Rommel’s own grand vision was gone, of sweeping through the shattered Americans and enveloping Montgomery on the coast. Yet even now, through the anger, resentment and gloom that clouded his mind, he was seeing smaller victories; places where he could fight and hurt his enemy. Everyone expected a quick knockout in the early rounds, he thought. This will be a very long fight.
So I will tease him at Thelepte, fight him at Kasserine again, and I must certainly hold Sbeitla as a supply hub. It has good roads leading everywhere. After that, the next line of defense will be El Guettar, the passes at Maknassy, and Faid. Yet I cannot simply fight my own private war here. There is a lot of open ground to the north of Kasserine. That is where this Patton wanted to go in the beginning—through Charpinville and the broad valley north of Thala—a good place for an armored duel. The rail runs from there all the way to Tunis, and they will need that.
Von Arnim certainly can’t hold that ground with two mobile divisions. Once again, the lack of infantry here is appalling. I shall probably have to send the 334th Division further north to make contact with the Aristocrat. Eventually von Bismarck must go there and help fill that enormous gap in the center. Kesselring is correct—time to dance. They may think they have stopped me, but I am not finished here yet.
I have already let my Führer down—broken too many promises. The doctors have been after me to rest, and how I feel the need. He stared out the view slit at the silent hulks of those Tigers, grim and grey in the rain. Then he closed his eyes….
That same hour he issued orders to suspend offensive operations against Tebessa, and prepare for a rapid redeployment to the east and south. A barrage of artillery would cover the withdrawal, and Kesselring made sure that his Luftwaffe units were up in force to swoop on any Allied advance.
Part IV
Victoria Park
“ Nothing is so painful to the human mind
as a great and sudden change.”
— Marry Shelley, Frankenstein
Chapter 10
Operation Phoenix was proceeding exactly according to plan. As German intelligence had estimated, the British did not have sufficient reserves in that theater to prevent the more than significant incursion made by Guderian’s fast moving troops. The Brandenburg Division, strengthened to five fast motorized infantry regiments, was simply outstanding in its performance. They would have made Rommel himself proud, for in four days they had moved all the way across Syria to the Iraqi border, a distance of some 300 miles, taking Aleppo, Ar Raqqah and Dier-ez-Zour in the process.
To put that into perspective, it was equivalent to Rommel’s breathtaking opening advance in Operation Sonnenblume when he moved from the vicinity of Mersa Brega across the whole of Cyrenaica to Tobruk, also 300 miles. Yet the distance achieved by Operation Sturmflut over the same time period, though it involved much more combat, was only a penetration of the Allied lines no deeper than 50 miles.
Now all five regiments of the division were east of the Euphrates and piling into the hastily assembled defensive front composed of 10th and 5th Indian Infantry Divisions. This was the most substantial resistance the division had encountered to date. They easily chased the Free French Division from Ar Raqqah, though to the credit of those troops, they fought a hold and run delaying action for nearly 200 miles as they retreated south. Now that division was finished as a cohesive fighting unit, and the Germans were simply bypassing the shattered remnants of the force, sweeping forward to get at the more organized British Indian front.
5th Indian Division under Briggs had come down from Northern Iraq on the road from Mosul and just crossed over into Syria, about 20 kilometers north of Ar Ramadi on the Euphrates. General Blaxland’s 10th Indian Division was astride the river itself, with 25th Indian Brigade on the western bank blocking the main road south, and 21st Brigade on the east bank, where it had crossed near Al Ashara to try and shore up the flagging Free French Division. Between there and the lines of 5th Indian, there was only the scattered remnant of the French Division, and the desert. The rest of that division had been sent west to try and protect the T2 Pumping station, well facility and airfield.
The Germans move with speed and precision, rolling up to a position in their trucks, sending in fast moving teams on motorcycles to probe the strength of the defense, and only deploying if necessary. When they did deploy for combat, it was a thing of beauty. The hardened veterans leapt from the trucks in their new desert camo uniforms. Within minutes the infantry were getting observers and MG teams forward, establishing their mortar positions, and putting down harassing fire on the enemy. They moved fast, hit hard, and the infantry were relentless as they advanced on any semblance of an enemy defensive front. They would select one spot, saturate it with fire, and the ground teams made fast rushes. The MG 42s were pouring out suppressive fire, and it seemed that within minutes, these dangerously skilled men had closed to firefight range with their enemy.
