“That is agreeable… Assuming we have a clear understanding of who is in command. We cannot be working at cross purposes. We will need to centralize command in one head, and given the fact that I am the ranking officer here, the choice should be obvious.”
That didn’t sit well with von Arnim. “We determined to force you to send me two divisions, and now here you are ready to take over nominal command of the two I already have! This is not acceptable to me.”
Kesselring could see that this difference of personalities would not do well on the battlefield. Before von Arnim could voice his objection, he spoke up, hoping to end the battle between these two men here and now so they could fight as one coordinated team.
“It is clear that you rank von Arnim,” he said to Rommel, “but not me. I also hold the Field Marshall’s baton, and Hitler has appointed me Oberbefehlshaber Süd, commander of all German forces in the south within this theater. Therefore, if the two of you cannot agree, then I have no recourse other than to assume authority for operational command myself. This will mean that both of you will receive and execute orders directly from me. Understood? We have enough to do while fighting the British and Americans. We cannot fight yet another battle amongst ourselves. Von Arnim?”
“Agreed,” said the General.
“Herr Rommel?”
The Field Marshall took a long breath. He had been running the show for the last two years in Africa, all under the organizational control of the Italians, though he largely did what he pleased. That independence had been curtailed only by Hitler himself, but he also remembered those times when Kesselring had been a strong ally and advocate for him. He would get a great deal of what he wanted if this plan were carried out, and finally be done with Libya once and for all. So he decided to agree.
“Very well,” he said stolidly. “Assuming Hitler approves this arrangement, I will agree.”
“That will be the sticking point,” said Kesselring. “Getting Hitler to approve your withdrawal from Tripolitania may not be easy. In this, I plan to rely heavily on Mussolini himself. I think I’ve convinced him of the merits of settling in at Tunisia as opposed to continuing to fight for Libya. Let us see what we can do.”
Much was different in this telling of events. Here Rommel was not the broken spirit he had been in the old history, his health failing, beset with wracking headaches, sores on his lips and feet, and more jittery than he had ever been. His morale had sunk to an abyss, and retreat seemed his only answer. He had lost the respect of the Italians, who summarily sought to replace him with one of their own Generals.
This time, Rommel had the highly successful holding actions at both Mersa Brega and Tarhuna under his belt. He had not faced the nemesis of the British Heavy Brigade in either battle, save the small force he encountered near Mersa Brega. He had regained a measure of his old warfighting ability, like a boxer fading in the late rounds, laying on the ropes, and then suddenly finding the strength to punch in flurries and keep his opponent at bay.
And this time the Italians were of another mind entirely. They had seen one division after another swallowed in the abyss of Libya, and now Goring’s supply system reforms had rendered Tripoli a little used port. Their own navy no longer wanted to risk the much lengthier sea route to Tripoli, all of 600 miles from Naples through the Strait of Messina. Those convoys had been relatively safe under the protection of friendly air cover from Sicily and Malta. It was only the last 100 miles that found them subjected to withering attack by Allied bombers out of Benghazi, and now from rapidly organized air fields around Sirte.
Now most everything went through Tunis, and then by lighter and Siebel Ferry down the coast, or by rail lines south to Sousse and Sfax, and even Gabes. Giving up Tripoli was not without its negative effects. The port and airfields there would surely be put to good use by the Allies, who would now hold two good ports from which they might attack Malta or Sicily. In the end, the decision would rest with Hitler, and several factors would affect that outcome.
First off, there had been no debacle at Stalingrad. In fact, Volgograd was now largely controlled by German troops, though Soviet resistance there continued. Secondly, the massive Operation Uranus and Saturn offensives staged by the Soviets had already played themselves out, and Zhukov had even thrown in another planet with Operation Jupiter and his attempt to retake Kursk. Manstein had been able to stop the Russian offensive, and now Model’s 2nd Panzer Armee had been withdrawn from the pocket it had been trapped in for over a month, those units had provided the fodder for new operations that were now the apple of the Fuhrer’s eye.
Hitler marked the progress of the Brandenburg Division down the Euphrates with renewed spirits. His forces in Syria had seized Aleppo, and were now closing in on Homs and Palmyra. The Brandenburgers had swept swiftly through Ar Raqqah and were now closing on Dier Zour. They even had advanced patrols within 30 kilometers of the Iraqi border. The prospect of flanking the British in the Middle East was a dazzling idea in his mind now, and he entertained notions of driving through Baghdad all the way to Basrah. He was also restlessly anticipating the launching of Operation Merkur against Crete, which he fancied as an outer castle wall that would protect the Aegean Sea, and the straits near Istanbul beyond that he now relied on as the life line for Operation Phoenix.
So when Kesselring made his appeal, he couched the whole plan as a strategic rebalancing of forces aimed at dealing the Allies in Algeria a decisive check. He even went so far as to suggest that if Rommel could be permitted to reinforce Tunisia, then he could entertain thoughts of a renewed offensive aimed at driving the Allies out of Algeria altogether. Hitler was largely amenable to the plan, but then Rommel’s own victory at Tarhouna became an obstacle. The Führer seized upon it as evidence that Tripolitania could still be defended, and ordered the line at Tarhuna to be held. He even issued orders that the 337th Infantry Division, a unit that had fought in Spain, could now be sent to North Africa to bolster the defense at Tarhuna, leaving Rommel free to reinforce Tunisia as the three Generals there saw fit.
Then he also did something that would affect the balance of power in the west a great deal. When Goring came to him with increasing complaints about the diminishing power of his Luftwaffe forces in the West, Hitler told him that he still had three months before the Spring thaw in Russia, and told him he was therefore free to transfer any aircraft he desired to bolster operations elsewhere. Up until now it had been II Fliegerkorps in North Africa, reinforced by X Fliegerkorps from Greece. Now Goring was free to move anything else.
He chose Luftflotte IV, commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, and cherrypicked the most effective squadrons available, rushing them to the West in a desperate effort to counter the rising power of the Allied Air forces. While this was only supposed to be a short term “loan,” those units would never see the skies above Russia again…
Part XI
Lions at Dawn
“The Lions in their dens tremble at his approach”