Hammer of God

Chapter 9

The mobile force arrived in Palestine amid the final preparations for Operation Scimitar. It had taken two weeks to move all the troops into position. The entire Australian 7th Division, all three brigades, was now positioned south of the Lebanese border. The troops had been advised to lay low, with all leave cancelled, and even told to remove their characteristic hats so as not to be identified as Australians. Fedorov knew this force was now a third stronger than the old history, where only two brigades of the division had been available for Operation Exporter. It would be the main advance on Beirut up the coast road and as far inland as the Jordan River. Additional support here would come from the Royal Scotts Greys and Stafford Yeomanry battalions, moving up the road from Haifa in universal carriers and trucks.

Further east, the 5th Brigade of the 4th Indian Division was assembling in Jordan near the town of Irbid. It’s mission was to cross the Syrian border and seize Daraa, the town where the fabled Lawrence of Arabia had been captured and tortured by the Turks in the First World War. From there they would drive north, providing the right flank defense for the central column, where the Free French had two brigades.

This column would drive through Golan and up the main road to Damascus, but Fedorov knew these units had not been as effective as hoped, and so the troops sent by Brigadier Kinlan for “Sabre Force” would be assigned here. The French column would be led by Kinlan’s tough Gurkha battalion, and the three troops of Scimitar tanks. It was here also that the X-3s would operate as a fire support unit, and both the Argonauts and Troyak’s force would advance on the ground with the Gurkhas. Kinlan had provided some Dragon AFVs for transport for the Fairchild men and the Russian Marines by pulling from HQ troops in his brigade. The Gurkhas were going in British trucks. The Attack was set for the pre-dawn hours of March 12, and began with every hope of achieving a rapid success.

They would be up against about twenty battalions of French Colonial troops. Fedorov had been able to lay out the entire order of battle for the Vichy French in Syria. It was a mottled collection of troops from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, local Circassian cavalry, and other tribal forces. There was one regular regiment of French Infantry, and four good battalions of the Foreign Legion that would prove to be tough, veteran troops. They also had many battalions of artillery, mostly 75mm howitzers, and 90 R-35 French tanks in the 6th and 7th African Chasseurs. Another 36 older FT17 tanks dating back to WWI were also available from the training schools. These added to a good number of old “White” armored cars, gave them a little mechanized punch, and there were plenty of trucks in the Levant to give their forces good mobility.

All in all, the Allied force had been strengthened by no more than a single Australian brigade and Kinlan’s troops, so Fedorov still expected a tough fight. He had every confidence that the British would now master the situation in Iraq, but did they have five weeks to slug through the rugged terrain of Syria and subdue the Vichy French? These were the last questions discussed before Churchill departed for England, a new lightness in his step with the godsend he had received from a distant future.

As for Fedorov, he was now back aboard Kirov at Alexandria on the eve of the operation, where the British fleet was consolidating and replenishing. Admiral Cunningham would be assigning two small task forces to support the operation as it moved up the coast. Two light cruisers would operate on the first days of the attack, designated Force A for the lead cruiser Ajax, along with Phoebe and six destroyers. They would escort the Glengyle, with three sections of Royal Marine Commandos, the No. 11 Scottish Commando tasked with trying to seize the coastal bridge over the Litani and interdicting the movement of enemy reinforcements down that road. It was this ill-fated operation that Fedorov had shared with Churchill when he tried to advise him on the difficulties of this campaign. Now he hoped the troops would fare better this time around.

If heavier support was needed, the heavy cruisers Kent and York were assigned as Force K, with four more destroyers. The battleships would stand ready at Alexandria to sortie in the event there was any sign of heavy units operating on the other side, though intelligence still had most of the Axis capital ships in Toulon and La Spezia. Tovey viewed the movement of Jean Bart and Richelieu to Toulon with some misgiving, as he knew there was yet another day of reckoning with the French Fleet, and the question of who ruled the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean had not yet been decided.

With only Invincible and Warspite now operational at Alexandria, the enemy still had a considerable advantage in big ships, even if several were still mending bruises and damage sustained in the last confrontation. For the moment, the presence of Kirov and Argos Fire was heartening, though he did not know how long he could hope to rely on those ships. So he took Churchill’s suggestion and decided to send for both Rodney and Nelson, leaving Somerville only the Valiant in Force H, as there was no longer a major threat from the French at Casablanca. The plodding battleships would be ten days steaming to Cape Town at 18 knots, and then another twelve days to Alexandria. With time for refueling at Cape Town, they would not arrive until the 5th of April.

