Stormtide Rising (Kirov Series Book 29)

by Schettler, John

  Near Baghdad, General Schneider took his 4th Panzer Division as a whole and threw it at the city of Taji, about 16 kilometers north of the capitol. It had been defended by a brigade of the 6th Indian Division, but they could not hold in the face of that attack. The crack Panzergrenadiers dismounted, fanning out into the town, their halftracks and mobile flak guns behind them in support. Two full battalions of panzers were committed, and that was simply too much.

  Brigadier received permission from Wilson to withdraw, but as II Brandenburg Regiment was already between Taji and Baghdad, they had no recourse but to cross the Tigris River near Hammamiyat, and then move south on the east bank, where they would eventually come to Brigadier Kingstone’s lines. When he saw the lorried infantry coming through, the last trucks carrying the wounded and dead recovered from the fight, he shook his head.

  “You can move right through our lines,” he told Brigadier Jenkins of the 17th Indian Brigade. “Set your men up as a second echelon, and you can stand as a tactical reserve. I think they’ll hit us here soon enough.” He expected an immediate attack from the north, but it did not come that day. The Germans seemed to be collecting themselves, and husbanding supplies. They were already 185 Kilometers from their depot at Hadithah, and 450 kilometers from Dier-ez-Zour. Their main depot up north on the Turkish border above Ar Raqqah was now a full 680 kilometers away. These were the kinds of lengthy supply lines Rommel had to deal with in Libya, and now Guderian had a much better appreciation of that man.

  At present, his situation was not bad. There were a few battalions down to 30% to 45% supply, and he decided to rest them at Fallujah and await the next deliveries. He was also waiting on 10th Motorized, which was only now beginning to arrive on the road to Fallujah. On the 18th, he had tested the enemy defenses west of Baghdad by putting in a strong attack at Abu Ghraib. Defended by elements of the 8th Indian Division, the Punjab Battalions fought well, yielding some ground but doing so in good order, and rallying when they reached the dugout lines of the British 5th Queen’s Own Rifles. It was a well prepared position, and the Germans were stopped near dusk, when Guderian called for a pause to discuss options.

  “They are going to fight us here,” he said. “Thus far we’ve identified two full Indian Divisions, one west and one north of the city.

  “My men had no difficulty in Taji,” said Schneider. “We ground our way right through them.”

  “That is what this may take,” said Guderian. “My every instinct here is to avoid a lengthy battle of attrition, but now I think I must revise my last order to you. With Taji in hand, I now want you to assemble your entire division, but east of the Tigris. You will attack over this ground here.” He pointed to the place where Kingstone had been forming his lines since the previous day. “If you can get in the back door, I will keep them very busy on this side with four of the five Brandenburger Regiments. The last, under Konrad, I will send north in place of that KG I spoke of earlier. They will make contact with the 78th Sturm Division, and clear the rail line to Mosul. It may be five days before we can get trains down from the depots there, so we must plan accordingly in terms of our supplies. We will probe the enemy, conduct active patrolling, but otherwise rest until the morning of the 20th. Then we make a coordinated attack from two sides.”

  That rail line to Mosul was the key for Guderian. He simply had to get it open and get rolling stock moving on it at the earliest possible moment. Without it, he would have but two or three days hard fighting in terms of ammunition. Food was not an issue, nor fresh water, all things Rommel had to plan for. It was ammunition he needed most, and fuel wherever he could find it.

  So what do I have on my hands here, he thought? Will this be another Volgograd on the Tigris? This is an enormous city, with a lot of concrete buildings that can serve as good strong points for the enemy. It is a warren of narrow streets, alleyways and souks. House to house fighting here could be very difficult, but that is what the Brandenburgers do best. There is no better force for this sort of fight in the world. As soon as Schmidt gets here with 10th Motorized, I will throw his two regiments right at the airfield. Then, the following day, the Brandenburgers go in full force.

