Rommel was not the only man up on a hill top that morning with a good pair of field glasses. Lieutenant Reeves had come forward to look over the scene of the night engagement, surprised to see what looked to be authentic German Kubelwagons from WWII. They even had a mud slurry finish and light markings in typical German insignia. The German cross was very evident. Someone could have dug one of these old warriors up in this desert, he thought. Lord knows there’s a good many old wrecks from the war still out here. But this was not an old, rusting hulk. It looked to be in perfect working order, except for the holes his Scimitars had blown through it with their 30mm cannons. Otherwise it might be described as being in mint condition, something that would be very rare in 2021.
But it wasn’t 2021, or so he had been told. It was supposed to be 1941, and in that year the presence and condition of this vehicle would make perfect sense-not to mention the five German soldiers he had stowed away in an enclosed FV432! German soldiers, not Libyans, not Egyptians, not Berbers… Kinlan had sent him out here to look for the hard evidence of what this Russian Captain had been telling them, and damn if he didn’t have the first bit in hand at this very moment.
So he went up to the ridge he had ordered his Scimitars to wait behind, and took a good long look to scout the position with human eyes. He did not like what he was seeing. There was a strong defensive position forming, with one flank anchored by what looked to be a line of hastily emplaced guns. Their profile was quite prominent, but he could see camo netting going up and troops digging in to create some semblance of cover for the heavy guns. What was even more disturbing was the nagging thought that refused to silence itself now. The barrels on those guns were leveled for close in action, not elevated as artillery might be. Those were anti-tank guns, and for all the world they looked like… German 88s! They were being screened with infantry digging in to good positions on stony ground. It was not a position he would approach without heavy tank support or artillery preparation. The skin on his Dragons and Scimitars was not thick enough, even with armor module additions, to reliably stop a round from an 88.
Lord almighty, he thought. Am I actually seeing this? Everything I’ve seen since I picked up that Popski fellow is evidence that all points in the same direction. I haven’t seen a single thing out here that I could reliably date to the 21st Century. Looks like we’ve really done what this Russian Captain said, and slipped right down the rabbit hole! And if those are 88s we’re going to need tanks up here, and soon.
The sun washed over the Panzer III tanks of the 1st Battalion, 5th Panzer Regiment where they waited in concealed positions beyond a low rise. When they arrived in Libya the vehicles had been painted the deep charcoal grey of Panzer Grau in color, but they had been quickly repainted in the light yellow orange and tan hues of Gelbbraun, which would make them very difficult to see in the ruddy early morning sun. They still bore the runic symbol that had identified them when serving with the 3rd Panzer Division-new clothes, but an old heritage in this strange new battlescape unlike any other in the war. The armored cars of the 3rd Recon Battalion had launched into action too soon off the docks at Tripoli, and had to settle for mud slurry to cover their darker paint scheme so they could blend in on the sere grey and sallow tan terrain.
These were the first available troops to arrive at the line Rommel had selected to greet the incoming British attack. As 15th Panzer had borne the brunt of the fighting in his attempted envelopment of Bir Arnab the previous day, it would fall to Streich and the 5th Light to answer the call this day. The division was designated “light” for a good reason. While it had two Panzer battalions as any other Panzer Division might, it was light on infantry. Instead of two Panzergrenadier regiments of three battalions each, it had only one, designated the 200th Schutzen Regiment, with the 2nd and 8th Machinegun Battalions. It also had a pioneer battalion in reserve, and Rommel had bolstered it by assigning a number of his 88mm dual purpose flak batteries, adopting a defensive posture that he would make famous in one telling of this war.
German doctrine differed markedly from British tactics when it came to armored warfare. The Germans seemed to master the art of combined arms and maneuver almost instinctively, and their command system made them a highly flexible, adaptable force. Within hours of Rommel’s pointed orders to Streich, three Kampfgruppen had been assembled to face the oncoming attack. Rommel knew that the British would be tank hunting with their armor, and if they were bold enough to launch such an attack, they most likely had Matildas with them, the one tank the German guns had trouble penetrating with their lighter caliber guns.
