BRITISH 10th ARMY – SYRIA – General Sir Edward Quinan
5th Infantry Division, Major-General Horatio Berney-Ficklin
13th Infantry Brigade - Brigadier V.C. Russell
15th Infantry Brigade - Brigadier H.R.N. Greenfield
17th Infantry Brigade - Brigadier G.W.B. Tarleton
56th (London) Infantry Division, Major-General Eric Miles
167th (London) Infantry Brigade - Brigadier J.C.A. Birch
168th (London) Infantry Brigade - Brigadier K.C. Davidson
169th (London) Infantry Brigade - Brigadier L.O. Lyne
31st Indian Armored Div - Major-General Robert Wordsworth
3rd Indian Motor Brigade - Brigadier A.A.E. Filoze
252nd Indian Armored Brigade - Brigadier G. Carr-White
10th Indian Motor Brigade - Brigadier Harold Redman
British 1st Infantry Division (Palestine Garrison)
King Force Desert Group (Dier Es Zour)
46th Mixed Infantry Div – (Arriving 17 January)
1st Para Division – Lt General Sir Frederick “Boy” Browning
1st and 2nd Brigades (Arriving 20 January)
No. 4 Commando – No. 6 Commando
INDIAN XXI CORPS – IRAQ - Lt-General Sir Mosley Mayne
8th Indian Infantry Division, Major-General Charles Harvey
17th Indian Infantry Brigade - Brigadier F.A.M.B. Jenkins
19th Indian Infantry Brigade - Brigadier C.W.W. Ford
10th Indian Infantry Division - Major-General Alan Blaxland
20th Indian Infantry Brigade - Brigadier L.E. MacGregor
25th Indian Infantry Brigade - Brigadier A.E. Arderne
6th Indian Infantry Division - Major-General J.N. Thomson
27th Indian Infantry Brigade - Brigadier A.R. Barker
6th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers
5th Indian Infantry Division – Maj. General Harold R. Briggs
9th Indian Infantry Brigade – Brigadier William Langran
10th Indian Infantry Brigade – Brigadier John Finlay
29th Indian Infantry Brigade – Brigadier Whitehorn Reid
* * *
Humbugged was not half a word for what the Germans had just pulled off. General Zeitzler was in rare form, taking the reins from the disgruntled and embittered Franz Halder, and eager to please the Führer. He put his considerable skills to work, even going so far as to call in the legions of ‘Greens’ that Turing and Twinn had ruminated over. He got the new deliveries of armor and vehicles moved swiftly to Odessa, and the troops of 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions would find it all waiting for them when they arrived. They were eager to get their hands on the new tanks, for they had a lot of old, worn down equipment that needed replacement. After one look at those brand new Lions and Leopards, they were elated, with a new spring in their weary feet.
Fresh replacements for the Panzergrenadier Regiments were there to meet them as well, the veterans taking them under their wings, but making sure they got first dibs on the better equipment for themselves, handing off any of the older Pz III-Js to the newcomers. These two divisions would form the 2nd echelon of the operation, and German intelligence had indicated that the northernmost region of Syria was only lightly held by the British. Preference was therefore given to the shipment of the Brandenburgers, and 10th Motorized Division was close behind it, along with the Prinz Eugen 7th SS Mountain Division pulled out of Croatia and Serbia, where it had been conducting anti-partisan sweeps.
Zeitzler had all these forces moving like the hands of a well-oiled clock. He brilliantly coordinated the mustering of Goring’s JU-52s on the airfields in Greece, and after moving back through Tunis to Sicily, the Fallshirmjager units crossed at the Straits of Messina and then boarded trains to Taranto. The Italians had agreed to lift them by sea, and cover that movement with a rare sortie by their last few heavy ships based at that port. They would deliver them to Patras, Greece, and from there they went by rail to Athens.
The British would see all these formations converging in Greece and Northern Syria, and also realized that the Germans had not been idle in Turkey in the last year. While they could barely support a division the previous year on the old Turkish rails, this time they had moved a full mobile corps, and did so with well-practiced skill honed over years of war fighting under much more difficult conditions in Russia.
