"La France Continue" (LFC) a different destiny for France. (France continues to fight in 1940 by Emi
Oct 13, 2022 16:13:18 GMT
Post by ukron on Oct 13, 2022 16:13:18 GMT
Chapter 6: Shock
"First of all, a powerful mass of armor and infantry from the south of Orel and the Kursk sector will break through the Soviet defenses towards Voronezh, on the Don, halfway between Moscow and the Donets basin. In this way, the Soviets will be made to believe that Moscow remains the target of the operation (...)".
Excerpt from Directive No. 41 on the conduct of operations in the east and ordering the release of Plan Blue / Fall Blau.
The German army had suffered greatly since June, particularly during the winter of 1941-1942. In the east, it only had 2,510,000 men, i.e. 750,000 fewer than on 22 June 1941. Not to mention the fact that, according to Marshal Keitel, head of the OKW, the latter "melted down by 70,000 to 80,000 men per month". Thus, at the end of the winter, the German divisions in the south were only at 50% of their theoretical strength, while those of the groups located further north were hardly better off with only 60% of their normal strength. Thus, Germany was forced to scrape the bottom of its drawers, and this was a flaw in its industry! To compensate for this haemorrhage, Hitler also relied heavily on his Italian allies, as we have seen, but also on the Romanian, Hungarian and Slovakian allies, although their role was to guard the future disproportionately large flanks of the Wehrmacht on the Don River.
At the strategic level, the initial success of the Blue Plan was based on a deception as we have seen. To make Stalin and the STAVKA believe that the objective of the attack is Moscow. In this purpose is set up the operation Kremlin. Multiplication of aerial reconnaissance operations on the Moscow region, false radio messages announcing the attack, simulated reinforcements of the army group of the Center... Germany puts as much ardor because it has no other choice. If the large Soviet forces massed in front of Moscow were redeployed to the south, Hitler could abandon his Caucasian projects...
In addition, the rest of the directive shows that the Führer interfered more and more in the course of the operations themselves, no longer being satisfied as he had been in the beginning with setting the main strategic orientations. Thus, he tended to favor small tactical encirclements, always worried about the distance between the armored points and the dragging infantry. However, and what will cloud the effective implementation of the plan, is that the Nazi intelligence services inform Adolf Hitler that the USSR, will not support a new bloodletting like the one suffered in 1941. Thus, it will still be planned to conduct several large strategic encirclements during the rush on the Caucasian oil.
Hitler's main strike force, his armored units, were reinforced in the field of equipment. Motorization of infantry units accompanying the tanks, design of self-propelled guns of the Mark III and IV type, based on the chassis of light tanks (all while awaiting the arrival of new armored vehicles, able to confront the Soviet "monsters"). In all, 9 armoured divisions with 1700 tanks and self-propelled guns took part in the attack. The air force was not left out. Two thirds of the aircraft available in the east were assigned to the southern army group, i.e. 1600 aircraft. It should be noted that this last figure was achieved by withdrawing several squadrons from the Mediterranean front or based in reserve in Germany.
On the Soviet side, the Red Army mobilized a plethora of troops, a numerical superiority that was partly made possible by sending against the Germans the vast majority of the troops who had faced the Japanese in Siberia (only 200,000 men remained to face Manchukuo), i.e. 6.4 million men, but they were often poorly trained, especially at battalion level. August von Kageneck noted that "killing the officer" was enough for the other Russian soldiers to run away.
The Soviet air force, which had already shown heroic resistance to the furious assaults of the Luftwaffe, was reorganized into autonomous air fleets, now directly subordinated to the fronts, which increased flexibility and strengthened inter-army coordination. The armored army was reorganized at the tactical level (an armored corps now included three tank brigades and one infantry brigade), while infantry units were better equipped with anti-tank resources.
Everything is now ready for a titanic clash...
