The Macabees
21-09-2003, 22:30
OOC: Following Attica's example I want to make my own compilation also. Actually I hope we get many nations doing this because I'm willing to make a website entirely on the NS nation's histories.
Books to look foward to in this volume set:
I. The Franco-Spanish War
II. The Civil War and the Rise of Finegold I
III. The First Years and the Wars of Novice
IV. The Death of Finegold I and the Rise of Finegold II
V. The Freemantian War
VI. The Economic Rise and the NDA War
IC:
Book 1
The Franco-Spanish Civil War
Chapter I :: The Breaking of the Iron Ring
General DeGuidand looked into the Spanish cold from his position in the Pyrenees. The small Spanish army awaited him with their machine guns pointed, but no matter, they would break before his magnificent army. As he turned away the cheer of three million Frenchmen could be heard throughout the mountains from several kilometers away.
It would be the rise of another French Empire, with himself as the emperor. He chuckled to himself and raised his walkie-talkie to his lips. Pressing the red button he gently said, “Bonjour my army, it is time for our awakening.” With that three million troops followed by over eighteen-thousand tanks lurched forwards into the Pyrenees.
Hidden bunkers on Pyrenean mountain tops spit 200mm rounds on Spanish positions. Above them squadrons upon squadrons of French fighters and bombers entered Spanish air space. It was a truly terrorific, yet magnificent sight to behold.
DeGuidand then called over his Jeep Cherokee with the French emblem painted on the door. It was the day his sacred armies would churn the earth and that the 2nd rise of a French Empire would rule the world.
To his south the battle had begun as hidden machine gun nests took their toll on marching French forces. Two Spaniards holding a small cliff on a Pyrenean mountain, hidden by brush, opened fire on a column of 50 men and a tank. The infantry were killed immediately as well as the top gunner of the tank but a quick 75mm round silenced the two Spaniards.
Although casualties were mounting the French avalanche continued as they marched through the mountains. Already ahead at the “Aro de Acero” or the Steel Ring 500,000 royal infantry, loyal to the Spanish king, Juan Carlos II, awaited the French onslaught. All of a sudden the motors of over 3,000 bombers could be heard from Magrat del Mar to Bilbao (east to west). SAM sites opened up along with the booms of over 200,000 300mm AA guns spread along the line. But all of this to almost no change, over eleven million tons of bombs were dropped on the line. At some points entire trenches caved in killing all of the occupants. In one bunker Private Morientes lost his eyes as he scratched them out trying to escape the inferno. At Pamplona the 55th Division panicked and fled south to avoid the battle to come.
As the bombs hit 200 Spanish fighters quickly appeared over the skies and responded by downing over 700 bombers before French fighters could answer back. A dogfight ensued ending up in 50 destroyed Spanish fighters. By the end of the day though, 2300 French bombers and some 20 French fighters had been counted banged up on the ground.
It was a victory, best described as Pyrrhic. 130,000 Spaniards had been mutilated and killed by the millions of tons of bombs dropped that day.
Finally the next day the French army appeared from the Pyrenees in front of the Spanish line. At Magrat del Mar 30,000 French soldiers attempted to break the 110th division’s line. Nasty fighting developed and the French were forced to call on artillery support. 200mm rounds fell all around as French infantry staged wave upon wave of attacks. Magrat fell four hours after.
At Pamplona 200,000 French w/ 14,000 tanks, the largest concentration of armor at the front, punctured right through what was left of the 55th division. But they were stopped cold as the 55th division aided by three reserve divisions came back and fought to a standstill. For three hours valiant street to street and house to house fighting ensued. It took the French 56,000 dead to finally break through and capture the city. 2,000 of their tanks were completely destroyed also, a lesson they never understood even after that debacle.
With these breakthroughs the French poured into the gaps using a “rolling” strategy to destroy the Iron Ring. As the week closed Spanish High Command ordered a general retreat to another line father south, which was 2000km longer. The 76,000 survivors took off south happy to leave their death sentence.
Chapter II ::The Bilbao Massacre
As Bilbao held out with 600 men the French decided to surround the city. Proceeding to do so they met resistance by adhoc Vasque Nationalist who decided to form a military of their own.
Slowly French commander General Gamelin of the XC Corps linked around the Vasque capital. Inside this encirclement lay 600 Spanish troops, as were over 200,000 Vasque nationalist.
For two weeks straight the Spaniards struggled to break out, amassing thousands of men on single points in the French line. But French artillery and bombers ruined any chanced of this. Walls of dead bodies sat silently in front of the French.
Finally on the 22nd of March Gamelin ordered the push into the city. Resistance was non-existent and as the French entered Bilbao they shot up civilians. Two women knitting in their flat were stripped, raped and murdered by a single French soldier.
In the center 200 young women were raped over and over again until they bled by over 2,000 French soldiers. They were then joined with the boyfriends or husbands and locked inside the main cathedral. One of the French colonels ten ordered a flame thrower tank to light the building on fire.
Over 476,322 people were raped or executed, some both. Half of the city was burned to the ground and the other half looted. It was the first act of supreme cruelty, but not the last nor the largest to come.
A small nun school in Guernica was burned after a gunman executed 600 girls and 20 nuns. The village was then looted and its entire male population executed.
News didn’t travel. Anybody who tried to run was shot on spot and French shot down any reconnaissance aircraft. The consequences of this would be tatamount.
Chapter III :: U.S. and the U.K. enter the war…
On March 24th the United States senate met on at the capitol. Two hours later there was a unanimous decision for war against French imperialism. President Bush, then in London, persuaded the Parliament to do the same and on the 25th the U.K. was also at war.
A telegram stating “that French imperialism against a common ally was unfounded and that both the U.S. and the U.K. could not stand for an attack against the ally.”
That same day the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff raised mobilization to 7.6 million men by the next six months. 700,000 had already been sent to the Atlantic Coast by train where they would board over 700 ships heading for the Gibraltar and Barcelona. With them would go 176 battleships, 132 destroyers, 151 cruisers and 21 carriers.
On the 26th 231,000 British troops left Scapa Bay for Spain escorted by over 100 ships of the Royal Navy. The situation began to clear up all of a sudden..
Chapter IV :: The Battle of Barcelona
Meanwhile the 2nd Spanish Army, 300,000 strong, was in a line around the city of Barcelona. The army was made up of 50,000 army troops and 250,000 citizens, mostly boys and older men armed with shotguns or old rifles. Supporting artillery consisted of only just 200 old German 155mm guns and armor was at strength of 26 Leopards.
Directly around them were 400,000 French, fully trained, and 2,000 tanks and over 60,000 200mm artillery guns.
On the 24th of March 14,000 French supported by 50 tanks and 20,000 artillery guns pounded the center of the Spanish line for two hours straight. Miraculously the Spaniards held losing just 600 men. The French attack was reinforced with over 50,000 men and 200 tanks. The advance was slowed as 36,000 Spaniards fought to the death.
