Nexus Deep

Chapter 28

Von Senger waited for darkness on the night of the 15th, but he had spent the entire day mustering all the rolling stock he could find and getting 15th Infantry to the rail yards. He would get a train south, as far as the town of Bauladu, about 15 kilometers north of Oristano, before he then encountered fallen trees piled over the line, with the tracks beyond torn up.

Colonel John Frost and his men had been busy that night as well. The Germans found no sign of the British paratroopers there, but they were forced to dismount and deploy. Von Senger knew the paras had taken the airfield at Milis, and he was going to take it back. He learned that the 152nd CCNN Battalion had already moved there, and was skirmishing with the paras north of the field. Now he would bring a little more persuasion to that argument, ordering Bushchenhagen to take the field, and then deploy his division for a counterattack towards Oristano.

He would bring the bulk of his division south, detaching one battalion in the north to reinforce the small port of Algheru on the west coast, and leaving one more at Puerto Torres north of Sassari. As for Cagliari, nothing more could get through there, so the best he could do was order the defenders to hold out as long as possible.

Bushchenhagen set up his headquarters in the larger town of Abbasanta, astride the main road and rail line north. Led by the Recon Battalion, he organized an immediate counterattack towards Milis, but ran into John Frost and his intrepid paras, well dug in and ready to fight just south of Bauladu. He knew the enemy was simply trying to delay his advance, for the weight of his division would surely prevail in time. But that time was expensive. He needed to get south as quickly as possible, for reports coming out of Oristano were not good. The Bari Division was still fighting in the city with the Division HQ and a single stubborn battalion, but the British had taken the segments of the city closest to the beaches, and flanked it to the west.

Further south, Terry Allan’s 1st Infantry was ashore and well established by noon the first day, and he hit four battalions forming a defensive front at mid-day, driving them back. Late in the day, Patton hustled more tanks from TF Abrams ashore, and he wanted to bulldoze his way inland as soon as possible. He would do exactly that, seizing Gonessa, a little over seven klicks inland, and then horse whipping his tanks onward until they reached the outskirts of Iglesias near dusk on the 16th of June. He would take that city with a night attack on the 16th. With all his initial landing objectives secured, Patton now began to organize for his drive east to Cagliari, but he would have competition.

Tanks and armored engineers of the 1st Tank Brigade had pushed inland quickly from the beaches, reaching the main road south and pushing off in that direction. They were supported by infantry from the 5th Division, and now the first footrace between Patton and Montgomery was underway. Who would take Cagliari?

Kesselring was watching the progress of the battle with some concern. The Allied plan was very good. The landing at Oristano Bay was strong enough to overpower the Bari Division before the 15th Infantry could arrive. Frost’s gallant defense, retiring from one prepared position to another as he fell back on the airfield at Milis, had delayed just long enough for Montgomery to push the last of the stubborn Italian defenders out of Oristano. The British were now assaulting the airfield there, though it had already been abandoned.

That was the real value of Southern Sardinia. The airfield at Oristano, and those at Villacidro, Decimomannu, Elmas and Monserato were among the very best on the island. They had been used to throw German an Italian planes into the Sicilian Narrows to harass and attack Allied Shipping, and their loss would be keenly felt. Soon it would be necessary to order those fields to be evacuated, reducing his air presence in the approaches to the Sicilian Narrows by 50%.

15th Infantry finally pushed Frost out of Milis, retaking that field after dusk on the 16th. That same night, as Frost was setting up defensive positions south of the field, the 7th Gordons came up, and they were a most welcome sight.

“Jolly good,” said the Colonel of the 7th when he found Frost. “We’ll take over here. Monty wants you down south at the Oristano Field. Get some rest if you can, because I think they’re bringing in transports with the first fighter group.”

That night, Patton pushed to the rail town of Musei, 25 kilometers inland from his beachhead, and the British had moved south to attack retreating elements of the Bari Division southeast of Oristano at San Gavino and Sardara. That was only ten klicks north of the big airfield at Villacidro, and the Germans sent orders to fly off any remaining squadrons there to alternate fields.

Monty had to make a decision as to his floating reserve. Rather than wait for Cagliari to be taken, which could take several days, he decided his beachheads were perfectly secure, and ordered 1st Canadian to begin landing at dawn on the 17th of June. The arrival of German troops north of Oristano had compelled him to get as much force ashore as possible. The 4th Mixed Division was still in Bizerte waiting for shipping to return for sealift. That force could land at Cagliari if it was cleared in time.

Needing armor support up north, Monty also recalled 1st Armored Brigade, leaving a reinforced regiment of the 3rd Infantry to continue the push south towards Cagliari. He was throwing a bone to Patton, who was hell bent on getting that port before the British could claim bragging rights.

