Thor's Anvil (Kirov Series Book 26) Page 25
The most interesting feature of this order was the complete restructuring of the Brandenburg Division, making it into a “square” Motorized Infantry Division with four regiments, which was the structure it had actually assumed in Fedorov’s history. To do so it was heavily reinforced with new forces raised in Germany, including a roundup of already existing commando units under overall control of the Abwehr. Each of the four regiments would include one full battalion of specialists in, demolitions, infiltration, and urban warfare. A call went out to all units in the Army to forward the names of suitable candidates to OKW.
Manstein made good use of the tanks received through the dissolution of the Brandenburg Panzer Regiment, using them to flesh out depleted companies in the other SS divisions. And all the mechanized transport, largely Spw-251 halftracks, mobile flak, Marders, and other AFVs that had lifted the two former Panzergrenadier Regiments in the division, were also used to restore lost or damaged vehicles in the other SS units. There were plenty of trucks to repay the Brandenburgers and keep them mobile, and plenty of towed guns to deliver, but the Panzergrenadiers in Steiner’s Korps needed those halftracks. The facelift, carried out with lightning speed and given the highest possible priority, would see Brandenburg Division soon brought up to strength for the task ahead.
Of the nine regular infantry Divisions assigned to the Army of the Volga, the 75th, 87th, 102nd and 129th were already east of the Don holding positions along the river itself and the aqueduct. In the next two weeks, as the remaining units arrived to relieve Steiner’s SS Korps, Manstein continued his offensive north from Kalach against the Soviet 24th Army, his objective being to clear the west bank of the Don and by so doing relieve both the 102nd and 129th Divisions of that defensive duty, making them available as reserve units for the city fight.
The 305th, 336th and 294th were the first three units sent over the bridge at Kalach, taking up positions held by the Wiking Division and Grossdeutschland Division nearest to Volkov’s 4th Army in the south. The Brandenburgers remained opposite the main city center, and the 24th, 294th and eventually the 170th moved to the north, relieving both 1st and 2nd SS. They were joined near the Volga Bridge by Volkov’s 11th Guards.
Hitler’s wish for specialized engineers was also taken to heart, and fresh units were combed from other Army Korps to constitute new Assault Pioneer Battalions. Instead of tanks, all the assault gun units that had been in the SS Korps, and all its special engineering units and heavy artillery, remained behind when Steiner departed. So the redistribution of forces created a leaner, infantry heavy force to reduce the city, and moved all the superb mobile divisions out of that meat grinder to the open steppe country where they could now ply their deadly craft of the mobile art of war.
Nothing further was discussed about Leningrad, though Hitler took all that Manstein had said to heart, and began ruminating inwardly on the battle ahead for the coming spring. If the fall of Volgograd and the capture of Rostov and the Donets Basin did not force the Russians to capitulate by January 1st, he had every intention of taking Manstein’s advice to heart, and quietly instructed Halder to begin a transfer of panzer units from the vicinity of Voronezh to a central reserve north of Minsk as he had specified in number 9 of his order. The German Army would not sit idle during the long winter ahead. They would take this time to rebuild, redeploy, and to guard against possible enemy counteroffensives, as Manstein had warned.
* * *
On the Soviet Side, Chuikov took advantage of the major shift in the enemy camp, using the time to raise more recruits from the remnants of the city’s able bodied population. Even women and girls were conscripted, trained in the use of AA guns and sent to crew batteries all along the Volga near the key ferry sites. While nothing was getting in via the river any longer, the Soviets still had a large bridgehead on Sarpinsky Island, and complete control of the significant mass of Denezhny Island. Their advantage in gunboat flotillas made them masters of the river in and around those islands, though the boats would mainly patrol at night to avoid enemy shore batteries.
Though the city itself was bruised and bombed, its four factories continued to work, including one that was not present in Fedorov’s history, the Steel Foundry in the heart of Novo Kirovka. The Russians were still building guns, producing ammunition, and even constructing tanks, though the output was small from the Tractor Factory. Chuikov would not receive any more reinforcements from the outside either, though Zhukov was quietly moving in divisions to shore up the aqueduct line, which now included the 99th, 116th and 332nd Rifle Divisions, and the newly arrived 284th “Tomsk” Division sent by Karpov. To these he added one newly reformed Tank Corps, the 13th.
