The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (25 page)

The American United Press News Agency reported:

"A reliable source confirmed tonight in London that Rashid Ali al Gailani has asked Hitler for help against the British troops in Iraq, but he is believed to have initiated hostilities prematurely so that he is unlikely to play a role in future German war plans. The special military significance of Iraq lies in its oil, which supplies the British Mediterranean fleet and the Mediterranean based units of the Royal Air Force with a large part of their fuel."

In Britain, the Westland jet development aircraft makes its first flight, powered by two 860-lb thrust Whittle jet engines. The initial 17-minute flight is said to be 'most promising'

The 5th Indian Division is established in Egypt, and starts training with units of 7th Armoured. The Division is experienced, having finished campaigning in Ethiopia, but has limited experience with coordinating with tanks. They will be joined by 50th British Division once the men are acclimatised, and will form the new XXX Corps. Once this is operational, it is intended to combine it with XIII Corps to form the new 8th Army under General O'Connor.

Meanwhile the Australian 7th and 9th Divisions are put into reserve while the equipment losses in Greece are made good. 1st Armoured Brigade has lost most of its tanks, but it is considered necessary to deploy some tanks at least to Crete to support the New Zealand division, despite the attack on Tunisia. After necessary repairs are done, the Brigade will deploy to Crete with about 60 tanks. Once tank supplies allow a second armoured brigade will be added to I Australian Corps. The Corps commander, General Blamey, is made 2nd IC in the Middle East. While there has been some criticism of the Greece action, it is generally felt (and also by Wavell) that he did as good a job as possible in what was always a situation that would end in failure once Germany invaded. While it would be preferred to keep 1st Armoured as a reserve in Egypt, intelligence reports are indicating that at attack on Crete will be made soon.

"I never realised the Pyramids were so large" - comment by General Erwin Rommel, 1941.

On the night of the 4th May, the rumbling of tanks on the move heralded the first elements of the Africa Korps moving out from their forward positions near Bone. Although under strength thanks to the depredations of the Royal Navy and RAF, Rommel considered it to his advantage to use the confusion in the British command caused by the recent Greek debacle. He hoped that this would have affected the troops morale and allow him to cut through the defenders to his main objective, Tripoli.

His main units were the German 21st Panzer Division and the Italian Ariete Armoured Division. Both were under strength in tanks and heavy equipment, although it had been possible to bring them up to full troop strength. Between them they had some 260 tanks, plus some light tanks really only useful for reconnaissance. He also had two infantry regiments of the German 90th light division. While his tank force was substantial by the standards of North Africa in 1941, he was short of infantry. However Rommel believed that O'Connor's earlier campaign had shown that it was mobile armoured formations that were important in the desert rather than sheer masses of infantry.

Up until now, the Algerian/Tunisian border had been fairly quiet. Both sides had been content to keep their activity down to observing, patrolling and occasional night raids to capture a patrol for questioning. This had suited the French, who were steadily training and increasing their forces. They also had a good idea of what forces Rommel had available, thanks to copious reports from sympathetic officers and officials in Algiers and Algeria - shortage of their own men had forced the Germans to use Algerians in the ports and railways, plus of course the normal problem of soldiers talking. Their basic plan was simple; fall back slowly while inflicting damage on Rommel, and identify his main axis of advance while waiting for XIII Corps to arrive. Rommel had managed to keep exactly how and where he was going to attack secret - indeed, he intended to reinforce whichever attacks was most successful, rather than keep to a predetermined line of attack.

Given the geography of Tunisia, the only good place to attack was in the north. The only good attack route into the south was protected by the Mareth line, a pre-war defensive line built by the French and now reoccupied. Between this and the north the only entry was a few easily-defended mountain passes. Rommel had considered a feint to Tunis, followed by an airborne drop to allow him to rush one of these passes and take the defenders by surprise, but he was informed that no airborne units or transports would be available for some time. He therefore intended to use his armour superiority to break through in the north, and then use the superior mobility of his armoured formations to roll up the French southwards down the coast. While he knew that the French had some ex-Italian armour, he dismissed this in view of the terrible performance of the Italian tanks in the Cyrenaica campaign. Apparently German intelligence did not realise that the tanks the French armoured brigade under LeClerc were using were the modified ex-Ariete tanks, considerably better than most of the early Italian armour.

