Sergeant Kemp and his men would not be answering the call to prayer that day, but the Lieutenant soon came with an order for the battalion to form ranks and prepare to move east. It was no more than 1,500 meters to the fighting, and the battalion soon formed up its companies on the eastern edge of the Al Zamiyah District.
“Company…. Fix Bayonets!”
The rattle of the steel bayonets was heard all along the line, and many a private took heart in that. It was a throwback to an earlier time, when the rifle and bayonet would form the heart of any infantry attack. Yet now the enemy was coming in armored beasts that could not be pierced or harmed by those gleaming metal barbs. In this war, the bayonet was mostly a psychological weapon, and the order had the desired effect on the men, bolstering their courage for battle.
“Battalion! Advance!”
Three companies had formed in a long line, and they now swept forward towards the breakthrough on that secondary road. The last was held in reserve near the British “Sport Club” building a few hundred meters to the south. Thrown into the breech, that battalion would take very heavy casualties over the next hours, but they would also hold that line, and slow the German advance.
About four kilometers to the east, there were to natural defense lines that jutted at a 30% angle like a pair of open scissors. The roughly followed the lines of marshy watercourses and canals, the outermost called the ‘Army Canal,’ which was backed by an elevated Bund. At one point, there was a small settlement known as the “Arab Hikmat,” a seething souk on the outskirts of the city. It was now entirely overrun by the troops of the German 78th Sturm Division, supported by KG Kufner of the 4th Panzer Division. That was the enveloping pincer of this attack, finding that settlement to be the one gap in the canal line that might be exploited by armored vehicles.
The Sturm Regiments had done their job, clearing the souk and sending the Arabs scattering wildly in all directions. They secured a small bridge over the canal, and Kufner’s recon companies started across, one racing down the road through a gap in the lines to come right at Brigadier Ford’s HQ of the 19th Indian Brigade. The General and his staff retreated quickly down the road, and that made it clear to him that things were not going well. What was happening to his men on the outer bund? Then he looked over his shoulder and saw a sight that brought a broad smile to his leathery features—British tanks!
Kingstone had been the first man to greet them. His Kingforce had turned over the positions now occupied by the 8th Indian Division, and moved well south and east along the lower reaches of the Army Canal. They had been watching the long column of General Briggs’ 5th Indian Division arriving on the road to Baqubah, very happy to see this much needed reinforcement. When the tanks of the 9th Armored Brigade came clattering up along the inner bund road, Kingstone repeated his exclamation, beaming ear to ear—“bloody marvelous!”
The light tanks of the 3rd Hussars swept by in a dusty column, soon followed by 34 Shermans of the Warwickshire Yeomanry. It was not a brigade padded and heavily reinforced as with those in O’Connor’s 8th Army. While his massive 23rd Armored Brigade had 300 tanks, this one would field about 90, with a dozen AEC-III armored cars and a score of light armored carriers. It also had a full battalion of lorried infantry, the 11th Kings Royal Rifles, with four companies. Those men came up to man gaps in the inner bund line where Brigadier Ford had retreated, and the first two tank battalions charged up the road towards that breech to attack KG Schafer. They arrived just in time to save Sergeant Kemp and the 5th Queen’s Own Rifles from being overrun near the Sports Club.
The Shermans quickly blasted several halftracks, sending the rest of the 1/I 33 Panzergrenadier Company reeling back, until two panzer companies attached to this kampfgruppe came up to give challenge. Between them, they had 28 Pz-IVF2’s and a sharp firefight ensued. The Germans found the lighter M5’s easy pickings for the long barreled 75s on those F2’s. The Shermans had tougher armor, but it could still be easily penetrated by those guns. It would come down to experience, where the Germans possessed a decisive edge, with men who had fought off hordes of T-34s in Russia the previous year. To them, this was no great challenge, and the British would soon learn lessons the Russians had taken over many long months of fighting.
Chapter 20
When word reached Jumbo Wilson at the British Embassy, he looked at the breakthrough by KG Schafer with some alarm. “This puts 24th Indian Brigade in the Kazimiyah District west of the Tigris in a bad way,” he said. “If we can’t stop that attack, and I mean throw it back completely, then Le Flemming’s entire brigade will be cut off, and useless to us for all intents and purposes. I think we should order those troops back over the bridge. They will strongly reinforce the Al Zamiyah District, and then I think we can stop these brigands. For that matter, Barker’s 27th Indian Brigade is getting squeezed against the river bend near the Tayfiyah Ferry. Let’s get that unit back as well. The ferry site doesn’t matter, as long as we hold the east bank landings. Order the 27th to fall back towards the main rail yards.”
“Very good, sir,” said the staff officer. “And what about the Kazimiyah Bridge?”
“If it can be safely wired for demolition in the midst of all this hubbub, then do so. We should have had charges placed on all these bridges long ago. See to it.”
Those orders would soon put a stop to the fighting at the Grain Factory, and the stubborn bottleneck that had held back the 1st Brandenburg Regiment all day would soon be uncorked. Guderian was so bothered by the lack of success there, that he had given orders to Konrad to begin taking his Lehr Regiment around the marshy ground to instead follow the main road and rail lines where 2nd Brandenburg was attacking through the Spinning and Weaving Factory. That order would bring a strong surge of German troops to the Gardens and Grain Factory, just when those orders from Wilson to withdraw would come in the middle of that difficult fight.
24th Brigade was able to disengage and fall back to the Kazimiyah bridge, their scattered companies falling into line and waiting to cross behind a thin rearguard. They would be giving up the bottleneck, the Al Kazam Mosque, Post Office, and Hospital, where a few companies still held forth as part of the rear guard.
Further south, the German assault on the Grain Factory had just pushed the Royal Engineers out of that silo again. The British were doggedly organizing ‘for another go,’ when the orders finally came to withdraw with the 27th Indian Brigade and cover the main rail yards. Only 16 of an original 27 squads were left in the battalion, with many walking wounded among the living.
The sun was low and the shadow of evening now crept over the city, the long day finally coming to a close. Under cover of darkness, the Germans would move forward to occupy all of the Kazimiyah District west of the Tigris. But the real crisis point was still the breakthrough by KG Schafer towards Al Zamiyah. The defense of the outlying neighborhood of Adhamiya was completely compromised, the last solid British battalion, the Royal Fusiliers, finally abandoning their well sandbagged positions and falling back.
Kingforce, on the lower Army Canal, was getting confused reports of the action, and the Brigadier was given reason for concern. The breakthrough at the Arab Hikmat had roughed up Ford’s 19th Indian Brigade, which had been unable to stop the Germans from crossing the canal and bund line, though they were still holding on the inner bund. If that attack pushed due south, it would have the effect of slowly compromising Kingstone’s own positions on the outer bund-canal line. He got on the radio to Wilson to see what was up.