France Fights On (English Translation) - Thread II - To the continent!

[Wings]

May 31st, 1944

Balkans campaign
Operation Veritable - After Sarajevo and Operation Ratweek
Dalmatia - The lines of Dimitrios Papadopoulos' 2nd Corps return to a certain calm. After their pitiful attempt the previous day, Ivo Herenci's Croatian legionnaires are quiet - their motivation even lower than usual. The arrival in Imotsk of Charalambos Katsimitros' 13th Infantry Division only reinforces this cautious reserve. At the same time, it frees up Georgios Stanotas' 5th ID, which can now advance against the KLAK to the outskirts of the Cista Provo crossroads.
As a result, Colonel Socrates Demaratos' armoured brigade is also free to reposition itself opposite Tomislavgrad, in the vanguard of the infantry in terrain that is much more open - in front - to a potential armoured offensive. In the days that followed, the half-tracks bearing the white cross on a blue background go as far as Mesihovina: on the edge of Dalmatia, but facing SS lines that are far less well-stocked and motivated than expected. Of course, Georgios Stanotas's infantry takes over behind them each time.
.........
"Control here Delta, the enemy has been neutralised. Over and out.
Having stated the obvious, I'll come back to our lieutenant from yesterday.
- And everything's OK on your end?
- Yeah, it was just in time,
On that note, Nikos comes up behind me - and he's got the subtlety of a bull.
- So, what's up?
- Well, I...
- Spit it out. Don't bullshit me.
- There's a woman I've heard about. She fits the description, but... apparently she was rounded up a few weeks ago. And there's been no word from her since.
- That can't be right! There's got to be another way, right?
- Sorry, that's really all I've got.
- AH NO! Not again... Still lost! Arrrrh dammit!
The wreck of the wagon on our right took the punches, butts and kicks without flinching. Until a piece of wood shattered in front of his face, splinters narrowly missing his eyes. Then he calmed down. Then he collapses.
- Understood, lieutenant. Thank you, sir.
- Nikos, how are you holding up?
- It's just that... (He raises his right hand imperiously.) I'll be with you in a second, Markus. OK?
- OK. Take your time. Come on, let's go...
As I lead the group away from our comrade, it seems to me that the banging has resumed. Not as hard as before. But resumed nonetheless. "Not again!"..."
(Markus Amynthe - Machines de guerre - Souvenirs de la campagne de Bosnie, Kedros éditeur via LGF, 1993)

Air warfare
Yugoslav Front - Continued strikes along the entire potential perimeter of future Allied offensives. The A-20s of the 19th EB also bomb the coastal positions on the island of Lussino (Lošinj), off the coast of Fiume: it is still feared that the Germans would install a few large-calibre guns there that could annoy the Allied navy. In fact, it is one of the last island positions that the German army has not evacuated... The raid, carried out without loss (one aircraft damaged by engine failure), does not yield anything serious.
In reality, neither the Heer nor the Kriegsmarine have any guns to waste in the Adriatic. And if there are still a few Landsers at Lussino, it's mainly because we haven't yet found a way to evacuate them safely!

Abandonment
Tomislavgrad sector - After ever more uproar and chain defections, it is time for the first assessment of the SS Handschar division. Unsurprisingly, it isn't very good - the haemorrhage has indeed slowed... but that is mainly because those who had the chance had already left! And in droves!
The 27. Waffen-Gebirgsjäger Rgt under Sturmbannführer Desiderius Hampel is now painfully huddled around a 12-kilometre-long arc of a circle that barely covers the sectors of Prisoje, Stipanjići and Tomislavgrad. And its trenches served at least as much to prevent the men from fleeing as to help them defend! As for the 28. Waffen-Gj Rgt of Sturmbannführer Hans Hanke, its pathetically reduced strength does not exceed 30% of its theoretical strength, between uncompensated combat losses and "disappearances". This ghost of a regiment is now hanging around to the east, towards Mandino Selo, in the hope of an unlikely reformation - but at great risk of a painful flanking attack by the mountains.
Understandably, such a disaster is likely to make heads roll - and not just those of Balkan men. The Schutzstaffel, a pseudo-elitist organisation supposedly driven by faith in victory, had never really considered the possibility of people leaving en masse. Its hierarchy is therefore powerless, apart from the crude disciplinary reflex and its violence. As for the measures put in place by Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, it is still too early to measure their effects. In fact, the divisional officer is currently the only one with a strategy for dealing with desertions - yet tomorrow he will also be the first to have to explain his actions!
Objectively speaking, however, we can't throw all the stones at Sauberzweig. His unit is far from the only one to cause problems in the 2. SS-GebirgArmee. In the north, the Kama Brigade is no better - if not downright worse. And that's not to mention the NDH forces, to put it politely. In reality, it is the loyalty of the Bosnians and Croats as a whole that is now in question. It's deplorable, but even Himmler has understood this - and he already has his little idea for solving the problem...

AVNOJ
The fighting has calmed down
Croatian Bosnia: north of Čađavica - Situation still calm for the 7th Banija Division, absolutely not bothered by its opponents and no longer seeing as many "repentants" coming their way as had been the case recently. Which is not to say that there aren't any more, just that there are fewer of them. So, all things considered, Vojislav Djokic should be able to hold on to his win of eight days ago. It's not a strategic victory, but it's worth it! Not to mention the real possibility of moving forward again, towards Banja Luka, Mrkonjić Grad and then Jajce, when the time comes...
.........
Croatian Bosnia: west of Banja-Luka - End of the fighting here: the 43rd 'Istrian' Division (Milan Šakić-Mićun, Marijan Badel) manages to escape from the mousetrap set for it by the two Prinz-Eugen regiments and flee into the Stratinska Rijeka valley, where no one will look for it. Now somewhere around Bronzani Majdan, it should reappear around Sanski Most tomorrow or the day after.
Higher up, in the Ivaštanka valley, the 13. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgsjäger Rgt Artur-Phleps (Standartenführer Ernst Deutsch) pushes on against the 34th "Croatian" Division (Martin Dasović, Francis Knebl) and the 35th Lika Division (Stanko Perhavec, Šime Balen). As far as Omarska to be precise... and no further for the moment. The Nazis' numerical inferiority becomes glaringly obvious - the Germans cannot be everywhere because there are no Croatians to hold the rear!
However, Prijedor has to be retaken one day, if only to secure the Sava valley... Of course, but not just yet! In Banja-Luka, Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger - who has had to move in a hurry to meet the Prinz-Eugen - rails his frustration. And the boss of Kommando Slawonien moves back in, since he too is obviously going to be there for a while.
The AVNOJ is not much happier. In Gospić, some are already criticising comrade Hebrang for not wanting to let go of his precious (and rare!) armoured platoon, which is busy doing nothing in defence against Ivan Brozovic's demotivated Ustachis in the Gračac sector. A somewhat unfair criticism! If 'Fatty' Hebrang was indeed sometimes... timid, he cannot be blamed for not wanting to part with his most powerful element (when he was not sure that the fascists would not attack again!), to launch a dozen or so unreliable machines onto the country roads, without logistics or petrol. The Partisan movement lacks heavy weapons and the resources to back them up. And this is beginning to show, in contradiction with Comrade Walter's ambitions. The problem will have to be solved one day.
In the meantime, it's the keel again. With the Titists at a material disadvantage and the Germans at a numerical disadvantage, the front line - or so it seems! - is unlikely to budge. For its part, the Prinz-Eugen continues to pick up the pieces, before sorting them out. If they're too damaged, they'll go in the bin. As for the rest, Karl Reichsritter von Oberkamp is trying - in agreement with his bosses - to patch up something vaguely reliable. Or at least useful, possibly with the SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Brigade Kama.

Interview with an Ustashi
Choosing sides
"I don't believe that your unit was integrated into the SS units. I beg you to believe that I searched the personnel lists of the Prinz-Eugen, the Handschar, the Kama... yes, even the Kama! And I've found nothing about you,
- That's quite normal. My Vukas had a reputation for reliability, but that didn't mean they were suited to a pitched battle, or even to holding the line.
- Some people didn't mind...
- Absolutely. But our reputation for effectiveness in "small wars" - on the offensive, in terrorist or contested territory - naturally reminded the Nazi hierarchy of our role as hunters of deserters. Let's put it plainly now: we were hunting traitors. Too valuable to be wasted, too despised to be highlighted, we were perfect for doing the dirty work efficiently. In addition to our traditional helping hands, of course.
- I was going to tell you about the SS-Dirlewanger...
- Oh no, sir! I didn't recruit from dungeons or asylums! (The knock on the table startles me and suddenly wakes up the nurse still on duty in the room). If you're going to insult me...
- No, no, no! I wasn't talking about people, I was talking about tactics.
- Comparison isn't reason. We didn't use false uniforms to infiltrate enemy ranks. We didn't raze entire villages to the ground and turn them into giant mousetraps. The only common ground I can envisage is that of light infantry seeking contact in difficult terrain. But with form.
- OK, fine. That was the noble aspect of the job. And as for the less pleasant side...
- Once again we found ourselves playing chaperone to the rear with Ivan Markuli's V Corps. The traditional 'motivator' thrown in amongst the weak links - you know, the new doctrine in force. Basically, nothing new... but with more violence than before. A job that's unpleasant, thankless and frowned upon. If you only knew the looks I was discreetly given every time we crossed from one side to the other...
- Looks of hatred or fear?
- Both. I have to say that, in the weeks or months to come, we were going to give them some reason to fear us."
(Dans la tête du monstre - Conversation avec un officier oustachi, Robert Stan Pratsky, Flammarion 1982)

18th Allied Army Group
Cordial proposal
Belgrade - Start of talks - at this level, we could probably call them negotiations... - between the staffs of the 18th AAG and the 4th Ukrainian Front. Of course, neither Bernard Montgomery nor Fyodor Tolbukhin made the trip. Busy as they are waging the war victoriously on their own, the two great leaders of the United Nations in the region see less and less point in coordinating their efforts. What's the point, with a moribund adversary and an ally whose word is not very reliable?
Around the table, John O'Connor and Sir Arthur Tedder - on the allied side - and General Sergei Biryuzov and Colonel Beliaev - on the Soviet side - are well aware that their positions are virtually irreconcilable. Three subjects were nevertheless on the agenda:
- the organisation of a permanent air traffic control system over Hungary, to optimise efforts and avoid incidents;
- the definition of practical procedures for inter-army communications, in anticipation of the probable arrival of the Soviets in the Temesvár region, i.e. opposite the Yugoslav 1st Corps (which we knew would be susceptible);
- finally, the outline of a possible coordinated action in western Hungary, similar to that imagined during the Other War, when the Armée d'Orient was supposed to force its way through Serbia to reach out to Russia*...
On the first point, the Soviets recently proposed an impassable demarcation line to the Americans, following the 'little incident' at Craiova on May 20th - basically, allied aircraft would no longer be allowed to fly beyond Budapest. In principle, this does not bother the Balkans Air Force all that much... except that it would appreciate it if the VVS also committed to something. Something that the Red Army absolutely does not want to hear about, given that it is "victoriously bearing the brunt of the conflict against the formidable Ostheer". We'll see about that!
As far as inter-army communications are concerned, things aren't much better. The Soviets have already refused American liaison officers, and it seems unlikely that they would accept British ones. As for bringing Communists here, the royalists are likely to cause a few problems! After all, it's still their national territory! Especially in Serbia - and neither Monty nor Churchill are going to rub salt in Peter's wounds for such a small gain. Also, even if the Soviets don't mind announcing progress with a smile, the practical solution to avoid shooting each other remains to be discovered.
Finally, as far as coordinated action is concerned, everyone already knows that it is a pipe dream - the kind of thing that is bandied about out of politeness, to please those journalist kids.
In short, we don't agree on anything. But as the participants in this conference are all in a hurry, they may well be able to reach a minimal agreement to move on very quickly.

Rubble
Brčko - The arrival of the Royal Corps in this sector so critical to Allied logistics does not please everyone - and in particular not the Allied military authorities. In fact, the British army is wondering how on earth (yes, on earth) it is going to manage the presence of these notoriously uncontrollable units, which seem to be in a state of doubt now that their leaders have been sacked from the Palace.
With a bit of luck, the new leaders in Belgrade will solve the problem. In the meantime, we have decided to let these idle militiamen roam between church (Archbishop Nikolaj Velimirović has been announced for a mass blessing on the plain) and tavern. But not too close to sensitive installations...

Repatriation
Around Craiova (Romania) - After several days of airlift from the Soviet capital, Milutin Morača's 1st Yugoslav Brigade begins its redeployment to Yugoslavia, as close as possible to its designated master, Marshal Tito. A long and difficult task - the VVS do not have many transport aircraft to devote to it, and the Capitalists do not do much to make their task easier. As for the Partisans, they are delighted - obviously and sincerely. Even if it seems doubtful, however, that the brigade can claim to be on the line before June 10th at the earliest.

Yugoslavia torn apart
Red Messiah
Yugoslavia - Titist radio stations and newspapers (and even their embryonic newsreels) are quick to announce the imminent arrival of Partisan representatives in Belgrade. Taking advantage of the relays it is beginning to enjoy among a war-weary population bled dry by the bloodshed, the AVNOJ is once again raising its profile, trumpeting and boasting. And this is even truer for its leader.
However - and the Marshal is well aware of this - it will take a little more than arriving as a saviour to conquer and then keep power. Memories fade, reputations get dirty and wartime popularity fades. So, among a thousand songs and a hundred thousand slogans hostile to the old world, to capitalism, to religion... Tito thinks about what he can offer Yugoslavia as a dowry to celebrate their union. One idea had been on his mind for a long time: Austrian Carinthia, Trieste and the Italian possessions on the Adriatic. It is a gift that should please - and what's more, the Marshal is sincerely convinced that his claims are justified. On this subject, the Partisans' position is exemplary: "We don't want what belongs to others, we don't give away what's ours!" Simple words, clear ideas: enough to make us forget the other, more... controversial aspects of his project for the Nation.

