by gerald hall
“Jawohr, Herr General. I understand completely.” Rommel replied with a knowing smile of his own.
“How is your Seventh Panzer, Herr General?” Guderian asked Rommel.
“We have taken a few losses, but the morale of my soldiers is excellent. They are eager to push their way through to the coast. The only people being more frightened by my Panzers than the French are our own General Staff.” Rommel said with a laugh that Guderian quickly joined.
“Yes, many of our generals do seem to be terribly timid. Boldness is called for in order to win battles. Fortunately, we have many young and bold Panzer commanders here on the front lines.” Guderian noted.
“It has helped considerably to have the Luftwaffe actually working closely with us. The Stukas have been invaluable in hitting enemy strongpoints with precise bomb strikes. The scream of their sirens alone can send some enemy soldiers into panic. Our fighter aircraft have also been rather effective in keeping French and Englander bombers from attacking my troops. This alone has saved the lives of many young German soldiers.”
“That may be so. I have seen a few things that I am very concerned about. The first obviously involves our own leadership at the higher levels. There is no unity of purpose or strategy in how they want us to deploy our Panzers. This can cost us dearly.
The next area of concern is how we can possibly execute a successful invasion of England which the Fuhrer certainly wants. From what I have seen, these Englanders are a terribly stubborn bunch. If they fight this hard while in France, I fear what they might do if we were to be fighting them on English soil.
Then there is finally the issue of the Englander’s air and naval forces. The Luftwaffe has been able to maintain superiority in the skies over France. But the Englanders have control on the high seas and in the skies over their own country. They seem to be placing a new fighter or bomber into production every week, each one much better than its predecessor. I continue to hear about new fighters being designed and built as far away as Australia for use by Englander pilots.
As long as this situation continues, the Englanders will be a thorn in our side.” Guderian concluded.
“Then Field Marshall Goering will have to find a solution to this problem soon. Otherwise, we will remain firmly on this side of the English Channel. But for now, we will continue to fight and defeat our enemies here in France.”
French Naval Base
Port of Toulon, France
3 June 1940
“I can’t believe that the French Army has already been defeated by the Boche. Much of what is left of our army is being evacuated along with the British Expeditionary Force at the beaches of Dunkirk or is fighting a last ditch defense of the Atlantic ports. I have received several reports from our headquarters that we are a mere few days from capitulation. The government in Paris means to sue for an armistice. In fact, there is talk that our government is going to declare Paris an open city within a week.” Amiral de la flotte Francois Darlan bitterly noted as he looked out the window of his office towards the harbor where dozens of French warships sat at anchor.
“Thank God that you sent our battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg to Indochina, Admiral. At least there, they are safe from the Boche.” Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul replied from across the office as he stood there smoking a cigarette.
“I know. Mister Churchill must have had a mystic working for him when he advised me to station those ships in Haiphong. But we need to get more of our fleet out of our ports and away from any chance of the Nazis capturing them. My sources in the French Army say that they will not be able to hold off the Germans for much longer. Who could have believed that our army could have collapsed so quickly?” Admiral Darlan responded with a grimace before continuing.
“In any event, we should be able to get Richelieu and most of the cruisers out to sea in less than a day. Jean Bart is a completely different matter. She barely has any weapons installed at all and her engines have not even been tested yet.
The rest of the battle fleet is so slow that, without a very heavy escort, they will be easy prey for German and Italian submarines during a long trip to England.”
“What will we do about it if the Germans are able to capture our battleships in port?”
“Then we will scuttle them all right under the noses of the dirty Boche who have come to steal them from us. The Germans will be very hard pressed to get any Frenchmen to come help raise those ships afterwards.”
“I still hate to see any of our ships sitting at the bottom of Toulon and Oran Harbors, Admiral. If they must go to the bottom, they should have an honorable death at least. It would be much better than having to deal with the Boche and their petty animosities.”
“Do you have an alternative, Monsieur?”
“We could sail the rest of our battle fleet to Alexandria to join the British and give the damned Fascists in Rome a bloody nose along the way, Admiral.”
“Engage the main Italian fleet? That would be suicide. Our battleships will be outnumbered by nearly two to one. We won’t even be able to move Paris and Courbet over from Brest to help us. They are too busy providing naval bombardment support to what is left of the French Army”
“Maybe. But if we die, at least we will die with our honor intact. Who knows? Maybe we will manage to get at least some of our ships through and cripple the Italian fleet at the same time. At the very least, it will help the British in the Mediterranean and prevent them from being forced to sink our ships themselves to keep them out of German hands.
You and I both know what kind of a nightmare that the latter would be for all of us who have been fighting the Fascists. From what I know of Winston Churchill though, he would not hesitate to order the Royal Navy to fire on our ships if it came to that. He is not at all like our leaders in Paris. Winston Churchill will do whatever it takes to win.”
