“What happened to all the divisions Himmler promised you?”
“They are still fitting out, and training the men. Those will be yours to command as well. Some have gone to Armeegruppe Nord, but the 9th, 10th and 12th SS Panzer Divisions are still in France and Germany. And that is not all. As you may know, I have ordered the O.T. to improve coastal defenses all along the Atlantic and Norwegian Seas. That, too, will be your charge. The Organisation Todt will continue building my Festung Europa under your personal direction. I want you to improve all the defenses—strongpoints, minefields, gun emplacements, everything. Give particular attention to the Channel Coast at Calais and Boulogne. We have picked up intelligence that the British and Americans may be planning an early attack there. Then I want you to select units from those under your command and build me two Panzerkorps for the defense of the West. One will be this new II SS Korps with Himmler’s three Divisions. You may build the second using any of the panzer divisions refitting at home. ”
“Very well,” said Rommel. “That is at least better than sitting in the Syrian desert twiddling my thumbs. But now it seems that General Guderian will not get to Abadan as planned.”
“We don’t need it,” said Hitler. “If he can take it, all the better, but with Baba Gurgur in the north, and control of both Maykop and Groznyy, we now have access to plenty of oil. The danger now is in the east. We must knock the Soviets out of the war this year, and to do so, we will have to go to Leningrad. I will need every division available—all the panzer divisions presently assigned to Syria, and probably Guderian’s 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions as well. Infantry can take up a defensive posture there. I made good use of the time in the last winter months, but now the war on the Ostfront is heating up again. Understand?”
“Of course,” said Rommel, and now he no longer felt like that old lost warhorse being put out to pasture. Not quite yet, he thought. The Führer wants to make a plow horse out of me first, and till all the fields of France and the Low Countries, because things are not going well in Tunisia. And Guderian will never see the Persian Gulf. He might be able to hold Baghdad, just as I could have sat in Damascus if I really wanted to stay there. Yet Hitler is correct. The Soviet Army is the real threat now, and it simply must be defeated. Perhaps I may get a position on the Ostfront one day, but for now, I am tired, and time at home sounds like the best medicine. My doctor will certainly be pleased to hear this, as will my darling Lucy.
But something tells me that I will not be building those coastal fortifications without good reason….
The offensive in Tunisia would kick off on May 1st as planned, an unrelenting wave of force all along the front, which now stretched like a great shield from the northern coast, to that in the east near Enfidaville. Even though the German lines had been compressed, they were now missing 7th Panzer Division. The strong defense that had been put up earlier by the Hermann Goring Division standing with 10th Panzer was now diluted when the 10th Division had to be broken up into three kampfgruppes to backstop the infantry front. This left the Hermann Goring Division alone to face the onslaught of Montgomery’s 6th and 10th Armored Divisions, with two infantry divisions in support. It simply could not hold in the face of that attack, though it put up a dogged defense.
Further east, the Italians had retreated up the coast, their best units at Enfidaville, but the inland segments of that line had to be held by the German 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions. The 90th and 164th Light Divisions joined the German 334th in the more rugged country between the coastal plain in the east and Highways 4 and 5, and only those scattered KGs of the 10th Panzer stood as a reserve. As the allies pushed dup their assigned roads, it was like a series of hammer blows on that German shield, which was soon being battered to the breaking point. The four horses hitched to that chariot were going to be too much to stop.
On the north coast, the British 3rd Division would push from Cape Rosa to Tebarka, driving the infantry of the 15th Division back over a five-day battle. Monty’s tanks would surge up Highway 6 after the Goring Division broke and fell back, and he had Souk al Arba by May 5th. Patton took Le Kef against strong resistance from the well-rested 334th Infantry Division, backed up by Tiger companies and one KG of 10th Panzer. His advance up Highway 5 was not the dramatic breakthrough and dash for Medjez al Bab that he had hoped for, but a grueling slog. The Germans would only give him ground when absolutely necessary, and managed to maintain a cohesive defense for five days. On the 7th of May, he had finally reached Le Krib, which was still 65 kilometers from his primary objective, much to Montgomery’s delight. His tanks were flanking the last blocking positions of the Hermann Goring Division around Sidi Ahmed and Souk el Khemis, and were now only 15 kilometers from Bedja.
In O’Connor’s sector, the 8th Army threw its shoulder against the coastal defenses of the Italian Trento Motorized Division, supported by a company of German Tigers. He was using his old one two punch, the 51st Highland Division, with the strong 23rd Armored Brigade as its battering ram. These forces advanced from Sousse towards Enfidaville, and by May 7th, they finally made a dramatic breakthrough there when the French brought up their 3rd Algerian Division to make a pinning attack, and occupy 15th Panzer Division to keep it out of O’Connor’s fight.
In the center, Truscott’s Corps had the 1st, 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions, with the 82nd Airborne in reserve. It would be faced off by the German 90th and 164th Light Divisions, which found themselves outnumbered by more than two to one. Truscott also had strong support from the 1st Tank Destroyer group, and he used those fast-moving M-10’s to exploit small breakthroughs as if they were armor. Little by little, he was pushing up Highway 4, and was even able to outpace Patton, where the Germans put up their strongest defense. By May 7th, however, the German shield was splintered and broken in several places, and Kesselring convened a meeting with Nehring and von Arnim to discuss the situation.
Chapter 5
“A fine mess,” he began. “We finally shorten our lines to a point where I think we can hold, and now they are simply overwhelming us with mass. Montgomery has five divisions in the north, the Americans eight in the center, and O’Connor has five more on the eastern plain. That has put eighteen enemy divisions against nine German and three Italian divisions on the line. It’s become one crisis after another.”
“I do not think we can hold for much longer,” said von Arnim. “The Hermann Goring Division is down to 50% of its nominal strength. 10th Panzer is scattered all over the front. We’ve nothing we can use to counterattack.”
“It was a mistake to put the 15th and 21st Panzers on the front line,” said Kesselring.
“It could not be helped,” said Nehring. “Do you think the Italians would have held that front for even three days?”