It is 19 December, 1941. Eight days ago Hitler declared war on the United States, honoring the pact Nazi Germany had with Imperial Japan. Never mind that the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequent attacks on Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, and British Malaya were acts of aggression, and that the pact called for Nazi Germany to assist Japan only if Japan were attacked by another power. Never mind that the Wehrmacht drive on Moscow had been halted on the same day of the Pearl Harbor attack, and that a brutally cold winter had set in on the German troops now fighting on the Eastern Front. War with the United States was now a reality, and the German General Staff had to come up with plans to deal with the United States as a hostile power rather than as a neutral country that provided Lend-Lease assistance to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.
German General Staff officers looked at the globe, and on the Eastern Front they saw the first withdrawal of German troops since Hitler came to power in 1933. In North Africa they saw success under Rommel, the new commander, who took over a disaster from the Italians in the spring of 1941, and who now had the British hemmed up in Egypt, guarding the vital Suez Canal. Even with Rommel’s success in North Africa, the Mediterranean theater remained problematic. The British strongholds of Gibraltar and Malta provided means for the Royal Navy and Air Force to harass German shipping, and despite relentless Luftwaffe bombing, Malta remained a thorn in the side of the German General Staff. The Suez Canal provided the British with a means to bring supplies from British ruled India to their forces in Egypt, making Rommel’s assault and eventual conquest of the British forces in North Africa rather difficult, even with his current siege operations against the British forces at Tobruk.
Just after Japan launched its attack on Pearl Harbor and the British forces in the Pacific, Captain Kuroshima of the Imperial Japanese Naval Staff submitted a two page draft operation order to Fleet Admiral Yamamoto. The op-ord proposed that the Japanese send its six aircraft carrier fleet into the Indian Ocean to drive the Royal Navy out of the waters surrounding India, the British Empire’s jewel in the crown. Once the Royal Navy was driven to East Africa, the Japanese were to coordinate future operations with Rommel, so that as he drove the British eastward from Tobruk, the Imperial Japanese fleet would press westward from the Indian Ocean to seize the Suez Canal.
The German General Staff received Kuroshima’s draft operation order on or about 12 December, one day after Germany declared war on the United States. 12 December was also the day that Operation Drumbeat, the unrestricted U-boat campaign against US shipping and warships, began. Now that the United States was a hostile power, the German navy could sink American merchant ships, which were vital to supplying the beleaguered United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. A coordinated assault against the Suez Canal, combined with the U-Boat campaign against American shipping and a German conquest of Gibraltar and Malta could force the United Kingdom to reach a separate peace with Nazi Germany. If the United Kingdom dropped out of the war, the Wehrmacht could then concentrate its fury on the Soviet Union. Additionally, if the United Kingdom could be compelled to sue for peace, the Royal Air Force would no longer bomb German cities and factories.
Kuroshima’s paper was given serious consideration at German General Staff headquarters, and this study led to the draft of Fuhrer Order 39, which called for a holding action on the Eastern Front, and the removal of 50 German divisions from that theater so that those forces could be used to assault Gibraltar and Malta. Once those British holdings were conquered, the German forces would join Rommel, who would coordinate his drive on British Egypt with the Japanese drive on the Suez Canal. Upon successful completion of these operations, Germany would approach the United Kingdom with an offer of peace.
The draft of Fuhrer Order 39 was submitted to Hitler on or about 15 December, 1941. Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, commander of the German Army, and General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff, thought that Fuhrer Order 39 was a reasonable proposal, and that the actions could result in turning the tide of war in Nazi Germany’s favor. Unfortunately for both men, they failed to understand the mind of Adolf Hitler.