This time the Germans were coming to fight, and Hitler was combining Operation Phoenix with two others, a major thrust to the south in the dead of the Russian winter. The first would be the long fear German assault on Crete, Operation Merkur, and the last would be a renewed push to destroy the last Soviet resistance in the Kuban, Operation Edelweiss.
Just when it seemed that the war was settling in to a familiar pattern, with the Allies in the west ready to squeeze Rommel and von Arnim into Tunisia, and then begin planning for the invasion of Sicily, things began to spin off in a completely different direction. The Allies were back on their feet after the disastrous early years, and they were starting to throw hard punches, but Germany was still the heavyweight champion of the world when it came to the deadly art of war, able to wrestle with a massive Soviet Army on the one hand, and still fight all these battles in the West.
1943 was beginning with some real surprises. As the new year dawned, the Lions were still on the prowl, and the war would be taken to distant lands that it had barely scorched in Fedorov’s history. It was all being rewritten now, and his hand would still figure prominently in the outcome of all these events.
Part VI
Speed
“If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough.”
—Mario Andretti
Chapter 16
The Germans decided to show the British their hand before they drew any more cards. They would proceed with Operation Phoenix first and foremost, thinking this would force their enemy to commit all his reserves to that theater, in effect, showing them all the cards they held as well. Meanwhile, Student’s Sky Hunters would take in new recruits, brush the dust and sand of North Africa off their uniforms and equipment, and get time to refit and prepare for Operation Merkur.
While Crete’s forward position against the Aegean represented a real threat to any shipping, all the forces allocated to Operation Phoenix were coming through Turkey by rail, which put the British in a most uncomfortable position. Head of the Western Desert Air Force, Sir Arthur Coningham, was the first to voice the dilemma.
“We can’t hit that rail line without direct approval from the Prime Minister,” he said. “It’s all on Turkish soil. If you want my word on it, the Turks ought to realize they can’t have things both ways any longer. They want to sit there under the cloak of neutrality, but they have allowed German combat units to transit their sovereign territory, and overfly their airspace as if there could be no consequences. By god, the Germans have even based aircraft at Iskenderun!”
“I understand what you are saying,” said Wavell. “Yet if Churchill can’t persuade them to rescind their license to Jerry, then we shall have no other option. We’ll have to hit them, and diplomacy be damned. Letting the wolf in through your front gate is bad enough. Feeding him every day is quite another thing. The Germans will also have to rely on that rail line to keep all those troops supplied, and at some point, if not this very moment, interdiction of that rail connection will be of primary importance. I intend to argue this as strongly as possible in my communications to Whitehall. For the moment, however, you will have to concentrate your interdiction effort on their main receiving stations on Syrian soil—Aleppo would come to mind immediately.”
“Yes,” said Coningham, “they’ve move fighters there as well—fair game. But you realize this is going to put a crimp in the support I can offer O’Connor. I’ve earmarked four fighter groups to impose air superiority, but I had to take two of them from Cyrenaica. I spoke with Tooey Spaatz and the Americans might be able to support us with their 57th Fighter Group. That would help out immensely.”
“Do what you must. We have to secure this flank, and at this point, we don’t really know how serious a threat this will be. If it’s a nuisance incursion to tap us on the shoulder, that would be one thing. If it’s a really big operation, then we could be at it in Syria for months. The presence of the Brandenburg Division teeing off at the first hole leads me to think they mean business.”
Even as those two men spoke, Lieutenant Gruber had that business right in front of him, a roadblock at the tiny hamlet of Abu Ad Duhur, about 40 kilometers south of Aleppo. The road he took south had followed the rail line to the larger cities of Hamah and Homs. He had moved very quickly, down through Saybiyah and Rassef, and now he ordered up the Armored Car Company to see if they might blow right on through this enemy position. As soon as they moved, a flight of three British Hurricanes appeared overhead, and they came swooping down to attack.