They had never been stopped.
Now Beckermann had aligned all five regiments abreast, and he was going to throw the full weight of his division on the enemy line. Three battalions of Brigadier Langran’s 9th Indian Brigade, 5th Division, were shattered that hour. Beckerman could only do this because Hitler had taken yet another crack unit, the 22nd Luftland Division, and sent it into Norther Syria to Ar Raqqah. From there it had moved overland to Dier-es-Zour to relieve the Brandenburgers and put pressure on the main road south.
Meanwhile, further west, the 5th British Infantry Division under General Miles had been pushed right out of Palmyra by 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions, and the 4th moved on east towards the T2 Pump Station. Guderian had 3rd Panzer right behind it, and now he was slowly extricating his 10th Motorized Division from its defensive duties, and rolling it east. He could do this as OKW fed one light Mountain Division after another down through Aleppo to Homs by rail.
Soon Kruger’s Corps swelled to include 78th Sturm Division on the coast near Tartus, 6th Mountain from the fortress of Masyaf to Homs, a newly arrived 104th Jaeger Division near Homs itself, the Prinz Eugen SS Mountain Division east of that city, and finally Kübler’s old 1st Mountain right astride the pipeline to T4, moved there to relieve 10th Motorized.
It was in that sector that the Indian 31st Armored and the newly arrived 46th British Infantry under General Freeman, had finally stabilized Wavell’s line—but it was Alexander’s line now. The weary old Wavell was already on a plane to Baghdad to make a brief meeting with Auchinlek on the defense of Iraq, and then he would fly down to the Persian Gulf enroute to his new posting as the Viceroy of India. The Middle East was Alexander’s problem now, and it was getting more and more serious with each passing day.
Churchill himself, fresh from the Casablanca conference, hung on at Alexandria fretting over the situation and sticking his thumb in everyone’s pie. Yet his presence there would also get deep end reserves moving out of the UK and heading for Cape Town, intending to try and reach the key British oil facilities near Basra before the Germans did. As was the case on every front where his armies were now engaged, Churchill knew he needed to send enough to not only stop his enemy, but to then muster the strength to throw him back.
But Heinz Guderian had no intention of stopping until he had achieved what he was sent here to do. He had seen his dismissal from the eastern front as an insult to his career, and now he applied his considerable ability to the task at hand. Here it was no longer the endless white frozen steppes of Russia, but instead the sun dappled desert, terrain that was absolutely ideal for the kind of fast moving battle he was now fighting. His only concern was the ever lengthening supply line behind him, and the inevitable need to cover the front as he extended east.
To this end, and just ten days into his operation, Guderian reported that all initial objectives were in hand on the 18th of January, and requested the release of his designated theater reserve, the 12th Infantry Korps under General Walther Gräßner. Consisting of three divisions, (31st, 34th and 45 Infantry), it would provide him all the forces necessa
ry to hold the ground he had already seized, allowing Hube to continue to push his Panzer Korps into Iraq. Yet it would be a long time before he saw any of those troops, and then only a third of what he hoped to receive. The 31st and 34th Divisions would instead be sent to Syria to defend against an increasing British buildup there, and he would only receive the 45th.
* * *
It was Wavell’s plan, but now it was Alexander’s battle to fight. He was no stranger to war, starting with a platoon in the Irish Guards during the Great war, and working his way up to Company command just in time for the lovely meeting that came to be known as the Battle of the Somme. He later fought at 3rd Ypres and Cambrai, and in this war he was on the last British Destroyer to leave at Dunkirk. Between the wars he studied at the Imperial Defense College, where both Montgomery and Alan Brooke were his instructors, both unimpressed by the man. Yet Alexander would find ways of impressing them in time, and this was his first good chance in this war.