At one spot two machine gunners shot down almost 100 Frenchmen before shot to pieces themselves. Another captain knocked out three tanks then killed 32 French infantry with a sub machine gun. He was killed by an artillery shell. For six hours straight the French attacks and finally at 1900 hours the Spanish line broke.
All of a sudden the French pressured the remaining walls and the entire Spanish army collapsed and was destroyed. Only 20,000 remaining defenders retreated to the city itself.
Barricades had been raised and mines had been laid. As the French entered bombs went off and it looked like the French would be halted after all. But they kept on coming. Not even after entire French battalions were dying did they stop.
Finally at 2400 hours March 25th 204 the onslaught halted with only 7% of the city in French hands.
On the 26th 11,000 Spaniards were dropped off at port and were immediately sent to the front lines. On the 27th the French 176th division under General Muygul pushed but was cut off by the Spanish and destroyed.
17,000 French perished in that one advance compared with the 2,000 Spaniards killed.
On the 27th 200,000 more French arrive at the spot and the new 550,000 strong French army hit the city with all it had. What they did not know was that the U.S. had dropped General Finegold with an army 70,000 strong at the ports and that 23 battleships had stayed to support them.
The push began at 0400 hours and it was met by 20” shells as well as determined resistance by the U.S. – Spanish army there.
French armor in the south broke through by 1200 hours but was stopped cold by the battleship gunfire. A-10’s put perpetual hell on the artillery until 2000 hours.
At 2200 hours Guymul called it a night and halted his troops halfway into the city.
Taking advantage of French disorganization Finegold ordered a counter attack at 2230 hours. It met with initial success but by 2400 hours it was bogged down by superior enemy numbers. At 0100 27th of March Finegold ordered a withdrawal fearing a French counter attack.
So it happened, 200,000 French resumed the attack at 0400 hours with full air support but the infantry were too tired to continue. Many were cut down and it ended in fiasco.
The Barcelona garrison was down to around 10,000 troops. They were up against some 300,000 French (about 250,000 had already died).
On the 28th the 10,000 were evacuated by sea and escorted to Valencia, 176 km to the south. The city fell shortly afterwards and with it 150,000 citizens were executed.
Chapter V :: Finegold at Valencia
Finegold and his army renamed the XI Infantry Division linked up with the XXIV Armored Division south of Valencia at Catarroja. From there they proceeded to defend Valencia. With just 10,000 men and some 300 Abrams it would be hard to defend the city from 400,000 or so French.
Telegramming Spanish high command Finegold told his grievances to the General in charge. His problems were half alleviated by the donation of the IC Infantry Division and with it the III Airborne Division. Now Finegold had some 37,000 men and 300 Abrams plus 200 of the fold up 155mm guns the paratroopers carried.
Quickly Finegold put to work around 700,000 citizens to make barricades and bunkers in the city streets, corners, cellars and houses. Another 300,000 were recruited into the citizens’ army, a common practice from Barcelona, arming them with old rifles and pistols.
On the 2nd of June the French reached the outskirts of Valencia pounding the center with their large 200mm’s and with around 700 tanks brought down from another front. General Bilotte, commanding the French troops, quickly sent in 20,000 men to capture vital start points for the following day’s main advance into the heart of the city. If he was successful he would have the entire way to the eastern flank of Madrid open and Spain would be virtually cut in half. But General Finegold knew that and would work as hard as he could to not let that happen.
As the 20,000 men entered the city Finegold ordered his men to keep silent until the entire force was inside. At 0800 when the last of the French had entered Finegold ordered fire and a brisk fire fight ensued ending up in the death of over 4,000 French and in the capitulation of the rest. Some 800 defendants were killed but to a cause worth dying for.
Bilotte, tired of such casualties, decided for an all out strategy the following day, a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life.
On June 5th 280,000 French men and 6700 tanks entered Valencia from three separate points. They were immediately met by defending fire from trenches and bunkers. The fighting was fierce as building were blown to bits by armor struggling against anti-tank guns and as close up 155mm guns blasted entire French squads from the earth.
At one point a Spanish citizen stood up with a Molotov cocktail and ran up to a French tank sticking it on the tracks. He was blown to pieces by a French machinegun but before he died the tank tracks were knocked off and the tank was consequently destroyed.
At another point an American marine took up a MG to his waste and begun to fire at incoming soldiers. It took four shots to kill him and you could see the burns on his sides from the MG heat.
It was truly horrorific fighting but by the end of the day the French had only taken 10% of the city and suffered 70% casualties. Allied dead numbered at some 7,000 dead.
With these dead Bilotte retreated up to the Turia Line some 20km to the north where he would regain reinforcements for a new offensive.
Ch. 6 Break of the Turia
Hoping for an opportunity Finegold decided to launch an offensive of his own northward towards the Turia. With Bilotte at a low point with only some 40,000 troops left it would be relatively easy to break such a long and thinly held line.
On the 7th of June he sent a wing of 10,000 men to break the line at the village of Liria. To reinforce this attack Finegold attached 50 Abrams to ensure a maximum punch. At 0600 the village was reached at 20 155mm’s opened fire on the village as the men worked their way under the intense smoke protection.
At 0630 the artillery stopped and the 50 Abrams opened fire on the lead houses and 500 men entered the village from the west. Another 1,000 men attacked from the south and southwest as the rest waited behind as reserves.
Heavy machine gun fire pinned down the western attack but the south had a relative easy advancing into the center of the village. As they did citizens waved American and Spanish flags at the troopers as angry and scared soldiers waved them back to make them go inside. Out of the blue a sniper killed Captain Monroe as he was signaling an explosives expert to blow the gate to the village castle.
A long fire fight ensued where another 70 men lost their lives but the castle was taken. In the west the 500 men finally broke through and all 1,500 linked up in the center. The 50 Abrams sped in and the village surrendered at 0730.
The line had been broken and the 10,000 men save 100 to occupy the village circled north and then swung west and hit behind the line at a point 100km from Liria at Chelva, the most extreme western point. This point was too broken and thinking of a larger encirclement Bilotte ordered a withdrawal to the Mijares line some 60km north.
Finegold rushed in with his troops and captured some 20,000 French with no casualties. The tables of war were reversed.
Ch. VII Battle at the Mijares
From the 9th of June to the 15th the front was relatively quite as supplies drifted into the bombed out port of Valencia. American troops from the south were supplementing Finegold’s depleted forces and on the 14th Finegold was promoted straight to Lt. General and given command of the I Allied Army, comprising of 300,000 men. He was positioned on the extreme right flank with the sea on his side and the II U.S. Army on his left and was scheduled to push into the weakest point of the Mijares defense line on the 18th.
