This time the inverse would be true. Chastened by severe checks earlier at Bir el Khamsa and Tobruk, Rommel had adopted a strategy similar to the one the British put up in the real history. It was his Gazala line this time. The defense was anchored astride the main coastal road to Derna, where the newly reformed Italian 10th Corps deployed two infantry divisions, backed up by the Ariete Armored Division, and both Trento and Trieste Motorized Infantry Divisions. South of the escarpment shielding Gazala, a line of German infantry began with the 99th and 100th Mountain Regiments, and then came the 90th Motorized Division with a newly arrived formation dubbed the 164th Light.
That unit had been in Greece, and was supposed to have been assigned as a garrison on Crete, but the attack there had never happened. It was therefore available as a replacement for the mountain regiment and Meindel’s tough Falschirmjaegers that had been taken from Rommel to make the attack on the Canary Islands. The infantry was the hard outer crust behind positions that were heavily mined and fortified, and this outer line was backed by well sighted artillery, and then the three panzer divisions Rommel was fortunate to have were held in rear areas similar to the brigade boxes the British had posted.
The attack Rommel had felt coming would begin as yet another wide envelopment maneuver. All along that fortified front, the British had faced off against the Germans with their own infantry divisions. 9th Australian Division, about to fight its last engagement here before being returned to Australia, was posted on the main coastal road near Gazala. It would be backed up by two brigades of the 2nd New Zealand Division, followed by the newly arrived 2nd South African Division, which was strung out along the coastal road back to Tobruk.
1st Army Tank Brigade was behind the Aussies, south of the escarpment that shielded Gazala itself, and it had 4th Indian Division on its left flank as the British line worked its way south towards Bir Hacheim, and 1st South African Division. These forces were all to be commanded by Montgomery, and Trigg Capuzzo was the dividing line between his XXX corps and O’Connor’s XIII Corps. The 5th Indian Division was south of the Trigg, its lines facing off against Rommel’s best infantry division, the 90th. Then came 2nd Armored Division, the 7th Armored Division, and the new British 50th Northumbrian Division to constitute O’Connor’s primary maneuver element. Kinlan’s 7th Heavy Brigade, as it was now being called by Wavell, was at the southern end of the line, intending to move through a long finger on the wrinkled hand of a terrain feature known as Wadi Thiran.
This was the place where Rommel’s prescient inner sense had warned him to watch, and there was Hauptmann Almásy, the Hungarian, peering into the thick night with his binoculars when he saw the 12th Royal Lancers beginning their advance. The British plan was really a double envelopment. They looked at the center of the German line, a hard cauldron of well fortified infantry, and decided their best prospects lay in an attack on the flanks. It would be Monty’s job to smash the Italians and open the road to Derna, threatening Mechili from that direction as well. Kinlan and O’Connor would conduct the sweeping southern envelopment, around the southern edge of Rommel’s infantry line, which would put them in a good position to make that run to Agedabia that Rommel feared.
The plan the wily German General had devised would be to quickly move those three panzer divisions to that flank, all abreast and facing south. That would present his adversary with a difficult decision. If Kinlan continued west towards Agedabia, then Rommel could order all three divisions to attack the regular British troops as they attempted to follow Kinlan’s troops. In Rommel’s mind, any force bold enough to move west like that would have to maintain a line of communications to supplies back east. His attack plan was aiming to cut that line, leaving the advancing troops to wither.
When word came of the enemy advance, flashed to all mobile division commanders in that single code word, the lion’s brew was slow to ferment. The only division that moved was 21st Panzer under Ravenstein, and that was because Rommel was there to set things in motion with his ceaseless energy. Neither Fischer nor Crüwell had arrived back at their respective division HQs, and so those troops still awaited orders. For the Italians, the only unit that moved when the British 1st Tank Regiment struck the Pavia Division south of the escarpment was the recon unit of the Ariete Division.
Down on the southern flank, Major Peniakoff, the colorful desert scout the British called “Popski,” was still assigned to operate with Kinlan’s troops. He had his eye on a small rise designated Hill 557, and wasn’t surprised to see signs of German occupation of that outpost. There were vehicle tracks in the sand, and to his trained eye, a hasty withdrawal had just been made, probably by a small scouting force. So he radioed Kinlan immediately.
“Listen General,” he said. “Jerry had eyes out here and its fairly certain they saw our boys move north of that hill. Too bad we haven’t got that helicontraption the Russians were using. It might come in handy as a scouting unit in the pre-dawn hours.”
“Good show, Colonel. But don’t worry. We’ve already got up surveillance drones, and only one of the three panzer divisions has moved, well behind the front. You just ride with Lieutenant Reeves and watch the ground—keep the lads out of silt bogs and such.”
“We’re over that finger of Wadi Thiran already,” said Popski. “So it should be good ground until sunrise.” He signed off and went to look for Reeves, unable to dismiss the uncomfortable feeling in his gut.
This man Kinlan has a head on his shoulders, no question there, he thought. And he’s got those monster tanks under him, and all the rest of this lot. But the other fellow out there is thinking too, and he damn well knows what we’re up to here. That’s not just any General on the other side, it’s Erwin Rommel.
Yet even Rommel’s orders had a way of being loosely interpreted by Crüwell, a General that thought he knew better given all his experience on the eastern front with Guderian. He looked at the map and could see that Ravenstein’s division would take some time to reach the position Rommel had indicated, and so he called Fischer, asking where his division was.
“I’m on the Trigg al Abd, as Rommel wanted,” said Fischer. “I’m supposed to cover that road.”
“Yes, well where is Ravenstein? He’s supposed to be on my right, but there isn’t a sign of his division here yet. You are much closer. Why not simply move east and link up with my flank. Then Ravenstein will be in reserve when he arrives.”
“But what about that Trigg?”
“Let Ravenstein cover it as he comes south. It’s well behind our front, and there’s no threat there.”
“Rommel wanted all three divisions abreast, not two up as you are suggesting.”
“Rommel wanted to go to Alexandria six months ago,” said Crüwell sarcastically. “And look where we are now.”
“Very well, General, but suppose you call Rommel and tell him what you have asked me to do.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything on that end. Just get moving. Almásy has already seen those lighter enemy scout tanks on the move.”
Crüwell had no intention of informing Rommel of anything. What he did want was Fisher’s division right on his flank, because he was going to attack south as soon as the opportunity presented itself. He would not have long to wait, because the attack was coming to him in the swift moving 7th Armored Division under O’Connor.
The British advance aimed to turn the flank with two concentric shock columns, one composed of that division on the inside orbit, and the other being Kinlan’s Heavy Brigade farther south. Crüwell had moved up as ordered, positioning his 15th Panzer Division due west of the southern end of Rommel’s line, which was anchored by the tough Hermann Goering Brigade, battle hardened from the Eastern Front. That unit was up on a low plateau, dug in well, and the British had no intention of attacking it. O’Connor went right around it, following the track that led up to Bir Hubash and Sidi Mansur, an old shrine and mosque in the middle of the desert.