Nexus Deep (Kirov Series Book 31)

by Schettler, John

  “Sounds like a hell of a team,” said Patton.”

  “Indeed,” said Monty. “Then we’ll be using your three Ranger Battalions, along with a number of our own Commandos and Royal Marines. In deep reserve, we’ll have your 1st Armored Division, and one more good British Division. I would have selected the 50th, but it’s still in Syria, on the wrong side of Malta, so we’ll nominate the 4th Mixed Division. Of course, if the going gets rough, we can select anything else in the cupboard.”

  “Alright,” said Patton. “Where do I land?

  “You’ve got the bay off Gonessa in the southwest. Then you move inland, take Iglesias and Carbonia, and push up the rail line towards Cagliari.”

  “So we get the prize,” Patton smiled, liking the fact that he had been assigned Cagliari.

  “That’s the principle port on the island,” said Montgomery. “We’ll need it to bring in the bulk of our armored support and follow on troops. So I’ll be coming for it as well. The main landing will be conducted at Oristano Bay, with 51st and 3rd British Infantry Divisions and supporting forces. I’ll take Oristano and establish a strong defensive bastion there, but forces will be detached to push southeast through the Campidano Plain as I indicated earlier. That will flank anything the Germans try to send your way from the north.”

  “Germans? I thought this was an Italian show?”

  “There’s been an intelligence update,” said Eisenhower. “The Germans reconstituted their 15th Infantry Division from anything they managed to pull out of Tunis and Bizerte. It moved through Corsica to Sardinia three days ago. And they put another division on Corsica, which might attempt to join the action down here—the 90th Light—reconstituted as well.”

  “The more the merrier,” said Patton. “I kicked those bastards out of Tunisia, and now I’ll do the same here.”

  “Now then,” said Montgomery. “Once Cagliari is secured, we’ll coordinate to begin the drive north to clear the island. General Patton, you’ll advance up the east coast, while my corps pushes north from Oristano for Sassari. Then we hook northeast to La Maddalena.”

  “So we get the east coast… There are no good roads there at all.” There was just the hint of a complaint in Patton’s tone.

  “Nothing we haven’t encountered before,” said Montgomery.

  “You won’t hook right until you take Sassari?”

  “Well, by the time I get up there, I should also have 1st Canadian in hand, and I’ll send that division north to Sassari while I turn at Chilivani and follow the main rail line towards Olbia and La Maddalena. You’ll come up the east coast, secure the capitol at Nuoro, and then keep pushing up the coast to Olbia.”

  “So we mop up the loose ends, while you get the glory.”

  “Come now, General Patton, if it’s glory you’re after, I’m sure you’ll find plenty to do once you land. As I’m commanding the main battle force, it’s only natural that my advance must proceed up the west coast.”

  “Of course,” said Patton, with a narrow-eyed look. After the briefing, he had more to say to Eisenhower.

  “Look Ike,” he began. “I can understand why you threw a bone to the British and put Monty in the driver’s seat. I mean, we pulled the Husky plan right out from under him. But it rankles me to think he’ll go parading up the west coast while I struggle north on those goat trails out east. How am I supposed to get Task Force Abrams up that coast?”

  “You’ll get through,” said Eisenhower. “That’s why we picked you, Georgie. Now, I don’t want the two of you at loggerheads. That’s why Bradley will be right there to keep an eye on things and liaison with Montgomery. You see to the fighting.”

  “Damn right I will,” said Patton, blowing off steam. “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, goat trails and all. I’m going to beat that Limey son-of-a-bitch to La Maddalena, if it’s the last thing I do!”

  Eisenhower gave him that famous grin.

  Chapter 27

  Darby’s Rangers had the honor of the first units to hit the coast of Sardinia. Arriving before dawn on the 15th of June, they deployed from fast APD type destroyers at the small harbor of Porto Botte, about 25 kilometers southeast of Patton’s main landing site. 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions stormed that port to find the only defense there was from the relatively weak Sardagena MG Battalion. Before sunrise, they had the port, and chased the enemy another 5 klicks inland. In those hours, it was all their war, the only troops from the Western Alliance engaged with the enemy in the entire theater.

