Tigers East

Chapter 28

Eicke’s 3rd SS Division had been holding a wide segment of the line extending just over 20 kilometers when the main weight of the Russian offensive finally struck the division like a great wave. As Zhukov had predicted, Totenkopf stood like a rock resisting the initial surge until the front curved and bent around it. On the left flank, three rifle divisions and supporting light tanks and cavalry pushed down the road past Aleksandrov. It finally reached a tributary stream some ten kilometers south of the top arc of the division front. On the right flank, the 1st Guard Tank Corps reinforced by three heavy tank brigades was attempting to bypass the division in the gap that had been screened by Hauptmann Beck and his armored cars.

Now, on the morning of the second day, the Soviets threw two more javelins at the stalwart SS shield. The first was General Volsky’s 4th Mech Corps. (No relation to the Admiral we have all come to know so well.) This powerful formation was also reinforced by three heavy tank brigades, and it was trying to pierce the defensive arc at its apex, which was centered right on the main road to Oblivskaya. Two more rifle divisions and supporting units also pressured the line between that point and the Kirov Gap to the east, so Totenkopf was now facing the weight of over six enemy divisions, an entire army by Soviet standards, or a force that would be the equivalent of a typical German Panzer Korps.

It could not hold, nor did Eicke think it wise to even try to hold in the face of that attack. He knew he had to be stubborn, buy as much time as he could, but he also knew that his only defense would be to trade space for that time, and slowly fight a withdrawal back towards the River Chir. The next possible defensive line was seven kilometers south at the village of Alekseyevskiy, where another stream ran east to west. It had two hills anchoring either flank, and the main road ran right through that town. He gave the order to fall back to that line at 10 AM, his Panzergrenadiers withdrawing behind a light screen of AT guns. Everything got back safely, except the pioneers, which were too heavily engaged.

Eicke was on the radio to that unit, listening to the sound of heavy fighting. He could hear the armor, the sound of the metal treads grinding, the harsh crack of their main guns. The shouts of his men fighting clawed at him. He heard a Panzerfaust fire, an explosion, the growl of some massive unseen engine, then the sharp report of a submachinegun before the line went dead, the command post overrun and radio ground to pulp beneath the tracks of a 45-ton tank. No one in that company of the Pioneer Battalion would return. He handed the headset to the radio man, and pulled on his gloves. They had a hard morning’s work ahead of them, and there would be no breakfast.

By noon he had one regiment on Hill 469 about 8 kilometers east of the road, a second regiment at Alekseyevskiy, and only on the left did he have a concern, for his Panzer Regiment had taken too long to extricate itself from the three rifle division assault being mounted by 3rd Shock Army. That offensive stretched much further west, all along the front of the 46th Infantry Division, but the Soviets were only masking the line there, and not pressing hard.

The drama of the morning again saw Hauptmann Beck on the stage. He had reached the hamlet of Kirov late the previous night, but he did not get much sleep. The Soviets continued to press a night attack, which is to say they kept the tanks and vehicles of 1st Guard Tank Corps moving on that road in spite of the darkness. They reached the village, and Beck was pushed out easily enough by 24 T-34s and numerous lighter T-70s in the lead brigade of the corps. He fell back two kilometers, in the shadow of Hill 495 that overlooked the road, and there he heard the growl of armor, but it was already behind him.

“Zuber!” he called to a Lieutenant. “Take your platoon back to see what’s going on. If they’ve already got round our flank, then we move to Osinovka.”

But the noise was not from Russian tanks. Beck was most gratified when Zuber reported he had come up on a small column of Stug-III assault guns. “And they have three Marders!” he called on the radio.

“Alright then,” said Beck. “We’ll try to delay here for a few hours more. Get those Marders up to block the road!”

Beck had blown the bridge over the shallow river at the village, but the tanks were able to ford easily enough, though with some delay. One of his 234s knocked out the lead T-34 with a good side shot, but then his troops began to take heavy fire as that brigade deployed. Behind it he could see a long column of heavy tanks, 18 KV-IIs and six more T-34s on their right, with a few SU-76 assault guns. There were still two more brigades behind that, and one by one they thundered up that road, forcing him to fall back east of a balka that fed the river. His men fought a losing duel for ninety minutes, but by 2PM the Russians had pushed right on through, and were half way down the road to Osinovka, which was only another seven kilometers to Steiner’s HQ at Surovinko.

The General could hear the fighting, and he knew that single Sturm Battalion he had sent up would not hold long. The entire headquarters staff was already packing everything up, the trucks being hastily loaded to move east. He had already decided that if the Russians got through, he was going east to join the main body of his Panzer Korps. Then a Kubelwagon came racing up the street, halting quickly. A man stepped out that Steiner immediately recognized, General Hansen of the 11th Army. There was another main road about five kilometers east of the one running through Osinovka, and Hansen had his headquarters up that road in a bunker the Army engineers had built for him near a small makeshift airstrip at Lobakin.

