Lions at Dawn

Chapter 7

When Kesselring 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.

“It seems so,” said Freddie. “But why in the world would they give up such a well prepared position like that? It doesn’t make any sense. They can’t be throwing in the towel before we’ve even had the match.”

“I see more in this than meets the eye,” said Montgomery. “It’s no tactical withdrawal. RAF is seeing columns heading east to Tunisia, but it’s mostly the infantry.”

“Interesting,” said Freddie, thinking. “Yet these are some of their best troops here, the parachute units that took Malta and Grand Canaria from us.”

“Good riddance,” said Montgomery, but de Guingand put that thought in his pocket, and he would be later responsible for whispering in the right ear and suggesting that the Army have a look at the garrison strength on Crete. A good chess player, he was given to plotting out his moves well ahead in his mind, thinking out any contingency. When he learned the Paras were not simply redeploying, but were mustering at Tunis and Bizerte, he raised the matter with Sir Alan Brooke. It was very timely advice.

“Patton will be happy,” said Monty. “I’m told the Germans pulled those mountain troops off the ridges to either side of Batna. Now he’ll try to bluster his way through and get to Tebessa. I want to be at Bone when he does that. Understand?”

“Of course,” said Freddie, thinking again about those mountain troops, light infantry, but very tough in rugged country.

Further south, the American 9th Infantry Division advanced cautiously through the town of Setif, taking the airfield and finding it had been hastily abandoned, with empty fuel barrels and hoses strewn about the field, which had also been subjected to demolition. There were three wide craters at intervals along the landing strip, no more than a few hour’s work for bull dozers, but enough to prevent any landing by Allied planes there in the short run. The first real resistance would be met at Saint Arnaud, astride the main rail from Algiers to Tunis. There, two battalions of Panzergrenadiers from the Hermann Goring Division had set up a hasty blocking position.

Below the 9th, the 3rd Infantry was pushing for Merouana, a town near Batna in the high country that was needed to flank the main objective, expecting a hard fight there, but pleasantly surprised to be able to take the place with no resistance on the first day. Batna, however, would not be given up by von Arnim without a fight. There he positioned three small Kampfgruppes, KG Luder’s mechanized Panzergrenadiers, a battalion of motorized infantry under Hudel, and Hauptmann Hansen’s small tank battalion, with a number of Pz IVF-2s and Marder IIIs.

‘Terrible Terry Allen’ sent his 26th Regiment to flank Batna in the highland country near Qued El Ma, then he pushed the 18th Regiment right up the rail line to Batna, through the pass where he expected heavy fighting. It was going to be infantry work in those mountain passes, with the armor coming along behind to offer fire support. There the 18th Regiment met and drove back KG Luder, but Hudel’s tanks came up to halt the attack at dusk, and that night the Germans would pull out to move to their next delaying position further east. The Hermann Goring Division would fight briefly, then quickly pull out to take up its primary defensive position just west of Constantine.

Meanwhile, the 15th Infantry Division was hastening to Bizerte and Tunis by sea. They would land on the 6th of January, moving quickly by trucks that had been prepositioned by Kesselring. All in all, the administrative and logistical skill of both Kesselring and von Arnim was clearly demonstrated, after years of practical experience planning such moves. It was a masterpiece of maneuver, like that of a skilled boxer dancing about the ring, keeping his heavier opponent at bay with the occasional jab, but mostly the strength and surety of his legs.

It is always more difficult for the advancing force when moving into territory that was formerly held by the enemy. Kesselring could move his units east with little caution, save for the occasional attack by Allied planes. Monty and Patton had to advance not knowing whether the next house or farm would be hiding a Pak 50 AT gun, always wary of mines, and other small ambushes staged by detachments the Germans would leave behind. Suspected enemy positions had to be scouted, patrols leading the way as the Allied columns probed forward.

By January 6th, the 9th Infantry would reach the airfield at Telergma, and Terry Allen’s 1st Infantry took Batna. That was the place where Patton wanted to set up his first new forward depot, and he gave orders to get the supply columns moving immediately. 1st and 2nd Armored followed the infantry until the highland country was cleared and the ground began to descend into the lowlands beyond. Ahead there were places with famous names—Kasserine, El Guettar, Faid…. Patton was thinking about them even as Freddie de Guingand was looking ahead in his own mind to consider what the Germans were up to.

