Second Front (Kirov Series Book 24)

by John Schettler

  The next train coming up from the Safi area was carrying more of Kubler’s troops. It found the rail line cut and torn to pieces about 20 kilometers south of the vital junction to that rail spur east into the mountains. An enterprising mobile AA unit had broken off from Patton’s extreme right flank, ordered to scout south for any sign of an enemy buildup. The Lieutenant in charge saw that rail line and had the presence of mind to tear it up. So the Germans had to literally backtrack to the rail bridge over the river flowing down from Massira lake, detrain there, and then begin moving by road into the long valley that stretched east in the shadow of those highlands.

  As for the Luftland Division, part of one regiment was with Kubler and some were following the valley route, but at least five battalions were still stranded on the coast. They were ordered to concentrate at Agadair, where the Luftwaffe assembled as many air transports as possible under heavy fighter cover. From there they would fly over the Atlas mountains to Ifrane Airfield south of Fez.

  At the same time, German air power that had been concentrated in the south began leap-frogging from one airfield to another, always north towards Marrakech and Fez. The fighters concentrated on keeping that vital air corridor open, the Stukas, Do-17s and JU-88s did all they could to harass enemy movement on the ground. While Allied air power was now about 35% stronger than German assets in theater, it was spread out from Lisbon to Safi, and so this concentration of Luftwaffe forces around Marrakech gave them a local superiority to protect the troops flying north.

  As Student had feared, Hitler was eventually informed of these moves, and his reaction was a predictable explosion at OKW. In one brief week he was seeing a position his troops had striven to secure for months collapse. To soften the blow, he was told the Canaries were secure, and that Kesselring’s movement of troops north was entirely aimed at cutting off the Allied move toward Tangier. The first was a lie, for the only thing preventing 110 Force on Tenerife from launching an immediate assault on Gran Canaria was the lack of shipping required. The second line might hold true, depending on how many men Kesselring could get north, and how fast they could get there.

  It was then that more bad news arrived. The British had pulled off yet another amphibious landing north of Cadiz, directly on Spanish territory. Hube’s 16th Panzer Division had held his line on the Portuguese frontier for the last week near Villa Real. The British 6th Armored division could not move him, for ‘Der Mench’ was implacable on defense when so minded. But Montgomery then brought up two brigades from 3rd Division, and all the tanks he could get from 33rd and 34th Armored Brigades. He concentrated them at Minas Sao Domingos, a mining region about 45 kilometers north of the coast, and pushed hard.

  At the same time, the British threw in their last remaining reserve, the 11th Brigade from 78th Infantry Division. It had been destined to reinforce its brothers on Tenerife, but was held in the Azores as a local reserve for TORCH. There were excellent beaches south of the small Spanish port of Huelva, though they had been eliminated from the planning due to their proximity to German air power at Gibraltar and the fact that there were heavy marshes inland to the east. It was thought than any force landing there would be easily bottled up, and could not move east to Sevilla or south to Cadiz. But suddenly, these same liabilities became assets.

  “Look here,” said Monty. “We’ve enough air power here to cover a small brigade scale landing operation. And that marshland acts as a shield to protect the right flank of anything we put there. Those troops can land, take Huelva, and cut the 16th Panzer Division off at the roots. At the same time, we’ll make our big push further north.” He illustrated with both arms, forming a pincer movement. “They’ll either have to withdraw from Villa Real, or we’ll have them in a nice little pocket.”

  Monty’s plan would work. Hube’s division, facing a full armored division reinforced by three more brigades, could not also cover Huelva and contain that landing. ‘Der Mench’ had no choice but to withdraw, his men hard pressed and weary from almost continuous fighting. Montgomery had tapped that panzer division as the one force in Spain he had to meet and defeat, and he was applying a strategy that would serve him well throughout the war, steady, relentless attrition. He had thinned out his lines to the north along the frontier to achieve this concentration of force, and it worked.

  Still wearing his desert beret, he grinned when he got the news that the Germans had pulled out of Villa Real. “Has Patton taken Casablanca yet?” he asked.

