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

[Wings]

October 22nd, 1943

Operation Rumyantsev-TBT - The consequences
Bonneteau
Sector of the 1st Ukrainian Front - The 13. Panzer (Hellmut von der Chevallerie) arrives in the Zboriv area. Extracted from the reserves of HG Nord in order to take over from the 9. SS-Panzergrenadier Hohenstaufen (Wilhelm Bittrich), which has to leave for France. This transfer is made even more urgent by the recent events in the region. Or how, once again, to undress Peter to dress Paul...

Blood in the Carpathians
"Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni"
Suceava sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni North) - The end approaches for the 47th Army - and with it, that of the whole northern branch of VD-G, whose gains were literally swept away by the German counter-offensive.
Receding ever further before the forces of five divisions (the 333. ID is gone, but thanks to the Soviet withdrawal, the 320. ID of Hans Kissel can now join the party!), the frontovikis are relentlessly pushed back in the direction of the Siret. They are now fighting to defend Dumbrăveni - the bridgehead from which they sprang only eight days ago. A task as difficult as it is costly - but the support of Ivan Lazarev's armor on the left, which have little more than the machines of 190. StuG in front of them, allows for the moment to limit (a little) the damage. One more butchery, therefore, for a strip of land that Moscow stubbornly refuses to abandon - for the moment...
.........
Piatra Neamț sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni South) - Slaughterhouses are also in question at Lacu Roșu, where the 3rd Guards Armored Corps is eroding with difficulty the defense improvised by the 20. PanzerGrenadier, which still pretends to deny it the road to Gheorgheni, like a broken cork preventing the decanting of a great wine. It is an understatement to say that Mikhail Panov's tanks are not at their ease on this narrow road (there are 65 meters of slopes between the lake and the mountainside!), bordered by thick groves of pines and which leads to a pass where Leonidas himself could have triumphed. The red air force dropped bomb after bomb until it set the forest on fire - which is not without losses: 14 aircraft fall, including 8 victims of the II/JG.4, which leaves only 2 fighters in the fight - nothing can make it. Georg Jauer still holds, with his Hungarians and his handful of obsolete tanks.
Panov has neither enough infantry nor enough artillery, as both are struggling to climb, stuck in endless traffic jams and at the mercy of the Bf 110s which come from time to time to make a few passes. They lose four more aircraft: two because of Soviet hunting, one because of the flak... and one because of the terrain. But what does it matter! For lack of better, the commander of the 3rd AC is reduced to making his more precious personnel fight on foot: mechanics, dismantled crews, lightly wounded, auxiliaries. Finally, at the end of the afternoon, the Red Army returns to its healthy traditions by finally managing to put in battery six "special mortars" to burn everything that lives at the Red Lake Pass. The problem of a concentrated static defense against an opponent superior in firepower appears immediately...
The Axis, defeated, retreats to Gheorgheni for a last stand at the mouth of the valley, with the debris of its forces, that General Jauer tries painfully to reorganize. Joining Brașov at the cost of the worst difficulties to fetch reinforcements, he is surprised to hear an answer: "The reinforcements are coming, Herr General. But they are not heading for your position!"
Meanwhile, furious at this setback, the Red Army sorts out its wounded, evacuates its prisoners (some of whom will be "finished" in revenge) and throws a large number of cumbersome machines and materials in the Red Lake*.
.........
Bacău (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni South) - The 62nd Army continues its arduous retreat along the Bistrița River toward Buhuși, gaining no more than 5 or 6 kilometers today. Indeed, when he arrives at Lespezi, his infantrymen has the unpleasant surprise of finding themselves confronted (they too) with a bottleneck, established at the location where the topography makes the area easy to defend. In fact, between the wooded hills to the south and the river, there are not 200 meters. So here too, we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Restlessness
Odessa Front sector - The diversionary actions of the Odessa Front continue, but without much effect, except for some counter-battery fire or casualties. In the absence of a battle plan - and sufficient means to carry it out! - Vasily Glagolev's 9th Army is simply unable to worry the German-Romanian defenses of the sector.
To do so, it would be necessary to mobilize the rest of the Front - the 18th Army and the 6th Guards Army, deployed in front of the Romanians. At that point, in fact, it would be better to go straight to the point, and give up any pseudo-negotiations with Bucharest! But it is true that these troops are not ready to launch a real offensive immediately... If the order was given, the attack could probably be launched only after the end of VD-G.
It is therefore too late to coordinate the two fronts. Ivan Petrov will continue his efforts of course - he is ordered to do so. But he knows as well as anyone that nothing will come of it.

Bucharest - A sign of Soviet nervousness and annoyance - both of which are growing with the setbacks on the ground and the attempts of the National Democratic Bloc - the VVS launch a massive raid on the Chitila switches, north-east of Bucharest. These installations are well defended - the bombing took place at night and cost 11 bombers, between the Romanian flak and the German night fighter. In itself, it is already expensive... Moreover, the strike completely misses its target and will devastate the University of Bucharest and the premises of Cartea Românească - a local publishing house.
Faced with these destructions of places of knowledge, which resulted in about thirty deaths, Antonescu's propaganda has no problem denouncing "the terrorist raids of the Bolsheviks, intended to destroy Romanian culture". After all, the example comes from Germany!

Black Sea
Malen'kaya Zemlya
Soviet Admiralty for the Black Sea (Sevastopol) - Vice Admiral Filipp Oktyabrskiy, who commands the Red Flag Fleet in the Black Sea, is putting the finishing touches to the Malen'kaya Zemlya (Little Earth) planned in the Danube Delta. The latter had been in the works since last summer, but had been deemed irrelevant until very recently. Its launching is of course made opportune by the "lightning advance" of the Army comrades and by the annoyance that the episode triggered in the Kremlin.
But, beyond the painful necessities resulting from the circumstances, it is not without interest for the parties involved. For an obvious fact remains: the Stavka fears the Danube. A strong river, wide and whose mouth is full of treacherous islands, difficult swamps and unforeseen defensive positions. The support of the fleet will thus be desirable for its crossing - one only has to see the difficulties encountered to cross the Dniester to be convinced.
The Red Fleet must therefore make an urgent effort to seize the mouth of the great blue river to install a support point allowing the subsequent deployment of river monitors and other light ships, while neutralizing the painful hornets' nest that is Sulina - where the German-Romanian patrol boats are based.
This will be the business of the 79th BMS, which must land at Sfântu Gheorghe before going up towards Murighiol and Sulina. This brigade will be transported by the landing ships Krasnaia Abkhazya and Krasnaia Moldova as well as by the cargo ships Armenia, Belostock and Jores. The convoy, concentrated in Odessa, will of course be strongly escorted: Oktyabrskiy has planned a close guard made up of the minesweeper Ivan Borisov, the old coast guard Tigr (which will be able to shell possible resistance points), the brand new patrol boat Kaguar (Albatross class), the old destroyers Felix Dzerzhinski and Nezamojnik, ten submarine hunters and six Tral class minesweepers.
The convoy and its escort will be covered at a distance by a squadron coming from Sevastopol and composed of the cruiser Voroshilov (which will carry the mark of the commander of the operation, Admiral Gorshkov), the flotilla leader Tashkent and two divisions of modern destroyers: the Bditelny, Bezuprechny and Bodry on the one hand, Yerevan, Opasny and Otverzhdyonny on the other. The whole is preceded by a screen of speedboats and by four submarines. Eight other submersibles are also in the sea, forming barriers at the exit of Constantza and Sulina.
Faced with this deployment of forces, the Fascists will undoubtedly react... even if the squadron will pass off their observation base on Snake Island. That's good! It is time to wipe out their last forces, which are holed up in rat holes. And it is not their air force that will scare Oktyabrskiy (well, not really...) - the 8th and 32nd IAP are watching!
The riflemen, prepared for a long time, start to organize their embarkation.

* Lacu Rosu attracts many tourists today, both for its pleasant microclimate - 8° above average, without wind, but rich in vegetable and mineral aerosols (all being considered favorable to the treatment of the physical or nervous exhaustion!) - as well as by the surrounding landscape: large pine forests, one of which is... petrified. Indeed, the water level was created in 1838, during an earthquake having caused a landslide and the reopening of a basin closed since the ice age. However, despite its more than welcoming atmosphere, which invites to relax and to swim, the lake remains forbidden to swim. The reason is the presence of dangerous wrecks and ammunition that are often still active in its waters. Aware of the risks to public health as well as the unexploited economic potential (a real thermal complex could be created here!) the Romanian authorities are now considering dredging the basin - but they are coming up against a veritable wall of protest from Moscow, which sees it as a desecration of a place of memory and a war cemetery. It should also be noted that one of the most important eminences overlooking the valley is the Muntele Ucigaș - the Killer Mountain... As for the rivers feeding the lake, they are (among others) the Verescheul and the Ucigașul: the Red and the Killer...

 

[Wings]

October 22nd, 1943

Italian campaign
Italian front - The 47th ID Bari withdrew from the front, handing over to the 33rd Mountain ID Acqui. This division that survived the Balkans after the Italian changeover was gradually brought back to Italy and carefully depoliticized. In its reconstruction, it adopted the new three-regiment scheme (17th, 18th and 317th Mountain Rgt) but retained its 27th Patrioti Battalion (although almost all of the cadres had been changed). In addition to a real artillery regiment, it has support units: a battalion of mortars and a heavy machine gun battalion.
To complete the new mountain corps, the 1st Mountain ID Superga, which participated in the liberation of the island of Elba, will join the Cuneense, Acqui and Arezzo divisions in a few weeks.

Greece and Balkans Campaign
Redeployments
Salonika area - The men of the XIIIth Corps are back in the plain around the big port, which they left three weeks ago for their little escapade to the east. However, and contrary to what many had hoped, Brian Horrocks' men were not going to enjoy a well-deserved rest - they immediately continue on to the southwest and the Macedonian border. A resigned murmur runs through the troop - at least the trucks will be able to refuel!
.........
Macedonia - The movements of Giorgios Kosmas' 1st Army Corps (reorganized) are completed: the 1st Infantry Division and the two Mountain Brigades are now well in place on both sides of the Ohrid Lake.

 

[Wings]

October 22nd, 1943

Aube - A ceremony organized on the commune of Mailly-le-Camp marks the transformation of the 9. and 10. SS Panzergrenadier Divisions into SS Panzer Divisions. These two large units will train for some time in the region to reinforce their cohesion.
They will constitute the II. SS Panzerkorps, which will take the place of the I. SS Panzerkorps in reserve of the Provence front. The I. SS PzK could thus be put at the disposal of the OKW and the Führer for possible actions on other fronts.
Rarely, some French officials were invited to the taking up of arms and to the reception that follows at the Kommandantur. Among them, the head of the FST, General Olléris, and his aide-de-camp, Captain de Lagarde.

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Department of State (Washington DC) - While Algiers (or rather Marseille), London and Moscow are agitating together on the Romanian question, Cordell Hull reports on the appropriate position for the United States of America on this matter.
As a (very) pragmatic man, the Secretary of State has meticulously weighed the pros and cons, compared the means available with those that would be necessary, estimated the potential gains and risks. All this before going, of course, to have his conclusion validated by Roosevelt - a character a little more idealistic than him, but not without a form of realism... and especially sick.
In short, according to Hull, the United States has no interest at the moment in putting its finger on this matter. They don't have the means to do so (they are all busy with the struggles for influence in Western Europe and the Mediterranean), not the need (Romania has never been a serious objective for Washington!) and even less the will (no need to go and offend the Russians on the subject). In conclusion, of course, "the United States of America supports the efforts of its European allies in the peaceful resolution of the conflict with the Kingdom of Romania" and "encourage the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to join with the United Kingdom and the French Republic in working together for the earliest possible achievement of a lasting cease-fire"... But they will do nothing more.
If the British have time to lose in trying to counter the Russians, so much the better for them - they will only succeed in antagonizing them, and it will then be well to remind them of the caution that they had been given only two months earlier, during the Bulgarian affair. For Hull, in fact, it was more a matter of encouraging the Europeans to stay in their place... And he had every intention of letting the English and their French auxiliaries to get restless and pay for the pots they will inevitably break. It will be their credibility that will suffer, not his! In Madrid, Professor Hayes will be content to listen politely to his Romanian visitor.
And then... If, by accident, something were to come out of this affair, there would still be time for Uncle Sam to show up at the last moment and take the prize with a lot of dollars offered for the reconstruction. All without even having to expose themselves!
Besides, deep down, Hull has only bad memories when he thinks of Romania.
He avoids thinking about it, embarrassed (maybe, just maybe!) by an unwelcome sense of embarrassment - guilt would be too much to say. A story about a money transfer refused*... unless it was one of those damn boats full of refugees who wanted to cross the Atlantic**.

