Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Hoa Binh region, Tonkin - The sun high in the sky bludgeons the RC 6. A man cannot walk barefoot on the overheated track. The air is agitated with waves of heat.
The dragging troop is hard to see, but the men are wearing the mustard uniform of the soldiers of the Empire of the Rising Sun. Thinned out, their eyes reddened by lack of sleep, the youngest ones are on the verge of cracking. They have been walking for four days. The physical fatigue is joined by an unbearable tension. The fear of the ambush, waking up in the middle of the night when shots are fired, always too close. Some of them are trembling from the fever they contracted in the rice fields. Worse: drinking water is lacking. There is no water in this country and the stewardship is no longer in place on the roads that are sabotaged and cut by ambushes. The column is accompanied by mules. Less proud than the soldiers who pull them, they advance only reluctantly and begin to bray lamentably. They also suffer from thirst!
During a brief stop, five men begin to protest - respectfully - against the conditions of the march. In front of this almost unimaginable scene in the Japanese army, Commander Arakawa immediately has them arrested (which, in practice, means that they are disarmed).
However, an hour later, a reconnaissance Ki-36 drops a message: "Stay put, trucks will come to get you".
What happened that day on the road is symptomatic of the pathetic end of the Cho operation. In spite of the reconnaissance planes, fighters and bombers, despite the armored vehicles, at no time were the rear of the columns pacified. Exhausted by the marches and counter marches and by the disease, the Japanese soldiers let escape an enemy that came back to harass them constantly.
In these conditions, rather than risk disaster, the Hanoi generals decide to suspend the offensive.

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Kiska - In turn, the submarine I-11, at the end of its patrol, comes to evacuate twenty men. A few hours later, it is the I-6 that returns and evacuates 72 men. At that moment, there are only 350 soldiers left on the island, all from the 3rd SNLF (commander Takeji Ono), and about 450 Korean workers. Up to now, the only losses they had suffered were due to accidents, cold (frostbite) and the bombs that the USAAF is now dropping almost daily on Kiska.
Unfortunately for them, on Attu, the men of the 13th Engineer Battalion (who had not been evacuated during the battle) work with their usual diligence and efficiency. The Attu airfield is already used by single-engine aircraft, and B-24s could be based there by the end of the month. At the insistence of General Buckner, it is decided to launch Operation Cottage...

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Ternopol - Back at his headquarters, von Kluge is still brooding. The OKW has played its game well by issuing vague threats of a landing! Of course, the Allies area serious threat, but the Red Army is something else entirely.
However, the commander of Heeresgruppe Sud does not waste his time. On the one hand, the OKH seems to be at least partially in favor of an offensive, especially Zeitzler. He thinks he can also count on the support of some of his generals. Manstein and Model are probably too ambitious in his eyes, but they could not be satisfied with a static attitude in their respective sectors. Another positive point is that the Führer is not opposed to limited offensives. If Kluge could link the two, perhaps he could propose something that would convince Hitler.

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Moscow - Just appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army (although he has been in this de facto for several months), Alexander Vassilyevsky set about his new task: to determine where and when Germany will strike. The information brought back from the various fronts in Ukraine and elsewhere are beginning to accumulate, but some of them are contradictory. How to find the key in this mass of figures, hypotheses and assumptions? Patiently, assisted by a small team of senior officers, Vassilievsky sets out to find this key, sector by sector.
In the north? Army Group North seems to be on the defensive and, above all, lacks the necessary equipment to break through to Leningrad. Army Group Center? To break through a terrain as difficult as the Belarusian marshes is possible and has already been done. This solution would also have the merit of threatening Moscow, which is the Vojd's greatest fear.
But after the failure of Smolensk, would the Wehrmacht be ready for a new attack in this area? That leaves the Ukraine, where the Red Army was curtly repulsed in March. The Ostheer still maintains large numbers of troops there, but it has shown that it is quite capable of breaking out elsewhere and quickly. Could the Ukrainian plains accommodate a summer offensive? Odessa could attract the Romanians, the Donbass the Germans. And of course, there is the possibility of Kiev or, perhaps, Crimea - to block American convoys arriving via the Black Sea...

