De Gaulle vs Montgomery

The former African colonies of France had only just achieved independence before being embroiled in a fight with multiple nearby nations. The Revolutionaries of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco were the subject of a dual invasion by Neo Byzantium and the Sultanate of Egypt, two nations aligned closely with The Anglo-Japanese Pact. As their fledgling state was not prepared for a conflict on such a scale, they sought out aid from their brothers in The New French Republic, who had also fought to shatter the yoke of Bonapartist tyranny. The Liberationists in response sent a prolific commander to assist them in the conflict, one who would simultaneously aid The North African Bloc greatly, and engulf them in further bloodshed.

The first month following the Byzantine/Egyptian War declaration left much of the North African frontier in chaos. The intention before November 7th had been to take the time to regroup, to restructure the government while simultaneously updating their military to modern standards. With two nations breaking into their territory, their moment to breathe never came. The Byzantine fleet had secured much of the southern Mediterranean coastline, and proceeded to bombard Tunis consistently for the next several months. One of the Byzantine flagships, the Ioustinianós, was said to have fired enough shells from its main guns in that time to construct the frame for a jump gate, a testament to sheer relentlessness of the siege. To the city’s benefit, it was formerly the site of a substantial colonial regiment, and had one of the strongest Shield Generators on the African continent.

The Egyptian front, while certainly less flashy compared to the siege of an ancient city, still resulted in a greater loss of actual territory with significantly less effort. Within the opening month, Egyptian forces had pushed almost 200 kilometers westward. Their first real clash with the forces of The North African Bloc happened at Sirte on December 13th, 1938. NAB soldiers had already evacuated the town in the days before, but stayed behind in an effort to slow the march for Tripoli. While their position was well fortified, their explosive ordnance was limited to small mortars, a crate of landmines, and improvised AT grenades tied together. Almost none of the over 1000 soldiers of the Sirte garrison survived the onslaught, yet they did manage to hold off the better-equipped Egyptians for 3 days as the bulk of the citizens and reserve troops fled.

Fortunately for the Bloc, they still had close ties to the Revolutionary government in France, who managed to slip a diplomatic mission into the territory a week after the initial declaration. They brought with them a modest shipment of essential weaponry, including some 200 plasma launchers that would hopefully mitigate the lack of heavy equipment in the meantime while they reestablished supply lines. The Byzantine maritime fleet was sizable, but not well equipped for open sea. A majority of their history as a navy had been spent shelling land targets, operating more as mobile fortresses than actual ships. The French however had one of the oldest, most well disciplined maritime fleets in the world, which made up for the fact that their aether fleet was crippled from fighting over Frankfurt. Their southern fleet was already dismantling the Spanish along the Iberian coast, but France would require their entire force to combat all three of their opponents in the theater. They could easily send their fleet Atlantic southward into the Mediterranean, cripple the Byzantine fleet, and secure reinforcements for North Africa.

This plan, however, presented two problems, the first of which being the required fleet power for such an operation. In order to secure the entirety of the sea, The New French Republic navy would need to commit a majority of their maritime fleet to the effort, effectively removing their ability to aid in other theaters. This sacrifice, while monumental, was one high command saw as worth the risks. Indochina had already been isolated for some time, and would require an even more intense campaign to establish supply lines. Meanwhile, Canada possessed its own colonial navy, as well as the backing of American military contracts in the event that they needed to acquire more ships. Committing to the Mediterranean would allow them to support not only their closest former colony, but also secure the sea to cover the Italian flank. Any and all operations by the Pact and the League south of the Sahara would be permanently hampered, with their only recourse being open flight at massive expenses.

The more troubling issue was the route the fleet would have to take in order to launch the assault, which was now dubbed Opération Poséidon. The fleet would need to enter the sea via the Strait of Gibraltar, which was occupied by British naval assets. The Protectorate had thus far stayed out of the conflict, only supplying the Pact with arms and fuel. Violating their territorial waters could constitute invasion, and drag an even greater enemy into the fight. The risk was necessary however, as Charbonnier even admitted in meetings with command, “The northern lion is already in this war, even if they are currently sleeping.”

