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

  The battle hardened SS men hit the Soviet line like a sledgehammer, shattering the defensive front, infiltrating with fast moving recon elements, and pushing right to the outskirts of Gorodische. The pounding of 11th Army’s heavy artillery was earth shaking, and overhead, Stukas rained bombs down on the unlucky Soviet Riflemen. 115th Special Brigade was also hit in that same attack, surrounded on the main road that passed just north of the fortified Gumrak Airfield.

  Brandenburg Division came next, just south of Leibstandarte, its mission to push directly for that airfield at Gumrak, which Steiner wanted for his forward air supply base. In their way were the remnants of the 36th Guards Rifle Division. The attack was merciless, overrunning 3rd Regiment, surrounding the remainder of the division, and pushing through the hole in the line to attack the enemy division HQ. 75th Infantry was on their right, helping to open and widen the breach, as infantry does so well when it advances to hold the shoulder of any penetration by the mobile troops. They had hit the Russian 95th Rifle Division hard as well, and now that entire position was dissolving into confusion, with the fighting hand to hand wherever the Russian infantry refused to withdraw.

  That would be the most serious breakthrough achieved that day, and just south of that breach, Grossdeutschland was pushing right up the main road to the newly built suburb of the city, Novo Kirovka. It had built up west of the river in the vicinity of the Oil Tank Farm, Nail Factory, and Water Works, and a new Red Square had also been built there opposite the ferry to Krasnaya Sloboda, the heavily fortified mid-stream island that stood as the first barrier of defense against any attack across the Volga from the east.

  That area of the city had once been named Yelshanka, but now that district was moved south, closer to Beketova. The push by the Grossdeutschland Division, if successful, would be cutting off all of Shumilov’s 64th Army, largely opposed by Volkov’s troops, which were content to simply sit there and wait for the Soviets to withdraw. They had been unable to move their enemy for years, and thought they would do no better now, yet with the Germans in the game, they would eagerly occupy ground their newfound ally forced the Russians to yield. Shumilov could not hold his present positions with Grossdeutschland behind him to the north.

  All Chuikov had to try and stop this formidable attack was the 45th Rifle Division, understrength and low on supply. So the field phones at Chuikov’s HQ near the old Army Barracks were ringing off the hook. His four rifle divisions between the aqueduct and Gumrak airfield were being swamped, and now they were attempting to fall back towards the city. A hole had developed south of Gumrak, where 36th Guard Division had been overrun and nearly destroyed by the Brandenburgers. Shumilov’s troops to the south were now exposed, and would be forced to give up more ground, falling back towards the heavy urban areas closer to the river.

  “Shumilov!” said Chuikov over the telephone line. “We cannot hold astride the road to Novo Kirovka. You must get your men back to the city!”

  “Don’t worry,” came the reply. “I have two light tank brigades as a mobile reserve. They will cover the main road while I get the infantry back. But who will hold the center?”

  “39th Guards is in the Worker’s Settlement. I will try to bring in the 37th Guards tonight on the river barges.”

  “Under Volkov’s guns?”

  “They won’t expect it. We’ve been running three or four barges a night on supply lifts. They’ve seen them, fired a few rounds of artillery, but made no real effort beyond that. I think I can get the men through. As it stands, I may not be able to get much back from the outer defense line west of the city, so we need those guardsmen.”

  “What about the 13th?”

  “They’re in the factory district, and the Germans are pushing for Rynok, so that is where they will stay.”

  “And the Volga Rifles?”

  “Up on the aqueduct line, what’s left of them. They came over the Don three days ago north of Vertyachi to help hold the aqueduct. As long as we have that, then we can get supplies fairly close to the city from the north, and ferry them in each night. It’s our only option. We’ll lose Gumrak Airfield by tomorrow.”

  “Very well,” said Shumilov. “My army is still reasonably intact. I will reposition to hold Novo Kirovka.”

  “What about Beketova?” Chuikov cautioned. “If we give that up, then everything on Sarpinskiy Island is good for nothing.”