“What if the capital in Paris falls after we leave port? We could conceivably receive orders to return to port before we reach Alexandria, Marcel?”
“What orders? All of our wireless rooms would suffer malfunctions before we could possibly receive such an order, I’m certain.” Admiral Gensoul said with a smile before continuing. “We, warriors of the seas, must and will make our nation proud, even as hordes of rapacious enemies sweep into our land. Eventually, even they will be forced to return home. Vive la France!”
Royal Navy Base
Port of Alexandria, Egypt
27 June 1940
Admiral Gensoul looked back from the bridge of the light cruiser Marseillaise at the cruiser’s blackened and mangled aft superstructure where a heavy shell from an Italian battleship had struck and detonated. Hundreds of rescued French sailors crowded Marseillaise’s decks as the battered cruiser led the survivors of the French fleet that attacked the Italian fleet south of Taranto.
Behind Marseillaise sailed nearly a dozen other ships into Alexandria. The other survivors included the light cruisers Primauguet, Gloire, La Galissonnière, seven destroyers of various classes and a single submarine, Pallas. All of them had some degree of damage or another. Like Marseillaise, their decks were also crowded with hundreds of survivors from the French warships that did not survive the battle. The largest number of survivors came from the three battleships that had borne the brunt of the fight against the Italian fleet however. Those battleships, Provence, Bretagne and Lorraine, all were sunk by a combination of naval gunfire, torpedoes and finally Axis air attacks. But before they had been sunk, these three French battleships closed with the Italian battle line and dealt tremendous damage at near-suicidal close range.
Admiral Gensoul knew that he had another four warships that had survived the battle, but could not keep up with the main formation. But he was not sure if they would be able to survive the journey to Alexandria in spite of having a large torpedo boat, La Pomone, escorting them. The captain of La Pomone had volunteered to escort the crippled survivors in spite of his own ship having also taken damage. However, Admiral Gensoul still hop
ed that they would make it because the last group also included his only surviving heavy cruiser, Dupleix. The French heavy cruiser had taken a torpedo from an Italian destroyer in her forward engine room and several heavy caliber shell hits late in the battle and had been forced to withdraw before the other survivors broke off the battle with the Italians. Dupleix would be a welcome addition to the three other French heavy cruisers that were already in Alexandria with Force X, if she survived long enough to reach Alexandria.
But Admiral Gensoul’s force sank three smaller Italian battleships, crippled the battleship Andrea Doria in addition to inflicting significant damage to both the Littorio and Vittorio Veneto. The French also took a heavy toll among the lighter Italian warships, until the latter chose to use their high speed to flee the carnage.
As Marseillaise began to enter the harbor at Alexandria, a small launch approached her from one of the Royal Navy battleships anchored nearby. Admiral Gensouf ordered the cruiser to come to a halt as he saw that the launch was flying the flag of a rear admiral.
The launch came alongside the French cruiser a few minutes later. A senior Royal Navy officer got out of the launch and came aboard Marseillaise.
Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet, was quickly escorted to the cruiser’s bridge with full honors.
“I am very pleased that you were able to make it here, Admiral Gensouf. We have already heard about your fight with the Italians, Admiral. Your men performed gallantly out there.”
“Thank you, Monsieur Admiral. They certainly did. I just wish that so many of them had not been lost back there and unable to make it here to freedom with me.”
“I share your loss, Admiral. Is there anything that I can do to help?”
“We have a few more ships that are unaccounted for. They could certainly use some assistance if they are still afloat, perhaps an escort and towing support?”
“I will send out planes and ships to help the rest of your ships make it here safely. Is there anything that you would require, Sir?”
“Simply pray for our families and for France in general. We did not want to risk retaliation against our families by either the Boche or the Vichy government because of our actions against the Italians. So we secretly slipped as many of our family members aboard whatever ships that we could secure and sent them to North Africa in the hopes that they could rejoin us here.”
“If you can give us any information on the ships that your families were on, we will try to find whatever means possible to help them arrive safely, I promise.”
“It certainly breaks my heart that I will have to tell some of these wives and children that their fathers have died at sea. But they have made France proud with their courage and sacrifice. That too, I will tell their families.”
“I’m sure that they will be proud of their sons. What else will you need? We can arrange for billeting your personnel. Based on what I have seen, your ships will need some dockyard time in order to put them back to rights before returning to battle as well.”
“Je vous remercie, Monsieur Admiral. I and my men are anxious to get back into the fight against the Boche and the Italians. Perhaps our presence will allow you to send some of your ships elsewhere to reinforce your forces in other parts of the world, Non? Every little bit helps in the fight against the Fascists, I’m sure.”
About three hours later, Dupleix and La Pomone arrived. The battered French heavy cruiser was low in the water because of flooding from the torpedo hit, but still making headway with the aid of a pair of Royal Navy tugs. The other two French warships that were with them did not make it to safety, unfortunately. That meant that the decks of these two crippled ships were also filled with survivors from the last two ships that sank as a result of their damage.