As for Patton, the game was football, and he was the halfback, scanning the defensive line to see what he would soon be up against when he got the ball. One thing he inherently knew about war was that ‘victory required payment in advance,’ with the determination of his iron will, the sweat of constant effort, and the blood and guts of the men he commanded in battle.

It was time for some ‘broken field running.’

Chapter 8

“We’ve got Batna, Brad. Now’s the time to rattle Harmon and Truscott and get that armor moving up. I want the two divisions side by side when I go for Tebessa.”

“Tebessa? You’re supposed to take Constantine first George.”

“That’s work for infantry,” Patton waved his hand dismissively. He was an old cavalryman at heart, and he loved those armored divisions, particularly the 2nd, which he had commanded from late 1940 in the States, until January of 1942.

“Look here, Brad. There’s a few rats in the cellars at Batna, but once I clear them out, I want to push right up to Ain Beida. There’s an airfield there we can use, and the pass just south of that town lets me dash right on through towards Tebessa.”

“But Montgomery is expecting you to go for Gulema in a left hook. You know how difficult the ground is on the coast.”

“If he wants me to do that, then he ought to send a division up to get after Constantine himself. Then I can swing 3rd and 9th Infantry right around that southern flank, and they can take Gulema for him. Meanwhile, I’ve got business at Tebessa.”

“Have you cleared that with Ike?”

“Well hell… If I do that he’ll just start talking logistics again. Look, the Germans have pulled out, and we’ve got them on the run. Now’s the time to gain some good ground. I can be in Tunisia in ten days!”

General Bradley scratched his head. “Eisenhower said we’d talk about Tebessa after we had Constantine. If you split your force now, and send both armored divisions down there…”

“Now don’t get all wishy washy on me Brad. I know you’re spying for Eisenhower, but goddammit, you’re also my Deputy Commander. We’ve been sitting there waiting for Montgomery to stockpile his tea leaves for well over a month. Now that we’re finally moving again, that’s exactly what we should do. In this war, you move fast, hit hard, and never look back. That’s what the Germans showed the Brits in France, and I intend to show them they aren’t the only ones out there with a crazy old horse cavalryman in the saddle.”

“You looking to add another star soon George?”

“Forget about that. It’s the Huns I’m after. When things shake loose like this, you’ve got to seize the day.” Patton clenched his gloved fist to make his point. “I intend to drive hard and fast here.”

“Well don’t get yourself killed. I’ve seen how you ride about in that staff car. And you might want to leave off the flags and siren so the Stukas won’t get after you again.”

Patton smiled. “Did I ever tell you about the uniform I designed?”

“Too many times,” said Bradley, and the two men laughed it off.

“Alright George, I won’t break the news on this just yet, but you’ll have to do this right. If you turn southeast, you better be able to get where you’re going. Remember what Ike said about the mess we created here with the logistics. You could get hung out there and find yourself out of supply.”

“I’ll find the roads, Brad. Then you line the trucks up in my wake. Just follow my tracks and smoke.” He gave Bradley that patented full mouthed grin. “One more thing,” he continued. “I’ll want Terry Allen’s outfit with me. We’ll need some good infantry, and that will flesh out that Corps. Now… why don’t you get on the phone and see about Monty sending a division for Constantine.”

“What? He thinks you’ve assigned that to the 9th Infantry.”

“Well tell him the plan has changed. Say we’ll fix the German defense on one side so he can make a direct attack. Then I can swing round and go for Guelema. He’ll like that.”

“I’m sure he will.”

Logistics.

Interdiction.

As far as Eisenhower was now concerned, that was the game he was playing, even if Patton thought he was playing football. The Allied group of forces was demonstrating one key area of growing superiority as this campaign progressed—they were slowly tearing the Luftwaffe to shreds. Goring’s force had been strained by Operation Condor, where many transports were lost and the incessant duels with the RAF over the islands had taken a toll. When the makeshift fields had been hastily abandoned, any plane that could not fly had to be left behind. A retreating army loses a percentage of its men and materiel with each day that it withdraws. The genius of Operation Torch, was that by taking Casablanca, it removed the Germans primary logistical support base for the Condor Operation, and the tremendous success of the Operations in Spain returned Gibraltar soon after.

Now, one thing the Allies were doing with far more precision and organization was air operations. The directive that the emphasis was to be given to air superiority and interdiction was paying good dividends. The German position in North Africa now relied on three ports—Tripoli, Tunis and Bizerte, and now each one would receive daily visits from Allied bombers escorted by P-38s, and a new plane that was just beginning to arrive in theater to replace the aging Kittyhawks and Tomahawks—the P-51 Mustang.

