“Good news,” he reported. “5th Indian Division is coming through our lines right now. Briggo is taking them up the rail line towards the city center.”
“And in the nick of time,” said Wilson. “Do the men look like they still have any fight in them?”
“Well, they’ve had a long march, and may need a good night’s rest, but they’ll fight,” said Kingstone. “I’m worried about Ford’s Brigade near the Arab Hikmat. The Germans did us a favor and finally cleared that rat’s nest out, but that attack will compromise my positions on the outer bund.”
“It may,” said Wilson, “but I want you to hold there tonight. You know how the Germans shuffle about after dark. I don’t want them thinking they can swing south. Keep a good eye out for me, will you Joe?”
“Right-O,” said Kingstone. “Nothing gets round my flank that I won’t know about, and if necessary, I’ll send out the armored cars to patrol tonight.”
“That would be wise. Where is Glubb Pasha? He’s a good man in a situation like this.”
“God only knows,” said Kingstone. “The last I heard, he was west of the Tigris.”
“Well, if he can be found, you might want his Dusky Maidens to have a look about tonight.”
“I’ll see what I can do, sir.”
So Kingstone would stay right where he was. But he did put out a radio call in code that only Glubb would hear and understand. He was indeed west of the Tigris, down near Al Haj Kadhm, where the river made a sharp hairpin bend. The rail line ran down around that bend, before continuing south to eventually reach Basra. Since the 10th Indian Division had pulled itself in tight to defend the Royal Palaces, Glubb’s little Arab Legion was the only force watching the rail line now. He had been mixing about with the local Arabs, using his amazing knowledge of the language and culture to see if he could drum up some support from the local tribes, and possibly fill out his ranks a bit.
In many ways, Glubb Pasha was even more skilled as an ambassador to the Arabs than Lawrence of Arabia had been. He could hear every subtlety in the language dialects, and one look at an Arab’s headdress, the way he might wear and tie off his waist sash, his every mannerism, were like an open book to him. He could speak back to the Arabs in that very same dialect, knowing it intimately, and thus made quick and easy friendships, gaining many followers.
Kingstone had tweeted to him that night, obviously wanting him to report, though his men had detected no German movement towards that river bend. Glubb’s men were the only thing stopping the enemy from simply heading south, but he instinctively realized that the Germans could not do that while Baghdad was still in British hands. So he asked the locals to send men to places he knew well if the Huns came that way, and then he took his detachment east, following the road along the river that would eventually take him to one of the real great prizes in this battle—the Al Dayrah Oil Center, which would later come to be called the Dora Refinery.
This facility had really taken root after the war, but now it was a depot and oil storage area, with some small refining capacity. Oil previously refined near Basra was railed up to this depot, and stored in growing tank farms there to serve the needs of the city, and the military. It was a prize that would put good, usable fuel into the hands of Heinz Guderian for his drive south if he won this battle, and Glubb Pasha saw it as the most important objective of the fight.
That’s where he was taking his Arab Legion, and considering that Kingstone seemed to be asking for his support, he resolved to go find the man and see if he could turn things around. He wanted to convince Kingstone that he should be looking to the defense of those valuable oil stores, but he would not find him that night.
As the darkness thickened, the evacuation of the Kazimiyah District was completed, with 24th Brigade coming over the bridge in good order and taking up positions in the Al Zamiyah District. The Germans kept up a desultory shelling of the bridge area, which was just enough to prevent the Royal Engineers from getting any real work done to try and set charges. Further south, two companies of the 27th Brigade under Brigadier Alan Barker got pinned against the river near the Al Tayfiyah Ferry, but otherwise, that force retired to take up a new defensive line screening the main rail yards. It was to be their last night of relative calm.
That rail yard was one of Guderian’s main objectives on this side of the river. He wanted it to keep his clearing and control of the Baghdad rail line moving along, to gain the workshops, engineering bays and fuel sites there, both for oil and coal. For this attack, he had moved Konrad’s Lehr Regiment through the lines of 2nd Brandenburg Regiment, and that night they would rest and prepare for a renewed assault at dawn.
So we are now masters of the west bank as far south as that rail yard, thought Guderian, pleased with the day’s work. Except for the delay imposed on the 1st Regiment at the bottleneck, his troops had fought hard and well to clear the two factory sites and garden area, finally reaching the river. Now he knew that he had cut the 6th Indian Division in two, with part of it east of the river in the north retiring over that bridge, and the rest defending the rail yard.
KG Schafer’s breakthrough at Adhamiya was the key moment east of the river, he thought. Now that Hans Hube has finally come up with Westhoven’s 3rd Panzer Division, that attack can really gain momentum tomorrow. But the British surprised us a bit there when they brought up armor. We had no reports of enemy tanks up until now, and that changes things. I must determine what these units are, but I cannot imagine that they will stop Hube here, not with two good panzer divisions under his command. He’ll be like a charioteer, with two strong steeds pulling him to battle. I expect good results at Al Zamiyah tomorrow, and hopefully we can clear that district quickly.
So both attacks on the 23rd will converge on one area. I want Konrad to focus his efforts north of the rail yards and drive right for the Royal Ferry site and main bridge. I want Hube to ride his chariot due south, cutting off Al Zamiyah, and he is to aim for the Royal Palace, one of many in this city, or so it seems. Perhaps this plan can bag a good chunk of the Indian troops in Al Zamiyah. We shall see how nimble they are today.
Guderian would spend the night in the Spinning & Weaving Factory, consulting with General Beckermann of the Brandenburg Division and laying out what he wanted from him the following morning.
“The Lehr Regiment will do the work tomorrow,” he said. “Swing them north of the rail yard and go for the bridge. Send Duren’s 3rd Regiment right into the yards as a holding force to keep the enemy in play there. I want those yards cleared by tomorrow night. You can bring down Langen’s 4th Regiment to follow the Lehr Regiment.”
“What about the north?” asked Beckermann. “Will you want me to mount a river crossing operation there?”
“No. Secure the west bank of the Kazimiyah Bridge, hold the ferry sites and get a few assault boats there, but otherwise, you can rest your 1st and 2nd Regiments in the morning. I may have work for them in the afternoon.”
“Then Hube will clear Al Zamiyah?”
“He’s got both panzer divisions now. I think he’ll force the British to give us that whole district by noon. It will either be that, or we bag all those forces an cut them off.”
“That will mean we’ll have to hold them there, and plan to reduce that pocket. It will take some steam out of our engine.”