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

[Wings]

January 29th, 1944

The shadow of a doubt
General Government of Poland - While the Nazi horror is being revealed to the world, the forces of the Polish Secret Army - the famous Armia Krajowa - are worried.
Of the Occupation and the Nazi reprisals against the actions of the Resistance, of course.
But also about the rapid advance of the Soviet troops!
In fact, there is no need to recall the complicated relations between the Soviet and Polish governments - the latter, in exile in London, still demanding that the former respect the Curzon Line, as well as the restoration of its territorial integrity within its borders as of September 1st, 1939!And this hope, already a little crazy, risks becoming completely shattered if the Red Army - "the ally of our allies", according to General Stefan Rowecki, the head of the Secret Army - would soon sweep through Warsaw. The very existence of the Polish Republic could be at stake! Also, in the secrecy of the cellars and the never-ending Occupation, the Resistance prepares a global insurrection aimed at taking control of the Polish territory before the arrival of the Soviets, now that the German defeat seems certain.
Its name: Operation Storm. It would include three phases of increasing territorial extension, intended to accompany the approach of the Red Army: Lithuania/Belarus, Curzon/Vistula line, Poland. Its objectives are... substantial. According to the original documents, it is all the same a question of :
"Put an end to the German occupation ;
Seize the weapons and means necessary for the formation of a regular Polish army on its territory;
To repel the attempts of the Ukrainian nationalist movements* ;
To rebuild a regular army, based on the order of battle of 1939** ;
Reconstitute from the underground parliament a legal authority on Polish soil, as well as means of communication and an arms industry;
To maintain order and civil peace;
To begin offensive operations against the German troops still on Polish territory."
Obviously, for all this, it will be necessary to cooperate with the Soviets, at least for the first two phases. For the third phase, however, we are counting on the help of the English troops who are in Yugoslavia!
It is magnificent, but... it is also aiming high. Facing the Soviets, the Wehrmacht is certainly beaten but not yet in rout. And from Belgrade to Warsaw, there are still 840 kilometers.

* At that time, the Secret Army still tried to negotiate with them, but without believing in it anymore.
** That is, initially, 16 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry brigades and a mechanized brigade - we are counting on allied supplies!

 

[Wings]

January 29th, 1944

Burma Campaign
Air front
Burma - The two squadrons of Spitfire VIII cover the same number of Spitfire V for a new Circus mission on Tavoy, but the Japanese refuse a fight they consider too unequal. They try to preserve a certain potential while waiting for reinforcements and content themselves with camouflaging their aircraft as well as possible.
Meanwhile, Mergui is visited by the B-25s of the 490th and 491st BS, escorted by the P-40s of the 88th, 89th and 90th FS. At Tavoy, the 64th and 50th Sentai are still too weak to retaliate, but above Mergui, the Japanese deploy the 11th and 77th Sentai, plus the 1st Sentai, which had been reinforced by Kampong Ulu. The battle that ensues is balanced; the attackers lose two bombersand three fighters, plus two damaged aircraft, in exchange for six defenders. Ace Masusawa, of the 1st Sentai, wins his ninth and tenth victories, at the expense of two Warhawks.
During the night, Ki-21s of the 62nd Sentai bomb Moulmein, setting fire to a residential area and several warehouses. One of them is shot down by Sgt. Prin's Beaufighter, which had distinguished itself a few months earlier, during the first deployment of Sqn 176 over Rangoon.

Indonesia
Operation Meridian
Java - The Allied fleet gradually leaves the Sumatra area and arrives off Java. There, the Japanese are suspicious and maintain combat patrols since dawn south of the city. When the allied Corsairs arrive for a Rodeo mission, as they had the day before in Sumatra, the Ki-43s of the 33rd Sentai rush to attack. However, the slight numerical advantage of the Japanese the previous month no longer exists, as the losses suffered then have not been made up for. In addition, the Japanese staff apparently continues to consider Java and Sumatra as a quiet area, many reinforcement pilots just come out of the schools and are there to complete their training. The qualitative gap between the Allied sailors and the IJA airmen is even more obvious than the previous month, and the F4Us still outclass the Ki-43s, some of which are still I models. The Allies lose only three aircraft, plus one that will manage to join the fleet but will be irreparable, in exchange for twelve Hayabusa.
Lagadec: "This time, it was almost too easy. I took the opportunity to regain the lead, with my 35th and 36th wins."
For his part, Major Ronnie Hay of the Royal Marines earns his sixth victory: "It was target shooting, the Japanese just kept swinging back and forth in front of my machine guns. Maybe his plane was damaged, or maybe he was a rookie pilot terrorized by his first engagement. Sorry, buddy, but you started this war!"
In the evening, the Japanese airmen go to bed with their morale at half-mast, marked by a mixture of anger and humiliation. They think that the next day, they will have to continue fighting, the attack of the allied fighters being undoubtedly only the prologue of that of the bombers.

Indochina Campaign
Tet offensive
The militia and Japanese garrisons at Quang-Nam, Faifo and Quang-Ngai face repeated assaults all day long. The inhabitants hide, frightened by the clash of automatic weapons and mortar shells. In the sky, French and Belgian aircrafts are flying around, bombing the main enemy positions.
.........
Tourane - The fighting around the station is lively all morning. The defenders - Rhadean mercenaries - are supported by the Annam armored train. Its cannons and machine guns contain the first assaults, but also attract to it B-25J "full nose" and B-25G equipped with a 75 mm M4 gun. It takes them only a few passes to demolish the cars, designed to withstand small arms fire.
The Rhades, who recognize the French soldiers' uniforms, decide to surrender to the regular troops rather than be massacred in a fight that seems less and less committed. General Bourdeau personally receives the negotiators, who come brandishing a piece of cloth transformed into a white flag. The French officer proposes simple terms: the Rhades would be considered as "normal" enemy soldiers and treated according to the Geneva Convention. This reassures the mercenaries, who had heard about the massacre of the pro-Japanese militiamen. A little before noon, the defenders leave the buildings, rifles above their heads, and let themselves be disarmed without resistance.
A few more shots are fired from the windows of the main building, held by the Japanese. It will be necessary to storm it, which will be long and costly, each room being defended. Cornered, the last Nipponese will charge with the bayonet, which will have at least the advantage of shortening the confrontation.
Further south, the ex-Lao-Issaras reach the limits of the military terrain along the boulevard de la Publique. Lacking heavy weapons, they are unable to advance against the much better armed and entrenched garrison. The 81 mm type 97 mortars and the type 92 machine guns (copies of the British Lewis Gun) break several attacks. Once again, Armee de l'Air aircraft have to intervene. Only, after each bombing, once the dust has settled, the shooting starts again. Even the intervention of the few 75mm guns at General Bourdeau's disposal do not change the situation.
To the south-east, along the river, the Belgo-Congolese of the Force Publique advance along several parallel streets (rue Marc Pourpre, rue Guillemin, rue du Général Gallieni, avenue du Musée) in the direction of the town hall. However, the headquarters of the Tourane White Berets is located in a block of houses beyond the intersection with Avenue de la Publique. The pro-Japanese militiamen have abundant weaponry, including FMs and even a type 41 mountain gun. They place the latter in a barricade that blocks rue Guillemin - but it could not fire: spotted by a Belgian Mustang, it is destroyed by a surgically accurate bombardment.
...
Private Ndongo walks along a stone building that seems to have been torn from a European street. Moreover, the streets near the town hall resemble Belgian streets, not that the Congolese has ever visited Belgium, but that is what the officers say. Life has taken Ndongo further than he could have imagined.
He stops by a tree planted at the edge of the road and crouches down to look out beyond the corner of the house. All is silent, the houses seem empty, shutters closed, doors closed.
Suddenly, shots are heard coming from a perpendicular street drowned in the dust raised by bombs dropped shortly before by allied planes. With a single impulse, the Belgo-Congolese scattered. Some sought shelter in nearby alleys, others huddled on the ground or others lay on the ground or huddle in a doorway.
A BAR spits out short bursts. Over there, the defenders fire back. We see the flash of the guns, while an automatic weapon sweeps the width of the street. Suddenly, in the creak of its suspension and the hum of its Mitsubishi SA12200VD engine, the ex-Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha, now wearing the gold star on a blue background of the Force Publique sits in the front row and seems to shake violently when the short tube of its 57 mm gun spits a shell on the enemy positions. The machine will soon be out of ammunition, but as long as there is some, we might as well make good use of it!
Ndongo did not see what happened next - Lieutenant Janssens gave the order, and we ran into an adjacent alley swept by the bombs that had driven out the Vietnamese militiamen. Some houses are burning and bricks are strewn on the ground among the usual objects. The Congolese deploy themselves and it is while turning the corner of a house that Ndongo's Garand rifle fires for the first time. His hands recognized the enemy uniform before his brain did - with a detachment, he saw the other slump against the wall, dropping his weapon to bring his hands to the widening red stain on his jacket.
The confrontation in the urban world is very different from what Ndongo experienced in Ethiopia against the soldiers of the Duce. Here the bullets come out of nowhere, and often you can't see your opponent - or it is he who does not see you. You are often killed at less than five meters. And sometimes a wall separates you from the enemy, you hear him, your heart beats wildly and you don't dare move. So you have to force yourself, go around the obstacle, keep moving.
That day, Private Ndongo almost died twice.
First, he knelt down at the corner of a street and looked over. At that moment, five or six Japanese came out of a ruined house and ran toward the building across the street.
Ndongo fires reflexively, one of the men balls up, the others fire back; the Congolese is alone, buthe can escape through an abandoned house.
An hour later, as he and other soldiers of the Force Publique passed through a collapsed house to attack Japanese positions, a comrade shoves him... and takes a burst of FM instead.
...
In the evening, the Belgo-Congolese take the headquarters of the White Berets and the gendarmerie, two of the main support points for the besieged. The enemy, however, entrenched itself around the town hall and the first attempt to drive them out resultsin the loss of a tank (ex-Japanese), which a Tenno soldier destroys by throwing himself on top of it with a mine in his hand.
.........
Hanoi - At the end of the day, General Rikichi accepts General Matsuyama's proposal to launch a counter-attack on Saigon.

 

[Wings]

January 29th, 1944

Šiauliai Offensive
Missed start
Southern part of the Panther Line (Latvia) - A little behind his opponents and the orders of its leaders - General Kirill Meretskov received a most unpleasant personal phone call from the Kremlin last night - the forces of the 2nd Baltic Front throw themselves on the positions of the Panther Line, most of which had already been evacuated by the enemy.
Meretskov, a brilliant but also somewhat timid front commander, tried for a long time to postpone the start of Šiauliai a little longer. In fact, scalded by his setbacks in June 1943 in front of Rositten, the Soviets have not ceased, in recent months, to call into question this operation, however minor, considering in particular - in rather bad faith - that it did not have sufficient means to carry out this task. To the point of provoking a dangerous incident for him, the previous December, during a staff meeting in Moscow in the presence of Stalin. Chtemenko later recounted the scene:
"The commander of the 2nd Baltic Front, K.A. Meretskov, was very keen to show Stalin how powerful the enemy's fortified area was. To this end, he brought to Moscow a model of the area and panoramic aerial photographs. Thus, he thought, it would be easier to explain the difficulty of the coming battles and to ask the Supreme for additional forces. We, who had already studied the character of I.V. Stalin, tried to convince Meretskov that these documents should not be produced in the Kremlin: the Supreme did not like unnecessary attributes and couldn't bear to make predictions about the enemy. A member of the Military Council of the Front, Lieutenant-General T.F. Chykov agreed with us.
However, Kirill Afanasievich did not agree. In front of the Supreme Court and the Stavka, he made his mistake: he started to show his model and photographs even before explaining the plan of operation. I.V. Stalin listened to him walking, as usual, along the table. Then he suddenly stopped and interrupted Meretskov: "You want to scare us with your toys? It seems that the enemy has hypnotized you with his defense. I doubt that you can carry out this task successfully."
Meretskov left his "toys" aside, but he immediately added fuel to the fire by asking for heavy tank regiments and breakthrough artillery. This really pissed off Stalin: "Really, you think that we are afraid of this and that we will open our wallet? We are not so afraid!"
The Supreme did not let the commander of the 2nd Baltic Front finish his report and ordered the Stavka to study the operation plan and to determine the forces and means necessary for its realization. The next day, the same plan - or almost - was presented a second time, but by General Antonov and in the usual way. Stalin did not interrupt, made almost no comments and even granted some additional means."
We can really say that General Meretskov is on the hot seat! Having demonstrated, according to his irresolution and the fear that is constantly nagging at him, he has no right to make a mistake. Even if, however, almost everything pleads in his favor! And in fact, if the 2nd Baltic Front has only a marginal superiority in terms of men, its supremacy in terms of planes, tanks and artillery remains overwhelming. Even though, today, the variable weather will only allow to take advantage of it partially!
In the center of the HG Nord lines, on the Buivāni peninsula and facing Pļaviņas, the 7th Guards Army thus attacks the end of the lines of the 18. Armee (Georg Lindemann), which still firmly holds the Panther line awaiting the withdrawal of the 16. Armee (Christian Hansen) on its right. This is the 254. ID (Alfred Thielmann) which occupies this position and ensures the link. But it does not benefit, like last July, from the direct support of the rest of the XXXVIII. ArmeeKorps (Kurt Herzog) - because the latter has to hold the whole line to Jaunjelgava (40 kilometers). Also, after a real artillery hammering, the men of Nikolai Berzarin's men advance towards the trenches, cutting through the barbed wire and cleaning the redoubts in a battle worthy of the First World War. Not exactly the finest method... but to break through and emerge from a 5 kilometer wide peninsula, the Soviets have no real choice, even if this does not prevent them from multiplying in the following hours the attempts of flanking attacks across the Daugava, from Meždārzi and Vērsēni.
This tactic, simplistic as it is, produces results - bending under the weight, his first line taken, Thielmann must retreat to Selonia, soliciting help from the 58. ID which detaches several battalions. But for the German, the good surprise lies in the unexpected intervention of the 505. schw. Pz. Abt (Hauptmann Werner Freiherr von Beschwitz), of the army group reserve, who was camped behind his position and who was obviously not going to let the Reds advance in front of him without reacting. The 88 mm of his Tiger guns cool down the Soviet enthusiasm. However, just like the battalions of the 58. ID, these tanks cannot be everywhere... In the evening, the Axis lost 4 km and is fighting on its third line. The breakthrough seems inevitable, given the imbalance of forces.
Further south-east, from Varieši, Anton Lopatin's 34th Army aims at Jēkabpils, the former pivot of defense in this area - which is now hardly defended by anything but a 269. ID (Hans Wagner) currently being evacuated. The latter has no difficulty in gaining time, taking advantage of the fact that the Soviets had to occupy the whole northern bank of the Daugava before attempting to cross. Before nightfall, the Red Army enters the city - but it will not leave until tomorrow, at best. Meanwhile, the rest of the II. AK, accompanied by the 185. StuG, retreats in good order toward Līvāni, having thus dodged the blow.
Still further southeast, around the terrible Rositten that once cost so much, Meretskov attempts a pincer maneuver from the north and east. The pair 39th Army and 13th Armored Corps, from Gaigalava, aims at Sakstagals to bypass the city from the right. On its side, the 55th Army and 14th BC duo take the road to Malta from Zilupe, passing south of Lake Rezna.
For the former, Andrei Zigin and Boris Bakharov meet nothing - the X. ArmeeKorps (Thomas-Emil von Wickede) and the XXVIII. ArmeeKorps (Herbert Loch) have already withdrawn beyond Bekši. The T-34s reach Sakstagals and cut the Jēkabpils-Rositten road within the day.
For the others, however, it is a bit more complicated! Vladimir Smiridov aims to cut the fascist escape route - but he comes across the 251. ID (Maximilian Felzmann), on the far right of the 16. Armee, which withdrew towards Brodaiža, multiplying delaying actions. Impossible, in these conditions, to pass in force as planned. And Ivan Kirichenko, whose machines had to deal with the dense vegetation of the forest, loses a lot of time trying to infiltrate towards Ezernieki, passing to the north of the three lakes of the Vecslabada area to finally end up in Konecpole facing the right side of the 8. ID (Friedrich-Jobst Volckamer von Kirchensittenbach), brand new but very determined. This division holds the left flank of the 2. Armee and the HG Mitte while waiting to be relieved - it therefore takes advantage of its entrenched positions, knowing that it would be covered by the SS-Kurland (of the 16. Armee) in the event of a serious blow. No breakthrough is in sight today.
For the 2nd Baltic Front, things do not start badly - but certainly not as well as for Bagration.