  “No sir, but he has the city cut off and surrounded now. It’s only a matter of time.”

  “Good. Then we’ll use that time to get to Gibraltar first!”

  * * *

  On the 22nd of September, V Battalion, 7th Flieger, was the first German unit from the south to reach Fez. Smiling Albert Kesselring came out to shake hands with the Colonel in charge, then told him his journey was not yet over. He wanted him on the next train west through Meknes, then north towards the coast to bolster the French position north of Port Lyautey. It was there that most of Le Division De Fez had concentrated to prevent an Allied breakout towards Tangier. The Americans took the port on D+1, but could go no further.

  I/16 and I/65th Luftland would be the next units arriving from Irfane airfield to the south, then III/7th Flieger, a slow but steady stream of German troops finally starting to arrive at Fez. They had made a most remarkable journey, coming all the way from Fuerteventura by sea, road, rail, and plane. Now they seemed like the 300 Spartans, few in number, but among the toughest troops in the Army as Kesselring knew them. The first of Kubler’s mountain regiment, the 98th Recon Battalion, would be another two or three days on the mountain roads getting north, but as the rest of these troops arrived, they would constitute a most capable force to defend Tangier, or to bar the way east through Fez to Algeria.

  Another regiment would be air lifted from Agadair on the coast to Ifrane that day, leaving only one more regiment waiting for the transports to return at Agadair. Kesselring was going to pull off one of the most spectacular strategic withdraws of the war, a logistical miracle to get those troops to Fez, and the fate of this campaign, at least in French North Africa, would rest on their shoulders when they arrived.

  The Americans were ashore in force, and the fall of Casablanca was inevitable now. When B Company, 105th Flak finally wandered down from the north to scout the road to Safi, General Martin lost his nerve. Had the Americans broke through up there? How many men were in this scouting detachment? He had watched Student withdraw, saw those Allied destroyers pounding his men day after day, and decided he would be much more comfortable in Marrakech than at Safi. His division began withdrawing that same day.

  So B Company would be the single unit to eventually answer the pleas of the beleaguered Safi raiding force, relieving that position on September 23rd. A grinning Sergeant rode in on a jeep, then scowled at the first US soldier he came upon. “You fellows were supposed to be at El Jadida up north five days ago!” Then he went back to that grin, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a cigar.

  * * *

  All these withdrawals frustrated Hitler to no end, prompting him to issue the strongest possible order than no further moves of this nature be made without his expressed permission. They also had one other effect, one intended by Allied planners from the very first moment they hatched this plan. Enraged, Hitler was going to pull units out of Russia and send them west.

  6th and 7th Panzer Divisions were already rehabilitating, and they would soon get fresh equipment and orders to move to southern France immediately. The 7th, in particular, was part of an impending operation that augured big changes on the near horizon—Case Anton and Operation Lila. When the Führer was told it would take another week to do this, he exploded again.

  “I have conquered all of France, Denmark, Norway, occupied Spain, taken Moscow, and even now my troops are pushing for the Volga, and you tell me we cannot move two panzer divisions? Get out! Get out!” He pointed with a stiff arm. “If those divisions are not at
Toulon in 72 hours, I will have you shot!”

  At that moment, in walked Himmler, his eyes narrowed and seeking to curry favor with the Führer while seeming to be a godsend.

  “My Führer, I can send a full heavy armored brigade anywhere you need it in Spain in 24 hours.”

  Hitler turned. “An armored brigade?”

  Himmler opened his brief, and laid out the diagram chart detailing the order of battle for SS Brigade Charlemagne. “It is already in France, fully assembled, and I have arranged all the rolling stock needed. My Führer, it is only a matter of punching their tickets and sending them on their way.”

  Astounded and pleased that Himmler could produce such a unit, seemingly from thin air, Hitler finally smiled. “You see?” he said, his eyes steely hard on all the other OKW officers at the map table. “The Army was stopped after Moscow, but not Steiner’s SS Korps. He will take Volgograd for me. Yes? And now look here, Himmler has out generaled the lot of you!”

