16.0
[S-Day. We are entering the most disputed part of the what-if, so all of
the
following instalments will initially be tentative. I am even more open
than
until now to your comments, suggestions and criticism]
Now that the day of Seelöwe has come, the crux of the problem for the
Luftwaffe is how to distribute its limited assets to cover all the
numerous
and difficult tasks it has to carry out.
The first and most im****tant job is to protect the landing areas and the
invasion armada as it unloads. A weighty standing force of fighters will
be
needed here, at all times during daylight. Kesselring reckons that in
order
to be sure he can keep 80 fighters out there at all times, he needs to set
aside some 250 of them. They will fly in relays and make extensive use of
the remaining drop tanks. Even so, this means no more than 20 fighters on
patrol over each of the four landing areas, while these pilots will need
to
fly 4 or 5 sorties per day, depending upon the intensity of the enemy
attacks.
The fighters assigned to this task but not currently airborne can be, of
course, scrambled on alarm; this can be done if the defenders of the
beachheads signal they are being overwhelmed, or in order to intercept
British attacks against French or Dutch ****ts. Of course, if this happens
the sorties will pile up, and anyway, it takes some time to reach the
English coast, even from bases in the Pas de Calais.
The second but no less critical task is to keep the Royal Navy at bay.
Wever
has been told countless times by now by his Kriegsmarine colleagues that
the
fleet has no chance of survival, unless the Luftwaffe does what the German
war****p cannot do. So, for the first day of Seelöwe, 250 of the some 300
Ju
87 will be assigned to this task. Obviously these lame ducks can't be sent
out alone, but Kesselring reckons he can assign just 200 Bf 109s to escort
them. It's a paltry ratio, but these missions will take place over the
sea;
Kesselring thinks the British fighters will have other things to do than
to
interfere out there. Besides, there are much less British fighters by now,
and their operational bases are farther from the Channel - or so he
believes.
This leaves just some 100 Bf 109s for other tasks. Which is a problem when
it comes to the level bomber force available; the Germans have almost 900
of
them, but if they keep sticking to the ratios used until now (at least 2
escort fighters per bomber), they could use only 50 of them! Kesselring
decides he will use a 1:1 ratio for 50 Heinkels and 50 Bf 109s, which he
will keep as his reserve and for other tasks. Additionally, he will use a
sizable part of his level bombers (some 400 of them) for the initial
ground
sup****t missions over the beachheads; after all, numbers count for
something, and these areas are patrolled by the above-mentioned CAPs. To
these 400 level bombers he adds the remaining 50 Stukas for pinpoint
direct
sup****t missions.
Some 450 level bombers remain unused! So they will go out for a final
night
bombing assault before dawn, and then remain available. These night
attacks
will be aimed at naval bases, army barracks, railroad marshalling yards
and,
once more, Fighter Command airfields.
At this point, Kesselring is left with some 90 Bf 110s and the last 50 Bf
109s. 40 of the two-engined aircraft will integrate the direct sup****t to
the ground forces, as fighter/bombers. The remaining 50, together with the
Bf 109s, will provide a 100-strong escort for the last but not least
Luftwaffe effort: the parachute airdrops.
Coastal, long-range and some of the short-range recon aircraft will serve
as
the eyes of the anti-****pping details; those Royal Navy ****ps have to be
found first. The obsolescent seaplanes will also have a go with their
ineffective torpedoes. Other minor units are, as customary, directly
attached to the Heer; they will serve in their primary role of recon, but
also, four of them will be used for calling down CAS missions. They are
redundant, because the same role will be carried out by Luftwaffe FAC
teams
having their own radios and light vehicles, assigned to the four landing
areas. These won't be able to call down level bomber raids; only the Bf
110s
and, to a lesser extent, the Stukas, will have short enough response times
to be useful in this role.
