Constantinople, June 11th, 1940
Since its occupation in 1919, Britain, France and Italy had divided the city into three zones with the Italians holding the Asian side, the French the old city and the British Pera and Galata. Perhaps naturally the Italians had tended to turn a blind eye to Turkish activities and the British and French to Greek activities but despite tensions and the occasional riot the past two decades had been relatively easy on the queen of cities. This was about to change as French and British ships sailed out of the Golden Horn, followed by hundreds of small boats and ferries, commandeered locally, volunteered might had been a more accurate word for their mostly Greek owners, full of French, Polish and British soldiers. The Italian garrison, 10,000 men and four infantry battalions of the 62º Reggimento fanteria "Sicilia" had already dug in, in their zone in anticipation of possible hostilities but the allied forces in Constantinople and the straits area, numbered more than 75,000 men. Under cover of the ships guns the allies quickly established bridgeheads on the Asian shore and start pushing inwards.
Allied troops in one of the mostly Greek neighbourhoods of Constantinople.
Alps, June 11th, 1940
22 Italian divisions, 4 of them Alpini attacked over the French border. General Olry the French commander in the area had only 4 divisions available. But they were enough. Over the next several days the Italian army would gain nearly no ground, despite suffering over 3,000 casualties. Mussolini would have to find his victory elsewhere...
Sivas, June 12th, 1940
The French and British ambassadors received the summons to the Turkish foreign ministry with some dread, fearing a declaration of war. The Turks had proved subtler. Instead the two ambassadors had been informed that in view of the current hostilities in Constantinople recklessly putting in danger the Turkish population and its property the Turkish government was forced to take action. Turkish troops were already in the move to occupy the Asian side of the city and Turkey was unilaterally rescinding her concession of administration rights to former allied powers. Italy, the allies were further informed had already agreed, to the Turkish ultimatum and Italian troops in Constantinople would be interned. France and Britain had a day to accept and to pull their soldiers back to the European side otherwise the Turkish army would remove them by force.
Uskudar, June 13th, 1940
Soldiers of the 11th Infantry division, paraded through the streets of Uskudar amidst throngs of jubilant Turkish civilians, Greeks and Armenians were quickly slipping over the Bosporus while there was still time to do so. It had been a closer run than many in the jubilant crowds might had suspected. Churchill's first reaction had been to push back when receiving the Turkish ultimatum. But the last thing the French government wanted at the moment had been one more hostile power and even within Britain there had been strong pressure to appease Turkey, after all the British strategic position would be little affected by Turkey taking over the former Italian zone but would significantly affected by Turkey joining the war.
Athens, June 14th, 1940
The French defeat was the say the least a shock to the Greek political and military establishment, even following the destruction of Poland the last thing anyone expected was for France to collapse within a month of the German offensive in the west. Italy joining the war had made things even worse although many in Athens and Belgrade had let a sigh of relief, since the feared Italy would attack east without declaring war on the western powers. There had been debate in Athens when Italy joined the war, whether Greece should join the fight even with France being clearly defeated. All such thoughts though had ended when France and Turkey let Turkey occupy Asiatic Constantinople. If the allies where clearly not willing to stand up to Turkey, Greece had no reason to join them and risk destruction. Greece would stay for now neutral. And something had to be done about Constantinople. Before the English gave the European side to the Turk as well...
Ligurian sea, June 14th, 1940
Three French heavy cruisers and 11 destroyers opened up against targets on the Italian coast around Genoa before being unsuccessfully engaged by Italian coastal forces, while the Force De Raid was providing distant cover to the bombarding force. Despite reluctance on the part of admiral Cavagnari, the Italian navy's commander the newly completed Littorio and Vittorio Veneto were ordered out of La Spezia to try to intercept the French fleet. The Italian navy with 4 active battleships was severely outnumbered by the French and British who had nine, thus particularly reluctant to engage its more numerous enemy. But Mussolini needed a fight. If the army could not provide him with a good enough fight then the navy should, after all Littorio and Vittorio Veneto had been loudly proclaimed the strongest ships in the world, surely they could deal with older or smaller French ships? Otherwise what was the point on the huge amounts spent on the navy if France, on the brink of disaster could be bombarding the Italian coast as will?
The Italians fail to catch up with the raiding force, but do catch up with the Force de Raid. Or admiral Gensoul, with four battleships at hand and confident from the earlier sinking of the Deutschland, takes his chances and accepts battle with the Italians, Gensoul in the aftermath of the battle will keep silent to the end of his days. Either way things quickly turn sour for the French as Provence, suffers a catastrophic explosion and sinks with over a thousand sailors killed. Dunkerque hit by four 16in shells is severely damaged but survives. Strasbourg under captain Collinet, will successfully cover the retiring Dunkerque, while the Italians with Littorio having suffered some damage from 330mm fire will not press home the attack saving the French from war. The Force de Raid retires to Toulon...
Bordeaux, June 16th, 1940
Prime minister Paul Reynaud was all for France fighting on, from the empire. But he had made the mistake, not to remove Petain from his cabinet as De Gaulle had advised. Or perhaps he had been unable to do so. Either way Petain backed by Weygand and Darlan had pressed for an armistice instead and his opinion had prevailed. Reynaud would resign, replaced by Petain the next day. And Petain would ask for an armistice. Of the people opposing the armistice Georges Mandel would refuse to escape to Britain, leaving only Charles De Gaulle to go on fighting.
Compiegne, June 22nd, 1940
The armistice between Germany and France was signed in the very train wagon the 1918 armistice had been signed. Now it was to be seen who in the French empire would accept Petain's regime and who would join De Gaulle's Free France...
