17 March 1954
AANW 1
The St. Patrick Day Raids begins with the first formation detected by a B-36 operating out of Keflavik USAAF base in Iceland. Air base and anti-aircraft unit commanders are authorised to deploy the most secret of systems available to the Allies at their individual discretion.
At 08:00 hours, Major Ed Williams made his radar intercept of Flight 12, consisting of 37 Ju-688 bombers, 350 miles (563 km) northeast of Boston. Williams then launched one of his two AIR-2 Genie rockets in the direction of Flight 12, marking the first combat use of a nuclear weapon. 24 of the bombers in Flight 12 were instantly obliterated within the 1000 foot (305 m) kill radius. The remaining 13 aircraft survived the initial blast, only to lose control and spiral into the Atlantic due to pilots and crewman experiencing vision loss and permanent blindness.
Between 08:10 and 09:00 hours, 6 additional Genies were fired at 5 Luftwaffe formations with nearly identical results, ushering the dawn of the nuclear age in the most spectacular manner. Still, 2 German formations remain.
Flight 7, the second of 2 formations targeting Washington DC, was not intercepted until it was only 35 miles (56 km) off the Maryland Coast. Deemed too close to use a nuclear weapon, they were instead intercepted by 2 squadrons of F-94 Starfires and a squadron of F-84F Thunderstreaks. Despite the best efforts of the 3 squadrons to eliminate the formation, 5 of the Ju-688s made it to the Washington DC area. 2 were killed by Nike SAM before they could drop their bombs, but 3 managed to drop their bombs on the outskirts of the American Capital in Georgetown, killing nearly 200 civilians. None of the Ju-688s made it back to open water before being blotted from the sky.
Flight 5 was the only Luftwaffe formation to manage anything close to a coordinated attack, managing to get through the initial radar barrier undetected. Less than 200 miles (322 km) from New York City, Flight 12 is finally located and attracts the attention of no less than 12 fighter squadrons, flying everything from elderly P-51s, 9 early model F-100 Super Sabers and F-9 Cougar fighters. Only 8 of the German bombers made it within sight of New York City, with 6 of them managing to make a successful bombing run over central Manhattan, while a 7th aircraft crashed in lower Manhattan. Some 18,000 pounds (8165 kg) of bombs struck Midtown, causing serious damage and claiming over 800 lives, all but 26 of them civilians. All remaining Ju-688 would suffer the same fate as Flight 7.
To put 36 bombs onto Manhattan, and an additional 18 bombs into Georgetown the Reich had expended 378 aircraft and over 4000 men.
AANW 1
Radar stations along the English coast watched the Luftwaffe formations form up at almost the same moment as Flight 7 was meeting its fate off the Maryland coast. Without the luxury of time or distance to intercept the enemy hundreds of miles out to sea, no Genie rockets with nuclear warheads to swat the enemy from the skies over the vastness of the open ocean, the British defenders didn’t have the advantage of attacking unescorted 400 mph (644 km/h) bombers with 700 mph (1127 km/h) fighters. Fighting was done at knife-fighting distances as close to 2400 aircraft struggled for the upper hand. London was heavily damaged as several hundred bombers struck the British capital in the heaviest raid against the City since January 1946. By the time the last Luftwaffe aircraft retreated behind the flak curtain along the French coast, almost 9 hours had passed. The toll, both in damage and in aircraft was enormous. RAF and USAAF fighters claimed 228 kills, AAA crews claimed an additional 306 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down while the RAF had lost 56 fighters along with 19 American aircraft lost.
After (Warm War to Hot)
AANW 1
Even before the last German pilot had been debriefed, Washington and London had made a joint decision to end things in the only way that was certain to work. Europe would have to be invaded, the Reich met and utterly defeated in the field, triggering the move from Warm War to Hot.
AANW 1
The 1945 HMS Premier Quail Shoot becomes public knowledge. Captain Evans was awarded his richly deserved and long overdue Victoria Cross in the public relations effort following the St. Patrick’s Day Raids.
AANW 2
The British demanded the deployment of nuclear weapons against several German population centres while the U.S. was equally resistant to revealing the secret and possible existence of the Bomb. None of the decision makers believed that the destruction of even a dozen German cities would end the war, the Nazi state was otherwise too structurally sound for them to crumble that quickly, and enough of the Reich’s production was scattered across the rest of the continent that to ensure crippling the German economy would require deploying nuclear weapons across Western Europe, killing millions of innocent forced labourers in France, Norway, the Low Countries, and the rest of “Greater Germany”. In the end, British heads cooled enough to stand down the 6 Vulcans that had already been bombed up and were waiting for final release.
AANW 2
The "public" reaction of the Nazi leadership to the St. Patrick’s Day raid was euphoric, with “spontaneous” street celebrations by residents of every city in Greater Germany and the rest of occupied Europe demonstrated the joy of both the Volk and even of the lesser peoples. However, personal journals and diaries kept by residents of the occupied nations and in Germany indicate that the true feelings about the raids were horror and terror. Unlike the Nazi High Command, the average person in the street knew that there would be payment exacted for the Luftwaffe successes, payment that they and their loved ones would make in blood.
AANW 30
U.S. takes control of the Reich enclave surrounding Vladivostok (now the capital of West Alaska). The Americans rapidly transformed the region around Vladivostok and would continue developing it for strategic and cultural purposes.
18 March 1954
AANW 3
The day after the attacks, recruiting stations from Labrador, Canada to Queensland, Australia were deluged by volunteers. This included those in both the UK and the United States, despite the reality that close to 75% of all eligible males in both countries would eventually find themselves conscripted into some level of military service in their lifetime. Recruiters spent nearly as much time shooing away minors (including famously, an entire 8th Grade Class in Fredericksburg, Virginia) as processing applications by eligible volunteers. Reserve units were inundated by members showing up without orders while factories across the Allied nations began to close down production of civilian products in anticipation of mobilisation.
19 March 1954
AANW 2
The House of Commons vote unanimously to bring in Winston Churchill as the Prime Minister, with Her Majesty accepting their recommendation. Churchill headed a National Unity Government until the end of the war.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...war-the-on-going-mystery.480517/post-23650381
20 March 1954
AANW 2
The Fw-688 long range bomber force, built up over 5 years of effort, were in a military sense, obliterated. Out of an original force of 654 aircraft, only 19 flyable aircraft were available for action. Instead of the anger that one would reasonably expect to be directed at Luftwaffe chief Goring for the loss of an entire arm of his service, Hitler showered his Reich Minister of Aviation with honours for “breaking the will of the American people” and for “proving, once and for all time”, the superiority of German arms.
?? Before April 1954
AANW 3
Once the British government had been dissuaded from its initial nuclear demands, Operation Aries was rapidly accepted by the American civilian leadership, over the objections of senior USAAF planners who felt the losses would be excessive. Operation Roundhand, which had been the USAAF proposal, was also adopted, but in combination with Aries. Operation Aries was a combination of different existing attack plans from the FAA, RAF, USN, and USAAF, combined into a massive Blitz against Occupied Europe and Germany itself. Launched from air bases ranging from Iceland to Northern Iran to carriers in the Mediterranean, it involved nearly 1700 aircraft and close to 50,000 men including ground crews.
?? April 1954
AANW 3
Operation Aries began with RAF and USAAF bombers escorted by high performance American F-88G jet fighters striking the Kreigsmarine bases near Sevastopol and Odessa. Luftwaffe Me-262E Swallow fighters attempted to engage the faster, far more manoeuvrable American F-88G escorts, but were virtually helpless as their primary weapons proved to be unable to maintain track on the F-88Gs that were actually faster than the missiles themselves. The 36 RAF Lincolns attacking Sevastopol and 23 USAAF B-36Gs attacking Odessa then launched over 200 ASM-N-4 missiles. The 650 mph (1046 km/h) active radar guided missiles proved to be nearly impossible for the Luftwaffe anti-aircraft units to engage, especially over Odessa as the departing B-36 launching aircraft each disgorged 6 tons of aluminium foil “window” that reduced radar performance to near zero. The early ASM-N-4 cruise missiles, unfortunately, did not perform quite as well as intended as only a total of 9 ships were sunk, with 3 more damaged, along with some substantial, although unintended, damage to various shore facilities. Tragically, nearly 1/3 of the total missiles fired missed the harbours completely and instead struck the surrounding civilian areas with predictable results.
AANW 4
At the same time as the Sevastopol and Odessa raids, Allied attacks against French targets were launched within moments of the time that the first bombers left the ground in Northern Iran. Due to differences in the distances involved, the French attacks arrived first and were made against far more robust defences than those in the Crimea and Ukraine. Attacks by FAA and USN carrier aircraft against Marseille and Toulon did considerable damage to port facilities and shipping found in the ports, mostly freighters, but at relatively high cost, with total U.S. losses of 32 aircraft and FAA losses of over 40. Attacks by North African based B-47 bombers against rail yards in southern France were more successful, as both Vichy and Luftwaffe defences proved to be unable to deal with the remarkably fast Boeing aircraft attacking from low altitude. Similar success resulted from high altitude RAF English Electric Canberra strikes against French defensive positions on Sicily and Norwegian troops based in Sardinia. The initial attacks against targets in Western France were also successful, although less so than those conducted against the South of France and on other targets in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions.
