Thor's Anvil (Kirov Series Book 26)

by John Schettler

  Zhukov was not quite done for the Winter of 1942. There were still planets orbiting in his mind, and the greatest of them he had saved for the last throw of the dice this year—Operation Jupiter.

  Part XI

  The Wrath of Jupiter

  “Two Tigers of wrath are wiser than all the horses of instruction.”

  — William Blake

  Chapter 31

  Nine mobile divisions had been extracted from the grand mailed fist the Germans had used to smash through at Voronezh. Six of them went first to Smolensk, where they joined with 4th Armee to launch a perfect spoiling attack against the Russian forces that had been gathering on that front as Manstein had predicted. It was a slow, but steady advance, for many of the divisions were still worn down from the long summer offensive. But the infantry there had been fresh, and it bore a good deal of the burden of attack in the heavily wooded area north of Smolensk. The Russians gave ground stubbornly, but Zhukov could see that his plan there had been discovered, and preempted.

  Now he had other plans.

  “Tank production has gone up considerably,” he explained to Kirov at the new STAVKA headquarters in Leningrad. “I have been getting good and very steady deliveries now that all our relocated factory equipment has been resettled to the east. We are building new formations at Kalinin, Yaroslavl, Novgorod and even Vologda in the far north. To the east, a new industrial city has been built, and we are calling it Kirovgrad, in honor of the city they already took from us.”

  “Another city named for me?” said Kirov.

  “This one is far enough to the northeast to worry about losing it. In fact, there was already a town at that site named after you. We just added the suffix when it became a city. 4th Guards Army is building there, and 2nd Guards is being re-established at Perm from veterans of the Volga Front. We are giving it to Malinovsky.”

  “Then you are forming new Corps with all these tanks?”

  “Of course, and several will be ready sooner than we expected. We expended the last of our front line reserves in those attacks to try and save Volgograd, but now I am pulling those shock Armies out.”

  “To go where?”

  “The closest place where they can make a difference—the Voronezh Front.”

  “Then there will be no further effort to break through to the Donets Basin?” Kirov leaned over the map, his eyes on the beleaguered formations still trapped in the south.

  “Not unless you order it, but I would not advise it. You insisted on retaining that ground, and all those troops have been cut off as I told you they would be.”

  “Why not take these new tank corps and smash through?”

  Zhukov folded his arms. “Mister General Secretary… If I did that, and we did manage to get through Steiner’s SS Korps to make contact with those troops, what then? Will you order them out? Are you prepared to pull everything out of the Kuban now?”

  Kirov’s face hardened.

  “I didn’t think so,” said Zhukov. “We would waste ourselves trying to maintain that link, and it will be the subject of endless pincer attacks from east and west. That road leads us nowhere. So I have decided to move operations to the center of the board. The Germans had been carrying out a major redistribution of forces in the last month. They pulled no less than nine mobile divisions out of that bunch they had east of Voronezh., and that was what spoiled our planned Smolensk Operation. That leaves six left in the 2nd Panzer Armee under Model near Voronezh, and now that sector is ripe for counterattack.”

  “What do you propose?” Any mention of a possible offensive always got Kirov’s attention.

  “An offensive to either side of Voronezh, and with the aim of trapping and isolating the 2nd Panzer Army. To do this I have extended the lines of 66th, 65th and 24th Armies. They now hold the ground gained by our earlier offensives. All the Shock Armies have been pulled out. In fact, this redeployment has been underway for a month, all while Steiner moved back west of the Don and then crossed the Donets to attack towards Rostov. They will take that city, and we must be grimly resigned to that. But… while the cat is away, the mice will play.”

  “But surely they will have seen this redeployment,” said Kirov. “They will react, just as they did at Smolensk.”

  “They may, but their own plans did not factor this option into their thinking. For that I credit your stubbornness in the south. We have learned that a Führer Directive has compelled General Manstein to continue operating there.”

  “Berzin?”