And it is Stalin who strikes first! Indeed, the Georgian attacks in the direction of Kharkov and it is the ARMIR, the Italian army in Russia, which undergoes the main shock with courage and strength. Nevertheless, the Soviet attack is very powerful and forces the Italians to retreat. The Soviets even arrived 20 km from one of the main Nazi logistical depots set up for Fall Blau! The Germans set up 2 claws in order to encircle the Russians and to annihilate the threat. It is the operation Fredericus.
It took the Germans 3 weeks to encircle and destroy the Soviet forces in Kharkov. This important success will open the way to the main assault on the Caucasus, allowing the annihilation of important Soviet forces.
What remained was to secure the southern flank of the operation and to seize Sevastopol, a "wart" in the words of the Führer...
There, under the command of Manstein, the XIth German army, supported by the Luftflotte 4 and the Romanian mountain corps, launched its assault on June 7th. The attackers are preceded by a hellish bombardment carried out by the giant mortar Karl (known as Karlgerät) whose baptism of fire it is. The Soviet resistance is heroic. Thus, Sevastopol had not yet fallen when the rest of the Army Group South launched its great summer offensive towards the Caucasus and Stalingrad on 28 June. The fortress did not fall completely until 5 July.
In the Pacific, the Battle of the Coral Sea took place. The battle already showed the Americans that luck could change in an instant... Learning that his scouts had "detected" a fleet consisting of two aircraft carriers and four cruisers, not very interesting prey, Vice-Admiral Fletcher nevertheless launched the bulk of his air fleet against it, i.e. 93 aircraft... It was then that an erratum arrived, unfortunately too late! It was only two cruisers and two destroyers. Nevertheless, luck seemed to turn on the side of the American admiral. Indeed, it was by chance that his assault wave came across the squadron of the Japanese light aircraft carrier Shoho. Faced with the wave, the Japanese ship had no chance and succumbed in half an hour...
But the wheel turns quickly in this azure sea. A Japanese scout detected the American squadron of the USS Lexington, now without air cover, and the violent air offensive that followed crushed the American aircraft carrier under the bombs! Only the USS Yorktown managed to escape. Port Moresby was easily taken. New Guinea was Japanese!
Japanese Admiral Inoue Shigeyoshi could exult, Tokyo could strut its stuff... Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Perhaps Yamamoto was too pessimistic in predicting that Japan would only be able to prevail over America for 6 months to a year...
The Zuikaku joined the squadron participating in the assault on Midway, while the Shokaku was sent to Singapore to monitor the British fleet and counter it if it dared to conduct an offensive against the western segment of the new Japanese Empire...
However, the sailors of the Yorktown did not let themselves be overwhelmed by despair. As soon as it arrived in Noumea, the American ship rushed to Pearl Harbor in order to counter the Japanese offensive on Midway Atoll, which the Americans knew about because they had broken the Japanese transmission codes.
The Japanese armada was impressive, with no less than 200 ships leaving the Japanese archipelago, including 11 battleships, 9 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 65 destroyers, 21 submarines and 760 aircraft of all types. Yamamoto, (too?) confident, dispersed his forces. Thus, he already detached two light aircraft carriers, a hydroplane carrier, seven cruisers and twelve destroyers from his main force to launch them against the Aleutian Islands, American territory! However, far from being a diversionary venture, the head of the Imperial Navy responded to a need to cover the northern flank of the Co-Prosperity Sphere by preventing the Americans from attacking Japan from Alaska.
But at the same time, Yamamoto Isoroku also split the Midway invasion force into three squadrons. The main force, which he commanded in person, included three battleships and a light aircraft carrier. The fleet of aircraft carriers, commanded by Admiral Nagumo, which included five of his ships (Zuikaku, Kaga, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu), carrying 267 aircraft. Finally, the Midway invasion force itself, which took two battleships and another light aircraft carrier to the main squadron.