The endgame?
White Palace (Belgrade) - A delegation from the Narodni Front centred around Milan Grol (for the Democratic Party) and Franjo Gaži (for the Croatian Peasant Party), but above all led by Milovan Đilas - followed by Roland de Margerie making himself very discreet in his shadow - arrives at the entrance to the royal residence. Standing on the porch of one of the estate's villas, upright as an outraged Justice and surrounded by his guard in ceremonial uniform, is Prime Minister Božidar Purić - who has the onerous task, with his cabinet and on behalf of his sovereign, of coming out on top in the forthcoming negotiations. In fact, the Serb - who is already suspicious of everything and everyone: the Croatian communists, the Croatian fascists, those happy-go-lucky fools in the king's former military cabinet, those false friends in the UK and those spineless French - is dealing with a strong party. His job is simply to safeguard, under the most unfavourable conditions, as much of the royal influence as possible, in anticipation of a possible (and desired) return to the post-war parliamentary system.
In this game, it would be an understatement to say that Purić was the winner. However, he has also known since 1916 - and the French can testify to this - that it is one thing to be defeated, but quite another to capitulate. His opponents despise him, and he knows it. So, with a little finesse, Božidar Purić hopes to play Talleyrand: play his opponents off against each other, buy time, make the other side look unreasonable and ultimately keep more than he should have, with the blessing of the foreigner. The Frenchman he has been presented with, Margerie, will at least serve that purpose. Everyone knows that his Prime Minister, De Gaulle, is anything but anti-royalist and pro-communist.
Besides, everyone would agree: we are in a hurry. So, without Peter- who has not seen fit to honour the negotiators with his presence - the group enters the residence, whose heavy doors close immediately, not without the witnesses noticing that the atmosphere is already particularly heavy.

No more games
Ministry of Defence (Belgrade) - As soon as General Bogoljub Ilić has settled into his new position as Chief of Staff, he gets down to work under the benevolent supervision of General Graham Stone, and with the blessing of Petar Živković, who is clearly more concerned with his own survival. He retains his accomplice Borivoje Mirković on his right at the head of the FARY, and Dušan Simović as his personal adviser (at least for the time being). The April coup trio, together once again to save the country!
And there is work to be done. After the rout of 1941, the losses of 1943 - the bloodletting of Leskovac! - followed by the unpleasant stalemate of Operation Grenade, the royal forces cannot count on massive reinforcements in terms of both manpower and equipment. The state of the country no longer allows it, and the major allies, generous though they are, have grown tired of Yugoslavia, clearly seeing no point in further arming a minor ally in a secondary theatre as the end of the war approaches.
So what is to be done? Content to play the role of auxiliary on the flank of the allied armies, when the Titists are advancing as liberators into the heart of the country? Support them? Join them? Or, on the contrary, stay quietly here, buying time and building up our forces in preparation for a confrontation? No, that would be a little too... obvious.
For the time being, therefore, Bogoljub Ilić chooses a target within his reach, one that would allow him to solve an unpleasant problem while stealing a few weapons and men: the royal freecorps, which he plans to disarm and then disband, before recruiting their men into his units. No one would be asked for their opinion - and even if they were, the British would be in favour, as would the French. That leaves Peter II, who will have to bless this action before it can be carried out.

Emergency measures (reinforced)
Belgrade - Ivan Šubašić has a hard time finding his way to the capital - for lack of official instructions, available aircraft and... pilots, all of whom are detained by more militarily useful tasks, when they aren't simply opposed to the principle of chauffeuring an unknown local politician.
In his quest, however, the Croatian is lucky: he meets Leading Aircraftman Ted Ross, a veteran of lost causes and other dirty tricks, at the edge of the field with his Lockheed Lodestar liaison aircraft. Ross served for a long time as a radio operator in Gibraltar, where he played a small part in Operation Mincemeat and from where he announced to London the death of General Sikorski, before falling here to do VIP transport - essentially for the benefit of the AVNOJ. Ross, who has nothing specific on his itinerary today, is willing to take Šubašić on an excursion. He arrives in Belgrade in the late afternoon. Late and unannounced - but there he is!

* The plan presented from December 9th to 11th, 1916 by General Alekseev, head of the Imperial ME, envisaged a grandiose joint action from Romania and Salonika, converging eventually on Budapest and then Vienna. A French officer described the plan as "full of romantic dreams". The British were more succinct: "Impracticable".

 

[Wings]

 

[Wings]

June 27th, 1944

Futuristic submarines
Onwards and upwards
Blohm & Voss shipyard (Hamburg) - An order for 100 Type-XXVI ocean-going submarines, a Walter turbine model, is placed with the brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm*. Although the yard and its staff have weathered Operation Gomorrah fairly well, almost a year earlier, this new order is greeted with weariness by the two men, as their company is already bursting at the seams with work. But in reality they no longer have any say in the matter, because the ambitious and intractable Karl Saur, Minister Speer's right-hand man, has just placed them under the orders of one of their own directors, who is supposed to be more obedient to the Ministry's orders!
For Walther Blohm, this decision is yet another hardship - one of his three sons has died in battle and a second is a prisoner of war. Not to mention his own recent court martial on a spurious charge: in reality, his offence was to have questioned the methods of Otto Merkel, who oversaw the construction of the Elektro-Boots. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment - fortunately, the Blohm family's network of influence managed to get the sentence overturned. His colleague Franz Stapelfeldt, Managing Director of the Deschimag yard in Bremen, was less fortunate: having repeatedly pointed out the unrealistic deadlines imposed by the Ministry, he was relieved of his duties, arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into prison.
From a technical point of view, the variant chosen for the Type-XXVI, out of the three proposed, is close in size to the Type-VIIC, equipped with 10 torpedo tubes, but without anti-aircraft armament. In fact, the main attraction of this submarine is its top speed when diving, estimated at 24 knots (11 knots on the surface). This makes it the fastest submarine to dive to date, enabling it to catch virtually any prey, but also to escape more easily. It is designed to dive to a depth of 300 metres. However, this performance is open to debate, as other German submarine models designed for such depths have only achieved them at the cost of serious watertightness problems.


* Ernst Voss, the partner of the Blohm brothers' father, sold his shares in the company shortly after the First World War.

 

[Wings]

June 1st, 1944

Returning state
Eye of the hurricane
In insurgent Slovakia - Ján Golian is still doing his accounts - the results are, alas, invariably the same: many conscripts, too few professionals and, above all, not enough arms or ammunition... This shortage takes on dramatic proportions, especially as it increases the doubts that besets the mass of those mobilized and discourages those who are willing to take up the cause. As General Viest writes in his report: "In the last few days, new arrivals have reached around half the districts under our control. The number of people who have joined us so far is around 1,600 and is continuing to grow with the arrival of new recruits from German-occupied territories. But we have no weapons for them. For the moment, they only have 150 rifles to train with. In addition to these new recruits, there are another 5,000 or so reservists who don't receive weapons either. This shortage is the biggest obstacle to building up reserves, the lack of which prevents us from replacing units that have been on the battle line for too long."
Hope... such a rare commodity, and yet so easy to sow, but which also withers very quickly at the first veil in the sky. And there are more than a few clouds on this side of the Carpathians these days. Unfortunately, Ján Golian has nothing to say to Viest other than to state in his order of the day: "Instruct all officers and non-commissioned officers that it is no longer possible to retreat any further on any battlefield! After all, the enemy has no superiority at all, on the contrary, we are numerically superior, and his technical qualities are more than balanced by our excellent terrain". No doubt, no doubt, General... but the basic conscript is not necessarily very keen to sacrifice himself for a cause that seems doomed to failure, because there is no prospect of support. But where are the powerful Allies, the Soviets and the West?
.........
Occupied Slovakia - For his part, Hermann Höfle can only observe that his manpower is becoming ever smaller and that the auxiliaries he is being sent to compensate for the recent departures are of a truly deplorable standard! Rudolf Pilfusek's SS-Heimatschutz Slowakei, made up of local Volkdeutschen, numbers 20,000 idiots just capable of massacring civilians - and even then, when they are armed: they only have one rifle for every three*!
All this is worse than annoying: it's harmful to his strategy. So, although he has to overcome a strong feeling of repugnance, Herr Höfle again speaks to the Hlinka Guard: Slovaks, despicable, ill-equipped, poorly trained but at least vaguely professional and motivated! Their leader is Otomar Kubala - who serves as Monsignor Tiso's chief of staff and therefore in practice commands all his armed forces.
Kubala is an interesting man: a former teacher, a fascist from the start, involved in the Guard from its inception and its commander since 1940, he was such a devoted pro-Nazi Germanophile that Tiso had to let him go. But with the fall of the minister Alexander Mach, who had replaced him, the man is back in business. And he is proving himself capable - very capable indeed. Otomar Kubala manages all the armed elements in Slovakia on behalf of the Reich: the Hlinka Guard, the territorial forces, the police, the gendarmerie, the customs... all in very close collaboration with the Waffen-SS, the Gestapo and the Einsatzgruppen. So why not give him a chance? And the SS had him contacted in Brastislava, where he was cordially invited to form a division with his best elements, a division that would have to line up as soon as possible to take part in the final assault alongside his German brothers.
.........
3-8 Porchester Gate (London) - Initial contacts between the Czechoslovak government in exile and the Slovak delegation - in an atmosphere that is certainly intended to be fraternal, but is in fact much less cordial.
In fact, Edvard Beneš's team, legitimate and recognised by all, undoubtedly considers itself to be in a position of strength - at least from a legal point of view. Assured of the support of the international community, as well as the certainty of now being on the winning side, it believes it can easily impose a return to the old order. As Beneš said last year: "Nowhere in the world does anyone even consider the possibility that Slovakia could be separated from the Czech countries, or even that there could be a federation in which Slovakia would be a separate part". And also, in December, a little more threatening towards those who still doubted, on the Bratislava side: "Either Slovakia and the Slovak nation will undertake military action against fascism, or after the war Slovakia will be judged as a defeated nation, a member of the Hitler coalition!"
It's true, today the President - who has made the annulment of Munich and the resurrection of his nation his life's work - still sees the uprising as an event that fills him with "directly unexpected satisfaction". Proof that the Slovaks will return to the fold of Prague of their own accord. It is not for nothing that the President personally negotiated with the USSR for strong support for the uprising - support whose consequences we are now seeing. As Colonel Heliodor Prokop Píka, the military attaché in Moscow, enthusiastically put it: "We will receive total support, and the quantity and types of weapons will be prepared according to our plan before and during the operation!" Stalin had even personally promised Beneš that the Red Army would provide the insurgents with maximum support as soon as it reached the gates of Slovakia... Obviously, at the time, the Vojd was only too happy to make up for the coldness - the indifference! - of the West.
That is all well and good. But since then, Soviet aid, however substantial and tangible it may be - we're not talking about a few parachute drops like in Warsaw! - seems to be marking time. In any case, it remained insufficient to counter the German efforts. And it is in vain that the President tried to encourage Moscow to do even more, at very regular and very obsequious dinners where he invited comrade Nichols - the Soviet ambassador in London. Beneš, in a fine exercise in opportunism, even dared to justify his contacts with the West at one of these meetings by saying: "We have asked and we are asking for help from the East and the West, but we are not asking for the major powers to change their strategic plans". To which Nichols coolly replied that both Slovakia and Bohemia belong in any case to the USSR's military and political sphere of influence.
It's true - Edvard Beneš's gang have probably irritated everyone by trying to play matchmaker and balancing act... And they're not even very far from asking the Slovaks to refuse capitalist aid, so as not to irritate the Soviets even more. The Slovaks are understandably reluctant to take orders from a small group in the safety of London, who are gambling with their lives on the future of their country for their own profit...
But beyond these dissensions, there is something even better - and yet so obvious: Stalin sees no interest in the restoration of an independent democratic Czechoslovakia, even one aligned with Moscow! Consequently, it is not in his interest for Prague and Bratislava to reconcile too quickly without him - if he even wants Czechoslovakia to be reborn one day! So, with the utmost cynicism, coupled with a certain mastery of manipulation, the Vojd has been secretly encouraging Gustáv Husák's communists for months to consider creating a Slovakian Soviet Socialist Republic. For those concerned, the promise is magnificent: "Why should we seek salvation with Beneš, when the future lies with Stalin?" And in any case, "What could be more beautiful for a conscious communist than to live in a socialist republic associated with the USSR?"
Obviously, the Czechs have just been informed... which should encourage them to willingly (so to speak) make all the concessions necessary for the formation of a future government of national unity, a prerequisite for what might become the 3rd Czechoslovak Republic. All this, moreover, with the blessing of energetic nationalists like Ján Ursíny - who clearly doesn't see where all this is leading him! All the same, it will take time to reach an agreement...

Operation Waldfest
Alsace - The brass knows that the Germans could be violent in their repression (a gentle euphemism...), but until then it was thought that the supposedly Aryan character of the Alsatians-Mosellans would earn them more consideration. This is not the case, and some of the methods used are reminiscent of the brutality of the Balkans or the Eastern Front.
Against Standartenführer Erich Isselhorst, the Alsatian Resistance has already lost the entire local forces of the Alliance network, more than 90% of which had been massacred. In fact, when the FST was disbanded, the Gestapo was quick to take an interest in a senior officer who, despite his respectable tactical knowledge and lack of enthusiasm for the NEF, had not been part of the Vercors Republic: Georges Lamarque. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and an artillery officer who had been wounded in June 1940, Lamarque had narrowly escaped captivity before joining the FST - but only to help develop the Alliance network, on the orders of Marie-Madeleine Méric, who ran the network. In May 1943, Méric, who had to leave for Algiers, had entrusted the local management of operations to Lamarque, who had carried it out successfully... but had been noticed by German counter-espionage.
The Sipo soon suspected that if the man concerned, despite his right-wing political leanings, had not joined the LVF or the Charlemagne, there was something fishy going on. His escape attempt during his preventive arrest when the FST was disbanded confirmed these suspicions. After many sessions of torture, Lamarque began to talk, like so many others before and after him, enabling the Sipo to dismantle a large part of this formidable network (more than 2,000 agents!). Fortunately, after Lamarque's capture, Méric was able to order the dispersal of the various sub-networks, which prevented the movement from being completely neutralised in France (the Alliance network had branches as far away as the Netherlands!)... with the exception of Alsace. Alsace, where Isselhorst extracted the names of his contacts from any captured agent before having him murdered and hiding his body in the cemetery of the Schirmeck security camp.
According to the Resistance fighters who were able to reach the 2nd DB, Saint-Dié and the Rabodeau valley were subjected to a scorched earth policy and the population that was not massacred was deported or fled. In addition to this alarming human situation, there is some worrying information about operations. The FFI had formed a "Brigade Alsace" around three "Groupements Mobiles d'Alsace" spread over three sectors: Vosges, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin. According to the survivors interviewed, the GMA-Vosges no longer exists, most of its members had been captured and disappeared - the informers at Struthof have not seen anyone arrive from the Vosges, and the GMA-Bas Rhin is in the sights of the Sipo.

