Thor's Anvil (Kirov Series Book 26) Read online

  “That was what I came to in the end,” said Fedorov. “This is it for us now. We’ll never get home, and we’ll never switch it all back. Frankly, if I were you, I’d blow that damn railway inn to hell and be done with it, because you’re right, Karpov, this is the only game left now, and by god, we’ve got to win it. Volkov is out there raising hell, and now the Japanese have yet another edge with that destroyer. It’s time we showed some muscle.”

  “Now you’re talking,” said Karpov. “Yes, now we fight to win this thing. Help me. Stand with me, and let us forget the past. The future is enough of a burden for us, and something tells me it will take both of us to carry it.”

  Fedorov offered a solemn nod of his head, then extended his hand. “Allies,” he said. “And now we fight to win.”

  Part VII

  Fire on the Volga

  “The only hope, or else despair

  Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-

  To be redeemed from fire by fire.”

  — T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets

  Chapter 19

  Volga Front: October 21, 1942

  “A fine mess,” said Manstein as he convened the meeting at Army Group Don’s HQ. They had moved to Morozovsk, largely because much of the ground south of Tatsinskaya, though German controlled, had not been thoroughly patrolled, and the threat from Partisans was very real. Morozovsk was also closer to the action near Oblivskaya, and the General wished to gather his Lieutenants to plan what would happen next. There were a lot of hats around the table, Knobelsdorff, Wietersheim, and Division Commanders Theodore Eicke of the 3rd SS Division, and Hermann Balck of the 11th Panzer.

  “Just how strong is the threat developing towards Oblivskaya?” asked Manstein, looking at Eicke.

  “We were hard pressed for the last week, but my men held firm. The division was close to full strength when we were up north. Since then, casualties have been heavy, but we still have a lot of fight in us, particularly after the arrival of those heavy panzers.”

  “Good,” said Manstein. “Are you still under heavy pressure?”

  “Not at the moment. They have come a long way, and also fought hard to get here. I think they are low on fuel and supplies now, and there are few good roads from here up to their bridgeheads over the Don. We should have cleaned those up long ago, and before Steiner moved for Kalach.”

  “True,” said Manstein, “but we barely had the infantry to cover the front. An attack was out of the question. I had to fly to Hitler’s HQ just to make sure I could get us your Panzer Korps, Herr Wietersheim. What is the situation on that end of the field?”

  “I have my 24th Panzer Division on the line now, and it has stabilized the situation north of Tatsinskaya. They fell back there as we advanced, and the front is now about 45 kilometers north of the airfield. General Lenski’s division is sitting right on the seam between two of their Shock Armies. He has our 305th Infantry to his right, and I moved the 72nd onto the line to his left. But General Knobelsdorff has been greedy this week,” he said with a smile. “He’s stolen away my 9th Panzer Division!”

  “It could not be helped,” said Manstein. “Otto is going to bear the brunt of what is to come. That was some very fancy footwork to salvage the situation there.”

  “You can thank General Balck,” said Knobelsdorff, a well decorated general with a pair of Iron Crosses and his Silver Panzer Badge prominent on his uniform. “I was barely on the scene after Kempf left, and by the time I got there, Balck had mastered the situation.”

  Balck nodded, never one to seek praise, but nonetheless happy to have a job well done acknowledged. “The division did the work,” he said. “The enemy was cocky, and heedless at times. Our boys taught them a few lessons.”

  “Yes,” said Manstein, “and it appears they are learning quicker than we thought. Note how they enfiladed Eicke’s division on both sides, and by operating two mobile corps in tandem on each end. I think we must destroy these formations while they are regrouping now. If we give them time to resupply and get up fresh vehicles, this will all start again. So here is what I propose. A pity we could not save Surovinko earlier, but now I think we must get it back. General Wietersheim, please forgive me, but as your 9th Panzer has already moved so far east, I will reassign that division to Knobelsdorff’s 48th Korps. In return, I am bringing up the 23rd Panzer from the Rostov sector. The attack on that city needs infantry, and it will not be forthcoming for some time. Halder has given everything to von Rundstedt. That said, this river here, the Bystraya, marks the Corps boundary, right where you have positioned your 24th Panzer Division, and right at the seam between the enemy 2nd and 3rd Shock Armies. Everything west of that goes to your Korps, General Wietersheim, including the 294th arriving from Yugoslavia, and the two Luftwaffe Field Divisions.”