“Steiner!” he called. “I’ve been all morning on the road. The Russians overran our HQ site last night and I only just escaped in time. They have tanks south of Lobakin by now. They are pushing right through the 299th. 87th and 129th Divisions are still holding their original positions, but I’ve ordered them to get ready to move. This is going to get very messy.”

Steiner kept looking at his watch. Where was Gille with his Wiking Division? The lead elements were still 20 kilometers to the east, with the division column strung out on the road all the way back to Kalach. They would get there soon, but would the Russians reach Surovinko first?

Like bad news, good news can also arrive when least expected. That day it came on the whistle of a train, which prompted both men to turn their heads west. They could see the white smoke of the locomotive puffing up into the grey sky, and soon the squeal of the wheels cut through the mid-morning cold in greeting. It was a nice little gift from Eric Manstein. The moment he learned of the enemy counterattack, he gave orders that the Army reserve should sent up anything they had and get it on the rail line east to Steiner.

What they had was the 501st Schwerepanzer Brigade, with 24 of the new Lions equipped with an 88mm gun. Eight more of the new heavy assault AT guns, known as the Elephant, and making an early debut in this history. Those plus six light Leopards, three Brumbars and three more Grille SPGs made for a very powerful right hand punch. These were special armored vehicles, all new designs that had been reserved for the heavy brigades. This one had been regrouping to the rear with the arrival of these new tanks, and was returning in the nick of time, the transport engineers already working at the mounting chains and getting the steel rails placed to disembark the heavy tanks.

“Thank God for small favors,” Steiner breathed to Hansen. “Those tanks will hold until the Wiking Division gets here.”

General Gille arrived within the hour, at the head of his long column, a motorcycle infantry company rattling in right behind him. General Koch of the 299th Division straggled in a few minutes later.

“Well,” said Steiner with a wry grin. “When the Generals all come for lunch, you know things are either very good, or very bad. Koch?”

“My entire division is disintegrating,” said the sallow faced General. He had been hit hard by the three divisions of the 2nd Guard Rifle Corps, and had both 24th and 25th Tank Corps enveloping his right, with the big push through the Kirov gap enveloping his left. Now his division sagged like a deflating Zepplin, and it was coming crashing down on the road between Surovinko and Kalach. The General himself was the first burning remnant. Behind him the division artillery and one battalion of the 527th Grenadier Regiment had reached Osinovka just seven klicks north.

Koch pointed to the heavy Lions being unloaded. “If we had a few of those growlers there, we might have held,” he said, obviously shamed in the company of the Armee Commander and the other SS men. Steiner could see it, and gave him some face.

“It can’t be helped,” he said. “Totenkopf is fighting for its life to the northeast. This was a much bigger offensive than the last one. How they managed it with all the chaos up near Voronezh eludes me, but now we must deal with it.”

“What do you propose to do with those Schwerepanzers?” asked Hansen. He was a highly decorated officer that had come over from 16th Armee when Manstein became overall commander of Armeegruppe South. His health was poor, and the fight his men were in now did not help his morale.

Steiner was looking at his map now, his dark brows heavy over flashing eyes. His old favorite division was finally arriving. He had been instrumental in forming the SS divisions, and Wiking in particular. Now he was finally getting some cards in hand that he could begin playing, but the situation was far from secure.

“Very well,” he said. “It is likely that one or both of their mechanized columns will get through to the road and rail lines we depend on. We know what they want, what they are driving for, so I will meet them head on. General Gille, deploy your division to shield our position here at Surovinko. With the addition of the 501st, your motorized division is now an SS Panzer Division. Congratulations, you hold Surovinko. As for Eicke and the Totenkopf Division, he is still well forward, but it would probably be better if he moved south to screen Oblivskaya. That will be my order this afternoon. General Koch, assemble anything that manages to get safely south and form a Kampfgruppe east of Surovinko on the road. I will call on you later. General Hansen, as the other two divisions up north have their flank exposed, they should fold back to form a new defensive front here. On the left, 46th Division will have to fall back and screen Chern.”

“What about the troops east of the Don?” asked Gille.

“That’s where they stay,” said Steiner. “The only good news I have this morning, aside from those heavy tanks out there, is the fact that Das Reich and Leibstandarte have nearly completed their objectives. The former is well north of Golubinskaya, and the latter has already reached Vertyachi and has now turned east as we originally planned. So we control the ground east of both their bridges over the Don, and the Fusilier MC Company of the Brandenburgers has just radioed to report they have reached the main rail line. Gentlemen, we are successfully isolating Volgograd, and I will not pull those units out.”

“Yes, but if we can’t hold this rail line open than they are isolating us,” said Hansen with a warning evident in his tone.

“That may be,” said Steiner. “So we will now fight to prevent that. Manstein tells me the 502nd Schwerepanzer Brigade is right behind this one. It should arrive on the late afternoon train, and I will leave it at Oblivskaya. Eicke has lost a good many panzers and he will need armor support. Alright, let’s get busy.”