  “We just got it this morning,” said the Intelligence Chief. “Führer Directive Number 46. Manstein has orders to reduce Volgograd, take Rostov, clear the Donets Basin and then prepare for operations in the Kuban by January.”

  “You see?” said Kirov, somewhat indignantly. “There was good reason to hold all that ground. They want it. The Kuban is the most natural land bridge linking Volkov’s Forces with German operations. All the really well developed oil sites are there at Maykop, Grozny and Baku. Hitler wants easy and unfettered access to that oil, and my Kuban Front armies are in the way.”

  “For the moment,” said Zhukov. “They won’t have the armor to stop Steiner’s SS Korps, but any defense they do make will buy us the time we need at Voronezh. A little cloak and dagger from Berzin will hopefully help us as well.”

  “What do you mean? Grishin?” Kirov looked to Berzin now.

  “I had a little sit down with the Commissars. Afterwards I spoke with Khrushchev and told him we were determined to go forward with some offensive in the western sector, if not at Smolensk, then on the line from there to Moscow, aimed at Vyazma, Mozhaysk, and possibly as far as Kirov. I told him the Siberians were being pulled out of the south for redeployment to that front. Then I gave him specific orders to fly to the 11th Reserve Army headquarters at Kalinin and shake things up. Bridging equipment is also being moved to that sector.”

  “Nikita Khrushchev,” said Kirov, almost spitting out the words. “We have long suspected he was a leftover from Beria’s regime,” he said to Zhukov. “So then we are gambling that news of these preparations will get to Volkov somehow, and from him to the Germans. “

  “Correct,” said Berzin. “If they believe it, it will mask the withdrawal of those shock armies. Once we get them north of the Don again, we will put out that lack of adequate transport is slowing down the redeployment, and that the operation must be postponed another week. This will hopefully suppress any questions about why they are still lingering north of Boguchar and Veshenskaya.”

  “Then I’m sending them west,” said Zhukov, pointing at the Don bend. “Right at Rossosh. That is the breakthrough point for the southern wing of the offensive. Once through we have the option of either turning north behind Model’s Army, or simply pushing west and south to Kharkov.”

  “And the northern wing?”

  “6th Army has reformed at Tambov and I will hurl it right at Lipetsk on the river, and they will have more than a little help. Volsky’s 4th Mech is heading there, again with cover orders that he is going up around Moscow for the Kalinin Group ruse. And you once asked me where all our tank corps were. Well, they were mostly rebuilding; receiving all these new tanks I spoke of at the outset of this briefing. I have now placed 11th Tank Corps at Tambov with the 6th Army, 2nd Tank Corps at Morshansk, 3rd on the line north of Voronezh, 5th at Penza in deep reserve. Beyond that, all of 1st Shock Army is still in the Tula sector reserve now, and it can be moved south to support this attack. Altogether, this will be the largest offensive of the war for us, even bigger than last winter.”

  “Amazing,” said Kirov, very glad to hear all this. “Not two months ago you told me we could barely scrape up the forces to mount those attacks in the south.”

  “That was true then,” said Zhukov. “The good thing about those attacks is that we did not get hurt too badly. We lost one Guards rifle corps, a few more run of the mill divisions, and those two tank corps. That was the only real sting, but we’ll rebuild them. As for the Shock Arm
ies, they remain in very good shape. They’ve had over a month to rest and refit, and in that interval a lot of formations that were building in rear areas have now become available. What I told you the last time we met was true, but remember, the enemy has pulled nine tank divisions off the line and sent them to the northern front. They did not think we had the strength to attack with what we already had in the field, but they were wrong. Now, with the arrival of these new tank Corps, I have the forces to proceed.”

  “Yes, Factory 100 in Leningrad has been working around the clock,” said Kirov. “Yet don’t you think we’re asking a lot of the Siberians?”