Wavell had arranged to bring the 46th Infantry up on the rail line from Damascus. One line ran up the long central valley though the big aerodrome at Rayak to Homs, but he was using the secondary line that ran northeast of the city, and almost directly towards the T4 Pumping Station. That spur also served the mines near Jebel Lebtar, and was eventually intended to link up at Palmyra as well as T4.
The 46th was a “Mixed” division, with two infantry brigades, the 138th under Brigadier Harding, and the 139th under Brigadier Vickers. It also had the 137th Armored Brigade under Brigadier Peto, with about 160 tanks, mostly American Shermans. Now the wild card that Wavell was so gratified to find in his hand was finally coming up, the unexpected 25th Armored Brigade under Brigadier Maxwell, this unit with mostly Churchills. Those two brigades, along with what was left in the 31st Indian Armored, were going to give Alexander nearly 400 tanks to launch his counteroffensive, a surprise the Germans certainly did not expect.
For sheer numbers, it was an armored force almost twice that of the two Panzer Divisions committed to this theater. All these units had been meant for O’Connor’s 8th Army, which was now going without a lot of tank replacements as it pushed for Mareth, but it was taking time to assemble this force and get things “teed up.”
Monty would have seen that situation as perfectly satisfactory. He never moved on offensive until he was good and ready, a most deliberate and methodical man. The change of command also imposed some confusion, but Alexander was quick to gather the reins in hand and settled in well.
Surveying the field, he was now content that there was no direct threat to central and southern Syria, particularly Damascus, and all of Palestine remained secure. “Jerry doesn’t seem interested in Suez any longer,” he said at his first staff meeting. “He’s run off through Palmyra toward the Euphrates. That won’t do well for the pipeline to Tripoli, and now our forces there must do everything possible to save the Haifa line. Any reports?” He looked at Brigadier Kingstone, who had flown in for the meeting to brief the new commander.
“At the moment, sir, the action seems to be focused around T2, mid-way between Palmyra and the river. But it’s only another 40 klicks to T1, and that is just 18 klicks due north of the H1 station.”
“What about the Indian Divisions?”
“Blaxland has moved his HQ for 10th Indian to Abu Kamal on the river. He’s posted a Brigade at T2, and then my people are covering this flank along the wadi here.” Kingstone traced the position on the map with his weathered brown finger.
“Prospects?”
“Well sir, we’ve no tanks, and only a few AEC-III’s left in the entire force. Jerry is hitting us with a Panzer Division now, and the Brandenburgers move like lightning. We can’t hold where we are. In fact, we’ll be lucky to cover the H1 station and get back to Hadithah.”
“And east of the Euphrates?”
“General Briggs with 5th Indian tried to push across the border and link up with us, but that Brandenburg Division has been too much for them. Jerry’s got between Briggs and Blaxland now, and he’s pushing the last of the French troops south along the river. We’ve had to blow the bridge at Ar Ramadi. It doesn’t look good, sir, and they haven’t even brought up their whole Panzer force from Palmyra yet.”
“I shall make it my business to see that they don’t soon enough, “ said Alexander. “I’m teeing off a big push to take back T4 and Palmyra—Operation Buckthorne. That should do the trick.” He showed Kingstone the forces he was now assembling, and asked him to return and put as much fire into the defense on the Euphrates as he could.
His plan was to re-commit 31st Armored Brigade, posted on the road between T4 and Homs, with orders to strike directly for the Pumping Station. 46th Infantry, assembled around Wadi Ramdah to the southeast, would drive up the secondary road to T4, and the 25th Armored Brigade would attempt to envelop that position on the right. Oddly enough, it would aim for a town called Ain el Beida, the same name given to von Arnim’s opening objective for Operation Sturmflut near the Tunisian/Algerian border. At the same time, he wanted General Miles and his 56thLondon Infantry Division to move north towards Palmyra again, forcing the Germans to defend that front.
25th Armored was taking some time to get in position, and only two of its three battalions had arrived by the 20th of January, yet Alexander was keen to get started. He ordered the attack to begin that day, hoping to compel the Germans to turn and fight a hard battle with him on this flank, and therefore ease the pressure in the Euphrates sector.
