The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (32 page)

Th
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Regia Aeronautic
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delivered a series of raids on the Mediterranean fleet in the Ionian Sea. There were 126 sorties, broken into four raids. It was noticed by the defenders that the Italians seem to have picked up very quickly the understanding that small raids against a fighter defence are costly and usually ineffective, while larger raids tend to swamp the fighter defence. HMS Courageous Goshawks shoot down six S-79's and disrupt the attacks of many more. As a result the fleet suffered no casualties, although HMS Gloucester was damaged by splinters from a near miss.

Hitler issues Directive No 15 which orders the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF in preparatio
n for Operation Sealion. Hitler politely declines Mussolini's offer of Italian forces to aid in the invasion.

The first Free Polish squadron of the RAF, No 302 squadron, is formed.

The first six Westland Whirlwind Mk 2's produced go back to the factory for modification. This involves plumbing for drop tanks, removal of the armament and polishing the aircraft for maximum speed. It was hoped that with the workforce working flat out the first plane would be available for use in a week.

Luftwaffe attacks on the Straights convoys continues. 45 Ju87's, escorted by fighters, attack
ed a convoy and were intercepted by RAF fighters. Fighter Command claim seven aircraft destroyed.

Britain
’s latest commando raid has ended in farce. A team of untrained men designated as special forces of No. 3 Commando attempts to raid Guernsey airport. Compass failure sent it in error to the tiny island of Sark. Other men hit undefended points on Guernsey to no purpose. As they withdrew, their commanding officer slipped and fired his revolver, alerting the enemy. Three men said that they could not swim to the pick-up boat.

In the English Channel a force of 15 Do17's attempts to bomb a convoy but are driven off by RAF Hurricanes

Plebiscites held yesterday in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are said to show unanimous support for union with the USSR. In a triumph of local democracy, some regions registered more than 100% support.

FAA squadrons we
re established on some of the RAF northern bases as agreed; initially three squadrons were involved; it is hoped to add more as planes and pilots permit. The RAF squadrons were allocated to 11 Groups reserve. The transition isn't as smooth as had been hoped. While the FAA are broadly familiar with the system of RAF control (they based their own system on it), there are differences. The FAA squadrons will spend the next few weeks in training on how the RAF system operates. There is also a certain amount of friction between the base (RAF) staff and the (Naval) pilots. The FAA is used to operating ashore from its own establishments, but these are not set up as fighter stations and so are unsuitable for use in the short time period available.

The FAA has more spare planes than pilots at the moment. It takes longer to train a naval pilot, and the training program was never intended to cope with the sorts of extra numbe
r suddenly needed. The RN agreed to train two squadrons of Norwegian naval pilots (evacuated from Norway), but integrating them is expected to take some months. Fortunately the language problem isn't so acute as it has been for some of the other foreign squadrons. The FAA also started a search for some of the Goshawk RAF pilots who are now on other duties. It is hoped that some of these are on non-essential jobs and can be used to form another squadron.

Hitler issues directive no 16, "On the Preparation of a Landing Operation against England (Sealion)"

He talks of invading England with 20 divisions, to be put ashore on the south coast between Ramsgate and Lyme Regis. Hitler states that the aim is to "eliminate the English mother country as a base from which the war against Germany can be continued."

General Alfred Jodl says that the invasion should be seen as a river crossing on a broad front, and in place of bridging operations the navy would keep the sea lanes secure against British attacks. The Luftwaffe would knock out the
RAF, allowing them to help the navy to control the Channel. Operation Sealion will be ready in nine weeks.

But the admirals in the Kriegsmarine are unhappy. In the absence of purpose-built landing craft, they say that they cannot guarantee to protect hundreds of river barges being towed slowly across the Channel. They also ask how they are expected to get the thousands of horses needed by the Army across the Channel while under fire

The unpleasantness in the Mediterranean continued at a lower intensity. Italian planes raid Haifa; RN and RAN ships bombard the Libyan port of Bardia.

Two FAA squadrons, one of Cormorant dive bombers and one of
SeaLance TBR planes arrived in East Anglia. They are intended for use in anti-invasion duties, but their first task was to integrate with Coastal Command. They also started to prepare supplies for use by more aircraft; in the case of an invasion warning, it is expected to add more squadrons if they are available - this would be faster and safer than bringing the Fleet carriers that far south.

In an attempt to reduce tension
in the Far East, Britain acceded to Japanese demands to close the Burma road for a period of three months. As it is the monsoon period, this closure has little practical impact.

In the USA, The Democratic Party's national convention in Chicago, Illinois, nominates President Franklin D. Roosevelt for their candidate for president. If he wins, it will be an unprecedented third term in office.

General Alan Brooke was appointed C-in-C Home Forces, replacing Field Marshal Sir Edmund Ironside who retired, promoted to Field Marshal.

The fi
rst prototype cavity magnetron was delivered to TRE -- the British radar research centre -- near Swanage, on the southwest coast.

Hitler issued
a "Last Appeal to Reason", urging Britain to make peace; he also promoted 12 generals to field marshal, including von Brauchitsch, Keitel, von Rundstedt and Kesselring. Field Marshal Goering was given the new and unique title of Reichsmarschall.

A naval action occurred
off Cape Spada (the northwest extremity of Crete) between an allied squadron patrolling the Aegean and two Italian light cruisers transferring between Tripoli and Leros. The allied force consisted of the cruiser HMAS Sydney and five destroyers. In the running battle that ensued, the Bartolomeo Colleoni was first hit by shells from HMAS Sydney and then sunk by three torpedoes from her accompanyting destroyers. The Bande Nere was hit twice, but the Sydney was forced to break off due to lack of ammunition. The British destroyers were bombed by Italian aircraft in the aftermath, resulting in damage to HMS Havock, whose # 2 boiler room was flooded.

