Lions at Dawn (Kirov Series Book 28)

by John Schettler

  Now Jodl and Keitel stood there, aghast at what they had just seen. “Well?” said Hitler, looking at them like an enraged bull. “Do you both wish to join Halder in early retirement, or will you bend your backs to the task at hand here and prove yourselves useful? Send for General Zeitzler. I intend to appoint him as the new Chief-of-Staff of the Army this very moment!”

  Neither Jodl or Keitel said a word, seemingly frozen when confronted by Hitler at the very edge of another of his terrible tirades concerning the duplicity and incompetence of his Army Generals. It has long been said that all it will take for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Whether Jodl or Keitel might count themselves in the ranks of good men remained to be seen, but that day they did nothing.

  “Rommel could not deliver on his promises to give me Alexandria, and now he has his back to Tripoli!” Hitler reiterated his reason for this alarming new plan blooming in his mind like a dark rose. “Therefore I am now reinstating several previous Führer Directives. Order Number 30, concerning the movement of troops to Syria and Iraq will be reinstated immediately. All available mountain troops will be used, even if such forces are already allocated to the Leningrad Operation. Furthermore, Führer Order Number 32 will now stand as the overall guide for the remainder of our winter operations, and Plan Orient will be redesignated Operation Phoenix. Has anyone of you even noticed that the Japanese have recently taken Ceylon? They do not lack the imagination of my Generals, do they? Nor do they stand about whining over fuel and supplies. They just go and take them. These things will be found. The troops will be found, and this operation will proceed.”

  Finally Jodl found his voice. “Then you mean to invade Iraq?”

  “How else can I get to the Persian Gulf? And I also mean to invade Syria. How else will I get to Cairo? These operations will now be given the highest military priority. I will select the divisions personally and, unless you wish to follow Halder into the dustbin of history, you will carry out the orders I give and see to all the details. Understood? That is not all. Führer Directive Number 28 will also be reinstated—Operation Merkur.”

  “But that will mean we will have to pull all the air mobile divisions out of North Africa,” said Keitel.

  “Then do so! At Once! I will not allow the British to build up bomber bases on that island. It should have been taken long ago.”

  Jodl passed a moment recalling that it had been Hitler who personally cancelled those plans for the invasion of Crete, all in favor of leap frogging directly into Lebanon and Syria after taking Cyprus. Of course, he said nothing of this, as Hitler rambled on.

  “The plans for Operation Merkur will be re-activated immediately. The 15th Infantry Division presently at Toulon may be sent to replace the Fallschirmjagers, but I want them all ready for an airborne operation against Crete in short order. I have already ordered Goring to begin moving the necessary troop transports to Greece, and the shipping will be found—see to that, Jodl. See if Raeder can scrape up a few troop ships to move my mountain divisions. You have two weeks. I want this entire operation ready by the 15th of January.”

  Hitler swept back the hair that had fallen onto his brow, slowly composing himself. “A pity Halder lost his nerve,” he said slowly. “This Operation Merkur was one of his old favorites. All the plans are there. You need only find them and sweep the cobwebs off of them. So get busy, gentlemen. I will order Raeder and Goring to arrange support.”

  Everything was give and take with the Army, and if he wanted to reinstate these grand plans, it was clear that something else had to be abandoned, and it would have to be something on the Russian Front. Later that same day, his eyes pouring over lists of troops and divisions, Hitler rescinded his stand fast order to General Walter Model, and told him to begin extricating his 2nd Panzer Armee, including the 47th Panzer Korps, and the 12th Infantry Korps, from the pocket they were in near Voronezh. The wergild he would pay for those troops would be that hard won city.

  Advised by Keitel that his plan would need several fast motorized divisions, and perhaps one or two good panzer divisions, he took the 10th Motorized Division from reserve behind Volgograd, and then selected the elite Brandenburg Motorized Division. There were already mountain troops still holding in Northern Syria, and he recalled the 1st Mountain Division under Kubler to join them. He also added a Jaeger Division from the 49th Geiberg’s Korps in the Caucasus, and the SS Prinz Eugen Mountain Division. Convinced that he needed an experienced and aggressive Panzer Leader, he decided to give Heinz Guderian one last call to glory, this time far from the debilitating snows of Russia. Surprised at the offer, Guderian accepted. The following order of battle was the overall force structure for Plan Orient, now renamed Operation Phoenix.