Bad inspiration
Baltic countries - The retreat of Latvia of the HG Nord as well as the German rout in Byelorussia - although it is still largely hidden from public view - is fuelling agitation and initiatives of certain political leaders, not necessarily well advised but encouraged by the Reich. In times like these, the Reich is using all kinds of firepower and is multiplying calls for resistance to the Bolshevik invader, and even for enlistment under its arms. However, even though he is on territory considered friendly, he does not always have solid support for his policy, because he had not allowed them to reconstitute themselves after the Soviet repression!
Thus, in Vilnius, the Lithuanian government was dissolved shortly after the German invasion - its leader, Kazys Škirpa, was never even allowed by Germany to return to his country!
As for Latvia, the disappearance in the Soviet Union of President Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulman created a void that could not be filled*.
This leaves Estonia, which had never been "liberated" by the Reich and which had to undergo a rigorous occupation by the Red Army. Since 1942, its former Prime Minister, Jüri Uluots, has been trying to help Germany in its struggle. The Omakaitse, his self-defence militia created even before Barbarossa, collaborated militarily with the Wehrmacht. But the frequent coups de main of the Ernas (sometimes reinforced by Brandenburgers commandos) only aggravated the communist repression.
From the German lines, Uluots launches today on the airwaves an appeal inciting his compatriots to fight against the Red Army by all means, if possible by joining the Wehrmacht**! Alas, this call will be heard - in the weeks to come, 20 000 young Estonians will join the Brothers of the Forest, to lead courageously, but without hope nor support, an unequal struggle against the Soviets. Passing by Finland then by Sweden, a handful of them will even succeed in joining Lithuania to enlist in the SS-Kurland. No doubt that Moscow, informed of this initiative by its intelligence services, we will treat the fighters and the population in such a way as to remove any desire for rebellion...
Decidedly, the unfortunate Baltic nations seem doomed. And as Molotov said about them in 1940, "small countries are doomed to disappear".

Operation Bagration
The Rhine Gold
Bagration North (1st Belorussian Front) - Once again, for the German lines, the problems come from the east, and General Hening von Tresckow (Chief of Staff of the 2. Armee) must note with his superior, Johannes Friessner, that their army is decidedly unable to hold out against the 1st Belorussian Front of Vassili Sokolovski, or rather of Marshal Zhukov. In fact, in addition to the 3rd Tank Army (still on the move), the entire right wing of this Front - two armies, an armored corps and a mixed corps - goes back on the march.
In Braslaw, the 20th Army of General Vladimir Kurassov attacks the 87. ID (Walter Hartmann), which has to defend a much too large front against a much too numerous opponent. This obviously serves the Soviets - if they do not make much progress in the city, which is solidly held, their forces largely bypass the Dryvyaty lake and already endanger the Axis flank. The position is obviously untenable: the following days, Hartmann can only gain time by withdrawing to the lakes of the Silene region, while hoping for the arrival of reinforcements from the north...
On his right, the 10th Armored Corps leaves Pastavy. Ignoring the direct road to Utena, which passes through the wet and impenetrable forests of Kaltanėnai, it set out to head north and Ignalina to eventually threaten Salakas, thus the Utena-Daugavpils connection. A journey of 80 kilometers in difficult terrain ... but Aleksei Popov and his men are used to it! And they have the necessary local guides and aerial reconnaissance.
To go up the Neris river to cover the progression of the 3rd Tank Army is therefore the responsibility of the 63rd Army and the Oslikovski Group. They leave their positions of Vishneva and Miadzel to march toward Pabradė, threatening Vilnius from the northeast while other T-34s are approaching from the south. Indeed, Katukov's 3rd Tank Army crosses the old border and reaches Skaidiškės - it is now in sight of the Lithuanian capital.
However, the Neptun North force is itself arriving in the area. The collision between these two formations - which can be seen coming from afar... - is imminent.
.........
Minsk sector and Bagration center - Endgame for the 4. Armee, now completely annihilated by the combined efforts of the 2nd Shock, 3rd Guards, 15th Army and 7th GAC, further reinforced by the first machines of the Pliev group, which have just crossed the Berezina.
Catching up with the few escapees who had escaped the day before, these forces reduce all that is still resisting in a vast sector stretching from Dukora (and even Pryvoĺny, for the most western elements) to the Svetlyi Bor - where they join the 3rd Shock Army in crossing. Several thousand men are killed or captured - the Soviet propaganda will soon freeze for history long columns of captives going up along lines of burned wrecks: their former vehicles, destroyed by the air force or artillery, or simply out of gas.
Among the beautiful captures of the Red Army, let us quote (in particular) the generals of corps Ernst-Eberhard Hell (VII. AK) and Otto Sponheimer (XIII. AK) (their colleague Karl von Oven (XLIII. AK) was killed), as well as Major Generals Fritz-Georg von Rappard*** (7. ID) and Werner Frost (106. ID). Werner Richter (268. ID) was picked up seriously wounded and evacuated to the rear, only to die of his wounds ten days later. On the other hand, Kurt von Tippelskirch - the leader of the now defunct 4. Armee - managed to
escape from the Soviet clutches, taking off in a small liaison plane at the first light of day! Unfortunately for him, caught in a storm, his Fieseler Storch crashed near Stowbtsy, seriously injuring him. At least he fell in still friendly territory...
Meanwhile, drunk with victory, Ivan Chistiakov's 1st Guards Army takes control of the regained capital of the Byelorussian SSR - which had been ravaged by the retreating Occupiers and in particular by the 18. SS-GrD.
Much later, Vasily Grossmann would write in Krasnaya Zvezda, with a certain emphasis but also with an intact emotion: "Minsk burned. There would have been too much to write. Minsk burned... Minsk! The city is dead. People are in the cellars. Everything is burned. The burning walls of the houses are like the bodies of dead people who died in the terrible heat and who have not had time to cool down.
Huge buildings, monuments, squares. Inscriptions "Pedestrian crossing".
Heaps of electric wires, a cat dozing on a window, plants in basins.
In the middle of thousands of burned and half destroyed stone colossi miraculously stands a wooden pavilion, a kiosk where sparkling water was sold. It is like Pompeii, struck by destruction on a day when life was in full swing. Streetcars, cars without their windows. Burned houses with their commemorative plaques: "In this place, I.V. Stalin spoke in...". The building of a children's hospital, topped by a plaster bird with one wing broken and the other spread out for flight. The Central House on the square of the October Revolution, is a black building covered with a velvety soot veil on which stand out two snow-white naked figures.
Children are wandering around, many of them are half-crazed, many faces are laughing. Sunset on a square. Terrible and strange beauty: a sky of a tender gray appears through thousands and tens of thousands of empty embrasures and absent roofs. An immense poster ugly bariolated: "The way of the Light". A feeling of serenity as after long torments; the city is dead, in the manner of the face of a deceased who passed by a painful illness and has found rest in an eternal sleep. And again, in the distance, the bombings. The bombing of an already dead city."
In fact, Minsk suffered terribly from the occupation and then the fighting... From 300,000 inhabitants before the war - to which were added several tens of thousands of unfortunate people, crammed into the ghetto that has since been liquidated - only 50,000 people remain, wandering in a city that is 80% destroyed****.
It is understandable that counting the misfortunes of this city does not necessarily interest the frontovikis of the 1st Guard - they must already take possession of a ravaged city, before continuing westward. However, in their crossing of the ruins, they still find time to help the Partisans to settle some scores. In this regard, Mikhail Trofimovich Cheveniavsky writes: "On January 28th, the Soviet army entered Minsk. The Wehrmacht soldiers wanted to defend the city. They fought as if in a boxing ring until the arrival of the tanks, then they had to surrender. After the surrender, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht and Ordnungspolizei soldiers had to line up, each on his own side. The soldiers were handed over to the Red Army as prisoners of war, the policemen were handed over to the Partisans. The policemen were shot."
As for Rokossovky, still preoccupied with the pursuit of the 1. PanzerArmee, he completes the crossing of the Pliev Group to Berazino, before moving on to the 29th Army. As for the 1st Airborne Corps, it is able to cross by its own means, given its small number of troops.
.........
Bagration South (2nd Byelorussian Front and 1. PanzerArmee) - Without having succeeded in resuming contact with their pursuers, Josef Harpe's forces finally seem to be in a relatively good position to get out of this situation. Despite the ambushes, attacks and strafing of the VVS (limited by the action of the Luftwaffe, which has only them to support!), the troops pass the Pitch at Samakhvalavichy - in relative good order, always covered by the 20. Panzer and the 23. ID, which hold the 4th Guards at distance with the help of the Hetzer of the 236. StuG Abt.
Avoiding Minsk by the left, these units do not seem so far from salvation. In fact, at the same time, the Neptun South force arrives by train in Biaroza, at about 150 kilometers, while the LXXII. AK lands in Lida, at the foot of the Model HQ. The line wanted by this one begins to take shape...
However, this is a great help to the fugitives between Salihorsk and Lubian, still pursued by the 54th Army. The II. Luftwaffen-Feld-Korps is not worth a division anymore, while the LVII. PzK of Friedrich Kirchner undergoes towards Starobin a real Napoleonic ordeal. And Katukov's machines are already in Siniaŭka, 75 kilometers ahead of them!

Advertisement
On the air - Radio Moscow announces with great satisfaction the liberation of Minsk and the absolute triumph of Bagration! "The capital of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic liberated, the Red Army of Workers and Peasants now reports 750,000 Fascists dead or captured, 800 tanks and 350 aircraft destroyed.
The enemy is now fleeing under our blows to his lair, routed like all the invaders of the past. Glory to our heroic fighters! Glory to our heroes! Long live the great Marshal Stalin!"
Obviously, the Western press - and first of all the American newspapers - will not be slow to publish this optimistic communiqué in extenso, in order to support the morale of the troops and the "capitalist" Allies. At most, some French newspapers will forget to reproduce the reference to the "invaders of yesteryear"... On the other hand, the government of the Republic - which counts, it is true, several communists in its ranks - will not fail warmly congratulate its ally of its brilliant success by the voice of the ambassador Charles Corbin, thus returning the compliments received during Dragon.
So much for the primary anti-communists! After so many efforts and sacrifices, and despite difficulties encountered this winter in Italy, France and Yugoslavia, victory is at last within reach on all fronts! And then - but here, it is the anti-communists who express themselves... - we should not let the Reds do all the work!

Tankist (Evgeny Bessonov)
T-34s in the forest
"New departure under the rain. Andrei climbs into Stalingradskiy with the frustrated air of bad days, letting the girls' tanks pass in front. Not out of chivalry - I ordered him to do so. He'd have to play the fool to make himself look good!
I already doubt that the exercise or the pointing of our Siberian is of much interest to them...
Direction: the north, through the woods, loaded with infantrymen and guided by brave partisans: one of them, hanging on my turret, gives me instructions.
Our platoon goes into the forest, under the expert pedaling of Fyodor, who fights against getting stuck in the mud at every moment and tries to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor."

Strategy
Adaptation
Wolfsschanze (Rastenburg) - In the conference room of the OKH, the German General Staff around the Führer takes note of the fall of Minsk - which was expected - and reflects on the necessary transformation of Neptun into a stop battle in the region of Dziarjynsk (north), followed - if possible - by an attempt to encircle towards Stowbtsy (south). Making the pieces of North Neptun slide from Vilnius, Hitler comments...
"The forthcoming arrival of the HG Nord units and the reconstitution of a new HG Mitte on the line decided by Model, open interesting perspectives. Whether the Bolsheviks continue towards the west, certain of our rout. They underestimate the German race! Its vigor! Its fanaticism! The west of Ruthenia will be the tomb of their ambitions for 1944. And even if we still have to bring up people from Ukraine for that."
A project easy to conceive on the map... Even if it is not too absurd, as the Belarusian front lines have been stretched to liberate a very large territory. However, the Führer himself underestimates the Russians, imagining that they have played all their cards. And above all, he does not seem to realize that the Ostheer has just suffered a disaster without common measure since its creation - it will not recover easily...
.........
"Later, those who know little about the Eastern Front will write that Bagration was the moment when everything started to break down. However, in fact, the Ostheer had been cracking for a long time. And the triumph of this offensive was - beyond the undeniable operational mastery - was only a strict reflection of the imbalance of forces, further aggravated by the insane strategy of defense in place imposed by Hitler.
Let's take a few moments to freeze the figures. On the evening of January 29th, 1944, after thirteen days of fighting, the Wehrmacht had lost 18 infantry divisions, 1 mechanized division and 3 battalions of self-propelled guns. To this already considerable total, one could easily add 5 additional divisions, now stuck in the Liuban region without hope of exit, as well as the equivalent of 3 other divisions in various losses.
These figures give dizziness: 475 000 men, 200 panzers, plus the administrative staff and the troops of the rear! In 13 days. And still, this total could have been even worse if the Red Army had not been slowed down by traffic jams in Baryssaw and Berazino, as rightly feared by some Soviet officials. Even if, paradoxically, this passage obliged by several points of crossing - fatal to Suvorov - had in fine served Bagration. Indeed, without available reserves and without the possibility of retreat (whether it is forbidden or whether there is no way to retreat), the Army Group Center was condemned to fight in the worst possible conditions - that is, risking being crushed if it could not win.
And the result was obvious. On their side, the Soviets had lost only 125,000 men and 350 tanks. Their victory was overwhelming. The Red Army had indeed defeated the Ostheer.
The rest would be repetition, then agony."
(Robert Stan Pratsky and Waitman Wade Beorn, Descending into Darkness: The Fighting for Belarus and Ukraine - Harvard University Press, 2014).

Shoah
First clues
Maly Trostinets (Minsk Oblast, occupied Belorussian SSR) - The Red Army enters into the first concentration camp discovered by the United Nations forces - which has been thoroughly ravaged by the men of Sharführer-SS Heinrich Eiche, who did not hesitate to flee with all their gear.
Inspecting thoroughly (partly with the help of the indications of the survivors found in Blagovshchina) this godforsaken place, the Soviets will soon announce to the world that they have found 34 mass graves, with dimensions of up to 50 meters wide and 4 meters deep. Obviously, the scandalized reactions to this crime will not be lacking throughout the world - even though, since Bubanj, everyone should know what the Reich and its accomplices are capable of. And even if the USSR, in all hypocrisy, is careful not to mention the very similar fate that it itself inflicted on thousands of Poles in the Katyn forest...
But it doesn't matter, unfortunately, for the unfortunate dead in Maly Trostinets - their number is estimated today at 60,000 (including 27,000 Jews, among whom 15,000 Austrians*****). And Maly Trostinets is only the first of many...

* Arrested in July 1940 after the annexation and despite all the promises of exile in Switzerland made by Moscow, Ulmanis had to work until May 1942 as an agricultural engineer in a kolkhoz. There, he would have contracted dysentery and then died - but his grave has never been found, while his burial date corresponds, to within a few days, to an inspection of his collective farm by the NKVD, shortly after the beginning of Barbarossa. This curious coincidence is at the origin of a real memorial battle, today led by the grandson of Ulmanis, who obviously claims that his grandfather was executed. However, he remains unable to prove his claim.
** Uluots will justify himself after the war by affirming that this call was not an incitement to fight for Germany, but a supplication for the international community to defend the existence of a country that had been annexed and was now threatened with extinction.
*** Von Rappard was hanged in public in Mogilev in 1945, as an example, along with seven other officers, considered collectively responsible for the crimes committed during the anti-partisan operations in the region. Regimes change - methods remain...
**** Elevated to the title of martyred city of the Union in 1974, the Belarusian capital did not have to wait until the 70s to be, not fixed, but rebuilt. Its historical center will be entirely replaced by a Stalinist architecture, based on large complexes crossed by wide avenues. These constructions, combined with a massive industrialization and absorption of the rebuilt peripheries in Mikroraions cities - all served by one of the most important metro networks in the USSR - will allow it to reach 1,500,000 inhabitants in 1986. A utilitarian city, not really ugly but without any charm, Minsk is now trying to reinvent itself and finally turn the page on the conflict that shook it.
***** A monument to their memory now stands on the site.