  The 4th Rangers came in on the island of San Antioch, landing at Calsetta on the northwest tip, and finding nothing there but a ten-man constabulary, which was eager to switch sides the minute they saw the tough American Rangers. They then marched another seven kilometers, all the way across the island to another small fishing port at San Antioco. All the way, they were followed by villagers, local farmers, and the girls blowing kisses and handing them flowers, fruit and fresh milk. They were the first Allied troops to liberate European soil, and if the rest of the journey was going to be anything like this, the Rangers thought they’d be in Berlin by Christmas.

  Further north, the battleship Texas was starting to pound the beaches west of Gonessa, and with those first heavy salvos, telephones started ringing all over the island. The enemy had been caught by surprise. Even though they had taken the precaution of reinforcing both Corsica and Sardinia with two reconstituted German Divisions (90th Panzergrenadier and 15th Infantry) they did not expect the Allies to attack where they did.

  Montgomery’s planned operations against Pantelleria and Malta were only now being mounted, with Cunningham’s Eastern Med Squadron covering those assaults. A good many German aircraft were off to the south, or transferred to Sicily, and they were now racing to get the newly rebuilt Hermann Goring Division south through Naples to cross the Strait of Messina in the next few days. [3] The only German troops already on Sicily were largely Luftwaffe units, service troops, and March battalions that were being organized by Colonel Ernst-Guenther Baade. Originally meant to be reinforcements for Tunisia, they were now being stitched together into “Panzergrenadier Regiment Palermo.” Baade then began to gather up flak units with their powerful 88mm guns to roll them into the new “Division Sizilien ,” which would later be renamed the 15th Panzergrenadier Division after its famous older brother, the 15th Panzer that had perished in Tunis.

  Colonel Baade was a very competent man, a veteran of the fighting in North Africa where he had served with Rommel’s 15th Panzer. He was cool, professional, and brave under fire, yet always treated his enemies fairly if his unit took prisoners. There was both an art and a code that applied to war, and Baade embodied them both. He fought at Bir Hachim, Tobruk, and Rommel’s Gazala line. Now he was sent to build something from nothing on Sicily, and that was exactly what he was doing.

  He found that a number of veteran officers had escaped the debacle in Tunisia. Lieutenant Colonel Karl Ens was the first on his list, a good fighting officer with the 104th Panzergrenadiers before a battle wound saw him evacuated. Then he found Colonel Theodor Koerner off the 115th Panzergrenadier Regiment, and Lieutenant Colonel Fritz Fullriede of the 129th Panzergrenadiers. All three would now lead Kampfgruppes Baade was slowly building on Sicily.

  Like this unit, Major General Carl-Hans Lungerhausen had been tapped to rebuild the old 90th Light Afrika Division that had served under Rommel, and it was to be assigned to Sardinia. While Herman Goring and 15th Panzergrenadiers would form the heart of the Sicily garrison, Sardinia was supposed to get both 15th Infantry and the 90th Light, now also being rebuilt as a Panzergrenadier Division by Lungerhausen. While the 90th was waiting for its transport, the 15th Division went ahead by ship from Toulon, a patchwork of ex-north Africa vets, men recuperating from service on the Ostfront , and new recruits. Its presence on Sardinia was therefore part of the altered history of these events, and it had only just arrived there.

  Corsica was to have been garrisoned by the Reichsführer Division, but it was n
ow far away in Russia, holding the line just outside the city of Kharkov. So there was nothing for Corsica, which led Kesselring to decide to move the 90th there as a first stop on June 10th. “If we need more than the 15th on Sardinia, we can always move the 90th over the Bonifacio strait,” he told the new commander on Sardinia, General Frido von Senger und Etterlin.

  While this was going on, Erwin Rommel had been called to see Hitler again in Berlin where he was tasked with building the units that would be needed for the defense of Italy.

