Fantasque Time Line (France Fights On) - English Translation

[Wings]

May 12th, 1943

NAS Glenview - Lagadec: "A tip to spot the aircraft carrier without hesitation when, like this morning, there is a bit of fog.
The wakes left by the paddlewheels are totally different from those left by one or several propellers. They are two clear parallel wakes, about 20 meters apart, two slightly agitated but very visible water trails. Nothing to do with the whitish stirring left by the propeller blades.
Today, we are making 120 rotations without incident."

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1943

On the RC 6 towards Su Yut, west of Hoa Binh (Tonkin) - The advance guard of the 84th R.I. is hit hard by three sections of bo-dois after one hour of march. The Vietminh are well equipped with rifles, machine guns and even machine pistols, but have no heavy equipment. However, in spite of a light mortar attack, the Japanese are unable to push back an opponent who is holding on.
They have to charge with the bayonet to break the ambush. However, behind the first line, the Viets had prepared a fallback position. After new mortar fire, the soldiers of the Showa Tenno attack again and this time the enemy flees, leaving 17 dead and a few rifles. The Japanese have only three seriously wounded, who are immediately taken to the rear.
.........
The same day, 35 kilometers west of Yen Day* - The 23rd Reconnaissance Regiment continues its advance at the head of the 23rd Division. Spotting some peasants working in the rice fields, the soldiers requisition them and make them coolies to carry their loads.

* The positioning distances given in this Typhoon relationship are calculated in a straight line - in terms of troop progress, 5 km in a straight line may correspond to 15 km of walking.

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1943

Moscow - Meretskov and Popov officially present to Stalin and the Stavka the Dvina-Niemen operation. This operation will have two distinct parts in order to maximize the
disorganization of the German defense.
The Soviet effort will be first directed towards Polotsk in the east, which is to be attacked by the 55th Army (2nd Baltic Front). The two generals hope to provoke a German reaction. Indeed, losing Polotsk would mean abandoning a railroad (Riga-Vitebsk) very convenient for the supply of the divisions deployed along the Dvina, and would also pose the threat of an encirclement of Vitebsk from the northwest. The idea is not only validated but also benefits from an unexpected help, Vassilievsky promising to activate Eremenko so that he organizes maskirovka measures in the sector of the 20th Army, stationed east of Vitebsk.
In a second stage, three more offensives will be launched:
- in the west, the 1st Army, flanked on its left by the 4th Army and supported by the 12th Armored Corps, will advance south along the coast, the 7th Army will attack Valga to secure German forces that might be tempted to attack the other two armies;
- in the center, the 42nd and 27th Armies, plus the 15th Armored Corps, would be responsible for moving through the Vidzeme, a low-lying hilly region, to reach east of Riga;
- finally, in the east, the 34th and 39th Armies, assisted by two armored corps, has to liquidate the Rezekne salient. To do this, Meretskov recommends a "German-style" attack with two claws that will meet about forty kilometers further west, near the village of Stirniene. Once the Dvina is bordered and the bridgeheads consolidated south of the river, the question will arise as to whether a new offensive effort is possible or not.
This last maneuver holds the attention of Vassilievsky. If German reserves remain at this point in the campaign, it will be possible for the enemy to engage the 39th Army from Dünaburg [Daugavpils]. Meretskov admits this, but considers it a risk to be taken. Any engagement of panzers outside Riga will be an additional asset for the success of the whole operation.
It is at this point that the role of the Soviet Navy is discussed. In fact, the idea of a landing in Courland arouses great interest on the part of Stalin, even though no details are given. Just Popov is informed of the possibility of an amphibious operation on the coast of the peninsula, in the first week of June.
After discussions on the logistics and the role of the air force, Stalin finally approves the main lines of "Dvina-Niemen". As an additional motivation, the Vojd promises the title of Guards Army to the first formation that reaches the Dvina... while saying just before leaving that, in view of the foreseeable evolution of the front, there might not be a need for two Baltic Fronts, but only one.