The U.S. 47th Fighter Group had been flying the old P-39 Aircobras, and now they would trade those obsolete planes in for shiny new Mustangs and take to the skies with renewed confidence. In the old history, the Allies interdiction effort against those three ports sent over 620 tanks bound for North Africa to the bottom of the Med, along with more than 1700 other vehicles, and just over 1400 pieces of artillery, including flak guns. That was enough armor to equip three full strength panzer divisions, all lost at sea on perhaps the shortest supply run imaginable.

If the Germans had not abandoned the Canary Islands when they did, this growing preponderance of force in the air would have strangled that position by now, stranding those elite air mobile divisions and slowly starving them out. Kesselring had the mind to see that immediately, and conducted a brilliant withdrawal into Algeria, where he had been basically fighting a delaying operation against the cumbersome Allied advance on the ground.

Generals talk divisions, but wars are won by good logistics, and the real battle that would decide this campaign was now taking place in the skies above the battlefield. There, the Luftwaffe was continuing to sustain daily losses that could simply not be replaced. Before May of 1943, when the Allies finally drove them from Tunisia in the old history, the Luftwaffe lost just under 2,500 aircraft, a staggering total that amounted to nearly 40% of their total strength on all fronts. That was going to matter a very great deal in the months ahead in 1943, and it was happening again now, as the Allied pilots rose daily to wrestle air superiority from their enemy so those bombers could get at the ports and vital sea lanes to North Africa.

Now Hitler had compounded the problem Goring was facing in any number of ways. First off, he was diverting too many resources into prototype weapons, long range bomber designs, and the massive new airship fleet he was building. The tried and true Me-109s were still being built, but there were not enough of them, and the deadly Stuka was slowly being neutralized wherever the Allies gained local air superiority.

Secondly, Hitler was now opening up a massive new front again in Syria and Iraq with Operation Phoenix, and he was resurrecting the plans for Operation Merkur against Crete, a battle that would rely heavily on the Luftwaffe in every respect. In the short run, with the snows and bad weather in Russia grounding most everything in the dead of winter. Goring transferred one wing after another to the west to service the needs of these operations, but there never seemed to be enough planes to go around.

Seeing the problem glaringly for the first time, the Reichsmarschall suggested a range of expedient measures, including better flak defenses for the harbors, a heavy anti-submarine screen laid in the Sicilian Narrows, the use of new German radar to warn of enemy air attacks. Finally, he suggested Tunis should be the main receiving port, and more Siebel ferries could be used along the coast to move supplies to Tripoli. He also wanted better organization of the port service crews, and faster and smaller convoys moving by night. Yet many of the dock workers found they were spending as much time fighting fires on the quays, warehouses, and piers than loading or unloading ships. In frustration, Goring then suggested Italian subs be used to move ammunition, certain they could not be bombed.

The fact that this discussion was even held was mute testimony to the increasing ineffectiveness of the Luftwaffe—but nothing was said to the Reichsmarschall about that. In the summer it had been the heat, dust, and flies that plagued the troops most. Now it was the cold, particularly at night, then the mud by day, and another pestilence that seemed to be everywhere—the Arabs.

The local tribes had become expert scavengers, raiding corpses of the fallen, encampments, depot sites, or anyplace that did not have a round-the-clock guard. They would steal everything, even the tarp screens put up to offer a little privacy around the latrine trenches.

When it rained, tanks would trundle along the roads, digging deeper and deeper channels in the ground that would turn the road to a muddy morass. Off road movement was equally treacherous, and at one point, an American patrol of three Stuart tanks saw the lead tank drive right into a muddy field and begin to sink. To their amazement, the tank had sunk all the way to the edge of the turret in ten minutes time as the crews scrambled out.

The Germans had made friends with mud in Russia like this, and they knew how and when to move, and how to hunker down in the rain after choosing their defensive positions. This situation was the one element that would serve to frustrate Patton’s hankering for a rapid advance.

With his opening moves largely unchallenged, Monty decided it was time to push on up the coast. He would soon find that he had to contend with more than the Germans. January rains can be quite heavy in Algeria and Tunisia, particularly on the coast.