8 May 1954
AANW 4
The Allies launched a 3 pronged attack against the Continent, as well as numerous fighter bomber strikes against defensive fortifications along the Channel coast. 2 of the attacks, one American and the other Canadian, were specifically designed to act as decoys to draw off Luftwaffe assets from interfering with the main RAF strike against the Hamburg docks and rail yards. The American attack, against railway yards just to the west of the Rhine, was made by 52 B-47 bombers escorted by 163 F-88 Voodoo fighters (nearly every Voodoo in England at the time) while the Canadian raid on munitions works outside of Nancy in northeastern France consisted of 46 Canberra bombers with 135 Saber Mk. 5 fighters as escorts. The 2 diversionary strikes manages to draw nearly 600 enemy fighters to them. The RAF strike, almost 100 Valiants, with Hawker Hunter fighters as escorts, along with a squadron of RCAF Saber V were intercepted by German Me-262 and He-162 fighters hitting the formation over the North Sea from bases in Southern Norway. The attacks continued as the formation continued east, with the result that the bomber formation had only the Sabers left as escort when they reached Hamburg. Damage to the Hamburg docks was light, while the raid against the marshalling yards did only moderate damage while causing considerable damage to civilian residential areas.
?? After 8 May 1954
AANW 4
The Germans retaliate against the RAF strike in Hamburg with the launch of nearly 100 A-9 rockets on the first day against the UK, beginning the Rocket Blitz. The air battles of 8 May 1954 established the pattern of the following 6 months of the war; Allied airstrikes, met by Luftwaffe fighters, with A-9 attacks as retaliation.
After June 1954
AANW 4
Luftwaffe bomber attacks against Britain more or less stop due to the ghastly losses inflicted by Allied air defences. However, A-9 rockets continue striking Britain with no foreseeable way to defend against them.
?? November 1954
AANW 4
The Allies destroy the A-9 manufacturing and development complex in Syktyvkar, ending the Rocket Blitz.
Before 15 May 1955
AANW 5
The Allies devises a plan to draw the Kriegsmarine into a major fleet action with the ultimate goal of destroying them. This was to ensure they did not interfere in any of the amphibious landings that were going to be necessary to reclaim the Continent from the Reich. Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder had no desire to meet the Allies in any sort of open water engagement, knowing that the Allied superior firepower and size would overwhelm and defeat them. Unfortunately for the Kriegsmarine, Hitler, not Raeder, was the force’s Commander-in Chief.
15 May 1955
AANW 5
Hitler makes the decision to replace the slot of Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder with an SS officer. This was after Raeder attempted to convince Hitler the dangers of attacking the Allied naval forces, which were many times bigger and superior than the Kriegsmarine.
26 June 1955
AANW 5
The Battle of Iceland takes place exactly 6 weeks after Raeder’s replacement. In a 60 hour period, 2 American Carrier Battle Groups provided a primer on the use of carrier forces to destroy enemy assets. Only 1 Kriegsmarine strike, from the Peter Strasser, was even able to launch before nearly 600 American naval aircraft descended on the Reich fleet, swept aside the 25 aircraft Combat Air Patrol, and tore the 3 Kriegsmarine carriers to bits.
28 June 1955
AANW 5
Battle of Iceland ends in Allied victory after 2 and a half days. The German ships were wiped without mercy, the attacks only ending when 3 surviving destroyers, packed with nearly 1100 survivors from other sinkings, reached friendly air cover near Bergen, Norway. Total U.S. losses were 162, mostly crewmen from the USS O’Brien which was sunk by a U-boat while on duty as an outer radar picket and plane guard. Total Kriegsmarine losses, including MIA, have never been fully recorded but are known to exceed 20,000.
Early 1956
AANW 18
The Baker-Nunn photographic system, with its 25” detail resolution from 72,000’, makes its debut on Allied reconnaissance aircraft.
1956
AANW 12
1st Special Service Force unit is created
?? May 1956
AANW 6
Operation Otter began with a 16 hour bombardment of the landing beaches of Sardinia by the USN, followed by the landing of the USMC. The local Waffen SS commander made the error of deploying his 2 battalions in penny packets to all 5 landing sites rather than holding the forces in reserve to make a coordinated counter attack. Those 5 Panzers, along with virtually all of their brethren were destroyed, mostly by naval gunfire and air attack, along with their crews and most of the SS force on the island.
AANW 6
Operation Rover began with the successful landing of joint U.S. and British forces in Sicily, thanks to a failure of the Abwehr (Military Intellegence) to deduce the destination of the invasion force. The same day that the Allied forces landed on the Southern coast of Sicily, Gestapo records indicate that the entire leadership of the Abwehr was placed under arrest. Despite the element of surprise, the Italian defenders fought back with unexpected ferocity and remarkable success. Of the 5 main landing sites, 4 were effectively stopped up by the end of the first day. Hours after the Allied landing, a Regia Marina submarine penetrated the defensive screen of the USS Saratoga and put 5 torpedoes into her hull. Despite the best efforts of her crew and those of her escorts, the “Sara” sank while under tow to Alexandria, Egypt.
AANW 6
In retaliation for the loss of the USS Saratago, the commander of Carrier Battle Group 9 made the first combat deployment of the BLU-9 fuel-air weapon less than 2 days after the ship’s loss. The utter destruction of the Waffen SS armoured reserve regiment on Sicily, along with nearly 5000 troops by a dozen AD-1 aircraft in under 15 minutes sent shudders up the entire Nazi Chain of Command clear to the Furher’s bedroom. The first serious heli-borne air assault was made by the 82nd “Air Mobile” division which effectively cut off the retreat of nearly 2/3 of the SS and Italian troops on the island.
?? June 1956
AANW 6
Operation Otter ends with USMC forces taking less than 800 total casualties in taking all of Sardinia, while capturing the island in less than a month.
?? After June 1956
AANW 6
?? The capture of Corsica takes place
AANW 6
With the capture of Sicily, along with Sardinia and Corsica, the Reich command knew that the Allies were going to invade Europe via the “Southern Route” of Italy and perhaps the Balkans, and began to move forces from across the continent to meet the threat.
?? By November 1956
AANW 5
2 years after the destruction of the Syktyvkar complex, Anglo-American forces had gained air superiority in the skies above Greater Germany, although the struggle for skies over Inner Germany (the pre-war German nation and pre-war Austria) remained unresolved even longer.
?? 1957
AANW 7
With the end of the threat from the Reich's surface fleet, naval construction of anything except landing boats and their larger cousins, the LST, virtually stopped, with the material, welders and other craftsmen & women shunted to armoured vehicle construction. The results of this effort were the M47 Sheridan and the M92 Chamberlain.
AANW 7
While the Allies were rebuilding their armoured formations, the Italian Peninsula was the site of a series of raids (if the landing of a rump division, can be termed a raid) by American and British forces that literally drove the Nazi leadership to distraction. Convinced that the Allied attacks were probes looking for a place to land massive numbers of troops, the SS High Command and Luftwaffe moved increasing numbers of irreplaceable units into Italy where they were exposed to devastating air and naval attacks.
AANW 18
The Allies manage to disable or destroy virtually every Luftwaffe reconnaissance mission. Each attempted intercept of Allied aircraft such as the U-2 and the Canberra PR.6/7 cost the Luftwaffe an average of 3 interceptor aircraft.
May 1957
Stalemate 1
General Vasily Chuikov, commander of the defence of Stalingrad dies of pneumonia, according to surviving Waffen SS records
?? November 1957
AANW 7
The famed Anzio landings commences with the 3rd Marine Division being airdropped into the village of Anzio, 32 miles (51 km) south from Rome. The Marine landing, and the initial drive inland of nearly 8 miles (13 km), to a position where Marine artillery observers and self-propelled (SP) guns were able to dominate the entire region gave every impression of being a long awaited main Allied attack. The resulting SS reaction force was correspondingly large, a full 2 divisions of SS armour and close to 4 divisions of Italian mechanised forces (the mechanised elements of almost every division the Italian Army had on the Peninsula. While the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica made a serious effort to attack the American lodgment, the Allies had moved nearly 1000 fighter and fighter bomber aircraft to Sardinia, Sicily, and North Africa with the specific goal of gutting the Axis air power on the Italian Peninsula permanently. Once shorn of air cover, the Axis armoured formations were savaged by artillery fire, including naval gunfire support from HMS Warspite and the American battleships USS North Carolina and USS Washington.
?? December 1957
AANW 7
Some 6 weeks after their landing, 3rd Marine Division made a orderly withdrawal from the Anzio area, with the final forces, mainly artillery observers and their security teams, being evacuated by helicopters. In the month and a half engagement, the 3rd Marine Division, primarily the 12th Marines, suffered 850 total casualties, including 357 KIA while the SS and attached Italian units lost nearly 17,000 “unrecoverable losses” and suffered the destruction of 1,100 tanks and armoured vehicles. Anzio was the last warm up for the main event, the Allied re-entry into the Continent.
?? December 1957 to 16 June 1958
AANW 7
Following the Anzio raids, the Axis proceeded to build 4 different, extremely strong, defensive positions that ran the width of the Italian Peninsula in the 6 months between the withdrawal of the 3rd Marine Division and D-Day.
January 1958
AANW 38
The Fieseler Company’s Ukrainian factory (and most of Fieseler’s design staff) is destroyed by a B-52 attack. Before the attack, the factory managed to manufacture 16 Fi 362 cruise missiles for the Lufftwaffe.
AANW 48
An American B-36 receives battle damage and lands in the rump Soviet capital of Krasnoyarsk.
?? Before 7 February 1958
AANW 8
The Allies take advantage of the remarkably predictable way that the Waffen SS reacted. The amphibious raids, even those that were, to the Allies, serious failures, allowed the Allies to build a book on what the Reich’s reaction would be to any effort to enter the Continent. The Waffen SS had a notably inflexible tactical playbook, one that the Party Leadership had preached as being THE REASON that even the somewhat decedent Heer had been able to defeat the Soviets “with ease” (left unsaid were the million plus casualties suffered by the Heer and Reich Allies in defeating and destroying the Red Army). Drawing on the raw resources of 5 continents and nearly 80% of the Global manufacturing capacity, the Allies devise what the Command and General Staff College (CGCS) dubbed “False Peak” (a term borrowed from mountaineering).