 

[Wings]

January 29th, 1944

Snowstorm
Montenegro - Under a persistent and stubborn snow, Jägers and SS of the Sandjak finally meet in a completely deserted town of Plužine, having only encountered dead bodies and explosive devices on their way. The 13th Rgt of the Prinz Eugen will join them in the evening.
The Partisans have thus escaped. The 737. Rgt. of Jägers did not report anything worth reporting - which is to be understood as "no prisoners worth a long interrogation". Under these conditions, and while Pavle Đurišić's forces still have not secured Žabljak, "Schneesturm" seems very close to failure. Therefore, the Serbian warlord is ordered to stop the charges as well - which he will do with joy, because he faces a succession of counter-attacks of the Partisans which have already made him retreat almost 6 kilometers, from Potpeće to the Kosanica plain!

Forced migration
Yugoslavia - The Axis forces are not the only ones wading through the powder. The XIIIth Corps of Brian Horrocks has just reached Prokuplje, thus passing on the left flank of the ANZAC forces. Its journey had been long, complicated and slowed down by a series of unpleasant incidents in which the snow plays only a minor role... In the reports of the allied officials, it will be mentioned, among other things, of "regular shootings between unidentified groups, "damaged, even demolished roads" and even "explosive booby traps on the roads" (there was no talk of improvised explosive devices yet).
All these data, duly compiled by the Athens staff, arrive on the desk of Bernard Montgomery - who draws the only logical conclusion: calm in the Kosovo region must be restored as soon as possible, whatever the political cost, so that the allied forces can continue their advance. An action by the Greek 2nd Corps, for example, towards the north and Novi Pazar (which does not seem to be defended) could lead to the Sjenica plain.
A region infinitely more favorable to the preparation of "Veritable", and which would allow allied troops to move away from the Albanian-Kosovar imbroglios!

Resumption of contact
Region of Shkodër (Albania) - The reconnaissance sections of the 5th Polish ID make contact with the Axis forces in the Podhum isthmus and on the foothills of Krute, south of Lake Scutari. The scouts are formal: the only defenders facing them seem to be Croats in German uniforms - their flags and insignia are unmistakable.
With this information, General Bronisław-Duch decides to halt his advance and to form a defensive position around two strong points, at Mali Kolaj and Shkodër. The Pole cannot decently consider holding the 26 kilometers of plain separating the regional capital from the shores of the Adriatic! And moreover, it remains total unknown as to the security of his rear: in the Puka region (and even, more generally, the mountains of northern Albania) are a kind of terra incognita for the allied armies.
The Poles therefore prepare themselves for another long pause on the edge of the lake, among the pelicans.

Controlling the chaos
Tirana - While the 4th RST and the French 155 mm have finally arrived in Ujmisht and Roux asks for instructions, Sylvestre Audet tries a new conciliation, still in the presence of Major David Smiley - but this time with the Communist Party of Albania.
Indeed, it now seems clear to the allied command - whether in Athens or in Tirana - that the 18th AAG has neither the means nor the will to constantly monitor Albania and the mountainous area up to Kosovo. It therefore has to make arbitrations, as it does not have the troops to guarantee the total application of the Tirana agreement... which, however, dates from less than than six months ago!
For his part, Enver Hoxha sends Spiro Theodori Moisiu - the commander of the National Liberation Army - to negotiate. The man knows he is in a strong position: the Allies have something to ask him, otherwise they would not bother to ask Comrade Commissioner Hoxha. He could therefore be uncompromising - and all the more so since Mehmet Shehu's man is still lurking in Tirana...
However, Moisiu is also a professional soldier, an officer trained by the Italians, exiled with his men to Yugoslavia during the invasion of 1940, then having refused to fight the Greeks after his return to the country during the campaign of 1941, although he himself was commander of a battalion enrolled in the Regio Esercito. One can therefore discuss technique with him - and without fearing a stab in the back.
Overall, the ACP's position is demanding but coherent: securing northern Albania and the regions of Puka or Shkodër requires the extension of the zone devolved to the communists. On this basis, they undertake to facilitate the passage of allied convoys (Audet would swear that Moisiu said "authorize" ...) and to ensure calm in the rear, provided that we respect the sovereignty of the Popular Justice rendered by Hoxha's men in case of civil unrest.
Faced with this constructed and prepared reflection, which certainly suits him, but means a lot, Audet decides to ask for instructions to Athens. What the Albanian general, in good military terms, understands obviously. We agree to see each other again tomorrow, with a smile and a handshake.
However, if the atmosphere is respectful, it is not necessarily cordial. The Partisan specifies: "Don't make my comrades wait too long, General. The ballists did not have to wait...". A message heard loud and clear by the French leader!

Playing dead
Yugoslavia - In a cave somewhere north of Sjenica, Josip Broz Tito takes a satisfied look at the state of his forces. They are doing well - they have been able to replenish their numbers, are now supplied almost regularly (or nearly so) by the various allied actors and have a light, but sufficient armament for their missions.
The NVOJ continues to grow and prepare itself - it even seems to be on the way to professionalization. For even if the most recent comrades obviously need training before serving the Revolution, most Partisans are now veterans, capable of fraternally supervising the young recruits without concern for their origins.
For a true communist of the LCY (League of Communists of Yugoslavia), there is only one nationality: the Yugoslav one. And only one religion: Stalinism. The royalists and other decadent capitalists can quarrel as much as they want and exhaust their energies in vain struggles, it is not the case within the AVNOJ. This is why, in his comfortable hut rather well heated by several braziers, the secretary general of the Party envisages the future without worry, thanks to the help of the USSR - which is really not very far away - and facing the Germans and the reactionaries.
Obviously, Tito is respectful of the statutes: the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia should therefore meet soon to ratify its decisions... It will take advantage of this meeting to discuss the interest or not of going to meet this Churchill, since he was informed of the latter's passage to Athens and of his desire to speak with him. Personally, Tito is in favor of it - not to make friends, of course, but to gain time. And as soon as he has mystified this caricature of a cigar-bearing exploiter, he will be able to quietly set up his pawns for the next step...

 

[Wings]

January 29th, 1944

Dirty weather
Italian Front - The weather in the north of Italy is again very bad, cold and rainy.
Nothing much is happening on the front, except for some artillery exchanges.

 

[Wings]

January 29th, 1944

Operation Pike
Axat (Aude) - General Alexander Patch approves the plan for this operation which is to succeed Dague/Dagger. The aim is to break through the enemy's defences on either side of Quillan, in order to encircle this town, which was the keystone of the German system in the south of the Aude.
A battalion of the 157th Rgt of the 45th US-ID leads a diversionary attack in the gorges of Pierre-Lys. In the west, the 4th Ranger Btn and the French maquisards will continue their harassment of the German defense below the Port de Pailhères, to give the impression of a breakthrough in the direction of Ax-les-Thermes. The rest of the 45th US-ID will attack the German positions along the Rebenty valley, with the objective of pushing the defenders back to the Plantaurel massif. Finally, in the east, the 85th US-ID will resume its progression in the Corbières, hoping to reach the lower valley of the Aude.

Battle in the high mountains
Alps - While the 13th BCA completes the capture of the "peninsula" of Ambel and makes contact on its right wing with the 24th BCA, the 11th BCA is closing in on the positions of the 1050. Grenadier Rgt. The Germans deploy at the Col de la Samblue and on the summit immediately north.
From there, they control the access to their rear from the Grand-Tête de l'Obiou and the plain leading to the Sautet dam, where they have settled in force.
The operations stop there, as the 11th BCA alone could not face a whole regiment of the Wehrmacht with its support.

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

Crossbow
Occupied France - Called on other targets, the majority of the 12th AF aircraft leave only 18 of their colleagues to take care of one Noball site, but the archives do not specify which one! In any case, all the aircraft return safely to their homes.

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

A busy program
Morgan's Point Airfield, Bermuda - Officially received by Lord Burghley, His Majesty's Governor for Bermuda, the American and French delegations arrive in the morning for the conference between the leaders of the three great western allies: they will be the hosts of the British, whose delegation arrived the day before.
Since Teheran, last spring, Roosevelt had been calling for a new meeting including the Soviets, but Stalin kept explaining that the operations on the Russian front did not allow him to leave his country. Churchill, on the other hand, was always suspicious of the Soviets (except when it comes to meeting them in particular...), asked the American president to organize a new conference between the Western powers alone. Between his sometimes failing health and the tour of Alaska to show that he was not abandoning any part of the American territory, Roosevelt finally declared himself available only in January 1944. As a result, the conference was a little awkward for the British Prime Minister, who had planned a tour of Eastern Europe, which was to lead him to meet discreetly with Tito and secretly with Stalin. De Gaulle, for his part, was thinking first of all about completing the liberation of his country and the operations that would lead to it.
Nevertheless, the conference program is full.
As far as the war against Germany is concerned, we must assess the enemy's situation and its ability to resist in France, Italy and the Balkans. Victory is certain, in 1945 at the latest - but how far will the Soviet armies go? What areas will the Western armies in Germany and Austria? And what forces - land, air and even naval - will have to be devoted to these tasks? What will be the fate of Germany afterwards? The French and British were warned that the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Morgenthau, has a project to present.
Concerning the war against Japan: once again, what are the possibilities of resistance by the enemy on the various fronts? What overall strategy should be adopted? What should be promised to the Soviets in exchange for their possible participation in the conflict? And what will be the zones of influence of each of the Allies?
The British delegation, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, includes Foreign Secretary Eden and his number two Cadogan, Churchill's scientific advisor and Paymaster General of the British government Lord Cherwell, the Minister of War Transport Leathers, the Chief of the General Staff of the British Empire, Field Marshall Brooke, the Chief of Staff of the RAF, the Air Marshall Portal, the First Lord of the Sea and Chief of Staff of the Royal Navy, Admiral Cunningham, the Permanent Delegate to the Combined Joint Staff in Washington, Field Marshall Dill, and to the Prime Minister, General Ismay.
The American delegation included, under the leadership of President Roosevelt, Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau and his second White, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces and political advisor to Roosevelt, Admiral Leahy, the Chief of Staff of the US Army, General Marshall, the Chief of Staff of the Army Air Force, General Arnold, and Admiral King of the US Navy.
Finally, the French delegation, led by the President of the Council De Gaulle, includes the Minister of War Paul-Boncour, the Minister of Finance Mendès-France, the Chief of Staff of the National Defence General Doumenc, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Admiral Ollive, the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, General Bouscat, as well as the permanent delegate to the Combined Joint Staff in Washington, General Legentilhomme.

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

Indonesia
Operation Meridian
Java - The Japanese pilots of the 33rd Sentai will be able to breathe easy. Indeed, a cloudy weather makes that the planned allied raid is diverted to secondary objectives: the airfields of the 21st Sentai (Bandœng, Andir and Sœkamiskin). In the air, only four Toryu are trying to oppose the allied power- all four of them go down with only one damaged Avenger. The latter, turning back after having unloaded its cargo, manages to reach its carrier. If the aircraft was declared unsalvageable, the mechanics were not surprised that it was able to return with a third of its wing missing and a heavily damaged vertical stabilizer: Grumman's reputation for robustness is well established.
On the ground, the 21st Sentai is surprised and many aircraft are strafed. The reconnaissance, interpreted by Lieutenants Mitchell and Rankin, shows at least twenty twin-engine planes destroyed. This result is later confirmed by USAAF B-24s operating from Australia and, since recently, from Timor - the four-engine planes will not meet any more opposition in this sector for almost three weeks.
As soon as the raid is over, the Allied squadron heads south to "Euston Station".

Indochina Campaign
Tet offensive
Mytho (Cochinchina) - General Yuzo Matsuyama reorganizes his 56th Division. He decides to attempt a sortie before dawn the next day, taking advantage of the darkness. The day is marked by some skirmishes around the city.
.........
Saigon (Cochinchina) - The Japanese-Vietnamese garrison finally succeeds in retaking the last buildings in the city center that the Vietminh had occupied on Tet Day. However, a counter-attack on Cholon has been ruled out for the moment. As for the bo-dois, they continue to receive reinforcements, but the superior weaponry of their enemies has so far broken all their attempts to seize the center.
.........
Tourane (Annam) - While the Belgian-Congolese Public Force is trying to drive the Japanese out of the market, the wharves and the south of Jules-Ferry Boulevard, French and Laotians continue to attack the barracks on boulevard de La Publique. After two days of bombardment, the building is no more than a ruin. It will however be necessary to clean it with grenades and machine guns.
.........
Somewhere south-east of Cao-Bang (Tonkin) - The 33rd Division is camouflaged all day and does not resume its march toward Hanoi until nightfall. The progression is all the more difficult as the headlights of the few trucks and the lanterns are obscured. The Lysanders of the GB Louvre pass over the column several times without succeeding in locating it precisely, which does not prevent a few bombs from falling not far away. The Vietminh concealed along the road launch a few mortar attacks, but above all continuously harass the rear guard. The most difficult thing is the state of the roads. During the day, the bo-dois dug trenches that the first Japanese elements have to fill. Each time, in the fear of an ambush...
.........
Hanoi, Tonkin - General Andou Rikichi receives a report on the progress of what even his men are beginning to call the Tet offensive. The meticulous presentation of the report to the entire staff ends in dismayed silence. The list of positions attacked by the Vietminh and their allies is an endless catalog. Five of the six largest cities of Annam and Cochinchina, twenty-eight provincial capitals of these regions, twenty-three Army or Navy bases and airfields are the object of continuous attacks, ranging from simple pinpricks to full-scale assaults. Between airfield attacks and mortar fire, twenty-eight aircraft were lost. Sometimes, the intact planes cannot take off because the runways are under rebel fire. The most serious - for the moment - ten provincial capitals and the city of Hue have already fallen into enemy hands.
In Tonkin, ground fighting remains limited. On the other hand, the Colonialists have taken advantage in the air. Thirty-six Army and Navy aircraft were lost in aerial combat or as a result of bombing raids since the beginning of the offensive.
The main clashes take place in Tourane, Saigon and Mytho. Twenty-five thousand Japanese and 8,000 Vietnamese militiamen confront, it seems, 9 to 10,000 colonialist soldiers, 30,000 Vietnamese regulars and perhaps 60,000 irregulars.
The only operational reserve we have to counterattack," the author of the report concludes, "is the 33rd Division. However, because of the enemy diversion on Cao-Bang, the Arc Division is very far from Tourane. It will not be able to be in action before ten... maybe fifteen days, because of the attacks and sabotage.
Andou Rikichi says nothing. He thinks of his predecessor, General Tyo. He had sworn not to make the same mistakes, and yet his divisions seemed to be condemned to starvation, deprived of ammunition, surrounded by guerrillas and crushed by a better armed enemy under a hostile sky.
Four and a half divisions were committed to Indochina after its conquest. Two of them have been virtually wiped out. The rest are now fighting to the death. A tomb... a gigantic tomb... that is what this campaign is.