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Italian Front - The Arnault de la Ménardière Brigade (86th DIA) takes charge of clearing the ground around Sellano. In the absence of an emergency, the French headquarters prefer to dispose of the two regiments of the brigade before carrying out these operations.
Meanwhile, the deployment of the 4th Belgian ID should allow the French to reduce their front a little. This deployment implies however the capture of the village of Colleppe. In Algiers, Frère agrees to consider that this is the end of the movement carried out from April 6th to 8th by the Noiret Brigade: "I understand," he grumbles, "the Belgians of the 4th ID have just arrived and they have hardly fired a shot yet. They have to have a little fun. But not further than Colleppe!"

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Taranto - Now a classic submarine (it has recovered a gun), the Adua is put back into active service. It is entrusted to Lieutenant Giovanni Sorrentino, former commander of the Axum, which he had scuttled at La Spezia before succeeding in reaching the Allied lines. The Adua is used by the Regia Marina, under Allied command, for missions to drop off and recover intelligence agents or saboteurs, especially in the Balkans.

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Moneglia - If he were on holiday, Oberst Thom would certainly appreciate the magnificent along the Tyrrhenian coast from La Spezia to Moneglia, a picturesque road dotted with rare villages, sometimes with a fishing port. The guards who accompany him and his driver must think that this is a tourist trip, even if the officer has let slip some snippets of his mission of research of sites, without mentioning the names of the retaliatory weapons. No need to draw attention for the moment, including within the Heer.
The proximity of the sea urges him to be cautious, as it gives the Allied navies the opportunity to come and bomb the launch pads, but he has little choice, given the topography of the terrain between La Spezia and Genoa, all in a valley between the two. If the northern flank of this valley, which he had only glimpsed under the pouring rain on the way there, could host sites, it would force the V1s to climb over the mountains as soon as they took off. In a pinch, this valley could be suitable for V2s, whose vertical takeoff is less restrictive. Thom notes it.
From Moneglia, he heads back to La Spezia by the inland road, to see the valley that climbs towards Villafranca - the road to Parma, in fact, from where materials and ammunition could come. For the time being, he notes everything. As a railroad also runs along the coast, often through tunnels, the interest is certain. In his notebook, he writes down some ideas that come to his mind. Why not consider V1 launches by a mobile ramp mounted on rails? He writes feverishly, still ignoring that the development prior to the shooting requires a flat ground, and stable ground to fix the delicate gyroscopes which keep the heading of the death machine.
Moneglia is however the only really interesting point on this road, with a station and a steep valley in the right direction. And a good inn in this small fishing port, where for once, people don't give him the cold shoulder... It must be said that here, Signor, the war is far away, and life goes on at the rhythm, not of the tides, but of the pescatori.

 

[Wings]

April 10th, 1943

Rijeka/Fiume - German Vice-Admiral Joachim Lietzmann, Admiral in command of the Adriatic, publishes a "Directive on the fight against gangs at sea" which shows the growing effectiveness of the Partisans and the concern they inspire in the German command. After a series of observations on the tactics of the Partisans and the means of fighting them, he comes to the status of the civilian population.
Lietzmann applied to his sector a general instruction from General Rudolf Lüters, the commander of the XV Mountain Army Corps: "The method is basically the same: in order to make the islands and coastal regions of interest to us safe, it is necessary to empty them of all men of military age (from 15 years old). Bandits caught in the act will be liquidated immediately. The others (suspicious or doubtful in general) will be deported."