While the loss of the three French battleships was painful for both the French and the British, the addition of Admiral Gensouf’s cruisers and destroyers to the existing French component of the Mediterranean Fleet helped considerably. The Royal Navy badly needed the smaller combatants to help escort troop and supply convoys throughout the theatre. The Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet had been chronically short of those vessels because of the even greater need for them to protect convoys in the North Atlantic. Combined with the Italian losses, this new alliance between Admiral Cunningham and Admiral Gensouf firmly cemented the Allied domination of the Mediterranean.
One key question for Admiral Cunningham remained unanswered until he and Admiral Gensouf were able to talk privately. The French had a very large submarine fleet at the beginning of the war. The possibility of the Axis powers taking control of those submarines was a constant worry for Churchill. The British Prime Minister had specifically asked Admiral Cunningham to inquire with Admiral Gensouf about the disposition of the French submarines based in Toulon and French North Africa.
Ten of those submarines were on their way to French Indochina to augment the French squadron at Haiphong. Another five would be arriving at Alexandria within the next two days to support the French there, Admiral Gensouf informed the British. There were another twenty or more submarines between the naval base at Toulon and the Atlantic ports, but the French admiral assured Admiral Cunningham that these vessels would not fall into Nazi hands, even if they were serviceable. Most of them were unable to sail due to a variety of mechanical issues in any event.
The one surface warship left behind by the French at Toulon that worried Admiral Cunningham the most was the incomplete battleship Jean Bart. If she were to be completed, Jean Bart could be nearly as great a threat to the Royal Navy as the German battleship Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz because of new French battleship’s combination of speed, firepower and protection.
Harold Cavill’s Home
Derby, Australia
29 June 1940
The news of the audacious French run across the Mediterranean garnered headlines all over the world. For many on the Allied side, it was a heroic tale of bravery and sacrifice. But it had special significance to Harold and Dorothy as they knew what might have happened if the French had stayed in port.
“It looks like your suggestions to Churchill before the war concerning the French have come to fruition. The French fleet did not sit in port as the Vichy had ordered. Instead, they decided to fight their way through to a safe harbor as Churchill has hinted to the French admirals. Now, those French warships have joined forces with the Royal Navy in the Med. This is wonderful news in the fight against the Nazis.” Dorothy noted after reading the latest newspaper accounts. She had become keenly interested in the progress of the war from the first shots fired.
Dorothy not only wanted to see how much history had changed, but also how much it had remained the same in spite of the things that Harold had done over the past twenty years. She had been a reader of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel, The Time Machine even before first meeting Harold. The possibility of changing history for the better through the use of what Dorothy referred to as ‘20/20 foresight’, had truly fascinated her. But sometimes that fascination also blinded her to the possibility that changes to the timeline could make the future even more dangerous than before, if not thought out very, very carefully. Dorothy also considered herself still a patriotic Englishwoman, even after spending so many years in Australia with Harold.
“At least we may have made enough of a difference so that Mister Churchill will not have to order the attacks on the French Navy ships at Mers-el-Kébir and Dakar. That action caused a great deal of enmity between the French and British throughout the rest of the war.
We also have additional help here in the Pacific as well. Dunkerque and Strasbourg are both at Haiphong Harbor, as is Algerie. Thankfully, they are far away from any chance of the Germans taking control over them. Almost all of the remaining operational French warships are in Alexandria or Haiphong now.” Harold quietly said after reading the report from his contact in the Admiralty.
“Yes, Dear. But the losses among
the French ships were also very heavy. How many of those men would have perhaps survived the war if history had not changed?” Harold finally responded in an attempt to curb Dorothy’s growing enthusiasm for even more aggressive interference in the timeline.
“Did France obtain these nuclear weapons in your history, Harold?”
“Yes, they did. They still had them at the time of the Final War. I did not see any information about whether or not the French used their nukes however. France had been facing a tremendous internal conflict of their own for decades as a result of uncontrolled immigration from North Africa. There were large parts of France that had been taken over by Muslims who refused to comply with many aspects of French law nor would they attempt to assimilate into French culture. ”
“Maybe, if the French thought that they could still fight effectively with ordinary weapons, such as what happened in their battle against the Italians, maybe they would not feel the need to develop them after this war is over? They certainly could not use these terrible nuclear weapons in what sounds like a civil war decades later.”
“Honestly, I don’t know how General De Gaulle will act after the end of the war this time. He was the man who spurred the French desire for their own nuclear weapons. But I do know that saving these French warships and keeping them on the side of the Allies will help England and the Commonwealth in their fight against the Axis. If we are going to keep America from building the Bomb, then we have to make it easier for England to be able to fend off Hitler without the Americans getting involved to any substantial extent.”
“So far, the Americans have been very hesitant to help. They have a lot of people who don’t want to be in another war, don’t they?”