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1943

Italian Front - The news of the day was the capture of Assisi, almost without a fight, by the Algerian riflemen of the Richard Brigade (83rd DIA). Further on, the Tiber is reached, with the usual delaying tactics in front of the cut before the Germans withdraw to the other side. Perugia is in sight, in the distance on its hill. The Germans have established their new defensive line on this hill and the surrounding hills.
On the extreme left of the IV Corps, the officers of the 4th Spahis Regiment are surprised to see not one, but two Italian regiments disembarked to ensure the junction between the two corps: the 9th Bersaglieri and further on, in the hills east of Ovietto, the 187th Parachute Regiment of the Folgore. The Spahis are able to relieve the last Belgian elements positioned at San Venanzo.
.........
In the air, in order to stop the advance of the French and to cover the retreat of the German troops, the Luftwaffe decides to make a maximum effort in the Perugia sector. All the JG 77 is out. In the afternoon, the RAF comes to help the Armee de l'Air and a young pilot of Sqn 92, Lieutenant J.H. Gasson, wins his second victory (the first one had been obtained in Sicily against an MC-202).

 

[Wings]

May 12th, 1943

Elba - After a last stand, the German garrison of Porto Azzuro surrenders. The small town was on the verge of insurrection and the hoped-for help had not arrived, nor had the boats capable of evacuating the defenders, due to the Allied air force, which is omnipresent in the whole sector between the island and the mainland.
The Germans lost two battalions (dead, wounded and prisoners) and the Allies suffered equivalent losses (dead and wounded). None of the four LSTs were hit, but several LCIs were sunk - they will however be refloated or replaced without too much trouble by the next amphibious operations.
The first result of Operation Aiglon (besides allowing photographers to take nice pictures that will illustrate the cover of André Malraux's next book) is to isolate Grossetto, which could no longer be supplied by the coasters that the Germans used to pass by night, but only by land. More importantly, for future amphibious operations: the passage of Elba into Allied hands closes an air corridor that allowed German anti-ship aircraft to penetrate the flank of the Allied air force. A few days later, the American engineers land to transform the bad dirt runway laid out by the Germans into a USAAF standard runway.

Operation Aiglon, D-Day+5

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1943

NAS Glenview - Lagadec: "This morning, second serious accident. An SBD flown by a guy from 5F loses all power at takeoff, bounces on the surface of the water and ends up 100 meters in front of the boat, which swung hard to port to avoid the plane where the pilot was in the process of evacuating the cockpit.
The watchdog patrol boat recovers him before the zinc sinks in the black waters of the lake with just the bottom of his pants wet! He even saves his parachute, which remained dry."*

* Found and raised in 1997, the plane will be offered to the Musee de l'Air by the US Navy. Duly restored, it has been on display since 2001 in the Jean-Bart room.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1943

Paris - Pierre Pucheu resigns from the Laval cabinet with a bang. Not content to announce his resignation at the very beginning of a Council of Ministers, he spectacularly presents the letter that makes it official to Laval and ends up noisily calling out to Jacques Doriot and Joseph Darnand, for once simultaneously present in Paris, about "the fate that their disputes were inflicting on their fellow citizens for purely selfish purposes". He concludes by urging Laval to "do something". The latter does not respond, apparently lost in thought. Darnand, who seems disconcerted by this silence, remains silent.
It is Jacques Doriot who finally answers. He stands up and tries to take a majestic posture, corresponding to his progressive and increasingly visible control over the NEF, before spitting in a disdainful tone: "Môssieur Pucheu, we are not holding you back! In fact, Môssieur Pucheu, we have never needed you! [He does not forgive Pucheu for having left the PPF in 1939.] The door is wide open!"
Darnand finally reacts and, in order to outbid him, gets up in turn and said: "Get the hell out of here, Pucheu!" The rest of the Council table says nothing. This is probably not what Pierre Pucheu was hoping for, who, with a gloomy look on his face, leaves the Hôtel Matignon, no doubt already thinking about the date of his departure for Algiers - for several weeks, he had sounded out the Spaniards to make sure they would not prevent him from fleeing.
That same afternoon, the Ministry of Supply is entrusted to Simon Sabiani, PPF mayor of Marseille and manager of the PPF in the absence of Doriot. Abetz makes it known without too much discretion that he is happy with this change, because "M. Pucheu was too technical in his relations with the representatives of the Reich" (to put it plainly, he did not submit with enough good will to their demands).