  The Battle of Baghdad…. That is undoubtedly what they will call it. I wonder what the historians will say about it in decades to come. Were we foolish to think we could breeze into Iraq like this and take the whole place by storm with a handful of divisions? If these attacks bog down, I may have no other option but to wait for that rail line to open, and then see about getting in more troops through Mosul. As for Kirkuk… Babab Gurgur…. That is up to Volker’s 78th Sturm Division, and his attack should be in position shortly.

  * * *

  There were not many Sturm Divisions in the German Army, but the 78th was one of the better ones. Created with a division structure flush with heavy weapons, it had a lavish assortment of 10cm and 12cm mortars, a battalion of heavier Nebelwerfers, and a strong Panzerjager attachment with Marder III’s and four 88’s. The infantry battalions were beefed up to 36 assault squads, with a lot of machineguns and smaller mortars. Some of these squads had been specially trained in demolitions and wire breaching for assaults against enemy strong points, hence the name “Storm Division.” Three battalions of regular artillery completed the picture.

  2nd Suffolk Battalion had been posted on the road at the canal bridge near Hsar Ahmad. On the morning of the 20th, it suddenly came under a fearful barrage from all those guns, mortars and the whooshing roar of the Nebelwerfers. Only two of the three division regiments were present, the third still moving south along the Baghdad rail and fighting to clear out Levy Battalions Wilson had posted in Bayji and Tikrit. Konrad’s Lehr Regiment of the Brandenburgers had pushed north and driven another out of Samarra, and now they had worked as far north as Tikrit to link up with that Sturm Regiment.

  The Turkomen Divisions, having rested two days, now put in another strong attack at the ridgeline northeast of Kirkuk, and the battle for that city was on. The blow delivered to 2nd Suffolk was withering. The men were pinned down, shrapnel flying everywhere, and casualties from the bombardment mounting. When the Storm troops came in, the fighting was fierce, but this was an assault force tailor made to attack a prepared position like this. 2nd Suffolk would lose nearly a third of its men, eventually forced back from the canal and yielding the bridge at Hsar Ahmad.

  As before, the ridgeline position was held against the Turkomen divisions, but the hammer blow delivered by 78th Sturm did not arguer well. That unit could beat down one line position after another, slowly undermining Brigadier Reid’s 29th Brigade defense in the south along the main road. General Briggs found the land lines still open to Wilson’s HQ at the British Embassy in Baghdad, and he put in a call with one salient question on his mind.

  “When can we expect relief up here?”

  “I’m sorry, Briggo,” said Wilson, thinking Briggs had the one nickname that put his own to shame. “Jerry is here in force, both north and west of the city. We still hold Baqubah with a few levy battalions, but otherwise, there’s nothing between me and you.”

  “I see…” Unlike Colonel Blaxland in temporary command of the 10th Indian, Briggs was a seasoned and well experienced officer. He had fought in East Africa and the Western Desert with Indian divisions, and the 5th was well leavened with veteran soldiers from those campaigns.

  “What’s your situation?” asked Wilson.

  “Well, we’re holding out, but I have to give the enemy the north end of the ridge to form a tighter line around Kirkuk. I reckon I’ve got some 30,000 Turkomen infantry on my north and east perimeter. But Jerry came up and hit us hard out near the southwest refinery. It looks like a couple regiments of good infantry there. Jumbo, I’ve as stiff an upper lip as any man you know, but this is just a matter of time up here, and I can’t say the refineries and well sites will come through this fight without a good deal of damage.”

  “I understand….” Wilson considered. “Are you surrounded?”

 
“Not yet. The road through Taza Khormatu is still open, and the mountain track above it as well.”

  “The road to Baqubah?”

  “Yes sir.” Briggs let his silence ask the only remaining question. Then he spoke. “General, we’re prepared to hold on here, come what may. We’ve supply for at least another week—maybe longer.”

  “Briggo,” said Wilson back. “If you did try that road, might you get through to Baqubah?”

  “Well sir, we’d have to move quickly—tonight—and take to our wheels. But we’d be giving them Baba Gurgur, sir. That will make for one hell of a headline for Hitler.”