The first word that British intelligence had of “Operation Anvil” had come from wireless intercepts from the Hindenburg, when Lutjens had used the name. Analysts thought it might refer to Crete, as the course set by the Franco-German fleet had been heading that direction before the recent engagement. Yet now the sudden buildup of planes on the Italian outpost island of Rhodes gave them second thoughts.

The Italians had controlled the Dodecanese Islands off Turkey since a treaty had ceded them the territory in 1911. Rhodes had been built up into a major aerodrome and military base, and there were fine airfields on Karpathos, and also on Leros, along with an excellent deep water port that prompted Mussolini to call the place “The Corregidor of the Mediterranean.”

JU-52 transport planes had been flocking to these islands, heavily escorted by German fighters, and landing at Klathos in the south, and at Maritsa in the north. British Gladiators had a look at the airlift, but were quickly driven off, and with only six operational Hurricanes on Crete, the R.A. F could not impede the operation, which looked to be a prelude for the German invasion of their own island. The force being moved was considerable, and there was also frenetic activity now observed at airfields all over Greece, and in the Dodecanese Islands at Kos.

That same night a number of fast cruisers and destroyers had sortied from Toulon, where the Vichy French fleet had been reinforced with the recall of ships from Casablanca. That far distant port was still a valuable outpost on the Atlantic, but after the losses they had sustained in the action against the British, Admiral Darlan had decided to consolidate his naval strength at Toulon. So it was that the powerful battleships Richelieu and Jean Bart slipped out of the harbor and raced north to Gibraltar, too fast to be caught by Rodney and Nelson. With HMS Glorious ordered south around the Cape of Good Hope, there was no Fleet Air Arm to speak of with Somerville’s Force H, as his relief carrier, Ark Royal, had not yet arrived from Home Fleet. The French took advantage and stole a march on the British, moving the two battleships, several cruisers and many super-destroyers to Toulon. There they made hasty preparations for the operation now underway, a plan that was to shift the history of the war in a sudden new direction.

So it was that the pieces were set for the opening of the battle that would soon decide the fate of events in the Middle East. Operation Scimitar was just about to begin, but the Germans had not been sitting idle, at least not the Fuhrer, and he now had grand ideas of his own.

Hitler had fretted over the strategy for some time, with the whispers and urging of Ivan Volkov in his ear, and the irritating disagreements of his senior officers at OKW. He became so frustrated at one point that he very nearly decided to call off the entire operation, preferring to husband all the units assigned for Barbarossa. It was then that he spoke with Erich von Manstein, listening to his cogent appraisal of the situation, and his assessment of the southern flank on the Black Sea wing of the big invasion plan. Then he determined that by using a few divisions now, before Barbarossa launched, he might make some considerable territorial gains, and intimidate the stubborn Turks into submission.

When I have Turkey in a vise of steel, he thought, with troops secure on every quarter, then we will see if they continue to equivocate. He gave orders that another Korps from the southern wing of Barbarossa would stage on the Turkish frontier, and then assembled OKW to order a new operation, bearing the same old code name to fool the British- Anvil.

The Germans still had a strong hammer that had already proven itself against the obstinate island of Malta. Student’s 7th Flieger Division had taken the British stronghold in seven days. Now only Crete and Cyprus remained as strong British outposts in the Eastern Med, and all the territory of Greece and her many islands in the Aegean had fallen under the Axis shadow. Rommel had been driven back, an annoyance that still embittered the Fuhrer, but the bold plan in his mind had fired his imagination again. When German intelligence got word that the British were shifting an infantry division from Mersa Matruh east towards Palestine, Hitler decided to act. He called in all the senior officers and staff of OKW, his eyes glaring at the map table as he spoke.

“The 1st Mountain Division scheduled for deployment in North Africa will not be sent there,” he said firmly. “I want it on the trains at once, and move it to Athens. As for the 5th Mountain Division, already in Greece, move it here.” He pointed to the deep water port of Lakki at Leros. “I have already secured rights from Mussolini, and we have captured all the shipping we need from the Greeks. The convoy will operate at night to forestall any interference from the British.”

“Rommel was expecting that division,” said Keitel.

“He already has two elite motorized brigades with Grossdeutschland and Goering’s troops,” said Hitler. “That, with the 90th motorized should be more than enough, and even that may be too much. He is sitting a thousand kilometers from Suez at the moment, and it will be some time before he can get these new forces situated and supplied for an offensive. We must make good use of that time to keep the pressure on the British. So now I will move Student’s entire Fliegerkorps to Rhodes.”

