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The Skuas/Fulmars from the Ark Royal are no match for the Bf109, so as long as we escort the transports properly, there should be no larger problems. The question though is do we have enough fighters to both hold off the Skuas/Fulmars and the Hurricanes?Quote:
Originally Posted by DemonArchangel
2.
If we abandon now we'll never get another chance. Malta will be heavily guarded and the british on high alert. We have to hope that our airpower can keep the Brits at bay or at least slow them down so we have enough time.
Chapter 39– The Royal Navy
Ramcke spends the rest of the morning at the phone. He calls Student and they agree to continue the airborne operation. Then he contacts Geisler, to tell him to keep more bombers in reserve. He also contacts the Italian Navy and Air Force. The Navy promised to send a force from La Spezia, consisting of the battleships Vittorio Veneto, Andrea Doria und Giulio Cesare and 8 destroyers to a position east of Malta. Commander is Admiral Iachino. A second force with the heavy cruisers Trieste, Trento and Bolzano as well as two destroyers coming from Messina will bypass Malta on the southern route and then join the force coming from La Spezia.
The air force agrees to send reconnaissance patrols to screen the area east of Malta.
Ramcke also calls Rommel to tell that there might soon be a naval battle at the shores of Malta. Rommel decides to stop the convoy bound for Tunis.
Then Ramcke is sitting at the phone, waiting for news. Is there anything else he can do? Should he call Roatta? No, the Special Forces can do nothing against a moving target that has not even been pinpointed. He calls the airport, only to hear that there is no news. The clouds make it difficult for the planes to find anything. Furthermore, fog is coming. This is almost the worst thing that could happen. Fog will nullify the German airpower. Fog – who could be more familiar with fog than the English? Maybe this is just an illusion. Maybe the English group is on the way to the Southern Atlantic, far away from Malta.
Finally, at 10:30 comes news from the English battleships. Force H was spotted this morning at Genoa. Not only spotted. The English fleet shelled the town and harbour. There were also air strikes against Livorno. English planes laid mines at the entrance of La Spezia. Then they bombed the refinery of Livorno. Two Italian reconnaissance planes tried to shadow them, but were picked off. Now the English are gone without a trace. Fog is getting denser. If the English turn south, they will reach Malta in the evening. Then they would be able to shell the island during night.
Ramcke contacts the Italian Navy. Admiral Iachino’s force is already informed and turns north and to intercept the English.
After redeployment and reinforcements on both sides, the battle of Malta continues. The British overcome their first shock. The British commander regains control of his forces.
At Hal airport, more paratroopers touch down. However, they are immediately under fire from the British infantry lying in the facilities of the airport and in trenches all around the runways. Casualties are high. Major Stentzler decides to assault the airfield, even though the support of the air force is much thinner than expected. The Germans have minor numbers, but superior firepower. They manage to attack the British position from two sides. In the crossfire the English retreat. At noon the German displace the British from the airfield. However, the buildings of the airport are still occupied by the British and Major Stentzler is killed.
At Luqa airfield, the British manage to defeat the landed soldiers of the Sturmregiment. Most of the German soldiers are killed in actions. Half an hour later, the 1st Fj.Reg. attacks the airfield from the west, while the 2nd Fj.Reg. attacks from the north. The assault is supported by several Stukas. A group of Stukas dives through the low cloud cover. However, the leading plane has misjudged the height. Five divers drill themselves into the ground.
Nevertheless, the paratroopers break the resistance of the defenders and control the first airport.
The British forces at Valetta make another attempt to re-establish the connection to Luqa. They manage to push Hauptmann Pietzonka’s battalion to the edge of Luqa airfield. When the English find out that Luqa is occupied by the Germans, they break up and retreat to Valetta.
Although the victory at Hal is not completed, German transporter land at both airports. English artillery from Valetta shells both runways and many transporters are damaged while they bring reinforcements and supply. The new arriving troops reinforce the paratroopers on the island and advance to take Valetta.
At noon the Italian Air force makes a massive bombardment of Valetta.
It is 14:00 when Ramcke finally gets an overview of the current state. Although the airfields were better protected than expected, the operation goes according plan. If everything goes right, the fate of the island will soon be decided.
If everything goes right! Ramcke gets information from an Italian pilot. He spotted several ships near the eastern coast of Corsica, northward bound. He could only watch them only for minutes, and then they disappeared in the fog, again. The Italian fleet is immediately changing its course to attack the English.
