Shattered World - A Worse World War: Part 31

France under Siege...

May 19th 1945 to June 14th 1945

May 19th 1945

In the first significant Alliance attack upon Germany itself the RAF stages a bombing raid on Hamburg with Lancaster bombers as well as B-17 and B-24 bombers purchased from the U.S. In all, some 350 bombers with no fighter escort are involved in the operation. German radar spots the attack well in advance allowing German interceptors to rip into the RAF force well over the North Sea. Of the 350 bombers involved in the attack, 113 are downed by Luftwaffe fighters. Another 72 are downed by radar guided and manual flak batteries in and around Hamburg. Those bombers that actually reach their targets inflict only minor damage on harbor facilities and submarine holding pens. The RAF cancels all plans for further raids into Germany until better tactics can be devised. The day becomes known as 'The Bloody Nineteenth' in Britain.

May 21st 1945

The German offensive in France enters its second phase with Rommel's 4th panzer army striking from Amiens towards Elbeuf with the aim of crossing the Oise in order to allow a breakout towards the channel ports of Cherbourg and Brest. 5th and 6th panzerarmies strike southwest from St. Quentin with the aim of crossing the Oise and bypassing Paris to seize Evruex and then moving south to encircle Paris itself. Two more German panzer armies, the 2nd and 3rd, have been moved up from Germany itself to lead a new thrust with the aim of encircling the French army along the Maginot line.

The French and British, for their part, have been desperately forming a new line of defense along the channel line which roughly extends from Le Havre to Rheims following the river Oise. The French have also been throwing up several hasty belts of defense around Paris mostly concentrated to the northeast of the capital.

A large portion of the Alliance's mobile reserve has been chewed up in the failed counter-attack at St. Quentin but what remains has joined up with newly arriving British armored forces to form a significant armored reserve to the east and north of the river Oise. France's only other major armored forces are either trapped in the 'lowland pocket', sitting idle along the Maginot line, or fighting the Italians to the south.

The renewed German push in France begins in the early morning hours and meets with much initial success. Rommel's 4th panzer army rips into and through withdrawing and disorganized British and French units and penetrates 35km by nightfall, surrounding many pockets of Alliance forces for later reduction. To the south 5th and 6th panzer armies meet much stiffer resistance as the French believe this thrust is aiming for Paris itself. Despite fierce French resistance panzers are approaching the north bank of the Oise by nightfall. However, the

French have brought up a huge number of heavy artillery pieces and are well-entrenched along the south bank of the river in the trenches, bunkers, and minefields of the channel line. To the southeast the German thrust to surround the Maginot line begins moving south down the east bank of the river Marne from out of Rheims meeting only light and scattered French resistance.

In Belgium German forces enter the eastern outskirts of Brussels but Belgian resistance there is fanatical and heavy house to house fighting breaks out amidst the rubble of the already-devastated city. Trapped Alliance forces in the 'lowland pocket' hold a line from Brussels to Antwerp in the north and from Brussels west towards northeastern France in the south. Attempts at re-supply through

Antwerp are proving disastrous as the Germans constantly bomb the harbor facilities, this is forcing the Alliance to attempt re-supply via air transports. This is also proving ill-advised as the Luftwaffe, which now owns the skies over Belgium, is downing many of the transports. Some 500,000 Alliance troops remain in the 'lowland pocket' but they are rapidly running low on ammunition and supplies, forcing the Alliance to begin to consider a sea borne evacuation.

May 22nd 1945

Madrid is occupied by advancing Alliance forces after light street fighting. Italian planes bomb isolated Malta for the first time. The French fleet has linked up with the British Mediterranean fleet in the eastern Mediterranean where the British are planning a naval push to bring the Italian fleet into open combat.

May 23rd 1945

The Germans fire-bomb Paris in an attack on French morale causing widespread damage and the loss of as many as 20,000 civilian lives. Hitler has begun to demand a French surrender. The French air force in northern France has essentially disappeared. RAF sorties out of Britain are now providing the only real coherent allied air support in northern France and these sorties are rare as the RAF is primarily concerned with the defense of Britain itself. What is left of the French air force has largely been withdrawn to the south to resist the Italians and possibly to flee to North Africa if the need should arise.

May 26th 1945

After two days of heavy armored engagements on the plains of northern France Rommel's 4th panzer army has managed to break up and largely annihilate British and French armored forces that had been concentrating in the area. The speed and coordination of the German thrusts are too much for the reeling Alliance armored

forces to counter. In all the Alliance loses some 350 tanks and 75,000 prisoners in this fighting while the Germans lose just over 100 panzers.

May 27th 1945

4th panzer army and supporting elements close in on the river Oise near Elbeuf aftera brilliant dash across the northern French plains. An advanced reconnaissance-in-force manages to secure a bridge across the river. The French and British have managed to take up fairly strong positions along the channel line in this area and mount immediate counter-attacks against the German bridgehead. However, by the end of the day the Germans have managed to punch a significant amount of forces across the river.