  “You mean the two Luftwaffe Field Regiments,” said Wietersheim. “They have no more than three infantry battalions each.”

  “So combine them to make a single division. I wish I could get you more, but there is nothing else available close enough to get here in reasonable time. If necessary, we can pull Schmidt’s 50th Division out of the Donets Basin, and that fight will have to wait until we stabilize the situation here. As for the troops east of Wietersheim, the four Infantry Divisions on the line go to General Hollidt, who is presently setting up his HQ at Chern. Knobelsdorff will take the four mobile divisions. The last is arriving at Oblivskaya even now—3rd Motorized.”

  “It is relieving my men as we speak,” said Eicke. “I am moving my division south of the Chir, right astride the road where they were advancing from Surovinko. Don’t worry, they won’t get any farther on that road now.”

  “Good,” said Manstein. “Then, with three Panzer Divisions in hand, I think we can attack. General Eicke, it looks like Sheller’s 9th Panzer will be on your right, and then General Balck’s 11th. The enemy is occupying the ground south of Surovinko, and we must take it back. I want to control everything south and west of the Chir. So then, General Balck, work some of your magic, and swing around this feature here, State Farm 79 on my map, about twelve kilometers south of Surovinko. Then, if you swing up towards that town, the Chir will cover your right flank. I wish I had another infantry division to post there, and I will see about moving Schlomer’s 3rd Motorized later. For now, I think it best we keep it at Oblivskaya. Gentlemen, we attack tomorrow morning.”

  * * *

  The situation on the Volga Front was now markedly different from that of the old history. To begin with, the composition of forces involved was very different. On the Soviet side, Armies like the 62nd, 64th, 66th and 24th were composed of units very close to the old history. It seemed that certain units remained stubbornly embedded in this history’s order of battle, as if pulled there by some gravitational force of time. Yet Chuikov also had forces that were never present, like the crack 2nd Volga Rifles, and brigades arriving from Saratov, Samara, and as far away as Novgorod. 65th Army was instead replaced by the 9th and 11th Rifles Corps, but those two formations had about the same overall strength as Batov’s old Army. Beyond this, all the main forces that had been assembled in the Don Bridgeheads from Serafimovich to as far away as Boguchar, were all composed of the troops initially sent by Karpov to form those five Shock Armies. Four were now present, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, and to these Zhukov had added Soviet Ski troops, tank Brigades, motorized regiments and most of the artillery and AT forces.

  On the German side, the Rumanians, Italians and Hungarians were nowhere to be seen on this front. In their place, posted on the long line opposite the Don Bridgeheads, was the German 11th Army, with one Korps now withdrawn east of the Don by Steiner, and one more arriving to shore up the line after Zhukov’s counterattack. The presence of Steiner’s SS was in itself the most dramatic change. Here were gathered the cream of the Waffen SS troops, all divisions that had been greatly strengthened prior to Operation Blue. And with them was Grossdeutschland and the new Brandenburg Division, possibly the two best divisions in the Army. Yet
in considering the units that were now arriving in response to Zhukov’s counterattack, there was Hermann Balck and his 11th Panzer Division, as if again fated to fight on this ground, and other divisions like 23rd Panzer, 336th Infantry, 294th Infantry that had once formed ad hoc detachments to try and stem the Soviet tide had also arrived, along with the 7th and 8th Luftwaffe Divisions.

  Notably absent was von Paulus and his 6th Army. He would not suffer the sad fate that had befallen him when the Russians bagged some 20 Axis Divisions in the pocket near Stalingrad. Now, however, and largely by Steiner’s own willful choice, there were nine German Divisions and fourteen from Orenburg all east of the Don, a force about the same size as the one the Soviets once bagged, some 220,000 men. The troops from Orenburg were entirely ahistorical, a force that would have never existed at all if not for the alterations to the history caused by Kirov’s earlier interventions. Even more prominent was the fact that those troops now occupied all the ground east of the mighty Volga, except Ostrov Sarpinskiy and Krasny Sloboda Islands, which were both Soviet occupied.

