The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (34 page)

12th Aug

The Free French offer the fast battleship Richelieu as part of the naval deployment to the Far East. They wish to show they are part of it, especially as they consider French Indo-China to be occupied territory no matter what the French government claim. The offer is accepted by the RN; she will act with the fast battleship squadron planned for the area.

In a supplement to his war directive no. 34, Hitler orders increased efforts by Army Group North to capture Leningrad and a new offensive by Army Group South to take Kharkov, the Donets Industrial Basin and the Crimea, suspending military activity by Army Group Centre in the central front around Moscow. Instead it is to aid the other Army Groups in achieving their objectives.

Production of the Canadian Grizzly tank starts. This will mount the British 6-pdr as standard, as O'Connor has stated that a reasonable HE shell capability is a specific requirement of any new tank. The tank is almost as heavily armoured as a Matilda, with superior speed and reliability, and with the 6pdr gun much superior firepower. Tests against German tanks in the desert have indicated it should be better than the current German tanks. The design has already started in production in the USA for the Free French, although the first batch will use the 2-pdr gun. Negotiations are taking place to produce the British 6-pdr under license for the French if the British production is insufficient.

A new version of the Valentine is put into production, which will incorporate the turret from the Grizzly. This is seen as an intermediate design until the new Churchill tank is ready. As there are, for the moment, sufficient tanks in North Africa for the perceived threat, the time is being used to work on the defects of the tank. This tank will also mount the Grizzly turret and 6-pdr, but will not be available until the defects are fixed. The current Valentine, with the 2-pdr, is still being manufactured for use in the Far East and to supply to Russia. Given the light armour of the Japanese tanks, the 2-pdr is seen as adequate.

A new cruiser tank has been in development for some time. This was specified with 75mm of armour and a large turret ring to take a bigger gun. The Cromwell tank will be available soon, but the biggest problem is lack of a suitable engine. It has been decided that the Mk1 will use the American engine as used in the Grizzly, with a turret mounting a 6-pdr. O'Connor would prefer heavier armour, and a new version is under development which will use a derated version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the Meteor. The extra power will allow thicker armour, and a new turret based on, but larger that, that used on the Grizzly will allow a gun of up to 75mm to be mounted. While the 6-pdr is currently adequate, now it is in production its successor needs to be considered, and a prototype 17-pdr gun is under development.

14th Aug

Evacuation of the Russian Black Sea naval base at Nikolayev begins. During the next three nights thirteen ships under construction will be towed away. Eleven remaining ships, including a battleship, will be blown up along with other supplies

Britain and the USSR protest to Iran about the large number of German "tourists" in Iran.

15th Aug

HMS Warspite and her escorting destroyers set sail for Ceylon. The ship will refuel there, and will then make a visit to Sydney and some other Australian cities before returning to Ceylon for exercises.

The first production Gloster Sea Eagle naval fighter is delivered. This plane, built around the Centaurus engine, is much more powerful and faster than the Goshawk. It is also capable of carrying some 2,000lb of bombs, thus able to act almost as a bomber in many circumstances. The first carrier to be equipped will be HMS Bulwark, due to commission in September. The other new naval plane, the Fairy Spearfish TBR, is expected next month. It also employs the Centaurus engine.

19th Aug

A joint Anglo-Canadian-Norwegian expedition lands on Spitzbergen to sabotage the coal mines and bring the miners back to Britain.

The Wake Detachment, 1st Marine defence Battalion, arrives in the cargo ship USS Regulus to begin work on defensive positions.

The first convoy leaves Iceland for the USSR. It includes the carrier HMS Colossus who is ferrying Hurricanes to Russia.

Hitler rejects proposals from General Franz Halder, the chief of staff, and Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch, the army C-in-C, for an attack on Moscow. Hitler also authorizes the development of the V-2 rocket

21st August

Hitler orders the investment, not capture, of Leningrad, and the transfer of several divisions from the North and Centre to capture the Crimea and the Donets Basin, an industrial region vital to the Soviet war effort. Hitler has been unimpressed by the arguments of General Guderian that Moscow should be the priority target.

In a ceremony at Rosyth HMS Theseus is formally renamed HMAS Brisbane. She will transfer to the Australian navy, heading out to the Far East once her new crew have worked up. HMS Eagle will return to Britain for a much-needed refit before being redeployed with the Atlantic convoys.

6th Sep

In Washington, the Japanese Ambassador Nomura hands Secretary of State Cordell Hull a draft proposal outlining what the U.S. and Japan will do to establish peace in the Pacific. Two of the items that the Japanese purpose to undertake are that Japan will not make any military advancement from French Indo-China against any of its adjoining areas, and likewise will not, without any justifiable reason, resort to military action against any regions lying south of Japan. Japan will endeavour to bring about the rehabilitation of general and normal relationship between Japan and China, upon the realization of which Japan is ready to withdraw its armed forces from China as soon as possible in accordance with the agreements between Japan and China.

Cadre from I Aus Corps and its divisional commands arrive in Singapore to prepare for the troop deployment. The first large troop convoy is expected in a few weeks, carrying the 7th Australian Division. Blamey and his senior officers and NCO's are not at all impressed by what they see of the troops already in place, and discussions are started immediately with General Alexander as to ways of bringing them up to what the experienced Australians think is a suitable standard.

8th Sep

HMS Warspite arrives in Trincomalee. She will be joined shortly by the cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Sydney, and then sail for Australia.

11th Sep

In a broadcast to the nation, President Roosevelt issues a "Shoot on Sight" order to naval forces in the Atlantic in regard to German U-Boats. This action is partly in response to the USS Greer incident of September 4th. In fact, it is more or less what is going on at the present. He describes the attack last week on the Greer as "piracy, legally and morally." He said that the outposts the USA has established in Iceland, Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland would protect Atlantic shipping of all nations. He stressed that the US Navy only provides "invincible protection" if Britain's Royal Navy survived.