If only the ‘lion’ had been asleep, this move may have not been anticipated by the Lord Protector. Baldwin was well aware of the pressure from the Byzantines, and assumed the French would attempt to secure the sea as an easy path to victory. He could of course use the opportunity to prepare to meet them head on at Gibraltar, crushing their fleet and isolating them with just an opening salvo. However, he also understood that this war would fare much worse for Britain if France was taken out early, leaving the Pact and League to battle it out in the open on even footing. Additionally, if he played the public response correctly, he could turn some other neutral parties in the conflict against France, further crippling their already floundering war chest. So he chose to wait, reinstating his maritime fleet for other purposes. He would of course warn the Byzantines, but only with enough time to let them rally reinforcements…

The initial push for Opération Poséidon was underway on January 3rd, 1939, with the bulk of the French fleet amassing 200 kilometers west of Lisbon. They were under direct command of Admiral Émile Henry Muselier. Although he was a high-ranking officer in the Bonapartist navy, Muselier was a vocal critic of the conservative wing of parliament, and quickly turned coat to the Liberation Front when Charbonnier was elected president. Through his quick appointment as admiral and his hasty firing and reorganizing of those under his command, he spared the navy much of the turmoil that other branches of the French military underwent under the commissariat. Thanks to his efforts, the French Navy was a well-oiled machine, and he was quite confident of their odds against the very green Byzantine force. His presence however was a sign of the drastic nature of the situation if it went poorly. The force he had gathered was an estimated 70% of all naval assets, with an additional complement of land forces bound for The North African Bloc. Failure was not an option.

Once in position, the fleet timed its advance so that they would arrive in the strait during the night. They slipped past the British outpost in the early hours of the 6th, where they were quickly spotted by perimeter spotters. Alarms were raised all along the shoreline, with local troops opening fire from coastal batteries. British high command had however ordered the garrison to not deploy naval assets in pursuit of the French, only to soften them up as they entered the sea. The French in turn opened fire, quickly disabling the land forces as they continued on their voyage. Three vessels were damaged in the fighting, but ultimately the encounter was unusually minor in scale, in spite of extensive fleet presence. Something was obviously amiss, but it was too late for Muselier to worry about that now.

After fleeing from Gibraltar, the fleet found little resistance in the waters en route to Algiers, only facing periodic resistance from Spanish patrols in the Alboran Sea. Not a week after their initial encounter, they met up with the Bloc’s fleet, which escorted the transport task force into harbor at Algiers, where they could offload their cargo, and deliver fuel back to the main fleet. Muselier took the original fleet and proceeded northward to secure supply routes to Barcelona and Marseille. He was eager to engage the Byzantines, but understood his assignment was more than a simple war. His arrival breathed life back into the North African Bloc’s struggle, as much of Libya and southern Tunisia had fallen while waiting for aid. The Revolution would burn on, and he understood what it meant to carry the torch.

The political fallout from Gibraltar was as bad as Baldwin had hoped for. France had violated neutral waters, and was liable to do it again, according to the British ‘victims’. Siam tightened its own border security, further isolating Indochina as it was embroiled in civil war. Proposals were made by some member states of the Nordic Union to sanction France, but those cries were quickly stifled by more forgiving members of the organization. Even Haiti, who had historic cultural ties to the New French Republic, distanced themselves from commerce with the Revolutionary government, instead increasing dealings with Gran Colombia. The British public’s outrage was mounting, and it was only a matter of time before the state was ready for open war.

On the 13th of January, French reinforcements arrived in the port of Algiers. Among these forces was the newly promoted Colonel Charles de Gaulle and his French Fourth Armored Division. After his impressive display against the HRE in last August, he was tasked with the temporary defense of the North Africa Bloc until local industry could provide its own armor production. Despite his great success militarily and general level of fame, his former Bonapartist ties brought great suspicion upon him. With these concerns, de Gaulle and his comrades worked quickly to establish a strong military presence in North Africa and began properly organizing the former rebels into a cohesive military structure capable of expelling their invaders.

After a month of preparation and training, de Gaulle was given the green light by military command to launch a counteroffensive against the Byzantines and Egypt. Pact forces were advancing towards the city of Annaba, and in response he was to take the 4th Armored, now operating as part of the jointly commanded NAB 1st Field Corps, to stave off the ground forces as Muselier’s fleet disabled the Byzantines offshore. They clashed on February 25th, with the initial confrontation dwarfing any battle the Sahara had seen in the last century. De Gaulle’s tanks were no marvels of technology, but they easily out-maneuvered Byzantine tanks of comparable size, and could easily disable the nimbler Egyptian armored cars. Muselier’s fleet may have dealt a bigger blow against the enemy, but de Gaulle gave the NAB something they sorely needed; their first steps at reconquest.

