Crescendo Of Doom (23 page)

Elsewhere, the Morris and Marmon Herrington armored cars that had rushed in to stop the attack earlier, now found themselves in a hot gun duel with the M11 Medium Italian Tanks. The M11 suffered from two prominent design flaws in that its main 37mm gun was hull mounted with a limited traverse, with only machineguns on the turret. Its armor was also too thin, and even the light 2 pounders could penetrate it at most ranges. These tanks suffered badly, but the improved M13s behind them had a bigger 47mm turret mounted gun that allowed it to hit harder, and respond quicker in a firefight than the M11 could. When these came up, they were able to beat back the Australian armored cars, and by 2am, in a confusing night action, it seemed as though the Ariete Division was finally breaking through.

Yet the new Limey General did have reserves at hand, and when word reached Montgomery that Italian armor had been seen on the bypass road east of bunker R43, he immediately was on the radio to summon up reinforcements.

In exchange for compelling the southern deployment of the 2nd New Zealand Division, O’Connor had placed two units behind the 6th Australian Division holding the line at El Adem. One was the Polish Carpathian Brigade at Gambut, and the second was the 32nd Army Tank Brigade at Sidi Rezegh. This unit was formed some months earlier than its historical appearance, and had a good number of heavier Matilda tanks. It rattled down the secondary road towards El Adem, skirting a craggy escarpment that opened onto the main bypass road below. Near El Adem they could turn north and move to shore up the northern flank of the division, but events developing near the airfield itself were going to complicate that plan.

There the Bologna Infantry Division and Trento Motorized Division had been pushing hard on the center and southern positions of the 6th Australians. By the time the Matildas arrived, they would be pulled into the desperate fight near El Adem and would never get north. The Carpathians were coming, though they were not going to reach the scene until after dawn, but Monty had one more card to play. The Indian 3rd Motor Brigade was stationed near El Duda shrine where the road from Tobruk paralleled the coast east to Gambut. He called on this reserve, sending two of its three battalions rushing to the scene of the Italian breakthrough, and he was not happy about the development.

“I told O’Connor that it would need three divisions to adequately hold the fortress and airfield,” he steamed. “Now look at the situation.”

“Well sir,” said a staff officer. “We’ve still got the whole of 1st Army Tank Brigade right here inside the perimeter.”

“Yes, and that is my last reserve. This is only beginning. I’ll need to have some mobile force that can counterattack when we need it. Don’t forget that Rommel is out there somewhere. These are just the Italians!”

Monty was correct, for in the pre-dawn hours of May 8th, the three battalions of Meindel’s newly formed Sturm Regiment II moved silently through the ranks of the Hermann Goering Brigade, intending to make a surprise attack on the strongpoints guarding the main road to Tobruk. They moved like shadows, the squads making a stealthy advance in the dark, until Tom Walls in Bunker R36 saw more than he liked through his view slit.

“Pssst… Corporal! Infantry! Get on that Vickers gun, and be quick about it!”

Corporal Peters slapped the butt of the gun to bring it round and began to fire. Then, the moment of surprise lost, they saw the whole line light up with returning fire, and knew they were being hit by a major attack. 2/1 Field Engineers were in a fight for their lives. These were not Italians. The units of the Italian RECAM Regiment, a recon unit with an engineer battalion, Machinegun company and some Autoblinda 41 armored cars, had been sent to reinforce the Ariete Division tanks a little after 04:00. The unit had fluttered about the southern edge of the block houses, trading occasional fire with the defenders, but making no real threat. The coming of the
Fallschirmjagers
was like a dark tide of war, and they were not planning to stop.

When Rommel got news of what appeared to be a possible breakthrough by the Italians on the bypass road, he wasted no time, immediately ordering 5th Light to move north from its central position behind the 90th Light.

So the Italians are worth the petrol it took to get them here after all, he thought. That Ariete Division is putting in one hell of a scrappy fight tonight. I did not expect them to push this hard, and whoever ordered Mindel’s boys to move in before dawn was also using his head. He later learned that the order had been given by Oberst Paul Conrath of the Goering Brigade, the nominal leader of all Luftwaffe troops in the Korps.