West of the Don, the withdrawal of 1st Tank Army, and Volsky’s 4th Mech Corps, put an end to the Operation Saturn. A master of the indirect approach, Manstein’s move into the gap north of Surovinko compelled Zhukov to move those forces. A lesser General might have left them near Morozovsk, but this was something Zhukov could not afford to do. The Shock Armies held their positions until Manstein began to press them. In the face of any determined German thrust, they had orders to withdraw in as good order as possible. The premature offensives had done much to delay the fall of Volgograd, but they had not been able to hold the hard won ground they earned, nor could they stop Manstein from methodically moving in the railroad crews to make good all they had spoiled on the lines leading east over the Don.
Yet after losing 2nd Guards Rifle Corps, half of 9th Corps, and both 24th and 25th Tank Corps, Zhukov wanted to keep all his remaining mobile forces in reserve. Somewhere, somehow, he still had to mount a winter offensive in 1942. The previous year it had come late, but achieved good results. This year it would be late as well. It would come, as Manstein had predicted, from the fattened units that had been on the lines west of Moscow, and its object was the capture of Smolensk.
Yet forewarned is forearmed. Halder had agreed with Manstein’s assessment concerning Smolensk, and so he moved most of Hoth’s Panzer Army west from Voronezh to stand in reserve there. They would be instrumental in frustrating Zhukov’s attack, a fast moving mobile reserve that was still in good enough shape to do the job. After that battle, he would then move Hoth to a position north of Minsk, and those divisions would go into static mode as they began to refit and replace old equipment. His staff was already working on the plans for Operation Untergang—the ‘Downfall’ planned for the final blow against the Soviet Union in 1943.
The Germans helped him in this planning by suspending most offensive operations through the early weeks of November. 2nd Panzer Armee under Model stopped at Anna, about 100 kilometers east of Voronezh. Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Armee would never come to its support now. In those two weeks of November, the Germans instead focused on reducing the Voronezh Pocket, which put an end to 14 more Soviet divisions. Then, rather than leaving a big bulge in the line that would point 2nd Panzer Armee nowhere, the Germans pulled back to the line of the Don in the Voronezh sector, and Model’s 2nd Panzer Army began to refit for the Spring.
The German Army of the Volga would not be fully supplied until December 1st, but the redistribution of divisions specified by Führer Directive 46 would be completed on schedule. It meant that Halder had to reluctantly give up precious infantry, but Hitler promised him that many more divisions were being raised to make up for the transfer orders.
The war was now going to move off in another dangerous direction, and it remained to be seen as to whether the Soviet Union could survive the loss of the Donets, and then the Kuban, if Manstein could work his will to carry out Hitler’s orders in the south. In the meantime, the specialists and pioneers began slipping potato masher grenades into their belt lines and shouldering their demolitions and flame throwers. The battle for the city of Volgograd was only just beginning.
Chapter 29
Into the City
On the night of November 15th, even while the division itself was still reorganizing, the first assault groups of the Brandenburg Division began to slip forward over
the ground that had been won and held by Grossdeutschland Division. Now the emblem of the ghostly mask and sword of steel would try the Soviet defense on the northern fringe of Novo Kirovka. The Russian Special Worker Brigade 160 had been moved up to infiltrate back into that area, and their 1st Battalion suddenly found itself surrounded on three sides as the expert commando teams poured out of the cemeteries where Hörnlein’s men had fought like the spirits of the fallen. They moved with great stealth, infiltrating silently through the suburbs.
The leading elements of the 1st Brandenburg Regiment continued on through the city, penetrating largely unchallenged all the way to a wide open area known as Resurrection Plaza, very near the main road and rail line leading north into Central Volgograd. Their presence there wasn’t discovered until about 2 AM, when artillery fire began to drop sporadically on the plaza itself.
