Nexus Deep

Chapter 4

“Time for the main event,” said Montgomery, taking the podium. “The rains have finally relented, and the ground is much better. Now it’s time for the final big push. We’ll want to go all the way to Tunis and Bizerte this time.”

“Here, here,” said O’Connor. “Sorry we’re a bit late, but Alexander pilfered 1st and 7th Armored from me, and Jerry can be stubborn when he wants to.”

“We all know that,” said Monty. “Progress up the coast has been hammer and tongs, but they’ve retreated to Cape Rosa, and we think another good push will move them again. The real news is that they’ve had to pull out their 10th Panzer Division and move it to Le Kef opposite General Patton’s new position. That means my 6th and 10th Armored Divisions can double team the Hermann Goring outfit, and we’ve been further reinforced on the right with the arrival of 4th Infantry. The new Army boundary line is the Mellegue River, flowing from Souk el Arba south, to pass Le Kef to the east of that town. Seeing as though the American 3rd Infantry Division is still west of that line, General Eisenhower has graciously put it under my command.”

“A good outfit,” said Patton.

“Yes, well let’s hope so. The 34th has had some difficulty, but then we all have. In any case, Souk el Arba is my number one objective, and I plan to drive right up Highway 6. When I get there, I can send a group north towards the coast at Tabarka to unhinge any further defense west of that position.”

“And then your entire northern corps will finally be inside Tunisia,” said Patton with a smile. Montgomery had been slugging it out with two German infantry divisions for months.

“Well, I’m afraid the going along the coast only gets tougher as we approach the Tunisian border just east of Tabarka. We’ll be up off the marshy plain and there will be rugged country in front of us again.” Montgomery indicated the mountains on the wall map with his pointer. “That’s why we’re counting heavily on the inland push from my armor, and that’s why you’ve moved your two armored divisions to the center as well. Now then…. Once I take Souk al Arba, I’ll push right on through to Bedja as my next objective. General Patton, your 2nd Armored Division will push them out of Le Kef, and then drive right up Highway 5. Your 1st Armored will be moving parallel to that advance up the main rail line to Tunis, and hopefully, the two divisions can meet here—at Medjez al Bab. I should be at Bedja by then, and I’ll push on through Sidi N’sir to Mateur, which will put me right on the doorstep of Bizerte. You’ll continue right up Highway 5 to Tunis.”

“A good plan,” said Eisenhower. “We’ll have four armored divisions hitched to the chariot, and intelligence has indicated they’ll be short one panzer division. The Russians kicked up quite a stir near Kharkov last month, and the Germans look to be building up for a big counteroffensive in that region. That means Hitler has been forced to make a few margin calls. They’ve withdrawn their 7th Panzer Division to Tunis, and it’s already been shipping personnel back to Sicily. The tanks were distributed to the other four panzer divisions here to replace losses. Our interdiction efforts will be ramping up. We want to prevent any further transfer of units here back to Italy with increased naval pressure in Operation Retribution. I believe Admiral Cunningham said it very well with the message he transmitted to his Captains: ‘Sink, burn, destroy. Let nothing pass.”

“Now that’s a man with my kind of eloquence,” said Patton. “But Ike, don’t you worry. We’ll get to Tunis alright. My men are razors now. They’ll get the job done. So what’s this big push going to be called? I rather like the phrase Ike coined—four armored divisions hitched to our chariot. Since we called the last one Gladiator, why not call this one Operation Chariot?”

There were nods all around the room, and Montgomery spoke up. “We were going to call it Operation Vulcan, but I rather like that, General Patton. Chariot it is. If we keep those four horses abreast of one another, they won’t be able to stop us.”

“What about us laggards on the east coast?” said O’Connor.

“Ah, yes Richie,” said Monty. “We’ll want you to keep up strong pressure there. The Germans have moved both their 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions onto the line in that sector, so your job is to keep them there, and prevent them from reinforcing their center. The same can be said for General Truscott’s Corps—unrelenting pressure. Gentlemen, this one is for the prize. We plan on kicking everything off on May Day, 06:00 hours.”

“Good,” said Patton. “That will give me the whole day to get to Medjez Al Bab.” That got laughs, but General Bradley leaned in and spoke quietly to Patton.

“George, I almost think you meant that.”

Patton just smiled.

Eisenhower’s intelligence briefing was right on the money. The Germans had moved all 7th Panzer personnel to Italy, with plans to ship the unit directly to Germany. There they were to receive all new equipment; one of four panzer divisions now being upgraded in the homeland. The margin call would also fall on Rommel and Guderian. Hitler could see that further operations aimed at Egypt would not succeed unless Rommel was strongly reinforced, and he was simply not prepared to do that. His favorite general had kept his promise, but he looked at the photograph of the Nazi war flag flying over the ruin of the Parliament building in Damascus, and said nothing. He was in Damascus, but the Führer knew he could not leave Rommel there, nor could he support him with more panzers.

