Part 67
Sollum, December 15th, 1940
Advance elements of the Western Desert Force, captured the town and continued advancing westwards. Italian casualties over the previous week, were nearing 43,000 men, including over 38,000 prisoners. British casualties were slightly over 600 men so far.
Piraeus, December 19th, 1940
The 10th Polish infantry regiment start disembarking from the troopships, amidst the cheers of the locals. From here trains will take it north to the frontlines in Macedonia and the Free Polish army fighting there. The rest of the 4th Infantry division, escaped from France and reinforced with the survivors of the Polish Highlands brigade after the evacuation of Norway was on its way to Greece as well.
Dublin, December 20th, 1940
The pair of Luftwaffe bombers that dropped the bombs in the city causing minor damage had done so almost certainly by accident. But the bombing was all too convenient for Irish purposes as the next day prime minister Collins allowed the Royal Navy access to use the treaty ports. British troops would still not be allowed into British territory.
North of Monastir, December 25th, 1940
Some sporadic fire was exchanged, but the front remained relatively quiet on Christmas day in the Greek, Polish and French sectors opposite the Italians and Hungarians. It was business as usual in the Serb sector and opposite the Bulgarians, it was not Christmas there.
Belgrade, December 28th, 1940
The first train carrying German engineers and anti-aircraft troops to Bulgaria crossed. The Danube was full of ice in this time of year making bridging it between Romania and Bulgaria difficult. But there was nothing stopping the Germans from using the railroad lines into Bulgaria. Half an hour later a train carrying Hungarian troops back to the motherland. Nearly 19,000 casualties fighting the Greeks had been enough for any duty admiral Horthy may had still felt towards Italy for liberating Vojvodina. Three corps of the Hungarian 3rd army would remain in occupation duty in Serbia for the time being but the rest and 2nd army were returning home.
Bardia, December 29th, 1940
The infantrymen of the 4th Indian division jumped off their starting positions. Three days later Bardia would be in British hands and another 42,000 Italian soldiers on their way to prisoner of war camps. Tobruk would be attacked on new years eve...
Athens, January 7th, 1941
Two battalions of the 17th Australian Infantry brigade marched through the city, the first British empire ground troops to reach mainland Greece. The had some initial reluctance on the part of the Greek government over openly bringing British troops in the mainland, lest it bring the Germany in the war as well or rather speed up its entry, even as Polish and Free French soldiers fought side by side with the Greeks and Serbs in Macedonia. But with trains bringing German troops to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria for the past several days any misgivings the Greeks might have were long gone. German soldiers had yet to so in the frontlines and thus the fiction that Greece and Germany were not at war was still maintained. But clashes between Greek and German aircraft had already taken place, anti-aircraft gunners whether on land or at sea for rather obvious reasons were hardly discriminating at anything flying that might look dangerous. As for the Australians they rather liked the place so far. For one thing the locals, including most importantly the girls were friendly. For another it might be winter but the weather was like home...
Central Mediterranean, January 11th, 1941
The Luftwaffe X Fliegerkorps announced its presence in the Mediterranean by massed attacks on allied shipping sinking HMS Eagle and HMS Southampton. Still convoys to Greece and Malta continued. 199 and 34 fighters had been moved to Sicily, giving the Regia Aeronautica, hard pressed from fighting in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Britain and the Balkans all at the same time a much needed boost. Of course Italy could had easily avoided some of these commitments. But it wasn't the flyers who decided...
East Africa, January 12th, 1941
Allied forces sprang to the attack. The 5th Indian division was invading Eritrea from the north, just as a French column advanced from Djibouti to the north and a second French column with two regiments of the 3e Division Francaise Libre was advancing along the railroad to Dire Dawa in Ethiopia. In Southern Ethiopia the 1st South African and the 11th and 12th African divisions advanced north. Even with 70,000 British troops in Kenya and 30,000 British and French troops in Sudan and Djibouti, the Italians heavily outnumbered the attackers. But large portions of the Italian army were tied down fighting increasingly severe Ethiopian uprisings, while its supplies of arms and ammunition were limited to what had been available in East Africa at the start of the war. Allied forces at hand should suffice, back in December Wavell had considered unnecessary sending the 4th Indian division the reinforce the 5th given the French army at Djibouti.
Libya, January 16th, 1941
Tobruk fell to the British and Indians, with another 25,000 Italian soldiers joining their comrades in captivity. Three days later Mussolini and Hitler would agree at Berchtesgaden to send German aid to Italian North Africa. But this was still in the future. In the meantime British forces kept advancing to the west capturing Derna in January 25th.