Thus he planned accordingly with 50,000 troops by the sea and another 50,000 on their flank. This would be supported by 500 A-10’s and 200 B-52’s escorted by over 300 F-18’s. At the rear he had another 200,000 troops reserve and over 20,000 250mm artillery pieces to pound away at the French trenches.
Several changes on the French front were also occurring; the most major being the sack of Bilotte and the appointment of General DeGuigand himself. DeGuigand brought in another 700,000 troops to defend the line with him hoping to be able to launch another offensive towards Valencia by the following month.
On the 17th Finegold set the final preparations as he advanced 2,000 Abrams into the front lines ready for the push in to the Mijares River. At 0500 the 18th the entire supporting air force launched a series of waves on the line for an hour straight. At 0530 the artillery opened up giving the aircraft a supporting role.
The air attack began with 50 A-10’s at 600 feet strafing trenches and breaking bunkers with their heavy and medium bombs. The smoke was too thick to see through and Finegold struggled to get a good sight at the bombings. A second wave of 150 A-10’s lasted for a full 45 minutes destroying much of the trenches in the first line of the Mijares. It stopped with the 200 bombers carpet bombing much of the in depth defense of the river line.
At 0600 Finegold ordered his XIX Corp, which he had defended before, to breach the line at Conejos. XIX Corp advanced for 15 kilometers before being halted by resistance near the village of Conejos. French tanks, entrenched in the soil, were able to knock out various Abrams as the XIX Corps advanced. At one point Colonel Riche was forced to stop the advance because he had lost over 3 Abrams in just two minutes.
Finally Finegold got the VI Infantry Division in and broke through the resistance. Continues pressure on the village finally forced a collapse of the French line near the village and the point was left.
At 0730 the Mijares River was reached and it was time for the full battle to begin. Finegold began by pointing his 20,000 guns right on the other bank of the river and firing away until 1000. The screams of dying French could be heard on the other side as allied troops struggled to get the horrific agonizing pain out of their ears.
At 1010 the XIX Corp began to hit the river as small amounts of troopers crossed the river knocking out bank machine gun nests and small foxholes. The crossing culminated with 30 tanks making it to the other side.
DeGuigand, with 10,000 troops in the sector, was in panic. He ordered an immediate counter attack which happened at 1200 hours. Brief but vicious fighting pushed the allies off their bridgehead and back across the river by 1300.
Finegold then began another 2 hour bombardment with his guns which ended at 1500. The bombardment had caused damage and DeGuigand was forced to retire from the forward position. But XIX Corps did not pass, instead the attention of Finegold turned towards Iberica.
Iberica was a large town with 30,000 people living under roofs. It was also the commercial capital of the 12 town region north of Valencia. It was imperative for it to be captured by allied troops in order to claim victory.
Finegold concentrated 400 tanks and the other 50,000 men supported by 20,000 behind them to go into the gaps created.
The battle began there with the immediate capture of Iberica but the advance stopped after DeGuigand ordered a counterattack with some 40,000 men in the 40km sector. At 1100 DeGuigand had the upper hand and broke through the main line of 2,000 men in the center of Finegold’s Iberica front. The gap was filled in by the 20,000 reserves cutting off DeGuigand’s spearhead south of Iberica, which ended up in the capture of some 2,000 French troops.
At 1300 Finegold bombarded the Mijares River with some 500 155mm guns and ordered a general advance to the river. No resistance was met until right up to the river banks where French machine gun nests opened fire on unwary infantry. They were only silenced by the handy work of some 10 tanks that knocked out all the nests.
At 1600 some 20,000 allied troops under Finegold were able to cross the Mijares River and penetrate 40km northwards. DeGuigand fearing an encirclement ordered a withdrawal to the more northwardly Ebro River, where he would make a giant battle and finally defeat Finegold, the thorn in his side and the doorstopper to victory.
Chapter VIII Guy Lyons Drive to Leon
By the 20th of June the French parliament knew that if the war continued on like it was the French army would be not only destroyed but France might be occupied herself. To avoid this the parliament appointed General Guy Lyons as head of a 400,000 strong army in the Bilbao Front and ordered him to make headway to Leon so France could towards a quick march to Madrid.
To emphasize the importance of the operation they begun to import petroleum, food, medical supplies and trucks through costal towns occupied after the overrunning of the Basque Country in Spain’s north.
Guy had 400,000 infantry, as well as 4,000 tanks and some 40,000 200mm guns at his disposal. All of this would be backed up by 200 bombers and 300 fighters. Guy knew that Leon was over 250km away and knew that it would be a long and hard battle to reach the city and then besiege it. At least three weeks of heavy fighting and another four in a siege of the city. He also knew that Finegold would be flown to the front to take command since he was one of the more popular and moral raising generals, after all he had defeated Bilotte and DeGuigand plus held out against terrible odds at Barcelona for over a week.
On the 22nd Guy made headway taking three villages just off France’s front in Spain in that area. After awakening the Spanish army he decided to satirize it with firebombs from his bombers and phosphorous from his artillery, the first time France had used such weapons in the war.
At 1100 the 200 bombers flew by his headquarters and 15 minutes later dropped their sticks of over 150 bombs each on the Spanish front lines. Spanish troops responded by well coordinated AA fire but only 20 bombers were downed. Guy then ordered his artillery to open fire with the phosphorous.
This had results uncalculated in human warfare before. In one trench twenty soldiers were scratching off their skin as it burned to the core and slid off in slices. Another man shot himself in the neck after the attack was unbearable for him. At one spot a tank commander committed suicide by machete after the chemical had slipped into his turret and into his eyes. It was truly a worse nightmare, a horror movie. Over 700 Spaniards had died in two hours of phosphorous bombardment and over 20,000 more had to be removed from the lines based on casualties and war fatigue. Of course they were replaced by more troops but what was installed for the new batch was even worse.
The following day at 0600 Guy ordered the bombardment of the front again with all 40,000 guns firing phosphorous rounds. This he ordered to halt at 1000, 4 full hours ahead. The Spanish commander had to actually pull back to a second defense line waiting for the bombardment to die down. But at 1000 the artillery quitted down and the Spanish commander decided to take things into his own hands. To build up time he ordered his 300 batteries to hit known French artillery positions with all they had. This went on for 2 hours and their division upset French attempts to counter fire.
On the 24th Guy ordered his LII Infantry to take the heights 10km south from the French lines, which was thought that it was allowing the Spaniards to see the entire French army. Thus at 0800 hours 17000 men began to prepare for the assault on hill 411 (named for its height in meters). At 0830 2,000 men under Major Chivarie attacked from the north after an intense bomber and artillery bombardment. The 200 defenders of hill 411 launched a staunch resistance with hidden machine gun nests and entrenched armor. Chivarie after a slow and lumbering advance 30 yards up the hill was forced to withdraw as his 2,000 men turned into just 700 after an hour of fighting.