“What?” Halder was shocked by the sudden news. “As an occupation force? But my Fuhrer, that island is already garrisoned by the Italians. We do not need German troops there.”

“Do not argue with me, Halder. No. This is not an occupation force. The troops are merely staging there for the operation I will now describe to you-Operation Anvil.”

Keitel looked askance at Halder, for that was the code word that had been assigned to the aborted bombardment run against the British held ports on the coast of northern Crete. Now he spoke to support Halder. “The Navy is still making repairs at Toulon. They are not ready to attempt such a mission again.”

“The navy? I’ve said nothing of the navy.” Hitler rankled at the mention of the Kriegsmarine, the damage to both Hindenburg and Bismarck still sore spots. “Let the ships sit in port for all I care. We will use the Luftwaffe this time, and the results will be far better.”

Halder shook his head. “Student’s troops can reach Crete easily enough from our existing bases in Greece. There is no need to stage them on Rhodes. 8th and 11th Fliegerkorps are all poised for Unternehmen Merkur at this moment. This will only cause delays and upset the entire timetable.”

“Because we are not attacking Crete!” Hitler nearly shouted at him now, the glow of fury in his eyes. “My Generals sit and argue with one another, and make all these plans to move my troops about as they wish. Yet they often do so without thinking first! Do you think I am blind and deaf? I have listened to your bickering and scheming for too long, Halder. Your plans have infected the entire General Staff! You wanted a repeat of the Von Schlieffen plan in France, until Manstein voiced his opposition and designed the stroke through the Ardennes that was the undoing of the entire French defense. Now you plan the very same thing for Barbarossa! The forces are too heavily allocated to the north, and I see you have gotten rid of Manstein by sending his 56th Panzer Korps there. Well I have news for you. I am moving that Korps to the southern wing as well, and appointing Manstein as the senior commander for the drive on the Crimea. That is to be our primary objective for the first phase of Barbarossa, not Moscow. We will not turn north until we have linked up with Ivan Volkov’s troops.”

Halder reddened under the insults Hitler had flung his way, and was galled to hear the name Manstein come up again in these deliberations. The mention of Volkov rankled as well. It was enough that Raeder had laid out this whole plan for the conquest of the Mediterranean, and now Volkov was poisoning the Fuhrer’s mind with his constant predictions and pleas for assistance. This sudden change in the plan threatened to unhinge all the careful deliberations they had made concerning Barbarossa.

“Then what do I take Leningrad with?” Halder allowed just a touch of anger into his own voice now.

“Do not concern yourself with that. All our goals for Barbarossa will be met, and that operation will not be delayed. The operation I am planning is just a preliminary to secure and support our southern right flank, but it will also open a few other doors you may not have considered.”

Another ‘But my Fuhrer’ soon followed, and Keitel pointed out that this was precisely the purpose of the planned operation against Crete. “Once that is taken, the last British outpost of any consequence on that flank will be eliminated.”

“Oh?” Hitler wagged a finger at him now. “I have intelligence that the British have designs on Iraq and Syria. Yes! It seems this thought has never even entered your minds. Well, they must not be permitted to waltz in and take these countries for a song and dance. If we allow this, we would be fools. So we must make arrangements to stop them, and we cannot do so from Crete. It is a thousand kilometers from the airfields of Crete to Syria-as far away as Rommel is from Suez. By the time our JU-52 transports got there they would be falling into the sea off the coast! So we will move these troops to Rhodes instead-a strong knight in the center of the board. From there, they can leap in any direction, but what does Crete give me?”

“A strong base to attack North Africa and support Rommel,” said Keitel.

“Perhaps, but Rommel is not yet ready for an offensive, so an attack there is a move in the wrong direction. At the moment, Crete simply leads us to a dead end.”

There was a moment of silence before Keitel offered one last argument. “The British will then simply continue to build up at their bases on Crete,” he said. “It is from there that they will be able to bomb the oil fields at Ploesti.”

“Let them try. Once we link up with Orenburg we will have all the oil we need.” Hitler looked to Keitel, then Halder and each other officer in turn, as if daring any one of them to say another word. Then he folded his arms, his voice hard and stern.

“ Unternehmen Merkur is officially canceled as of this minute. At the very least it will be postponed and re-evaluated pending the outcome of this new operation- Unternehmen Anvil. We are heading east soon, Drang Nach Osten! I have a hammer in my hand now, gentlemen, and I intend to put it to good use before we move on to Barbarossa-and there is the anvil.

He was pointing at Cyprus.