Correct me if I’m wrong but with this alt-Crete and the Brits in Sirte by the middle of summer ‘41 we’ve effectively butterflied most of the Western Desert Campaign from here on out, no?
Munich Shuffle: 1938-1942
- Thread starter Garrison
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Garrison
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Pretty much, which will have consequences for Anglo-American strategy in 1942-43, not to mention Vichy and Mussolini.
Garrison
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So this just another what's coming up post. There are two more parts covering the Axis offensive in Libya. Then a series of updates covering the global situation as we draw closer to the Japanese entry into the war. Those will be followed by the opening of the war in South East Asia and the Pacific, meaning a long series of updates on the battle for Malaya and Wake Island before we head back to North Africa. It may seem like a long reprieve for the Axis forces in Libya but much of this takes place over a few short weeks at the end of 1941 beginning of 1942.
23rd October – 29th October 1941– Libya – The Axis Counteroffensive – Part II – Operation Alexander
Garrison
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23rd October – 29th October 1941– Libya – The Axis Counteroffensive – Part II – Operation Alexander
The decision to name the Axis offensive Operation Alexander, after Alexander the Great the man who had founded the city that was the ultimate goal of the offensive, was both bombastic and questionable in security terms, though Sepp Dietrich was hardly the only German officer to overestimate the secrecy of the Wehrmacht communications systems. The name did cause some occasional confusion, as well as amusement, in British ranks given the it was also the name of the General in overall command of the British forces. The plan called for an attack on the northern sector of the Sirte Line while the LSSAH, 22nd Panzer and the Italian Ariete Armoured Divisions made a sweep around the southern flank of the British position, where, according to Wehrmacht intelligence, the defences were anchored by what the 8th Army believed to be ground unsuitable for large scale operations. Scouts from the Afrika Korps had probed the area and concluded that the British had overestimated the difficulties of the terrain. The Axis forces also wanted to take advantage of the reports that issues with moving supplies and access to water had forced the British to thin out the defences at Sirte.
It may come as no surprise that the assumptions that Operation Alexander were almost entirely false. It was largely based on intelligence from sympathetic sources behind British lines that often amounted to no more than gossip and rumour, largely based on deliberate misinformation spread by the British. One example of misdirection was the British openly transporting troops away from Sirte by truck during the day, only for them to march back by night. Likewise armoured reinforcements were moved forward by night in small groups to minimize noise. The information about the ground south of the defensive positions was a deliberate leak, precisely to encourage the Axis forces to try and make a breakthrough there. It is possible to make too much of British ingenuity in such deception operations, they succeeded because the information they leaked played into Axis expectations, the Germans and Italians wanted to believe what they were hearing, and conversely, they wilfully ignored anything that bring this favourable picture into doubt. General Apell for one was dubious, particularly questioning an estimate that the British might have as few as 120 running, but his concerns about this and other intelligence were dismissed even though the tank numbers seemed to have been nothing more than pure guesswork based on the difficulties the Axis forces were experiencing in repairing and maintaining their own vehicles [1].
The attack was originally set for the 18th of October but was postponed until the 23rd as a supply convoy was delayed and saw one cargo ship carrying munitions sunk by the submarine HMS Upholder. The northern arm of the attack was to be led by the Italian X Corps, formerly part of the Italian 5th Army now being used as a source of reinforcements for 10th Army. X Corps consisted of 3 divisions that had not been involved in the earlier fighting and were more or less at full strength. Almost as soon as they moved out X Corps they ran into trouble, coming under attack from the British Desert Air Force (DAF) and when they reached what should have been clear lanes through the British minefields, they found them anything but clear and the passages that did exist had been pre-ranged by British artillery. When X Corps finally advanced beyond the minefields and began to attack the British boxes light artillery and mortar fire was directed at the leading elements alongside heavy machine gun fire. Over the next few days, the attack ebbed and flowed with a number of the British positions finding themselves temporarily surrounded, though only a few were actually overrun, and it was becoming clear to the senior officers of X Corps that the British were far stronger than they had been led to believe.