It was a strafing run, their machine guns blazing away and churning up a lot of dust at the head of the column. Moments later Gruber would learn they had taken their first casualties, a SdkFz 221 light armored car that was shot up so bad that it had to be pushed off the road. Just outside the hamlet, lying low in a thicket at the edge of a small cultivated area, a company of the Frontier Horse were ready to open fire. They didn’t have much to hurt those armored cars, but the few 2” mortars they had were firing for all they were worth.
Gruber studied them briefly, peering through his field glasses. His troops had stood like a stone wall in the face of massed Soviet attacks that would send three or four divisions against the line at one time, supported by droves of armor. He shook his head, a sneer on his lips, then looked at his map.
“Sergeant!” he said over his shoulder.
“Sir?”
“Get back and tell Leutnant Kramer to take his motorcycle company east five kilometers, then south to secure a small airstrip. We’ll be needing that soon. The motorized company can come right on up.”
The SkdFz Schwerer Panzerspähwagen was the latest of the production lines in that category, a fast eight wheeled armored car with a 20mm quick firing main gun. It could theoretically put out 280 rounds per minute, as it was based on the 20mm flak gun, though it was seldom ever put to that test. The suppressive quality of that stinging fire was immediate, and the guns quickly silenced those mortar teams. Gruber could see his column pushing through with no difficulty, and he whistled to wave up his infantry. An hour later he learned his motorcycle company had secured the small air strip, and then pushed on south another 20 kilometers to Abu Darikah.
As they continued south through the dry stony country, the three companies fanned out, looking for any further sign of organized enemy resistance, but finding the land barren and empty. Yet the sky about that ground was not empty, and it was immediately clear to Gruber that the enemy was going to have air support in this battle. The Germans had several squadrons of Me-109s up, but only 86 fighters between them, and they were scarcely seen. What was seen were the Hurricanes, Kittyhawks and even a few squadrons of Spitfires. Coningham had over 200 fighters up that day, and he was clearly taking out his frustrations with a ruthless hold on the skies over this battlefield.
That will make a difference, thought Gruber. The Luftwaffe once seemed invincible, but not any longer. Here in the West, Goring is spread very thin, and a lot of our fighters went to Luftflotte II and Fliegerkorps X for the Crete operation. Well, we will have to make do with what we have.
He waited astride the rail line south, watching the trucks of 1st Brandenburg Motorized Regiment moving past him now, the long column of vehicles off to the east. There were thin trails of smoke in their wake, like candles that had been blown out, the smoke curling up into the windless sky. That was where the enemy planes had struck, but thus far, they were making very swift progress south nonetheless.
Far to the east, the Brandenburg Lehr Regiment under Obersturmfuhrer Konrad was also racing along the main road that led from Aleppo to Ar Raqqah on the upper Euphrates. That was the town that Fedorov, Troyak and the Russian Marines had fought for, with the help of the Argonauts. There they had foiled the efforts of the German Paratroopers with their fast moving helicopters, and the withering support fire that could put out. They met no opposition until they reached the town of Meskene after a blistering 80 kilometer road march. The frontier horse were there too, but they met with the same sad fate that Gruber had dealt out further west.
Konrad’s group had three special Kommando units with them, and one was sent to secure the bridge over the Euphrates at Kesfra, while the other two occupied two old abandoned French air strips along the main highway at El Aboud and Jirah. This regiment was acting like Gruber’s force, clearing the way ahead, securing the line of communications and probing towards Ar Raqqah. It would be followed by Motorized Regiments III and IV under Duren and Langen, the main force intended for the battle they expected at the city.
Luftwaffe reconnaissance had identified a strong enemy presence there at Ar Raqqah. It was a major bridge over the Euphrates leading north to the Turkish frontier, and the British had an airfield there that Konrad was to take at his earliest opportunity.
In his way, would be Brigadier Legentilhomme and his Free French Division, a force that was really about the size of a single brigade. It had one battalion of Foreign Legionnaires, four more Senegalese Marche Battalions, a mechanized company of five old armored cars, and 12 antiquated Char H-39 French tanks. The area was seen as such a backwater region that it had never been built up with better equipment. Two batteries of 75mm guns rounded it off, with one battalion of Marine Fusiliers posted on the two main bridges. These six odd battalions were about to be visited by three regiments of the Brandenburgers.
