Chapter 7

The soldaten of Panzerarmee Afrika settled and dug in to await the inevitable britischer attack. Supplies were short. Benzin was difficult to obtain. The truppen labored at night or early morning to lay mines, spread wire and dig entrenchments to protect themselves from the coming British onslaught.

Panzerarmee Afrika’s pionieren and Infanteristen [combat engineers and infantrymen] spent nights laying out over a million mines and spreading barbed wire to channel the attacking British soldaten into the machine gun and PaK kill zones. Dieter’s 21.Panzerdivision was positioned behind the southern half of the Panzerarmee Afrika’s line, paired with the Italian “Ariete” Armored Division. They would serve to counterattack any breakthroughs the British managed. The men toiled and waited.

At 21.40 Hour, 23.Oktober 1942, 1,000 kannon opened fire on the Panzer Armee Afrika’s positions. The attacks focused on two sectors of the front, one in the north and another in the south. British pionieren and infanteristen cleared gaps during the night and tried to move the British panzers through the minefields to the clear areas beyond. The 15.Panzer and italianische Littorio Armored attacked the British penetrations at dawn. The 21.Panzer and “Ariete” Armored awaited orders. The British couldn’t penetrate the deutsche defenses.

Confusion reigned in the PzA Afrika headquarters. General Stumme drove forward to observe the 15.Panzer’s counter-attack and disappeared. No one knew what became of the commander. Finally, DAK’s General von Thoma took over. Von Thoma radioed Berlin, requesting Rommel’s immediate return to the battlefield. Eventually General Stumme’s shot-up staff car was found. The General was dead, of an apparent heart attack.

British attacks continued the next night. The truppen were hard-pressed to hold in the Nord. The Ramke Fallschirmjäger [parachute] Brigade and italianische Folgore Fallschirmjäger Division held the line in the Süd. Dieter’s division waited to be called, if and when needed.

Rommel arrived on 25.Oktober and surveyed the deteriorating situation. “Ariete” and the 21.Panzer was called Nord, as the southern attack seemed less threatening. The two divisions made their way Nord to the coast under constant air bombardment and strafing. They settled in for the next night’s attack.

At dawn on the 27.Oktober, the 21.Panzer and 90.Liechte attacked a small hill seized by the British. The counterattack failed but stopped the British offensive in its tracks in this area. 15.Panzer counter-attacked further south, stymying the British. Three Italian oil tankers were sunk by the RAF (British Royal Air Force). Rommel announced that the Panzerarmee had no choice but to fight in place. There was inadequate benzin for maneuver.

The exhausting fighting continued night and day, day after day. The PzA Afrika’s strength dwindled as they tried to hold back the growing British forces. Dieter’s kompanie lost men daily. Dieter’s squad was hit too. Albert Meindl, the neue junge, was killed in a strafing attack as the units moved Nord for the coast on 25.Oktober. Oskar Löwe was wounded on 27.Oktober, in the attack on the small hill the British called “Kidney Ridge.” He was safely evacuated to an aid station and then hospital. Georg Huffman, from Hans Goebel’s section, was killed the following day, near Kidney Ridge.

1.November saw two more oil tankers sunk on their way to Tobruk. The Luftwaffe ferried some fuel in from Krete. Failure of the 15.Panzer’s attack on the Aussies along the coast forced Rommel to realize that defense at El Alamein was hopeless. He needed to extract his truppen and fall back. Perhaps he could put in a defense at Fuka, 80 kilometers to the West.

General Montgomery, the British commander, wound up for a crushing blow to break the stalemate. His thousand cannons blasted away on the 2.November evening. DAK formed a gun line of PaK [anti-tank guns] to stop the armor following up into the breach the British infantrie made during darkness. The III .104 PzGr Battalion stood their ground with their kameraden. Deutsches panzer numbers dwindled as the overwhelming numbers of British panzers took their toll.

By nightfall Rommel was planning his withdrawal. He reported that state of his armee to Berlin and his plans. Hitler replied with a peremptory order to hold his ground. Rommel obeyed. The five British infantrie brigades attacked in darkness. They cleared the minefields and pushed into the gun line. Morning brought another onslaught of panzers on the PzA Armee’s thin line of desperate soldaten. DAK and the Italians managed to hold the British at bay for the day. The night of 3-4.November brought disaster.

By daylight, the British panzers broke through the Panzerarmee’s lines and into the open desert. Despite orders from Berlin, Rommel directed his truppen to retire. The Italian foot troops were lost. DAK, the 90.liechte and 164.liechte fled west. Panzers, trucks and Halbketten [halftracks] drove wildly down the coast road towards, Fuka, Mersa Matruh and points west. The British panzers paralleled the fleeing panzerarmee through the desert.

6.November, the British 7.Gepanzert Division cut into the coast beyond Fuka, intending to trap and capture DAK. The 21.Panzer, including Dieter’s battalion fought a series of actions during the day, holding the coast road open and allowing the bulk of DAK to escape and continue for Mersa Matruh.

A rainstorm soaked the desert that afternoon and evening. British truppen bogged down in the soft ground, allowing Rommel and his truppen to break contact and flee west by road. A series of clashes continued over the next four days at Mersa Matruh, Sidi Barriani, Halfaja Pass and Sollum before General Montgomery called a halt to the pursuit. He had outrun his supply lines and would need a few days to regroup and bring supplies forward.

Rommel’s retreat continued through Kyrenaika. Bardia fell the 13.November, Tobruk on 15.November and Bengasi on 20.November. The panzerarmee was careful to remove anything of military value or destroy it as they retreated. Mines and boobytraps we planted to slow the pursuers.

Dieter got his last look at Marsa El Brega on 22.November as his division withdrew towards El Agheila. The 21.Panzer had no tanks left. No counterstroke like in März 1941 or Januar 1942 was going to occur. The panzerarmee took positions around El Agheila and waited. Montgomery used the next three weeks to reorganize his forces and bring supplies forward. His 51.Division struck the front of the panzerarmee line while the 2.Neuseelander Division swung around the flank. They made it into the deutsche rear. Rommel ordered the panzerarmee to disperse into small groups that night and they managed to retreat through gaps in the neuseelander’s lines.

Rommel stood at Sirte, 380 kilometers east of Tripoli for three weeks. The 21.Panzer, now re-equipped with some panzers, was ordered to transfer to Tunisia to help defend Tunis from the Amis [Americans] and the Tommies [British].