The Warramunga's War by Kater Greg

Author:Kater, Greg [Kater, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OnlineBookClub.org
Published: 2019-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

D uring the following months from August to October, the positions of the Axis troops and the Eighth Army near El Alamein barely changed, with onslaughts by both sides being initiated and repulsed. Field Marshall Rommel’s options were limited, as his Panzer divisions only had two or three days’ supply of fuel left. Most of his tanks had been destroyed or were unserviceable, ammunition was low and his supply lines were long and unreliable. A number of German fuel tankers had been sunk in the Mediterranean and the RAF constantly attacked his supply lines on land from air bases in Egypt.

Knowing through his intelligence network that the Eighth Army was in the process of building up its supplies and bringing in men through Alexandria, Rommel decided at the end of August to make a daring strike before the Allied build-up was too large. Pushing forward with two tank units and other support groups, however, the Afrika Korps was brought to a halt by Allied artillery and infantry at Alam el Halfa ridge about 15 miles south of the coastal town of El Alamein. Following the failure of this attack, Rommel ordered his troops to dig in and set up extensive minefields and rows of barbed wire to prevent counter-attacks by the Eighth Army.

With the ability to decode German signals, the Allies were well aware that the Afrika Korps was perilously short of fuel, which would limit Rommel’s usual fast tank manoeuvres in any future encounter. They were also cognisant of all troop movements of the Afrika Korps as soon as they were implemented. While the Eighth Army continued to build up its supplies and men over the next few months until October, the strategy of General Montgomery was to confuse the enemy as to the time and whereabouts of the future Allied attack. Jeeps and trucks were disguised as tanks, and tanks were disguised as trucks with the use of plywood frames. At the same time, Rommel received transmissions from two sources in Cairo informing him of Allied troop and armour movements. One of the sources was the transceiver operated by Captain Johnny Cook using false information fed to him by General Headquarters, and the second was Henry Marshall who was carefully fed the same information by Fifi or different Allied agents. These included Jamie and Jacko, who were playing the role of high-level officers of the Allied General Staff and talking where they would be overheard by the fake American at nearby dining tables or at the Turf Club bar. During these months, Henry Marshall remained infatuated with Fifi and she encouraged him to frequent these places for dinner whenever the MI6 group informed her there was new material to be passed on to him.

The MI6 group as well as British Field Security continued to arrest local and foreign conspirators who were revealed not only by Fahmy but also by Jess and Greta, who had begun providing names under the promise that they would not be shot as spies.

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