While Rommel expected to be able to manoeuvre on a tactical level, the terrain meant that the initial assault would be quite straightforward. The German armour would push forward, and when the French responded they would either simply brush the ex-Italian tanks out of the way or, if resistance was stronger, draw them back onto his antitank guns. Once the French armour was out of the way, his armour would punch through the French lines and make for Tunis, leaving the motorised troops to mop up. He was sure that the French would collapse once they realised his armour was behind them and heading for Tunis.

5th May

Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, has returned to his capital of Addis Ababa in triumph. The streets of the city were lined with black and white African troops. After being welcomed with a 21-gun salute, he spoke of his gratitude "to Almighty God that I stand in my palace from which the Fascist forces have fled."

In Washington DC the White House announced: "We can offer no official confirmation that 26 American merchant ships loaded with tanks, antiaircraft guns, and other war material arrived at the Suez Canal. We can only say that we do not rule out the possibility."

The carrier HMS Illustrious arrives at Gibraltar carrying an airgroup heavy in fighters (she has left her TBR strike squadron behind). She will join the Tiger convoy and carry on to Alexandria to provide some relief to the exhausted FAA fighter squadrons (the operational fighter strength of the two carriers in Cunningham's force is down to 16 planes, even after scouring Egypt for all available replacements)

The Afrika Korps attacks Tunisia at dawn, artillery laying down a barrage on the light forces observing the frontier. The tanks warm up, ready to head for Tabarka as soon as the divisional artillery has suppressed the defenders. The attack was led by the 21st Panzer Division, as Rommel thought the heavier and better-protected German tanks would have a better chance of overrunning the defenders and causing them to panic. While there was indeed a certain amount of this among the Tunisian units, the 1st Free French Brigade was an experienced formation, and was the main unit blocking the rote to Tunis (it had small units of the Tunisian army attached to exploit their local knowledge, but the bulk of the acquired Tunisian force was undergoing training). It slowly pulled back in front of the barrage, and when the first tanks appeared out of the dust they ran into the Brigades antitank guns. These were well-positioned and immediately took a toll of the advancing Germans, knocking out six Mk III Panzers before the Germans pulled back. However Rommel had assumed that, at the frontier at least, there would be antitank defences, and half an hour later the French were the recipient of an attack by twelve Stukas, which caused serious casualties and broke up the defence line.

The setback, while unwelcome, did not cause the experienced troops to panic. They knew that their mission was to delay rather than stop a heavy attacks, and slowly pulled back, hoping to lure the Germans onto their guns again. In the meantime, the commander of the 1st Free French Division, General de Bethouart had put the rest of his force on alert as well as informing the British that the expected invasion of Tunisia had started. The 4th Indian Division and a brigade of the 2nd armoured were ordered to proceed from Tripoli into Tunisia and aid the Free French (leaving one brigade behind to guard Tripoli). Further back towards Egypt, the 6th Australian Division was also put on alert. General O'Connor would go by air to Tripoli later that day, where he intended to set up his command post. His initial intention was to concentrate the bulk of his armour here ready to move on the Axis forces as soon as they had put themselves in a vulnerable position.

While the fighting in Greece had reduced the number of planes available to the RAF in the desert, they were still able to respond to the request for air support from the French. While no dive bombers were available, the tail of the German formation was a tempting target and a raid at noon from fourteen Wellingtons escorted by Hurricanes caused the loss of a number of the divisions support vehicles as well as causing considerable disruption.

