Three Kings

“I like confidence in a man,” said the Fuhrer. “Look whatDietl did up in Narvik. Conditions were harsh there as well, but he managed. I have every confidence that you will do the same. The road to Suez may be a hard one, but we will get there with a steady hand on the tiller and a firm command of the situation. Between your position and Ivan Volkov’s troops and all that oil in Orenburg, there is nothing but the British Colonies in the Middle East. The French already have Syria, and both Iran and Iraq are leaning our way. The Iraqis are already asking for our support, and I will see to that soon enough. As for Turkey, I will see to them in time as well. At the moment, the British are the only real threat. Until I can make further assignments to your new Afrika Korps, stop O’Connor’s advance and await further troops and supplies. I hereby appoint you Befehlshaber, Commander in Chief of all German Forces in North Africa-the troops in Morocco excepted. Those will stay in the Western Command. We have plans there as well.”

It was a significant post, and Rommel fully appreciated what he was now being told. Befehlshaber, he thought with some excitement. That is better than a Korps Commander! They are giving me the defense of Libya, but I will give them something more than they expect. He saluted again, then offered his hand to Hitler as he made ready to depart.

“I will look forward to your next report,” said Hitler, “and perhaps another good motion picture!”

Chapter 14

His business concluded, Hitler departed with a gaggle of aides and staffers, and Keitel now leaned over the map with Rommel for a more detailed discussion of the operation. “It will be called Sonnenblume,” he said, “Operation Sunflower. That is a perfect image of the whole affair, for in order for that flower to bloom, it depends on the long thin stalk rooted to good ground. Tripoli is the closest port we have that can do the job, but even that will permit only five or six ships to unload per day-no more than three to five thousand tons of supplies.”

“That will certainly supply my division, and the brunt of the fighting will be in Cyrenaica, with plentiful water supplies. That said, what about the drive to Egypt?”

“This is the real problem, Rommel.” Keitel seemed to brood now. “Halderbelieves the most we can possibly support through Tripoli is three divisions. Give us Benghazi and we can support one more. That will give you a single German Korps. The Fuhrer has eyes on Russia. This you should well know. I am trying to dissuade him from attacking there, but he seems determined to do so in time. It is only 600 miles from the Polish frontier to Moscow, and he has fifty divisions there. It is twice that distance from Tripoli to Alexandria, and we will be lucky to give you five divisions when all is said and done.”

“Will we undertake both operations at once?”

“Not at the outset. I do not think the Fuhrer will issue orders for a full fledged invasion of Russia for at least six months. That is all the time you will have to see if this Mediterranean strategy Raeder keeps talking about is viable.”

“Rest assured, Keitel, I will stop O’Connor, and send the British reeling all the way back to the Nile.”

“Stop them first, as the Fuhrer has ordered. Whether we ever get to the Nile remains to be seen.”

“You seem to have considerable doubts about it,” said Rommel.

“That is because I am a realist. They don’t appoint old men to lead cavalry charges, Rommel, but we set up all the horses in nice neat little rows before everything begins-we do the planning, hand out the sabres and steeds. I have little doubt that you and your men can beat the British, but this campaign will be won or lost by the supply trucks, not your tanks, which will become nothing more than stationary metal pill boxes when they run out of gasoline. Yes? So we must give serious thought as to how we can possibly support a major campaign against Egypt and the other British holdings in the Middle East.”

“That is simple,” said Rommel with a smile. “I’ll capture British supplies as I move forward!”

Keitel returned his smile, realizing he had a real cavalry officer here, and that Rommel was chafing at the bit. Was he really the right man for this assignment? Perhaps we should have appointed someone likeManstein, a sound strategist who also knows how to calculate logistics. Manstein would want us to extend a rail line from Tripoli, as far east as we could push it. How could he communicate the importance of logistics to a man like Rommel? He tapped the Nile river with his pencil.

“If you ever set eyes on the Nile, General, you will find yourself nearly 1500 miles from your primary supply base in Tripoli. Then what will you do? The Nile Delta is a maze of rivers, canals and marshes. Every bridge on the river will be blown up in your face.”

“That didn’t stop me in France.”