Hammer of God

Chapter 26

Wavell met with Brigadier Kinlan to discuss the operations now underway in Syria. They had implemented O’Connor’s plan, moving not one, but two heavy infantry battalions north at night on the empty desert roads to the railhead south of Mersa Matruh. The area had been cleared out, and Kinlan was given free rein to supervise the loading operation for the waiting trains. It was a lot to move, but they would take one battalion the first night, the Highlanders, and the trains would return by day to load the Mercians on the second night. The trains could quickly move these vital troops all the way to Haifa, and Acre, where they again off loaded under cover of darkness and moved out along pre cleared roads to their assembly points.

Wavell’s regret over not assigning stronger forces to his center column was now to be corrected. Both heavy battalions, as they were now being called, would assemble south of Merjayoun, where the French had put in a strong counterattack that had stopped the Australian advance cold. The appearance of Renault 35 tanks had caused a near panic, as the troops had no effective AT gun to oppose them-but that was about to change.

The Highlanders led the way, organized in three companies, each with fifteen Warrior AFVs mounting the improved 40mm gun. To back them up, five Challenger IIs had been added to each company, and this was a force the French were not prepared to face or resist for very long.

They never saw what hit them. In a sudden night attack, the Highlanders detected the enemy positions and vehicles using their sophisticated night optics and thermal sensors, and then they opened up in a sudden barrage of deadly accurate fire. The shock was stunning, and the Highlanders smashed through the enemy positions, making short work of the ten Renault-35s that had so bewildered the Aussies. Then they pushed on up the winding road that led them north into the Bekaa Valley, and a storm of panic preceded them. French rear area posts were flooded with alarming calls that the enemy had moved up a full armored division, and it could not be stopped.

After breaking through positions that had held for days against the Australian advance, the battalion found that the narrow road, more than any significant French resistance, proved their only obstacle. At one point the French thought to use demolition charges to create a landslide and block the road, but the Highlanders also had an engineering tank section, and one of the massive multi-bladed Trojan AVRE tanks was able to power through and clear the way in little time.

Beyond that point there was little opposition, and the distance to the vital aerodrome at Rayak was no more than 75 kilometers. It was only about 25 kilometers on the narrow mountain road, and soon the lead elements had scouted forward to Lake Qaraoun, where the road descended to the broad cultivated farmland of the Bekaa Valley. Another five kilometers took them to Joub Jennine, where they encountered the first elements of a gathering defense.

Lieutenant Horton had the lead section, with five warriors, a Javelin ATGM vehicle, one up-armored FV-432, and a single Challenger II in support. Vehicle 1 out in front had picked up movement and thermals ahead and radioed back the position. The company had found the German recon battalion of the 9th Panzer Division. It had detrained north of Rayak, moved south just in time to stop a raid by British commandos attempting to sabotage the airfield, and then pushed south intending to reinforce the French armor, and lead a counterattack that following morning. The armor it found, however, was something entirely unexpected.

Horton brought up his five warriors in a line abreast along some broken ground between the Litani river and the slowly rising ground to the east. They assumed a hull down position, and watched as the German column emerged from the town ahead. “Let them come,” Horton radioed his men. “Tommy? Are you in position?”

“Roger that,” came the voice of Lieutenant Tom Wilkes in return. He was in the sole Challenger II, ready near the road and blocking the route south like an implacable steel boulder that had fallen from the heights above.

“Mark your targets… You do the honors Tommy. Get that nice fat armored car out in front. We’ll chime in with the chorus. On my word… Commence Firing!”

The sharp crack of the big 120mm gun on the Challenger split open the night, and the German armored car, an SdKfz 231 Schwerer Panzerspahwagen, was the first unfortunate victim. It was a 6.6 ton, eight wheeled vehicle, and it was literally lifted from the ground by the hit it took, the wreckage blasted off the road. Behind it came three smaller four wheeled SdKfz 221s, which veered off the road and ran into a hail of 40mm fire from the Warriors. The British were over a kilometer away, easily seeing and hitting the vehicles in the column, and with deadly results. The whole point of the column was a flaming wreck in a matter of minutes, but now the Germans realized they had hit something much stronger than they expected, and Captain Weichert stopped his advance and immediately dispersed his remaining troops into the town.

