Thor's Anvil (Kirov Series Book 26)

by John Schettler

  His first and greatest need, however, was for more infantry to reform the ruptured front line. In the north, the line along the Oka was secure, and no longer under attack. That had obviously been a chosen stopping point for the offensive there. Model’s army was still holding, yet in grave danger of being cut off and pocketed. Manstein was secure in the south, but a lot of infantry had gone there, and now the entire 17th Army was pushing south of the Don for the Kuban Operation.

  The danger zone was near Kursk, where strong enemy mobile forces had arrived in great strength. He had a division left in Prague, another in Warsaw, and then went looking as far away as Wein in Austria for more troops. Then, and without even forming Hitler, He quietly ordered the Baltic coast garrison division at Memel to board the trains, replacing it with a security regiment. He did the same for the 290th Infantry Division, a reserve unit behind the 10th Infantry Korps in Latvia.

  All these divisions joined those of Army Group Center’s reserve, moving by rail to the region southwest of Kursk. He then looked for a headquarters, and tapped Hans von Salmuth and the 2nd Army, which had been withdrawn into OKW reserve for possible assignment to the Leningrad operation in the spring. He needed it now.

  By raiding these far off pantries, Halder had cobbled together a new army that would soon have all of ten infantry divisions. Knowing it would soon be facing a lot of enemy armor, he then ordered in several of the Schwerepanzer Brigades that were still in the German order of Battle, refitted after the heated action of 1941. The 106th and 107th Brigades would be the first to arrive, having been in reserve for Army Group Center. There were five more behind Army Group Nord, and he stole away the 105th from its reserve posting near Minsk, again saying nothing to Hitler about this. Finally, he called Manstein and asked if there was anything more he could spare. Knowing he had a few debts to pay for his own larceny, Manstein immediately detached the 60th Panzergrenadier Division and ordered it to Prokhorovka.

  When Hitler learned that the enemy had already reached Kursk, be was fuming himself up into a tirade when Halder walked in, determined to try his own hand at being a miracle worker.

  “Do not be overly concerned,” he began. “Yes, this is a serious setback, but it will be managed.”

  “Managed? I see nothing on the map there at all? What is to stop the Russians from going all the way to Kharkov? I should have Rundstedt taken out and shot!”

  “Not yet please,” said Halder, reaching for a pen. Then he simply leaned over the map table and began sketching in a defensive line, from a point near Orel and running south parallel to the enemy line of advance on Kursk before jogging east towards Prokhorovka. To save von Rundstedt’s head, he decided to give him the credit.

  “There,” he said. “Von Rundstedt is now assembling his reserve 2nd Armee under von Salmuth. And from the South front, their operation at Rostov concluded, Manstein is sending the entire SS Panzer Korps. Steiner is coming, my Führer. You can be assured he will deal with this situation in short order.”

  “Steiner?” Hitler brushed the hair from his brow, his other hand hidden behind his back, the one with the palsied tremor that became worse whenever he was agitated. “I thought he was in the Kuban?”

  “Manstein saw fit to pull him out, and Rouff’s 17th Army will now do the job there. They have already crossed the Don and are south of Rostov… about here I expect.”

  Hitler lean in, squinting. “And where is Steiner?”

  “He will assemble here, near Belgorod. It will put him in a perfect position to stop the enemy pincer operation. It would be better, of course, if Model could use his 47th Panzer Korps to strike this southern pincer from the east while Steiner crushes it from the west. Unfortunately, due to your stand fast order, that will not be possible. A pity, because this stretch of river here has only a very few decent crossing points, and Model now has it at his back. If he were on the west bank, he could hold that line with far fewer troops, and then use his panzers to attack. As it stands, there they sit, and likely for some time. A shame to see those divisions stuck east of the river like that. They were all fattened up nicely with the equipment from the other divisions we sent to Armee Group Nord.”

