“That’s that British Division Hube kicked out of this place a few days ago,” said Guderian. “They seem to want it back, so it looks like I’ll have to hold Schmidt’s Motorized Division here. I’ll send you his recon battalion for a local reserve. Let me finish up here and then we’ll see what your situation needs tomorrow.”
That afternoon, Schmidt deployed his entire division again, the men leaving their trucks on the road through Palmyra. Veterans all, they pushed south aggressively, and Miles found his push to retake Palmyra nothing more than a spoiling operation in short order. Yet that was exactly what Alexander wanted from him, and there was now one less German Division heading east towards the Euphrates.
Chapter 11
On the morning of the 21st, 1 Kommando, Brandenburg Special Forces, were the first German unit to reach the Iraqi border, about 10 kilometers due east of Ar Ramadi, at a small village north of Abu Kamal. There wasn’t much to be seen, not even a wire fence of any kind. The wind blew listlessly through the sandy scrubland, and the scouting unit reported the area completely clear of the enemy.
The Germans were flanking Blaxland’s 10th Indian HQ at Abu Kamal, the position Kingstone had traced with his finger for Alexander. But they were all north and east of the river, and there were no bridges for another 40 kilometers east at Rawah. The two Indian Divisions had been isolated from one another, and neither one was sitting on firm defensive positions.
By the time Kingstone returned, flying in to the airfield at T1, he could see that the situation was ‘far from satisfactory.’ He stormed into Blaxland’s HQ at Abu Kamal and laid into him.
“They’ve gotten round your right east of the Euphrates! The French are finished. Now there’s no way you’ll hold onto to T2 as it stands, not with a single brigade there against the bloody 3rd Panzer Division. We simply can’t sit here any longer. This is a fast moving battle of maneuver, and you’ve got to keep in step. Jerry’s is through the front door, across the living room and he’s already getting at the jewelry in the bedroom dresser!”
“But we’ll lose T1 next if I move now,” Blaxland complained.
“We don’t need T1. The German army is already strung out the whole length of that bloody pipeline. It’s useless! H1 is another matter. That’s where we need to be, and with some semblance of concentration. You can’t throw things off willy-nilly in penny packet fashion. You need to pull your division together and move to cover H1. And you need to do that now, sir.”
It wasn’t exactly proper for a Brigadier to dress down the commander of a full division like that. In truth, Kingstone had real seniority over Blaxland, and the latter was really just a Colonel posted as ‘General Officer Commanding’ the 10th Indian Division. Being a blunt and very direct man, Kingstone had made his point the only way he could.
With that, the battle for the upper Euphrates was over. The river would now bend due east towards Iraq, and the vital pipeline junction near Hadithah. That was where the Brandenburgers were going, and that was where the British Indian defenders would have to be soon if they were to have any chance of stopping them.
Briggs and his 5th Indian Division withdrew at noon, heading for Rawah, the last bridge on the Euphrates before it flowed into a wide area of marshland that was completely impassible north of Hadithah. Blaxland destroyed the small wooden bridge at Abu Kamal that morning and pulled out, leaving a few AA guns to cover the wreckage. He resolved to move his HQ to the T1 Station, but an hour after he got there, he looked out to see a column of trucks approaching the airfield, wondering who it was.
He was settling in to brew a ‘cuppa,’ when an adjutant came running in from one of that staff trucks, eyes wide.
“Sir! It’s the Germans! The Brandenburg Division!”
Yes, there were no bridges over the Euphrates east of Abu Kamal, but Bekermann’s Brandenburg Division had brought both rafts and bridging equipment…. Speed, concentration on objective, shock. The lessons of war for Lieutenant General Blaxland did not have to taught to him by Brigadier Kingstone that day. He learned now in the best way possible, by experience.
The teacup jittering in his hand, he bucked up when two companies of AA units came in from the west. “Gentlemen,” he said. “Fire at those chaps out there on the airfield. See if you can drive them off.”
30th Light AA had six 20mm Polstern AA guns in tow, and they set them up near the pump station house, soon firing streaks of tracer rounds at the distant enemy on the field. Further west, it looked like a big dust storm was starting to blow in—it was—Brigadier Kingstone was arriving with Kingforce and everything left of the 10th Indian Division that would move. That, more than the AA fire, had discouraged 12th Battalion, IV Brandenburgers, from storming into that pump house and slapping the teacup from Blaxland’s hand. As it was, the Colonel sat himself down, watching his six flak guns firing and as he slowly sipped his tea.
The Germans showed no further interest in the airfield or the pumping station, withdrawing east, and Blaxland passed a moment of satisfaction thinking his Johnny on the Spot orders had saved the day. But an hour later, when the adjutant reported that armored cars from Brigadier Kingstone had radioed to say they were approaching, Blaxland practically choked on his tea. He was up, out the door and headed for a truck, ordering the remnants of his division to H1 immediately.
The burly, red-faced Brigadier Kingstone was a foe he had no intention of facing again. He would cover H1, but it would soon not matter. The Germans were now only 8 kilometers from cutting that pipeline to Haifa, thereby completely stopping the flow of oil in the steel veins beneath those restless sands. Any oil that came to the Middle East now, would have to come by sea.
As for the 5th Indian, when its scouts finally reached the Bridge at Rawah, they found it held against them by German troops. The swift moving Brandenburgers had won the race, and they already had a full regiment over the river there and heading on to Hadithah. With his division scattered all over the desert of Al Jazirah, General Briggs radioed to say he would have to find another road and could not reach Hadithah any time soon. Instead, he moved due east, intending to at least place his division astride the road from the river at Haditha to Kirkuk… and Baba Gurgur.
Word was sent on ahead to the Ban Dahir and Al Asad airfields with the warning that there were now no friendly forces between them and the advancing Germans. Five squadrons would have to abandon the fields, flying west into Iraq. The battle for Eastern Syria had been lost. The Germans had already crossed the Euphrates in two places, building up strength and sending battalion columns flying east along the main road, just south of the river. Soon word was sent to General Sir Mosley Mayne in Baghdad that he had better soon look to the defense of that city.
Guderian reacted coolly to the news of the British attack towards T4. Needing most of 10th Motorized to stop the 56th London’s attack towards Palmyra, he put together a Kampfgruppe composed of the division recon battalion, the pioneers, and a battery of four 88’s with some mobile 20mm flak guns. Then he asked General Westhoven of 3rd Panzer to send two of his Panzer Battalions back from T3. It seemed the armor would not be needed where he was going.
The first went south to challenge the 25th Armored Brigade: 14 VH-55 Lions with the 75mm main gun, 16 PzKfw IVF1’s and another 16 Leopard recon tanks. The came up on the North Irish Horse and attacked immediately, supported by infantry from both the 10th Motorized and II Battalion, 99th Gibergs. The crack of the guns was hot on both sides, but the Churchills proved to be tougher than the American Shermans. Five were knocked out in the duel, but the British unit maintained good cohesion, and it was soon to be supported by waves of additional tanks from the 51st and 142nd RTRs.