At 15:25 there is another contact. However, this time it is between Italy and Sardinia, far south of the Italian battle group. In fact, there is nothing between Force H and Malta. Geisler is determined to change that. He orders all reserves to get up immediately, even if there a risk that they will not find the ships. At 16:05 they are lucky. There is a gap in the clouds and the German pilots can see British ships. There is a battleship, a heavy cruiser, and a light cruiser, and five, six, no seven destroyers. 40 Ju87 and 60 bombers, He111 and Ju88 pounce from the sky to attack the British ships. Those raise their speed. The combined air defense of the10 warships yarns a deadly net into the sky. Despite of that, and although the weather is anything but ideal, the German pilots execute their mission with defiance of death. Although many planes were torn up, some manage to drop their bombs into the target.
The raid lasts only half an hour. When they return, 27 German planes are missing. The English have there share, too. The battleship was hit three times, the heavy cruiser once, one destroyer is sunk another one crippled.
Geisler welcomes the pilots. The mechanics refuel and reload the planes, and then Geisler urges the crews to make another sortie.
This time the weather is even worse. Nevertheless, 8 German pilots find the English ships and attack them. This time they concentrate only on the battleship. It takes two hits before the Germans fly back home. At least 5 of them! This was the last mission for the pilots this evening.
On Malta, the paratroopers have reached the suburbs of Valetta. They have artillery, now, as well as the machine gun battalion. Platoons attack the costal bunkers on both side of the bay.
Night fall, but the British defenders still show no sign of resignation. They still fight for every house, every inch. But the advantage is clearly on the side of the Germans. Every minute another plane brings more soldiers to the island.
Oberst Bräuer, now commanding the joined airborne forces, prepares his troops to assault the town during night. He has a long conversation with Ramcke about the British naval forces. The result is disillusioning. There is nothing that could stop the British vessels from sailing to Malta and shelling the island during night. Oberst Bräuer has no illusions about what will happen if the battleship and the heavy cruiser shell the little island. The result would be disastrous.
Ramcke gives Bräuer free hand to decide what to do. In fact, there are only two options.
1) Ignore the threat and assault Valetta during night. Although a night battle will be risky, the paratroopers are strong enough to break the English resistance.
2) Halt the assault. Give order to all troops to entrench. The deeper the better. Next morning, when the sun comes, the German planes will rule again and Valetta will fall.
1. But some troops should occupy coastal guns and use them against the British ships. After all there are only two ships.
I go for 1, Valetta should fall
CofC these are Airborne troops, they can't control coastal guns, they've never seen them
Number. 1. Get yourself in touch with British troops everywhere you can leave no empty space.This should limit the effect of Naval artillery or atleast devastate the British aswell as our troops.
Nice chapter! I'd like to pick a combination between no. 1 and no. 2 - a controlled advance as far as we can get without wasting troops, but it isn't necessary that they take all of Valetta before morning.
I'm going to favour the "safe" option and order the FJ to dig in.
So it's number 2 for me.
Option 1, and I agree with Kagemusha, hug the British troops as tightly as possible, go hand to hand if necessary.
I agree with 1. If we let the British dig in while already in the city the results of the next assault could be devasting. Lets not make a picket's charge against a dug in and possibly navaly supported enemy.
Number 1. And as has been said, Russian air defense.
Well you paratroopers obviously know nothing about naval matters!! The best option is to dig in, wait for day and let our planes deal with the ships. The airfields are inland and, if in range at all, will be at the limit of the range of the naval guns. More importantly, who is going to observe the fall of shot to bring down accurate fire on the airfields? - I doubt there will be the skilled, correctly trained observers conviently sitting in the right place with a radio set that works. At best, it will be blind firing against map references - admittingly big shells, so the most likely effect will be disruption of the use of the airfield. Ironically, by attacking, our troops will expose their actual positions and make themselves more open to bombardment. A night attack is frought with potential problems - a couple of things going wrong could leave us with little or no reserves.
Finally, one aspect does not appear to have any effect - the population of Malta - i would have thought that their tradition would have lead them to resist the invasion quite firecely - similar things happened in Crete - their resistance during the actual seige of Malta during the war was very stubborn - hence the George cross for the population - so I would imagine that they would be resisting the paratroopers in any way they could.
Finally - sorry I have not been active this week - blame family illness!!
Kurt makes sense. They'll be as likely to hit their own as to hit ours. In the day our planes can drive the ships off and support the FJs into the city.
Change my vote to #2
Good point I agree:
Change vote to 2
Kurt, the thing is, Malta's quite small, big naval guns can hit our troops at any point on the island, and we can't quite dig in quickly enough to get enough protection from heavy caliber naval artillery.
Better to fight at night and up close to the British, where our superior training, coordination and numbers will make a difference, and where the British won't be willing to fire upon their own troops. Also, if we dig in, the British fortify their positions in Valletta as well, making the town much more difficult to capture. As soon as the second wave lands and collects their equipment, our Fallschirmjaeger will have to move out and attack.
