“I’ve been meaning to send more troops,” said Alanbrooke, “but after the Aussies and New Zealanders went home, all we could find was the Carpathian Brigade. It’s posted up near Maleme, but You’re correct—Crete is a lost cause. We really aren’t ready to begin full scale bombing operations into the Balkans, and we’ve just ruled out staging raids on Turkey. Besides, we can still hit Ploesti when we’re ready, and do so from Alexandria, Beirut, or fields near Jerusalem. Crete has been hanging out there like an untucked shirt. We can’t really defend it, unless Cunningham keeps a squadron at sea round the clock.”
“Then you don’t advise reinforcing it?”
“I do not. In fact, I would advise the garrison to make plans to withdraw. Crete is useful as a place to stage fighters and interdict surrounding sea lanes, but if it is attacked, we simply haven’t the wherewithal to hold onto it. Cunningham should be advised to plan for a rescue operation, nothing more.”
“But what about the Bismarc k? This is a chance to get that ship, just like Tovey did in the Hindenburg.”
“Cunningham has Nelson and Warspite. Neither one can make much over 20 knots, and Bismarck runs ten knots faster. The French battleship is with it—the Normandie.”
“I see,” said Churchill, his mood darkening. “Now’s the time I wish we had those carriers in hand we spoke of earlier. We’ll have more soon enough. But for now, send that order to Cunningham as you advise. It will be yet another feather in Hitler’s cap, and one we’ll just have to pluck out again later this year—god willing.”
Part VI
Quicksilver
“The Spirits survey the heavens and the earth and all the harmonious motions of the universe see the heavenly bodies set in revolving whorls, which, whorl within whorl, combine to form the Spinning, on the Spindle of Necessity; and the Goddess holds the spindle on her knee, and spins the thread which the Fates wind, unwind and cut…”
Chapter 16
The thread of fate the Goddess unwound that day came like quicksilver lightning from the sky. Operation Merkur began with speed, the headlong dash of those heavy German ships through the Straits of Messina and east towards Crete. Then the dark pre-dawn skies carried the drone of hundreds of planes, a flock of crows come to claim Britain’s last island outpost in the Med.
Churchill and Brooke were correct. There was no way the island could be adequately defended. Britain was already struggling to scrape up troops wherever they could find them. Crete had served as a forward RAF base, a thorn in the sides of Italian shipping that dared get too close, and a watch on the Aegean Sea, but little else. Churchill had stubbornly held onto it, thinking it would one day be a springboard for the invasion of Greece, but that was not likely anytime soon.
The German Operation Phoenix had upset so many plans and timetables, cut so many threads of fate, that everything was now being focused there. General Quinan now had five divisions and two Armored Brigades in Syria, and Jumbo Wilson was seeing his force building up to five Indian and two British regular divisions in Iraq, along with two Armored Brigades there as well. Even that was not deemed enough, and General Richard O’Connor would soon find out. Wavell had come to him earlier to pick his pocket, but it had not been practical at the time. Now, however, with the Syrian-Iraq theater deemed the most vital of the war, all the stops were being pulled.
O’Connor would soon be asked to send the whole of his 1st Armored Division, and one more British infantry division back to Alexandria. The armor would make the long overland march by road to the railhead at Tobruk, the Infantry would go to Benghazi for shipment by sea. There would be no further reinforcement planned for his 8th Army, and he was told to be as ‘obnoxious as possible’ concerning the harassment of the German defenses at Mareth, but he would have to do with much less than he had hoped.
O’Connor asked if he could send the 4th Indian Division, but the request, or rather the order, from Whitehall was very specific. He had already committed the 44th Home County and 51st Highland to battle, but the 50th was not yet heavily involved. Disheartened and upset, he had no choice but to order it to the rear, and he would then bring up the 4th Indian Division in its place. Receiving the order to disengage his 1st Armored Division was the hardest blow.
Half his 7th Armored Division had already been sent east, the 7th Armored Brigade, as it was now being called, but it was quickly shipped off to Basra. That left him with the infantry tanks of 2nd Armored Brigade, and the 22nd and 23rd Armored Brigades. He would have to give up two of the three, so he reluctantly send the 22nd, which was the last of 7th Armored Division, mostly medium and light tanks, and then he sent the rest of 1st Armored Division as ordered. That division had but one armored brigade left, so in effect, he was simply taking the last of the 7th to reinforce the 1st, and sending one good armored division east as ordered. It would be reorganized into 1st and 2nd Armored Brigades, with the 7th Motorized Brigade being the infantry element.
This would mean that his offensives would be mostly infantry assaults, though he stubbornly held on to his 23rd Armored Brigade, a large formation with over 400 tanks. He would be sending at least that many east in the newly formed 1st Armored Division, so now he would be fighting with only one mailed fist, and also losing a good infantry division. He resolved that he could still keep strong pressure on the Mareth Front, and even still threaten a breakthrough. He had already taken Medinine and battered the Italian defenders there.
His push for Mareth itself was still strong with the 51st Highland, 44th Home County and 23rd Armored Brigade, which was all the frontage would allow for. Yet there was nothing behind it until 4th Indian came up, and he would have no means of exploiting any success. All he could do was remain a nuisance for Rommel, and force his opponent to keep good infantry divisions on the line. He compensated in the short run by sending up his army troops—two battalions of armored cars, two more of Royal Engineers, and a rifle battalion. 4th Indian Division was already arriving, and he gave orders to hasten it forward even as he sent the 50th Northumberland back. He also still had the 1st South African Division, but it was largely scattered, a brigade at Benghazi, another at Mersa Brega, and the last at Tripoli. It would also mean that he could not make a flanking move to the left of the highland country as planned. There was nothing to do but keep battering at the front door.
So the British 8th Army would not make the glorious and decisive breakthrough that Montgomery had achieved at Mareth, and this would also have an effect on the western front in Algeria and Tunisia. Churchill’s insistence on making Iraq and Syria his main war effort now would see 12 divisions there, and these two additional reinforcements being sent by O’Connor. That left his 8th Army with only four effective divisions, which was all Monty had on the other side in Algeria and Tunisia. This was going to mean that the American Army’s role would be much more essential, and thus far, Patton had worked his magic to harden those troops into a credible fighting force.
The American divisions were still cumbersome, particularly the two big heavy armored divisions, and some of the infantry battalions were still raw, but they were learning very quickly. The victory in holding on to Tebessa was significant, though that took the best infantry division of the lot, Terry Allen’s 1st. When Monty joined the party, it had forced von Arnim to first consolidate, and then withdraw, leaving Rommel with no other choice but to do the same. The Germans were now on the defense all along the western Tunisian border, but it still remained to be seen whether the Allies could mount a decisive offensive there.