Soon the harsh cut of MG fire tore through the cold mid-day air, and the pop of mortar fire punctuated the action. 4th Wiltshire Battalion was second in line under Lt Colonel Edward Luce, reaching the village in the thick of that engagement. They moved into the high ground to the south, thinking to find a way to flank the German position, and joined the attack. 4th Somerset was the last of the brigade, commanded by Brigadier George Mole, the “Mighty Mole” as the men called him, because he always had the men dig in at night whenever the division halted for the day.
That initial scrap was going to take all afternoon, for the German infantry was well positioned, with good overlapping fields of fire for their machineguns. The rest of the division was advancing to the north, with one regiment on a secondary road through Ain Kerma, and the other on Route 27. Both those roads joined about two kilometers northwest of the city, and that is where the German 106th Regiment waited on defense. Stopped by the stalwart enemy, the British would resort to their artillery in an attempt to blast the Germans from their stony fox holes.
To the south of Constantine, General Anderson’s 3rd US Division had sent its 30th regiment toward the city, but only as a screening force to allow the Allies to organize the airfield at Telergma. The other two regiments swung due east around a high spur of mountains, heading for Ain Fakrour, along the rail line from Constantine that ran down to the larger settlement of Ain Beida, and then on through Meskiana, Les Bains and eventually reaching Tebessa. That was the rail line Patton wanted to reach as soon as possible, for it had a spur that ran southwest to the town of Khlencheld, and that could be served by road from his forward depot at Batna. The rail line from Batna itself ran directly up to Constantine, and Patton smirked to Bradley as the two men rolled forward behind the long column of the 9th Infantry Division.
“Monty won’t take Constantine any time soon, which is why I need to clear that rail line from Ain Fakrour to Tebessa. I’ve got the two armored divisions on that road to Khlencheld right now, and Terry Allen is coming up on the place from the south. I think we’d better get over there, as there’s likely to be one hell of a traffic jam.”
“George, it will be a week to ten days before you can use that rail spur? How will you get rolling stock there?”
“We don’t need that. There’s a perfectly good road following that rail line. That and the hard rail bed will save us from this goddamned mud. I’ll want Allen to take his 1st Infantry due north to Ain Beida from there, while the armor continues east towards Tebessa.”
The infantry were taking the available roads around the Chott country, low depressions that were overgrown with scrub, with wadis and sand pits mixed in. The Armor would bypass the worst of it to the south, but Patton’s three infantry divisions would deploy to take that strategic rail line, with General Eddy’s 9th tasked with taking the vital road and rail hub at Ain Beida, and Terry Allen’s 1st following the armor further east towards Tebessa.
“Leave it to me, Brad. I’ll hand Ike Tebessa before Montgomery has Constantine, let alone Bone on the coast. You’ll see.”
Chapter 9
The Luftwaffe had seen what Patton was up to, and now it was time for Generalleutnant Fischer of the 10th Panzer Division to decide what to do about it. The rail line Patton wanted from Constantine to Tebessa was his watch, and he had his division strung out all along it, from Ain Fakrour in the north to Ain Beida, where he set his HQ. The bulk of his defense had been in the north, where his Panzergrenadiers had dug in through the old ruins just south of Ain Fakrour, to the fortified rail station there, and on down to the air strip at El Boughi. He had his three Panzer battalions in reserve, but when the Americans were reported massing at Khlencheld to the south, he was quite surprised.
Fischer was in a bad mood that day, possibly feeling the shadow of Death over his shoulder. If the old history had its way, he would have only a month left to live, for he had been killed when his staff car hit a mine in an unmarked Italian minefield near Mareth. The explosion would take one arm and both legs, leaving him stunned and bleeding to death. Yet he remained conscious, ordering that pen and paper be brought to him, and with is one remaining good arm, he managed to write a page and a half to his wife before he lost consciousness and died.
A man of war, he spent his last minutes with the one woman on this earth that he had truly loved, and not in giving orders to his troops as to who would take command, and what he wanted done. But he was nowhere near that hidden mine today, yet Death still had a month to lure him to his fate. Now that his enemy was doing something he had not expected, Fischer was even more grumpy.
