July 1940

in Zero Point Achtung Cthulhu

Timeline Three: July 1940

July 12th The Luftwaffe begins a five day Blitz on RAF airfields and radar stations. On the 2^nd day July 13^th, “Day of the Eagle” the RAF suffers very heavy losses, mostly on the ground.

July 14th The Luftwaffe bombs Portand, Andover and Southampton.

July 17th The RAF is forced to strip Bomber Command of pilots in an effort to fill its dwindling supply of fighter capable Pilots.

July 18^th Luftwaffe’s Black Thursday: the loss of 74 Aircraft coming across the North Sea from Denmark and Norway due to “Weird Circumstances”. Disturbed by these losses Hitler delays his final decision to launch operation Sea Lion to the 26^th of July.

July 19th The Underestimating overall RAF fighter strength, Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering changes offensive tactics and orders his fighters to tempt RAF Fighters to duke it out in the skies as opposed to bombing them on the ground. The RAF shot down 3 planes for every 2 the Luftwaffe gets.

July 20^th & 21^st  The Luftwaffe resumes bombing air fields. The RAF loses 200 fighters. 200 The Luftwaffe losses 330 planes (a mix of bombers and fighters), but despite the heavy losses the Germans have virtually destroyed the RAF Fighter command. The Luftwaffe now has air superiority over the channel. Hitler makes the final decision to launch Sea Lion on July 22^nd.

Act Three: Sea Lion

Scene One:  The Missing Lord Monday July 22^nd 1940

        1A. Getting to London.

The Section M team had to to pitch a tent on the bombed out estate for the night to get some much needed sleep. They decide to head to Canterbury in the morning. Early in the morning the Military radio on the truck announces that the Germans have started dropping paratroopers in various places in south eastern Britain. The German invasion of Britain: operation Sea Lion had begun. The Team decides to head to London whichis  just 25 miles to the northwest. The guards reported that his Lordship Major Alexander Viscount Towton; the leader of Section M and the other surviving Section M scientists and operatives went to Canterbury is about 40 miles to the north east. Towton left a coded message for the team to rendezvous at Beaney House Museum in Canterbury.  The team decides that getting Churchill to London is more important.

Normally the drive to London is about an hour, but the roads are choked with people fleeing.

Only 10 minutes after leaving Eden Bridge for London, their truck is attacked by Luftwaffe Ju 87 Stukas. The team survives the attack and presses on only to to be engaged in a firefight at road block set up by German Fallschirmjägers (German para troops). The team loses the truck and the two guards from Clemens Park Estate BUT escape alive.

1B. Battle at the farm. 9am Monday July 22^nd 1940

The Section M team come out of the woods near a small farm. They are meet by 3 very scared farmers. The Team explains they are here on the part of the government and need a Car/truck/horse to get into London. They FAIL there negotiation rolls. Commander McTaggart is shot by a farmer with a rock salt filled shot gun. McTaggart then gets up and shots the farmer in the head. The rest of the farmers run for cover in a nearby house. A German Motorcycle Scout platoon is having breakfast at a nearby crossroads hear the gun shots and mount up and drive over to investigate. The German trops capture the Section M team save Doctor Jong who escapes on a horse.  

1C. Canterbury

The Section M team is taken to Canterbury, which the Germans are firmly in control of.

The team is taken to Canterbury Castle which is occupied by a company of German Fallschirmjägers and a German SS Ahnenerbe Black Sun Walking Tank unit. They have opened a "GATE" and are bringing in more SS troops by the hour.

SS Uberfruher Eva Falstaff takes possession of Churchill’s Brain, and the Color from Space, then orders the team to be shot. The  German Fallschirmjäger Commander doesn’t seem to like the SS in general and Eva in particular so as soon as he has the team outside of Canterbury Castle, instead of shooting the team he sends them to the Prisoner of War camp the Germans have set up at the Canterbury race track.

Mean while Dr Jong has made it to Canterbury on his horse and finds it crawling with German Fallschirmjägers and SS troops. He waits till darkness to enter the center of the city. Then climbs through the rubble to reach Beaney House.

1D. 3am Tuesday July 23^rd 1940

Under cover of darkness the captured team members escape the make shift camp at the Canterbury race track and head to Beaney House; the last known location of Major Alexander Viscount Towton and the surviving scientists from Clemens Park.

Most of the interior of the city is one big swath of rubble, having been bombed hard by the Luftwaffe on Saturday night along with Clemens Park. To the teams delight   Beaney House was spared in the bombing. It is strangely un-touched… and quiet.

At 3am in the morning the team is re-united in the Beaney House museum lobby.