Athens, January 22nd, 1941
Anthony Eden accompanied by Archibald Wavell, came to discuss strategy. For all the recent allied successes Wavell was coming to Athens decidedly pessimistic over allied prospects of holding back the Germans. He had been forced by Churchill to send British troops to Greece, in addition to the Poles and French who had been already in Constantinople. Now he proposed that allied forces should pull back from Macedonia and Thrace to the Aliakmon river ahead of the German attack and also that the Greeks should evacuate Asia Minor. Eden had been supportive even trying to sound Dragoumis over the possibility of Greek concessions to Turkey in order to secure her neutrality. Dragoumis and Wavell's counterpart Theodore Pangalos had flatly refused. Greece was not going to make any concessions to Turkey, chances were the Turks would join the war no matter what concessions they were given just as they had done in 1914. Post that Asiatic Greece, Macedonia and Thrace held between them half the population of Greece without even taking into account Constantinople. Leaving them without a fight would be a political disaster likely leading to disintegration of the Greek army without even a fight. Pangalos had put the problem in more technical terms. Germany would join the war at the latest in March. There was hardly sufficient time to transport the Army of Asia Minor from Smyrna to Europe. In Europe, his plan was that should the allied armies be unable to hold the current line in Macedonia, a quite defensible one as proven in 1915-18, then the allies would fall back even further back than Wavell was proposing to the Olympus passes. Work was already being done in preparation of that position. In private Pangalos admitted to Wavell that he had already stripped Thrace of what forces he could, the only reason that part of the line held was the Bulgarians inability to breach it without heavy casualties due to lack of heavy artillery. Where Pangalos and Wavell did agree was that it made no sense to strip off British forces in Cyrenaica at the time the Italians were collapsing to reinforce Greece with inadequate forces. The Australians in Greece would be joined by the 2nd New Zealand division currently arriving in Egypt but armoured units would remain for now in Cyrenaica...
Kiel, January 22nd, 1941
The battleship Gneisenau remained in port. Plans to use her to raid Allied convoys in the Atlantic would have to wait till at least Bismarck, if not both Bismarck and Tirpitz were ready for operations...
Sofia, January 25th, 1941
The regiments of the 16th Infantry Division received their colours. Captured Yugoslav war material provided by Italy had allowed the Bulgarians to form an additional two divisions besides reinforcing their existing units.
Libya, February 3rd, 1941
British forces reached El Agheila. The Italian 10th army had surrendered the previous day bringing the the number of Italian soldiers captured in less than a month of fighting to over 133,000 men. The British tried to continue their advance westwards but even with practically negligible Italian resistance the logistical burden was too high and kept growing with every passing kilometre. Already the British were down to about 299 tanks despite reinforcements from the British isles.
Advance elements of the Western Desert Force, captured the town and continued advancing westwards. Italian casualties over the previous week, were nearing 43,000 men, including over 38,000 prisoners. British casualties were slightly over 600 men so far.
Piraeus, December 19th, 1940
The 10th Polish infantry regiment start disembarking from the troopships, amidst the cheers of the locals. From here trains will take it north to the frontlines in Macedonia and the Free Polish army fighting there. The rest of the 4th Infantry division, escaped from France and reinforced with the survivors of the Polish Highlands brigade after the evacuation of Norway was on its way to Greece as well.
Dublin, December 20th, 1940
The pair of Luftwaffe bombers that dropped the bombs in the city causing minor damage had done so almost certainly by accident. But the bombing was all too convenient for Irish purposes as the next day prime minister Collins allowed the Royal Navy access to use the treaty ports. British troops would still not be allowed into British territory.
North of Monastir, December 25th, 1940
Some sporadic fire was exchanged, but the front remained relatively quiet on Christmas day in the Greek, Polish and French sectors opposite the Italians and Hungarians. It was business as usual in the Serb sector and opposite the Bulgarians, it was not Christmas there.
Belgrade, December 28th, 1940
The first train carrying German engineers and anti-aircraft troops to Bulgaria crossed. The Danube was full of ice in this time of year making bridging it between Romania and Bulgaria difficult. But there was nothing stopping the Germans from using the railroad lines into Bulgaria. Half an hour later a train carrying Hungarian troops back to the motherland. Nearly 19,000 casualties fighting the Greeks had been enough for any duty admiral Horthy may had still felt towards Italy for liberating Vojvodina. Three corps of the Hungarian 3rd army would remain in occupation duty in Serbia for the time being but the rest and 2nd army were returning home.
Bardia, December 29th, 1940
The infantrymen of the 4th Indian division jumped off their starting positions. Three days later Bardia would be in British hands and another 42,000 Italian soldiers on their way to prisoner of war camps. Tobruk would be attacked on new years eve...
