(c) Max Lamirande, 2024

  Published by Max Lamirande

  Proofread by Kevin Plaisance, MD

  (c) 2024 Saguenay, Quebec, Canada

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or modified in any form, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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  FOREWORD

  Dear Readers,

  I have a new Facebook page!

  Seehttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558770082344

  Also, did you know I have a website? I write there once in a while and send updates on how the writing is doing.

  Go here:

  www.maxlamirande.com

  So... Book 6 of the Axis Alternate Series. I hope you guys like it, especially the end part. Some readers have told me they would have liked more battles in book 5. I have made sure that they would be served in book 6.

  Please go and pre-order my new series I am currently working on, Schlieffen Alternate, Book 1 of the WW1 Alternate Series.

  That's it for now, until next times my friends, and thank you for reading my work.

  PROLOGUE

  Somewhere along the Norwegian Coastline

  Operation Rheinubung Part 1, May 6th, 1941

  "Signal the Bismarck we need our Bf-109 escort to head home; they are at the limit of our fighter range," said flight leader Ernst Bergmann to his radio operator aboard the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, a long-range recon plane that the Germans also used for naval operations. The Condor itself would continue on for some time with the battleship, but the rest of the escort had to go back or else run out of fuel. "Yes, sir."

  A flight of ten BF-109 fighters and five Focke-Wulf Condor four-engine bombers flew over the two powerful German warships sailing below them. The German task force was somewhere off the coast of Norway and seemed so small in the infinite blue of the North Sea. Far enough not to be spotted by the Norwegians and close enough to be far away from curious British planes. As if they were a flock of birds changing direction, the Bf-109s peeled off to the side and turned their noses back toward the European mainland and their home base. Only the FW-Condors stayed the course over the German battleship and heavy cruiser.

  The Condor had been designed for Deutsche Lufthansa, which wanted an airliner for a route to South America. Its high aspect ratio long-span wing was characteristic of long-range aircraft, sailplanes, and the Condor bird that the aircraft was named after. Its modern, flush-riveted light alloy construction was aimed at maximum efficiency. With four Pratt & Whitney Hornet S1E-G engines, later replaced by BMW 132L engines (license-built Hornets) and up to 4360 liters of fuel, the Condor was intended to fly 26 passengers over long distances. That it could do so was demonstrated in August 1938 by a flight from Berlin to New York in 20 hours, non-stop. Later that year, a Fw 200 flew to Tokyo, with three stops, in 46 hours.

  In 1939, the Luftwaffe decided that the Fw 200 could meet its own requirement for a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and instructed Focke-Wulf to develop the Fw 200 V10 into a more robust aircraft with a bomb-carrying capacity.

  The answer was the Fw 200C, with some modest structural reinforcements, improved cowlings containing engines with three-bladed propellers, and bomb crutches on the wings. A longer ventral gondola housed a 20mm MG FF cannon in front and a 7.9mm MG 15 machine gun aft. Another MG 15 was in a position above and behind the cockpit, and one was in a dorsal position. The bomb capacity was 250kg in the gondola, two 250kg bombs under the outboard engine nacelles, and two more under the outer wing panels. The aircraft had a five-man crew.

  The Fw 200s were delivered to Kampfgruppe 40, which, from June 1940, operated from Bordeaux-Merignac. Systematic anti-shipping operations began in August. Flights went over the Bay of Biscay, around Ireland, and the Atlantic Ocean. The sinking of 90,000 tons of shipping was claimed in the first two months, and 363,000 tons by February 1941.

  The planes were thus the perfect solution for a long-range air escort for the battleship Bismarck and its consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Orders came for five of the very effective Condors to transfer to Wilhelmshaven by the middle of April.