The main road leading south to Surovinko ran right over the high ground at Hill 472, and that was where Gille posted his Westland Regiment. They had been the reserve element in the drive on Golubinskaya, and so they were the first to withdraw. Now they were on that hill, digging in with a company of AT guns. And like bad weather arriving right on schedule, Nesterov’s Tank Brigade of the 24th Tank Corps was the first to come down that road. Polyakov’s Brigade was right behind him, and as he saw the leading brigade deploying to engage, he decided to swing left, where a secondary road ran along a stream running south to the Chir. Kolypov’s Brigade veered right, and it ran into the 1st Westland Battalion. The battle for Hill 472 had begun, late on the 17th of October.

That was also the first day in many weeks that supplies had not been delivered to the depot at Surovinko. They reached Oblivskaya, but the Russians had pushed recon units south of Hill 361, eight kilometers northeast of that town, and they cut the rail where it passed through the woodland near Kovalenski. A truck convoy was organized, with the service troops unloading the train that delivered 502nd Schwerepanzer, then moving supplies into trucks to move to Surovinko. This road left the town and dipped several kilometers south of the River Chir, and it had not yet been cut. Yet as soon as he learned the rail line had been cut, Steiner realized that 3rd SS must be very hard pressed. It simply did not have enough troops to stand firm in the center north of Oblivskaya and still cover both flanks. The Russians were flowing around it like water seeking the path of least resistance.

There was now a seven kilometer wide gap between Oblivskaya and Surovinko, and that was where 1st Guard tank was heading. The Russian Corps Commanders had exercised uncharacteristic initiative in this attack. Perhaps it was the lesson of Operation Mars that taught them better, but this time they were not trying to simply plow through the German front. Instead, they utilized their mobility to seek weak points in the line to exploit, and to ebb around those flanks in any division front they encountered. Eicke needed more help, and Steiner thought he knew where he could find it.

He got on the radio to one last lost sheep from his corps, the Reichsführer Sturm Brigade that was posted to the far left of this sector. This was a unit that would have been organized much later and served in Italy, but with the big buildup of the SS Panzer Korps for Barbarossa, it came to life much earlier.

“Obersturmbannführer Gesele,” he said. “What’s going on in your sector? You haven’t reported.”

“Because there is very little to report,” said Gesele. “We’ve got only light pressure on this flank. The 46th Infantry has fallen back a little, but it is not under attack.”

“Can it hold that flank if I move your brigade?”

“At the moment I see no threat here, and besides, we are 40 Kilometers north of the Chir. All they have in front of us is infantry and they would take days to threaten anything, even if the front was undefended.”

“Alright, I need your brigade at Oblivskaya. Totenkopf is hard pressed there and they are getting round the right flank. Go and see what you can do to clear the rail line.”

As the day progressed on the 17th, the situation was fast becoming desperate. The Wiking Division was now heavily engaged by the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps, and the tanks and infantry of the 24th Tank Corps had taken the apex of Hill 472, though the Grenadiers still fought stubbornly on the lower slopes to the south. The rail line was cut on their left, and the Russians were now at the Chir, which was not a major water obstacle, being no more than 30 to 60 yards wide at any given point. If they could cut the main road at Hill 417 some 8 kilometers southwest of Surovinko, then everything to the east would be effectively cut off, just as Hansen had warned.

The divisions fighting in the Volgograd sector had already noticed the supply trucks arriving that day were lightly loaded, taking things that were mainly still in reserve at their divisions headquarters. A typical German division in offensive mode could consume up to 300 tons of supplies per day, and that was fairly economical relative to their Western counterparts. Yet these were no ordinary German divisions. Had they been at full strength, a typical SS division might use 500 tons per day. That was a lot of truckloads.

Low on supply, the Brandenburgers halted late in the day, needing fuel and ammunition. 1st SS continued to push and broke through to their north to catch Soviet rail crews trying to repair the line that had been cut earlier by German recon units. Grossdeutschland put in one good attack on the center of the enemy line, but otherwise, events there were slowing. It had been raining again, and there was mud, increasing cold, and weariness to contend with in addition to the enemy. So it was that a Korps that should have cut through this Soviet defense like a knife when it was at full strength, now struggled to make small gains of three or four kilometers per day.

Then the situation changed.

Chapter 29

The train pulled into the station at Chern, which was short for the more tortuous name of Chernyshkovskiy. It was a town about 20 kilometers west on the rail line that ran from Steiner’s position and Morozovsk. A man got off the forward train car and pulled up his collar against the cold October wind. Two others followed him, their tall black boots stained with the brown earth and mud.

As he stepped away from the steamy engine with his officers in tow, Hermann Balck could already hear the sound of the battle he had come to join. The low mutter of artillery fire rolled on the evening fog. Three days ago, he had received a message with orders from General Manstein. 11th Panzer was to find any rolling stock available and board trains to come to the River Chir. As he looked at the shallow, muddy flow passing through Chern, something stirred in him, as if a faint memory was trying to surface from beneath that brown water.

Just another river, he thought, shaking the feeling off. Just another battle, only this time my division will be on defense again. That is the second time in the last few months, and something tells me the situation has taken a decided turn for the worse here.