He sent word asking Rommel to fly directly to OKW Headquarters, and planned to break the news to him there, and with the offer of yet another new post. “Herr Rommel,” he said. “You have done what I asked of you, only this time, I cannot support you further. I wanted you to hear this from me directly, for I must ask you to send me back the Wiking SS Division. It is needed on the Ostfront.”

“That is my strongest division,” said Rommel. “What am I to do in Damascus without it?”

“Nothing,” said Hitler. “You will not get to Egypt through Damascus and Jerusalem. So what is the point of leaving your forces at Damascus? I am usually most reluctant to give the enemy back ground our soldiers have won with steel and blood, but in this case, I may have to withdraw all the panzer divisions from Syria. Do you realize that the Soviets had an army across the Donets last month? We pushed them back, and now we must push harder. There are big things in the offing, and I have a new assignment for you.”

“On the Ostfront?”

“No, I want you to rest first. You had too little time after Tunisia, so take at least a full month. Then, I would like you to assume command of all forces in the continental west, France, Belgium, the Low Countries, and even Norway. Italy and Tunisia I leave to Kesselring, but all the rest is yours.”

“I see…” said Rommel quietly. “So, the old warhorse is being put out to pasture at last.”

“What? Not at all, Herr Rommel. Not at all. I neglected to include Germany in that list. Yes, you will oversee all divisions presently building and refitting in the homeland, and that now includes the entire 24th Panzer Korps, and your old favorite, the 7th Panzer Division as well. I want you to go directly to the factories and inspect the assembly operations for our new tanks. See that they are built correctly, Rommel. You are the man for that now, as Guderian is still in Iraq. On that score, do not think I dismember your command in Syria alone. I have had to ask the same of General Guderian. The Brandenburg Division is also being recalled, and I want you to personally direct the refit of that division back to a full Panzer division, and with all our best new tanks. All of this is in your capable hands. I am trusting you to build me these strong reserves, because believe me, we will need them, and soon.”

“What happened to all the divisions Himmler promised you?”

“They are still fitting out, and training the men. Those will be yours to command as well. Some have gone to Armeegruppe Nord, but the 9th, 10th and 12th SS Panzer Divisions are still in France and Germany. And that is not all. As you may know, I have ordered the O.T. to improve coastal defenses all along the Atlantic and Norwegian Seas. That, too, will be your charge. The Organisation Todt will continue building my Festung Europa under your personal direction. I want you to improve all the defenses—strongpoints, minefields, gun emplacements, everything. Give particular attention to the Channel Coast at Calais and Boulogne. We have picked up intelligence that the British and Americans may be planning an early attack there. Then I want you to select units from those under your command and build me two Panzerkorps for the defense of the West. One will be this new II SS Korps with Himmler’s three Divisions. You may build the second using any of the panzer divisions refitting at home. ”

“Very well,” said Rommel. “That is at least better than sitting in the Syrian desert twiddling my thumbs. But now it seems that General Guderian will not get to Abadan as planned.”

“We don’t need it,” said Hitler. “If he can take it, all the better, but with Baba Gurgur in the north, and control of both Maykop and Groznyy, we now have access to plenty of oil. The danger now is in the east. We must knock the Soviets out of the war this year, and to do so, we will have to go to Leningrad. I will need every division available—all the panzer divisions presently assigned to Syria, and probably Guderian’s 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions as well. Infantry can take up a defensive posture there. I made good use of the time in the last winter months, but now the war on the Ostfront is heating up again. Understand?”

“Of course,” said Rommel, and now he no longer felt like that old lost warhorse being put out to pasture. Not quite yet, he thought. The Führer wants to make a plow horse out of me first, and till all the fields of France and the Low Countries, because things are not going well in Tunisia. And Guderian will never see the Persian Gulf. He might be able to hold Baghdad, just as I could have sat in Damascus if I really wanted to stay there. Yet Hitler is correct. The Soviet Army is the real threat now, and it simply must be defeated. Perhaps I may get a position on the Ostfront one day, but for now, I am tired, and time at home sounds like the best medicine. My doctor will certainly be pleased to hear this, as will my darling Lucy.

But something tells me that I will not be building those coastal fortifications without good reason….

The offensive in Tunisia would kick off on May 1st as planned, an unrelenting wave of force all along the front, which now stretched like a great shield from the northern coast, to that in the east near Enfidaville. Even though the German lines had been compressed, they were now missing 7th Panzer Division. The strong defense that had been put up earlier by the Hermann Goring Division standing with 10th Panzer was now diluted when the 10th Division had to be broken up into three kampfgruppes to backstop the infantry front. This left the Hermann Goring Division alone to face the onslaught of Montgomery’s 6th and 10th Armored Divisions, with two infantry divisions in support. It simply could not hold in the face of that attack, though it put up a dogged defense.