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1943

North of Su Yut (Tonkin) - The vanguard of the 84th IR leaves Su Yut before dawn. In the darkness, the column stretches on and on. As it passes through a small village, the Japanese capture three irregulars taken by surprise. The prisoners are sent to the rear for interrogation (before execution), but the village that hid them must be punished. It is not more than a burning inferno when the soldiers abandon it.
But the advance of this army of assassins is not the most discreet. When they resume their way, the Japanese are expected. The ambush begins a little before noon, it will last for more than three hours. The bo-dois entrenched in the jungle are invisible; they sweep the road with bursts of FM and machine guns, they also have mortars. The Japanese soldiers, taken by surprise, are forced to disperse. The groups that try to advance through the undergrowth are pinned down by a surprising density of fire. The Vietnamese have indeed the advantage at close range with their American machine guns and a good supply of hand grenades.
Ki-27b fighters fall from the sky. The Nates are nowadays only used for ground support, with their two 7.7 mm machine guns and four 25 kg bombs. Their pilots try to remedy the weakness of this armament by flying low in the trees to flush out the enemy.
In the woods, two battalions of the 84th Regiment deploy and begin to sweep the ambush area. They are initially met with heavy fire, but the Vietminh refuse to be drawn into a pitched battle and begin to pull back in drawers.
By 16:00, it is all over, but the confrontation was fierce. The Japanese have 48 dead, a hundred seriously wounded and more than 200 injured. The Vietminh losses are unknown: the Nipponese recovered about thirty bodies, but the fact that they recovered 117 individual weapons and three FMs makes them think that they have inflicted more losses on their opponents.
.........
The same day, 70 kilometers west of Yen Day - The 23rd Reconnaissance Regiment is fired upon several times. But each time, the enemy seems to dissolve into the darkness when the Japanese return fire. The scouts do, however, find evidence of a bivouac, trampled vegetation and numerous footprints in the mud of the streams. A large enemy troop is nearby.
During the day, a column of the 64th Infantry Regiment is strafed by six P-40s of the 75th Fighter Sqn, which set fire to or damage about fifteen vehicles. The attack creates havoc in the column, which allows some twenty coolies held as hostages and forced laborers to escape into the jungle.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1943

Leningrad - The Sestroretsk arsenal begins mass production of the PPS-43 machine gun. Designed by a young engineer from the city, Alexei Sudayev, it is of small size, rustic workmanship and very simple construction. These qualities make it the ideal weapon for Partisan groups, tank crews and second echelon units, the rest of the Red Army keeping the PPSh-41 as a standard weapon. In all, nearly two million units were manufactured during the conflict.

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1943

Italian front - Operation Spaghetti comes to an end. It allows the French-Belgian front to be moved up twenty kilometres and to arrive in sight of Perugia. The aim of the operation was not to take the city, but to place ourselves in a favourable position for the major operation planned when the accumulated supplies would be sufficient, while attracting towards the continent a part of the German air force at the time of the taking of the island of Elba. The day is therefore spent in cleaning operations.
At the headquarters of the 29. Panzergrenadier Division, one can breathe easy. The new defensive positions are much better, and finally, the price paid is modest given the limited means available to the defense. Indeed, the German command in Italy, after the air campaign of the previous weeks, was expecting a landing in the Genoa sector. The lull in the fighting allows the first elements of the 356 ID to be arrive, bringing the Panzergrenadiers to the rear of the front.
.........
In the air, the young lieutenant Alfred Froning, of the 65th FS (57th FG) is again making a name for himself. Arrived at the front in March, he already scores his third victory - this time against a Fw 189 reconnaissance plane.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1943

Kiel - A raid of the American 9th AF targets Germaniawerft shipyard. Three submarines, U-235, U-236 and U-237, Type-VIIC, are sunk.
The human losses on board the ships are minimal (2 dead). The three submarines are refloated in the following days, then put back into service, but none of them will be sent to combat.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1943

NAS Glenview - Lagadec: "Tightening the schedule. Between two flights, the Pasha, who has just been informed, tells us that as soon as we return to QP, we will move again to be closer to the Jean-Bart. We will go to NAS Oceana, between Norfolk and the ocean.
Oceana is a seaside resort, but those who dream of beaches and warm sand would be better off thinking about the JB's wooden flight deck. As for sunbathing, it is doubtful that the pasha of the aircraft carrier would agree to transform the said deck into an annex of the beach of Madrague, in Algiers. Landing, takeoff!...
Meanwhile, the qualifying flights continue."

