Grand Alliance (Kirov Series)

by John Schettler

  “Only too well,” Rommel said sullenly. “They called my division the Ghost division in France, Paulus. Well that’s what we have on our hands here now, a ghost of what my Afrika Korps once was. This new British brigade is an apparition from the darkest corner of hell! But I have been to hell and back, Paulus, at Caporetto as a young man of only 25 years.”

  During that war Rommel had distinguished himself as a young officer with the Wurttemburger Mountain troops. In difficult and rugged mountain country, he energetically embarked on a campaign that involved stealthy infantry marches, infiltration behind enemy lines and flanking maneuvers that once saw his detachment, no more than a battalion in strength, capture five Italian regiments. He had removed 9000 men from the enemy order of battle, losing only 6 men, with 30 wounded. He had an uncanny ability to see the possibilities in any situation, foresee enemy intentions and dispositions on the ground, and guess their probable reaction to his maneuvers. In most cases he specialized in making attacks from unexpected directions, demoralizing his enemy and unhinging their defense.

  “Well,” said Paulus, “we’ve taken good stock of our situation here. I’ll do what I can to persuade Hitler. But you must do what you can to restore order here now. None of us are getting any younger. You must find a way to deal with this.”

  There was a glint in Rommel’s eye now, and his hand strayed to the prominent Blue Max on his breast pocket. “Yes,” he said. “Even in hell I found a way to beat the devil.”

  Chapter 32

  Paulus made good on his promises. The German buildup in North Africa accelerated with the infusion of fresh troops and equipment. The 90th Light Division had not been formed until late June of 1941 in the old history, but was already arriving at Tripoli in February of that year. The other units Paulus had mentioned were also being diverted to staging ports in France and Italy. The 90th Light had been motorized with the trucks provided by the Vichy French, as they had promised. The two other motorized formations were both brigade sized units, Grossdeutschland and Herman Goering. As for the new Panzer Division Paulus had mentioned, it would be 10th Panzer, but the unit had not yet been released. Paulus still had the difficult task of convincing Hitler this campaign still offered the prospect of victory.

  The Führer leaned over the map table that day, the red swastika armband contrasting starkly with the drab brown of his coat. His eyes had a distant harried look in them, as if he were seeing things in some far off future, the struggle and conflict of a war that was only now threatening to take a dramatic new turn. He was not happy with the sudden and unexpected reversal in North Africa, and he let Paulus know this in no uncertain terms.

  “What was that man doing galloping off into Egypt with only one division like that? The 15th Panzers only reached him a few weeks ago!”

  “It seems he believed he had a promise to fulfill, my Führer.”

  “You mean his boast about taking the Suez Canal? I knew that was not likely.”

  “He might have done exactly that, were it not for this new force that appeared on the southern flank.”

  “I have read the reports,” said Hitler. “What do you know of these new British tanks that seem to be impervious to our guns? Have you seen this, Paulus?”

  “Not personally. I know only what was reported to me by the officers I interviewed. From all descriptions the British must have been building on the success of their Matilda heavy tank, and they have delivered another model with considerably more power. Troops say it is twice the size of the Matilda, and with a gun on it that is as big as a 25 pound artillery piece. Yet in spite of its size it was very fast—very agile. The troops say it could fire on the move, and hit with amazing accuracy. And nothing they used against it was able to harm it in any way.”

  “How many of these new tanks do the British have?”

  “This we do not yet know, and our operatives in Cairo have been unable to even confirm the existence of this new unit. How it came to reach its position south of the main battle area is somewhat of a mystery. Halder suggested it must have deployed by rail here, to the railhead north of the Al Farafrah Oasis, and then moved by road to Siwa.”

  “That is a long march. Why not simply deploy it in the north, along the coast?”

  “We do not know. Perhaps they meant to achieve surprise by this maneuver.”

  “It seems they have done that well enough!” Hitler folded his arms, an elbow in each hand in the guarded posture he often took when unhappy.