Further east, the Italians had retreated up the coast, their best units at Enfidaville, but the inland segments of that line had to be held by the German 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions. The 90th and 164th Light Divisions joined the German 334th in the more rugged country between the coastal plain in the east and Highways 4 and 5, and only those scattered KGs of the 10th Panzer stood as a reserve. As the allies pushed dup their assigned roads, it was like a series of hammer blows on that German shield, which was soon being battered to the breaking point. The four horses hitched to that chariot were going to be too much to stop.

On the north coast, the British 3rd Division would push from Cape Rosa to Tebarka, driving the infantry of the 15th Division back over a five-day battle. Monty’s tanks would surge up Highway 6 after the Goring Division broke and fell back, and he had Souk al Arba by May 5th. Patton took Le Kef against strong resistance from the well-rested 334th Infantry Division, backed up by Tiger companies and one KG of 10th Panzer. His advance up Highway 5 was not the dramatic breakthrough and dash for Medjez al Bab that he had hoped for, but a grueling slog. The Germans would only give him ground when absolutely necessary, and managed to maintain a cohesive defense for five days. On the 7th of May, he had finally reached Le Krib, which was still 65 kilometers from his primary objective, much to Montgomery’s delight. His tanks were flanking the last blocking positions of the Hermann Goring Division around Sidi Ahmed and Souk el Khemis, and were now only 15 kilometers from Bedja.

In O’Connor’s sector, the 8th Army threw its shoulder against the coastal defenses of the Italian Trento Motorized Division, supported by a company of German Tigers. He was using his old one two punch, the 51st Highland Division, with the strong 23rd Armored Brigade as its battering ram. These forces advanced from Sousse towards Enfidaville, and by May 7th, they finally made a dramatic breakthrough there when the French brought up their 3rd Algerian Division to make a pinning attack, and occupy 15th Panzer Division to keep it out of O’Connor’s fight.

In the center, Truscott’s Corps had the 1st, 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions, with the 82nd Airborne in reserve. It would be faced off by the German 90th and 164th Light Divisions, which found themselves outnumbered by more than two to one. Truscott also had strong support from the 1st Tank Destroyer group, and he used those fast-moving M-10’s to exploit small breakthroughs as if they were armor. Little by little, he was pushing up Highway 4, and was even able to outpace Patton, where the Germans put up their strongest defense. By May 7th, however, the German shield was splintered and broken in several places, and Kesselring convened a meeting with Nehring and von Arnim to discuss the situation.

Chapter 5

“A fine mess,” he began. “We finally shorten our lines to a point where I think we can hold, and now they are simply overwhelming us with mass. Montgomery has five divisions in the north, the Americans eight in the center, and O’Connor has five more on the eastern plain. That has put eighteen enemy divisions against nine German and three Italian divisions on the line. It’s become one crisis after another.”

“I do not think we can hold for much longer,” said von Arnim. “The Hermann Goring Division is down to 50% of its nominal strength. 10th Panzer is scattered all over the front. We’ve nothing we can use to counterattack.”

“It was a mistake to put the 15th and 21st Panzers on the front line,” said Kesselring.

“It could not be helped,” said Nehring. “Do you think the Italians would have held that front for even three days?”

“Trento Division fought well.”

“That was the best of them, but now O’Connor is breaking through at Enfidaville. Losing the men of 7th Panzer was a big loss. What has Hitler sent us in return?”

“Practically nothing gets through these days,” said Kesselring. “They are bombing us night and day now in the straits off Sicily. All we can do is make small deliveries of ammunition and supplies by submarine, or destroyer runs. Putting a transport convoy there is virtually suicide for those ships now.”

“And you know what that means,” said von Arnim. “Everything we have here is going to be lost. We can’t get back to Sicily under these conditions. It’s well beyond the time when we should have done that. Manteuffel was fortunate he got 7th Panzer out, even though he left all his tanks here to die with us.”

“We still have some fight in us,” said Kesselring.

“Yes,” said von Arnim sullenly. “We are Festung Tunis now, eh? Well that will end like all the rest—Festung Gibraltar, Festung Canaria, Algiers, Oran. Tunis will be no different. I give us two weeks at best.”

“Where is your line now?”

“It’s anchored just east of Tebarka on the north coast, and then runs through the hills to Bedja, which is screened now by nothing more than the Marsch Battalions. Goring’s division is wrecked, but I have a Kampfgruppe from 10th Panzer behind that line at Bedja. If Montgomery takes that, then he can either go right up the rail line to Mateur, or swing southwest to Medjez al Bab.”

