Part 87
Washington DC, November 18th 1941
Lend lease for Fighting France was officially approved, unofficially it was already being provided. President Roosevelt still was deeply and inexcusably suspicious of Charles De Gaulle but could hardly ignore Free France when it had over 130,000 men in the frontline and a sizeable fleet as well, a fleet that had been in the limelight for its role in the sinking of Bismarck...
Algiers, November 20th 1941
General Maxime Weygand was removed from his position as delegate general of French North Africa at German insistence, it was feared that Weygand might switch side should the Axis forces in Libya be defeated. The fear was likely overblown on the German part. It was true that Weygand was a proponent of attentisme, militarily preparing French North Africa to the extend he could, turning a blind eye to American activities there and coming out against the Paris protocols back in May. But at the same time he was enthusiastically applying or even exceeding Vichy anti-Jewish decrees, sending perceived opponents of the regime to concentration camps in the Sahara and agreeing to the sale of French heavy artillery and fuel to the Germans in Libya. In the end as long as Petain remained loyal to Germany, so would Weygand. General Alphonse Juin would replace him in command of the army in North Africa but not his political role.
Scotland, November 21st 1941
The No.318 and 319 Polish squadrons were activated, bringing the total number of Polish squadrons active with the RAF to 15. Two of these No. 303 and No.305 were operating alongside the British No. 30 and No. 80 squadrons in Greece, with the rest operating out of the British isles.
Libya, November 23rd 1941
The British had launched Operation Cavalier in hopes of destroying the Axis position in Libya. Massive effort had been made to gather the force together and provide sufficient supplies including the extension by New Zealand railway troops of the old Benghazi railroad, all the way to the front to the west and to Tobruk in west the New Zealanders managing to lay more than 3km of rail per day. But the previous few days had proven to say the least frustrating, despite advancing west. First the two armoured brigades supposed to spearhead the attack had been roughly handled by the Ariete and 15th Panzer divisions respectively. Then the British had lost hundreds of tanks, 200 alone in their attacks against the Ariete, Trieste and Savona divisions. And now Rommel counterattacked with both his panzer divisions and the XX Italian mobile corps with the Ariete and Trieste divisions hoping to knock out the attacking British and end the offensive for good.
Smyrna siege lines, November 25th 1941
A dozen 220mm guns and 8 mortars of the same calibre start pounding the Greek lines. The Germans could not for the time being provide much German made artillery. But captured French material was a different matter, as the Germans had captured thousands of guns the previous year. Already 30 155mm GPF heavy guns had been delivered and about 250 howitzers of all types had been promised for early 1942. [1] It was not the only aid, 2 more German divisions had just arrived in the Balkans. But where, were the reinforcements going? By December most roads in Eastern and Southern Turkey would be turning to mud, it was estimated that the time needed to move an infantry division through the country would go up from 1 week to 1 month...
Hittokapu Bay, Kurils, November 26th 1941
Six Japanese aircraft carriers and their escorts sailed east. War was not certain yet but was increasingly likely as Japan was completely unwilling to back down from her invasion of China or for that matter her occupation of Vietnam and the United States show no reason to bow down to Japanese aggression.
Libya, November 27th 1941
Over the past 4 days, the British had managed to beat back Rommel's counterattack and at Wavell's insistence had resumed the offensive. But the mess had cost general Cunningham, the commander of the British 8th army his position as Wavell after effectively taking personal command of the army during the counterattack and dismissing proposals to stop the offensive and retreat had rushed in general Richard O'Connor from Syria to take over the 8th Army. The British start advancing again...
Moscow, December 1st 1941
Over the previous 5 days the Soviets had halted Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army attacking north-east from Tula. Now it was the turn of the German forces in the Minsk-Moscow line to try their luck. In the meantime the temperature had fallen below minus 30 degrees Celsius. Fighting would range for 4 more days with German advance elements closing to within less than 20 km from Moscow. And then on December 5th 1.1 million Soviet troops would counterattack in the midst of snow-blizzards.
Singapore, December 2nd 1941
HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Hood and HMS Ark Royal entered to harbour. The Japanese would certainly take notice and hopefully restrain themselves before the empire's military might.
KEA factory, Athens, December 4th 1941
The last PZL.37 left the factory grounds. While pilots loved the aircraft the numbers it could be produced were insufficient and the allied air forces in the Near East were still hard pressed, the HAF was down to 171 aircraft from 356 back in February. The new Lynx fighter-bomber, loosely based upon the PZL.54 Rys planned before the fall of Poland, would be replacing it in the production lines.
Near Hawaii, December 7th 1941
Over 350 aircraft begun taking off from the decks of Japanese carriers...
[1] Where's this artillery coming from? Why there are some very disappointed Bulgarian artillery officers...
