Chapter 14.1
6-06-42 23:59 hrs Tobruk Libya Panzer Army Africa Command Post Field Marshal Erwin Rommel Commander, Oberst Westphal Chief of PAA operations, Major Albert Seebohme Commander 621st Radio radio intercept company
Rommel had reveled in the chance to practice his secondary school English on the higher level prisoners, who were often surprised when he would engage them in their language; so many general and staff officers had been captured that the Abwehr, and SS security services where sending additional english speaking specialists to Tripoli and Bengahzi to relieve some of the burden on the DAK and MAS interrogation teams
Westphal had completed the tabulation of the prisoner count at just around 84,000. Trucks and prime movers numbered in the many hundreds, as did cannons and other quality items left behind by the defeated British pockets
The great task of digesting the booty had fallen on the troops of the 164th and General Kleemans 90th light division. Kleeman was no quartermaster, no one in the DAK really was; but he was an industrious and thoughtful officer and the men below him where extraordinarily ambitious. Already his arab recruiters where prowling the streets of Tobruk, Arcoma and the many small fishing villages along the coastal road looking for fresh fighters to flesh out the ranks of the 90th light. The 90th light had always maintained this practice since it's birth, and the arabs had proven to be good soldiers under Kleemans leadership, with a penchent for skillful maneuvering in the desert
Kleeman and his chief of staff where everywhere mating the useful captured booty from the pockets to the British army main dumps at El Adem and Belhamed, to reinvigorate the panzer army's strength
It had been a very hard fight for Kleeman and the Panzer Army Africa, to produce their victory; Kleeman had avoided the worst of the fighting at the beginning but had lost valuable infantry cracking the defensive perimeter at Toburk; putting his losses for the battle at just under 40 percent. A small amount of wounded where trickling back, and members of the crete garrison where being directly put into the 90th light, along with the special "herkules" tank company, and his new arab levies. Kleeman had supervised their unloading in Tobruk, brought in today, under the highest security under courier order only, utilizing 12 special flat bottomed prams that had been intended for operation Herkules so as to not burden the harbor which was still some time from full operating capacity
Kleeman treated the Panzer IV G's like newborn babies watching them as they where painted with the insignia of the 90th light, and the crew members where shown the ropes of desert driving, range finding and command work. Those 12 tanks with their long barreled 75mm cannons where an entirely different battlefield mover than even the Panzer III series J specials the Panzer army had employed so well at Gazala. The Panzer IV G could routinely knock out a grant at 1000 meters, and could knock out the lessor British runners at even great ranges; it featured good on and off road performance and didn't weigh much more than the other medium tanks the DAK had been used to
Other tank German tank replacements would be nearly impossible to come by; as everything was being dedicated to the coiled fist for the planned case blue. The 6th panzer division's 11th panzer regiment had been almost entirely brought in and would be largely used to make good the losses of the 2 main tank divisions manpower. The Littorio division was similarly being melted into the heavily engaged Ariete and Trieste divisions; Littorio was a god send because they had been left out of the Gazala battle, their parceling out would put the XXI corps back to nearly full strength in men and equipment The DAK workshops where pushing themselves day and night to restore damaged and ditched runners; and perform the most critical service on the still running machines
The best estimate the division workshops and Kleeman could provide to Westphal was that the 15th panzer would be back to 8900 men and 82 tanks when the consolidation was completed, 21st panzer would be back at 6800 men and 73 tanks once they had sorted themselves out The Ariette and Trieste would have a little over 220 tanks and assault guns once their workshops cleared their backlogs and they absorbed the men andequipment of the Littorio
His more perplexing problem was the dozens of British tanks captured when rear areas had been over run, or abandoned without fuel in the desert after his mechanized infantry had cut the supply lines of the 8th army. Rommel, Kesselring and Bastico had seen quickly that the most intelligent use for them was the 10th special Italian tank regiment, whose crews where just beginning to disgorge at Gambut and Bengahzi. Bringing their Russian made BT-7 tanks; which they had trained so hard on, to Africa was not practical for a variety of reasons not the least of which was congestion in the ports and no existing supply system to support them even if confiscated from the enemy. The solution was to convert them to the best conditioned and most usable British tanks which was namely 19 new grant tanks and 30 other runners (Crusader and Matilda), this would take time, but it would give Rommel a nice tool down the road to make up for the difficulties replacing his own tanks; especially since depots and workshops had been captured in tact, the structure was there to keep these machines running for sometime once the crews would be come proficient on them