“I think that is where he will go.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because Highway 5 leads right to that town, and that is Patton’s road. Montgomery would like nothing more than to beat Patton to Medjez al Bab.”

“Well, that seems likely,” said von Arnim. “I put most of my available Tigers into the Highway 5 defense. They’ve been giving Patton fits, I’m sure.”

“Well, you must still do what you can to slow Montgomery down. General Nehring, any good news from you?”

“Only that there’s another breakthrough east of Highway 4 now, and I have nothing to send.”

“Isn’t the Italian Superga Mountain Division there?”

“For what it’s worth.”

“Then support them with the 164th.”

“Herr Feldmarschall, the 164th is gone. They were understrength when this all began, and still they fought like the Tigers, but the division is gone. I could not even scrape together a regimental Kampfgruppe from what’s left of them.”

“Then I think you must maneuver now,” Kesselring said definitively. “You’ll have to pull 15th and 21st Panzers together. They are our last effective mobile force.”

“Yes? And what do you want me to do with them?” Nehring was not optimistic.

“Use the Italians for fodder and see if they can delay on the coastal plain. Move your own HQ to Pont du Fahs. Highways 3 and 4 meet there. Then pull out your mobile divisions and screen that junction along this line of hills. But keep a tight fist.”

“O’Connor will just push right up Highway 1 on the coast,” said Nehring.

“Yes, but the Italians have been nursing their Centauro and Littorio Armored Divisions there.”

“You can’t rightfully call those divisions,” said Nehring. “They are little more than brigade strength units.”

“They will have to do,” said Kesselring. “At the very least, they may buy us a few days’ time. Have the Trento Division fall back to their position at Bou Fiche on the coast. I want your panzers off the line and ready to counterpunch in either direction. If O’Connor gets up the coast too fast, strike to cut him off. Do the same if the Americans get too far up Highway 4.”

“They are already in the hills east of that route with infantry. I’ve had to use a rail construction company to try and block a secondary road!”

“Yes, but they’ll have to take Pont du Fahs. One way or another, you’ll meet them there. Alright, I’m going to OKW to let them know what we’re facing.”

“What good will that do?” said von Arnim. “We can’t get out by sea.”

“No, but Goring still has a lot of transport planes. We might be able to try some night airlift operations with Auntie JU, and save some of our better troops to fight in Sicily.”

“Good luck convincing Hitler to permit that,” said Von Arnim.

“Well, it is only a matter of time before it becomes our only option. I plan on speaking directly with the Reichsmarschall. He’s about to see his pet division chewed up by Montgomery. Nothing can be done about the equipment, but perhaps saving a few good officers and the better troops would make it easier to rebuild that division in Italy. Let’s see if he has the backbone to do something, even if Hitler orders otherwise.”

“I wish there was something we could send,” said von Arnim. “Conrath has virtually nothing left in that division—the pioneers, artillery, and a few companies of infantry and panzers.”

“Better than nothing,” said Kesselring, always the optimist.

O’Connor was listening in the late evening, and the sound of the bagpipes echoing in the distant vale made him glad. It was, of course, his 51st Highland Division, advancing again up the coast from Sousse towards Enfidaville. The Italians had been making a steady retreat behind a rearguard put up by the 80th La Spezia Division.

My, he thought, how things change. Rommel vanished, and he took all the panzer divisions with him. They went off to fight against the Americans. Then those last two Germans infantry divisions pulled out, and the whole Italian line went pear shaped. I’m advancing faster now than I did when I had Briggs and Horrocks with me. Both those divisions have Rommel by the horns in Syria now, and damn if the old Fox hasn’t run all the way to Baghdad. So that leaves me the job of tidying up southern Tunisia, and pushing the Italians on up the road until I can link up with the French, Americans, and British. I’ll be a bit late to the party, but I expect they’ll be glad to see me.

If Kinlan were here, I would have gone right through that line at Mareth, Rommel or no Rommel. Those were the glory days, when I could send in the thunder of that heavy brigade and smash right on through any defense the Germans could devise. Amazing what war becomes as the years roll on. I only wish I could live to see it. That was a sad fate Kinlan suffered at Tobruk…. But God almighty, that was no ammo ship explosion. It was one of those secret weapons the Russians spoke of once. Is that how they fight their battles now in Kinlan’s day? There’s no honor in that; no gallantry, and no amount of stiff upper lip on the field of battle makes a hair’s breadth difference.

Perhaps its best I fight my war here, now, and with the weapons and soldiers of our own time. I wonder how we might have fared if Kinlan had not come blundering into Rommel’s flank at Bir El Khamsa? The Desert Fox had us on the run, didn’t he? He might have run all the way to Cairo, just as he boasted. And yet, the terrain favored us with each additional mile we lost. The Qatarra Depression acted like a great stone funnel, narrowing the front as you move towards Alexandria. We would have picked a good spot in there somewhere to make a stand… Perhaps at El Alamein. Could we hold?