Balck had sent two Panzergrenadier Battalions of his 110th Regiment, and two companies of Panthers, on ahead to Oblivskaya. The rest of the division was still coming up on the rail from the south. They would have to pass through Morozovsk before turning east. Balck had stopped there as well to confer with Manstein before he moved his division up.

“This is more trouble than the last time,” said Manstein. “I could smell it days ago, which is why I sent you those orders. Now you are here, and we can restore the situation. I sent two Schwerepanzer Brigades east earlier, but even they won’t be enough. The rail line is already cut east of Oblivskaya, so that is as far as you can go. It may be wise to disembark at Chern instead. Things are hot further down the line, and we need this rolling stock intact.”

“Very Well. I’ll risk sending a small kampfgruppe forward to Oblivskaya, but will do as you suggest with the rest of the division. What are we up against this time?”

“Their 4th Mech Corps is flanking the town to the left, and 1st Guard Tank Corps is doing the same on the right. Eicke’s 3rd SS is heavily engaged between those two envelopments.”

“They’re trying to pocket the division?” said Balck. “That would be like taking a tiger by the tail.”

“Perhaps so, but Eicke had a lot in front of him at the moment—the whole of the 4th Siberian Shock Army. Their 3rd Shock Army is leaning on the 46th Infantry Division just east of Eicke’s position, about 20 kilometers north of Chern. It’s water building up behind a dam, so you’ll have to keep an eye over your shoulder if you move east.”

“We need more infantry,” said Balck. “If that division should fail, then we’ll have a real mess here.”

Manstein nodded. “I’ve got two divisions heading our way as we speak. The 336th should arrive in a day or so, and the 305th a couple days later. It was all I could do to get those two. Halder has all the rest, the entire 17th Army tied up supporting the Voronezh operation. So we will have to make do with what we have.”

“Anything else I can expect?”

“Not at the moment. Wietersheim’s 14th Panzer Korps is fighting with their 2nd Shock Army. He’s given some ground, and if he can adjust his lines to cover the necessary frontage, I might be able to move the 9th Panzer this way.”

“What about 23rd Panzer—the rest of my little fire brigade from the Mars offensive. We danced fairly well together. Lengsfeld is back in command now after Mack was killed in August. He’s a sturdy right hand man.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Manstein, “but I cannot promise you anything more at the moment. It will again depend on how much infantry I can get south to the Rostov area to relieve Lengsfeld’s troops.”

“I understand,” said Balck. “Well Herr General, you can at least rely on me. The Ghost Division won’t let you down. So if you’ll excuse me,” he smiled, “I’d better go rescue Steiner and the rest of the SS Panzer Korps.”

Hauptmann Beck had fallen back to Surovinko, finally giving his weary battalion a little rest. The next morning, the 18th of October, 1st Guard Tank started its enveloping breakthrough west of Surovinko, and his men were needed. He looked around, needing ammunition and any stray equipment he could get his hands on. There was a single 88 mounted on a halftrack, and he commandeered it from the Wikings, then led his battalion west. He led third company towards the sound of fighting, leaving the other two to move along the road and take up positions on his left. They would never get there. They ran straight into the 18th Heavy Tank Brigade, its big assault guns grinding up the roadbed as it moved east towards Surovinko. The flank defense was itself flanked before it could even get into position, and Beck’s armored cars were not going to make any impression on those heavy tanks.

Beck got hold of a company commander with the 501st Brigade on the radio. He had been backing up the 2nd Company of the Wiking Recon Battalion defending on this flank, and they were now being fronted by a Guards Rifle Brigade. The infantry could be held for a time, but not those heavy tanks. It would take the long barrels of those VK-88 Lions to do the job, and they immediately pulled out and shifted four kilometers south.

By the time they arrived on the scene, the entire 1st Guards tank Corps had gone around that flank and was now pushing east up the road to Surovinko, just two kilometers outside the town. Beck was in a fight for his life again, and behind him he could hear all Steiner’s artillery firing off a steady barrage to the north, where the pressure continued relentlessly. Seven Russian divisions were now in a death grip with the Wiking Division, and the 501st Schwerepanzer Brigade. The fighting was now no more than five klicks from the town where Steiner sat, and he was giving orders that any supplies and loose equipment that could be moved should be loaded onto the Korps transport pool trucks and sent east to Kalach. He wanted as much support as possible for the units that were now cut off, as he had not yet been informed of Balck’s arrival, and did not know if the Soviets could be stopped. Then he heard the train pull in.

The arrival of those two battalions of Panzergrenadiers Balck had sent forward on the trains at some risk was very timely. The engineers were just finishing offloading the last of the two tank companies, when a brigade of Soviet cavalry came charging haphazardly into the eastern edge of the town. Actually, it was fleeing more than charging. It had been trying to cross the Chir near Kovalenski, six kilometers east, and was suddenly surprised by the Lions of 1st Schwerepanzer Company of the 502nd Brigade. The cavalry scattered, machineguns rattling after them, and most fled west along the rail line and came rushing right into Balck’s forward Kampfgruppe.