Singapore - In a speech to the Indian Independence League, Subhas Chandra Bose announced some earth-shattering news!
"The Provisional Government of Free India, having cautiously observed (sic) the present situation of India in the world, has decided that tonight at midnight the time has come to declare war. I know that some of our compatriots will have doubts as to the validity of this declaration, but they may be convinced of its legality, inasmuch as it is issued by a government legally established and which represents the country.
This decision of the Provisional Government is the solemn declaration to the world that the Provisional Government of India believes it is its duty to declare war on Great Britain and her Allies, the United States of America and France.
My friends, let us prepare to march to India! We will unfurl our national flag on Indian soil and take Delhi. We are determined to be in India within a year to take control of the lands and seas of our country. The Indian National Army must prepare for battle."

* In the summer of 1940, the American Jewish community had on its own initiative raised funds to buy back the lives of deportees dying in the Transnistrian camps - the transfer of this money, subject to the signature of the Treasury Department and the State Department, had been greatly delayed under the direct influence of Hull. These delaying tactics led to an official complaint against the State Department ... to which its head responded by forbidding all U.S. consulates around the world to issue any visas to Jewish refugees!
** Such as the SS Quanza, a Portuguese ship that had landed in Virginia in September 1940 and had been stuck for eleven days at the dock in appalling sanitary conditions. One passenger even jumped off the ship to swim to shore; he was recaptured by the border guards and the decks were then guarded by armed men... It took the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt to break this deadlock and prevent the refugees from being sent back to Europe. As for the SS St. Louis, it had to turn back to Europe, sending at least 254 people to their deaths, despite the asylum offered to them by the countries of Western Europe... until the German invasion.

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Paris - With their hair in a mess and their eyes barely open, the five people in the workshop of false papers are dripping with perspiration. Their crumpled clothes are stained by the chemicals that fill the air with foul-smelling fumes.
Adolfo opens his mouth like a fish out of water and collapses, fainting, on his instruments. His body is giving out on him, he has spent two nights without sleep and has hardly stopped working for fifty hours. The second night was the hardest, he was always afraid of falling asleep at his work table. He was forced to get up, take a few steps and even slap himself in order not to fall asleep. Staying awake, not sleeping, working despite his eyes being blurry from lack of sleep. And this ticking in the head! Sleeping? Onen hour of sleep means kids will die.
But he has exceeded his limits and collapses. He is hastily transported to a member of the network who lives not far away. As soon as he wakes up, he wants to get back to work, but his eyesight becomes blurred. He is forced to go back to bed. He asked to be woken up after an hour. But Nénuphar is inflexible: "We need a forger, Adolfo, not another corpse."
In spite of everything, the papers will be finished in time, for the children as well as for the resistance fighters of the Hungarian section. The last ones will be delivered on the night of Saturday 23rd to Sunday 24th.
A saving feat that no newspaper headline will celebrate...

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Martin Bay, Labrador - After twenty hours of exhausting work, the "Kurt" station can finally be activated by Dr. Sommermeyer. As a camouflage measure, the submarine crew took care to scatter American cigarette packages on the site. The barrels are marked with the initials "Canadian Weather Service"... A perfectly fictitious organization, especially since northern Labrador depends on the dominion of Newfoundland which, at the time, was not yet attached to Canada!
After having verified the proper functioning of the station, U-537 heads for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland for a classic patrol. On December 8th, the submarine will be back in Lorient.
.........
Martin Bay, Labrador - "The weather station ran smoothly for two weeks. For unknown reasons, transmissions became erratic from November 8th onwards and stopped completely on the 18th. "Kurt" was forgotten for more than 30 years.
In 1977, Peter Johnson, a geomorphologist working on the survey of archaeological sites in archaeological sites in Labrador discovered the station. Thinking it was a Canadian installation, he reported it under the name "Martin Bay 7".
Around the same time, Franz Selinger, a former Siemens engineer, occupying his retirement by writing a book about the weather stations he had helped to build, discovered Dr. Sommermeyer's mission notes. Selinger then contacted the official historian of the Canadian Armed Forces (Dr. Alec Douglas) to tell him of his discovery. Two years of research in the German and Canadian archives gave the truth of the story and the fact that no one on the Canadian side seemed to know about it.
Selinger and Douglas enlisted the help of the Canadian Coast Guard to solve the enigma. On July 16th, 1981, the Louis S. St Laurent, with the two men on board, sailed from Halifax. On the 21st, the icebreaker dropped anchor off the Labrador coast. A quick helicopter reconnaissance located the weather station, exactly at the location indicated in the U-537's logbook. "Kurt" is now on permanent display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
(J. Jonathan, The Murmansk Convoys and the War in the Arctic, Marabout University, Brussels)

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Indochina Campaign
The Hanoi revolt
Hanoi - The sky is dark gray. Under a low ceiling, the ground is soaked by a rain so heavy that the planes are stuck to the ground. Impossible to fly safely over the capital of Tonkin in this pea soup. But the Japanese soldiers have regained their morale. Because this situation is much more difficult for the insurgents, who have neither tanks nor artillery. Freed from the fear of Yankee and Colonial planes, the Tenno troops are able to make full use of their tanks and cannons. The objective of the day is to retake the Thien-Quông district. It is here that the insurrection started just after the Americans had bombed the railway station, when the Japanese repression set fire to the streets near the railroad.
.........
Taii (captain) Kamishi shows a map of the city to his subordinate chûi (lieutenant) Ogoura: "According to the latest information, the rebels are still holding the south of Hanoi with large forces. They have snipers at the top of buildings and houses and these snipers are on top of buildings and houses and these despicable cowards have shot several of our comrades. Your mission is to go down Mandarine Street from the train station and to seize the intersections of Reinach, Dufourcq and Mongrand streets. We will set up a post in a building at each intersection. But before, we will have to clean all the houses of the sector up to the pond of Thiên-Quông."
Ogoura manages to keep a straight face, but he knows very well that the mission entrusted to him amounts to clearing fifty or so buildings potentially full of enemies. We're talking about several thousand fighters, better and better armed and that these rotten Colonizers train far too well. The order has been given, no need to moan - they both know that this operation should have been prepared by an aerial bombardment or by a powerful artillery shelling.
- I will assume the responsibility entrusted to me, captain. And I will succeed, in the name of the Emperor! Banzai!
- Banzai.
The officers climb to the roof to observe the target with binoculars. They can follow for a few minutes the too brief bludgeoning inflicted by the ten or so pieces available. From this distance, it looks impressive. But the men concentrated around the station grit their teeth. They know well that the Viets have dug a veritable anthill under the city. As soon as the shells stop falling, the rebels come out of their holes and take control of the ruins. The infantrymen are forced to do the bulk of the work and the previous assaults have been deadly. The stench of hundreds of rotting corpses permeates the air.
The first three shotais (platoons) advance down Rue Mandarine. They are preceded by a Chi-Ha type 97 medium tank. Its first shots hit the barricade formed by heaps of stones and rubble from the ruins. But the
But the embankment is so thick that the 57 mm gun barely scratches it. Shots ring out, from nearby buildings. They shoot sparks at the armor. The turret swivels, the gun rises. The shot shakes the armor, which spits fire. A volcano seems to open in the brick façade of a building. Methodically, the Japanese tank sprays the openings with the machine gun. The bolted casemate painted in green turns once again and the short tube spits out a new shell.
Covered by the machine that breaks through one position after the other - the enemy does not seem to have given up - the infantry goes up to the assault. The confrontation is a deadly game of hide-and-seek. The Vietminh evade the enemy. They have to be pursued. We go upstairs, we go into the neighboring building through a hole in the wall or by jumping from terrace to terrace. The defenders have the advantage of a perfect knowledge of the terrain. The armored vehicle should be brought in, but the driver hesitates. The scouts have found mines in the adjacent streets and who knows what the barricade hides?
On Rue Reinach, a concealed machine gun mows down the first soldiers. A perfectly prepared ambush has been set up. Snipers aim at the saber carriers and those giving orders. A gochô (corporal) is killed, a sôchô (sergeant-major) wounded. The assault stalls. The Japanese run in a maze, smash down doors with rifle butts, rushing up the stairs... We chase some ghosts who shoot a few shots and then retreat.
The radio finds the lieutenant Ogoura in a hut made of planks, sheltering from the shots of invisible adversaries. The news he brings is not good. The assault stalls. Under pressure, the Viets have abandoned the Rue Reinach, but they are still holding on to the other side passages as well as to the rue Mandarine. To the south, the advancing troops faced a counterattack from the straw hut villages of Trung Phung.
The chûi himself experiences the danger by resuming his advance. First, it is a under a roof who, lifting a tile-covered trap door, adjusts him and misses him by a small margin. Shortly after, a grenade is thrown from a window. Nobody is hit, but the alert was hot. Death lurks everywhere, at every street corner, behind every beam, each pile of rubble...
The alley where they emerge is cut by a barrier improvised with furniture and stones. The advance of the Japanese is interrupted by the shooting of a machine gun posted behind the barricade. The bullets mow down several men. Ogoura is hit in the thigh. Despite the shock and the haemorrhage, he drags himself under cover and drew his Nambu type 14. He shoots to divert the enemy's attention - two of his men, diving into the space beaten by the automatic weapon, seize the officer and drag him to safety.
The assault bogs down miserably. Two sections are surrounded. The reinforcements are unable to clear them. The tanks are brought in, but it takes a fight until the evening to get the two sections out of the trap.
Sergeant Matsumata, who has replaced Lieutenant Ogoura, reports to Captain Kamishi. The latter thanks with a simple nod of the head. The only question is whether the rebels will launch a counterattack tonight... Outside, the wind carries the smell of rotting corpses. Demoralized, undermined by fevers, the Japanese soldiers sleep on the wet ground, too exhausted to be afraid.

Dien-Bien-Phu - The bad weather had at least one advantage. The mechanics take advantage of it to carry out the necessary maintenance and repair work on Épervier's planes. This time is also not wasted by the pilots, who can finally rest and relax after several weeks of intense fighting.

Myitkyina - The activity does not weaken on the grounds that Belgians and French share for some time now. The new arrivals, fresh from the schools of North Africa, take advantage of this time to start acclimatizing. They arrive fortunately in a season that preserves them a little from the tropical humidity. Their training is completed under the guidance of veterans of the Burma battles and of the GC II/40 and GB I/62.
In a few days, the entire 345 Squadron will be reunited to open a new page in their unit's history: the transition from night bombing to daytime fire support. The pilots discover their new mount, the Bell P-39 Airacobra. Most of the aircraft have flown in the Sicilian campaign. They have just arrived by convoy and many of them are wearing the badge of the Cocotte.
The navigators and radio gunners discover the B-25 with the men of GB I/62. They form a reserve pool that was more than welcome for the B-25 crews of the 343 Squadron. Some of them, all volunteers, started their training on Piper Cub and Stinson. They will join 344 to participate in artillery adjustment and medevac missions, among others. Some of them, having appreciated the night operations, will obtain an exceptional assignment within the "GB Louvre", where this reinforcement will be welcomed.

Operation Manneken Pis
Luang-Prabang region (Laos) - "Today, I really start to believe that we are going to win this war - I mean to be sure and certain and even to think that the hardest part is done. We have seen European reinforcements arrive, finally, a sort of Belgian Congo brigade, which has travelled halfway around the world to give us a hand! If this miracle is possible, the Hitlerites and the Japanese are well done for.
I had been appointed to command one of the small groups sent to watch for the arrival of the Belgians in the vicinity of Luang-Prabang. I had with me a sergeant of the Legion and three Laotian auxiliaries, and we were the ones who drew the big prize. About forty kilometers from the city, we saw a small group in a jeep, driving slowly in our direction and displaying a large black-yellow-red flag. We unfurled a French flag and a moment later I was in front of a Belgian lieutenant, accompanied by four Congolese of the finest black. He stood at attention and saluted Lieutenant Debrabant, 1st Brigade of the Expeditionary Corps of the Belgian Public Force of the Belgian Congo!" I replied as best I could, despite the state of my uniform, which did not look like much anymore: "Second Lieutenant Müller, 5th Infantry Regiment of the Foreign Legion!" We fell into each other's arms, while our Congolese and Laotians also embraced each other, looking like they were having a great time!
A moment later, as he was leading me toward the main body of the Belgian troops, he looked at me a little embarrassed and then asked, "Uh, you have... an accent..."
I had to make a little face, despite the habit: "I am German, lieutenant. But..." I was about to launch into a big speech about anti-Nazi Germans, when he laughed, suddenly very relaxed: "Oh, I thought it was an Eupen* accent, or maybe a Flemish accent! I thought that a Flemish officer, in the Foreign Legion, that was not possible... une fois!"
I glanced at my sergeant, Max DeGroot, a native of Ghent (or Gent?), who looked at me and told me, "See, I told you it wouldn't have been a good idea for me to welcome them in Flemish!"
Anyway, all this will surely make excellent Europeans, as the French song would say..." (Klaus Müller, Letters to my Enemy Brother)
...........................
Operation Manneken Pis is over**.