  The fact that Volkov’s troops now held Krasnoarmeysk, and were facing down the Soviet 64th Army in Beketova along the southern sectors of the battle zone, meant that all the troops east of the Don at least had some overland supply line available. They were not totally isolated, even though the most direct route, the roads and rails coming through Tatsinskaya, Morozovsk and along the Chir, had been cut by the Soviets with the capture of Surovinko.

  The rail line east and south of the Don that went through Kotelnikovo to Sal’sk was also of no use. It had been torn apart during the fighting as Volkov advanced near Kotelnikovo, and beyond Sal’sk, the Kuban sector south of Rostov remained Soviet occupied. So supplies were only coming up on the rail line and river barges from Volkov’s stronghold at Astrakhan to Krasnoarmeysk, though the Germans would get only food and fuel. They would now have to depend entirely on the Luftwaffe to deliver ammo, spare parts and fresh troops.

  That air link was by no means reliable. The Germans barely had parity in the air, and the enemy Sturmoviks were coming in increasing numbers, their circles of death darkening the skies overhead and making it very hazardous for unescorted Stuka squadrons. An infantry division might need 50 tons of ammo per day, more if on the offensive. One of Steiner’s SS divisions would need 70 to 100 tons, and this requirement could double if the division was in heavy combat. In the old history, the Luftwaffe delivered a total of 8350 tons over 72 days, or an average of about 117 tons per day. It would therefore only be capable of delivering a third of the ammo required for those nine German divisions Steiner now commanded. His solution was to take three of the four infantry divisions he had withdrawn, and use them to man the northern and western segments of his position, along the line of the Don itself from Vertyachi all the way to Kalach.

  On that front, he only had two key areas to defend where there were sites that could support a river crossing. The 129th held a small bridgehead west of Kalach, the 102nd watched the area from Golubinskaya and north along the river; and the 87th held Vertyachi, with its lines extending east along the northern flank. Those three divisions were essentially static, and simply sitting on defense, so they would need no significant daily ammo ration at all unless the Soviets pressed a cross-river attack. This left him with his five mobile divisions, 1st and 2nd SS, Grossdeutschland, Brandenburg, and Wiking Division further south near Nizhne Chirskaya. That division, having fought hard, first at Golubinskaya and then at Surovinko, was now being relieved by Volkov’s 2nd Orenburg Army, and it would go into reserve for some much needed rest and refitting again.

  The other four mobile divisions were on attack, benefiting from the sudden windfall of supplies trucked in from Oblivskaya and Surovinko just before the Soviets cut that route. When Steiner moved his HQ, he had brought all the supplies the Korps truck pool could carry, and so he found himself with more than adequate supply to attempt what he was now planning and executing—a sudden violent attack to take Volgograd by storm. He calculated that he could mount a sustained 10 to 14-day offensive with all his mobile divisions, along with support from the 75th Infantry Division, which was now on that line.

  In the meantime, the Russians had invested Kalach with 24th Army, and then sent the 9th and 11th Rifle Corps south towards the confluence of the Chir and Don, where Volkov’s troops were now relieving the Wikings. Two Guards Rifle Corps, and three Tank Corps now formed the 5th Tank Army operating in the area between Surovinko and Oblivskaya along the Chir. West of Oblivskaya, was 4th Shock Army, then 3rd Shock, and finally 2nd Shock, their lines extending all the way to the ground some 50 kilometers north of Tatsinskaya.

  Then, as Zhukov’s offensive engine continued to burn coal and build steam, he pulled another army together by extracting three tank corps that had been at Tula, Serpukhov and Ryazan. Ad hoc infantry replaced them on the line, which was now a stagnant front, and these three Corps were rushed south into his Don Bridgehead zone, the 3rd, 7th and 10th Tank Corps. This new group would be designated 1st Tank Army, and to strongly augment this force, he pulled the Siberian 5th Shock Army from the Volkov front in the north. Volkov had no offensive capability in that sector, and so the rail lines had been busy, delivering three rifle divisions, four cavalry divisions, two tank and two motorized brigades, and a pair of ski brigades.

