Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Brindisi - The evening before, painfully surprised by the extent of the disaster of Taranto, the Duce demanded retaliation. Surprise perhaps: the Regia Aeronautica answered instantly to the chief's call! In fact, the Italian strategic air force had been preparing for several weeks a daring raid, which its leaders were delighted to be able to launch at the right time.
The raid will be carried out by four massive three-engine Savoia SM.82 transport aircraft converted into bombers, a fifth aircraft being used in support. These bulging aircraft have endurance qualities and quite remarkable carrying capacities. They can fly for up to 15 hours (at only 260 km/h), and lift up to 7 tons of payload. With only one stopover, they could have taken to Italian East Africa some CR.42 fighters that are cruelly lacking there... But the stopover in question, Benghazi airfield, has ceased to be hospitable, even if the city has not yet fallen and all available CR.42s were sent to Libya to try to postpone the inevitable. On the other hand, for the new raid imagined by the Italians, a suitable stopover remains: Rhodes. So five SM.82s fly on this day to the Dodecanese with crews, commanded by the lieutenant-colonel (and national secretary of the Fascist Party) Ettore Muti.

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Strasbourg - The command of the German occupation forces declares the attachment of Alsace-Moselle to the Reich. The 1914 border is re-established. The use of the French language is forbidden in the territories concerned. The inhabitants of the "Aryan race" (in practice: born in Alsace) are considered German citizens and, as such, are subject to military obligations. The bishop of Metz, known for his hostility to the Nazi regime, is expelled.

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Southern Italy - After discussion, and although the large Italian ships had left Taranto, the Allies decide to maintain the third part of Operation Punishment. This time, 78 French aircraft take off from Malta: 59 from the Armée de l'Air (35 LeO-451 and 24 Martin 167) and 19 from the Aéronavale (all Martin 167s), with twelve of the Martins acting as escorts. Shortly before 06:00, the planes arrive on the objective.
Six Martin-167s of the GB II/63 and the twelve escorts attack Grottaglie airfield again: the 2nd Group suffers new losses without being able to retaliate (a Fiat G.50 and a Fiat CR.32 destroyed, one G.50 and four CR.32 damaged).
Meanwhile, Taranto is targeted by 60 bombers. The damage inflicted on the port facilities is once again significant; the supreme insult is that a bomb even damaged the
the famous swing bridge over the channel that leads from Mare Grande to Mare Piccolo. And the ships that remained or were immobilized on site are not spared. A 150 kg bomb hits the rear turret of the battleship Littorio, which is also riddled with shrapnel and shaken by explosions nearby. The seaplane carrier Giuseppe Miraglia, left on the spot the day before, receives two projectiles, one at the bow, the other at the stern: with its machinery intact, it does not ask for more and evacuates in its turn. The submarine Luigi Settembrini is also damaged.
The most interesting blows are undoubtedly dealt to the rescue and repair means: the French bombers damage the large workshop ship Quarnaro (7,386 tons), which had just arrived from Augusta, and sink the military tug Atlante (it was later raised) as well as a crane barge.
The large units of the Italian Navy would not return to Taranto any time soon.