Thinking these things was useless, he knew. That was all history, but he wondered if future generations would ever know the whole story; the real truth, of how the British stopped Rommel at Bir el Khamsa, and how they really held Tobruk when the Desert Fox came knocking. Would they ever truly know exactly why the British Army finally pushed Rommel off his defensive front at Gazala?

After that, he thought, it’s all mine. Kinlan was gone, on his way to that horrible doom at Tobruk, and I was the man who hammered on Rommel at El Agheila. I was the man who held the line at Mersa Brega, and the man who pushed him back through Sirte to Tripoli. Oh, we got a black eye and broken nose for our trouble. But look here, it’s my 51st Highlanders pushing on up the road this evening, and the sound of those pipes tells that tale well enough.

Rommel is gone, beaten at his own game by that firebrand American General Patton. Now he’s in Syria tormenting General Alexander. Old reliable Wavell is gone too, off to sit as the Viceroy of all India. Monty’s got his finger in the pie up north, but I’m told he’s been stuck on the coast for months. So I’ve got to get on up there and sort things out. I’ve only the 23rd Armored Brigade left for a good heavy punch, and I managed to squirrel away some 400 tanks in that outfit. My infantry is second to none, and now I have the room to organize a proper offensive. I’m going to push hard, and by God, perhaps I’ll beat Monty to Tunis.

There came the distant sound of artillery, and he knew it was 25-pounders. The lads have found someone to get after this evening, he thought. Good for them. He leaned forward, tapping the driver’s shoulder with a smile on his face. “Come on, Johnny, let’s not miss the show.”

“Right, sir.”

General Buschenhagen of the 15th Infantry Division was waiting for a train from Tunis promising supplies. His men had been in action on the coast, fighting a stubborn withdrawal for months. They would fall back, dig in, hold the line until it was flanked inland, and then withdraw to the next position to the rear. He was sitting in his staff car by the rail line, his men enjoying a quiet smoke in the evening, waiting on that train, but it was very late.

“Sergeant,” he waved at a nearby man. “Send some men on motorcycles down the line and see what the problem is with this train, it is already an hour overdue.”

It was traveling at night, deliberately trying to avoid the attention of Allied night fighters, but they may have seen it. What he found out two hours later was even more alarming. British commandos had landed at dusk along the coast behind his lines. All the Marsch Battalions that had once been posted to coastwatcher duty had long ago been commandeered and sent into the fight near Bedja.

“How strong are they?”

“We saw what looked like battalion sized formations at two locations, in the old forts near Sidi Bermaga, and along the river coming down from Djebel Abiod.”

The General was not happy…. There were actually four Commandos that had put to sea out of Bone that evening, and they had already worked their way well inland. In effect, the General’s lines of communication back to Tunis had just been cut, and there would been no train arriving that night. The engine and two stock cars were derailed and burning in the otherwise quiet night along the coast.

If only to make himself feel that he did still have some fight in him. Nehring waited at Pont du Fahs to see which front would need his divisions. As it turned out, the open zone north of Enfidaville was much easier for O’Connor than the high country east of Highway 4. So on May 8th, he organized a counterattack, with all of 15th Panzer and most of 21st, save a small KG that he had to send to Highway 4. It hit elements of the French 3rd Algerian, battalions of US Rangers that had landed on the coast to flank Enfidaville two days earlier, and a battalion of the British 44th Home Counties Division, causing some disruption and driving to within 10 kilometers of Enfidaville again. At this time, the main effort with 51st Highland and 23rd Armor was already 18 kilometers north of the town, where the Italians attempted to keep them, by launching an attack with their Centauro and Littorio Armored brigades.

O’Connor could hear the German attack coming his way at Enfidaville, and looked to see what he had at hand to stop it. The 8th RTR was still there after mopping up some trapped units of the Trento Division, and it had about 70 tanks. He also had 1st and 7th Gordons, and all the division artillery from the 51st. So he immediately ordered those guns into action, and then sent those three battalions northwest to meet the German advance. As this counterattack developed, the remainder of the French 3rd Algerian came up Highway 2 where it joined the coast near the town, and they were able to get organized to quickly join the fight. Then O’Connor heard a distant rumble to his left, and knew that the guns of the 44th Home Counties Division had joined the action.

The Germans had thought to take the British 8th Army unawares, but O’Connor found he had ample resources to deal with the enemy attack. He also knew from dispatches that the American attack up Highway 4 was gathering steam, and might soon threaten to break out towards Pont du Fahs, so he was not concerned about the sudden German thrust. They’re making a good play, if they can, he thought, but we’ll stop them.