Athens, January 7th, 1941
Two battalions of the 17th Australian Infantry brigade marched through the city, the first British empire ground troops to reach mainland Greece. The had some initial reluctance on the part of the Greek government over openly bringing British troops in the mainland, lest it bring the Germany in the war as well or rather speed up its entry, even as Polish and Free French soldiers fought side by side with the Greeks and Serbs in Macedonia. But with trains bringing German troops to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria for the past several days any misgivings the Greeks might have were long gone. German soldiers had yet to so in the frontlines and thus the fiction that Greece and Germany were not at war was still maintained. But clashes between Greek and German aircraft had already taken place, anti-aircraft gunners whether on land or at sea for rather obvious reasons were hardly discriminating at anything flying that might look dangerous. As for the Australians they rather liked the place so far. For one thing the locals, including most importantly the girls were friendly. For another it might be winter but the weather was like home...
Central Mediterranean, January 11th, 1941
The Luftwaffe X Fliegerkorps announced its presence in the Mediterranean by massed attacks on allied shipping sinking HMS Eagle and HMS Southampton. Still convoys to Greece and Malta continued. 199 and 34 fighters had been moved to Sicily, giving the Regia Aeronautica, hard pressed from fighting in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Britain and the Balkans all at the same time a much needed boost. Of course Italy could had easily avoided some of these commitments. But it wasn't the flyers who decided...
East Africa, January 12th, 1941
Allied forces sprang to the attack. The 5th Indian division was invading Eritrea from the north, just as a French column advanced from Djibouti to the north and a second French column with two regiments of the 3e Division Francaise Libre was advancing along the railroad to Dire Dawa in Ethiopia. In Southern Ethiopia the 1st South African and the 11th and 12th African divisions advanced north. Even with 70,000 British troops in Kenya and 30,000 British and French troops in Sudan and Djibouti, the Italians heavily outnumbered the attackers. But large portions of the Italian army were tied down fighting increasingly severe Ethiopian uprisings, while its supplies of arms and ammunition were limited to what had been available in East Africa at the start of the war. Allied forces at hand should suffice, back in December Wavell had considered unnecessary sending the 4th Indian division the reinforce the 5th given the French army at Djibouti.
Libya, January 16th, 1941
Tobruk fell to the British and Indians, with another 25,000 Italian soldiers joining their comrades in captivity. Three days later Mussolini and Hitler would agree at Berchtesgaden to send German aid to Italian North Africa. But this was still in the future. In the meantime British forces kept advancing to the west capturing Derna in January 25th.
Athens, January 22nd, 1941
Anthony Eden accompanied by Archibald Wavell, came to discuss strategy. For all the recent allied successes Wavell was coming to Athens decidedly pessimistic over allied prospects of holding back the Germans. He had been forced by Churchill to send British troops to Greece, in addition to the Poles and French who had been already in Constantinople. Now he proposed that allied forces should pull back from Macedonia and Thrace to the Aliakmon river ahead of the German attack and also that the Greeks should evacuate Asia Minor. Eden had been supportive even trying to sound Dragoumis over the possibility of Greek concessions to Turkey in order to secure her neutrality. Dragoumis and Wavell's counterpart Theodore Pangalos had flatly refused. Greece was not going to make any concessions to Turkey, chances were the Turks would join the war no matter what concessions they were given just as they had done in 1914. Post that Asiatic Greece, Macedonia and Thrace held between them half the population of Greece without even taking into account Constantinople. Leaving them without a fight would be a political disaster likely leading to disintegration of the Greek army without even a fight. Pangalos had put the problem in more technical terms. Germany would join the war at the latest in March. There was hardly sufficient time to transport the Army of Asia Minor from Smyrna to Europe. In Europe, his plan was that should the allied armies be unable to hold the current line in Macedonia, a quite defensible one as proven in 1915-18, then the allies would fall back even further back than Wavell was proposing to the Olympus passes. Work was already being done in preparation of that position. In private Pangalos admitted to Wavell that he had already stripped Thrace of what forces he could, the only reason that part of the line held was the Bulgarians inability to breach it without heavy casualties due to lack of heavy artillery. Where Pangalos and Wavell did agree was that it made no sense to strip off British forces in Cyrenaica at the time the Italians were collapsing to reinforce Greece with inadequate forces. The Australians in Greece would be joined by the 2nd New Zealand division currently arriving in Egypt but armoured units would remain for now in Cyrenaica...
Kiel, January 22nd, 1941
The battleship Gneisenau remained in port. Plans to use her to raid Allied convoys in the Atlantic would have to wait till at least Bismarck, if not both Bismarck and Tirpitz were ready for operations...
Sofia, January 25th, 1941
The regiments of the 16th Infantry Division received their colours. Captured Yugoslav war material provided by Italy had allowed the Bulgarians to form an additional two divisions besides reinforcing their existing units.
Libya, February 3rd, 1941
British forces reached El Agheila. The Italian 10th army had surrendered the previous day bringing the the number of Italian soldiers captured in less than a month of fighting to over 133,000 men. The British tried to continue their advance westwards but even with practically negligible Italian resistance the logistical burden was too high and kept growing with every passing kilometre. Already the British were down to about 299 tanks despite reinforcements from the British isles.