* That's why this newly-formed unit used to work mainly on building fortifications for the Todt organisation.

 

[Wings]

June 2nd, 1944

The agony of the NEF
Long live Hitler...
Adlerhorst (Hitler's HQ, Hesse) - This is the climax of what would later be called the "Adlerhorst meetings": the meeting between NEF representatives Doriot, Déat and De Brinon and several German leaders, including the Führer himself! The first two Frenchmen have made the trip just for that.
Doriot arrived directly from Neustadt an der Weinstraße, in Westmark, a province ruled by his new friend, the gauleiter Joseph Burckel, and where he has been living since leaving Paris. Déat has just arrived from Nancy, where he has written numerous articles urging the French to "stand up unanimously and definitively alongside Germany, whose reserves now suggest that the illusory progress of the Anglo-Americans and the Bolsheviks will soon be halted, pending the counter-attack". No doubt he is trying to make people forget, with this flurry of rhetoric, that he has left the capital a little too hastily (the day before Abetz's official request to Doriot and Laval!). De Brinon arrives from Plombières, where Abetz had gone to fetch him. No doubt the German ambassador is still playing his counter-power game by pushing another pawn likely to replace Doriot, and no doubt De Brinon is thinking that the Germans might well wish to place a new man in a new situation at the head of the NEF. The NEF government would soon have to go into exile in Germany, as Nancy and Belfort would soon be on the front line!
Laval, although officially invited, continues to play the soloist: he declined on the pretext that, in the current circumstances, "there is no longer a legitimate French government" (sic!). Nevertheless, there are whispers that he would have been happy to send someone as an observer, but he couldn't find anyone: for several months now, his loyal followers have either disappeared or met an unfortunate fate. But absentees are always wrong.
The previous few days have seen a succession of meetings, mostly with Ribbentrop, frequently assisted by Abetz. And then the master of the house crosses the threshold, the Führer himself! The master of a united Europe in the face of Bolshevism and the domination of the City and Wall Street plutocrats. The one who... who looks like a bloated old man. The after-effects of the recent attack, of course, but that much? His hand trembling, Hitler nonetheless greeted his visitors one by one, before launching into a monologue about the horrors of war, his sadness at having to fight England and France, Germany's imminent victory, which would finally appease the continent... In passing, he gave his blessing to this "group of good Frenchmen" ready to take in hand the destiny of their country battered by this regrettable war. But the war is about to end with the imminent victory of Germany, which... yes, the Führer is rambling. Luckily, his speech only lasts about ten minutes before he ends the conversation by leaving the room after giving his hosts a distracted nod.

Returning state
Eye of the hurricane
Insurgent Slovakia - Nothing to report in Slovakia on this humid day, apart from the traditional German stabbings and the Slovakian depression, aggravated by the weather which forbids any air support or supplies. Maybe that will change tomorrow... maybe. And meanwhile, in London, the palaver continues!

 

[Wings]

June 3rd, 1944

Occupied Slovakia
Native reinforcements
Bratislava - Otomar Kubala, head of the collaborationist Hlinka Guard - among many other prerogatives within Mgr Tiso's regime - has received Herr Höfle's kind invitation. The problem is that, even with the best will in the world (of which there is no shortage) and the most fanatical hatred (of which there is no shortage either...), Kubala cannot transform his Hlinka Guard into a real military force with the wave of a magic wand. The Hlinka Guard is only an embryonic political army with a small number of men - admittedly roughly trained (by German instructors), but mainly capable of political repression against gypsies, Jews, striking workers and God knows what other nuisances in the population. That's what is expected of it, and that's what it is built for.
Kubala is able to draw on his emergency companies, formed during the uprising, so that it can be ready to go to the front - even if it means drawing on his youth movement too, as everyone knows that you fight more vigorously before the age of 18. In fact, he wouldn't ask for anything better... but the problem is that it doesn't represent very many people. To do the right thing, and above all to avoid being ridiculed, he also has to call on the Domobrana - the National Guard, the militia of the new Minister of Defence Štefan Haššík, who is trying to exist by creating a sort of counterweight to the so-called 1st Czechoslovak Army. But the Domobrana has fewer than 8,000 men, and not all of them are armed... and even by discreetly recruiting (albeit with the blessing of the Waffen-SS) from the prisoners of Augustín Malár's 1st Division (which had surrendered without a fight on April 16th), it does not reach a total strength of 12,000 men, all formations included! What's more, the former internees don't even try to feign the slightest loyalty to their new posting: a number of them still refuse* to wear the arm's badge!
No matter how hard Kubala and Haššík try, the future 'Hlinka Division' cannot exceed 6,000 reliable men. Unless perhaps the Germans deign to release en masse the large numbers of Slovaks they had interned in April and who are now sleeping in the Stalags. They are supposed to form the so-called Východoslovenská armáda, intended to help defend the country against the Red peril, under the orders of that traitor Golian. Twenty thousand prisoners, no less! But their eventual release is a matter for Berlin - so it would take time. In the meantime, the Hlinka Division is formed in a reduced format in the Nitra region.
And in the meantime, the fighting continues!

Returning state
Czechs and Slovaks
3-8 Porchester Gate (London) - At the same time, talks between representatives of the Czechoslovak government and the underground Slovak National Council produce few results. With the situation on the ground no longer really evolving - or so it seems! - it probably seems logical that everyone should stick to their guns, some in favour of the pre-war order, others in favour of a revision supported (or even guided...) by Moscow. Moscow which, paradoxically, both parties claim to support! At this rate, nothing is likely to come of these bitter-sweet exchanges for a long time to come.

Crushed Hungary
Unconsciousness
Budapest - The Germans having finally informed the Arrow Cross government of the "setbacks" suffered by the Heer in Transylvania - it must have been necessary, if only to invite the Honvèd to press on! - Nemzetvezető Ferenc Szálasi proclaims a "total mobilisation". This is to enable the formation as soon as possible of a new Honvèd with a grandiose order of battle: three armies, twenty-seven divisions, plus four other divisions incorporated directly into the Waffen-SS and already christened: Hunyadi, Hungaria, Gömbös and Görgei.
Posters soon spring up on the walls, showing a virile soldier wearing a shield with a cross and proclaiming an unequivocal slogan: Azért is! (In spite of everything!). Recruitment will be organised in the coming days under the auspices of Lieutenant-General Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner. Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner has recently returned to Hungary - he had (along with others) fled Hungary for the Reich in 1942, following his conviction in the Bácska massacres. But there is no doubt that he will prove effective - at any rate, history will tell.
On another subject, and in order to discourage bad vocations, the Hungarian government creates a new institution: the Nemzeti Számonkérő Különítmény (National Responsibility Detachment). This will have the tough task of "monitoring phenomena that endanger the implementation of Hungarian objectives" and "participating in the denunciation of anti-state and community crimes". It already has four hundred hand-picked members, who are to seize opponents of the regime, in close collaboration with the Gestapo, before handing them over to the courts for trial and execution. In any case, the Curia is now headed by Jenö Szemák, one of Hungary's most zealous fascists**- so we can rest easy about the outcome.

* And they'll refuse to the end!
** OTL, in May 2022, the reinstallation of his portrait on the institution's premises - on the orders of the Orban government - caused a minor scandal.

 

[Wings]

June 4th, 1944

The agony of the NEF
Laval laughing...
Belfort - Although he never stopped trumpeting the fact that he is no longer a leader of the New French State (but to whom did he officially hand in his resignation as President of the NEF?), Pierre Laval likes to receive the latest information on the upheavals of the collaborationist tribe that has taken refuge in eastern France. Although he is already preparing his defence for "afterwards", Laval is the kind of person who always believes in his lucky star, because you never know. And if he could clean up the act of all those who abandoned him last year to join Doriot, he wouldn't hesitate...
It is Abel Bonnard, despite being a member of the PPF, who comes to bring him fresh news. Meetings with Hitler, Ribbentrop and Abetz. Darnand's exploits on the Eastern Front. Déat's rants. Doriot, so close to the Germans that he no longer resides on French soil. Equally disastrous fates, depending on the version of the Allied or Nazi causes. The reappearance of the sea serpent of the merger of all the militias and police forces of the NEF into a single force in the service of Germany - "Inevitably," comments Laval, "the fewer they are, the easier it would be to bring them together!" And the usual rumours predicting that this or that leader, allied or Nazi, "won't be around much longer", or that some secret weapon is going to change the course of the conflict...
But what Laval is most excited about are the official conclusions of the Adlerhorst meetings, namely the creation of a "National Revolutionary Committee" around Doriot. While the term has an effect, it also makes the Auvergnat circumspect: what is new compared to the old government still in place at Matignon at the beginning of the month? Bonnard's answer being rather vague, Laval ends up coming up with his own theory: if there is a committee and not a government, it was quite simply because Doriot hadn't found enough people to put together a government team!
In fact, since the last meeting of the NEF Council of Ministers, held in April under the theoretical chairmanship of Laval (just before he decided to leave for Châteldon), the ministers in question have had a few setbacks. Bucard and Montandon were murdered by the Resistance, following the recent executions of Henriot and Platon and the brutal deaths of Sabiani and Marion in the summer of 1943. Avenol headed for Switzerland. Worse still, Pelorson, Albertini (Déat's right-hand man!), Zoretti, Lafaye and Benoist-Méchin managed to find themselves in the part of French territory that had passed under Allied control, probably hoping to be forgotten. Augier, on the other hand, became close to the Allgemeine SS and acts as war correspondent for the Charlemagne. Mourer dropped his mask and was appointed Kreisleter of Mulhouse (let him enjoy it, as long as Mulhouse is German!). Laborde, playing the sick man, stayed in Paris: knowing that his great enemy, Darlan, is no longer a minister, he counts on the indulgence of the Africans (whom nobody calls that any more)... Does he forget that the Minister of Defence whom he had taken very seriously in 1940 is now President of the Council? Boissel has also stayed in Paris, "to personally oversee the protection of France's artistic heritage". In short, it's hardly surprising that the Government has become a Committee!
"It would only add to the farce if the Committee in question had to leave French soil," laughs Laval. It is true, it is said, that in private, Doriot often spoke of De Gaulle! He likes to claim that, like De Gaulle, he is a man of convictions who had managed to head a government made up of relics of the old regime in order to avert disaster for the country. "If Doriot and his Committee take refuge in Bavaria," comments Laval, laughing, "will they be called the Bavarians?"

The returning state
Eye of the hurricane
Insurgent Slovakia - Nothing to report on the insurgency front today - apart from a certain return to good weather in this sector of the Carpathians, which enables the Slovaks to launch a few strafing missions... and some to carry out several long-planned liaison operations.

Operation Bowery - Who tries nothing...
Rohozná airfield (insurgent Slovakia), 05:30 - The skies are calm - there are no thunderstorms or enemy fighters - when several C-47s with a white star on a blue background land on the runway of the insurgents' main airfield. An unusual sight, especially as they pass in front of the La-5s of the 1st Air Regiment! But that's not all.
At the edge of the runway, around fifty airmen and other "important" prisoners have already been waiting to be evacuated for several days - the fault of the bad weather! And yet they are going to have to wait a little longer: thirty or so men descend from the transports, hastily but carefully unloading several dozen rather heavy crates. There's enough for a few tonnes of equipment...
All stamped "US Army", the crates soon reveal their contents: anti-tank mines, M1 carbines and Garand rifles - all delivered with 15 magazines in advance, bazookas (only twelve, but it's something) and above all six 0.30 machine guns well stocked with ammunition. And there may be more to come... In any case, the Slovaks are delighted. Surprised, it's true - they weren't warned! - but delighted. They believe that no obscure political reason can force them to refuse such gifts. The Soviets on the ground look on in bewilderment and (discreetly) wrath - not to mention the British mission, which is stunned and already suspects that all this would have consequences.

 

[Wings]

June 5th, 1944

Returning state
Operation Bowery - Who tries nothing...
Insurgent Slovakia - The insurgents are very pleased with the little American gifts they received the day before. Naturally, the Slovakian commanders make a point of giving them wide publicity, in order to bolster troop morale... while (clumsily) trying to hide their capitalist origins.
A futile exercise, of course... In fact, just to dot the i's and cross the t's, the planes with the white star are back this morning, roaring as loudly as the day before! This time it is two B-17s escorted by a whole patrol of P-51Bs from the 52nd Fighter Group, which do not land... except for two, and quite involuntarily! The Mustangs of Capt. James 'Tim' Otey and Lt. Alexander F. Watkins have to land in Rohozná due to mechanical problems. The first aircraft crashes on landing. The second, which lands undamaged but is judged to be just as irreparable, is simply pushed off the runway and abandoned. Their weapons are quickly recovered, but the pilots have to make their own way back aboard the Fortresses...
It may seem a small detail, but these two brightly coloured wrecks (yellow tails, red noses!) would be an increasingly visible and irritating reminder of the presence of Western forces in Slovakia over the following days. Forces that the Soviets would very much like the Slovaks to kindly ask them to leave... Yes - but to do that, you'd have to be able to replace everything they have to offer!

Crushed Hungary
Shoah: a true professional
Budapest - Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss has to admit that after a week of Aktion Höss, the situation is decidedly no longer viable. With the bombings, the shortage of trains and the priority military convoys (is it his fault that everything is going wrong at the front?), there are now almost 15,000 Jews waiting around the station. They are swarming, complaining loudly - which impresses some Magyars. Besides, it isn't efficient and encourages people to escape.
Höss therefore takes two major decisions, which the Arrow Crosses have to implement.
- Close the ghetto - where around 250,000 Jews are still hiding - until the stock can be emptied.
- To pacify the stockpile in question, start undressing the Jews now. It is well known that naked people - especially young women - are more docile. They feel powerless and are unable to resist. This will make it easier to take them on board and drive them to their destination.