AANW 34
The average Reich citizen enjoys a remarkably high standard of living. Even the average American family did not enjoy the leisure time, easy work life, and buying power that were common across Inner Germany. This life was surprisingly uninterrupted by the reigniting of the Hot War, at least for the first 2 years.
?? 7 February 1958
AANW 8
The start of the False Peak operations began in the early morning with 346 B-36 bombers conducting what was the heaviest single air raid at the time on the beach fortifications south of the Port of Calais in northern France. These attacks were followed by fighter-bomber strikes, including the first serious use of napalm against other critical positions. No less than 12 battleships (4 RN, 8 USN) then opened fire on the already shattered coastline with 14”, 15”, and 16” gunfire, soon joined by 17 cruisers and 22 destroyers.
SS observers who had survived the initial hail of shells reported that there were many “landing ships” approaching the beaches. Believing that a large scale landing was imminent, the Reich leadership was brought to full alert and ordered that all heavy guns, including those that had been carefully hidden, be ordered to fire, all possible aircraft be launched, and most critically that 3 SS divisions be moved from within Germany to the landing zone.
When the heavy shore batteries opened fire, revealing their positions, the Allied fighters deployed “Big Tim” rockets over the smoking defences in attempts to put rockets directly into the heavy gun bunkers. As the Allied fighters worked the defences over it rapidly became clear to gun crews that to fire was to die by explosive if fortunate or by fire if unlucky.
As the Reich attack aircraft headed to Pas de Calais, they found themselves overwhelmed by nearly 600 FAA and USN fighters, particularly the all-conquering F8, joined by USAF and RAF aircraft (including the combat debut of the famed English Electric Lightning), resulting in the “Calais Quail Shoot”. At a cost of 38 aircraft lost and 67 damaged the combined Allied forces virtually annihilated the Luftwaffe’s jet fighter force in France. The Nazi air force would never again mount a serious challenge to Allied dominance of French airspace. Throughout the night the Western navies continued to pound on the Calais defences increasing the sense of urgency among SS commanders to get mobile forces into position.
?? 8 February 1958
AANW 8
By dawn, 2 divisions were moving from bases within France while 3 more had completed loading and were making their way into France from Germany by rail. As the sun set, the “amphibious ships” observed by the SS the previous day suddenly made a sprint towards the beach. These ships were actually LST-R (Landing Ship Tank – Rocket), converted to carry almost 300 210mm or 200 240mm rockets. As the ships reached within 3500 yards (3.2 km) of the beach they seemed to suddenly burst into flame, flames that then rushed toward the beach defences. In the zones struck by the rockets, almost nothing remained recognisable so thorough was the destruction. Vehicle losses exceeded 80% in the case of the 36th SS Panzer and were over 60% across the board, while the Waffen SS divisions caught on the rails suffered nearly 50% casualties in killed and wounded. Losses suffered by 14th SS Panzer and SS Das Reich during their march are more difficult to determine, simply because the 2 units were reconstituted completely afterwards.
?? 9 February 1958
AANW 8
The surviving remnants of 14th SS and Das Reich reached the beaches before dawn. When they arrived, all they found was smoke, rubble, shell-shocked conscripts, and seagulls. The Allied ships were all gone. False Peak had begun.
?? After 9 February 1958
AANW 8
A False Peak operation takes place in Nice.
The Allies had hoped that the False Peak operations would work once, maybe even twice. They had believed that the German military would wise up to what was happening after only a couple of feints. There is some documentation that Kriegsmarine officers who had survived both the purge of senior professional naval officers AND the destruction of the German Navy started to urge changes in tactics in the immediate aftermath of Calais and that the few remaining Heer senior officers joined them after the Nice operation, but it is clear that the Nazi leaders never accepted that the Allies were leaving voluntarily (this belief was immeasurably aided by the loss of the battle cruiser USS Guam, with heavy loss of life, to Luftwaffe ASM guided missiles during the Nice operation). According to the personal papers of Erich von Manstein (perhaps the best Heer Officer remaining in a senior command position in 1957), the SS only stopped reacting with massive troop movements when the Reich ran out of rolling stock and sufficient undamaged rail trackage to move multiple armoured divisions simultaneously.
AANW 34
False Peak strikes on rail transport result in more German civilian deaths, not to mention the massive increase in Waffen SS casualties. For the first time sine 1943, wounded young men, many with missing limbs, became a common sight in German cities. Most male students were mustered into the Waffen SS within days of leaving secondary school. The reality of the war was also brought home as men who had completed their compulsory terms were recalled to duty.
?? Before March 1958
AANW 9
The Allied command decide to deploy the Philippine Scouts in the exact role that it had been sent to fill. Terrify and strike fear into the enemy. Led by then 27 year old Captain and future President of the Philippines, Eduardo Aquino, the Philippines Scout Company provided the Allies with a fearless, utterly ruthless, unit of Raiders. In under 6 months Aquino’s men, along with several groups of Alamo Scouts, achieved exactly that goal.
Another unit known as the S.O.E. (Special Operations Groups) would also participate in the mission with the Scouts. The S.O.E., while including American and British operatives, was mainly comprised of personnel from French Indochina (primarily today’s Viet Nam). Together, with support from both the American and British, they formed what became the Viet Minh.
?? March 1958 to 15 September 1958
AANW 9
Alamo and Philippine Scout units are air dropped into Normandy and Brittany to make the night unsafe for enemy troops. The Nazis initial reaction, to order reprisals against the local civilians, which had been extremely effective in the past when dealing with local resistance, was an utter failure against the Allied units (one favoured tactic was to actually wait for the SS units to be sent out to gather hostages and then ambush the Waffen units an the way to town). When the SS reacted to these ambushes by sending out larger formations, the Scouts would then call in air strikes on the large columns. Within months SS and Gestapo personnel virtually disappeared from many of the villages of Western France and in the gap created by the absence of Nazi troops, the Viet Minh were then sent in by the Allies. 6 to 10 man (and woman) teams were inserted, mainly by parachute, to build a Resistance infrastructure out of what little was left from the groups that had fought the Reich in 1941 and lost. While the efforts of the Viet Minh were hampered by both French and Nazi authorities, it is without question that they were a driving force in the Lyon Rebellion and in the prevention of the destruction of Port facilities elsewhere in France, including the Contentin Peninsula (Operation Maverick).
By 27 April 1958
AANW 10
it is worth considering the enormity of the overall Fortress Europe operation.
27 April 1958
AANW 11
Operation Thorn Bush began late in the evening with the largest airborne drop since Operation Spider (the failed attempt to save the USSR from defeat in 1943 by attacking the Channel Islands). The U.S. 101st Airborne division is air dropped into the areas surrounding the main air assault goal of Bergen airfield in southern Norway followed by the Canadian/U.S. 1st Special Service Force onto the air field itself some 20 minutes later. The airborne landing was an utter shock to the SS commander for Southern Norway.
28 April 1958
AANW 11
Supported by USAF B-26 medium bombers/gunships and USN carrier launched Skyknight night fighters, the Canadian/U.S. 1st Special Service Force took the airbase by 01:30 hours and hand cleared the runways within 40 minutes of securing the base. The first RCAF C-124 landed at 03:55 with a cargo of two Ontas anti-tank vehicles. Additional aircraft, including the first combat deployments of the famed C-130 Hercules, carrying additional heavy weapons and vehicles landed every 15 minutes for the rest of the night despite growing defensive AAA. By dawn, the airbase had been reinforced by some 25 anti-tank vehicles and had received 23 75mm howitzers and 30 120mm mortars to supplement the 60mm and 81mm mortars of the initial airborne forces.
The defences near Bergen had been one of the False Peak targets. Nearly 700 B-29s made bombing runs against a 20 kilometre long portion of the beach fortifications moving parallel to the beaches to minimise the chances of friendly casualties. Naval gunfire soon followed, which the Allies had allocated 6 fast battleships (the American Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana & Montana and the HMS Lion), 9 cruisers, and 35 destroyers to the gunfire support mission with the stated goal of “chewing through all that cement down to the bedrock underneath”. As the conventional gunships ceased firing, nearly 70 assembled LST-R and LCT-R started making their way toward the beach, followed closely by the first wave of amtracks (amphibious tractors, properly known as LVT-4 & LVT-5, these vehicles were the direct successor to those used by the USMC starting in 1943) carrying men from the 2nd & 3rd Battalion and 2nd Marines. Soon after they appeared, defensive fire began to reach out from the seemingly shredded fortifications, prompting hundreds of aircraft to move in with Tiny Tim rockets, napalm, gunfire and jellied gasoline. With the defenders mainly stunned by the ferocity of the bombardment, most of the first wave made it to the beach, with only 12 of the initial 115 amtracks being hit. As their human cargo dove for cover, the amtracks crabbed around and headed back for their next load of men. Once ashore the Marines slowly pushed forward with their objective of reducing the strong point with support fire if possible, with grenade, satchel charge, and rifle fire if necessary. Move forward and repeat, ignoring losses as you advance.
As men died for inches along the shoreline, the 29th and 43rd SS Panzer were moving to relieve the beach defenders. SS doctrine was clear; stop the invader at the water’s edge and drive them back into the sea. The pounding of the SS divisions started as soon as it was fully light and their columns were found by searching aircraft. Soon nearly 200 fighter bombers from the Allied carriers were overhead patiently awaiting their turn to attack the advancing Nazis. What few Luftwaffe and Norwegian fighters lifted off to attack the Allied fighter-bombers were intercepted by Combat Air Patrol aircraft well before they could interfere. In short order 36 of the 41 operational Me-262 available to the Luftwaffe were either destroyed or grounded with battle damage, without having the least impact on the battle.
Working in flights of 4 and armed with as many as 20 heavy machine guns on each aircraft, the A-26 and B-26 twin engine tore the trucks and personnel carriers of the Panzer divisions to pieces while the armoured units found themselves the victim of rocket driven 500 pound SAP bombs. The 29th SS Panzer found itself cut off and was virtually obliterated in waves of rocket fire, cannons and pools of napalm.
