It was Wavell’s plan, but now it was Alexander’s battle to fight. He was no stranger to war, starting with a platoon in the Irish Guards during the Great war, and working his way up to Company command just in time for the lovely meeting that came to be known as the Battle of the Somme. He later fought at 3rd Ypres and Cambrai, and in this war he was on the last British Destroyer to leave at Dunkirk. Between the wars he studied at the Imperial Defense College, where both Montgomery and Alan Brooke were his instructors, both unimpressed by the man. Yet Alexander would find ways of impressing them in time, and this was his first good chance in this war.
Wavell had arranged to bring the 46th Infantry up on the rail line from Damascus. One line ran up the long central valley though the big aerodrome at Rayak to Homs, but he was using the secondary line that ran northeast of the city, and almost directly towards the T4 Pumping Station. That spur also served the mines near Jebel Lebtar, and was eventually intended to link up at Palmyra as well as T4.
The 46th was a “Mixed” division, with two infantry brigades, the 138th under Brigadier Harding, and the 139th under Brigadier Vickers. It also had the 137th Armored Brigade under Brigadier Peto, with about 160 tanks, mostly American Shermans. Now the wild card that Wavell was so gratified to find in his hand was finally coming up, the unexpected 25th Armored Brigade under Brigadier Maxwell, this unit with mostly Churchills. Those two brigades, along with what was left in the 31st Indian Armored, were going to give Alexander nearly 400 tanks to launch his counteroffensive, a surprise the Germans certainly did not expect.
For sheer numbers, it was an armored force almost twice that of the two Panzer Divisions committed to this theater. All these units had been meant for O’Connor’s 8th Army, which was now going without a lot of tank replacements as it pushed for Mareth, but it was taking time to assemble this force and get things “teed up.”
Monty would have seen that situation as perfectly satisfactory. He never moved on offensive until he was good and ready, a most deliberate and methodical man. The change of command also imposed some confusion, but Alexander was quick to gather the reins in hand and settled in well.
Surveying the field, he was now content that there was no direct threat to central and southern Syria, particularly Damascus, and all of Palestine remained secure. “Jerry doesn’t seem interested in Suez any longer,” he said at his first staff meeting. “He’s run off through Palmyra toward the Euphrates. That won’t do well for the pipeline to Tripoli, and now our forces there must do everything possible to save the Haifa line. Any reports?” He looked at Brigadier Kingstone, who had flown in for the meeting to brief the new commander.
“At the moment, sir, the action seems to be focused around T2, mid-way between Palmyra and the river. But it’s only another 40 klicks to T1, and that is just 18 klicks due north of the H1 station.”
“What about the Indian Divisions?”
“Blaxland has moved his HQ for 10th Indian to Abu Kamal on the river. He’s posted a Brigade at T2, and then my people are covering this flank along the wadi here.” Kingstone traced the position on the map with his weathered brown finger.
“Prospects?”
“Well sir, we’ve no tanks, and only a few AEC-III’s left in the entire force. Jerry is hitting us with a Panzer Division now, and the Brandenburgers move like lightning. We can’t hold where we are. In fact, we’ll be lucky to cover the H1 station and get back to Hadithah.”
“And east of the Euphrates?”
“General Briggs with 5th Indian tried to push across the border and link up with us, but that Brandenburg Division has been too much for them. Jerry’s got between Briggs and Blaxland now, and he’s pushing the last of the French troops south along the river. We’ve had to blow the bridge at Ar Ramadi. It doesn’t look good, sir, and they haven’t even brought up their whole Panzer force from Palmyra yet.”
“I shall make it my business to see that they don’t soon enough, “ said Alexander. “I’m teeing off a big push to take back T4 and Palmyra—Operation Buckthorne. That should do the trick.” He showed Kingstone the forces he was now assembling, and asked him to return and put as much fire into the defense on the Euphrates as he could.
His plan was to re-commit 31st Armored Brigade, posted on the road between T4 and Homs, with orders to strike directly for the Pumping Station. 46th Infantry, assembled around Wadi Ramdah to the southeast, would drive up the secondary road to T4, and the 25th Armored Brigade would attempt to envelop that position on the right. Oddly enough, it would aim for a town called Ain el Beida, the same name given to von Arnim’s opening objective for Operation Sturmflut near the Tunisian/Algerian border. At the same time, he wanted General Miles and his 56thLondon Infantry Division to move north towards Palmyra again, forcing the Germans to defend that front.
25th Armored was taking some time to get in position, and only two of its three battalions had arrived by the 20th of January, yet Alexander was keen to get started. He ordered the attack to begin that day, hoping to compel the Germans to turn and fight a hard battle with him on this flank, and therefore ease the pressure in the Euphrates sector.
The Indian Armored Division had only 38 American Shermans left, and another 24 M3 light tanks, the Honeys, as the British called them. They ran right into the 7th SS PzJag Battalion, which had 12 Pz IIIJ’s, six Pz-IVE infantry support tanks and six Marder II’s. Kübler also had his PzJag battalion there with two dozen Marders and four 88s. That made for a very difficult attack for the Indian Armored, though the 46th was making a little better progress on their right. The Germans held their ground, seeing the high silhouette of the bulky Shermans as easy targets, and they found their Panzers could deal with them easily enough. Firing back, the enemy was getting a few of their lighter skinned Marders, but it was coming down to a question of which side was better skilled in this sort of armored duel, and the Germans had far more experience and training.
Beyond that, some heavy mortars and a Nebelwerfer Battalion had been sent over by the 78th Sturm Division, and added to the artillery from Prinz Eugen and the Korps group, the Indian troops soon found their lines saturated with heavy defensive fire. The dry earth heaved up with the impact of the rounds, and the Shermans trundled through the dust, into the craters. And up the other side to present a nice fat target for those 88s.
31st Indian Armored Division had really only attacked in brigade strength, and it wasn’t going anywhere—but neither was 10th Motorized. Guderian was at Palmyra, taking a brief moment to view the old Roman ruins and temples. He had heard the opening of Alexander’s offensive as a dull roar in the air that morning, but had no reports other than that from the engagement with the Indian Division. Then General Kübler himself came in, the leathery warrior who had fought so much of the war against the British, his men veterans of the first Action in Syria, the fighting in Libya, Canary Islands, Morocco, and Algeria.
“Syria again,” he said, meeting Heinz Guderian for the first time. “Well, I’m sorry to say they have brought up a good deal of armor. That’s a mixed British Infantry Division down there, with a full armored brigade attached, at least 150 panzers. They hit us hard, but the men are holding. We faced much the same in Libya under Rommel, but these are American tanks.”
“What do you think of them?” asked Guderian.
“Not much. They’re big, and with a decent 75mm gun, but they light up easily when hit, and are prone to fires. More bark than bite, that one, but we have only Marders, with little armor on them, so I suppose it’s a fair fight.” Kübler smiled, listening to the closer report of MG fire and small mortars.