 

[Kotka]

@Wings The updated map of Europe on May 31th 1944 is ready.

 

[Wings]

Map by @Kotka

 

[Wings]

June 6th, 1944

Returning state
Eye of the hurricane
Insurgent Slovakia - The Soviet mission posted to the Slovak National Council is delighted to announce to its partners the imminent arrival of "significant reinforcements" and the forthcoming delivery of a "substantial quantity of weapons", which will be unloaded at the Rohozná airfield.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, some may be regretting the recent loss of a large number of paratroopers in Bosnia... But that's no problem - the USSR has the resources. And it even seems willing to put them on the table. In short, it seems that, against all odds, the very modest Slovakian base is becoming the focus of a kind of competition between the major allied powers... Friendly competition - even fraternal competition, it goes without saying.

Operation Bowery - Who tries nothing...
Insurgent Slovakia - No new White Star deliveries for the insurgents today - the weather is just too bad. But it gives the lucky few who have benefited from the previous ones a chance to familiarise themselves with their new gifts.

 

[Wings]

June 7th, 1944

The agony of the NEF
... Crying Laval
Belfort - Cecil Von Renthe-Fink, the Reich's diplomatic representative in the person of Pierre Laval, brings a late afternoon telegram in German, which he translates for Laval in almost accentless French: "It should be borne in mind that the Belfort sector will shortly become a combat zone. Recent changes in the military situation make the immediate transfer of President Laval to a location outside the combat zone necessary. It goes without saying that the French Head of State will be able to return to France as soon as the military situation permits." The departure is scheduled for 06:00 the following day.
Laval is not happy about this ukase, to say the least!

Returning state
Eye of the hurricane
Occupied Slovakia - Otomar Kubala's Hlinka Division is declared operational at Glina - meaning that the German command has deemed that enough people have been assembled and enough rifles distributed for this unit to have a reasonable chance of influencing, even marginally, the course of the coming battle. In fact, it is never anything more than a "technical" division - a collection of individual units modelled on the now-interned Východoslovenská armáda, in which Slovaks were still forbidden even to try to recruit.
The Hlinka differs from the other Axis divisions assembled in a hurry only in its (small) size: 4,500 men. Approximately, and that's just scraping by! Worse still, part of this troop remains deployed in the rear, to "help solve the Jewish problem". As for its best elements, they have already been rounded up by Erwein von Thun-Hohenstein's new Kampfgruppe Edelweiss - a former Brandenburger, who commands a kind of gang that is exotic to say the least, but already reputed to be particularly effective in "pacifying" the rear lines*.
And then there's everything else. Kubala, although the head of the unit, leaves the actual command of the unit to his deputy Jozef Gašparík. The Hlinka nevertheless heads for the south bank of the Hron, near Zvolen, the scene of the German defeat. It is to contribute to the final assault, alongside the new SS Horst-Wessel division expected from Hungary, the Tatra, Dirlewanger and Osttürkisher units, German territorials and whatever else the Axis can muster in the vicinity, for want of Landsers or even Volksgrenadiers.

Operation Bowery - Who tries nothing...
Insurgent Slovakia - The weather is again not permitting any deliveries of any kind today - which seems to please the Soviet advisors. They are constantly telling anyone who will listen that, as soon as circumstances permit, we'll see what we'll see.

Crushed Hungary
Flower in the gun
Arad - Arrival of the 17. SS-Freiwilligen Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresa (Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SS August Zehender) - in the midst of convoys heading to and from the front, in a feverish atmosphere. No more operational than when it left Győr a week ago, the SS division returns to its temporary billets, within rifle range of the front, to... complete its training! And quickly, while we're at it.

* Kampfgruppe Edelweiss, or Abwehrgruppe 218, is made up as follows:
- detachment of "Partisans" under the direct command of Major Erwein von Thun-Hohenstein (deputy: Hauptmann König): around 25 German soldiers plus 25 "returned" Slovak ex-prisoners.
- Russian (Cossack) detachment: around 50 men (Waffen-Oberscharfűhrer Berlisov).
- Caucasus detachment: around 50 men (Waffen-Oberscharfűhrer Khan).
- Slovak detachment: around 130 men (Captain Nižňanský).

 

[Wings]

June 8th, 1944

Returning state
Storm warning
Occupied Slovakia - Obviously informed of current events on the Russian front - and they're not very reassuring, to say the least! - Hermann Höfle is ordered to resume "without delay and as quickly as possible" his offensive actions against the insurrection, i.e. before the arrival of the promised reinforcements.
In fact, in Berlin, the existence - for almost two months already! - of this irritating Slovak redoubt, is becoming annoying. And even if the German command has generally accepted the Slovaks' betrayal, the Soviets should not be allowed to join forces with them either. Höfle is willing to click his heels and obey - it's logical, he's acting as you'd expect any Nazi leader to act. Nonetheless, he gets to wait for the weather to return so that the offensives can be launched. After all, we're not Russians, and he doesn't have much manpower - so let them at least see where the shots are coming from!

Bad mood
OKH (Berlin) - Herr Höfle is right to be sparing with his forces... At the same time, the German command is categorically refusing Bratislava's request to recruit from the ranks of the now-defunct Východoslovenská armáda. It seems that in Berlin, after the very long series of successful and unsuccessful (but always... unpleasant!) betrayals of the last two years, these so-called repentants are not to be trusted not to turn their weapons immediately against their protectors, should they be offered another chance tomorrow. You know what they say: once a traitor, always a traitor... And there aren't many people left in the Reich who trust the Central European auxiliaries.
So much the worse for the loyal Hlinka Guard! It will participate in the repression with what it has at its disposal. And the Slovaks captured on April 16th will remain in the Stalag until the end of the war, or almost.

 

[Wings]

June 9th, 1944

The agony of the NEF
A castle in Germany
Sigmaringen (Baden-Württemberg) - "The castle is huge and bizarre, the town small." It is with this sullen description that Marcel Déat evokes the place where French personalities who had played into Germany's hands are supposed to settle, waiting for the long-awaited German counter-attack to put an end to the Allies' illusions. However, as the days go by, the list of names grows longer and longer, dispelling any hope that the situation would improve: Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Orléans, Paris, Reims, Dijon... One after the other, France's major cities are liberated... er, invaded by the Allies.
Sigmaringen becomes the headquarters of Jacques Doriot's Comité National-Révolutionnaire. The owners, from the second branch of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, were victims of the war's upheavals: King Michael of Romania had defected to the Allies, but he was a cousin of the master of the house, Prince Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen! The Nazis decided to make the prince pay for his cousin's betrayal; he and his family were arrested and placed under house arrest in the village of Wilflingen, several kilometers away. This gave the Comité National-Révolutionnaire a free hand.
Chaired by Jacques Doriot, the CNR includes five other members:
- Marcel Déat (delegate for national solidarity and the protection of French workers in Germany),
- Fernand de Brinon (delegate for questions of justice and the national forces of the LVF, the French Waffen-SS and the State Secret Police),
- General Marcel Bridoux (delegate for the protection of prisoners and their aid organizations),
- Jean Luchaire (Delegate for Information and Propaganda),
- and the loyal Victor Barthelemy (vice-president of the Committee and responsible for relations with the German authorities).
Two former members of the last Doriot government are missing from this list. Abel Bonnard, an intellectual and academician, member of the PPF but close to Laval, has not hesitated to openly flaunt his support for the Occupation authorities, but sees no point in being part of a masquerade of a government when virtually the whole of France is now in the hands of the legal government led by De Gaulle. The second, Georges Scapini, paid for his unpopularity with French prisoners (but Bridoux is no better regarded) and, above all, for the fact that he had been in office since 1940, and tended to speak a little too often of the "late Maréchal", with whom "things would surely have been very different". A forward-looking man of action, Doriot decided to dispense with the services of the blind war veteran, who is to vegetate in Sigmaringen among the refugees of all kinds piling up in the hitherto peaceful Swabia.
The first and only notable decision taken at the Committee's first meeting is to announce the transfer to "French units fighting for the future of Europe" of all members of the various armed forces of the New French State. These personnel would have the choice (at last...) between joining the Wildflecken camp, where they would receive rapid training before being sent to reinforce the Charlemagne "Division", or going directly to reinforce the LVF, entangled in the repression of the Slovak national uprising. Nonetheless, a new decision by the Committee tempers the first decision by setting up a Revolutionary Honor Guard to protect Committee members (one is never so well served...). This Guard would in fact (the Germans would see to it) group together the oldest, least motivated and quite simply least competent in the profession of arms among the personnel concerned.

Returning state
Storm warning
Occupied Slovakia - The weather continues to be changeable in Slovakia today: not really good enough for flying (except in the morning), still wet and windy. But veterans of the 2nd Parachute Brigade, the Foch Battalion and, more generally, of all the remaining professional troops in the 1st Czechoslovak Army, make no mistake: a bad wind is blowing. And the movements that everyone can see from the trenches does not deceive: towards Ostré, the two strange units that have relieved KG Schäffer are multiplying bloody coups de main against Lt-Colonel J. Černek's 6th Battle Group Zobor, in search of a weak point. On the road to the Bartoška spring, facing Lt-Colonel Jozef Tlach's 1st Battle Group Kriván, the Tatra visibly gathers its machines - in response, the Hurban armored train is reloaded...
The Soviets, for their part, indicate that the sky will be clear enough tonight for further "transfers" - if the Slovaks will turn on their improvised beacons and be courteous enough to clear the capitalist wrecks cluttering up the runway. And in the lines along the Hron, in liberated Zvolen, the French seem to hear a cry rising up from the opposing positions: Na stráž! We're defending*... Opposite them - but they don't know it - Hermann Höfle is watching them from afar. He is in no hurry...

Crushed Hungary
Enthusiasm
Budapest - Now that Transylvania has - temporarily! - fallen into vile Communist or even Romanian hands, the government of Nemzetvezető Ferenc Szálasi continues to oppress its country, in absolute and feverish disorganization met with cautious indifference from the population. In fact, no one believes the Hungarian fascists to be capable of even approaching the objectives they have set themselves. As for the Honvèd soldiers, they either have their convictions or they're fighting a war - or both at the same time, but in any case they're busy.
In truth, only the Germans still seem to attach any importance to the gesticulations of the Arrow Crosses. To solve the "Jewish problem", of course. And also, incidentally, by hastily organizing the relocation of arms factories from the suburbs of Budapest to Austria: machine tools, personnel, know-how - all for protection against bombing, of course. On this point, the obsequious little fatty Emil Szakváry, puppet Minister of Industry, won't contradict them...
For his part, seemingly vaguely aware of his team's ineffectiveness, the Nemzetvezető today appoints a "Council of Three" to help him govern. This Council includes the Minister of Religion and Education, Ferenc Rajniss, the Minister of Defense, Károly Beregfy, and Sándor Csia, a personal friend of Szálasi, a member of the Arrow Crosses of course. Surely, this will make Hungary a better place!

Shoah: a true professional
Budapest - Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss continues to work on the destruction of Hungary's Jews, despite all the setbacks and other blows of fate designed to hinder his work. Today, he realizes that he was right to temporarily halt extractions from the ghetto: of the 15,000 individuals who were crammed into the departure stations four days ago, only around 6,000 remain. And the rest are keeping quiet, thanks to our wise measures!
Admittedly, the pace of transfers to Auschwitz remains lamentably slow (one or two convoys a day, barely 3,000 people at most), but Höss does not despair of succeeding in stabilizing the process... In which case, it will still take three months to complete his task. But the SS man isn't planning to stay in Budapest for three months - he has work to do at the camp. So, holding hands with those Arrow Cross morons, he begins to organize daily work in Taylorian fashion, with well-defined elementary tasks, production quotas and weekly targets... Once that's done, he decides to give his pupils a week's observation time to prove themselves.

* This is the slogan that accompanies the Slovak fascist salute.