“What are they doing down there? By God, they want Tebessa! But they will split their army in two if they go there.”
That city was 85 Kilometers to his southeast, and his was the only division in this sector. He could not hold where he was and still stop Patton’s move to Tebessa, and he immediately got on the telephone to von Arnim at Souk Ahras.
“The Americans are moving southeast to Tebessa, and we have nothing there but some flak units and a few Grenzwacht Kompanies. Now I’m charged with holding a front line of over 140 kilometers, and we’ll be outnumbered five to one.”
“Then you will have to fight for time,” said von Arnim. “I have Pfeiffer’s Group south of Constantine, but there’s no movement there. I’ll have to give them the city, but I can hold in the mountain passes beyond with one regiment of the 15th Infantry. Move the bulk of your division south, but you must hold Ain Beida, and leave one good Kampfgruppe north of there to stop them from flanking you. Kesselring has promised me another infantry division, and the 334th is landing at Tunis today.”
“The 334th?”
“A new division. One regiment is composed of mountain troops. I’ll try to motorize the other two and send them directly to Tebessa by rail. That will anchor your defense in the south”
“What about the Hermann Goring Brigade?”
“I can’t touch that. It’s the only mechanized force backstopping our defense north along the coast. The 334th will have to do. They’re green, but if you put some panzers at their backside, they’ll fight.”
Peiffer had an ad hoc regiment composed of KG Luder, the Hansen 190th Panzer Battalion backed by some para pioneers that had been withdrawing east to Tunis, and a third motorized infantry battalion, KG Hudel. He left those in the fortified airfield of El Bey south of Constantine, but ordered the others south along the road and rail that would lead through El Beida to Tebessa. They went up over a high mountain pass and descended to find the first battalions of the 9th Infantry deploying to attack Ain Fakrour.
Hauptmann Hansen had 69 tanks, mostly Pz IV-F2s, but also four tigers that had been stolen from the 501st before it went to Rommel. He attacked immediately, catching 2nd Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment in the open. Upon placing a company of AT guns on the road to watch his flank, they ran into a second German battalion there, and so now the word was sent back that they had at last found the enemy. General Eddy decided to double down and send up the 30th RCT, which was next in line of march. He spent all morning on the 8th of January to make these deployments, but by mid-day he was ready to attack through the old ruins near the railway station southwest of Ain Fakrour.
The Panzergrenadiers were in the sturdy warehouse and rail car buildings at the station, their MGs barking as the us infantry began to advance. There, on a feeder rail spur at the station, the was a damaged boxcar, its rusty metal sides pot marked by bullets. A German MG team was inside, lying prone, and pinning down a lot of infantry that had to go to ground in the open approaches to the station. The Americans tried to hit the rail car with a mortar, but kept missing. Then, an enterprising Corporal got on the radio to his air support liaison and asked for some help. Apparently Patton’s complaints had been taken to heart, for ten minutes later a flight of three P-38s came roaring in and shot that rail car to pieces with their Hispano 20mm cannon.
Further south, the bulk of the US 9th Division was deploying to attack Ain
Beida, but the Germans received support from a regiment of the promised 334th Infantry Division. The trains had labored all night long to get them there from Tunis, and the 754th Regiment arrived just in time to join a counterattack being staged by Fischer’s 69th Pz Grenadiers. But the German defense was like an archipelago of islands stretched out along that rail line. They had kampfgruppes at Ain Fakrour, Ain Beida, and at Meskiana to the south west of that hub, where Fischer had sent his 7th Panzer Regiment. They were about to make the acquaintance of the revitalized 1st Armored Division.
Taking the lead in Patton’s drive East, ‘Old Ironsides’ was out to start working on its reputation. CCA under Colonel Robinette had pushed due east towards Tebessa, but CCB took the road up to Meskiana. A-Company of the 13th Armored regiment attacked with a battalion of armored engineers, pushing right for the town, and C-Company joined on the right. But Brigadier General Oliver sent all the rest of his command east of the town, just bypassing it completely. They were driving to cut the second rail line to Tebessa that came down from the north, and by so doing, isolate Patton’s main objective from further reinforcement. Patton had told them to flow east like water, engaging resistance, but flowing around it wherever possible.