As far as Yamamoto was concerned, the American fleet was not yet in place. It would only intervene once Midway had already fallen into the hands of the Japanese infantry! This was a real mistake, because the American aircraft carriers were ready to fight off the atoll! It must be said that the Nippon was unlucky. The submersibles he sent to monitor Pearl Harbor arrived after the departure of the Nimitz squadron, while the seaplanes sent to fly over Pearl Harbor had to turn back, as their planned refuelling point, the French frigate atoll, was already occupied by US ships. In addition, the Japanese side had no radar...
On the American side, the aircraft carriers were placed under the command of Vice-Admiral Raymond A. Spruance following the skin disease of Admiral Halsey. A curtain of 30 submarines (including 5 French Navy vessels sent to the Pacific by Darlan) was placed between Midway and the probable arrival zone of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Better still, the Japanese did not count on the presence of the Saratoga and the Yorktown, both of which had arrived there by force, in the American battle group.
A Dantesque battle began...
June 4, 1942: Thinking the American carriers were still far away, Nagumo launched half of his air force, 134 aircraft, against Midway Atoll in order to destroy its airfield. In spite of some losses, the airfield was pulverized by the Japanese wave and the aircraft still present on the spot were grounded or destroyed.
As soon as Nagumo was informed of the success of the raid, one of his scouts detected the American fleet and confirmed the presence of at least one aircraft carrier in this squadron! All hell broke loose on the Japanese side! Nagumo ordered the assault on the US Task Force with the 133 remaining aircraft. The timing was perfect, because as soon as the raid was over... the aircraft returning from the raid on the atoll would be recovered!
What Nagumo did not know was that he himself had already been spotted, both by the American scouts and by a "privateer". Thus, no less than 180 American aircraft from aircraft carriers (not counting the aircraft from Midway) were already heading towards the Japanese squadron!
Unfortunately, the aircraft coming from Midway arrived just too late to intervene during the take-off of the wave in charge of attacking the American battle group detected earlier. Worse, they were slaughtered by the Zeros! So many brave pilots lost their lives aboard outdated aircraft... Nevertheless, the successive American waves prevented the aircraft returning from Midway from landing. Indeed, the Japanese fighters had to land to refuel and then take off again because another wave was approaching! Already, to Nagumo's great despair, the first aircraft had to land on the water.
10H20, the main US raid arrives. It is both torpedo bombers (Devastator) and dive bombers (Dauntless). However, the previous attacks had been waves of torpedo bombers, leading the Japanese fighters into a fight at sea level. Thus, if the Devastators were massacred again, the Dauntless could literally rain death on the Japanese ships, real time bombs, because they were covered with ammunition and gasoline intended for the fighters, some of which were about to take off! The Kaga and the Akagi were set on fire and quickly sank!
This was a heavy blow to the Japanese but they were far from being defeated. Moreover, their pilots attacked the US fleet shortly afterwards, although less numerous than the Americans who had previously hit the Kido Butai, but more experienced, and knocked out the Saratoga and the Yorktown. Believing American power to be seriously wounded, Yamamoto was about to order his battleships to finish the job when he heard the news of the tragedy. The Soryu was sunk in turn, but this time by an "American" submersible.
In fact, it was a French one...
The Surcouf, commanded by Commander Louis Blaison, had indeed managed to infiltrate the Japanese system and kill the enemy aircraft carrier. Yamamoto seemed to remain unmoved by the news, but he was aware of the risk to his surface ships at a time when aircraft returning from the Midway raid were still being forced to ditch...
With a heavy heart, the Japanese ordered the retreat. However, he was already drawing up new plans, but this required the reconstitution of his air strike force. However, he did not even have the pleasure of seeing his escorts sink the submarine, which probably managed to escape.
Indeed, the "privateer" submarine resurfaced. The Japanese fleet had disappeared.
Its courageous and decisive action literally transformed the Pacific War. Not only had it sunk one of the key pieces of the enemy's fleet, but many Japanese pilots and aircraft had been struck by lightning on take-off or just before by the destruction of the Soryu. After returning to Pearl Harbor, Blaison and his crew were awarded the highest decoration of each Allied country at war with Japan. Of course, it was the "Legion of Honor" awarded by Mandel that warmed their hearts the most.