Pacific Campaign
Operation Galvanic
Nauru - The Japanese airfield, already targeted several times in the last few weeks, is attacked by about twenty B-24 of the VIIth Air Force. Coming from Suva, they refueled at Funafuti. They are intercepted by 10 of the 16 A6M2 already outdated were deployed here because the sector is considered as secondary. Nauru is indeed anything but strategic. The maintenance of a garrison is only a matter of stubbornness on the part of the Japanese command. Indeed, despite their efforts, phosphate production could never be revived and the island, located at the end of a very long supply line, is under the blockade of American submarines. In September, a supply ship was sunk off the island. For the monsoon was less intense than usual, leading to a severe drought.
Despite the attacks of the Zeros, the B-24s bomb their target with precision, causing severe damage and destroying two fighters and three reconnaissance aircraft.
The air battle results in the destruction of four Japanese fighters (plus three demolished on landing), in exchange for two B-24s shot down over the island, one by the fighters and the other by the flak, while two are allowed to drag themselves to the open sea, where their crews will be picked up by Catalinas. Finally, two other Liberator, damaged, will land (according to their orders) in the Funafuti lagoon to avoid blocking the airfield. The four safe crews will quickly have the right to a "reassembly": one B-24 per hour comes out of the Consolidated assembly lines.

Sino-Japanese war
Operation Zhulin
Wuhan (Hubei) - The Japanese defeat the last nests of resistance in the old town of Hanyang. Those inhabitants of Hanyang and Hankou who had not fled and had survived the fighting are targeted for bloody reprisals by enraged Japanese soldiers, with the approval, if not the encouragement, of their officers. The men are summarily executed with machine-guns or locked up in buildings that are then burned down; the women are raped before being bayoneted in the stomach. Some civilians are kept alive long enough to drag the corpses to the river and throw them into the water: some bodies will be found as far as the outskirts of Nanjing in the following days.
These massacres will figure prominently in the charges brought at the trial of Lieutenant-General Yokoyama for war crimes in Tokyo in 1946 - Yokoyama was sentenced to death.

Operation White Shark
Chongqing - Linebarger, who as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, is aware of Zhu's failure to obtain more air support from Chennault, consults Chiang Kai-shek on the advisability of launching Operation White Shark. With the Generalissimo's approval, OB-1 uses psychological warfare tactics to convince the Japanese that the USAAF's refusal is a symptom of the increasingly serious dissension between the Chinese and American staffs.

* One of the small German-speaking regions of Belgium.
** Much later, Jo Gérard was to ask General Gilliaert what had inspired him to name the operation. "Ah," replied the general, "I knew that money had to play a big part in the success of this raid. Money has no smell, does it not: it is a saying due to the emperor Vespasian, who talked about the tax levied on the aediculae that today bear his name... And which are used precisely for what our little Manneken Pis does!"

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Blood in the Carpathians
"Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni"
Suceava sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni North) - The fighting is becoming more and more intense on the last piece of territory snatched by the Soviet offensive in this sector.
Filipp Zhmachenko's infantrymen are holding on despite the bombardments with the energy of despair - and also because of the fear of the dams that the NKVD hastened to put back in place on the Siret! - nothing makes it. Under the combined pressure of almost two army corps, which fight with numerical parity, they do not hold any more in the evening than a modest strip of 3 kilometers by 9. Which obviously has no interest, if not to allow the master of the Kremlin to claim that no, VD-G North is not finished.
Sign of the extreme nervousness of the Soviet military apparatus - never so great as in times of defeat - general Ivan Lazarev has besides the very bad surprise to see a delegation of soldiers with blue cap appear at his advanced HQ. And these last ones ask him to follow them... The general, who commands only a modest forty tanks and knows well that all is lost here, leaves without difficulty his post. Besides, he has no choice... Meanwhile, informed directly by Zhmachenko, Fyodor Tolbukhin himself orders the remains of the 2nd Armored Corps to withdraw. We might as well save what we can still be saved!
.........
Piatra Neamț sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni South) - While the 3rd Guards Armored Corps finally seems to be on its way to break through the great Carpathian barrier - it is fighting in front of Gheorgheni or almost! - the 14th Army finds itself in an increasingly unpleasant situation. Indeed, the formation of Valerian Frolov is forced to engage every day in the valleys west of Piatra Neamț, even though it is already under pressure from the surrounding German forces.
Due to the lack of a 62nd Army - which has still not joined! - the 14th is alone on the line. For the time being, facing only two German infantry divisions (the 342. ID and 225. ID, which are far from being fully manned), as well as an Abteilung of self-propelled guns (the 191. StuG). This is still manageable, after all... But if tomorrow, for example, the 17. Armee decides that the situation in Suceava does not force it to hold firmly its right, it could well send all its XI. AK to hit Frolov's flank. This would have terrible consequences.
Fortunately, we are not there yet. So far, so good... But the VVS have spotted reinforcements coming up from Brașov towards the fascist lines. It is the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister), which has just arrived on the Eastern Front and will undoubtedly soon know its baptism of fire. And on the northern side... The reserves dispatched by List are soon at Bodești, on the rear of the 342. ID. Obviously, it would be wrong to say that the Soviets did not see them. But, like the Germans just nine days earlier... if it is one thing to anticipate the enemy's assault, it is another to be able to do anything about it.
Especially when you don't have the freedom!
.........
Bacău sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni South) - The 62nd Army continues its determined, but weakened, effort to skirt the Bistrița and finally reach Podoleni. Faced with the debris of the 215. ID but also to the KorpsAbteilung E (the agglomerate of what remains of the 282. ID and 46. ID), Vladimir Kolpakchi passes. With difficulties, losses and artillery crashes... but he passes: by evening, his forces are in Buhuși. Barely 12 kilometers from a position from which they could begin to relieve the 14th Army and which they should have reached four or five days ago.

Romania - After the previous day's bloodletting over Bucharest, the VVS - which had neither the means nor the experience of Western strategic forces when it comes to bringing an economy to its knees - are returning to more modest objectives for the days to come.
Especially since it is now clear that the ground offensive will not keep all its promises - therefore, it is probably useless to hope to lead Bucharest to join the Soviet Union simply with bombs...
Today, it is above all the road and river traffic that will bear the brunt of the red anger. But also, at sunset, the Sirmei wheel and torsion bar factories in Turda (in the Cluj-Napoca region). The workshops, weakly defended (we are very far in the Carpathians!), are substantially damaged - you can't do it again... And in Moscow, Novikov has the impression that he is doing his comrades of the Army a favour by anticipation. All these affairs cost 13 Falcons against 6 Romanian fighters (the Bf 110 Nachtjägers did not deign to intercept the attackers on their way back).

Romania - "It soon became clear that things were not going as well as hoped for our comrades further north. Crossing exercises became less frequent, plans for action became more distant... The planned escapades in force across the Danube were cancelled, and replaced them by parades in Moldavian cities, or by journalistic reports, or even by radio broadcasts. Photos, smiles... a few questions about my past in the Romanian army and where I came from... and next! At least I didn't have much to fear, my village having already been liberated.
Disappointment ran through the ranks. There was talk of another unit being formed with compatriots: Horia, Cloșca și Crișan. Obviously, in itself, this was good news. But were we not satisfactory? Fortunately, we would soon have the opportunity to prove the contrary - and I even more so." (Farewell My Country... Once More, Vasil Gravil, Gallimard 1957)

Black Sea
Malen'kaya Zemlya
Odessa military port - The 79th BMS begins to embark on the transports provided by the Red Flag Fleet, under a large aerial umbrella. The convoy is due to weigh anchor tonight - no need to linger in this ravaged port, with its mine-infested surroundings and where there is always fear of an air attack.

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Italian campaign
Northern Italy - The attack on the Cuneense area has somewhat shaken the German general staff, which has made a link with sabotage that took place just north of this area, against the railroads coming from Bologna.
This is why the 15. SS Panzergrenadier Reichsführer deploys behind the Gotenstellung for an operation similar to the one at the beginning of the month.
The SS begin searching farms and villages south of Bologna. While the 15. SS Aufklärung abteilung has just left the village of Vado in the direction of Monzuno, on Route 325, shots burst out. Immediately the grenadiers jump out of their vehicles and start to climb the slopes of Monte Sole. The partisans disengage, leaving some dead and seriously wounded on the ground. The SS then return to Vado and resumed their "searches"; they gathereall the adult men of the village and take them to an unknown destination... Their report will say that 77 prisoners were shot as they tried to escape.

O Corsa Bella
La Spezia - In agreement with his divisional commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Dupérier decides to carry his offensive to the other end of the Ligurian coast. Four large sites at Villafranca in Lunigiana, Ceparana and Masero, plus a small one in the harbor of La Spezia, it is enough to mobilize the entire 60th EB(L) and its usual escort provided by the 3rd EC, whose Mustangs are more efficient against the Focke-Wulf than the P-38. In order to deceive the Teutonic vigilance, the raid was first directed towards the Italian front, before turning towards the Ligurian port and the Magra valley.
This proximity to the front line naturally led to a confrontation between the fighters. JG 77 sent what it had of operational elements, which begin to become as rare as good pilots. In these conditions, young pilots of both sides often bear the brunt of the battle, but not always: by a beautiful maneuver, Captains Hubert de Salaberry and Émile Thierry, followed by their teammates, manage to send for each of them an opponent to the mat.
Similarly, the Flak is much more present in the area, augmented by the RSI flak on the port of La Spezia. Two four-engined aircraft are hit by direct hits from 88 mm, and three others leave, leaving thick wisps of smoke. But the bombardments give good results, especially on the V2 sites of Masero and Ceparana.
Bernard Dupérier insists on doing the smoke marking himself, in company of a pilot used to it, on his right, in a Mosquito recovered by the squadron for this purpose. He takes the opportunity to inspect in passing the site reported by the Resistance in Carrara, and concluded that it could not be his responsibility: how to bomb a cave on a hillside? He will pass on the information: this is work for planes equipped with the new rockets ! A job for the Belgian Sangliers, perhaps?
Another observation of the new boss: for a vast sector like this, a greater concentration of forces is needed, some of the V1/V2 sites are of impressive size. Therefore, involving the Americans would not be a luxury...