This is the Luftwaffe plan for the first day of Seelöwe. However, the
first
casualties of that day have nothing to do with the air combat. At about
00:40, the Naiad's flotilla, coming down from Rosyth, loses a destroyer to
a
mine. They were hugging the coast exactly in order to stay in a cleared
corridor out of the German minefields, maybe it was a floating mine. The
Admiralty has finally decided to keep this force out of the Channel, at
the
height of Harwich, almost out of Stuka range. They will probably not be
committed during the daylight hours of the first day. They are, however,
joined by the 6 destroyers of Harwich.
The Brandeburgers' attack at Dover is an abysmal failure; its only chance
was surprise, and it was no surprise at all, of course, the garrison fully
expecting something like this. They are first intercepted by a patrol boat
well out at sea; their motorboats come under fire from coastal guns while
lit up by illuminating rounds; and only a handful of survivors make it to
the vicinity of the ****t, where they will do no more than a few nuisance
skirmishes. The Dover ****t authorities start their demolition programs at
about 03:00, and they will be even too thorough.
The German barge formations are also incurring their first losses, having
nothing to do with enemy action. Indeed, their minesweepers have done a
good
job opening the way out of the roadsteads. But the barges are prone to
accidents. In the night, collisions happen, engines malfunction, water
comes
in over the low boards, passengers or loads move, unbalancing the vessels.
Given the pitiful seaworthiness of these things, and the desperate
shortage
of experienced sailors aboard them, a minor accident easily leaves a barge
in a very dangerous situation, and several of them end up capsizing. Apart
from the losses, these accidents delay the other barges and disrupt the
formations.
Enemy action, on the other hand, also begins taking its toll when two
British torpedo boats on aggressive patrolling stumble across Geleitzug 4
from Le Havre. This convoy is escorted by converted, armed fi****ng boats
and
minesweepers, but speed wins over firepower in this confused night action,
and a trawler and an escort are sunk. Unfortunately for the Germans,
tracers, explosions and fires draw the attention of two British
destroyers,
Volunteer and Wolverine, coming from Southampton, and this fight is much
more one-sided; a minesweeper, two small steamers and some twenty barges
are
lost, for light damages incurred by the two destroyers, which then
withdraw.
There is a further domino effect, no longer involving British units. The
continued gunfire in the vicinity is too much for a nervous gunner on one
of
the motorized sailboats of Schleppverbande 5; in the moonlight, he spots
some dark shape looming close. A full friendly-fire battle erupts within
this formation. When the commodore finally manages to stops it, plenty of
vessels are badly shot up, the convoy is in disarray and it will be late
on
the beach.
While all of this does not bode well for the Westernmost landings, the
Royal
Navy's smorgasbord of press-ganged ex-civilian fi****ng boats, yachts,
motorboats, cutters and launches scores some point on the other end of the
invasion area; the British have hundreds of these boats, they are by now
used to night patrolling in the Channel, and some two hundred of them are
out tonight. They get a contact off Dover with Geleitzug 2, from
Rotterdam.
This time the Germans dish out more than they take, thanks to the
moonlight,
but the fact is that the British have a large edge even in this lowest-end
class; they will barely notice the loss of three of those boats, while the
loss of even one gun-carrying minesweeper will be significant for this
convoy in the hours to come.
About two hours before dawn, two of the Costal Command flights (see below)
spot the Calais and the Antwerp flotillas in the moonlight as they have
almost reached their final turning point. The bombing, unfortunately, is
rather inaccurate. That doesn't mean the attack is fruitless, because a
few
barges are damaged, and two collide and quickly sink. Furthermore, AA
tracers and incendiary bombs once again act as beacons, and there is
another
fight between light-weights, a squadron of British cutters exchanging
blows
with the armed fi****ng boats. The convoys are both badly damaged,
disrupted
and delayed.
In the grey light just before dawn, finally, another naval engagement
takes
place. One of the German submarines, laying in ambush West of the landing
areas, is lucky enough to find itself exactly astride one of the zigzags
the
Revenge's flotilla is taking from Plymouth (this being the almost only way
to have a good firing op****tunity against these war****ps, way faster than
the usual targets for U-Boote). But as it often happens with German
torpedoes in this time frame, the Revenge's keel is just scratched by a
dud,
and the U-62 has to run away, chased by two destroyers (the contact will
be
broken later in the morning, with no losses on either side).