  * * *

  It was 3 Company, 67th Armored that finally bulled its way into the heart of Casablanca. They had 44 Shermans and supporting SPGs, backed up by a battalion of engineers as they fought their way past the cement works and old Shell Oil Depot, eventually reaching the Railway Sidings just west of the lighthouse on the coast. Most of the remaining French resistance was in the old city warrens, called Ancienne Medina. Patton had a mind to give them another sound naval bombardment, but he realized that these men might be turned into Allies if given better treatment. So on the morning of the 24th, he contacted the French by telephone, speaking directly to Admiral Michelier, who had holed up in the Palace de France near the main port.

  “Admiral,” he said. “Your men have fought bravely, and done all that honor demanded. But the American Army is now ashore in force, and you are outnumbered by more than five to one. The United States has been your friend since the first Doughboys landed in France in the last war. This conflict is regrettable, and I see no reason for further bloodshed here. You and I have enough letters to write home as it stands. Lay down your arms and you, and all your men, will be given fair treatment. Any that wish to fight on for France may do so by joining us! Any who would wish to oppose us further will meet their fate and be interred.”

  “Mon General,” said Michelier, “you have offered fair an d generous terms. Let me consider what you have said, and contact my superiors.”

  Patton pushed a little more. “Admiral, yours has been the hardest lot in this war, with foes made of friends, and a long road yet ahead before France is free of foreign occupation again. Your superiors are likely German Generals, but now hear this. I give you my word—I’m going to kick what’s left of the German Army out of French North Africa, liberate all of Morocco, and then I’m going to do the same for Algeria and Tunisia. You can either ride with me, or start writing your memoirs in a prison camp, and face trial by your countrymen for betraying France when I liberate Paris. Now, what’s it going to be?”

  Admiral Michelier was a proud man, but he knew further resistance would serve nothing but a misplaced loyalty to Hitler and Nazi Germany. Patton’s remark about his superiors being German Generals stung him. He had already learned of General Martin’s withdrawal to Marrakech, and he knew the Fez Division would not hold in the north long either. Discretion was now the better part of valor, and he accepted Patton’s terms at noon on the 24th of September, 1942—eleven weeks before the French had capitulated in the old history.

  Upon hearing this, Patton invited the Admiral, and General Nogues to his headquarters, whereupon he produced a bottle of fine champagne. He would one day write: ‘I also gave them a guard of honor—no use kicking a man when he’s down.’ Then he went to visit the Sultan of Morocco. Along the way he noted what excellent tank country Morocco offered, though it was frequently broken by small walled settlements that might make good infantry strongpoints.

  Nothing a good 105mm can’t handle, he thought. Yes, we’ll do quite well here in Morocco, and I haven’t even begun to show the French what the American Army can do.

  The Americans finally had Casablanca, and Admiral Raeder would never see it again. They were ahead of schedule in that, but there was still a long way to go. The British action in Portugal and Spain was entirely new, and as yet undecided. Now it would come to the battle for Tangier, as Patton and Eisenhower turned their thoughts towards Gibraltar.

  Chapter 24

  The news of the fall of Casablanca was not a surprise when it came to Kesselring. He was already busy sorting out the troops arriving from the south at Fez, and seeing to the provision of a garrison for the Island outposts Germany still controlled. Gran Canaria had the Pioneer Battalion from Kubler’s 98th Mountain Regiment, I/16 Battalion of the 22nd Luftland, which had been unable to get off by air and was then ordered to stay where it was. The 65th MG company from that same division and two light flak companies rounded out that garrison.

  Fuerteventura had only the 47th MG Company at Puerto Rosario, a flak company at the southern port of Gran Tarahal, and a platoon guarding the shore battery the Germans had set up in the north to cover the Bocaina Strait. The last island, Lanzarote, was to be held by a the 22nd Pioneer Battalion from the Luftland Division. That was it, a force composed of about a single regiment to hold the prizes that it had taken two divisions to seize from the British. How long they would keep them remained to be seen.