To that end, a fast-moving battalion from CCA of 1st Armored had landed and ran like a halfback through a hole in the lines of the retreating Italians. They pushed all the way to Decimomannu, just five kilometers from the valuable airfield there, but had to stop when they ran into the Italian 184th Nembo Parachute Regiment. The resistance of the Italian Sabaouda Division was slowly crumbling, for there were only German Luftwaffe troops, a single field battalion and flak units, to try and give the division some support. They were fighting for native soil now, and acquitting themselves well, but the Big Red 1 and TF Abrams were simply too much for them.

At this time, the Italian senior commander on the island, General Basso, elected to begin moving the 203rd Coastal Division troops north. They were on the east coast, so the going would be slow, but it would at least give him something in reserve for the battle that would surely come north in time.

Von Senger was restless, knowing he had a good position with 15th Infantry north of Oristano, but those troops were now under a great deal of pressure as 1st Canadian came onto the line, very eager to prove their worth. The Canadians had not land at Dieppe, for that operation was never staged in 1942, so this was their first action of the war. They had moved up on the left, through Torre Grande and Nurachi, and tanks from the 12th Battalion, 3 Rivers Regiment, stormed back over the small airstrip at Milis.

Now Von Senger’s mood improved with the arrival of the first units from the 90th Panzergrenadier Division from Corsica. Kube’s Pioneer Battalion and the 190th Panzer Battalion under Zunger were the first to arrive. They had moved by Siebel Ferry from Bonifacio, and landed at the small port of Saint Teresa. The Italian Cremona Battalion of light armor had come with them, and the rest of the 90th was heading south, where more barges and ferries were gathered at Porto Veccio for the sealift operation to Sardinia. Von Senger asked the Luftwaffe to concentrate heavily over those ports to protect the barges, and the move was planned at night. KG Keyser was next to be lifted, on the night of the 18th, and they would be followed by KG’s Panzenhagen, and von Behr, each being two battalion formations.

The, on the morning of the 18th, von Senger received a message from Kurt Student. Fresh off the trains from Syria, the 1st Fallschirmjager had arrived in Italy near La Spezia, and Hitler had ordered it to be ready to fly to Sardinia or Corsica at the discretion of the local commander. They would be ordered to fly directly to La Madalenna, which received two battalions on the 19th of June, with a third battalion flying into Porto Veccio on Corsica, where it would complete the journey via Siebel ferry. The shallow draft motorized barges that were conceived as part of the plan to invade England were now being put to very good use.

As it happened in Sicily, Montgomery had drawn the bulk of the best German troops to his front, and all these troops would eventually move south to shore up the lines of 15th Infantry. It was now clear that Patton was going to liberate Cagliari before 3rd Infantry could get much farther south.

“Monty took Oristano,” said Patton to Bradley as the two men drove forward. “Since then he’s push no more than seven kilometers north, and that was because they put in paratroops up there. In that time we’ve pushed all of 45 kilometers from our beachhead, and cut those Limeys off coming down from the north.

“George, you’re supposed to be cutting the Germans off, not the British. And don’t forget, Monty’s up against the German 15th infantry division.”

“Don’t sell these Italian fellow short,” said Patton. “They’ve been fighting like hell, but they can’t hold against our armor. I want to be in Cagliari tomorrow. All we need is another 15 klicks, but we’ve got to get through the Nembo Para Regiment first. We crack that nut, and it should be smooth sailing after that. Then I can get up north and take La Maddalena.”

“George, you sound like you’re late for dinner.”

“Well you heard the briefing—time is money, and I plan on spending mine well.”

On the morning of June 19th, the 601st Tank Destroyer company rolled onto the tarmac at the Elmas airfield, just five kilometers northwest of the port of Cagliari. The city was now being held by two Luftwaffe flak companies, the Cagliari Commando Battalion, and the Headquarters of the Sabaouda Division. The troops of that division had been largely destroyed, and general Battista feared he would soon become the first Italian senior officer to surrender and yield a major city and port on Italian homeland soil. The value of Cagliari could not be understated, and there were five airfields in that region that would allow the Allies to swarm in from North Africa and set up their hives on the island. From those fields, they could neutralize Italian and Luftwaffe units at Palermo and Trapani, thus opening the approaches to the Sicilian Narrows.

On the night of the 19th, 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 16th Infantry Regiment marched up the coastal road to the edge of Cagliari. They would try to take the port by storm, supported by two more battalions of TF Abrams mech infantry, and two more companies of light tanks. In this action, and at Decimomannu Airfield to the north, the Americans would face their toughest fighting since the landing. The Nembo Paras were putting up a tenacious defense, and the Cagliari Commandos moved from one warehouse to the next, fighting for every foot and building along the harbor.

The Americans had tried to sneak over the long narrow Barracone Isthmus, a finger of land that pointed to the northern edge of the harbor. It had one road, which ended in a short bridge to another spit of land which was an open field sport’s ground. Behind that was a canal, with yet another bridge, and then the outer buildings of the harbor. The first one they had to take was the Cement Works, used to build and fortify the moles and quays, and it was itself a solid concrete building, right at the edge of that canal.

