“Bet on that,” said Wavell, quite upset with these developments. “And here we get this nonsense right on the eve of those two big operations teeing off with O’Connor and Montgomery. I’d better let O’Connor know about this straight away. We might end up having to pick his pocket.”
“You mean to pull in a division from his reserve?”
“If we have to. We’ve got the 46th Infantry due in from the Kingdom on the 17th. That unit was supposed to go to O’Connor, but it looks like we’ll have to divert it to Palestine now. And there’s more in this porridge than I’d like to spoon up right now. This bit about the 7th Flieger Corps is somewhat unnerving. Those are the lads Student took into the Canary Islands. They were holding the line opposite Monty—until they were pulled out two weeks ago and replaced by the 15th Infantry. This has got trouble written all over it.”
“Agreed,” said Auchinlek. “We’d better look out for Crete. I wouldn’t put it past those rascals to make a move there. We know they had plans to do so last year, but then again, they might just be resting those parachute units.”
Wavell stroked his chin. “I’m not so sure. I think we should get hold of General Browning with our own 1st Paras. Brigadier Flavell has 1st Brigade in North Africa looking over a drop on Bone in conjunction with Montgomery’s attack. He was going to put Johnny Frost’s battalion on Pont du Fahs. Ernie Down has 2nd Brigade behind Monty as well. We might need them both.”
“Picking Monty’s pocket too,” said Auchinleck. “Fair enough.”
“My real worry is armor,” said Wavell. “This Brandenburg unit converted to motorized infantry. Well enough, but what if we end up getting a bloody Panzer Division in this mix up north.”
“Aren’t they at their wits end in Russia?”
“True, but all it would take is one good division there to really upset the apple cart.”
“Well,” said Auk, “we’ve got 31st Indian Armored Division training at Damascus.”
“And that’s all we have at the moment, at least until the 46th Division arrives on the 17th. The 31st didn’t even have any tanks until very recently, and now they’ve got those American jobs, one regiment light, a second medium. Yet they’ve barely had time to train with that equipment, and no real experience fighting as an armored division. Thinking of them going up against a German Panzer Division gives me the willies right now.”
“But they’re all we’ve got in the cupboard,” said Auchinleck. “The 46th is just more infantry. So we may have to pull an armored brigade from O’Connor, and he won’t like that one bit—not at all.”
“Not quite,” said Wavell. “The 46th Infantry is a Mixed Division, just like the troops laid out for the invasion at Lisbon. They were going to switch it back to all infantry, but they haven’t done that yet, the War Office was too slow about it, and thank god for that. The 137th Brigade is still armored, so we’re in luck.”
If only we still had Kinlan and the Heavies, thought Wavell, though he said nothing of that to the Auk. There was no use stirring that pot. Both Auchinleck and Alexander had been briefed on the existence of the Heavy Brigade, but not told anything of its real identity and origin. Being staff officers operating from the headquarters at Alexandria, neither man had ever really seen the new tanks and vehicles, though Alexander got a look at the little detachment Reeves led to Mersa Matruh when he was there on a railhead inspection tour. He raised more than a few questions with Wavell about what he had seen, but the senior officer just fixed him with a firm stare from that one good eye of his and quietly said, “General, I think it best if nothing more is said about that matter, nothing more at all.”
The Heavies would have solved this problem easily enough, but now they were gone. Britain had to stand or fall on the sweat of the great, great grandfathers of those men, and Wavell never said anything else about the other odd occurrences surrounding Kinlan’s Brigade. He had been losing men—strangely, unaccountably, and in a way that sent a shiver down Wavell’s spine. The General wished he had those Russian officers to chew on the matter with them, but they were all gone, one killed in that gallant action aboard HMS Invincible, and the other was in the Pacific.
Kinlan had been losing men, but not to illness or enemy action. They would be going about their business, out on routine patrol or milling about the secret laager where they were segregated from the regular army, and then a man would go missing, with no explanation whatsoever. Wavell thought deeply about that, and a frightful notion came to him. Those men were the great, great grandsons of the men he now commanded in these armies. Those troops were fighting, and some of those grandfathers had been killed in action…. That might have rippled right on through the tree, like a dark cold wind, and knocked off an apple or two. It was all he could think of, and it gave him the shivers.
Then the whole bloody brigade went up in smoke at Tobruk, and that had struck him like a hammer. Everyone in the know had been shaken by that, not understanding what could have happened to cause such a catastrophic explosion. Yes they had ammo ships and tankers there, but when Wavell had gone to look over the scene after that event, the devastation had been frightening. It was certainly not cause by an ammo dump going off, but that was not to be the official line, and any man who question it was grilled.
Yes, the Heavies were gone, and yet that fired a grim determination in Wavell’s mind. They had to hold on here now, and they could hold on. They were on the move at last, on the attack, and O’Connor had Rommel’s back to Tripoli, ready to push on to take that vital port and kick him right out of Libya once and for all. Now Wavell might need experienced men from the Armored Corps if the Germans meant business up north, and O’Connor had the only troops he could reach for.
“Auk,” he said. “I think we’d best notify the Indian Divisions in Iraq to get ready to move. We may have more on our hands here than we realize.”
“The 5th is up north at Baba Gurgur, the others are around Baghdad, Basrah and Abadan. Let’s hope they still have adequate transport. But who will mind the oil fields if we pull those troops out?”
“We’ll do so as a last measure,” said Wavell. “If need be, we can see about picking O’Connor’s pocket—perhaps one of the South African Divisions could be spared, though we may have to ask him for armor soon. That will all depend on the situation as it develops over the next week. For now, we’re going to have a long hard day’s work ahead of us.”
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)