That will give O’Connor pause, thought Rommel, for he realized that until the British sorted that mess out, they had no real supply port to rely on. Tobruk was still useless according to all reports, the wreckage in the harbor making it unsafe for any shipping, the town itself blasted and burned, and a heavy security blanket thrown over the whole area by the British. His long range recon patrols by the Luftwaffe reported that the enemy was still moving supplies by rail from Cairo and Alexandria, and truck pools were being organized at Mersa Matruh, but that was hundreds of miles behind the current front.
So this is the perfect time to pull out, Rommel realized, and he did so in December, again using inadequate supply deliveries over the 500 mile circuit as his salient reason. Kesselring was nervous about the move, worried that Hitler would react badly and become even more intransigent, but the military storms in Russia had completely absorbed his attention. So he approved the withdrawal, couching it as a redeployment to the main line of defense for Tripoli, and then he inveighed upon Rommel to hold that line, no matter what. He had to do something to appease the Italians.
In surveying that ground, Rommel decided that the open area around Homs would not be suitable to a protracted defense, and so he withdrew west of that city, placing the Italians on the coast near the village of Negazza. There, Hill 151 sat right astride the coast road to anchor that line, and the ground rose as it moved inland to the southwest, screening Tripoli. Those hills would be Rommel’s castle wall, where he would post his best infantry to prevent the coastal position from being easily turned. Behind the Italians, he set the 15th Panzer Division in ready reserve.
Further south, just beyond the thickest part of the hills, was the city of Tarhuna, and it was there that he posted his old favorite 7th Panzer Division under von Funck. He fully expected the British to move into Homs, and there was a good road from that coastal town to Tarhuna, and a lot of open ground to the east that was well suited to a mobile defense. That road passed through Tarhuna, continuing west through lower hills before bending northwest towards Tripoli, so a lot rested on the defense of 7th Panzer.
Behind it, on the road to Tripoli, Rommel set up his own headquarters at the small airstrip of Milga, and he had the 21st Panzer Division gathered there astride the road. If the British tried to flank 7th Panzer and bypass the Tarhuna position, the 21st would be poised to intervene and challenge that move. 90th Light was positioned forward of the 21st with Ramcke and his regiment of Falschirmjaegers on the flank. As for the remainder of the Italian Army, the Trento, Trieste and Superga divisions were placed in a wide arc along the defenses closer to Tripoli, where they were busy improving that ground, adding pill boxes and digging anti-tank ditches.
It was Rommel’s intention to fight his enemy on the Tarhuna line, and then if necessary, he would fall back on those inner defenses around Tripoli. The commander he would face this time would not be the implacable Montgomery, who would plan a grueling battle of attrition, well supported by supplies and timed down to the second for the introduction of each division. Instead he would again face the dashing General O’Connor, still enjoying his license as 8th Army Commander, instead of the four quiet walls of a prison cell in Italy.
“We are leaving Buerat,” he said at his briefing meeting prior to the battle.
“Hitler will have a fit,” said von Bismarck of the 21st Panzer Division. He was a thin man, bespeckled, yet with a wiry strength, even at the age of 52. Rommel knew him well, for he had commanded the motorized regiment of the 7th Panzer Division in 1940 during the dash across France.
“Then let him have his fit,” said Rommel. “I can think of no good military reason to stand at Buerat. It has no real natural strength, and it can be easily outflanked. The ground we want is here, astride these hills running inland from the coast west of Homs. The Tarhuna line is much stronger, closer to our supplies and airfields, and not easily flanked. I merely threw a bone to the Italians by stopping at Buerat, but, the whims of Mussolini and the Italians are no longer any concern. However, we must hold Tripoli as long as possible. We will serve their interests on the strategic level by doing so, but I will choose the ground, not the Italians.
“It looks like you have chosen well,” said Lungerhausen of the 164th Light Infantry.
“You will be here,” Rommel pointed. “The two Italian armored divisions will hold on the coast. You take this high ground and hold their flank. They will push here, but I fully expect them to make a heavy turning movement around Tarhuna to the southwest. That is your post, von Funck. I want you to engage them heavily there. Protect the main road and try and force them south. That’s when they run into Marcks and his 90th Light. And Georg,” he said to Bismarck, “You will backstop both those divisions.”
It was good ground, and a sound deployment, with hardened troops that had already shown the enemy they could win. There was only one thing still lingering in the minds of the Panzer Commanders, and von Funck was the first to raise the issue.
“My division will be the only Panzer troops in immediate contact with the enemy,” he said. “What if they use those heavy tanks again? You know we cannot stop them if they mass that unit against us on that road.”
“That is why you get the lion’s share of all our 88s,” said Rommel. “We can do nothing else but fight them if they come. If they do break through with those monsters, then von Bismarck will meet them here, where the road passes through this defile in the hills. To strengthen that sector, I will place the entire 501st Schwerepanzer Battalion there.”
They were worrying about nothing, as Kinlan was gone, and not even Lieutenant Reeves and those last two Challenger IIs remained in the desert. The great trump card the British once had in hand was played out, and now they would have to win or lose with their own units. Even as the Germans moved out to occupy the positions Rommel had indicated, O’Connor was meeting with his own senior officers to plan his advance.
“Big of them to give up Buerat and Sirte like that,” said Wimberley, Commanding the veteran 51st Highland Division. General Neil Ritchie had asked for him directly when he was summoned home to take over the 52nd Lowland division to get it ready for operations. A Scott through and through, Wimberley scoured the Army for good Scottish troops to flesh out the ranks of his division, and was often seen in his tartan patterned kilts to the point where he was called “Tartan Tam” by the men. All the patterns corresponded to various Scottish clans, and he encouraged this to build morale and esprit de corps in the division.
“That was a weak position,” said O’Connor. “I would have gone right around it. Yet now let’s hope they don’t stop here.” He fingered Tarhuna on the map. “I want to push hard now, and see if we can’t run them right out of Tripolitania. Once we get round the bend and up towards Misrata, I want your division in the lead, General Wimberley. You take the coast road right on up through Homs, and 23rd Armored Brigade under Richards will be on your left. General Hughes, will follow with the 44th Home County Division, and 4th Indian follows him.”
“Well what about 7th Armored?” asked General John Harding, a veteran of the fighting at Gallipoli and Gaza in the first war.
“Don’t worry,” said O’Connor. “I couldn’t leave you out of it. I want to form a flying column further south, and for lack of any better handle, we’ll just call it Southforce. That’s your division, John, and you’ll have General Nichols and his 50th Northumbrians right behind you for infantry support. Form up and resupply here, at Bene Ulid. Then take this road through the dry country and hit them here, just southwest of Tarhuna. If they do hold up on that high ground with their infantry, Tarhuna looks to be their Hougoumont. We won’t hit it directly. I want to bypass to the left and push up the main road from there to Tripoli. So the whole thing is a big pincer operation, and you’re the left horn.”