The president emphasized the difficulty of defending ships from torpedoes fired from submarines; "When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do wait until he has struck before you crush him, these Nazi submarines and raiders are the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic - they are a menace to the free pathways of the high seas."

Admiral Stark advises Admiral Hart that Washington had declined to endorse Allied mobilization plans proposed by the British for joint operations in the event of war. Hart is ordered to defer plans to move the Asiatic Fleet to Dutch or British ports when hostilities began. Hart was ordered to ensure his fleet operations were "coordinated" with British and Dutch operations, although it is not made clear how this is to be done.

In Britain, the prototype Airspeed Horsa troop-carrying glider is flown. It has a crew of two pilots and can carry 20-25 troops. The failure of Operation Mercury has made the British more dubious about the viability of large-scale airborne attacks, but they see small-scale assaults on specific targets as being useful.

12th Sep

The 2nd and 3rd Panzer Armies join up near Rovno, completing the encirclement of Kiev and a pocket of 600,000 Soviet soldiers to the east of the city. However as they do the first snows of winter fall - General Winter has arrived early to help Russia.

The Free French air force try out their new B-17's for the first time, in a raid from bases in North Africa on Italy's royal arsenal at Turin. At the same time, the RAF strikes Messina and Palermo in Sicily, hitting merchant ships, oil tanks and a power station.

While it is not expected to match some of the other routes, supplies are starting to be shipped from Alexandria to Russia via the Black sea, using Russian coastal shipping. Turkey, keen to be seen to be neutral to both sides (both of whom are heavily armed and worryingly close to her) has allowed use of the Bosphorus for unarmed merchant ships. The small ships hug the coast as much as possible, hoping to evade the attention of the Germans, whose air force is at the moment rather busy supporting the army operations.

Two squadrons of Beaufighters (one RAF, one RAAF) arrive in Malaya from the Middle East. It is hoped that it will be possible to send more in a few months, but in the meantime they are waiting on the convoy carrying their support and equipment. The planes have flown in via India, where a new base is being fitted out in East India to handle and maintain aircraft in transit.

HMS Implacable, HMS Prince of Wales and four escort destroyers sail for Trincomalee via the Cape. Implacable carries the new Sea Eagle, but is still equipped with SeaLance TBR - her squadron of Spearfish will set out in a couple of weeks to meet her there, and the SeaLance will then go on to Malaya as a land-based anti-shipping force. The carrier also carries an additional 18 Cormorant divebombers which will be flown off to Gibraltar to make their own way to Malaya.

16th Sep

The last of the 'Formidable' class carriers, HMS Bulwark, enters commission. She will be the first RN carrier to carry both the Sea Eagle and the Spearfish planes, and her squadrons will embark with these next month once she is ready to deploy. It is intended for her and HMS Implacable to then join up in Ceylon where they will work up with the new aircraft. It is also hoped to send the squadron on a visit to Australia for propaganda purposes.

24th Sep

The first German U-Boat passes Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. Over the next two weeks six more U-Boats will pass into the Mediterranean. The German Submarine Force will later have about 50% of its active submarine force engaged in the Mediterranean, which is viewed by U-boat command as a major strategic error in taking the pressure off the vital Atlantic convoys to Britain.

The first 'Liberty Ship' is launched in the USA at Baltimore. The British government is becoming a little more hopeful about the Battle of the Atlantic. Sinkings in the first 6 months of the year averaged some 300,000tons a month. Since July, it has been under 100,000. The shipbuilding capacity of the Empire is somewhat more than 2,000,000 tons, so if the sinkings can be kept at the current level, and ships start to arrive in numbers from the USA, there is cause for some careful optimism. The new frigates will start to come into service in the New Year, and new weapons and asdic will soon be available for them.

Soviet forces in the Crimea have now been isolated by the German Army. Hitler orders all direct attacks on Leningrad to be stopped - the city will be besieged and starved out.

General Marshall requests Admiral Stark delay converting three freighters into escort carriers in order to increase the shipping lift for the reinforcements being sent to the Philippines.

29th Sep

Convoy PQ-1 leaves Iceland bound for Archangel with ten merchant ships, escorted only by one cruiser and two destroyers. There are no German attacks on the convoy, which reaches Archangel on October 11th. At the same time Convoy QP-1 leaves Archangel headed for Scapa Flow.

Hitler orders that Leningrad be wiped off the face of the earth and its population exterminated.

The troop convoy carrying 7th Australian division arrives at Singapore. The division is hoped to be operational soon, as the threat is increasing and the division has to work out how to fight effectively in terrain far different than the desert.

The first production Lancaster bomber makes its first flight. New tactics are being developed to attack German targets using the large bomb bay of the plane for heavier bombs to supplement those carried by the Halifax.

HMS Warspite, HMAS Australia and HMAS Sydney arrive in Sydney for a propaganda visit. They will remain in Australia for two weeks, visiting a number of ports filled with enthusiastic crowds before heading to Singapore. The first squadron of Cormorant divebombers arrives in Malaya, flown by RAF pilots.

2nd Oct

An Anglo-American mission led by Lord Beaverbrook has agreed to boost military aid to Russia next year. The USA will allocate 1,200 tanks a month to Britain and the USSR between July 1942 and January 1943, and a further 2,000 tanks a month for the following six months. This will mean initial US consignments of 400 tanks a month for the Soviets from 1 July.

In addition the USA will send 3,600 aircraft to Russia between 1 July 1942 and 1 July 1943, over and above the planes already being sent by Britain. The Soviets in return will supply Britain and the USA with urgently needed raw materials.