Greece and Balkans Campaign
An unforeseen revolt
Macedonia - For the vast majority of the British, Greeks, Germans and other foreigners camped in the region, the date of October 23rd does not mean anything particular, except the sadness of an autumn which reduces the days and the icy wind sweeps the valleys under the fading light of the sun. However, for the small people of Macedonia, it is the festival of the Revolution: the commemoration of the beginning of the armed fight led by the Macedonian Internal Revolutionary Organization (Vatreshna Makedonska Revolyutsionna Organizatsiya, VMRO) against the Ottoman occupiers, precisely 50 years ago. An important marker for the local population, and also for what has become over the decades the first (unofficial!) party of the country and the most powerful force of resistance against... the "Hellenic and Serbian oppression resulting from the Treaty of Trianon". But among the Allies as well as among the Germans, almost everyone has forgotten it, except of course the head of the Macedonian CP - but Svetozar Vukmanović "Tempo" is hardly listened to since the incidents in Tirana.
On both sides, this indifference can be explained. The Reich has other concerns than historical commemorations (except those of its victories of course!) and the Macedonian people have not always been very favorable to the allied cause. Moreover, the Bulgarian troops had even been welcomed as liberators during the invasion of 1941. And the Slavs had no difficulty in finding political interlocutors favorable to their occupation andd annexation. This general attitude was not for nothing in the low initial resistance to Major-General Mihov's 5th Army (only two divisions) - the role of Major-General Mihov's 1st Corps was essentially to fight against the Serbian communists and the Greek royalists (or vice versa). Even more significant: Metodi Chatarov, regional leader of the Yugoslav Communist Party even disobeyed Tito's direct orders by refusing to consider the Bulgarian armies as occupying force, while calling for the fusion between the Macedonian and Bulgarian CP! At the end of 1942, the Central Committee had to dispatch Vukmanović (himself of Montenegrin origin!) to stop this masquerade*.
However, in 1943, the situation had changed and the enthusiasm of many Macedonians had fallen back like a badly prepared banitsa. The Germans have taken over the country and the troops formed with the help of the VMRO hardly resemble the hoped-for embryonic local army. Certainly, the militia "Ohrana", founded by the Bulgarian colonel Andon Kalchev, of the Bulgarian Military Club of Salonika**, and framed by VMRO cadres, helps the Reich in its struggle, especially against the EDES and ELAS. But fighting the Greeks is almost a habit for these men, since the 30s and the anti-Slavic policy of General Metaxas... And from the point of view of its members, their actions are now more aimed at protecting the Slavic speakers from the Hellenic activities or from the Serbian vengeance (which is often provoked by the extreme involvement of a significant portion of the population) than to contribute to the creation and the enlargement of their nation in becoming. The only benefit of their collaboration seems to be vague and distant promises of autonomy, possibly within the framework of an annexation by Bulgaria.
The allegiance of the 12,000 men of the "Ohrana" militia thus seems quite uncertain. To the point that the reports from ELAS partisans in the region indicate that they themselves "can no longer distinguish between enemies and allies"! The attempt to overthrow the regent Kyril of Preslav, the hasty departure of the Bulgarian forces and the victories of the Allied armies completed the blurring of the cards. Soon perhaps, the Greek or Serbian troops will march in Skopje! Only the most ideological fighters,including those of the VMRO regiment (composed of the party's henchmen) seem to continue to believe in victory.
However, Macedonia remains one of the most "understanding" regions of Europe towards the German occupiers. This is why, overcoming their racial prejudices and conscious of the strategic potential of the area - but especially of the disaster which could cause a rallying of the living forces of Macedonia to the "Bulgarian brothers" tempted by a change of camp - the Germans have been trying for more than a month now to save what can be saved. To do this, they are rather unsubtly soliciting the most right-wing, most nationalist faction (and the one most opposed to the Bulgarian czars) of the VMRO movement, a faction led by the so-called Ivan Mihailov (not to be confused with the general commanding the 5th Bulgarian Army).
.........
"Mihailov was anything but an unknown to the European secret services - he was the theoretical number one of the VMRO since August 31st, 1924, when his predecessor, Todor Aleksandrov, was killed in unclear circumstances. The murder was quickly attributed to the communists. During the following year, Mihailov had cleaned up the various currents of the movement, cleaning up with particular the left wing, the so-called Sandanist wing. He caused a massacre among the party cadres: Gjorche Petrov, Dimo Hadjidimov, Georgi Skrizhovski, Aleksandar Bujnov, Chudomir Kantardjiev... the dead had piled up, victims of his ambition and the struggles of the apparatus. His companion and future wife Mencha Karnichiu had even personally taken care on May 7th, 1925, in Vienna, to eliminate Todor Panitsa, however himself murderer of the leaders of current Boris Sarafov and Ivan Garvanov!
With his hands bloody but free at last, Mihailov had abandoned the infiltration and guerrilla tactics to resort to what was not yet called political terrorism. The protesters of the movement like General Aleksandar Protogerov and his "Protogerovists" had been the first victims, after a real civil war within the VMRO - Protogerov's supporters discredited themselves by seeking without success the support of the Yugoslavs and then of a Bulgarian Zveno not yet in power.
Triumphant, the Mihailovists continued their work by proceeding, as usual, with violence: from 1922 to 1930, there were more than 63 terrorist attacks and thousands of political assassinations in Yugoslavia. All of this with the help of Bulgaria's Popular Bloc***, which provided them with a rear base in the province of Blagoevgrad. Later on, the Macedonians also received material aid from fascist Italy and the Croatian Ustasha, all united in their joy of weakening the Kingdom of the Serbs. Finally, on October 9th, 1934 in Marseille, it was the hour of glory of the movement: the honnored king, Alexander 1st of Yugoslavia, fell under the blows of Vlado Tchernozemski, while the Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis Barthou was victim of a stray bullet. But such an act, although carried out with the personal complicity of the Croatian Ante Pavelić, could not go unpunished. The Zveno had meanwhile taken power on May 19th, 1934, and was clearly pro-French - the VMRO assassins had to go underground or be disarmed by the Bulgarian army. Milhailov, on the other hand, fled to Turkey. He was sentenced three times to death in absentia, and nine times to life imprisonment, but he didn't care - continuing to run his network from Istanbul, Warsaw, and then Budapest during his exile, and observed from afar the beginning of the war and the defeat of the French and then the Serbs. In 1941, he finally returned to Yugoslavia - or rather Croatia - at the invitation of his long-time accomplice, Ante Pavelić, whom the fate of arms seemed to favor. He then became known for his constant refusal of the annexation of Macedonia by Bulgaria and his threats against Tsar Boris III and his armies, which were considered too soft on ethnic selection.
In mid-1942, however, Mihailov put a stop to these threats when the Germans cordially invited him to set up mixed detachments of VMRO men and Slavic speakers from Edessa, Kastoria and Florina - that is to say precisely the cities of the Large Macedonia which was its objective. The whole was to be supervised by Macedonian officers trained by the Bulgarians. The Reich thus played Macedonia against Bulgaria, negotiating with less and less scruples its support to the autonomists of Skopje against the irritating tsar of Sofia, then against his irritating successor, the regent Kyril.
On September 6th, 1943, at the time of the Bulgarian turnaround, Mihailov was in Germany to meet Hitler and then Himmler in order to form three battalions equipped and trained by the Germans, under the command of the SS hierarchy. This unforeseen episode ended, the royal family of Sofia was in exile and Bulgaria was out of the picture. The VMRO was then free to try without restraint to seduce the Germans and to consider more than just military units. In this context, it was also planned that Adolf Beckerle to receive Mihailov quickly after his return from Germany. The SS had to judge the credibility of the Macedonian's proposals, whereas this one hoped to be able to show him that he deserved "his" independent - even as a puppet.
However, this beautiful scenario did not satisfy everyone - the majority of the Macedonians already did not believe in the victory of the Reich, whereas the allied troops were at the border between Yugoslav Macedonia and Greek Macedonia. And many militiamen, members of the Ohrana and other VMRO sympathizers, a little more realistic or a little less radical than their leaders, were worried about the imminent defeat of their protectors, while they themselves had worked hard against the Greek Resistance. The Hellenes had the long memory and they would surely remember (among other things) the massacre of Klisoura (province of Kastoria), during which Macedonians and SS of the 7th Rgt of Alfred Wünnenberg had murdered 270 people, the vast majority of them women, children and elderly. An event so shocking that its leader, Colonel Karl Schümers, was summoned by his hierarchy to explain his actions*****.
And the allied authorities would surely be even less understanding when they learned of the multiple raids and "cleanings" carried out in the purest tradition of the Komitadjis***** to create a "politically healthy" Macedonia, purely Slavic. (Robert Stan Pratsky, op. cit.)
.........
It is then that, refusing to be drawn into the German defeat, a significant part of the men of the Ohrana rose up, especially in the towns of Kumanovo, Chtip, Prilep and as far as Gostivar (in the mountains in the west). Macedonia ignites and scenes of civil war occur between Germans, "loyalist" militiamen and insurgents of the Ohrana, to the great displeasure of the civilian population trapped in the middle. It seems well that, like the Bulgarians of September 6th, in a staggering access of naivety or desperation, the insurgents imagined that the Allied army would take advantage of the opportunity to advance. After all, if Bulgaria and Albania are not the Allies' objectives, there is hardly anything left but their country, is there? The constraints of supply and preparation, not to mention considerations of political will, are obviously foreign to the militiamen - and this is what will make them unhappy.
The reactions to this uprising were... diverse. The German high command welcomes the news with exasperation: these Slavs once again bite the hand that feeds them. However, for Alexander Löhr, there is nothing that his troops cannot solve - especially since the ambassador in Sofia points out to him that this is really not the time to clear the Vardar valley. To avoid resorting to the transfer of reinforcements from Albania, he ordered the troops available on the spot to crush the uprising, a task obviously within their reach.
The leader of the XVIII. Gebirgs-Armee-Korps, General Eduard Dietl, did not like the joke. Twice now, he suddenly found himself stranded in Macedonia in the midst of hostile forces - and his detour to Sweden in 1940 did not really make him want to be captured again, especially by Slavic barbarians, who are reputed to be much less polite than the Swedes. The man doesn't trust anyone but his own troops - and they are notoriously understaffed. So, even if the VMRO regiment, deployed on the southern accesses to Skopje, does not seem to have insurged, he decides not to try anything involving this unit without being sure of its loyalty. Dietl therefore ordered the reserve to be given, obtaining from Löhr the placing at his disposal of the 187. ID of Josef Brauner von Haydringen, which will come from Kavadartsi to crush Chtip. As far as Prilep, the general could do nothing more than release two battalions of the 1. GD and one of the 4. GD in order to restore order in his rear. Finally, the towns of Kumanovo and Gostivar were left to the good care of the Croatian or Russian militias that had to be brought in from Kosovo. In the end, Dietl was almost reduced to regretting that scumbag Müller - at least the man was reliable in his task...
On the Allied side, the S.O.E. is catastrophized by this initiative, which it does not understand and over which it has no control over. Vukmanović's men had no intention of helping the "fascist traitors", and simply shrug their shoulders and say that, in the end, the German soldiers will save bullets to the Allied quartermaster... An answer that hardly satisfies the British, while this unprepared insurrection risks ravaging the region, decimating the civilian population (thus the support of the Partisans helping the Allies) and to destroy the infrastructure of the main axis of the Market-Garden offensive!
"These fools are really wrong to imagine that they can free themselves," McLean grumbles in his Kosovo hideout.
For them, it would have been infinitely preferable to join the Balli Kombëtar (despite the risks), or even to join the inevitable "democratic Macedonia" later on. Whatever happens, Monty does not risk to accelerate his offensive for repentant people ! The insurgents are thus condemned, like the Bulgarians of Kyril of Preslav - no offense to the latter. It only remains to hope that they will not do too much damage...

Deceptive appearances
Sofia (embassy of the Reich) - Informed also of the events of Macedonia, Adolf Beckerle sends a new report to his hierarchy, in which he worries once again about a risk of "insurrectionary contamination" - after all, these Slavs are all linked by Jewishness! But the answer from Berlin is reassuring: the Vardar valley would certainly be the axis of a future enemy offensive, which should not go and get lost on the windswept Macedonian high plateaus. In addition, its armor, probably stationed north of Salonika (as far as the OKW can judge, in the absence of real reconnaissance), would be much more at ease to follow a valley than to cross rocky barriers like those north of Prilep. Finally, and to conclude, Guevgueliya remains the most direct route to Sofia or Skopje. It is thus a reassured SS that is making new plans for the regeneration of Bulgaria - with or without Marinov.

* Prior to this "assignment," Tempo (so called because he tended to constantly press his collaborators) commanded the People's Liberation Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
** This charitable organization was created in 1942, with the authorization of the German command, with the aim of "winning the hearts" of the Macedonians to prepare their attachment to Bulgaria. But it was very quickly infiltrated by the most radical nationalist elements.
*** Political alliance then in power, composed of the Democratic Party, the Bulgarian National Agrarian Union (BANU) "Vrabcha 1", the National Liberal Party and the Radical Democratic Party.
**** The interested party got out of it by affirming that Partisans fired on his troops from the buildings of the locality, intolerable situation which, in his view, justified a massive retaliation. In a rare occurrence in the history of war crimes, not all of his subordinates confirmed this allegation to their superiors. And it was proven after the war that this "excuse" was false.
***** Members of the Committee - the term used to designate the members of the VMRO.

 

[Wings]

October 23rd, 1943

Languedoc - Heavy weather in the Hérault and Gard regions reduces activity in both camps to its strict minimum. Aerial operations are practically all suspended.
The Luftwaffe takes advantage of the situation to make some changes. General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff leaves LF.5 for the new Luftflotte Reich, in charge of the air defense of Germany. He is replaced by General Robert von Greim.
Today, LuftFlotte 5 oversees the V. FliegerKorps (former Fliegerführer Mittelmeer), still commanded by Martin Fiebig, and the X. FliegerKorps, commanded by Martin Harlinghausen (who replaced Hans-Ferdinand Geisler at the end of 1942).

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

Occupied France - Twenty-six bombing groups of the 9th AF, for a total of 672 Flying Fortresses and Liberators, attack 24 V1 "ski" sites in Pas-de-Calais. The sky is permanently filled with American aircraft and the escort sweep away the rare attempts of the German fighters, who are few in number and quickly on their knees in front of this incessant tide. Despite this, the success is only partial: it is difficult to bomb such small targets while remaining at high altitude.

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

In the vicinity of Domodossola - No sooner had the "Republic of Montefiorino" been eliminated that several combined attacks of partisans seize the villages surrounding the town of Domodossola. This is the beginning of a plan prepared by the CLNAI for more than a month, in order to control a territory vast enough to become autonomous and to be administered without any interference of the royal government! The non-communist Partisans of the Val d'Ossola and the Garibaldi of the Valsesia to carry out this operation. The CLNAI is delighted with its idea! The Allies are... much less enthusiastic.

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

Pujols (Gironde) - Having come to rest in the family residence where he grew up, Admiral Platon is very disappointed to see his small escort massacred and to be kidnapped by a commando of the 6th Dordogne Battalion, taking advantage of the departure to Provence of a good part of the German units that were supposed to keep order in the region. The one who had knowingly decided in June 1940, by Anglophobia and by loyalty to an already dying Pétain, not to join the Grand Demenagement, had however believed to bet on the good horse when he had applauded the arrival of Doriot to power. His bitter anti-communism, added to his hatred of the Anglo-Americans, made him wish for a German victory.