The British were also deploying companies of Matilda tanks supported by infantry mounted on Universal Carriers and light trucks to put in local counterattacks and relieve several of the threatened defensive positions. By the 26th the attack in the north had completely bogged down. This though was not a serious blow to the overall plan, the primary goal of the attack in the north had been to pin the British in place and draw off whatever reserves they might have. The knockout blow was intended to be struck by the three armoured divisions swinging around the southern end of the position and this prong of the attack was launched on the 25th. As they made their sweep all seemed to be going well for the first day, until they hit the defensive system the British had christened the Grouse Moor. This was a series of positions with well dug in anti-tank guns arranged in a sawtooth pattern, allowing them to create a crossfire. The anti-tank positions were covered by artillery from the rear and minefields and obstacles to the front and positioned nearby ready to intervene was the whole of 2nd Armoured Division, equipped with all the available 6pdr armed Crusaders and Valentines [2].
The British had been expecting this attack, they had after all presented a tempting opportunity and Dietrich had seized on it in pursuit of a decisive victory and a Field Marshal’s baton if it truly went well. The minefields were not wholly unexpected by the advancing armour and Dietrich was only too willing to push his engineers to clear paths through them, regardless of loss. The opening of an artillery barrage as the three divisions cautiously advanced through the minefields were far more unexpected. Dietrich had place the LSSAH in the centre of the advance, with the 22nd on the left of the SS division and the Ariete to their right. The Ariete was the weakest of the three formations as it was still heavily dependent on tankettes and even more understrength the 22nd Panzer after the losses during Operation Compass and suffered badly at the hands of the anti-tank guns as it pressed forward. Under fire from the British gunline all three armoured divisions began to shift eastward, looking to flank the Grouse Moor or at least find a weak point they could break through. This led to the Ariete running head on into the advancing 2nd Armoured Division and the ensuing action was completely one sided. The tanks of the Ariete lacked any weapons that could damage the Valentines at all and they struggled against the Crusaders. In less than an hour of combat what was left of the Ariete was scattered and to all intents and purposes it had ceased to exist.
The engagement with the Ariete had at least provided a warning to the Afrika Korps divisions and Dietrich ordered the 22nd to close up with the LSSAH. Dietrich was directing the operation from a Panzer IV modified as command vehicle, far too close to the front of the action and far too exposed for such a senior officer. As the 22nd was joining up it was forced to expose itself to heavy fire from British artillery and anti-tank guns, having already suffered owing to the minefields. In the ensuing engagement the inevitable happened, at least two 6pdr shells struck Dietrich’s tank killing him and his crew, sparking years of argument over which tank scored the killing blow. This loss did nothing to persuade the LSSAH to withdraw, indeed in the confusion of the battle its questionable if they even realized Dietrich had been killed. In the end it was the 22nd breaking off that forced the LSSAH to follow suit. 2nd Armoured Division had also suffered heavy losses in the fight, but by drawing the Panzers onto the gun line they ensured that the Germans had by far the worst of the exchange [3]. The battle had been devastating for the Afrika Korps. The Ariete was wrecked and 22nd Panzer wasn’t much better off. The LSSAH hadn’t suffered as badly but the day after the action at the Grouse Moor it could bare muster 40% of its starting strength and where the British were able and willing to quickly replace the losses suffered by their armoured forces the Afrika Korps could expect no such reinforcement, especially not with the Ostheer suffering brutally as it crawled its way towards Moscow in the depths of a Russian weather. The failure of the armoured flanking attack was not though the end of Operation Alexander [4].
[1] Dietrich wants his own Sickle cut that will bag the main British force at Sirte, forgetting that the British have already seen that trick.
[2] The Italian attack is being broken up and dispersed, though as far as Graziani is concerned it doing its job of keeping British focus to the north.
[3] In effect O’Connor has adopted what would have been Rommel’s favourite tactic, using his tanks to bait the enemy into range of a gun line.
[4] Another case where it’s a bit light on notes because this battle is so divergent from OTL.
Holy fuck. Might Tommy Atkins be in Tripoli or even Tunis before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor?
Great update. The best deceptions rely on telling people what they want to believe. It's also nice to see the allies adopting effective tactics.
