“He’s just crossed the border at Charpinville, and I’m sending him right on down to Thala.”
“What? You’re going into Tunisia with that unit? Talk about sticking your head in the lion’s mouth. What’ll they do at Thala? By the time they get there the Germans might be here!”
“Now don’t get your feathers ruffled so easily,” said Patton. “This army has a lot of fight in it. I’ve seen to that personally. While Monty was ‘dumping’ for the last thirty days, I’ve had our boys drilling every day. We’ve fought the Germans earlier south of Oran and gave a good account of ourselves.”
“But that was only two divisions,” said Bradley. “And you know damn well that they were just trying to fight a delaying action while they pulled out those paratroopers. God only knows where they’ll end up. This time we’ve got four divisions heading our way, and this is no spoiling attack.”
“Then we’ll fight them,” said Patton sharply. “If I stop Rommel here, he’s finished. Understand? Now that’s exactly what I intend to do. Once Oliver gets to Thala, he’ll be in a good position to flank that German attack through the pass at Kasserine. We’ll have them bottled up.”
“What about Ryder? He’s all on his own down there.”
“Well, he’s got his whole goddamned division, and he ought to be able to hold. If things get bad I can use Allen’s reserve to hold Bou Chebka and then send Blade Force down there to lend him a hand.”
“Then you’ll be able to use 2nd Armored to backstop the 3rd and 9th Divisions.” Bradley pointed at the map.
“I’m not going to backstop anything. I’ve got a perfectly good road that will take Harmon’s Division right on up to Souk Ahras.”
“You’re going to attack?”
“The best defense is a good offense,” said Patton. “Napoleon proved that time and time again. Look, this is a classic German pincer attack. They’ve pulled this crap in Russia since 1941, but I’ve been reading Rommel’s book. If he thinks he’s going to push through my lines here and link up with that northern pincer under von Arnim, he’s flat out wrong. You’ll see.”
“Well the Germans have practically cut that road. I was just up there. They’ve got a kampfgruppe right here, at Soufia.”
“Then get orders to Harmon to clear them out.” Patton gave Bradley a look that said he meant business.
Chapter 6
Having detached its recon battalion, Hermann Goring Panzer Division wasn’t quite up to full strength that day, but you could not tell that to the American infantry that faced and fled from its wrath. The road from Souk Ahras wound its way through the highlands, with one spur following the rail line south through Clairfontaine to Tebessa, and a second branching west through the village of El Beida, to Sedrata, and then down past Medkour and Raba to the broad lowland plain where the Amis waited. The division came barreling right down either side of that road, which was right at the seam between the US 9th and 3rd Infantry Divisions.
II Battalion of the HG Panzer Regiment smashed into 3/47th RCT and sent all three companies of that battalion into a headlong retreat. The “Old Reliables” of the 9th were anything but that in the face of those tanks. Troops abandoned mortars and heavy MGs in the field, some even throwing away their rifles as they fled south before they ran into a scowling Lt. Colonel George E. Pickett, directly related to the famous general that fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. He was standing there with a drawn pistol held high over his head, and he meant to use it on any man that failed to obey his orders to stand and rally.
Pickett collared a squad Sergeant, sent him to round up two others, and then found a Lieutenant trying to desperately start his jeep to retreat south. He told the man, in no uncertain terms, that if his jeep moved one foot, he would shoot him dead on the spot. “Now see that 50 on the back of that mother? You get on that gun and hold right where you are!”
“But sir,” said the hapless Lieutenant. “They’re coming with heavy armor. What good will that do?”
“Aim low. Hit their goddamn tracks! Take the head off of any smart ass tank commander that opens his hatch. You may get killed, but at least you’ll die fighting like a man. It’s either that or you can die right now as a coward, and good riddance.”
It was exactly the sort of talk Patton would have leveled at the man, and the Lieutenant stiffened his backbone, and settled in behind that machinegun. Slowly, Pickett rallied that battalion, and then took heart when he learned that the entire 7th Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division under Colonel Macon had just come up on his left.
The road the Germans were on led south to Ain Beida, a prominent settlement along the rail line from Constantine to Tebessa. That’s where General Eddy had planted his HQ flag for the 9th Infantry, and when he learned the Germans were no more than 12 kilometers to the north, he called Major General Anderson of the 3rd Infantry and asked ‘The Rock of the Marne” for some help. That division had been engaged with a part of the Hermann Goring Division on Eddy’s left, coming down from Constantine after being relieved by the British.
“Look,” said Anderson. “I’ve got my entire 7th RCT on the road heading your way right now, and with three engineer battalions. Hold on. We’ll get there. But if this thing is as big as everyone seems to think, we may have to get on the phone to Montgomery soon.”
“Patton won’t like that,” said Eddy.
“Then let him come over here and hold this goddamn line! We need armor here and it’s all well east and south of us now. The Germans pulled a fast one on us. They want that road back to cut us off from the Brits, and Monty ought to hear about it.”
He did hear about it, just as he was bringing up 10th Armored Division through the newly constructed bridges at Constantine. He had his engineers working for days to open a route through that city. His 43rd Wessex Division had followed the Germans north and east, where the fighting was now around Gastonville. 10th Armored was taken out of Army reserve and ordered to move through Constantine and turn north behind the 43rd. General Anderson decided to be the one to gently suggest to Monty that he might want to hold that division where it was. The American line had been hit hard, buckled, even collapsed along one or two battalion fronts, but for the most part it was still holding in that sector.
The real danger was in the center of von Arnim’s main attack, where his 10th Panzer Division had sent its infantry against Eddy’s Division, then swept its Panzer Regiment around its flank, heading for La Meskiana on that road between General Eddy’s HQ at Ain Beida, and Tebessa. Harmon’s CCA had been lingering near Meskiana, but Patton had ordered him to push it towards Clairfontaine to reach the main road north to Souk Ahras. It was that “perfectly good road” that the fiery American leader wanted to use to pull a Napoleon on the Germans, but it had not been overlooked by his enemy.
Von Arnim had sent one battalion of tanks there, just south of the mountain town of Damous. The rest of his panzers had pushed 9th Infantry south and west, and their lead elements were now also about 15 kilometers from Harmon’s HQ at Meskiana.
“Patton wants me to go where? To Souk Ahras?” Harmon could not believe the orders he had just received. “Well does he know the Germans are coming here?”
Harmon was a big man, broad shouldered, stout of heart, and with a voice so gruff that it could take the paint off the side of a house. His division, old Hell on Wheels, had been the reserve formation for the American mobile forces, while Ward had divided his 1st Armored into two strong combat commands to make the push for Tebessa. Now he would be forced to divide his own command, for Patton wanted him to attack to the north while he clearly had to arrange some defense to the south at Meskiana. That would be easy if he had his whole division up, but at present, he only had CCA.