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

Burma Campaign
Occupied Burma - The Imperial Army is taking advantage of the lull that has prevailed for the past two days to begin redeploying its air forces based in Thailand.
In accordance with the new "defensive glacis" strategy decided in Tokyo, the aim is to support the Burmese front to ensure control of the southern tip of Burma, while protecting the lines of communication between Japan and Malaysia.
The 62nd Sentai and the 51st and 70th independent Chutai fly to northern Malaysia. The 8th, 14th and 31st Sentai depart for Saigon and its surroundings. Finally, some fighters and support aircraft begin to redeploy to the areas closest to the front line: the two most seasoned fighter groups, the 50th and 64th Sentai, accompanied by the 1st Dokuritsu Sentai on Ki-89, settled in Mergui, while the 1st, 11th and 77th Sentai occupy the Kampong Ulu area, at the southern end of the delta which marks the border with the former Thai ally. This redeployment is to take place over a period of ten days.

Indochina Campaign
The Hanoi Revolt
Hanoi, at night, in the air - A slight lull allows two C-47s and a Lodestar to drop some supplies to the insurgents. The weather conditions are still bad but they mask the approach of the transports, avoiding them to be exposed to the flak, which is still firing blindly. The crews are former SABENA and Air France, used to flying in unpleasant conditions.
During this time, two Lysanders throw, also blindly, some bombs on the sectors held by the Japanese, more to support the morale of the insurgents than to really disturb the Japanese soldiers.
.........
Hanoi, at night, on the ground - A sticky darkness hangs over the capital of Tonkin. The rain falls intermittently. The fires, the tracers that the Japanese flak sends to the sky is added the noise of the allied planes, that of the bombs... Sounds and lights are absorbed, blurred, diluted in this cold mist that transforms the streets into a labyrinth, a sunken Atlantis. Captain Kamishi listens and looks, but does not hear nor see. His senses fail to find the way out of the labyrinth. Like Theseus, he is reduced to waiting and sharpening his blade. In this strange atmosphere, the enemy ceases to appear human. He takes on the appearance of a bogeyman, a fantastic beast... A minotaur that prowls around, looking for a prey to devour.
A few hundred meters away, the atmosphere is hardly different. The Vietminh militiamen who slip from shadow to shadow have fear in their bellies, watching for the night, anticipating the pain, the blood, the death that will strike them. At each exit, one or two men disappear. Sometimes you hear gunshots... Sometimes, the darkness devours them in silence.
The men carry large metal containers. The bombers played well their role of diversion, other planes came to feed the "rebels" that the Japanese radio insults. Some of them recovered the parachutes. Canvas and lines are reused, nothing is lost from what the sky brings. The group disappears in a building in ruins, butting by moment on the debris which strew the ground. We open the containers. Some weapons, ammunition, food. Enough to last a few more days. It is necessary. Reinforcements? Maybe, one day, in a few weeks... You might as well say as if in a century. While the Hanoi rebels only think of living one more day, just one. Here, time no longer has the same meaning.
Captain Kamishi listens carefully. Allied aircraft are moving away. The explosions fall silent. He whistles his polished blade two or three times and then sheathes it again. He is still not sleepy. He prefers to continue to watch... to wait... He feels it in his bones, in his heart which pumps adrenalin, the danger is there, outside. Lurking in the shadows and mists, the enemy is gathering. The warrior hears the murmur of shadows that are stirring.
.........
Hanoi, daytime - The attack is brutal and incisive. Suddenly, the Vietminh are there.
Not militiamen, but helmeted regulars in green uniforms. They come out of houses supposedly secured, others cross the Red River near Dông Nhan. The garrison of the former military hospital is once again isolated, and besieged.
In the solid stone building, the Japanese soldiers move cautiously. Twice already, a bullet has entered through a window to wound or kill. In the nearby buildings, there are hundreds of Viets. Patient like the rain that has started to fall but as deadly as lightning. Hollow-bellied, thirsty, they are no longer hiding. Besieged in the city, they shout political slogans, hold meetings whose rumors reach those they besiege, in the hospital.
The raindrops grow in size and fall more and more heavily. Soon the shower becomes a wall of drops that drum on the few intact windows. The water drips on the walls, penetrates through the cracked windows, the wind makes the doors slam.
But nothing can drive away the smell of decomposition that permeates the city. Only the rats are happy. Big and fat, all too familiar, they run through the streets as true masters of the place. There is so much carrion to devour that they have become difficult.
.........
Hanoi, at night - This is the favorite time of the besiegers who surround the hospital. As soon as darkness falls on the streets, a strange procession begins. First, the silence... long, heavy, deceptive. It looks like a wall. Only the cries of the toads that abound on the banks of the Red River cross it. Otherwise, it swallows everything.
We listen to it from the military hospital, we evaluate it, we try to hear what it hides, footsteps, the click of a weapon, voices.
Suddenly, the representation begins. A hysterical voice proclaims with full lungs: "Tien lien!" Hundreds of others repeat "Tien lien! Doc lap!" They answer each other from one building to another. The sleeping Japanese are awakened by the sound of the sound of running, as if they were rushing to the old hospital. The sleepy Japanese rush to the windows, adjust their weapons. They wait for the assault...
Usually, after a few minutes the noise decreases. One minute, two...five... All that can be heard is the sound of the bullfrogs, the infinitely repetitive tapping of the rain.
One or two hours later, the merry-go-round starts again. One shouts, one pushes oneself, one runs around the Japanese tusks. Once again, it is a feint... Again, the Japanese snort and go back to their post. At the third repetition, a Japanese soldier shoots in the dark, triggering a riposte. The shooting lasts a few minutes.
The enemy tries to wear down the besieged, to push them to the limit, to waste their ammunition for nothing.
.........
Haiphong - For the imperial pilots as well as for the allied airmen, the weather offers a welcome respite.
"The joy of seeing new reinforcement pilots arrive was quickly tarnished by the discovery that they were novices even younger than the previous ones. They have so little practice that we often have to retrain them, which we doas soon as a lull allows it.
Of those who formed our Sentai with me at the time of operation Typhoon, only the chu-sa, Saejima and five or six others remain. As we welcome the new ones, we can only wonder how many of them will survive their first mission. Listening to the chu-sa grumbling about the villainous imbecility of sending us these pilots barely out of their teens, I find myself nodding. How did I come to forget that I am only slightly older than them?" (Diary of cho-i Keitaro Urashima)

The Red Prince
Somewhere in eastern Laos - The place: a lost village called Tang Vay, somewhere on the famous Hô Chi-Minh trail. The moment: just after midnight, like in any good conspiracy scene.
Small, mustachioed, a little ponderous, dressed in European style, Prince Souphanouvong does not have the head of a formidable revolutionary. He speaks French almost without an accent and expresses himself not with the grandiloquent phrases of a people's tribune, but with precise and thoughtful words, exactly like the engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées that he is. However, this night, in the middle of the men of the committee of Free Laos of which he is the leader, it would not occur to anyone to underestimate the Red Prince - since his sympathy for the communist ideas made him so nicknamed.
In addition to the principal members of the Pathet Lao (independent state of Laos), the political formation of which the Lao Issara are the armed arm, are present two two foreigners: a young Vietnamese woman, personal envoy of Hô Chi-Minh, and a Frenchman named Josué-Heilman Hoffet. Geologist, botanist and zoologist, Hoffet has discovered in Laos, in calmer times, many dinosaur skeletons which made him famous. At the beginning of the conflict, he joined the French intelligence services, before organizing guerrilla actions against the Japanese aafter the invasion*.
Charming, as usual, Souphanouvong takes the time to thank everyone for coming, offering a large smile the only woman present.
- Madam, Gentlemen, there is only one reason for our presence here: Vientiane. The fate of our historic capital is our priority. The first two attempts failed because the Thai garrison is strong. Moreover, it is supported by artillery deployed on the other side of the Mekong. And for some time, the Japanese have deployed more than twenty thousand men to ensure their hold on the city. This choice is questionable from a military point of view, they have already paid dearly for it and will pay again, since they leave our forces free in the south of the country. But politically, they are scoring points with the Thai people.
Souphanouvong allows himself a break while his secretary distributes a few mimeographed sheets to the main participants.
- The text you have just received is a copy of the draft of the... let's say of the peace agreement between Thailand on the one hand and the Americans and the English on the other hand. We obtained this document thanks to the help of some Thai friends of Laos... and wishing to ensure their old age. I invite you to read carefully the passage concerning Laos.
Fortunately, the document in question is quite thin. All around the table, the sound of sheets being turned over and over with increasing annoyance.
One of the members of the committee pushes the sheets away: "But I can't find any passage about Laos!" His neighbor adds: "Neither can I!"
Souphanouvong smiles: "Because there is none. We have been... forgotten. Our situation - like that of Cambodia, moreover - is thorny. At the moment, only France is interested in Laos. The United States and the United Kingdom prefer to ignore the subject. Their priorities are elsewhere. America has only one objective: Tokyo. As for the British, anything that might delay the recovery of Singapore is, let us say, inappropriate for them. However, our situation is not so bad. What do you think, Mr. Hoffet?"
The Frenchman clears his throat. The man bears a vague resemblance to the American billionaire Howard Hughes - same haircut, same thin mustache. One notices in particular his eyes sunken in their sockets and marked by crow's feet wrinkles. He speaks while supporting his words with gestures of the left hand, decorated with a gold signet ring.
- You are right. First, I can assure you that the Allies intend to continue bombing the Japanese troops wherever they are in the region. Agreement with Bangkok or not, the British, Americans and Belgians will continue to support French air forces in Indochina. Our ground forces are still insufficient to drive out the Japanese, but we have received Belgian reinforcements which have shown their qualities in Burma. General Gilliaert's troops, a strong brigade, will soon be able to join those of General Bourdeau. However, as Belgium and Thailand were not at war, this brigade could only participate in operations against the Japanese.
I also have information from Bangkok, both from the opposition to the Thai government as well as from the government itself, through... various channels. Mr. Paribatra, as a worthy successor of Phibun, persists in claiming the provinces of Laos and Cambodia that Thailand occupied in the last century and that France snatched away in 1893. This fact was ratified by the treaties of 1902 and 1904 and the international borders as they were until 1940 were recognized by the United Nations... or should be soon. But as you know, Thailand rejects the treaties of 1902 and 1904 because they were imposed on her by force and that it felt them as a humiliation. This humiliation was the main reason for the kingdom's rallying to the Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
However, Miss, Gentlemen, as you know, if Thailand proclaims loudly that it will never leave what it calls its eastern provinces, the reality is very different. The kingdom has withdrawn from the conflict because it no longer believes in the victory of Japan. And since the Allied victory was also that of France, the Thai government has no illusions. Japan defeated, it will undoubtedly have to return to the borders of the 1904 treaty. But the Thais energetically refused the idea of signing a new treaty humiliating the borders of Laos (and Cambodia for that matter) before the international community. Moreover, to abandon the provinces without fighting would be for the government to lose face with the population, but also of the Japanese.
The members of the Pathet Lao look at each other, one of them growls: "We'll have to retake them by force". The faces are bitter. Long months of conflict have taken their toll: War is never fresh and joyful.
Josué Hoffet smiles: "Yes... and no! As I told you, the Thai government understood that one day it would have to leave Laos. If we can allow them to do so in a way that does not humiliate them, they will play along.
For Vientiane, which no one wants to see destroyed by the fighting, we have developed a plan." He bows slightly toward Souphanouvong.
The Red Prince speaks again: "In a few days, General Bourdeau will resume his offensive in southern Laos. The Japanese believe he is still in the north and they will have no choice but to recall the elements of the 56th Division deployed around Vientiane. We will let them go, harassing them just enough to be credible. In fact, we want them to leave as soon as possible! For the next few days, it will be very quiet in northern Laos. The Thai government will proclaim to have restored order in the region without the help of the Japanese.
At that time, the Vientiane garrison will receive a report that a convoy of poppy paste** for the benefit of the "Colonizers" has left the Highlands. This paste must be used to pay the so-called "rebel" troops, to buy supplies, etc. The commander of the garrison will see an unhoped-for opportunity and will ambush the convoy. He will gloriously crush the escort and seize the cargo.
As usual, it is that old pirate Van Dong who will organize the transport of the poppy. I've let him in on it because he's always scrupulously respected our ancestral agreements. He understood well the painful necessity to sacrifice the escort of the convoy, but - happy coincidence - he was recently informed that a number of his beloved sons have taken it into their heads to succeed him sooner than he would like. entrusting them with the convoy and its escort will be a fitting way of demonstrating whether he or they have the support of the Forest Spirits.
Finally, the deal will save a lot of lives. Indeed, on our side, we will take the opportunity to attack the city, whose defenses will have been seriously weakened. The weak remaining garrison will defend itself with heroism but will be forced to evacuate the city to avoid that the impious assailants cause irreparable damage to the many holy places.
Hoffet concludes: "The Thai government will admit that the commander of the garrison was right to make this sortie, but will blame him for having lost Vientiane. The poppy paste will allow the officer in charge to console himself for the period of disgrace that will follow. Everyone will have gotten what they wanted."
Around the table, the faces are reassured. Everything will end well and, what's more, in the respect of traditions.