 

[Wings]

June 10th, 1944

Returning state
Storm - Operation Zuzana
Insurgent Slovakia - It had been brewing since at least the day before, and dawn did nothing to disabuse worried veterans: the German army is on the attack against the insurgent stronghold! This is clearly the final offensive, designed to wipe out the entire 1st Czechoslovak Army.
First of all, at dawn, German aircraft appear over the liberated territory and carry out a veritable bludgeoning - on a small scale, but that's a lot around here - of all Slovak positions, supposed insurgent assembly points and, finally, the Rohozná airfield. Of course, the Lavotchkin La-5s of the 1st Regiment took off... but, as they were warned of the enemy's arrival very late, due to the lack of effective aerial surveillance, they didn't catch up with anyone. No matter - they are needed above all to boost troop morale...
In fact, after the bombs and the artillery, several German twin-engine planes (Dornier 215s, and even old-model Bf 110s) fly over the lines, strafing them and dropping leaflets calling for immediate surrender "while the Reich still shows itself to be merciful, so as not to die in a losing battle". But we all know that the motivation of the conscripts (in particular!) is already shaky - so Ján Golian's staff is in dire need of a quick show of tricolor roundels to blur this disastrous image.
But for the time being, the show of force is indeed on the German side: the attack is general, from the south and on five major axes: 1/ Jelšava - Muráň - Červená Skala, 2/ Muráň - Tisovec - Brezno, 3/ Rimavská Sobota - Hnúšťa, 4/ Lučenec - Kriváň - Zvolen, 5/ Krupina - Dobrá Niva - Zvolen. Fortunately for the Slovaks, the Horst-Wessel still hasn't arrived and these actions lack power. However, Hermann Höfle does manage to concentrate two SS Kampfgruppen, KG Wittenmayer and KG Henrici, deployed at Kráľova (south of Zvolen) and on the Poprad-Telgárt road, respectively, in the middle of the territorials. The former is made up of a hard core of Ukrainians borrowed from the Galizien, which is not a good sign - we all know that Slovaks and Ukrainians don't like each other, and even less so today*. As for the second, it's the vanguard of the Horst-Wessel, bringing together its most reliable elements... or the least poorly trained, as the case may be.
In the north, on the other hand, Hermann Höfle's lack of resources means that he is happy to harass the insurgents with the Dirlewanger and the Osttürkisher, on the road south of Ružomberok - without much success so far, but it still bleeds the enemy and cost him ammunition. And finally, as usual, the 178. PzGr Tatra attacks on the road to the Bartoška spring.
These powerful, concentric assaults were of course very hard on the Slovaks, whose reserves were stretched to the limit, making it impossible for them to mount an effective response. To the south-east, on the road to Brezno via Muráň and Tisovec, the 2nd Battle Group Fatra (Colonel Michal Širica), centred around the "regular" 2nd Infantry Regiment, certainly still has the resources to cope... And the ground to give up if that is impossible. On the other hand, it risks being caught between forces coming from the south and KG Henrici descending from the north. Similarly, in the north-west, the 1st Battle Group Kriván (Lt-Colonel Jozef Tlach) is still holding the Tatra with the help of the Hurban train... at the cost of a handful of kilometers, however, and it is to be feared that by retreating further, we will end up on open ground - in which case things would be much more difficult against the panzers.
But perhaps the worst is to be found at Zvolen, on the banks of the Slatina - an area that was thought to be relatively favorable to defense. On the left, the 4th Battle Group Moray (Colonel Mikuláš Markus) and the 3rd Battle Group Gerlach (Colonel Pavol Kuna) successfully counters the attacks of several German territorial units. On the other hand, the Slovakian right flank, under the combined pressure of KG Wittenmayer and Hlinka Division, cracks completely. They flee at the first sight of Panzers coming down the Lučenec road - but these are only modest Panzer 35t! The front quickly retreats as far as Lieskovec, and by evening the envelopment of Zvolen is already feared.
Understandably, the Slovak command is as worried as it is divided: to evacuate would mean conceding the entire Hron valley and risking a breakthrough as far as Banská Bystrica, which would probably mean the end of the insurrection. Counter-attack? Yes, but with what? Fortunately, the 1st Army still has two sizeable reserves: a few thousand paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade (Lieutenant-Colonel Jaroslav Vedral-Sázavský) and the Foch Battalion - around 400 Frenchmen under the command of Lieutenant Georges Barazer de Lannurien. Time to concentrate them, then we'll see.
.........
Rohozná airfield - Since last night, the VVS have been going non-stop: barely disturbed by this morning's (very modest) bombardment - which, as luck would have it, takes place between two rotations - a dozen Lisonov Li-2s take turns unloading dozens of crates of decommissioned small arms: Mosin-Nagant rifles, Maxim machine guns, anti-tank rifles... These antiques would be laughed at in today's Red Army.
Here, the Slovaks find them splendid! And they're going to put them to good use very quickly!

RSI
Unlucky Japanese
Salo - A band of Partisans surround the villa housing the diplomatic services of the Social Republic. This is made all the easier by the fact that Mussolini (presumably their initial target) is not present, so the place is sparsely guarded. The occupiers are disarmed and files are rounded up by Partisans before Fascist and German reinforcements arrive. Finally, unexpected prisoners: Japanese officers from Ambassador Baron Hidaka's military mission are taken to the mountains...

* As early as 1943, when these troops were passing through Slovakia before Zitadelle, the German authorities noted: "There is a lot of talk among the Slovak population about the Ukrainian soldiers currently stationed in the country. One can deduce from these discussions that these soldiers are generally not much appreciated. In Slovakian circles hostile to Germany, they are seen as mercenaries, who are not fighting for the ideals of a New Europe, but simply for their own personal enrichment through looting and robbery. Even Germany's friendly circles complain bitterly about this training." Another report by the Sicherheitdienst stated a little later: "Slovaks complain about the Ukrainians and claim that they are a gang of thieves responsible for many misdeeds. According to them, the Ukrainians especially hate the Bolsheviks and always say that they cause much more trouble than the Germans. Some of the Ukrainians, according to Slovak statements, are particularly unreliable and are even said to do business with the Partisans. Slovak circles, especially among farmers, reacted with great relief to the announcement that all Ukrainian military forces would be withdrawn from Slovakia and replaced by Hungarian forces. The rural population would be very happy because the Hungarians are much more "reasonable", as they say, i.e. more humane."

 

[Wings]

June 1st, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Operation Südwall - The improvised roadblock
HG B HQ (Széki Palace, Cluj-Napoca) - The Südwall maneuver continues - with a feverish haste that can perhaps prove detrimental to the Axis. In fact, between von Arnim's 2. PanzerArmee (reduced to rubble), Hollidt's 17. Armee (whose withdrawal on its right flank is attracting attention) and the reorganization of the 11. Armee, the German high command doesn't have enough eyes to control everything. Especially with Field Marshal Kluge constantly peering over the shoulders of his subordinates, anxious to preserve both his forces and his position. He hasn't forgotten the stab in the back he received after Zitadelle! So he's keen to control even the smallest marching orders.
In short, in this atmosphere of upheaval, confusion and even great disorder, some things get swept under the carpet. Not least the situation in the Gurghiu and Harghita mountains, where it's hard to imagine (especially in the absence of aerial reconnaissance) that the Reds will try to get through. What's more, the rain returns in the late afternoon...

Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - Leonty Cheremisov's 16th Army finally captures the Rotunda Pass, after almost three days of fighting against a now bloodlet 88. ID, despite the support given to its defense by the few surviving StuG IIIs of the 202. StuG Abt (Major Dr Hans Marder). Georg von Rittberg knows he can no longer resist here, or even delay the enemy - to insist is to risk annihilation. So he withdraws a handful of kilometers to Valea Mare, in the Someșul Mare valley. Once again, narrow, hostile terrain, unsuitable for the offensive, where it will be possible to play with the enemy... for a little while. In any case, his division is now located beyond the Südwall, in a sector where he's only holding on because it's easier to defend than if we retreated towards Rodna in order to comply with the strict alignment of the maps. Of course, this will have no influence. In fact, at this time of day, the Red Army appears to be well and truly exhausted, and in no state to launch itself violently into a new breakthrough.
Unfortunately for the Axis, this is not the case in the Bistrița Valley. Here, Ivan Lazarev's 2nd Armored Corps largely got past the bulk of the Fascist defenses - Georg Pfeiffer's 94. ID has, so to speak, been tumbled and thrown aside, east of Piatra Fântânele and into the Ciosa sector, where it is now retreating in front of Filipp Zhmachenko's 47th Army. Lazarev's tanks look set for a major raid: by morning, they had already entered Prundu Bârgăului, shaking off Pfeiffer's feeble defenses and spreading panic among the German services. The armored corps cuts its path and heads straight ahead. Before evening, it is in sight of Bistrița - the Südwall line has already been breached!
Further west, in the Mures Gorge, German infantry continues to flee for their lives. Passing the collection line formed at Răstoliţa by the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Hans Korte) and the Nashorns of the 560. schw. PzJ. Abt (Major Rudolf Markowz) - we're waiting for the Communist tanks! - the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow) manages to escape destruction. It withdraws to Reghin, to reform before an inevitable and future return to the line as quickly as possible towards Bistrița, with a few PanzerJägers. But behind them, disaster strikes. What remains of the 320. ID is mercilessly overtaken by Kyrill Moskalenko's 38th Army, surrounded and practically annihilated west of Toplița, towards Stânceni. Georg-Wilhelm Postel* is captured - his unit, which had hardly been supported by anyone until the fighting for Lacu Roşu (and even then, the reinforcements very quickly moved back to other sectors!) had not been undeserving. But it simply no longer exists.
Further down, on the Bucin Pass, the deadly face-off continued between Erich Schneider's 14. PanzerGrenadier under Erich Schneider and Vladimir Baskakov's 8th Mechanized Corps. The former doesn't want to withdraw and the latter can't maneuver in these thick woods - the fight looks set to last... for some time yet. The rain, the superiority of the German optics and the courage of many grenadiers - who lay magnetic mines on the chassis of the Soviet machines - once again enables the defenders to hold out. But at a high price, and probably not for long.
Meanwhile, the 5th Tank Army is maneuvering with little or no opposition. Andrei Kravchenko has given his orders, which can be summed up in a few words: south, full speed ahead! The 4th Armored Corps (M.G. Fomichkov), the last cog in this immense unit, finishes concentrating at Gheorgheni. Without wasting any time, it sets out to follow the route of its counterpart, the 9th Mechanized Corps (M.I. Savelyev), in the Târnava Mare valley. The latter has already crossed the Harghita hills to reach Sub Cetate, just 17 kilometers from Odorheiu Secuiesc - a communications node located behind a Südwall that has also been breached here, and opening straight onto Târgu Mureş, the headquarters of HG B. Savelyev is barely slowed down by the mud and a few roadblocks - not all of whose defenders had even been warned of his arrival. In truth, at this hour, the German command is probably still unaware of his presence...
Finally, on the left flank, Andrei Getman's 16th Armored Corps continues to play with the debris of the 306. ID - like a cat with a mouse caught in the middle of the living room. Lacking the manpower to destroy it and needing (also!) to seize Miercurea Ciuc, Getman nevertheless lets his prey slip away - which retreats as far as Băile Tușnad. Molested, bloodied, mutilated but still alive, it heads for Augustin.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - The Axis front begins to pivot around Sfântu Gheorghe. The Germans take advantage of the fact that the L. AK is crossing the Olt at Feldioara - before deploying on the Perșani mountain passes, followed by the remnants of the 321. ID and a cohort of stragglers up to Vâlcele.
Georg Jauer would very much like not to hang on to this hinge with his 20. PzGr any more than is strictly necessary. Just as well, Vasily Glagolev's 9th Army has not regained its vigor. The mechanized division can therefore (more or less) serenely retreat towards Sfântu Gheorghe, which it bypasses from the south, leaving Wolfgang Lange's 339. ID to creep towards the Baraolt mountains.
Jauer fears no overflow to his right. To the south, the 83. ID of Theodor Scherer naturally takes over, descending from the Buzău pass to Teliu - and was being pursued rather weakly by the 62nd Army (Vladimir Kolpakchi), delayed by the terrain and the fatigue accumulated over almost a hundred kilometers of assaults in difficult terrain. By evening, the German line is holding, year in, year out, from Vâlcele to Ileni and Prejmer, with the Olt, which flows from north to south in this sector, at its center. During the night, we'll make a new leap towards Feldioara and the Bod crossroads, as we redeploy all around.
Sfântu Gheorghe is thus abandoned without a fight - good news, of course... at least for some. Even if, on leaving, the Arrow Crosses - here as elsewhere - took the time to hastily empty the ghetto set up in April, taking with them the 850 Jews in it. The Hungarian administration had taken lessons from the Germans**... The Frontovikis thus take a town devoid of opponents - apart from a few stragglers and a few lunatics. And the red banner is quickly hoisted over the Beör Palace. The Hungarian Sepsiszentgyörgy, the Germanic Sankt Georgen, in any case one of Transylvania's oldest cities (it is said to have been founded in 1332), becomes - on paper - Romanian again. And probably for good this time!
Another city abandoned by the Germans is Kronstadt, where destruction and evacuation continues in a frenzied atmosphere. The city, already badly damaged by the 1940 earthquake and then by Allied bombing raids, is now facing new calamities. In the "Finance Palace", documents are being burned. In the IAR factory, seized last December, machinery and untransportable stock are being blown up. And in the Black Church - Die Schwarze Kirche, a magnificent example of 14th-century Gothic architecture... they pray.
In front of the town, we're fighting too. To the east, the 95. ID (Gustav Gihr) and 342. ID (Heinrich Nickel) continue to hold on to their positions at Săcele, in the face of a 6th Guards Army (Pavel Batov) that is pushing harder and harder, and which is now - and this is new! - the first machines of the 6th Guards Armored Corps (Alexander Shamshin), arriving from the Prahova valley. Having to fall back to avoid being overwhelmed, the German infantry retreats a few blocks towards Dealul Melcilor - Snail Hill. Before nightfall, certain that the fight here has become pointless, and knowing that the XI. AK is retreating back to its final positions at Şinca Nouă and the Perșani Pass in front of the Romanians - the two divisions withdraw for good towards a Bod-Coldea line, linking up with the LIV. AK and before it's really too late.
Then there's the case of the Olt valley. Here, Fyodor Tolbukhin understands that he can never break through. So he leaves it to Valerian Frolov's 14th Army to amuse the defenders of the Turnu Roșu Pass alone - the two divisions of Philipp Kleffel's XXX. AK, as the 12. LFD and the 13. Panzer have already gone back into reserve towards Sibiu. Instead, the Soviet field marshal decides to redeploy the two mechanized units he has retained in the Brasov sector. Dimitri Ryabyshev's 12th Mechanized Corps - a little damaged but still going strong, of course. But also the 3rd Guards Armored Corps (Mikhail Panov) - which has hardly given anything away so far, for lack of the slightest opportunity. Which could change, now that we're on open ground.

Proletarian aviators of all countries, unite!
Franche-Comté - Vistule
Łomża - "The next day, Colonel Vallin, after a record-breakingly fast journey, returns from Moscow. He brings mail and news.
- Gentlemen", he tells us, "in the month of March, the number of homologated victories of the GC Besançon was seventy-seven, giving us second place among French fighter groups in operations on all fronts. What's more, a Supreme Prikaz, which Stalin insisted on signing, adds the name Vistule to the Escadre Franche-Comté, to celebrate the part we played in the fighting to reach and defend this river. From now on and forever, the squadron will be called Franche-Comté - Vistule.
As a result, they want to see us in Moscow as a matter of urgency. Tomorrow, a special train will pick up a delegation from each group, Besançon, Lons-le Saunier and Belfort, for a presentation of decorations at the embassy.
The BAO's feverish preparations and General Zakharov's dozens of whirlwind inspections seemed to lend credence to the Cuisine bouthéon thesis. But no. The Minister doesn't come to his soldiers, they come to him. Within twenty-four hours, the Soviet high command had decided that the equivalent of a regiment would go to Moscow to be presented to the representative of the French government.
Goodbye cockroach! Goodbye sadness! Mątwica is in an uproar. Everyone is jubilant, laughing, wiggling, clapping each other on the back or on the thighs alone. The wide grin of a great day is on everyone's face.
In the general euphoria, Vallin announces: "Albert, twenty-three victories, and De la Poype, fifteen victories, are promoted to the dignity of Heroes of the Soviet Union!" For the Lons and Belfort, Commandant Fourquet and Captain André Menant are similarly promoted - that crazy Menant has managed to shoot down something with his bomber again***! From now on, they will wear on their chests the famous 34-gram gold star and the accompanying Order of Lenin. Masquelier and Risso will wear the Order of Alexander Nevsky on their jackets. All will be decorated with great pomp and ceremony in Moscow in a few days' time.
It's while we're greeting these glorious decorations with loud shouts that the trucks arrive to take us to Łomża, from where a special train will take us to Moscow amidst the jubilant French colony."
(Captain François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, reed. J'ai Lu, 1996)

* Sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment by Soviet justice for war crimes, Postel died of tuberculosis in detention, during the winter of 1953.
** Prefect Ernő Gaáli, his deputy József Abraham and the head of the gendarmerie, locotenant-colonel Tivadar Lóhr, had all taken part (among others), during May 1944, in a conference organized in Târgu Mureș by the Waffen-SS.
*** A Bf 110 G, to be precise.

