The Germans had seven SdKfz 234s and another eight lighter 221s, but they were enough to stop and push the US Light tanks back when supported by a company of motorcycle infantry. On the main road itself, the 327th Pioneer Battalion was already digging in behind the French positions, the engineers building a hasty defensive position, where they now crouched with Panzerfausts and MG-42s. They were the first two battalions of that division to arrive, but the 595th Regiment was only about 20 kilometers south of Mekenes and tramping north into the grey dawn. Behind them would come the 596th, expecting to reach the city before noon.
It would be a kind of scissors, paper, rock affair. The hard points of the German defense near the coast would be papered by the greater mass of the US force, and the French were not able to hold the gaps between these strongpoints. If the Germans organized a counterattack, those scissors would be smashed by the rock of superb naval gunfire from the battleships Texas and New York, and cruisers Augusta, Philadelphia and Tuscaloosa. The Germans called Fez for air support to paper over those naval units, but in came the scissors of the American air defense, with P-40’s off the airfield at Port Lyautey, Wildcats off the decks of the carrier Ranger, and P-38s from airfields near Casablanca.
The Americans could not match the German Bf-109s, but they outnumbered them, and the new P-38 gave them very good long range coverage, and excellent loiter time. The Germans were seeing this plane for the first time, a combination of speed, agility, range and hitting power that would make it the excellent fighter they would come to call der Gabelschwanz-Teufel, “the fork-tailed devil.”
Yet the Germans learned quickly, and their veteran pilots soon discovered the new enemy plane did not roll very fast, making it vulnerable in a dogfight with their excellent Bf-109s. When matched against the better German pilots, the P-38s often came out on the losing end, but combined with the other American aircraft swirling about the skies, the Allies had enough to control the vital airspace over the coast. Now the maxim that the British had learned in the Western Desert was proven here—where Allied fighters could control the skies, the Stuka was dead in any role it attempted to perform, be it close support or interdiction.
Yet Kesselring was very cool on defense, and he knew he had sufficient force in hand to delay this attack until he could position more troops to the north. He sent the remainder of Student’s 7th Flieger Division up the rail line from Mekenes to organize a defense in depth. Then he fed those regiments of the 337th Division, now arriving from Casablanca, and used them to set up a defense against the drive by General Harmon on the main road, and the enfilading attack by Allen’s 1st Infantry Division further south. General Kubler’s 98th Mountain Regiment, finally arriving after two weeks hard march, would anchor the line well to the south, and as for the 22nd Luftland Division, he mustered these Regiments at the airfields around Fez, collecting all the Ju-52s he could find.
The British 6th Armored Division had pushed through Villa Real to link up with the landing of the 36th Brigade Group south of Huelva. Hube’s 16th Panzer was hard pressed when the 3rd Infantry Division came up to the north, flanking their defensive screen west of Seville. That was to be the first real battle in the north. The British had little trouble pushing across the border into Spain, as Franco’s troops preferred to withdraw rather than get into any hard defensive positions there. As Montgomery was keenly focused in driving south towards Gibraltar through Seville, the Spanish divisions were content to stay well north of that action, screening the frontier where the Portuguese were equally content to sit on their side of the border, unengaged.
Yet Monty would face a tough and hardening defense around Seville. Well north, his 43rd Wessex Division was facing off against the German 327th Infantry, and on the 28th of September, the 15th Infantry Division arrived after a long rail journey through Valencia and Cordoba. They were just in time to begin relieving Hube’s screening forces, and the General intended to pull back his 16th Panzers, regroup, and use them to counterattack.
South of Seville, there was only one good road from the beachhead near Huelva, and it was now being watched by elements of Himmler’s little surprise gift to Hitler, the SS Charlemagne Brigade. Troops landing on the beaches south of Huelva found they could not flank this defense due to heavy marshland that extended well inland between Seville and Cadiz on the coast further south. That port would now become the apple of Montgomery’s eye, and he contemplated sending in another seaborne assault.
“Look here,” he said. “We’ve got Spitfires and Hurricanes on every airfield worth the name in Portugal now, and I daresay we’ll have the edge over the Luftwaffe—enough to cover a landing at Cadiz. That port can support my push on Gibraltar easily enough, but we’ve only the 27th Brigade Group left for infantry, and they’re at Lagos in Portugal.”
“What about the Commandos, sir? We’ve had a good look at the Canaries, and Jerry had pulled out, lock, stock and barrel. They’ve only left a small garrison there, and Alexander reports he has sufficient force to go on the offensive when the shipping arrives. That leaves all those Commando Battalions, and Johnny Frost’s 1st Parachute Regiment as well. Might we use them at Cadiz?”
That idea sounded very appealing to Montgomery, and he set about pulling the levers to get his hands on those troops immediately. The Commandos could move in under cover of darkness, seize the moles and jetties at both Cadiz and the smaller port of Rota to the north. Then they could be strongly reinforced with the 29th Brigade Group embarking from Lagos.
That was the plan for the 29th of September, and Number 2 Commando had little trouble, storming the quays of Cadiz and pushing out a small, ill equipped German service battalion. Yet this battle would also become something considerably more than the lightning swift raid in Monty’s mind.
Cadiz itself stood on a narrow spit of land extending up from the south near the town of San Fernando, and framing a wide bay. It was a perfect breakwater, and the landward side to the east, from San Fernando in the south to Puerto Real further north was backed by marshland broken by a web of small water canals. It was no place for armor, or any mechanized force, so the attack would have to be all infantry here. Further north, the bay stretched up past Santa Maria to the small port of Rita, where the Germans had occupied the airfield. Whether or not the British had air superiority, planes off that field would be a constant threat, and Admiral Tovey deemed it too risky to commit his valuable battleships in an attempt to close that field with naval gunfire. It would have to be work for the destroyers.
The defense of the bay had not been adequately determined, though the easy landing made by Number 2 Commando got things off on the right foot. Now, however, they would either have to fight their way down that narrow spit of land, or take to their assault boats again and attempt to cross the bay. The swampy ground and salt pans there precluded that, and so the only option was to take the road south to San Fernando. They would be quickly reinforced by 10 and 12 Commandos, bringing their numbers to regimental strength by mid day.
Further north, 4 and 9 Commandos would land at Rota, seize that German airfield, and then push through the light woodland on much better ground. Their primary objective would be to reach the larger town of Jerez, about 20 kilometers east of Rota. That city sat like the hub of a wheel, with roads extending out in all directions. If the enemy had mobile troops to reinforce this sector, that is where they would have to come.