One might think that the Americans, who had suffered significant losses as well, would prefer to lick their wounds while waiting to build up a massive strike force. But their future strategy in the Pacific could be defined by this distortion of a famous phrase of Marshal Joffre.
"The Japanese crushed me in the south. I hardly contained them at Midway. Excellent situation. I attack!"
The US "Pittbulls" are not ready to let go of their Japanese prey...
Thus, meeting in Algiers, Roosevelt, Churchill and Mandel took stock of the overall situation on the front. Japan was stopped at the cost of heavy losses but was far from being defeated. Germany, despite its successes, seems to be wavering and the USSR seems to be able, in the long term, to stop the German offensive (with, of course, massive logistical support from the West). The 3 Great Westerners therefore decided to confirm the strategy of "Germany first" even if it meant limiting, for the moment of course, the war effort against Japan. The British heavy aircraft carriers did not participate in the war in the Pacific, but instead covered the future landings in the Mediterranean with the aim of hitting the Italian "soft underbelly" of the Nazi Empire. Thus, the HMS Illustrious took the road to Alexandria and left Madagascar. However, as mentioned above, Roosevelt and his officers did not want to spare Japan. Thus, the President of the United States informed his allies of the future launch of Operation Watchtower, a landing on the island of Guadalcanal, where the Japanese had undertaken the construction of a runway from which they could threaten the convoys bound for Australia.
In France, the "Head of Government" of the French collaborator state, Fernand de Brinon, declared in a speech on the anniversary of the outbreak of Barbarossa, June 22, "wishing for the victory of Germany because without it, it would be the death of Christian Europe." (!). Obviously, this speech was quickly denounced by the government of the French Republic from Algiers, De Gaulle putting all his verve to denounce the "collaborator of Brinon". At the same time, Georges Mandel recalled the admiration of the French people for the heroic resistance of the Soviet people.
To think that the Nazis are Pagans who admire the old gods...
"First of all, a powerful mass of armor and infantry from the south of Orel and the Kursk sector will break through the Soviet defenses towards Voronezh, on the Don, halfway between Moscow and the Donets basin. In this way, the Soviets will be made to believe that Moscow remains the target of the operation (...)".
Excerpt from Directive No. 41 on the conduct of operations in the east and ordering the release of Plan Blue / Fall Blau.
The German army had suffered greatly since June, particularly during the winter of 1941-1942. In the east, it only had 2,510,000 men, i.e. 750,000 fewer than on 22 June 1941. Not to mention the fact that, according to Marshal Keitel, head of the OKW, the latter "melted down by 70,000 to 80,000 men per month". Thus, at the end of the winter, the German divisions in the south were only at 50% of their theoretical strength, while those of the groups located further north were hardly better off with only 60% of their normal strength. Thus, Germany was forced to scrape the bottom of its drawers, and this was a flaw in its industry! To compensate for this haemorrhage, Hitler also relied heavily on his Italian allies, as we have seen, but also on the Romanian, Hungarian and Slovakian allies, although their role was to guard the future disproportionately large flanks of the Wehrmacht on the Don River.
At the strategic level, the initial success of the Blue Plan was based on a deception as we have seen. To make Stalin and the STAVKA believe that the objective of the attack is Moscow. In this purpose is set up the operation Kremlin. Multiplication of aerial reconnaissance operations on the Moscow region, false radio messages announcing the attack, simulated reinforcements of the army group of the Center... Germany puts as much ardor because it has no other choice. If the large Soviet forces massed in front of Moscow were redeployed to the south, Hitler could abandon his Caucasian projects...
