Three Kings

The Australian 6th Divisional Cavalry Regiment was the one unit that had managed to escape the onerous garrison duty. Being well motorized, it was sent south to keep watch on the long frontier wire, and particularly on the Italian outposts at Garn elGrein south of Fort Maddalena, and at the Oasis of Giarabub. Along the way, Captain Brown’s Squadron of motorized Infantry fought a sharp engagement with the Italians at Garn ElGrein, cutting through the wire to try and take the place by surprise, but finding the enemy defense alert and vigorous. Brown soon found his column under artillery fire, and the Italians had also managed to call on the services of three C200 fighters from Giarabub, which were strafing his men and trucks until they finally ran out of ammunition.

Captain Brown withdrew his column to the British held outpost atSiwa, where he joined the Regiment HQ under Colonel Fergusson and the 2nd Squadron commanded by Major Abbot. Even together, the force comprised no more than 300 men in trucks, mostly armed with Vickers machine guns and a few light mortars beyond the rifles carried by the troopers. Yet Fergusson soon was given the task of trying to lever the Italians out of their oasis outpost at Giarabub.

“It was one thing to go after them while we were heading west,” said Fergusson as he gathered his officers together to try and come up with a plan. “Now, with Rommel heading east, we aren’t likely to get any of the reinforcements I requested.” Fergusson had asked for two more infantry companies and an armored squadron, with supporting artillery and a platoon of engineers. He would get only the artillery and engineers, four 25 pounders, two 40mm Bofors and 32 engineers under Captain O’Grady. The Italians at Giarabub were now thought to number at least 1200 men, with six MG companies, engineers and artillery under ColonelCostiana. The British therefore found themselves outnumbered four to one.

Brigadier GeneralMorshead’s 18th Australian Brigade was supposed to reinforce the desert force atSiwa and capture the Italian outpost at Giarabub, but it would not be coming in this history. Hard pressed by at least five Italian Infantry divisions, Wavell had sent it to Tobruk by sea to reinforce that garrison to four brigades. So Colonel Fergusson was alone atSiwa with his 300 man motorized cavalry unit, and a few hardened souls belonging to the Long Range Desert Group that were watering there, Popski’s confederates.

The ‘diggers’ in the tough Australian cavalry unit nonetheless set to aggressive patrolling and probing of the enemy’s positions, always answered by plenty of enemy artillery and machinegun fire. Unable to live with the tortuous names on the maps they had of the area, they began to rename prominent terrain features with easier handles. A depression where Captain O’Grady had been forced to dismount his men to push his 25 pounders along on foot soon became “O’Grady’s Dell.” A narrow wadi covered by a small Italian 44mm gun the Aussies called “Pipsqueak” was summarily named “Pipsqueak Valley.” A stony outcrop known as ElHamra became “Brown’s Hill.”

The heat wasn’t as bad in December, though it was bitterly cold at night under the cloudless, star sewn sky. The pristine, rugged beauty of the desert was the only consolation the Aussies had. When word came that they could count on no further reinforcements for some time, Colonel Fergusson resigned himself to a cautious watch on Giarabub, still mounting regular patrols, largely in an effort to convince the Italians he had far more troops than he actually did.

“Keep nipping at them like an angry terrier,” he told his men. “If they find out we’re no more than battalion strength, then the tables will turn bang away, and we’ll be the ones sitting atSiwa with theDegos at the perimeter trying to get in.”

A day later he got even more disheartening news. General O’Connor’s plane had gone down in the desert somewhere northeast of Giarabub. The Blenheim twin engine light bomber, once the fastest plan in the air force, was now well behind the aeronautical engineering curve, and it had been no match for the Me-109 that found it that day. The German fighter got off one good pass, striking the left wing with MG fire as it flashed away, apparently out of ammunition.

In the effort to evade, the Blenheim had turned south and dove. Before the plane could recover altitude, the winds kicked up into a sudden, fierce sandstorm, blowing heavily out of the northwest. They tried to climb above it, but that single pass by the Me-109 had nicked the left engine and it caught fire under the strain. Unable to climb, they knew they would have no chance in that sandstorm, so the General told the pilot to run south away from the storm and towardsSiwa. They were still well north of the oasis when the engine gave out, and so they wisely elected to attempt a crash landing.