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AAR: The Fall and Rise of the Free French!!!


Zeres

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"Monsieur Reichsmarshal, may I compliment you on the excellent wine collection you have accumulated and also the exquisite model trains."

Goering nodded, pleased with the little fool's manners and generally excellent toadiness.

"And General, may I say that, in a world so full of smelly gasoline engines, it is a pleasure to dine with a military man who has not forgotten the virtues of the horse."

They clinked glasses and drank.

"Ah, what marvelous things you have done with this place."

Goering's face took on a confused expression --"Oh, did you live here once, general?"

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Neysey straightened. "Not I, herr Reichsmarshal, but the traitor Belotte!"

"Surely you are joking with me!"

"No, herr Reichsmarshal, I swear to you on my late mount Oatseater that three years ago I sat at this very table dining with Belotte."

"Ah -- I see. How interesting. Well then, the two of you were friends."

"Never!"

"But you dined with him, did you not?"

"But not as a friend!"

Goering nodded and smiled affably, "Yes, I understand -- I believe in dining with enemies myself -- and besides, these days one never knows, the lines have become so blurred."

An orderlie poured more wine and Neysey raised his glass, "To my gracious host and very, very good friend, Hero of the London massacre -- I mean of the great London Triumph, herr Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering!"

Goering let out his friendliest laugh and clinked glasses; he could toast like this for days on end, and sometimes did.

Another round filled by the orderlie. Goering raised his glass, "And here is to my eternal friend, the voice of sensible France, General Henri Neysey and all those behind him."

Another clink.

After the toast Goering waved his hand expansively, "I came across this place quite by accident and saw it was unoccupied, so I moved in. I'm both amazed and filled with irony that you say it was Belotte's. I must take some time to look around, when things quiet a bit, who knows but that I find some odd item or other that may be relevant to the current struggle."

"Yes, herr Reichsmarshal, an excellent idea. Perhaps a letter might even turn up explaining why that viper had me stationed in a remote outpost in that horrible Equatorial Africa."

Goering smiled, "Perhaps. We shall see."

The little Frenchman smiled while the orderlie poured more wine. Goering thought, 'if I excuse myself and tell the operator to call with a fake emergency, perhaps I can have this imbecile out of my house in ten minutes.'

-- -- --

[ November 09, 2002, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

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One of World War One's greatest aces, the Reichsmarshal displays various decorations, all earned in battle, including the "Blue Max" or, more properly the Pour le Merite, Imperial Germany's highest honor. By the end of the conflict Goering commanded the elite "Flying Circus" when Baron Manfred von Richtofen (The "Red Knight"), after racking up eighty victories, the highest tally of any airman in the war, was himself killed over France.

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Hermann Goering as a WW I Fighter Ace.

[ November 09, 2002, 08:40 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

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Churchill addresses the House of commons.

"The great air battle which has been in progress over this Island for the last few weeks has recently attained a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either to its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth. Hostile air fields are still being developed in France and the Low Countries, and the movement of squadrons and material for attacking us is still proceeding. It is quite plain that Herr Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Great Britain without sustaining most serious injury. If after all his boastings and bloodcurdling threats and lurid accounts trumpeted round the world of the damage he has inflicted, of the vast numbers of our Air Force he has shot down, so he says, with so little loss to himself; if after tales of the panic-stricken British crushed in their holes cursing the plutocratic Parliament which has led them to such a plight-if after all this his whole air onslaught were forced after a while tamely to peter out, the Fuhrer's reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned. We may be sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he has the strength to do so, and as long as any preoccupations he may have in respect of the Russian Air Force allow him to do so.

On the other hand, the conditions and course of the fighting have so far been favorable to us. I told the House two months ago that, whereas in France our fighter aircraft were wont to inflict a loss of two or three to one upon the Germans, and in the fighting at Dunkirk, which was a kind of no-man's-land, a loss of about three or four to one, we expected that in an attack on this Island we should achieve a larger ratio. This has certainly come true. It must also be remembered that all the enemy machines and pilots which are shot down over our Island, or over the seas which surround it, are either destroyed or captured; whereas a considerable proportion of our machines, and also of our pilots, are saved, and soon again in many cases come into action.