The M5-Stuarts fired away at it, but made little impression. It was going to need fire from the Shermans, but they were having difficulty coming along that narrow road. Three tanks brought their bigger main guns to bear, and forced the Commandos to retreat, allowing the infantry to occupy those works, but the enemy had just fallen back to the next warehouse, and the fight began anew.

It took two hours to get forward to the grain stores, and then work towards the first big harbor mole, just west of the Coal Yard. Above that was the rail station, with more very sturdy concrete buildings that housed the engines and rolling stock, and between the two, were heavy walled warehouses.

These terrain features multiplied the defensive power of that single Commando battalion immensely, and the fighting would go on all night at the west end of the harbor. Coming from the north, the mechanized detachment from TF Abrams had to first take the city Power station, then the Phosphates Factory, another cement plant and smelting refractory, all tough fighting, with the bullets snapping off concrete and metal sided walls, and the infantry dismounting to try and make grenade rushes in the darkness. If the Italians were going to fight like this for the relatively small port of Cagliari, the US troopers could only imagine what it would be like trying to take a big city like Naples, or god forbid, Rome.

At 2AM, TF Abrams had cleared out the refractory, and was probing down Viale Trento, only to take more heavy fire from the first of several Army barracks buildings in the city. The Commandos knew every nook and cranny in the town, and they were using that knowledge to move about with good stealth, and surprise the Americans at every street corner. In spite of their skill and valor, Patton was informed that his men had taken the harbor just before dawn. The hold there was rather precarious, for only D Company, of the 66th Armored Cav, and 2nd Company of the 753rd Armored Battalion had made it to the big tobacco factory off Viale Regina Margherita.

In spite of the hour, the General took out a nice thick cigar and lit up in the grey dawn, which was exactly what the men of D Company were doing when they saw what was stored away in that tobacco factory.

General Battista would surrender that morning, but the Cagliari Commandos refused to lay down their arms. Instead they took the road out of the city, commandeering any vehicle they could find, and sped away toward San Gregorio to the northeast. The only forces still fighting were the Luftwaffe Flak guns near Monserrato Airfield.

The Nembo Paras still held Decimomannu field, but when they heard the Americans were behind them, there was a discussion as to what they should do. The way north was impossible, and they knew they were cut off. Colonel Lucerna considered surrendering, but the 12th Battalion refused, insisting the regiment should fight to the last.

The first laurels went to Patton and the US Army. They had landed and driven 60 kilometers to Cagliari, half way across the island, while during the same four days, Monty had gone a third that distance, and was still heavily engaged 10 klicks north of Oristano. The Canadians had made excellent progress on the left, but just when it seemed that the German line was breaking, more reinforcements arrived. KG Keyser moved into the small town of Bonarcado to shore up that flank, and the rest of the 190th Division was now mustering near Abbasanta behind the main line of resistance.

When he heard Patton was in Cagliari, Montgomery turned to a nearby aide. “As usual,” he said, “Patton is gallivanting about while we take on the Germans.”

“But General,” said the aide. “He was only carrying out your plan. True?” At that, Monty smiled, but ‘Gallivanting’ would not be half a word for what Patton would do next.

Chapter 29

The landings on Sardinia had done more than many realized to affect the general morale of the homeland. Instead of bolstering it, and instilling a fervor to defend the sacred soil of Italy, it had the opposite effect. The Italians now saw their position in the Axis as completely untenable. Though Mussolini attempted to shore up the will of his regime and nation to resist, he stumbled in his last important public speech.

“The enemy must play his card,” said Mussolini. He has proclaimed high and low that he will invade the continent… otherwise he will face defeat even before fighting. Clearly this attempt will fail…. As soon as the enemy attempts to land, he will be frozen at the line the sailors call il Bagnasciuga, that line in the sand where the water stops and the land begins…. Having an iron, unshakable, and granite will, the Fascists will prevail.”

Many listening on the radio looked at one another with a bemused expression, and some laughed when the dictator said this. For il Bagnasciuga was not the line in the sand as Mussolini believed, but the water line on the hull of a ship. The word he should have used was battigia.

Something was clearly wrong with Il Duce. He had been suffering from abdominal pain for months, was often bedridden, and now he seemed to be off in his head. News of the landing on Sardinia was closely watched by the homeland population, and Mussolini’s boastful words were put to rout, even as his soldiers were when Patton took Cagliari. The general populace could not help but notice that the only defensive front that was holding the line on the island was the area occupied by German troops.

For months, powerful forces had been circling the King, Emmanuel III, and pressing him to sanction a change of government. One Dino Grande, an intelligent and influential aristocrat, was the former Ambassador to the UK, well known to Churchill himself. Disenchanted with Mussolini, and believing that Fascism had run its course, he secretly, then openly, pressed for change. He had long opposed Italy’s entry into the war, and now his warnings of disaster seemed to be vindicated. It was largely his organization and planning that would soon lead to the fall of Mussolini’s Fascist regime, and the headlines Patton would make in the days ahead served to fan the flames of that entire process. A clock was ticking, the second hand harried on with every mile that Patton would gain in what would now become an unbridled romp through southern and central Sardinia.

