“Come on lads!” he shouted. “Let’s have at them!”
He led the way, which was over ground used as a city cemetery, that sword in one hand and a submachinegun in the other, looking like a ghost rising up from the past, and woe betide any grenadier that dared block his path. The issue at Damascus was on as thin a razor’s edge as that sword he had in hand, and the next hours might end this battle, one way or the other….
Chapter 17
The Germans would not stop for darkness or night. General Gille was intent on getting a quick decision, and he continued to push his attack across the neck of the city, primarily focused on two objectives, the Parliament building and Presidential residence on the north edge of that compound. The diversionary attack against Down’s Paras in the Al Aswad District on the Cat’s Tail would also continue, where the Germans were leaving a path of destruction in their wake as they burned their way from one building to the next.
All these attacks were successful. The Parliament building fell a little after midnight, and German troops stormed the President’s residence at 02:00. Then that battle spilled over into the Indian Embassy, which was occupied a half hour later. This attack cut off all of the 44th Recon Battalion and the stalwart 2nd Highland Light, which had been holding the line in Old Damascus. The Germans had reached the public gardens north of the canal near the university, effectively cutting the Provisional Brigade into two segments.
4th Royal Sussex was still in the northern part of the city, with the 1st Argyll & Sutherland, and Lyne had moved to the 2nd Highland Lt and 2nd Royal Sussex Battalions in the central city districts, on either side of the Barada River. Alexander telephoned Lyne direct to the hotel where he had set up his headquarters there.
‘What is your situation?” he asked grimly, and Lyne explained what had happened over two days of hard fighting.
“We’re holding out,” he finished. “But they’re using tanks and APCs in strong direct fire support, and once they get enough lined up on a strongpoint, they simply blast it to hell.”
“Well I’m sending you help,” said Alexander. “25th Armored Brigade is on the trains near Homs now, and heading south—two battalions of Churchills and one battalion of the 7th Motor Brigade. It’s all I can spare.”
“I’d be happy to get even as much as a service troop company, but those tanks sound marvelous. We’ll fight to keep the rail lines clear. I expect they’ll be coming thought Barada Gorge?”
“That’s the most direct route. There’s an auxiliary rail depot west of the city under Presidential administration. We’ll use that if you can hold the Germans at bay.”
Lyne’s next problem was what to do about his situation in Old Damascus. There was no point holding that sector any longer, and so he gave orders that his troops there should use the small foot bridges and reestablish their lines south of the canal. The French 13th Demi Brigade pulled out as well, and by 04:00, the old city center was abandoned.
The Germans quickly occupied the place, the sound of their boots echoing off the old stucco and brick walls as squads of troops swept through the district. Lyne had to give up a lot of ground, but now his line had the benefit of the canal, and could be anchored on the heavy concrete prison just south of the water barrier. He left the hotel before dawn, setting up half a kilometer to the south in the main city fire department building, which had good communications.
Just before sunrise on April 1st, the Germans were still fighting to secure the rest of the Presidential Compound, but they had reached the western edge of the city, and were now only 200 meters from the big ammo dump. The sound of aircraft overhead craned a few necks upwards, and set off some German 20mm AA fire, but it was not tactical support.
It was transports, all landing at the main airstrip under cover of darkness, and with the whole five companies of Lovat’s Number 4 Commando flown in from Haifa. Lovat walked calmly into the hangar, and put in a call to see where his men were needed. When Brigadier Lyne learned of their arrival, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Get to the Ammo depot, very near the military barracks. Jerry is right on top of it, and I don’t think the French can hold them off much longer.” So the Commandos fell in and marched up through the outlying town of Kafer Sousse, expecting to reach the barracks by sunrise. Lovat eventually found General Larminat at his HQ, his men arriving in the nick of time to take up positions at the Ammo Depot. The French had been hastily carting off crates of ammo to the Custom Sheds and warehouses further south, for they could not hold the depot with all that explosive material about. The arrival of those five companies of Number 4 Commando made all the difference. By mid-day, April Fool’s day, Gille called Rommel to inform him of the situation.
“We’ve cleared the old city and most of the government buildings. I’m afraid there isn’t much left of them now. But I had to focus most of my strength on that sector, so we haven’t been able to take the main rail yard in the south, or reach the airfield. They flew in another battalion last night.”
“But you have the city center?”
“Most everything above the main canal is ours, except for the districts up near the Jebel. That means Barada Gorge is still open, and I can’t get anything back there to put a cork in the bottle. Can you send me anything more of 2nd Panzer?”
“Not likely,” said Rommel. “I thought this thrust at Damascus would break their nerve and send them retreating south from Homs, but they’ve held on. They broke off their offensive at T4, but a lot of those troops have pulled out to deploy along our flank from Palmyra to Damascus. Yet we are masters of the old city, so run up our flag over parliament and get me a photo for the Führer. This was one promise I needed to keep, and I am going to tell him we have Damascus.”
“This fight isn’t over,” said Gille. “The city is likely to remain contested for days. I don’t think I can clear them all out with just my division.”
“Not necessary,” said Rommel “Eisenfall was a success. I’m counting my chickens, even if they haven’t all hatched. Hitler can use a little the good news, eh? Guderian has Baghdad. Now we’re in Damascus!”
“But where do we go from here?” asked Gille.
There was a moment of silence from Rommel. “A good question,” he said at last. “Carry on Gille. You did not let me down.”
Gille looked at the phone receiver when the line went dead. Rommel had not answered his question, and that would be hanging in the air now, waiting for some resolution. They had come all this way, some 225 kilometers, a little more than half way to Jerusalem, but the British refused to budge. They would not give up Lebanon or Palestine without being pushed out, mile by mile, and that was going to be the deciding factor in this battle—sheer intransigence.
Before dusk, Lyne ordered his engineers to blow every bridge over the canal near the public gardens, and he concentrated the 44th Recon battalion at the university. Word came that 25th Armored Brigade would be through Barada Gorge by dusk. The British had hung on by the skin of their teeth, and Lyne and his Provisional Brigade would be commended. He was “Mentioned in Dispatches,” and given a promotion to Major General acquitting himself completely after the loss of his brigade earlier in the fighting. In the old history, he would go on to command the 59th Infantry Division, and then take over the 50th Northumbrian Division at a most important time and place—Normandy, in June of 1944.
Boseville’s tanks, the 25th Armored Brigade, would reach the reserve rail yard and move into the upper city through the embassy district, massing to prepare for an attack back across the upper neck of the city, which would cut off the German push near the Ammo Dump. Gille had to send word to KG Krefeld in the south that he now needed all his panzers, and so the infantry there fell back on defense. That was going to end the German assault towards the airfield, and they detached the Panzer Battalion, which joined the Wiking Recon battalion to form a hard hitting mobile group.