19 March 1941. Cairo, Egypt.
General Wavell had arrived back in Cairo having been at Keren talking to the men who had won another victory over the Italians. The force moving north from Kenya was making good progress, and it looked like the final nails in the Italian East Africa coffin were being hammered in satisfactorily.
Whenever he had a visit from his special intelligence detail, the ones with the most highly classified material, he always felt a jolt of worry. Most often the material gave indications of what was happening with the Luftwaffe, it seemed that their code was the most commonly broken. The summary told Wavell that all leave for the Luftwaffe had been cancelled and that their units should expect detailed operational orders to be issued shortly. An offensive was obviously on the cards, and Wavell’s eyes were drawn to the map of the Mediterranean on the wall and settled on Greece. It was the only logical place.
Wavell knew that the build up of Empire forces in Greece was continuing, another Australian Infantry Brigade were arriving in Athens this very day. The fear that the whole thing would turn out to be another Norway was constantly on his mind. His eyes ranged over the map and looked to the south of Benghazi. The reconnaissance forces of the Germans had been probing further and further from Sirte, and it wouldn’t be long before they pushed up towards the British positions at El Agheila.
The reports from Generals O’Connor and Morshead about the situation of XIII Corps were all relatively positive. The port of Benghazi was drawing the German and Italian Air Forces like a magnet, and the Royal Navy were getting wary of sending anything too precious there. The Australians had been doing sterling work with the captured Italian AA guns, which was making the place a dangerous place, but it was still contested. The good news was that the RAAF squadron protecting the port now had a working radar, and that was giving the Hurricanes a bit of an advantage, though they were usually outnumbered. What it had done, and O’Connor was pleased to note, was that air raids and minelaying against Tobruk had reduced a great deal.
The fundamental problem was that just about everything Wavell had spare was being sent to Greece. If, as believed, the Italians and Germans were reinforcing through Tripoli, Wavell was confident that he had sufficient men and tanks south of Benghazi to hold them off. If the worst came to the worst, and they had to withdraw, even as far as Tobruk, the build-up of supplies there could sustain the Australians. It would be a shame to lose all that ground, just to have to take it again, but any sensible German General would be digging in, and preparing for the next phase of the British attack. The longer the affair in Greece went on, the more difficult it would be for Wavell’s forces to make an attack on Tripoli. Even General O’Connor was conscious that the Germans would complicate matters, and possibly, even the Italians might have wised up. Once the two Indian Divisions, and possibly the South Africans, had finished off in East Africa, and if he could lay his hands on more transport, pushing onto Sirte might certainly be possible.
Which brought him back to Greece. The word coming from Athens was that the Greeks weren’t falling back as planned to the Aliakmon Line, and that the Divisions that were being transferred there were second line troops, and under strength. It occurred to Wavell that basically it would be a race for the Australians and New Zealanders to get to those positions and dig in before the Germans arrived. The reports from 1st Armoured Brigade’s reconnaissance were revelatory about the lay of the land and the inherent dangers of the plan that had been worked out. There was nothing that could be done at this point, but Wavell noted he needed to speak to General Wilson again and make sure that he had a solid plan for falling back towards the ports for evacuation. As he looked at the list of men, weapons, transport and supplies that were being sent to Greece as part of Operation Lustre, Wavell could only regret that they weren't available to General O’Connor to finish off the job in North Africa.