At 1100 Chivarie, reinforced with another 2000 men, was told to take the hill with a massive hill. He attacked with no artillery preparation and this time ran the first 20 yards with no fighting but soon enough Spanish machine guns were opening fire and pinning his troops down. The fighting was particularly fierce where a private Morenge, a French infantry man, was trying to push up. A Spanish rifle man took a pot shot at Morenge’s comrade and Morenge ended up killing the Spaniard. Then as Morenge was joined by more French more Spanish machine guns opened fire inflicting horrible casualties. After a long and disastrous attack up hill Chivarie reached the top only to see a Spanish counter attack from the south side.
Chivarie frantically attempted to put up an ad-hoc defense but the Spaniards shot to fast as his troops put themselves in position to fight back. Chivarie ordered a charge with some 1600 men he had left and the battle ended in a stalemate with no side taking the hill entirely.
At 1500 Major Gurand attacked the south side again with another 2,000 troops plus Chivarie’s troops taking the hill after 20 minutes of bloody fighting. Finally Guy had a passage open towards Leon. Smashing 10,000 troops through this small gap he destroyed most of the Spanish line allowing him an easy way to Leon.
His troops were fed by food left in the wake of the Spanish retreat south towards the great city, capital of Castilla y Leon. But all of a sudden the retreat turned into a stand some 15km from the city. Guy attempted a hook left but was repelled after a two day sub battle trying to make a hole in the Spanish flank.
By the 29th Finegold had arrived with 300,000 reinforcements (his III army) and took control of the line around Leon. To shorten the perimeter he decided to leave the set fortifications running in front of the city and ordered his men to prepare a circular defense, Barcelona/Valencia style.
Guy Lyon, taking this is as a weakness, launched his grandest offensive of the battle by attacking into the front with 300,000 men and 2,000 tanks (almost ¾ of his army). As it passed the fortification French morale rose and were unprepared as they met the Spanish/American resistance around the city.
At one point of the defense 20,000 French were repelled by 4,000 Americans using civilian made blockades and home made Molotov cocktails and bombs. By the end of the 30th of June his men were frustrated and tired thus General Guy ordered a stop of the battle until the 2nd of July.
Losing 43,000 men in 10 days General Guy knew that he would have to use smarts to break through. In turn, Finegold had lost only some 13,000 troops yet he was still outnumbered by some 60,000 infantry and about 1,000 tanks. Taking this into account Guy decided to proceed with a small encroachment hoping to use tactics to punch a line through the city defense.
Thus on the 2nd of July at 0500 his 56th Armored Division made headway towards north Leon. A ready defense slowed the armored drive at 5km from the city although the tanks were still strong enough to continue. At 0700 the 56th Armored was taken out of the line and the 57th Infantry Division continued the battle.
At a critical point Finegold ordered another 10,000 men to be sent to that part of the line which was just enough to drive the 57th off, probably saving the fate of the city. That day over 30,000 French and 17,000 Spaniards were lost alone after both General Guy and General Finegold put all attention at that one spot, making it a meat grinder.
On the 3rd of July Guy launched an operation to encircle the city, another grand mistake of his. Resistance was made all the way and if two divisions in his army lost contact Finegold would take advantage and attack the rear, sometimes killing up to 3,000 men in each attack. But finally on the 5th the operation was complete, cutting off complete allied communication and supply routes to the city.
On the 6th Finegold launched Operation Bagration, after the great Soviet campaign to destroy the German Army Group Center. 13,000 men were spit into Guy’s weakest part of the line breaking through it. Guy’s position did not allow him to retreat as a second arm hit the other side of the ring forcing Guy’s entire southern position to be prone to encirclement. On the 8th Finegold launched another offensive to push Guy’s northern circle away allowing Finegold to completely run over the south’s flanks.
These operations would evolve into the second great Spanish victory since Valencia. 120,000 infantry and 2,000 tanks were fully encircled in the south while in the north Guy did not have enough forces to counter the encirclement. It was hopeless to the French and a great morale booster to Finegold’s troops.
On the 9th Finegold launched a 14 hour artillery bombardment of the kessel while A-10’s did ‘round the hour attacks on armored groups. On the 10th Finegold ordered the smashing of the circle and it took until 2100 to completely destroy the French forces. Finegold lost some 3,000 troops while no French escaped alive. Leon had been saved!
The most terrible thing was that the French made no attempt to break out nor did Guy try to break through his southern forces. The French debacle ended up in the complete opening to Bilbao and the threatening of the Ebro front. This meant that if Finegold succeeded over 2 million troops could be encircled by cutting through Basque Country and capturing the Northeastern part of Spain, leaving from the Ebro to Barcelona in a kessel except by sea where U.S. Battleships were blockading the large French ports anyways. It was a strategic disaster for France.
Ch.IX Massacre of Guernica – Finegold’s First Mistake
On July 11th Finegold decided to complete the rout of the French army with an unequaled air attack on Guernica, the headquarters of the French army in the Bilbao sector. It would turn out to be one of the bloodiest days of the war and ultimately in history.
Finegold ordered Air General Sangrillo to attack the small city of some 300,000 people with 1,000 B-52’s, 600 A-10’s, and 400 outdated but yet effective Stuka Ju-87 Dive Bombers protected by 2,000 F-18’s.
On the 12th the air raid began with a steady stream of all 1,000 B-52’s and 500 F-18’s. At 1200 the 1,000 bombers let go of their bombs producing the deadliest air attack in the history of mankind.
As the markets were full with thousands of people walking the streets, they were caught unprepared and French anti aircraft guns were few, as they were captured in the Leon debacle.
Thus over 24 million tons of bombs fell all over the city killing and destroying. In one area an old woman held her grandchild, a girl of 2, as a bomb hit a nearby building. The shrapnel pierced the woman’s head and another piece hit in the babies stomach, sending guts flying. A French soldier, manning a machine gun, was hit by three bombs and his remains were only a tattered arm and pieces of flesh littering the streets.
The markets were main targets and hundreds of people died with each bomb. In one place a man raised the Spanish flag, but it was too late, a bomb fell on him killing over 200 people crammed onto the streets of the city.
By the end of the ordeal it is estimated that some 120,000 people died in just 20 minutes. But it wasn’t over yet. The A-10’s escorted by the remainder of the F-18’s struck fast on the village. Behind them came the Stukas at full speed diving to 5,000 feet as cluster bombs and an assortment of missiles crashed into the area.
The air attack lasted some 4 hours and at the end of the 4 hours the 1,000 bombers reappeared hitting the city one last time.
As the raid finished off 2,000 eager troops rushed into the city expecting happy Spaniards to greet them. Instead they saw hell. Men were crying with no arms or half a head. French were rear but Spaniards were littering dead on the streets. By July 13 Finegold’s men had cleaned up an estimated 270,000 people, leaving only 30,000 alive, half of which were severely wounded.