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Central Mediterranean, 00:10 GMT - Most of the French squadron (Dunkerque and Strasbourg, Lorraine, 1st and 3rd Cruiser Divisions and their escorts), accompanied by the
HMS Carlisle, separate from the Mediterranean Fleet and head for Oran and Mers-el-Kébir. The Béarn, Courbet and their escort remain temporarily in the Eastern Mediterranean.
At dawn, the aircraft carrier HMS Argus, the heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland and the destroyers HMS Faulknor and Forester join the French squadron. They came from Alexandria, where the Argus had left its 18 aircraft to serve as a reserve for the three Allied aircraft carriers remaining in the Mediterranean. The aircraft carrier has to return first to Gibraltar and then to Liverpool. After having escorted it back to Gibraltar, the Faulknor and Forester are to remain in the Western Mediterranean to participate in Operation Marignan. As for the Cumberland, taken to the Ravenne order of battle, it will make a stopover in Bizerte. With its arrival, the concentration of naval resources assigned to this operation ends. While the four cruisers are regrouped in the large Tunisian base with some escorts, the rest of the ships are distributed between the ports of Sousse and Sfax.
08:32 - The squadron is joined by the five intact destroyers of the 6th, 8th and 10th DCT, which had left Tripoli (the two destroyers damaged on August 20th, L'Audacieux and Mogador, have already already reached Bizerte for repairs).
16:47 - As the formation approaches the Strait of Sicily at 18 knots, it is spotted by a Cant Z.501 at the end of its patrol, which reports back but cannot keep in touch.
The information is quickly exploited by the Italians, who decided to send the "Picchiatelli" Stukas of the Maggiore Ercolano Ercolani against this enemy squadron. But the
coordinates communicated by the Cant are imprecise and the allied ships had meanwhile increased their speed to 20 knots (maximum speed that the Argus can give). For their first sortie, the dive bombers do nothing. Bad luck or maybe luck, because the radar of the Carlisle spotted the seaplane and the French squadron asked for air protection. The Potez 631 of the Aéronavale based in Malta, which arrived quickly, then handed over to the fighters of the Tunisian Air Force.

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Strait of Otranto - The small Italian convoy going from Brindisi to Valona is attacked by a British force detached from Rear Admiral Lyster's squadron (cruisers HMS Orion, Ajax and HMAS Sydney, destroyers HMS Nubian and Mohawk, commanded by Sir Henry Pridham-Wippel). The cargo ships Premuda (4,427 GRT) and Catalani (2,429 GRT) are sunk; the torpedo boat Nicolo Fabrizi is seriously damaged and only the auxiliary cruiser Ramb III escapes unscathed. The last two owe their survival to the unexpected arrival of four MAS from Brindisi, which made the British fear a trap and encouraged them to withdraw.

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Sicily - Allied bombers from NAF attack again the airfields of the island. During one of these bombardments, a lucky shot from the Italian flak hits the left engine of the LeO 451 of lieutenant Philippart. The plane is destabilized and goes into a dive, with only the skill of Philippart succeeding in restoring it a few hundred meters lower, but it falls unfortunately in the range of a squadron of Fiat CR.42 which are trying to catch up with the LeO 451. The plane having lost half of its altitude Philippart cannot escape and is shot down mercilessly. His plane crashes a few kilometers farther. Philippart orders the crew to jump, but only the gunner gets out of it alive. Taken prisoner, he will be able to tell what happened after the war.
Thus falls a true hero, the first Belgian to have returned to fight in the Mediterranean.
"An exceptional pilot, he was used to air shows where he performed a lot of perilous stunts. Philippart had also played an important role in the modernization of the training of Belgian pilots before the war, according to the course he had followed in October 1939 at the RAF." (General Crahay, 20 heroes of our country, 1940-1964, Ed. J.M. Collet)

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Taranto - Marie-José leaves the Valle d'Aosta to visit the victims of the allied raid on the big port. A sort of substitute for her trip to Libya, which she sees she will have to give up...

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

Libya - If the headlines today are occupied by the attack on Taranto, the Allied ground forces are not idle.
The mobile columns of the 7th Armoured, commanded by Brigadier Campbell, approach Agedabia. Moving towards the sea, they surprise at Beda Fomm an Italian column on its way towards Solluch. Violent fighting continues into the night. Until the last moment, the Italians try to break through, but without success. Having run out of ammunition and petrol, the Italian column is annihilated.
Meanwhile, the French are in Msus and threaten Solluch from the east.
At El Agheila, the submarine Pietro Micca succeeds, under very difficult conditions, to disembark a few supplies and takes on board a dozen wounded.