Despite huge losses, the 43rd SS Panzer had reached within 4 miles (6.4 km) of the inner edge of the fortification belt when the air attacks stopped. Without understanding what was happening, the 43rd SS Panzer had been herded from one road to another, constantly under air attack until it had reached Map Reference #627, one of 5 reference points designated as a death-trap along the possible access corridors to the beachhead. As the column reached the designated point, the USS Louisiana, followed some 45 seconds later by her sister USS Montana, unleashed her 12 gun broadside toward Reference #627. Each ship fired 26 broadsides, a total of 312 rounds from each ship, before training their guns in and piping half of each gun crew to chow. In less than 15 minutes, the 43rd SS Panzer had been reduced to 3 operational tanks.
AANW 11
At 14:36 hours local time the first probing units of 2nd Marines encountered the forward listening posts of the 101st Airborne. This was 2 hours and 24 minutes ahead of schedule.
29 April 1958
AANW 11
Operation Thorn Bush ended with the first tanks of the Australian 7th Division clanked up to the 1st Special Service Force main perimeter at 06:40. The Allies first step back into Europe was complete.
After 29 April 1958
AANW 12
The Allied prolonged bombing campaign against rail and road networks during False Peak operations dealt heavy blows to the Waffen SS and its rapid response capacity.
Before 2 May 1958
AANW 12
The Allies had, until Thorn Bush, believed that the conscript armies, especially the fortress troops that “supported” the SS forces would turn on their Nazi commanders at the first opportunity. Instead the French troops who comprised the majority of the National forces deployed by the Reich in Norway fought like banshees and refused to surrender even after being cut off.
2 May 1958
AANW 12
Within 72 hours of the Thorn Bush landings, Allied troops were instructed that “anyone in a different uniform, or who doesn’t do exactly what you tell them to do should be considered to be a dedicated Nazi”.
2 May to 16 June 1958
Hoping to follow Operation Thorn Bush with Operation Gravel within a matter of days, the Allies were instead hindered by the weather over the Continent, which caused several lengthy delays due to the need for good bombing weather and good sea states. The delay both aided the Allies and caused them difficulties.
The revelation that the conscripted European forces would defend their positions with considerable ferocity was a rude shock to Gravel’s planners who had expected, and counted on, the conscripts to resist as little as possible.
Allied air and naval forces continued to maraud along the edges of Fortress Europe. Bombing was often done by radar, or with the assistance of pathfinders who would mark targets for the following bomber formations. The Reich had built so many defences, over so large an area that nearly any bomb dropped along the coast that missed water was likely to hit some sort of defensive fortification. To maximise the effectiveness of their very heavy bombers, the Allies adopted a version of the “bomber cell” attack formation; the bombers would fly in formations consisting of 5 or 6 aircraft. These formations were found to be especially useful in the case of the RAF Victor, with its 35,000 pound bomb load and the USAF B-36 (65,000 pounds) and B-52 (45,000 pounds), while the smaller, although still substantial, ~20,000 bomb load of the Vulcan, Valiant, and B-47, seemed to be best deployed in slightly larger 10-12 aircraft groups.
The older, pure piston engine B-29 and Avro Lincoln were mainly used in mass attacks inside France where they targeted the remnants of the rail network, with special attention given to sections that photo reconnaissance missions indicated were under active repair. These larger formations were always heavily escorted due to the far greater vulnerability of the 1940 era designs.
The USN, RAAN, RCAN, and RN spent the time preceding the Gravel landings pounding enemy defensive positions. Despite some surprisingly vigorous return fire, the fleets made the most of the extra time the weather had provided them. In all, 5 of the False Peak sites were revisited by the fleet and 7 by at least one bombing raid.
Allied records indicate that in the period between Thorn Bush and Operation Gravel, the Allied air forces dropped nearly 7,000,000 pounds (3175 metric tons) of explosives in what amounted to tactical missions. Overall losses on these missions were quite low, with only around 4% of the newer jet bombers being lost and a higher, but still acceptable 6.5% loss rate for the older aircraft
1 June 1958
AANW 16
16,000 Pan-European troops, of all nationalities and services, are assigned to the Red Beach sector.
Before 16 June 1958
AANW 14
The Allies chose the area just north of Calais and to the north and south of Dunkirk for the primary landings of Operation Gravel. The initial assault waves would land on 6 beaches with the code names (going from North to South): Red, Green, Blue, Archer, Spear, and Rail.
- Red Beach located to the north of Dunkirk (2nd and 4th Marine Divisions, 3rd Armoured division)
- Green Beach also located to the north of Dunkirk (6th Marine Division, 1st and 29th Infantry divisions, 5th Armoured Brigade)
- Blue (2nd Canadian, 5th Australian Infantry and 8th Australian Armoured)
- Archer (3rd Canadian Armoured, 1st South African, 4th Indian Sikh) were “Commonwealth” beaches with Blue drawing stores with the American units and Archer sharing supply trains with the British.
- Spear (51st Highland, 53rd Welsh, Guards Armoured), British beach
- Rail (6th Infantry, 43rd Wessex, 3rd Armoured Division), also British beach
Landing behind the beaches would be the American 82nd Airborne Division & 1st Air Cavalry Division and British 1st Parachute Division. It was the mission of these units to capture and hold a series of road and rail bridges until relieved by ground troops.
The Allied landing force numbered over 3000 vessels, including over 350 warships, along with over 2000 amtraks and more than 100 landing craft to transport tanks, jeeps, fuel trucks, ambulances, and all the rest of the huge motorised contingent that the Allied Armies would need.
Overall the Allies had gathered well over 4000 combat aircraft just in the UK, with most of the RAF and USAF heavy bombers literally moving, some as far away as Iceland, so the shorter ranged fighter and fighter bombers had enough elbow room with the specific mission of supporting the invasion. Nearly half of the FAA and USN attack and fighter aircraft were moved from shipboard to land bases, over the occasionally thunderous objections of senior fleet commanders.
AANW 17
The Archer, Spear and Rail beaches to the south by Britsh and Commonwealth forces saw the introduction and deployment of the SR.N2 hovercraft into amphibious warfare. While the Americans rejected the SR.N2 due to its fragile looking design, the British had instead seen the opportunity to move 50 men or a light armoured vehicle at a time from sea to shore at nearly 80 miles an hour (129 km/h) as too promising to give up. The British had decided to put what they called “Skirmisher” units onto the incredibly fast vessels, units that would reach the beachhead in advance of the other troops and establish themselves, hopefully disabling enough of the enemy bunkers to allow the following main wave to land in relative safety.
16 June 1958
AANW 15
Operation Gravel began at 22:00 hours, though 17 June 1958 would be marked as D-Day in official anniversaries and general histories.
Heavy bombers crossing the Channel systematically destroy radar sites along the Northwest quadrant of France and across the Low Counties. 3 Allied divisions proceeded to fly right through the holes in that net, with 20,000 men from the 82nd Airborne and British 1st Para divisions parachuting into an arc nearly 40 miles (64 km) in length. 1st Air Cavalry arrives and lands unhindered in fields that had been scattered with telephone sized wooden stakes meant to tear landing gliders into splinters, carrying nearly 12,000 men and employing the use of nearly 800 helicopters. Once on the ground, airborne forces and paratrooper units pushed forward with their objectives of taking and holding down bridges and critical road junctures. As the night progressed, small units of American, British and Canadian troops fought short, intense firefights with SS and National forces with little quarter shown by either side.
17 June 1958
AANW 15
By dawn, the airborne forces and taken close to 3/4 of their objectives. They had, in those same 6 hours, suffered nearly 35% casualties, with some battalions being reduced to the size of reinforced companies, a fate which befell both the 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles and 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry. Spread in an arc behind the landing beaches, these men now could only dig in and wait for the results of the amphibious landing to be decided.
AANW 16
Pre-assault preparations of the American Beach Landings began with cruisers and bombers striking the defensive belts defending the sea. The Landing on Red Beach began at 08:00 with the initial landing wave consisting of nearly 400 amtracs, along with over 100 LCTs transporting the initial contribution of heavy armour from the 1st Armoured Division. The first amtrac reached Red Beach One just after 08:20 with others, carrying the remnant of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines arriving moments later. Slightly to the south, the lead elements of 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines grounded on Red Beach Two with 1st Battalion, 25th Marines coming ashore on Red Beach Three. Once ashore the marines found themselves in a shooting gallery against relentless Norwegian defenders. By 09:50, the landing force was faced with a shortage of amtracs to land the fourth wave. The Landing Force commander for Red Beach, General Lewis Puller, ordered infantry elements of the 1st Armoured to embark onto whatever was available, including the LCVPs that were meant to be used after the beach, in an attempt to push forward despite heavy losses. By 15:00, the landing forces had secured their D-Day objectives, including linking up with several of the airborne units that had been holding bridges against increasing enemy pressure.
AANW 17
The use of the SR.N2 played a significant role in the success at Spear, which some have described as the “the perfect landing”. Of the 70 hovercraft used, only 2 were hit in the initial wave, partly because their great speed made them difficult targets for men who had trained to hit landing boats moving at 1/10 of their speed, and partly thanks to that same speed allowing the hovercraft to put men onto the beach before the enemy had time to reach their gun positions following the end of the naval bombardment. If Spear Beach is the example of a perfect landing, and Red Beach an example of pure determination overcoming impossible odds, the remaining Allied landings fall in between these 2 extremes.