  “I’ll leave two divisions there. Volkov’s boys will have to fight if they want winter quarters. I’ll not hand it to them. It was enough that we had to give up our fortified lines at Krasnoarmeysk!”

  “Good,” said Chuikov. “Then you will be responsible for Yelshanka and Novo Kirovka, and God be with you. We got word from a cavalry reconnaissance brigade near the railroad bridge to the south. Volkov is relieving the German SS division that was holding near Nizhne Chirskaya. It’s heading north, so keep that in mind. I assume you will be moving your headquarters soon?”

  “Tonight,” said Shumilov. “I will call you with the new location after we are set up.”

  That night the position of the 62nd Army west of the city collapsed, with 45th, 95th and 112th Rifle Divisions virtually destroyed, and 36th Guards reduced to a single regiment, the division HQ overrun and captured. The remainder of the division would never see friendly lines again. Shumilov waited for cover of darkness to withdraw, his forces folding back and extending their lines towards Novo Kirovka to the north. His 13th Tank and 66th Special Rifle Brigades arrived there just in time to find the recon elements of the Grossdeutschland Division probing at the outskirts of the city.

  As dawn came on the 22nd of October, elements of both 1st SS and the Brandenburgers had Gumrak Airfield surrounded, where the stubborn 72nd NKVD Brigade still held out in the fortified pillboxes around the complex. The Germans were pounding them with heavy artillery, being careful to avoid directing fires on the airstrip itself. Seeing what was happening, the NKVD Colonel Rybayev got on the radio and begged Chuikov to fire his guns at the airfield, in effect, calling friendly artillery down on his own position to attempt to damage the field. Chuikov refused. He could fire those guns any time he wished, and would not do so with brave men still fighting for that ground.

  Further north the rest of the Brandenburgers, and elements of 1st SS, were consolidating after a hard night’s fighting. They advanced towards the city, coming upon the Pyolomny Ravine and finding it undefended. The enemy had withdrawn towards the Kirov Flying School and the old Army Barracks where Chuikov had his HQ. Needless to say, like Shumilov, he was also moving his headquarters that day. 1st SS was now widely dispersed, having pushed right through Gorodiche and Alexsandrovka to approach the gnarled fingers of a balka that extended up from the Airfield Settlement. At the end of one withered branch of that feature, a stone rampart had been erected that extended in an arc to the south, covering the Flying School.

  There were the remnants of 36th, 37th and 39th Guards Divisions, each reduced to about a regiment in size now, and together combining to form a new Provisional Guards Division. The Guardsmen were just starting to dig in behind that wall, ready for a fight. On their right, the relatively fresh 308th Siberian Division had just arrived from the Factory District. Chuikov decided he could not concede the ground remaining east of the city unfought, and he had nothing else to plug the line. This still left him the 13th Guards at the factories, which he deemed an adequate defense. Even though Volkov’s troops had been very static in recent months, there was always a threat at his back.

  Immediately north, the 193rd Division had not been engaged by Das Reich, and so it withdrew intact, taking up new defensive positions screening the Barrikady Worker’s Settlement, their right flank manned by troops from the tough 10th NKVD Division. Then came the Samara Rifles, a unit that had come all the way from that city, tramping over the Aqueduct bridge, like knights arriving at a beleaguered Castle just as the enemy siege engines were being pulled forward to attack. There were now deploying west of the large bunkers that had been call
ed the Mushrooms, heavy concrete bunkers that had been built during the Volkov wars. Behind them, the 2nd Volga Rifles were finally arriving near Rynok after a three-day march from the Don, and they would be the northernmost defenders, their mission to keep open the one road and access to the Volga itself in that sector.

  Now Steiner reassessed his position, seeing that Das Reich was strung out from Orlovka all the way back to Samafalovka on the main rail line. So he ordered the 75th Infantry Division to mop up what was left of enemy resistance and then begin moving north. He would position that division on the northern shoulder opposite the aqueduct defense line, and in so doing, free up Das Reich for the push towards Rynok.

  “It was a good day!” he exclaimed, a fist full of division status reports in hand. “We went through them like they weren’t even there!”