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1943

About 45 km northwest of Su Yut, on the road to Môc (Tonkin) - The 85th Regiment replaces the 84th Regiment at the head of the 22nd Division's column. The road now climbs and civilians "volunteering" to repair the roadways areworking under the orders of the men of the 22nd Engineer Regiment to repair the damage inflicted by nature and weather.
Strong patrols are sent out in all directions. One of them catches the Viets setting up an ambush upstream. The "rebels" withdraw without loss after a short exchange of fire. However, three hours after its departure, another patrol has still not returned. Colonel Wakamatsu orders a search of the area assigned to it, but this does not yield anything. By 22:00, the entire patrol is reported missing.
.........
The same day, 80 kilometers west of Yen Day - The advance of the 23rd Division is done over less rugged terrain than that over which the 22nd advances, but the Vietminh opposition is much more pronounced. The Japanese face several successive ambushes during the day, with the Bo-Dois attacking with machine guns and light mortars. The losses are low (only seven wounded) but the delay is important, especially when General Masachika is forced to have the guns of the 23rd Artillery Regiment put into action to neutralize positions inaccessible from the road. Around 15:00, scouts spot a group of Viets undermining the road with an unexploded aircraft bomb; they chase them away, but now they know to beware of such traps.
.........
Hanoi, 13:00 - Frustrated by the failure of their first attempt, sixteen Liberators of the 308th BG return to attack the Paul Doumer Bridge.
The bombing is still done from 30,000 feet, but by mid-day, visibility is better. The result is far below expectations. Once again, the majority of the projectiles devastated the aquatic life of the Red River (with the bombers gone, the population will hasten to take advantage of this miraculous fishing).
Nevertheless, some bombs graze the structure near the left bank. They destroy several frames and damage the bank span and the railroad. The delays in repairing the bridge closed it to vehicles for three days (but pedestrians and cyclists will still be able to use it).
A very lucky flak shoots down a B-24. On the other hand, the Japanese fighters are still absent, which will make the Japanese aviators cringe, humiliated to have missed their mission because of the lack of an effective warning system!

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1943

Minsk - The Chief of Staff of the OKH, Franz Halder, is on an inspection tour of HeeresGruppe Mitte headquarters. This inspection is mainly a pretext. In front of Rommel and Krebs, Halder does not hesitate to say what is on his mind. Operation Citadel is not properly planned. The FHO and OKH are wrong when they say that the Soviets are too weakened to defend themselves properly. Kluge and Zeitzler became too important and their influence is harmful for the conduct of operations. We are heading for disaster. Can't we do something?
Rommel hesitates. His status as Hitler's favorite general is no longer so obvious since the recent successes of Manstein and Model. He himself would not be reluctant to take to the offensive. But as always in the Third Reich, everything depended on the decision of one man. It is Hitler who has to be convinced. "Alas," Halder laments, "it seems that the Führer has already been convinced, and is in favor of Citadel. But perhaps by going to Berchtesgaden the Marshal would be able to find the words to change his mind?" Faced with his silent boss, Krebs pushes in this direction. Manstein is a young fat man with teeth that are far too long and Model only wins by making his troops go over a bridge made of the bodies of their comrades.
After a long hesitation, Rommel shakes his head, apparently resigned. He has to follow orders. The Führer could not be mistaken. Any discussion with him would only lead to further disorder, which would not be helpful. He then leaves the room in front of the eyes of a disastrous Halder. Krebs sighs: as the war drags on, would there be nothing but bad decisions to make?

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1943

Italian Front - It is now the turn of the British to attack in order to correct their front line, according to the Franco-Belgian advance during "Spaghetti".
On the western side of the X Corps, from Sellano, where His Majesty's soldiers had relieved the Zouaves the previous month, a double overrun attack is planned.
On the one hand, the 139th Brigade of the 46th ID advances on the road passing on the heights while the tanks of the 1st Army Tank Brigade advanced a little further down the valley. The Germans having already decided to retreat northward, on positions where the 356th ID is deploying in defense, this attack meets little resistance apart from the usual blocks at the crossroads. The infantrymen arrive in sight of Casenove at the end of the day.
The other attack encounters much stronger opposition to the north of the municipalities of Preci and Castelluccio di Norcia. The 138th Brigade of the 46th ID and the 133rd Brigade of the 44th ID have as their objective the Visso crossroads. But in the evening, the troops of the 138th Brigade are blocked at the entrance of the gorge shortly after the crossing of roads 209 and 476, although they have started to climb the plateau above them and reached the village of Croce. The infantrymen of the 133rd Brigade make further progress, but they are stopped in the twists and turns that descend the Sibylline Mountains towards Castel Sanangelo sul Nera.
Finally, on the right wing of the 1st British Army, the 132nd Brigade of the 44th ID comes without difficulty to relieve the 5th Indian Division until Montegallo.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1943