  Commanding the German task force was Admiral Gunther Lutjens. The Kriegsmarine officer stood on his bridge with his usual undemonstrative and cold demeanor. His men were not afraid of him but wary of his reaction. He was standing beside the helm and seemed somewhere else, lost in thoughts. "Admiral," said one of the junior officers who had walked the short distance from the radio room. "Yes, ensign?" "Our flying escort has just contacted us to tell you that the fighters need to return to base. Only the Condors will remain." Lutjen gave the young officer a quick, silent nod and then walked to the edge of the viewport with his hands behind his back.

  The Bismarck was about to attempt to break out into the Atlantic and attack British and American convoys. Operation Rheinubung was the name given to the operation. Lutjen's set of broad orders called for his two ships to position themselves in the Atlantic expanses between the United Kingdom and North America, where aircraft couldn't reach and defend Allied ships. And then he was to sink as much civilian shipping and transports as possible.

  During World War One, and at that moment in time in the Second World War, the UK was largely dependent upon merchant shipping. As an island nation, it needed the export of British goods and the import of food and essential raw materials, and the protection of this strategic lifeline was one of the highest British priorities.

  The Germans well knew that the severance of this lifeline would require the UK either to sue for peace, through either an armistice or a surrender, or to abandon the British Isles as a base of operations to blockade the sea approaches to Western Europe. This would effectively yield Germany the complete mastery of Western Europe.

  Operation Rheinubung was the latest in a series of raids on Allied shipping carried out by surface units of the Kriegsmarine in the first years of World War II and had been preceded by the very successful Operation Berlin sortie by the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in March 1941.

  The overall object for Bismarck and Prinz Eugen was to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. Raeder's (the Kriegsmarine commander-in-chief) orders to Lutjens were that Bismarck's task was not to tackle and defeat British warships of equal strength but to tie them down in a delaying action while preserving Bismarck's combat capacity to the highest degree possible.

  This was in order to allow Prinz Eugen to engage the merchant ships in any convoy under attack, and the primary objective of the operation was British merchant shipping so that British warships were to be engaged only in furtherance of the primary objective and only when it could be done without excessive risk.

  Thus, Lutjens was under strict instructions not to jeopardize his squadron in any way against superior naval forces or if there was no worthwhile convoy in the offing.

  To support and provide facilities for the battleship and heavy cruiser to refuel and rearm, the Oberkommando der Marine (OKM) organized a network of tankers and supply ships in the operational area designated for the operation; thus, seven oilers and two supply ships were sent as far afield as Labrador in the west and the Cape Verde islands group in the south.

  The British Admiralty, alerted by the Swedish government that the two German ships had sailed through the Kattegat, began to hunt the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, and they took to the task with all the seriousness of British determination. The searching ships included the two modern Battleships King George V and Prince of Wales, with escorting destroyers, the battlecruiser Hood (the pride of the British Navy) and the newly commissioned aircraft carrier Victorious. The cruisers Manchester and Birmingham were tasked to guard the waters southeast of Iceland, a likely route into the shipping lanes for the two German raiders. Other ships soon joined the search.

  Trying to divine what the next few days would bring, Lutjen looked over the horizon, trying to find any traces of enemy ships. "Helm, head as planned for the Denmark Strait at the best possible speed." "Yes, Admiral," answered the helm officer.

  El Alamein

  Before the battle

  (...) Ruweisat Ridge, May 6th, 1941 (...)

  Here, we will stand and fight; there will be no further withdrawal. I have ordered that all plans and instructions dealing with further withdrawal are to be burnt at once.... The great point to remember is that we are going to finish with this chap, Rommel, once and for all. It will be quite easy. There is no doubt about it. He is definitely a nuisance. Therefore, we will hit him a crack and finish with him."

  Bernard Montgomery to the troops, May 1941

  As the British Eighth Army regrouped and prepared for a new enemy offensive, it received a significant morale boost at the end of April with a visit from Churchill during his Egyptian tour. Furthermore, he brought them a new, dynamic commander by the name of Bernard Montgomery.