Pacific Campaign
Operation Galvanic
Nauru - A new B-24 raid on the airfield. There are only six operational fighters to defend Nauru. A B-24 is shot down over the island, one will fall into the sea and one will land in the Funafuti lagoon. But at the end of the combat, the three surviving Zeros are destroyed while trying to land on a bombed airfield.
About fifteen crew members of the four B-24s shot down over the island in two days were able to jump. Captured, they are all decapitated a few days later.
The Japanese commander of the Nauru base was hanged after the war for this crime.

Sino-Japanese War
Operation Zhulin
Anhui Province - The Japanese general staff has transferred to Anhui the 32nd Division, which since the end of March had been stationed in the former communist stronghold of Shaan-Gan-Ning. Its arrival made it possible to threaten the New 4th Army from the north and to relieve the 13th Army. This makes it possible to send the 15th Division to assist the 11th Army in Jiangxi.

* J.-H. Hoffet is considered today both as a war hero, by the French as well as by the Laotians and Vietnamese, and by paleontologists as the father of the study of dinosaurs in Southeast Asia. The French high school in Vientiane bears his name. In 1990, a Franco-Lao expedition discovered an unknown 110 million year old sauropod in the Savannakhet basin. This one will be named Tangvayosaurus hoffeti in homage to J.-H. Hoffet. Finally, in 1992, a stele was erected by the three countries (France, Laos and Vietnam) in memory of Josué Hoffet at the place where he fell.
** The unrefined poppy paste is used to make opium. It is a highly prized currency which always finds a buyer.

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

After Suvorov
Heili heilo heila
Wolfsschanze (Rastenburg) - With the ardor of a regiment of Prussian cavalrymen jumping on their chairs around their banquet - the Reich can celebrate, since it is winning the war - the OKW continues to play musical chairs.
After taking Eberhard von Mackensen to France, Rommel recommends Hans von Salmuth to von Rundstedt. Salmuth therefore leaves to take command of the 15. Armee, in the
HeeresGruppe D. He is replaced in the 2. Armee by Johannes Friessner - this General der Infanterie commands the XXIII. AK in the same army.
As for Gotthard Heinrici, the rumor of his promotion to a HeeresGruppe is becoming more and more widespread - it would only be fair, after all his 4. Armee had defeated two Soviet armies in quick succession, inflicting (with a little help...) more than substantial losses. And even if - officially - nothing is done, everyone expects him to go higher before the end of the year.
But friendship and merit are not the only reasons to upset the Nazi hierarchy.
The loss of Jlobin has not been forgotten - and just as with the communist enemy, someone must be held responsible for it, for the sake of the Reich. Judged guilty of a worrying "feverishness" - a term that smacks of defeatism - and even of an appalling "inability to command", Karl von Thüngen is stripped of his command of the 18. PanzerDivision. Abruptly replaced by Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben - a general of the armored brigade, then of the infantry - he is placed in Berlin as "Inspector of Military Replacement". A title that covers his activity well: that is, not much. The Mayenz native is bitterly disappointed - understandable, of course, but isn't that also a bit risky in these times?
Especially since von Thüngen is not the only divisional officer who has to leave his post. Werner von Erdmannsdorff, who is responsible for the heavy losses suffered by his 18. PzGr, is relegated in reserve, after having given up his unit to Karl Zutavern - he would eventually inherit an obscure position in Dresden.
Moreover, Hermann Hoth has to abandon the 1. PanzerArmee to Josef Harpe! A General der Panzertruppe... little consolation for one of the victors of 1940, who will never command at the front again. He is reproached (without saying so, since the affair was a brilliant victory of the Reich!) the quasi-destruction of the XII. AK (31., 34. and 45. ID)? However, the VI. AK (6. and 26. ID) is in the same condition as the XII. AK and the 134. ID, 197. ID and 18. PzGr have suffered a lot (as well as the 18. Panzer) - however, von Mackensen accompanies Rommel to France, with honors...
Incidentally, the bad spirits will notice that Harpe is first and foremost a brilliant theoretician of defense. This may soon come in handy!
On the floor below, the XLI. PzK falls to Helmuth Weidling, survivor of Bar and modest winner of "Koliushka", at the head of the KorpsAbteilung B! Decidedly, the Reich has its heroes of the new times...

Blood in the Carpathians
"Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni
Suceava sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni North) - Endgame for VD-G North. Under pressure of the German forces, and while the 47th Army of Filipp Zhmachenko has no support except for the intermittent support of the 4th Air Force, the last Soviet fighters are ruthlessly rejected in the Siret after a final day of ordeal. At least the 2nd Armored Corps was able to save its last tanks and most of its personnel, and the 47th Army most of its artillery...
The surviving infantrymen have to swim across the river under enemy fire, returning to their starting lines after ten days.
At his advanced HQ, Zhmachenko is somewhat worried about his future: he has no more news of his comrade Lazarev, while his army has just suffered a very heavy defeat, as the Red Army has rarely suffered in 1943. And Tolbukhin is unreachable on the phone... He doesn't know it, but he doesn't have much to fear for the moment - as for his front chief, he simply has other worries to deal with.
.........
Piatra Neamț sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni South) - Indeed, the scenario so feared by Marshal Zhukov - who has spent the last two days trying to ward it off, without really having the right to do so - materializes before his eyes. The fascist reserves strike on both flanks of the isolated tip of VD-G South, even though it is still not reinforced by the 62nd Army.
Caught in the throat and alone to fight, the 14th Army faces, on its southern flank, the arrival of the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister), which crosses the Bistrița at Roznov alongside the 191. StuG (Hauptmann Alfred Müller). The two formations are going at it frankly, having nothing to fear on their rear - as for their right, it is covered by the remains of the 225. ID (Ernst Riße).
This novelty is already very unpleasant for Frolov. If only it were the only one! Because on his northern flank, towards Bodești, it is downright catastrophic: the 17. Panzer of Karl-Friedrich von der Meden arrive at the vanguardwith the 228. StuG. Covered by the 333. ID and 342. ID on its left, it arrives at Dobreni, breaks through and then begins to descend the Cracău toward Girov. Its goal is certainly to link up at Roznov with the 383. ID in order to encircle the entire Soviet point, thus trapping an entire Guards armored corps and the entire 42nd Rifle Corps (of the 14th Army)! Faced with this absolute disaster, the VVS launch everything they have from the shores of the Black Sea to Balti (that is to say almost two air armies). On both sides, one fights under the bombs - because the Luftwaffe is also present, losing 14 aircraft against 41 Falcons. The Russians hold on as best they can and finally succeed, at the cost of their blood, in slowing down and stopping the Fascists around Girov. At least for the night... In any case, the Soviets hope so.
The German breakthrough on the northern side is already 12 kilometers long. So, of course, von der Meden suffered serious losses and has to wait for the infantry. Certainly, in the south, Edmund Hoffmeister's blue troops have gained only 3 kilometers... But the Russian vanguard is only linked to its rear by a 10 kilometer wide strip and a single Piatra Neamț-Roman road. And meanwhile, poor Panov announces that his 3rd Guards ACis entering Gheorgheni, 75 kilometers away! A new tragedy is brewing for the Red Army.
.........
Bacău sector (Vatra Dornei-Gheorgheni South) - The unfortunate Vladimir Kolpakchi has been more than scolded by his leaders - as the 14th Army struggles for the survival of so many comrades, the 62nd Army's apparent softness is seen as worse than incompetence by Tolbukhin if not by Zhukov. It is cowardice, even treason! Words which, in Soviet Russia, can be very expensive, especially since they will undoubtedly be repeated to the right person, and in particular to the master of the Kremlin.
Aware of the stakes, and also fearing more than a little for his person, Kolpakchi throws his infantry across the Bistrița to go up to Roznov and finally to Frolov. With his reinforcement, it should be possible (with a little luck) to push back the Fascists coming from the south and to hold the time necessary for Panov to return from Gheorgheni. Mission accomplished in the night: the 14th and 62nd Armies are finally again firmly side by side at Traian. It was about time... Even if this performance is very far, once again, from having been accomplished without losses!

Discontent in high places
Iaşi (HQ of the 4th Ukrainian Front), 17:30 - Georgi Zhukov preferred to be alone on the phone for the conversation he has to have. A formidable conversation, which he feared and saw coming from far away, but which he unfortunately did not manage to avoid. A conversation that he already knows that it will have rather heavy consequences in the months to come - unless, of course, things are perfectly explained. This is why, faced with a frankly reserved and obviously very unpleasant Stalin, he tries to remain factual in order to better come to the inevitable conclusion.
- Comrade General Secretary, the situation is obviously hopeless. Our troops have redoubled their efforts to hold their positions and secure our conquests, but it already seems certain that the fascist counteroffensive towards Piatra Neamț, against VD-G South, threatens all our committed forces with destruction. That is why I have taken the liberty to redeploy a large part of the 3rd Guards Armored Corps to the east, in order to stop the Panzers and to ensure the offensive of healthy bases before heading west again later.
The handset sputtered muffled words in an eerily even tone.
- I see... It is a pity that we did not take the trouble to better secure our flanks. That was the role of the 62nd Army, I believe?
- On the left flank, yes. On the right flank, VD-G North was supposed to fulfill this function... But its recent setback, due to the rapid return of troops from Ukraine, has made the situation completely untenable on that side.
- I understand. Is there any place where VD-G has not failed, Comrade Marshal?
- We are holding Bacau firmly, and Comrade Panov will obviously leave troops in Gheorgheni, as part of his... consolidation maneuver.
- It is better indeed.
Leaving troops at Gheorgheni - Zhukov is perfectly aware of this - means sending several thousand soldiers to death with full knowledge of the facts. The equivalent of one or two motorized battalions. But Stalin does not care. And he also neglects, obviously, to take into account the most recent information transmitted by the Romanian Bloc - which demonstrate without ambiguity the presence of strong fascist armored reserves in Romania, which condemns to defeat any Soviet troops venturing to the front. This too, Marshal Zhukov knows it well - but he will not venture on the subject... Just as he will avoid of course avoid to recall that it is Stalin who required the launching of VD-G in spite of the strong reticence of the Stavka and in particular of Zhukov himself.
- Well, let's hope that this maneuver of... How did you say? Consolidation, right? Let's hope that it succeeds quickly so that VD-G will have at least a partial success. On the other hand, when all this is over, Comrade Marshal, you will have to return to Moscow. We must talk.
- Certainly, Comrade General Secretary. Nevertheless, shouldn't I stay a little longer on the Romanian front, in order to control the aftermath of Little Earth and...
- We must talk, Comrade Marshal. That will be all.

Bucharest - With all that's going on today toward Piatra Neamț, the VVS don't have many people to detach to try to intimidate Romania - and certainly not tactical bombers, much more useful for hitting Axis lines of communication, or even for trying to break the Panzer.
To try to influence the fighting, the strategic bombers will therefore rather attack tonight what the intelligence estimates to be the main enemy supply centers. At the cost of three aircraft, they destroy an important ammunition depot. This is good, but not enough to reverse the trend.

Black Sea
Malen'kaya Zemlya
Military port of Odessa - The "Little Earth" force continues to embark, under the vigilant protection of the Soviet naval aviation, while all available ASW ships patrol the harbor exit. The covering squadron, coming from Sevastopol, is already cruising around the Voroshilov, under the command of Rear Admiral Sergei Gorshkov.
He does not want to take any risk. The whole fleet remembers what happened to the Krasny Krym last summer...
The 79th BMS will be fully embarked before sunset. The transports will wait the night to leave, framed by their close escort, directed by the Ivan Borisov - the underwater risk is higher at night, but the risk of air attack is null, and we are sure that no reconnaissance plane will give the alarm.

The Workers' Hammer
Moscow - While in Romania, an ill-conceived and not too well conducted offensive fails in blood, the Stavka is already preparing the next campaign - the one that will have to be decisive and strike at the heart of the Nazi beast. To do this, it will need new tools: more powerful, more massive and more formidable than those of the adversary. To the extent of what the communist productive apparatus allows!
This is how the Red Army today officially forms the 1st Tank Army.
Entrusted to Mikhail Yefimovich Katukov, the former head of the 1st Armored Guards Corps, it groups the corps in question, the 21st Armored Corps and the 1st Mechanized Corps. The whole should eventually represent no less than 725 tanks and 652 self-propelled guns of all types, not to mention the towed pieces, mortars and rocket launchers. A formidable formation, worth one - or even two - PanzerDivisions... and at full strength, of course.