  “Reports indicate that no more than ten or fifteen of these new tanks were actually engaged,” said Paulus, “so this may be a special Schwere Panzer unit that is only recently arrived. Donitz should see that no more arrive, because this new tank could unhinge the balance of power in a mobile battle, just as it did at Bir el Khamsa.”

  Hitler frowned at the mention of the name. “Our first major setback,” he scowled. “I can see the British kicking the Italians out of Egypt, but not German troops!”

  “Yet we had just two divisions there, my Führer. That is hardly a force capable of driving all the way to Cairo and beyond. Unless Rommel is strongly reinforced, you should expect he can do nothing more than hold on defense.”

  “At Benghazi? We will need that port.”

  “It will be held, but not by German troops.”

  “Then by who? You do not expect the Italians to hold it for very long!”

  “That will be up to Mussolini. Yes, Rommel has posted six Italian divisions, largely infantry, in positions all along this line. Granted, these are not reliable troops, but there are 50,000 men there now, and if the British want Benghazi, they will have to commit several divisions to invest it and take the time to plan an offensive. At present they do not have sufficient forces in theater to do this while also building up a strong front opposite Rommel at Mersa Brega.”

  The delicate moment had come, for Paulus knew Hitler had ordered Benghazi held, and nothing had been said about any further withdrawal to the west. He folded his arms behind his back, with an almost casual air, as if the dispositions he was describing now were contemplated all along.

  “Mersa Brega?” said Hitler. “That far west? What about Agedabia?”

  “It is also occupied by the Italian armor and motorized divisions. They will form a kind of trip-wire to delay any move by the British into Tripolitania. Our forces will stage here, just where you ordered Rommel to take up his blocking position before he ran off into Egypt. I have finally talked some sense into the man, and he now sees the wisdom of your earlier orders. He told me personally that he would obey his Führer’s instructions and build a strong defensive position.”

  There, Paulus had couched the decision to withdraw to Mersa Brega as something that was in accord with Hitler’s own wishes. The bird was out of the oven, and now he only needed to baste it well.

  “You have an uncanny eye for good defensive ground, my Führer. How you managed to determine this from a simple map like this is astounding, but I saw that ground personally when I was there, and it is one of the best defensive positions in North Africa. Rommel has posted both his divisions there, and they will soon be joined by a third, the 90th Light Motorized Division. The delivery of 1200 trucks from the French at Tripoli allowed us to deploy this unit much sooner than we might have otherwise. So now the other troops you have scheduled for this buildup are staging at Toulon and Naples.”

  “Other troops? What other troops?” Hitler had been mollified by the flattery Paulus had used, but now he asked a difficult question. He was given to issuing quick orders and then forgetting all about them when he wished. The matter of further reinforcements would be somewhat delicate, so Paulus had to be cautious here, and adroitly changed the topic briefly.

  “Rommel and I have discussed how to handle these new British tanks, but it will need more troops and particularly more artillery.”

  “Artillery? Why not more tanks?”

  “Because they are useless against this new enemy armor. That was very clear from the reports
I read on this encounter. We cannot use the new blitzkrieg methods in these circumstances. Instead we must used well tried infantry tactics and good artillery, just as we did in the first war.” Paulus knew that Hitler had fought in that war. The trenches of WWI were the place where he had learned virtually everything he knew about combat.

  “You remember it well, do you not?” Paulus continued, taking Hitler back to those days in his mind. “When the first tanks made their appearance they were a fearsome new threat, but we adapted. They were few in number, and could be resisted by stout hearted infantry in good defensive positions—troops who will hold their ground even if overrun by enemy armor—with even better shock troops to back them up when the time came to hit back. The British cannot storm a position like the one you have chosen at Mersa Brega with a few new tanks, and if they try, they will face a sea of infantry that will wash over them like a storm of steel. That is the way we defeat these new tanks of theirs—we will pound them with artillery and then send in the infantry, just as we did before. Even our own blitzkrieg tactics are vulnerable if the enemy is resolute and holds the shoulders of our Schwerpunkt. We must do this now—hold like good armor on those battleships! Yes, I stopped at Toulon to have a look for myself. Hindenburg was hit and damaged, but the armor held, my Führer. In just the same way we will hold the line here and let them waste themselves trying to break through. Then, when they are exhausted, we can release our mobile units in a strong counterattack as before.”