The Indian Armored Division had only 38 American Shermans left, and another 24 M3 light tanks, the Honeys, as the British called them. They ran right into the 7th SS PzJag Battalion, which had 12 Pz IIIJ’s, six Pz-IVE infantry support tanks and six Marder II’s. Kübler also had his PzJag battalion there with two dozen Marders and four 88s. That made for a very difficult attack for the Indian Armored, though the 46th was making a little better progress on their right. The Germans held their ground, seeing the high silhouette of the bulky Shermans as easy targets, and they found their Panzers could deal with them easily enough. Firing back, the enemy was getting a few of their lighter skinned Marders, but it was coming down to a question of which side was better skilled in this sort of armored duel, and the Germans had far more experience and training.
Beyond that, some heavy mortars and a Nebelwerfer Battalion had been sent over by the 78th Sturm Division, and added to the artillery from Prinz Eugen and the Korps group, the Indian troops soon found their lines saturated with heavy defensive fire. The dry earth heaved up with the impact of the rounds, and the Shermans trundled through the dust, into the craters. And up the other side to present a nice fat target for those 88s.
31st Indian Armored Division had really only attacked in brigade strength, and it wasn’t going anywhere—but neither was 10th Motorized. Guderian was at Palmyra, taking a brief moment to view the old Roman ruins and temples. He had heard the opening of Alexander’s offensive as a dull roar in the air that morning, but had no reports other than that from the engagement with the Indian Division. Then General Kübler himself came in, the leathery warrior who had fought so much of the war against the British, his men veterans of the first Action in Syria, the fighting in Libya, Canary Islands, Morocco, and Algeria.
“Syria again,” he said, meeting Heinz Guderian for the first time. “Well, I’m sorry to say they have brought up a good deal of armor. That’s a mixed British Infantry Division down there, with a full armored brigade attached, at least 150 panzers. They hit us hard, but the men are holding. We faced much the same in Libya under Rommel, but these are American tanks.”
“What do you think of them?” asked Guderian.
“Not much. They’re big, and with a decent 75mm gun, but they light up easily when hit, and are prone to fires. More bark than bite, that one, but we have only Marders, with little armor on them, so I suppose it’s a fair fight.” Kübler smiled, listening to the closer report of MG fire and small mortars.
“That’s that British Division Hube kick
ed out of this place a few days ago,” said Guderian. “They seem to want it back, so it looks like I’ll have to hold Schmidt’s Motorized Division here. I’ll send you his recon battalion for a local reserve. Let me finish up here and then we’ll see what your situation needs tomorrow.”
That afternoon, Schmidt deployed his entire division again, the men leaving their trucks on the road through Palmyra. Veterans all, they pushed south aggressively, and Miles found his push to retake Palmyra nothing more than a spoiling operation in short order. Yet that was exactly what Alexander wanted from him, and there was now one less German Division heading east towards the Euphrates.
Chapter 11
On the morning of the 21st, 1 Kommando, Brandenburg Special Forces, were the first German unit to reach the Iraqi border, about 10 kilometers due east of Ar Ramadi, at a small village north of Abu Kamal. There wasn’t much to be seen, not even a wire fence of any kind. The wind blew listlessly through the sandy scrubland, and the scouting unit reported the area completely clear of the enemy.
The Germans were flanking Blaxland’s 10th Indian HQ at Abu Kamal, the position Kingstone had traced with his finger for Alexander. But they were all north and east of the river, and there were no bridges for another 40 kilometers east at Rawah. The two Indian Divisions had been isolated from one another, and neither one was sitting on firm defensive positions.
By the time Kingstone returned, flying in to the airfield at T1, he could see that the situation was ‘far from satisfactory.’ He stormed into Blaxland’s HQ at Abu Kamal and laid into him.
“They’ve gotten round your right east of the Euphrates! The French are finished. Now there’s no way you’ll hold onto to T2 as it stands, not with a single brigade there against the bloody 3rd Panzer Division. We simply can’t sit here any longer. This is a fast moving battle of maneuver, and you’ve got to keep in step. Jerry’s is through the front door, across the living room and he’s already getting at the jewelry in the bedroom dresser!”
Stormtide Rising (Kirov Series Book 29) Page 9