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Rovno - General Rudolf Schmidt is arrested as he was preparing to board the plane that would take him back to Germany, where he was to take a fortnight's leave.
He is incarcerated in Tegel prison while his trial is being organized.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Mostaganem - In the wake of the March 28th elections, the SFIO holds a congress. The French socialists can finally (among other issues) settle a problem which began to make more and more teeth grind: the replacement of Paul Faure, deputy of Saône et Loire, but especially secretary general of the SFIO.
"The best among us" (as Léon Blum had said in other times) is less and less popular. Already disowned at the Montrouge congress in 1938 on the conduct to follow regarding Germany, he remained at his post while waiting for a renewal of the party's governing bodies, which never took place because of the war, Faure became more and more unbearable for the elected socialists. It was almost necessary to drag him to Algiers at the time of the Sursaut. Since then, he has abstained from certain important laws, shows only a facade support to the initiatives of his comrades and is even more and more often replaced for social events. To crown it all, he opposed with fracas to Blum at the time of the succession of Paul Reynaud to the Presidency of the Council. In short, he no longer has anything of a leader for the first party of the Assembly of the Elected of the Republic.
The congress of Mostaganem thus announces his replacement for "health reasons" that will not deceive anyone.
André Le Troquer, deputy of the Seine, in the party since 1902 and one of the parliamentarians who had militated the most, in the turmoil of the Forties, for the continuation of the war, is elected secretary general of the SFIO until the end of the war.
Paul Faure, who had become a simple deputy, stood for re-election in 1945. He failed and died in 1960 without having had another political mandate.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Indian Ocean - Shortly before sunrise, Admiral Kondo's fleet passes off Penang. Heading northwest, it follows the west coast of Malaysia.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Base Epervier, Dien-Bien-Phu - Before General Martin, High Commissioner Sainteny, Brigadier General Turquin, His Majesty Bao Daï - Emperor of Annam, His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk - King of Cambodia and His Majesty Sisavang Vong - King of Laos, Hô Chi-Minh presents the maquis and the sanctuaries of the Vietminh. Indeed, his organization reached its full maturity.
Indochina is divided into eight sectors: three for Tonkin, two for Annam, one for Cochinchina, for Cambodia and for Laos. These sectors are in fact the hierarchical summit of a complex subdivision into zones, which are in turn subdivided into provinces, delegations, towns or villages. At each level, executive committees of resistance form a directorate responsible for making decisions. On the ground, orders are implemented by commissars of the people's troops and by military commissars.
Militarily, the Vietminh represents nearly 150,000 men divided into divisions organized on the French model. The chief of the Vietnamese army, Nguyen van Thieu, takes charge of presenting his troops. He begins by recalling that it was the French who had invented the division. Marshal Maurice de Saxe had mentioned them in his book Mes Rêveries. It was then only an idea, which was put into practice by Victor-François de Broglie during the Seven Years War.
There are two types of Vietnamese "divisions". The Su Doan (or SD) regroup 10 to 15,000 men. The Dai Doan (DD) are units with a theoretical strength of 7,115 men.
Without any heavy equipment, the Dai Doan are skirmish formations, which do not fight as a single corps. Their three regiments of 2,289 men can be deployed in areas far from each other. In combat, they more often operate in companies of 600 men, the bô-companies. These companies could easily disperse to escape the enemy and regroup later.
The Su Doan are more traditional divisions formed into regiments, or Trung Doan (TD), battalions, and companies. Currently, only six regiments are capable of face-to-face combat against the Japanese occupiers: five infantry regiments, the 304, 312, 316, 320, and 325, and one artillery regiment, 351, concentrated at Dien-Bien-Phu.
All of them were trained by the Legion and constitute the elite of the Indochina Liberation Army. They are ready to die to defend the Epervier base and the Hô Chi-Minh trail.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Oro Bay (north-east coast of New Guinea) - A hospital ship is coming to pick up the many wounded and sick who must be evacuated to Australia. Among them, a patient of choice, General Kenneth William Eather. He is suffering from malnutrition and malaria.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Kiska - The Japanese garrison is awakened by the shells of the battleships Mississippi and New Mexico. Commander Ono quickly realizes that this time, it will not be enough to head down and stay under cover for a while. His men are few in number, but they are ready and they have the benefit of the entrenchments built for weeks by the Koreans.
After a feint on the southeast side of the island, facing Kiska Harbor and Gertrude Cove, where the Japanese installations are located, the American fleet lands a battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd US Division in the center of the northwest coast, south of Witchcraft Point. The first hours pass without too many incidents, the Americans are content to establish a bridgehead for a second battalion, which lands in the afternoon.
It is at this point that the first serious engagements occur, when the American scouts come up against Japanese defenses - minefields and machine gun nests.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Ternopol - Manstein visits von Kluge in his headquarters. There he finds a surprisingly welcoming and understanding superior, praising his management of the crisis against the Soviet armies. Of course, this generosity is not free and Manstein quickly understands what Kluge is getting at when he learns what happened three days earlier in Berchtesgaden.
The two men quickly find points of agreement. The commander of the 8. Armee agrees with Kluge on the rejection of the transition to a strict defense on the Russian front. The Russian is shaken, waiting for him to get up makes no sense. If we don't finish him off now, it will be too late. Fortunately, there is another possibility. And Manstein to pull out of a briefcase a draft operational plan. Initially, he had envisaged another Frühlingserwachen, but that would have meant taking too many risks. Moreover, it would have required to pass initiative and valuable terrain to the Soviets, which would have displeased Hitler, making it impossible to validate such a plan. That leaves the second option, clearly more ambitious and dangerous, but more promising... in theory. After hours of discussions, Manstein allows himself a slight smile as he gets back on the train. He had caught a big fish: Kluge is now ready to support him against Hitler.
It remains to convince the latter.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Italian Front - Quiet day on the front where the only notable activity is that of the 4th DI, which extends its position towards the east to allow the French to narrow their front. In doing so, the advanced elements enter the hamlet of Colleppe, but cannot pass north of road 415 because of the presence of numerous anti-tank guns and an effective German artillery cover, directed from the hills facing the Belgian troops.