There the Germans met and fought the new American M3 Sherman, with the 75mm gun. It was a far better tank than those they had faced earlier, but no match for the Panzer IV-F2, let alone the Lions whenever they were present. They ripped apart a good number of those American tanks.
While Oliver’s CCB locked horns with those panzers, Colonel Robinette’s CCA had been moving east along a secondary road that joined the main road northwest of Tebessa. They were therefore headed away from the fight, for the Americans had boldly divided their 1st Armored Division, thinking they had no more than a regiment to contend with at Meskiana. The problem was that this was a full Panzer Regiment, and they were now learning renewed respect for the German tankers. So when Patton heard Oliver had a hot fight on his hands, he quickly redirected the entire 2nd Armored Division up the road towards Meskiana. They began arriving in the thick of that fight, deploying their SPGs to begin pouring on supporting fire against the German tanks.
While Oliver’s command had mostly M5 Stuarts, just a few of the newer US tanks, 2nd Armored had been completely re-equipped. They brought up two full medium battalions, and went right after the German panzers in the village of Meskiana. On the defense, the Germans usually enjoyed a good range advantage on their enemies, but in those close quarters, with the tanks in and through the adobe like buildings, the action came to point blank range at times. Had the German panzers been supported with good infantry and artillery, it would have been a real mess for Oliver’s command. But an order was soon to come that would end this initial duel. The threat to Tebessa was growing more serious by the hour, and a small raiding force under Colonel Semms was about to garner a most distinctive honor.
Since high mountains screened Tebessa to the west and south, The path taken by Colonel Robinette’s CCA was the only clear avenue of attack. Yet Patton had also sent a fast moving force under Colonel Semms, the old “Blade Force” from the real history, only minus the British contingent. It had three companies of M5 Stuarts, some artillery, flak, and an engineer platoon, and they scouted south of those mountains to try and reach the road as it ran southeast from Tebessa to Thelepte.
So it was that on the 8th of January, A-Company, of 66th Armored Cav, was the first Allied unit to cross the border and enter Tunisia. Even though the German 755th Regiment of the 334th had arrived by rail to reinforce Tebessa, the Germans simply did not have enough troops to defend that southern approach. When they found it largely undefended, Semms got on the radio and informed Patton that the ‘way around the right’ was wide open.
“Good,” said Patton. “Now I want you to go right for Thelepte along that road. I’ll send up the 1st Infantry to take the position you’re holding now.”
Patton was demonstrating remarkable flexibility as he advanced. He had kept Terry Allen’s Division in the basket behind his armor, and he was parceling out that infantry wherever it was needed, in effect, building Kampfgruppes on the spot as the Germans might have done. This kind of flexibility was not yet endemic to the US forces, but it was to Patton. Where he took personal charge of the battle, results followed. Brigadier Roosevelt’s 26th RCT got orders to move out at once. And the sheer audacity of Patton’s ‘broken field running’ was about to unhinge the entire German defense.
* * *
Kesselring flew into Souk Ahras to confer with von Arnim, finding him at his wits end. “I’ve had to break up 10th Panzer in to three Kampfgruppes, and now each one is tangling with a full enemy division. They are holding, but that won’t last long. The odds are too great. I simply cannot hold the line between Constantine and Tebessa with that single division.”
“I sent you Weber’s 334th Division,” said von Arnim.
“Yes, but they’re raw, and I can only use them in a defensive role. At the moment, we’re keeping them out of Ain Beida and Tebessa, but they are pushing mechanized patrols through any gap in the line they find, and there’s nothing I can do about it. If I have to hold these towns, I cannot maneuver.”
“What about Montgomery?”
“We’re holding there. Both the 327th and 15th Infantry got into good defensive positions before the British kicked off their offensive. We actually have a coherent line there.”
“And Constantine?”
“It’s ours, but I cannot see any benefit in holding it. All it does is stand as a bulwark between the British and Americans. We should just blow all the key bridges there, and then pull out. We can hold the mountain passes east of that city with far fewer troops.”