I may have missed a post, but are the allies using any 6 pounder AT or are the only 6 pounders on tanks? Either way, a mix of lots of OK guns with some very good ones should work very well for the moment, especially after causing so much damage to the axis armour.
I may have missed a post, but are the allies using any 6 pounder AT or are the only 6 pounders on tanks? Either way, a mix of lots of OK guns with some very good ones should work very well for the moment, especially after causing so much damage to the axis armour.
Tripoli seems likely.
Tunis, probably not but only because Vichy France is neutral.
Tripoli in allied hands increases the likelihood that Germany will take over Vichy. With Spanish Morocco on one side and allies on the other, it's much safer and easier for Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco to join the allies if that happened - allied Tripoli could well lead to allied troops in Tunis.
Could we see Darlan (or whoever is in Algiers ITTL) flip the Free French early, then? A lot of the Vichy collaborators weren’t exactly huge fans of the Germans, the farther from the metropole one got
Darlan already fled to the Allies after the partial mutiny in TTL's Mers el Kebir. If I remember correctly, the Germans were squeezing France harder to make up for the longer campaign, so the Vichy regime has even less credibility, so I could see North Africa switching to the Free French earlier.
OTL, there was a faction among North African Vichyites (not associated with Free France) that wanted to stage a coup d'état there with Allied assistance, after which they would be recognized as the government of France. This would have completely sidelined De Gaulle.
In the event, they were largely unready to act when TORCH went down, and were themselves sidelined in favor of Darlan, and then of the "mainstream" and now ex Vichyites, who were outmaneuvered by De Gaulle.
Hello,
With the abrupt disruption of Operation Alexander, could the British salvage the latest equipment from the SS unit, considering that unit should be receiving the best Germany has to offer?
One of these days we'll see a timeline where Imperial Japan looks at how well North Africa is going, think '**** that', and either back down or just blame the USA for the sanctions and go 'all in' on Hawai'i and Philippines invasions. (In the latter case because of course loss of territory and prestige will force the USA to back down from their sanctions, due to such enormous loss of face, from an Imperial Japanese point of view.)
It would be quite fun to see a TL where Imperial Japan attacks only (or first) the Philippines and Hawai. "To clear the way for peaceful trade with SE Asia ". Have to be one where the US alone imposes sanctions so probably not TTL as Lend-Lease would require Britain and the Free Dutch to follow suit.
Anyone done something like this?
Garrison
Donor
I can't say I've seen one like that. The usual POD proposed is that the Japanese avoid attacking the USA and focus on the European colonies.
They wouldn't do that; invading the European colonies were much more important to them than attacking the US, as they needed the resources from the colonies (especially oil from Indonesia) to sustain their war in China. Attacking the US was more to prevent the Americans from intervening in their conquest of the colonies than due to blaming the US; though that was obviously a factor too.
23rd October – 29th October 1941 – Libya – The Axis Counteroffensive – Part III – The Last Throw of the Dice
Garrison
Donor
23rd October – 29th October 1941 – Libya – The Axis Counteroffensive – Part III – The Last Throw of the Dice
The confusion created by the withdrawal from the Grouse Moor and the death of Dietrich meant that little information had been transmitted to Marshal Graziani other than the fact that Afrika Korps had encountered heavy resistance and was withdrawing to regroup. Graziani could read between the lines to a certain extent, however he remained unaware of the true extent of the losses suffered by the armoured assault and was still entertaining hopes that they could regroup and either mount a fresh assault against the Grouse Moor or shift their axis of advance to engage the southern end of the Sirte Line. He issued his orders accordingly, though fatefully he failed to confirm that these orders could be carried out or even that they had been received. Given that he felt his formations were making some progress in the north and that the British must have rushed their reserves south to counter the attack by the armoured divisions he decided to commit his own reserves in the north in the hope of breaking through while the Afrika Korps and the Ariete kept British attention focused on the south [1].