In Washington the US Congress passed the bill asked for by the President to pay for a "two-ocean" navy. The House of Representatives approved a bill appropriating an additional $4 billion to build enough warships to enable the US to confront the danger of war with Germany and its allies in the Atlantic, and simultaneously with the Japanese in the Pacific. There will be an additional 1,325,000 tons of warships and 15,000 naval aircraft. The US fleet will then number 35 battleships, 20 aircraft carriers and 88 cruisers.
Previous opposition to these levels of military spending have been swept away by the disaster in France.

While escorting a channel co
nvoy, the destroyer HMS Brazen was attacked by a large formation of German planes near Dover. Damaged and taken under tow, she later sank. Three planes were reported shot down.

The FAA squadron sunning themselves at Sidi Barrani aerodrome launch
ed an evening raid on Tobruk harbour using torpedoes. In the face of heavy antiaircraft fire they succeeded in torpedoing and sinking the destroyers Nembo and Ostro

The MAP (Minis
try of Aircraft Production) laid out rules designed to maximise the air defences of the country during the current invasion crises. Their initial ideas are met with screams of horror from the RAF, the Navy, and just about everyone else. Indeed, their idea to shut down naval air for at least 3 months to concentrate on RAF planes causes the First and Fifth Sea Lords to have a personal meeting with Churchill. They aren't the only ones, and as a result the MAP's ideas were looked at again, as it had been pointed out that panicking over the possible invasion isn't the best way to win the war. In addition the RN made some changes to maximise the availability of destroyers.

It wa
s finally decided that the vital planes are the fighters. Spitfire and Hurricane production get top priority over everything else. Next come the FAA and the RAF's beloved bombers; production continues at full speed on the Wellington, Blenheim, and Goshawk. Other combat planes would continue to be built where they don't draw resources from the first two groups. Aircraft development would continue where again it doesn't steal any resources (in general the needs of these programs are so small in comparison with the main manufacturing lines that they don't make very much difference).

The Navy accepted that the Army currently had priority for guns, and agreed
to give them priority for all guns and mounts except where these don't intrude on Army production. This included all single 40mm guns going to the army for the next three months. Dockyard and shipbuilding priority will be given to repairs of destroyers and other light units. Other building will continue where it doesn't impact on this.

This is considered a sensible arrangement; distorting and stopping so much other work to get a very small number of extra fighters is seen as unproductive, as the other planes, ships and so on are also helpful in case of invasion. It is agree
d to review the priority system in three months, by which time if an invasion hasn't happened it will be unlikely until the spring due to bad weather.

During the second half of July raids on convoys and
shipping intensified; the RAF took an increasing toll of the bombers, but their losses also mounted. Coastal shipping was very vulnerable to these attacks as it was impossible to provide constant escorts and it was often not possible to scramble fighters in time.

On the 27th, the RN lost
two destroyers; one escorting minesweepers off Sussex, the other in the port of Dover. The increasing intensity of the raids, and the information that the Germans are emplacing heavy guns across the channel, caused the Admiralty to move the small destroyer force from Dover to the Nore.

A night attack on the 27th showed
that at the moment the RAF have little hope of stopping night attacks. Work on AI radar is already a top priority, and tests are ongoing using Blenheims; unfortunately when carrying a radar these planes are barely able to catch a German bomber. Dowding asks that work on a faster night fighter be speeded up; the best prospect is the two-man version of the Reaper, but even with priority it isn't expected until the end of the year at best. The other plane that could be used, the Beaufighter, starts arriving with the squadrons in July; all the planes available will be tasked for night fighters once the squadrons are up to speed, which will take some time as they not only have to get used to the new plane but also to the use of the AI system. In the longer term, the Reaper will take over and the Beaufighters and Blenheims will be phased out.

The next day (
the 28th) the Luftwaffe launched raids against the north of England as well as against the channel. Only one of the northern raids was intercepted, by an RAF squadron. It is clear that the FAA squadrons need to become more familiar with the RAF control system in order to be efficient, and the training and integration program intensifies.

The FAA had
managed to find quite a few RAF pilots with recent FAA experience flying mahogany bombers (desks). While some of these are in obviously important jobs, many are not. To a man, the RAF pilots approached were eager to help, but the Air Ministry refuses to release them, even when a letter from Dowding asks for them. More than a dozen pilots turned up at FAA bases anyway, a fact to which the RN turns a Nelsonianly blind eye; soon there were enough pilots to form another squadron of Goshawks. The FAA had also released another squadrons worth of pilots from their training program by allocating them to a land-based squadron before they have finished the additional naval pilot training. This gives the FAA five squadrons in the North, with two more manned by Norwegians training. This had freed five Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons, which were allocated to 10 and 12 Groups so they can carry on training and be a ready reserve for 11 Group.

In the Mediter
ranean, the Royal Navy continued to escort convoys between Alexandria and Aegean ports. As well as a close escort, they are covered by the Mediterranean fleet, including HMS Malaya and HMS Royal Sovereign. During these convoys the RA press home a number of attacks, during which Goshawks from HMS Courageous shoot down some five planes, and the AA accounts for another one. Only one Goshawk was lost (forced to ditch), and the attacks were broken up and disrupted. As a result no ships receive more than splinter damage

By the end of the month HMS Warspite and HMS Implacable have finally arrived via the Cape, and will strengthen the force. It had originally been intended to relieve Courageous
and allow her to return home for a refit, but she was considered far too useful where she is now.