46th RTR ran straight into two companies of the II Battalion of Funck’s 25th Panzer Regiment. 8th RTR was dueling with the 3rd Company on the left of the British advance. The Germans would field about 120 tanks there, against 220 British, and it was a fearsome collision of armor. 46th RTR got the worst of things, taken in the flank as it charged by one of the two German companies. There were four Tigers there, and four Lions, their big turrets rotating, guns cracking out their fire. The 88mm gun on the Tigers took a heavy toll, and the 46th lost 16 Churchills, 15 Valentines and 20 Crusader IIIs, knocked out in twenty minutes of hard fighting. It began to back away, treads grinding in the sandy ground, guns still firing.
Popski and his comrades made it to Richards, where they found three jeeps and motored away to the northeast. When they came up on the height of Ulayam ar Rimith, they saw O’Connor’s HQ vehicles below, and to their great surprise, a German recon unit was already flanking that hill to the east.
“Bloody hell,” said Popski. “The forward depot is just five klicks down this road. I hope the General down there knows what’s happened. Who’s got a radio?”
Up the far side of the hill they soon saw movement, crouching low, their fists tight on their weapons. Nelson pulled back the bolt on the machinegun mounted on the jeep, and took aim, but then he saw the red berets ahead, squinting through the blowing smoke.
“Hold your fire,” he shouted. “It’s the S.A.S!” O’Connor had sent the single company of commandos attached to his HQ up to that hill to have a look.
“You boys are a sight for sore eyes,” said Popski. “Hell of a fight back there. Rommel’s going all out to turn this flank! Is the General down there?”
“We Just came up from the HQ,” said a Lieutenant. “He’s there, alright. Threw in the Pretorian Guard half an hour ago when he unleashed the 23rd. There’s nothing else left but the AA Park units. He’s got them all dug in in front of the depot. We’re to hold this hill.”
Seven Kilometers south, Reese had been caught up in the sweeping battle with his 1/12th Royal Lancers. He was on the road east to Al Hunjah, and ran into the Panzer Fusilier Company from Sonderverband 288, which was quickly reinforced by a platoon of pioneers, and then, in the middle of the fight, up came II Battalion, 6th Panzergrenadiers. The three Challenger IIs formed a triangle, their 120mm guns blasting away and blowing up one halftrack after another. The Scimitars pumped out a lot of fire with their autocannons, yet Reeves saw two of his vehicles hit in rapid succession by a heavy caliber round, and their thinner aluminum armor was easily penetrated. There was too much enemy infantry. He could see them dismounting, moving forward in small groups, setting up mortars and machineguns, and their AT teams had the Panzerfaust that had ambushed one of his vehicles after Gazala. He knew he had to maneuver, and open the range.
“All units,” he ordered through his headset mike. “We move north to Ulyam ar Rimith. Challengers provide covering fire. Scimitars move now!”
Reese would lose one more Scimitar as they fell back. His other vehicles made it safely away, and the three Challengers remained invulnerable to any hits they took. Popski spotted them withdrawing toward his position, and raised Reeves on the radio. “Come on up and join the party,” he shouted over the din. “Our whole lot is up here with the S.A.S. company, and the General is right behind us.”
“This is going to get ugly,” said Reeves. “We spotted what looks like an entire battalion of armor swinging round your left and heading north. And there’s fighting at Alam al Hunjah. Hold on. I’m moving my unit to your position now.”
All over the field, the fortunes of battle were shifting, the balance teetering. The 4th Indian had swamped the German line, and was now heavily engaged with 15th Panzer Division, which acted like a good blocking linesman to allow the fullback, 7th Panzer, to race around the flank. The British 7th Armored pushed out onto the plain of Al Hamarayah, but then ran into a strong German blocking position at Wadi Daf’an. Ramcke had been listening to the battle back at Rommel’s old HQ at the airfield complex south of Sirte. The General was long gone, off to join his panzers, and Ramcke had no orders. Hearing the battle chatter on the radio, he knew there was trouble on the flank, and so he stepped out of the HQ tent, whistling for his Adjutant.
“Get the men up and ready to move,” he said. “The British are trying to come round the flank of 21st Panzer. We’re going to stop them!” He had five battalions of tough Falschirmjaegers, and they leapt aboard the reserve trucks pooled there, motoring off into the haze. When they reached the scene of 7th Armored’s turning maneuver, they could see that 21st Panzer was hard pressed, with the British 1st Armored to the east, and now the 7th Armored coming up from the south. The German Division had adopted a horseshoe defensive front, with the rugged ground of Wadi Daf’an in the center.
Ramcke knew that it would take tanks to stop that envelopment, so the thing to do was to get his battalions east to relieve the Panzer units on that line. Then they could swing south and engage the enemy armor. That battle was still raging, when another most unexpected arrival would shift the winds of fate in Rommel’s favor.
The 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion had landed at Tunis, and von Arnim had thought to put it on the trains to move west into Algeria, but Kesselring intervened.
“Those tanks are to go to Rommel,” he said. “Führer’s orders—direct from OKW this morning.”
So three companies of tanks were arriving, 27 Tigers with the lighter Lynx Recon tanks among them. Hitler had kept his promise, and now it was up to Rommel to keep his. The arrival of Ramcke’s five battalions had stabilized the situation. With this fresh force of heavy armor, the Germans would counterattack.
Harding’s attack was already slowing when he got a message from General Horrocks on the radio. “Look,” he said. “Rommel’s got 7th Panzer round our flank, and he’s already well east of Wadi Harawah. We’ve had to turn the whole of 4th Indian Division south to hold the flank, and so we’ve nothing to support you out there. O’Connor wants you to pull out, and now. Get back on the road to Bir Qarinah, and head due east. Jerry has turned north and he’s after the depot at Rimith!”
Those orders were easily given, but they would be very difficult to carry out. About half the division was able to disengage and get back to the road. The other half was still locked in close range firefights with the German 21st Panzer Division. As Harding’s column headed east in the gloom, they could hear the sounds of battle off their right shoulders, the line of the 4th Indian still fighting with 15th Panzer Division. At Sidi Azzab, a patchwork of machine gun units, engineer field companies, and the Free French troops were battling to hold that crossing point over Wadi Harawah.
O’Connor could see that he had been outmaneuvered. His attack toward the wadi to try and stop 7th Panzer in that massive tank battle involving 23rd Armored Brigade was a gamble, but the Germans had held with most of their division while sending that battalion of tanks right on around the flank. He needed armor, and quickly, reluctantly giving the order to Brigadier Richards to pull his brigade out and return to Ulyam ar Rimith, the site of the HQ AA park and forward depot. It was all the fuel the British had brought forward to sustain their planned envelopment, and it had to be saved.
8th RTR was able to disengage and move northeast, but it would not get there in time. 46th RTR took a route south of the hill where Popski and the others watched, and ran into a recon company from Sonderverband 288. But Reeves had been listening to all this radio traffic and knew now what he could do. He gave the order to move to full battle speed, and his fast AFVs moved like the desert wind, racing north around Popski’s position and then swinging up to Ar Rimith to arrive there just as the first of three companies of German panzers began their attack. The light flak batteries with their 40mm Bofors were trying to hold the line, but now they would get some most welcome relief.