“I hope you’ve got something to backstop my lines,” he said. “It’s a bloody Panzer division over here.”
“Grover is already up with his 2nd Division,” said Wilson. “He’s already posted men on your right and rear at the east barracks. I think he’ll have a battalion or two in reserve.”
“Well I hope they brought their 6-Pounders. What about tanks? Where’s our armor?”
“I’ve posted them to watch the bridge crossings, at least the 7th Brigade, but I’ll see about finding infantry for that and get you some help. Hold on Joe. We can’t let them through.”
“Right sir. We’ll hold.”
Chapter 26
The German attack on that flank was put in By KG Hansen, with two companies of tanks, armored cars and a full Panzergrenadier battalion. It was then strongly reinforced by two battalions of the 238th Sturm, 78th Division. Against this, Kingstone’s armored cars were not enough to hold. They backed off, guns firing, across that open ground Westhoven was after. Behind them there were marshy pools interspersed within the settlement, and Brigadier Hawking of Grover’s 5th Brigade had sent 7th Worcestershire Battalion to occupy those gaps.
So Kingstone ordered his armored cars, along with the Blues and Royals cavalry recon units, to fall back on that position. He knew that would compromise his position on the northern fringe of the Kayam Quarter, and after seeing the cavalry falling back in good order, he began pulling his infantry off the line. This compressed his position, as there was limited ground in those gaps between the marshes, but it also strengthened it considerably. The enemy could now only attack those gaps, and he could hold them with a good tactical reserve behind each one. Panzers or no panzers, he remained cool under fire and determined to hold that rail station, which was now no more than 500 meters to his rear.
While this was going on, in the north Schneider continued to press his attack all day against the northern palace grounds near the ferry and rail bridge. The Germans had KG Rosenfeld, and a strong KG from 1st Brandenburg, and they fought their way through the palace grounds, taking the Fine Arts building, which had already been stripped of any valuable artwork long ago. When they had pushed to within 250 meters of the bridge, two companies on the west bank joined the attack and charged across. They hit a company of the Queen’s Cameron, and intense fighting ensued, with the Germans putting their panzerfaust teams to good use, blasting away at the sandbagged MG positions at the far end of the bridge.
There were heavy casualties on both sides, but the Brandenburgers prevailed, pushing the British back 100 meters to the Ginning Mill that overlooked the Ferry landing. Brigadier Reid of the 29th Brigade, 5th Indian, immediately ordered a counterattack, turning his guns on the landing. Behind that mill was the Al Karkh hospital, which was already crowded with the wounded and dying from two days bitter fighting for that palace sector. Reid managed to grab platoons here and there from a number of intermixed companies, and threw together a force to make that attack. All the while, British guns continued firing on the ground north of the bridge near the river, where the Germans had been pushing hard to reach that bridge.
Reid’s attack succeeded in driving the Germans off the landing, back to the approaches to the bridge, but they had two more fresh companies on the west bank, and a counterattack was already in the works. This sector was undoubtedly the most intense of the whole campaign, with Rosenfeld and Schaefer keeping up constant pressure. The Germans wanted that bridge to link to all their forces on the west bank, and both Briggs and Thompson knew they had to hold to prevent that.
The Germans would retake the ferry landing near dusk, but Reid had nothing left to throw at them but artillery. Now his battered companies were barely clinging to the Ginning Mill, and at the Al Karkh Hospital, they were breaking out windows, and the walking wounded were taking positions there. There was one battalion of the 9th Armored a little over a kilometer to the northwest, and Reid called up Brigadier Currie and told him he needed help.
“Alright,” said Currie, “We’ll have to give a little ground here to tidy up the line, but I’ll send what I can.” A veteran of the Desert war, Currie had fought in O’Connor’s Operation Supercharge, and he was a gritty warrior, with good experience. He had 18 M3 Grants and six light Mark VIC’s in the Royal Wiltshires, and he got them moving to the bridge. Those heavy tanks, well gunned, were not expected, and they were enough to again eject the German companies from that ferry landing, with casualties mounting.
It was just as Guderian had feared. Attacking across those bridges was the last thing he wanted to do, and now he felt as though he had his arms around a great bear. There the British sat, behind their rivers, canals and marshes, and he could feel the prospect of victory here slipping from his grasp with each passing hour. His enemy had managed to find a reserve to parry each thrust, and now Westhoven radioed Hube to say that the enemy had a very strong position in the Kayam quarter, and the marshland pools were major obstacles.
“I sent Hansen in, and I still have afresh Kampfgruppe, but the situation here looks fruitless. We pushed them, but they brought up several more battalions to back up their line. Do you want me to persist with this?”
“Can you get around the flank with that second KG?”
“We’ve scouted it. There’s a big network of smaller canals forward of the main one—and another elevated bund behind that. It extends all the way south to that airfield; over six kilometers. That’s as far as we went. The British are still flying from that field too, and it’s defended. Unfortunately, given those canal obstacles, it just can’t be overrun with a quick movement in that direction.”
“Very well,” said Hube. “I’ll inform General Guderian. Stay where you are and rest your men tonight. I’ll get a supply column headed your way.”
That was bad news that Guderian didn’t need that hour, for he had just been informed by the Luftwaffe that they had seen and attacked yet another division that was moving north by rail from Basra. That was a hard night for the General, for he knew in his bones that he could not take this city—not with the forces he now commanded.
I have the equivalent of five divisions here, he thought, but the enemy will have six, the river, and the city providing him the best defensive ground he will probably see anywhere in this whole damn country. Given this situation, I have no recourse but to inform OKW that I cannot proceed south; not without more support, particularly infantry to relieve my mobile divisions and allow me to re-establish a fast moving mechanized force while the infantry holds here at Baghdad. That was, of course, nothing that Hitler wanted to hear.
“What is wrong with my Generals?” he shouted. “Guderian is doing the same thing as he did in Russia. He achieved remarkable results in Operation Typhoon at the beginning, but when it comes down to taking the really difficult objectives, then we hear the excuses. We have already sent him five infantry divisions!”
“Yes,” said Keitel, “but only three regular infantry. The others are all mountain divisions, with only two regiments each, and all but one are holding the line in Syria. Guderian only has the 78th Sturm Division at Baghdad, and then his three mobile divisions. The enemy has six divisions entrenched in that city, and he simply cannot hold the line there while attempting to proceed south.”
“Then why doesn’t he take it? Destroy those enemy divisions!”
“My Führer, that is more easily said than done under these circumstances. Look what we had to do at Volgograd? At one point we committed twelve good German Divisions there, including the Brandenburgers, and three SS divisions. City fighting drains the life from a good mobile division in a matter of days. Manstein certainly knew that, which is why he pulled those divisions out and replaced them with infantry. Guderian could do the same. We have only to find him the necessary troops. According to the schedule General Zeitzler set up, there is still another infantry division you have assigned to Operation Phoenix that remains uncommitted—the 45th.”