 

[Wings]

 

[Wings]

June 2nd, 1944

Baltic Sea
Naval Commandos
Port of Kronstadt - "Following on from its recent (and worrying!) discoveries in the Baltic Sea, the ROSNAZ-KBF was ordered to identify, locate and - if possible - destroy the guidance device previously reported. There was only one way to do this: undercover infiltration into enemy territory. Over the next few days, several fast ships sailed through the rain in search of a favourable landing point in the Curonian Spit. And they soon found one, some twenty kilometres east of Königsberg."
(Commandos in the Baltic and Danube: Soviet Naval Spetsnaz in World War II, Yuri Strokhnin, Naval Institute Press 1996)

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - A new low-pressure system from the Baltic hits the Carpathians, preventing air support but also (and above all) completely blinding reconnaissance - which of course has some consequences for ongoing operations, especially on the German side.
In the Someșul Mare valley, there is a lull. With the Rotunda Pass taken, Leonty Cheremisov does not really have the means to break through the defences set up by the 88. ID under Georg von Rittberg. Not without first redeploying his artillery, in any case - for lack of aircraft. So for the time being, the Soviets are happy to probe the defences around Valea Mare, in a succession of fairly violent infantry clashes, albeit with no immediate prospect. For Kluge and Heinrici, this is obviously a good thing: the extreme left flank of the Südwall seems to be holding out. This is fortunate, because everywhere else is more uncertain...
Further south, the 2nd Armoured Corps reaches Bistrița, practically in the rear of the 88. ID, and captures it before noon in a sudden assault. The garrison, made up of Hungarian territorials poorly reinforced by wounded veterans and surprised administrators, had hardly had time to even begin preparing its defence. Ivan Lazarev rushes a major city of 16,000 inhabitants - the former free city of Ludovic d'Anjou, the German Bistritz, the Hungarian Beszterce*. However, he has no intention of stopping there - especially as, behind him, the 47th Army continues to push back the debris of the 94. ID with determination (and without too much effort), - his only opponent! - towards Ivaneasa and the Ilva valley... somewhere behind Rittberg, where they would be picked off later.
All this is already of no concern to the armoured general. Already 40 kilometres deep in the Fascist lines, he leaves it to others to completely occupy Bistrița**, where he retains only minimal forces. The bulk of the columns of the 2nd Armoured Corps bypass the town to the east and Jelna, in order to continue immediately towards Beclean. From there, it could either threaten Baia Mare, with its precious metal mines and, no doubt, the rear of the 1st Hungarian Army, or descend towards Cluj-Napoca, in order to complete the destruction of the Fascist rear... By evening, Lazarev has already come more than halfway, seizing the Sărățel crossroads in particular and approaching Șintereag at midnight by going up the Lencința. And it's not very clear who exactly, at that hour, can stop it.
In theory, the Axis would have to counter-attack from the south, taking advantage of the adventurous nature, to say the least, of the opposing armoured forces. But the 17. Armee currently has only one unit for this task: the 328. ID under Joachim von Tresckow, a division already badly battered in the fighting for Gheorgheni and in the process of reforming at Reghin, where it has only just arrived the previous night. No matter - taking advantage of the fact that, at Răstoliţa, the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division under Hans Korte is not yet under any real pressure from Kyrill Moskalenko's 38th Army (still busy clearing the ground of stragglers and, above all, covering the 5th Tank Army on its left), von Tresckow is ordered to move up towards Sărățel that evening, in the company of all the available units of the 560. schw. PzJ. Abt under Major Rudolf Markowz. With a bit of luck, Tresckow could surprise the Reds, draw them back and... buy some time.
Time, for example, to clear the 14. PanzerGrenadier from the trap in which it found itself, still trapped in a deadly face-off for the Bucin Pass with Vladimir Baskakov's 8th Mechanised Corps. For the time being, Hollidt can't even afford to move it back towards Praid, even if he had the authorisation to do so. He'd be giving away good land for free, and then he'd have to move XLVIII. AK HQ (Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach), which has only just moved in... In the meantime, however, Schneider is ordered to prepare his troops to move westwards, even if this means giving up worthless positions (unfortunately, he doesn't have many left). And the battle goes on, hard and fast, in the rain, while the 75 mm guns do their best to respond to the 85 mm and 122 howitzers...
But the worst is not even at Bistrița. In fact, at the same time, after having crossed the valley of the Târnava Mare without having encountered any obstacle capable of stopping it, the 9th Mechanised Corps (M.I. Savelyev) approaches Odorheiu Secuiesc! It is to seize this major crossroads on the road to Târgu Mureş in the afternoon, certainly losing a little time... but at the same time sending vanguards towards Feliceni, and then no doubt from there towards Cristuru Secuiesc.
A rather bold maneuver, it's true, and one that scatters his troops... But Andrei Kravchenko is not worried! In fact, in his HQ at Gheorgheni - which he would soon leave for a mobile command post - the head of the 5th Tank Army is not afraid of a grand counter-offensive like the one that had hit his comrades on the Vistula in March. He therefore sends Savelyev out as a scout with the assurance that, behind him, the 4th Armoured Corps (M.G. Fomichkov) would soon arrive to take over, bypassing Odorheiu Secuiesc on the left and Bisericani.
In any case, Odorheiu Secuiesc's fall is not going to go unnoticed - and it is going to make all the more noise because it was totally unexpected. In fact, when the news reaches HG B HQ at the end of the day, it causes consternation.
Finally, there is the case of Andrei Getman's 16th Armoured Corps. It leaves Karl-Erik Köhler's 306. ID to withdraw towards Augustin - even though it is still only at Micfalău, in the Olt valley. Having seized Miercurea Ciuc, the Soviets instead turn their tracks westwards and advance towards Căpâlnița. The day before, he had still been supposed to seize the other road through the Harghita mountains leading to Odorheiu Secuiesc - a maneuver that has become absolutely useless in the meantime.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - Vasily Glagolev's 9th Army completes the securing of the Sfântu Gheorghe sector, with the support of Vladimir Kolpakchi's 62nd Army, which rises from the Buzău pass to finally reach the plain around Prejmer. Having linked up with the forces from the south, it is now advancing along a broad front stretching from Vâlcele to Bod (north of Brașov), combing the terrain for stragglers - and also trying to catch its breath after almost a month of continuous offensive...
Here, the Red Army is no longer hindered by anyone! The 20. PzGr under Georg Jauer has crossed the Olt at Podu Olt and is now approaching the Perșani Pass with the 83. ID of Theodor Scherer on its left. The remnant of the 339. ID (Wolfgang Lange) has done the same at Feldioara, and is now withdrawing towards the Bogata Pass after blowing up all the bridges - following, then, Wilhelm Wegener's L. ArmeeKorps, whose two divisions would be positioned at this crossing point and at Haghimas. The remnants of Wilhelm Thomas's 321. ID, for their part, will reform somewhere towards Racoș to hold the centre - the LIV. AK will no doubt be moving northwards in the coming days, with the (few) survivors of the 50. ID and 339. ID taking over from the L. AK at Haghimas and the Meresti Pass as soon as possible...
Further south, covered on its rear by Alexander Shamshin's 6th Guards Armoured Corps (still busy rallying at the exit of the Prahova Valley), the 6th Guards Army enters Brașov! The Transylvanian capital has been definitively abandoned during the night by the 95. ID (Gustav Gihr) and 342. ID (Heinrich Nickel), now in retreat from Coldea and already within sight of the Perșani pass. Pavel Batov thus beats the Romanian armies of Petre Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Avramescu - without too much courtesy, it must be said. Still entangled in the Bran Pass sector, the Romanians do not march into town until the end of the day, and even then - only the 4th Army.
.........
Romanians at the Soviets
Le bal des maudits - "Our entry into Brașov took place at the end of the day - in the rain, but also under arms, flags and applause, in a gaiety infinitely more present than last year in Constantza. Clearly, the people here knew what the fascist occupation meant. They couldn't wait for us to arrive and kissed our chests like those of our Soviet comrades, their eyes brimming with tears of gratitude.
Joy, harmony, communion between peoples. There was no drama at Brașov, whatever the capitalist propaganda may say. I was there, I can testify to that.
[A week after the liberation of the town, all the Saxons were rounded up and deported to the Soviet Union on suspicion of having supported the Wehrmacht. Very few returned. Only a handful returned to their original homes]."
(Goodbye my country...once more, Vasil Gravil, Gallimard 1957)
.........
No parade, then, for the 3rd Army: it is badly needed to seize the Poiana Mărului Pass and threaten Şinca Nouă - for the common good, of course.
In addition, while waiting to deal with the Saxons and other supposed traitors or fascist sympathisers, the region's industries are already falling into the Soviet clutches: aviation (IAR), railway equipment (ROMLOC), breweries and chocolate factories... everything would no doubt be reorganised by new owners in the following years***.

Operation Südwall
HQ of the 17. Armee (Târgu Mureș fortress), 22:00 - On the evening of another day of downright apocalyptic news for the Axis, Field Marshal Kluge and his subordinate Karl-Adolf Hollidt can only note that the Südwall maneuver has already failed. The fall of Bistrița is problematic, that of Odorheiu Secuiesc a catastrophe! In fact, Hollidt's HQ already seems to be under threat (the Reds are only 65 kilometres away!) and they are very busy loading everything that could not be burnt on the spot into a crowd of lorries bound for the west.
Günther von Kluge emerges from the governor's house****, gloves in hand and his face closed under a cap dripping with rain, and strides towards his saloon car. The field marshal is of course followed by his subordinate, who is visibly downcast. They have both agreed just a few minutes ago that, if the Reich is still to have any chance of retaining at least part of Transylvania, and in order to prevent the Reds from overrunning Hungary, they should "temporarily" shift their positions 150 kilometres to the west, by organizing the defence of the Apuseni mountains. The Hungarians under Ferenc K. Farkas would take charge of the Siben sector***** - the Guruslau depression, closer to their current position, but less easily defended...
Of course, this is only a transitional solution - the Führer would never accept the loss of the bauxite mines at Sankt Martin, let alone the concessionary territory. No: we're simply talking about gaining positions favourable to the defence, to allow HG B to catch its breath while letting the Reds spread out. And then, with the arrival of the PanzerDivisions from both the Vistula and Lake Balaton, Kluge intends to launch a powerful counter-offensive eastwards to drive all these people home. In this way, Südwall would become not a stop-start battle, but an aggressive action taking advantage of the enemy's tactical inferiority. It could work... or at least we could convince the Nazi establishment that it could work.
But nothing is decided yet. We still have to convince the Guide and this Guderian... To do that, Heinrici's support - the head of Army Group B is much better connected than Kluge, who knows why - would not be enough. In the rain, the Marshal concludes: "I'm off to explain my plan to your superior and then to Berlin. In the meantime, save your troops, prepare a new phase of withdrawal and move your HQ. But above all, don't do anything without my express order! And keep control of all your units at all times - no French-style rout!" Hollidt clicks his heels and salutes without replying, his arm raised appropriately. His boss slams the door and soon disappears into the night towards Cluj-Napoca - a necessity, given the lack of an available plane and the weather! A habit he should perhaps remember once caused him harm...
.........
HG B HQ (Széki Palace, Cluj-Napoca), 23:30 - Gotthard Heinrici is unable to contact his boss, who is apparently on his way to a destination yet to be specified. But he came to the same conclusions as his boss, based on the same facts. Clearly, those who are pushing for the evacuation to the west - starting with that noisy Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach - are right. Even if he would be careful not to admit it today!
Let's proceed methodically... HeeresGruppe B has only two real reserves left: the 13. Panzer (Helmutt von der Chevallerie) and the 12. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Herbert Kettner). Two units damaged in the fighting for the Olt, in the process of reorganising in Sibiu and which would not be able to be in Târgu Mureș to counter the Soviet breakthrough for another three days at best! But it never hurts to try... In the meantime, Heinrici also proposes evacuating to the Apuseni mountains - but without necessarily having any plans for the future, other than to safeguard his forces. Obviously, before deciding on such a maneuver, he has to get Kluge's agreement and then that of Berlin. A long and complex process! Especially as the Marshal cannot be contacted at that time. So Heinrici decides to wait... all night, but no longer, as the hours are precious. If, at dawn, he still can't reach Kluge, he will take his responsibilities and make his decisions. Alone...