  GERMAN ARMY – OPERATION PHOENIX –7 JAN 43

  General Heinz Guderian

  14th Panzer Korps - General Hans Hube (Irak Force)

  3rd Panzer Division

  4th Panzer Division

  10th Motorized Infantry Division

  Brandenburg Motorized Infantry Division – 5 Brigades

  49th Geibergs Korps - General Ludwig Kubler (Syria Force)

  1st Mountain Division

  6th Mountain Division

  SS Prinz Eugen Mountain Division

  104th Jaeger Division (Arriving from Serbia 1 FEB 43)

  12th Infantry Korps – General Walther Gräßner

  (To be made available pending outcome of initial operations)

  31st Infantry Division

  34th Infantry Division

  45th Infantry Division

  GERMAN ARMY – OPERATION MERKUR – 28 JAN 43

  7thFleigerKorps – General Kurt Student

  1st Fallshirmjager Division (Three regiments)

  2nd Fallshirmjager Division (Two regiments)

  22nd Luftland Air Mobile Division. (Theater Reserve)

  5th Mountain Division (Held in reserve for Operation Merkur)

  On Cyprus:

  78 Sturm Division

  (Assigned to Syrian Front and replaced by 746th Inf Reg)

  After making these selections, General Model was reassigned to help oversee preparation for the Leningrad operation as soon as weather permitted in Russia. Since that was to be the major thrust this year, Hitler saw no reason why he should not prune the ranks of armies assigned to the central front, particularly forces facing off the Russians at Moscow, and southeast through Orel to Voronezh. He gave orders re-directing new panzer allocations so they would go directly to the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions to bring them up to strength, and pulling “Der Mensch,” General Hans Hube, out of France was the perfect choice for the new commander of the 14th Panzer Korps.

  Keitel recommended that Hube’s old 16th Panzer Division, still in France, should go to General Günther Angern. There it would stand in reserve for possible deployment to North Africa, and this development would literally breathe new life into General Angern. In the old history, he had killed himself in February of 1943, at a place then call ‘Stalingrad’…. But that would never happen, nor would his new division be destroyed there and be resurrected as the 116th later in the war. As for Model’s 12th Infantry Korps, it would be sent to Greece first for much needed rest, and to receive new recruits. Then it would be placed in general reserve to support all these operations.

  The Führer was quite satisfied when he completed his reassignments, buoyant in spite of the row he had with Halder. Now he saw General Zeitzler as the perfect replacement for Halder, a breath of fresh wind for OKW, and he had every confidence that his new directives would be the undoing of all British aspirations in Egypt and the Middle East. He gave the order that Operation Phoenix would begin no later than January 7th, to be followed in three weeks by Operation Merkur.

  The war was about to spin off in an entire new direction.

  Part III

  The Halfback

  “Victory requires payment in advance.”

  —Football slogan

  Chapter 7

  When Kesselri
ng got the order to send all his air mobile and mountain troops to Toulon he was incensed. Two regiments of Kubler’s 1st Mountain Division were holding the southern extreme of his line outside Batna, not only guarding that vital pass, but also covering the left of his two Panzer divisions in the center. In the north, the entire line was presently being held by the tough, veteran troops of 7th Flieger Korps, including the 22nd Luftland Division. He met with General von Arnim to give him the bad news, still distraught over the development.

  “What?” Von Arnim was astonished. “How in the world am I supposed to hold this front without those troops?”

  “They are sending us the 15th Infantry Division from Toulon as a replacement.” Kesselring pulled off his gloves, leaning over the map table, seeing von Arnim shake his head in amazement.

  “Well why don’t they just use those troops for their purposes and leave well enough alone here? This will cause a major dislocation of forces. It will be impossible to hold our current positions under these circumstances.”