In addition, the rest of the directive shows that the Führer interfered more and more in the course of the operations themselves, no longer being satisfied as he had been in the beginning with setting the main strategic orientations. Thus, he tended to favor small tactical encirclements, always worried about the distance between the armored points and the dragging infantry. However, and what will cloud the effective implementation of the plan, is that the Nazi intelligence services inform Adolf Hitler that the USSR, will not support a new bloodletting like the one suffered in 1941. Thus, it will still be planned to conduct several large strategic encirclements during the rush on the Caucasian oil.
Hitler's main strike force, his armored units, were reinforced in the field of equipment. Motorization of infantry units accompanying the tanks, design of self-propelled guns of the Mark III and IV type, based on the chassis of light tanks (all while awaiting the arrival of new armored vehicles, able to confront the Soviet "monsters"). In all, 9 armoured divisions with 1700 tanks and self-propelled guns took part in the attack. The air force was not left out. Two thirds of the aircraft available in the east were assigned to the southern army group, i.e. 1600 aircraft. It should be noted that this last figure was achieved by withdrawing several squadrons from the Mediterranean front or based in reserve in Germany.
On the Soviet side, the Red Army mobilized a plethora of troops, a numerical superiority that was partly made possible by sending against the Germans the vast majority of the troops who had faced the Japanese in Siberia (only 200,000 men remained to face Manchukuo), i.e. 6.4 million men, but they were often poorly trained, especially at battalion level. August von Kageneck noted that "killing the officer" was enough for the other Russian soldiers to run away.
The Soviet air force, which had already shown heroic resistance to the furious assaults of the Luftwaffe, was reorganized into autonomous air fleets, now directly subordinated to the fronts, which increased flexibility and strengthened inter-army coordination. The armored army was reorganized at the tactical level (an armored corps now included three tank brigades and one infantry brigade), while infantry units were better equipped with anti-tank resources.
Everything is now ready for a titanic clash...
And it is Stalin who strikes first! Indeed, the Georgian attacks in the direction of Kharkov and it is the ARMIR, the Italian army in Russia, which undergoes the main shock with courage and strength. Nevertheless, the Soviet attack is very powerful and forces the Italians to retreat. The Soviets even arrived 20 km from one of the main Nazi logistical depots set up for Fall Blau! The Germans set up 2 claws in order to encircle the Russians and to annihilate the threat. It is the operation Fredericus.
It took the Germans 3 weeks to encircle and destroy the Soviet forces in Kharkov. This important success will open the way to the main assault on the Caucasus, allowing the annihilation of important Soviet forces.
What remained was to secure the southern flank of the operation and to seize Sevastopol, a "wart" in the words of the Führer...
There, under the command of Manstein, the XIth German army, supported by the Luftflotte 4 and the Romanian mountain corps, launched its assault on June 7th. The attackers are preceded by a hellish bombardment carried out by the giant mortar Karl (known as Karlgerät) whose baptism of fire it is. The Soviet resistance is heroic. Thus, Sevastopol had not yet fallen when the rest of the Army Group South launched its great summer offensive towards the Caucasus and Stalingrad on 28 June. The fortress did not fall completely until 5 July.
In the Pacific, the Battle of the Coral Sea took place. The battle already showed the Americans that luck could change in an instant... Learning that his scouts had "detected" a fleet consisting of two aircraft carriers and four cruisers, not very interesting prey, Vice-Admiral Fletcher nevertheless launched the bulk of his air fleet against it, i.e. 93 aircraft... It was then that an erratum arrived, unfortunately too late! It was only two cruisers and two destroyers. Nevertheless, luck seemed to turn on the side of the American admiral. Indeed, it was by chance that his assault wave came across the squadron of the Japanese light aircraft carrier Shoho. Faced with the wave, the Japanese ship had no chance and succumbed in half an hour...
But the wheel turns quickly in this azure sea. A Japanese scout detected the American squadron of the USS Lexington, now without air cover, and the violent air offensive that followed crushed the American aircraft carrier under the bombs! Only the USS Yorktown managed to escape. Port Moresby was easily taken. New Guinea was Japanese!