So it was that the men who once formed
Sturmgruppes
Beton for Concrete, Eisen for Iron, Granit for Granite, and Stahl for Steel, were now directed at the stone and earthen bunkers of the Tobruk defenses, an area that was thought to be relatively secure, some three kilometers behind the lines of the Australian 9th Division. Those code names had been used to identify the
Sturmgruppe
targets in Holland, assigned for the steel and iron and granite in the bridges and forts they were to assault, and they hit the line like a hammer just before sunrise on the 8th of May. Rommel left his headquarters at the old Turkish fort of Bir Hacheim an hour before dawn, intending to find his 5th Light Division and see what was developing up north.

“Let me know the instant you hear of any turning movement to the south,” he said to his headquarters staff. “Is Grossdeutschland in position?”

“They say the ground could be better, but yes, Herr General, they are digging in to prepared defensive positions as ordered tonight.”

“And the artillery?”

“We have sent them three more battalions, mostly heavier guns.”

“Good. Send the rest north to coordinate with 5th Light. I’m off to see what the Italians have been up to all night. Here the British thought we were trying to kick in the back door along the coast all day, while we just might slip right through the front door today!” He smiled.

I came here for Tobruk, he thought. And by god, I’ll have the place, one way or another. All reports place O’Connor’s armor to the south, which is most likely where those monster tanks of theirs will be. So if all goes as planned, my 15th Panzer Division launches a demonstration attack there at dawn. I must make sure the British armor stays well to the south, and out of the fight for Tobruk. But god help the 15th Panzer Division today. God will probably have nothing to do with it, he thought. Instead it may come down to Papa Hörnlein’s boys in the Grossdeutschland Regiment on their right flank. As he was so many times in these long years of the desert, Rommel was a bit of a prophet that night.

* * *

The
Italian Ariete Division had uncovered the main road into the fortress of Tobruk with their gallant night attack, but now allied forces were reacting like antibodies to deal with the threat. 78th and 154th Field Artillery found their positions could range on the point of the enemy attack, and they began putting in probing barrages, the fire corrected by the frantic calls from the engineers on the bunker line.

Walls and Peters position was overrun, with bunkers R28 through R35 all stormed by the German paratroopers. They got out alive, retreating towards the main road to eventually make contact with the men of the Indian 18th King Edwards Own Cavalry, one of the two Indian battalions Montgomery had rushed to the scene that night. These troops were the only Indian units still in the west, with all their remaining troops in Syria, and now they were the only organized infantry available to hold the main entrance to the fortress, but more help was on the way.

One of the three tank battalions in 32nd Armored Brigade had veered off the track to El Adem, answering the call and heading north. It had 45 Matildas, and they were going to meet and stop the Italian M13 tanks in a sharp engagement just before sunrise. The remaining two battalions got pulled into the growing crisis near El Adem itself, and were soon battling with the dogged Trento Division just west of the airfields.

Meanwhile, far to the south, beyond the wide curve of wadi Nullah where the 2nd New Zealanders watched the grey dawn, O’Connor had all of 2nd and 7th Armored divisions formed up and ready to attack. They were going to run right into the demonstration attack mounted by 15th Panzer Division in a titanic meeting engagement.

At dawn the two panzer battalions of the 8th Regiment led the attack, the fast armored cars of the 33rd Recon Battalion on their right. They rolled forward over good ground, the rumble of the tanks shaking the dawn as they charged. Inside their steel chariots, the gunners and drivers kissed their lucky charms, and some silently crossed themselves as the attack went forward. They had faced the sudden shock of the new British tanks before, and knew what might be waiting for them. Many had also heard what had happened to 9th Panzer Division in Syria, and most secretly hoped the enemy heavy armor was still there, far away, and not to be their nightmare that morning.

Just as the rising sun was changing the color of the ground from sallow grey to wan ocher and amber, they saw the low profiles of distant enemy tanks in a long line ahead. A surge of adrenaline twisted their innards as the charge went forward to its uncertain fate. One of the gunners called out that he had not seen this enemy silhouette before, which quickened the pulse of the crew in that tank. He was correct, for they had not met these tanks in any previous engagement, all new arrivals to the desert war, though they were not the nemesis that had bedeviled the panzers at Bir el Khamsa.