The luftwaffe and regia aeronautica where busy displacing further forward to establish air superiority at the frontier. Kesselring and his staff where pulling every threat, bribe and favor in their arsenal to rotate in fresher pilots from France, Greece/Balkans/Norway and the Italian mainland to give a breather to his exhausted tactical air crews. Kleemans platoons used British trucks and prime movers to relocate fuel food and water stock piles to the re-occupied bases. As well they moved a number of British anti aircraft guns to the port of Tobruk to try and increase it's security. Kesselring was arranging for AA gunner companies to be flown in from Romania and France to assist with this in parallel with his lift for the 10th special tank regiment
Kesselring had worked his optimism into Field Marshals Bastico and Cavallero and gotten the prized "Livorno assault and landing division" and the San Marco special Marine infantry regiment released as ear marked for the PAA; which where the main striking arms for Herkules. The Livorno had been put through extensive training and was probably the best line infantry division in the Italian Army, and San Marco was also a quality formation. Fuel stocks and Italian transport aircraft which had been held in reserve for Herkules would be released to transfer the Italian infantry as quickly as possible into the theater. Livornos battalions would be parceled out to make good the very heavy losses taken by the Brescia and Trento divisions, and the San Marco would be mated to British trucks and used as shock troops for the Trieste Division
Although time would be needed to integrate the units and trickle the wounded back to the lines, the Italian infantry would largely have their strength restored once the units could be deployed to the theater
Reading Fellers reports Rommel appreciated the man, he even procured a copy of Fellers book and came to respect him even further. Rommel thought that Fellers seemed like the smartest allied soldier in Egypt despite unknowingly dropping his reports directly into Rommel's mailbox. He promised himself should he ever get the chance to finish his memoirs and war history, that he would solicit Fellers to write the forward and consult with him on the allied side; no matter how much money he might want
Seebohme's people via Operation Salaam and pilfering Fellers mail, had communicated the broad strokes of Operation Rapier to their agent Von Eppler in Cairo.
Von Eppler was in a difficult situation mostly of his own doing, having rented a house boat in Cairo and used some contacts in a dance hall of his youth, he had been put in touch with Anwar Sadat of the Egyptian Free Officers movement. Utilizing his codes from the book Rebecca he had made contact with his handlers in the 621st. Eppler didn't especially care about Rommel's cause and was flamboyantly spending the money Rommels people had given him and probably attracting too much attention. However, when Ritchie was relieved general Smith had dialed back some of the ongoing security sweeps granting Eppler a brief reprieve. As much as he didn't exactly care about the German war cause, he was smart enough to take the threat of death seriously; which would be forthcoming if Rommel arrived in Cairo and he hadn't done something resembling his assignment for his handlers.
Anwar Sadat was the key as much as the heavy handedness of the British diplomatic and military mission to Egypt. British and Egyptian relations had been in an excellent position following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, leading to the British-Egyptian treaty of 1936 which allowed the stationing of British military and security forces in the country to deter Italian aggression; however the British diplomatic and military leadership had taken it on themselves in February to launch the Abdeen Palace incident where King Farouk was bullied with military force into firing his prime minister and cabinet and replacing them with a more pro British government. This incident which was widely known about caused considerable discontent inside the Egyptian public and the Egyptian military, converting a number of people including Anwar Sadat and his free officers club into forces opposed to the British and sympathetic to the axis
News of Rommels major victory at Gazala spread quickly through the Egyptian army whom was performing many thankless but critical manual labor and delivery tasks for the British army which emboldened many sympathizers; but when Sadat and Eppler got the story of operation Rapier, a power keg was shaken up. Sadat was able to convince a sympathetic officer to recall his friend and the leader of their group Gamal Nasser back to Cairo from his current posting in Khartom, whilst Nasser was in transit Sadat collaborated with his friend Abdel Amer about carefully leaking rapier not only into some more senior commanders of the Egyptian Army but also to key civilian hands as well
Sadat had a small number of loyal confidants observe the activities of Royal Navy and British Army engineer squads in the delta and Alexandria itself compiling the proof of rapier and growing more and more shocked at what Auchinlek was preparing to do his country and his people. Nothing in the 1936 treaty gave the British the right to affect the lives of the citizens of Alexandria in this way Sadat and Amer thought, and so they where able to convince fence sitters to join them; plans where drawn up for a variety of options, but the key to all would be resistance to the British army performing rapier; even the tightest fence sitter would accept that action even if outright mutiny or other anti British activities where not in their hearts