Rommel pulled off his gloves, sitting at the small wooden table where a map was laid out by his new Chief of Staff Major General Siegfried Westphal. He would miss Bayerlein, but knew Westphal to be a competent man. Kesselring sent him over from Italy, and Rommel passed a brief moment wondering whether Smiling Albert was simply using him to keep an eye on his own doings. He was the youngest man to make Major General in the Army, and good for him, thought Rommel. Now I will put him to work.
He looked over the map, noting the positions of the many infantry divisions presently holding the front. Most were mountain divisions under the capable leadership of General Ludwig Kübler. But there was also a line infantry division, the 31st, with the 34th still arriving on the trains. It would have been there by now, but Rommel made a special request that the 101st Panzer Brigade be sent first. He wanted to flesh out his real offensive force, III Panzer Korps under General Hermann Breith.
The 101st Brigade was a unit that had seen brief service in 1941, with two Panzer Regiments, but now it was completely reorganized, an aberration, as these brigades had not been built out until 1944 as an expedient measure to create fire brigades on the Eastern Front. The panzer battalion, KG Lauchert, had two companies of Lions with the high velocity 75mm gun, and one Schwere company of the newest VK-90 Lion Kings. That tank had been in competition with the Konigstiger for the coveted mass production factory floors. Due to the success of the VK-75, the prototype was approved in late 1942, and a small run of that tank was produced, only 36, before Hitler saw the Challenger II and ordered sweeping changes to the design.
So these tanks, the VK-90s, with an all new 90mm main gun, would be the Last of the Mohicans for that model. The redesigned Lion King would see its armor increased from 100mm to 140mm, and its main gun bumped up from the new 90mm, which was now cancelled, to an all new Pak 44/80 128mm main gun that would become the standard for both the Lion King and the Royal Tiger. That was the same gun that would eventually find its way to the dread Jagdtiger heavy tank destroyer, so its adoption was very practical, owing much to the fact that there were naval guns made of this size, and much tooling already existed, making for quick production. It was capable of penetrating 230 millimeters (9.1 in) of 30-degree sloped armor at 1000 meters, compared to 165mm penetration achieved by the 88mm gun.
At 2000 meters it could penetrate 200 millimeters (7.9 in) compared to 132mm for the 88, and at 3,000 meters it could still defeat 173 millimeters (6.8 in) where the 88 was no longer effective. So this gun marked a dramatic improvement in Panzer firepower, though the real Big Cats that would use it, Konigslowe and Konigstiger , would not take the field until later in 1943. For now, the VK-90 was at the top of the heap, its new 90mm gun equivalent to the 88, but with better striking power out beyond the 2000-meter range. The new Pak44/80 was unique in that it had its PzGr.43 HE Projectile accompanied buy up to three propellant charges. One or two charges could be used when the gun was firing as an artillery piece, but all three would be used when it was in the AT role.
Rommel smiled when he read these reports from Westphal, realizing that his long suffering in the desert against the Challenger II, and his remarkable capture of that single abandoned enemy tank, had done much to spur this development. Now we finally get a tank that has a chance against that monster deployed by the British, he thought.
The 101st Panzer Brigade was a fusion of KG 100 under Major Eberhard Zahn, a bright eyed handsome young officer that had commanded the 33 PzJag Battalion of 15th Panzer in Tunisia. When Rommel learned Hitler was granting his request for this Brigade, he specifically requested Zahn for the Panzer element, knowing he was an energetic and skillful young officer. Zahn had been born in 1910, so he was a man of 33 years, though he looked much younger, and that gift of youth would see him live to be 100 years old, into the 21st Century in the year 2010 when he finally passed away just 36 days after his centennial.
That was the steel in the new brigade, and the flesh and bone were provided by two battalions of Panzergrenadiers under Oberst von Lauchert and Major Breidenbach. Rommel intended to use that unit as a spearhead, to be followed by the powerful Wiking SS Division, but as he looked over the map, he was still not satisfied.