 

[Wings]

August 25th, 1940

France - For the first time, the listeners of Radio Alger hear the announcer pronounce these words: "French broadcasting, national program of the studio of Algiers, here is the information bulletin". It will be repeated in each bulletin during more than forty months.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1940

Rhodes - In the heat haze, Ettore Muti, who commands the historic raid, distinguishes the silhouettes of several mechanics perched on the wings of his aircraft. They are in charge of a very particular task: to paint huge white diamonds on the camouflage. These, illuminated by lamps of the interior of the apparatus, will serve as a reference point for the three other planes, avoiding the use of the radio. The idea is to preserve the surprise effect - "although one can assume that, where we are going, people are probably a thousand miles from suspecting what awaits them!" thinks the Italian pilot.
Each SM.82 carries fifteen hundred kilos of bombs, mainly small projectiles of 50 kg. The tailwind allows the overloaded aircraft to extend their range by almost an hour.
The crews reach their aircraft and try to settle down comfortably, with a coffee thermos and snacks at hand. The distance is such that, to benefit from the protection of the night on the objective, the planes must leave fifteen hours before the moment planned for the attack. The departure will therefore take place at eleven o'clock in the morning of August 26th. Almost the hottest hour of the day, and Rhodes honors its tourist reputation: the weather is beautiful and the sun is burning hot. The take-off promises to be difficult...
11:00 - The engines are started, the heavy machines leave one by one and reach the end of the runway. Twenty tons to remove with three engines, on a dirt runway... In the cockpits, the tension rises as the bombers slowly, very slowly, gain speed. Putting the machine in flight line, they pull carefully but firmly on the stick and finally leave the ground...
The four bombers fly without any problem and melted into the blue sky. It will take them more than an hour to reach 6,000 feet, altitude of the first part of their mission.
The first critical point was Palestine, a land under British mandate, which they reach after 6 hours of flight at an average speed of 250 km/h. The aircraft are still far from their target, the Manama oil complex, located in the east of the Arabian Peninsula and whose role is critical for the supply of the Royal Navy! But for the Italian bombers, the danger decreases as they get closer to Iraq: the British air forces in the area are thin, scattered and obsolete.
Night falls. The bombers are now at 9,000 feet. The diamonds painted on the wings prove their usefulness during the long and dreary crossing of vast desert areas. Syria, Iraq and finally the Persian Gulf after Basra. Muti and his teammates prepare their attack in total radio silence.
The fifth aircraft, which has reached Eritrea, has to be ready to refuel or repair Muti's planes if they should fail over the Arabian Peninsula.

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1940

Cherchell - Extraordinary meeting of the Polish government in exile, which has settled in this small town near Algiers. The Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, informs President Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz and the other ministers of the imminent participation of Polish ground units in the operations planned by the
planned by the French and British staffs against "Italian possessions in the Mediterranean".
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, August Zaleski, then intervenes to remind them that Poland is still not formally at war with Italy. This does not prevent the destroyer ORP Garland from actively participating in escorts in the Mediterranean, without the Italians being bothered by it. No doubt they consider that they have nothing to do with a country that has been wiped off the map and pretend to consider the Garland sailors as simple mercenaries in the pay of the Royal Navy. But it must be clear that the thousands of men who will soon be fighting will fight in the name of a Poland that has not abdicated. It is therefore necessary to removeambiguity by declaring war on the kingdom of Italy, or at least, since we cannot consult Parliament, by breaking the diplomatic relations with them.
After a short discussion, the Council of Ministers rallies to an intermediate proposal.
The rupture of the diplomatic relations with Italy will be made official at the end of the afternoon, and this rupture will be followed by a "report that the state of war exists between Poland and Italy".

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1940

Western Mediterranean - With the return of the French squadron to Oran and Mers-el-Kébir all the resources assigned to Operation Marignan are reunited in the western Mediterranean, with the exception of the light cruiser HMS Sheffield, expected in a few days. However, the ships planned for Marignan 2 and Marignan 3 do not leave immediately to join the close escort forces and the transports that are gradually gathering in Ajaccio, Calvi and Ile-Rousse. Only the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc will arrive early in Ajaccio, on the morning of August 28th. All the other ships of the fire support forces remained in the Algerian ports until the last ports until the last moment. Their presence in Corsica would reveal too clearly the French objective. Keeping them in NAF allows them to maintain doubts about the Allies' plans.
.........
The Italian submarine Aradam (C.C. Giuseppe Bianchini) attacks an Algiers-Ajaccio convoy. It sinks one of the cargo ships destined for Marignan 1515, the Oued Tiflet (1 193 GRT). The latter will be replaced by the Spahi (already requisitioned).

