Recon reports from the Luftwaffe were flooding in, and he could see what O’Connor was up to, a fast armored force probing south of Tarhuna, and a big push forming up on the coast. Initial reports from the Littorio Division were just frantic enough to prompt him to get on the telephone to General Randow with the 15th Panzer Division.
“You had better get a regiment of Panzergrenadiers behind Negazza,” he said. “Our Italian friends seem to be a bit shaky.”
“I have the 104th in position to move immediately,” said Randow, “and my motorcycle recon battalion has already reached that village.”
“Good, but keep the rest of your division around Castelverde. Things may get interesting soon.”
Rommel was looking at the big gap between that southern force probing towards Tarhuna, and the push near the coast. The ground just south and east of Tarhuna was very open, well suited to mobile operations, and he had Bismarck’s 21st Panzer Division sitting in road column like an arrow aimed right at that void in the enemy position.
Funck’s 7th Panzer is at Tarhuna as I wanted, he thought. What if I did fire that arrow? I would have two good panzer divisions right in that gap. If I order the 90th Light up to grapple with this southern force, then I might turn those two divisions northwest for the coast.
His instinct was to attack, not to simply sit in the favorable position he had occupied. He wanted to fight his enemy with sword and shield, and it was very like him to consider committing his reserve 21st Panzer Division to a bold attack like this, right at the outset. How might O’Connor operate to counter that?
The report he got next enlightened him a bit. 1/7th Recon of Funck’s division had been well to the south of Tarhuna in that gap. When he saw the skies heating up with aerial duels, an enterprising Lieutenant Huber decided to get to the highest ground he could find, which was hill 402, about 12 kilometers south of Tarhuna. From that position he could clearly see a second division advancing up the road, and it looked like infantry.
So that southern group of enemy forces is stronger than I thought, Rommel mused, his eyes playing over the map in his field tent. That will most likely be their 7th Armored Division on their extreme left, and they are supporting it with an infantry division.
Now he resisted the urge to do two things he might have done at once in the older days. His reflex was to shoot that arrow immediately, and instead he decided to wait. The second was to forego the urge to leap onto a Storch and get up for a look at the battlefield himself. There were still too many fighter duels underway, and prudence argued against any aerial sortie at that moment. The old Rommel might have thrown caution to the wind, but this man was now chastened and wizened by much experience.
This was all an aftereffect of the mellowing of his temperament during the last year when he had been forced onto the defensive so many times, his offensive plans checked by that damnable heavy British armor. He wanted to ascertain where it was, or whether it was even present, and he did not think his enemy would hold that card for long if this was the big push he thought it was. So Rommel waited for his opponent to make his next move, cautiously eyeing the Knight and Bishop O’Connor was already developing on his flank. He was content to move a single pawn with that order to General Randow, a measure of restraint that he seldom showed in the past. His other pieces would remain in his camp, behind the serried row of his pawns, the 164th Light, which held the high ground between the coast and Tarhuna.
Perhaps my many setbacks here have sobered me, he thought to himself, thinking he might be losing his edge. We shall see.
O’Connor decided to go all out that first day and continue pressing the attack by 51st Highland into the late afternoon, determined to keep the fighting going into the evening if necessary. He wanted to get through that gap on the coast where the high ground began to rise slowly towards Tarhuna to the southwest.
He had been behind the lines at the old ruin site of Sidi Surur, but he could not hear the battle there, so he wanted to get forward. He had Brigadier Todd’s 1st Tank Brigade with him as his Army reserve, and he rode with them all that morning into the afternoon, moving forward to the heights of Ras Ahmed, about mid-way on the road from Homs to Tarhuna. There he met with General Briggs of the 1st Armored Division, which was moving astride that road as he had planned.
“Just got our first look at the Germans,” said Briggs. “The armored car battalion pushed down the road from Ras Ahmed, and there’s a Jerry MG unit here, at Gasar Da’uun about eight klicks on. Shall I push them out?”
“Please do,” said O’Connor. “I’ll want this hill beyond that town as well, number 422. I’ve got 23rd Armored Brigade off to your northeast up the road to Homs. So I think I can safely send your division on to Tarhuna now. Southforce is flanking that position to the west. I haven’t heard anything from Horrocks down there yet, but no news is good news.”
“What about the coast road?” asked Briggs.
“Wimberly’s got Hill 151 overlooking the Wadi. That’s where the Italians have holed up. He’s making another push in the morning, and I’ll have two brigades from the 44th Home Counties Division up behind him by noon. Rommel’s a sly one today. He’s letting the Italians hold that coast road, but you know damn well that he’ll have a good reserve behind them. Yet he hasn’t shown me his panzers yet. He’s just sitting up on that high ground to either side of Tarhuna, like Wellington at Waterloo.”
Briggs didn’t like the sound of that, for he knew they were already up against veteran German troops, very well led. Giving them the benefit of good terrain on defense was one more straw in their favor.
“Don’t worry,” said O’Connor. “23rd Armored is ready to move, and that’s my hammer that will break the Italians, just you wait.”
By dawn Briggs had chased the German MG battalion out of Gasar Da’uun, and he had scouts up on Hill 422. That gave him an eyeful, and now he could report that there were enemy tanks due west on the road, battalion strength.
“They look to be screening Tarhuna at this point,” he said on the radio. “Do you want me to ruffle their feathers?”
“Make it so. I’ll have a brigade of the Northumbrian Division come up to support you from the south.”
Like an encroaching tide rising relentlessly towards that imposing high ground, the 8th Army was slowly making contact with the defense Rommel had put in place. The gap that Rommel had seen the previous day was now filling with elements of Briggs’ division, and that of Nichols with the Northumbrians. This was going to join Horrocks’ Southforce with Briggs in the center, and a discernable front was now forming on the battlefield.
O’Connor would soon learn that 7th Armored had found a German airfield that had been set up well south of the road through Tarhuna, and they were already after it with their leading tank battalions.
That was the field at Suq al Jum’ah, and it was the southernmost anchor of Rommel’s infantry positions, defended by Obersturmfuhrer Ramcke and a kampfgruppe of his tough parachute units. This was the one airmobile force that had not yet received orders to withdraw to a friendly port for shipment to Toulon. Those orders had been issued, but when Rommel saw them, he simply tore them up and put them to the fire. He would later claim he never received them if OKW got after him about it. In the meantime, he had a veteran parachute regiment at his disposal until OKW could sort the matter out.