The victory at Annaba gave de Gaulle perhaps too much confidence for the sake of the war effort. He and his co-commander of the 1st Field Corps, Major Saïd Mohammedi, were in agreement that they could likely turn the tide of the whole conflict if they were allowed to press the attack against the Egyptians, as they were a softer target they could easily force to capitulate with a swift, hard assault. Command would not allow the duo to break off from the rest of the army however, as reports from Tunis were growing dire. They had to quickly break Byzantine fleet control, or else the city’s shield could finally falter. De Gaulle wished to protest his orders, but he obeyed nonetheless.

On the morning of March 15th, the waters were mostly calm along the coast of Tabarka. Byzantine intelligence had not been warned of the mobilization of the French fleet, much to their imminent regret. When the Byzantine force first caught sight of the French, it was already too late. The first salvos of the French fleet annihilated the Komnēnós heavy destroyer in a single salvo, leaving a plume of smoke, ash, and molten steel in its wake. Upon taking heavy fire, the Byzantine fleet off the coast of Tabarka began to mobilize into a battle formation, ringing alarm bells and furiously dialling radios to inform the others of the attack. What little shore defences existed in Tabarka were mobilized. It was all for naught though, as the Byzantine fleet was so out of position that they were easily picked off one by one. With the attack begun, de Gaulle and his men launched their attack, arriving soon after the first retreat order was issued by the Byzantine navy.

As the French navy proceeded and annihilated the Byzantine ships, the garrison at Tabarka bore witness for the first time to the Red Wave, which they had only heard rumors of from news reports of the developing front in Europe. A sea of French soldiers and their North African allies could be seen stretching out across the horizon, their deep red pants, a relic of the former Bonapartian regime, formed a maroon blur as they marched in unison towards the city. The roar of the NAB 1st Field Corps’ tanks surged forward, firing their 75mm cannons into the Byzantines’ fortified positions. The Byzantines were woefully underprepared to fight against French armor, particularly without the support of their navy on the coasts. In contrast to previous conflicts, the Egyptian 7th armored division stood ready to face the French threat head-on. The 7th had received training from a prolific tank commander sent abroad by the Protectorate after the incident at Gibraltar. Their advisers were of course not allowed to engage as actively as de Gaulle, but their reputation was still impressive. Unfortunately for the Egyptian reinforcements, their coordination with the Byzantines was practically nonexistent. The resulting chaos was an absolute slaughter, with nearly the entirety of the Egyptian 7th being annihilated despite their superior training over the NAB 1st, who gained the upper hand utilizing the familiar landscape and the superior mobility of the Liberté battle tanks. By the end of the day, the operation was a decisive victory for the French, with North African forces reclaiming the entirety of the city in just 6 short hours of fighting.

Tabarka was a watershed moment for the reclamation of Tunisia. The French fleet slowly advanced eastward, widening their sphere of control in the western Mediterranean. They even secured trade routes north of Sardinia, allowing the Italians to once more receive supplies. De Gaulle meanwhile pushed much of the Byzantine forces out of the hills, rounding his way around the countryside to cut off ground access to Tunis. This could not have come at a better time, as in the final days of March, the core of the city’s shield generator burned out. Had de Gaulle not scared off the Pact’s ground forces, the city would have likely fallen to a two-pronged bombardment.

The 1st Field Corps was still not satisfied with their efforts, feeling they were being held back by French command. Mohammedi and his men were quite critical of their former colonizers, to the point that they confided their concerns directly to de Gaulle. He did not always agree with them, given his own political leanings, but he did recognize that these concerns were born out of inaction. Fortunately they wouldn’t have to wait too much longer, as creation of the Communiste Internationale presented de Gaulle increased autonomy due to the joint command of his force. After requesting further vehicles for his corps, the prolific colonel launched what would later be considered one of the most ambitiously audacious assaults in the conflict.

It was the morning of May 15th in Ajdabiya, an Egyptian-governed town on the Commonwealth frontier. The men of the local military outpost were awakened by the sound of revving engines and screaming bystanders, many of which fleeing by whatever conveyance they had available. As the local commander looked out, he saw what had raised the alarm, a column of tanks was crossing the desert on a direct course for the town. De Gaulle, since the admission of the NAB into the Communist International, had been on a warpath, his tanks screaming across open territory as he attempted to deliver swift retribution against Egypt. This was the first time he had engaged the enemy on their grounds, a fact that was immediately reported to British Intelligence.

The city, which fell in short order, was the final straw for the British public, the organized smear campaign Baldwin had pulled together since the Gibraltar incident had played into the people’s propaganda. With the public now firmly calling for retribution after this blatant offensive into Commonwealth territory, the Lord Protector made a formal address, declaring war on the New French Republic and its ‘International’ on May 17th. Coincidentally, he had already been moving troops into the region slowly, and already had a small aether task force overhead, waiting for the signal. The war had once again taken a turn for the worse.