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and b~ their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain.

That France alone should lie prostrate at this moment is the crime, not of a great and noble nation, but of what are called "the men of Vichy." We have profound sympathy with the French people. Our old comradeship with France is not dead. In General Billote and his gallant band, that comradeship takes an effective form. These free Frenchmen have been condemned to death by Vichy, but the day will come, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, when their names will be held in honor, and their names will be graven in stone in the streets and villages of a France restored in a liberated Europe to its full freedom and its ancient fame. But this conviction which I feel of the future cannot affect the immediate problems which confront us in the Mediterranean and in Africa. It had been decided some time before the beginning of the war not to defend the Protectorate of Somaliland. That policy was changed in the early months of the war. When the French gave in, and when our small forces there, a few battalions, a few guns, were attacked by all the Italian troops, nearly two divisions, which had formerly faced the French at Jibuti, it was right to withdraw our detachments, virtually intact, for action elsewhere. Far larger operations no doubt impend in the Middle East theater, and I shall certainly not attempt to discuss or prophesy about their probable course. We have large armies and many means of reinforcing them. We have the complete sea command of the eastern Mediterranean. We intend to do our best to give a good account of ourselves, and to discharge faithfully and resolutely all our obligations and duties in that quarter of the world. More than that I do not think the House would wish me to say at the present time."

[ November 03, 2002, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Carl Von Mannerheim ]

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Commander of Luftflottes I and II in the early days of the war, Albert Kesselring proved to also be an outstanding commander of ground troops. As commander of O. B. Sud he gained valuable time defending Italy while elsewhere the Reich suffered one disaster after another.

Despite his nickname of "Smiling Alburt" he believed in hanging partisans from Railroad Bridges and was imprisoned as a war criminal after the war, having originally been sentenced to hang with the sentence commuted due to much sympathetic testimony.

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* * * * * *

Newly promoted Field Marshal Albert Kesselring leaned back on his large office chair and moved it slowly, left to right, taking in one at a time the oversized wall maps in his still unfinished Rome office.

His gaze lingered a moment on the open door and the Italian glasier still working on it's unfinished lettering, "OB Sud."

He whispered "Commander in Chief South" and thought it had a fine ring; large, vague, more than merely 'Italy' or the 'Mediteranean.'

The thought made him smile, then he thought about the mischevious lilt in Goering's voice whenever he called him "Smiling Albert" and he laughed a little.

The glasier turned, a defensive expression on his face, and Kesselring told him, in perfect Italian, "That is very beautiful work. You Italians are great artists in everything you do."

The grateful glasier grinned and bowed his head, "Gratzi -- much thanks, Field Marshal," and returned to his lettering with evern more attention to detail than he had shown before. A moment later he began whistling a melody from "La Traviatta" gently under his breath.

Leaning further back Kesselring sighed and thought, 'Yes, great artists and musicians but abominable soldiers. Perhaps they'd make good fliers but their aircraft are hopeless, same with their navy, fine sailors, good officers, but too much corruption in the support system and Raeder's refused my request to share gunnery radar and other electronics with them. Without that their ships are of little use against the more modern British.'

So, what to do. His eyes lingered on the Balkans map. Did that region fall under the category of South, or East? Il Duce had designs there, had always had designs there and would send his hopeless legions to certain disaster at a moment's notice. Did he have the authority to prevent such foolishness?

What to do? Who was in charge, really, Il Duce or himself? Things needed to be clarified.

He looked at the map of Libya. The Italians could defend well enough. Except they were deficient in anti-tank weapons. Their armor was too light and their infantry officers too often political hacks, but that man with the shaved head kept posturing about an Eygyptian offensive.

He smirked, yes, send columns of infantry across that long, wide open desert without proper armor or anti-tank weapons and without proper air cover. All the more idiotic as the further east they went the less able their fleet would be to screen their flank.

Egyptian offensive -- he envisioned a flanking arrow, British armor moving round the Italian's right, sweeping north to cut their supply lines a hundred miles east of Tobruck, then disaster, an entire army forced to surrender or die of thirst. Eyes closed it was as though it had already happened.