The 90th Panzergrenadier division had finally arrived in full, and every gain achieved by Montgomery was put in check with a fresh battalion coming to the front at just the right moment. Yet now the Germans had concentrated all their best troops in one area, two divisions opposing three under Montgomery.

The first regiment of Student’s paratroopers had landed, but with little in the way of transport, von Senger decided to leave them in the north to prepare defenses where the island narrowed towards La Maddalena. With Allied air units now operating from Sardinia, bringing in the rest of the division by air transport was risky, so it was decided to move it by sea from La Spezia—but to Corsica instead of Sardinia. Von Senger was already hedging his bets. The chips he had on the table looked good at the moment, but his fortunes could reverse at a moment’s breath.

Speaking with General Basso, he began to plan the defense in the north, asking the Italians to move the Calabria Division from its current post around Sassari, to the island’s Capitol at Nuoro. Aside from the retreating 203rd Coastal Division, there was nothing on that side of the island to stop the Americans if they pushed north in earnest. The Calabria Division would move by rail on the night of the 20th of June, even as the final cabinet meeting of the Fascist Regime was taking place in Italy, where Mussolini would get heavy pressure to find a way to exit the war.

It was only a matter of time now before von Senger would have to order a general retreat to the north. While his line was holding, it had several liabilities. The Allied navy had returned, and they were pounding the western segment of the line near the coast, aiding the enemy’s strongest attack being put in by the 1st Canadian Division. Secondly, all of the 3rd Division had now come up from the south, and it was attempting to flank the position in the higher country to the east.

Thirdly, there was Patton, moving without rest in the south and assembling task forces with his swift moving armored cav and mechanized infantry units. The ‘Goat Trails’ he had complained about were still usable for these tracked vehicles, narrow roads that would still allow him to move quickly north. The last straw on this camel’s back was the fact that the Allies still had an almost unlimited pool of resources to draw from in North Africa. The British 4th Mixed Division was the next in line to deploy, already boarding the ships for Cagliari.

The Luftwaffe had tried, unsuccessfully, to interdict that port from Palermo, Trapani, and Marsala on the western tip of Sicily, but those fields were quite far off, 325 kilometers in the case of Trapani, and 380 for Palermo. Even the Allied fields at Bizerte and Tunis were closer.

The Allies had their first functioning port on Italian soil, and the Luftwaffe could not do anything about that, now or in any foreseeable future. What was once air superiority for the Allies, was rapidly becoming Air supremacy, and this was going to make a major difference in the conduct of all these operations.

On the 21st Patton was already 30 klicks north of Cagliari, moving the 1st infantry up towards Monty’s right, and sending his armored spearheads to the east coast. There was little resistance as they advanced, but north of Capo Bellavista, the coast road turned inland and began to climb into the more rugged country that is the Orosei and Gennargentu National Park today, heavily wooded country with very few roads. It was here that the retreating Italians would attempt to set up blocking positions, cutting down trees and using any explosives they had to clog up the narrow roadways with rocks and tree trunks.

“We’ve got only two roads worth the name there,” said Bradley. “One is state Route 69, through this high country here. It twists and turns like a snake. The other is through this heavy woodland farther east, and both are hell on earth for armor.”

“General Truscott,” said Patton. “If I rustle up some landing craft, what do you say to a little end around to flank that position by hitting the coast further north?”

“Well,” said Truscott. “The most we could lift would be a few battalions. Don’t forget the enemy still has subs in the Tyrrhenian Sea. How long would they be out there? It could take days for us to push through those mountains. What if the Germans come down from the north? Those boys could be chopped up on that coastline.”

“Find the infantry,” said Patton. “Get it from Allen if you have to, but I want this ready to go when I give the word.” Delay was not a word in Patton’s vocabulary.

“We’ve got 1st Infantry in the center of the island,” said Bradley. “What about Matt Ridgeway’s troops?”

“Brad, that’s a great idea. We could even consider another small air landing. Hell, the British pulled that off on the first night of the invasion. If we get stuck, I want a way to get in behind their line and unhinge the defense. Let’s plan it.”

By the 22nd of June, 4th Mixed Division had landed at Cagliari and moved north to Oristano, giving Monty his four divisions. Now he began to plan his big “breakout” attack, intending to apply pressure all along the line, preceded by all his artillery. It was an attack of the sort he might have planned at El Alamein, a battle that was never fought in this history, thanks to Brigadier Kinlan’s strange and unexpected arrival.

The plan would line up his divisions from the coast and east as far as Lake Tirso just east of Abbasanta: 1st Canadian, 51st Highland, 4th Mixed and then 3rd Infantry. Beyond his far right, Allen’s 1st US Infantry had come up near the mountain town of Sorgono. Monty at last thought he could get moving again.

“Now Patton is hung up in the high country,” he said. “So we’ve simply got to break out and push north to settle this matter.”