Lieutenant Horton saw what they were doing, and wanted nothing to do with a deliberate attack in an urbanized setting. He wanted to keep his squads buttoned up in their vehicles, and keep moving. He radioed back to the AS-90 Braveheart battery assigned to the Highlanders, and immediately ordered artillery fire, watching the barrage fall right on target in the town ahead. Then he gave the go sign and moved his section up. Two more sections had already come up behind him, and the full company was now available. He knew the main infantry of this force would be in trucks behind these armored cars, and he wanted to get at them before they had a chance to deploy into the town. So he gave the order to move out, and the Warriors gunned their engines, tracks grinding on the broken ground and churning through the fields ahead.

His formation raced west and around the town, immediately seeing the long column of vehicles on the road behind the hamlet. There was good open farmland between the road and the river, and he ordered his section to advance in echelon, with the Challenger anchoring at the rear. They raced along, turrets rotated and firing as they blasted one truck after another. At one point the Germans frantically tried to deploy a Pak 3.7 AT gun section, and managed to get two of the three guns into action just as the Challenger II came into view. They fired, both gun positions seeing their shells hit and ricochet harmlessly off the heavy frontal armor. Then the big turret rotated ominously in their direction, and the enormous gun fired, ending the duel with fire and smoke.

Horton had no intention of stopping. He was going to press on with all speed, fighting anything he encountered on the run. Behind him came 2nd and 3rd companies of the Highlanders, and they passed the German column like the teeth of a buzz saw cutting into wood. The shock and speed of the attack was so fierce that the battalion was all but destroyed, its surviving remnants fleeing east to try and find a secondary road and get north by any means possible.

The Highlanders raced north up the Bekaa Valley, reaching El Marj in half an hour, where they had to fight a hot action in the village against a well positioned German rearguard of two platoons of dismounted infantry. Their MG 34s made no impression on the British armor, and the return fire of the 40mm autocannons decided the action in short order. Now they halted, seeing the lights of two larger settlements ahead. These were the bigger towns of Zahle on the western fringe of the valley, and Rayak to the northeast. They did not know it at the time, but Zahle was strongly held by a battalion of the 5th Mountain Division that had arrived the previous evening from the coast. And up ahead, taking up a defensive position just south of the aerodrome at Rayak, was the first regiment of the 9th Panzer Division under Generalleutnant Alfred Ritter von Hubicki.

The division had been arriving piecemeal, and he had the 10th Regiment of Panzergrenadiers, and a single company of tanks from the 33rd Panzer Regiment, mostly 20mm PzKfw IIs with a section of better armed PzKfw IIIs, with 50mm guns. They were not going to stop the Highlanders any more than the recon battalion had been able to halt the lightning advance. But it would take a much more deliberate attack, and Lieutenant Horton radioed back the situation to battalion commander Holmes, and it was decided to deploy the entire battalion in the attack, behind an extended barrage from the AS-90s. The Bravehearts would pound the enemy with heavy, accurate fire before the attack would begin.

The battle for Rayak was now underway, and behind the Highlanders, the full Mercian battalion, each company also reinforced with five Challenger IIs, was racing forward up the long road in support. Behind Kinlan’s force, Wavell had committed the whole of his last two brigades of the 6th Infantry division, which had been in reserve in Palestine. If Rayak and Zahle could be taken, it would shut down the main enemy aerodrome and cut the road and rail lines to Beirut.

To the right of this position, the Germans had also deployed the regiment of the 5th Mountain Division that had been fighting to screen the Barada Gorge where the rail lines and roads made their way from this region to Damascus. Now that Dentz had decided to pull out of the city and retreat north, the two battalions that comprised this regiment withdrew towards Rayak. Their brother regiment was arriving on the left from Beirut, leaving the defense there to the French, and so now the flanks of the Rayak defense were to be held by the mountain troops.

Brigadier Kinlan had a conference with Sims and the battalion leaders to set up the attack. “This is the situation,” he began. “We’re in a nice little punch bowl here, with rugged mountains on either side of the valley that are all but impassible. The valley itself is open farmland, and the Litani River runs right down the middle. It’s not much, but the ground west of the river is broken by a lot of irrigation canals that will slow movement too much. So I plan to put the attack in east of the river where the ground is more open. I’ll want the Highlanders on the right, with your right flank against this thumb of high ground here.” He pointed to the map. “The Mercians will be on the left against the river.”