Meanwhile, the German bombers have carried out their final night runs.
Attacks on naval bases and Fighter Command Southern airfields are totally
useless, given that by now they are empty; some damage is taken by the
main
communication lines between London and Dover.
But morning has broken, and the Seelöwe armada is in sight of the English
coastline.
From East to West, landing zone B has two beaches between Folkestone and
New
Romney. The soldiers of the first echelon of the 17. Infanteriedivision
start out unlucky, since Geleitzug 1 from Ostend has about half the
planned
tonnage; they will be short on everything [as per OTL]. Landing zone C
covers an area between Rye and Hastings, and the mountain troopers won't
find it amusing that their beach is bisected by a river mouth, with stuff
ending up on both sides; the other Kampfgruppe's barges are spread out all
over the sea due to the engagements and accidents during the crossing. The
tow formation from Boulogne heads towards two beaches between Bexhill and
Eastbourne (landing zone D), and, although not attacked, it has been
disrupted by a false alarm in the night. This force also has no cargos,
trawlers, nothing moving fast and arriving early. Finally, the landing
zone
E goes from Beachy Head to Brighton. This is a substantial effort, with
three beaches and three first echelons. Two of them have been disrupted by
the night actions and lost cohesion; they are going to find remarkable
fortifications, a seawall hard to cross with vehicles, and plenty of
bottlenecks to fight through (what with cliffs, rivers and lagoons just
behind their beaches). On the plus side, they have the benefit of some
local
early-morning mist.
During the final two course changes needed to line up with the beaches and
then head towards them, the first carried out still in darkness and the
second with limited visibility, several barges more collide with each
other,
or lose control and capsize, or fall out of formation. But the bulk of
them
pushes ahead, now preceded by the faster units.
The Germans aren't just coming by sea. The first relay of CAP fighters is
already high up over the beaches. The first sup****t mission is flown by 27
of the some 50 Stukas set aside for this task, and by 18 Bf 110s; they
have
no FAC direction for the time being, but many of the British
fortifications
are clearly visible on the German recon photos, and this attack is a
softening. Of course these aren't thin-skinned hangars; they are RC
pillboxes or thick brick and stone fortifications, and a direct hit is
needed. Many of the strongpoints survive. There are two more "raids" just
at
this time: the Ju 52s carrying two battalion-strength parachute
Kampfgruppen, with a mixed escort of almost 100 between Bf 109s and Bf
110s
in the fighter role.
Switching now to the RAF's perspective, heated arguments have been going
on
over the last few days and even hours as to how to use its assets. Nobody
could deny that the Royal Navy's task forces would be going to need air
cover, so Dowding has grudgingly conceded some of that, especially from
the
peripheral Squadrons, those of #10 and #12 Groups (by now, he has also
taken
care to deploy all of his most experienced Squadrons to #11 Group, so that
the veteran pilots can fight for the true air superiority contest). On the
other hand, he has adamantly refused to employ fighters as escorts to
bomber
attacks, at least not immediately. He has pointed out that if the
air-to-air
battle is won, then nobody will molest the British bombers, and in order
to
defeat the German fighters, he has to have his hands free. The Air Staff
could have easily overruled him, were it not for the fact that Bomber
Command eggheads are still convinced that their theory that the bomber
will
always get through may still be proved true. The compromise that has been
reached in a final Air Ministry meeting is that in the afternoon of
invasion
day, Fighter Command will try to swamp the German fighter defenses over
the
beachheads, and if Bomber Command will be able to time a strike surge
correctly, they should find them unprotected. Bomber Command is not ruling
out snap raids by Battles and Blenheims, without fighter escort. The
Hampdens will keep hitting the invasion ****ts, at night.
Coastal Command will carry out its usual tasks, apart from trying to
harass
the invasion fleet at night.
