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Battle in the skies

While the battle for northern Italy raged, a fierce engagement between the Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force played out in the skies above. Notably, the Germans were now resorting to the use of their allies planes, the Japanese. An eye witness described what he saw.

“The vapour trails criss crossing the sky looked very dramatic as the air was filled with the graceful, sweeping arcs of those magnificent men in their flying machines. But the reality was a very gruelling, twisting battle for supremacy, which the Luftwaffe JUST managed to retain.

Outnumbered the gallant (some would say foolish) RAF pilots flew in against the odds trying to stem the tide and it started well for them. Two german pilots collided in mid air, but miraculously survived. Their Japanese ally chased one unfortunate Spitfire into their flightpath where he suffered a great deal of damage. This much was obvious by the way the aircraft behaved keeping his speed low and manoeuvres simple.

It wasn't long before the Japanese pilot finished him off. In his elation, however, he had forgotten about the enemy wingman who avenged his chum's death sending the Zero crashing down. While all this was going on the two German pilots, having kept in close formation (Too close actually, as they almost collided another two times), separated to try and trap their foe. One of those pilots, obviously a new recruit, lost his bearings and returned to base. The battle raged on.

To the onlookers below, it looked like a dance, but it soon changed to a fearsome display as fire and smoke filled the sky. Both aircraft burned fiercely and plummeted to the ground, the Spitfire disintegrated first, whilst the burning Messerschmitt streaked homeward, but would not make it back. The brave pilot had seen off his foe but it had cost him his life.”

Battle at sea

While the Italian front made steady gains for the allies and the Russians began their much awaited offensive in the east, the Kriegsmarine once again sought to destroy the much needed Russian convoys to the north of Norway.

The weather in June had been inclement, with a great deal of fog, which allowed the Scharnhorst, which had avoided being sunk in the winter of ’43, to slip her moorings and once again sail to destroy the merchant ships supplying Stalin’s war effort.

The Royal Navy knew the Scharnhorst was at sea and soon she was being trailed by the cruisers Belfast, Sheffield and Norfolk in rough conditions. The german ship turned on her pursuers, but found their gunfire to be accurate, especially that of the Norfolk, who’s 8 inch shells managed to do some serious superficial damage to the German battlecruiser. All the while the battleship Duke of York was closing as fast as she could, but just as the vessel got in range, she was detected by the German surface raider and the Scharnhorst managed to escape into a fog bank.

Later on the 12th June, the weather cleared and Scharnhorst was once again picked up by the three cruisers who closed with her, trying to keep her occupied before the Duke of York arrived again. However the battleship was many miles away and the three cruisers soon got more than they bargained for when the Scharhorst turned on her pursuers, quickly damaging all three vessels.

The Norfolk suffered terribly at the hands of the German 11 inch guns. Soon the flooding from several below the waterline hits became unmanageable and the Norfolk sank. Worse was to follow for the British as Sheffield met a similar fate. She put up a brave fight but was also lost. H.M.S. Belfast, seeing that she was now alone, fled.

Although the Scharnhorst had sunk two ships, she had been severely damaged and only just managed to make it back to port before being intercepted by H.M.S. Duke of York. The Royal Navy wanted revenge, but the vital convoys reached their destination unmolested by the Kriegsmarine surface raider.

Current Strategic Map

Trieste captured, Germans counter-attack

During June the allies in Italy pushed forward. Roosevelt had been convinced by Churchill that the main thrust should come from the south, and the invasion of France was put off, while the allies watched their progress out of Italy. General De Gaulle was appalled and lobbied furiously for a landing on his homeland, but he was over-ruled, creating a mood of bitterness in the leader of the free French. Stalin too, telegraphed the western allies asking for them to concentrate on the western portion of the Third Reich, warning them not to “meddle” in the Balkans. This was an alarming diplomatic development.

Nevertheless, the advance continued, and by the 14th the Allies had reached Austria and Slovenia, taking the much needed port of Trieste and reaching Ljubliana. However on the 17th a German counter attack, led by SS Panzer divisions mauled the British near Udine, and the German forces reached the sea, cutting off the defenders in the port. Supplied from the sea the British in Trieste held out, and the world watched and waited for the next development.

Leningrad liberated, Minsk pocket rescued

After weeks of reversals and several false starts, June saw the start of the much awaited “operation Bagration”, the overwhelming Russian offensive designed to liberate mother Russia and push the Germans all the way back to Berlin.

Early June went well for the red army, as the German forces in northern Russia were exhausted from their recent exertions to take Leningrad and to cut off Minsk. As the Russians attacked, Generaloberst Georg Lindemann was unable to respond, and he wept when his most prized gain, the city of Leningrad, was taken in less than a week by Zhukov’s unstoppable forces. The Russians poured into the city, while their tanks bypassed it, driving a salient into the German lines and reaching the Gulf of Finland.