A frontal assault can be one of the bloodiest forms of attack and Graziani’s decision to throw in his last reserves was based on false assumptions about the British disposition, still it came close to succeeding where Dietrich’s flanking manoeuvre had dismally failed. In essence the roles of the two parts of the attacking force had now been reversed, although the Afrika Korps remained completely unaware of this fact and was continuing to withdraw. This left nothing to deter the British from committing reserves to the Sirte Line, a fact that proved crucial to the outcome of the fighting. Even had the Afrika Korps received word of the new plan they were no position to comply, and if they had been it is questionable whether they would have been willing to do so as an attack on the Sirte Line would certainly have involved further heavy losses and could have resulted in the complete destruction of the Panzer Divisions, something that neither Apell nor the remaining senior officers of the LSSAH would contemplate, thought the SS officers firmly place the blame for the continued withdrawal on Apell after the battle [2].
General Alexander’s only significant error in planning the defence of Sirte was that he underestimated the strength and determination of the Italian forces engaging in the north, though it would be unfair to be too judgemental about this as he based his decisions on the accurate intelligence that the main enemy thrust would be directed against the Grouse Moor and previous reports on the unimpressive performance of 10th Army. By the 28th of October many of the troops in the defensive boxes were being worn down by constant attacks and some had been abandoned, if only temporarily. When Graziani ordered the 27th Infantry Division (Brescia) into action that morning they made far more progress than anyone had expected and one Fusilier battalion successfully penetrated the final layer of defences after some fierce skirmishes with depleted British units, and by mid-morning the Fusiliers seemed poised to open a wider breach in the line.
Two things saved the British from coming unstuck. The first was that the Fusiliers were badly disorganized after hours of fighting, and their communications had broken down. This meant the battalion lacked clear orders and at the same Graziani was unaware of their success, thus no effort was made to secure the breach or reinforce the Fusiliers. The second thing that stopped the breach being exploited was the presence of 16th Australian Brigade. They had already been moving up to reinforce the Sirte Line and were now ordered to attack the Brescia Fusiliers. They were soon supported by Matildas of the 4th RTR, which attacked the now exposed rear of the Fusiliers. Soon the Italian troops were surrounded and cut off whilst other companies of the 4th RTR and some hastily redeployed infantry from 50th Northumbrian managed to finally close the breach in the line. Unable to breakout the Fusiliers laid down their arms around 1730 hours, several hours after Graziani had already concluded the attack had failed [3].
By nightfall on the 28th Graziani had finally received the first detailed reports of the fate of the Ariete, and the Afrika Korps and he had to accept that his armoured forces were now completely unfit for further battle. The 22nd Panzer Division and the LSSAH could muster about seventy tanks between them and were in no condition to conduct a defensive battle, let alone mount any further offensive actions. With the 27th Brescia badly mauled and his other divisions also having taken serious losses Graziani concluded that he had no choice but to withdraw and during the night X Corps began pulling back towards Buerat, their original jumping off point for the offensive, to dig in and defend it against the inevitable British attack. It was the right decision, though Mussolini disagreed and on the 2nd of November Graziani paid the inevitable price and was removed from command of 10th Army [4].
The British had taken serious casualties and had very nearly come unstuck on the 28th but the defence of Sirte had achieved its main goals. The best of Graziani’s Italian troops had been expended in the attack in the north and more importantly from the British perspective they had removed what they saw as the greatest threat to their own plans, the Panzers of the Afrika Korps. Further convoys carrying fresh supplies and replacement tanks were already en route to replenish the British forces and Alexander and O’Connor were planning for a final decisive push for the middle of December, unaware that even as they planned to end the fighting in North Africa Japan was preparing to open an entirely new front in the war [5].
[1] Graziani really doesn’t have much choice overall, this probably the last chance he has to prevent a fresh British offensive.
[2] Not the worst thing the SS are going to do of course.
[3] A sticky situation, but not uncommon for such successes to go unexploited, especially when no one expects the success in the first place.
[4] Being right is no protection from the wrath of Mussolini. Of course, the question is what happens when the Italians can’t take anymore military disasters?
[5] Ah yes South East Asia, the Pacific and Japan. They will be discussed shortly.
The British have extra ships in Asia because of a more succesful Norway right? It will be interesting to see how much better they perform there. It also looks like any Axis dreams for a succesful African campaign are finally dead.