  The entire coast of Morocco south of Safi was still nominally German controlled but held only by a few rear area service battalions. All the air power had been shifting north, hopping first to the airfields around Marrakech, and them moving on to fields near Fez. All that was left of 327th Infantry Division was still strung out on the roads south of Fez, and there were still eight battalions, a mixed force of Kubler’s regiment and the Luftland Division, much further south. They would have a 250 mile road march ahead of them, so it would be days before the withdrawal would be complete.

  In the meantime, Kesselring continued to sent elements of the 7th Flieger west on the rail line from Fez to the front north of Port Lyautey. From that point, the Division de Fez and Division de Mekenes held the line south and east, but the 7th Regiment of the American 9th Infantry Division had come up from Casablanca, cleared the road to Mekenes, and were threatening a move in that direction. Kesselring sent whatever he had in hand to Mekenes, 1/65 Luftland Battalion, three companies of the 22nd Recon Battalion from that same division, and the recon battalion arriving from 98th Mountain Regiment. It had the best transport and was the only unit of that Regiment to get up north quickly.

  The General’s plan was a simple one. He wanted to cover and hold Fez for as long as possible, at least until those remaining troops arrived from the south. Then, if pressed hard, or should the French Divisions fold, he saw that the terrain still favored a good defense of Tangier. He would have to split his force, with one group falling back on Tangier and Ceuta. If he fell back in that direction, his lines would compress with each withdrawal, allowing him to hold while still extracting troops from the line to a port like Ceuta where they could be evacuated to Spain, or go by sea further east to Oran. The second group would then conduct a delaying withdrawal from Fez to Oran. He did not expect to receive any further troops from Germany, and this was his plan—assuming the Führer would permit such withdrawals.

  That is doubtful, he thought. I will be lucky to keep my head for pulling the bulk of our forces out of the Canaries, but without them in hand, the Allies would sweep over Morocco to Oran unchallenged. Surely OKW doesn’t think the French will hold them. So if I am ordered to fight for Morocco, Fez will have to be held. The only problem is that the Atlantic coast from the present Allied position near Rabat and Tangier is completely exposed. There are places there where they Allies could outflank the defense near the coast, which will also be hammered by their naval power.

  To counter that, I will have to find some way of covering that coastline, and then use the Luftwaffe to attack their navy. It will be a nice little battle, and bef
ore it ends we will see how good these Americans really are. And if the British take Gibraltar behind me, that will be the end of it here in Morocco. I’ll move to Algeria, whether the Führer permits it or not.

  Now then… What help can I expect? I am told that Rommel has been ordered to send one of his panzer divisions to Tunis, and a number of ad-hoc units are being sent over from Italy. Koch will lead the best of them, good Luftwaffe men that have been assembling to create another Flieger Division. And his highness Hermann Goering is also detaching his personal division to assist us. They are calling the whole lot the 5th Panzer Army, and I am now to command the entire theater west of Tunis. I will need a good man to assist this effort—Nehring. Yes, he fought well with Guderian in France, and Rommel also speaks highly of him.

  Yet all these detachments from the Afrika Korps will pretty much put an end to Rommel’s dream of ever driving east again. The only way he will ever see Alexandria is as a prisoner of war. It is still incredible to think the British have, beaten us there, and now they are at it again here! Hube is falling back from the Portuguese border and setting up his defense near Seville. This Montgomery hasn’t an ounce of dash or daring in him, but he certainly has a way of wearing down the defense.

  As for the newcomers, these Americans have yet to be tested. They pushed the French out of Casablanca, and I have no doubt that they will soon take Marrakech as well. Now, due to my timely redeployments, we will have enough here in Fez soon to put some metal in what remains of the French forces here. Yet I must seriously question how long the French will fight. What if they were to capitulate, or worse, go over to the enemy cause? I don’t have the time or troops to go about disarming them, so the political situation is very shaky now. Both Spain and France are on quicksand. Plans are well laid to deal with this, and things are about to happen soon that will redefine this entire theater.