“That was our forward supply depot for General O’Connor’s entire operation while the Italians still had Benghazi,” he said. “We had fuel and ammo ships packed in like sardines on the south side of the harbor, and something ignited an ammo ship. That shore was also crowded with munitions ready for movement to the railhead. I’m afraid it was too much together at one time and place and the whole lot went up in the most spectacular mess anyone’s ever seen.”
Ike nodded. That was the gist of it, and he hoped it would now stop lips flapping about it so they could get on with things here. What he really knew about it, he would keep to himself, and it was a good deal more mysterious than Wavell’s straightforward story.
“Now that we’ve got Benghazi,” said Wavell, “we won’t have all our eggs in one basket like that again. Heaven forbid.”
“Very well,” said Eisenhower. “Gentlemen, here’s what’s at stake as we look at BLADERUNNER. First off, if we do this right, the enemy is looking at the complete loss of all his forces in North Africa—either that or he’ll simply have to pull them out. Beyond that, when General O’Connor is through with him, we’ll have all of Tripolitania in hand and maintain an occupation of all the former French and Italian colonies in Africa. That gives us a perfect base to stage a landing on Sicily and get started on the effort to knock Italy right out of the war. Beyond that, we’ll have fertile ground here to recruit new troops into the Free French Army, and I expect we can establish an entire Corps here when we’re done. There are some very good airfields on Sicily, and with Crete still under British control, we can then move heavy bombers to those islands to begin a concerted bombing campaign aimed at southern Germany by mid-year. And of course, once we have Sicily, we can move from there to either Italy or Southern France.” Always diplomatic, Eisenhower had thrown bones to the British 8th Army in the east, both air commanders, and the Free French, even though they had no representative present.
“Now,” he continued. “First things first. I know Generals Montgomery and Patton are eager to get started, but I wanted General Doolittle and Air Marshal Welsh here for a very good reason. The plain fact of the matter is this. If we’re to advance on either side of this operation, the air force must lead the way. We’ve simply got to establish air superiority at both ends.”
“Damn right,” said Patton, an aggrieved look on his face. “The Krauts took after me the other day and ran my ass into a ditch!”
“Well they must have seen that third star you’ve got on that jeep, George,” said Bradley with a smile, and there was a restrained chuckle all around the table.
“The point is,” said Patton, “we need better tactical coordination from the ground up. When our troops call for air support, I want it thick and hot. None of this shillyshallying about with the planes arriving 24 hours later.”
That set Welsh to shifting uncomfortably in his seat, but Doolittle only inclined his head in Patton’s direction. He had already spoken privately with Eisenhower about this topic, and he knew what was coming.
“Well and good, George,” said Eisenhower. “Support for the troops on the ground is part of it, but I disagree with that ground up approach. I want the air arms operating independently. Yes, we’ll have liaisons and ground officers working on the front lines, but they’ll be there to coordinate, not control. I want overall control of the air forces to remain right with the tactical officers who are best at that job. That would be Tedder, Coningham, and I’m bringing in a good man on our side as well, General Carl Spaatz. We call him ‘Tooey,’ and he knows his game. The way I see it, and both Welsh and Spaatz agree, is that we need to focus on a more strategic application of our air power, and not simply see it as a tactical support for the Army. Don’t worry George, you’ll get the support you need, but I want the real emphasis to be on overall air superiority operations and interdiction, not ground support.”
“General Spaatz is a good man,” said Welsh. “He’s been in the UK since 1940, and I daresay he’s well thought of by everyone there. He’s of the opinion that 8th Air Force in the UK could help us out a good deal by transferring bombers to overall command of ANAA.” He pronounced that ‘Anna,’ which was short for the Allied Northwest African Air Force. “I can’t underscore the importance of using them heavily in the interdiction effort, and applaud the concept of keeping the reins with the air force commanders. No offense, General Patton, but we can’t be Johnny on the spot everywhere. The situation on the ground changes a good deal hour by hour, yet if we do seize control of the airspace above your battlefield, the likelihood that you’ll have to get after German Heinkels with your pistol will diminish considerably.” Everyone laughed at that again, for they had heard that Patton did exactly that, standing his ground defiantly with a pistol in hand during a German strafing attack.