Monty had four divisions to Patton’s two, better terrain in front of him, and support from the navy along the coast. All he had to do was get through the Germans. It was the sheer weight of that attack that would do the job. The Germans had been fighting for a solid week, and many battalions were worn down. The heavy naval bombardment on the coast was as horrific as it was effective, with 15 inch shells plowing into the ground and sending up huge geysers of dirt and rock.

The 3rd Division front was largely screened by Italian remnants in the high country, a few Sardinian cavalry battalions, the Isili CCNN Battalion, and some Blackshirt motorcycle troops. They could not hold the steady advance of the British infantry, held up more by fatigue and the hills they had to climb than by anything the Italians were doing. This had prompted von Senger to pull out five battalions of the 15th Division to backstop that segment of the front, which thinned out the entire German line. Two divisions were trying to cover over 50 kilometers, and it would not do.

Monty’s attack had convinced von Senger that his game here was all but over.

“We can no longer hold this line,” the General told 15th Division commander Buschenhagen. “If we continue to fight here, we’ll simply be overrun. So we must pull out, and things are about to get very fluid now. There is no way we can hold the remainder of the island, particularly the northwest around Sassari. Therefore, we will pull out under cover of darkness tonight, and fall back towards La Maddalena. Student moved two regiments there from Corsica, and the front narrows toward the tip of the island. This is our only option with the forces available, and we must also get our Luftwaffe squadrons to Corsica.”

It was a grim but realistic assessment of Axis prospects on the island. The Bari and Sabaouda Divisions were mostly destroyed, 203rd Coastal Division was in the woodland on the east coast waiting for Patton to clear the roads and reach their lines. The Calabria Division was at Nouro, and that night, the 15th Infantry slipped away, up the main road to that city. The Italians retreated as well, but with little transport, they were mostly on foot. That fact would see them fall well behind the German columns, and they would become the de facto rearguard, just enough of a nuisance to slow Montgomery’s pursuit down.

Yet Monty did not have the same temperament that would have seen Patton fuming at his men to keep moving. Instead, he paused after dusk to ‘assess’ the situation, telling his division commanders that they would renew the big push at first light. This would give him time to freshen up the artillery and ‘sort things out,’ as he described the situation.

The morning of the 23rd, his second attack seemed to hit thin air, blowing right through the remnants of the Italians, with 51st Highland storming into Abbasanta, and the Canadians pushing up the coast through Modolo. They eventually caught up with the Germans, and thought it wise to organize instead of trying to mount an attack from march.

As for Patton, when he heard that Monty was launching a big push, he decided to play his trump card. At dawn on the 23rd, a reinforced regiment of Ridgeway’s 82nd Airborne would fly all the way from Tunis and Bizerte, intending to land in the rolling farmland between Dorgali and Orosei on State Highway 125. The paratroopers would come down all over the place, some landing on rooftops, barnyards, and bales of hay. At the same time, a battalion of Darby’s Rangers, and 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 101 Royal Marine Commandos, would hit the coast north of Orosei near Cala Liberotto.

These landings were behind the headquarters of General Sardi’s 203rd Coastal Division, which was most alarming when he realized that his retreat and supply route up the coast was now cut. His men were still fighting to delay the American advance in the rugged woodland, but he soon learned that there was a long column retreating some 15 kilometers to the north… and they were Germans. He did not have to scratch his head too much longer to decide what to do. If the German 15th Infantry was retreating north, he had no desire to try and become a war hero here.

The war itself had become hugely unpopular throughout Italy, particularly when Allied bombers staged raids on the harbor at Naples and on the outskirts of the Eternal City, Rome. With Matt Ridgeway’s tough paras behind him, and a snarling armored task force coming at him with dismounted infantry backed by tanks, he opted to try and seek terms. General Sardi chose to surrender, and all but one battalion of the 203rd Coastal Division simply evaporated, like mist in the woodland. Only the Logudoro CCNN and 2nd Blackshirt Battalion would fight on near Dorgali, and the intrepid Cagliari Commandos, now reduced to 10 squads, would try and hold on the river near Orosei with the help of the San Efiso CCNN Battalion.

Now it was Monty’s turn to do some broken field running. With the Germans withdrawing, the way north was suddenly wide open. He ordered the divisional band of the 51st Highland to break out the fife and drums, and the skirl of the pipes could be heard in the streets of Macomer as his men marched through.

The plan now was a simple one. 1st Canadian was tasked with driving up the coast and dealing with the 204th Coastal Division. They were to go all the way to the northwest segment of the island, and secure Alghero, Sassari and Porto Torres. 51st Highland would push through Macomer, but follow the rail line northeast to Chilivani and secure the airstrip there. They would then continue on the main road towards Olbia on the northeast coast. The other two British divisions would push due north to Chilivani and follow the 51st, or take parallel roads that made their way through the highland north of the Capitol at Nuoro. That objective would fall to Patton, as he had already cut the road to the east and west of that city.

From Kesselring’s perspective in Italy, it seemed that the entire defense of Sardinia was suddenly collapsing. He called von Senger to find out what was happening, and the General assured him that this was a planned withdrawal.

