The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (36 page)

In advance, reconnaissance had already been made by the FAA of possible landing sites outside the town which would allow it to be surrounded and attacked; it was felt that if there was serious resistance the shore batteries might make a direct attack impracticable. The FAA had also dropped propaganda leaflets over the town, as it was felt that many Frenchmen there were not in support of the local commanders. In the meantime, two Free French aircraft were flown off Ar
k Royal to land at the airport (it was hoped that perhaps the airport commander was not a Vichy supporter), but the crews were arrested and taken prisoner. In the meantime the British carriers kept an A/S patrol of eight planes in the air, as if the French submarines tried to sortie it was best to damage or sink them immediately; the French surface ships were considered a lesser threat.

In view of the refusal of the French commanders at Dakar to negotiate, preparations were made for landing troops. The original idea, backed by DeGaulle, had been to land at Dakar itself, or failing that to land at Rufisque, some distance from Dakar. These plans had not impressed General Bethouart, and in view of the resistance at Dakar he suggested instead two landings, one close to the small town of Guédiawaye, and one close to Thiaroye. Neither of these t
wo towns (villages, really) had much in the way of infrastructure, but since the bulk of the invasion force have no specialized landing craft (a few are available, but most of the force was expected to land from ships boats) there were no plans to land heavy equipment anyway. Landing at these two points might well give the advantage of surprise, and the landings would only be some 6 miles apart; joining the two would cut off Dakar completely, and Thiaroye would allow easy cutting of the railway line to the port.

At 1500, two of the French submarines were seen to be moving out of the harbo
ur. This was in defiance of the instructions given by the allies (and also dropped on leaflets over the port by the FAA). As a result four Swordfish closed the port, escorted by four Goshawks. They arrived as the submarines were just clearing the harbour, and attacked as soon as they were clear of the entrance. No enemy fighters attempted to intercept, but there was ineffectual AA fire. The first Swordfish dropped its antisubmarine bombs close to the submarine (going in very low indeed), and as they exploded the submarine was seen to be in immediate difficulties. A second pair of Swordfish attacked the other submarine; this time the result was not quite as effective, but the submarine turned and headed back to the harbour trailing oil (it was not certain if it had in fact been seriously damaged or if the crew had decided against a breakout). The first submarine, well down by the stern, drove herself aground just outside of the harbour to avoid sinking, her crew successfully evacuating.

The order was given to land the troops; although there was some local opposition from infantry, the landings seemed to surprise the garrison (it was later ascertained that poor security by the Free French in London had informed them of the original plans, and that the defenders had deployed their forces to contain these. Gen
eral Bethouart's changes had caught them by surprise), and despite the shortage of proper landing craft soon had sufficient men ashore to secure the two beachheads. While this was going on, further leaflets were dropped over Dakar informing them that the allies did not want to destroy them or the French ships, but that they could not allow them to continue to support the aims of Germany. Appeals were made to their honour, and offering terms that allowed them to withdraw with their arms if they wished, pointing out that so far the allies had been as restrained as possible due to their consideration for the French defenders.

This seemed to at least cause confusion among the defenders (it was found later that there were serious disagreements between the pro-Vichy leaders and many of the subordinate commanders, and that at least three of the ships in harbo
ur had refused to sail against the Free French). Although the landings had made contact with some French troops, there were only a few desultory exchanges of fire, and the allied troops used the night to bring in the rest of their force and basic supplies over the beaches.

On the following day the landing troops pressed forward to meet and cut off the port (it had
already been effectively isolated since the landing, as the French Foreign Legion troops had cut the railway link). Some of the defenders exchanged fire with the Royal Marines on the northern landing, but retreated when pressed. There were a number of local discussions between the defenders and the Free French troops under flags of truce, as a result of which the defenders moved back to the port.

The naval force meanwhile tried again to send a small boat under a white flag. This time it was allowed into the harbo
ur, but the envoys were not allowed ashore. They were allowed to hand over a document containing terms, which also pointed out that the port was surrounded, allied aircraft controlled the air and allied battleships were, if necessary, prepared to destroy both the harbour and town. The garrison made them wait some hours, possibly while they checked to see if they were in fact cut off, and considerable radio traffic was detected between them and France.

While this was going on, more air action was taking place, not near Dakar but at Gibraltar. It was inevitable, after the British operation in Dakar, that the Vichy government would have to make some reprisal. Six bomber groups of
the former Armee de l'Air and four escadrilles of the French naval air arm took part. The bombers were all stationed at the bases of Oran and Tafaroui in Algeria and Merknes, Mediouna and Port Lyautey in Morocco. The operation was approved by the German and Italian cease-fire commissions, and directed by Air Force Brigadier General Tarnier, commander of the French Air Force in Morocco. Just after 12:20 pm the first Leo 45 bomber groups (I/23 and II/23) took off from Merknes airfield and headed for Gibraltar. They reached their target at 1:00pm and bombed from 19,500 feet. There was no fighter cover (at this time Gibraltar depended on Force H for air cover). Between 1:30 and 2:15 pm a number of French fighter planes were deployed over Gibraltar to provide protection for the bombers. They included 12 Dewoitine 520s of GC II/3 based on Mediouna, 12 Curtiss Hawks of GC II/5 based on Casablanca and 12 Hawks of GC I/5 based on Rabat. Two escadrilles (2B and 3B) of Glenn Martin bombers from Port Lyautey concluded operations at 4:15 pm. The 64-bomber raid should have wrecked the port, 41 metric tons of bombs being dropped, but a considerable number of the French pilots appear to have deliberately dropped their loads into the sea, and a larger number of the fuses of the bombs that did land had apparently been tampered with so that they would not explode.