16th Panzer Division… It would have two Panzer battalions of three medium companies, each with 3 light Leopard recon tanks, 15 medium Lions with the 75mm gun, and three of the new VK-90’s, with an all new 90mm main gun. It was the Lion’s answer to the competing Tiger-I, and was a superior design in some respects, with better hitting power and maneuverability. That was only 126 tanks, but the division was augmented by the inclusion of 24 StuIG 33’s, nine Nashorns and a dozen more Marder III’s in the PzJag Battalion, making for a total of 171 AFVs. It then had two Panzergrenadier Regiments of three battalions each instead of the normal two, along with the recon battalion, Pioneers and artillery.
This is a fine division, he thought, but it has been positioned right behind 31st Infantry Division—probably by necessity. It is there to face down all that armor the British have been bringing up, but that will mean I may not have the services of that division when I start Eisenfall. I don’t want my Panzer divisions playing a defensive role, not even to make a well-timed counterattack. The British brought up that armor because they intend to use it to try and retake Palmyra, but I don’t want 16th Panzer there. I want Hillebrand’s division with me when I move south….
So he reached for paper and pen, drafting a personal letter to the Führer, a final request. What he wanted, if it could possibly be found, was yet one more Panzer Division. He knew that after receiving the 101st Panzer Brigade this would likely be denied, but he made a fervent appeal.
My Führer, I have arrived in Syria to take command and make preparations for Operation Eisenfall. Yet seeing that the British have now moved considerable armored forces from their 8th Army to this sector, I note that this will force me to deploy my 16th Panzer Division in a defensive role. This will mean I will only have one strong division to move south as planned.
Your gift of the 101st Panzer Brigade gives me the spearhead I was hoping for, and no man could ask for a better division than the Wiking SS. Yet if I had but one more Panzer Division, I would finally come to feel that you have done all in your power to give me the tools I need to forge the victory you desire here. My Führer, I stand as one of many who have come to you with such a request, but if fulfilled, I promise you Damascus, and more. Know that I would never make such a request unless I believed it to be a military necessity. You heard my plaintive call for years in the desert, and I made do with whatever I was given. Yet put this sword in my hand now, and I will not fail you. With earnest sincerity and appreciation for all you have already done for me—Erwin Rommel.
The Führer had been ranting about the Italians, noting their many lapses on the battlefield, their useless air force, their navy refusing to sortie its big ships. He had ample ground there to sew his wrath. When he finally settled down, Keitel handed him the note from Rommel.
Hitler would read that letter, sighing heavily. This request seemed at first to be an eerie echo from Rommel’s long retreat in North Africa. Then he remembered that he had already discussed this issue with Zeitzler, and agreed that Rommel would need three mobile divisions for his work in Syria, so this request was something he intended to fulfill. What to send?
There it was, pulled from the East front many months ago, and refitting in Germany. He had thought to position it in France behind Calais, but realized that the division could be put to much better use in the hands of a man like Rommel. It was the 2nd Panzer Division, a good veteran unit, and so he waved all thought of Tunisia away, his eyes still dark with anger. He would not throw good money after bad there. Instead, he quickly sent word to Rommel that his last wish would be granted.
The newly rebuilt 2nd Panzer Division scheduled for deployment in France will be sent to you immediately, and every effort will be made to see that you are well supplied. I have every confidence that you will now give me all that I hav
e asked of you in return—Adolf Hitler.
Rommel was elated. The initial timetable for Eisenfall was to launch the offensive on the 15th of March, but Rommel had only just arrived, and now he wanted to wait for 2nd Panzer. 34th Infantry can come last, he thought. It can arrive on the trains after I kick off the offensive. But what will the British do in the meantime? They will certainly see the trains moving all these panzers to Homs. So I will continue to position things to make it seem like I am building up on defense behind the 31st Infantry Division. To that end, I put my experience in building a good defensive Pakfront to use here, just as I did in North Africa against those heavy British tanks. I will position 88s in heavy bunkers, with panzerfaust teams, machineguns, and heavy weapons support, and all behind wire and mines. Let the British face the legacy of their own tank designers.