That attack by the US 45th Infantry Division was now the right pincer of what looked like an envelopment operation aimed at Pont du Fahs. The left Pincer was Monty pushing hard with 6th and 10th Armored for Bedja. Between them, the Germans had their most cohesive defensive line, with 334th, 337th and 90th Infantry Divisions, all backed by Tiger companies and KGs from 10th Panzer. That force had held off Patton’s 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions for days along Highway 5, but it was now being flanked on both sides along highways 4 and 6.

Nehring had no choice. He had to suspend his attack and reform a defensive line, but in doing so, he managed to extricate three battalions of Panzergrenadiers and two Panzer companies to form a regimental sized reserve Kampfgruppe. It would now stand as the only German mobile troops that were not on the line, and it would not be long before they would be needed elsewhere. One detachment was sent along the rail line from Tunis, west to Bou Arada. The second went to Medjez al Bab, the last remained at Pont Du Fahs.

As they started on their way, General von Bismarck wished them good luck. For a moment he thought of Rommel, wondering how his old commanding General was faring. Gone were the long days and nights in the Libyan Desert, and the hope that they had all carried west into Tunisia had vanished after Kasserine. He shook his head, sullen and dispirited. If Hitler allowed the British and Americans to run us out of North Africa like this, then the war was as good as lost. We had over 200 divisions on the Ostfront, and could spare only ten here. Why in God’s name did Hitler order Raeder into the Black Sea? The Sicilian Narrows were our life line to Tunis, and now getting supplies through is like trying to squeeze water out of a dry sponge. There goes the last of my mobile reserves.

Farewell, my soldiers. I expect we will all soon meet again at Tunis.

Chapter 6

Monty had Bedja on the 11th of May, and was now endeavoring to do exactly what Kesselring had predicted. He wanted to continue right up Highway 6 to Medjez al Bab, and he was using his tank battalions like battering rams against the enemy defense, smashing forward with one, then sending in another. The Germans were throwing everything they had in front of him, even HQ staff companies and support squads, but by the 12th of May the line was battered to the breaking point.

On Highway 5 as it approached the village of Testour, Patton had his 2nd Armored pushing with the 3rd Infantry division, now returned to his command by Montgomery. The British General had more forces than he could use, and his own 4th Infantry had been squeezed out of the line, waiting in reserve for the armor to make some decisive breakthrough.

For that, Monty and Patton were neck and neck, with both Highway 5 and 6 converging on Medjez al Bab, bringing their spearhead forces to a meeting point. In hard fighting, the Germans were forced to retreat towards the city, cobbling together another defensive line as they did so. When Patton learned that British troops were just a few kilometers north of “His” road, Highway 5, he deliberately barked an order at the commander of CCR of 2nd Armored.

“Get up there and give them your left shoulder. Montgomery isn’t going to horn in on my road to Tunis. Let him find his own way there.”

Angered at what he saw as Patton’s “impudence,” Montgomery ordered three battalions of tanks to swing over the open country just south of Highway 6, where they pushed back a thin screen of Tigers and raced for the city. The Germans had seven AP rounds left, in a company of an equal number of tanks, and were little more than ominous looking mobile pill boxes now, their machineguns being the only real weapon they could use. So by dusk that day, elements of 8th and 10th Armored Brigades of the 10th Division were just outside Medjez al Bab.

Not to be outdone, Patton ordered the Armored Cavalry tanks of CCA’s, 2nd Armored, to race past an outlying fort still held by the Germans, and get to Medjez al Bab come hell or high water. They would face a little of both as they advanced. First a red face British Lieutenant from 3rd RTR was spitting invectives at the troops of light M5s when they scooted right in front of his own tanks forming up for the attack.

“Look,” shouted an American Sergeant. “You’re sitting there in our goddamned Grants and Shermans. We thought you were ours, and it’s our job to scout ahead of the medium armor.” That was a convenient lie, but it was already too late to do anything much about the incident. The American Stuarts, like the old swashbuckling cavalry officer they were named for, were already in the van. “Come on after us,” shouted the Sergeant. “We’ll show you the way.” Then he whistled, rapped on the top of his M5, and it sped off in a cloud of dust.

“Bloody Americans,” said the Lieutenant. “Thought we were yours, is it? Where were you in ’41 when we had the whole war on our shoulders. Come on lads, get after them!”

It wasn’t entirely clear who the British tanks were supposed to “get after” with that order, the upstart Americans or the Germans.

The American M5’s overran the airfield near Medjez al Bab, but the Germans were deeply nested in the city, about 2 kilometers to the east. To their north, the British 43rd RTR was right on the finish line with the Americans, nose to nose. Both sides had reached the town at the same time, but neither had taken it. The British were breaking through to the north, and the US 2nd Armored was pushing past the town to the south, heading for the old Roman Road that led directly to Tunis, no more than 60 kilometers to the northeast.