Despite the defenders efforts, the panzers advanced steadily towards the first target, the town of Tabarka. Once the heavier German tanks had cleared the initial border defences, the Ariete division moved forward to widen the breach as they advanced in parallel to the south of 21st Panzer, heading for Djebel Ariod. He intended to be in control of and past Tabarka by sunset, and the slow but steady withdrawal of the French allowed him to do this, at the cost of a steady trickle of losses from his lead units. It was clear to Rommel that now the frontier had been breached the French had little immediately behind it.

The Italian advance to Djebel Ariod was not quite so easy. It seemed that the bulk of the French border force and its artillery had retreated in this direction, and as a result they had to stop and clear numerous small blocks to their advance. Nevertheless by nightfall they were well on the way to their target.

General de Bethouart was not displeased by how the battle had gone so far. The Germans had got further faster than he had anticipated, and the quality of their tanks was allowing them to smash through defences that would have held up an Italian formation, but his reserves were getting into position and 4th Indian and 2nd Armoured were motoring up the coast ready to support him. While the Luftwaffe was indeed a nuisance, the Allied air force was able to stop them dominating the skies, although overall the Luftwaffe held the balance of power. His control of the interior lines of communication in Tunisia was helping, the relatively good rail and road links allowing him to move his reserves ready to block the German advance. Although at the moment he was happy to allow the German tanks to keep moving deeper into Tunisia

The build-up of the French force was hardly unexpected to Rommel, indeed his plan required them to concentrate so he could flank and destroy them, leaving the way to Tunis open. The Luftwaffe and his radio interception service was giving him a reasonable idea of what was happening, and so far his only worry was that the French armour would not allow him to pocket and destroy it.

6th May

An urgent supply convoy sails from Gibraltar, escorted by Force H and also the carrier Illustrious, which will continue on with the merchant ships to Alexandria. This convoy will be run straight through the Mediterranean despite the misgivings of the Chiefs of Staffs. The situation has improved since the last time a fast convoy was run through, and the armaments and especially the tanks are needed urgently, even more so now Rommel's long-awaited offensive has started. With three fleet carriers and 80 fighters to protect the convoy, it is hoped that this will succeed. The major opposition is thought to be air and possibly E-boat attacks when they are close to Sicily. The dangerous Sicilian narrows are now easier to negotiate due to the Allies holding Tunisia; one of the main problems, the minefields which made negotiating the narrows so dangerous, are now cleared close to the Tunisian coast, and it is far more dangerous for the Italians to try and renew them. A section of minesweepers have been based in Tunis to keep the convoy route clear.

After four days of non-stop British air raids, the Iraqi troops are forced to leave the high ground around Habbaniya and retreat to Baghdad on the night of Tuesday 6 May. Meanwhile the British 21st Indian Brigade arrives at Basrah.

In Tunisia the Afrika Korps continues to advance towards Tunis. The French forces have been slowly falling back according to the pre-arranged delaying plan while XIII Corps moves in from Cyrenaica.

The 21st Panzer has taken Tabana, which was not heavily defended, and units of the 21st and the Ariete Division are close to Djebel Abiod. Rommel had hoped that the French might have been induced to stand closer to the border and allow him to destroy more of their force, but the French are using the limiting geography of the area to slowly fall back along the constricting road system. By the late afternoon his armoured formations are close to Djebel Aboud, and taking fire from French artillery and antitank elements around the town. So far Rommel's losses in armour have been light; some 15 medium tanks to antitank fire and irrecoverable breakdowns, while Ariete have lost about 20 - mainly to mechanical issues, as they do not have the frontline workshop support the Panzer division enjoys.

The French armoured brigade is concentrating West of Tunis; assuming he takes Djebel Aboud, there are a number of routes Rommel's armour could take to get to Tunis, and LeClerc wants more information before he commits his force. The first elements of the 4th Indian Division and the 2nd Armoured are expected to reach Tunis by nightfall. Meanwhile O'Connor has started the 7th Armoured Division moving forward to Tripoli before their forward move into Tunisia. A Brigade of the 6th Australian Division will move after them once they have cleared the roads.