With Patton determined to flank Constantine to the south and east, Monty assigned his dogged 43rd Wessex Division to take the place, attacking through Ain Kerma to the northwest. It was an old Roman town, perched high in the mountains, with sheer cliff walls of stone bridged by steel spans in places, and low stone bridges over steep defiles and gullies. Known as ‘The City of Bridges’, if the Germans decided to destroy them, they could make the place largely impassible to vehicle traffic. It had been conquered by the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs and Turks over the long centuries. Then the French came, followed by the Germans, and now the British.

The sand colored building seemed to rise from the tops of the cliffs, as if carved out of the mountains and then smoothed and sanded for human habitation. The place had been taken with little fighting in the old history, but now the Germans had moved in their 15th Infantry Division, a veteran unit that had fought in Poland, France and Russia. They had deployed in an arc about ten kilometers outside the city, blocking all the major roads through the rugged mountains.

The 43rd was advancing on Highway 2 from the west, and also coming up on Route 27 from the coast. Both roads ran along the north and south banks of a river, and there were really no suitable roads moving due east from that point to El Kantour. Everything ran up through Constantine, and Monty’s supplies would have to do so as well, so the place had to be taken.

5th Wiltshire Battalion was up early that cold morning, climbing out of their ‘funk holes’ in the damp earth and hoping there would be no more rain. They huddled about their camp fires while they got the char brewed up, a mix of tea and milk. It was bully beef as usual for breakfast, but today they got biscuits and jam as well.

“We’re moving out in an hour,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts to Sergeant Knowles as he finish up a cold shave. One always had to meet the enemy looking like a proper gentleman. “No lying doggo today, Sergeant. We’ll be on the road all morning up to Constantine.”

“Very good sir. Is our lot in the van again today?”

“Of course, the fighting 5th. And I’ll want the men sharp this morning. These mountain roads can be treacherous—a perfect place for an ambush or two. I’ll want patrols out and flankers to look for Jerry as soon as we get moving.”

They would see the first 20 kilometers under foot easily enough, with no sign of the enemy. Then they reached the small village of Ebm Ziad, and the infantry began to move in, squad by squad, the men silent and cautious, expecting a fight. The Germans had abandoned that town, but found better positions in the hills just beyond it. 5th Wiltshire came right up on them, and the Lieutenant ordered an immediate attack.

Soon the harsh cut of MG fire tore through the cold mid-day air, and the pop of mortar fire punctuated the action. 4th Wiltshire Battalion was second in line under Lt Colonel Edward Luce, reaching the village in the thick of that engagement. They moved into the high ground to the south, thinking to find a way to flank the German position, and joined the attack. 4th Somerset was the last of the brigade, commanded by Brigadier George Mole, the “Mighty Mole” as the men called him, because he always had the men dig in at night whenever the division halted for the day.

That initial scrap was going to take all afternoon, for the German infantry was well positioned, with good overlapping fields of fire for their machineguns. The rest of the division was advancing to the north, with one regiment on a secondary road through Ain Kerma, and the other on Route 27. Both those roads joined about two kilometers northwest of the city, and that is where the German 106th Regiment waited on defense. Stopped by the stalwart enemy, the British would resort to their artillery in an attempt to blast the Germans from their stony fox holes.

To the south of Constantine, General Anderson’s 3rd US Division had sent its 30th regiment toward the city, but only as a screening force to allow the Allies to organize the airfield at Telergma. The other two regiments swung due east around a high spur of mountains, heading for Ain Fakrour, along the rail line from Constantine that ran down to the larger settlement of Ain Beida, and then on through Meskiana, Les Bains and eventually reaching Tebessa. That was the rail line Patton wanted to reach as soon as possible, for it had a spur that ran southwest to the town of Khlencheld, and that could be served by road from his forward depot at Batna. The rail line from Batna itself ran directly up to Constantine, and Patton smirked to Bradley as the two men rolled forward behind the long column of the 9th Infantry Division.

“Monty won’t take Constantine any time soon, which is why I need to clear that rail line from Ain Fakrour to Tebessa. I’ve got the two armored divisions on that road to Khlencheld right now, and Terry Allen is coming up on the place from the south. I think we’d better get over there, as there’s likely to be one hell of a traffic jam.”

“George, it will be a week to ten days before you can use that rail spur? How will you get rolling stock there?”

“We don’t need that. There’s a perfectly good road following that rail line. That and the hard rail bed will save us from this goddamned mud. I’ll want Allen to take his 1st Infantry due north to Ain Beida from there, while the armor continues east towards Tebessa.”