Further south 5th and 6th panzer army have advanced southwest along the northern bank of the Oise and are now about 75km north of Paris. The French, expecting the Germans to thrust directly at Paris, have been taken off guard and 5th and 6th panzer armies have been able to rapidly advance by avoiding the defensive belts northeast of the city. Soon, 5th and 6th panzer armies should turn south to begin to surround the French capital.

Meanwhile, another German thrust, this one from out of Rheims, has advanced south along the east bank of the Marne and is now directly east of the French army along the Maginot line and is also in a position to threaten Troyes and Chaurmont. The French high command refuses to order a withdrawal from the Maginot line in spite of British pressure to do so.

May 28th 1945

The French government, seeing German panzers beginning to move west of Paris, flees to Tours. Some in the French government are beginning to call for an armistice but the majority remain committed to further resistance.

June 2nd 1945

Brussels, the anchor of the Alliance line in Belgium for the past two weeks, falls to German forces and the Alliance lines across central Belgium are beginning to waver as supplies and ammunition are now critically low. The Alliance command finally orders the evacuation of the 450,000 men remaining in the 'lowland pocket'. The RAF and Royal Navy begin coordinating to allow for a massive sea borne evacuation via Antwerp. The Belgian government flees to London where a government-in-exile is quickly established.

June 3rd 1945

German forces take Elbeuf after vicious fighting and heavy losses on both sides,opening the way for another advance - this time towards Cherbourg and Brest to seize those vital channel ports. The French have little remaining to stop them in this area and the British are incapable of sending much more reinforcements than they already have. The British are already considering an evacuation of all their remaining forces in France back to the British Isles but Churchill is hoping to put this off as long as possible on the remote chance that France might yet hold on.

5th and 6th panzer armies are now well east and south of Paris where they can threaten both Paris itself and Orleans. The French have begun to try to beef up their hasty defensive lines just south of Paris. Paris is now almost completely cut off from the rest of the country with just a narrow corridor to the south remaining open. Soon it appears that the French capital will be surrounded by a ring of German steel. The French government in Tours is wavering over a decision as to whether to declare Paris an open city or order its defense. By the end of the day, after fierce debates, it is decided to order Paris to be defended "to the last man" in hopes that the Germans will get bogged down there allowing the broken French army to regroup in the south and east of the nation.

June 4th 1945

After the evacuation of some 200,000 French, British, and Belgian forces the harbor facilities in Antwerp are finally closed due to massed German bombing raids. The 250,000 Alliance soldiers remaining in Belgium are now in a rapidly shrinking pocket that is collapsing inwards toward Antwerp itself.

June 5th 1945

The Germans launch yet another thrust, this time heading from recently captured Elbeuf and Evreux towards the remaining channel coast still in French hands. Once again Rommel's panzer forces begin a rapid dash across the open French plains.

6th panzer army has crossed the Seine to the south of Paris leaving the French capital completely surrounded by German forces. 5th panzer army has turned south and is racing across the French countryside towards Orleans. The Luftwaffe has begun near-constant bombing of Paris to reduce the city and break the French defenders, some 350,000 of them in all.

Further south German forces have reached and captured Chaurmont and are also advancing southeast towards Belfort in an effort to completely envelop the static French Maginot line armies. The French high command has finally ordered the armies stationed along the Maginot line to withdraw to the southwest in order to form a new line of defense along the rivers Rhone and Seine.

The Italian offensive into southern France has gained a few more kilometers of territory and is beginning to drive some small salients into the French lines as more and more French forces are being transferred to the north. The Italians have also stepped up their air activity in southern France as the remnants of the French air force are now reeling under assault from all sides.

June 8th 1945

British carrier aircraft sink the German carrier in the North Atlantic as well as a German cruiser. The remaining surface raiding force led by the 'Bismarck' and the 'Fatherland' continues to prowl the shipping lanes while trying to avoid the Royal Navy.

In Spain, French and British forces have occupied the western, central, and northeastern portion of the country including the western end of the Pyrenees mountains. Franco's fascist regime has established itself in Barcelona and maintains control over the southeast of Spain. Franco has finally gotten enough forces together to form a defensive front in an effort to resist the Alliance push into his remaining area of control.

June 10th 1945

German demands for a French surrender are rebuffed, causing Hitler to authorize the seizure of Paris. Guderian, more at home in large, open, sweeping armored advances begins preparing for a brutal advance into Paris. The German army has much experience from the Eurasian War in these kinds of operations.

The Alliance pocket in Belgium has now been reduced to Antwerp and its surrounding suburbs where roughly 180,000 British, French, and Belgian defenders fight on despite having little remaining ammunition or supplies.

June 11th 1945

With a massive artillery and rocket bombardment the advance into Paris begins in earnest. Guderian has chosen to attack through the thin southern defensive belts of the French capital. German infantry, employing storm trooper tactics first invented in 1918 and later perfected in the Eurasian War, begin a steady and costly advance into the southern suburbs of the city.

