In the pre-dawn hours KG Rosenfeld of the 4th Panzer Division finally took the Royal Palace in the north, up near the ferry and railway bridge. It had been very hard fighting that day, with heavy casualties on both sides. A company of the Kumoan Rifles had been reduced to just two squads. 3rd Company of 2/6 Rajputana had only one squad remaining, another in 1/5 Maharatta Light had four of nine.
The entire 2nd Suffolk Battalion, British Regulars, had to hasten over to the Government Center where it was found that many squads of German Commandos had slipped over the river in rubber rafts that night, infiltrating into the Defense Ministry building, and Mayor’s Offices. The Tommies spent the night hunting them down, killing many, and the rest fled back across the river. Now this relatively fresh battalion was brought up to the beleaguered palace area, and those battered Indian companies took up watch on the river.
As for Westhoven’s 3rd Panzer Division, (Battle Map 6) Hube rested it that night. They were assembled just north of the Kayam Quarter, which was right where Brigadier Kingstone had taken Kingforce. His men were digging in on a stony hill just north of the town, and he had his armored cars out further east, prowling about the scattered brick kilns and watching gaps in the marshes that might be used by enemy vehicles.
Westhoven would have two choices in the morning. One would be to go right at Kingforce, trusting to the weight of his division. But he knew the enemy had just brought up a fresh infantry division, and did not know what might lie in reserve.
Behind that settlement, there was an important rail junction where the line came down from Baqubah and joined the Basra Baghdad line. If Westhoven could take that, no supplies could come by rail into central Baghdad. So it was on his mind.
His second choice would be to continue to move southeast around the marshland, and then figure how to bridge that large canal. He would be down there on his own if he did that. The 78th Sturm could not extend its lines any further south to maintain contact with him. Hube knew this, which is why he had made that remark about needing a couple good infantry divisions.
Things were coming to a point where some strategic decision had to be made on the part of the Germans. They had won their tactical battles, but strategic victory had eluded them in spite of that. Guderian had instincts for battle that were as good as any General in the field, and he could sense the campaign had reached a high water mark here. The British had decided to fight for this city, come what may. He did not have enough divisions to effectively encircle it, nor could he bypass it and just continue south.
While we were running through Syria, and down the Euphrates, our battle of maneuver made us invincible, he thought. Yet I knew the moment I laid eyes on this city that all that was over. The campaign transitioned to a battle of attrition here, a city-fight that I wanted nothing to do with, but one I simply could not avoid.
So what now? Do I persist here? They’re pulling the last of their troops out down south, and that makes me master of the west bank of the Tigris. Yet there they sit, behind their berms and bunds and canal lines, on good defensive ground, a city that is nearly nine miles long on the east banks of the river. And then there’s another big airfield where they’ve husbanded their fighters to harass us by day. It would be foolish to send Westhoven down there unsupported.
What to do with the Brandenburgers? Assaults across those bridges would be very costly, and not likely to succeed. This river is now a major obstacle, very wide in places, and I have only so many assault boats. There is one good objective in the south—the oil bunkerage—but I would have to send the Brandenburg Division around that big bend in the river to get after it. That is undoubtedly why the British pulled out in the south—to screen that bend and prevent any envelopment from that direction. If I tell Beckerman to do this, he will surely get there, but then what? I can sit on the oil, if the British don’t set it all on fire first. Even if I do take it, there’s the damn river again, and no bridge anywhere on that lower segment.
The thought of the oil burning stuck in his mind for some reason, and now he remembered Moscow, the terrible conflagration ignited in the southwest quadrant of the city. The more he thought about that, the more something dark and sinister emerged from his unconscious to surround his reasoning mind with the vapors of heedless abandon and wanton destruction.
Fire….
This is a city of water, the river, canals, and marshes are everywhere. Yet those closely packed city districts have many wooden buildings…. He thought about that, but Guderian was a man of principle. He knew the Luftwaffe had already dropped incendiary bombs on London long ago, and that the Allies certainly had these weapons as well. They are weapons of terror more than anything else, he knew. And they are directed more at civilians, with the aim of causing so much misery that it will spill over and have an effect on the military.
No. We did not start the fires in Moscow, nor will I start them here in Baghdad. There must be a limit to the measure of violence in this war. The British chose to stand here, knowing that they would invite my panzers into that city, so they bear half the burden for any harm that comes to the civilian population. Thus far, the damage west of the Tigris has not been significant, but this central city is very dense, and the fighting may be intense if I persist here.
He decided.
There will be no incendiary bombing. Westhoven is in position, and his division is even reinforced with the addition of KG Kufner from 4th Panzer. The largest gap in the marshland in that sector is the Kayam Quarter. So I will order him to attack there in force, and take the East Rail Station. That cuts the rail line to the south and prevents them from getting in new supplies. That area is defended by British regulars. Let us see how much fight they have in them.
In the south, I will order Schmidt to take his entire 10th Motorized Division and pursue the British forces retreating there. Duren’s 3rd Brandenburg and the Lehr Regiment will clear the ground south to the river, and then follow Schmidt.
In the pre-dawn hour, Westhoven bridged a small canal and threw a strong Kampfgruppe across to strike at the easternmost section of Kayam. If he could get through, there was a swathe of open ground, some 700 by 300 meters, and it might allow his panzers to flank the main settlement.
It was just the luck of Brigadier Kingstone that Kayam was the place he had chosen to defend when he pulled off the outer bund. Wilson had called him to confirm it was a good decision, but now he would reap the whirlwind. A company of the Wiltshire Yeoman was watching a gap in the marshland and it was the first to be hit. The dull growl of motorized equipment left no doubt as to what was happening. German troops were also moving up to the base of the stony hill on the north edge of the town, but there was no concerted attack there yet.
“The bastards are trying to flank me, by God,” he said. “Turn the guns on them!”
As if in answer, the German artillery began to fall along his lines before his gunners could even get into action. He couldn’t see the German tanks yet, but he could hear them, the metallic clanking of the treads, the deep rumble of the engines. Then the telltale sound of MG-42’s buzzed through the cool morning air, and he knew he was in the fight of his life. He rang up Wilson to inform him.