The Germans held on to Medjez al Bab until the 16th of May. On the 17th Montgomery was organizing one final blow, massing his artillery to pound the city, when 2nd Armored broke through the crumbling German resistance to the south, and raced up the old Roman Road. They went all the way to Bourg Amri, the headquarters of General von Arnim, the mass of the column so great that the General took one look at it, and then sent a messenger out to seek terms. Tanks, halftracks and other vehicles were grinding past the airfield to the north and south even as he surrendered.

That breakthrough by Hell on Wheels was the decisive moment of the campaign, wide and deep on either side of the Old Roman Road. Its spearheads would find themselves no more than ten kilometers from Tunis on the night of the 17th of May, effectively cutting off Nehring’s entire command to the south. Patton was elated.

“While old Montgomery is lining up his guns to pound Medjez al Bab, my boys went right for the jugular—right down the road to Tunis. I told you I would beat that ‘gentleman’ to the punch. Now’ we’ll have those two panzer divisions south of the city in a vise, and I intend to squeeze them.”

The hour was lost.

The British 43rd Wessex Division had also pushed through an unguarded hole north of Medjez al Bab, and was driving on Bizerte, taking the vital road and rail junction at Mateur. This would cut off the 327th and 15th Infantry on the northern coast, and they now began a hasty retreat to Bizerte. General Conrath, his division largely destroyed, fled as fast as he could to that city, thinking to get himself to Sicily on a plane.

Walther Nehring had other ideas. He had been trying to get through to von Arnim on the telephone, but the lines were suddenly cut. Kesselring was in Berlin, and though Nehring did not yet know it, he was now the senior Commanding officer on the field in Tunisia. News quickly claimed that the Americans had broken through and were on the old road to Tunis, which set Nehring in motion.

His 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions had been holding the line in the south, and with the support of several Italian divisions, they had managed to stop O’Connor’s drive up the coast. Nehring knew the end was near. But he still had a fairly cohesive force, and a reputation that was already under the shadow of Hitler’s criticism. Some back home had labeled him a defeatist, so he decided that if this battle would be lost, he would try and redeem himself with one last counterattack.

Nehring got to a telegraph station and sent off a signal to Berlin. “Unable to communicate with v.Arnim. Americans breaking through to Tunis. My Korps mow moving to counterattack. – Nehring.”

The remnants of the once proud 5th Panzer Army would move north that night, a long march that would bring them to the village and airfield of Oudua, about 18 kilometers south of Tunis. When Nehring got there, he saw the last of the planes forming up on the airfield to flee from the scene. An aide ran to him.

“Herr general! There is room on that transport. It will take you to Sicily.”

Nehring could already hear the artillery of 15th Panzer opening fire on the forward flank of the American penetration around Bour Amri. “No,” he said. “My men are fighting, and so I stay here and fight with them. You go in my place, Hans. Get to OKW—that is an order—and tell them that General Walther Nehring fought with his Korps to the last.”

The man was shocked, but saluted stiffly, and then ran off into the growing chaos on the airfield. As dawn broke, a flight of three American fighters came swooping down and began strafing the field, and his plane would never get off the ground. Three planes exploded, sending dark acrid smoke up into the grey dawn, and the bright hot orange fire of the aviation fuel lit up the field.

The Germans would find 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment and give it a bruising wallop that morning, along with Company A, 1/66th Cavalry in the 2nd Armored Division. It was the last German counterattack on anything approaching a division scale level of the war in North Africa.

Just a few brief months ago, five German Panzer divisions had surged against the American lines, driving through Faid Pass to Kasserine, and on to Tebessa, where they were finally stopped by Terry Allen’s 1st Infantry Division, General George Patton, and a lot of guts. After that, the dark rain fell heavily on Rommel’s command car, and he was soon gone, off for one last gallant ride through the Syrian desert to Damascus.

The men he had fought with, von Bismarck, Fischer, Randow, von Arnim and so many others, would all soon come to the bitter end in Tunisia. Walther Nehring had never been fated to be captured there, having been posted to the Ostfront before this happened. This time, his determination to go down fighting would see him join von Arnim in an Allied prison camp for the duration of the war. That last attack, which would soon be countered by CCA of 2nd Armored, would be known as the ‘Battle of Morraghia’ the deepest penetration the Germans made on the flank of Patton’s drive. It would end at the Old Roman Road, the thoroughfare of another conquering army, so very long ago.