The infantry were taking the available roads around the Chott country, low depressions that were overgrown with scrub, with wadis and sand pits mixed in. The Armor would bypass the worst of it to the south, but Patton’s three infantry divisions would deploy to take that strategic rail line, with General Eddy’s 9th tasked with taking the vital road and rail hub at Ain Beida, and Terry Allen’s 1st following the armor further east towards Tebessa.

“Leave it to me, Brad. I’ll hand Ike Tebessa before Montgomery has Constantine, let alone Bone on the coast. You’ll see.”

Chapter 9

The Luftwaffe had seen what Patton was up to, and now it was time for Generalleutnant Fischer of the 10th Panzer Division to decide what to do about it. The rail line Patton wanted from Constantine to Tebessa was his watch, and he had his division strung out all along it, from Ain Fakrour in the north to Ain Beida, where he set his HQ. The bulk of his defense had been in the north, where his Panzergrenadiers had dug in through the old ruins just south of Ain Fakrour, to the fortified rail station there, and on down to the air strip at El Boughi. He had his three Panzer battalions in reserve, but when the Americans were reported massing at Khlencheld to the south, he was quite surprised.

Fischer was in a bad mood that day, possibly feeling the shadow of Death over his shoulder. If the old history had its way, he would have only a month left to live, for he had been killed when his staff car hit a mine in an unmarked Italian minefield near Mareth. The explosion would take one arm and both legs, leaving him stunned and bleeding to death. Yet he remained conscious, ordering that pen and paper be brought to him, and with is one remaining good arm, he managed to write a page and a half to his wife before he lost consciousness and died.

A man of war, he spent his last minutes with the one woman on this earth that he had truly loved, and not in giving orders to his troops as to who would take command, and what he wanted done. But he was nowhere near that hidden mine today, yet Death still had a month to lure him to his fate. Now that his enemy was doing something he had not expected, Fischer was even more grumpy.

“What are they doing down there? By God, they want Tebessa! But they will split their army in two if they go there.”

That city was 85 Kilometers to his southeast, and his was the only division in this sector. He could not hold where he was and still stop Patton’s move to Tebessa, and he immediately got on the telephone to von Arnim at Souk Ahras.

“The Americans are moving southeast to Tebessa, and we have nothing there but some flak units and a few Grenzwacht Kompanies. Now I’m charged with holding a front line of over 140 kilometers, and we’ll be outnumbered five to one.”

“Then you will have to fight for time,” said von Arnim. “I have Pfeiffer’s Group south of Constantine, but there’s no movement there. I’ll have to give them the city, but I can hold in the mountain passes beyond with one regiment of the 15th Infantry. Move the bulk of your division south, but you must hold Ain Beida, and leave one good Kampfgruppe north of there to stop them from flanking you. Kesselring has promised me another infantry division, and the 334th is landing at Tunis today.”

“The 334th?”

“A new division. One regiment is composed of mountain troops. I’ll try to motorize the other two and send them directly to Tebessa by rail. That will anchor your defense in the south”

“What about the Hermann Goring Brigade?”

“I can’t touch that. It’s the only mechanized force backstopping our defense north along the coast. The 334th will have to do. They’re green, but if you put some panzers at their backside, they’ll fight.”

Peiffer had an ad hoc regiment composed of KG Luder, the Hansen 190th Panzer Battalion backed by some para pioneers that had been withdrawing east to Tunis, and a third motorized infantry battalion, KG Hudel. He left those in the fortified airfield of El Bey south of Constantine, but ordered the others south along the road and rail that would lead through El Beida to Tebessa. They went up over a high mountain pass and descended to find the first battalions of the 9th Infantry deploying to attack Ain Fakrour.

Hauptmann Hansen had 69 tanks, mostly Pz IV-F2s, but also four tigers that had been stolen from the 501st before it went to Rommel. He attacked immediately, catching 2nd Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment in the open. Upon placing a company of AT guns on the road to watch his flank, they ran into a second German battalion there, and so now the word was sent back that they had at last found the enemy. General Eddy decided to double down and send up the 30th RCT, which was next in line of march. He spent all morning on the 8th of January to make these deployments, but by mid-day he was ready to attack through the old ruins near the railway station southwest of Ain Fakrour.