“We have to get to a position where they cannot turn our flanks. I will retrench on the line from Olbia to Porto Cruzitta, and hold that as long as possible to cover La Maddalena. As for the Italians, they are dissolving quickly. Quite frankly, this will likely have repercussions in Italy proper. You had better look over your shoulder.”

“What about the Luftwaffe?” asked Kesselring.

“What about them? We have lost all the good fields in the south, and so most of the squadrons have flown off to Corsica. The fields there are limited, so some have even had to return to Italy. They will have complete air supremacy now. We couldn’t even stop the movement of a reinforcing division into Cagliari. That is what is going to lose us this war—the enemy air power.”

“Very well,” said Kesselring. “Hold on as long as you can. The Führer needs toughness now, not another quick defeat.”

“We weren’t ready,” said von Senger. “The 15th had only just arrived, and by the time the 90th got here, it was already too late. We would be better off getting over to Corsica while we can.”

“That may end up being the order,” said Kesselring, “but I must consult Hitler. Collapse has a way of cascading from one front to another, so do whatever you can to hold on there.”

Kesselring was beginning to feel like the patron saint of lost causes. Ever since the Allies had landed at Casablanca, it had been one backward step after another, and now, with Corsica coming into the Allied crosshairs, Rome or even Southern France were now possible targets. After seeing this, he would spend a very long night re-thinking his position on Sicily.

Chapter 30

The young Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams was right out in front with the men of his Task Force as it motored up the main road to Nuoro. First built by the ancient Romans, it wound through a narrow valley, with occasional vineyards and orchards crowding the base of the hills, until it reached the town, situated on the slopes of Monte Ortobene. Over the centuries, it’s stone streets had heard the footfalls of Roman Legions, The Vandals, and soldiers of the Byzantine Empire. Now it would hear the rattle and grind of heavy tank tracks, and the soldiers of General Casula’s Calabrian Division crouched behind makeshift field works, waiting in the tense evening of June 24th.

Abrams had rolled up with two companies of the 753rd Armor Battalion, three Mech Infantry Battalions, Armored Engineers, and Armored Cav. In all, he had 53 tanks and the power of a full brigade at his disposal, including a battalion of tracked artillery.

He stopped in the cool evening, and then sent word to bring up the interpreter and a squad with a white flag. Those men were sent forward, the interpreter shouting that they wanted to parley with the local commander, and would guarantee his safety if he would agree to meet with Abrams.

“General,” he said after giving Casula a formal salute. “I am only a Lieutenant Colonel, but my country has seen fit to give me the means of making war here, in this quiet valley, and doing so with terrible power. I have sixty tanks with me.” A little exaggeration could not hurt, thought Abrams. “Not 15 kilometers to the south on this mountain road, there is yet another Combat Command—fully mechanized—and behind that the entire 1st US Infantry Division. To your north, the British 3rd Infantry Division is assembling in force, three full brigades there as well. The road behind you is already cut off, so there can be no further retreat. Is there any reason for us to destroy this beautiful city tomorrow? Won’t you consider that you and your men have done all that you could to serve honor, and stand for your nation. But now this fight should be over.”

General Casula nodded gravely as the interpreter finished. “You have driven us from our North African colonies,” he said, “and now you come to our homeland. What else can I do but oppose you?”

“You can live,” said Abrams bluntly. “You can consider that your allegiance to Hitler was a grave mistake, and one that brought me here with orders to plow right through this town in the morning. Rest assured, I can do that, but I would much rather see you and your men live on after this, because if I have to come in here tomorrow, a lot of good young men will die, and needlessly so. Do you realize yours is the only Italian Division still under arms south of La Maddalena?”

The General did not realize that, for he had heard no news of what was happening. “The Germans have already abandoned you. They retreated towards Olbia and they are many miles north of you by now. What purpose does it serve for us to destroy this place, when you can do so much more by coming to terms—you can save it from the ravages of this war. Look around you, sir. Fight, and this city will die tomorrow. Shake my hand now instead, and it lives on, you and your men live on as well, and perhaps you would even consider joining us so that we can chase the Nazis out of your homeland altogether, because that is exactly what we are going to do. Now… If you need time to consider this, I can wait until 04:00 hours. After that…. Well, I have my orders.”

General Casula took a deep breath. He had six understrength battalions. They had very few anti-tank guns, and only a few AT Rifles against all the armor he could see around him now, carefully lined up by Abrams to make his point. A little theater never hurts. Then a runner came up wearing a British uniform and Beret. The man saluted and spoke.

“Excuse me Colonel. I was sent here by General Ramdsen to tell you that the whole of our division is now in position and ready to coordinate the attack with you at the designated hour.”

General Casula knew just enough English to understand what had been said. He decided that he and his men would live.