He relaxed and listened to the man's whistling and began humming the tune himself, loudly, so the man would whistle louder and it would be a joint effort "Da -di- Laah-h-h, da-di-daah-di-da-daah-di-da-Laah-da-da-di, da-di-da-dah-di-da-de-da-di-dahh-dah-dahh --" and the two shared a laugh, the artisan turning a moment from his work and the Field Marshal nodding "We belong at La Scala, my friend!" and the phone rang.

He moved forward and answered, "Kesselring," in a hard, confident tone.

A nervous corporal struggled with "herr Field Marshal, it's -- it is a call from --"

"My young friend, stop that drivelling, take a deep breath, relax, and give me my damn message!"

"Yes herr Field Marshal. It is the Fascist Ministry on the line for you."

"Very good. Pipe them through and remember, relax and talk slowly. We will have a long time together down here and I dislike nervousness."

"Yes sir, herr Field Marshal!"

He hung up, "Corporals, they're either too pushy or too meek," and the glasier nodded and Kesselring leaned back, wondering if the man understood the real joke.

The phone rang again.

"Kesselring -- ah, Ciano! -- wonderful, everything is very fine -- Dinner tonight, yes, that would be very good."

He placed the telephone on it's cradle, paused a moment, then lifted it again and tapped it's bar several times till the young corporal answered.

"Rugger, connect me with Fieldmarshal Keitel's office and when his corporal answers I want you to forget your idiotic nervousness and speak firmly, always firmly, you are the telephone voice of OB sud -- understand?"

"Yes herr Fieldmarshal!"

"Very good."

He laid the phone on the cradle again and leaned back. A quick phone call and after dinner tonight he would know exactly where he stood. Except, just to be safe, he'd make another call later to the Reichsmarshal.

The artisan began gathering his tools and turned, proud but with a hint of timidity to see if the Fieldmarshal were satisfied.

"Beautiful, my good man, absolutely beautiful --a treat to have such beauty right on one's door; it would be the envy of your German counterparts."

The man bowed his head, red faced and pleased and when he left through the outter office Kesselring watched and saw his head held high with pride. 'That's what these people need,' he thought, 'a little pride as fighting men.'

A career sergeant snapped to attention in the doorway, "Herr Fieldmarshal. Fieldmarshals Bock and Runstedt have arrived."

"Well, that is very good. Show them in and have refreshments brought -- no, inform that young Bavarian captain, uh, Schmidt and tell him I'd like him to handle it. He knows what everyone likes."

The sergeant clicked his heels loudly and rushed off.

Kesselring shook his head, von Rundstedt had near contempt for the Italians and, since Bari, Bock refused to talk directly with their officers.

The phone rang.

"This is Kesselring -- yes, I'll wait -- Hello, Kietel, yes, very well thank you, and yourself? -- That's very good. I have Bock and Runstedt arriving and I need to know a few things. First, who is in charge down here, that Fascist gentleman, you know the one, or myself. Second, I'd like some clarification; how far East does South extend? --Yes, by all means -- I realise you'll have to ask him but if you could get back to me -- yes, hopefully in an hour or two -- that would be perfect. -- Yes, Zig Heil."

He stood, touching away the creases in his trouser legs he thought how odd it was that fieldmarshal's insignia should feel so light on one's collars.

--- ---

[ November 06, 2002, 09:37 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

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Gen. Monty paced, back and forth, across his study. Back and forth, with his hands clasped behind his back. Every once in a while he would stop and look at his fine, Swiss time-piece. Time was moving painfully slow at the moment.

His aid, Major Wallace was lounging in his big, black leather chair.......with his feet on his desk.

" Major. Wallace GET YOUR FEET OFF MY DESK!!"

"Surry Sir, Ye dun't hav ta git snippy!"

Wallace, slowly, casually removed his feet from Monty's 15'th Century antique desk. The Scots he thought, fighters to a man....but no respect for authority. Regardless, Wallace was his favorite aide. A burly, bruiser of a man, who hated the Fascists, even more than he did himself....If that was possible.

He checked his watch again, 0521 Hours... Bellote's assault on Algeria would begin shortly. And if all went according to plan, Britian's darkest hour would soon be over (with a little luck). "500,000 Casualties".....Monty chuckled to himself. Churchill's propaganda machine was outdoing itself. Fighting fire with fire. Goebble's himself could not have come up with figures more absurd.

