Crüwell’s advance had seen his recon units arriving there just as O’Connor’s tanks came up, forming themselves in a long line abreast, with 7th and 8th Hussars on the left, and 2nd and 3rd RTR on the right. The four battalions fielded all of 338 tanks, with over 90 of the new American Grants with a much better 75mm main gun. The tank was a big, blustering, ungainly and downright ugly vehicle. Compared to the sleep yet ominous lines of the German Lion, it looked like a throwback from the first war. The main gun was offset to the right lower portion of the chassis, and the high turret mounting the secondary 37mm armament gave the tank a prominent profile in combat, and made it an easy target.
The United States shipped all of 2,855 of these tanks to the British, and they had modified the secondary upper turret, which gave those tanks the name “Grant,” while the Americans would use the original turret design and name their tanks after the famous southern General Robert E. Lee. It had many other drawbacks, riveted hull plating that saw the rivets break off and become internal bullets when the tank was hit by a round that failed to penetrate. It also lacked a radio in the upper turret, and the British thought the side hull mounted main gun was the least favorable position for that weapon. But beggars cannot be choosers.
Behind O’Connor’s armor came the 22nd Guards Armored Brigade with another 277 tanks, making 615 tanks in a well concentrated mailed fist that was now moving right towards Crüwell’s division.
The line he had established saw two infantry battalions and the pioneer battalion digging into the stony ground, with the recon battalion was on the right flank. The Germans had a well practiced defense, but the sheer number of enemy tanks was going to cause heavy casualties, exceeding 50%. Crüwell had been itching for a fight, and now he had one. In spite of Rommel’s order to hold his tanks in reserve, if ever there was a time or place to commit those units, this was it. Reports had come in stating the British had a new tank, but that it was not the same as the monster tanks that had so savaged the German divisions in the past.
The General gave the order for his 8th Panzer Regiment to attack, and had no qualms about it when he did so. He had 168 tanks, including 48 Lions, 48 of the new Leopard medium recon tanks, 48 Pz-IVF2s and 24 of the new Panther tanks. Though he would be outnumbered nearly four to one, he hoped the German qualitative edge on tank design would at least give him parity.
What ensued was a kind of Kursk like clash of armor at very close quarters when his panzers came charging in. His Lions might have done better by standing off and firing at range, but the swirling dust kicked up by so many armored fighting vehicles made that impossible. So it was all run and gun, with tanks careening over the sandy ground, through gravel beds and shallow mud pans, and into a titanic head on clash right amid the lines of the beleaguered German infantry.
The action was at point blank range in many instances, with tanks on both sides ‘brewing up’ one after another in the terrible duel. The German armor proved very tough, particularly the Lions, but the chaos of the scene saw tanks all mixed together, taking side and rear shots at one another. It was 7th and 8th Hussars that took the worst of it, and twenty minutes into that hot armored duel the entire scene was shrouded with smoke and dust. Stricken vehicles lay in burning hulks everywhere, the hot fiery red tongues of flame making the whole scene look like a bed of burning coals.
The 7th Hussars ended that duel with only 13 of 50 Grants operational, and 13 of 50 Valentines. 8th Hussars fared a little better, but still had only 19 of its 50 Grants, and 29 Valentines. The units had also lost the bulk of the new AEC armored cars that had been acting as the scouting force, with half of the 36 blasted to burning wrecks. Of the 222 tanks that made the attack in those two units, only 92 remained.
On the German side, losses were not as heavy, but 12 of those 48 Lions had been killed, mostly by side and rear shots from the 75mm guns on the Grants. 18 of the 48 Pz-IVF2s were destroyed, but only four of the speedy Leopards and six Pz-IIIJs were killed. The Lions loomed so much bigger in the heat of the fray, that they bore the brunt of the British gunfire. Some surviving tanks had been hit multiple times on that heavy sloped frontal armor, and still remained battle worthy.
The brief, violent action had proved one thing decisively—the German tanks were superior. They were better gunned, had much tougher armor, and the experience of the tankers who took them into that battle was unsurpassed.
When 22nd Armored Brigade came up on the scene, its commander wanted no part of the swirling mess of fire, smoke and dust. So he led his columns west, jogging around the action with the idea of taking the enemy on the flank, if he could find one. This was going to take his units into a defensive screen manned by the 33rd Pioneer Battalion, and the 353 and 329 Light Flak Battalions. Behind him, O’Connor had sent the 2nd Armored Division right in the wake of his own armored fist, and so yet another wave of British tanks was lining up and ready to make a bold charge into the burning haze of the battle.
Crüwell’s attack had proven the worth of his armor, but now he would feel the weight of yet another full division, with a situation developing on his front that was going to involve his units in desperate fighting for the next hour, and leave 15th Panzer Division a wrecked and broken formation when it was over.
Far to the west, Kinlan’s Heavy Brigade was on the outer circle of the planned envelopment, its first units beginning to come up on the defensive infantry positions of Fischer’s 10th Panzer Division. It was there that the real battle that would decide the fate of the Afrika Korps would now be fought.
Chapter 35
Fischer’s 10th Panzer was the strongest of Rommel’s three divisions, with four battalions of Panzergrenadiers dug in around the edge of a region of very stony ground. The recon battalion held the left flank closest to Crüwell’s division, and the Pioneers the right flank, where Rommel had improvised and moved Ravenstein’s 21st Panzer Division into the place Fisher was supposed to be. Now, with the 3rd Mercian Battalion jogging into the lead position near a low rise labeled Hill 498, Rommel thought he saw an opportunity.
He had poured over tactical reports on this Heavy Brigade, and had slowly pieced together its composition in his mind. It had at least two battalions of fast infantry, all riding in a swift moving medium tank, which was surprising enough. This was what he took the modern day Warrior AFV to be, as the 40mm gun it used was the equal or better of most tank guns mounted on British vehicles to date. These battalions were supported by other AFVs that mounted a kind of rocket weapon, very deadly against vehicles, but they were not in great numbers.
Now, behind the outer crust of the infantry defense of his two divisions, all of eight battalions including troops of the 21st Panzer, he held both panzer regiments in reserve, waiting to see what the tip of the spear would do here. Would it continue west, thinking to bypass this defensive front and look for an exposed flank, or would it turn and give battle?
Kinlan had thought that over himself for some time, and he came to the conclusion that moving west into thin air could be accomplished easily enough. But then what would he do? The farther he moved, the more he would place his brigade out of contact with O’Connor’s two armored divisions. Knowing that they had already turned north, and that there was a hot battle underway against at least one German panzer division, figured heavily in his thinking.