This intervention was going to give the Axis forces their only chance at making a credible defense at the vital Atlantic port. Even as Patton was lashing trucks and armored cars with his riding crop, pushing them northeast, the Germans were riding the rails north, and the two forces would have a meeting engagement when the Americans finally had pushed up to approach the rail line to Marrakech.
The 327th Division had been formed in Bavaria in 1940 and was sent to France as a garrison unit, quartered near La Rochelle before it was tapped for deployment to Morocco. It moved through Vichy France to Toulon, embarked there and landed at Oran. From there it had moved by rail through Fez to Marrakech. Equipped as a second tier division, it was deemed ready for defensive actions, looking forward to the balmy Canary Island posting when the new orders came in. Major General Theodore Fischer had just taken command, and now he was to find his unit thrust into the crucible of Patton’s “desperate venture.” When light tanks were reported approaching the rail line, Fischer stopped the train and immediately ordered his division to deploy. The troops were literally jumping from the train cars as the American forces approached.
Tireless, Fischer simply deployed his battalions from the march and ordered them to attack west. They ran right into the 16th RCT with its supporting light tanks and mechanized forces from Task forces Green and Red. These were all forces that would have made the landing at Oran in the old history. Now they were writing it all anew.
The presence of that division was a saving grace to the defenders of Casablanca, for it looked as though Patton would simply sweep up and take the city from the south until the Americans ran into that line of feldgrau deployed all along the rail line leading south.
Now a decision had to be made as to what would happen with the German position in the Canary Islands. Admiral Raeder had already made his choice as to where he would put his remaining naval assets, and he knew that unless this invasion at Casablanca was soundly defeated, Operation Condor was now doomed.
“A second American infantry division is now landing north of Casablanca near Fedala,” he told Kesselring. “The 327th arrived just in time to hold off the attack from the south, but I do not think they will stop this invasion alone. That being the case, what do we do about Operation Condor? I can tell you right now, that I can no longer supply those troops. The delivery being made this morning will probably be the last, and I do not think Goring will be able to use his transports to airlift supplies either. The British are moving in Spitfires, and our control of the air is now well contested. If Casablanca falls, that entire position falls with it.”
“Then we must get the troops out now,” said Kesselring. “Kubler was organizing for an attack on Tenerife, but that must be cancelled immediately. Instead, he can mount those troops on the ships you just sent to deliver supplies, and withdraw to Morocco. The same for all the air transports now mustered on those islands.”
“The airlift to Morocco would be a dangerous move.”
“We will simply have to risk it.”
“And Hitler?” said Raeder, his message obvious.
“Damn Hitler,” said Kesselring. “If we ask for permission, you know what he will say. But those troops are elite fighting forces, the only air mobile divisions in the army. To leave them to wither on the vine out there would be criminal! If, however, we can move them quickly to Morocco, then they can strike north. We will leave a small garrison on the islands. Hitler does not need to know we have withdrawn the bulk of those troops. We will merely say that certain elements have been dispatched to retake Safi. But I want the 2nd Luftland Division, and 7th Flieger, out of there—now. Kubler’s mountain regiment will go by sea, and we will leave it to him as to what garrison he can leave behind.”
“The British will take them all back in short order,” said Raeder dejectedly. “Everything we fought for.”
“In time,” said Kesselring. “But not until the outcome of this big invasion is determined. They won’t have the shipping to conduct landing in Portugal, Morocco and the Canaries as well. So we will hold those islands long enough to keep the Führer from exploding, and when the British do take them back, that will be the fortunes of war.”
“There is no rail connection north from the southern airfields. The nearest rail line will be at Safi.”
“Then that is our first objective.” Kesselring took off his gloves, leaning over the map. Then he offered up his patented smile. “So the war in the West has finally begun.”
With that decision, Raeder’s dream of holding that knife at the jugular of the British convoy routes to Freetown and beyond would now evaporate. Döenitz would no longer be able to slip his U-boats quietly into Fuerteventura to refuel under the reassuring umbrella of German air cover. Instead, the FAA and RAF would roost on those islands, and make all the waters in every direction a no man’s land for the wolfpacks. That was a major strategic loss insofar as the battle for the Atlantic was concerned.
The loss of Gibraltar certainly stung, but in its place, the British now had a growing military presence in the Azores, on Madeira at Funchal Harbor, and in the Canaries where two Brigades of the 78th Division were still digging in on Tenerife and La Palma.
Soon FAA recon operations would begin to spot the German withdrawals. General Kubler was at the Grand Harbor when he got the order to get his men out. The small supply convoy was already in the harbor, but the boats would never be unloaded. Raeder’s little supply fleet had been making night runs out to the islands, mostly using Siebel ferries from Tan Tan and Tarfaya. But these were larger ships provided by the French and Italians, and the Germans needed to get them moving fast if they wanted to be safely away before dawn. Frustrated and angry, he reluctantly passed the order on to his three battalion commanders.
We fight like hell for these islands, he thought, never get the naval support promised, and only half the air support we need, I take the lion’s share here, and now I must throw all that red meat back to the British. So now we go back to Morocco, back to the desert, and this news of an Allied landing at Casablanca is behind all this. Something tells me we will be fighting our way north soon, and through some of the worst terrain in Africa.
Ordered to leave some garrison capable of defending the island, he gave the assignment to his Pioneer battalion, knowing he would probably never see any of those men again. They had come here, flush with victory, but as Kubler made his last rounds on Gran Canaria, driving the entire coast road to look over the defensive positions, he had the haunting thought that, with this withdrawal, his men would now move from one defensive fight to another.
The Americans, he thought. Now that they have come, this war will look very much different. Now we fight not simply to win, but to survive.
Part VIII
Lighting the Torch
“Use steamroller strategy; that is, make up your mind on course and direction of action, and stick to it. But in tactics, do not steamroller. Attack weakness. Hold them by the nose and kick them in the pants… If you don’t succeed, I don’t want to see you alive. I see no point in surviving defeat, and I am sure that if all of you enter into battle with equal resolution, we shall conquer, and live long, and gain more glory.”
Chapter 22
With Patton heavily engaged with the 327th Infantry south of the city, it was the 3rd US Infantry Division that would land the next blow, arriving off Fedala and points northwest on D+3. It had come all the way across the Atlantic from US ports. Roosevelt and Greer, with two thirds of Allen’s 1st Division at Rabat and Port Lyautey, would be glad to see them come, for they had been unable to push the French north or open the road to Tangier, and it was all they could do to simply hold the port and airfield. But first 3rd Infantry had to get ashore.