The carnage that followed was gruesome. Balck’s seasoned Panzergrenadiers deployed quickly and went right into the attack. MG 32s and 42s gunned the horsemen down, their mounts rearing under fire, falling and dying. Then the tank companies came up, armored horses that the cavalry could not hope to withstand. Those that survived fled northeast towards a tributary that flowed down to the Chir through the hamlet of Kyzl-Aul. If Balck had not risked that deployment, those horsemen would have come right in the east end of town and found a major supply depot at the train station.

Audacity has its merits in time of crisis.

The rest of Balck’s division was sorely needed. The Soviet attack continued through the night of the 18th, which was very uncharacteristic, and at dawn another big push was mounted by all flanking units. Steiner would have no breakfast that morning in Surovinko. The Guardsmen of the 1st Motor Rifle Brigade had moved south of his position and began infiltrating the town. By 11 AM on the 19th Steiner’s HQ defense company was engaged with the Russian troops just three blocks away. He had no choice but to move east, hoping the road was still open there.

There was now no point in holding a town that was so badly compromised. Its remaining supplies had been trucked east the previous day, and now it remained to be seen whether the Wiking Division could withdraw from the ever compressing pocket of defense that it had thrown up in the last two days.

When Balck learned how bad the situation was, he spurred on. “Come on men! A night march is good for soul, and it saves blood! We move out immediately.”

Manstein promised to keep him advised on any reports he received. Now he had some bad news for him. The 46th Infantry Division was having trouble west of Oblivskaya. When Steiner pulled out the Reichsführer Brigade, elements of the 3rd Shock Army had slipped through the gap in the line and compromised the 46th Division flank. Now Balck realized that, before he could do anything about Steiner’s situation at Surovinko, he had to clean up the mess west of Oblivskaya.

Thankfully, the news that General Walther Lucht was bringing in the 336th Division that morning was very well received. That division could help stabilize the left flank, but it would be some time getting into position. Given operational authority, he got on the radio to General Haccius with the 46th and asked him to fall back and try to form a hedgehog position with the remainder of his division. Then he went looking for his incomparable Hauser in the recon battalion.

“Hauptmann,” he said quickly. “I need you on the left. Get to this town, Popov, and hold it. 46th Infantry is falling back to the right of that town, and 336th Infantry should be coming up on the left soon. I’ll get them posted to cover Chern. Hold that position until I call code blue. Then come east on the road to Oblivskaya. If I give you code red, then you are to move to a position southwest of the town. That will be the assembly point for our division if we have to dance. In the meantime, I have to go kill a tank brigade or two. Good luck!”

Balck’s first order of business that day was to shore up and secure the left flank of the army. He reasoned that he could not hope to counterattack east unless the threat to the general line of communications running back through Chern to Morozovsk and Tatsinskaya was neutralized. At that moment, the chief threat to the left of Oblivskaya was Volsky’s 4th Mech Corps. It had taken some time to get south, getting hung up in a firefight with Beck and the SS recon units at Popov, the very place Hansen was now closing on with the division recon battalion.

Now Balck recalled the troops he had slipped into Oblivskaya by rail just in time to stop that haphazard cavalry incursion. He wanted both fists, a full division attack, in any engagement he undertook. Volsky’s 4th Mech was next on his dance card. Schwerepanzer 502 was already dueling with this formidable force, and they had identified a new Russian tank, very strong, with powerful long range fire and very good armor. This was the new Kirov tank that Beck had run across earlier, and it was going to be a dangerous opponent in this and any other engagement where the Soviets could deploy credible numbers of this new AFV.

Volsky’s recon battalion had been in the lead, pushing through Popov before it ran into a firestorm. Hansen’s battalion had just reached the town to stop that advance, and not long after, Balck’s troops came in from three sides. With him, he brought a company of heavy Elephants that was on the main road to Oblivskaya, grinding its way toward the enemy with that impenetrable 200mm frontal armor, nearly eight inches thick. Also called the ‘Ferdinand’ by the Germans, it was a true Panzerjager, with a new updated 88mm gun with higher muzzle velocity and better penetrating power than the original 88. It could tear right through the best armor the enemy had.

The Elephants went head to head with the new Kirov heavy tanks, and in a close range duel, the extra 90mm of frontal armor they possessed over their adversary mattered a great deal. Their one liability was the fact that the Ferdinand was a fixed mounted gun, with no turret, so it had to be facing the target directly to get good hits. In the narrow streets of Popov, that was not a factor. Seven of 24 Kirovs were knocked out, the brigade forced back to reorganize. Balck’s Lions then engaged the 55th Tank Brigade, mostly T-34s, and killed eight of 36 tanks, and a heavy KV-II. Volsky’s Corps was pushed back, but the Russians operated with newfound skill. The 86th Mech Brigade fell back, regrouping, and then came forward again with the tanks for another try. They joined the 11th Heavy Tank Brigade for a counterattack on 5th and 6th companies of Balck’s Panzer Regiment.