Pacific Campaign
Marshall Naval and Air Battle - A-Go vs. Flintlock
Kwajalein - Rear Admiral Monzo Akiyama commands the defense of the Marshalls.
With about nine thousand fighters at his disposal, he distributed them on the easternmost islands of the archipelago, Jaluit, Mille, Maloelap and Wotje. Less than fifteen hundred men remain on Kwajalein and Roi-Namur (80 km further north), and about four thousand on Eniwetok, some 630 km to the west-northwest. At the end of January 1944, these forces were supported by barely one hundred aircraft: sixty on Roi and forty on Eniwetok. In fact, during the Battle of the Gilberts, in November 1943, the Americans had dealt very hard blows to the bases of the Marshalls and their potential could only be partially reconstituted from Truk.
Although Admiral Nimitz could not decipher the new Nipponese codes, he had a fairly accurate idea of Monzo's defensive dispositions thanks to the volume of Japanese radio traffic intercepted by the Magic listening system (designation of the Ultra system in the Pacific). He decides to launch a first assault on Kwajalein and Roi-Namur, neglecting the eastern islands, and then to go and seize Eniwetok. This will be operation Flintlock.
He knows, of course, that the bulk of the Combined Fleet is concentrated in Truk. That is why he has given up the idea of destroying the large Japanese base before Flintlock: it would have been risky to fight in front of Truk, with the Marshall Islands still occupied by the Japanese. By launching Flintlock, he offers battle to the Japanese in better conditionsfor him... and he hopes they will accept it.
.........
Roi-Namur - This morning, the relatively primitive radar installed in Roi gives the alert: numerous aircraft are coming from the east! The Americans did not bother to try to operate under the radar cover. Operation Flintlock starts.
.........
Truk - On the Yamato, anchored in the heart of the great Japanese base, Admiral Yamamoto is immediately informed. The successive messages, more and more desperate despite the fighting spirit of his airmen, confirm that it was indeed an extremely powerful raid.
A raid so powerful that it obviously preludes an amphibious operation, as the admiral had expected since the fall of the Gilberts. The disappearance the day before of two seaplanes from Kwajalein can be explained...
But if in November the Combined Fleet had been caught off guard, this time it is ready!
It is finally able to confront the main enemy, the American fleet, and crush it in a decisive battle.
At least that's what Yamamoto tells the Imperial Palace. In reality, he believes that the enemy has more ships than he had and that victory could only be achieved at a very high cost, but he hopes that the American losses would be so terrible as to convince them to accept a negotiated peace...
It is in this state of mind that he receives a message from Eniwetok at about 13:00 reporting that a Kawanishi H6K (Mavis) had spotted "a large number of enemy warships, including aircraft carriers and battleships" about 800 km east of Kwajalein, heading northwest.
It is time to launch Operation A-Go! For once, the Japanese plan is simple: to strike straight at the enemy and, while the aircraft carriers launch a "lightning" strike, the battleships and cruisers run after it. It is in this frame of mind that Yamamoto sets sail in the afternoon with his entire Combined Fleet:
- Four heavy carriers: 1st Division: Akagi, Shokaku (Vice Admiral Ozawa); 2nd Division: Hiryu, Soryu.
- Three light aircraft carriers: 3rd Division: Zuiho, Chitose (the conversion of this former seaplane carrier was completed in August 1943) and Junyo.
The seven carriers put a total of 380 aircraft on line: 130 D4Y Suisei (Judy), 105 B6N Tenzan (Jill), 20 B5N (Kate) [on Junyo, too slow to operate the B6N] and 125 A6M5 mod.64 Reisen (Zero).
- Seven battleships: 1st Division: Yamato (Admiral Yamamoto), Musashi; 2nd Division: Hyuga, Yamashiro; Fast Division: Haruna, Hiei, Kirishima.
- Eight heavy cruisers: 1st Division: Atago (vice-admiral Ugaki, commander of the line fleet), Takao; 2nd Division: Kumano, Suzuya; 3rd Division: Haguro, Myoko; 4th Division: Chikuma, Tone.
- Five light cruisers: the experienced Jintsu (vice-admiral Tanaka), Naka and Sendai and the Agano and Noshiro.
- Thirty-one destroyers: seven Kagero class, the Amatsukaze, Hatsukaze, Hayashio, Kagero, Shiranui, Tokitsukaze, Yukikaze; seven Yugumo class, the Fujiyami, Kazagumo, Kiyonami, Naganami, Onami, Suzuyami, Tamanami; seven Akizuki class, the Akizuki, Hatsutsuki, Niizuki, Shimotsuki, Suzutsuki, Teruzuki, Wakatsuki; four Fubuki class, the Hatsuyuki, Murakumo, Shirayuki, Usugumo ; three Shiratsuyu class, Suzukaze, Umikaze, Yamakaze ; two Hatsuharu class, the Hatsushimo, Wakaba ; finally the famous Shimakaze, the only one of his class. Nineteen of these ships will accompany battleships and cruisers; the others will cover the aircraft carriers against the submarine threat, once the battleships have gone to crush the remains of the enemy.
Speaking of submarines, the Sixth Fleet was not forgotten. The I-38, I-174, I-175, I-180 and I-181, based at Truk, and the Ro-105, Ro-106, Ro-107, Ro-108, Ro-109, Ro-110 and Ro-111, previously based at Jaluit and withdrawn to Eniwetok, must also intervene. Four of them (I-180, I-181, Ro-110 and Ro-111) are already on patrol in a large area extending to the Gilberts; the others will leave at the same time as the Combined Fleet.
To the great regret of the Japanese staff, the Japanese doctrine foreseeing to start by weakening the enemy with submarines will not necessarily be applied to the letter. It is necessary to seize the opportunity of a decisive battle as soon as possible! The submarines will finish off the enemy.
.........
On the gangways of the Japanese ships, sailors and officers smile. Who could resist to the power of such an armada?...

Sino-Japanese war
The victory of Project 8
Kunming - The Allied press and the Chinese propaganda services are present in force in the capital of Yunnan to announce to the world the completion of Project 8, until then kept secret.
"This is the life giver,
Pulsing with the drink of planes -
This is the mother vein,
Throbbing with abundant strength
For thirsty trucks and tanks,
Twisting, turning, moving ever on -
A vast, strong artery that pumps
The endless-flowing stuff of war."
These verses, from the inspired pen of a certain Sergeant Smith Dawless, describe the Burma Pipeline, known as Project 8, which starts in Rangoon and has just reached its destination: Kunming.
Still to this day the longest pipeline in the world, it required nearly a year of hard work by hundreds of engineers from the American oil industry and thousands of Chinese workers, under the energetic leadership of Colonel Lewis Pick, a former civil engineer with the Missouri River Division, who was given the project when his first supervisor, Brigadier General John Arrowsmith, was called to the European front in 1943. There, Pick earned his own brigadier general stripes... and prematurely bleached hair. Still, his engineers were able to follow a relatively straight line from the Burmese port to the capital of Yunnan province.
What would have happened, he wonders with a chill down his spine, if the Allies had not been able to lock control of Burma? The pipeline would have had to start in Calcutta and go through even more inaccessible regions... perhaps even through the dreaded Pangsau Pass in Assam! Additional months of work would have been required to overcome logistical challenges and complete Project 8. At last, he thinks, posing for the photographers, he has been spared such an ordeal, and the hardest part is done.
The Kunming terminal pumping station is started up under the crackle of flashbulbs. It will pump 70,000 tons of fuel per month until the end of hostilities.
Until then, the fuel for the Chinese war machine had been transported by tanker, with the difficulties that we can imagine. A few small wells are still in operation in Gansu, but China does not have refineries allowing to transform crude oil into gasoline; as for the oil installations in Xinjiang, the Soviets carefully dismantled them before ceding control. The Nationalist Army's meagre armored forces were under constant threat of running out of fuel, which had held them back during Operation Zhulin. Now the situation has changed. The new armored vehicles delivered by the United States to re-equip the 200th Armored Division will be able to give their full measure. And the trucks arriving from the United States will be able to drive wherever there is a semblance of a road...

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

Šiauliai offensive
Missed start
Southern part of the Panther Line (Latvia) - Under a heavy rain today, the 16. Armee accelerates its withdrawal - without, for the moment, the 2nd Baltic Front managing to oppose it by stepping up the pace of its operations.
In Buivāni, the 7th Guards Army wades through mud worthy of the Other War. The arrival of this rainy front was another pleasant surprise for Thielmann: it allows his 254. ID to hang on by its fingernails to the road through Brūlāni - an axis without much strategic value, but whose control nevertheless prevents the Reds from breaking out too broadly from the peninsula. Meanwhile, on the left and right, the bridgeheads of Bajāri and Robežkrogs make little progress - the former finally joins up with the main force, while reinforcements dispatched by the 58. ID are in the process of reducing the second, with the help of some armor lent by von Beschwitz. Facing the Tiger and Leopards - surprisingly mobile, with their wide tracks*! - Nikolai Berzarin's infantrymen are still somewhat helpless - the fault of the incessant showers and the river current, which hinders the arrival of reinforcements. Nevertheless, they hold on against all odds - for the Heer, the situation remains under control... at least as long as it rains.
Further south-east, the 34th Army takes Kreutzburg (on the right bank). In fact, the former headquarters of the 16. Armee will soon be used as a theater for proletarian justice - hundreds of real or alleged collaborators are to be put to the sword. But this does not matter to Anton Lopatin. The bridge over the Daugava River was blown up - obviously. A new one must be built to send his troops in pursuit of an opponent who is evading him. Problem: the 269. ID of Hans Wagner has moved across the street and now firmly holds the left bank, at Jēkabpils. What a waste of time! So Lopatin sends his sappers to challenge the fascist lines - covered, all the same, by a thunder of artillery - but also, at the same time, he projects his motorized elements toward Līvāni, in search of an upstream crossing point.
These will probably soon follow the route of the II. AK - the latter is already between Preiļi and Dunava and is preparing to cross at Daugavpils before going up to assist his comrades.
Meanwhile, around Rositten is the calm before the storm. Since Sakstagals, the right pincer of the Soviet maneuver, 39th Army and 13th AC, continues south to reach Bekši and Tiskādi - but apart from a few rearguard elements, the X. AK and the bulk of the XXVIII. AK remain unaccounted for.
As for the left pincer, it continues to face the 251. ID in the vicinity of Kaunata.
Maximilian Felzmann, who knows he is very exposed - he was already at the end of the salient formed by the Panther line - tries to gain time and to join his corps by crossing 55 kilometers of difficult terrain... Fortunately, in front of him, Vladimir Smiridov and his men (55th Army) also suffer and finally reach the shores of Lake Rezna only at the end of the day. The 251. ID suffered losses, it is true - but it escapes nevertheless.
Meanwhile, the 14th Armored Corps, which could have closed the southern road to the Fascists, is content to push back - with a slow pace - the 8. ID (von Kirchensittenbach) from Konecpole to Vertulova. This division forms the end of the left wing of the 2. Armee (thus of the HG Mitte) - and it also prevents the trap from closing, relying on the thousand lakes and the dense forests that make the region so charming.
In the evening, for Georg von Küchler, there is nothing alarming, even in his rear, where only a few attacks and attempts by Partisans against the depots or the retreating columns were reported** - the latter are obviously being tracked, but von Küchler cannot do anything about that. However, the question of an early withdrawal of the 18. Armee - which was still holding the Dagauva and Riga - inevitably arises, in view of the inevitable return of good weather as well as the Soviet pressure from Belarus. Of course, insisting too much on this subject to the OKH could pass for defeatism... However, the head of HG Nord decides to raise the issue with Rastenburg tomorrow morning.

Operation Bagration
The Rhine Gold
Bagration North (1st Belorussian Front) - Indeed, at the same time, things are getting worse for the 2. Armee, on the right of HG Nord... And the rain as well as the ground obviously cannot be enough to prevent the Reds from advancing !
In Braslaw, the 87. ID (XXIII. AK) must finally withdraw under Soviet pressure - the imminent arrival of the 161. ID (VIII. AK) allows however Walter Hartmann to consider the constitution of a new defense line - permanent this time - in the woods south of Silene, between lakes Drūkšiai and Sila. This shows that the current evacuation of Latvia is far from useless. Withdrawing step by step to the northwest, the Landsers leave Kurassov and his men to take over Braslaw and the Opsa plain - on the northern borders of the Byelorussian SSR, of little strategic value.
All the more reason to cross them: the 10th Armored Corps is now moving west of Vidzy, near Ignalina. For the time being, the tankers have not encountered any resistance since their crossing of the old border - except for a torrential rain and a foul mud that sticks to the pebbles. They cause them the worst difficulties, which they overcome with an enthusiasm which forces the admiration.
However, the event of the day is the expected clash between Pavel Rybalko's 3rd Tank Army and the Neptun-North Force, commanded by Eberhard Rodt. The latter, as a good maneuverer who has already seen what an armored counteroffensive in difficult terrain can do, does not plan to go and lock himself up in the city or in the forest. He therefore leaves it to Hans Junck's 253. ID to occupy Vilnius, with Louis Tronnier's 123. ID on his left at Nemenčinė; they will be supported as much as necessary by the 226. StuG Abt (Major Herbert Keysler).
For the 22. Panzer reserves for itself the lion's share, the most glorious sector - the most obvious assault route too: the gap between Neris and Merkys, around Pagiriai. Of course, this area is not necessarily ideal for an attack, because constrained by the relief of a talweg crossed by a small river (the Voké) and moreover delimited by woods. But Rodt is certain: it is here that the Red will pass. As he would do it himself in his place!
And he is not wrong... Under a heavy rainy sky, the 2nd Mechanized Corps of Vasily Volsky comes to slam on his lines head first, with his T-34/85, followed by brand new IS-107 and SU-122 and ISU-122 self-propelled guns. Facing him, the Reich aligns only Panzer IV and StuG IIIs - one Abteilung of each. It is not much. But it is enough, in the absence of any enemy air support, to slow down the red wave at Vaidotai (two kilometers from its stop line) and to inflict losses to it, before forcing the Soviet vanguards to a stop and then to a limited withdrawal.
Faced with this setback, the ebullient Rybalko is furious - and he orders Volsky to return to the charge tomorrow morning, with the support of the 2nd Guards Armored Corps, while the 18th Armored Corps will try to bypass Vilnius from the east.
On the other side, Eberhard Rodt is (still) more or less quiet. By rotating his infantry and tanks from one sector to another, he should succeed in wearing down the Red while waiting for the reinforcement of his colleagues from the south. However, he is unaware of the presence of the 63rd Army and the Oslikovski Group, which are already in the vicinity of Zalavas, that is to say 50 kilometers on his left!
.........
Minsk sector and Bagration center - In this area, the Red Army continues to pick up the pieces. While the 1st Guards Army completes the liberation of Minsk - or rather its ruins - and begins to advance towards Vitovka (it will reach the Pitch only at night), the forces that destroyed the 4. Armee begin a vast pivot towards the west intended to form a new front before advancing towards the Fascists.
Thus, Kuzma Galitsky's 2nd Shock Army crosses the Svilasch at Pryvoĺny, flanked on its left by the 3rd Guards Army (Ivan Zakharkin) at Dukora. The latter leaves it to the 2nd Belorussian Front - in this case Max Reuters' 15th Army and Alexei Panfilov - to move further east to Turyn (opposite Marina Horka), before continuing on the tracks of the 1. PanzerArmee. Behind them, the Pliev Group, the 1st Corps and the 29th Army have finished crossing the Berezina and will soon descend towards Slutsk, in order to clean up the rear of the 1st Tank Army, while the pursuit continues...
.........
Bagration South (2nd Belorussian Front and 1. PanzerArmee) - Meanwhile, Josef Harpe and his men are no doubt thanking the sky for keeping them so well protected from the enemy aircraft. Their army is now in Dziarjynsk - so they have crossed the Reka Usa, a small, insignificant river that will probably not delay the 4th Guards Army for long.
Still missing, however, the LVII. PzK, which would now be in the woods around Čyrvonaja Slabada.
Ivan Muzychenko is decidedly enraged at not being able to force these Fascists into battle, and has to be content, with his colleague Mikhail Purkayev of the 3rd Shock Army, with harassment actions from Zabaloccie and Stańkava. It is true that the cohesion of the rearguard has been worn down - one can even say that the 23. ID has disappeared in the clashes of the last few days, while the 20. Panzer has only half its strength left. But we have to do better than that, Comrades! Especially with the LXXII. AK which takes position on the banks of the Niemen, and while South Neptun begins to rise at the sound of the cannon towards Baranavitchy, with the 3. SS-Panzer Totenkopf in the lead (obviously in priority...).
Consolation prize: the II. Luftwaffen-Feld-Korps finishes to disintegrate under the blows of the 54th Army while trying to cross the Sluč north of Salihorsk. The crawlers converted into infantrymen do not make the weight... Alfred Schlemm and his staff are taken prisoner, Robert Pistorius (3. LFD) is killed, his colleagues Carl Becker (2. LFD) and Rüdiger von Heyking (6. LFD) are captured. This lamentable affair confirms to the Wehrmacht that the place for Luftwaffe men is definitely not at the front - or at least not in large independent units. And yet...
Meanwhile, Katukov is in Milavidy. But if he continues to push forward in this way - after a very successful phase of infiltration in difficult terrain - the Soviet risks to throw himself headlong on the force without having anticipated it, the bad weather depriving him of effective aerial reconnaissance.