  “That it will,” said Wilson. “But it’s this simple: we can’t relieve you, nor will you likely hold out for that week you have in the storeroom. You’re outnumbered three to one. Yes, they have the Father of all Fires, and all that oil that flows from it in the steel veins of the Empire, and they can bloody well choke on it. You are to place demolition charges in all the key facilities presently under your control, and then do your damnedest to fight your way out of there. I’m not prepared to sacrifice the 5th British Indian Division for that bloody oil. If you can win through, that’s all the better for us down here. Then you can come with us when we finally get up a good head of steam to retake Kirkuk.”

  “Are you sure you want me to demolish the two refineries?” asked Briggs. “Won’t we need them when we come back this way?”

  “We might,” said Wilson, “but I don’t think Fritz will leave them intact in that event, will he?”

  “Very well, sir, I have my orders, and I will carry them out. You can tell those levies in Baqubah that we’re coming.”

  “Good,” said Wilson. “It looks like they’ll have the well heads and all the pipelines to Tripoli and Haifa. I’m not sure what Hitler thinks he can do with them, but for the time being we have to show him we don’t need them.”

  In spite of General Wilson’s bravado, Britain and her Allies did need those facilities, and they needed the oil that was flowing in those steel veins. Without it, all they had left to fuel their fires in the Middle East were the southern well sites at Basra and Abadan, which they had just secured from the Iranians. If they were to fall, then Britain would have to rely on oil shipments from the United States, which was the world’s greatest producer at that time. Yet it was thousands of miles away, and would have to sail over U-boat infested waters to reach British ports. As for Saudi Arabia, and the vast reserves beneath the Empty Quarter and Persian Gulf, the first commercial well had only been drilled in March of 1938, and those resources still remained largely unmeasured and undeveloped….

  Chapter 15

  In 1941 The British had advanced on Baghdad over the very same route as Guderian’s troops. It had been a brash and audacious move, for the force they had was no more than a Regiment, facing a full Iraqi Division in Baghdad. Yet they prevailed, toppled the incipient rebellion of Rashid Ali and his Golden Square of four Iraqi Army Colonels, and restored British rule in Iraq. Ali had fled to Germany, where he stewed in exile, publicly denouncing the British. One of his Colonels, Colonel Salah ad-Dinn as-Sabbagh, summarized their defeat by lashing out at the British saying: “There is no more murderous wolf for the Arab and no deadlier foe of Islam than Britain…. The Arabs have no future unless the British Empire comes to an end.”

  Now, with the collapse of British forces in northern Iraq, it seemed as though the Colonel’s hopes could be salvaged. To Help organize Arab resistance against the British, the Germans flew both Rashid Ali and the colonel to Kirkuk, where Ali formally announced a new Iraqi Arab government forming under the protection of Nazi Germany.

  The news of the abandonment of Kirkuk and Baba Gurgur enraged Churchill, but eventually Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, finally convinced him that General Wilson had acted prudently, taking an enormous risk to try and save troops that Britain could ill afford to lose in a siege of Kirkuk that could have only one ending.

  “They were outnumbered three to one,” he explained. “So you can either trade the Germans Kirkuk today for the 5th Indian Division, or they will take both by next Tuesday and you’ll be standing there empty handed. Wilson did what was right and expedient in the situation, and I would have done the same.”

  “Well how in blazes will we ever get it back?” Churchill railed.

  “All in good time,” said Alanbrooke. “2nd Division has finished up in Southern Iraq. Your consolation for the loss of Kirkuk is Abadan. We’ve got the whole thing, lock, stock and oil barrel. Now General Gordon can take his men north to Baghdad, and the 7th Indian Division has landed at Umm Qsar to take over garrison duty and security patrols for Basra and Abadan. Yes, we’ve lost Kirkuk, but with the Germans already sitting on Haditha, those pipelines are useless to us now. Any oil we get from Iraq will have to go by sea, through the Persian Gulf and up the Red Sea to Suez. There will be a temporary shortfall, but Somerville is already arranging tanker support at Cape Town, and planning the convoy schedules.”

  “What about the Japanese?” Churchill fretted. “They’re still sitting on Ceylon, with aircraft slowly building up week by week.”