Demon, as a person who lives on an Island - admittedly not Malta!! - the difficulty I see is getting accurate observation - this is 1941, so no fancy radios etc. Come 1944 the Allies had complete airsuperiority, better radios etc and naval gunfire was more accurate - but this is a different situation. Observers of naval bombardments were usually naval officers so I just can't see one of those being able to observe fall of shot and have a means of communicating with the ships. Also, how far inland are the airfields? - if they are say 5 miles inland then with the ships having to be a mile or 2 offshore they will be firing at 8 - 10 miles range. it is not so much that they can't reach our positions, it is more that the fire will be so blind as to be uneffective. Now the runway may take some stick, but that is soon repaired. a night attack may work, but does have the potential to go horribly wrong and we have no reserves to shore up our position if that happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by DemonArchangel
If we compare our strongpoints and weaknesses to the British Garrison,its the superior quality of our fallschirmjägers that gives us the advantage. By few hours of digging up will get our men to fox holes and those wont protect the men much at all from the large calibre naval guns. But each hour we use on digging in the English will be doing that also. And when we dont have much of traditional support,that will hurt us more then them. So lets use our advantages and deny our enemies the use of theirs.
Also, nobody's going to be calling down inaccurate naval fire at night anyway. We have to fight, besides, if we wait until day, it might take a while for our planes to find and sink the British task group, during which time, they can damage our forces on Malta (which by the way, can't throw up concrete fortifications to defend against heavy naval gunfire). The British can't have any more time to dig in, so as soon as the second wave lands, we have to attack, JimBob, Legio, Stig, change your votes back.
Trust me, my way is the only way, even if the naval fire is accurate, digging in won't help. We're trained to fight with limited communications, the British aren't. We move quick, we clinch this, otherwise we get caught in the open against the big guns.
Kurt, so glad you're back. I have feared that you left the story (and the org - maybe), because of my unprofessional use of the Royal Navy.Quote:
Originally Posted by King Kurt
Good luck to you and your family. It seems like the flu is here, now. :sweatdrop:
This is the intermediate result:
After a strong start of option 1 (6:1) the return of KK changed everything and now it is 4:4.
Franc - thanks for the kind words - my family are all on the mend - I hope your's recover soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Franconicus
Finally - sorry for causing such confusion in the voting - there you were a nice 6-1 clear decision, along I come and it is a 4-4 tie!!
I do think it is a finely balanced decision to make - 1 is the agressive, daring choice, but has the potential to go seriously wrong - 2 is, in my view, the safer option, but if we are caught by a serious naval bombardment then that is serious too. In all likelyhood, the naval task force is about evacuation as opposed to attack, or at least to have the option to do that. There was a lot of naval forces off Crete and they took severe casualties, but they were there to evacuate the british troops, not to attack the paras.
I'll break the tie. 2 it is
Wait, which options was I counted as? I took a combination of both... My option should probably be counted as 2 if it has to be counted as either, but I would prefer to count it as a third option! Anyway, it matters little now as SwordsMaster broke the tie! :shrug:
Chapter 40 – Decision
Malta, 9th February 1941
Bräuer decides to take no risks. Assaulting a town at night is always difficult, but the presence of British ships makes it hazardous.
Before night falls, he gives his orders. The machine gun battalion and the pioneer battalion prepare themselves to attack the town and to clear the costal bunkers next morning. They will spy out the British positions and make some prisoners over night. The rest of the infantry will spread out and entrench. Bräuer gives the order to avoid any light. The airports will not be operating and the artillery is interdicted to fire. Bräuer even phones with the X. Corps. The air force promises to keep some bombers circulating over the island.
Now, everything that can be done is done. Night is falling and fog is probably getting even denser. The Fallschirmjäger notice several position lights at the bay of Grand Harbor. Obviously, the British garrison is waiting for the ships, too. From time to time the British artillery at Valleta sends its greetings to the two air ports, but the fire is weak and inaccurate.
The British soldiers at Valetta are quiet. More bothering than the British fire are raids in the rear of the German positions, especially at the western part of the island. Dark silhouettes kill German watches and disappear in the fog. Bräuer increases the numbers of patrols, but without any effect.
At 19:20 there is again artillery fire on Hal airfield. However, this time, the shells are coming from southern direction, from the sea. They are only medium caliber and are inaccurate. However, they make the German soldiers disappear in the trenches.
The German bombers see the lights of the shooting and try to bomb the ships. Expectedly, they miss the targets, but the British ships stop firing at least and disappear in the fog.
Bräuer agonizes. This has certainly not been the bombardment of the British battleship and cruisers. Is there another formation? Will the big ships come later? He gives the order that every soldiers should stay in defilade. There is no need to accept any risk.
At 1:05 the outposts report about movements on the other side.