At the same time, the throaty shouts of Uraaaaah were heard to the west, and 61st Pioneer Battalion saw a thick wave of Russian infantry charging the left flank of the action. A battalion of 111th Panzergrenadiers was already in a hot firefight with the Russian 356th Rifle Division, and now three more regiments were rushing the flank. These were troops of the 3rd Siberian Shock Army, a formation that had been advancing to cover the right flank of the Soviet attack, occupying ground given up by the 46th Infantry as it withdrew. When The Germans halted their withdrawal, effecting a linkup with 336th Division on their left, the 3rd Shock Army massed four rifle divisions to surge against the line. Another column, the 2nd Shock Group, was strung out for miles on the road south to Morozovsk, where Eric Manstein stooped over the maps with increasing concern.

His Army HQ and supply center at Morozovsk was now under direct threat, and now he made a risky decision. This is what they want, he reasoned. This is the whole intent of this attack, Morozovsk, Oblivskaya, Surovinko. They could turn south and west towards the Donets, but I do not think they have the force to go that far. So I am ordering Wietersheim to disengage the 9th Panzer Division and send it here. In the meantime, how to defend this city?

I have three battalions of reserve infantry here, an engineer battalion and some machinegun troops with the Luftwaffe service ground troops and flak. That should be enough to form a screen that could delay the enemy advance. It will have to do.

He looked at the map, seeing the similarity to the advances the enemy made in their Operation Mars. They have learned, he thought. They now operate their mechanized units in pairs, and instead of frontal attack, they use their mobility to enfilade the flanks. They have enough infantry to swarm and fix the line of defense, even against good divisions like Totenkopf and the Wikings. And the appearance of these fresh Guards Rifle Divisions is unsettling as well. Those are tough troops, undoubtedly culled from the cadres of veterans that survived our onslaught last year. They fight night actions now, and do so with increasing skill. Their artillery is being augmented by these fast moving rocket batteries running with their mech units.

Yes, they have learned, and they have been very stubborn here, holding Steiner off for six weeks in the approach to Volgograd. At this rate, I may not be able to keep my promise to Hitler to deliver that city by Christmas. Where is my infantry? The last thing I want to do is order Steiner to get into a street fight with his SS divisions. If given a moment to breathe I will begin swapping out what remains of Hansen’s infantry, and replacing Steiner’s troops east of the Don. But I will need that breath of air first, and at the moment, Sergie Kirov’s boys have taken us by the throat.

Chapter 30

The Wikings had successfully pulled out of the arc defense they had north of Surovinko, and now they were heavily concentrated in and around the town itself. They destroyed the first Russian units to penetrate to the town center, the Motor Rifle Regiment of 1st Guard Tank, but now they were again facing strong armored attacks on both sides of the town. 24th Tank Corps, with the 81st Motorized Division, was trying to break through at Zirkovskiy, about 5 kilometers northeast of Surovinko. The main road east looped just south of that hamlet, and they were aiming to cut that vital artery by any means.

At the same time, the three tank Brigades of 1st Guard Tank, along with its heavy assault gun regiment, were now pushing into Surovinko from the west. It was like a steel vise, and the Wikings, with no tanks to speak of, would not have to rely solely on their infantry AT weapons and a few AT guns. The 501st Schwerepanzer Brigade Steiner had promised the division never reached Gille’s position, and it was still fighting along with the Reichsführer Brigade, just east of Oblivskaya.

A decision had to be made as to whether the division should continue to fight for the town, and Gille wasted little time. “Here we make our stand,” he said firmly. “The Chir runs southeast from this town, and the banks are very marshy. It will not be easy for an armored force to envelop us on that flank, and the infantry is better off fighting in the town here than in the open ground east. So dig in, and fight!”

The boom of the division artillery pool thundered out a second as he said that, firing at the heavy regiments of the 3rd Guards Division. Had it just been that, the infantry of the Wiking Division against Russian ground troops, Gille had every confidence that his men could hold. But it wasn’t just that. The enemy had over a hundred tanks to his west, and now he learned that Zirkovskiy had been taken and the main road east to Kalach was already cut. He would have stayed and fought, but Steiner radioed to see what was going on, and immediately ordered him out.

“I need you to swing up and cover the left flank of the infantry, otherwise I will have visitors here in Kalach tonight for dinner, and it won’t be you! Now move!”

General Gille reluctantly countermanded his stand fast order, and now he called on his men to make a difficult withdrawal under heavy enemy pressure. That was not the only thing on Steiner’s mind. He still had the 75th, 87th and 129th Infantry Divisions, the 54th Korps in Hansen’s 11th Army. They were holding in a wide arc from the hard won Golubinskaya on the Don, and then west and south as far as Surovinko. That town was lost, and he could see no reason to hold all the ground between that place and Kalach. He rubbed his brow, thinking.

Infantry, he thought. That’s what I need here for street fighting. And my SS Divisions should be west of the Don smashing this Soviet offensive. They only have a few tank corps, but they have concentrated them between Surovinko and Oblivskaya, and that was enough. We fought hard for Golubinskaya, and yet, now that we control the east bank of the Don opposite those bridges, our purpose is still achieved in isolating Volgograd. If I pull Hansen’s men east of the Don, I have much more force here, and can probably then assign just one of those divisions to watch the river crossing points. The rest can mass for my attack on Volgograd.