Up ahead, their engines turning over, crews buttoning up, turrets training, were the new Crusader tanks of the 22nd Armored Brigade, fresh off the boat from the reinforcement convoys that had come round the cape. The 3rd and 4th County of London Yeomanry had 45 of the new tanks each, and there were another 45 in the 2nd Hussars, a formidable looking force of 135 fast cruiser tanks.

They looked every bit the name, with a low profile, and a sleek polygonal turret with a 2 pounder gun. The armor was modest at 40mm, and the tanks were exhibiting teething trouble in the early going, as was the unit itself. The 22nd had been sent from England to bring the 7th Armored Division up to a full three brigade strength level, and it had arrived earlier than Fedorov might have expected it, as all these events were accelerated on a scale of three to five months ahead of the tempo of his old history. The crews, in a new tank, in a new and unfamiliar place, had not yet had the time they needed to train and get properly acclimated to desert warfare, and the shock of this first engagement was severe.

The Germans opened fire at the run, and the British returned, the morning ripped open by the gunfire of over 250 tanks on both sides. 17 Crusaders died in those first awful minutes, but the rest recovered and began fighting, particularly when they got up infantry from the 7th Armored Support Group. This, in turn, prompted the Germans to commit the grenadiers of the 104th and 115th Schutzen Regiments, deployed on the left flank of the attack. As they came forward, they were going to run directly into the 22nd Guards Brigade infantry, and soon the sharp regiment/brigade level tank duel, had expanded to a massive division scale battle that extended for many kilometers to the north.

* * *

With
the Italian attack faltering after fighting all night, and then being confronted by the stolid, well armored Matildas, Rommel decided to go all or nothing and moved his 5th Light Division into the attack. Conrath had already followed up the successful attack against the perimeter by the Sturm Regiment, and now he was sending in his elite battalions from the Hermann Goering Brigade. But the attack on the Italians had to be stopped, and 5th Light soon found itself in the perfect position to counter.

15th Panzer Division was now heavily engaged but, as it move south, its left flank was extended, near a place where the long wadi wrinkled eastward, called Qubur al Janda. It was just where O’Connor had placed the 2nd Armored Division, which soon saw that the gap provided an interesting opportunity.

Yet Rommel was not called “The Desert Fox” without good reason. He had ordered that all reserve flak elements were to screen that flank in a long Pakfront, with many of the positions studded by batteries of the deadly 88s. Also, the night before, Rommel had gone to Papa Hörnlein and his crack Grossdeutschland Regiment, showing him just where he thought the British turning movement would fall. So when O’Connor’s 7th began to wheel its reserve tank brigades to the west, they found Grossdeutschland waiting for them in a well prepared defense, backed by six battalions of artillery, and with another AT Pakfront screening its extreme right flank. It was a defense designed by Rommel to have the hope of fending off, or at least delaying, those monstrous new British tanks.

But O’Connor was not bringing Kinlan’s Challenger IIs to the fight. He had his Matildas and many new Cruiser tanks in good numbers, but did not expect the prepared defense that was waiting for him that morning.

Chapter 21

That
day saw the crisis at Tobruk redoubled. The
Fallschirmjagers
of the Sturm Regiment had pushed into the fortified line, opening the way for the heavy battalions of the Herman Goering Brigade. Now they advanced, in wave after wave, the onrushing tide of German infantry seeming unstoppable. Montgomery had struggled to hold on to one last mobile reserve in the 1st Army Tank Brigade, which also had a battalion of Engineers, and now he threw them forward into the fray, the Matildas posing a strong armored challenge as the troops of the Goering Brigade began to move north towards the vital road junction of King’s Cross.

The morning of May 8th saw the British tanks launch a fierce counterattack, driving back two German battalions towards the outer fortified line. But the Goering Brigade soon wheeled in heavy flak batteries in the scissors, paper rock of warfare, and the dual purpose 88s soon began to stem the tide and drive back the lumbering Matildas, leaving 27 tanks as smoldering wrecks on the battlefield.