The 4th Rangers came in on the island of San Antioch, landing at Calsetta on the northwest tip, and finding nothing there but a ten-man constabulary, which was eager to switch sides the minute they saw the tough American Rangers. They then marched another seven kilometers, all the way across the island to another small fishing port at San Antioco. All the way, they were followed by villagers, local farmers, and the girls blowing kisses and handing them flowers, fruit and fresh milk. They were the first Allied troops to liberate European soil, and if the rest of the journey was going to be anything like this, the Rangers thought they’d be in Berlin by Christmas.
Further north, the battleship Texas was starting to pound the beaches west of Gonessa, and with those first heavy salvos, telephones started ringing all over the island. The enemy had been caught by surprise. Even though they had taken the precaution of reinforcing both Corsica and Sardinia with two reconstituted German Divisions (90th Panzergrenadier and 15th Infantry) they did not expect the Allies to attack where they did.
Montgomery’s planned operations against Pantelleria and Malta were only now being mounted, with Cunningham’s Eastern Med Squadron covering those assaults. A good many German aircraft were off to the south, or transferred to Sicily, and they were now racing to get the newly rebuilt Hermann Goring Division south through Naples to cross the Strait of Messina in the next few days.[3] The only German troops already on Sicily were largely Luftwaffe units, service troops, and March battalions that were being organized by Colonel Ernst-Guenther Baade. Originally meant to be reinforcements for Tunisia, they were now being stitched together into “Panzergrenadier Regiment Palermo.” Baade then began to gather up flak units with their powerful 88mm guns to roll them into the new “Division Sizilien,” which would later be renamed the 15th Panzergrenadier Division after its famous older brother, the 15th Panzer that had perished in Tunis.
Colonel Baade was a very competent man, a veteran of the fighting in North Africa where he had served with Rommel’s 15th Panzer. He was cool, professional, and brave under fire, yet always treated his enemies fairly if his unit took prisoners. There was both an art and a code that applied to war, and Baade embodied them both. He fought at Bir Hachim, Tobruk, and Rommel’s Gazala line. Now he was sent to build something from nothing on Sicily, and that was exactly what he was doing.
He found that a number of veteran officers had escaped the debacle in Tunisia. Lieutenant Colonel Karl Ens was the first on his list, a good fighting officer with the 104th Panzergrenadiers before a battle wound saw him evacuated. Then he found Colonel Theodor Koerner off the 115th Panzergrenadier Regiment, and Lieutenant Colonel Fritz Fullriede of the 129th Panzergrenadiers. All three would now lead Kampfgruppes Baade was slowly building on Sicily.
Like this unit, Major General Carl-Hans Lungerhausen had been tapped to rebuild the old 90th Light Afrika Division that had served under Rommel, and it was to be assigned to Sardinia. While Herman Goring and 15th Panzergrenadiers would form the heart of the Sicily garrison, Sardinia was supposed to get both 15th Infantry and the 90th Light, now also being rebuilt as a Panzergrenadier Division by Lungerhausen. While the 90th was waiting for its transport, the 15th Division went ahead by ship from Toulon, a patchwork of ex-north Africa vets, men recuperating from service on the Ostfront, and new recruits. Its presence on Sardinia was therefore part of the altered history of these events, and it had only just arrived there.
Corsica was to have been garrisoned by the Reichsführer Division, but it was now far away in Russia, holding the line just outside the city of Kharkov. So there was nothing for Corsica, which led Kesselring to decide to move the 90th there as a first stop on June 10th. “If we need more than the 15th on Sardinia, we can always move the 90th over the Bonifacio strait,” he told the new commander on Sardinia, General Frido von Senger und Etterlin.
While this was going on, Erwin Rommel had been called to see Hitler again in Berlin where he was tasked with building the units that would be needed for the defense of Italy.
“I have had to send a part of your old command in Syria to Manstein,” Hitler told him. “But all of Kübler’s Mountain troops are there, and you may find units rebuilding in France as well, including your old favorite, the 7th Panzer.”
“I was very glad to see that most of the key personnel from that division were safely evacuated from Tunisia,” said Rommel. “What am I to do with this new Army?”
“We have a plan,” said Hitler. “I am calling it Operation Alarich—the occupation of Italy by strong German forces in the event that the Italians begin to waver. Kübler has five mountain Divisions. The SS will go to Serbia, but the others go to Italy. We must be ready to move decisively to disarm the Italian forces in Italy and seize control. Believe me, this is no small order. Manstein has been hounding me for more divisions, and I have been forced to heavily reinforce Armeegruppe South. Guderian is being recalled for that, and now you must find troops for Italy for me. You will also have Student’s two Parachute Divisions, and anything else you can find in France—except SS formations being built there by Himmler.”
Within 45 Days, the Germans would move 17 Divisions into Italy in the real history, and now, with Hitler’s fears made real with the news being shouted over those telephone lines on Sardinia, Rommel would have to move with decisive quickness to build a force capable of undertaking the task of controlling Italy.
“Am I to command there?” he asked.
“Kesselring is already there, and he has very good relations with the Italians. So for the moment, he will retain command. As you know, the Italians are not entirely fond of you.”
“Nor I of them,” said Rommel.
“You see? Then politically, it is better that Kesselring retains command, but you will build his army as Inspector General of the Wehrmacht, and you will retain command of all other units in France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway, including the entire 15th Army. That is where the real threat will be looming—in the Pas de Calais.”
“Yet most everything the British and Americans have now is right here in the Mediterranean or Middle East. That was one after effect of your Operation Phoenix.”
“It is likely that most of those divisions will be withdrawn to England,” said Hitler. “I believe their immediate concern is in knocking Italy out of the war and keeping us tied down in the Balkans. In time, they will turn their eyes to France. As for Mussolini, I believe I still have his loyalty, and that of many of the Italian divisions, particularly those with good Fascist seed. Yet Italy is a problem, which is why we must be prepared to act.”
Rommel shrugged, but nodded his ascent. He would build the army that would fight in Italy, just like his former subordinates had been busy building the divisions that would fight on Sicily and Sardinia, but he would not command. Yet Hitler took advantage of this meeting to ask what Rommel thought about the prospects for defending Italy.
“The Allies will invade soon,” said Rommel, “and they will go for the outer islands first, Sicily and Sardinia. After that, they will follow with a landing on the Italian mainland. If they are smart, they will land north of Rome, and in that event, they will outflank anything we have in the south. But the north can be held—the resources of the rich Po Valley—particularly if a strong defensive position is prepared and manned by good German divisions before the enemy arrives. I would make that my principle strategy for Italy, a stone wall through the mountains in the north. Trying to hold the center and south exposes those forces to endless opportunities for seaborne flanking maneuvers. Fight there only to delay and buy time for this strong defensive front to be completed in the north.”
3
In the real history, The Hermann Goring Division crossed the Straits of Messina on June 20, 1943. The Allies did not launch