  So by robbing Peter to pay Paul, Zhukov had produced another very capable force to extend his offensive against the exposed German flank. Phase I, his Operation Uranus, had been a complete success. It had sealed off Kalach, and driven the Germans out of Surovinko. Now he would continue to press with 5th Tank Army against the stubborn German defense at Oblivskaya, while he unleashed his new 1st Tank Army with 5th Shock Group further west in what he was calling “Operation Saturn.” He would direct this attack at the area of Morozovsk and Tatsinskaya, with the long term aim of capturing one or both of those key towns, which both had valuable airfields the Luftwaffe would need to resupply Steiner. That part of the plan was still forming, still mustering on the steppes to the north, but thus far, Operation Uranus had done all he had hoped it would.

  Manstein did not think the Russians would attack like this so soon, or in such strength, particularly with the big crisis near Voronezh to contend with. Yet his military mind found the Soviet achievement quite impressive, even if he now had every confidence he could contain the threat. When the meeting at Morozovsk concluded, he did not yet know of the forces gathering to the north in 5th Shock Army. The Russians would move by night, halt by day under white snow draped netting. The Luftwaffe spotted what looked like one large mechanized formation on the 20th, but no word had come to Army Group Don HQ by the 21st.

  Manstein had gathered nine divisions to answer Zhukov’s offensives, finally halting the Soviet advance and saving three of the four depot sites on the Chir, as far west as Tatsinskaya. Now, as the first snows began to fall on October 21st, his next battle would be fought to determine the fate of Volgograd. The Russians would fight to hold the city, while continuing to press attacks against the German lines of communications. Manstein would fight to prevent that, while Steiner sent the cream of his force into the warren of death and misery that had once been called Stalingrad.

  Note: Maps of these dispositions are available on the book pages for Thor’s Anvil at www.Writingshop.ws

  See: General Situation, Oct 30, 1942

  Chapter 20

  Steiner’s attack on the 21st of October came as the first snows had dusted the frozen ground, darkening and chilling the memories of the troops that had fought and endured the Winter of 1941. Here it came again, promising to be colder, deeper, darker than ever, due to the blockage of sunlight that had been caused by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in the Pacific.

  It brought with it an urgency that was redoubled by Steiner’s mood. He had been driven from his headquarters on the Chir, saw his staff ignominiously packing up all his papers and effects, loading any vehicle at hand with all the supplies, food and fuel the
y could carry. He had chosen to withdraw east to join the bulk of his Korps, none too happy to see both 3rd and 5th SS left behind to try and halt the Soviet advance. He would now get the Wiking Division back as Volkov’s troops relieved it near Nizhne Chirskaya, and for wergild after losing Totenkopf, he took all the infantry of Hansen’s 54th Korps. Now he was determined to prove that his decision to withdraw east of the Don was one that would deliver a victory at Volgograd.

  The Soviets had struggled to set up a perimeter in the north, where Das Reich had been driving towards a long fortified aqueduct that ran northwest from the Volga north of Rynok, shielding the main road and rail line from the north. The previous year, when Volkov had pressed his dogged offensive over the Volga north of the city, that aqueduct had been the strong line of defense that prevented Volkov’s troops from pushing south and enveloping Volgograd from that direction. Now the Russian troops in those bunkers found an enemy at their back, and the engineers had been busy cutting gun ports in the pill boxes, so that all the AT and machineguns could be repositioned to cover an attack from the southwest.

  Das Reich was leading that attack, having cut the main rail line at Samofalovka, where it dropped off its Pioneer Battalion, 3rd Panzergrenadier Battalion, two companies from the Recon Battalion and a company of tanks. They took up positions astride the rail line, where the Soviet 58th and 80th Light Tank Battalions were defending with the 99th Rifle Division. The rest of the division struck parallel to the aqueduct defense line, pushing for Rynok. On their right, the full weight of the Leibstandarte Division was advancing on a nine kilometer front, right astride the road to Gorodische. There Chuikov had posted the 112th and 138th Rifle Divisions forward of the tree line sheltering a rail spur that diverted off the main line and ran east towards Rynok, eventually swinging south into the Factory district of northern Volgograd.