The Battle of Baghdad…. That is undoubtedly what they will call it. I wonder what the historians will say about it in decades to come. Were we foolish to think we could breeze into Iraq like this and take the whole place by storm with a handful of divisions? If these attacks bog down, I may have no other option but to wait for that rail line to open, and then see about getting in more troops through Mosul. As for Kirkuk… Babab Gurgur…. That is up to Volker’s 78th Sturm Division, and his attack should be in position shortly.
There were not many Sturm Divisions in the German Army, but the 78th was one of the better ones. Created with a division structure flush with heavy weapons, it had a lavish assortment of 10cm and 12cm mortars, a battalion of heavier Nebelwerfers, and a strong Panzerjager attachment with Marder III’s and four 88’s. The infantry battalions were beefed up to 36 assault squads, with a lot of machineguns and smaller mortars. Some of these squads had been specially trained in demolitions and wire breaching for assaults against enemy strong points, hence the name “Storm Division.” Three battalions of regular artillery completed the picture.
2nd Suffolk Battalion had been posted on the road at the canal bridge near Hsar Ahmad. On the morning of the 20th, it suddenly came under a fearful barrage from all those guns, mortars and the whooshing roar of the Nebelwerfers. Only two of the three division regiments were present, the third still moving south along the Baghdad rail and fighting to clear out Levy Battalions Wilson had posted in Bayji and Tikrit. Konrad’s Lehr Regiment of the Brandenburgers had pushed north and driven another out of Samarra, and now they had worked as far north as Tikrit to link up with that Sturm Regiment.
The Turkomen Divisions, having rested two days, now put in another strong attack at the ridgeline northeast of Kirkuk, and the battle for that city was on. The blow delivered to 2nd Suffolk was withering. The men were pinned down, shrapnel flying everywhere, and casualties from the bombardment mounting. When the Storm troops came in, the fighting was fierce, but this was an assault force tailor made to attack a prepared position like this. 2nd Suffolk would lose nearly a third of its men, eventually forced back from the canal and yielding the bridge at Hsar Ahmad.
As before, the ridgeline position was held against the Turkomen divisions, but the hammer blow delivered by 78th Sturm did not arguer well. That unit could beat down one line position after another, slowly undermining Brigadier Reid’s 29th Brigade defense in the south along the main road. General Briggs found the land lines still open to Wilson’s HQ at the British Embassy in Baghdad, and he put in a call with one salient question on his mind.
“When can we expect relief up here?”
“I’m sorry, Briggo,” said Wilson, thinking Briggs had the one nickname that put his own to shame. “Jerry is here in force, both north and west of the city. We still hold Baqubah with a few levy battalions, but otherwise, there’s nothing between me and you.”
“I see…” Unlike Colonel Blaxland in temporary command of the 10th Indian, Briggs was a seasoned and well experienced officer. He had fought in East Africa and the Western Desert with Indian divisions, and the 5th was well leavened with veteran soldiers from those campaigns.
“What’s your situation?” asked Wilson.
“Well, we’re holding out, but I have to give the enemy the north end of the ridge to form a tighter line around Kirkuk. I reckon I’ve got some 30,000 Turkomen infantry on my north and east perimeter. But Jerry came up and hit us hard out near the southwest refinery. It looks like a couple regiments of good infantry there. Jumbo, I’ve as stiff an upper lip as any man you know, but this is just a matter of time up here, and I can’t say the refineries and well sites will come through this fight without a good deal of damage.”
“I understand….” Wilson considered. “Are you surrounded?”
“Not yet. The road through Taza Khormatu is still open, and the mountain track above it as well.”
“The road to Baqubah?”
“Yes sir.” Briggs let his silence ask the only remaining question. Then he spoke. “General, we’re prepared to hold on here, come what may. We’ve supply for at least another week—maybe longer.”
“Briggo,” said Wilson back. “If you did try that road, might you get through to Baqubah?”
“Well sir, we’d have to move quickly—tonight—and take to our wheels. But we’d be giving them Baba Gurgur, sir. That will make for one hell of a headline for Hitler.”
“That it will,” said Wilson. “But it’s this simple: we can’t relieve you, nor will you likely hold out for that week you have in the storeroom. You’re outnumbered three to one. Yes, they have the Father of all Fires, and all that oil that flows from it in the steel veins of the Empire, and they can bloody well choke on it. You are to place demolition charges in all the key facilities presently under your control, and then do your damnedest to fight your way out of there. I’m not prepared to sacrifice the 5th British Indian Division for that bloody oil. If you can win through, that’s all the better for us down here. Then you can come with us when we finally get up a good head of steam to retake Kirkuk.”
“Are you sure you want me to demolish the two refineries?” asked Briggs. “Won’t we need them when we come back this way?”
“We might,” said Wilson, “but I don’t think Fritz will leave them intact in that event, will he?”
“Very well, sir, I have my orders, and I will carry them out. You can tell those levies in Baqubah that we’re coming.”
“Good,” said Wilson. “It looks like they’ll have the well heads and all the pipelines to Tripoli and Haifa. I’m not sure what Hitler thinks he can do with them, but for the time being we have to show him we don’t need them.”
In spite of General Wilson’s bravado, Britain and her Allies did need those facilities, and they needed the oil that was flowing in those steel veins. Without it, all they had left to fuel their fires in the Middle East were the southern well sites at Basra and Abadan, which they had just secured from the Iranians. If they were to fall, then Britain would have to rely on oil shipments from the United States, which was the world’s greatest producer at that time. Yet it was thousands of miles away, and would have to sail over U-boat infested waters to reach British ports. As for Saudi Arabia, and the vast reserves beneath the Empty Quarter and Persian Gulf, the first commercial well had only been drilled in March of 1938, and those resources still remained largely unmeasured and undeveloped….
Chapter 15
In 1941 The British had advanced on Baghdad over the very same route as Guderian’s troops. It had been a brash and audacious move, for the force they had was no more than a Regiment, facing a full Iraqi Division in Baghdad. Yet they prevailed, toppled the incipient rebellion of Rashid Ali and his Golden Square of four Iraqi Army Colonels, and restored British rule in Iraq. Ali had fled to Germany, where he stewed in exile, publicly denouncing the British. One of his Colonels, Colonel Salah ad-Dinn as-Sabbagh, summarized their defeat by lashing out at the British saying: “There is no more murderous wolf for the Arab and no deadlier foe of Islam than Britain…. The Arabs have no future unless the British Empire comes to an end.”