The risks of the job
Belaaziorsk region (occupied Belarus) - Among all the third rate units constituted by the Wehrmacht with the help of prisoners and other nationals of the conquered countries more or less motivated in order to ensure the surveillance of the rear of the front, the SS-Osttürkisher-Freiwilligen Kavalerie-Brigade holds a very special place.
Indeed, this formation - composed essentially of Turkmen and Turkomans prisoners of war - strangely holds a certain place in the semblance of Nazi foreign policy.
Some would like to see it as a symbol of a future Muslim uprising in the USSR, the obvious premise for the collapse of a rotten internationalist house. Others would rather see it as an antechamber to select from the returned POWs the most reliable elements - which will be worthy of being trained to be trained to go and spread disorder on the Bolshevik rear. Finally, some consider it above all - much more modestly - as a kind of sieve, intended to separate from the chaff the less spoiled grains before sending them to reinforce other less "specific" units, all over the conquests of the Reich.
A formation of opportunity that clearly does not have the means to fulfill these contradictory ambitions, the Osttürkisher was nonetheless the object of all the regime's... "racialist" attentions, to trumpet its existence with a great deal of propaganda and (also) to justify among Germans the integration under the Aryan uniform of what remains (despite everything) of the Asians of the Caucasus... In reality, however, the Osttürkisher remains a mediocre unit, poorly equipped, undermanned, and whose notoriously unreliable personnel do not even benefit from their dotation in uniform! Nevertheless, it has been deployed in the region to secure the South Neptun Passage - the swamps around here are a veritable nest of terrorists and someone has to take care of it.
Of course, its leader, SS-Obersturmbannführer Andreas Meyer-Mader, knows it perfectly well. However, he was used to exotic armies since his stay in China, and he had long been lobbying Himmler himself for a real policy of integrating many Muslims into the SS for a long time. Which will bear fruit one day or another with just a little more effort and good will - don't we see the superb results of the Handschar in Yugoslavia? Certainly, for the moment, the performance of its own Kavalerie-Brigade leaves something to be desired - but he is perfectly aware of this...
What he is less aware of, on the other hand, is that, in the forest through which his small convoy passes, a machine gun is about to take the vehicles in enfilade. How is it that no one saw it, anyway? Meyer-Mader has no time to wonder.
Gusts of gunfire rainedown, his car is riddled with bullet holes and comes to a halt. The SS-Obersturmbannführer is dead.

* The ground pressure of the Tiger is 1.005 kg/cm² and that of the Leopard is about 0.9 kg/cm², compared to 1.2 kg/cm² for the Sherman M4. However, it should be remembered that the T-34 and the Panzer IV are in the range of around 0.8 kg/cm².
** In the absence of a real support to the USSR in the population, the majority of the irregular forces present in Latvia are in reality paratroopers and infiltrated NKVD agents! Let us mention however the existence of the Latvian National Council, of democratic inspiration (!) and which has long been trying to collaborate with the Allies to re-establish an independent nation. With 3,000 trained men in August 1943, it was cleanly decapitated by the Germans during a wave of arrests triggered at Christmas. It can no longer claim to have any influence on the course of events, even marginally.

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

Snowstorm
Montenegro - The redeployment of LXVIII. Armee-Korps of Hellmuth Felmy continues under the weather conditions that we know. Noting that the Allies had come into contact with the Croatian lines in Montenegro, and taking note of the disappointing end of the operations between Plužine and Pljevlja, Rudolf Lüters asks Lothar Rendulic for permission to send the 117. Jäger to ensure the security of communications to Sarajevo, between Foča and Višegrad - while Pavle Đurišić's militiamen would have to guarantee order in the area of Nikšić (i.e., on the rear of the Croatian divisions).
The regiment dispatched by the Prinz Eugen returns to Mostar, along with the Sandjak regiment. As non-Aryan elements enrolled in the Schutzstaffel, they come under the authority of the SS-GAK of Artur Phleps and certainly not of this poor 20. Armee of the Heer!
Operation Schneesturm thus failed completely - even if it cost the German forces about 1,200 men (and women) to the AVNOJ forces, the rear of the XV-GAK remains insecure and prone to ambushes. Of course, the price paid by the Partisans to achieve such a result may seem high - especially compared to the 113 Axis deaths. But, in the end, what does it matter for Tito's troops? They currently have many more recruits than they can adequately arm and feed. And according to the well-known Darwinian mechanism, only the strongest, the most capable... the most fanatical survive...
.........
"Schneesturm" marked a break in the traditional cycle of Partisan repression - even if the protagonists of the affair did not realize it. On the side of Tito's forces, once the human toll was high - but not higher than during the previous anti-Partisan offensives - it had to be admitted that the AVNOJ forces had for the first time in their history held their ground in regular confrontations with the Heer and demonstrated a form of tactical mastery, notably by maintaining their cohesion and discipline in difficult circumstances. The dramatic mistakes of the Užice Republic or the Partisans of Montenegro (then commanded by Milovan Đilas), who had had legions of young Resistance fighters decimated by German heavy weapons, seemed well and truly corrected. Obviously, Josip Broz and the other members of the Central Committee interpreted this as an encouraging sign for their March 1944 project - and we shall see that their judgment was not wrong.
On the other hand, on the Axis side, the split between the Heer and the SS was growing at the expense of the common effort and regardless of the difficulties caused by the terrain or the disastrous weather conditions. Inspired by this pitiful episode and the report of his subordinate Gerhard Schmidhuber - who forgot to mention the lack of enthusiasm of the regiment of Prinz Eugen (if not the Sandjak regiment of Hafiz Pačariz) - the SS-Obergruppenführer Artur Phleps took advantage of this to obtain complete freedom in the use of his forces in southern Croatia and in Bosnia. We will not recall here the terrible consequences of this state of affairs - the methods of the Ustasha and the SS are unfortunately well known. A sign of the times and a sad fate for machines that would have deserved a better fate, Phleps, who wanted armored support for the task he was assigned, obtained the reinforcement of a modest battalion of French capture tanks - mostly Somua S-35s or Hotchkiss H-39. Alongside the various Semovente of the 105. SS-Sturmgeschutz Abteilung, these vehicles were going to know an inglorious end of career in front of an unexpected adversary.
(Robert Stan Pratsky, La Libération de la Grèce et des Balkans, Flammarion, 2005)

Improvisations and consequences
Kaposvár (Hungary) - In his distant headquarters, Maximilian von Weichs is still disgusted with his discussion of three days ago. So when he is told once again about Oberst von Freyend on the phone, he hesitates for a moment before taking the call... What he ends up doing, of course. At the other end of the phone, after the usual greetings, the representative of the OKW wants to be precise - if not conciliatory. "Herr General, I would like to inform you that the Führer will meet today with the... Poglavnik - I think they call him in Zagreb? - to discuss the situation in your sector of the front. Your difficulties, about which we had the opportunity to discuss recently, will be resolved at the highest level."
Resolved? Von Weichs is more than skeptical. He has already been promised so much without anything being done and suddenly Hitler himself is concerned about his small armies? However, he replies courteously: "I thank you for this information, which may indeed give hope for good news. You will understand that I would appreciate being informed as soon as possible of any decisions concerning my forces.
This time it is von Freyend who raises his eyebrows - it is clear that this clumsy Junker is not used to dealing with the Supreme Leader!

Controlling the chaos
Albania - After a new consultation with the French and British diplomatic services, who also noted the absence of a real alternative on this subject, the command of the 18th AAG orders the 2nd Army to cooperate with the authorities in the recently liberated districts of Shkodër and Puka. The news is welcomed by Spiro Theodori Moisiu, who stated that he was "immediately instructing his forces to collaborate fully with the allied troops, awaiting the most likely confirmation of this directive by the Party leadership." A useful clarification - it confirms that the collaboration in question was not self-evident.
The allied decision, which endorses a dangerous logic of renegotiation of the Tirana agreements, was recommended by Sylvestre Audet and Antoine Béthouart, the two French generals - they will be responsible for this in the eyes of history (insofar as the fate of Albania fascinates Clio), as well as to the groups likely to complain about it. At the Balli Kombetär, which considers itself wronged by the transaction, and the Legaliteli, which considers itself once again neglected in the allied arbitrations.
For their part, the British and Greeks are keeping their heads down: there is nothing to be gained by exposing themselves on such a subject, apart from blows. Moreover, in London, some people now seem to think that in case of difficulties, the United Kingdom will be in a position to offer its "disinterested" mediation in the matter and thus extend its influence in this region of the globe in the face of a weakened France... Once again, the post-war balances (or balances of power) are already being prepared today.
However, it does not matter to Colonel Roux's Tunisian spahis. Noting that the attitude of their hosts has gone from a latent hostility to a haughty indifference, they continue their journey under an increasingly dense snow and arrive at Kukës - the scene of the fratricidal Albanian clashes of last November. The 4th RST and the 107th RALCA are now preparing to move towards Kosovo, in order to position themselves in the Morinë valley, where they will have to stay... for a while. The colonial soldiers are not used to the cold - about 15 percent of the force suffer from varying degrees of frostbite. In addition, they will have to get used to the heavy presence of the Partisans haunting the ruins of a landscape of an elegant whiteness... but gloomy.

A hard job...
Belgrade - While some of their colleagues are fishing on the Danube, the experts of the Royal Engineers continue their work to provide the Yugoslav capital with a suitable station. It is now more or less a done deal: during an inspection, Sir Rhodes officially declares that the "Central Railway Station" (as it is already called) is usable - if not fully operational. A fine achievement: the installation with eight tracks and five unloading platforms - more than half of which are already usable. Of course, it still has to be connected to the network - "But that will happen soon! And this project was completed in record time," sighs the Canadian with satisfaction.
.........
"The Savski Venac station survived the war. However, it was to remain almost abandoned from the end of the 1940s to the beginning of the 1970s. During this period, the Yugoslav government devoted its efforts to revitalize the area of central Belgrade by restoring the historical railway station built in the 19th century, which was considered more prestigious and closer to the Sava River - and thus able to serve Novi Beograd. However, the Allied military facility was given a second life when the authorities decided that the terminal could be used for their plans to expand the capital to the south, while the main station was showing serious signs of saturation.
A monumental and expensive project was then put on track, in order to, according to its promoters to "provide for all of Belgrade's needs until the end of the 21st century!" The engineers planned their facilities for a traffic of 10,000 people per hour - a facility to be commissioned within eighteen months, with a beautiful wing-shaped roof, as a symbol of freedom and peace. As you can imagine, this ambition - to which the worries about the "young guard" of the government were surely not foreign - raised more than one doubt among serious minds. It took seven and a half hours of lively debate before the council charged with ratifying the start of the work could finally decide!
Officially launched on January 1st, 1978, the construction site was plagued by technical setbacks and financial delays, the failures of the Titian self-management and the rise in the price of oil combined to slow down and finally stop the work. After a decade of hesitation, the construction resumed in 1990, on the basis of a simplified project...but still unfinished in 1995, for lack of funds and in the context of the disintegration of Yugoslavia! By a curious irony of the history, it was finally a Hungarian company, Trigranit, which completed this thirty year old construction site - and still, thanks to a financing from Kuwait! And to explain the difficulties encountered, the average Serb did not deprive himself, at the time and with some bad spirit - to accuse the British...
Officially inaugurated by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić in 2008, the Savski Venac train station is certainly abundantly equipped with the latest technology.
Savski Venac station is certainly used a lot... but it is still not, unfortunately, the prestigious "hub" promised by its first promoters - the fault of its partially obsolete design (no unloading docks for cars were ever planned!), its position now separated from the city center by a freeway, its service by a single tramway line and, above all, its lack of freight handling facilities.
Today, there is a question of founding a new railway station in Zemun (behind Novi Beograd) to finally solve the persistent difficulties of the capital. Since Kuwait does not seem to be interested, Belgrade's gaze turned to China - some find a curious resemblance between the project and the West Kowloon Terminus in Hong Kong!
In the face of this chaos, and as a symbol of serenity, the historic station remained in service for a long time, having been restored almost identically between 1945 and 1953, with a real concern for fidelity to the original - in fact, only the two towers on Karađorđeva Street are missing, disappeared forever in the flames of war. Definitely closed in 2013 - a decision that was the subject of strong criticism for the reasons mentioned above, to the point that the President of the Serbian Academy of Architecture, Bojan Kovačević, called it a "rape of Belgrade" - today it is a museum dedicated mainly to the government of Marshal Tito, and in which his famous 'Blue Train' is preserved" (Didier
Lecomte, L'Europe de l'Est vue du Rail, Editions du Rail, 2017)

And a stubbornness of an ant!
GHQ of the 18th AAG (Athens) - While the snow continues to paralyze the movements on the front, Generals Montgomery, Spiliotopoulos and Béthouart take stock of the reinforcements sent by the Mediterranean Command to Athens and Salonika. The British general seems satisfied: "According to the figures you have given us, we should largely be able to fill our entire force for Plunder and his two little comrades. So we will be able to strike where and how we need to! The Huns won't understand what is going to happen to them!"
Facing him, the Greek general does not often have the opportunity to see his leader in a good mood - he takes advantage of this to advance his pawns. "Indeed, general. And I even notice that our ports have more than enough room to maneuver to allow the landing of additional equipment. Couldn't we consider forming one or two new Greek divisions?"
The answer is immediate: "I am afraid, dear friend, that we must first be assured of the collaboration of the two Greek corps at "Veritable"!"
Sensing that the conversation can degenerate into a new bitter-sweet exchange, Antoine Béthouart takes it upon himself to change the subject - better to find a point on which everyone agrees on. Albania and Kosovo, at random! "Before creating additional units, I think it is better to make the best use of those we have. Our logistics do not yet allow for a plethora of personnel... From this point of view, General, would it not be appropriate to coordinate the next advance of the Greek 2nd Corps with that of the ANZAC, in order to completely close our flank and the Ivanjica region to a possible enemy infiltration?
This is a common sense proposal, which meets with general approval. The sooner the allied forces are able to extract themselves from the Albanian-Kosovar gangue in which they find themselves, the sooner they can strike the enemy! "The next campaign is what must occupy every piece of our mind" concludes the Frenchman in petto. It is up to him to make sure it does.

