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 equivalent 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
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.
Strangely, Sladen had been aboard the submarine Trident in Nordic waters, and once had the distinct honor to meet and transport a very prominent Russian Admiral back to the UK—Volsky himself. That man no longer existed, but a shadow of his being had been resurrected aboard yet another submarine, one that the men of the T-Class boats could scarcely comprehend. Now Sladen set his mind on perfecting his Chariot design, hoping it could bring fire and destruction to the enemy’s most protected harbors.
It was not a suicide ride like the Japanese Kaiten manned torpedo, for the Chariot itself was never rigged to explode. It was merely meant to transport those two divers, and the nose of the torpedo had a detachable 600 pound warhead that would be removed and mounted on the hull of a target ship like a Limpet mine. The Chariots could ride on the surface, and also submerge to move underwater by battery power, not at the swift speed of a torpedo, but at a sedate four knots over a four hour period, giving them a range of 16 nautical miles. Slowing down to three knots could extend this another two miles. With the first Chariots delivered in June of 1942, the British had attempted an attack on the Tirpitz in the heavily defended base at Nordstern, but rough seas swamped the tiny craft, and they had to abort.
Now eight more Chariots had arrived at Algiers harbor, along with the submarines Trooper and Thunderbolt. In the real history, they had mustered at Malta for ‘Operation Principal’ against Palermo on Sicily. Here they would stage at Algiers to target Tunis and Bizerte. The big Allied ground push was aiming to seize both those ports, and they wanted to prevent the Germans from sinking ships to block those harbor entrances. That operation would be dubbed “Welcome,” but it would be the last attempted, at a time when Allied ground forces were poised to take those ports. Before then, any shipping in either harbor would be fair game for the daring British frogmen.