The attack greatly demised Finegold’s reputation for being a hero and it was a black day in the war’s history. To this day it is a black record on Finegold’s resume.
Books to look foward to in this volume set:
I. The Franco-Spanish War
II. The Civil War and the Rise of Finegold I
III. The First Years and the Wars of Novice
IV. The Death of Finegold I and the Rise of Finegold II
V. The Freemantian War
VI. The Economic Rise and the NDA War
IC:
Book 1
The Franco-Spanish Civil War
Chapter I :: The Breaking of the Iron Ring
General DeGuidand looked into the Spanish cold from his position in the Pyrenees. The small Spanish army awaited him with their machine guns pointed, but no matter, they would break before his magnificent army. As he turned away the cheer of three million Frenchmen could be heard throughout the mountains from several kilometers away.
It would be the rise of another French Empire, with himself as the emperor. He chuckled to himself and raised his walkie-talkie to his lips. Pressing the red button he gently said, “Bonjour my army, it is time for our awakening.” With that three million troops followed by over eighteen-thousand tanks lurched forwards into the Pyrenees.
Hidden bunkers on Pyrenean mountain tops spit 200mm rounds on Spanish positions. Above them squadrons upon squadrons of French fighters and bombers entered Spanish air space. It was a truly terrorific, yet magnificent sight to behold.
DeGuidand then called over his Jeep Cherokee with the French emblem painted on the door. It was the day his sacred armies would churn the earth and that the 2nd rise of a French Empire would rule the world.
To his south the battle had begun as hidden machine gun nests took their toll on marching French forces. Two Spaniards holding a small cliff on a Pyrenean mountain, hidden by brush, opened fire on a column of 50 men and a tank. The infantry were killed immediately as well as the top gunner of the tank but a quick 75mm round silenced the two Spaniards.
Although casualties were mounting the French avalanche continued as they marched through the mountains. Already ahead at the “Aro de Acero” or the Steel Ring 500,000 royal infantry, loyal to the Spanish king, Juan Carlos II, awaited the French onslaught. All of a sudden the motors of over 3,000 bombers could be heard from Magrat del Mar to Bilbao (east to west). SAM sites opened up along with the booms of over 200,000 300mm AA guns spread along the line. But all of this to almost no change, over eleven million tons of bombs were dropped on the line. At some points entire trenches caved in killing all of the occupants. In one bunker Private Morientes lost his eyes as he scratched them out trying to escape the inferno. At Pamplona the 55th Division panicked and fled south to avoid the battle to come.
As the bombs hit 200 Spanish fighters quickly appeared over the skies and responded by downing over 700 bombers before French fighters could answer back. A dogfight ensued ending up in 50 destroyed Spanish fighters. By the end of the day though, 2300 French bombers and some 20 French fighters had been counted banged up on the ground.
It was a victory, best described as Pyrrhic. 130,000 Spaniards had been mutilated and killed by the millions of tons of bombs dropped that day.
Finally the next day the French army appeared from the Pyrenees in front of the Spanish line. At Magrat del Mar 30,000 French soldiers attempted to break the 110th division’s line. Nasty fighting developed and the French were forced to call on artillery support. 200mm rounds fell all around as French infantry staged wave upon wave of attacks. Magrat fell four hours after.
At Pamplona 200,000 French w/ 14,000 tanks, the largest concentration of armor at the front, punctured right through what was left of the 55th division. But they were stopped cold as the 55th division aided by three reserve divisions came back and fought to a standstill. For three hours valiant street to street and house to house fighting ensued. It took the French 56,000 dead to finally break through and capture the city. 2,000 of their tanks were completely destroyed also, a lesson they never understood even after that debacle.
With these breakthroughs the French poured into the gaps using a “rolling” strategy to destroy the Iron Ring. As the week closed Spanish High Command ordered a general retreat to another line father south, which was 2000km longer. The 76,000 survivors took off south happy to leave their death sentence.
Chapter II ::The Bilbao Massacre
As Bilbao held out with 600 men the French decided to surround the city. Proceeding to do so they met resistance by adhoc Vasque Nationalist who decided to form a military of their own.
Slowly French commander General Gamelin of the XC Corps linked around the Vasque capital. Inside this encirclement lay 600 Spanish troops, as were over 200,000 Vasque nationalist.
For two weeks straight the Spaniards struggled to break out, amassing thousands of men on single points in the French line. But French artillery and bombers ruined any chanced of this. Walls of dead bodies sat silently in front of the French.
Finally on the 22nd of March Gamelin ordered the push into the city. Resistance was non-existent and as the French entered Bilbao they shot up civilians. Two women knitting in their flat were stripped, raped and murdered by a single French soldier.
In the center 200 young women were raped over and over again until they bled by over 2,000 French soldiers. They were then joined with the boyfriends or husbands and locked inside the main cathedral. One of the French colonels ten ordered a flame thrower tank to light the building on fire.
Over 476,322 people were raped or executed, some both. Half of the city was burned to the ground and the other half looted. It was the first act of supreme cruelty, but not the last nor the largest to come.
A small nun school in Guernica was burned after a gunman executed 600 girls and 20 nuns. The village was then looted and its entire male population executed.
News didn’t travel. Anybody who tried to run was shot on spot and French shot down any reconnaissance aircraft. The consequences of this would be tatamount.
Chapter III :: U.S. and the U.K. enter the war…
On March 24th the United States senate met on at the capitol. Two hours later there was a unanimous decision for war against French imperialism. President Bush, then in London, persuaded the Parliament to do the same and on the 25th the U.K. was also at war.
A telegram stating “that French imperialism against a common ally was unfounded and that both the U.S. and the U.K. could not stand for an attack against the ally.”
That same day the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff raised mobilization to 7.6 million men by the next six months. 700,000 had already been sent to the Atlantic Coast by train where they would board over 700 ships heading for the Gibraltar and Barcelona. With them would go 176 battleships, 132 destroyers, 151 cruisers and 21 carriers.
On the 26th 231,000 British troops left Scapa Bay for Spain escorted by over 100 ships of the Royal Navy. The situation began to clear up all of a sudden..
Chapter IV :: The Battle of Barcelona
Meanwhile the 2nd Spanish Army, 300,000 strong, was in a line around the city of Barcelona. The army was made up of 50,000 army troops and 250,000 citizens, mostly boys and older men armed with shotguns or old rifles. Supporting artillery consisted of only just 200 old German 155mm guns and armor was at strength of 26 Leopards.
Directly around them were 400,000 French, fully trained, and 2,000 tanks and over 60,000 200mm artillery guns.
On the 24th of March 14,000 French supported by 50 tanks and 20,000 artillery guns pounded the center of the Spanish line for two hours straight. Miraculously the Spaniards held losing just 600 men. The French attack was reinforced with over 50,000 men and 200 tanks. The advance was slowed as 36,000 Spaniards fought to the death.
