majority of the 2,500,000 Jews residing in this republic were not bothered.
However, the Waffen S.S. Einsatzgruppen and the Ordnungspolizei (police force in charge of maintaining order) had been ordered to attack "communist officials" and members of the "Jewish intelligentsia" from the very beginning of Barbarossa. Only the proximity of the front and the relative brevity of the occupation of the Ukraine by Nazi Germany prevented a large-scale massacre, as was the case further west.
In fact, the only example of systematic extermination of Jews in Ukraine took place in Odessa, under Romanian control. The massacres were organized administratively and numerous forms were distributed. Shortly before the recapture of the city, the Einsatzkommando 4a of Commandant Paul Blobel received order 1005, which called for finding the mass graves and to destroy the human remains in order to conceal the extent of the crimes committed by the Romanians. However, there were too many sites and the Red Army's advance was too rapid for this attempt at concealment to be successful.

 

[Wings]

February 12th, 1943

Italian Front - The communiqués state in different ways that in Italy, all is quiet. But during the operational pause, the quartermaster's office is working hard. The Allies rebuild their ammunition, fuel and supply depots as best they can. The Germans are digging in - but the bulk of their effort is behind the current front, which is not the main line of resistance chosen by Kesselring.

 

[Wings]

February 13th, 1943

Sofia - The Bulgarian capital has not been bombed for a long time - the Allies seem to have forgotten since the death of King Boris III the previous December. However, the war begins to make itself felt by the shortage, the inflation, the recall of new classes which will replace the Italian troops of occupation in Greek Macedonia and German in Upper Serbia. General Hristo Lukov, one of the most zealous defenders of the Axis cause, offers himself a moment of relaxation by going to the Royal Cinema to see a German film, The Fox of Glenarvon, by Max Gimmich. History does not say whether he liked this film which, ironically, celebrates the Irish revolt against the English occupiers. On his way home, he is accosted by two young people, a boy and a girl - the youngest, Violeta Iakova, is not quite twenty years old. They take out pistols from under their coats, open fire on the general and disappear through a courtyard of a building with two exits.
The execution of the pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic general was claimed the next day by Radio Hristo Botev, an organ of the Bulgarian Communist Party broadcasting from Moscow. The assassination of Lukov, one month after that of Pierre Barbé, ambassador of the New French State in Slovakia, shows that the communist apparatus is more and more interested in the minor partners of the Axis.