AANW 17
The British forces at Rail found the SR.N2 to be notably less effective than at Spear (possibly due to the presence of a Luftwaffe “Hitler Youth” Light Flak regiment among the defenders), but also found the defences to be somewhat more damaged than the Commonwealth forces at Archer, where the 3rd Transvaal Scottish Regiment was effectively destroyed while taking the bunker complex manned by the 61st SS Hitler Youth (Norwegian) Battalion. The Commonwealth forces at Blue Beach, and the USMC/ U.S. Army forces on Green beach were somewhat less severely mauled than those on Red Beach, but were still roughly handled, although all landing elements reached their D-day objectives, with some, notably the 5th Australian Infantry Division reaching their D+2 objectives by sunset.
AANW 18
Certain that the D-Day landing will end in failure upon hearing Allied losses, including the sinking of the Sumner class destroyer USS Laffey, Hitler sends his peace terms via radio to the Reich Embassy in Spain. Thanks to the action of the Allied code breakers, the Allied Leadership was able to read the Führer’s message before the Reich Ambassador in Madrid received his copy.
AANW 19
RAF Lincolns drops nearly 3 million leaflets over Dunkirk, Calais, and the surrounding countryside in the morning, directing the residents of the region to leave as soon as possible, to avoid being caught in the upcoming battle. BBC and Radio Free Europe also began broadcasting a similar message over every available frequency. Extremely powerful transmitters began to send messages over all known Axis military frequencies, the messages here being a mix of calls for surrender with promises of good treatment and requests for the SS to declare all cities along the French, Belgian, and Dutch coasts to be Open Cities in order to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties.
AANW 19
At 09:00 hours, the Ambassadors of the Allied powers (some 35 countries in all, including countries that were aligned with the Allies but who had no forces committed) presented notes to the Foreign Ministries of Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, along with the Vatican Secretary of State asking for their respective governments to convey them to the Ambassadors of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands making the same requests for the declaration of virtually all major cities in the “Occupied Regions of Europe” as Open Cities. The notes gave the Axis Powers 24 hours to remove their troops from these cities, with Allied pledges that troops moving away from these cities into the European interior would not be attacked. These requests were ignored by all the Axis nations, with the responses ranging from polite declines to curt single word refusals.
18 June 1958
AANW 18
Within the first 18 hours after the landings, the Allies had managed to firmly establish themselves, pushing over 200,000 men, 29,000 vehicles and nearly 200 tons of supplies across the Channel on the 17th alone.
After 18 June 1958
AANW 18
The first serious set piece encounter after D-Day takes place just outside the town of Veurne, Belgium between the 8th Brigade, Australian 8th Armoured division and the 34th SS Panzer, supported by 3 Bataillon d’Infanterie of the French National Army. The fighting, which took place just as dusk fell was remarkable for both its length of engagement as well as for its brutality. The fighting lasted nearly all night, ending only when the remnants of the 34th withdrew in good order before dawn
19 June 1958
AANW 19
The Razing of Dunkirk begins. The first stage of the attack was shelling against pre-identified anti-aircraft gun positions within a 10 mile (16 km) arch of Dunkirk proper. This part of the attack lasted just over an hour and eliminated roughly 80% of the air defences in the Dunkirk region. With the enemy’s ability to defend against air attacks effectively eliminated, the close air support (CAS) aircraft were able to provide nearly uninterrupted support for the advancing ground units. At sunset, the Allied ground forces had taken nearly 1000 casualties and had advanced less than half way to the town centre.
20 June 1958
AANW 19
Throughout the night of the 19th and pre-dawn hours of the 20th, U.S. warships kept up a regular harassing fire on enemy positions and sporadic but intense interdiction fire on likely approaches of enemy reinforcements into the Dunkirk region. During these hours of darkness, the Allied forces made their way into the dock area to prevent the SS from destroying the port itself and from blocking the harbour. At sunrise, USAF F-105 bombers made heavy bombing strikes against SS gun positions that had been unmasked during the fighting on the 19th, with the squadron making as many as 12 attacks. When the early morning bombings had finished, the controversial elements of the Allied attack began in earnest. As the ground forces reached the town proper, the SS defenders expected a long and very costly house to house fight for the city streets. Instead, the Allies burned and shelled the town to the ground. Any house or building that was used to fire on the advancing troops was hit by at least two, often six 2700 (1225 kg) pound bombardment shells, followed by either a fuel air weapon or two 150 gallon (568 L) napalm canisters. The resulting fires destroyed nearly 90% of the town of Dunkirk and killed close to 80% of the civilian population. At 1630 hours, the 4th Indian Sikh Infantry reached the port, where they spent the night clearing the piers and warehouses.
The Allied had acquired a functional, if badly damaged, port to supplement the cleverly designed artificial harbours established off Red Beach and near Rail. They had also utterly destroyed the first French community of any size they had encountered and killed a staggering number of its residents.
21 June 1958
AANW 18
The high flying American U-2 and RAF Canberra photo reconnaissance aircraft brought back evidence of massive mobilisation efforts across Germany proper.
21 to 30 June 1958
ANNW 20
Within the 10 days after the “liberation” of Dunkirk, the Allies managed to get both “Mulberry” harbours in place, cleared enough of the rubble from the streets of the burnt out shell of Dunkirk and managed to snake not one, but three 24 inch (61 cm) diameter fuel lines across the Channel and into operation. The same 10 days saw the Allies land upwards of a million and a quarter men and 55,000 tons of supplies into what was a rapidly expanding beachhead.
Allied attempts to move into Calais were stopped by French National forces with strong SS support. Even with strong support by both air and naval forces, 2 battalions of the 51st Highlanders were handled very roughly in early assaults and it was decided that Calais was not worth the price, at least at in the early days of the campaign. Allied forces had a much easier time confronting Belgian National forces, where the 12th of the Line regiment folded after what could only be considered an effort sufficient to satisfy honour (and avoid SS reprisals).
By 28 June 1958
AANW 21
Efforts to launch air attacks against Allied forces were almost instantly being called “Kamikaze flights” by Luftwaffe units, with losses reaching close to 80%, thanks to Marine Skyknight fighter patrols and the Allied ship mounted SAMs.
28 June 1958
AANW 21
The USS Mt. Hood and 5 other ships are destroyed by a modernised Luftwaffe V-1 missile, killing nearly 350 men on board and ashore when the missile’s 500 kilogram warhead set off the 7 tons of munitions in the Mt. Hood’s hold. Chief Boatswain’s Mate Evan Jones (known as a REMF by frontline soldiers) made 11 trips into the flaming hull of the Mt. Hood to rescue survivors, having his left hand mangled by falling debris. BMC Jones (who was legally blind in his left eye and therefore ineligible for a combat slot) received the Medal of Honor for his actions. 3 other men received Navy Crosses, and 2 members of the Royal Navy received the George Cross for their actions in saving lives and limiting the destruction caused by the missile hit.
1 July 1958
AANW 16
The Landing Force commander for Red Beach, General Lewis Puller succumbs to a massive heart attack. His death prompts a campaign among veterans of Red Beach to have General Puller join 9 posthumous Medal of Honor recipients.
AANW 20
The Allies held an area that extended nearly 25 miles (40 km) inland in some places (with the deepest penetration being to the outskirts of Hazebrouck) and was close to 45 miles (72 km) wide (with the southern end of the Allied advance just 7 miles (11 km) outside of Calais and the northern end extending towards Oostende, Belgium).
1 to 5 July 1958
AANW 20
A severe storm hits northwest Europe and lasts for 5 days, seriously curtailing low level flying operations and impacting both the availability of close air support and the effectiveness of the Allied naval gun fire. Shorn of their air cover and reduced to mainly their organic artillery, the Allied advances slowed from a sprint to a slow walk. SS and National forces found their efforts to attack Allied formation far more successful when shielded from the hawk eye of enemy pilots.
Local counterattacks by battalion size SS armoured formations managed to inflict serious reversals on advanced units of the 36th Infantry Regiment which were cut off and briefly pocketed and subjected to all around heavy attack.
AANW 22
The July Storm causing groundings were not a total disaster for the Allies as the 5 day enforced pause allowed Allied ground crews to perform much needed and overdue maintenance on the swarms of war planes operating from England, as well as partially resupply the weapon depots that were rapidly being depleted by the high intensity of the air war. The delay also allowed the Allies time to unclog the chaos that had enveloped the beach areas. While the Allies had attempted to make the best of the weather caused delay, the Reich found it to be Heaven sent. SS records indicate that the Weather delay allowed the Nazis to move as much as 30 days worth of supplies from depots deep within France to the forward deployed divisions along with reinforcements that totalled nearly 11,000 men, roughly half of them SS. The ability to move in daylight hours, even over muddy roads, also allowed the French Army to relocate what few armoured assets were available as well as moving 3 infantry divisions north and west.
2 July 1958
ANNW 20
A company of 14 M-92 Chamberlains engaged 4 times their number of Panther III from the 64th SS Panzer and routed them, with a single tank destroying 26 of the Panthers before it was disabled due to bogie wheel & track damage. One Chamberlain sustained 11 direct hits from the Panther 105mm guns without any full armour penetration. The effect of the lack of air power on ground operations exposed a weakness that the Allies had not realised existed, even in theory.
5 July 1958
AANW 22
The “Road of Death” attack takes place when the 23rd Squadron RAF Canberras struck the French 21st Infantry Division as it was relocating during the July Storm.
Before 11 July 1958
AANW 22
Under the sincere belief that a single strong conventional attack would be sufficient to shatter the Allied position and “drive the Anglo Saxons into the sea”, the SS High Command and the Reich leadership devise the Arneke offensive (Operation Condor). Attacking near Arneke would allow the 19th SS Panzer to make a minimal length road march from its Divisional bunker complex prior to engaging the Allied units. While the Arneke attack was fairly well planned by the SS, at least when one takes the peculiar belief system that characterised the Nazis, the specific target of the Arneke offensive was the 2nd Fusiliers (Free Polish), which the SS Command saw as a golden opportunity to eliminate an entire division of untermensch. With the 2nd Fusiliers and the 3rd Indian Armoured Division (Tigers) located at a juncture, the opportunity to attack 2 “racially inferior” units, rout them, and sunder the American and British armies in one attack was, according to Berlin, potentially a war winner. At the very least it would split the Allied effort in 2, making it vulnerable to defeat in detail.