  “For some reason, they want Student’s entire Korps!” Kesselring had not been informed of the full scope of what Hitler was now planning, but his orders had come directly from OKW, and with emphasis that the full force of a Führerbefehl was behind the directive. What about the 327th Infantry?” he asked.

  “They had the worst of it at Algiers,” said von Arnim. “I moved them back to Constantine to refit and rest.”

  “Well we will have to use them.”

  “This is madness! We’ll be lucky if we can even hold any line west of Constantine now. We may even have to retreat all the way back into Tunisia!”

  “So be it,” said Kesselring. “I agree that the present line cannot be held, but now you must fight a very stubborn rear guard action while we rebuild our defenses further east.”

  “With what? I’ll need both Panzer Divisions together to have any chance at all of slowing one of their armies down. Who do I pick, Montgomery or Patton? They’ve been building up for the last two months, and Montgomery is wound up like a spring on the northern coast. An attack is imminent. Patton has been probing aggressively for the last two weeks.”

  “Then it will hit thin air,” said Kesselring. “That will be most disconcerting for them. We must use the terrain skillfully here, slow them down on the narrow roads through all these mountains.” He waved his hand over the map, his mind already rating terrain features for their defensive merit. In the old history, Kesselring had been a master of the art of defense, which he clearly demonstrated during the battle for Sicily and fighting in Italy. A Luftwaffe General, he had always fought with his beloved Fallschirmjagers, and to see them summarily taken from him now was a hard blow.

  “Thin air,” said von Arnim bitterly. “That is a very apt description of our front line if we have to give up those troops.”

  “Come now,” said Kesselring, always the optimist, which is why he was often called “Smiling Albert” by other officers. “I have been sending over a lot of service troops with the Siebel ferry deliveries. I have flak units, and I’ve used these men to form a number of ad hoc battalions—some motorized with the supply column trucks. I have five March Battalions and another five leg battalions in and around Tunis. The Italians are also promising us more help. We will just have to make do with what we have. It can’t be helped.”

  “What about Rommel?” said von Arnim bitterly. “He just stole away the 501st Schwerepanzer battalion, and he has more troops in Libya than he really needs to defend Tripoli.”

  “What? Rommel? He’s still whining that you have his 10th Panzer Division. No, I’m afraid getting anything from him now will be like pulling a tooth without anesthetic. This General O’Connor is getting ready for a big push on Tripoli.”

  “Undoubtedly timed for the big push here on Tunis,” said von Arnim bitterly.

  “Don’t worry,” said Kesselring. “Rommel will stop them. He’s had a little taste of victory again after Mersa Brega.”

  “Oh? You call that a victory? He withdrew all the way to Tarhuna—abandoned that line at Buerat over the objection of Bastico and even Mussolini.”

  “Yes, he can be infuriating at times, but that line at Buerat was useless. Now he’s in a much better position at Tarhuna. He can hold there easily, if he doesn’t get any notion about racing off to Alexandria again.”

  “Then tell him I need support here.”

  “I will see what I can do for you. In the meantime, I will get the 15th Infantry to Tunis as quickly as possible. Begin pulling out tonight, and all the air mobile units get priority on the available rolling stock. It’s too risky to move them by plane.”

  Von Arnim was resigned to his fate, though he would stew about this, and quite bitterly, for some time after. There was already little love between him and Rommel. Now he saw this as yet another example of Rommel throwing his Blue Max around and getting his way at the dinner table, while his own command would have to gnaw at any bone that happened to fall on the floor.

  “What is happening, Albert?” he asked his superior officer, knowing him well enough to be on a first name basis like that.

  “I don’t have all the details,” said Kesselring, but Goring is sending Auntie Ju to Greece in droves.” Auntie Ju was the nickname the Germans had given to their stolid Ju-52 transport planes. “I think there’s a big operation in the offing. They want Student’s troops, and that means an air operation is forthcoming, possibly at Crete.”

  “Crete? That operation was cancelled long ago.”

  “You know how Hitler’s mind works. He never quite got over the failure of Operation Condor. Frankly, Crete should have been taken long ago. We’re lucky we had the presence of mind to take Malta when we did. If we had not done so when the British were weak there, they would have made that place a real thorn in our belly. Now I fear that Crete will be a much tougher nut to crack as well.”