Then again, that is more mouths to feed here, and no trains will get through if I yield that ground—they won’t get through even now, not unless Balck can master the situation, which could take weeks. Totenkopf is still screening Oblivskaya with Balck’s help, but now I am told the enemy is threatening Morozovsk. That rail line west we labored so hard to rebuild will soon be useless, and for months. So I must consider my situation carefully here.

He turned to an aide. “Get Goring on the phone at Luftwaffe Headquarters.” He was going to see what the Reichsmarschall could do in terms of supply deliveries to the airfields he now controlled east of the Don. Then he would contact Gorodin, the head of Volkov’s troops, which was something he never wished to do. The man was a Russian, and worse yet, a traitor to his own people. While Germany needed the windfall alliance with the Orenburg Federation, Steiner did not like dealing with Volkov’s men, and did not want to make this call either. But he had to do so now, the supply situation was the key thing on his mind.

Volkov could keep the trucks and vehicles running with gasoline, and he can even send us food. He controls that rail line from Krasnoarmeysk south of Beketova all the way to Astrakhan. That is our life line now, at least for the next few months. So then if I can get Goring to deliver the ammunition we need, this situation can be resolved favorably. I will call it Festung Volgograd, and so now I give the order to pull in that outlying infantry behind the water walls of the Don. We will hold a strong bridgehead west of Kalach—the Castle gates, so I can sortie with my armored knights once Hansen relieves them here. This isn’t a defeat. I will beat the damn Russians here one way or another. It is only a redeployment to make best use of the circumstances and terrain.

He could tell himself that, but even as he did so, another voice was whispering that he was now moving pieces on the board simply to save them from destruction by an enemy he should have defeated long ago.

The second division Manstein had counted on was now making a very timely arrival at Morozovsk. The shortage of rolling stock saw only one regiment pull into the train station the morning of October 20th, along with the division artillery. The rest was on the road to Tatsinskaya, and would likely arrive before noon that same day. This would allow him to secure a front from Morozovsk all the way to Oblivskaya. Better yet was the news that KG Herr from the13th Panzer Division had tangled with the enemy 2nd Shock Group column, and forced a good portion of it to engage him. Then, as that fight began to thicken, General Scheller arrived with the 9th Panzer Division.

Good, he thought. This will force Ivan to look over his shoulder and realize that his right flank and rear must now be defended. He can’t very well continue pressing 3rd Shock Army southeast with Scheller’s division nipping at his heels.

The Russian 30th and 60th Light Tank Brigades had been probing the makeshift defensive arc north of Morozovsk, but they soon learned that the main road behind them had been cut, and that significant reinforcements were arriving in the town that had been their objective. Had they come here a day earlier, they might now be fighting inside that city, but 2nd Shock group was a day late due to the little ambush KG Herr had staged 30 kilometers to the northwest. That group was now on the defensive, and soon the Germans would be pushing on the exposed right flank of the 3rd Shock Army.

Now the Russians passed a moment of indecision as to how to proceed. Three tank corps had stormed south, encircled Surovinko, driving Steiner and Hansen out with their HQs, and then forced the Wiking Division out as well, looting all the supplies that the Germans had failed to take with them. 1st Guard Tank was still west and now south of the town, its HQ in the 25 kilometer gap between Surovinko and Oblivskaya, but that latter town had not been taken. 24th and 25th Tank Corps were east of Surovinko, along with the bulk of the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps with three infantry and one motor rifle divisions.

It was now clear that the Germans were abandoning the ground west of the Don which was slowly being occupied by advancing Russian infantry from the 9th and 11th Rifle Corps, and Rokossovsky’s 24th Army. Zhukov had three major objectives along the Chir, and considered that if even one were taken and held, his operation would be deemed a success. That he had done, but how to proceed?

“In another two or three days we will have them bottled up east of the Don, he said jubilantly to Sergie Kirov. And we have prevented any major breakthrough towards Volgograd there as well. Now we must decide what to do next. Supplies are tighter, but at acceptable levels. There is only one situation that could be troublesome—3rd Shock Army.”

“What is wrong there?” asked Kirov. “Aren’t they ready to strike at Morozovsk?”

“They were, until a fresh German Panzer Division came on the scene—the same outfit that broke up Operation Mars—11th Panzer, and it seems it has been everywhere. It stopped the push east of Oblivskaya, then vanished. The next morning it turned up here, at Popov, where it stopped Volsky’s 4th Mech Corps right in its tracks—quite literally. Then, when 3rd Shock Army began to enfilade that position and approach Chernyshkovskiy, it suddenly appeared there and stabilize the German front. Now they have brought up a fresh Infantry Division, and another is reportedly coming into Morozovsk from the south as we speak.”

“That panzer division was reported well south near Rostov.”