At one spot two machine gunners shot down almost 100 Frenchmen before shot to pieces themselves. Another captain knocked out three tanks then killed 32 French infantry with a sub machine gun. He was killed by an artillery shell. For six hours straight the French attacks and finally at 1900 hours the Spanish line broke.
All of a sudden the French pressured the remaining walls and the entire Spanish army collapsed and was destroyed. Only 20,000 remaining defenders retreated to the city itself.
Barricades had been raised and mines had been laid. As the French entered bombs went off and it looked like the French would be halted after all. But they kept on coming. Not even after entire French battalions were dying did they stop.
Finally at 2400 hours March 25th 204 the onslaught halted with only 7% of the city in French hands.
On the 26th 11,000 Spaniards were dropped off at port and were immediately sent to the front lines. On the 27th the French 176th division under General Muygul pushed but was cut off by the Spanish and destroyed.
17,000 French perished in that one advance compared with the 2,000 Spaniards killed.
On the 27th 200,000 more French arrive at the spot and the new 550,000 strong French army hit the city with all it had. What they did not know was that the U.S. had dropped General Finegold with an army 70,000 strong at the ports and that 23 battleships had stayed to support them.
The push began at 0400 hours and it was met by 20” shells as well as determined resistance by the U.S. – Spanish army there.
French armor in the south broke through by 1200 hours but was stopped cold by the battleship gunfire. A-10’s put perpetual hell on the artillery until 2000 hours.
At 2200 hours Guymul called it a night and halted his troops halfway into the city.
Taking advantage of French disorganization Finegold ordered a counter attack at 2230 hours. It met with initial success but by 2400 hours it was bogged down by superior enemy numbers. At 0100 27th of March Finegold ordered a withdrawal fearing a French counter attack.
So it happened, 200,000 French resumed the attack at 0400 hours with full air support but the infantry were too tired to continue. Many were cut down and it ended in fiasco.
The Barcelona garrison was down to around 10,000 troops. They were up against some 300,000 French (about 250,000 had already died).
On the 28th the 10,000 were evacuated by sea and escorted to Valencia, 176 km to the south. The city fell shortly afterwards and with it 150,000 citizens were executed.
Chapter V :: Finegold at Valencia
Finegold and his army renamed the XI Infantry Division linked up with the XXIV Armored Division south of Valencia at Catarroja. From there they proceeded to defend Valencia. With just 10,000 men and some 300 Abrams it would be hard to defend the city from 400,000 or so French.
Telegramming Spanish high command Finegold told his grievances to the General in charge. His problems were half alleviated by the donation of the IC Infantry Division and with it the III Airborne Division. Now Finegold had some 37,000 men and 300 Abrams plus 200 of the fold up 155mm guns the paratroopers carried.
Quickly Finegold put to work around 700,000 citizens to make barricades and bunkers in the city streets, corners, cellars and houses. Another 300,000 were recruited into the citizens’ army, a common practice from Barcelona, arming them with old rifles and pistols.
On the 2nd of June the French reached the outskirts of Valencia pounding the center with their large 200mm’s and with around 700 tanks brought down from another front. General Bilotte, commanding the French troops, quickly sent in 20,000 men to capture vital start points for the following day’s main advance into the heart of the city. If he was successful he would have the entire way to the eastern flank of Madrid open and Spain would be virtually cut in half. But General Finegold knew that and would work as hard as he could to not let that happen.
As the 20,000 men entered the city Finegold ordered his men to keep silent until the entire force was inside. At 0800 when the last of the French had entered Finegold ordered fire and a brisk fire fight ensued ending up in the death of over 4,000 French and in the capitulation of the rest. Some 800 defendants were killed but to a cause worth dying for.
Bilotte, tired of such casualties, decided for an all out strategy the following day, a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life.
On June 5th 280,000 French men and 6700 tanks entered Valencia from three separate points. They were immediately met by defending fire from trenches and bunkers. The fighting was fierce as building were blown to bits by armor struggling against anti-tank guns and as close up 155mm guns blasted entire French squads from the earth.
At one point a Spanish citizen stood up with a Molotov cocktail and ran up to a French tank sticking it on the tracks. He was blown to pieces by a French machinegun but before he died the tank tracks were knocked off and the tank was consequently destroyed.
At another point an American marine took up a MG to his waste and begun to fire at incoming soldiers. It took four shots to kill him and you could see the burns on his sides from the MG heat.
It was truly horrorific fighting but by the end of the day the French had only taken 10% of the city and suffered 70% casualties. Allied dead numbered at some 7,000 dead.
With these dead Bilotte retreated up to the Turia Line some 20km to the north where he would regain reinforcements for a new offensive.
Ch. 6 Break of the Turia
Hoping for an opportunity Finegold decided to launch an offensive of his own northward towards the Turia. With Bilotte at a low point with only some 40,000 troops left it would be relatively easy to break such a long and thinly held line.
On the 7th of June he sent a wing of 10,000 men to break the line at the village of Liria. To reinforce this attack Finegold attached 50 Abrams to ensure a maximum punch. At 0600 the village was reached at 20 155mm’s opened fire on the village as the men worked their way under the intense smoke protection.
At 0630 the artillery stopped and the 50 Abrams opened fire on the lead houses and 500 men entered the village from the west. Another 1,000 men attacked from the south and southwest as the rest waited behind as reserves.
Heavy machine gun fire pinned down the western attack but the south had a relative easy advancing into the center of the village. As they did citizens waved American and Spanish flags at the troopers as angry and scared soldiers waved them back to make them go inside. Out of the blue a sniper killed Captain Monroe as he was signaling an explosives expert to blow the gate to the village castle.
A long fire fight ensued where another 70 men lost their lives but the castle was taken. In the west the 500 men finally broke through and all 1,500 linked up in the center. The 50 Abrams sped in and the village surrendered at 0730.
The line had been broken and the 10,000 men save 100 to occupy the village circled north and then swung west and hit behind the line at a point 100km from Liria at Chelva, the most extreme western point. This point was too broken and thinking of a larger encirclement Bilotte ordered a withdrawal to the Mijares line some 60km north.
Finegold rushed in with his troops and captured some 20,000 French with no casualties. The tables of war were reversed.
Ch. VII Battle at the Mijares
From the 9th of June to the 15th the front was relatively quite as supplies drifted into the bombed out port of Valencia. American troops from the south were supplementing Finegold’s depleted forces and on the 14th Finegold was promoted straight to Lt. General and given command of the I Allied Army, comprising of 300,000 men. He was positioned on the extreme right flank with the sea on his side and the II U.S. Army on his left and was scheduled to push into the weakest point of the Mijares defense line on the 18th.
Thus he planned accordingly with 50,000 troops by the sea and another 50,000 on their flank. This would be supported by 500 A-10’s and 200 B-52’s escorted by over 300 F-18’s. At the rear he had another 200,000 troops reserve and over 20,000 250mm artillery pieces to pound away at the French trenches.