The Panzergrenadiers were in the sturdy warehouse and rail car buildings at the station, their MGs barking as the us infantry began to advance. There, on a feeder rail spur at the station, the was a damaged boxcar, its rusty metal sides pot marked by bullets. A German MG team was inside, lying prone, and pinning down a lot of infantry that had to go to ground in the open approaches to the station. The Americans tried to hit the rail car with a mortar, but kept missing. Then, an enterprising Corporal got on the radio to his air support liaison and asked for some help. Apparently Patton’s complaints had been taken to heart, for ten minutes later a flight of three P-38s came roaring in and shot that rail car to pieces with their Hispano 20mm cannon.

Further south, the bulk of the US 9th Division was deploying to attack Ain Beida, but the Germans received support from a regiment of the promised 334th Infantry Division. The trains had labored all night long to get them there from Tunis, and the 754th Regiment arrived just in time to join a counterattack being staged by Fischer’s 69th Pz Grenadiers. But the German defense was like an archipelago of islands stretched out along that rail line. They had kampfgruppes at Ain Fakrour, Ain Beida, and at Meskiana to the south west of that hub, where Fischer had sent his 7th Panzer Regiment. They were about to make the acquaintance of the revitalized 1st Armored Division.

Taking the lead in Patton’s drive East, ‘Old Ironsides’ was out to start working on its reputation. CCA under Colonel Robinette had pushed due east towards Tebessa, but CCB took the road up to Meskiana. A-Company of the 13th Armored regiment attacked with a battalion of armored engineers, pushing right for the town, and C-Company joined on the right. But Brigadier General Oliver sent all the rest of his command east of the town, just bypassing it completely. They were driving to cut the second rail line to Tebessa that came down from the north, and by so doing, isolate Patton’s main objective from further reinforcement. Patton had told them to flow east like water, engaging resistance, but flowing around it wherever possible.

There the Germans met and fought the new American M3 Sherman, with the 75mm gun. It was a far better tank than those they had faced earlier, but no match for the Panzer IV-F2, let alone the Lions whenever they were present. They ripped apart a good number of those American tanks.

While Oliver’s CCB locked horns with those panzers, Colonel Robinette’s CCA had been moving east along a secondary road that joined the main road northwest of Tebessa. They were therefore headed away from the fight, for the Americans had boldly divided their 1st Armored Division, thinking they had no more than a regiment to contend with at Meskiana. The problem was that this was a full Panzer Regiment, and they were now learning renewed respect for the German tankers. So when Patton heard Oliver had a hot fight on his hands, he quickly redirected the entire 2nd Armored Division up the road towards Meskiana. They began arriving in the thick of that fight, deploying their SPGs to begin pouring on supporting fire against the German tanks.

While Oliver’s command had mostly M5 Stuarts, just a few of the newer US tanks, 2nd Armored had been completely re-equipped. They brought up two full medium battalions, and went right after the German panzers in the village of Meskiana. On the defense, the Germans usually enjoyed a good range advantage on their enemies, but in those close quarters, with the tanks in and through the adobe like buildings, the action came to point blank range at times. Had the German panzers been supported with good infantry and artillery, it would have been a real mess for Oliver’s command. But an order was soon to come that would end this initial duel. The threat to Tebessa was growing more serious by the hour, and a small raiding force under Colonel Semms was about to garner a most distinctive honor.

Since high mountains screened Tebessa to the west and south, The path taken by Colonel Robinette’s CCA was the only clear avenue of attack. Yet Patton had also sent a fast moving force under Colonel Semms, the old “Blade Force” from the real history, only minus the British contingent. It had three companies of M5 Stuarts, some artillery, flak, and an engineer platoon, and they scouted south of those mountains to try and reach the road as it ran southeast from Tebessa to Thelepte.

So it was that on the 8th of January, A-Company, of 66th Armored Cav, was the first Allied unit to cross the border and enter Tunisia. Even though the German 755th Regiment of the 334th had arrived by rail to reinforce Tebessa, the Germans simply did not have enough troops to defend that southern approach. When they found it largely undefended, Semms got on the radio and informed Patton that the ‘way around the right’ was wide open.

“Good,” said Patton. “Now I want you to go right for Thelepte along that road. I’ll send up the 1st Infantry to take the position you’re holding now.”

Patton was demonstrating remarkable flexibility as he advanced. He had kept Terry Allen’s Division in the basket behind his armor, and he was parceling out that infantry wherever it was needed, in effect, building Kampfgruppes on the spot as the Germans might have done. This kind of flexibility was not yet endemic to the US forces, but it was to Patton. Where he took personal charge of the battle, results followed. Brigadier Roosevelt’s 26th RCT got orders to move out at once. And the sheer audacity of Patton’s ‘broken field running’ was about to unhinge the entire German defense.

