Three Kings

Tovey smiled. “That said, it is a rather dangerous plan, and I am grateful that you, and that fine fighting ship of yours out there, are with us.”

Part VII

Sky Hunters

" Trid toqtolil-brimba biextnehhil-ghanqbuta.”

“You must kill the spider to get rid of the web.”

Maltese Proverb

Chapter 19

The Germans were pounding Malta from the air. In the weeks while Rommel was gathering up his 5th Light Division and making the long journey south from Tripoli, smiling Albert Kesselring was quietly setting up Luftwaffe liaison officer groups on key bases in Italy and Sicily. Squadrons of Bf-109s, Ju-87 Stukas, Ju-88s and He-111s were being moved by night from airfields in Germany and France to these new fields, and setting up for action under Fliegerkorps XI. Meanwhile, the trains had quietly transported companies of tough, hardened men in greycamo fatigues, the battalions and regiments that Kurt Student had been assembling under his 7th Flieger Division. They would soon be joined by flocks of Ju-52 transports, the three engine workhorse of the Luftwaffe that was affectionately called “TanteJu” or “AuntJu.”

Aerial reconnaissance and photography had been ongoing for the last two weeks, always using Italian planes. The Germans were closely watching the airfields for any sign of fighter buildup there, and also waiting to pounce on any Royal Navy convoy that appeared to be bound for Malta from the east.

None came.

British air power was still rather lean in the Middle East, and now Greece was calling on her for additional support. The political necessity of supporting an ally had already forced Wavell to make some very hard decisions. He had already taken half the wind out of O’Connor’s sails when he withdrew the 4th Indian Division weeks ago and sent it to Sudan. Now divisions that had been earmarked as reinforcements for O’Connor were being rescheduled for movement to Greece.

O’Connor had gladly accepted the 6th Australian when he lost the Indian division, and he had put it to good use, fighting all the way across Cyrenaica to the Gulf of Sirte. He was all set to continue his drive when Wavell again intimated that the now veteran 6th Australian Division may have to go to Greece, along with the newly arriving 2nd New Zealand Division, and a brigade of armor taken from the 2nd Armor Division. In return he would get the 9th Australian Division, but O’Connor had argued that to move that division from Cairo all the way out west while the 6th was making the same journey east would be a terrible waste of time and petrol. Eventually Wavell agreed and decided to send the Greeks the 9th Australian, and the necessary shipping was being gathered at Alexandria just when Rommel started his counteroffensive.

Cyrenaica had been relegated to the status of a buffer zone in Wavell’s mind, though he continued to encourage O’Connor’s plans. That said, he did not believe that he could possibly reach Tripoli with German troops landing there, and told O’Connor to wait until they could sort out the Greek mess before planning any real move. Until then, he was free to probe along the southern coast of the Gulf of Sirte to determine enemy intentions, and seek the best defensive ground in that sector. MersaBrega and El Agheila were desirable for the water available there, and an airfield. O’Connor had taken the former, and was preparing to drive on the latter when Rommel struck with his own Operation Sonnenblume.

The instant O’Connor reported on what was happening, Wavell knew there would be no further offensive to the west for some time. “We are in no position to reinforce you,” he had said. “All you can do now is fall back. Preserve your force as much as possible, particularly the armor. Even Benghazi is to be considered expendable and held only insofar as it seems practical to cover the retreat of the garrison there.”

O’Connor had agreed, even though it meant he would now be handing back all the hard won ground he had taken from the Italian 10th Army in his lighting dash west. And so he pulled back, moving the 6th Australian Division north through Benghazi, while he gathered up what was left of his armor and back-tracked east. Rommel ended up striking nothing, reporting to Keitel that he had been sent there to stop O’Connor, but there was nothing to stop! His counteroffensive had turned into little more than a brisk reoccupation of the ground lost by Graziani, with surprisingly little fighting.

It was what came next that was the real bolt from the blue. The grim facedFalschirmtruppen were lining up on the airstrips near Taranto, Naples, and atComiso andGerbini on Sicily after a week of intense air duels and bombing over Malta.