Several changes on the French front were also occurring; the most major being the sack of Bilotte and the appointment of General DeGuigand himself. DeGuigand brought in another 700,000 troops to defend the line with him hoping to be able to launch another offensive towards Valencia by the following month.
On the 17th Finegold set the final preparations as he advanced 2,000 Abrams into the front lines ready for the push in to the Mijares River. At 0500 the 18th the entire supporting air force launched a series of waves on the line for an hour straight. At 0530 the artillery opened up giving the aircraft a supporting role.
The air attack began with 50 A-10’s at 600 feet strafing trenches and breaking bunkers with their heavy and medium bombs. The smoke was too thick to see through and Finegold struggled to get a good sight at the bombings. A second wave of 150 A-10’s lasted for a full 45 minutes destroying much of the trenches in the first line of the Mijares. It stopped with the 200 bombers carpet bombing much of the in depth defense of the river line.
At 0600 Finegold ordered his XIX Corp, which he had defended before, to breach the line at Conejos. XIX Corp advanced for 15 kilometers before being halted by resistance near the village of Conejos. French tanks, entrenched in the soil, were able to knock out various Abrams as the XIX Corps advanced. At one point Colonel Riche was forced to stop the advance because he had lost over 3 Abrams in just two minutes.
Finally Finegold got the VI Infantry Division in and broke through the resistance. Continues pressure on the village finally forced a collapse of the French line near the village and the point was left.
At 0730 the Mijares River was reached and it was time for the full battle to begin. Finegold began by pointing his 20,000 guns right on the other bank of the river and firing away until 1000. The screams of dying French could be heard on the other side as allied troops struggled to get the horrific agonizing pain out of their ears.
At 1010 the XIX Corp began to hit the river as small amounts of troopers crossed the river knocking out bank machine gun nests and small foxholes. The crossing culminated with 30 tanks making it to the other side.
DeGuigand, with 10,000 troops in the sector, was in panic. He ordered an immediate counter attack which happened at 1200 hours. Brief but vicious fighting pushed the allies off their bridgehead and back across the river by 1300.
Finegold then began another 2 hour bombardment with his guns which ended at 1500. The bombardment had caused damage and DeGuigand was forced to retire from the forward position. But XIX Corps did not pass, instead the attention of Finegold turned towards Iberica.
Iberica was a large town with 30,000 people living under roofs. It was also the commercial capital of the 12 town region north of Valencia. It was imperative for it to be captured by allied troops in order to claim victory.
Finegold concentrated 400 tanks and the other 50,000 men supported by 20,000 behind them to go into the gaps created.
The battle began there with the immediate capture of Iberica but the advance stopped after DeGuigand ordered a counterattack with some 40,000 men in the 40km sector. At 1100 DeGuigand had the upper hand and broke through the main line of 2,000 men in the center of Finegold’s Iberica front. The gap was filled in by the 20,000 reserves cutting off DeGuigand’s spearhead south of Iberica, which ended up in the capture of some 2,000 French troops.
At 1300 Finegold bombarded the Mijares River with some 500 155mm guns and ordered a general advance to the river. No resistance was met until right up to the river banks where French machine gun nests opened fire on unwary infantry. They were only silenced by the handy work of some 10 tanks that knocked out all the nests.
At 1600 some 20,000 allied troops under Finegold were able to cross the Mijares River and penetrate 40km northwards. DeGuigand fearing an encirclement ordered a withdrawal to the more northwardly Ebro River, where he would make a giant battle and finally defeat Finegold, the thorn in his side and the doorstopper to victory.
Chapter VIII Guy Lyons Drive to Leon
By the 20th of June the French parliament knew that if the war continued on like it was the French army would be not only destroyed but France might be occupied herself. To avoid this the parliament appointed General Guy Lyons as head of a 400,000 strong army in the Bilbao Front and ordered him to make headway to Leon so France could towards a quick march to Madrid.
To emphasize the importance of the operation they begun to import petroleum, food, medical supplies and trucks through costal towns occupied after the overrunning of the Basque Country in Spain’s north.
Guy had 400,000 infantry, as well as 4,000 tanks and some 40,000 200mm guns at his disposal. All of this would be backed up by 200 bombers and 300 fighters. Guy knew that Leon was over 250km away and knew that it would be a long and hard battle to reach the city and then besiege it. At least three weeks of heavy fighting and another four in a siege of the city. He also knew that Finegold would be flown to the front to take command since he was one of the more popular and moral raising generals, after all he had defeated Bilotte and DeGuigand plus held out against terrible odds at Barcelona for over a week.
On the 22nd Guy made headway taking three villages just off France’s front in Spain in that area. After awakening the Spanish army he decided to satirize it with firebombs from his bombers and phosphorous from his artillery, the first time France had used such weapons in the war.
At 1100 the 200 bombers flew by his headquarters and 15 minutes later dropped their sticks of over 150 bombs each on the Spanish front lines. Spanish troops responded by well coordinated AA fire but only 20 bombers were downed. Guy then ordered his artillery to open fire with the phosphorous.
This had results uncalculated in human warfare before. In one trench twenty soldiers were scratching off their skin as it burned to the core and slid off in slices. Another man shot himself in the neck after the attack was unbearable for him. At one spot a tank commander committed suicide by machete after the chemical had slipped into his turret and into his eyes. It was truly a worse nightmare, a horror movie. Over 700 Spaniards had died in two hours of phosphorous bombardment and over 20,000 more had to be removed from the lines based on casualties and war fatigue. Of course they were replaced by more troops but what was installed for the new batch was even worse.
The following day at 0600 Guy ordered the bombardment of the front again with all 40,000 guns firing phosphorous rounds. This he ordered to halt at 1000, 4 full hours ahead. The Spanish commander had to actually pull back to a second defense line waiting for the bombardment to die down. But at 1000 the artillery quitted down and the Spanish commander decided to take things into his own hands. To build up time he ordered his 300 batteries to hit known French artillery positions with all they had. This went on for 2 hours and their division upset French attempts to counter fire.
On the 24th Guy ordered his LII Infantry to take the heights 10km south from the French lines, which was thought that it was allowing the Spaniards to see the entire French army. Thus at 0800 hours 17000 men began to prepare for the assault on hill 411 (named for its height in meters). At 0830 2,000 men under Major Chivarie attacked from the north after an intense bomber and artillery bombardment. The 200 defenders of hill 411 launched a staunch resistance with hidden machine gun nests and entrenched armor. Chivarie after a slow and lumbering advance 30 yards up the hill was forced to withdraw as his 2,000 men turned into just 700 after an hour of fighting.