 

[Wings]

April 11th, 1943

Masero - The road from Sestri Levante to La Spezia is much nicer under the sun, even if the curves are still twisting, especially with Moritz at the wheel. At Ceparana, the Alfa leaves the Via Genova and drives along the Magra to Aulla, where the Aulella and the Torrente Taverone join the Magra. There, a vast plain, barely embellished with low hills, forming a quarter circle from east to north can be seen. Apart from the few human constructions and the fields, woods and forests form the landscape, an ideal place to hide low installations under the greenery. Thom goes to a wood on the commune of Masero, near the station, but not too close: we know the propensity of the Allies to systematically bomb the railroad installations!
Then the road crew continues up the Magra to the plain of Villafranca in Lunigiana. The German thinks he can install there one or even several storage and assembly sites, upstream of the launching ramps. According to his maps, the railroad comes from the north from Borgo Val di Taro, after having taken the Taro valley from Parma. A road, more sinuous, goes along the Parma valley to the town of the same name. This gives two distinct means of communication for the supplies, the bifurcation being made in Pontremoli.

 

[Wings]

April 12th, 1943

Quonset Point - Lagadec: "At the beginning of the week, we start the laps again so that the pilots finally understand how to land a Corsair safely. Everyone must understand that the flight parameters must be strictly respected.
Another accident, in the middle of the afternoon, this time due to a rebel landing gear that was not locked. The gear retracted by itself; the plane landed on its belly and ended up sliding on the grass... More fear than harm! Especially since it wasn't the pilot's fault."

 

[Wings]

April 12th, 1943

Burma Front - It is again a field north of Moulmein that is targeted, but this time it is the Spitfire Vs of Sqn 67 and the H-87 Kittyhawks of Sqn 340(B) that escort 16 Bristol Beaumonts from Sqn 45. Arriving from the northeast after a detour through Thailand, the Beaumonts escape with only one badly damaged aircraft (it will crash on landing). Their escort loses one Spitfire and three H-87s (the latter are not really competitive against the Ki-44) in exchange for two Hayabusa and one Shoki.

 

[Wings]

April 12th, 1943

Indian Ocean (Andaman Sea), 03:00 - Admiral Kondo's fleet turns to starboard to come north-northwest. It continues to follow the west coast of Malaysia (but still out of sight of it). The day before, everything went without incident, will it be the same today?
It will not be the case. At the end of the day, the Junyo's radar reports an intruder heading straight for the fleet, which is sailing at the latitude of Mergui at the time. Two Zero in patrol are dispatched to the echo, but the indications given by the radar operator are approximate and it is the target - a Catalina from Port Blair - that spots the Zero before being seen. The seaplane immediately dives into a providential cloud and escapes without spotting the Kondo ships, but its pilot, New Zealander Jack O'Sullivan, had time to identify his adversaries without confusion. The presence of these aircraft in the middle of the ocean indicates the proximity of a Japanese aircraft carrier, and therefore of a whole fleet!

