On The Day, Went The Eagle’s Landing Well? (Chapter 1)

There is a back story to the game in November, herewith chapter 1.

Chapter 1: Stahl Takes It Rough

“Achtung, prepare for a very rough landing!” Staffelkapitän Stahl’s voice came over the intercom. “Assume crash positions, we are too low to bail out!”. Those who hadn’t already, strapped themselves in as best as they could as the Tante Ju (Junkers Ju 52) bucketed around in the storm. Stahl was frantically looking for a field big enough to put the heavy Junkers down. The storm was completely unexpected, coming as it did after two weeks of unseasonably good weather in September 1940. The meteorological officer from the Grossraum Wettererkundungsstaffel back at Juvincourt airfield had predicted strong winds but nothing like this. In the flashes of lightning outside the cockpit the words Immelmann II could be read below the cockpit perspex. This had been Hitler’s personal Ju 52 until the outbreak of war and was now in the possession of Kampfgeschwader 200. It was being flown by Staffelkapitän Peter Wilhelm Stahl, Iron Cross First and Second Class and German Cross in Gold. Stahl was head of a detachment within KG 200 responsible for flying large aircraft (including captured allied planes) on special long-range flights under difficult navigational conditions.

It was this unseasonably good weather which had allowed the German 9th and 16th Armies (Army Group A) under Field Marshal von Rundstedt to cross the channel and establish a bridgehead on the English coast between Portsmouth in the west and Ramsgate in the east. Initial signs were that Unternehmen Seelöwe (Operation Sealion) was proceeding to plan. Army Group C under Field Marshal von Leeb was ready for embarkation at Cherbourg for the second landing at Lyme Regis. It was intended that the 6th Army would advance northwards from Lyme Regis through Taunton aiming for the vital docks at Bristol. The overall strategic aim was for the German forces to advance north and establish a line from Gloucester to Maldon. The Germans, having taken London assumed that the British would negotiate for peace. Churchill had repeatedly stated that the British forces would not surrender, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”. The countryside west of the Taunton-Lyme Regis stop-line would be left until the surrender and then elements of the German 6th Army would be used to subjugate Devon and Cornwall.

As Stahl battled with the controls of his Tante Ju, his mind skipped back to his meeting with Reichsmarschall Göring earlier that week. “I want you to go to Devon ahead of the army and set up a provincial governor who will be responsible to the Luftwaffe and not those damn fools in the Oberkommando des Heeres!” the Reichsmarschall had expostulated. The rivalry between Göring’s beloved Luftwaffe and his rivals in the Heer was legendary. “Our glorious pilots have smashed the RAF. Oberst Leiste here will give you the details. I want you to land at RAF Winkleigh and meet Roderick Spode who is to become Reichsprotektor Spode of the Protektorate of Devon and Cornwall. Flugkapitän Hanna Reitsch will accompany you to show Spode how highly we value him. Oberleutnant Manfred Schimmel has been given a top-secret code-book to deliver which will enable Spode to take control in advance of the half-witted Heer!”. With that, Stahl was dismissed from the august presence and driven away from Carinhall to re-join his squadron in occupied France. Now here he was, five miles short of Winkleigh airfield, all instruments dead, trying to find a landing site in an electrical storm. In a flash of lightning, Stahl saw his chance and took it. A big field apparently clear of obstructions. Shouting to his navigator Leutnant Ernst Sabartovski to obtain their position, Stahl readied himself for a crash-landing and brought the Ju 52 down onto the field. Too late, he saw the old abandoned cars in a line across the field which the British used to inhibit German glider landings for the invasion. With a grinding crash and a roar of the three powerful BMW engines, Immelmann II turned on its starboard wing as the port wing tore away from the fuselage.

To be continued........