On September 14, Dowding has also given his final activation order to his
own little trick. All through the so called "combat zone" close to the
coast, #11 Group has redeployed several Squadrons. Only, they are not
based
in Fighter Command airfields. #32 Squadron is hidden in the hangars of
Detling, among the trainers of the FAA; the abandoned strip of Andover
still
looks abandoned, but #152 Squadron has just set up shop there; West
Malling
hosts the Poles of #303 Squadron, the Royal Aircraft Establishment
airstrips
of Farnborough are now home to #605 Squadron. Other units are stabled with
Bomber Command (whence the accidental destruction of a handful of
Hurricanes
during one of the raids against it) or Coastal Command. A few experimental
top-secret emergency strips also exist: nothing more than fields along the
edge of wooded areas, with the trees and camouflage netting hiding the
dispersal places from enemy recon; critical stages of the work on these
has
been carried out in rainy days. Dowding has played a Judo move on
Kesselring, turning his opponent's strength against him; the concentration
on Fighter Command airfields, in itself a correct choice, will be a
drawback. Park has plenty of forward-deployed fighters to send up quickly,
and the Germans do not even know where they are.
So, when the various German missions mentioned above show up at dawn,
their
arrival has not gone unnoticed (with the exception of the fighter/bomber
Bf
110s, which flew low as usual). The radar network is dented, but still
good
enough to see them coming. Park, with Dowding's approval, has reacted
conservatively as always, even if he knows this is the day. Pairs of
Squadrons get scrambled, and intercept most of the raids (not all of them,
because of the radar network's weakness, and because of a local mistake by
a
new Squadron Leader). The Bf 109s on CAP fight back, and are high enough
not
to get bounced; the ground missions mostly go ahead unopposed. However,
after an almost equal fight (6 British fighters downed for 7 German ones,
and a Stuka did not come out of the dive), it is already time for the CAP
to
be replaced.
Meanwhile, over Hythe and Lyminge, I. and II./JG 52 and I./ZG 26 fight
hard
against #64 and #32, with the Hurricanes of the latter trying to get
through
to the vulnerable Ju 52s. The Germans are largely successful, at the price
of 3 Bf 110s and two Ju 52s. The British lose two fighters, and some of
the
other Ju 52s do get sprayed with .303 rounds, which incapacitates many of
their passengers. Several other trans****ts are damaged, and their paras
wounded, by the Royal Navy's AA in Folkestone. What's worse, the drops are
spread over quite a wider area than planned, due to this attack.
As the first canopies dot the sky over the Paddlesworth high ground, the
assault boats are fighting against the undertow, while under fire from
many
MG positions. As the dust from the altogether few aircraft bombs has
settled, the German vessels tasked with fire sup****t open up - and the
coastal guns, especially in the vicinity of Folkestone and Brighton, and
from the Dymchurch and Eastbourne redoubts, do the same. Now a make****ft
mount onto an unarmored civilian vessel, with no fire direction, bobbing
up
and down, is no match for a proper and fortified shore battery. The only
bad
things about the latter are that the British did not provide every beach
with one, and that they did not provide most of them with plenty of ammo.
Where they did, several boats are hit and sunk or greviously damaged.
And the Germans are slaughtered by the hundred in their flimsy assault
boats
and as they come ashore, mainly by MG fire. The good thing, again, is that
there isn't a lot of MGs. Indeed, at Cuckmere Haven they manage to make a
lodging beyond the water mark only after a frantic green gunner has jammed
his Bren and an ancient Vickers MG has eaten through all the scanty ammo
it
came with.
Nevertheless, after the assault boats and other small boats that unloaded
men from the trawlers and fi****ng vessels, the barges begin coming ashore.
Some are blown up by mines, but only a few, given that the British
minefields are definitely too thin. Several are beached on their side,
having lost control in the final run; both unloading them, and moving them
back to the sea to use them more than once will be very difficult. Many
more
land on the wrong beach, on the wrong side of a river, at the wrong time,
their formation having hopelessly spread out.
Things go from bad to worse at landing zone B, because a swarm of 14 MTBs
from Harwich, London and Dover itself show up just as the Germans have
finished landing the assault boats and the barges are approaching the
beach.