Trincomalee - Tonight, the main Royal Navy base in the Indian Ocean is in a state of alarm! Informed of the misadventure of the Catalina in Port Blair, Admiral Somerville puts his fleet on alert. He also orders the Andaman base to launch a reconnaissance mission at dawn the next day to clarify the matter. He will not decide to sail only if a precise contact is obtained with a Japanese squadron.
James Somerville's Eastern Fleet had just received an important reinforcement: nothing less than a squadron carrier, the Indomitable, which had just been repaired in Philadelphia and arrived after a brief acclimatization period at the secret base of Addu Atoll. The fleet based in Trincomalee has three large aircraft carriers: the Indomitable, the Illustrious and the Victorious. The last two have 30 fighters each: 15 Grumman Martlet and 15 Hawker Sea-Hurricanes, as well as 12 Fairey Albacores - reliable but hopelessly outdated torpedo bombers. The Indomitable has 25 fighters: 10 Martlets and the 15 Supermarine Seafire Ib of Sqn 801, commanded by the ace Danny Potter. Much is expected of the naval version of the Spitfire, but the real novelty is the presence of the 30 Fairey Barracudas from Sqn 810 and 827 - the FAA finally has a modern bomber, monoplane, versatile and above all fast enough.
The aircraft carriers are accompanied by the two powerful battleships Nelson and Rodney.
Powerful, but slow: they barely reach 24 knots, at best.
The fleet also includes (apart from the ships that carried out escort missions for convoys) a significant number of convoy escort missions) a significant number of cruisers and destroyers, some of which have been renewed and homogenized since Operation Pedestal.
- Three County class heavy cruisers, the Cornwall, London and Sussex.
- Five Colony/Fiji class light cruisers, the Bermuda, Fiji, Gambia, Mauritius and Trinidad.
- Two anti-aircraft cruisers, the Charybdis and Phoebe (Dido class).
- Sixteen destroyers of various types: twelve British, the HMS Ashanti, Duncan, Eskimo, Foxhound, Hotspur, Inconstant, Ithuriel, Jervis, Lightning, Onslaught, Penn and Petard, two Australians, HMAS Nepal and Norman, and two Dutch, HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes (ex-Nonpareil) and Van Galen (ex-Noble).
Finally, three submarines of the 10th Flotilla, the Tempest, Tribune and Trespasser (twins of the Tigris sunk in February), are on patrol in the eastern Indian Ocean and the northern Strait of Malacca.
.........
To these forces should be added those based in the Andaman Islands and in Sabang.
Port Blair airfield is home to the 16 Supermarine Spitfires of Sqn 132 (RAF)* and the 15 Bristol Blenheim IV of Sqn 211 (RAF), as well as the 8 Vickers Wellingtons of Sqn 413 of the Coastal Command (mixed unit also equipped with seaplanes). The seaplane base has the particularity of being Anglo-French. Indeed, it is protected by the anti-air escort HMS Tynwald and the MN Commandant-Teste is in charge of the supply and maintenance of the aircraft. The latter are the 12 Supermarine 355 Floatfire II of Sqn 804, the 18 Northrop N-3PB torpedo bombers of Flotilla 10F (ex AT4) and the 6 PBY-5 Catalina seaplanes of Sqn 413**. 804 (the only fighter squadron of the ASF) is commanded by Lt-Cdr A.J. Sewell and the 10F is led by CC Jean Maudron, an experienced pilot and a very popular leader.
The Sabang base is protected by an Australian-Indian garrison (with some Dutch elements withdrawn from Sumatra). This one is equivalent to a reinforced battalion, but very well entrenched however. The track, or rather the set of tracks of mediocre quality, allows the 12 Blenheim V of Sqn 11 and the 15 Hurricane II of Sqn 30, installed there as lost children to annoy the Japanese of Malaysia. The island could be supplied since the fall of Singapore. The same fast ships and heavy seaplanes that had been shuttling back and forth to the big city continue to do so, but their task is much easier with the small island. The Blenheims come from the Andaman and the Hurricanes were delivered in flight by Eastern Fleet carriers.