Fall and Rise: A WW2 ISOT

Part 1

0130 June 15 1940

"All of them?"

"That is our belief at this time, Prime Minister. We now have communications with all major overseas units of the Army and RAF, relocated to vacant American bases over the course of the afternoon."

"Thank you, General. Continue with the process of taking stock of the 'newly arrived' forces and equipment in conjunction with your staff. Goodbye."

He turned to the Minister of Magic, who had arrived from Oxford in the rush and confusion of the previous day. "That does tend to settle the matter, does it not, Professor?"

"It would, Prime Minister, insofar as it indicates that whatever has occurred is definitely not natural. Whether or not is supernatural, arcane or something else remains to be seen; we can say definitively that this is beyond our ken and certainly the ability of our foes. It will be many days yet before our wizards can provide more than that."

"Very good, Professor. Carry on then and we shall keep as calm as we can in the knowledge that this is not some more devilish tricks bought forth by the Hitler and his demonic Nazi gang."

Prime Minister Churchill put down his long extinguished Montecristo and looked up at the War Cabinet arrayed around the table. On his right was Minister of War Sir Richard Harcourt, representing the Liberal Party; Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden; the redoubtable Sir John Anderson, Lord President, Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security; Lord Hankey; Minister of Production Lord Beaverbrook; Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin; Cabinet Secretary Sir Edward Bridges; Lord Privy Seal Sir Austen Chamberlain; Deputy Prime Minister Sir Clement Attlee; Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke; Chief of the Air Staff Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Hugh Dowding; and First Sea Lord Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Fisher.

"Well, gentlemen, this is what we know. We have gone from September 1943 to what for all intents and purposes appears to be June of 1940, through an act beyond our understanding that may well turn out to be divine providence. Where there was a world at war, we are now at the very beginning of the long and terrible struggle; yet, by virtue of our years of fighting and production, we can muster forces far beyond the dreams of Hitler and Mussolini in their seeming pomp of victory. There is a great deal of confusion still as to the nature of this war we have been placed into, as our initial reconnoitering and intercepts of enemy broadcasts show a very different world indeed. Norway is effectively lost to Germany and France soon to follow. We shall continue in our efforts to divine what those differences are, as well as make use of conventional means; I have sent a pair of urgent flights to our embassies in Switzerland and Portugal for whatever histories, news and other archives, particularly from the League, that can be sent here for our examination and digestion. The time for consideration, though, is subject to the needs of the war and in many respects, we need action this day. Field Marshal Brooke?"

"Thank you, Prime Minister. We have been in contact with senior British personnel in France to assess the situation and it is, for want of a better word, dire. The French government is on the brink of collapse and asking the Germans for an armistice, pushed by strongly defeatist factions in their Army. Should they succeed and France sue for peace, then we are deprived of our most direct means of engaging and defeating the German Army. We do not have firm intelligence on the size or armament of the enemy at this time other than general figures - 150 divisions and over 3 millions of men, several thousand tanks and over 5000 aircraft. Overall, the balance of forces lies in our favour as, although the Germans can deploy more divisions than us, we have more men and a great preponderance of equipment; in the last instance, our weapons can reasonably be presumed to be more modern than those of Germany three years ago. In any event, if France surrenders, we would then be forced to invade to bring them to battle and to do so without the ships and landing craft supplied by the Americans. Overlord was at least 9 months away and we do not currently have the ships to launch a full scale assault on France with the British and Imperial forces now present at home.

We are currently working on an emergency landing operation based on a partial amalgam of Sledgehammer from last year and limited elements of Overlord, aimed at Brittany and Normandy. Whilst we considered the Pas de Calais, the damage done to the ports there during the fighting in France and evacuation makes them unsuitable to be used for our purposes. Our new plan, and I must reinforce that it is a work in progress, calls for an assault by three divisions, supported by two airborne divisions and large air and sea forces, aimed at seizing Britanny and the Cotentin Peninsula to build up our forces. Our window for such an operation is fairly narrow, encompassing approximately a month from mid July to mid August. For the time being, and as a deceptive measure, it has been designated Operation Sealion. Before we can land troops, though, the main blow that falls upon the enemy must come from the air."

"As matters currently stand, we have sufficient forces to engage this Luftwaffe on quite advantageous terms and defeat them." Dowding said evenly. "In our medium and heavy bomber forces, we have long range striking weapons that the Germans presumably cannot match; our current tactical reconnaissance missions tend to confirm this state of affairs, with no evidence of jet aircraft whatsoever. Regaining air supremacy over Northern France is achievable, but any fighter campaign needs to be accompanied by strategic interdiction of enemy supplies and attacks on their production. When the order is given, we can attack the German Army in France and the Low Countries and give the Luftwaffe the nastiest surprise they have ever encountered."