FARR
Marriage of reason
Romania - Taking advantage of the lull in the Soviet air force attacks against Romania, the leaders of the Royal Romanian Air Force are doing the math.
Since the start of the Soviet offensive, the RPAF has lost 40 fighters to Stalin's falcons. That's a lot - 12% of the Romanian fighter eliminated in not even ten days*!
Such a prolonged pressure, associated with the fatigue of the personnel and the destruction of a part of the production or repair facilities - all in the absence of a Luftwaffe which is politely described as reserved, not to say failing - has inevitable consequences in organizational terms. The RAF therefore gives up the idea of operating their fighter squadrons. These will have to merge between "national" forces (the 2nd and 3rd Flotillas) and other interceptor formations from the defunct Gruparea Aeriană of Luptă (the 1st Fighter Flotilla, formerly deployed in Bessarabia).
Therefore, it is decided as follows:
- within the 1st Fighter Flotilla, the 5th Fighter Group (on IAR-80) merges with the 8th Fighter Group, which loses its last 14 IAR-81s - which will join the 2nd Flotilla. The Bf 110s of the 1st Long Range Squadron remain independent. But the Bf 109s of the 7th CG will join those of the 9th GC (3rd FC).
1st FC: 5th/8th GC (IAR-80) and 1st LRA Squadron (Bf 110).
- Within the 2nd Flotilla, the 1st CG merged with the 2nd CG, while giving up its last IAR-80 to the 6th CG (3rd FC) - in return, it got back the machines of the 8th CG.
2nd FC: 1st/2nd GC (IAR-81).
- Finally, in the 3rd Flotilla, the 6th FC and 9th GC were reinforced by the arrival of their comrades from other formations.
3rd FC: 6th GC (IAR-80) and 7th/9th GC (Bf 109).
Thus, without really having done it on purpose, the FARR had just concentrated a good part of their aces within the new reinforced 9th Fighter Group. In fact, most of the so-called "elite" pilots of the Forţele Aeriene Regale ale României are flying the thoroughbred of Willy Messerchmitt: Teodor Greceanu, Constantin Cantacuzino, Alexandru Serbanescu, Ion Milu... From there to see, for the German liaison officers, a link of cause and effect... But it doesn't matter - Bucharest, as well as other Eastern European capitals, might well need protectors in the weeks to come.

Defection
Rhodes - The island's main air base receives an unexpected visitor at sunset today, escorted on the last miles of his journey by a pair of Hurricanes for whom it is a welcome break from routine. It is a Junkers 88 D, bearing the yellow crosses identifying the FARR! The pilot of this aircraft of the 2nd Long Range reconnaissance squadron, a man named Nicolae Teodoru, made the trip alone and without telling anyone, because he doesn't really appreciate the company of the Germans anymore and fears that he will soon have to endure the company of the Soviets... He is interned without difficulty.
As for the aircraft, after a detailed examination, the British send it westward, to the United States - but, on its way, it has to stop over in Algeria, where the Armee de l'Air decides to keep it under wraps... for a while! Today, it can be admired, duly restored, in one of the halls of the Le Bourget museum.

* So much so that, much later, some historians will speak of a "Big Week" on Romania.

 

[John Farson]

The details of Operation Manneken Pis remind me of "plata o plomo," SE Asia edition.

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

Italian Campaign
Northern Italy - Operations south of Bologna resume in the Monte Sole region. They are carried out by the entire SS division, with extreme violence. A few skirmishes take place and this time Vado and Monzuno are set on fire. In the forests along Route 325, the fighting continues.
At the end of the day, the SS claim to have recovered the bodies of 270 "rebels" and captured 353 "suspects" (mainly women, children and old people).

Greek and Balkan Campaign
Achievements
Salonika - The allied engineers continue their Herculean task: after the port, the railroads leading to the west are operational again! It is now a question for the engineers to double (at least partially) the line connecting Salonika to Athens. The latter had been put into service in... 1918 and now needs a real repair and upgrading campaign. This task completed, and with the support of the port infrastructures, the road bottleneck so detrimental to the troops should disappear.
However, Colonel Canterbry is not as satisfied as the progress of the work might lead one to believe. The HQ ordered him to give priority to the supply of the 1st Yugoslavian Army Corps and to the replenishment of the XIIIth Corps once the latter arrived at its destination ? Believe it! As these Americans say. Ptolemaïda and Aminteo are not really major railroad junctions. In reality, the regional hub would be located at Platy, 32 kilometers west of Thessaloniki - from there it is possible to reach Piraeus and even Alexandroupoli (not far from the Turkish border). But towards the actual front, there is only one real line: that of the Ottoman Railway Company Salonika-Monastir, inaugurated in 1894 and not really up to standards in force*... As for the line of the Chemins de Fer Orientaux, older but with a higher capacity, it serves Thessaloniki on one side but runs to Skopje on the other! The railway infrastructure will therefore be critical for "Garden", the upcoming offensive towards Serbia - a pity that it was so bombed during operation Apprentice.
In summary, for the time being, trucks are the only valid means of transport - and to reach the Allied lines, they have to swallow 130 kilometers of small, congested and unsafe mountain roads with ascending gorges in Edesse or Veria. Wasting thus a precious fuel just to make shuttles on two days at least! How disappointing... thinks the Briton, shaking his head in spite. Common sense - no, prudence - would want us to spend the winter like this, between public works and stewardship. But General Montgomery is categorical: "It's absolutely out of the question. You were as cautious and reserved when you started Operation Tower, and yet it went quite well!" the austere leader of the 18th GAA recently retorted. Well, we can only hope that everything goes well... In any case, the Supply Corps will do its duty!

A (happy) homecoming
Thrace - Riding like Alexander's companions, the first elements of the 2nd Greek AC are in Alexandroupoli ! It is necessary to slow down the enthusiasm of the drivers so that they do not continue to the Turkish border - moreover, the streets are full of civilians in celebration painfully framed by the Partisans, and the gasoline is lacking. So it becomes very difficult for the evzones to circulate in the city, while they are submerged of proposals to celebrate the Liberation and that very many bottles of ouzo miraculously appear from the cellars of Thrace. The officer of the first reconnaissance detachment, drunk, will have just the time to transmit by the radio the message "Nai, i póli eínai doreán" (Yes, the city is liberated!) before sinking into a joyful unconsciousness.
In the rear, no one would blame him. The news of the liberation of the last coastal town before Turkey is welcomed by a roar of acclamations at Georgios Tsolakoglou's HQ, while the embraces follow one another in very Mediterranean and understandable effusions. A message is addressed to Athens.

Greek gifts
Athens - The message in question arrives at the 18th AAG HQ, located in Syntagma Square, at around 17:00.
As usual, and taking advantage once again of the tea break of his British counterparts, General Panagiotis Spiliotopoulos transfers the information to his government. Montgomery seems to have given up trying to discipline the Greeks on this aspect of command, and after all the thing concerns them somewhat... Besides, he has his head elsewhere than in Thrace.
King George II summons his Prime Minister, Sophoklís Venizélos, who presents himself with the indispensable Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Papandreou. The two men bow respectfully - but with a smile - before the sovereign. And George II returns the smile by saying: "Gentlemen, today is a great day for the country. Our army has triumphed with our allies over the cowardly aggressors of the kingdom. Now we must carry the iron to the den of the beast!"
Passing in silence the fact that, technically, it was Greece that declared war on Italy on February 19th, 1941 (but it is true that the Italians had been out of the game for some time and that Germany had attacked Greece without a declaration of war), Venizelos chorused: "It is certain, Your Majesty. Our nation will remember long after we are no longer of that period which honors all our ancestors since Pericles. However..." However? George II cannot repress a frown. It is then that Papandreou completes - obviously, their joint interventions were prepared.
- However, Your Majesty, the country has suffered terribly from the conflict and the inhumane occupation of the mainland. Our people are suffering, and our economy, already so fragile before the war, is now in tatters.
- I know all this, Minister. And I count on the solidarity of our valiant allies to help us rise from the ashes. The task is daunting, but not insurmountable. The French Republic itself is in a similar situation!
Venizelos speaks again: "Certainly, Your Majesty. Nevertheless, our forces, in their present format, represent a considerable cost to our budget - even though almost all of their equipment is provided to us by our allies under the leasing system. The lack of cash makes it difficult for us to acquire the materials and means for the reconstruction that our nation so badly needs. And even the purchase of food, which is essential for our population, is proving to be problematic." The Prime Minister sighs painfully before continuing: "I beg Your Majesty to forgive my frankness, but our people in arms, united for Victory, are also on the verge of starvation! The German occupation and its requisitions have taken their toll, not to mention those Bulgarian dogs... Hmm... Sorry, Your Majesty, it's the emotion. The peasants fled to the mountains or joined the maquis, and some joined our troops. The fields are fallow, and the wheat that has not been seized is rotting on the ground. Our granaries are empty as winter approaches! A winter that I fear will be dramatic!"
The sovereign, who had hoped that, for once, only good news would be announced to him, sighs in his in turn, dismayed. The weight of the office of statesman... Then George II replies: "What do you suggest Mr. Prime Minister? Can we get our supplies from abroad, even if it is from the Turks? Can we borrow, and from whom? Mr. Minister of Foreign Affairs, could we seek the advice from our French friends on this matter? How are they doing?"
Papandreou puts on a worried face: "Alas, Your Majesty, if our allies of the French Republic are facing difficulties at least comparable to ours, they also have the resources of Algeria and their colonies, which they have had three years to develop! We only have Crete and the Dodecanese... May our island compatriots forgive me, but I fear that their help will be insufficient. We could of course buy from abroad, but the markets are crowded and we will certainly not be the best customers. The United States would certainly make us pay a high price, not only in money, but also in the surrender of sovereignty, even though they have not sent any troops to assist us. The French have their own difficulties, as I mentioned, and they will obviously put their own people first. As for the British, I understand that their suppliers in Latin America, and particularly in Argentina, have been subject to some...unrest. And I dare not suggest to His Majesty that he should solicit the Union of Soviets..."
Unwilling to go through with this very unpleasant and unacceptable idea, George II cut off his minister: "I see! So, if we can't turn to foreign countries to solve our difficulties, what do you propose? Mr. Prime Minister, explain to me what role our army can play in this picture? It's a little late to ask it to reap the fields!"
- Indeed, Your Majesty. However, it can help us to solve the crisis that is coming. First of all by its work force, which would allow us to restore our road network more quickly and to carry out the necessary works for the reconstruction. Secondly, by its real and deserved popularity, which gives it the authority necessary to come to the aid of the population while announcing rationing and restrictions. Finally... by its strength, if possible troubles caused by uncontrolled elements should occur!
Everyone has understood that ELAS is the target. The country is calm since the First Athens conference, but not really stabilized for all that. Who knows how hunger riots could degenerate while the royal troops are on foreign soil? To alleviate the sovereign's concerns, Venizelos adds: "Moreover, Your Majesty easily conceives that the cost of an army in campaign on enemy soil is not the same as that of a troop deployed in his country. The means saved will be as many drachmas which will help us to relieve our people.
George II understands the ideas of his ministers, which are struck at the corner of good sense. But he cannot accept them as they are - national prestige obliges. He then cries out (but without raising his voice): "Gentlemen, what you propose is infamous. We cannot let go of the hand that has helped us, demobilize and then shut ourselves up within our borders! The image of our Nation in the world would not recover from it. A humiliation worse than that of 1917, which we have just washed away in the blood of our brave soldiers!"
At these words, Prime Minister Venizelos seems to frown, even if it is for the form. Indeed, and although he rejects it for the moment, George II has just accepted the principle of their proposal. It is now necessary to propose suitable modalities. The cunning politician thus leaves the hand to Papandreou.
- Of course, we are not suggesting anything like that, Your Majesty. However, it is obvious that our nation cannot, for the reasons we have stated, support the deployment of its entire army abroad and for this winter [Papandreou insists on these words]. But we can - and I could do this personally - negotiate accommodations with our Allies.
- Which ones, Minister?" asks the King, who understands that his devoted servants have foreseen everything.
- I humbly remind Your Majesty that the 2nd Corps of Lieutenant General Giorgios Tsolakoglou, who serves under the command of British General O'Connor, is currently in Thrace. To gloriously liberate this territory, but on the orders of the Allied command. Thrace is a Hellenic territory, I believe I can say that it has never been otherwise. Therefore, we could propose to our British friends that this army corps spend the winter in this territory, guarding the border against the Bulgarian traitors. We would be sure of our backs, without turning our backs on our friends!
As for the 1st AC of Lieutenant-General Giorgios Kosmas, it operates under French command on the border between Macedonia and Albania. I understand, without being certain - Your Majesty will forgive us for not being aware of all the military secrets - that its participation is planned for a forthcoming operation. We cannot deny this and we will shoulder our share of the burden. Our troops will carry the Greek flag high in foreign lands. However, after this operation, I think it would be a good idea for our units to make a stopover. The territorial disputes with our Serbian neighbors are no longer relevant, erased by the war and the blood shed in common. But I must remind Your Majesty of the serious incidents that occurred this summer during the arrest of the traitors of the Ioánnis Rállis gang. These disturbances were barely stopped thanks to the presence of our allies and the prompt action of our country's justice system of our country against these collaborators. But who knows what could happen when our Serbian allies, whose naturalness is so... sanguine... will find themselves facing their own traitors? And who knows how our troops will react when they discover, in the liberated regions, crimes exceeding in savagery those we have been victims of? Moreover, I fear that some of our soldiers in the North may themselves have grievances against the Macedonians, grievances that must not be allowed to be expressed at any cost! I think that a period of reflection will be necessary, a pause until next March. By then, our country will have passed the most painful stage and our army will go back to the campaign assured of its Nation, of its backs and will hold its rank without being content to serve as auxiliaries.
An angel passes by, while the minister tries to decipher the expression of George II, who will have to make a decision. The moment is critical, it could well break his political career... Finally, the sovereign articulates:
"I understand. How do you intend to announce it to our allies, gentlemen?
The interested parties repress a discreet sigh of relief. The sovereign is on their side. It remains to conclude - and Venizelos is in charge of that.
- By telling the truth, Your Majesty. If our arguments were able to convince your Majesty, it will be the same to friendly powers that cannot force our hand and treat us as mercenaries. Moreover, suspending our participation in the offensives does not mean ceasing our participation in the war effort.
We can continue to supply raw materials to our allies, and perhaps even begin to pay off our war debts. The mines of Laurion are back in operation, we could try to exploit them further, especially for the benefit of our French friends. And the total liberation of our country offers us good prospects for economic recovery, especially in the mining industry. Some investments in this field could, if necessary, be financed by a loan.
The sovereign raises his right hand in a kind of blessing - he gives his agreement, with one reservation: "Not too many debts, gentlemen, history could reproach us for that! I leave it to you, Mr. Prime Minister, to take the necessary measures. And you, Mr. Minister, I ask you to give an argumentive essay to our allies as soon as possible, which the Prime Minister will present to them in person at the appropriate time. He will no doubt be able to explain our point of view as brilliantly as you have just done, but also and above all demonstrate that our decision is not a disengagement. Let's forget about sadness and gloom for a moment! Today is a day of celebration! I am planning to travel soon to the North to meet my subjects, to join in their celebrations, to share their sufferings and to show the concern that We have for them all. This will also give me the opportunity to prepare minds for the inevitable shortages to come, which may make some people doubt the rightness of Our Government. Mr. Minister, I therefore propose that we meet again on October 28th in Thessaloniki. In the meantime, I invite you to take your leave."
The two men bow respectfully, a broad smile on their lips.