“So I don’t want a regimental Colonel out there thinking he’s got his own private air force just because we post an air liaison with his HQ.” Eisenhower underlined his point.
“The trouble we’ve had to date,” said Doolittle, “is keeping fighter squadron strength up. Joe Cannon has done a good job at Casablanca setting up machine shops for repairs, but we’ll need to move those forward into Algeria.”
“I spoke to him recently,” said Patton. “Hell of a good man. He says we took some decent fields as the Army advanced, but only three are any good for all weather operations.”
“Correct,” said Doolittle. “That would be Port Lyautey at Kenitra on the Atlantic coast, Tafaraoni south of Oran, and Maison Blanche just east of Algiers. If we could take Bone, we’d get another good field there. Aside from that, we’ve a lot of reserve fields being thrown together with PSP reinforcement.” That stood for Pierced Steel Planking, which had arrived from the states in abundance as part of the engineering effort required to operate in this terrain. The steel planks provided a sturdy under-bed to prevent the secondary fields from becoming unusable mud holes in the heavy January rains.
“The problem,” said Welsh, “is that all but one of those fields are behind the action now. The field at Port Lyautey is 700 miles to the rear, and not good for much of anything. That gives us the two fields at Oran and Algiers, the former being just over 300 miles behind the front. That will do for the bombers, but not the fighters. They’ll have to fly from Maison Blanche, or the smaller secondary sites. That field gives us a little edge over the battlefield just now, as the good German fields around Tunis and Bizerte are 250 miles east of the front. Yet if we advance as planned, their air situation will get better, and we’ll push farther and farther from Algiers.”
“Then we’ll need the field at Bone,” said Montgomery. “Perhaps we can use a combination of para units and Royal Marines to take it at an opportune time.”
“I like that,” said Patton. “Audacity. Keep the other fella on his toes. I’ve also got my eye on Tebessa near the Tunisian Border. There’s a good field down there at Les Bains.”
“Both are on our objective list,” said Eisenhower. “The bottom line in all of this needs to be kept in mind. This whole affair is about logistics. Whoever controls the air, controls the supply routes to North Africa—period. We’ve got the advantage there, but the Luftwaffe has made it hurt. Jerry knows where this game is really going to be won, and that’s why they’ve been going after our biweekly supply convoys with a passion. To date they’ve already sunk over 75 merchantmen, and damaged another 150 ships. That’s half a million tons they put under the sea, and another million sent back to the shipyards since we hit the beaches at Casablanca and Lisbon. They moved in some very experienced torpedo plane squadrons from Norway, and it’s been hell out there. The rest of our difficulties have been our own damn fault. Shipments have been misallocated, ships loaded, unloaded, and then loaded again; equipment buried in warehouses when it’s needed at the front. The Germans have held us off here with four damn divisions against the dozen we have at hand, and Tunis and Bizerte have everything to do with that.”
“There’s our problem in a nutshell,�
�� said Doolittle. “We’ve got to mount standing air patrols over both those harbors, and also cover the sea lanes. That doesn’t leave us a lot left over for close support, but we’re figuring to hold the line at 20%.”
“Well no wonder the Germans have been pounding my tanks with Stukas all month,” said Patton. “It takes a month to ship them over, another month to get them through the ports to my position, and then the Germans have a field day.”
“We’re working on it,” said Doolittle. “Now that we’re running round the clock operations at Maison Blanche, things should improve, but I can’t underscore the importance of seizing forward airfields. We need them.”
“Well, I hope to god we’re hitting them as hard as they hit us.”
“Good point,” said Eisenhower. “We need to get serious with our interdiction efforts. We’ll have to hit their fields hard, send bombers after the ports, and interdict their sea lanes as well.”