Proletarian aviators of all countries, unite!
Transit
Łomża - "Ah, this trip from Mątwica to Moscow! A real people's rally. The temperature in the tarpaulin-covered lorries was relatively cool for the time of year, and we'll long remember arriving at Łomża station, dazed with cold and sleep. While all we asked for was a stove and a bed, a sumptuous military banquet awaited us. It was served in a room in the military hospital. I had never seen such a heap of food. Caviar in bowls, ham in mountains, meat in heaps, all the Rabelaisian epithets would be necessary to describe this enormous balthazar that unfolded under the glow of 400-candle lamps, a stone's throw from wards where the seriously wounded were dying, and two streets away from a population suffering from famine.
A symbol of the Russian character. In the midst of the nightmare, total joy could burst forth and perhaps we never felt the affectionate friendship of these people as much as we did that evening.
At three o'clock, the whole regiment boarded the special train, which included a sleeping car reserved for General Zakharof, Major Vallin, Commandants Albert, Pouliquen and de Pange... and Mademoiselle la sergente Komarov, whom we were not going to leave in the middle of all these men, in keeping with French chivalry and even though we had long since given up any Gallic notions about her.
We were entitled to six couchette carriages and a van converted into a restaurant carriage where the vodka would flow freely, of course. A warm precaution: behind the locomotive, a piece of flak defends what the Luftwaffe would risk destroying wholesale after failing to eliminate in detail."
(Captain François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, republished by J'ai Lu, 1996)


Notes
* At that time, Hungarians and Germans made up almost two-thirds of the population, with Hungarians almost in the majority.
** Literary reference - Jonathan Harker leaves Bistrița on his way to a sinister castle...
*** OTL, the IAR factory was dismantled and converted into a tractor factory for the sole benefit of the USSR. After the fall of the USSR, the aeronautical industry was reopened at Ghimbav (on the outskirts of Brașov). It now produces Puma helicopters for the European Union. As for the ROMLOC factory, it became the "Red Flag" factory, then the "Roman SA". After manufacturing lorries under licence for a long time, it switched to indigenous production of lorries, buses and vans.
**** Today the local Museum of History and Archaeology.
***** Jibou for the Romanians.

 

[Wings]

June 3rd, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Operation Südwall
A road between Târgu Mureș and Cluj-Napoca, 03:30 - The saloon car comes to a halt once again in the rain and darkness, lighting up the sodden road ahead and the leading sidecar - which is clearly trying to find its way - with a white halo. Behind her, on the passenger seat, an exhausted Marshal von Kluge is taking it easy.
What an idea to have taken the southern route - the Turda route - to get away from the front! It's true that we no longer know exactly where the Bolshevik vanguards are at this hour... But what an idea, too, to have taken a detour via the country roads, to get away from the roads bombed a thousand times by the enemy! What's the point of travelling with a small escort if you're only going to move at a turtle's pace! There are only 100 kilometres to go - maybe less - to reach Heinrici. We should already be there! At this rate...
Well... we're back on track. Faster, while we can, if we hope to catch up. Kluge is exasperated, Kluge wants to get it over with - give his orders, enforce them and (ideally) find a bed. He needs one and so does his orderly - not to mention his driver. He still hasn't really recovered from his trip to Berlin and back...
The car is driving faster and faster in the darkness, skidding widely in the mud of the Transylvanian back roads... Then, in one of those moments when time suddenly seems to speed up, the vehicle forget sthe line of the road and plunges into a drainage ditch with a sinister creak. "Teufel", says Kluge, kicking open the door. That's the second time since the war started! It's a good thing we were going so slowly...
He scolds the unfortunate driver, who stands at attention, livid with fatigue and fear: "You good-for-nothing, you're going for a fortnight in a frontline unit, that'll teach you!" Then to the leader of his escort, who has come to get news: "Quick, get another vehicle. If worst comes to worst, I'll carry on in a lorry. Where are we anyway?"
"Zum Befehl Herr Feldmarschall! Er... no idea, the lead vehicle has the map". After a few moments: "We've passed a village called Colonia, apparently."* Kluge's fist slams into the battered metal of his vehicle. "Do you have any idea how that information doesn't help me?" Although, in truth, Günther von Kluge doubts that anything can help him at the moment. When he finally arrives in Cluj-Napoca, it will be too late. Lost in the middle of nowhere, the field marshal remains alone on the sidelines of history...
.........
HG B HQ (Széki Palace, Cluj-Napoca), before dawn - It is raining steadily in the Transylvanian night and General Gotthard Heinrici, commander of a group of armies in mortal danger, looks at his mute telephone. For long hours, he has been waiting for his commander to deign to contact him again. How many good Germans have fallen at the same time, or will fall tomorrow as a result of this simple fact?
Heinrici is a veteran of the Eastern Front. You could even say that he spent his entire career there, apart from a short stint in the West as an ArmeeKorps commander during the French campaign - the first, as we are now forced to point out. And he has gone through all the ranks, from that position to his current command, without ever owing anything to anyone. He has seen all the chiefs come and go: Bock, Rommel... Kluge too, as far back as 1943. He believes (and rightly so!) that he has richly deserved his position, without getting too involved in the waltz of political promotions and other intrigues in the OKH. He has been criticized enough for this - besides, he isn't even a Nazi!**
On the other hand, Heinrici is a capable commander. Of course, he isn't one of those who seeks to make history, but he is a respected soldier who was loved by his soldiers because of the way he commands - a command based on empathy with the men and esprit de corps, in line with the Prussian theoretical ideal that Hitler likes so much. In fact, he most often leads his troops from the front - a front where his only regret, at the time, is that he is unable to go to, stuck as he is being the concierge! And yet the Russian soldier is anything but the stupid animal described by Goebbels. For Heinrici, he is an "extremely strong, devious and decadent" being, who fights "very hard, even better than the Frenchman".
So what? Is he going to wait much longer for someone else's approval? Taking his responsibilities as he had sworn to himself the day before, and with the absolute certainty that nothing cab be held against him, the commander of HeeresGruppe B picks up the receiver and wakes up his switchboard operator to ask for Berlin as a matter of extreme urgency.
.........
HG B HQ (Széki Palace, Cluj-Napoca), 10:30- The sun has been up for a long time - in the rain... but it is up nonetheless! - when Günther von Kluge finally arrives at Heinrici's headquarters. The premises appear to be in the process of being moved! Using his rank to get into the office of General Gotthard Heinrici (who is completely unaware of his boss's whereabouts, to the point of believing him to be lost, perhaps even dead!), so he had to make an urgent call to Berlin to confirm, with his own authority, the orders requested by others...
11 o'clock - When the phone rings, everyone inevitably suspects who is on the other end. After a very brief briefing, the Guide's sentence comes down like a bolt from the blue.
- It's an incredible disaster, a Fall Gelb against our own troops! We urgently need to dodge the enemy's sickle blow and retreat towards the Apuseni mountains.
With a clumsiness that is a direct result of both fatigue and accumulated tension, Kluge says: "It will be temporary, my Führer. With the expected reinforcements, we will regain the lost ground."
But the answer is not exactly what he had hoped for. "Kluge, I wasn't talking to you. I warned you of my reservations about Hollidt. You didn't want to take them into account - see where we are. Anyway... we'll take stock of the whole affair when it's over. For the moment, what I've learnt is that we need a leader. You're going back to Hungary. Heinrici?"
- My Führer?
- Get your troops out of this disaster before it's too late.

Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - After another morning of slow, fruitless fighting around Valea Mare, Georg von Rittberg - who is anxiously watching the world crumble around him - finally receives a clear order: full retreat! Without wasting any time, the man from Strasbourg organises a first leap towards Cormaia - to be executed as long as the weather and his opponent's softness protect him from a nasty blow. No sooner said than done... the 88. ID picks up in the afternoon. On its way, it will take with it the debris of 94. ID (Georg Pfeiffer), definitively pushed back from the Bistrița valley towards the Someșul Mare valley. Opposite, Leonty Cheremisov's 16th Army does not pursue - well, not really. It no longer has the energy and not necessarily the immediate need.
It's true that at the rate things are going, the fascists will soon be surrounded. From Bistrița - where the 47th Army is descending at this very moment to take over - Ivan Lazarev's 2nd Armoured Corps continues its mad dash to get past Beclean. Before nightfall it would be at Dej - at the confluence of the Someșul Mare and the Someșul Mic (the main river and its tributary). Still unstoppable despite obstacles such as improvised roadblocks thrown in its path, the Soviet now has a choice: Baia Mare or Cluj-Napoca. But Bagramyan prefers to follow the manual to the letter: destroy enemy communications routes and command posts. So off we go to Cluj-Napoca, even if there is a slight delay due to communications. And then what - Lazarev, valiant though he was, isn't going to force the Guruslau depression on his own! The 2nd Armoured Corps therefore heads south, (perhaps) missing a unique opportunity to destroy the German-Hungarian plans once and for all with what is left of the 2. PanzerArmee. But Lazarev's troops are still covered in rain!
Further east, the 328.ID (Joachim von Tresckow) and the bulk of the 560. schw. PzJ. Abt (Major Rudolf Markowz) have to head north-west anyway... Informed of the orders to withdraw, the duo hurries all the more towards Sărățel - ideally, they would be able to force their way through by sowing chaos in the enemy rear. In the evening, it is clear that he has not quite reached his destination. Despite all their efforts, the two units are somewhere north of Dipșa, on the outskirts of the Herina crossroads. Decidedly, German motorisation is not what it used to be! And the window for any significant offensive action by the Heer in this sector has already closed - if it ever existed at all.
From now on, only one thing matters: buying time. The 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division under Hans Korte is doing just that, retreating from Răstoliţa towards Bistra Mureșului, waiting for a first leap towards Reghin during the night. In any case, it is already a given that this unit, on its own, has no chance of holding out for long against the spikes of Kyrill Moskalenko's 38th Army, now in the Mures Gorge, so... All the more so as the 14. PanzerGrenadier under Erich Schneider - which it soon became clear has a great interest in withdrawing from the Bucin Pass as quickly as possible - is now hastily withdrawing towards Praid, following Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach's HQ, which is constantly moving! In this case, he is moving towards Huedin, 160 kilometres away.
Meanwhile, in the midst of what has to be called a collapse, the 5th Army is on the run: the 9th Mechanised Corps (M.I. Savelyev) is in Secuieni - within sight of Sighișoara in the evening! The 4th Armoured Corps (M.G. Fomichkov) redeploys to Odorheiu Secuiesc - which it passes on the left as planned, to reach Corund (near Praid!). Finally, the 16th Armoured Corps (Andrei Getman) is in Căpâlnița - it should rejoin its comrades tomorrow, leaving Karl-Erik Köhler's 306. ID on his left in Augustin, in the Olt valley. Andrei Kravchenko's troops spread across the plain... The Hungarian "tankodrome" - or at least its antechamber - is open.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - The right wing of the 17. Armee - now in mortal danger - hurriedly retreats to get out of the trap in which it had been caught. Leaving behind Vasily Glagolev's 9th Army at Feldioara and Vladimir Kolpakchi's 62nd Army at Dumbrăvița- trapped by fatigue and the difficulties of crossing the Olt - the Axis forces make a great leap backwards in the early afternoon.
The 20. PzGr under Georg Jauer and the 83. ID (Theodor Scherer) retreat towards Făgăraș, abandoning their new positions at the Perșani Pass, which had been so favourable. The 339. ID (Wolfgang Lange), the 228. StuG Abt (Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz) and the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas) run after them to Șercaia, dropping back south to avoid the Bolshevik armour coming from the north. It is obvious that these remnants of the molested divisions*** are no match for such an opponent, and can only be annihilated in the event of a bad encounter... The whole thing is more or less covered by the L. AK (Wilhelm Wegener) at Rupea and Hoghiz, as a rearguard is needed.
The maneuver, although largely improvised and carried out with visible haste, went off without too much damage. The Reds are still a long way off and the bad weather closed the skies to their planes - if only it lasted!
On the right flank, the rest of the XI. ArmeeKorps (Joachim von Kortzfleisch) also retreats towards Făgăraș, covering its comrades from the north. Finally, the left wing of the 11. Armee - the XVI. ArmeeKorps under Horst von Mellenthin, which had once defended the Bran Gap - logically falls back after it in the Lisa sector, on a track parallel to that followed by the 17. Armee. Useful.... If only to avoid the traffic jams!
Opposite them, the Romanians of the 3rd Army (Petre Dumitrescu) are still making their way over the Poiana Mărului pass towards Şinca Nouă. On their left, the Romanian 4th Army continues to make political hay in the Brașov sector - with the 6th Guards Army (Pavel Batov) completing the securing of the sector, while the 6th Guards Armoured Corps (Alexander Shamshin) is already trying to launch itself in the direction of Dumbrăvița and the Perșani Pass.
Meanwhile, the last reserves of HG B - the 13. Panzer (Helmutt von der Chevallerie) and the 12. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Herbert Kettner) - raise camp from Sibiu towards Târgu Mureș via Mediaș. They hope to flank a dispersed and over-adventurous opponent before it is really too late.

Proletarian aviators of all countries, unite!
Journey, journey
USSR - "The journey is joyful inside and monotonous outside. We are redoing by train and in peace what we did in the air and in war. The plain, as far as the eye can see, makes our convoy look like a peasant's dress. We pass through the ruins of Minsk, an icy city buried under metres of rubble. The wind is blowing like a storm. How much better it is on our train! A journey of pashas who sleep, drink, chat, eat... eat, sleep and drink again and dream a little for two days".
(Captain François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, republished by J'ai Lu, 1996)

Secret war
Intoxication
A forest near Hrodna - After the collapse of the Fyodorov affair, Operation Berezino is stalling a little... It has to be said that, after the frenzied activity of the last few months, the fascists may no longer have much faith in the "Kessel Scherhorn" story.
And yet... even if the Heer no longer has the means to help these brave castaways, Skorzeny and Gehlen remain convinced to the end that there is a group of German soldiers isolated in the forests of Lithuania. To help them reach the Reich, they regularly send SS scouts, supplies and instructors through KG 200! This is Operation Freischütz, which involves no fewer than 25 flights and 20 parachuted Kommandos - all of which fell into NKVD nets. This is a huge total - to the point of creating a real logistical problem for the Soviets, who are forced to keep an ever-increasing number of radio operators on site, all of them active... and all of them to be monitored! Skorzeny and Gehlen - for reasons of inter-service rivalry and personal prestige - are constantly outbidding each other in terms of the resources deployed on site...
The affair lasted until the end of the war, with the Kessel Scherhorn continuing to send salvos to the Vaterland calling for help, the more numerous the further away the front was... All this under the watchful eye of Joseph Stalin, who was visibly amused that the fascists were spending what were reputed to be elite resources and men on a pure waste. As for Lieutenant-Colonel Heinrich Scherhorn, the Reich even made him a national hero and Colonel during the final days of the conflict - in addition to his brand new Iron Cross.