Kesselring flew into Souk Ahras to confer with von Arnim, finding him at his wits end. “I’ve had to break up 10th Panzer in to three Kampfgruppes, and now each one is tangling with a full enemy division. They are holding, but that won’t last long. The odds are too great. I simply cannot hold the line between Constantine and Tebessa with that single division.”

“I sent you Weber’s 334th Division,” said von Arnim.

“Yes, but they’re raw, and I can only use them in a defensive role. At the moment, we’re keeping them out of Ain Beida and Tebessa, but they are pushing mechanized patrols through any gap in the line they find, and there’s nothing I can do about it. If I have to hold these towns, I cannot maneuver.”

“What about Montgomery?”

“We’re holding there. Both the 327th and 15th Infantry got into good defensive positions before the British kicked off their offensive. We actually have a coherent line there.”

“And Constantine?”

“It’s ours, but I cannot see any benefit in holding it. All it does is stand as a bulwark between the British and Americans. We should just blow all the key bridges there, and then pull out. We can hold the mountain passes east of that city with far fewer troops.”

“That makes sense.” Kesselring looked over the map. “Alright… Pull the 15th Infantry Division north of Constantine and continue defending the coastal area. Leave the Ersatz battalion in the city itself to see to those bridges. With the bulk of Ernst Hell’s 15th Division in the north, I think I can then safely transfer Conrath’s troops south to support your defense there. Since the rail lines will be cut, Ain Beida no longer matters. We won’t be able to keep it supplied, so finish up your counterattack and then pull out tonight. Reform 10th Panzer Here, at Medkour, about 35 kilometers north of Ain Beida. The Herman Goring troops will come down to meet you there. Then you will have the force you need to put in a real attack. I completely understand your situation now. I must admit that the Americans have moved much farther south than we expected. I thought the British would keep those dogs on a tight leash, covering Montgomery’s flank on the coast.”

“There’ isn’t much we can do until I’m reinforced,” said von Arnim dejectedly. “They can go all the way to Sfax!”

“I moved the Italian Superga Mountain Division to Thelepte,” Said Kesselring. “That will help hold the southern sector. Below that, it’s all Chott country. But we’ll need to control the passes along the eastern and western dorsal ranges.”

“What about Rommel?” asked von Arnim. “Can’t he send anything more?”

“He’s in the thick of it with the British 8th Army. There’s a big fight underway at the Tarhuna line. I think he will hold there easily enough, but after that, we must convene a meeting and reach a general understanding of how to proceed here. It’s clear that even with the 334th Division, we won’t be able to stop Montgomery and Patton for long. So we must now strongly consider the merits of giving up Tripolitania altogether, so we can concentrate both our armies in Tunisia. All the supplies are being funneled through Tunis anyway after Goring’s “reforms” to the supply chain. Rommel is getting few convoys to Tripoli. Sfax and Sousse are more important to us now than that port.”

“Hitler will throw a fit if Rommel gives up Tripolitania,” said von Arnim. “Not to mention Mussolini and the Italians. That’s their last colony in North Africa.”

“Well this was all Hitler’s doing,” said Kesselring. “That redeployment order cost us everything here. Now we have the equivalent of about four plus divisions in this army, and we are facing ten or eleven Allied divisions in Algeria. At the very least, I will demand that Rommel send us one of his three Panzer Divisions. We simply have too wide a front to hold. As for the Italians, Mussolini has always had an eye for Tunisia. He’d much rather have that than Libya. So I think we might persuade them—tell them we will cede Tunisia to their control if we can hold it.”

That was the real dilemma now. Where the Germans decided to stand and fight, they could hold the ground and even counterattack to hurt their enemy. Yet they did not have the troops to be everywhere. By all rights, Kesselring and the 5th Panzer Army might have been able to adequately defend the northern approaches to Tunis and Bizerte. But Patton’s sudden and unexpected thrust towards Tebessa had forced them to divide this small army and defend two widely separated fronts. They had to therefore choose their ground carefully, moving to defend key roads through passes, and trading space for time.

In all truth, Patton’s advance was a haphazard, breakneck affair. That first company to cross the Tunisian border got lost, wandering in the mountains over narrow tracks until it eventually came to the wide plain that led to a very famous pass at a place called Kasserine.