“We have,” said Welsh. “They’ve taken losses to their merchant shipping as we have, but the Germans are sending in a lot more of those new Siebel ferries through Toulon. Our torpedoes are useless against them, because their draft is so shallow. They just run right under them. And they’re too small a target to hit with any consistency with a bomber, particularly at night, which is when they mainly operate.”
“Gentlemen,” said Eisenhower. “These are all the reasons the Germans forced a stalemate on us here with so few forces. Now we have to show them we mean business. I’m assuming we have adequate supplies forward for BLADERUNNER?”
“My dumping operations concluded last week,” said Montgomery, a stickler for logistics, and Patton resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“Concluded?” he said facetiously. “Why general, you’re two weeks ahead of schedule, and considering we had the holiday season to contend with, that’s damn surprising.”
“Alright, George,” said Bradley, always the peacekeeper. “I’m sure Santa brought you more than a few presents in that interval.”
Montgomery cleared his throat, the time for levity over. “Very well, as you all know, the operation before us will have three phases. Contact with the enemy will be almost immediate. He’s dug in well, but I shall put in a good long artillery preparation to shake him up. After that we make the big push, where I plan on introducing my armor to attempt to breach his line. Exploitation follows, and should we unhinge his defense in the north, he’ll have no recourse but to pull back in the south, which will make your work there all the easier.” He eyed Patton. “Now then, we’ll push on up the coast through Fort Melila to Philippeville. There’s our first forward airfield. You’ll take Constantine, General Patton, which will then put us in a good position to push on to Bone while you take Souk Ahras and El Arba on the Tunisian border.”
“I could just as easily turn southeast from Constantine for Tebessa,” said Patton. “Once we get that, I can push right into Tunisia and make a run for the coast at Sfax.”
“That’s a long run, George,” said Bradley.
“You want a touchdown? Then someone has to do the running. I’m and old halfback when it comes to battle out here. You try to slug your way up that coastline, and the Germans can feed in one unit after another to slow you down. We need room to maneuver—do some broken field running.” He displayed that winning smile.
“All in good time,” said Eisenhower. “We need Constantine first. That’s the big supply center backstopping their line right now, and from there we have rail lines to Tebessa, Souk Ahras, and up to the coast through Philippeville to Bone. Once we take that, we’ll revisit the question. Any drive we make through southern Tunisia will have to be coordinated with 8th Army on the other side. Until then, I expect some hard fighting.”
“That’s the only kind worth a damn,” said Patton. “I’m up against a pretty tough outfit, Rommel’s old 10th Panzer Division. They raised a good bit of hell out your way, General Wavell, but I plan on going right through them.”
“I’m sure you will, General,” said Montgomery. “And your victory will cover my flank perfectly as I drive for Tunis.”
Patton gave Monty a narrow eyed smile.
“General Wavell,” said Ike. “How soon do you expect to jump off operations aimed at Tripoli.”
“Immediately. O’Connor has reorganized and come up on the German Buerat Line south of Sirte. It’s going to be more of that same hard fighting, but we think we have the mass in hand to move Rommel this time. They’ll defend the coast road as always, but our main effort will be inland. First we’ll want to get up through Mahallah to Wadi Zem Zem, and from there we’ll flank their the Buerat line by pushing for Bani Walid. After that it’s a straight shot for the armor up to Tarhuna, while the infantry clears the coast road through Misrata. Yet it will be some time before we get anywhere near Mareth for a drive into southern Tunisia, particularly if Rommel intends to fight.”
That would be an understatement, for Rommel did indeed intend to fight, but not on the Buerat line.
Chapter 5
Rommel could read a map as good as any general that ever fought, and he was soon convinced that the position at Buerat was far from satisfactory. To begin with, it was just over 250 miles along the main road from Tripoli to Sirte, making for a round trip exceeding 500 miles for his supply columns. The ground to the south of his line was open enough to present the British with easy opportunities to flank him, and there was much better ground closer to Tripoli itself at Tarhuna. There, a long stretch of hills and rough ground extended from Al Khums on the coast east of Tripoli, to a position 50 miles south of the city at Garyan.
