“Yes,” said Nehring. “But the Americans are throwing all their armor on this one segment of the line after taking Sbeitla. That airborne drop was quite a gamble, but they broke through the Western Dorsal passes to link up. Now they want the pass at Faid.”
“Can you hold them?” Kesselring eyed the map.
“For a time, but it is slowly wearing out these mobile divisions Rommel was kind enough to leave me. Meanwhile, O’Connor is pounding away down south at Mareth. How long will that position hold?”
“It should be able to hold indefinitely,” said Kesselring. “That’s where all the rest of our infantry is, two German and four Italian divisions. The question is, should we leave them there? We have already had to pull out the Littorio Armored Division to help cover Ghafsa, and the Italians have sent some of their San Marco Marines west as well.”
“Ghafsa?” said Nehring. “Why in God’s name do we need that? It made sense to hold it for Sturmflut, but no longer.”
“Ghafsa covers Highway 15 to Sfax,” said Kesselring. “And that port receives Siebel ferry boats out of Tunis to help supply the Mareth line position.”
Nehring shook his head. “I do not wish to sound like a defeatist, as some have already accused me of this back home, but we don’t need Mareth either. If I had my way, I would draw the line right here.” He fingered the northernmost point of Patton’s operation, and moved it due west to the coast—right at the port of Sousse.
Kesselring nodded. “I came to that conclusion three days ago. I just wanted to see if either of you would suggest the same thing. Von Arnim?”
“Nehring is correct,” he said. “His entire position is holding a front simply to deny the enemy terrain—all of southern Tunisia. If we gave that up, and moved to the line he suggests, then we shorten our entire defensive front here into a much tighter bridgehead, and one we actually have a chance at holding.”
Kesselring smiled. “I hope you both realize that I was recently directed to begin planning another spring offensive for April.”
Nehring actually laughed this time. “Out of the question,” he said. “At least as long as we are trying to hold our present positions. If we were to pull out to the line I described, then we could also get the Panzer divisions off the line and ready for such an offensive. As it stands, this is impossible.”
“Now we come to the real problem with all of this thinking,” said Kesselring, and he summed it up in one word. “Hitler.”
Von Arnim nodded agreement. “He just sent the 16th Panzer Division to Rommel so he can muddle about with it in Syria,” he said with obvious bitterness. And I can tell you that he will not permit the withdrawal Nehring suggests.”
“But what if the three of us all sign on to this demand?” Nehring pressed his point. “I’ll tell you right now—if this Patton breaks through up near Faid, then that withdrawal will become a necessity. Quite frankly, if we don’t move as I suggest, they will cut us right in half. I’ll end up having to split my panzers into two groups, with the15th and 7th trying to screen off Sfax and points south, and the 21st trying to hold that line I suggested. The problem will then be the fact that we will lose overland road and rail connections to the southern pocket. Everything will have to go by sea into Sfax and Gabes. It will be a disaster.”
“Agreed,” said Kesselring. “So how can we do what we all know we must, and without losing our heads in the process? You saw what happened to von Funck.”
They passed a moment of silence before von Arnim finally spoke. “The Italians,” he said quietly, a conspiratorial tone in his voice. “Nehring has put his finger on the right spot. We must prevent an enemy breakthrough to the coast through Faid Pass. Hitler chooses to feed Rommel in Syria. So be it. We need infantry, and we have two good divisions sitting on the Mareth line. So I see no alternative other than to recall them to stop this new American offensive.”
“But the Italians won’t be able to hold O’Connor,” said Kesselring.
“Precisely.” Von Arnim just looked at them, saying nothing more, and they both knew what he meant. The Italians would not hold. They would be forced back, and the Germans would have their scapegoat. All they had to do was pull the two German infantry divisions from Mareth, and the rest would be inevitable. The Allies would eventually force the Italians back, and they would have no recourse other than to reach the line Nehring suggested.
“I can see the look on the face of General Meese right now when I tell him I must issue orders for the 90th and 164th to move north.”
“We have coddled them for years,” said von Arnim. “They were all but beaten by O’Connor in Libya until we sent Rommel over. Now they’ve been moaning and groaning about the loss of Libya, so we promised them Tunisia. Well—let them hold it. Where are the divisions Mussolini promised us? He sent us half the Centauro Armored Division, a parachute outfit and a few battalions of Marines.”
“The Giovani Fascisti has just been moved out of reserve to Sfax,” said Kesselring, “but I don’t think we’ll see them shipping over any more armor, for what it’s worth.”
“Then tell General Meese to send that division to Mareth,” said Nehring. We must get another German infantry division up here, and right now. “I don’t intend to leave 15th Panzer Division where it is now either. I need it to stop the main enemy offensive. They are just screening it off with infantry, so I want to move it north. After that, let the chips fall as they may.”
“You won’t have von Funck to blame this time,” said Kesselring.
“To hell with that,” said Nehring. “If I don’t move it, Patton will break through somewhere along this 100-kilometer front and then we’ll be to blame instead of the Italians, because that will force us to give up all of southern Tunisia. I agree with von Arnim. We should pull our troops out of Mareth, and let the Italians hold. If nothing else, they can at least fight a delaying action there. They could fall back to Gabes, hold there a while, and then move north. But they should not try to hold Ghasfa any longer, it’s out there on a limb, and if they do get more than a French division pressing them, it will fall in a few days anyway.”
So that was to be the German plan, a nice little conspiracy to pull their infantry from Mareth and then blame the loss of Southern Tunisia on the Italians. Hitler could rant all he wanted, but he would have only that one complaint to put against Kesselring—why did he withdraw German troops from Mareth? Smiling Al already had his answer—because it was a military necessity in order to prevent the entire position from being cut in two. If that were to happen, and two bridgeheads formed, he wanted no German troops trapped in the south.
After linking up with the 82nd airborne at Sbeitla, Patton had pushed his combat commands hard. The 82nd had now pushed as far as Kern’s Cross, supported by companies of Tank Destroyers. North of that position, all of Ward’s 1st Armored Division was attacking up the rail line and Highway 3 towards Fondouk. In fact, the entire American line now extended parallel to that highway, just a few kilometers west. Patton already had elements of the 157th RCT from 45th Infantry seven klicks from Fondouk, but that force had run into German Tiger tanks to block their advance. Kesselring had been moving the few Schwere companies he had about like war elephants, and two had been sent to prevent the fall of Fondouk.
From there all the way south to Ward’s division, Patton was keeping up relentless pressure. Just north of Ward he had Task Force Abrams at El Tarig, and then came Harmon’s entire 2nd Armored division. Virtually every tank the Americans had in theater was involved, at least 600 Shermans, another 150 M5s and scores of Tank Destroyers, the new American M-10. It was like water behind a dam, and slowly, he was wearing down the German defense.