Guriev’s 39th Guards had set up headquarters in the Univermag Department store, a major supply depot for Chuikov’s army. He had positioned his three battalions there, at the Nail Factory, and at the Gorki Theater. Now those last two were ordered to move over the partially frozen stream that separated Central Volgograd from the neighborhoods to the south.
2nd Brandenburg Regiment had been posted at the Hospital Hörnlein had taken, and its spirits arose from the small adjoining cemetery. The Russians had reoccupied some of the ground in the city Hörnlein had fought for, and now their lines were two kilometers west of the Nail Factory and the small 1st of May Plaza. That salient had been too deep to hold during the German reorganization, but now 2nd Regiment came to reclaim it. They found a very solid defense there, including tanks from the 56th Tank Brigade, and had to radio Division HQ to request Marders and Sturmgeschutz support.
3rd Regiment came out of the hard won Army Barracks near the Kirov Airfield where so many men of the Russian 196th Rifle Division had fought and died two weeks earlier. They pushed east towards the settlement of Mamayev, about five kilometers from the famous hill it was named after. No artillery prep was made for any of these attacks, and fires were held until the Brandenburg commando teams had achieved maximum infiltration, and identified targets to be shelled. Then the boom of artillery fire to the north resounded over the stillness of the city, a diversionary attack that had been planned by the newly arrived 24th Infantry Division. The 72nd Division that had relieved Leibstandarte also renewed the attack against the Samara Rifles, and those were the only actions authorized that night. The big push was scheduled to jump off at dawn, with every division on the line planning a series of blows designed to place the enemy defenses under maximum strain.
As the cold skies began to lighten, there came a roar of many guns opening fire in the north. Most were Volkov’s heavy shore batteries, now beginning to pound Rynok, where the 2nd Volga Rifles was still stubbornly defending. Three more battalions of the 11th Guards moved over the Volga Bridge and now Volkov’s best troops threw themselves at the balka just north of Spartanovka, where the stolid Soviet 13th Guards would meet them man to man.
West of that position near the river, most of the assault pioneers and heavy Sturmgeschutz companies left behind by Steiner were now massed in one great shock group. They pushed to break through the lines of the Samara Rifles, backed by the whoosh of Nebelwerfers and the pounding explosions from those 150mm rockets. Even the newly arrived 170th Division that had relieved Das Reich got into the act, making a concerted attack on the Big Mushroom position. It had been probed the previous night, but the leading German companies had been thrown back by shock groups of Soviet SMG troops. Now the Germans came for the Mushroom with a much heavier attack, two full battalions reinforced by a company of the division pioneers.
The forces assembled here were much better suited to the city fighting, lighter equipped, but able to move through the rubble strewn streets, and into all the buildings and cellars. Furthermore, many of these divisions had fought during the reduction of the Kirov Pocket and Bryansk, where they got a good taste of what street fighting was like. Now they were putting that experience to very good use.
There were good penetrations at many points. 24th Infantry was able to drive the enemy from the Airfield Settlement about six kilometers north of the Kirov Flight School. 305th Infantry pushed about 1000 meters into Yelshanka. The 336th just to its north was now fighting in the outskirts of Novo Kirovka, but it was the elite Brandenburg Division, the specialist, commando teams, demolition squads, and gritty veteran Sergeants that made the difference.
1st Regiment had cleared all the neighborhoods around Resurrection Plaza, controlling that place before they ran into a very tough battalion of the 154th Naval Brigade. Elements of the 2nd Regiment had almost regained the last of the ground formerly taken by Grossdeutschland Division, and they were now about a thousand meters from the 1st of May Plaza. Yet the most dramatic breakthrough of the day came from 3rd Brandenburg Regiment.
That storm group had fought its way into Mamayev settlement, battling Soviet Tanks supporting the remnants of the 196th Rifle Division. They swept through most of that neighborhood, and the commandos found a way though and over a balka running along the western knees of Mamayev Kurgan. On they went, the assault teams leading the way as they climbed, and then they realized the vital central hill was not yet heavily garrisoned.