5th panzer army has approached to within 10km of Orleans and the city begins to come under bombardment. The shattered French army has established defensive positions along the river Loire and Orleans is to be the anchor of this line. However, the French forces are exhausted and demoralized by weeks of constant defeat. The French government in Tours, itself on the Loire, begins to consider moving further south.

German forces reach the eastern French city of Belfort - finishing the surrounding of most of the French Maginot line armies. Only 25% of this huge French army group managed to withdraw to the southwest before the Germans completed their encirclement.

To the north, German forces have swept through Alencon and are now lancing towards Cherbourg and Brest with only scattered coordinated resistance.

June 13th 1945

A squadron of several British battleships with battlecruisers in support meets and engages the German surface raiding force in the North Atlantic. The 'Bismarck' is sunk, the 'Fatherland' is moderately damaged, and several other German cruisers and destroyers are also sunk or heavily damaged. The British lose two battleships, a battlecruiser, and several other ships sustain serious damage. The remnants of the German surface raiding force, which has sunk or captured close to 40 Alliance merchant vessels, begins to steam towards the North Sea led by the 'Fatherland'.

Alliance forces in Spain have begun to push south into Franco's remaining territory but Spanish resistance has firmed considerably. The allies begin a slow advance towards Franco's base of operations at Barcelona. Italy and Germany have sent several squadrons of aircraft to help bolster the Spanish defense but the Alliance still maintains a considerable edge in the skies over southeastern Spain.

June 14th 1945

In Paris German forces begin to enter the center of the city where urban combat of a viciousness not seen since the Eurasian War is being waged. In what would become a famous photograph the Eiffel Tower is seen toppling after sustaining heavy damage from bombing raids and more recently from artillery and rocket barrages. The French defenders downed the tower in a controlled demolition in order to prevent the heavily damaged and teetering structure from collapsing on the French lines in the area. German forces have also entered the northern outskirts of Orleans and have crossed the river Loire to the east and west of that city.

In Antwerp the commander of Alliance forces in the 'lowland pocket' surrenders,putting the remaining 160,000 Alliance soldiers there into captivity. To the south Italian forces have managed their first significant breakthrough in southeastern France and capture Grenoble.

Winston Churchill says of this day - "It is a dark day for France, it is a dark day for Britain and Belgium, is a dark day for the righteous cause of democracy, but we go on as we must".

Roger Blaire knew hunger, had known it for several weeks now. His uniform, once clean and crisp and proud, was now little more than dirt-smeared rags. His shoes had gone into the pot a couple of days back before the surrender and the only thing he'd found to replace them was two worn strips of canvas wrapped loosely around his feet. He'd lost his helmet a week ago. His rifle, worn as it was, had been taken from him. His division, his company, and his squad had ceased to exist as formalized, coherent, units at least eight days ago, or was it nine? Most of all he was tired.

Tired of fighting, tired of Germans, tired of retreats, tired of everything. Tired of living? Maybe.

The Germans didn't seem tired. The guards who watched over him and the thousands of other Alliance soldiers in this temporary POW camp somewhere south of Antwerp strutted about like gods looking down on mere mortals. They knew victory, and they were drunk on its sweet wine. Barking laughter, they would sometimes mock their pathetic prisoners. Roger hated them with every fiber of his being but resistance now could only mean death. He knew utter hopelessness.

Of one thing he could be glad. He was not a Jew. The Germans had been systematically culling them out of the POW camp and sending them east on trucks and horse-drawn lorries or force-marching them if no transport was available. To what fate no one knew, but that fate could not be good - of this everyone was certain.

He'd grown a scraggly beard, he had lice, and his arms and legs seemed to have shrunken into mere twigs. All of his fellow prisoners were likewise haggard looking. Except for a few of the officers who seemed to have magically maintained their weight, vigor, and well-polished uniforms. How they did so was an incomprehensible enigma to Roger. Those same officers had formed work squads to clean the camp, dig new slit trenches and bury old ones, serve food, etc. A twelve hour day of digging trenches and piling dirt on human waste was almost as bad as combat had been. Almost.

Work behind him and precious sleep ahead, Roger ate the gruel that a Frenchman had slopped into his tin. It tasted vile. What was in it only the bad tempered German cooks knew.

But he ate it and didn't complain. He hadn't eaten this good in over a week.

Outside of the temporary barbwire fence German soldiers manned sandbag machinegun nests, the ominous looking MG-34's pointing into the camp in case anyone was foolish enough to try to escape. A couple of men had tried and failed, bullets tearing them to shreds before they could clear the open ground around the camp. The Germans had randomly hung ten men for each of those who tried to escape. There hadn't been any more escape attempts since then.

Sleep, in the open surrounded by hundreds of other prisoners, was fitful and frequently interrupted by the voices of shouting Germans or the sharp barking of canines. When he awoke he felt more tired than ever, but the officer who told him to pick up his shovel and get to work didn't seem to care. Another day in captivity, the future uncertain. Hope seemed a thing of the past. Roger found himself wishing the war would end so he could go home. To his surprise, he couldn't make himself care which side won.

To Be Continued...