  Hitler was silent, brooding, but Paulus could see something smoldering in his dark eyes. He had been a veteran of many hard engagements in the first World War, Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele and the Marne, earning numerous citations for bravery and the Iron Cross 1st Class. Ironically, he had stumbled into the rifle sights of a British soldier, Private Henry Tandey, who had decided to let what he thought was a wounded and unarmed man go safely back to his lines. Hitler still remembered the incident.

  “Then we fight a defensive battle now?”

  “For the moment. That was your wish, my Führer. So we will establish a strong position there at Mersa Brega, and build up strength behind it like water behind the dam—troops and supplies—we need both in abundance if Rommel is ever to move east again. It is a thousand kilometers to the Suez Canal.”

  “Well he cannot march that distance with foot soldiers!”

  “No, my Führer, but good motorized infantry divisions can get him there. We must have mobile artillery to support them, and by all means, air power. This is the real genius behind your plan. I knew it when I saw you had selected the Herman Goering Brigade for service in North Africa.”

  Hitler could not recall this, but he listened as Paulus explained. “With those troops there, Rommel’s requests for air support will get top billing. I have looked over the list of units you proposed for the Afrika Korps. They will do the job, my Führer. With the 90th Light, Grossdeutschland Regiment, 1st Mountain Division and the Goering Brigade, we will have the good veteran troops we need to stand against anything the British throw at us. And once we stop them, then we hit back, just like we did when you won that Iron Cross.” Paulus pointed to the medal that Hitler still proudly wore.

  Now Hitler recalled that he did, indeed, order the troops that had taken the Rock of Gibraltar to move to Italy for service in North Africa. But that had been when he was flush with the victory Rommel had handed him in overrunning all of Libya. He had been willing to overlook the fact that Rommel had disobeyed his orders to do so, and now the thought of rewarding both disobedience and defeat with the commitment of these elite troops seemed to gall him.

  “Not so fast, Paulus,” he said. “I must tell you that I have been having second thoughts about this business in North Africa. Greece has fallen, and we have the Balkans in our possession now. I have troops sitting right on the Turkish frontier at this very moment. One good push and we can take Istanbul and seize the Bosporus.”

  “It will do us no good as long as the Soviets still control the Black Sea,” Paulus warned.

  “That was why I allowed Raeder to move my battleships into the Mediterranean!” Hitler’s cheeks reddened as he said that, his tone just beneath the level of a shout. “Now look what he has done with them! I am told that Hindenburg and Bismarck will both need repairs, and Raeder is asking me to send the steel to Toulon. Where did the British get these new rocket weapons? Why is it we knew nothing of this development until they were firing them at our ships? Now I am told the British have tanks that are impervious to our finest guns. This is an outrage!”

  “I agree, my Führer, and I am certain we will quickly catch up with them. I have also seen the prototypes of our own new rocket designs, and they look very promising.”

  “Yes? Well they will look much more promising to me when I hear they are firing at British ships.” Now Hitler leaned over the map table again, a sullen expression on his pallid features.

  “I did not get here by chance, Paulus,” he said, a strange tone in his voice. “I was meant to be here. Yes, we will pour everything we have into research on these new weapons. And we will get newer and better tanks as well. The proposals are already on my desk, and we will soon show the British that two can play at this game. But now I must decide about the Russians. What you say is true. As long as the Soviets control the Black Sea, then we will be unable to ship the oil through from Orenburg. So that will now be my number one priority. Understand? We will build up strength here,” he pointed at the borders near Moldavia and the Ukraine.