  “And they are giving it to us,” said Zhukov. “Karpov sent us a big group he had assembled at Perm. I did everything but beg him for more support, and he delivered. Those men went right back into the ranks of those five Shock Armies, and they will be ready. Yet I do not think we can go to the well there again. There is a limit to the manpower Siberia can provide us. We must raise more troops, even if we have to conscript the entire population of Leningrad. Because if this operation fails, then that is where they will come next—Leningrad. They have already redeployed those tank divisions I mentioned north of Smolensk. They joined the three others they sent north of Minsk.”

  Kirov nodded. “For Leningrad,” he said. “They couldn’t break our china at Moscow, and they are still trying to smash what’s left in the cupboards by taking Volgograd and everything to the south. Now it is high time that we started throwing cups and plates around ourselves. General Zhukov, get after them. Launch this operation as soon as you deem it feasible, and keep me well informed. By the way, what will you call it this time, Pluto?”

  “For the largest offensive of the war?” Zhukov shook his head. Pluto is but a barren rock, or so I am told. Neptune would be better, but it is cold and blue. So this time they will feel the wrath of red Jupiter.” He smiled. “Isn’t he the Roman god of sky and thunder, king of all the other gods?”

  “Why General,” said Kirov. “I did not know you were a religious man.”

  The meeting ended on a high note, and a very hopeful one. At last the relocation of the factories had taken root. The output was up, and they were producing more tanks, more planes and trucks. The slogging Red Army was finally getting more motorized, and while those forces were in no way as skilled as Germany’s Panzer Divisions, the Soviets were building more and more each month. The sheer mass of the army was daunting to any foe that contemplated battle.

  That young man warned me of this long ago, thought Kirov—Fedorov. I wonder what has become of him these days? When I boasted that we already had 500 of the new T-34s back in the summer of 1941, he told me I would have to build 50,000. Now we are finally scaling up production to do that, and to build better tanks as well.

  When Zhukov had departed for the front, Kirov sat with Berzin before a warming fire. “Well this is all new,” he said, “and most unexpected.”

  “Yes, we are well outside the covers of that last book I saved,” said Berzin. “There was no Operation Jupiter, but I think the Saturn Operation in the Material achieved its goals.”

  “So we trade one god for another,” said Kirov, “or one planet. Was Zhukov holding all this force back? Why didn’t he report the progress of these new formations during the last briefing?”

  “I think he likes to keep his cards held close to his vest,” said Berzin. “From an intelligence perspective, we knew they were building, but only he can say when they are ready for operations, and he can be very tight lipped. I suppose that can be a beneficial trait.”

  “For heaven’s sake. I’m the General Secretary. I should have been informed.”

  “Perhaps he was telling the truth. Two months ago, none of these new formations were ready. Now they are, and that is all we need be thankful for.”

  “Did you catch that business about the shift of those German tank divisions to the line of the Divina River?”

  “I was aware of that. They tried to make it look like they were part of the staging for their Smolensk cleanup operation, but I could see more in those deployments. Zhukov was correct. It’s Leningrad they want next year—old Saint Petersburg. If we don’t beat them up badly enough this winter, then this is where they will attack next. The decisive battle could be fought right here.”

  Kirov reached for a bottle of vodka, pouring two glasses. “You know,” he continued, “I was once warned not to come here—to Leningrad, and by that same man I mentioned a moment ago—Fedorov.”

  “You have told me this before, yet in all honesty, I still have difficulty grasping what happened to you at Ilanskiy. That place is still there, the same railway inn. Are you still thinking about it?”

  “Of course—it is always in the back of my mind. Yet who knows if the phenomenon I described to you still persists. 1908 was a very long time ago.”

  “Perhaps,” said Berzin. “Yet the thought that a man could go there by simply taking a walk down that stairway is most unnerving. I wonder what that Russian Captain was doing there a while back? Yes, I know, I’m not supposed to wonder about things. I’m Chief of Soviet Intelligence, and I should already know. Well, no one is infallible. It has also occurred to me that the Germans might know about that place. Perhaps that was the reason they were so eager to lend Volkov all those transport planes.”