Scene Two:  Canterbury Chores

2A. Canterbury Tuesday July 23^rd to Wednesday July 24^th

The Section M team searches for Lordship Major Alexander Viscount Towton; the leader of Section M. Beany house seems to have been systematically looted of all its “Occult Treasures” and is empty of people. The team expand their search to the rest of Central Canterbury dodging the German patrols.  The Priests in the rubble of the Canterbury Cathedral  tell the team they need to find the Princess; Princess Elizabeth was visiting Canterbury this past weekend and is now missing.

They find Towton in Dreamlands/Narnia. He gives them instructions

“They need to retrieve Princess Elizabeth from the St. Augustine’s Abbey and bring her to Narnia. Then they must move the Wardrobe to London. Collect some books from the Government Bunkers and then head north to the Naval Base at Scapa Flow. Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord will know what to do.” for Princess Elizabeth at St. Augustine’s Abbey.

2B. Beaney House Thursday July 25^th

The team Searches Beaney house again for clues and this time find a secret entrance to an attic room. The room contains a desk, cot and wardrobe.

The Wardrobe has a Dimension door to the Dreamlands/Narnia realm.

 They enter into a winter/snowy woodland landscape and meet a “Hobbit” who takes the team to his Hobbit Hole where Towton has been hiding. Towton tells the team that he set the rest of the Clemens Park survivors to London while he stayed behind to save the Occult treasures here at Beaney house. He was about half way done when the SS  troops showed up and he Feld into the Wardrobe.

 The team in turn tell him of their capture and the loss of PM Winston Churchill’s Brain and the Color from Space to their nemesis SS Uberfruher Eva Falstaff.

He gives them instructions

“They need to find the  Princess Elizabeth and bring her to Narnia.”

“They most retrieve Churchill and the Color from Space from the Ahnenerbe.”

“Then they must move the Wardrobe to London. Collect some books from the Government Bunkers and then head north to the Naval Base at Scapa Flow. Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord will know what to do.”

        2C. Canterbury to London Friday July 26^th to Saturday July 27^th

The team works out a scheme to get into Canterbury Castle. It involves acquiring a junior SS officer uniform, and using an abandoned tailor shop to make a rough copy of a Japanese army Colonel’s uniform. They take a Rolls Royce Herse they found and use it as a Trojan horse to get into the Castle.

It works, they retrieve Churchill and the Color from Space just into time before the last RAF Bomber commander night raid: the bombing of Canterbury Castle.

While there they discover that the Germans don’t have the Princess…yet. Princess Elizabeth at St. Augustine’s Abbey across town.

The team beats the Germans to the Princess and escape north. They cross into British controlled territory with the help of Major General Montgomery and the 18^th Australian Inf Brigade. Early Saturday morning.

 Scene Three:  London is Burning

        3A. London in Chaos Sunday Morning July 28^th

The team reaches London. There is quite a lot of commotion in the Streets. Workmen at the Parliament are hanging new flags on its walls: The British Union of Fascist flag.

3B. the Government Bunkers

There they meet up with Tabitha Wright; Mi6/OSS/Delta Green liaison who needs the teams help moving their store of books north to Scapa Flow.

They finally are able to catch up on the News which they have mostly missed over the past week. What a Week.

With Winston Churchill missing and presumed dead. The Queen dead and the King and the Princess missing. A large naval battle in the Channel lost due to the Luftwaffe air superiority on Tuesday. Lord Halifax declared himself prime-minister Wednesday after the Churchill government collapsed.

Halifax then ordered Lord Oswald Mosley; the leader of the British Union of fascists, freed from prison and asked him to begin a cease fire negotiation with the Germans.

The team learns of that a Cease fire goes into effect at 8pm.   

       3C. London to Scapa Flow Monday 20:00 July 29^th  to Sunday August 4^th 1940

The team heads north under the cover of the cease fire to the Naval Base at Scapa Flow. There they meet Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord of the British Navy. Against orders from London he is preparing an evacuation convoy to Canada. In an operation much like the failed one at Dunkirk, the evacuation is a success. Unlike Dunkirk, Scapa Flow is a deep water port. Also the German Luftwaffe and the German army is so delayed south by miss information and confusion among the new BUF  government in London that by the time the Fleet sails Sunday August 4^th Pound is able get the entire force of 200,000 remaining loyal troops out hours before the first German Army scout units even arrive. The Luftwaffe makes an attempt to attack the Flow, but it was so depleted by the Channel battle a week earlier that had neither the planes nor the material to do much damage to the escaping fleet on August 4^th.