But the Canadian Army had taken staggering casualties, their effective strength, at one point, had been at 20%. Embarrassing, he thought , in our darkest hour the only troops we could muster were a hand full of Canadians! But the mobilization of home battalions was now in full swing!

The air raids continued but were loosing much of their intensity. The English people were a stubborn lot by nature. They were digging out and digging in, defiantly. One German Air Group had already been moved to Albania. Monty managed a weak smile. Italy's war effort had been pathetic. And the German's were becoming predictable. The daring, little raid on Bari had sent almost half of the German war-machine packing to Italy and with it, their chance to invade.

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His thoughts turned to Bellote. Now his dearest friend. " You want revenge.....and now you shall have it."....He wished he was there. "Just don't get yourself killed", he thought....He produced the silver flask from his pocket and took a swig for good ol Bellote.

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Wallace perked up.

"Do ya min if ayy hav a wee nip, sir?"

[ December 20, 2002, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Zeres ]

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Still motivated and always a partner in any crime -- I live in New Jersey where homocide is a misdemeanor!

Will take a while to add photos and maps, my schedule is zipped till about Thursday. Will leave the scenes pretty much as I wrote them and unillistrated, but will delete all the personal postings such as this one and add the illustrations with captions in those areas.

Pleased you mentioned Belotte/DeGuale, it was becoming a little confusing.

Will hold off on additional postings till end of the week -- by then I'll know what to do with the Germans currently roaming around Italy. I've put Kesselring in his main historical role, as theatre commander of the Med. He also directed much of the defense of Italy in '43/44. If you want to use him as a HQ give me some indication and I'll replace him as OB sud with a German Field Marshal who doesn't have an HQ named after him -- we'll just say Kesselring requested a field command when Berlin wouldn't give him the upper hand over Mussolini.

I'd like to know where Rundstedt and Bock are going -- I'm planning a scene with those two meeting with Kesselring, the smug Prussian aristocrats criticising "The Corporal's" decision to send so many troops to Italy to drive the Brits out of Bari and Smiling Albert enjoying it but failing to get through to them on the importance of raising Italian morale and fighting ability, etc..

There has to be a Vichy scene in reaction to their reentry into the war and I'll have to find out what's going on in Algeria and Syria before I write it.

What's America's reaction to the attack on Vichy France and where does it stand over all?

Finally, I have to put Neysey and Goebles in action using mostly propaganda regarding these further British backed "aggressions."

Goering will be revealing Bellote's shredded papers soon, but I'm waiting for the right time.

Anyway, as I said, will delete the fluff areas and posting photos, at a very slow pace due to other activities, during the next few days. In the meantime, hopefull the above questions will be answered so I can start adding more scenes.

Also, have gone back to beginning and deleted all non-story messages and written in their place "Photos to be inserted here" so we'll have an idea what those areas will look like.

Will leave the message to Rick another day or two as I'm not sure he's checked back in and I want him to have my positive feedback on his Roosevelt posting, which I like.

PS -- fill me in on the Balkans; I've been planning to have Kesselring convince Mussolini to stand pat in Albania and North Africa, then later ad lib when Yugoslavia coups.

Edited an early posting, believe it was on page one, to introduce King Leopold III of Belgium and Queen Wilhamena of Holland as characters in case future references are made to those countries.

Are we using DeGaulles photo for Belotte?

What's the thread on British & Free French with regard to the various French, Belgian and Dutch off map colonies -- are the British attempting to occupy The Dutch East Indies or the Belgian Congo? I'm planning a scene where a German physisist tells Hitler about the Congo's uranium; I figure the Dutch/Belgian governments, having been attacked, would make every effort to hold on to all their overseas possessions.

What are the Japanese doing and are they pretending to be friends of the Dutch/Belgiums alligning against the British? I think they would try and become the East Indies Protector as a justification to landing troops to help safeguard their Dutch friends.

If nobody wants to take the Japanese I wouldn't mind adding a scene or two with them discussing these things, etc., it would add depth.

Also planning to use von Neurath and Ribbentrop in diplomatic ventures in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece but need to know where these places are heading in the overall scheme of things.