Serbian crisis of nerves
White Palace (royal domain of Dedinje, Belgrade) - It is now three days that the sovereign of Yugoslavia has been standing quietly in his house, giving a dark image of paralysis and hesitation. Yet Peter II has to make a decision - how could he claim to lead the war when one cannot lead his own government?
Finally, after going through all the phases of grief over his dangerous project, the Karađorđević behaves like a statesman - heredity, no doubt: he steps back and gathers.
In a long, somewhat wordy statement broadcast by the country's radio and embryonic print media, he reaffirms "[his] attachment and [his] love for his Croatian subjects, who have the same rights and therefore the same duties as the other citizens of the Kingdom. Even if some of them may have been tempted for a moment by Pavelic's disastrous adventure there are many who have now turned their backs on him and are fighting against him." As for the Croats who have returned from exile, there are indeed some who lacked lucidity regarding the actions of some of their compatriots. Nevertheless, "the time of the masquerade is over - everyone now knows on which side justice and law stand."
In conclusion, the King of Yugoslavia states that "in view of the constraints of wartime he is forced to refuse the resignations of Messrs. Krnjević and Šutej, and this until the balances necessary for the final victory have been defined. A ministerial reshuffle will follow at that time."
For now, the two Croatian ministers are the best and most reliable profiles available, unless the ethnic balance of the government is called into question. Letting them go would have sent a very bad signal, proving the rightness of their move. As devoted servants, they will wait a little... "The time it takes to find honest Croats!" some people in the palace complain. In truth, Peter II probably thinks, the time it would take to talk with Winston Churchill, as is planned for February 12th.
And - perhaps - the time to find an honest Prime Minister. For the affair of St. Saviour's Day (as posterity will call it) is bad for everyone. For Peter, of course, who suffers the damage of his aborted maneuver without getting the expected benefits. For the Croats as well, who are once again singled out and now see themselves considered by the most radical members of the Army as dubious elements. Finally, for Jovanović, who has just bought himself some time and whose denials have not convinced everyone - starting with Juraj Krnjević, who now sees him as an ally. The Yugoslav government did not fall apart, it simply split into antagonistic blocs.

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

Cobelligerent Regio Esercito
Rome - Under a dark sky, the ceremony of handing over the flags to the new XXI Infantry Corps of the cobelligerent Italian Army takes place. This corps includes four infantry divisions that had fought for several months on the side of the Allies the previous year and were reconstituted and re-equipped in the American style. They are the 20th ID Friuli, the 44th ID Cremona, the 47th ID Bari, but also a new division of type "Giustizia e Libertà", the 13th DI Goito (this division was named after a Piedmontese victory in 1848 against the Austrians, in which the future Victor Emmanuel II was wounded; its number, that of a division annihilated during the Bloody Christmas, is a challenge to fate).
The Patrioti battalions, former Black Shirt units duly purified politically (the Goito has none), have become the reconnaissance echelons of the divisions and are equipped with M3 Scout Cars. The anti-tank battalions, although equipped in theory with 37 mm, have (fortunately for them) a company on AU-75 half-track and another equipped with Italian 90 mm guns, which have proven to be very effective.
The corps is commanded by General Giovanni Magli, who had proved his pro-allied feelings by allowing Corsica to pass almost without bloodshed to the Allied side in December 1942 (which earned him the unfailing recognition of the French general staff). The XXIst AC does not have an assignment on the line for the moment and has to remain in the army reserve. Moreover, its is unlikely to be used en bloc - the "cobelligerent" troops continue to raise a certain amount of distrust in the Allies.

Colored airmen
Morocco - The first black pilots of what is to become the 332nd Fighter Group land, directly from the United States. They will soon be flying brand new Mustang Cs, whose all-red tails would soon become famous among the crews of the bombers of the 15th Air Force.

 

[Wings]

January 30th, 1944

Battle in the high mountains
Alps - Little by little, the fighting calms down. The day is spent in patrols clashes and exchanges of artillery fire.

 

[Wings]

January 31st, 1944

Crossbow
Mimoyecques - The solid chalky hill near Calais is the target of one hundred and fifty four-engine aircraft of the 9th AF with a solid escort of P-51s, newcomers in this role. The attack, perpetrated at around 10:00, causes damage to the external infrastructure: railroads, roads, barracks and vehicles, but also on a part of the complex.
The "fortress" of Mimoyecques is made up of two sites 1,000 meters apart on the slopes of the hillside. This time, it is the western side that takes the majority of the bombs, which are not very effective seeing the stability of the ground. But the Germans decide to abandon this site, less advanced and more visible, to concentrate their efforts on the eastern one, better camouflaged.

 

[Wings]

January 31st, 1944

Pagan pilgrimage
Wolfsschanze (Rastenburg) - Now that the leaders have spoken, it is up to the staff to put their decisions to music. The meetings between Croatian and German officials increase in a policy of transferring responsibilities.
The Germans are mainly interested in two things, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mile Budak soon realizes: the possibility of moving most of the Slovenes still present in their country to the Bosnian lands allocated to the NDH and...the modalities of cooperation for the deportation of Resistance fighters and Jews to Germany, so that they could be used as forced labor. "If you don't want to use them, leave it to us!" Ernst Kaltenbrunner is said to have smiled, without noting the fact that the alliance between an atheistic or more or less polytheistic SS and fanatical Catholics like the Ustasha is a bad joke.
The other Croatian negotiators are less fortunate: ignoring the moods of the Horthy regime, the ministers of trade and commerce, Josip Cabas and Lovro Šušić face the Nazi representatives to renegotiate in vain the unequal trade treaties signed in 1941 - obviously to the detriment of the Hungarians, who only have to pay for Zagreb! Their interlocutors, with subtle malice, decide to re-evaluate their demands "at a later date, taking into account the rapid evolution of the situation in Budapest". Of course, the Ustasha will not know more.
Finally, for the Croats, the biggest success of this last day of talks is obtained on the military level: Pavelic, as the NDH Minister of War, obtained the promise from the SS and the Heer to promise "frank and loyal" collaboration with his forces, after their official integration into the Axis system. To this end, they are to be grouped together in a brand new Kroatia-Armee entrusted to Slavko Štancer and including the three divisions formed by the Heer, which would of course be the spearhead. For the other Croatian troops, Pavelic obtains the promise of the delivery of "quality" (but decommissioned) small arms - not better, as the capacities of the Reich's finances and armories are not infinite.
Speaking of decommissioned weapons, Vladimir Kren will leave with the assurance of a delivery in mid-March of his 22 Bf 109 E, but also of 30 Dornier 17 E, 12 Fieseler 167 torpedo bombers (!) formerly destined for the Graf Zeppelin, as well as three dozen Bücker 131 Jungmans and other Saiman 200 training aircraft. He is even given the hope of getting Italian aircraft captured last year: 25 Fiat G.50, 6 Fiat CR.42, 12 Cant Z.1007 and 8 Fiat BR.20! The fact that most of these aircraft are now more at home in a museum than in front of the Allies is obviously a detail - the important thing is to fly the colors of the Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske!

Diplomatic (but Soviet) arbitration
High Commission for Foreign Affairs (Moscow) - Comrade Minister Molotov emits - in answer to a note however prudent of the Sanatescu government on this subject - a categorical rejection of the possible "next return" of Southern Dobrogea [Dobrudja], annexed by Bulgaria in September 1940. After all, the Bulgarians had never really declared war on the USSR - so there is no need to sadden them by taking away some gifts, even from the Reich and very badly acquired. Besides, this region was Romanian only since 1913! And as the Romanians are very recent allies, they should not imagine that they can do anything*.

* In fact, even today, South Dobrogea is under the government of Sofia. And it is now populated by a large majority of Bulgarians, while Romanians represent barely 5% of the population.

 

[Wings]

January 31st, 1944

Two less militias
Paris - Since the episodes in Vercors, Andorra and Sologne last November and December, the Territorial Security Force only exists in theory. When they have not gone underground, its members have simply deserted, unless they have been incorporated into one of the various NEF police forces, the most convinced of the merits of the anti-Bolshevik struggle having (for their misfortune...) joined the LVF. The FST is thus today, by presidential decree, officially dissolved. Nothing surprising.
More surprising in appearance are the dissolution of the Garde Française and the incorporation of its members into the Tricolor Legion (of course, those who wish to do so can ask to be transferred to the PSE or the Charlemagne). The event was in fact foreseeable: on the one hand, the Guard was the result of Pierre Laval's will; on the other hand, its commander, the timid Misserey, had chosen not to take the initiative during the Vercors affair (he has since been sent to Colditz). Doriot, who came to power by playing on his war of the police with Darnand and by using (and abusing) the division of the different currents of the NEF, knows only too well how precarious the stability of his state is. And the situation in the Rhone Valley, with the failure of Nordwind, has not reassured the "Grand Jacques"...
As no one knows how the situation will evolve, the President of the Council of the New French State decides to put all his eggs in one basket, a basket guarded by loyal. General Bridoux's Tricolor Legion thus becomes the one and only force that could be considered the Army of the NEF.

 

[demolitiondan]

A silence of dismay and embarrassment settlesover the line, while von Weichs thinks to himself that this is definitely one provocation too many. And he says it with acidity: "Perfect! And how many battalions do you intend to send me for this tiny task? One, two? Come on, let's make it three, for my birthday!
Faced with this unexpected revolt, von Freyend chooses to remain calm. But von Weichs continues: "I know very well, Herr Oberst, that I disappointed you when I went to the Ostfront. There is no need to remind me of this constantly by arranging the conditions of my future defeats between two meetings. I may not be very bright, but at this point, frankly... "
- Come on, Herr General, no inappropriate jokes. We have full confidence in your competence to solve this complex situation which...
- Ah, you reassure me - for a brief moment I was afraid. I thought I was the target of some kind of initiation to welcome me into the big club of failures. But tell me, Herr Oberst, out of curiosity - what is the next assignment you intend to give me? To occupy Hungary with a regiment perhaps? Or a regiment and a half?" Von Freyend does not like this humor and lets it be known in an icy tone: "Indeed, in view of your repeated complaints and your successive failures, one can sometimes wonder about your future, Herr General.

This whole section may have been some kind of angry roleplay from myself to the (nice) guy in charge of dispatch ...

 

[Wings]

January 31st, 1944

Burma Campaign
Air front
Burma - No exceptional activity, but a tragedy bloodies Sqn 47. A Mosquito loses a large part of its wing a few seconds after takeoff and crashes into a nearby hill. Feathers are soon discovered in the wing debris: it seems that a bird was responsible for the accident. Mosquitos are then banned from flying - other losses have already been observed in similar conditions. As, in Europe, these aircraft are not as vulnerable to bird strikes, it seems that the glue used by De Havilland does not stand up well to the Burmese climate.

Operation Stoker - It has been almost a month since the Banda Aceh garrison has been targeted by Liberators based in the Andaman. When the four-engine aircraft return, the garrison do what they had learned to do in such cases: they hide, hoping to get out alive. The 24th Sentai is once again conspicuous by its absence: it had to transfer aircraft to the mainland to make up for the losses suffered in Burma.

Operation Fauconneau / Falconet
Elphinstone Island, facing the south-east coast of Burma
Monthly report by Colonel d'Astier de la Vigerie.
Installations - We moved away from Mergui and started again the work of setting up decoy camps, half on the southern islands, half on the mainland (where they are camouflaged as hunting camps). We also gradually dug up our stocks and repositioned them in various caches scattered as far as the Thai border.
Japanese activities - Since we gained a foothold on the mainland south of Mergui, we have been watching the Japanese airfields around the town. Our new position also allows us to make an inventory of the convoys going up and down the estuary route. It should be noted that the transport of supplies is almost exclusively carried out by Indians of the INA, sometimes even by women. Until the last few days, air activity has been reduced on the airfields. This month, the Japanese have apparently lost more planes than they received in support, unless some of them have moved, but the same formations are still identified in town: 11th and 77th fighter squadrons, plus another of light bombers.
Contacts - We pushed our reconnaissance to the north in order to have observatories allowing us to control Mergui from afar and to monitor the south up to fifty kilometers. We kept some relations with our traffickers-patriots in the north of the city, and we have established new contacts in the south through the Burmese, with poppy and rice farmers. These peasants have so far been ransomed regularly by the Japanese or sometimes by members of the pro-Japanese militia. The Indians of the INA have little contact with the population; the Burmese look at them with a mixture of pity (for what will happen to them when the war is over) and contempt (because, in addition to not being Burmese, they are under the thumb of the Japanese).
.........
Diary of Jean-Marie de Beaucorps.
"Apart from a permanent position in the islands, I have just spent a month on various missions which made me travel easily 150 km, all without being noticed, whether by a Burmese farmer or by a Japanese. I am now as comfortable in the jungle as the local guys. We went down far to the south to locate the routes taken by the trucks (or sometimes convoys of mules or other pack animals) as well as the best positions for ambushes, retreat routes, guard posts and depots.
Meanwhile, the mechanic buddies reassembled the machine that the Surcouf had brought to us in parts two months ago: it is an American earthmoving machine called "bulldozer". It must help us to clear a landing strip, since it seems that the military staff is planning to refuel us by air soon.

Indonesia
Operation Meridian
Indian Ocean - Like almost two months ago, Task Force 117, tasked with re-supplying the fighter wings, sailed out of Darwin but stayed close to the coast in order to benefit from an air umbrella, before heading to Euston Station.
- TF-117 (RN unless specified): CVL Unicorn, CLAA Spartan, CL Newcastle and MN Montcalm, DD Inconstant, Jervis, Lightning, Onslaught.
Tankers: HMS/RFA Brown Ranger, Dingerdale, Arndale, San Adolfo, Aase Maersk.
Provisions: HMS/RFA Denbighshire.
Hospital: HMS/RFA Oxfordshire.
Water production: HMS/RFA Stagpool.
Spare parts, crews, workshops: MN Ile de Noirmoutier (air), HMS/RFA Tyne (naval).
Heavy workshop ship : HMS Ausonia.
Transports : MN Ile de Bréhat, Dives, HMS/RFA Darvel, Kheti, Princess Maria Pia, Thyra S.
Combat store (ammunition) : MN Ile d'Ouessant, HMS/RFA Kistna, Gundrun Maersk.
Tugs : 4.
Supply is carried out without any other problem than the one, already reported during Banquet, of excessive consumption by some ships. This time the losses are higher, with a cumulative total of almost 25% of the aircraft (destroyed or damaged) and 15% of the crews (killed or wounded). These losses, as important as they may seem, will however be compensated without any problem thanks to the industrial power of the United States and to the allied training networks.
The Allied carriers will benefit from six more weeks to complete the training of their new crews, once in Fremantle. However, the French Navy is wondering whether it would be necessary, as in '41-'42, to offer British squadrons to fill the gaps that would be created if the war was prolonged.

French Navy Transport/Supply ship MN Dives, Operation Meridian, January 1944

Indochina Campaign
The Tet offensive
Tourane (Annam) - The first light of the day is greeted by the unleashing of Japanese mortars that hit the line held by the Belgo-Congolese around the rue du General Gallieni and rue du Musée. Under the cover of this bombardment and the FMs that point from the windows of the buildings held by the Force Publique, the Japanese leave their positions, launching all their forces in a virulent counter-attack.
.........
Private Maka was awakened by the first explosions. The stone house where he slept received a direct hit. The roof partly collapsed, but the Congolese received only a little dust. By the time he put on his shoes - he was sleeping fully clothed - Maka grabbed his rifle and ran, obeying the orders of the NCOs. Outside, it is chaos... Mortar shells rain down. A thick dust drowns the streets, mixed with the mist rising from the Tourane River. The shooting of individual weapons is interspersed with bursts of larger collective weapons.
Maka and his companions run through the streets - the gri-gris made by their unit must be good, because no shells fall on their path. But when they the street is chopped up by bullets, and the first men are rolling in blood, joining the corpses on the pavement. The others scatter to resist the Japanese rush. The area is a labyrinth of collapsed houses, completely or partially collapsed. The ground was covered with rubble from which emerged beams and half-buried furniture.
Maka turns his head when he hears a burst of fire, his neighbor collapses backwards, his chest pierced with bloody holes. In the street, there are Japanese people, an FM... He throws himself into a house through the wall with a huge hole in it. The bullets track him without success and mewl with disappointment. The Congolese man crawls through the debris and peeks out the window, towards the parallel street. Four or five Japanese were advancing with their backs to him.
He shoulders his Garand rifle and fires twice. Three other enemies he had not seen turned towards him. He throws himself back as shots rang out. He runs again, gets out, crosses an FM-beaten alley, taking the servants by surprise, and manages to sneak into another alley.
He finds himself in a church. The nave has collapsed and the pews are covered with rubble. Around him, other Congolese appeared and crossed the building. His heart beating wildly, he leans against an intact section of masonry. All around him, Congolese and Japanese exchange fire. An FM traces a spray of impacts just above his head...
Maka rushes out of the church and follows his comrades along the wall across the street.
They are shooting at something... but Maka can't see what. When he reaches the corner, he discovers a trio of Japanese sheltered in the recess of a facade. He shoulders his M1 and empties his clip of eight bullets, leaving the three enemies on the ground.
As he inserts a new clip, pressed against the wall, shots ring out. Maka retreats into an alley, while his comrades return fire. Bad choice... The wall on the right has collapsed and the four nearest houses are nothing but a mountain of debris. Maka is immediately spotted, he escapes several shots, but not quite the shrapnel of a grenade, which opens his cheek and shoulder. Bloodied, he runs away in zig-zags and finally reached the quays of the Tourane River.
The soldiers of the Public Force, supported by BARs, held the area firmly in spite of a stubborn Japanese mortar. The Nipponese charge... they charge... and again... Three, four or maybe five times, they emerge from the smoke shouting, bayonet in the gun, and are chopped up by the FMs, rifles and Thompson machine guns of the Belgo-Congolese.
Finally, an officer gave orders and it was the turn of the Force Publique to advance. As for the rest of the battle - hit by a bullet from nowhere, he collapses. Comrades drag him to cover and call for a stretcher bearer.
.........
The clashes last all day, but the Japanese gains are limited to a single block. Another block is briefly retaken before the Public Force drives them out again. Both sides suffer heavy casualties, but especially among the Tenno soldiers.