11 July 1958
AANW 22
Operation Condor began just before dawn with a heavy artillery attack on the 2nd Fusiliers forward positions followed almost immediately by a 12 plane attack by P.209 fighter bombers which inflicted considerable damage on the 3rd Battalion of the Free Poles. The second wave of Luftwaffe aircraft ran headlong into a dozen F-105 Thunderchiefs on a strike mission. Even with a 2-1 advantage, the dedicated ground attack Luftwaffe aircraft were decimated by the far faster Thunderchiefs. The Luftwaffe commander, assuming that the Allies had flooded the area with fighters cancelled the last 2 squadron missions before they ever launched. He then attempted to move his aircraft from harm’s way by ordering them to the east, losing 8 aircraft to RAF Hunters returning from a bomber escort mission. The leading SS formation, from the 53rd SS Grenadiers was able to penetrate into the 2nd Fusiliers though a 200 yard (183 m) wide gap that had been torn in the forward perimeter by the initial concentrated artillery and air attack, before being cut off and totally destroyed.
On the northern shoulder of the attack, the French 19th Infantry Division found itself engaged, then entrapped by heavy artillery and mortar fire from the organic artillery of 17th Horse (the legendary Poona Horse) and the Indian divisional artillery park. Trapped by the Indian Artillery, the 19th then found itself attacked by Poona Horse’s Centurions and infantry. Only partly trained to prepare for low intensity fighting on the Eastern Frontier, the 19th broke and tried to run, only to raise their hands in surrender upon being caught by the Poona Horse officers. Poona Horse counted 1231 prisoners.
On the 2nd Fusiliers front, the fighting was both heavy and unrelenting, actually reaching the level of hand-to-hand on several occasions. At 10:10 hours, the HMS Lion reached firing position and began to lob 2000 pound (907 kg) bombardment shells into 19th Panzer’s formations. In just over 30 minutes of work, Lion’s gunners unhinged the SS attack, buying enough time for CAS to arrive. With the arrival of the Allied ground attack aircraft, what had been a very hard fought bit of work turned into a rout. Only the generally mangled condition of the 2nd Fusilier’s command network allowed roughly half of the 19th SS to break contact and only darkness allowed much of that to make it back to the Divisional defensive bunker complex.
12 July 1958
AANW 23
Hotwash on Operation Condor completed
After 12 July 1958
AANW 23
The Allied commanders initiated a series of operational changes designed to ensure that no divisional size unit would find itself left with no air cover. Immediate efforts also begun to ensure that joining units always had liaison officers who were fluent in their neighbours language (or at least in English, the de facto language of the Allied forces) so there would be no delay in requesting or receiving support.
AANW 23
Reichsmarschall Herman Goring, who SS commander Himmler managed to paint as the scapegoat for the Arneke disaster, is replaced by Generaloberst Adolph Galland, who was promoted from commander of the Luftwaffe’s Fighter Command. The political manoeuvring that allowed Himmler to effectively cut out Goring (who had once been Hitler’s designated successor) represented the first sign of panic among the Nazi senior leadership.
AANW 24
The foreign reaction to the Reich’s seeming panic over the failure of Operation Condor was initially subtle, although parts of it became public knowledge within weeks of the battle.
- Sweden announces that it would not be renewing iron ore contracts beginning with August shipments with German companies due to better prices being offered for ore by U.S. Steel and a partnership of British Steel firms. Despite thunderous threats to Stockholm, Berlin’s leader found that their ability to punish the Swedes was extremely limited.
- Spanish and Portuguese diplomats found themselves being used as messengers for trial balloons sent by the Fascist Governments of Belgium and Denmark as well as more substantive discussions with the Finnish Government (these Finnish overtures resulted in the Memorandum of Understanding on 17 August 1958).
- The Apostolic Nuncio to Her Majesty’s Government in London presented a letter from the King of Italy to the Prime Minister. While the specific contents are unknown, the letter is widely seen as a first halting effort by the Italian Government to begin a dialogue for a negotiated peace.
Common sentiments among the Norwegian people against the Allied "liberation" are anger and resentment, due to the “intrusion” into what had been a peaceful Norway and the destruction that the Allied invasion had inflicted on their homes, businesses, and neighbourhoods. When one considered the relatively small size of Norway’s population, and the number of fortress troops in the Dunkirk region and the rest of Europe that had been Norwegian, the percentage of the population who knew someone who had died at the hands of “liberators” was stunningly high
?? By July 1958
AANW 25
The Arras complex consisted of a series of interconnected bunkers with below ground access tunnels connecting them to a central citadel. The citadel provided underground staging for upwards of 300 Panther III tanks, although combat losses and transportation difficulties had reduced the operational Panzers at Arras to 185 tracks at the beginning of the battle. The Arras complex was well equipped with tube artillery (up to 210mm), mortars and Nebelwerfer rocket launchers in various sizes up to 320mm as well as having been upgraded with substantial AAA defences ranging all the way to 128mm in size. Arras was also the first SS position equipped with the RPzB.120 wire guided ATGM encountered by the Allies. Covering close to 2 square miles (5.2 square km), the Arras Complex was the largest single SS defensive position in north-western France, built to allow the Reich to dominate the entire region.
?? Before 19 July 1958
AANW 25
Battle of the Arras complex began with CAS squadrons and artillery and heavy mortar fire pounding the obvious strong points. The 2nd Battalion, 29th Marines makes an initial approach to the complex with a company of Marine M-26 Pershing tanks in direct support. The first Pershing was hit by an RPzB.120 guided missile 1500 metres away from the forward SS bunkers and in under a minute, the entire Pershing company had been destroyed, along with 5 fire support tracs. As the armoured vehicles took their losses, the supporting infantry found itself under 210mm Nebelwerfer and 120mm mortar fire. The VMF-214 (The Black Sheep squadron) attempted to move in to assist the troops, but were met with heavy light AAA fire from concealed 37mm mounts as well as tracked Mobelwagans. The Black Sheep lost 9 of 21 aircraft before being driven off by the enemy flak.
19 July 1958
AANW 25
The second attack of the Arras complex is launched, which was a virtual repeat of the 29th Marines’ effort but on a grander scale. The attack was a bloody failure that succeeded only in rendering the 6th Marine Division combat ineffective without taking a single significant objective.
After 19 July 1958
AANW 25
With the failure of the Marine assault, Allied Ground commander Guy Simonds ordered that the effort be taken over by the U.S. 3rd Army under General Creighton Abrams, built out of the U.S II Corps, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, and the 6th Australian Armoured 3rd Army.
As the Allies moved forces into position to take the Arras complex, the SS command also began to move forces into the Arras region, The last 2 fully undamaged French National Army formations, including the Division assigned to the Cherbourg region, an Italian armoured Brigade, and 58th SS Panzer were all ordered into the Arras region.
29 July 1958
AANW 25
One of the first major engagements after the commitment of the U.S. 3rd Army was between the now greatly reinforced 3rd Armoured Brigade and a sortie by 33rd SS Panzer. The SS sortie quickly devolved into a stand-up fight with an accompanying air battle that was the largest seen over France since 1954. Over 1000 armoured vehicles tore into each other near the site of the WW1 Vimy Ridge battle in 1917.
31 July 1958
AANW 25
After 2 days of round the clock air battles (which included the first use of airborne, radar directed fighter direction by the Americans and their EC-121 Warning Star aircraft), the American and Canadian Air Forces had effectively cleared the sky of Axis aircraft, albeit at a cost of nearly 90 aircraft. French losses were over 300, while the P.1721 squadrons were effectively destroyed in a series of engagements with USAF F-101 and RCAF CF-101 squadrons.
?? After 31 July 1958
AANW 25
With the Axis air threat removed, the Allied ground attack aircraft proceeded to savage the French infantry as they struggled to reach the Arras defences. Both French divisions were roughly handled, losing nearly a 1/3 of their strength, with less than 2 brigades actually reaching Arras. 33rd SS Panzer lost 42 Panther III and nearly 150 light armoured vehicles in the fighting with the 3rd Armoured and the Allied air forces. The fighting over the next 2 weeks followed the pattern set on the 29th of July.
11 August 1958
AANW 25
After 5 days of heavy bombardment by artillery and rocket launchers directed at SS anti-aircraft sites and at the exit points used by Mobelwagans, the Allies were able to bring in B-36 bombers carrying 43,000 pound (19,505 kg) T-12 Cloudmaker bombs capable of penetrating the roof structures of the Arras complex.
17 August 1958
AANW 24
Memorandum of Understanding between Finland and the Allies takes effect, which moved the Finns into the status of neutrals, cutting the final reasonably secure overland connection between the Reich and SS forces in Norway
18 August 1958
AANW 25
First American troops enter the heavily damaged Arras citadel. When they did so, they were engaged by SS troops who proved to be completely unwilling to surrender despite repeated attempts to lure them out with promises of good treatment.
?? After 18 August 1958
AANW 25
Unwilling to lose any more men, General Simonds ordered that all exits from the complex be sealed by combat engineers using demolition charges and bulldozers. Prisoners taken totalled 2357, virtually all of them French or Italians. The only SS troops captured were either unconscious or too disabled to fight. It is presumed that the rest of the defenders perished in the battle. The Battle of the Arras complex lasted 40 days.
9 September 1958
AANW 26
Adolf Hitler suffers a stroke, leaving him nearly totally paralysed and unable to communicate. While another matter of great debate, the utter defeat at Arras was the trigger of Hitler’s medical disaster. Heinrich Himmler was present when Hitler had his seizure, being the recipient of Hitler’s rant about Arras.