The main force has come down from Harwich, and has passed beyond the
German
S-Boote screen in darkness, without spotting each other. Now a battle
erupts
in daylight between these boats and the minesweepers, Vorpostenboote and
armed trawlers. The action is fast and furious, and the British lose three
torpedo boats, with several more badly damaged, then withdrawing towards
the
Thames with their tubes empty. But before leaving, they have sunk four of
the escorts and seven small steamers, one of which, in the panic, has
trampled over a barge too.
Even so, by about 08:00, already late on schedule, the Germans have a
foothold on all the beaches. Patrols of the 26. Infanteriedivision's
vanguard are climbing the dunes West of Bexhill, having hit a weak spot;
conversely, on two beaches of the landing zone D, most of the men ashore
are
dazed survivors, still pinned down by enemy fire. The other missions of
the
Brandeburgers (apart from the Dover disaster) are having mixed results.
The
attack against the British battery at Beachy Head is in progress, being
delayed by defenses around it. The dash towards Folkestone and Dover is
far
from being carried out, as the Brandeburgers would only be the spearhead
of
it, and there's little to send along behind them. Elsewhere, they have met
with the Home Guard roadblocks. Now, these would be a ridiculous obstacle
to
a tank, or even to anybody being able to call down artillery on them; but
the Brandeburgers are commandos on light motorcycles, armed with their own
small arms. They have to fight out classic light infantry actions to get
rid
of the problem. The Home Guard men are no match for the Brandeburgers, yet
defeating them takes time.
Meanwhile, plenty of barges are still milling around, and lots of them are
aground, but not being unloaded yet. Loaded steamers are at anchor in
front
of the beaches. The faster-moving fi****ng boats and motorboats, that
carried
the very first assault teams, have begun their journey back.
At about this time, the paras of Kampfgruppe Stentzler have fought out the
usual skirmishes for gathering their armament canisters, and the more they
get organized, the higher the losses for the Home Guard squads challenging
their control of the hills. Kampfgruppe Meindl, on the other hand, has
been
unable to secure the bridges over the Royal Military Canal because, well,
they have been destroyed. In the area, patrols of paratroopers link up
with
Brandeburger teams - in the sense that they can wave at each other over 20
meters of canal waters and the ruins of the bridges. A small but spirited
fight is going on just out of Hythe, where part of a bridge did not fall
due
to faulty demolition.
A see-sawing aeronaval action is going on to the West of the Westernmost
landing areas, and will go on for some time more. First, just after dawn,
a
couple of He 115s has spotted the Cardiff's flotilla (that light cruiser
and
8 destroyers; other destroyers and torpedo boats have split away), tried
to
pin their torpedos in it, and got downed, but not without re****ting the
sighting. Then this force has been engaged by part of the Western Stuka
strike group, 34 Ju 87s escorted by 21 Bf 109s; the paltry flight of 6
Blenheims from #10 Group being unable to stop them. Luckily for the
destroyers, it's harder to hit a fast war****p taking evasive maneuvers at
flank speed and firing its AA, than to hit a slow, unarmed and undefended
coaler; but on the other hand, the Stukas are carrying some of the limited
stock of new AP bombs Wever specifically requested for this very
situation,
and they concentrate on the Cardiff. So the first round ends with that
light
cruiser sinking after having taken six hits, and the old Branlebas limping
towards home (and it will be dispatched by a submarine before reaching a
****t), 3 Blenheims and 3 Stukas downed. But the remaining 7 destroyers are
undeterred and push on, now some 30 minutes away from the first landing
beach, so that the Kriegsmarine has to chip in. The force ratio is rather
typical: the Germans have to make a brave attempt with 2 destroyers and 2
torpedo boats, so the Riedel and Lody, 20% of the total destroyer force
available to Germany right now, are mortally wounded and will sink in a
short while, together with the T2; the other torpedo boat turns tail. The
Havelock is heavily damaged, but will make it back to ****t. At this point,
another German submarine tries at least to delay the threat to the highly
vulnerable invasion armada, and the action is drifting South-West. Another
German destroyer squadron is moving North-East to plug the gap.