* * *
Wavell was going to have a long day, and a very sleepless night. The only thing that looked promising was Coningham’s control of the air. On the ground, the Germans had pushed boldly over the Turkish Frontier and were racing south an east, with a preponderance of their infantry forces near the coast. He had the two British infantry divisions of General Edward Quinan’s 10th Army. Anderson’s III Corps was their operational HQ, with 5th Division deployed from the coast at the port of Baniyas and covering a 100 Kilometer front east to screen the city of Hamah. The 56th Division was centered on Palmyra further south and covering a similar front that included postings at the T3 and T4 pumping stations for the Tripoli Pipeline. That was vital infrastructure, and it was soon to become a battleground.
Between The populous city of Homs and that T4 Pumping station, there was a 90 kilometer gap that was only lightly patrolled by the 56th Division Recon battalion. If the enemy had the force to engage the 5th Division, they could bypass Hamah to the east, and flow right into that gap. It had to be filled, and by troops that had some ability to contest the ground in what might soon become a fast battle of maneuver.
The only force he had for that was the Indian 31st Armored Division, a relatively inexperienced unit, though the troops were resolute and loyal. That force was at Damascus, and he could move it swiftly north by rail to Homs. Then he would have to move something into Damascus, for that major city could not be left without a standing garrison.
Most of the armor had been east of Damascus, running about on drills as they trained in their new equipment, but he would get the recon battalion, two motorized Infantry battalions, an artillery battalion and the 32nd Madras Engineers moving north on the trains right away. When word came down that the unit was going into battle, the men were quite excited.
“Anand!” came the cry of a young sapper. He was just a Sepoy, or a Private of engineers, looking for his Platoon Halvidar, the Sergeant with a very long name—Anandsubramanian. Anand meant happiness, bliss or joy, a common given name in India. The surname Subramanian hailed from Southern India, a combination of two Sanskrit/Tamil words that might be loosely translated as “worthy jewel.” An amiable man, the Sergeant was often called by his first name by the men he knew best, Anand.
“What now, Kaling?
Don’t tell me you‘ve gone and lost you drill kit yet again. I told you to be ready for training at first light.”
“No Sergeant. It’s not a drill this time! The Germans have crossed the border, and the whole division is going north to fight them!”
“What? The Germans? Don’t think you can fool me again, Kaling. I’m on to you this time.”
The Sepoy’s penchant for jest was well known. He was young at just eighteen years, with bright eyes, a quick mind and a lot of mischief in his soul. Kaling Kapoor was right in his element here, as he had come from Jodhpur in the north near the Great Thar Desert. How he managed to wrangle his way into an Engineer battalion that had formed in Madras was another story, one too long to tell here. In spite of his stern outer aspect, Halvidar Anandsubramanian had taken the lad under his wing, intending to keep the young man on his toes as well.
32nd Madras Sappers & Miners had been an established unit in the Indian Army since the outbreak of the war. Their job was to further and assist the movement of friendly forces, while impeding the movement of the enemy. As such, they would often be assigned to road details, bridge work, the building of camps and fortifications, and the demolition of enemy fieldworks. 31st Armored relied on them to make sure their new tanks could get over the many wadis and gullies that fingered their way through the Syrian deserts, so it was no surprise that they would get one of the first orders to move out.
The unit had a long history, dating back to 1780 when the first two companies were raised and eventually formed the Madras Pioneer Battalion. They were the “Queen’s Own” during the 1800s, until reference to Her Majesty was dropped from the unit designation in 1941.
Called the “Thambis” by others in the division, they wore a distinctive shako as headgear, a cylindrical cap with a red plume or ‘pompom’ at the top. With this distinguished military history, they were a tight professional unit, well trained, and many in their ranks had already fought the Germans in North Africa, and in Burma against the Japanese.
Lions at Dawn (Kirov Series Book 28) Page 14