Then, on the 25th of March, the hot iron falls. The 101st Panzer Brigade will spearhead the attack here, south of Palmyra, and east of these rocky hills. There is only a single British infantry division there, and I will go right through it when the Wikings follow up that attack. Then I give the order to swing the other two panzer divisions east through Palmyra, and south in the wake of that attack. We will follow the rail spur that was built to service ore mining in that region, and then take the road southwest to Damascus. There will be good high ground on my right to post defensive kampfgruppes, and on my left is my old friend—the desert.
He smiled.
* * *
The British did not fail to see the deployment of these new heavy forces on the rail lines heading south, and they had been making preparations of their own. The 46th Infantry Division was on the line opposite the German 31st Infantry screening the most direct approach to Palmyra. That was the sector Wavell had used to make his spoiling attack, which had delayed the movement east of two of Guderian’s mobile units. Being a mixed division, that unit had a full tank brigade as its disposal, and behind it was the 25th Armored Brigade.
31st Indian Armored Division still held its left flank, but coming up from Cairo was the newly reconstituted British 1st Armored Division, all the forces that O’Connor had detached from his 8th Army. Its two Armored Brigades were simply renamed the 1st and 2nd, and then the 7th Motorized Brigade rounded that division out. Behind it, just off the transports coming in to Beirut from Benghazi, was the 50th Northumbrian Infantry Division.
“We’ve finally got the troops in hand to mount an offensive,” said Alexander. “Now we’ve all of five armored brigades, and the Northumbrian division gives us a little more push. I’m calling it Operation Gladiator. It has a rather nice ring to it, eh?”
“I wouldn’t be too quick to start pushing here,” said Auchinlek, in Beirut to confer with Alexander on all that was happening in Iraq. “That’s Erwin Rommel over there on the other side, and he’s now got three good mobile divisions. Don’t think he’ll sit on his backside like he did in the withdrawal from Libya. He’ll come after us, mark my words.”
Auchinlek was a very astute man.
Chapter 14
On the 25th of March, Operation Eisenfall began. Rommel had massed his three mobile divisions on the road stretching from the T4 Pumping Station, through Palmyra and on to T3. To British aerial recon, it looked like an immense iron spear on the ground, with the tip at T4 ready to strike through the outer shield of the 31st Infantry division. Warned by the Auk, Alexander had positioned his forces accordingly, with the 25th Armor Brigade in reserve, well behind the 46th Infantry Division where the attack was expected.
But Rommel seldom did what he thought his enemy might expect.
South of Palmyra, its lines scattered along the long rocky outcrop of Jebel Leptar, General Miles’ 56th “Black Cat” Division held the extreme right of the British position. That was where Rommel was going. He did not have his three divisions lined up to follow one another west as a great spear. Instead, he had them all abreast for a big move due south.
2nd Panzer opened the attack against the 46th Division, but at the far right of its lines, very near the sharp range that aimed northwest towards Palmyra. The attack would be made against the 139th Infantry Brigade under Brigadier Vickers. which was screening the rail line that looped through difficult ground in the “Basiri Gap.” That was a rail spur that serviced mining operations just south of that range, and Rommel’s first objective was to capture the rail station at Al Basiri and make it his forward depot for the drive south.
To assist this operation, the whole of the 7th SS Prinz Eugen Mountain Division would scale that ridge and push for the rail line beyond its southern edge. It split northeast of the gap, with the two ridges looking like hands of the clock. The big hand, pointed at 1:00, was aimed right at Palmyra. The little hand was Jebel Lebtar, pointed a little shy of 3:00. That was where Rommel sent the 16th Panzer Division, right around the end of that 3:00 ridge. Beyond that to the east, was the 101st Panzer Brigade and then the Wiking SS, both moving south to attack the 56th London Division. The iron was falling hard on Miles, and he and his men had already felt its bite when they were initially pushed out of Palmyra by Guderian.
The main German attack would fall on the 169th “Queens Brigade” under Brigadier Lyne, on the extreme right, and the 168th Brigade under Davidson to its left. Against each of these two brigades, Rommel was sending a full reinforced panzer division, with the 16th hitting Davidson, and the Wikings hitting Lyne. The results of that attack would not be hard to predict, and the field phones were soon ringing loudly at Major-General Eric Miles’ HQ in the small village of Al Ulayaniyah.