Japanese Admiral Inoue Shigeyoshi could exult, Tokyo could strut its stuff... Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Perhaps Yamamoto was too pessimistic in predicting that Japan would only be able to prevail over America for 6 months to a year...
The Zuikaku joined the squadron participating in the assault on Midway, while the Shokaku was sent to Singapore to monitor the British fleet and counter it if it dared to conduct an offensive against the western segment of the new Japanese Empire...
However, the sailors of the Yorktown did not let themselves be overwhelmed by despair. As soon as it arrived in Noumea, the American ship rushed to Pearl Harbor in order to counter the Japanese offensive on Midway Atoll, which the Americans knew about because they had broken the Japanese transmission codes.
The Japanese armada was impressive, with no less than 200 ships leaving the Japanese archipelago, including 11 battleships, 9 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 65 destroyers, 21 submarines and 760 aircraft of all types. Yamamoto, (too?) confident, dispersed his forces. Thus, he already detached two light aircraft carriers, a hydroplane carrier, seven cruisers and twelve destroyers from his main force to launch them against the Aleutian Islands, American territory! However, far from being a diversionary venture, the head of the Imperial Navy responded to a need to cover the northern flank of the Co-Prosperity Sphere by preventing the Americans from attacking Japan from Alaska.
But at the same time, Yamamoto Isoroku also split the Midway invasion force into three squadrons. The main force, which he commanded in person, included three battleships and a light aircraft carrier. The fleet of aircraft carriers, commanded by Admiral Nagumo, which included five of his ships (Zuikaku, Kaga, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu), carrying 267 aircraft. Finally, the Midway invasion force itself, which took two battleships and another light aircraft carrier to the main squadron.
As far as Yamamoto was concerned, the American fleet was not yet in place. It would only intervene once Midway had already fallen into the hands of the Japanese infantry! This was a real mistake, because the American aircraft carriers were ready to fight off the atoll! It must be said that the Nippon was unlucky. The submersibles he sent to monitor Pearl Harbor arrived after the departure of the Nimitz squadron, while the seaplanes sent to fly over Pearl Harbor had to turn back, as their planned refuelling point, the French frigate atoll, was already occupied by US ships. In addition, the Japanese side had no radar...
On the American side, the aircraft carriers were placed under the command of Vice-Admiral Raymond A. Spruance following the skin disease of Admiral Halsey. A curtain of 30 submarines (including 5 French Navy vessels sent to the Pacific by Darlan) was placed between Midway and the probable arrival zone of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Better still, the Japanese did not count on the presence of the Saratoga and the Yorktown, both of which had arrived there by force, in the American battle group.
A Dantesque battle began...
June 4, 1942: Thinking the American carriers were still far away, Nagumo launched half of his air force, 134 aircraft, against Midway Atoll in order to destroy its airfield. In spite of some losses, the airfield was pulverized by the Japanese wave and the aircraft still present on the spot were grounded or destroyed.
As soon as Nagumo was informed of the success of the raid, one of his scouts detected the American fleet and confirmed the presence of at least one aircraft carrier in this squadron! All hell broke loose on the Japanese side! Nagumo ordered the assault on the US Task Force with the 133 remaining aircraft. The timing was perfect, because as soon as the raid was over... the aircraft returning from the raid on the atoll would be recovered!
What Nagumo did not know was that he himself had already been spotted, both by the American scouts and by a "privateer". Thus, no less than 180 American aircraft from aircraft carriers (not counting the aircraft from Midway) were already heading towards the Japanese squadron!
Unfortunately, the aircraft coming from Midway arrived just too late to intervene during the take-off of the wave in charge of attacking the American battle group detected earlier. Worse, they were slaughtered by the Zeros! So many brave pilots lost their lives aboard outdated aircraft... Nevertheless, the successive American waves prevented the aircraft returning from Midway from landing. Indeed, the Japanese fighters had to land to refuel and then take off again because another wave was approaching! Already, to Nagumo's great despair, the first aircraft had to land on the water.