  “Then Hitler is willing to trade what’s left of Algeria for that island? Doesn’t he realize what these orders of his will do here?”

  “Whether he realizes it or not hardly matters,” said Kesselring. “At least this time I won’t have to gnash my teeth to choose ground I want when it involves a withdrawal. We must fight hard here, be very stubborn, but I will have a new line in place for you when you get further east. This sector looks promising.”

  Kesselring pointed at the map, running his finger. “This sector here, between Khenchela and the pass south of Ain Beida must be held. It screens the American access to Tebessa, and you know that they will want that as their forward base for a push into central and southern Tunisia.”

  “Correct,” said von Arnim with a shrug. “Batna was the cork in the bottle, but if Kubler has to go, I’ll try to fight a delaying action there with Fischer’s 10th Panzer.”

  “Use that as a hinge to anchor your defense in the south. Then swing all the rest back east, like a door opening. We’ll try and run the line up through Constantine to Philippeville on the coast. That’s the best we can do for now. After that, we fall back to Tebessa itself, which becomes the new southern hinge, and then run the line up through Mesoula to Souk Ahras to Bone on the coast, right along this rail line.”

  “They’ll pick up quite a few airfields.”

  “We can’t help that. But I’ll make certain that we get our planes and service crews out early. We’ve plenty of good fields around Tunis and Bizerte. Those ports are the key to this whole theater, along with Tripoli. If we lose those, it’s over.”

  “Alright, Herr General, I will do what I can with the panzer divisions, and if you can get anything more from Rommel, it would certainly help.”

  That very day, the withdrawal began, as surreptitiously as the Germans could make it. Heavy equipment was pulled off the line and loaded on trucks, but mines were laid liberally to delay any pursuit. Bridges were wired for demolition, the unused portion of the rail lines wrecked, and then, after night fell, the troops formed up columns and proceeded with all headlights out, guided by a single vehicle
in the van.

  The following morning, the 3rd of January, Montgomery kicked off his offensive in the typical grand way with a massive bombardment. The shells fell on abandoned positions, blasted away wire, detonated mines, but did little more than kick up a lot of dirt and dust. Then the 2nd Lothian Border Horse led the way for 6th Armored Division, advancing along the coastal rail line from Bougie. Surprised to find no real resistance, they met and drove off a small flak company the 22nd Luftland had left along a river near Les Falais.

  1st Derbyshire Yeomanry followed, pushing over the river at a shallow segment and continuing the advance until they met the Schwere company of 22nd Recon Battalion. Then 16th and 17th Lancers came up, with a mix of Churchills, Valentines and Crusader IIIs. The only hindrance they encountered was from above, where Kesselring had the Luftwaffe out to interdict the key roads and go after any columns of opportunity.

  Further inland the 3rd Mixed Division led with the 43rd RTR from its 33rd Armored Brigade, and then the 1st Grenadier Guards Infantry Battalion. About 15 kilometers on, they found a bridge blown and there seemed to be no way around it for the tanks. A small group of German flak guns began firing on the Grenadiers, prompting the tanks to load H.E. shells and return with a massed volley. Then the infantry worked around two sides of the enemy position to clear it out, but the blown bridge was going to need engineers.

  Monty thought things were going swimmingly, until reports indicated no serious fighting anywhere along his line of advance. By day’s end, he would have his troops strung out along the few good roads, with the columns stretching back some 50 kilometers to a point well beyond Bougie.

  “They’ve snookered me,” he said to his able Chief of Staff, Sir Francis Wilfred de Guingand. Those around him simply called him Freddie de Guingand, a long-time friend of the general who had been given a leg up to get into the saddle on more than one occasion by Monty. Freddie had failed his entrance exam to the Staff College, but Montgomery saw that he was admitted. That meant nothing, for the close working relationship between the two trumped all. Monty said he had a quick and clear brain, a responsible man to work out the details of his plans and leave the broad stroke thinking to the General. He would serve at Monty’s side for the duration of the war.