The British will not get around that line easily, he thought, particularly if I develop the positon around Tarhuna. That is where I want to fight, a defensive line that is within forty to 60 miles of my major supply port, where our air fields are close at hand to provide good support. Yielding the ground between Buerat and Tarhuna won’t hand the enemy anything more than wasteland, stretches of desert and the big coastal marshes south of Misrata. There are no good airfields I would lose, except at Sirte, and I’ll set my engineers to tearing up that field before I give the order to withdraw.
Back we go, he smiled. Hitler won’t like it, but I give the British nothing worth taking. Just one small field at Sirte, and another at Bani Walid, and 200 miles of empty ground for them to haul their lorries over before they can come to grips with me again. The hills and escarpments favor me as well, forming a nice little castle wall that extends south and west, about 50 miles beyond Tripoli. I’ll have the fertile ground around the city, plenty of food and water for my men, short supply lines, and good roads. There’s even a rail line heading west towards Mareth. If they beat me here, or other events mandate a withdrawal, then Mareth is my next defensive line, perhaps one of the best in North Africa.
Just after the new year, Rommel gave the order for the Italians to pull out, still leaving his own divisions on the line they had held for some time. He knew his enemy had been reorganizing, dumping supplies, expanding the port facilities at Benghazi as well. That strange news concerning the explosion at Tobruk was most interesting. Knowing the British would see the Italians beginning to move, he gave orders to both his Panzer divisions to stand ready in case the enemy opened their offensive. Yet reports came back from the forward lines that the British were only conducting light patrols with armored cars.
Then, on the 4th of January, a major storm blew in, with gale force winds lashing the port at Benghazi. Ships were thrown into one another, one slipping its moorings and crashing into the inner harbor. Ferries and small boats were tossed about like toys, and four ships were sunk in the bay, completely swamped, including one with 2000 tons of ammunition in her holds. LCTs 106 and 107 foundered and went down, and the general chaos caused by the storm reduced the port from an average of 3000 tons per day in deliveries to no more than 1000.
That will give O’Connor pause, thought Rommel, for he realized that until the British sorted that mess out, they had no real sup
ply port to rely on. Tobruk was still useless according to all reports, the wreckage in the harbor making it unsafe for any shipping, the town itself blasted and burned, and a heavy security blanket thrown over the whole area by the British. His long range recon patrols by the Luftwaffe reported that the enemy was still moving supplies by rail from Cairo and Alexandria, and truck pools were being organized at Mersa Matruh, but that was hundreds of miles behind the current front.
So this is the perfect time to pull out, Rommel realized, and he did so in December, again using inadequate supply deliveries over the 500 mile circuit as his salient reason. Kesselring was nervous about the move, worried that Hitler would react badly and become even more intransigent, but the military storms in Russia had completely absorbed his attention. So he approved the withdrawal, couching it as a redeployment to the main line of defense for Tripoli, and then he inveighed upon Rommel to hold that line, no matter what. He had to do something to appease the Italians.
In surveying that ground, Rommel decided that the open area around Homs would not be suitable to a protracted defense, and so he withdrew west of that city, placing the Italians on the coast near the village of Negazza. There, Hill 151 sat right astride the coast road to anchor that line, and the ground rose as it moved inland to the southwest, screening Tripoli. Those hills would be Rommel’s castle wall, where he would post his best infantry to prevent the coastal position from being easily turned. Behind the Italians, he set the 15th Panzer Division in ready reserve.
Further south, just beyond the thickest part of the hills, was the city of Tarhuna, and it was there that he posted his old favorite 7th Panzer Division under von Funck. He fully expected the British to move into Homs, and there was a good road from that coastal town to Tarhuna, and a lot of open ground to the east that was well suited to a mobile defense. That road passed through Tarhuna, continuing west through lower hills before bending northwest towards Tripoli, so a lot rested on the defense of 7th Panzer.
Lions at Dawn (Kirov Series Book 28) Page 4