Col Richard Kemp and John Weigold have been investigating
Alderney, Channel Islands and found several previously unrecognised V1 launch
sites. The key factor to me is the tunnel configuration is similar to those in
mainland Europe. The conclusion of the two historians is that the launch sites
were almost ready and using nerve gas they could have fired at Plymouth and
Weymouth. They conclude this would have thrown the Allied invasion plans into
chaos, D Day would not have happened on the 6th June 1944 and the whole course
of WWII would have been drastically altered.
What does wargaming add to this analysis?
If a V1 had launched from the Channel Islands, the islands
would have been subject to bombardment by sea and air. Based on my WWII bomber
command games, I know that targets were selected in the morning for the night
time raids. So it would take 10 hours to direct England’s heavy bombers to the
new target. Based on my naval games I also know that heavy cruisers with 8 inch
guns were available the RN Channel flotilla. They could get up steam in a few
hours and they could fire from 17 miles away. It would take 24 hours to get
battleships into position to hit the islands.
Alderney is approximately 100 km south of the English coast,
so in 1944 the Allies would have achieved air superiority over the islands
within hours. This would allow daylight bombing raids and daylight ship to
shore bombardment.
The conclusion is the island of Alderney would have been
destroyed within a few days and the threat of V1 rockets with Sarin from them
would have been ended.
Wargaming experience also allows the history to be explored
further. If the Germans used Sarin, they would fire it from as many of their V1
sites as the German chemical industry could supply. How would the Allies
retaliate? Having explored this in a very dark committee game of the English
War Cabinet in 1944 I would say Anthrax. The Allies would have dropped Anthrax
on cities and random agricultural areas. This would have been likely to have
created a panic such as the world has not seen in modern history. It would have
ended the war in Europe quite suddenly.
To understand military/ political history requires, reading,
lectures (for the stuff no yet published), seminars (to discuss the reading/
lectures) and I would also add wargaming to the list. Having sport with ideas
is the way to wisdom and serious historical wargames are certainly having sport
with ideas.