Saigon (Cochinchina) - Fighting continues sporadically throughout the day. Some exchanges of fire - mortars, machine guns and small arms - last half an hour or more, but neither side launches an assault.

Chauc-Doc (Cochinchina) - A major confrontation pits the Vietminh against the Hoa-Hao on the Cambodian border. Ambushed, the Vietnamese repel the less well armed fanatics.

Mytho (Cochinchina) - At nightfall, after a rather quiet day, the 56th Division attempts a sortie. In accordance with the plan of General Yuzo Matsuyama and his staff, the artillery begins to fire its last shells to the north of the city, while the infantry crosses the Nicolai Canal by the four bridges that span it (including the railroad bridge).
.........
Sergeant Satô launches his Type 97 Chi-Ha tank on the bridge over the narrow canal. The Mytho neighborhoods beyond had been evacuated in the earlier fighting, but the railroad bridge was still held at both ends and the tank landed on the other side without difficulty.
From a house turned into a fort, an FM opened fire, but the Chi-Ha's 57 mm cannon effortlessly clears the obstacle. Around the tank, the soldiers spread out, passing behind it the bridge or disembarking from rafts.
The Vietminh did not let them do so. Mortars opened fire and the width of the street is streaked with tracers, clearly visible in the night. However, without letting themselves be impressed, the Japanese ran toward the enemy positions in spite of grenade and small arms fire.
.........
Despite the high casualties, the Japanese assault is a brilliant success. Most of the Vietminh-held buildings are taken at the first attempt, the others are only
briefly contested. Despite small local counterattacks, the 56th Division is able to march toward Saigon.

Dien-Bien-Phu (Tonkin) - After a week of intense fighting over Cao-Bang and Hanoi in particular, the squadrons return to a more usual level of engagement. The fatigue of the pilots and the wear and tear of the equipment are not the main reason for this pause.
In fact, fuel and ammunition stocks at Epervier Base are at their lowest level since the battle of Dien-Bien-Phu.
By a happy coincidence, the pipeline that supplies China with oil from Burma has just been completed. The Curtiss C-46s converted into flying tankers, used until now to transport fuel between Myitkyina and Kunming, will be able to multiply their rotations between Burma and Tonkin.

Chepone (Laos) - Although the "Falcon" base is also starting to run out of resources, there is no question of reducing the support needed by ground troops when victory seems within reach.

Pacific Campaign
Battle of the Marshalls
Kwajalein and Roi-Namur - Believing that there are still many aircraft on these atolls, the Americans launches a new raid which, this time, completely eliminates all the Japanese aircraft based there, with minimal losses. It is true that the planes sent after the battles of November were of an outdated model and their pilots were still novices...
But in the evening, at Pearl Harbor, Nimitz is worried. Two Catalinas from the Gilberts had disappeared during the day. One of them sent a distress signal: it had spotted "many enemy ships", but it was attacked by single-engine fighters... Truk's fleet appears to be out!
.........
Combined Fleet - On the other hand, at the same time, Yamamoto's mood is almost jovial. It seems that his ships have managed to escape the American reconnaissance. At the end of the day, he was able to oil most of his destroyers near his battleships*. The fighters, which are more or less well directed by radar, shot down two enemy seaplanes. Tomorrow morning, it is likely that the enemy squadron will be within raid range - to be sure, the reconnaissance planes leaving Eniwetok pay a high price.
The only downside is that the Junyo, which had never been very fast, is having a hard time keeping up with the rest of the fleet. It is forced to cruise at top speed almost all the time, which tires out its engines. But these machines suffer from a certain lack of reliability since the early commissioning of this converted liner at the end of 1941 - a defect that had already played tricks on her at the time.
.........
Task Force 50 - Shortly before midnight, Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance is informed that a B-24 equipped with air-to-surface radar, which took off from the Gilberts to investigate the suspicious disappearance of two Catalinas earlier in the day, has detected a large enemy fleet. More than fifty echoes, including twelve or fifteen large ones. According to its speed and course, these ships will be within raiding range of the TF-50 tomorrow.
Spruance is almost relieved. For several hours, he has known he was spotted and suspects that the Japanese will launch their planes as soon as possible. Despite the protests of his subordinates and in particular of Mitscher, who wishes to prepare a raid at dawn and to launch it as soon as the Japanese fleet is spotted, he decides to wait for the Japanese attack and to launch his strike only afterwards, knowing exactly where the enemy was and without fearing that his planes would have problems of autonomy. He believes that his forces allow him to act in this way.
Indeed, in order to cover the task forces (themselves not negligible!) in charge of seizing the Marshalls, six aircraft carriers have been comitted: Bunker Hill, Enterprise, Essex, Hornet, Lexington and Yorktown , carrying a total of 540 aircraft - F6F Hellcat, SBD-5 Dauntless and TBD Avenger.
- six light aircraft carriers: the Belleau Wood, Cabot, Cowpens, Langley, Monterey and Princeton, carrying a total of 210 aircraft, Hellcat and Avenger.
- five fast battleships: the Iowa and New Jersey, Alabama, Massachusetts and South Dakota.
- two recent heavy cruisers: the Baltimore (flag) and Boston.
- two large light cruisers: the Saint Louis and Phoenix.
- four light anti-aircraft cruisers: the Juneau, Oakland, Reno and San Diego.
- thirty-seven destroyers: the Aulick, Beale, Bennett, Bradford, Brown, Bullard, Charrette, Chauncey, Conner, De Haven, Edwards, Erben, Fletcher, Fullam, Guest, Hale, Halford, Hutchins, Izard, Jenkins, Kidd, Kimberly, La Vallette, Nicholas, O'Bannon, Philip, Pringle, Radford, Renshaw, Ringgold, Saufley, Stanly, Stevens, Strong, Taylor, Waller and Wickes.
TF 50 is divided into six task-groups, each comprising a wing carrier, a light carrier, a battleship and a light cruiser (except for TG 50.6, where the Hornet and the Monterey are surrounded by the two heavy cruisers and the Phoenix). All these ships had resupplied the day before with the specialized fast tankers available to the US Navy.
Japanese sailors might be less optimistic if they knew all this. Without even mentioning the qualitative differences in equipment and crew training, and not to mention the aircraft of the escort carriers, they are one against two as far as naval aviation is concerned...

* Yamamoto would have preferred to use supply tankers, but the only ones available at that time in Japan can barely exceed 12 knots.

 

[Wings]

January 31st, 1944

Šiauliai Offensive
Missed start
Southern part of the Panther line (Latvia) - The rain could not last forever...little by little, the sky calms down over the Baltic States, giving way to a polar cold - however, this one certainly does not stop the fighting, and even less the Red Army.
For the 7th Guards Army, it is an opportunity to get out of the quagmire in which it had been wading for 48 hours already. Emerging from the Buivāni peninsula with the full support of Ivan Zhuravlev's 14th Air Force (which is used to difficult conditions, since its night flights during the Winter War...), Nikolai Berzarin's men seize the Jēkabpils road at Selonia and Brūlāni, before heading west to the aid of their comrades about to give way at Robežkrogs.
Under a deluge of artillery, the 254. ID has to let go - the 505. schw. Pz. Abt is not enough for everything and the 58. ID has its own front to hold. So it is finally the breakthrough for the Red Army, whose two points meet and then advance 5 kilometers - threatening at the same time the rear of the 18. Armee and, more immediately, those of the defenders of Jēkabpils.
There, the stalemate is prolonged - but the situation, however, slowly tilts in favor of the Soviets under the weight of artillery and aviation. Two tools that the 34th Army made abundant use of in order to ruin the positions of the 269. ID and to allow its sappers to pass. At the cost of the greatest efforts, they finally manage to secure a bridgehead 3 kilometers downstream, at Ābeļi, taking advantage of the fact that here the Dagauva splits into two arms surrounding an island. However, notwithstanding Anton Lopatin, Wagner's Landsers still hold on, with a stubbornness that commands respect... It will undoubtedly be necessary to reduce them one by one in the ruins of Jēkabpils, the old fashioned way! A good news however for the leader of the 34th Army: his motorized elements have found a ferry crossing point in the vicinity of Māsāni. The boat was sunk, of course - but it seems possible, with new means of transport, to send detachments to the south bank as early as tonight.
In fact, no defense is observed there - the rest of the II. AK, which was supposed to provide this defense, has barely reached Daugavpils and is well ahead of the former defenders of Rositten.
The latter are eventually caught by the Soviets - at least in part. In Malta, the 13th Armored Corps of Boris Bakharov (well guided by VVS reconnaissance) falls on the defenses of the 122. ID (Gustav Hundt) - which was stopping in this area to cover the withdrawal of the 251. ID, further east. Maneuvering skilfully between the woods and southwards towards Solomenka, the Soviet seems for a while to put the Fascist infantry in difficulty... He is then called to order by the intervention of the 655. schw. PzJ. Abt (Karl-Max Freiherr von Hofenfels) and his powerful Nashorns, which as usual fire on the T-34s from a great distance, which are clearly visible in the white glades of Latvia. In front of this new adversary, Bakharov insists a little more, with the support of the air force, but he loses the time necessary for Hundt to break through to Griščati. The road to Daugavpils seems to be free - but in fact, the SS-Kurland is still guarding it and the 13th BC would have to wait for a good part of the day before the 39th Army can join it.
On the left side of the pincer, the 55th Army advances - it has finally ousted the 251. ID and enters the Andrupene area... another area of lakes and woods, where the German infantry will be very comfortable to withdraw in an orderly way, especially as it remains well covered on its right by the VIII. AK (Gustav Höhne). This advance frees the 122. ID from its position - it will withdraw to Puša during the night. As for the 14th Armored Corps, it is now advancing towards Dagda (following the western route was no longer necessary, given the Fascist withdrawal) and enters Ezernieki during the day, finally reaching Bojāri at midnight, without having been able to seize an opponent who once again plays with the terrain. In fact, informed of the movements of his comrades, the 8. ID (VIII. AK) evades... Its leader, von Kirchensittenbach, will spend the night in Dagda.

Operation Bagration
The Rhine Gold
Bagration North (1st Belorussian Front) - The 20th Army of General Vladimir Kurassov begins to test the new joint defense line formed in Silene by 87. ID (Walter Hartmann) and 161. ID (Paul Drekmann). With time, these units would probably not be able to hold... A problem, however: the Russian formation is for the moment too dispersed to push effectively, having had to bypass Lake Dryvyaty to outflank a defender who has since retreated. The first sudden assaults will not change anything - Daugavpils remains out of reach. But only for the moment!
Indeed, further south, Aleksei Popov's 10th Armored Corps bypasses Lake Dysnai, through a splendid landscape of bleached lagoons and finally enters Dūkštas in the
evening. He is already only twenty kilometers from his goal - and in the gaping right flank of HG Nord, he still hasn't encountered anything but a few factionalists. His presence is however spotted in the middle of the afternoon by a grey Fw 189 covered with white streamers: the skilful pilot of the two-beam aircraft very quickly signals to Kaunas the presence of these forest tanks.
Meanwhile, in Vilnius, the fight continues... Some of them succeed in breaking the back of their opponent - and even if the extreme stretching of its supply lines (310 kilometers from its starting point!) makes from now on random the supply in ammunition as well as the replacement of the destroyed machines, Pavel Rybalko orders again Volsky and his 2nd Mechanized Corps to charge around Vaidotai, with the support of the 2nd GAC on their left towards Kaišialakiai. Ivan Vovchenko will be able to support his comrade, overrunning the Fascists from the south and Keturiasdešimt Totorių if necessary.
As for the 18th Armored Corps, it would have to force its way into Nemenčinė, well to the east of the former Lithuanian capital, without waiting (one never knows...) for the support of the 63rd Army and the Oslikovski Group.
On the right, facing this tide of armor supported by the VVS, Rodt can only fold - even if he has, for once, the support of the Fw 190-F of the III/SG.3, more or less covered by the II/JG.54 "Grunhertz" whose Bf 109 claim 14 victories*. The 22. Panzer thus withdraws towards the plain of Lentvaris while fighting, the Marders of the 226. StuG and the tubes of the 253. ID supporting it by watering the Soviet flank. Fortunately, the night falls early in this season! And in the evening, panzers and StuG - not exhausted, but very tired - are preparing to return to the center of Vilnius, before blowing up the bridges. The hoped-for "global defense", with Neptun South, fails. Theoretically, the 3rd Tank Army is free to move towards Kaunas.
However, this army has also taken more than significant losses: the 2nd Mechanized Corps fell to 35% of its machines, the 2nd GAC is already down to 65%! And since the reinforcements are slow to arrive and at Nemenčinė, Aleksei Burdeiny runs into the 123. ID of Louis Tronnier, Rybalko finally decides to take a pause, time for the 63rd Army to join him, and for the Oslikovski Group to catch up. After all, the latter should be there tomorrow - and the Soviet, as much of a go-getter as he is, cannot leave an enemy corps with at least one armored division free to act on its rear. It will be time to leave once the Fascists occupied by the frontovikis of Vasiliy Kuznetsov...
.........
Minsk sector and Bagration center - End of the great maneuvers (or almost) in the plain around Minsk: the 1st Guards passes the Pitch and reaches Vitovka. It then continues towards Reka Usa, where it finally joins the tracks of the 4th Guards Army, thus of the 1. PanzerArmee. Ivan Chistiakov, still proud of his recent victory, was not supposed to go in this direction - that is the role of his comrades who remained further east, as well as the 2nd Belorussian Front. But the "elastic" command of Vasily Sokolovsky left in some traces his mind... As a result, he is cordially called to order in the evening by Marshal Zhukov! And, in the middle of the night, he finally turns his army westward, in the direction of Ivianiec.
One understands that the marshal wants to avoid a new and gigantic traffic jam on the road of Baranavitchy... Now covered on their right, and with a large corridor in front of them, the other armies advance. The 2nd Shock Army of Kuzma Galitsky crosses the Pitch at Samakhvalavichy, the 3rd Guards Army does the same at Praŭdzinski. These two formations form a north-south front at Minsk, before resuming their advance westward.
Meanwhile, on the side of Konstantin Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front, business continues! From Turyn, the 15th Army and the 7th Armored Corps reach Marina Horka and now advance a little heavily along the only road through the marshes of Hareliec... For Reuters and Panfilov, however, there is no question of joining their colleagues in pursuit of the 1. PanzerArmee, but rather to go and support the flank of the 1st Tank Army, which the speed of its advance has somewhat isolated in front of them.
As for the 29th Army and the 1st Airborne Corps, they pass Tcherven, to descend as planned to the south.
.........
Bagration South (2nd Belorussian Front and 1. PanzerArmee) - For the convicts of the last army of the HG Mitte, the end of the rain also means the arrival of very big trouble... Facing particularly aggressive VVS (Nikolai Papivin's 15th Air Army has only themselves to beat !), pursued by a 4th Guard Army galvanized by success as well as by the presence of the 1st Guards on its rear, constantly harassed by the 3rd Shock Army through the tiny Reka Usa, Landsers and tankers lose their footing and withdraw - in less good order than before - towards Stowbtsy, in search of the protection offered by the Niemen and (perhaps) South Neptun.
In the hours that followed, the 1. PanzerArmee loses several dozen vehicles and hundreds of men under the strafing of the Sturmovik, in spite of the desperate efforts of the Luftwaffe, whose poor I/JG.54 (on Fw 190-A) and IV/JG.5 (on Bf 109-G) are hardly able to stop alone the hundreds of Yak and Il-2 which surge. Aggravating circumstance: the Luftwaffe itself had to detach a significant number of its fighters to serve as escort to the bombers of the III/KG.1 (Ju 88) and IV/KG.1 (He 177) which aim, behind the Russian forces, at the bridges and crossing points on the Pitch. In itself, the idea is not bad... But it is still expensive ! Ten bombers fall (6 Ju 88 and 4 Greif), without decisive results. And on the side of the men of the LVII. PzK (Friedrich Kirchner) - who hasten in the Kletsk plain, at the mercy of the 54th Army, partisans and other marauding Falcons - not a black cross will be seen all day.
At the same time, in the gray of a winter day, Mikhail Katukov's 1st Tank Army enters the woods of Sasnovy Bor, with the 21st Armored Corps (F. Rudkin) in the lead. The seizure of this road - and of this crossroads, which commands the roads to Baranavitchy, Kobryn and Slutsk - is of crucial importance for the continuation of Bagration. However, South Neptun is already there... But the panzers are just passing by, because they are not more aware of the presence of Katukov's tanks than they are of theirs! And finally, at nightfall, Rudkin's leading T-34s fall almost by chance on the flank of the columns of the 23. Panzer (Nikolaus von Vormann). This one has just been reconstituted after having been crushed during Rumyantsev - but after some difficult beginnings, its Panzer IVs and StuGs generally hold out against the Reds.
Unaware of their opponents' strengths, the two leaders outbid each other: Katukov sends the 1st Mechanized Corps (M.D. Solomatin), already victorious in Ukraine. Unrein, who coordinates Neptun Sud (apart from the SS...), launches his own 18. Panzer to the rescue of Vormann while asking for the support of the Totenkopf, which was willing to turn back. There follows, throughout the night, a confused and bloody melee in the middle of the woods, while Hermann Priess returns from Liasnaja, delighted to play his own version of the Ride of the Valkyries.