Hauptmann Behrmann radioed for support, and the fast moving Motorcycle Recon Company raced to the scene, waved through the gap that had been cleared by the commandos. The men dismounted, moving up to join the sections that had already scaled the heights, and as darkness fell, they reached the top, gunning down a few surprised artillery observation posts. There they stood on Hill 102, the men gazing out at the long agony of the city stretching north and south. There was no electricity, except in one small segment of Novo Kirovka to the south. But fires raged all through the city, and the evening sky was glowing red, the smell of burning wood thick on the air. They could make out the outlines of the battle lines, seeing the wink of gunfire, and the explosions of grenades and small mortar rounds. It seemed from that high point that they had just captured the whole of the city, but their mastery of that promontory would be brief.
The field phones rattled and rang in Chuikov’s headquarters and Borzov, the commander of the hapless 196th Rifle Division, was soon bawling on the line.
“They have got around my division to the north,” he exclaimed. “I think they have men on Mamayev! The road into the Tsarista Gorge is completely open!”
“Alright, alright,” said Chuikov, trying to calm the other man down. “I sent Special Brigade 124 that way late this afternoon. They should be approaching the north slope of the hill by now, from the Kirov Flight School. Don’t worry. I have a solution to the problem.”
That solution was going to be the 137th Tank Brigade again. It had fallen back to a reserve position and received new tanks from the factory. Now all three battalions were rolling through the thickening darkness towards the blackened bald height of Mamayev. A battalion of the 154th Naval Brigade had to spread out along a two kilometer front to try and screen the gap Borzov had warned about, and another regiment of the 13th Guards was ordered to leave its reserve position in the Red October Factory and prepare to counterattack that hill the following morning.
Chuikov’s immediate solution was more direct. He had big guns in fortified positions all along the shore from that factory to Central Volgograd to the south. There were batteries in the Mill near the 9th of January Square, in the old Railroad Bureau building, in the Metalworks near the Locomotive Depot and in the Steel Plant at the heart of the winding curve of rail lines known as the Tennis Racquet. Minutes later they were all given orders to blast the top of that hill, and the men of that recon company were soon diving for any cover they could find. The Germans had snuck into the pantry and raided a cupboard they should not have been able to reach that day. It was only the skill of those infiltration teams that allowed them to slip through and put men on that hill, but now they would have to pay the piper. Some of the howitzers in thos
e batteries were as big as 305mm.
The Germans could not stay on that high, exposed hill under that fire, and the MC Company withdrew, making contact with the commandos about a thousand meters down the west slope of the hill. Along the way they had briefly engaged worker troops from the 124th Special Brigade, but they were special in the wrong way, mostly untrained and ill-armed men from the Red October Settlement. Yet they were good for filling gaps in the line with human flesh and bone, and the enemy did not know what their caliber was yet.
Studying his map, Chuikov could see how bold this German attack was. The unit that had reached that hill was special in the right way, and he knew he had to send the very best units he had to secure that position. He was planning a swift right cross with the 137th Tank Brigade, which swung up through the Kirov Flight School to hit the enemy flank and attempt to cut that incursion off. Then three battalions of the 13th Guards assembled near the water cisterns on the eastern slope of the hill, ready to attack. Meanwhile, his men on the hill were now directing fire from those heavy guns along the river.
When that attack came, the Russian Guardsmen rushed up the hill with a shout, cresting the scorched and barren crown, where not even snow could blot out the burning laceration of war. They leapt to the attack, charging down the far side of the hill, submachineguns chopping in the cold air. The German Recon Company was quickly pushed back, and within 20 minutes, Chuikov was again the master of Mamayev Kurgan, with the enemy clinging to positions on the lower western slopes
That crisis at least addressed for the moment, Chuikov took in the rest of the reports from his staff. 193rd Rifle Division was having trouble near the Barrikady Worker’s Settlement and was requesting reinforcements. The 10th NKVD sector was quiet so he ordered them to send over a machinegun battalion, but it would not be enough. Five companies of the 41st and 46th German Pioneer Battalions had stormed into the settlement, overrunning a battalion of the 193rd Divisional artillery, and a company of mortars. The men of the103rd were too slow to react, the German Pioneers too precise in their attacks, and too determined. It was yet another crisis point that would grow in the hours ahead.