  “I will smash through and take the Crimea—take the bases the Soviet Black Sea fleet must use if they are to impede those oil shipments. Once I have the Bosporus, and the Crimea, then no further occupation of Turkish territory will be necessary. So why should I send more troops to North Africa when I can put them to good use here?” His fist came down hard on the Turkish frontier, but Paulus held his composure, waiting for the storm to abate.

  “A wise strategy,” he said. “Unless the British reinforce Turkey, as you know they will as long as they remain a strong and viable force in the Middle East. If we do not support Rommel now, what will they do with all the troops they pull from East Africa? I can read a map as well, my Führer. First they will put down this rebellion in Iraq that poses a threat to their own oil production. Then they will chase the Vichy French out of Syria, and after that, you will see British troops in Turkey and possibly even Iran to open a front against the southern borders of Volkov’s key oil production centers in the Caspian. There is only one way to prevent that—by keeping the British well occupied with a credible threat to Egypt. You must keep the pressure on them and force them to send troops into the Western Desert. Starve Rommel and he will just sit there swatting flies. Feed him and there is a chance we can push east again. This is a man you can rely on, in spite of recent setbacks. And there is another axis of attack that we can open against Egypt as well—Crete.”

  “Crete?”

  “Of course, my Führer. Again you correctly point out that it must be taken to prevent the British from establishing strong air bases there. Now is the time for that—and this should be done before the Bosporus operation, and certainly before you contemplate any move on the Crimea. That means war with Soviet Russia, and do not think it can be confined to the southern region. The front will extend all the way to the Baltic, and once that begins it will suck in every division we have like a maelstrom. No. First Crete, then we have those bases to threaten Alexandria and the Suez, instead of British bombers over the oil fields of Ploesti. After Crete, we have the option of strongly reinforcing Syria, and stopping the British plan to support Turkey while also posing a direct threat to Palestine.”

  “Syria? Palestine? And how do you propose I get the troops there with Hindenburg and Bismarck laid up in the repair yards at Toulon? The Italians took a sound beating and have withdrawn their navy to La Spezia. I cannot send troops to the Levant by sea with the British fleet still at Alexandria. Must I rely on the French Navy?”

  “I ha
ve spoken to Raeder on this,” said Paulus quickly. “Yes, these new naval rockets the enemy uses have become a real problem, but he has ideas on how to deal with that. The British fleet also took heavy losses in the recent engagement, and we did prove one thing that Goering will certainly agree with—air power trumps naval power, particularly in narrow, confined waters like those of the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea. This is why we took Malta—to prevent the British from using air power to interdict our naval supply lines to North Africa. Now that we have that in hand, we can build up a strong force behind Rommel, and the British will have to answer that. They are scraping up every division they can find—Indians, Australians, South Africans. Yet here we sit with 150 divisions twiddling their thumbs when a decisive move now in the Middle East could secure your right flank for the planned drive against the Crimea. Everything you have planned is correct, my Führer, entirely sound. But to succeed we must make certain the British cannot interfere as I have described, and the time to do that is now, before we open the war against the Soviets.”

  “Yes, yes, I have heard all of this from Halder and Keitel. They have been talking to Raeder as well, and now they both believe Crete should be the next operation, but I am not so sure.”

  “It is not a question of either or,” said Paulus. “Crete was always a target of your overall strategy.” He continued to present everything as Hitler’s own personal plan. “Goering says he has over 1100 planes in Greece. The British have fewer than fifty on Crete. Now is the time to strike there, while our superiority in air power is overwhelming. You saw how Student’s Fallschirmjagers took Malta. They were able to do so because the British did not have time to build up defenses there. But you know they will on Crete—particularly if we do not keep the pressure on them in North Africa. Attack Crete now and it may fall easily. Then we can contemplate a move against Cyprus and Palestine—by air, my Führer. We can use our overwhelming air power to land troops by air. Once there, the Vichy French in Syria can help supply them. It is either that or the British will take the whole region in time. You know this as well as I do.”