Author's Note:This basically a sledgehammer variant using the OTL Torch Force, but thrown at the far weaker defenses of Brittany and in a far greater concentration of firepower. Please educate yourself to what the Germans actually have in France on November 8, 1942. Nazi wankage with gear that wouldn't show up till mid-summer next year, and in limited numbers to boot, will do naught but annoy me.
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Sledgehammer
D-Day -6 Hours November 8, 1942
On the British Isles, American and British Bomber Planes begin taking off. Their targets are Luftwaffe Airfields and Sixth Panzer Division in France that could threaten the Allied Landings at Lorient, Quiberon Bay, and Saint Nazaire.
Also in the Air was the transport planes carrying the 509th Parachute Regiment which was to land across the invasion front and seize bridges in cooperation with the French Resistance and hold them.
Out at sea the Allies' 8th Submarine Flotilla reached their positions to block a German Sortie via Le Havre. WHile the massed fist of the Allied Navy began its final approach.
The mighty armada contained the US Carriers Ranger, Sangamon, Chenango, Suwanee, Santee. They were joined kicking and screaming by the Royal Navy's carriers of Furious, Avenger, Dasher, Argus, Victorius, and Formidable.
Pride of place was taken by the Battleships though, for it would be these that blasted the German Defenders apart.
Aboard the USS
Massachusetts, General George C. Marshall smiled that his bluff worked. He had told FDR straight up, Sledgehammer or he would resign. The incompetent British experiences and inabilities did not apply to the US Army and going for the Jugular now no matter the risks would be infinitely preferable to letting Germany build up defenses and marshal reserves from its population while using the captured resources of its conquests to arm them.
FDR folded and told the British to get in line or get cut off from Lend Lease.
The next step was finding a good spot to land that was weakly defended, in range of British based aircraft, and good ports.
The answer was the Lorient to Saint Nazaire sector which was held by a single under-strength static division of two regiments (333rd) and a few odds and ends. That seizing these ports would deprive the Germans of their only Atlantic Bases for their Type VII U-boats to enter the Atlantic was a bonus and would cripple Atlantic U-boat operations. Germany only had a handful of Type IXs that could sail to the Atlantic from Germany without an Atlantic Base.
Against that single lone Division, Marshall was throwing six divisions.
Northern Force would hit Lorient with Force Z, Y, and X. Their mission to swiftly seize Lorient and its Port and form a blocking force against the nearest German Unit of the 17th Infantry Division. They had 35,000 troops in a 100 ships to accomplish this task with just under a 1,000 landing craft and commanded by General Patton with a floating reserve to come ashore once the beach head was established.
Center Force would seize Quiberon Bay and the Gulf of Morbihan with Task Force Green, Combat Team 26, Force Z, and Taskforce Reservist. They would then form a perimeter around the sheltered waters there and its three ports so the Float Reserve could come in. They had 18,500 troops and were led by General Fredendall who had personally lobbied on behalf of the Airborne to participate, otherwise what was the point of their expensive training.
Southern Force would have 11th Group, Combat Team 168, Combat Team 39, and Terminal Force which would seize Saint Nazaire and form a perimeter for reinforcements to come from the floating reserve. 20,000 troops total and led by a British General named Anderson.
In Britain 15 British Divisions had been told to prepare to deploy once the opening had been forced open. Marshall made it clear to his seething British Counterparts that this was the second time America had to bail their incompetent asses out, and they would fight to the last man and bullet, there would be no retreats from the continent this time. They could not rightly ask America to hemorrhage its blood while they spared theirs.
The only wild card was the Vichy. Would they throw in with the Allies? Would they hunker down? That Marshall could not control. He hoped they rejoined the Allies, brought their North African Army and Navy to Southern France and opened up another Front. But even being ambivalent, they tied up the German 1st Army watching them.
Again the Germans, according to intelligence gleaned from the French Resistance, the German Forces in France consisted of burnt out Divisions from the Ost Front and Static Divisions with most facing England with the bulk of the Coastal Guns. Only the 6th Panzer Division was combat ready. Even so, his Divisional sized forces had just as many tanks as a whole Panzer Corps.
Turning to the fleet, Marshall marveled at the firepower the Navy was giving him. He quite frankly had an unassailable local superiority. The British were fools not to make use of this power, it was why their half-assed Dieppe Raid failed. They did not bring the big guns which showed they were morons and why the US had to bail them out... Again.
D-Day -4 Hours
The 509th Regiment begins dropping as the French Resistance swings into action. The Flak defenses of the area consisting of a handful of 2cm guns attached to the AT Battalion of the 333rd Division.
The paratroopers rapidly seize their objectives against light resistance.
D-Day -2 Hours
The USN escort screen assisted by RAF Coastal Command, ambushes and sinks nine U-boats returning from savaging of Convoy SL 125. The Naval Battle of the Bay of Biscay had begun. A lopsided massacre of U-boats would mark this Naval Battle with 27 U-boats and eight E-boats sunk with no Allied ship losses before Admiral Raeder calls off operations. The Luftwaffe would lose 16 out of 40 of its available bombers in France to USN Flak Batteries and fighter craft as well, with the rest written off upon return.
