148 - Fall Blau Starts...or Does it? - WW2 - June 26, 1942

by Panzer
Phone call- yeah, 100 of them.
Yep, self-propelled guns.
No, they go by ship.
No, that’s not what self-propelled means.
No, they don’t have propellors.
Really?
June 26, 1942
Sometimes in war intelligence boons come your way; the Allied cracking of Japanese codes
springs to mind.
Sometimes enemy intelligence even accidentally comes your way.
But there’s a hitch- what happens if you don’t believe it?
I’m Indy Neidell; this is a six day week of World War Two.
That’s because I screwed up the dates by one in April and no one caught it until we
had already filmed a bunch of episodes, so this gets us back on track.
Anyhow, last week came interesting news from the USSR where the Soviets intercepted the
German operational plans for their impending summer offensive, Fall Blau.
Also over there, the Battle of Sevastopol continued, swinging further in German favor.
In the Mediterranean, two Allied convoys bound for Malta met with disaster, but the big disaster
of the week was the Allied defeat in North Africa, as Erwin Rommel yet again tastes victory,
this time at Tobruk.
Yep, the British have been humiliated once more.
This despite having had the numbers, despite having the armor advantage, despite choosing
the battlefield.
“The battles, it would seem, were fought by committee, Ritchie having less than full
control over Norrie and Gott, and they too little over their divisional and brigade commanders,
with the result that the battles degenerated into a series of private actions fought by
divisions and brigades, whereas Rommel fought always with the DAK concentrated and under
his personal control.”
(Braddock)
Neil Ritchie being 8th Army Commander, and Willoughby Norrie and William Gott commanding
XXX and XIII Corps.
Now, Tobruk actually falls at the beginning of this week, but I talked about its fall
already last week, and there is one quick consequence unseen by Rommel.
When British PM Winston Churchill gets the news the 21st while in a meeting with American
President Franklin Roosevelt, he accepts an immediate offer of generous help.
300 Sherman tanks and 100 self-propelled guns are quickly sent to Norh Africa.
They are to go around the Cape of Good Hope to Suez.
The tank engines are sent separately, but the ship they’re on is sunk off Bermuda
by a U-Boat, so 300 more are sent on the fastest ship available.