“That makes sense.” Kesselring looked over the map. “Alright… Pull the 15th Infantry Division north of Constantine and continue defending the coastal area. Leave the Ersatz battalion in the city itself to see to those bridges. With the bulk of Ernst Hell’s 15th Division in the north, I think I can then safely transfer Conrath’s troops south to support your defense there. Since the rail lines will be cut, Ain Beida no longer matters. We won’t be able to keep it supplied, so finish up your counterattack and then pull out tonight. Reform 10th Panzer Here, at Medkour, about 35 kilometers north of Ain Beida. The Herman Goring troops will come down to meet you there. Then you will have the force you need to put in a real attack. I completely understand your situation now. I must admit that the Americans have moved much farther south than we expected. I thought the British would keep those dogs on a tight leash, covering Montgomery’s flank on the coast.”
“There’ isn’t much we can do until I’m reinforced,” said von Arnim dejectedly. “They can go all the way to Sfax!”
“I moved the Italian Superga Mountain Division to Thelepte,” Said Kesselring. “That will help hold the southern sector. Below that, it’s all Chott country. But we’ll need to control the passes along the eastern and western dorsal ranges.”
“What about Rommel?” asked von Arnim. “Can’t he send anything more?”
“He’s in the thick of it with the British 8th Army. There’s a big fight underway at the Tarhuna line. I think he will hold there easily enough, but after that, we must convene a meeting and reach a general understanding of how to proceed here. It’s clear that even with the 334th Division, we won’t be able to stop Montgomery and Patton for long. So we must now strongly consider the merits of giving up Tripolitania altogether, so we can concentrate both our armies in Tunisia. All the supplies are being funneled through Tunis anyway after Goring’s “reforms” to the supply chain. Rommel is getting few convoys to Tripoli. Sfax and Sousse are more important to us now than that port.”
“Hitler will throw a fit if Rommel gives up Tripolitania,” said von Arnim. “Not to mention Mussolini and the Italians. That’s their last colony in North Africa.”
“Well this was all Hitler’s doing,” said Kesselring. “That redeployment order cost us everything here. Now we have the e
quivalent of about four plus divisions in this army, and we are facing ten or eleven Allied divisions in Algeria. At the very least, I will demand that Rommel send us one of his three Panzer Divisions. We simply have too wide a front to hold. As for the Italians, Mussolini has always had an eye for Tunisia. He’d much rather have that than Libya. So I think we might persuade them—tell them we will cede Tunisia to their control if we can hold it.”
That was the real dilemma now. Where the Germans decided to stand and fight, they could hold the ground and even counterattack to hurt their enemy. Yet they did not have the troops to be everywhere. By all rights, Kesselring and the 5th Panzer Army might have been able to adequately defend the northern approaches to Tunis and Bizerte. But Patton’s sudden and unexpected thrust towards Tebessa had forced them to divide this small army and defend two widely separated fronts. They had to therefore choose their ground carefully, moving to defend key roads through passes, and trading space for time.
In all truth, Patton’s advance was a haphazard, breakneck affair. That first company to cross the Tunisian border got lost, wandering in the mountains over narrow tracks until it eventually came to the wide plain that led to a very famous pass at a place called Kasserine.
Part IV
Chariots of Fire
“How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul!”
—Emily Dickinson
Chapter 10
The Allies wouldn’t get to Tunis any time soon, but a few brave men would try, and with a most unusual device. It looked like a typical 533mm, 21-inch torpedo, except there was a dual metal saddle on its back that could be mounted by two British Frogmen. The British got the idea from the Italians, who had enjoyed spectacular success slipping into British harbors on similar contraptions they called their “pigs.” Two British submarine officers, Commander Geoffrey Sladen and Lt. Commander William “Tiny” Fell, came up with the design and the means to carry it to the target area on the deck of a submarine in a special container. Looking for a better name, they called their design a “Chariot,” and sought to use these self-propelled torpedoes to aid in the interdiction of enemy ports in Sicily and North Africa.
Lions at Dawn (Kirov Series Book 28) Page 8