“Alright,” he continued, “Both battalions will deploy two companies forward, one in reserve. The reserve companies will front their Challenger II sections into one heavy platoon of ten tanks, and these will be committed to the most advantageous point in the attack to effect a breakthrough. The entire action will be preceded by a good saturation barrage from the AS-90s. Ammunition is a factor here,” he concluded. “We’ll commit to 20 % of available stocks, and then hold another 5 % in reserve for opportunity fires if needed, but that finishes off over 30 % of our artillery munitions, and we’ll have to hold the rest tight. The British 6th Division is behind us, and they have 25-pounders to take up the slack. I’m sending over a liaison team with radio communications to feed them grid coordinates, but don’t expect anything they throw to be spot on like our AS-90s.”

“Where do we stop?” asked Colonel Sanderson, the commander of the Highland Battalion.

“Punch through and take that airfield, Sandy,” said Kinlan. “Don’t worry about mop-up. I want a hard, fast attack right in the center of their defense. Once you overrun the airfield, ascertain the strength remaining in the town behind it, and we’ll determine what to do. If the opportunity presents itself, envelop that town with maneuver and cut the road and rail connections north to Homs. The Germans have been concentrating here, so there could be more troops arriving. Any questions?”

“What about that high ground on my right?” said Sanderson. “If they have positions up there it will give them good fields of fire as we advance.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Kinlan. “The Gurkhas are coming up to join us from Damascus, and they’ll be in position on your right by midnight. They had some hard fighting in the city, so I’ll rest them until 04:00. Then they’ll begin pre-dawn infiltration on that ground to look for enemy positions and set up OPs for the artillery. Your attack goes in at 06:00. That’s zero hour.”

“Then we won’t be attacking this town?” Colonel Laws, commander of the Mercian Battalion pointed to the large settlement of Zahle on the left, hugging the knees of the folded mountains on the road to Beirut.”

“That’s not on our dance card,” said Kinlan. “The British 6th Division will be moving one brigade up on the other side of the river, and that is their turf. Our exclusive objective is the airfield and town of Rayak, and I’ll want a lightning fast attack here. Don’t stop, gentlemen. Hit hard and keep moving. We’ll use speed and sheer firepower to punch right through their main line of resistance. I want no infantry deployment until we get to Rayak. If, by chance, you should lose any vehicle in this action, either to enemy fire or for mechanical reasons, don’t forget that the reserve company is right behind you. They’ll be sanitizing the ground all around you as they move through, so if any vehicle is disabled, the orders are to sit tight, button up, and wait for the extraction team to come up with the Titan. We leave nothing on the field, gentlemen. After the reserve company, the Gurkhas will come in and sweep the ground behind the whole attack, along with the Titans, so any vehicle that has trouble will have plenty of infantry support.”

“As to ammunition, sir,” said Laws, “Any restrictions?”

“Tell your men to be judicious, but don’t hold back, particularly if it comes to protecting your men and vehicles. I want you to knock the fight out of these characters and let them know who their dealing with. Understood?”

“Aye, sir, the lads are spoiling for a good fight. We’ll get the job done, that’s for sure.”

“See that you do,” said Kinlan. “Very well, gentlemen, dismissed.”

The men saluted and left the briefing, leaving Kinlan with his Chief of Staff, Sims.

“They’ll be expecting us this time,” said Sims. “It won’t be like Bir el Khamsa when we hit them completely by surprise. That recon battalion we brushed aside will have given their CO an earful by now.”

“True,” said Kinlan, “but aerial reconnaissance yesterday indicated that they aren’t fully concentrated here. They’ve only one mechanized regiment up in the center, and perhaps a single battalion of tanks.”

“And that second regiment?”

“Probably on the trains heading our way as we speak, along with the rest of their Panzers. This is where a couple squadrons of Tornadoes would come in handy, wouldn’t it. Well, we won’t have them. The British are lucky to scrape together ten or twelve Wellingtons here for any strategic air interdiction on that rail. They won’t close it that way, so we’ll have to expect the Germans will continue to reinforce their positions to the north. For my money, I expect they’ll deploy south of Homs.”

“What are we getting ourselves into here, sir?” asked Sims, a warning in his question. “None of this happened in the real war.”

“The real war?” Kinlan smiled. “You mean the one we read about in the academy? You can forget all that now, Sims. This is as real as it will ever get for these men, and they’ll know it before this is over. We’ve two good battalions here, and the Gurkhas. This is a fight we’ll win easily enough, but this lot in front of us is just one of over 300 German divisions out there, and it’s only 1941.”

Neither man said anything more.