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"Target one o'clock, range 1200 yards, looks like a Semovente!" Fitzhugh barked from his gunner's position.
O'Connell turned in that direction, sure enough he saw the first of what had to be a platoon of Italian assault guns appearing from the haze. The must have moved up during the night, then lain doggo until the Jerries started doing whatever it was they were doing out on the flank.
So were the Eyeties the main show, or was it those chaps out on the flank? Making a split second decision, O'Connell ordered, "Fire!"
Whoever was on the flank had to wait, the Italians were here and needed to be dealt with.
O'Connell watched through his field glasses as the Italian vehicle came to an abrupt halt, smoke issuing from the crew compartment. An instant later the little vehicle blew itself apart, none of the crew made it out. Fitzhugh was already lining up on a second Semovente.
"Fire at will, Freddie, I've got to keep my eyes on the flank, something is out there."
No sooner than those words had left his mouth the company net came alive.
"Jerry tanks, coming up behind us! Everyone pull back to the rally point!"
Damn it, they weren't scout cars after all!
"Shift target, Panzer, 2 o'clock." Hoffmeister commanded as he watched the first British Panzer they had engaged brewed up almost immediately.
"Got it!" Krebs barked out over the intercom.
"Feuer!"
The Panzer at their two o'clock position had been in the act of slewing its turret towards them. It never made it, Krebs first round had been low but had ricocheted up into the enemy's crew compartment. That vehicle began to burn slowly, but with increasing speed.
Hoffmeister sighed as he watched one man, probably the commander, scramble out of the turret and fall heavily to the ground. He hit, rolled over, then stopped moving. Though they were the enemy, they were, after all, doing the same job as Hoffmeister and his crew. He hated to think that the men inside were even now burning to death. He prayed silently that the initial impact had killed them.
"Willi, I can't see shit from down here, any more targets?" Krebs sounded a bit desperate.
Hoffmeister realized that he had been woolgathering, a dangerous thing to do in combat. As he made a quick scan of the horizon, he could see no more British vehicles, but he did notice specks up in the air, low and coming on fast.
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| Bristol Blenheim Mark IV, Z7631 'N', of No. 14 Squadron RAF, in flight over the Western Desert. © IWM (CM 3105) |
Hoffmeister dropped down into his seat and slammed his hatch shut behind him. The he commanded, "Fritz, move out, immediate hard right!"
Weber was pulling hard on the right steering lever before Hoffmeister finished speaking. He felt something hard hit the outside of the hull, but the Panzer was still moving and he noticed nothing wrong. But Ulrich Neuhäuser had cried out so Weber looked over at him. "You good, Ulrich?"
Neuhäuser shook his head, his left arm was holding his right, "Got hit by a splinter, hurts like the very devil."
"Are you ..."
"I'm fine, let me just bind it up, it didn't go in very deep. I think I'll live."
Hoffmeister was already out of his hatch again, just in time to see two 109s boom past in hot pursuit of the British bombers, Blenheims he thought from the shape of them. Looking to his front again, he could see no English on the ridgeline, other than two burning Crusaders, the others had pulled back.
O'Connell was glued to his periscope, all he could see was the dust kicked up by his and the other vehicles on the ridge as they pulled back. It galled him to think that they were retreating from the Italians, but orders were orders. Company claimed that at least a battalion of German tanks had been breaking in on their left. Third Company had lost at least three tanks, his company was still intact and they had taken out a number of Italian assault guns and tanks.
New orders came in, they were to pull back on the coast road, at least as far as Beda Finn, that damned Rommel had outfoxed them again!
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Rommel was in his command car, not far behind the advancing Italians. Glancing at the map, he realized that the speed of the British retreat would have him in Benghazi in mere days. If he could keep the British on the move, he might even be able to overrun Tobruk before they could set up a proper defense, unlike the year before.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned and snapped at his aide, "What is it?" Rommel had a temper.
"Herr Generaloberst¹, the Italian High Command has ordered a halt at Mersa Brega." The young captain held a message flimsy in his hand.
Rommel snatched the message from his aide, read it then balled it up and threw it from the moving vehicle. "Das italienische Oberkommando kann zum Teufel gehen, wir bleiben in Bewegung."
