Part 113
Guadalcanal, February 1st, 1943
Twenty Japanese destroyers evacuated nearly 5,000 soldiers from the island. Further missions over the next week would complete the Japanese withdrawal. It would be only in February 9th that the Americans would realise the Japanese were gone.
Stalingrad, February 2nd, 1943
The last remains of the German 6th army surrendered to the Soviets bringing the battle of Stalingrad to an end. Hitler had recently promoted general Paulus to field marshal on the theory German field marshals never surrendered so neither would he. Paulus had proven him wrong by surrendering nevertheless. He was the first German field marshal to do so. He would hardly be the last.
Over Smyrna, February 3th, 1943
An Okcu fighter modified for photo-reconnaissance managed to dart over the port and escape the Greek and Polish Spitfires and Ierax III fighters hot on its tail, bringing its precious photos back home. Getting over Smyrna had been getting increasingly more difficult as of late between constantly increasing numbers of Allied fighters in the air and more and more anti-aircraft guns below. It had been a sign of this and the importance the Turkish general staff was giving to reconnaissance that some of the precious Re-2005 fighters being built under licence, named Okcu [1] had been converted to the role.
Thessaloniki, February 4th, 1943
Field marshal Erwin Rommel, had Fevzi Cakmak practically screaming at him over the phone. "Our reconnaissance has detected large numbers of tanks and heavy guns being landed in Izmir as we speak. I'm telling you the Greeks and the Amis are going to be attacking here not again on the Olympus as your intelligence was telling. We need the reinforce the 1st army now. It's bad enough that Halder did not send the forces you are getting now when we could reduce the city, it will be worse if the perimeter is broken and we get another active front on our hands."
The Turk was right. He ordered 10th Panzer to prepare to immediately move by train from Giannitsa where it had been moved in reserve after the fighting in Olympus was over to Anatolia. More would follow.
Arakan, February 8th, 1943
Operation Cannibal the offensive to take Akyab island had initially been hoped to take place in September 1942. Lack of landing craft and objections over the the training of the available forces had postponed it for late December. Then Bernard Montgomery the commander of the British XV Corps had outright refused to begin it before his forces were sufficiently trained for the operation, Harold Alexander commanding the Burma front had backed him up and Claude Auchinlek and the government in London had been forced to agree. But now it was finally time as the Indian 14th Infantry division and 77th Infantry brigade went to the attack.
Berlin, February 9th, 1943
If some people who knew thought the war was going well Hermann Goering was not among them. Thus the meeting with Wever, Milch and their aides. The Luftwaffe was facing increasingly stronger opposition while at the same time several of its new projects were in developmental hell. This was not boding well for the war effort and just as importantly the position of a certain Hermann Goering within the Nazi hierarchy. Decisions had to be taken before it was too late, already some idiot in the army had tried to can the Skoda T-25 tank project forgetting to whom Skoda belonged too. Goering and Wever had already forced over Milch's objections cessation of the project to improve the failed Me-210, Bf-110 would continue into production till Heinkel He-219 and Milch's favourite the Ta-154 took over production. The effort of all variants of the Jumo 222 engine would be frozen to facilitate production of the earlier Jumo 213 then it could resume under better circumstances. The failure of Me-309 the intended replacement of Bf-109 was a more serious issue. There was fortunately an alternative, shockingly enough for German pride the Italian FIAT G.55 was proving itself since entering service the previous summer Axis best fighter and it's new G.56 variant promised to be even more formidable. It was thus decided to organise licence production of G.55 and G.56 in Germany. But there were problems even with this, the FIAT fighter needed 9,000 man-hours to build compared to 5,000 for the Bf-109. Thus initially only a fraction of the industry would be switched to G.55, more could follow when production was optimized....
Smyrna, February 12th, 1943
As Fevzi Cakmak had correctly predicted, the Allied offensive was coming on the Smyrna front. What he could not predict was the level of resources the Allies had available. The US 7th Army under Patton with 6 divisions, 2 of the armoured, two Greek armoured divisions and the British 5th Infantry division reinforced by and armoured brigade had joined Ptolemaios Sarigiannis Army of Asia Minor in Smyrna over the past few weeks. Cakmak and Rommel had reinforced the Turkish 1st army as much as they could and more German reinforcements were on their way but the Allies could reinforcements to Smyrna faster than the Turks and Germans could, the transportation network in Anatolia was limited to a fraction of its normal capacity during the winter months and the Germans were limited to about a division a week from Macedonia. The 1st army was well dug in and would fight back doggedly. Still cracks had begun showing almost immediately. It was not the surprise breakout some in the Allied camp had hoped for, particularly as more and more German reinforcements joined the fight. This didn't make it any less costly in men and material...
West of Ireland, February 18th, 1943
The pair of Hudson's of Squadron 101 of the Irish Army Air Corps, turned back east towards their base and some well deserved rounds of beer after successfully depth charging a German submarine heading south and sinking it with all hands. It would be only after the war and cross-checking captured Kriegsmarine archives that the submarine would be identified as probably being U-180 and several more decades more till an Indian funded maritime archaeology expedition actually found the wreck confirming Subhas Chandra Bose's final resting place.