Moscow - Pravda announces the dissolution of the Communist International on its front page.
Often referred to as the Third International, after those founded by Marx and Engels, or by its Russian abbreviation, the Comintern, it had been established by Lenin in 1919 to unite the communist parties of the world and to raise the red flag of the revolution. Since then, it has been the nightmare of a large part of the Western political world, from conservatives and fascists to many social democrats and... Trotskyites. It is true that the Third International had become the docile instrument of Moscow's foreign policy, until it approved the pact with Nazi Germany in 1939.
Its dissolution constituted a signal of appeasement, allowing to deny (according to the laborious explanations of Pravda) the infamous slanders of the Nazi propaganda claiming that Stalin's goal is to transform the states of Europe into so many Soviet republics. The Vojd undoubtedly hopes that in this way the European Communist parties would appear less like pawns at Moscow's command.
In fact, the CPSU will maintain close links with the communist movements throughout Europe, always under the leadership of the Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1943

NAS Glenview - Weekend or not, the aerial ballet continues.
Lagadec: "This morning, an F4F-4 broke down on the deck and slowed down the pace for a few minutes. The zinc is stored, wings folded, in front of the island, on one of the two portholes provided for that purpose. The pilot will remain on board with his plane until the evening and the return of the aircraft carrier to port."

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1943

About 50 km northwest of Su Yut, on the road to Môc (Tonkin) - Patrols continue to search for traces of the men who have disappeared the day before. One of them finally discovers, far from the sector where the patrol should have been, a haversack model 98, the typical Japanese backpack, entirely made of khaki canvas and closed with straps that must be tied. It still contains a mosquito net and the standard serape.
Nothing else will be found. It was not until the end of the war that what the Japanese command suspected was confirmed- the patrol had been ambushed, all the men had been killed and, to increase the anxiety of the Japanese, the Vietnamese picked up bodies, weapons, and even shell casings to erase all traces of the confrontation. The bag was deliberately abandoned far from the axis of withdrawal of the bo-dois to mislead the soldiers of the Empire of the Rising Sun.
Moreover, the advance of the main body of troops was slowed down only by the endless twists and turns of the road, its bad condition and the slowness of the repairs.
.........
The same day, 90 kilometers west of Yen Day - The Vietminh possess a few artillery pieces and will use them today. Two armored reconnaissance cars that were taking advantage of an area of road in decent condition are shelled for a few minutes, without any harm, as the shots were not adjusted. Fortunately for them, because the armor of the Type 92 Jyu-Sokosha is so poor that the armored car is considered obsolete even on the Chinese front.
The Japanese take revenge in the evening by looting the surrounding villages. For once, they will not kill anyone, probably put in a good mood by the fact of not having had any losses during the day. The soldiers are content to molest the inhabitants and steal their meager supplies of rice, as well as a suckling pig.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1943

Bombay (India) - The city is today decorated with the French colors and many French officials come, including General Mast, who came from Chongqing, to salute the passage of the 1st Parachute Regiment and the 1st (and only) Marine Infantry Regiment of the Pacific, which in fact has only two battalions and their services.
The 1st REP comes from Algeria, but the RIMP comes from the South-West Pacific, where it was at one time considered to be deployed in the Solomons. Its 1st Battalion was involved in the famous operation Banana, on Tarakan, after which it was split up thanks to an influx of commitments in the Pacific Islands. Lacking heavy equipment, it was decided - out of necessity - to make it an air-transportable unit.
The U.S. Marine Corps and the Americans in general were reluctant to encumber themselves with these diplomatically awkward allies. After long negotiations, Nimitz proposed to the French command to provide the regiment with the heavy weapons it lacked, and then to transport it by plane in the company of the 1st REP to Indochina (where, officially, the Americans accepted the presence of the French despite the colonization).
After consultation with Algiers and in the absence of any other solution, Admiral Michelier accepted. Bombay is therefore only a stopover for the 1st REP and the 1st RIMP on the road to Dien-Bien-Phu, where they had to go via China after a period of acclimatization in Burma.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1943

Crimea - The 7th IAP conducts its first war mission. Four MiG-5 loaded with two five hundred kilos bombs each bomb the Romanian port of Sulina, while a second group of four aircraft carried out two low-level gun passes. At first surprised, the Romanian artillerymen quickly recover and show themselves to be sufficiently aggressive to dissuade the Soviet pilots from carrying out a third attack. The bombing is inaccurate: most of the bombs fall into the Danube, slightly damaging a coaster. Three others fall near the former palace of the European Commission for the Danube.