  “They did him no good,” said Kirov. “No, Grishin, I think Ilanskiy is the one secret Volkov keeps tight. He certainly must know about it, as that is how he came to be here. But would he tell Hitler this? I think not. Power is power as long as you can keep it in your back pocket, and use it when necessary—like this nice big offensive Zhukov pulls out of his hat. Let us hope it takes us farther than his spoiling attacks. Volgograd was the really big victory for us in late 1942, at least according to the Material. I had hopes that something similar might be achieved with Uranus and Saturn, and when they reached the Don, and cut Steiner’s Korps off like that, I was holding my breath. I thought time would twist these events into an image of the history we have in that book, but it was not to be.”

  “There was no southern pincer,” said Berzin. “Shumilov is penned up in the city with Chuikov, and the other armies that attacked from that direction are on the upper Volga. It wasn’t the same at all, so why should we expect a similar outcome?”

  “Could this be it then, this Operation Jupiter?”

  “We can’t know that. It isn’t anything we can read up on in the Material any longer. Now we live it day by day, and try to make the best we can of it. I will say one thing. I’m glad you have finally given up the strange notion you had in your head about trying to end this war at that railway inn.”

  “Thanks to you, Grishin, my strong right arm. I would be dead already if not for you.” Kirov thought about that, for he knew exactly why that Russian Captain had been at Ilanskiy, and he knew that the strange magic that happened on that stairway still persisted.

  Yes, Grishin was correct about one thing, he thought. I have finally discarded the notion of trying to end this war on that back stairway, and I think that Russian Captain has as well. No, we must win it ourselves, the hard way, with blood, fire, and steel, and we can win. That was what Fedorov was trying to tell me all those years ago. We can win.

  He turned to Berzin, a smile on his face.

  “Let us drink, and wait for news of this battle. And God go with our soldiers this winter, be he Jupiter, Mars, Saturn or anyone else with a claim to the heavenly throne.”

  “I think the Politburo will have to weigh in on that first,” said Berzin, raising his vodka glass.

  Chapter 32

  By the 15th of December, the German redeployment was almost complete, and the divisions were settling in to their winter rebuilding cycle. Three Panzer Korps, (41st, 56th and 57th), of three divisions each, had been sent west. They now formed Hoth’s new 4th Panzer Armee, refitting in preparation for the Spring Offensive. Most were understrength, needing new equipment and troops, and it would take some time to flesh them
out. Model was left with six divisions, three each in the 24th and 47th Panzer Korps.

  The 46th Panzer Korps was pulled into reserve at Kharkov with three more divisions. But with reports of a buildup underway at Kalinin northwest of Moscow, preparations were being made to send that Korps to Vyazma, where the Germans thought they would kill two birds with one stone. If the Soviets were planning a winter attack west of Moscow, then that Korps would be perfectly placed to stop it. If nothing developed, it would still be well placed to participate in the Spring Offensive. It was never once contemplated that the Russians would strike where they did.

  Quite coincidentally, three infantry divisions, the 205th, 218th and 246th, had remained in the Voronezh area after the final reduction of that pocket. Now they were being moved up to the line to relieve the 10th Panzergrenadier Division, which withdrew into a second echelon position in accordance with the German sword and shield defensive doctrine. They wanted infantry on the line, and the mobile divisions behind, and this change was taking place east of Voronezh just as the Russians began moving up to their jump off start lines for the offensive. A fourth infantry division from reserve, the 707th, was coming in on the morning train from Kursk. This was going to considerably bolster the defensive arc around Voronezh.

  In the meantime, Steiner’s SS Korps fell like a storm on the defenders north of Rostov. They had a brief reprieve when Manstein had recalled Balck’s 11th Panzer and other units to hold the line of the Chir against Operations Uranus and Saturn. The Soviet defense south of the Donets was soon reduced to two small areas, one around the big industrial city of Donetsk, the other at Rostov. Neither would hold for very much longer.