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The Axis Supreme Commander’s staff presented him with a report on the ‘disaster’ at the front, and awaited his reaction. In silence, and with grim satisfaction, he read over the briefings, and began to nod his head. Events were unfolding as planned. He had not foreseen the amphibious invasion by the Allies – his counterpart is an equally dangerous man… With a quick look up at his subordinates, he stood and made his way out of the room, speaking only a single sentence:

"It is time to begin phase II of the operation".

Operation Seelowe – Phase II

"When tasked with an impossible objective, one must find a method with which to alter the nature of the engagement." - Memoirs of the Axis High Commander

With the Allies forced to concentrate on the Axis beachhead at Norwich, the true objective of the invasion, Plymouth, was now less heavily defended. Reserve units had all been sent to the east, leaving a motorized division and an armoured brigade in the port itself, and a garrison division covering the adjacent beaches. Still a formidable force, but nowhere near the five divisions with support elements it had been a mere week ago. Plymouth also had the added benefit of being a port that the Axis nations could supply. Two infantry korps, supported by a panzer grenadier division and two regiments of elite paratroopers, assaulted the beaches of Plymouth on July 14, forcing their way ashore in spite of heavy defensive fire. The British and French units were forced to abandon their positions after the Germans threatened to flank the defence, but were able to retreat in good order, sustaining moderate casualties. The German paratroops were vital to the success of the operation, but were lost in the battle.

The Axis was now in possession of a supplied port.

The Allied response to this new beachhead was necessarily limited – They could not be certain that the Norwich front would remain static, and had to complete the destruction of the German forces there with all due haste. The lack of fresh Axis forces here allowed the British to make considerable progress, outright destroying two infantry korps and a Fallschirmjager division, and forcing the surrender of a third korps. The remaining enemy forces, amounting to an understrength division, were entrenched in the port south of Norwich, and were in very poor shape indeed. Reserves were redirected back to the west, and a solid defensive line was created, hemming the Germans into Plymouth. American, French, and British armor approached the new beachhead on three sides.

The Allies form a line opposite the new German beachhead

Africa had seen some action during this period, with the Americans and British beginning the Torch landings, and recapturing Morocco and parts of Algeria. Operations here were of necessity run on a shoe-string budget, as the vast majority of the landing craft available to both sides were being utilized in Seelowe. Fortunately for the Allies, this lack hurt the Axis nations more, as the Italians were no match for the combined British/American forces operating in the African theatre. Partisan uprisings south of Mostaganem facilitated the surrounding and eventual destruction of five Italian corps, one of them armoured.

Italian forces cutoff at Mostaganem

With the exhausted British taking time to rest and resupply in the ports, the Americans continue on supported by two divisions of Free French, and are now just 50 kilometers west of Algiers. The main front in Africa, the Libya/Egypt border, remains strangely silent, as the two forces seem content to keep a watchful eye on each other as the war presses on elsewhere. With the vast amounts of fresh, battle-ready units here, hostilities could break out at any time.

Axis view of the Libya/Egypt border

[continued on next page]

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