After 9 September 1958 (Hitler's stroke)
AANW 26
Thanks to Joseph Goebbels shock at the Führer’s collapse, Himmler was able to get the Information Minister’s backing as “temporary” Führer until Hitler could recover. By the time any of the other Nazi Party hierarchy were even able to consider making a move, Himmler had established himself as the de facto ruler of the Reich.
The world did not learn of Hitler’s fall until the end of the war. With Goebbels help, Himmler stage managed a series of radio and video broadcasts that seemed to be the Führer, at least to the satisfaction of the listener/viewer. Himmler and Goebbels eliminated anyone they believed would not keep the Führer’s condition secret, either liquidating them, or sending them to Gestapo Concentration Camps.
By 14 September 1958
AANW 27
The 40 day fight of Arras had seen the SS move the 58th SS Panzer along with the equivalent of a full division of Waffen SS Panzer Grenadiers and heavy tank battalions, a reinforced Armoured Brigade of Italian Army troops and 2 full divisions of French Army infantry from the Normandy region to the northwest. With the exodus of more than 4 divisions of the mobile reserve meant to assist the Fortress troops in the region (mainly comprised of Danish and Romanian units), the Cotentin Peninsula went from being a “tough nut” to an opportunity not to be missed.
14 September 1958
AANW 27
Operation Maverick began with Viet Minh and LRRP units developing and energising a substantial civilian uprising across Cherbourg on the evening (this effort was greatly aided by the removal of the French Army forces from the Cherbourg region, meaning Frenchmen were not called upon to kill their countrymen in substantial numbers). The Viet Minh then came out into the open to protect the port facilities until USMC Raiders could arrive via helicopter assault.
15 September 1958
AANW 27
Due to unexpectedly effective anti-aircraft defences, the 1st and 2nd Marine Raider Battalions units were nearly 12 hours late when they made their pre-dawn helicopter assault on the Port of Cherbourg, saving around 60% of the wharves and ship off loading equipment. Although Marine losses were severe, as were losses among the LRRP and Viet Minh and their French allies, the capture of the Port and city were well worth the effort and cost entailed in their capture.
Maverick was also the first time that some Fortress units reacted with anything less than suicidal determination. While many units had to be blasted from their guns, a number of both the Danish and Romanian defenders, especially the latter, took advantage of the Allied promise of good treatment if they surrendered.
After 15 September 1958 (end of Operation Maverick)
AANW 28
The capture of the Cotentin Peninsula provided the Allies with a second entry point, and a second port to support their advance. As had been planned, Dunkirk became the primary entry port of American forces and Allied units using American equipment, with Cherbourg becoming the portal where most British and Commonwealth forces entered the Continent.
16 September 1958
AANW 28
Himmler (under Hitler’s name) publishes Führer Order 527, which called for ensuring that no “European Cultural treasures” fell into the hands of the Anglo Americans. It was the first Order of the Himmler Era.
By late September 1958
AANW 28
The Allied, especially American, policy of avoiding street fighting whenever possible is established
?? Before the Battle of Bruges
AANW 28
The commander of the 42nd SS Panzer brings his armoured units as well as 3 brigades of the Belgian National Army into Bruges, along with most of his mobile artillery. The city is then established as the 42nd SS main strong point for western Flanders, despite the city having minimal military importance. The concentration of troops in Bruges was far too large for the American 3rd Army to leave in its rear. General Creighton Abrams, commander of 3rd Army attempted to get Bruges declared an open city, an offer the SS commander flatly rejected. An attempt by the 89th Infantry Division to push through the city outskirts was comprehensively repulsed, with significant losses, confirming that the SS intended to hold the city.
?? Late September/early October 1958
AANW 28
Battle of Bruges takes place over 5 days between the U.S. Third Army with significant naval support and 3 brigades of the Belgian National Army, supported by the 42nd SS Panzer. The Battle ends in U.S victory with all 3 brigades of the Belgian Army destroyed, along with 3/4 of 42nd SS Panzer armoured vehicles and roughly half of the division’s total personnel, though the historic area where the 42nd SS established its headquarters was utterly destroyed with heavy casualties among the civilian population.
?? After the Battle of Bruges
AANW 29
With Allied mastery of the air, the last major SS formation in Belgium, the SS Wiking division, itself mainly comprised of volunteers from The Netherlands, Norway and Denmark, was effectively trapped in its bunker complex outside of Mechelen, Belgium. While the Mechelen Complex presented a formidable obstacle the trapped SS forces within were contained within its perimeter.
Survivors of the 42nd SS expend most of their munitions and effort destroying Belgian cities that had no military value of any kind. The 42nd SS Pioneer Regiment is dedicated to the burning of Gent and later Brussels, instead of using these skilled engineer units to delay the Allied advance.
3 to 8 October 1958
AANW 29
As the Allies advance across Belgium, some 11,000 fortress troops surrender over a 6 day period after being cut off from any re-supply
11 October 1958
AANW 35
Units of fortress troops all along the remnants of the Atlantic Wall began to receive movement orders. These forces, representing more than 60% of the men manning the surviving fortifications were mostly withdrawn from the French Mediterranean coast, Italy, and the Balkan coastline. These troops, along with most of the Reich forces remaining in Norway were moved by both rail and truck into Germany and Austria proper. Once they arrived these troops were either installed into existing fortifications along the Rhine or put to work extending the defensive belt that protected Inner Germany.
12 October 1958
AANW 29
U.S. 3rd Army pauses along a line that ran roughly from Brussels-Mons-Saint Quentin for a brief refit and re-supply, after having advanced, in some cases, as much as 45 miles (72 km) in a week.
15 October 1958
AANW 29
The Belgian government is overthrown by Special Operations Executive (SOE) supported partisans who called for the return of the Royal Family. Interestingly, SS troops present in the capital did not intervene on the Belgian government’s behalf except to provide transport out of the country to surviving members of the Fascist government.
17 October 1958
AANW 29
The provisional Belgian government surrenders unconditionally to the Allies
After 17 October 1958 (Belgian surrender)
AANW 29
Trondheim Massacre occurs when Waffen SS forces summarily executed 575 Belgian Fortress troops in retaliation for their country’s “treason against European Civilisation”. Smaller group executions also take place in Italy and along the Eastern Frontier
AANW 29
The Surrender of Belgium causes a near panic in Berlin. SS units were, to the extent possible, pulled out of the East and sent to the abandoned fortifications along the Rhine. This move was accompanied by the call-up of reserve troops as old as 50 years of age, who were then hastily organised and put under the command of SS officer cadets less than half their age. Other veterans were sent to replace the SS units moving out of the East. These troops were sent, not to fight the on-going low intensity war along the frontier, but to keep an eye on the non-Reich conscripts sent to fight and die in the East. So great was the panic that Himmler reactivated a number of retired Heer junior officers to command these new formations, although senior leadership was left in the hands of SS General Officers.
AANW 29
General der Panzergruppen Erwin Rommel, a former commander of Hitler’s military bodyguard before it was disbanded by the SS, is put in charge of fortifying the Rhine, based on his organisational skills during the construction of the Atlantic Wall. Construction of the Rommel Line commences shortly after.
21 October 1958
AANW 29
Berlin recalls the 6th and 15th SS Panzer, and 53rd SS Panzer Grenadier from Italy, where they had been sent to support Italian forces in repelling the expected invasion of the country, along with the 6th Luftwaffe Panzer and 13th Luftwaffe Heavy Anti-aircraft to Germany for “refit pending redeployment”.
By 21 October 1958
AANW 29
The SS had been reduced to 21 fully equipped Panzer divisions and only 4 fully equipped Panzer Grenadier divisions which are supplemented by the 5 remaining Luftwaffe Panzer divisions.
23 October 1958
AANW 29
Field Marshall Erich von Manstein’s personal diary entry for 23 October occupies only a single line:
“We have lost the war. The only question is how badly.”
?? By Fall (late October) 1958
AANW 30
Soviet Union under a state of near civil war. There were, depending on one’s definition, between 6 and 11 significant competitors to Molotov, all of which had their own supporters in the Red Army and among the NKVD. The situation frustrated the Allied political leadership as they had hoped the Molotov government would take advantage of the Reich’s difficulties, such as forcing the SS to keep some 1st quality forces along the Eastern frontier or cutting off supply of raw materials to the Reich.
British military missions establishes close relationships with numerous Partisan commanders along the “Eastern Frontier” with support for non-Communist groups and “ethnic nationalists” gradually allowing these forces to become the dominant powers along wide swathes of the frontier and well into the Russian interior.
By 24 October 1958
AANW 31
- The American Army now had 3 full Army Groups deployed in Northern France and Belgium, including the 1st South American Corps (actually roughly a division and a half of men from across the Continent).
- The Canadian 1st Army and Australian 2nd Army combined with 3 USMC Divisions to create the 15th Army Group
- Roughly starting at the outskirts of the still Axis held port town of Calais stood the British 21st and 22nd Army Groups. Not quite as well supplied as their North American cousins, the British and Commonwealth forces were still close to 90% motorized, even when one included the units of “Free” Poles, Russians, Norwegians and the French Liberation Brigade (recruited from anti-fascists in the French overseas colonies).
- The most powerful formation on the Cotentin Peninsula was the British II Armoured Corps, with its strong tank formation, including a South African brigade, providing the mailed fist that would be used in the breakout across France.
- The Indian Army comprised a majority of the Allied forces near Cherbourg, whose ranks had swollen to 3 Corps in the weeks since the Maverick landings. Indian troops, some arriving directly from the sub-continent, made up nearly 70% of the troops that constituted the 12th Army Group. The Indian Army had an additional 3 Corps of men waiting in India for transport, while tens of thousands of other were being trained for future deployments as needed.