  El Alamein was the best position from which to defend Alexandria, Cairo, and the Suez Canal. It was where the British decided to make their stand. "I like what you have done with the place, Captain Heterridge," said General Montgomery. They were on top of a rocky bluff overlooking a sand expanse; in the distance, the German lines could be seen. "Thank you, sir," answered the field officer, reddening because of his commander's praise. "Are those machine gun positions' lines of fire layered and covering each other," continued the General. "Indeed, sir. We've had enough time to
prepare and have even been able to shoot some practice rounds. There is no dead zone for the Krauts here, sir."

  The battlefield of al-Alamein was protected on the north by the sea and on the south by the Qattara Depression, thus making it a strong defensive position. Whoever controlled El-Alamein would also control the North African coast. In turn, they would also control the road to Egypt. The ancient Egyptians understood this, and so did their modern counterparts. If it fell, Alexandria was an easy grab for the Axis forces.

  The desert wind blew a large cloud of dust right at the two men towering on the bluff beside the sandbagged position of an anti-aircraft gun. Montgomery put his left hand before his eyes to protect them from the sand. "Good work, Captain Heterridge. The faster we deal with this so-called Desert Fox, the better since it will mean we can leave this god-forsaken place." "Indeed, sir," answered the Captain.

  They then heard some gunfire in the distance, and both looked in that direction. "Isn't that over Axis lines, Captain?" "Yes, sir, it is. They seem to be firing at the small plane hovering above them." Montgomery grunted and then laughed softly. "Isn't that a German recon plane?" "Seems like it to me, General," answered Heterridge. "What is the unit in that area?" "We believe it's an Italian Division, sir."

  Montgomery laughed even louder this time. "That explains it, then." Stupid bugger can't make the difference between left and right, even less friend from foe in the desert. They watched the small plane take altitude and dodge every tracer fired at it. From the distance, they could even see the Italian tracers climbing into the sky. After a minute or two, the German aircraft was able to fly away unscathed.

  Shaking his head in disgust at the fact the Italians couldn't even hit a low and slow flying aircraft, Montgomery turned around and walked back to his staff car, where his chief of staff, General Freddie de Guingand, was waiting for him. "What do you think, Freddie," he said. "Well, sir, it does look good. This position is ready to face the Germans. If they come at us with tanks, they'll be taken under fire by the gun positions we have built into the rock itself," answered De Guingand while pointing at the position with his fingers. "Do we have the tank reserve ready to intervene if they break through the minefields and the defenses?" "Yes, sir. The tanks of the 1st Armored Regiment are holding in reserve twenty kilometers to the rear under camouflage nets to avoid them being attacked from the air."

  "I'm confident about things in this sector if the little Italian marksmanship display is any indication," continued Montgomery. "Indeed, sir, but there are German units in the vicinity as well, so we can't take this for granted."

  "Superb work, Freddie. As always, I can count on you," said Montgomery happily and with a quick nod on the man's right shoulder. The defensive positions were as good as they could be. As Montgomery's Chief of Staff, de Guingand played a central role in planning and executing everything the General did on every front he fought. In the lead-up to the battle of El Alamein and having arrived well in advance of his commander (a few weeks before), de Guingand toured the countryside, talking to the troops while the staff worked out the logistics and operational details of the plan.

  In Field Marshal Montgomery's absence, de Guingand was in charge of the headquarters. He chaired the daily staff conferences and attended inter-staff meetings with his opposite numbers from the U.S. Army and the other Commonwealth and Imperial troops. De Guingand's organizational skills and ability to manage complex operations would prove to be essential to the success of the coming North African campaign. In addition to his military expertise, de Guingand was also known for his diplomatic skills. He was highly respected by his American counterparts and was able to build a strong relationship with them to ensure effective collaboration and coordination among the Allies. This stellar skillset came in handy when dealing with some of the Japanese troops in the defensive line. In this, he was quite the contrast with Montgomery, who had a gift to annoy and piss off people. The Japanese Imperial Army had come to help the British in Egypt with a powerful fleet and a full corps of 36,000 soldiers, some of whom were defending El Alamein with their Allies. The Nipponese soldiers were difficult to deal with because of the language barrier.