Immediately, Bräuer sends some companies from the Sturmregiment to reinforce the German positions. However, the British infantry does not come. Neither do the British ships. This uncertainty and enforced idleness makes Bräuer mad. He gives the order to send patrols into town. At 2:00 several platoons try to infiltrate the British positions. At several places they come across the British outposts and close combat takes place. Two patrols manage to get into the town and cause some chaos there.
At 2:30 the patrols return. They report that the British take out and that they started to embark. Bräuer gives the order to assault, but the British trenches are still occupied. After a short close combat the German soldiers manage to break into the positions of their enemies. They take prisoners, all members of the militia. Bräuer orders to advance and to take the harbor.
From several directions the Germans try to reach this target. It is still night, and although the fog is lifting, it is almost impossible to coordinate the activities of the different platoons. At some places German soldiers shoot at each others, but the British defenders are disoriented just the same. Then, near the harbor, resistance is getting stiffer. The British infantry is now supported by artillery, coming from the port basin. The German assault platoons break this barrier, too, and soon they reach the quays only to see several ships leaving the harbor. They take several hundred prisoners. However, the victory is still incomplete and big areas are still occupied by the British.
Finally, there is a new morning. In the soft morning breeze, the clouds of fog disappear and the sun breaks through. With the beams of the sun, the German aero planes appear and control the sky. Whiningly, Stukas attack their targets and German Fallschirmjäger start to clear block after block. At 8:00 a British peace envoy crosses the lines and offers the capitulation of the island. At 11:00 Italian ships arrive. Italian infantry takes possession of Malta. They scour the town and the rest of the island. Dirty and exhausted German soldiers gather at the air fields, glad that this long day is over now.
However, what has happened to the British ships? This question does not only keep Bräuer busy. Ramcke and his staff are asking this question as well as Geisler’s X. Korps. And of course Geisler sends out his planes to look for the British force.
First message comes from the western area. A battleship and two cruisers are heading for Gibraltar. The battleship and one cruiser are damaged and running only at low speed. The ships have an escort of four destroyers.
They are already out of range for the Stukas, but the twin-engines might get them. Geisler sends out his He111 and Ju88. They manage to reach Force H and attack the battleship. The British concentrate their fire to protect the battleship and the first wave of He111 is not able to hit the ship. However, the following Ju88 dive through the deadly curtain of exploding air defense shells and hit the ship seven times. Then they return to their bases.
SS AMBRA, an Italian submarine near the coats of Crete spots a small British convoy coming from Malta, heading for Crete. It consists of 9 destroyers and four transport ships. SS AMBRA manages to torpedo a transport ship. Then the battle is over.
Two days later, the British admiralty announces the loss of the battleship “HMS Malaya”.
Now it is time to draw up the account. Slowly, the reports from the battalions reach Ramcke’s headquarter.
Casualties are high. 152 Fallschirmjäger are lost or missed; 683 wounded. Ramcke sees a lot of familiar names on the list. Among them are comrades that had just passed their training – together with Ramcke. The most prominent victim, however, is Major Stentzler.
The air force paid her toll of blood, too. After only four weeks of action the X. Luftkorps has already lost more than one third of its planes. The pilots of these planes were either killed or are missed; in total about 300 skilled men. Additionally, more than 40 transport planes are ruined.
The Fallschirmjäger made 2,500 POWs. About 80 British soldiers were killed. Additionally, many civilians were killed.
Once again Ramcke asks himself if the victory was worth the price.
Ramcke also receives the reports about the battle itself. Obviously, the British anticipated an airborne operation. The garrisons of the airfields were unusually strong. Fortunately, the air defense was concentrated around Grand Harbor. All told, the German operation was executed quite well. During the first hour the enemy was confused and not able to start coordinated countermeasures. The control of the skies compensated the lack of heavy arms and the weakness of the navy. The German bombers always broke through the air defense of the British ships and placed their bombs.
Only 152 dead and 683 wounded, that's pretty good for an unsupported Airborne operation
A good result I think - but the losses within the airforce is serious though - Who was it who mentioned evacuation??? - oh yes, it was me!!!!:laugh4:
Ah well we have Malta now, rebuild the Airborne forces and they can be used again, now with support
Hey. This wasn't as bad as Crete.
Anyway, try to convince Hitler that the capture of Malta more than makes up for the loss in airplanes, then try to revise training schedules, procure better equipment and take aim for Crete.
Yes, the RN would not leave the army in the lurch, would she?Quote:
Originally Posted by King Kurt
Sadly, during the early years of the war, the RN had a lot of practise at that sort of operation!! - Still, reverse the flow and it becomes practice for D-Day!:laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Franconicus
Kurt my friend. What are your thoughts now that if we would have taken Gibraltar.Would it had made any difference in this battle of Malta?Quote:
Originally Posted by King Kurt