After receiving news of the attack on Gibraltar, the allies gave the Dakar authorities a final ultimatum. The troops outside the town were slowly moving on the port, and had already sabotaged the rail link in case reinforcements tried to use it. A message from Generals Bethouart and DeGaulle, aimed at the troops rather than their leaders was again dropped by air, and it was noticed that there seemed to be considerable disturbances in the town. The attack on Gibraltar meant that the allies could not wait much longer, and if no discussions were started by tonight, an attack would commence in the morning, the battleships and bombers starting by reducing the ports fortifications, then supporting the land attack as necessary

Fortunately this was not in the end needed. The Vichy commanders agreed to meet with the envoys already in the harbour at 1630, and discussions took place over conditions for surrender of the port. It was clear to the envoys that the locals were by no means uniform in their support of Vichy. It was agreed that all those who wished to leave could do so with their arms and with honour. All those who wished to stay could either join the Free French cause or be interned for the duration of the war. The same offer was made to the ships as had been made in Mers-el-Kebir; interestingly the ships made individual decisions, one cruiser and one destroyer joining the exiles in the West Indies, the others (including the damaged battleship Richelieu) agreeing to joining the Free French.

The port was formally surrendered at 0800 on the 25th, and secured by the troops outside the town. The Vichy supporters were allowed to leave as soon as the rail link had been restored. The port would be occupied by Free French forces (that no British troops would be in the occupation had been a demand by the defenders), and the French and Polish gold reserves, which had been held in Dakar since the fall of France, were loaded onto the battleship Resolution to be shipped to South Africa under the supervision of representatives of the two governments in exile.

The allies were surprised to find after the surrender of Dakar just how oppressive the Vichy regime had been to the locals. It had been pro-Allied street demonstrations and an unsuccessful naval mutiny that persuaded the Allies earlier in the year that Senegal was fertile ground for the Free French. However the Vichy authorities had responded by appointing a Vichy governor and purging the Free French supporters, many of whom were released from jail after the allies took control of the town. The port had also been reinforced by loyal Vichy troops, but the need to confront the allied landings had stretched these too thin to also allow them to fully control the town, and the growing discontent, and in many cases outright rioting and local mutinies had forced the governor to admit that it was not going to be possible to drive off the allies. Part of the reason that Vichy had been so keen to hold on the port was the fact that the considerable French gold reserves (as well as some of those held by the French for allied powers such as Poland) had been sent to Dakar for safe-keeping. These would now be in the hands of the Free French, and the equipment this gold could buy would aid considerably the development of the Free French armies.

Althoug
h the Luftwaffe had been restricting daylight raids to small 'nuisance' attacks by small, heavily escorted formations, today they tried again with a large attack on the British Aeroplane works at Filton in Bristol. While the two week respite had allowed the Luftwaffe formations to recover from their low point, it had also allowed Fighter command to fully recover its front line squadrons, and the raid was heavily handled, 12 bombers being shot down by the fighters and AA. The losses seemed to convince the Luftwaffe that large daylight raids are not worth the losses in trained bomber crews (who have taken heavy casualties over the last couple of months), and that night bombing is a better use of their resources. It is clear that the old tactics of close escort of bombers by fighters was simply too costly; 12 bombers and five fighters conceded for the loss of seven RAF fighters.

Today, in the Berlin chancellery, the Ja
panese ambassador, Saburo Kurusu put his signature to a tri-partite pact which extends the Rome-Berlin Axis to the Far East. In a move clearly directed at the United States, the three countries pledge themselves to aid one another with "all political, economic and military means" should one of them be attacked by "a power not involved in the European war."

Japan accepts the hegemony of Germany and Italy in Europe, and they in turn recognise Japan's right to organise "the Greater East-Asia Co-prosp
erity Sphere". The pact contained a clause promising to preserve the status quo in relations with the Soviet Union.

Following the signing of t
his pact, Hitler secretly ordered war production to be geared towards the invasion of Russia.

In Washington, a navy department spokesman said that the pact would not mean any change of policy. The navy, he said, would continue to be based at Pearl Harbo
ur.

Brita
in informs Japan that it intended to re-open the Burma Road to China when the current three-month agreement expires on 17 October. The move, announced by Churchill, was the first direct result of the Japan-Axis pact. He told the House of Commons that Britain had originally agreed to ban the transit of war materials from Burma to China while the two sides tried to reach a settlement. Japan had not taken the opportunity and had signed a ten-year pact with the Axis. To cheers from the House the Prime Minister said that in the circumstances Britain could not see its way to renewing the agreement.

The
Italian submarine 'Gondar' approaches Alexandria with human torpedoes for an attack on the base. She is located by an RAF Sunderland of No 230 Squadron and sunk by the destroyer HMAS Stuart.

Early in the month the first wolf-pack attacks were directed by Admiral Donitz against the convoy SC2. Five of the 53 ships are sunk. A similar operation is mounted two weeks later against the 40 ships of HX72. The U-boats present include those commanded by the aces Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke. Eleven ships are lost, seven to Schepke's U-100, in one night. The German B-Service is instrumental in directing U-boats to many convoys, where they hold the advantage as they manoeuvre on the surface between the merchantmen and escorts.

This new tactic was of considerable worry to the Royal Navy. While losses in the Atlantic have been high over the last few months, this has been accepted as a necessary short term price to pay for the invasion defence (many of the destroyers and escorts normally employed in the Atlantic have been held back in Britain in case of invasion). Now that the invasion has obviously been called off (at least until the Spring), pressure was being applied to allocate the light carriers and many of the escorts back into the Atlantic to reinforce the very minimal current escorts