[1] Archer
Twenty Japanese destroyers evacuated nearly 5,000 soldiers from the island. Further missions over the next week would complete the Japanese withdrawal. It would be only in February 9th that the Americans would realise the Japanese were gone.
Stalingrad, February 2nd, 1943
The last remains of the German 6th army surrendered to the Soviets bringing the battle of Stalingrad to an end. Hitler had recently promoted general Paulus to field marshal on the theory German field marshals never surrendered so neither would he. Paulus had proven him wrong by surrendering nevertheless. He was the first German field marshal to do so. He would hardly be the last.
Over Smyrna, February 3th, 1943
An Okcu fighter modified for photo-reconnaissance managed to dart over the port and escape the Greek and Polish Spitfires and Ierax III fighters hot on its tail, bringing its precious photos back home. Getting over Smyrna had been getting increasingly more difficult as of late between constantly increasing numbers of Allied fighters in the air and more and more anti-aircraft guns below. It had been a sign of this and the importance the Turkish general staff was giving to reconnaissance that some of the precious Re-2005 fighters being built under licence, named Okcu [1] had been converted to the role.
Thessaloniki, February 4th, 1943
Field marshal Erwin Rommel, had Fevzi Cakmak practically screaming at him over the phone. "Our reconnaissance has detected large numbers of tanks and heavy guns being landed in Izmir as we speak. I'm telling you the Greeks and the Amis are going to be attacking here not again on the Olympus as your intelligence was telling. We need the reinforce the 1st army now. It's bad enough that Halder did not send the forces you are getting now when we could reduce the city, it will be worse if the perimeter is broken and we get another active front on our hands."
The Turk was right. He ordered 10th Panzer to prepare to immediately move by train from Giannitsa where it had been moved in reserve after the fighting in Olympus was over to Anatolia. More would follow.
Arakan, February 8th, 1943
Operation Cannibal the offensive to take Akyab island had initially been hoped to take place in September 1942. Lack of landing craft and objections over the the training of the available forces had postponed it for late December. Then Bernard Montgomery the commander of the British XV Corps had outright refused to begin it before his forces were sufficiently trained for the operation, Harold Alexander commanding the Burma front had backed him up and Claude Auchinlek and the government in London had been forced to agree. But now it was finally time as the Indian 14th Infantry division and 77th Infantry brigade went to the attack.
Berlin, February 9th, 1943
If some people who knew thought the war was going well Hermann Goering was not among them. Thus the meeting with Wever, Milch and their aides. The Luftwaffe was facing increasingly stronger opposition while at the same time several of its new projects were in developmental hell. This was not boding well for the war effort and just as importantly the position of a certain Hermann Goering within the Nazi hierarchy. Decisions had to be taken before it was too late, already some idiot in the army had tried to can the Skoda T-25 tank project forgetting to whom Skoda belonged too. Goering and Wever had already forced over Milch's objections cessation of the project to improve the failed Me-210, Bf-110 would continue into production till Heinkel He-219 and Milch's favourite the Ta-154 took over production. The effort of all variants of the Jumo 222 engine would be frozen to facilitate production of the earlier Jumo 213 then it could resume under better circumstances. The failure of Me-309 the intended replacement of Bf-109 was a more serious issue. There was fortunately an alternative, shockingly enough for German pride the Italian FIAT G.55 was proving itself since entering service the previous summer Axis best fighter and it's new G.56 variant promised to be even more formidable. It was thus decided to organise licence production of G.55 and G.56 in Germany. But there were problems even with this, the FIAT fighter needed 9,000 man-hours to build compared to 5,000 for the Bf-109. Thus initially only a fraction of the industry would be switched to G.55, more could follow when production was optimized....
Smyrna, February 12th, 1943
As Fevzi Cakmak had correctly predicted, the Allied offensive was coming on the Smyrna front. What he could not predict was the level of resources the Allies had available. The US 7th Army under Patton with 6 divisions, 2 of the armoured, two Greek armoured divisions and the British 5th Infantry division reinforced by and armoured brigade had joined Ptolemaios Sarigiannis Army of Asia Minor in Smyrna over the past few weeks. Cakmak and Rommel had reinforced the Turkish 1st army as much as they could and more German reinforcements were on their way but the Allies could reinforcements to Smyrna faster than the Turks and Germans could, the transportation network in Anatolia was limited to a fraction of its normal capacity during the winter months and the Germans were limited to about a division a week from Macedonia. The 1st army was well dug in and would fight back doggedly. Still cracks had begun showing almost immediately. It was not the surprise breakout some in the Allied camp had hoped for, particularly as more and more German reinforcements joined the fight. This didn't make it any less costly in men and material...
West of Ireland, February 18th, 1943
The pair of Hudson's of Squadron 101 of the Irish Army Air Corps, turned back east towards their base and some well deserved rounds of beer after successfully depth charging a German submarine heading south and sinking it with all hands. It would be only after the war and cross-checking captured Kriegsmarine archives that the submarine would be identified as probably being U-180 and several more decades more till an Indian funded maritime archaeology expedition actually found the wreck confirming Subhas Chandra Bose's final resting place.
[1] Archer