"Indeed. That we can deal the Nazis a blow is undoubtable, but we must make our moves carefully so that they have maximum effect. To that end, the first targets that the RAF must hit need to be those that hurt the Germans the most, both in terms of how they fight and where they fight. Before we hammer the Ruhr or their U-Boat ports, let us show what can be done. Air Chief Marshal, have Bomber Command attack the dams as soon as possible; the first order of priority is Berlin. Maximum effort. Shifting to the sea, the Grand Fleet has already been ordered to head for home - once in the Mediterranean, they will put paid to Mussolini's fleet and ambitions. Admiral Mountbatten is to take control of the 10 older battleships at Singapore to dissuade the Japanese from any rash steps. The other urgent task that we are capable of accomplishing is putting the Home Fleet to sea and attacking the Germans in Norway; RNAS reconnaissance flights indicate that Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Admiral Hipper are all in Norwegian waters. To that end, Admiral Tovey sailed last night."

"We are quite confident that his 8 carriers, 12 battleships, 25 cruisers and 60 destroyers will be able to do the job, Prime Minister." said the First Sea Lord. "Actually liberating Norway will be somewhat more complex, but brute force has a virtue of its own in this situation."

........................

“Circumspection. Simple as that, my dear Winston.”

“Pray expand, Richard. Expand as to why, when God gives us an opportunity, we should not seize it?”

Harcourt gave a tiny internal sigh at Churchill’s mercurial nature. This was not the first time that he or Brooke had sought to curb the Prime Minister’s instincts, with varying degrees of success.

“It has been around 36 hours since our arrival, if I can put it that way. We have at best partial intelligence on not only the Germans but the world at large that we find ourselves in. Now that our relative position with regard to air and land forces is established, do we necessarily lose anything by not committing ourselves to immediate general offensive action?”

“I would tend to concur, Prime Minister. Whilst we can launch an offensive into France, the longer we take to prepare it, the more our likelihood of total success. Our window for a cross-Channel invasion, if it comes to it, extends to mid September, just as the German one did back in 1940…well, our 1940. Even then, we would be dealing with a number of unknown variables, ranging from the weather to the French. We’ve spent a year and a half planning and preparing Overlord and we still had another 9 months yet to go.” said Brooke.

“We are not going to leave Europe to the mercy of Nazi tyranny for that long. We are delivered here to provide for a much swifter end to this war and their bloody murder.”

“That isn’t what I’d suggest at all, Winston. I’m all for action this day as much as you, but it depends on what action. If we shift our immediate steps to the periphery, as it were, then we keep the vast part of our strengths and options open. Every week that goes by makes us stronger, after all. We went through the production plans back in August; this month, we will add 480 tanks, all of them the new Super Crusader, at least 1200 carriers and 1000 guns, not to mention 7 new destroyers, 500 Spitfires, 250 rockets and 6 LSTs.”

“The last are what we really need, Prime Minister - not just LSTs, but all manner of landing craft as well. We’ve got what we had here at home, but we are now without not just the production from the United States, but also Canada. Whilst I cannot say it conclusively until we have more intelligence on the numbers and equipment of this Germany, I am fairly sure that we can outproduce them in every major category of military equipment for the rest of the year, cementing our advantage.”

“If not France, then where?”

“Two places: Norway and Egypt. In Norway, we can maul their fleet, as we discussed earlier, whilst having a relatively nearby combat theatre in which to gauge Jerry’s capabilities. In Egypt, we can wrap up Italian North Africa before the end of autumn.” Harcourt stabbed at the map with his pencil to emphasise each point.

“Very well. Unless Ironside’s mission to the French encounters some dramatic success on the morrow, we can work towards that basis. Whatever their decision, we will start hitting the Germans from the air, including letting Harris loose on Berlin. That will be a quite decisive factor that will show that, far from being stricken by the looming collapse of our ally, we are prepared to fight and win. To that end, have the Dover Guns begin firing across the Channel and have the BBC include a piece on the Grand Fleet heading back to us.”

Harcourt smiled. “I quite agree, Prime Minister. It is about sending a message.”

“Speaking of which, I have a cable to dictate to President Roosevelt before bed. That will be a rather interesting endeavour.”

………………….

“This is London calling in the overseas service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Here is the news. The main force of the Grand Fleet under Admiral Cunningham has been ordered home from the Far East, with 27 battleships, 60 aircraft carriers, 72 cruisers and 214 destroyers and escorts already underway; Admiral Mountbatten is to remain at Singapore with ten older 18” capital ships. The Prime Minister, Mr Churchill, has called upon Italy and Germany to surrender whilst they still can and that it was only a matter of time until all of conquered Europe would be liberated. Morning has come.”

…………..
Washington D.C.

President Franklin Roosevelt took a drag from his cigarette holder and then exhaled, just a tad more forcefully than usual.

“Do you have any idea what the British are playing at, Admiral?”

“Mr. President, short of them going completely mad, the only possible explanation is propaganda, but this frankly does seem to be of the most transparent kind possible. I can’t see who they are trying to fool, lying like this.”

“Perhaps it is something to do with the confusion of the last day or so and the French being on the brink of surrender.”

“Yes, Mr. President. Whatever it is, it will soon become clear.”

…………………

Admiral Yamamoto sat and thought. Surely, this could not be true in any way.

The alternative did not even bear thinking about.