Unfortunately for the Germans, this is only one of the three British
flotillas moving West into the Channel at this time. Some more destroyers
have maneuvered away from the Cardiff, and slightly behind there is the
Revenge's real punch coming. Back in Plymouth, a reserve of five more
destroyers is being prepared; two had a lower readiness, one has just had
a
minor failure, and two are just back from an escort mission.
The consequence of the Cardiff's sinking will be that the Admiralty will
stop asking politely for some fighter cover. They'll now demand it, in
quantity. The Revenge, anyway, being the one battle****p in the Channel,
already has a way more substantial CAP.
When the new German CAP arrives over the beaches, Park calls Dowding. He's
fairly sure these are only fighters, so the standing policy would be not
to
engage them; but they are temptingly few, so this could be a good occasion
to give the Germans another bloody nose. Dowding, however, still is for
the
conservation of force. He only allows two Squadrons to be scrambled from
Northern bases and be kept ready, in case bombers arrive.
Bombers do arrive. Kesselring has correctly decided, a few days before,
that
the second and main parachute drop has to be accompanied by bomber raids,
in
order to draw defenses away. Only two of the Luftwaffe's forward "eyes"
are
currently operational. A ground FAC team is asking for sup****t against an
attack that is developing out of Brighton (a jumble of Home Guard platoons
and elements of the 1st MMG Brigade); and a Hs 126 observer plane is
desperately requesting the Dymchurch redoubt, which has already been
pounded
both by air attracks and naval bombardment, to be silenced. Another recon
flight has been asking for sup****t against the enemy resistance at Hythe,
but is no longer transmitting. The Brighton tentative counterattack has to
be dealt with by means of an on-call sortie, something the level bombers
are
basically unable of, so the Bf 110s will be sent; the fortifications seem
to
be targets already earmarked, so level bombers can do. Further
level-bomber
raids will be carried out against pre-selected targets to the North of the
positions the landed troops have gained, and over Hythe. At the same time,
the huge mission of some 300 Ju 52s, with close escort by some 100 Bf 109s
and 110s, will go in. They aren't getting very far from the beaches, so
the
CAP will also help.
Unsurprisingly, the Germans fail at coordinating this grand effort. The
sorties are flown, but over about an hour and a half. Park is free to
react
according to his true and tested staggered-parry tactics, and commits,
over
this time, almost 200 between Hurricanes and Spitfires. From the North,
Leigh-Mallory also sends in four Hurricane Squadrons and a dozen of
Defiants, with the latter ignoring the enemy fighters and simply wading in
through to the Ju 52s. When the first sighting confirms the largest raid
is
made of the paratroop carriers, the British concentrate their efforts
against it.
The end result is 14 Hurricanes, 7 Spitfires and 5 Defiants downed, on the
one side; the other side loses 7 Bf 109s, 9 Bf 110s, 14 bombers and 29 Ju
52, with many more bombers and paratroop trans****ts shot up and unusable
until after repaired. It is worth observing that the German fighters are
locally overwhelmed, even with the CAP adding up to the direct escort
provided to individual missions.
On the ground, the first British counterattack is stymied; the Dymchurch
fortifications are damaged again but not entirely silenced. Hythe is
heavily
damaged, but the resistance seems to be going on and the German units in
the
area (mostly paratroopers in platoon strength, plus a Brandeburger
platoon)
are developing an outflanking move to the North of the town. Other target
areas get hit, more or less accurately; on one occasion, even though the
German bombers fly longitudinally along the coast, they manage to hurt a
couple dozen of their own soldiers. As to the paradrop, it is badly
disrupted. Those Fallschirmjäger who aren't killed in their seats get
dropped just about anywhere. At least, several battalions are now on the
ground, behind the enemy defenses; but, to be more accurate, several
battalions' worth of dispersed men are on the ground. It will take them
some
time for them to be effective.
But the immediate problem the Germans face is another. The naval
engagements
described above have screened the 9 destroyers and 5 torpedo boats from
****tsmouth that have not stayed with the Cardiff's flotilla. These have
skirted along the coast, slipped past the battle, and are now in sight of
the smoke rising from the Rottingdean area, the Westernmost beach of
landing
zone E.
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