Further south an overwhelming force slammed into army group centre, takinf Polotsk and driving south towards the beleaguered city of Minsk. Another offensive from Zhlobin pinned the defenders, and Model was obliged to withdraw east of the city to avoid encirclement. By the 15th of June the city was reached and the Russians had retaken a vast swathe of territory, infuriating the Fuehrer, who ordered its immediate recapture. His army however, was unable to immediately comply.

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Minsk liberated but surrounded!

During May 1944 the soviet offensive in the east finally gathered some momentum. In the north, Model’s Army Group North found themselves unable to press on from the confines of Leningrad, while further south the massive resources of the red army were poured into a narrow offensive aimed at capturing the strategically vital city of Minsk.

With overwhelming air support, the Russians soon found themselves gaining ground against the wehrmacht, who threw everything they had at the advancing Russians. A great number of Panthers were lost in a hastily organised counter attack, which saw the Russians skilfully withdrawing, enticing the German armour into well placed traps.

By the 8th of May the Russians had retaken Zhlobin, and had punched a hole fifty miles wide in the German lines. By the 14th the rapidly moving Russian offensive had retaken Minsk, to the jubilation of the citizens and Stalin himself.

The situation looked bad for Germany, but crucially the Russian offensives had failed to take, or even deliberately bypassed, the cities of Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruisk. This allowed the 20th Panzer division, in tandem with strong forces from Mogilev in the north, to mount a ferocious counter attack from the south. The fighting was particularly brutal and at times it looked like the attempted pincer movement would grind to a halt, but eventually, despite severe losses, the pincers closed and Minsk, still in Russian hands, had been cut off by the end of the month.

Hitler was furious, but his generals were concerned. How long could they continue to sustain such casualties and keep the red army at bay?

Milan falls, allies reach France

Following the dramatic victory in Italy in the previous month, May saw the allies keep up the pressure on the Italian front. Churchill had finally seen his Mediterranean strategy bear fruit and forced Roosevelt to admit he had been wrong. Now the British army was the senior partner on the second front, with British units in the forefront of the fighting in Northern Italy.

May 14th saw two vitally important actions north of the Po river, when most of the 7th Armoured division came into contact with a well equipped Panzer division which had been sent to stop the advace towards the Yugoslav border. Overnight however a confused action left parts of the Panther equipped army surrounded in tight "cauldrons". This allowed the faster, lighter British tanks to encircle the Panthers and destroy them one by one. Amazingly the British Crusader tank had been deployed successfully for the first time since 1942, where mechanical problems had dogged the cruiser tanks. Upgunned and back in favour thanks to the pressure of General Stubbings, the Crusader was now having a major impact in the Italian theatre.

Later on in the month the 7th Armoured division faced another German Panzer division attempting to stop their move east. The result was similar and the border was reached on 28th May.

Meanwhile in the west of Northern Italy, Milan fell on the 7th, and the British infantry, supported by Churchill tanks and artillery in abundance, soon overwhelmed the numerically inferior German force defending the border with France. outgunned, the German grenadiers were harrassed all the way to the French border, and by the 17th May the British had reached Monaco and the French Alps. Here they paused, waiting orders for their next move.

Current Strategic Map

Leningrad falls to the Third Reich!

In April, Model concentrated his army group north on the outskirts of Leningrad, digging in their troops elsewhere. While the Red Army probed their flanks with overwhelming numbers, they found that they could not shift the dogged German defence, and swift armoured counter attacks caused carnage in the Russian lines, preventing the Soviets from breaking through the German defences.

While Model’s flanks successfully fended off the Russian onslaught, his veteran Grenadier formations pushed forward into the city of Leningrad itself. Learning the lessons well from the debacle at Stalingrad over a year before, the Germans pursued a “bite and hold” strategy, taking parts of the city where they could then digging in for the inevitable Russian counter-attack.

Despite barely any air cover, the German tactics worked. Over and over the Russians threw divisions of men at a time against mere battalions, supported by hundreds of vehicles and Sturmovich aircraft with rockets and bombs. It was no use. The Germans had dug in well and had set up their defences with great thought. The accuracy of the dreaded MG42 was particularly notable, and a large portion of Russian casualties were caused by the inexperienced Russian soldiers running into carefully prepared killing zones.

After a month of heavy fighting along the front, Yeremenko reluctantly called off the counter-offensives. The Germans had held, and Leningrad had fallen. A great day of shame for the Red Army. Yeremenko was given little choice, he committed suicide on the 3rd May, rather than face the wrath of Stalin.