Meanwhile the Landing Craft begin approaching the beaches. Packing 400 Stuart Light Tanks, 100 Grant Medium Tanks, and 54 Sherman Medium Tanks, the Invasion Force had 2 times the total number of German Tanks in all of France and concentrated at just one leg mobile infantry division spread across a 100+ kilometer front ad already engaged in a guerrilla war with the French Resistance.
Then the Navy began firing.
D-Day 00 Hours
American and British Forces begin hitting the beaches as the first light of day begins. The Lorient landing is a bit disordered from landing in Sea State 5 conditions but gets ashore in coherent enough units to push rapidly in land under USN Air Cover. A shore party of Marines and Sailors seizes Groix Island from a single German Company there assisted by the French who rose up.
First ashore at Kerlavret was Armored Landing Team 1 led by General Gaffrey with only an Infantry Company opposing them. Said company surrendered quickly, pinned as it was by the Cruiser fire support accorded to the landing.
Other sites weren't even opposed, pulled off the beach area to deal with the paratroopers and French Resistance.
Moving rapidly, the Northern Force seizes Lorient in four hours of street fighting, its light tanks demolishing German Defense positions whose occupants lacked AT weaponry to fight back with. Other task groups moved north, west, and east to take blocking positions and link up with Paratrooper detachments and the French Resistance, some who were Pro-Vichy, some Free Francers, and some were communists.
The Center Force had easy landings, the Quiberron Bay area being a sheltered anchorage with three good but small ports. Vannes was the difficult part but US Light Tanks made all the difference. Engineers on Belle Island swiftly went to work prepping a grass field for Fighter Aircraft to fly in from Britain and begin air operations.
Four FW-190s strafed the beaches, inflicting minor losses, and one was shot down by a Seafire, the first air-to-air kill of the day.
Southern Force also successfully got ashore and moved rapidly upon Saint Nazaire under the cover of heavy Naval Bombardment and the support of the French Resistance which took Nantes and divided the German response. They managed to seize it within four hours.
D-Day +8 Hours
As the reconnaissance battalion of the 17th German Infantry Division is ambushed and destroyed by a company of Stuart Light Tanks, and the Herman Goering Regiment engages and is destroyed by a Sherman Battalion, the German High Command becomes fully aware of the situation.
They lost their U-boat Pens needed for the Type VIIs to operate in the Atlantic and now the Allies had a safe trip across the Atlantic.
Many of their Luftwaffe Bases in France were now pincered and needed to be abandoned.
The Vichy could very well stab them in the back.
Their reserves to counter this were sorely needed on the Ost Front where intelligence depicted four very powerful Soviet Fronts prepping to hit Army Groups North, Center, A, and B at once.
Rommel was in full retreat and now the Vichy might not let him into Tunisia.
While they were in the process of raising 50 new divisions, they would not be ready till mid summer next year. Nor would the new Panther Tankbe ready till then, it only just leaving prototype and now waiting on the retooling of existing factories and the Niebelgungwerke in Austria to come online.
Lastly, their transport fleet was taxed to the breaking point on the Ost Front keeping Stalingrad and Demyansk supplied due to the inadequate transport in the region. The engineers were still trying to get more rail capacity to Stalingrad and complete the Don-Volga Canal, but progress was hindered by the other capital projects the Reich was involved in.
Fuck, Wehrmacht Forces in Stalingrad were starving to death as they couldn't get enough proper food through. The Sixth Army lacked fuel for its 200 Panzers of which only 28 were in working order and 10,000 Trucks of which the vast majority were deadlined due to parts and fuel issues, and they lacked proper lubricating oil for their rifles. Even if ordered to pull back, they would out in the open with no protection and easy prey for the Soviet Tanks. At least in defensive positions they could hold till relieved.
D-Day +18 Hours
More Allied Forces land and move to establish a perimeter and link the beach heads together. The German response remains piecemeal with unsupported units running into ambushes and getting shot up. The German 333rd Division had ceased to exist, and the 6th Panzer Division was getting hit by the Allied Airpower to delay its deployment. 17th ID was facing strong US Armor Forces and could not make any headway.
The 7th German Army in Brittany had very few mobile units, the 17th ID and 6th PD were basically it. It would take a week at least for more substantial manpower to arrive. Germany knew all too well about the 15 British Divisions in Great Britain. If they reinforced this lodgement, they could not hold Brittany. If the Vichy French sided with the Allies, 1st Army would have to go south to keep the Vichy from opening their ports to the Allies and bringing its North Africa Army home to France.
The Germans had no good answers. Their Forces in France were units burnt out on the Ost Front, Static Divisions, and service troops. If they pulled units from the Ost Front it would quickly develop into a route. If they sent scratch forces against the Allies, they would be massacred.
The best they could do was block the shoulders, form an armored battlegroup under Rause using 6th and 10th PDs to block the center till the Vichy were settled and try to build up a powerful force to throw the Allies out of Brittany while also guarding against an Allied Landing in Normandy and Pas de Calaise, or even Southern France.
Far away in the Kremlin, Comrade Stalin smiled, joked with his staff, kissed several of them, slapped a few on their backs, shared vodka and tobacco from his own stocks. The Planets would soon converge with this Allied Second Front.
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Author's Note:All the time I have for this. Next update focuses on the formation of the lodgement right up to when Stalin launches his Planet Offensives a full seven days early, triggered by half the Luftwaffe being pulled from the Ost Front.