At 1100 Chivarie, reinforced with another 2000 men, was told to take the hill with a massive hill. He attacked with no artillery preparation and this time ran the first 20 yards with no fighting but soon enough Spanish machine guns were opening fire and pinning his troops down. The fighting was particularly fierce where a private Morenge, a French infantry man, was trying to push up. A Spanish rifle man took a pot shot at Morenge’s comrade and Morenge ended up killing the Spaniard. Then as Morenge was joined by more French more Spanish machine guns opened fire inflicting horrible casualties. After a long and disastrous attack up hill Chivarie reached the top only to see a Spanish counter attack from the south side.
Chivarie frantically attempted to put up an ad-hoc defense but the Spaniards shot to fast as his troops put themselves in position to fight back. Chivarie ordered a charge with some 1600 men he had left and the battle ended in a stalemate with no side taking the hill entirely.
At 1500 Major Gurand attacked the south side again with another 2,000 troops plus Chivarie’s troops taking the hill after 20 minutes of bloody fighting. Finally Guy had a passage open towards Leon. Smashing 10,000 troops through this small gap he destroyed most of the Spanish line allowing him an easy way to Leon.
His troops were fed by food left in the wake of the Spanish retreat south towards the great city, capital of Castilla y Leon. But all of a sudden the retreat turned into a stand some 15km from the city. Guy attempted a hook left but was repelled after a two day sub battle trying to make a hole in the Spanish flank.
By the 29th Finegold had arrived with 300,000 reinforcements (his III army) and took control of the line around Leon. To shorten the perimeter he decided to leave the set fortifications running in front of the city and ordered his men to prepare a circular defense, Barcelona/Valencia style.
Guy Lyon, taking this is as a weakness, launched his grandest offensive of the battle by attacking into the front with 300,000 men and 2,000 tanks (almost ¾ of his army). As it passed the fortification French morale rose and were unprepared as they met the Spanish/American resistance around the city.
At one point of the defense 20,000 French were repelled by 4,000 Americans using civilian made blockades and home made Molotov cocktails and bombs. By the end of the 30th of June his men were frustrated and tired thus General Guy ordered a stop of the battle until the 2nd of July.
Losing 43,000 men in 10 days General Guy knew that he would have to use smarts to break through. In turn, Finegold had lost only some 13,000 troops yet he was still outnumbered by some 60,000 infantry and about 1,000 tanks. Taking this into account Guy decided to proceed with a small encroachment hoping to use tactics to punch a line through the city defense.
Thus on the 2nd of July at 0500 his 56th Armored Division made headway towards north Leon. A ready defense slowed the armored drive at 5km from the city although the tanks were still strong enough to continue. At 0700 the 56th Armored was taken out of the line and the 57th Infantry Division continued the battle.
At a critical point Finegold ordered another 10,000 men to be sent to that part of the line which was just enough to drive the 57th off, probably saving the fate of the city. That day over 30,000 French and 17,000 Spaniards were lost alone after both General Guy and General Finegold put all attention at that one spot, making it a meat grinder.
On the 3rd of July Guy launched an operation to encircle the city, another grand mistake of his. Resistance was made all the way and if two divisions in his army lost contact Finegold would take advantage and attack the rear, sometimes killing up to 3,000 men in each attack. But finally on the 5th the operation was complete, cutting off complete allied communication and supply routes to the city.
On the 6th Finegold launched Operation Bagration, after the great Soviet campaign to destroy the German Army Group Center. 13,000 men were spit into Guy’s weakest part of the line breaking through it. Guy’s position did not allow him to retreat as a second arm hit the other side of the ring forcing Guy’s entire southern position to be prone to encirclement. On the 8th Finegold launched another offensive to push Guy’s northern circle away allowing Finegold to completely run over the south’s flanks.
These operations would evolve into the second great Spanish victory since Valencia. 120,000 infantry and 2,000 tanks were fully encircled in the south while in the north Guy did not have enough forces to counter the encirclement. It was hopeless to the French and a great morale booster to Finegold’s troops.
On the 9th Finegold launched a 14 hour artillery bombardment of the kessel while A-10’s did ‘round the hour attacks on armored groups. On the 10th Finegold ordered the smashing of the circle and it took until 2100 to completely destroy the French forces. Finegold lost some 3,000 troops while no French escaped alive. Leon had been saved!
The most terrible thing was that the French made no attempt to break out nor did Guy try to break through his southern forces. The French debacle ended up in the complete opening to Bilbao and the threatening of the Ebro front. This meant that if Finegold succeeded over 2 million troops could be encircled by cutting through Basque Country and capturing the Northeastern part of Spain, leaving from the Ebro to Barcelona in a kessel except by sea where U.S. Battleships were blockading the large French ports anyways. It was a strategic disaster for France.
Ch.IX Massacre of Guernica – Finegold’s First Mistake
On July 11th Finegold decided to complete the rout of the French army with an unequaled air attack on Guernica, the headquarters of the French army in the Bilbao sector. It would turn out to be one of the bloodiest days of the war and ultimately in history.
Finegold ordered Air General Sangrillo to attack the small city of some 300,000 people with 1,000 B-52’s, 600 A-10’s, and 400 outdated but yet effective Stuka Ju-87 Dive Bombers protected by 2,000 F-18’s.
On the 12th the air raid began with a steady stream of all 1,000 B-52’s and 500 F-18’s. At 1200 the 1,000 bombers let go of their bombs producing the deadliest air attack in the history of mankind.
As the markets were full with thousands of people walking the streets, they were caught unprepared and French anti aircraft guns were few, as they were captured in the Leon debacle.
Thus over 24 million tons of bombs fell all over the city killing and destroying. In one area an old woman held her grandchild, a girl of 2, as a bomb hit a nearby building. The shrapnel pierced the woman’s head and another piece hit in the babies stomach, sending guts flying. A French soldier, manning a machine gun, was hit by three bombs and his remains were only a tattered arm and pieces of flesh littering the streets.
The markets were main targets and hundreds of people died with each bomb. In one place a man raised the Spanish flag, but it was too late, a bomb fell on him killing over 200 people crammed onto the streets of the city.
By the end of the ordeal it is estimated that some 120,000 people died in just 20 minutes. But it wasn’t over yet. The A-10’s escorted by the remainder of the F-18’s struck fast on the village. Behind them came the Stukas at full speed diving to 5,000 feet as cluster bombs and an assortment of missiles crashed into the area.
The air attack lasted some 4 hours and at the end of the 4 hours the 1,000 bombers reappeared hitting the city one last time.
As the raid finished off 2,000 eager troops rushed into the city expecting happy Spaniards to greet them. Instead they saw hell. Men were crying with no arms or half a head. French were rear but Spaniards were littering dead on the streets. By July 13 Finegold’s men had cleaned up an estimated 270,000 people, leaving only 30,000 alive, half of which were severely wounded.
The attack greatly demised Finegold’s reputation for being a hero and it was a black day in the war’s history. To this day it is a black record on Finegold’s resume.