The Allies would spend the next two days negotiating the mountain roads on the approach to Olbia. Everything was converging there, leaving little room for the American divisions because the British had not pushed all the way to the north coast. The town of Tempio was unoccupied by either side on the main rail to La Maddalena. The Canadians were in Sassari, and making ready to push on to Porto Torres. It seemed as though the campaign was coming to an end, at least for the Italian troops on the island, but there was still the matter of von Senger’s two German divisions. The arrival of two Regiments of Student’s Paras brought his entire force up to strength, and he was in a much better position now than he was down south above Oristano.

Yet the Allies would begin lining up six divisions, and on a front stretching no more than 55 kilometers. The ground was rugged, and well suited to the defense, but those were steep odds. The Germans had 12 PzKfw-IVF2’s, 18 light Lynx Pz-II’s, and ten Marders for armored support. The allies had easily more than two full armored divisions. In spite of that, von Senger was digging in, prepared to fight it out unless Kesselring ordered him to move to Corsica. The time to do that was now, and he waited anxiously by the telephone for news.

Hitler was astounded that the island could fall so easily. The Generals at OKW explained that the divisions had only recently arrived, formed from March replacement battalions; that they were underequipped, had few tanks, and were faced by vastly superior odds.

“They will fight if you order it,” said Zeitzler. “But it will only be a matter of time on Sardinia after this, and we will have the ignominious honor of watching those divisions destroyed for the second time. Do not forget what we lost in Tunisia. If they could get to Corsica, then they could at least force the enemy to plan, stage, and execute yet another amphibious assault, and that will be expensive in both time and resources, particularly the shipping.”

“Where was Raeder?” said Hitler. “I recalled his ships from the Black Sea to prevent such a landing. What was he doing?”

“I cannot speak for the Navy, but it would be my opinion that he could not have done much to stop the landing on Sardinia. His ships would have been under all the enemy air power if he came anywhere near the beachheads. Corsica might be better defended, or else he might be better used to defend Toulon or La Spezia.”

“He is good for nothing,” said Hitler. “He did one thing right when he delivered the Black Sea, but otherwise the steel we used to build those ships has been a great waste. Very well, I can see no point in having those two divisions destroyed on Sardinia. As you say, once was enough. Order them to evacuate to Corsica, but that island must be held.”

The Germans knew that the only chance for an evacuation of Sardinia would have to be by night. Daylight moves would be exposed to the withering power of the Allied air forces. To facilitate the operation, the Luftwaffe promised to use any night fighters they could scrape up, and deploy them to cover the Bonifacio Strait.

It was a well-run operation, with the artillery and vehicles withdrawing to Palau and then taking the ferry to La Maddalena Island, where a host of Siebels waited to move them to Corsica. The infantry departed directly from Porto Cruzitta, St. Teresa, Palau, and a full regiment of Student’s troops withdrew to the port at Olbia and left on small boats and ferries from there. Troops of Allen’s 1st Infantry and elements of TF Abrams pushed up the road to Olbia, but they were too late to stop the first evacuation. Their arrival would force the remainder of 15th Infantry to fall back on La Maddalena, and the smaller ports farther north.

Skillful at mounting delaying rearguards, the Germans were able to conduct an orderly withdrawal, though by day, the Allied fighters hounded and strafed any boat or ferries they found, sinking five Siebels.

So by day the Germans would move overland to the ferry and port sites, and by night they would cross the Straits. They would save 90% of their forces, which Kesselring considered a great success. Though he had hoped to delay the fall of Sardinia much longer, most major combat was over three weeks after the initial landings. The Allies would be another week rounding up and disarming any remaining Italians, and the whole operation was considered complete by July 15. Then the movement of supplies and material into Cagliari, Oristano and any other suitable landing site continued.

The buildup for the next jump, be it to Sicily, Corsica, or the Italian mainland, was soon underway, and the debate over which operation to choose was the next item on Eisenhower’s agenda. Corsica was deemed valuable to the Allies because it could provide bomber bases, and extend air cover into the Northern Med, and also become a base permitting further operations against Southern France or Northern Italy. But Eisenhower was told it was not essential if the next objective was Rome. He was briefed by Tedder and the Air Force commanders to determine the value of Corsica to the enemy.

“There are only a few decent air fields useful to the Luftwaffe,” he explained. “These are at Bonifacio and Porto Veccio in the south, Ajaccio on the west coast, and Calvi and Bastia in the north. We estimate that they could base and support no more than 450 aircraft there, and that even if they did so, our own forces could control and neutralize a force on that scale. In effect, we believe that we can hold the airspace over Sardinia secure.”

“Even up north?” asked Ike.

“Yes sir, even as far north as La Maddalena.”

“And yet,” said Montgomery, “the planners have indicated that any assault on Corsica should be made as soon after the fall of Sardinia as possible. Otherwise the Germans could strongly reinforce there. We were to use the same forces and shipping we have in hand now to do the job, and bring in the Free French Division as a point of honor.”

“Yes,” said Eisenhower, “but the plan also reads—and I quote: ‘This operation should be initiated only if it becomes evident that Corsica is to be appreciably reinforced, and only if at that time full use of Sardinia as an air base is deemed essential, or if future amphibious Operations against Southern France are contemplated.’ If we’re only going to Italy, then we can do so without Corsica. All we really need now is to develop port capacity on Sardinia, and Cagliari is our best bet.”