10H20, the main US raid arrives. It is both torpedo bombers (Devastator) and dive bombers (Dauntless). However, the previous attacks had been waves of torpedo bombers, leading the Japanese fighters into a fight at sea level. Thus, if the Devastators were massacred again, the Dauntless could literally rain death on the Japanese ships, real time bombs, because they were covered with ammunition and gasoline intended for the fighters, some of which were about to take off! The Kaga and the Akagi were set on fire and quickly sank!
This was a heavy blow to the Japanese but they were far from being defeated. Moreover, their pilots attacked the US fleet shortly afterwards, although less numerous than the Americans who had previously hit the Kido Butai, but more experienced, and knocked out the Saratoga and the Yorktown. Believing American power to be seriously wounded, Yamamoto was about to order his battleships to finish the job when he heard the news of the tragedy. The Soryu was sunk in turn, but this time by an "American" submersible.
In fact, it was a French one...
The Surcouf, commanded by Commander Louis Blaison, had indeed managed to infiltrate the Japanese system and kill the enemy aircraft carrier. Yamamoto seemed to remain unmoved by the news, but he was aware of the risk to his surface ships at a time when aircraft returning from the Midway raid were still being forced to ditch...
With a heavy heart, the Japanese ordered the retreat. However, he was already drawing up new plans, but this required the reconstitution of his air strike force. However, he did not even have the pleasure of seeing his escorts sink the submarine, which probably managed to escape.
Indeed, the "privateer" submarine resurfaced. The Japanese fleet had disappeared.
Its courageous and decisive action literally transformed the Pacific War. Not only had it sunk one of the key pieces of the enemy's fleet, but many Japanese pilots and aircraft had been struck by lightning on take-off or just before by the destruction of the Soryu. After returning to Pearl Harbor, Blaison and his crew were awarded the highest decoration of each Allied country at war with Japan. Of course, it was the "Legion of Honor" awarded by Mandel that warmed their hearts the most.
One might think that the Americans, who had suffered significant losses as well, would prefer to lick their wounds while waiting to build up a massive strike force. But their future strategy in the Pacific could be defined by this distortion of a famous phrase of Marshal Joffre.
"The Japanese crushed me in the south. I hardly contained them at Midway. Excellent situation. I attack!"
The US "Pittbulls" are not ready to let go of their Japanese prey...
Thus, meeting in Algiers, Roosevelt, Churchill and Mandel took stock of the overall situation on the front. Japan was stopped at the cost of heavy losses but was far from being defeated. Germany, despite its successes, seems to be wavering and the USSR seems to be able, in the long term, to stop the German offensive (with, of course, massive logistical support from the West). The 3 Great Westerners therefore decided to confirm the strategy of "Germany first" even if it meant limiting, for the moment of course, the war effort against Japan. The British heavy aircraft carriers did not participate in the war in the Pacific, but instead covered the future landings in the Mediterranean with the aim of hitting the Italian "soft underbelly" of the Nazi Empire. Thus, the HMS Illustrious took the road to Alexandria and left Madagascar. However, as mentioned above, Roosevelt and his officers did not want to spare Japan. Thus, the President of the United States informed his allies of the future launch of Operation Watchtower, a landing on the island of Guadalcanal, where the Japanese had undertaken the construction of a runway from which they could threaten the convoys bound for Australia.
In France, the "Head of Government" of the French collaborator state, Fernand de Brinon, declared in a speech on the anniversary of the outbreak of Barbarossa, June 22, "wishing for the victory of Germany because without it, it would be the death of Christian Europe." (!). Obviously, this speech was quickly denounced by the government of the French Republic from Algiers, De Gaulle putting all his verve to denounce the "collaborator of Brinon". At the same time, Georges Mandel recalled the admiration of the French people for the heroic resistance of the Soviet people.
To think that the Nazis are Pagans who admire the old gods...