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1940

Libya - In the west, French troops enter Nofilia. The 3rd Chasseurs d'Afrique cut off the retreat of the Italian forces coming from Sirte, while Leclerc, with his foot to the floor rushes to the east. Meanwhile, Jock Campbell's men, coming from Beda Fomm, take Agedabia and descend from the north towards El Agheila.
In the east, the French aircraft supporting the Western Desert Force prepare their redeployment to Cyprus, in view of the operations against Rhodes, or (for the Pouyade Group and part of the GC I/7) towards Sudan, against Ethiopia.
In the Saharan south, several mixed camel-vehicle columns organized by Lt.Col. Colonna d'Ornano, an accomplished adventurer and camel driver, has been harassing the Italians for a month from the Tibesti. Believing that the enemy had now turned its eyes to the north, Colonna d'Ornano charged through Fezzan and seized the oasis of
Koufra. Although this was defended by numerically superior Italian forces, the Truppe Sahara, disoriented, surrendered after a few hours of an assault that was a real bluff. In the heart of the desert, Colonna d'Ornano's men took their turn to swear the already famous "oath of Libya".

 

[Wings]

August 26th, 1940

Torino - A bomb explodes in the bedroom of Prince Umberto, heir to the throne. By luck, he had left the day before to join his wife Marie-José in Taranto.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1940

Manama, Bahrain - On the shores of the Persian Gulf, the war seems far away for the staff of the oil companies, installed in comfortable bungalows. The threats here are scorpions and heatstroke - because the temperatures reach 50°C in the shade... Fortunately, the night brings a very relative freshness.
At 3 o'clock in the morning, brilliant explosions disturb the calm of the desert and make the ground tremble. Three SM.82s attack! As Major Raina, the bombing officer of the Italian raid, would later explain: "The target was easily spotted, because the wells and refineries were lit up as if in broad daylight. The British were even kind enough to turn on the searchlights of the nearby airstrip, I guess they didn't think for a moment that approaching planes could belong to the enemy!"
The fourth SM.82 loses contact with the leader and drops its ton and a half of bombs on the installations of Dhahran, 45 km to the west, in Saudi territory.
Awakened by the explosion, the civilian and military officials give the alert... without knowing exactly the nature of the attackers. German privateers or Italian submariners, parachute commandos or meharists, the Fifth Column (the Germans have been trying for a long time to turn the natives against the British presence), all the hypotheses are considered and all the available forces are put on alert and the sector is searched.
For lack of anything better, the flak opens fire blindly and goes wild for several minutes, the red tracers streak the night in a frightful noise.
At daybreak, it becomes clear that this was an aerial bombardment by a small number of aircraft. The projectiles caused little damage, as the Italian pilots had been ordered to target the flares for the evacuation of the waste gases, easily recognizable by their bright orange color. But they were unaware that the flares had been moved away from the installations a few days earlier.
As soon as the first explosions occur, the SM.82s head for their landing point, Asmara, in Italian East Africa. The crews relax, proud to have reached their target.
A few more hours of flight over Arabia and it's all over: after nearly 16 hours and 4,000 km of flight, the exhausted crews put down their three engines, whose tanks are almost dry, on the runway at Asmara. They are all the more warmly welcomed as they bring a few kilos of supplies (notably medicines) as well as a few bags of mail for the fighters. The Duke of Aosta himself comes to congratulate Ettore Muti for his exploit.
The announcement of the success of the raid will somewhat raise the morale of the AOI troops and of the whole of Italy... for a few days. For Mussolini, the propaganda operation is perfectly successful; he can parade as on the screens of the Italian cinematographic newsreels and multiply the ronflant speeches, evoking even the provisioning of the planes by submarines! The warning to the United States could not be clearer...
The protests of the Allies and of Washington are to remain without effect. The oil concessions of Bahrain, an independent state, are certainly granted to the Texas Corporation and to Standard Oil of California, American companies (as well as most of their personnel). But the Italian government will be happy to point out that Standard Oil is controlled by British capital and that Bahrain is a protectorate of His Majesty.
Muti and his men return to Rhodes a few days later... just in time for the beginning of the Franco-British operations in the Dodecanese. They return to Italy as soon as possible with their far too vulnerable SM.82, dropping in the process a few bombs on the installations in Port Sudan.
In Manama, after the first panic, the British repair the damage in less than a week. For the Axis, the most positive result is the obligation for the Allies to reinforce the air and ground defences of the oil installations by redeploying a fighter squadron, two infantry battalions and some anti-aircraft batteries.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1940