The captain moved back to the radio operator and ordered the man, "Send, message garbled in transmission, please ..."
"Please what, Herr Hauptmann?"
"Cut the message off at 'please,' I want them to think we've lost communications, at least for an hour or so."
The radio operator grinned and did as he was ordered.
¹ Colonel-general, equivalent to a U.S. 4-star.
² The Italian High command can go to the devil, we keep moving.
Rommel had to contend with the Brits and the Italian High Command. The Brits had to contend with Rommel and whoever was C in C before Montgomery took command.
ReplyDeleteThe problem the British had was that they were rather overstretched. They'd lost a lot of equipment in Greece and Crete, sure, some of their commanders before Montgomery weren't that great but there was at least one really good one, Archibald Wavell, the guy who destroyed the Italian Tenth Army which led to the Germans showing up to help. Problem is, Churchill didn't like him. For all the good things Churchill accomplished, he liked to meddle in military affairs. (Gallipoli in WWI was his "bright" idea.) There was another very good commander in charge of the Western Desert Force (Richard O'Connor) but he was too far out in front and was captured by the Germans. Britain's biggest problem was that their army was small, and by 1944 they became very risk averse as they were running out of manpower.
DeleteKeep in mind that on the German side, their high command considered Africa a sideshow, the only reason they were there was to prevent Mussolini from embarrassing himself (again, see Albania and Greece). Hitler's obsessio was Russia, everything else took a back seat to beating the USSR.
I keep running out of superlatives Sarge. Excellent Writing!
ReplyDeleteThe "partial communication" tactic may or may not continue to be used in real life....
How horribly, ironically fortunate that Hitler was obsessed with the Soviet Union. History might have played out differently.
Truly fortunate that the world's two biggest dictatorships went at each other's throats!
Delete"...the first British Panzer they had engaged brew up almost..." brew?
ReplyDeleteArgh, should have said "brewed up." Fixed it.
DeleteSo solly! shuda czeched first!
Deletehttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brew_up
the condo's A/C is out n' cain't see for the sweat runnin' into me eyes.
I feel your pain, my lab is in the midst of no A/C for the 2nd week in a row. Sweating is now my reason for being. (No hardship really, I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast May to August in the summer of '87. I learned what real heat is like, plus humidity!!
DeleteAch! my prob. I had read that part of the sentence as: "... Hoffmeister commanded as he watched the first British Panzer they had engaged blew up almost immediately."
ReplyDeleteNo, I wrote it wrong, thinking "blew up" as opposed to "brewed up" is perfectly logical. Especially as "brewed up" is a very British expression.
DeleteI'm trying to imagine tank battles in a desert where maps are poor, info is stale, and standing on your turret with binoculars was the best data you could get. Well done, Sarge.
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed brutal.
DeleteGood story!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rob.
DeleteThis brings me back to that excellent Avalon Hill game "Tobruk." Lots of nothingness except sand and death.
ReplyDeleteThe Semovente was a good assault gun based on the M13/40 chassis. Which wasn't a bad tank, either, compared to others in 1939. By '40 it was going obsolete. By '41 it was last century's tech. Mussolini did a lot of good for Italy, but he could never get the warring factions, states, city-states, regions, hell, neighborhoods to play nice with each other, and their lack of industrialization showed.
Same thing hampered Imperial Japan, to a lesser extent. Part of their problem was they were so successful in China that they didn't continue to innovate and improve, which bit them in the butt a few years later, as the M3 Stuart was better than their medium and light tanks and the Sherman was 'next century.'
I have a copy of "Tobruk," got one when they were still in preproduction. Gives one a good feel for armor, penetration, and how exposed one can be in the desert. Bear in mind though, the ground has many folds, dips, and hummocks which can be put to good use. Thing is, they shift with the wind.
DeleteItaly was not an old country, technically speaking, even under Mussolini, it was still a monarchy. Italy hasn't bee governed since the western Roman Empire fell.
Hey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteFrom what I had read, the Italians fought well for Rommel, but their General Staff was full of self serving , pompous incompetents who got their jobs by family connections rather than ability and it showed by their fighting ability. The Average Italian G.I was poorly served by most of their officer corp. Another excellent Story.
The Italian rank and file were very good soldiers.
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