When Hitler received the news of the sudden collapse of the entire northern front in Tunisia, he went into a rage. Kesselring was there at the time, trying to convey the urgency of the situation in Tunisia, but to Hitler, the lines noting positions on the map were all he could see. The Hermann Goring Division was still on its front line, but Hitler did not know it had been largely destroyed by the time Kesselring arrived. The same could be said for other German divisions that suffered heavily, like the 164th Light in the center, or 327th Infantry on the north coast. To Hitler’s eye, all seemed in order. He was therefore shocked when word came, in the midst of his conference with Kesselring, that the front in the north had collapsed and a general retreat to Tunis was now underway.

“How is this possible? What is going on there?” He shouted at Kesselring. “You leave to come here and confer with me, and the entire front is now a shamble! What is von Arnim doing?”

It was soon reported that von Arnim himself was now in enemy hands, and that, more than anything, communicated the gravity of the situation now underway in Tunisia.

“This is outrageous!” said Hitler. “Outrageous! Von Arnim has surrendered? I will have every member of that man’s family rounded up and executed!”

That was a threat that the Führer never followed through on, but it conveyed the degree to which he was stunned and dismayed by what had happened. Both Hitler and Mussolini had counted on a long and grudging defense in Northern Tunisia. As long as they could keep the Allies fighting there, then they could not plan other operations aimed at either Greece, Italy or even Southern France.

The signal received from Nehring offered one brief moment of hope, and the Führer waited all night for word on this counterattack. Yet it was soon eclipsed by more reports that Weber had withdrawn all the way to Bizerte, and the British were closing in on that city as well. Everyone at OKW knew the end had come, a few days later than it had in the old history, but in no less convincing a way.

There would be continued fighting for Tunis and Bizerte for another seven days, but then, on the 20th of May, General Giovani Messe accepted surrender terms for all Italian Army forces under his control. Walther Nehring was in Allied hands, and the Germans forces in Tunisia formally surrendered under the command of Major-General Gustav von Vaerst, who had taken over for Nehring, and General Weber who had organized the last defense at Bizerte.

The long and bitter struggle that had begun so long ago, with the Italian incursion into Egypt and “O’Connor’s Raid,” was now over. The shock of the defeat lay upon Hitler for weeks after, for there had been no Stalingrad, and this was the greatest setback the German Army had suffered in the war to date, with over 150,000 German Army soldiers taken prisoner. The 10th, 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, the veterans of North Africa, were stricken from the Army roster, though the Reichsmarshall immediately gave orders that his division was to be rebuilt. It was said that counting the Italian losses, Axis casualties and POW’s exceeded a quarter of a million men.

The key to that victory had been the steady rise in proficiency of the Allied air forces, which had come to dominate the skies over the battlefield, and were instrumental in choking off supplies. By the end, the Allied air supremacy was so pronounced, that British and American destroyers could sail with impunity and shell enemy positions all along the northern coast, as far as Bizerte.

Admiral Raeder’s fleet had been ordered to Toulon by Hitler even as the final Allied operation got underway on May first. Timing the transit of the Straits of Messina at night, the fleet endured a raid by American B-24’s, which sunk a destroyer and two Italian Cruisers, and put light damage on the forward deck of Fredric de Gross, also straddling the Bismarck with two bombs that spent themselves on the ship’s heavy side armor. But the two precious carriers got through unscathed, and their fighters, led by Marco Ritter, cost the Americans 14 bombers and six defending night fighters.

Raeder reached Naples on May 3rd, lingering there for no more than a day before transiting the Tyrrhenian Sea, past Rome and over the northern tip of Corsica where German air power was thick enough to protect the fleet. So Hitler still had one Ace to play when the time came, and would be glad he had not ordered the fleet to make a last gasp attack that would have led to certain disaster. In his mind, he would at least have some floating steel as a defense against any subsequent Allied invasion, and so Raeder’s final hour would not yet come.

When 62 B-24’s struck the very next day and put damage on the Prinz Heinrich, Hitler ordered the fleet to move to Genoa. A large commercial port, it had not been used as a naval base by the Italians, with La Spezia further south, but it would serve the Germans very well. The Reichsmarshall was pressed upon to send a flak brigade there to beef up the AA defenses, and Raeder’s fleet settled in, as far from Allied Bombers as it could get in the Med.

The Grand Admiral was decorated for his campaign in the Black Sea, and then told to begin a general survey of the Italian Navy to see if any of their ships could be incorporated into a combined fleet. He was to make plans aimed at repelling future Allied amphibious operations, with Sicily uppermost in the Fuhrer’s mind as the most logical point to be attacked next.

That had been the initial thinking of the Allied leaders at their Casablanca conference, but the final plans had not yet been decided, and there was a strong contingent within the British War Planning Division that was favoring another objective, one that a certain Lord Nelson had fingered long ago as being worth 50 Maltas. In our story, another Admiral would take that same torch, and carry it to the TRIDENT conference in May of 1943.