Sofia, Bulgaria, September 27th, 1942
A state funeral for Boris III, was held in St Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia, before his remains were moved to the Rila monastery to be interred. With his son Simeon still a minor a regency council had been set up, under Boris brother Cyril and prime minister Filov. Two hundred hostages held in the Eptapyrgion prison of Thessaloniki had been executed and reprisals had expanded from there in occupied Thrace and Macedonia. But the reprisals would not bring back Boris and alter the political instability his death was bringing to Bulgaria.
Peenemunde, Germany, October 3rd, 1942
The first A4 rocket rose to the air. Development work on liquid fuel rockets was not unique to Germany and Werner Von Braun A4's designer, Robert Goddard had pioneered the design of liquid fuel rockets and in the Soviet Union Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko, after their release from prison back in 1939 had plan and designs of their own, even though they could not really pursue them at the moment. But nothing matched in size and sophistication the A4 to date...
Bizerta, Tunisia, October 5th, 1942
Hans-Jürgen von Arnim handed over his sidearm to Alphonse Juin, who passed it over to an aide and went into captivity. Perhaps understandably not much love was being lost between the two men while the allies had not failed to make a point at the surrender, the first of a German major formation in the war, being given to a French general. Victory in Tunisia had not come cheaply to the allies the British, French and Americans had lost over 45,000 men in the drive to Tunis and Bizerta alone. But the Germans and Italians had lost over 150,000 men including prisoners of war....
South-Eastern Anatolia, October 7th, 1942
Ten divisions of the British 9th Army and the French Armee d' Orient sprang to the attack. This time Slim and De Lattre were much more confident of victory. Between them they had over 243,000 men available. According to available intelligence the Turks and Germans opposite them had more men, some 343,000 overall but many of them were tied down protecting their lines of communication against a mounting Kurdish insurgency, Lawrence talents and liberal application of gold sovereigns by his SOE agents were bringing results, while yet more were tied down to keep the fighting units in supply, both the Turks and Germans had for the most part to rely on animal transport beyond the railroad. Then the allies had nearly 800 tanks available, including newly delivered Sherman tanks and Centaur II's with the new 6 pounder gun when the defender had left than a dozen LT-35 tanks surviving from 1941.
Leninakan, Armenia, October 9th, 1942
Turkish, German and Italian artillery start raining once more on the city as Fahrettin Altay's 3rd army resumed the offensive. It had taken nearly 6 weeks to sufficiently rebuild Turkish supply lines and bring forward enough reinforcements to make an offensive viable, Fahrettin had available nearly 335,000 men and 130 tanks of the Italian Centauro division. But Triandafilov's Transcaucasus front had received reinforcements of his own, with three rifle divisions and two armoured brigades with 130 T-34 tanks joining his forces, his 15 divisions had over 196,000 men and 500 tanks available. And while coordination with the Iranians remained problematic, by now the Iranian army counted another 49,000 men in the front...
Off Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal, October 11th, 1942
USS Boise opened up on the Japanese cruisers. Moments later three more US cruisers would join the battle. The surprised Japanese would lose a heavy cruiser and three destroyers with another heavy cruiser heavily damaged, the Americans would lose a destroyer with two of their cruisers damaged.
Piraeus, October 12th, 1942
The ocean liner Patris had been laid down for the "National Steam Navigation company" of the Empeirikos brothers back in 1933, to replace the older Megali Hellas. Both ocean liners as well as the Ionia of the rival Greek line of the Goulandris brothers had been pressed to service as troopships participating in the liberation of the Dodecanese and carrying troops and supplies between Piraeus and Alexandria and Piraeus and Smyrna. But today Patris was coming home to Piraeus from a different route. The US 26th Regimental Combat team had sailed from Britain to Algiers. From Algiers it had been taken by train to Tripoli where Patris under heavy escort waited to take it to Piraeus. The five thousand Americans, the first large US combat unit to reach Greece would parade through the streets of Pireaus before settling to the barracks of the Greek 34th Infantry Regiment for the night. The luckier ones would be getting furlough the same night...