  Steiner had seen his Korps perform yet another smashing attack against Chuikov’s outer defense line, with one division after another battering through the line like the successive blows of Thor’s Hammer. Now he was closing on the city, and the battle, that had consumed 1.7 million men in the old history.

  He was closing on Thor’s Anvil.

  * * *

  West of the Don, Eicke’s Division pushed forward against a blocking force put up by the 81st Motor Rifle Division. It had been on the main road to Surovinko, which dipped well south of the River Chir. To his right as planned, the 9th Panzer Division engaged the 3rd Guard Rifle Division, who were suddenly surprised by the ferocity and scale of the German counterattack.

  As for Balck, by day’s end he had moved southeast to Verkhne Solonov, consolidating briefly south of State Farm 79. Now he made good his maxim that night marches save blood, intending to swing further east towards the Chir after dark. He had no intention of attacking due north through the neighboring hamlet of Nizhne Solonov. Instead that night march would see his division appear on the enemy’s flank and rear the following morning with a maneuver that was classic Hermann Balck. 5th Guard Rifle Division was going to have uninvited guests for breakfast.

  1st Panzergrenadier Battalion of the 111th Regiment reached the road heading north from Nizhne Chirskaya, where one of Hauptmann Paul Hauser’s recon troops had scouted to report what he first thought were Russian troops crossing from the southern bank of the Don. It was soon learned that they were a division of Volkov’s 2nd Orenburg, securing that bridge and town, and the railway bridge to the north as they relieved the Wiking Division. With the flank and rear scouted and secure, Hauser notified Balck by sending a prearranged “Code Blue.”

  Fifteen minutes later the attack began, with 4th Panzergrenadier Battalion storming up that road to the height of Hill 528, where they drove off a Soviet flak battery that had been setting up there that morning. From that height, they had a perfect view of the State Farm to the southwest, for now they were actually behind that position. They quickly radioed in the locations of the three Brigades making up the enemy division. One was near a small balka south of the farm, a second at the edge of the cultivated area, a third on its right at the hamlet of Sysoyevski. The brigade on the balka would be attacked first, and Balck ordered both battalions of his division artillery to pour on the fire.

  The Guardsmen fought tenaciously, but eventually gave ground in the face of Balck’s armor, retreating north only to find they were already cut off by two more companies of tanks. Driven back to the edge of the State Farm, they were then overrun by III Battalion of the 111th Regiment, the fighting hand to hand amid the bales of hay and broken wood fences of the outer farm. Ahead lay the barren orchard, the leafless trees now in “Stick Season.” The German division was now pivoting to engage the second brigade, even while the Russian Division HQ was fleeing madly northwest away from the farm.

  By mid-day the 5th Guards had given up this embattled people’s Commune, falling back north to make a linkup with the 7th Guards, who were retreating in the face of the attack put in by 9th Panzer Division. On the main road east, Totenkopf was heavily engaged with the 25th Tank Corps, but the Russians still had the 24th and 1st Guard Tank Corps in reserve, both north of the Chir.

  Balck came up along the road to Nizhne Chirskaya, finding the man he wanted to speak with again. “Hauser!” he called, seeing his intrepid Captain standing on top of his armored car, his eyes lost in a pair of binoculars. Hauser turned, offering a stiff salute and a wide grin as the General came up.

  “What is the situation east on the Chir?”

  “I’ve had men out that way this morning,” said Hauser. “There is a small secondary road that runs north to south along the river. About 9 klicks from here, there is a small village—Ostrovskiy. Beyond that town the ground firms up a bit. It’s a crossing point you want, correct?”

  “You can read my mind,” said Balck.

  “Well, there’s only one thing to deal with. A heavy assault gun regiment is parked in that town. I think they were sent down from Surovinko to block that road. That has to be where that big Guards Armored Corps is—Surovinko. They’ve been licking their wounds and keeping warm behind this screen of infantry we’ve been after. Well General, if you want to get over that river, there is no defense on the east bank, not at the moment. The 11th Rifle Corps pushed past that area yesterday. They are south, the tail end of their column at Bolshe Osinovka.”

