But Packshee wasn’t afraid of the Germans any longer, and the Sergeant could hear that in his song. In that single unforgiving minute in the bunker, he had been changed, transformed, the boy becoming a man. There was no sound of fear in the Moonbird’s voice as he sang that night. There was only sadness, resolution, and a deep understanding that could only be grasped in the sight of the blood that had been spilled in battle that day. But there was also joy in that song, acceptance; the song of a man who had finally found, and now knew, his place in the scheme of things.
The Moonbird sang…
Chapter 20
The Germans had taken the farming town of Salamiyar, midway between Homs and Hamah, and some 30 kilometers to the east. Good roads connected to each of those two cities, and so the town formed one point of an equilateral triangle. 4th Panzer was finally getting fueled up again and ready to move. 3rd Panzer had already moved through its lines to take the lead.
With the arrival of Kubler and his 1st Mountain Division by rail, that force was moving to relieve 10th Motorized. Hans Hube was a veteran of this fast maneuver warfare that Guderian wanted. Heavy set, serious in aspect and purpose, it had been his 16th Panzer Division that held the British at bay in Spain after their landings in Portugal. After that he had moved to Marseilles for transfer to Kesselring’s command in North Africa, but when Guderian accepted command of Operation Phoenix, he made a direct request for the man.
The feint to the south was carried off just as we planned, he thought. It was only to buy us the time to get all of Kubler’s mountain troops in position, and of course, to pull all the British reserves here to the Homs sector. Now it’s time to run. I take the entire 14th Panzer Korps east now, right through Palmyra to the Euphrates. The Brandenburgers are already out there, and they will come under my overall command when we get close. With this force, I can take Iraq.
Hube’s confidence was not boastful. The force he would have would outclass anything the British had east of Homs. The first to feel the bite of those panzers would be General Miles with his 56th Infantry Division. His troops had been posted all along the route of the Tripoli pipeline, centered on Palmyra, and that was where the action was moving now.
I/6th Panzer Battalion was in the lead, moving that night to a gap in the long line of hills that stood like an outer rampart shielding the T4 pumping station and facilities at Tiyas. The panzers swept through Bir Abu Qaylah, and quickly overran a company of light trucked infantry that had been watching the gap. Behind them came I/3 Panzergrenadier Battalion, and they would push hard to reach the T4 station by dawn.
The three panzer battalions in 6th Regiment each had 18 VK-55 Lions, the earlier model with the 75mm main gun. The second company was composed of an equal number of the Pz-IV-F1s, also with a 75mm gun, though its velocity and hitting power was not as great as that on the VK-55. That did not really matter much, for the divisions had deployed with a preponderance of HE rounds when intelligence indicated they should expect very little in the way of armor from the other side.
So the lions moved east at dawn, General Westhoven closely monitoring the progress of his battalions on the radio. That initial spearhead would attack T4, supported by the motorized infantry regiment. A blocking force was posted on the road leading west to Homs to prevent any intervention from that direction, and then the second mechanized echelon, the 3rd Panzer Battalion, and one more Panzergrenadier battalion in halftracks, swung east of T4 and continued up the road to Palmyra.
A strong pinning attack was put in again by the Prinz Eugen Division, and this time the action was on the right flank of the position occupied by the 32nd Madras Engineers. Kubler had his division northeast of Homs, and he demonstrated strongly by pushing down the road from Salamiyar, and putting in a liberal dose of artillery. The intent was to fool the British into thinking the Germans were mounting a big offensive aimed at taking Homs, hoping they would see Hube’s initial move at T4 as an attempt to outflank that city. That was how it would seem to Wavell on the morning of the15th, but the frantic radio calls coming in from T4 would soon change his mind.
“Damn!” The General swore, and deservingly so. The Germans had pushed into that gap as he had feared, but they had not turned west to envelop Homs as he first believed they would. They went right for the pipeline stations at T4.
“They’ve snookered us yet again—came right through that gap. Is Tiyas holding?”
“For the moment,” said Anderson. “remember that Miles and his 56th also tangled with the Brandenburgers yesterday at As Suknah, right south of Tayyibah Pass. Could they be planning a pincer move on Palmyra?”
“It bloody well looks like it. Palmyra is the center of the board. From there they could turn about and come west again to Homs, or southwest for Damascus.”
“And east for Dier-ez-Zour,” Anderson cautioned.
“And these are bloody panzer divisions. Miles had his lot of 6-Pounders, but if the Germans concentrate, his division won’t hold.”
“Perhaps they didn’t think they could turn us here at Homs without dealing with the 56th Infantry first. After all, Miles would have been right on their backside if they had come for us.”
“Right,” said Wavell, sleepless and weary. “They want Palmyra, that’s for certain.”
A runner came in with the latest reports, saluting as he handed the message off to Anderson.
“It says here that the Germans relieved their 10th Motorized Division with another infantry force—1st Mountain Division. RAF says they spotted a lot of dust kicked up around the German positions, and heading east.”
Wavell pursed his lips. “Palmyra. The whole bloody Corps is going to head east. By God, their infantry is just here to give us a nice big bear hug. They want to run all the way to the Euphrates. Any word on that regiment that slipped through at Tayyibah Pass?”
“Miles says he’s posted a brigade east of Palmyra anchored on T3, but there’s been no further movement in that direction.”
“Because they don’t think they’ll even need the damn Regiment,” said Wavell. “They’re going to hit Miles with three divisions. That regiment of Brandenburgers east of Palmyra is just a path finder. In fact, it might even be continuing east towards Dier-ez-Zour as we speak, to join the rest of its division on the Euphrates. General, this is much bigger than we thought, and by God, I don’t really think they want Syria and Lebanon back again. They want Iraq! They’ll have the Brandenburgers out in front, and then this whole bloody panzer corps behind it. They could run all the way to Baghdad!”
“Well what in blazes are we going to do about it?”
“First off, “ Wavell looked at the map. “Let’s fight them for T4 on this end of things. Send word to 31st Armored. I want all the tanks they have to mount a counterattack up this main road. They might not get through, but Jerry will at least have to look over his shoulder. Then I think we need to give them a bone to chew on. We’ll pull out of Hamah this morning. The marshland and canals north of Homs are easy ground to hold, and we should be able to extend our line east. I’ll want the whole of the 31st Armored Division in that attack I mentioned. We’ve got to make it more than a nuisance. If we can force them to watch their back, they may have to deploy one of those motorized divisions here, and that will weaken their drive for the Euphrates.”