  “I have had to send a part of your old command in Syria to Manstein,” Hitler told him. “But all of Kübler’s Mountain troops are there, and you may find units rebuilding in France as well, including your old favorite, the 7th Panzer.”

  “I was very glad to see that most of the key personnel from that division were safely evacuated from Tunisia,” said Rommel. “What am I to do with this new Army?”

  “We have a plan,” said Hitler. “I am calling it Operation Alarich—the occupation of Italy by strong German forces in the event that the Italians begin to waver. Kübler has five mountain Divisions. The SS will go to Serbia, but the others go to Italy. We must be ready to move decisively to disarm the Italian forces in Italy and seize control. Believe me, this is no small order. Manstein has been hounding me for more divisions, and I have been forced to heavily reinforce Armeegruppe South. Guderian is being recalled for that, and now you must find troops for Italy for me. You will also have Student’s two Parachute Divisions, and anything else you can find in France—except SS formations being built there by Himmler.”

  Within 45 Days, the Germans would move 17 Divisions into Italy in the real history, and now, with Hitler’s fears made real with the news being shouted over those telephone lines on Sardinia, Rommel would have to move with decisive quickness to build a force capable of undertaking the task of controlling Italy.

  “Am I to command there?” he asked.

  “Kesselring is already there, and he has very good relations with the Italians. So for the moment, he will retain command. As you know, the Italians are not entirely fond of you.”

  “Nor I of them,” said Rommel.

  “You see? Then politically, it is better that Kesselring retains command, but you will build his army as Inspector General of the Wehrmacht, and you will retain command of all other units in France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway, including the entire 15th Army. That is where the real threat will be looming—in the Pas de Calais.”

  “Yet most everything the British and Americans have now is right here in the Mediterranean or Middle East. That was one after effect of your Operation Phoenix .”

  “It is likely that most of those divisions will be withdrawn to England,” said Hitler. “I believe their immediate concern is in knocking Italy out of the war and keeping us tied down in the Balkans. In time, they will turn their eyes to France. As for Mussolini, I believe I still have his loyalty, and that of many of the Italian divisions, particularly those with good Fascist seed. Yet Italy is a problem, which is why we must be prepared to act.”

  Rommel shrugged, but nodded his ascent. He would build the army that would fight in Italy, just like his former subordinates had been busy building the divisions that would fight on Sicily and Sardinia, but he would not command. Yet Hitler took advantage of this meeting to ask what Rommel thought about the prospects for defending Italy.

  “The Allies will invade soon,” said Rommel, “and they will go for the outer islands first, Sicily and Sardinia. After that, they will follow with a landing on the Italian mainland. If they are smart, they will land north of Rome, and in that event, they will outflank anything we have in the south. But the north can be held—the resources of the rich Po Valley—particularly if a strong defensive position is prepared and manned by good German divisions before the enemy arrives. I would make that my principle strategy for Italy, a stone wall through the mountains in the north. Trying to hold the center and south exposes those forces to endless opportunities for seaborne flanking maneuvers. Fight there only to delay and buy time for this strong defensive front to be completed in the north.”

  “This is what I believe as well,” said Hitler, pleased that for once, he had a General that agreed with him. “Kesselring is of a different mind. He thinks the center and south can be held, but with mobile forces capable of reacting to any contingency, and tenacious infantry. Where would you build your defensive front?”

  “Along these mountains,” said Rommel, indicating the position on the map, “the Apennine Range. Anchor it just south of La Spezia in the west, and follow the mountains all the way south and east to Pesaro on the Adriatic. Place our reserves in the east, near Ravenna.”

  “A very good plan,” said Hitler. “I want you to select the divisions and supervise the building of this defensive front, and for that purpose, I will empower you with command of all divisions north of Rome. At the appropriate time, you are to seize all passes, key bridges, rail depots and other major roads in the north, and disarm any Italian units you can find. Kesselring is adamant that we should hold the south as well, and he has been organizing the initial defense there. He is convinced that the Allies will invade Sicily, but tells me he can delay them there for two months if they do so. Then he proposes delaying actions in the south, and successive lines of defense on the narrow waist of the peninsula between Naples and Termoli on the Adriatic. He would even want to defend Rome.”