  “My dear Winston, it’s over 1,500 miles from Colombo to those shipping lanes along the Arabian coast, and Somerville has assured Admiral Tovey that we will remain masters of the Arabian Sea. The Japanese have no serious naval threat in that region. All they have done since taking Ceylon is ferry in food, supplies, and comfort women for their soldiers there. Frankly, I think they’ve overreached themselves. The Americans have been going at them with hammer and tongs, and there’s been no incursion of enemy carriers into the Indian Ocean since their initial invasion.”

  “Let us hope that remains the case,” said Churchill glumly. “Somerville didn’t come off very well the last time he faced the Imperial Japanese Navy.”

  “True, but we weren’t prepared. We’ve never fought an action like that, where the carriers became the principle striking force. The Royal Navy has always relied on our battleships, and there were three in that action, but they were nothing but a distraction and nuisance to Somerville. Carriers, Winston. Admiral Tovey and I had a good long chat about them last week. He’s sent our very best to Somerville, the Ark Royal and Victorious . Along with Indomitable , Somerville has a very strong force there now. Carriers are the order of the day. The battleship is history.”

  “Well at least I can agree on that point,” said Churchill. “It may interest you to know that I’ve been conspiring with Admiral Fraser on some very clever projects along those lines. And I’ve wrangled the planes to make a real difference as well—the American F6F Hellcat. A bit of a bawdy name, but I’m told the plane is very capable. It was tailor made for carrier operations, and with it, our ships can carry many more planes than before. The next time the Japanese come calling, they’ll get a real surprise if Somerville is on his game.”

  “There,” said Alanbrooke, “that’s the spirit. You have it exactly. Now then—I think we can safely say that our lines of communications through the Arabian Sea are secure for the moment. Iraq is now our primary concern. Alright, we’ve lost Kirkuk, but we still hold Baghdad, and the Germans really can’t do anything more unless they take it. First off, it’s both a political and logistical necessity that they control that city. This Rashid Ali can crow all he wants from his new would be throne in Kirkuk, but as long as we control Baghdad, Iraq is ours. The Germans can’t move south to threaten Basra and Abadan without first clearing their lines of communications by taking Baghdad.”

  “So it must be held,” said Churchill. “I agree completely.”

  “Yes, and now that 5th Indian Division has been saved by Wilson, we’ve a fighting chance there. This General Guderian is no slouch. Alexander’s counterattack from Homs was a good spoiling attack, and it forced the Germans to leave one of their two Panzer divisions behind. Now, however, the Germans have brought in more infantry. We’ve identified three new divisions, the 31st, 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions. They’re put
ting them on the line opposite General Quinan, and the latest report indicates Guderian has now pulled that panzer division out and sent it east. This means the Germans will have their full mobile corps available for the Baghdad offensive, which is undoubtedly what they planned all along.”

  “Damn,” said Churchill. “Just when I’m consoled with the carriers and sea lanes thing, you go and pour salt into my tea. Can Wilson hold out?”

  “He’ll have four Indian divisions, and the 2nd British Infantry is arriving in just a few days.”

  “Will that be enough?”

  “It might,” said Alanbrooke. “But just to be on the safe side, we could send another good British Infantry Division in, and more armor, if we can find it.”

  “My good man,” said Churchill. “Infantry divisions do not grow on trees! Most everything we have here in the Kingdom is still training up, and it would be two months to get a division from here to Basra.”

  “Not quite…” said Alanbrooke. “You’re forgetting the 18th Infantry at Perth.”

  “What? You mean the troops Montgomery evacuated from Java? Well pinch me, I have forgotten about that division. Didn’t it go to Burma?”

  “It was scheduled, but Slim has the situation in hand, and the Japanese show no signs of any further offensives into India. So the 18th Remained at Perth, and it’s been fleshed out with Aussie volunteers, and brought up to snuff in terms of the Artillery and other equipment. It’s right there, Winston, and was training up for the counterattack on Ceylon. Given the circumstances, oil is more valuable to the empire now than rubber. Wouldn’t you agree?”