An unforeseen revolt
Macedonia - While the Hellenes calculate, the drama continues in Yugoslav Macedonia. If Kumanovo and Gostivar are still out of reach of the German vengeance, the Landsers enter at dawn in Chtip and Prilep, without any regard for the civilian population nor for the militiamen hesitating to choose their side.
In Chtip, General von Haydringen has the houses shot at with cannons at the slightest hint of resistance. This indiscriminate violence that strikes the small mountain town throws many civilians hesitating about what to do into the arms of the insurgents. Further south, in Prilep, the mountain people of Dietl do not take much more precautions, exasperated by the numerous attacks on their rear and the multiple betrayals of these last weeks. Moreover, a very unpleasant discovery welcomes them at the foot of the ruins of Markovi Kuli**, when a section having bypassed the city by the left approaches to seize the eminence and thus to have a good view on the urban zone. Half a dozen soldiers on leave have their throats slit - "as if with their teeth", said one of the men who discovered them - then drained of their blood and hung from the walls! The reason for such barbarity is still unknown today, but it doesn't really matter. The news quickly spreads to the German troops, and the Landsers swear to avenge these deaths...

The Devil's Division
Zagreb - The agitation that Macedonia knows does not escape the Ustasha of Ante Pavelic, who cannot help but notice that in their sectors, the situation is calm. In Croatia, of course, but also in Bosnia, and even in Montenegro. On the strength of these successes, and anxious to demonstrate the know-how of his men, the Minister of War Vilko Begić contacts the staff of Army Group E to offer their services on the rear of the front or even in the front line, at the good choice of these gentlemen!
The approach of the Ustashi is obviously anything but disinterested: they see that their protectors are in difficulty at the southern border of Yugoslavia, and are worried about a future advance of the allied forces - which would be very harmful to their health. Moreover, when the German generals will notice the good will of the Croats (if they had been able to doubt it!), they will become the best ambassadors of the independent state of Croatia near the Chancellery and the Führer... Finally, the deployment of Russian or Chetnik militias towards Belgrade can make one think that the "insurgents" (as Pavelic calls his troops) are less needed in Serbia. In short, Croatian forces must be shown to be indispensable. Begić's proposal arouses Alexander Löhr's interest, remembering his last exchanges with Hellmuth Felmy. His interest, however, is quickly tempered by the reserve that comes from experience. He nevertheless promises the Croatian to come back to him with a proposal...

Redeployments and preparations
Pogradec - The situation is much calmer in the allied lines, while the mountain brigades of colonels Tsakalotos and Katsotas are probing and locating the points of passage to Lin - a very poorly defended area
The 3. Gebirgs-Division has to cover both the Stenyé isthmus and the Ohrid-Struga sector. The Allies are perfectly aware of the events in Macedonia - and they don't care about them. As an anonymous evzone says: "Macedonians, Germans, Bulgarians... All have defiled the sacred land of Greece, all must die. It doesn't matter by whose hands!"
Meanwhile, the men of the 107th RALCA are looking for the best sites to set up their 155 mm, covered by the spahis of the 4th RST. But the German positions are decidedly far away - it will be necessary to advance. We take advantage of this to close the road to Elbasan (and therefore to Tirana) to an unlikely German counter-attack.
.........
Salonika - Leaving behind a palace of the Governor General of Northern Greece of too sinister a memory (and located in an area largely destroyed during the siege), General O'Connor set sup the 8th Army HQ in the old barracks of Stavroupoli. The place is ideally located, not far from the city center or the train station, and there is a lot of space. Moreover, the area was not much affected by the fighting, and only the remains of a few German field guns are evidence of the former installations of the 97. Jäger.
From Stavroupoli, the British officers will be able to direct the upcoming offensive in good conditions and manage the allocation of supplies arriving by sea. However, one detail bothers O'Connor: his superior asked for specific accommodation and offices to be prepared for him! So he plans to come often...

Macedonian Gambit
Athens - Montgomery is putting the finishing touches to his plan, along with his aide-de-camp and his two deputies Sylvestre Audet and Panagiotis Spiliotopoulos. Colonel Canterbry is also there, as well as Major Shrewsberry, of the Weather Service. Indeed, the plans are drawn up and the orders written - in Monty's mind, all that remains is to set the date. The British military archives have kept track of this meeting, according to the minutes kept by De Guincamp.
General Montgomery: Well, old chaps! I think everything is clear. When do we go into action?
General Sylvestre Audet: The Albanian and Macedonian resistance movements seem operational and ready to obey our orders. At least as far as the secret services can tell. As for Mr. Tito's Serbs, they always suggest the 2nd, the 8th, the 11th or the 21st of November.
General Panagiotis Spiliotopoulos: It seems to me indispensable that before triggering "Market", the situation in Thrace should be settled!
General Montgomery: That depends only on your troops, General Spiliotopoulos! In any case, the 11th does not mean anything to me, I do not like commemorations, especially those of the Other War. As for the 21st, it is too far away.
Colonel Canterbry: General, November 2nd is too close, and November 8th too! Our stocks are just beginning to return to their theoretical minimum levels. I cannot guarantee the supply of our troops in case of prolonged fighting!
General Montgomery: There shouldn't be. And if there were, I would obviously suspend operations. The capture of Skopje will solve many problems, Colonel, be sure of that! But for that to happen, the weather must allow us to advance. What does the weather tell us?
Major Shrewsberry: The climate is mountainous and the Mediterranean effect will gradually fade with the fall. In November, the temperature will not exceed 50° - Hem, sorry Gentlemen, 10° Celsius. Our men will feel a much colder temperature, because of the wind sweeping across the plateaus, but nothing that motivated soldiers can't handle. It will rain, of course, but not much more than in October. However, by the beginning of December, snowfall was to be expected.
General Montgomery: That's not good for the 21st! I don't want to end up with frozen tanks like the Huns in Russia! And after early December?
Major Shrewsberry: We should not return to favorable conditions for a long time. In truth...not until March, sir.
[Long silence.]
General Montgomery: Gentlemen, operation Market will start on November 8th, St. Dimitri for our Serbs. The Garden component will follow, depending on the results of Market, the arrival of supplies and the weather conditions in the Serbian plain. The meeting is adjourned.

Gloomy prospects
Sofia (Reich Embassy) - Despite the failure of the October 2nd roundup, Adolf Beckerle does not give up on the "Bulgarian Jewish problem", which occupies his thoughts almost as much as the British or even the Soviet threat. This is why the pseudo-diplomat of the SS officially asks his hierarchy to send a police unit, preferably motorized and including a dog squad, in order to better track down the fleeing families. One or two SS-Sonderkommandos would be ideal...
Alas, the latter are busy elsewhere in Europe or on the Eastern Front.
From the offices of zealous civil servants to the offices of assassins, the request arrives on the desk of Arthur Nebe, the head of the Kripo. The latter passes the request on to his services, promising to follow up on it, but events did not give him the time. As for the document, duly archived, it will survive the war and will cause the greatest harm to SS-Obergruppenführer Beckerle.

* This infrastructure was, at the time, financed by the Deutsch Bank and entrusted to the care of a German Jewish nobleman, Baron Maurice de Hirsch.
** The castle of the Serbian king Marko - de jure ruler of Western Macedonia in the late 14th century.

 

[Wings]

October 24th, 1943

Languedoc - The American generals are worried: the recent rains have soaked the ground and raised the level of some rivers. The forecasts do not announce any imminent improvement, which could postpone the launch of Operation Span.

 

[Wings]

October 25th, 1943

Bendlerblock (Tiergarden, Berlin) - The Abwehr services have received from their honorable correspondent in Ankara some recent information concerning Romanian approaches to the Allies. Unfortunately, these seem to be on the right track, but they do not seem to concern Antonescu. This is reassuring... in a way. And even if, of course, all this still needs to be confirmed by other sources, everyone in the Abwehr knows since the pseudo-turnover in Sofia that "Cicero" is perfectly reliable.
The file goes up the hierarchy to Admiral Canaris, who sees in it - at last - an opportunity to come back into the Führer's favour... as long as the latter agrees to receive him! Indeed, these last months, the intelligence service has been accumulating disastrous setbacks, from the Bulgarian turnaround, to the pathetic upheavals of the New French State, passing by the very painful affair of the Maier/Messner group - which has just been revealed by the Gestapo. One might as well say that if Cicero's credibility is proven, that of Canaris is not at its best... The admiral follows up, however, as his professionalism imposes it to him.

Dihua (Xinjiang) - The sale of the Soviet aircraft factory in Dihua to the Republic of China is officially announced today. The total amount is4 million dollars, of which two million in cash and the other two in kind (flocks of sheep in particular). A Soviet official in charge of the negotiations in Chongqing said of this agreement that it was "not so badly negotiated: if our situation had been more difficult in the Great Patriotic War, there is no doubt that they would have paid us only with sheep!" As for the oil installations and the various mines abandoned three weeks earlier, the Chinese will find a factory almost empty, with machine tools broken down and lacking essential parts and others suffering from hidden but nonetheless prohibitive defects for the quality of the finished product. It will take a good six months to get the factory up and running again.

 

[Wings]

September 25th, 1943

HG SudUkraine HQ (Brașov, Transylvania) - Informed by certain well-placed sources in Berlin (Canaris does not only have enemies in the hierarchy - it also happens that the OKH deigns to read his reports!) of a certain wavering in the will to win of the Romanians, Wilhelm List decides to redeploy his forces urgently. In any case, he did not really need Berlin's warning to know that his allies were moderately reliable. The 15. Panzer (Ernst-Günther Baade) and the 560. s.PzJ. Abt therefore descend even further south, from Comănești to Onești. The 24. Panzer (Maximilian von Edelsheim) and the 502. s.Pz. Abt can thus slide towards Ciorăști - still closer to Bucharest, therefore, and behind the Romanian 1st AC of General Corneliu Dragalina.
This movement, which was of course carried out in a purely fraternal and cordial manner (after all, isn't the situation settled further north, so to speak?) is certainly only intended to strengthen the front in its most fragile sectors, now that the 17. Armee of Karl-Adolf Hollidt has proven that it is able to hold the line alone. This point will be (obviously!) explained to the Conducator by the ambassador Manfred Freiherr von Killinger, kept informed by the military attachés of the HG... once the maneuvers were completed, several days later. In passing, Killinger will also invite Antonescu to tighten the bridle to some of his subjects. The Reich definitely watches over its allies with a touching attention!