On 19 December, 1941, Hitler summoned von Brauchitsch and Halder to a midnight meeting. When both men arrived, Hitler was holding a draft of Fuhrer Order 39, which he flung at the feet of Field Marshal von Brauchitsch. He then proceeded to ream out both men for presenting such drivel to him. When von Brauchitsch tried to reason with Hitler, stating the obvious facts about the Eastern Front and the need for a strategic withdrawal in order to facilitate an offensive in the spring, Hitler erupted into one of his titanic rages. He screamed at von Brauchitsch that, “there will be no withdrawal from the Eastern Front! Every German soldier will dig in and hold his position until he dies!” After additional verbal assaults, Hitler fired von Brauchitsch on the spot and stated that as of that moment, he, Adolf Hitler, was now commander in chief of the German Army, in addition to being Fuhrer. He then dismissed both men, glaring at Halder, since Hitler knew that the German General staff was responsible for the draft operational order.
What if Hitler had allowed the General Staff to execute Fuhrer Order 39 ?
This is one of the more fascinating “what if” scenarios of the Second World War. On 19 December, 1941, Nazi Germany controlled territory from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, and from Europe’s Atlantic coast to a line just outside of Moscow. The Royal Air Force bombing campaign against Germany was in its infancy. The United States was in no way able to do anything against German forces at this time. A coordinated successful German/Japanese assault on British forces in the Med and the Indian Ocean could have produced a serious discussion in London about ending British participation in the war. While Prime Minister Churchill would never surrender, the conquest of Gibraltar, Malta, and the Suez Canal might have resulted in his removal from office. A new prime minister and cabinet could negotiate a settlement, freeing the United Kingdom from the threat of invasion and subjugation, which had happened to France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Poland.
Even had Hitler agreed to Fuhrer Order 39, the outcome might not have gone entirely in Germany’s favor. Conquering Malta would have required a simultaneous airborne and amphibious assault, and the Wehrmacht had a bitter taste in its mouth from Operation Mercury, the airborne assault and conquest of the island of Crete in May/June of 1941. Even though Crete was ultimately subdued, the losses in airborne troops had appalled the German General Staff and Hitler, who forbade any further large scale airborne operations. Amphibious assault was a weakness for the Wehrmacht, a weakness which became glaringly evident in September of 1940, when the Luftwaffe failed to achieve air superiority over the United Kingdom, an ironclad requirement for the success of an amphibious invasion. Some sort of amphibious invasion would have been required for Gibraltar, since Spain might not look too kindly on letting Wehrmacht divisions cross its territory to assault this British fortress from the north. While General Franco, the Fascist dictator of Spain, was an admirer of Hitler, he wasn’t stupid. Although he had sent two divisions of Spanish troops to assist Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Spain was officially neutral. Allowing German troops to use Spain as a springboard for the invasion of Gibraltar would make Spain a target for Royal Air Force and American bombers. Franco also probably realized that letting German troops into his country wouldn’t be a temporary thing, and it might result in the German conquest of Spain. After all, Franco had watched what happened to Czechoslovakia and Austria in 1938.
The Japanese also faced similar daunting realities. Granted, their aircraft carrier task force had proven itself in the assault on Pearl Harbor, and planes from a Japanese carrier had destroyed the Royal Navy battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse off the coast of Singapore on 10 December, 1941. Coordinating an assault on the Suez Canal would have been a bit more difficult, as it would have required a large Japanese force to remain in place until a peace settlement could be worked out with the United Kingdom. If the United States were able to mount an offensive against Japanese forces in the Pacific during that time, Japan would be compelled to withdraw from the Suez, leaving Germany alone in the Middle East.
Fuhrer Order 39 was never implemented, but in April of 1942 the Japanese did send a 6 carrier task force into the Indian Ocean on a raid against the British. Japanese carrier planes bombed Ceylon, ports in India, and destroyed three Royal Navy cruisers, five Royal Navy destroyers, and a Royal Navy aircraft carrier. Admiral Nagumo, commander of the task force was pressing the British westward towards British East Africa, when he received an urgent dispatch to bring his task force home immediately. The reason for the urgent recall order? An American bombing raid on Tokyo from B-17’s launched from American aircraft carriers.