  “You learned all this this morning?” Balck was impressed.

  “Well before breakfast, Herr General.” Hauser smiled.

  Balck thought for a moment. “Is the river iced up yet?”

  “Not quite. Not thick enough for the vehicles. It would have to be bridged, but the infantry would have no problem.”

  Hauser would lead the way that afternoon, bringing up three companies of the 15th Panzer Regiment, and a battalion of Panzergrenadiers. By sunset, the Germans had Ostrovskiy, forcing the Russian Heavy SPGs back towards Kalinovka. During the fighting, Hauser again personally scouted the riverbed, identifying a nice shallow icy spot with a good gravel bottom that might even allow the vehicles to pass over it without much assistance. He notified Balck at sunset.

  The plan was discovered by an alert Soviet Guardsman with a rocket battery. He had gone to the river to fetch a bucket of cold water to cool down the barrels of his Katyusha battery, when he saw what looked like German troops near the edge of the river. Hastening back, he reported to his Sergeant, and the word leapt up the chain of command to Surovinko, some 4 kilometers north of his position. There, the 1st Guard Tank had been resupplying, but this alarm, and the duel fought by its SPG regiment at Ostrovskiy, were enough to prompt action. That town was soon to be counterattacked by tanks from the 15th and 16th Guard Tank Brigades, and Hauser was on the radio to Balck reporting that the Russians had moved more tanks directly opposite the section of the river he had selected for the crossing.

  “They can read a map,” said Balck, shaking his head. “Very well, Code Yellow. We must see what is happening at Ostrovskiy.”

  Chapter 21

  Buoyed by his dramatic breakthrough towards Volgograd, Steiner convened a meeting of his key Division commanders to plan the attack. “As you can see,” he said. “Their resistance has broken—even those two Guards divisions they threw at us. Now we must decide how best to carve up the hen. Keppler? What is the situation with Das Reich? Dietrich?”

  “We have taken Orlovka,” said Keppler, a bespeckled man of 48 years who had come to the SS after commanding state police units between the wars. “They are falling back to a belt of woodland closer to the city. But that damn aqueduct is going to be a problem. I’ve covered it with flak and AT units, and the pioneers, but I think it will take a little more. This will mean I’ll have only one Panzergrenadier Regiment and the panzers to press any attack in the north.”

  “What about 75th Infantry? They should be able to cover that front.”

  “It’s a long way for a single division. We haven’t even reached the river in the north yet, and I think we must do so. They are still using roads leading north there, and my recon battalion
continues to see more troops arriving. Those roads have to be cut, and when we get to the river, our artillery can stop any further attempt to move in supplies on the water. That said, I would need my whole division to push through.

  “Where?”

  “Here,” Keppler pointed. “At Rynok. It would mean that Dietrich’s Division would have to position itself to cover my right.”

  “Uncle Sepp?” said Steiner, looking at the strong faced Dietrich. His broad nose, prominent dimpled chin and stern aspect were well known anywhere, for Dietrich had been Hitler’s personal bodyguard and chauffer in the early days. He was a headstrong and willful man, and still so well favored by the Fuhrer, that he often dismissed orders from SS Chief Himmler, a man he thought of as nothing more than a beady eyed administrator. Dietrich was a warrior, through and through, and his solutions to problems often involved violence as a first step, with consideration and planning later.

  “We can turn in that direction, but my men are strung out all along that rampart and balka leading to the airfield settlement.”

  “You will not need to make a direct assault across those lines,” said Steiner. “Here is what I propose. The Korps will make a general move to the north, with the Brandenburgers aiming their attack at the Kirov Airfield and Barracks. Once taken, that entire rampart is then outflanked, and it will compel the enemy to withdraw. So Dietrich, you need only screen that position, and then throw your weight north on Keppler’s shoulder. I think he is correct. We have not yet entirely isolated the city by shutting that back door, and we must do so before we can really count the guests and sit down to dinner. Do you agree, General Beckermann?” He looked to the tall, aristocratic figure commanding the Brandenburg Division, a unit that should not even exist yet, a joker in time’s deck of fate.