Montgomery spoke next. “We can use that for at least one assault division to embark, and the others assigned can sail directly from Tunis and Bizerte, sail due north, and rendezvous off Cagliari. We should be able to float three divisions for the first wave of any assault we plan, and protect them. The only question now is the target. My people are already working up a briefing on beach conditions near Rome. I’m told we have prospects south of the city, near Anzio, and that there are also good beaches north between Fiumincino and Civitavecchia. That last city can also offer us a small port to lift supply in after we take it.”

“We have a good deal to do beyond that,” said Eisenhower. “First, we need to set the primary objectives, both operationally and on the strategic level. Then we need to assess risks, and allocate resources needed to minimize them.”

“Rome is the obvious objective,” said Montgomery.

“Yes, but we don’t know whether the Germans will fight to hold the south as yet. The next few weeks should be very telling on that score.”

“If I may,” said Patton. “Rome is a great political objective, no argument there. Old King Alaric knew the value of the place when he first marched the Visigoth Army to sack Rome in the year 410. That aside, we could march in there on D+1 but still couldn’t claim any legitimate victory in Italy.”

“It would very likely topple the Italian Fascist Regime,” said Brooke. “Our Mister Churchill is quite convinced of the value of that. He wants us to hurl a wildcat ashore. And stir things up over there.”

“As he should,” said Patton. “Now, I’m just a crazy old horse cavalryman, but my view is that the Fascists are finished in Italy as things stand. They’ll collapse within weeks.”

“Possibly,” said Brooke. “But Italy could still choose to fight on under a new government. Taking Rome would be decisive.”

“But it wouldn’t mean we’ve defeated the German Army in Italy,” said Patton. “You can bet Hitler will be planning to seize the reins over there, no matter what the Italians do. Hell, he’s already moving divisions out of the Middle East and into Italy at this moment. Rome is one thing, very symbolic, but to win this, we’ve got to close with the enemy and take him by the throat. We’ve got to beat the German Army.”

“It we go for Rome,” said Montgomery, “then they’ll have to come north to stop us. From there we could cut off anything they choose to leave in the south. They would either have to evacuate or surrender.”

“Look,” said Patton. “We let them pull two goddamn divisions off Sardinia. Anything they evacuate from Southern Italy and Sicily is just another division we’ll have to fight somewhere else.”

“A fair point,” said Montgomery, “which is why we’re going to be looking at several other possible operations in the south. Some of these are already being sketched out. Operations Buttress and Goblet would be landings in Calabria on the toe of Italy, to cut off any Axis garrison on Sicily. They can live off the land there, but we can make sure they’ll never receive military supplies again with such a landing. Then we have Musket and Slapstick, both aimed at Taranto. If they do try to evacuate, they’ll do so through that port, and the major aerodrome of Foggia in that region. Considering Naples, we have Gangway, Mustang and Barracuda, all looking to make a direct assault there.”

“That port would be useful for our purposes,” said Eisenhower, “but the Germans could certainly not use Naples to evacuate a single platoon, particularly if we hit them on the kneecap at Rome. Napoleon said it best: Italy, like a boot, should be entered from the top. Marshall and the joint Chiefs went along with Brimstone, but as for all these other operations into Southern Italy, none of that has been agreed to. Draw up the plans, but realize that they will be subject to U.S. approval and cooperation. Marshall still sees a cross Channel attack as our next order of business, and he wants it as soon as possible.”

“Surely not before we’ve knocked Italy out of the war,” said Brooke.

“Frankly,” said Eisenhower, “I tend to agree with General Patton on that question. Attacking Rome will knock down the Italian government, Fascist or otherwise, but it won’t necessarily beat the Germans. We only have so much in the way of shipping and landing craft, so we need to plan this carefully. And remember, I’m to select seven divisions for transfer back to the UK for Overlord. Anything we do in Italy from this point forward will be determined by a lot of unanswered questions. Will Mussolini fall? Probably, but when, and how hard? Will Italy fight on? How many divisions will the Germans throw into this theater, and will they fight for the south? We need contingencies based on real intelligence of the enemy’s deployments. Then, no matter what we choose to do, we have to define clear objectives, a center of gravity for the entire operation, maintain a cooperative effort, plan proper phasing. We need a lot of answers before we can arrive at the best strategy here, and right now, all we have are the questions.”

There was a moment of silence before Brooke spoke again. “Does your General Marshall believe we can cross the Channel this year?”

“He hopes for that,” said Ike.

“Well, not to throw too many lumps in the tea, but Churchill has asked me to float one more idea. What about an invasion of France from the south? It would mean we take Corsica next, not Rome, and then from there we would have real choices. Do we strike east at Italy, or North and take Toulon and Marseilles? Remember, we can also muster troops in Spain for that. In this scenario, we might not want to transfer anything back home when we can put it to very good use right here.”

Too many cooks, it has been said, will spoil the broth.