Lend lease for Fighting France was officially approved, unofficially it was already being provided. President Roosevelt still was deeply and inexcusably suspicious of Charles De Gaulle but could hardly ignore Free France when it had over 130,000 men in the frontline and a sizeable fleet as well, a fleet that had been in the limelight for its role in the sinking of Bismarck...
Algiers, November 20th 1941
General Maxime Weygand was removed from his position as delegate general of French North Africa at German insistence, it was feared that Weygand might switch side should the Axis forces in Libya be defeated. The fear was likely overblown on the German part. It was true that Weygand was a proponent of attentisme, militarily preparing French North Africa to the extend he could, turning a blind eye to American activities there and coming out against the Paris protocols back in May. But at the same time he was enthusiastically applying or even exceeding Vichy anti-Jewish decrees, sending perceived opponents of the regime to concentration camps in the Sahara and agreeing to the sale of French heavy artillery and fuel to the Germans in Libya. In the end as long as Petain remained loyal to Germany, so would Weygand. General Alphonse Juin would replace him in command of the army in North Africa but not his political role.
Scotland, November 21st 1941
The No.318 and 319 Polish squadrons were activated, bringing the total number of Polish squadrons active with the RAF to 15. Two of these No. 303 and No.305 were operating alongside the British No. 30 and No. 80 squadrons in Greece, with the rest operating out of the British isles.
Libya, November 23rd 1941
The British had launched Operation Cavalier in hopes of destroying the Axis position in Libya. Massive effort had been made to gather the force together and provide sufficient supplies including the extension by New Zealand railway troops of the old Benghazi railroad, all the way to the front to the west and to Tobruk in west the New Zealanders managing to lay more than 3km of rail per day. But the previous few days had proven to say the least frustrating, despite advancing west. First the two armoured brigades supposed to spearhead the attack had been roughly handled by the Ariete and 15th Panzer divisions respectively. Then the British had lost hundreds of tanks, 200 alone in their attacks against the Ariete, Trieste and Savona divisions. And now Rommel counterattacked with both his panzer divisions and the XX Italian mobile corps with the Ariete and Trieste divisions hoping to knock out the attacking British and end the offensive for good.
Smyrna siege lines, November 25th 1941
A dozen 220mm guns and 8 mortars of the same calibre start pounding the Greek lines. The Germans could not for the time being provide much German made artillery. But captured French material was a different matter, as the Germans had captured thousands of guns the previous year. Already 30 155mm GPF heavy guns had been delivered and about 250 howitzers of all types had been promised for early 1942. [1] It was not the only aid, 2 more German divisions had just arrived in the Balkans. But where, were the reinforcements going? By December most roads in Eastern and Southern Turkey would be turning to mud, it was estimated that the time needed to move an infantry division through the country would go up from 1 week to 1 month...
Hittokapu Bay, Kurils, November 26th 1941
Six Japanese aircraft carriers and their escorts sailed east. War was not certain yet but was increasingly likely as Japan was completely unwilling to back down from her invasion of China or for that matter her occupation of Vietnam and the United States show no reason to bow down to Japanese aggression.
Libya, November 27th 1941
Over the past 4 days, the British had managed to beat back Rommel's counterattack and at Wavell's insistence had resumed the offensive. But the mess had cost general Cunningham, the commander of the British 8th army his position as Wavell after effectively taking personal command of the army during the counterattack and dismissing proposals to stop the offensive and retreat had rushed in general Richard O'Connor from Syria to take over the 8th Army. The British start advancing again...
Moscow, December 1st 1941
Over the previous 5 days the Soviets had halted Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army attacking north-east from Tula. Now it was the turn of the German forces in the Minsk-Moscow line to try their luck. In the meantime the temperature had fallen below minus 30 degrees Celsius. Fighting would range for 4 more days with German advance elements closing to within less than 20 km from Moscow. And then on December 5th 1.1 million Soviet troops would counterattack in the midst of snow-blizzards.
Singapore, December 2nd 1941
HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Hood and HMS Ark Royal entered to harbour. The Japanese would certainly take notice and hopefully restrain themselves before the empire's military might.
KEA factory, Athens, December 4th 1941
The last PZL.37 left the factory grounds. While pilots loved the aircraft the numbers it could be produced were insufficient and the allied air forces in the Near East were still hard pressed, the HAF was down to 171 aircraft from 356 back in February. The new Lynx fighter-bomber, loosely based upon the PZL.54 Rys planned before the fall of Poland, would be replacing it in the production lines.
Near Hawaii, December 7th 1941
Over 350 aircraft begun taking off from the decks of Japanese carriers...
[1] Where's this artillery coming from? Why there are some very disappointed Bulgarian artillery officers...