Tankist (Evgeny Bessonov)
Breakthrough
"The caterpillars make the snow fly, while Stalingradskiy - like all his comrades - makes a hell of a racket as he runs along a deserted riverbank. In the distance, a flock of ducks fly away shouting alarm. Calm thoughts, dreamlike atmosphere. But not for long - a simple look at the steel of our machine brings me back to reality. Fyodor, by the way, does not have mysensitivity - he remains focused on his driving. As for Nikita, he is talking with Sasha - who is never very talkative when he has to talk about his past experience, and whose left hand seems to be strangely painful as soon as we approach the subject.
I can easily understand the thoughts that are going through their minds at this moment. The calm before the tension that rises - or falls deceptively. But such levity in hostile territory is worse than unprofessional - it is dangerous. So I forget about my gossiping birds, I radio the platoon to check the approaches.
And above all, I call Andrei back with me in the turret, very busy apeing the Cossacks, astride the gun. He wants to make the girls laugh in front of him, so be it. Besides, it seems to work with the one called Polina, a loader whose machine closes the march of its own unit. But I don't want to have to explain myself to a kind of Mother Superior of a T-34 convent like Sergeant Oktyabrskaya. Each to his own problems!"

Hitler-style arbitration
Wolfsschanze (Rastenburg), 14:00 - While the imminent arrival on the front of Neptun South and the LXXII. AK signs - according to him - the beginning of a stabilization of the Belorussian front, Adolf Hitler takes note of the increasingly adventurous situation of HG Nord, which seems already in an unfavorable position in Vilnius and whose withdrawal decided a short time ago now seems perhaps a little too timid in view of the circumstances.
Not that the Führer really fears an imminent encirclement of the 18. Armee in Latvia - in this weather, the Reds will have to stop for lack of supplies, especially after such an initial advance. No - what worries him much more (and rightly so) is the fear to see on the backs of the Georg von Küchler a panic comparable to what the HG Mitte had experienced less than two weeks earlier. It is true that the Wehrmacht has since taken drastic measures in terms of discipline! So the Guide was right to raise the subject in his New Year's proclamation. But if, by extraordinary circumstances, the Bolshevik armor were to sink by, say... 100 kilometers westward to Kaunas, the whole Neptun operation would fall apart and HG Nord would then be forced to withdraw pitifully towards Königsberg without having been able to counter-attack the Soviet flank.
Also, Hitler announces: "It is time to accelerate the preparations for Neptun North, by hastening the redeployment of the forces that would support it. Hansen's 16. Armee wasted too much time in the north, towards Daugavpils - it must go as soon as possible to relieve 2. Armee. In this context, I see no point in holding the Panther line any longer. The 18. Armee is already ready - it has to withdraw tonight. As for Neptun South, I fear that the forces already committed will not be sufficient - order Schröner to prepare the departure of the 10. PanzerGrenadier and the 501. schw. Pz Abt. The 3. PanzerArmee can do well without them, given the calm in its sector."
Unanimous approval - besides, Kempf will still keep two large armored or mechanized units. What could happen to him in Olevsk, under these circumstances?

Soviet-style arbitration
Kremlin (Moscow) - A few thousand kilometers and a few hours away, Stalin summons the Stavka to discuss the - for the time being - very measured results of Šiauliai. It seems obvious that at this rate, and by strictly following the plan, nothing will be achieved! Also, the Little Father of the Peoples decides: "It is clear now that the Fascists have beaten us to Latvia. Well, the same trick can't work twice in such a short time. We must therefore take our side and launch from now on the 1st Baltic Front of Comrade Popov to the attack. The occupiers of the Latvian SSR and, above all, we must not let them withdraw without losses!"
Faced with him, Antonov and Chtemenko do not object. First of all, because in the end, their leader is probably right. Then, because they are already relatively (and cautiously) satisfied that this half-voiced, half-vodka reflection is not the occasion for a definitive dismissal of Kirill A. Meretskov. A brilliant general, who is still held in high esteem, but whose recent performance have probably not helped the uncertain favor that he could claim. And finally because, in the end... the 1st Baltic Front is ready.

Operation Bagration and Siaulai Offensive, January 31st, 1944

* One of them was a Yak for Hauptmann Erich Rudorffer, who thus achieved his 126th victory.

 

[Wings]

January 31st, 1944

Controlling the chaos
Morinë Valley (Albanian-Yugoslavian border) - After a week of marching in the middle of snowy and hostile mountains, the 4th RST settles in the triangle formed by three localities: Morinë, Martinaj and Vërmicë - which more or less mark the border between Kosovo and Albania. The French forces are deployed with their backs to Yugoslavia, in a configuration to deal with a hypothetical infiltration of hostile forces from Albania - a semantic precaution that deceives no one.
For much more than the weapons of the Partisans, Colonel Roux fears the ravages that the doxa can make in the minds. Several incidents of attempted indoctrination or political education have been reported... all firmly rejected by the officers in charge. And then, his men are for the most part good Muslims - atheist communism doesn't really match. But all the same... Was it really reasonable to send him and his colonial unit as an interposition force between fascists and communists? The French feel very lonely and beleaguered in this territory they came to liberate, even with the support of the 155 mm of the 107th RALCA. Fortunately, the Greeks of Charalambos Katsimitros are not far away, towards Djakovica. The winter is likely to be quite long.
.........
Tirana - It is in this heavy context that General Jouffrault (192nd DIA) informs his superior Sylvestre Audet of the unannounced arrival of Dobroslav Jevđević's "corps-francs", intended to "fraternally support the allied forces in their task of maintaining order in Yugoslavia". The Allied forces in question do indeed want reinforcement... but not really of this kind, a band of dubious and even criminal militiamen, commanded by a warlord, a former deputy and former ally of the fascist Italians.
The military authorities of the 2nd Army, be they French, Czech or even Greek can only ask once again, and urgently, for instructions on how to deal with this unit which threatens to add salt to the wounds of the region. Indeed, it seems obvious that the corps-francs in question have their own way of maintaining order... and everyone can wonder what will happen when they will arrive in contact with the ballists, in Prizren - a region they occupy with the complicity of the allied forces!
Audet and his superiors are faced with a choice: to break their word given to the ballists and risk a bloodbath? Or to side with former collaborators and oppose the representatives of the government of a member country of the United Nations? Representatives, moreover, who are themselves not devoid of dubious antecedents... For the moment, the French general is stuck - he can only recall with bitterness a local expression evoked by MacLean in the course of a conversation: "He has an Albanian character: if he stumbles on a stone, he shoots it." "Yes, but I have my shoes full of stones and I'll end up shooting myself in the feet!" the Frenchman replies.

In the east, something new
Calafat (Bulgarian-Romanian border) - The Royal Engineer delivers his first report concerning the establishment of a railway bridge between Romania and Bulgaria, intended to lead the trains to Drobeta-Turnu Severin: it is feasible, for sure, but it will take time. In order to cross the "beautiful blue river", the engineers of His Majesty propose a structure, "something more durable and heavier than a Bailey bridge - but no less effective."
But to build such a structure, it would take several weeks - the time for the equipment (including barges from Greece) and materials to be assembled in this isolated area of Bulgaria. Without the expected gain being gigantic moreover... Between Calafat and Drobeta-Turnu Severin (where the first bridge under construction is located), there are only 45 miles: no need to make expenses - especially for a facility destined to collapse as soon as the Yugoslav network is back in service. A heavy road pontoon bridge will be sufficient here too; its legs will be deeply anchored in the Danube bed by Kite anchors. The traffic will be carried out by transhipments, even if it means sending two or three tugs upstream to ground the blocks of ice going down the river and risking to threaten the structure. In any case, there is no lack of manpower. Thus, His Majesty's sappers are going to do a temporary job - it will be a long time before we find a real bridge between Romania and Bulgaria!
.........
"The Bulgarian and Romanian authorities inaugurated today with great fanfare the "New Europe Bridge", between Vidin and Calafat. This equipment, which is only the second major structure linking the two countries since the "Friendship Bridge" built by the Soviets in 1954, has been the subject of bitter negotiations between the governments of these two nations and this on all subjects: location, financing, design...
It is in fact a real sea serpent, studied since 1909, which has finally come to fruition under pressure of events and thanks to the mediation of the European Investment Bank.
Moreover, the governments in question had no real choice. Indeed, the ferry service, reactivated as soon as the temporary structures put in place by the Allies during the Second World War collapsed, generated absolutely appalling waiting times, which only increased after the re-establishment of relations between the former Yugoslavia and the countries of the former Soviet bloc. It was very common for a truck to wait more than six hours before embarking, then having to wait at least as long at the customs as soon as the river was crossed!
In his inaugural speech, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Aleksandar Malinov, spoke at length about "the lifting of the curtains, the removal and the demolition of obstacles to the brotherhood of peoples, following the example of the valiant soldiers who once bridged this river" - a moving reminder of the fighting that ravaged the region in 1943 and 1944.
However, there are whispers in authorized circles that much more than the free movement of people, it is the free movement of goods that interests the promoters of the project. Indeed, the local industrial circles, supported by the City, would judge pragmatically that Eastern Europe will surely be an important market in the future - one that China may already be coveting. And the intervention of Athens, which has many cards to play in the upcoming trade battle, would have been decisive for the quick finishing of the project. By way of proof, some people claim that certain faults, indicative of a somewhat hasty construction, have already become apparent in the design of the bicycle paths, the connection of the bridge to the highways or even the behaviour of its road surface!" (Thierry Martel, Le Figaro (International section), editions of May 15th, 2008)

Improvisations and consequences
Kaposvár (Hungary) - Von Weichs has still not been able to sleep, while he and his Heeresgruppe are still waiting for the "Hungarian question" to be resolved, as it is modestly called in authorized circles. Of course, he learned the latest news from Berlin about Pavelic's visit, first on the radio and then in the OKW. A complete annexation of Bosnia by the NDH? Big deal - these idiots are already unable to keep their country within its 1941 borders on their own! As a result, von Weichs had to personally calm down the agitation of his aide-de-camp, who saw in the Supreme Leader's decision the confirmation of his brilliant intuitions.
After all, the Croats are not stupid enough to claim to be holding Bosnia on their own! Three hundred kilometers of front with, what? less than a dozen divisions, half of which only exist on paper? So we have indeed stuck him with an additional difficulty to manage. Unless, of course, he was ordered to leave Bosnia... in which case, he would no longer be responsible for his right flank. But for the moment, nobody knows anything about it. It wouldn't be the first time that the radio announces something that will never be translated on the field. So Maximilian von Weichs stays in his basic position - he needs reinforcements. Period.
He explains this point of view at length to the Oberst von Freyend - who has come to inform him and perhaps to probe him as to the reality of the Croatian armies. In the general staff, not everyone is as enthusiastic as the Führer about Pavelic's forces: Glaise-Horstenau kept repeating that they caused more trouble than they were worth. And in the evening, the OKW finally announces the transfer of the 181. ID (Hermann Fischer), currently in Norway, to the HG E.

Serbian machinations
White Palace (royal domain of Dedinje, Belgrade) - After the psychodrama of the previous day, and at the urging of the West, the royal government resumes negotiations with the AVNOJ in order to define a modus operandi for the next phases of the Liberation of Yugoslavia - which could then make it possible to achieve, very hypothetically, a form of sacred union. A minimal gesture, intended to please the "big" Allies - "If you don't negotiate with Lorković, at least deign to get along with Tito!" Certainly, the task is theoretically easier since Draza Mihailovic died... but it is no less difficult and negotiations are slow - if the Chetnik leader is no longer there to stir up passions, his followers are still very much alive!
However, in order to accelerate the movement, the British have a new asset up their sleeve, suggested by the State Department: Ivan Šubašić, a former HSS deputy but above all a federalist who was the ban (federal governor) of Croatia.
Šubašić, a former HSS deputy but above all a federalist who was the federal governor of Croatia, was ousted from his post in 1941 and for a long time represented the royalty in the United States, but he did not hide his sympathy for Tito and his Partisans. This has done him harm - at least as much as his recurrent criticism of a royal government, which he now considers to be as "distant from the real concerns of the Yugoslav people, and fragmented between several tendencies". Šubašić is now without an assignment - but he has already met Tito, on the island of Vis, last summer, at the instigation of the Franco-British. The current between the two men has passed... But the former Yugoslav ambassador did not have any title that he could use!
This is still the case today - but it does not prevent him from speaking with many personalities in the region, with the complicity of the Americans. For the West, the man is the rising star of Yugoslav politics; some would like to see him in the place of Momčilo Ninčić, or even Slobodan Jovanović. But for this to happen, it would first be necessary for Peter II to accomplish his reshuffle by following the advice of his allies!
This is not the case at the moment - and the Yugoslav Foreign Minister has many other concerns. Thus, to the Soviet ambassador Viktor Plotnikov, who had come to pay his respects and inquire about the ongoing negotiations, he replies curtly: "It's not really your business anymore. We offered the USSR the friendship of eight million Serbs and you refused it!" A very undiplomatic opinion, but one that confirms Moscow in its opinion that, despite the bravado of the royalists and the questionable methods of some or others, the game is no longer played in Belgrade, but in Athens or in some Yugoslavian caves.