The first order of business in Cairo Command was to stop De Gaulle from raiding too deep into their territory. In the time since Ajdabiya, he had moved northward into Benghazi, where the 1st Field Corps quickly overtook Egyptian forces. De Gaulle was quite liberal in allowing the local populace to flee from the warpath, though some of his Algerian troops were less than willing to attack without delivering some form of retribution on their invaders. As reports of the violence reached Cairo, the decision was made to deploy their secret weapon, the same commander who trained Egypt’s armored units: the well-regarded gentleman Major-General Bernard Law Montgomery. Montgomery was a well seasoned tank commander, who led troops in numerous internal conflicts across the commonwealth. He had made a name for in the occupation of Canton, where his outnumbered armored corps held off the advance of Korean troops for over a week. Outside of combat, he had for some time been quite the social pariah in circles around the Sultanate’s capital, particularly for his almost literal pack of dogs he travelled with.

Montgomery had been studying de Gaulle since he first arrived on the continent, admiring his junior’s tenacious tactics. He was also aware that this hubris was also the most predictable quality of his new opponent, and he had to be careful not to get caught in a risky encounter. In his assessment, de Gaulle was no different than he was when he was younger; and would be his most dangerous when cornered. While only a few years his senior, Montgomery had more experience in tank on tank warfare, and knew he didn’t have to outright destroy the NAB 1st, only delay them until either French command removed him from play, or British reinforcements arrived.

Thanks to Britain’s G.R.A.I.L (General Reconnaissance Analytics and Intelligence Link), Montgomery had limited access to intel recovered by spies within French command. This information brought to light the tentative situation de Gaulle found himself in with his superiors, who suspected his past politics would affect his ability to support the war effort. By manipulating Charles over a long campaign of harassing encounters, he could isolate him from his nation’s resources, or worse still, cause him to falter in his allegiances. All he needed to execute this was the right bait, something that could keep him obsessed in his pursuit, rather than the war itself. The answer, while risky, was right in front of him; he would use himself as the lure for de Gaulle.

On the 29th of May, de Gaulle was alerted by his reconnaissance units that a large infantry force, accompanied by an armored escort, had left the forward command center at El Alamein bearing southwest. De Gaulle, now based out of Sallum, was concerned that this army was attempting to flank around the 1st Field Corps, which had largely stayed along the coastline in order to receive supply and an additional tank division from the NAB. The next day, he deployed his forces into the desert, only leaving behind his infantry in order to cut the enemy quickly. He also was quickly wearing thin his supply lines, as this part of the desert was largely lacking in infrastructure. His next sign of the enemy was on June 2nd, when he was informed the enemy had been traveling through the Qattara Depression to decrease their visibility. Hoping to use the geography to his advantage, de Gaulle took position along the high ground on the western edge of the depression, where the Egyptians’ heavier vehicles might get bogged down in the inclining sand.

In the morning of June 4th, a column of British tanks were spotted leading a convoy out of the depression, a small cluster of support vehicles following suit. The enemy was in smaller numbers than expected, immediately putting de Gaulle on edge. Nonetheless, he ordered the 4th Division to open fire. His advantage on the high ground rang true, with three enemy tanks being rendered useless in the opening shots. However, within 2 minutes of combat the reality of the scenario dawned on the French colonel. The majority of the British Percival tanks were hiding beyond a bluff two kilometers east of his southern deployment, launching an ambush on the weaker half of de Gaulle’s position. With the heavier, more dangerous Gawain tanks positioned between his northern and southern positions, the latter would be unable to regroup safely with the main force without drawing direct fire. Montgomery’s ambush had sacrificed its heaviest tanks in exchange for isolating and dismantling half of de Gaulle’s forces. The junior commander’s months-long winning streak was shattered by a single miscalculation.

The most unusual thing about the encounter was what occurred next. As Montgomery gained the upper hand, he continued to focus on destroying the helpless southern salient, using his heavier tank wall to cover him. Even as the last southern tank was taken out, he didn’t pursue de Gaulle, who was now on the backfoot. Rather, the cagey general opted for a withdrawal, only staying on the field long enough to recall his crippled sacrifices from the depression. He could have pushed this ambush into an open confrontation with him, potentially wiping out the NAB 1st Field Corps then and there. Instead, he let his victim leave; a fact that did more harm than the loss itself. Montgomery was now firmly lodged in de Gaulle’s mind, the one opponent who not only bested him, but dared to hold back. The two were destined to clash again many times over the next several months, only fueling his growing obsession...