“No longer. It is here again, and up to its old tricks. The only armor we have to really contest it is in Volsky’s Mech Corps, and he can be somewhat… lethargic.”

“What will the Germans do?”

“At the moment, they will fight to stabilize that front, and I do not think we have the strength there to prevent that. In fact, the flank of 3rd Shock Army is now exposed, and I would recommend we withdraw those units.”

“Withdraw? After fighting so hard to get where they are, you would ask them to retreat?”

“Mister General Secretary, you know full well the virtue of a timely strategic withdrawal. You have been ordering me to do this for the last 30 days. Yet another Panzer Division has been identified northwest of Morozovsk, the 9th. Together with the 11th Panzer, the Germans now have a formidable mobile force ready to counter-operate against that flank. They could roll it up if we do not take precautions immediately. I suggest we fold it back, while remaining anchored against the 3rd SS division at Oblivskaya. Let 4th Shock Army continue to fight there, but 3rd Shock should switch to defensive operations, its primary mission being to screen the flank of 4th Shock. Understand?”

“Then we will not take Morozovsk, or Chernyshkovskiy? We will not be able to enfilade Oblivskaya from the west?”

“That was Volsky’s job, and with this 11th Panzer Division backstopping the enemy lines there, I do not think it will be possible. We must therefore adopt our strategy to do things we can accomplish, and that is where our position around Surovinko still holds promise. Understand what we have just done—we have chased Steiner and three infantry divisions back to Kalach and trapped them east of the Don. We are pushing that other SS Division, the Vikings, south to the railway crossing north of Nizhne Chirskaya. This is a significant victory.”

“But you have not answered my question,” said Kirov. “If we do fold back 3rd Shock Army, what will the Germans do next?”

“They will undoubtedly wish to restore the line of communications to Kalach, but this I believe we can prevent.”

“What about this 5th SS Division, shouldn’t it be pursued, even destroyed? You could do that with all three of your mechanized divisions, and then try to force a crossing at that railway bridge.”

“That would be much more difficult to do than to say. No, we do not have the force to cross there just yet. It will take another reserve army to do this. Instead, I would now suggest we order all three tank Corps near Surovinko to form a new army, call it what you will, perhaps the 5th Tank Army would be good. It will make the Germans think there are four others out there somewhere.” He smiled. “They should move west immediately, and threaten Oblivskaya. This will take the pressure off our extreme right flank, and allow 3rd Shock to move as we have discussed without undue harassment. We might even take Oblivskaya with that maneuver.”

“Agreed,” said Kirov. “It is premature to think of forcing the Don under these circumstances. Alright, General Zhukov, do all these things you have suggested, and congratulations. This was a much needed reprieve, considering the situation we still face east of Voronezh. Keep me informed of your progress.”

When Zhukov left the room, Kirov looked at Berzin with a knowing glance. “We have Surovinko,” he said, “and we’ve cut the damn rail line in taking that town. Now the General thinks he can face down the forces the Germans are mustering to the west. Did you hear what he decided to call this newly established army? 5th Tank Army! The history rings true, but with an eerie echo of that depicted in the Material, an echo born of fire and pain. Didn’t this 11th Panzer Division unhinge the attacks made by the 5th Tank Army, and very near Oblivskaya?”

“Yes,” said Berzin. “I read it over again last night. It came to be known as the ‘Battle on the River Chir.’ Very strange.”

“Should we caution him?” asked Kirov.

“I think he has an abundance of caution as things stand,” said Berzin. “He knows what force he has in hand, and what it is capable of. That is what made him great.”

So it was that both sides had achieved their short term strategic goal of isolating the other. As long as the Germans still held the east bank of the Don opposite Golubinskaya, and had a watch on that river as it wound north past Vertyachi, the Russians could not reinforce the Volga defenders by that route. Now the rail line from the north was also cut, with 1st SS division firmly astride that route. Steiner was also moving 75th Infantry Division quickly over the river and then north to the Vertyachi line to relieve Das Reich. That would give him one more powerful division to throw at the defense west of Volgograd. The rest of 54th Korps was flowing down towards Kalach, over that bridge and into the self-imposed cauldron Steiner was now creating.

He reasoned that as little as one good reinforced regiment could defend that crossing point, abandoning his idea of maintaining a strong bridgehead west of Kalach, which would have required at least a full infantry division, reinforced. The river between Kalach and Golubinskaya was too wide and marshy to permit a sound military crossing, for his own engineers had scouted it thoroughly. This way he could husband as much infantry as possible to send against what he now called “the Volga Line.” He was determined to get to that city and redeem any dint in his shield that the Russian offensive may have created, particularly in Hitler’s eyes.

Come dawn on October 21st, the 16th Heavy Tank Brigade under General Alexey Rodin moved down the road that now ran south of the Chir behind Oblivskaya. Hermann Balck had shored up the 46th Division lines, and seen the successful linkup by the 336th and 305th Divisions. Now he was extricating his units from the line, regrouping his elite Ghost Division for renewed operations. His ‘Battle on the River Chir’ had only just begun. He signaled all units: Code Red.