The Allies had moved upwards of 1.75 million troops, close to 7,000 tanks, 9,000 various types of armoured carriers and a stunning 25,000 trucks, jeeps, command cars and other sorts of motorised transport into their ever expanding bridgeheads. The Waffen SS had a total of 750,000 troops and 4300 tanks, as well as their 450,000 National Force troops whose governments were still seemingly unwavering in their loyalty to the fascist cause.
The American and Canadian Air forces had around 7,000+ remaining F-86 Sabers, which exceeded the combined total aircraft available to the Luftwaffe and its allied air forces (many of the remaining Axis aircraft were 1943-45 vintage Fw-190 and Ta-152 piston engine fighters), something that ensured Allied supremacy in the European skies.
24 October 1958
AANW 29
The Allies began their Fall Offensive.
AANW 32
Choosing to attack on a series of fronts, the goal was to overwhelm the defenders remaining west of the German border.
- The U.S. Third Army, as the lead element of U.S. 14th Army Group was tasked with capturing Antwerp, Amsterdam, Brussels, much of the Netherlands and cutting off the SS forces in the Jutland Peninsula before wheeling south into north-western Germany
- The U.S. 15th Army Group, with the Canadian 1st Army as its van, would split away from the 14th near Brussels and proceed east with Liege as initial objective; Aachen had already been designated as its entry point into Germany
- The U.S. 11th Army Group would be the reserve formation for both of these spearheads, and would then pass through the 14th for a drive across the northern German plan that would end in Berlin, although American planners had contingencies in place to continue east as far as Warsaw should the Nazi leadership fall back in that direction.
- The British/Commonwealth 21st and 22nd Army Groups were scheduled to breakout of the area around Calais along a slightly southeast axis to Loraine, before re-orientating due east to the Germany city of Stuttgart before moving on to Dresden and then towards Berlin.
- The 12th Army Group, centred on the British 1st Armoured Division and Indian II Corps, would drive out of the neck of the Cotenin Peninsula along the 21st flank, take Paris, and move to the Swiss border. Once there it would refit and move through Czechoslovakia into Austria.
AANW 33
The British 6th Armoured Division covers almost 20 miles (32 km), making the single greatest one day advance since the invasion, with almost no resistance.
Before 26 October 1958
AANW 32
The 29th Infantry, leading Third Army, encountered the Waffen SS Mechelen Complex near Brussels. Recon elements of the 29th encountered much lighter resistance than expected, with only around 1 emplacement in 5 firing, and most of these were returning fire at a volume far below that expected. When the 29th was detached, its commander was instructed to launch probes into the defences while the rest of the 3rd Army advanced toward Antwerp and Brussels.
26 October 1958
AANW 32
In the early morning, elements of the U.S Third Army entered the burning husks of Brussels and the destroyed city centre of Antwerp. 1st Battalion 29th, under strong air cover, advanced against the Mechelen Complex. Within 2 hours they had gained entry, within 4, they had almost half the complex under control, the rest of the complex being defended by both heavily defended positions and intentionally collapsed corridors. Captured defenders were found to be Austrian conscripts with virtually no training.
27 October 1958
AANW 33
The Northamptonshire Yeomanry Regiment is ambushed in a wooded area near Riqueval by half dozen Panther III and four 128mm DP guns. The SS forces waited until the Yeomanry had closed to 300 metres of the wood line before opening fire. In minutes the Regiment had lost 14 Centurions, 11 Bren gun (Universal) carriers and 8 Kangaroo APCs to SS tank guns, 128mm guns and Panzerfausts. The Northamptonshire Yeomanry ceased to exist, taking over 85% casualties, with the 6th Armoured advance stopped dead in its tracks. The rest of the day was spent combing out SS troopers from spider holes and out of tree stands, a costly task mainly assigned to the Royal Hussars who suffered some 12 KIA and 25 WIA before the small woods was declared secured. The eventual destruction of the four 128mm guns, their prime movers and 4 of the 6 Panthers 3killed by RAF Hawker Hunters as the tanks attempted to withdraw) was a poor payment on account.
After 27 October 1958 (Riqueval ambush)
AANW 33
The ambush outside of Riqueval was only the first of a series of similar costly fights between carefully hidden SS rear guard units and Allied forces across the entire Allied line of advance. Units would make huge gains, then suddenly, seemingly at random, find themselves in fights for their lives at the edge of a wooded area, on the main road leading through a village, or at a river ford.
AANW 33
Retreating Waffen SS units leaves behind a trail of random destruction, including the poisoning of wells, destruction of bridges and the intentional demolition of stone structures to use as roadblocks. They would also use demolition charges, fuel, and manpower to shatter statues, burn tapestries, defile churches and execute village and town leaders, sometimes even massacring entire populations of small villages.
AANW 33
An entire SS Panzer Grenadier division mines the Netherlands dikes, causing widespread flooding and damage to an almost totally unresisting region. It has been speculated that the Nazis believed that the American Army would simply stop its attacks to aid the Dutch population. While the Allies did provide considerable aid to the Dutch population, the effort was not allowed to delay the advance of 3rd Army by even an hour.
By the end of October 1958
AANW 35
More than 125,000 men had been relocated to work on fortifying the Rhine and Inner Germany.
By early November 1958
AANW 35
The Inner German defensive perimeter had been transformed into the strongest non-coastal fortification belt on Earth, with additional bunkers and tank traps appearing almost hourly. Rommel was able to improve/rebuild nearly 20 miles (32 km) of the border each day.
Before 2 November 1958
AANW 35
While the construction effort of the Rommel Line was underway, Himmler has a “Final Redoubt” in the Alps revamped and provisioned (located along the Inner German border with the Austrian State). Himmler ordered that a complete duplicate of the Berlin command complex be created in the Redoubt so that it would be possible for “the Führer” to fight on even if Berlin was over-run.
2 November 1958
AANW 35
Having been informed that the Alps complex was fully ready, Himmler issued Führer Order 720 to his Victory forces as the first step in launching the Reich’s counter offensive.
By 14 November 1958
AANW 33
First of a series of winter storms sweeps across Northwest Europe. By then, the Allies had settled into a steady, if costly advance that brought it ever closer to the Reich’s borders.
Before 26 November 1958
AANW 37
The Coutances area in Normandy, north-western France had fallen to Indian forces, with the region rife with refugees from the fighting.
26 November 1958
AANW 37
Reich counter offensive began just outside the French town of Coutances where smallpox contaminated dolls and other toys were left along the roadside. The Reich would also spread typhus invested vermin across the region.
26 November 1958
AANW 38
An 18 boat squadron of Type XXXII U-boats leaves Bremen. 6 of the subs would survive up until the December Massacre on 12 December 1958. The remaining subs fall victim to mines, patrolling RN warships and aircraft, and various mechanical difficulties en route to their patrol area.
27 November to 7 December 1958
AANW 37
Over the next 10 days after the Reich counter offensive, Allied medical officers were horrified to see a veritable Biblical series of plagues explode across Normandy. Allied medical units found themselves over run with ill civilians, and rumours that the diseases were being brought into the region by the “foreigners (interestingly these tales were mostly not spread by Nazi agents but by local citizens) began.
With Fascist propaganda claiming that the “enemy” would bring disease and destruction to their homes, spread by “mongrel races” for better than 4 years, the sudden appearance of numerous deadly illnesses coinciding with the arrival of “Asians”, it was easy for French civilians to put one and one together and come up with five. What had until then been a somewhat cautious perspective to the Allied advance rapidly became overtly suspicious and hostile.
A breakout of similar epidemics in the area controlled by the 21st Army Group did nothing to reduce the surge of xenophobia.
5 December 1958
AANW 36
The Italian Government tendered its Unconditional Surrender to the “United Nations”. The remarkably generous terms granted to the Italian state effectively made Italy a junior member of the Allies under a “transitional government” nominally led by King Umberto II.
The announcement was followed almost immediately by arrival of heliborne Americans and Brazilians just north of Rome where they assumed blocking positions to ensure that SS forces did not attempt to retake the Italian capital.
After 5 December 1958 (Italian surrender)
AANW 36
Within days of the Surrender, the Italian military had been almost entirely demobilised with the exception of units along the country’s border with the Reich. It was these units, supported by Allied airpower operating out of Sardinia, that blunted the attempt by the 57th SS Panzer Grenadiers to enter and occupy Italy before additional Allied forces arrived to reinforce the Brazilian/USMC forces already in country.
Gestapo units begin displacing the personal security detachments responsible for the wellbeing of each Axis country’s leadership and the leadership members’ families. This ended the immediate threat of any further defections.
By the first week of December 1958
AANW 37
Many sick French civilians were fleeing from the Allied lines rather than seeking out assistance from the admittedly harried Indian and British medical units. This allowed the epidemics to spread even wider, a situation that was exacerbated by the shocking number of unburied dead bodies in the areas beyond Allied control. Within Allied lines, most military efforts were reduced to the digging of mass grave, providing the maximum medical support to the populous and dealing with a sudden low level, but bothersome, insurgency movement
The sudden epidemics across France were suspicious to the Allies, but since the illnesses had no real military utility there was much doubt expressed when Reich involvement was first suggested.
10 December 1958
AANW 37
The Isle of Wright small pox case is reported, prompting the Western capitals to universally accept that the Nazi regime had contaminated portions of France, and were attempting to contaminate Britain, with highly infectious and quite lethal, although medically controllable, diseases.
Before 12 December 1958
AANW 38
Kriegsmarine Type XXXII U-boats are ordered to attack Allied air bases, ports, and supply depots across the Channel Coast of England and Scotland, along with a separate strike against USAF bases on Iceland. They had taken submerged positions near known locations and awaited a code word that would launch the attack. Once the order was received, the subs surfaced and would begin the process of launching their missiles. Unfortunately for the Reich, the 2 U-boats tasked with the Iceland attack were lost en route by unknown causes, along with 10 of their sisters.
