The telephone rang, interrupting his thoughts. It was Kurt Student calling from his position on the coast north of Port Lyautey.
“The French are useless!” he complained. “My battalions are in good defensive positions, but the French collapse in the gaps between them, and if my men stand, they’ll be enveloped. I’ve been conducting a stubborn withdrawal north, but unless I get some reliable support out here, I cannot guarantee you anything. The Americans are pushing hard up the coast road, and it is covered by their damnable naval gunfire. Where are the Stukas?”
“They can’t get through,” said Kesselring. “We started with 250 Bf-109s, and have already lost 25% of them.
Then reports came in from Kubler, on the road south of Fez. He had been holding the extreme flank of the line of defense put up by the 337th Infantry Division, stretching from Mekenes on south. Primarily held by German troops, that line had held off the American 1st Infantry Division, but now, Kubler reported more enemy units on the road to his south. They had reached the road junction at the town of Ainleuh, where the main road ran northeast through Irfane to Fez, and a secondary road ran north to Kubler’s position and eventually Mekenes.
“These troops have to be coming up from Marrakech,” said Kubler on the radio. They are only half a day’s march from the airfield at Irfane. I’ll have to pull out now to have any chance of getting Back to cover Fez. Either that, or you must use those last battalions of the 22nd Luftland Division. They were behind us as we came north, and must have reached Irfane by now.”
“Yes,” said Kesselring. “That is where I’ve been mustering every JU-52 I could get my hands on. But moving them by air may be out of the question now. Look Kubler, we must now see this situation as nothing more than a delaying action. The French are useless, just as you say. Half their troops want nothing to do with this fight, and the half that remain aren’t enough to do anything worth mentioning. On top of that, Hube is asking me to send troops to Gibraltar! It is clear that we will not be able to hold this front long, and so we will have to begin a fighting withdrawal. Play for time. Your division, and the 22nd are the only effective troops in French North Africa between here and Tunisia!”
“Nothing has been sent from Germany?”
“Oh, we are promised the 334th Division, green troops for the most part. Rommel has two good divisions on the way, but they will not get here in time to save Morocco. Algeria is another matter. A number of small units are forming up in Tunis, and some are already on the rail lines heading west. Koch is there.”
“You can rely on him,” said Student. “Those were troops I was culling to build my next Flieger Division, a good brigade.”
“I’m sending them to Oran, and Raeder has seen fit to move the Hindenburg there. It arrived this morning, along with those two aircraft carriers and the Kaiser Wilhelm. That may keep the French Oran Division in line for a while, but Koch should also be there tonight… which is where we will be headed soon in my judgment. Morocco is not defensible with Gibraltar under pressure like this. We must either put all our units into the defense of Gibraltar, and likely lose them here, or play for time. If I get everything I was promised, I can delay the Allied advance on Tunisia for months. So this is the plan. If I get word that Hube cannot stop this attack on Gibraltar, then we are finished here in Morocco. Get your men back to the rail line and secure rolling stock now. I’ll keep the line open through Mekenes to Fez, and we will fall back on Oran. The Führer will not want to hear anything about withdrawals, and if he does, it will likely be my head on a platter, but we must do what we must do. See to it.”
That night, four Marsch Battalions pulled into Algiers, troops that had been intended as replacement battalions for Rommel. Behind them on the road, was another motorized battalion designated KG Hauer. Major General Mast, in command of the Division de Algiers, was headquartered outside the city, at a town called Blida on the rail line. He had been Chief of Staff of the French 10th Army Corps at the outbreak of the war before moving to this post. Yet he had long been suspected of disloyalty to the Vichy regime, and was even arrested at one point, before a close personal friend who was also the Japanese Military Attaché to Vichy France obtained his release. So the Germans were somewhat edgy as to his reliability, and the disposition of his division in that vital city.
Algiers was important for its harbor, two good airfields, and close proximity to Toulon relative to Oran or Gibraltar. It was also the center of Vichy French administration for all their North African colonies and protectorates. If it were to fall, all German operations to the west would be cut off. Still suspecting General Mast was in league with other officers like Giraud who were deemed ‘collaborators’ with the Allies, Kesselring had been ordered to take any and all necessary measures to secure that city and port.
General Mast had been told the Germans would be coming to Algiers, a brief stop before continuing west towards Morocco, but that was a lie. Kesselring intended them to take control of the city and harbor, even though they would be badly outnumbered if it came to hostilities. Mast had over 7500 men under arms in and around Algiers, to no more than 1800 German troops arriving in those battalions.
There was one other reason why the Germans were very nervous about this situation, and it was moored to the long stone breakwater out in the bay, the pride of the French Fleet, the battleship Normandie. Admiral Laborde was commanding that ship, with a small flotilla of destroyers out in the bay. His dislike of Darlan was well known. In fact, Marshall Petain had played him off against Darlan, and at times whispered that he might replace him. Laborde was also angry at Admiral Raeder, seeing his use of French naval resources as nothing more than a disaster for the navy. In Fedorov’s history, it would be Laborde who would give the order to scuttle the French Fleet at Toulon, and Hitler had received a message from Ivan Volkov warning him of this, and telling him to watch that man closely. So he, too, was darkly suspected of collusion with the Allies, and when a man you suspect of possible treason is commanding one of the most powerful battleships in the world, you take special precautions.
That night, three U-boats were lurking in the silent darkness beneath the sea off Algiers, and they were each carrying a platoon of the elite Brandenburg Commandos. Their mission, should it be determined that Laborde and Mast were unreliable, was to seize control of the Normandie on a signal that would be transmitted later.
General Mast would be receiving General Hasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel, the commander of those four Marsch battalions, for dinner at his headquarters. Manteuffel had been told those battalions were to be the nucleus of a new division that would take over at Algiers, but his first order of business would be to size up General Mast and make the decision as to whether or not that fateful signal would be given to the Brandenburgers.
It was going to be a very long night.
Chapter 27
“A very good meal,” said Manteuffel as he sopped up the last of the sauce that had been ladled over a very fine cut of lamb. “When I was told I would be assigned to 5th Panzer Army, I did not expect the fare would be quite so opulent.”