Indian Ocean, South of Madagascar - The German privateer Pinguin locates and boards, with his He-114 A-2 seaplane bearing false RAF markings, an Allied tanker carrying
carrying high-octane aviation gasoline. On the same day, he sinks a second tanker heading on empty to the Persian Gulf, as well as a cargo ship. But all three ships senddistress messages and Captain Krüder has to scuttle his catch (a decision for which he was reproached by the SKL 2, given the high value of his cargo) and leave the area urgently. He is well advised to do so, as the Royal Navy had dispatched two light cruisers, HMS Neptune and Colombo, as well as two auxiliary cruisers, HMS Arawa and Kanimbla.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1940

Port-Said - Following a false maneuver, the cargo ships Baalbeck and Sidi Aïssa, planned for the second echelon convoy of the Operation Cordite, collide at the entrance of the port. They manage to escape with a few weeks of unavailability. To compensate for their absence and the disappearance of the Vulcain, the British make available to the French the cargo ships Clan Campbell and Glaucus, which, once unloaded, were waiting for their return to England.

 

[Wings]

August 27th, 1940

Libya - Brigadier Campbell's troops enter El Agheila.

 

[Wings]

August 28th, 1940

Versailles - The GPEF issue a whole series of decree-laws, which complement each other very well to the repressive arsenal of the new regime.
The first two attack the favorite targets of the political forces amalgamated around of Laval. The first, aimed at Freemasonry, prohibits "clandestine and factional movements". The other drafts what is soon to become the Statute of the Jews: industrial and commercial property belonging to "persons of the Jewish race" (the definition of which had yet to be defined!) are nationalized.
Another decree creates the Service Central des Prisons et Camps de Relégation (SCPCR), attached to the Ministry of Justice. Yet another decree creates the regime of "security" internments.
Then a first list of high ranking officials suspended for "anti-national" attitude. One of the prime targets of this purge is the Prefect of Eure-et-Loir, Jean Moulin, former chief of staff to Pierre Cot. On the same day, he is also subjected to the two previous decrees: as soon as he is laid off, he is interned "as a preventive measure".
Other members of the Prefecture are more fortunate. Thus, the general secretary of the prefecture of the Marne, René Bousquet, who maintained order in his department in the absence of his superior, is appointed prefect. Under Laval, he continued the work of the executor started under Reynaud and was thus representative of a large number of administrators, whose actions during the Occupation are summarized by their post-war legal disputes [1].
Finally, the GPEF shows that it can also be generous. Thus, the last decree of the day grants amnesty for all those convicted of belonging to the Secret Committee of Revolutionary Action (better known as the Cagoule). It is true that they are only guilty of murder, kidnapping, conspiring with a foreign power and other trifles.

[1] Condemned to national indignity in 1945, Bousquet will be relieved of any sentence for the (real) help brought to the local maquis. He had a successful career in banking until a simple count caught up with him: there were 300 Jews in Châlons-sur-Marne when he was appointed to the prefecture, there was not a single one left at the Liberation. All had been deported thanks to the diligence of the Bousquet administration and only 10 were to return. It is known that Bousquet invoked the difficulty of disobeying orders received and claimed to have refused a high position in the Laval police force. In fact, Darnand had opposed his nomination, preferring Paul Touvier.
It is regrettable that the act of an unstable person prevented the justice system from finally deciding on the exemplary case of René Bousquet

 

[Wings]

August 28th, 1940

Western Mediterranean - The Italian submarine Fisalia, sent on patrol off the coast of Cyrenaica, does not return. It is considered lost. It is assumed that it had been torpedoed by a British submarine, but if two of them swore to have obtained such a victory, neither was in the Fisalia's patrol area. It is now believed that the Fisalia may have fallen victim to an Italian minefield that was hastily laid after the attack on Taranto.