  "I think we are ready, Freddie," continued the Allied North African commander. "Indeed, sir." Both men turned again toward the western horizon where the axis lines were. "I hear the enemy will attack soon," continued de Guingand. "Indeed. Army intelligence estimates that we are probably days from a general offensive. We'll soon see how good that Rommel chap is."

  The El Alamein defensive position was divided into three corps areas, with the 30th Corps near the coast and the 13th Corps in the south. In the Nile Delta, 10 Corps was deployed in depth. In the north, near the small railway siding of El Alamein, a defensive position had been prepared by the 2nd South African Division, and it was ready to receive the Afrika Korps for a good fight. It was from here to the northern slope of the Ruweisat Ridge that the 1st South African Division was also deployed and entrenched in well-prepared positions.

  Other troops were deployed on the western part of the ridge at Deir el Shein. They had just arrived from Iraq following the debacle there and were placed in hastily prepared defensive positions. They had to cover a gap of twelve kilometers between the left flank of the South Africans and the right flank of the 13th British Corps. The 2nd British Armored Division was earmarked to deploy east of this position on the Ruweisat Ridge; Montgomery's field headquarters (Eighth Army) was situated to the east of this position on the Alam el Haifa Ridge.

  "Let's go for some tea; this heat is getting unbearable," said Montgomery as he opened his staff car door. A small field tent had been installed about a kilometer in the rear for the general and his entourage to meet and shelter under the sun. "Indeed, sir." They both sat down on the rear bench, and Montgomery gave a nod to the driver, who floored the gas, and the staff car started in a rush toward the rear.

  (...) Tel Al-Essa, May 6th, 1941 (...)

  The small aircraft made its approach low over the desert soil, lifting swirling dust everywhere. It then landed on a small patch of even ground near a bunch of officers led by the chief of staff of the Afrika Corps, General Fritz Bayerlein. Once more, their commander had decided to fly over the battlefield lines to prepare the attack that would soon be launched against the Allied defenses in El Alamein.

  Rommel frequently used this airplane to inspect the progress of his troops, often landing near the front lines to speak to the commanders in person.

  The Fieseler Storch touched the ground and was rapidly at a stop. Erwin Rommel exited the plane through the side door, holding his cap to avoid it flying into the propeller-induced wind.

  Fritz walked toward his superior, giving him the Nazi salute. "Sir, it's good to see you." "Ah! General Bayerlein," answered Rommel with a smile. "I need a drink; this little recon mission was almost the end of me," he continued, giving the salute back to Bayerlein. "What was the matter this time, sir."

  "Ah! Damn Italians," continued Rommel as he walked side by side to Bayerlein. They both gave the military salute to the assembled officers near the plane and walked past them. "The Italians, sir?" "Yes, the Italians. We were flying above a battalion of Bersaglieri near the Ruweisat Ridge, and the surprised clowns opened up at the Storch with enthusiasm. It was a miracle that we were not shot down." "Damn, sir, which is not good. Couldn't they see the German Army cross under the wings?" "Apparently not, General. I need to speak to the unit's commander. First, I have to make sure his men understand what a German unit is, and the fact that we weren't hit does not speak well for Italian marksmanship; they will need to practice some more," finished Rommel as he made his way to the table under the tent, protecting them both from the blistering late morning sun.

  They sat down on the folding chairs, and one young-faced staff officer brought them a jug of water., pouring each of them a drink. Rommel drank greedily. The desert was dry, and he was parched. "The Ruweisat Ridge is well defended, General. The British have anti-tank and machine gun positions on and dug into the ridge itself. We'll have to get our tanks to move some distance way, or they'll be shot down like cattle."