Like most men who had risen to command at his level, Miles had won his DSO and Military Cross in the First War, and was “Mentioned in Dispatches” five times, so he was no slouch. He was a Brigadier in France and Belgium, and suffered through the evacuation at Dunkirk. After a brief stint with the 42nd Division, they gave him the 56th, and sent him to Sir Edward Quinan’s 10th Army forming up in Persia. It was there that his 56th Division was moved from Iraq to Syria, where its acquaintance with German panzer divisions had left it bruised and needing rest.
By now it had time to refit and receive replacements for the two battalions that had been largely destroyed in the previous action at Palmyra. But the hammer was falling again, double loaded this time, and Miles sent an immediate message to Quinan: My Division heavily engaged east and south of Jebel Lebtar. Situation doubtful.
Doubtful indeed. It was Rommel, doing what he had demonstrated time and again in Libya. He would find a flank and turn it as the first action of any major offensive, and if Richard O’Connor had been there, he would have seen what was happening immediately. Unfortunately, O’Connor was over a thousand miles away, his troops assaulting the Italians at Mareth after the Germans pulled out their infantry there. The good news had come in earlier that day—the Italians were retreating! By Mid-day, so was Miles and his 56th Infantry Division.
Now Alexander and Quinan had to decide how best to react. “We’ve been hoodwinked,” said Quinan. “Rommel hit Miles on our flank.”
“So it seems,” said Alexander. “And here it looked as though he was about to come head and shoulders against General Freeman and the 46th.”
“He’s hit Freeman too,” said Quinan, “again, right on his easternmost flank.”
“Well that looks to be a spoiling attack,” said Alexander.
“No, I think he wants to cut off the Basiri Gap. Then we won’t be able to send anything through to help out Miles, and he’ll be stuck over there on the other side of this ridge all on his own. What’s it called?”
Alexander squinted at the map. “Jabal Ghanim. Sits there like a damn brick wall, and yes, the gap is our only way to get Miles any help, but should we? All we might send is the 25th Armored Brigade, but even then, I don’t like that fight. Miles said he’s been hit by at least two good German Divisions. One more brigade won’t help all that much. To my mind, he’s on the wrong side of the fence, and we ought to pull him out of there.”
“Well he can’t m
ove south,” said Quinan. “There’s nothing there but the bloody Syrian Desert.”
“Yes, but if he can fall back towards the southern end of Basiri Gap, then he can use this road on the far side of Jabal Ghanim. In fact, we’ll need him there in any case. That’s the road to Damascus.”
That fell like too much lemon in the tea, and both men could feel the tension rising. “You think he might be after Damascus?” asked Quinan.
“Possibly, but more likely a turning maneuver,” said Alexander. “If he tries to turn our flank, we’ve got that nice brick wall there.”
“Why would he do that?” said Quinan. “Damascus would be a real prize, and this is Rommel….”
Yes, this was Rommel. When you could take something of value, he would, and he was a master of the indirect approach in battle, and right in his element here. That Syrian desert that Quinan assumed to be so impassible for Miles to use in any retreat, was as good as a four-lane highway to Rommel. He had seen all that and worse in Libya, though he did not yet have the time to really brief his troops on how they must fight in the desert.
“Damascus,” said Quinan.
“That’s a far throw,” said Alexander. “Larminat’s Free French Division is posted there if he tries it.
“That won’t be enough,” said Quinan. “50th Northumbrian just passed through Rayak on the way here. We could stop that column and turn it about for Damascus.”
Alexander thought about that. He had summoned the 50th when it arrived, because he wanted to use it to open his own big offensive, something that had taken long hours of meticulous planning. Now here was Rommel, stealing his thunder and spoiling the show. They were all set to kick off in 48 hours. He was going to bring up the 50th, and all of 1st Armored, and then push right for Palmyra again, only this time heavily reinforced.
Ironfall (Kirov Series Book 30) Page 12