Model meanwhile prepared for the Russian counter-assault, which he knew must come, while accepting the praise of an overjoyed fuehrer. At the same time he struggled desperately behind the scenes to secure some air cover. Goering however had nothing to offer, the constant bombing of Germany had taken its toll.

Italy liberated!

While the Russians fell back in the east, the western allies came under significant pressure to do something to distract Hitler. The overall allied commanders already had plans to invade northern Europe at some point in 1944, but they knew the recent German offensive in Russia meant a more dramatic effort would be needed sooner.

With this in mind the British and Americans planned a ambitious operation to encircle Kesselring’s army in Italy, simultaneously taking Rome and cutting the German army off by landing near Livorno and Genoa, crossing the mountains and taking the Po valley before the Germans realised what was going on.

Surprise and speed would crucial. If the Germans found out what was happening and deployed on the mountains which overlooked the landing sites, there would be carnage on the beaches. The invasion would be an utter failure. To counter this the Americans would drop behind the landing zones, in the Po valley, during the night. At the same time the allies released “secret” plans for an invasion of Denmark.

The ruse was spectacularly successful, as the Germans immediately went into planning the defence of Denmark. When the landings in Italy took place, they were taken completely off guard.

In the South

The southern advance by the allies was still meeting stiff resistance. On the 7th April the British army fought a furious battle on the road to Rome, which drew in more and more of Kesselring’s reserves. The British advanced quickly, hoping to push back the Panzers' infantry support and secure their objectives whilst their artillery and air support occupied the tanks. However, the Panzer firepower began to tell and both the British Recon detachments and their support Churchills were soon ablaze, what's more their air superiority and bombardments were failing to impact on the German lines.

With the British advance stalled and the Germans unwilling to advance out of the cover of the city into such aerial strength, the forces settled down into a protracted and ultimately inconclusisive firefight.

By the 16th, the allies estimated nearly half of the German army, including all its panthers, were now engaged. The time for the landing had come.

The American para-drop

On the night of the 20th the Americans dropped their airborne units over the mountains between Piacenza and Verona, meeting little in the way of resistance initially. As the Americans secured their landing site and gathered supplies, the Germans reacted, sending in at least on unit of shwere abteilung, with King Tigers. In the hours before dawn a furious battle ended with the Americans holding the initiative and much of the German heavy equipment destroyed.

The beach landings

On the Italian coast the critical beach landings took place as the 21st dawned. Near Genoa, the British landed some 40,000 troops, with hardly a shot fired. They then moved inland, infantry supported by heavy artillery and Churchill tanks. Landed at night, the British swiftly cleared the German forward observers and MG positions, but German reserves were positioned close at hand and arrived almost as soon as the advance inland began. Initially driven off, the Germans returned and stalled the crucial British advance for some time.

With major British attack developing on one flank, the German reserves were forced to counter it, leaving the other flank open to the the British infantry with a little help from Churchill Crocodiles.

Further south the Americans were less fortunate. Near Livorno the Germans had created and manned a set of beach defences, ever since the fall of Corsica, and the Germans ran straight into them.

Unaware at this time of the British landing further north, Kesselring surmised that the Americans near Livorno were the main assault, along with the paratroops in the Po valley. Immediately Kesselring committed his strategic reserves and two days later the Americans were still bogged down on the beaches and taking horrendous casualties. Once this beachhead was destroyed Kesselring would turn north and concentrate on the now isolated airborne units.

On the 25th the German commander was informed that a large British army had taken Piacenza and linked up with the American airhead after a furious battle for the town which had lasted two days. At one point the British commander considered calling off the entire operation, condemning the Americans to certain destruction, but the British kept on going. By the 28th the German resistance in northern Italy had fallen apart. Kesselring made one last desperate gamble.

Knowing he needed to break the allied northern bridgehead, the German high commander in Italy, against Hitler’s express orders, abandoned the defence of Rome and moved his forces northward. Rome fell on the 30th April. However as April came to an end the allied air force smashed 40% of Kesselring’s tanks and heavy equipment as they moved, and by the 1st May it was obvious to Kesselring that he did not have sufficient force to throw the allies into the sea, nor could he expect rescue from the German armies further north.

Without asking Hitler, which would have been pointless, Kesselring surrendered his forces in Italy on the 2nd May. Italy had been taken, thanks to an audacious amphibious landing which for several days looked in doubt. The battle for Italy had been won, but only just. “A close run thing”, was how Field Marshall Alexander put it.

Germany had paid the price for keeping so much of its army in Russia, but now the allies faced a dilemma. Italy had fallen, but what now? The alps were easily defended, and there was no easy route into Germany from here. Moreover, the strategic locations of the Ruhr, the Balkans and the low countries were nowhere near the massive allied army which now sat, perhaps ineffectively, bottled up in the Italian peninsula.