Sydney, December 27th, 1943
NSWGR delivered another two dozen AC4 Thunderbolt tanks to the Australian army. The Australian tank program, begun in 1940, had faced serious hurdles, mostly in securing the necessary machine tools, for a time many of the Australian officers involved in the program had even suspected that some of the British and American liaisons attached to it were trying in reality to undermine it and get it cancelled. But with Allied shipping horribly stretched trying to meet the needs of the European and Pacific fronts, maximizing Australian production, just like Greek production, had been not just desirable but necessary. Thus Australia's industries were by now producing everything from small arms, to artillery, tanks and aircraft. And while most of Australia's production consisted of British and American designs, the
SLR-2 rifle gradually replacing the earlier Vickers-Pedersen in the production lines was the latest example, the Australians had also come up with domestic designs like the Thunderbolt that were just as good or better than their British and American counterparts.
Sofia, December 30th, 1943
225 Allied bombers, including 143 B-17s, escorted by scores of Spitfires, Ierax and P-40 fighters bombed the city one more time. Bulgarian fighters did rise up to defend their capital but the bombers would still go through despite the casualties inflicted on them. Despite its best efforts the Royal Bulgarian Air Force was in an increasingly losing battle. Since the start of the month the Bulgarians had lost 43 aircraft. They had received only 7 replacements, most of the aircraft the Germans had promised had gone to the Luftwaffe instead which had lost a further 69 aircraft in December. Back in the start of June the Bulgarians had 199 operational aircraft. Now they were down to 73. If the trend continued the air force would be gone by springtime.
Vasileia, Cyprus, December 31st, 1943
The handful of men and the single girl in the small rowboat made their way to the Turkish navy E-Boat waiting off the shore with all its lights turned off. As soon as they were aboard its captain set off for the coast of Anatolia 50 miles to the north at top speed. Coming that close to the shore was risky, between RAF aircraft patrolling around the island and Motor Torpedo Boats with mixed Greek and Cypriot crews operating out of Kyreneia. But at new year's eve patrols were more lax. Somewhat at least. After all the situation of the island appeared to be secure enough for the Cypriot brigade to leave the island a couple of weeks earlier. By the new year Alparslan Turkes, Emine Denktas and their companions would be safely in Turkey,
Thessaloniki, January 3rd, 1944
The men of the 1st Palestine Division marched through the city on their way to joining the British 10th army in the front. The innocuous name hid that two thirds of the division were Jewish volunteers from Palestine, with the third brigade of the division being Cypriots. But the locals would soon notice giving the men a rather more enthusiastic welcome...
Eski Sehir, January 6th, 1944
The pilot put down his FW190 and went straight for the squadron commander. The fighters with the stylized figures of Hercules wielding his club, HAF 26th Fighter Squadron, had been a rude surprise. By now the Ierax III flown by the Greeks, was a well known adversary, roughly comparable to their Spitfire IXs and his own FW190. But today the Greeks were flying a newer model that had had proven capable of up to 700 km/h. His commander would duly pass the information to Sivas, where it would be added to the mountain of problems the THK staff had to deal with. The air force was dying already between mounting enemy numbers and fuel shortages with just 148 combat aircraft left operational. The Griffon powered Ierax IV was the smallest of its problems.
Doiran, January 9th, 1944
Allied artillery and aircraft begun pummeling the Bulgarian positions, signaling the beginning of the 2nd battle of Doiran. Back in 1941 German victory at Doiran had meant the fall of Thessaloniki. Now if the Allies broke the front it could well mean knocking Bulgaria out of the war and cutting off Turkey from contact with her Allies. But the Bulgarians were heavily dug in and the Germans despite the increasing pressure on all fronts had increased their own forces in Macedonia to ten divisions. if course that just as many German divisions were dies down in their rear fighting the growing insurgency said quite a lot...
Central Italy, January 10th, 1944
The US II Corps was taken off the frontline to rebuild. Despite heavy casualties the Allies had failed to break the German defenses. But already the resumption of the offensive on an even greater scale was being prepared....