********

The messages here will be deleted and My next scene will go in this slot.

********

[ November 03, 2002, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

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-- Zeres, Great character -- reminds me of the commander of the Black Watch at Gibraltar who, when Churchill asked what Gibraltar's chances of holding were and reminded him of Singapore's fall, the Scotsman said, "Aye, but in Singapore y'did noote have a Black Watch!"

The whole scene is terrific -- like the idea of getting Vichy France back into things, and it helps to know the two HQs are in Northern Italy; I'll have Kesselring treat the situation as their being moved from his Theater of Operations.

We are in full agreement as to further progress. At the moment we're way out in front of a lot of empty spaces. I'm looking forward to going back and filling in the ones I've posted. Originally I'd intended to seperate my photos and scenes, but I've changed my mind on that and will integrate them, that way more subjects can be covered in the same amount of space, and with photos, too!

Yes, Goering is also one of the guys I'm looking forward to finding photos of. Probably, in some of those back postings of mine that are currently blank I'll have Goering telling those shredded secrets.

Glad about the Belgian decision -- I'm working on a scheme where King Leopold's Government, on Hitler's urging, is finding ways to sneak Belgian and German volunteers down to defend the Congo with the secret aid of sympathetic Americans! Also, Goebbels will be using Queen Wilhamena for further propaganda footage. I have to find some photos of her and Leopold.

It would be very good if someone else takes the Japanese. I'd love to handle them too, but as it is I've got a large cast and characters from several countries and for one thing, don't want to hog too much -- as you say, there are others out there who surely want to chip in -- and for another, I've about reached the limits of my capabilities.

It's becomming difficult to handle the various Germans and Italians and Vichy French with the new additions as well. Along the way I remembered the German-American Bundists -- they might be the first interesting group that is not used in this thing. Perhaps Rick will handle them, or, I can write them into a scene or two; they would more active than they were historically as an outcry against all the British and Free French "aggressions."

Actually, I now think they definitely should be in a few scenes, coordingated by Goerings Propaganda Ministry, then they can be rounded up as subversives by the F. B. I.. I'll wait for Rick's opinions before writing any of it.

Well, glad you responded so early, clears me to watch 60 Minutes and some other Tube attractions; will begin working my way forward again from page 1, this time with photos, and hopefully we'll be moving ahead again from this point later in the week; say Thursday or Friday.

Smoking is a horrible habit, but what the hell, if you enjoy it you may as well. I think the reason it was so popular through the fifties and sixties was because everyone, including me, figured we'd be incinerated by the fifteen minutes of WW III. Then it didn't happen and now we're unexpectedly alive and a bunch of caughing middle aged wrecks. Life's a bummer.

[ November 03, 2002, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

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Carl -- You are a man of many talents, obviously.

Looking forward to your Japanese entries -- as I wrote earlier, I won't be doing anymore serious entries till late in the week. Hope you have an entry concerning the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina and their situations regarding Britain on the one hand and Japan on the other --does Britain attempt to occupy them, and if so, does Japan try to claim them as protectorites?

A very interesting situation.

In other off the board action I'm figuring on the Belgian Congo remaining under Belgian/German control with the Axis filtering small groups of reinforcements via Libya-French Equatorial Africa-Congo.

Looking forward to the next phase of things.

Once again, glad you've taken the Japanese too and am sure you'll do a super job of it.

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Carl -- Thanks for the photo-inserting info. At first I didn't care for it, but after a while it becomes enjoyable.

Zeres -- began inserting photos; left a few slots open and will find action shots to fill those later. At the moment it's mainly portraits to help identify some of the people involved. Hope nobody minds my captions -- I opted more for info than humor, though that will probably change later.

Still holding off on new postings for a while till things move forward a bit.

Love that map of the Low Countries on page one, and the French Flag. The site is filling out and looking much better.

***

"I've had worse --!"

"No you haven't!"

"Oh yeah, well come back and fight you coward!"

"And what're you gonna do, you silly bastard, BLEED ON ME!"

Arthur to the limbless and red-stained Black Knight, fearless Guardian of the Bridge.

[ November 06, 2002, 09:49 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

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