Partisans... and others
Back home
Forest of Rivne (Ukrainian SSR) - The commando unit combining members of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organisation (UN or OUN) and a few Brandenburgers finally reaches the UPA maquis, held by the men of Roman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych. The Germans and Ukrainians were so close to being summarily put to the sword that relations between the Germans and Ukrainian nationalists have deteriorated since 1942.
Finally, Yuriy Lopatinsky and Lieutenant Dietrich Witzel-Kirn are introduced to Roman Shukhevych. Shukhevych is happy to receive money... but he is rather sceptical about the Reich's real ability to help him in any other way. Understandably so! But he is willing to study the matter and listen - without committing himself, of course.

* It is now thought that the accident took place on route 150, at a fork in the road leading to Viișoara (left) and Bolduț (right).
** A devout Protestant who had effectively refused to join the Party, Heinrici had in fact always suffered from a more than shaky favour with the dignitaries of the regime, as witnessed by his regular run-ins with Göring and even Hitler. Perhaps it was also because his children, Hartmut and Gisela, were considered Mischlingen, part Jewish, because of the family of their mother, Gertrude... They needed a certificate of Aryan blood signed by the Führer himself to be safe from any trouble. However, Heinrici's scruples did not prevent him from widely supporting the Lebensraum thesis - like all the army chiefs - and from being involved in the crimes of the OstHeer, including the systematic execution of Soviet political commissars (which he described as acts of "preventive terror"). To his credit, however, he refused the "scorched earth" orders (destruction of towns and villages) during the retreat to Belarus.
*** The 339. ID absorbed the remnants of the 50. ID, which has been disbanded - without this significantly swelling its ranks.

 

[Wings]

June 4th, 1944

Baltic Sea
Naval Commandos
Courland - "The night of June 4th to 5th was as cool as it was rainy, but that didn't stop Captain Vladimir Evstigneev from taking to the water. Assigned to carry out a particularly risky reconnaissance mission, Evstigneev swam to the beach at one of the landing points identified at the beginning of the month, taking with him all his equipment and a German uniform. Once ashore, it will be up to him to infiltrate the fascist complex - spotted thanks to the triangulations of intelligence officer Vladimir Borisov - obtain as much information as possible, and then get away. Ideally, without being spotted...
All of this was done with a certain sense of urgency, a direct result of the circumstances, the concerns of the commanding officer, the weather... and the fact that the ROSNAZ-KBF was well aware that at least part of its future was at stake here. Dragging his bundle, the swimmer moves away from the launch - it will pick him up tomorrow evening, same time, same place".
(Commandos in the Baltic and Danube: Soviet Naval Spetsnaz in World War II, by Yury Strokhnin, Naval Institute Press 1996)

Hungary, whatever the cost
Operation Südwall.
HG B HQ (Széki Palace, Cluj-Napoca), 06:30 - Günther von Kluge has left for Hungary, leaving Gotthard Heinrici alone in command. His departure is not the first concern of the head of HG B, who is currently far too busy organising the evacuation of his forces - not to mention his own offices! Heinrici has always scorned the game of favours. He knows full well that politics - and what we would now call communication - is not his forte*. In any case, it is clear that the Marshal has lost all his remaining credibility the day before.
So the General quietly takes one last look around the now deserted corridors of what used to be his HQ, before moving on to Debrecen. His entourage had certainly done their job well... but they wouldn't forget a file behind a cabinet! Heinrici is meticulous. One last check in his office... It's done. Leaving - probably forever - the walls of the neo-Gothic building that had been his home for so long, he descends the grand staircase and returns to his car. A Steyr 1500 - escorted and well guided. Heinrici does not plan to inform Kluge of his arrival at his destination, nor of his plans, at least not any more than is strictly necessary. He has direct orders from the Führer - his boss is unlikely to countermand them!
In any case, OB Donau's days are numbered - a simple question of geography.

Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The 88. ID continues its hasty retreat towards the Șetref Pass - with the 94. ID (Georg Pfeiffer) in its wake, and making a risky detour, to say the least, through Salva. The two divisions follow the Someșul Mare, while the weather is bad and the Reds are not there yet... The XLIX. ArmeeKorps (Rudolf Konrad) - the last shred of an objectively dead 2. PanzerArmee - thus hopes to reach the Hera Pass, to defend von Arnim's HQ at Sighetu Marmaţiei while securing the rear of the 8th Hungarian Infantry Division, still defending the Yablonitsky Pass, before, no doubt, taking over from it. Ironically, that's where he has left from a few weeks ago... with, alas, a few more men!
But we still have to get there. With the 16th Army (Leonty Cheremisov) hot on his heels at Cormaia and Soviet armour further south, it might not be easy. However, as Georg von Rittberg is unaware, the XLIX. AK is not his opponent's target, nor is it in his path - at least as long as he continues to maneuver towards the north-west. Ivan Bagramyan's decision of the previous day undoubtedly saved it from destruction.
In fact, at the same time, the 2nd Armoured Corps continues to move up the Someșul Mic. Still followed by Filipp Zhmachenko's 47th Army - although it has only just passed Beclean - Ivan Lazarev smashes through a host of improvised barricades that tries to close the door to Cluj-Napoca to him. Bunești, Băița, Livada, Iclod... one after the other, the locks come down like fence posts. By evening, Lazarev's machines are in Juc-Herghelie, i.e. very close to Cluj-Napoca - the HG B headquarters have evacuated only a few hours earlier.
At the same time, the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow) and the main body of the 560. schw. PzJ. Abt (Major Rudolf Markowz) fall on the 47th Army's left wing around Sărățel. The maneuver - already rendered obsolete by the lightning advance of the 2nd Armoured Corps - is undoubtedly more dangerous for the Heer than for the Red Army, but who cares! In any case, it poses no particular threat to Zhmachenko, who is happy to divert his reserves to the Beclean road. The Germans do not advance an inch. They destroy a few of their opponent's tanks... at a relatively modest price, of course, but one that the Heer can no longer afford in any case. On hearing the news of the imminent fall of Cluj-Napoca, von Tresckow quickly stops his perfectly futile efforts to break away towards Cămărașu via Sângeorzu Nou. The road south, quickly, before it's really too late! Behind him, the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division under Hans Korte also retreats from Reghin towards Târgu Mureș - ever faster, pressed by a 38th Army (Kyrill Moskalenko) bursting out of the Mureș gorges after it.
In the center, the 14. PanzerGrenadier under Erich Schneider watches anxiously as jaws of steel approach on both its left and right. Giving up on holding this now particularly advanced position out of solidarity, the division leaves Praid before dawn and heads down the Balta to Bălăușeri - hoping that the vanguards of Vladimir Baskakov's 8th Mechanised Corps would not give chase too quickly. However, Schneider makes one minor oversight when he leaves the HQ of the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps (Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach) to head north-west alone. This is the road from Târgu Mureș to Reghin, which is in the process of being abandoned to the enemy. But nobody reported this to von Seydlitz-Kurzbach!
Opposite, the 5th Tank Army continues to spread across Transylvania. The 9th Mechanised Corps (M.I. Savelyev) passes Sighișoara and continues towards Mediaș, following the Târnava Mare - and, without really meaning to, following a route parallel to that of the 14. PzGr. For its part, the 4th Armoured Corps (M.G. Fomichkov) takes Praid in the morning and splits into two points to the west and north: respectively Bălăușeri, on Schneider's track, and Reghin, to close the road to the opponents who are still escaping. Behind, Andrei Getman's 16th Armoured Corps - which lost a bit of time by making a hook, admittedly, but who could have predicted that the fascists would collapse like that? - has finally finished crossing the Harghita to reach Odorheiu Secuiesc. He too plans to continue towards Sighișoara via Cristuru Secuiesc. From his mobile HQ, which is constantly moving westwards, just like his troops! - Andrei Kravchenko is all smiles. Everything is going even better than planned!
And meanwhile, Gotthard Heinrici - who has of course been briefed on the latest developments, or will be shortly (at any rate, when he arrives at his destination) wonders whether there is any point in launching a futile counter-attack on Târgu Mureș, now that the enemy is already so deeply embedded in his flank.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - At the far left of the gigantic Transylvanian pitfall, the 306. ID of Karl-Erik Köhler crosses the Perșani Mountains at Racoș to reach Comăna by nightfall. This division, already badly mauled by Soviet armour around Miercurea Ciuc, is now very late. It therefore has to press on even more, despite everything and at the cost of much effort, to avoid being swamped by the wave.
Just behind Köhler, the 9th Army (Vasily Glagolev) seizes the Bogata Pass - virtually abandoned - to cross the mountains and reach Hoghiz. On its left, the 62nd Army (Vladimir Kolpakchi) is a little behind in its march towards the Persani Pass, delayed by the huge traffic jam forming in the sector.
The Germans are far ahead. Piled up on the road to Sibiu, 20. PzGr (Georg Jauer), 83. ID (Theodor Scherer) then 339. ID (Wolfgang Lange), 228. StuG Abt (Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz), 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas) and finally 342. ID (Heinrich Nickel), then 95. ID (Gustav Gihr), spread out from Cârța to Sâmbăta de Jos in a blurred mass, looking more and more like the routed armies of '39, '40, '41 or '42! Well, except that, for the time being, the heavens are still with them. Behind them, the rearguard of Wilhelm Wegener's L. AK presses on as far as Șercaia, narrowly avoiding the 9th Army... only to hit its flank on the vanguards of the Romanian 3rd Army - essentially David Popescu's Armoured Corps, emerging from Şinca Nouă with its mustard TACAMs pointed straight at the enemy!
The felonious adversary - obviously despised and, above all, with limited resources - is still manageable. However, the arrival in Șercaia that evening of the first elements of the 6th Guards Armoured Corps (Alexander Shamshin), closely followed by the 6th Guards Army (Pavel Batov) and then by the 4th Romanian Army (Gheorghe Avramescu), convinces everyone that it is definitely time to get out. The 333. ID and the 370. ID set off towards Făgăraș - to begin with.

Romanians in the Soviet Union
Le bal des maudits - "Lieutenant-Commissioner Palariar had certainly not lied to us. The enemy was on the run, to put it mildly. Cornered to the north by the glorious mass of armoured vehicles of the Workers' and Peasants' Army emerging from the USSR, and to the south by the Carpathian line, the Fascist army seemed to be in great difficulty. We don't have access to maps of the front lines, of course - but as my grandfather used to say, watching the rats flee when the predator arrived, "There are signs that can't be mistaken".
Everywhere along the road, there was just one sight: wreckage, rubble, abandoned equipment, scattered bodies left there by the bombing - and in the opposite direction, heading back towards Brașov, groups of haggard, dirty prisoners, sometimes with one arm in a sling. Who would have thought that the mighty fascist Wehrmacht, it and all its morgue, would be reduced to such a state? Too bad for them! And we continued westwards to liberate our land, going to the front in the rain but singing:
"Dac-am plecat, Ardealule, din tine
Nu-i vina noastră, iarăși vom veni.
N-am fost învinși și nu vom fi nici mâine,
Când ceasul biruinței va sosi."
.........
NdT - L'Ardealul, a song by an unknown author that appeared in 1940 following the Second Vienna Arbitration, mourns the loss of the Carpathian Province and promises its inevitable return. The verse quoted by Vasil Gravil can be translated as follows:
"If we are gone, Transylvania, far from you,
It's not our fault, we'll be back.
We have not been defeated and we will not be tomorrow,
When the hour of victory comes."
Particularly popular in the Șiria region - brought, it seems, by evacuated soldiers sent there - it became a kind of unofficial revenge anthem for the cobelligerent Romanian armies. It would become even more so later, in the face of the Südwall, for obvious reasons. Today, it remains part of the official repertoire of the Romanian army choir."
(Goodbye my country...once again, Vasil Gravil, Gallimard 1957)

The Russian season
Hungary - This morning, for the first time since the beginning of the month, the weather in the former Magyar kingdom is fine. The Red Pumas are ordered to launch a 'sweep' (or whatever the Hungarian air force calls it!) to find out where the Soviet tanks are and to attack any targets of opportunity along the way. In Budapest, people remember the fate of unfortunate aircraft sent off alone on long-range reconnaissance missions...
The mission, considerably shortened by the return of the rain, is met with some success. The Pumas spot enemy columns in Sighișoara, huge but poorly defended - and in any case surprised - which they strafe without loss. The information is soon passed on to the right people.

Proletarian aviators of all countries, unite!
Vigil of arms
Moscow - "The Franche-Comté - Vistule 'regiment' arrives at Moscow station. This time we'll be staying at the D.K.A. - the Red Army house reserved for heroes and officers of the rank of major and above.
I'd just as soon tell you that you don't have to tickle us to make us laugh. After so many months at the front and on the campaign trail, Moscow was for us the Paris of a provincial on a Montmartre holiday. But military life does not go away. Major Albert told us: "Tomorrow, at 11.30 a.m., at the French Embassy, there will be a decoration ceremony and a presentation to Minister Tillon".
(Capitaine François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, republished by J'ai Lu, 1996)

Desolate Poland
The new 1st Army
Brest-Litovsk - In the midst of civil concord and obvious national unity (in theory at least...), Lt-Colonel Jan Mazurkiewicz "Radoslaw" officially receives his general's stars from Prime Minister Edward Bolesław Osóbka-Morawski - stars that had been given to him by General Nikolai Bulganin, at least in spirit. The former head of the Secret Army's shock troops now officially commands the 1st Polish Army - made up mainly of his comrades-in-arms, then of those who responded to his call on April 15th and finally of a minority drawn from the remnants of Berling's troops.
As a result, the revamped - and even transformed... - Polish army finally seemed ready for the future operations to liberate its country. In theory at least, and of course under the orders of the Red Army. In any case, at this time, the Red Army does not exceed 40,000 men. It therefore remains smaller than the Polish forces in exile, whose repatriation Moscow still stubbornly refuses to even consider.

* Samuel W. Mitcham, a renowned American historian and specialist in the German army, would much later attribute his relative anonymity - despite the very real facts of war! - to the fact that he was "as charismatic as a 10-kilo bag of fertiliser"!