  “That would be useless,” said Rommel, “and in some ways, it would be criminal. Do you realize the artistic legacy of that city? You are a man who understands culture, my Führer. Do not send your panzers into the narrow streets of Rome and destroy all that history and artwork.”

  “If I do choose to hold it, the Allies will be responsible if they attack us there.” Hitler had an unlimited capacity to shift the blame. “Yet at this time, I am inclined to withdraw all our forces north of Rome should Italy betray us. Very well… Go to Munich and establish a special headquarters there to plan this defensive front and complete your other tasks. You will be very well occupied in that.”

  In war, as in life, way leads on to way. Rommel would soon find that he had more to do than select divisions and build fortifications, for Churchill was still burning oil in his planning lamps for a Mediterranean strategy, and he was enlisting the support of Sir Alan Brooke to be his ambassador. What that would become was as yet part of the unformed mist of the future, something that not even Anton Fedorov could have predicted. Just as Rommel was picking up his gloves to depart, a runner came to the conference room, eyes alight with alarm.

  The Allies were invading Sardinia.

  * * *

  In the first hours of an invasion from the sea, confusion is as much a factor in the outcome as anything else. News of the fighting on the coast told von Senger where the enemy had attacked, but nothing of where else he might appear. The entire western coast of the island was a potential target, and with only one good German division at hand, he had to be very prudent as to how he would commit this force to the battle.

  The Gulf of Oristano had been considered a probable target if Sardinia was to be invaded, which was why the bulk of the Italian Bari division had been garrisoned there. Yet Monty was going to hit the beaches with two veteran British Divisions supported by a full armored brigade, and the Bari Division was not going to stop him.

  At the same time, a small airborne drop had been planned north of Oristano, conducted by Colonel John Frost, now elevated to command the 1st British Para Brigade for his defense against the Wiking Division in Syria. The main airfield in the region was very near the city, but there was also a small secondary strip at Milis, about seven kilometers to the north.

  The first two battalions landed, though they were fairly well scattered in the dark, but the 3rd Battalion got off to a late start with mechanical problems in the lead plane. By the time it reached the coast, it was nearing dawn, and German fighters became a real problem, forcing the mission to abort. So Frost proceeded w
ith two battalions, finding no German units at the airfield, and only a small force of Italian military police. Like Darby in the south, he would have his objective secured just after sunrise, but he would not keep it for very long.

  Other special operations saw British Commandos landing on the southern cape framing the bay to get after Italian shore batteries there, and the Royal Marines landed 15 kilometers to the south, where they were to destroy another coastal gun position at Torre Cosari.

  In Patton’s sector, he would soon realize that most of the available assault boat shipping had been claimed by Montgomery as well. There was only enough left over for Patton to land the infantry of two regiments in Terry Allen’s 1st Infantry, and two battalions of TF Abrams. Most of the artillery had to wait for the second wave later in the day. Patton steamed at his situation.

  Monty had told him that his maneuver south would cut the main roads and force any enemy troops to use the less developed roads on the east coast—the very same roads Patton would have to use himself to get up north. From his position at Oristano Bay, Monty also had a 50-kilometer lead on him in the race to La Maddalena, but it was still one that the fiery American General wanted to win.

  Very little moved that morning on the Axis side. Von Senger gave orders for 15th Infantry Division to prepare to move south, for it had only arrived on the island a few days earlier, and was concentrated in the north near La Maddalena and Sassari. The Bari Division rushed to man defenses at Oristano and the Sabuda Division sent three battalions up the road to Iglesias to face the wrath of George Patton. When von Senger reported to Kesselring, the Field Marshal was shocked that the Allies had moved so quickly after Tunis, and surprised they had selected Sardinia.