  “Who ordered those panzers to remain east of that river?” Hitler gave Halder an indignant look. “Get them out of there immediately! Move them to assist Steiner, just as you have described it to me a moment ago. After he smashes this southern pincer, then both forces will turn north and smash the other.” He took the pencil from Halder’s hand, leaning to draw an arrow on the map, as if this whole scheme had been his design all along.

  “A much better use of those divisions,” said Halder. “I have no idea who gave that order, but I will see that it is corrected immediately.” He looked at Keitel, who nodded and then quickly withdrew to get the order off to Model before Hitler changed his mind.

  “But remember,” said Hitler, “Voronezh will be held. You will make certain of that.”

  “Model has posted three infantry divisions there,” said Halder.

  The sudden appearance on the map of a complete army that had not been there before had been a balm to Hitler, and his mood had quieted. Yet there was still a restless sense of urgency about him, and he looked about him as if the other officers had stolen something from him, slipping it back into the living room while he wasn’t looking. The threat to the hard won gains of the long summer gave him great anxiety. He had hoped that offensive would finally break his enemy, and now, seeing the Russians still had the strength to mount such an attack, was most unnerving.

  On the 22nd, Kursk was firmly in the enemy’s hands, though the southern pincer had made only 20 kilometers progress against a stubborn by hopeless defense put up by the 29th Panzergrenadier Division. Only a hundred kilometers now separated the two pincers, and while elated that he was finally given permission to extract the 47th Panzer Korps, the order had come only in the nick of time for Model. Getting back over that river would not be easy, and the engineers were the first units to move, given any transport they needed.

  “Get them to the crossing sites and prepare pontoons,” Model told his Chief of Staff. “The rest of the Korps will follow as soon as we can disengage, which may not be easy.”

  * * *

  “Then we will not take Kharkov?” Sergei Kirov was in high spirits, and to think that he now had that option before him was something he still struggled to realize.

  “First things first,” said Zhukov. “Rokossovsky was a little slow with the southern pincer, so I have adjusted the planned meeting point for both groups to this town here, Prokhorovka. That puts the enemy 2nd Tank Army in the bag, and after that we will have a massive mailed fist to turn southwest towards Kharkov. Yet I propose a double thrust. Rokossovsky is going to be reinforced by the addition of 3rd Shock Army and all the mechanized forces assigned to it. They were east of Voronezh, but the Germans have finally come to their senses and started falling back towards the river. It makes no sense to leave those shock troops there. Once they redeploy south through Pavlovsk they can approach the upper Donets. This will leave the forces presently constituting that group free to drive on Kharkov.”

  “And the other thrust?”

  “Timoshenko’s Northern Group could reorient and drive on Bryansk, but that would see both forces taking divergent paths. My judgment would be to let them continue southwest, with the River Desna on their right.”

  “Kiev?” Kirov was amazed. “I had no idea that might be within our reach this soon.”

  “It may not be. Logistics will be very difficult, and we must have Kharkov first. I have surged supply deliveries to keep the mobile troops moving, but we cannot do that indefinitely. In any case, if we send Timoshenko in that direction, it would cover the flank of the Southern Group as it advances on Kharkov, and also be available to support that attack should Kiev prove to be an impractical objective, as it likely will.”

  “Agreed,” said Kirov, literally rubbing his hands with anticipation. “Just getting Kharkov back ag
ain would be a great victory,” he said. “We have lost Rostov and the entire Donets Basin. Volgograd cannot be far behind. Yet in compensation we will get Voronezh and Kharkov.”

  “That is the plan,” said Zhukov, though we have neither at the moment. Getting to Kursk this quickly is certainly noteworthy, but by now the enemy will be pulling in every reserve they have to try and stop us. Word is that the SS Korps is being moved north.”

  “That is correct,” said Berzin. “They moved the 5th SS Division two days ago, and smaller corps assets. The 3rd SS is beginning to arrive now.”

  “So you see why I have decided to reinforce Rokossovsky’s Southern Group. What we could use now is one more army to assure we don’t thin out too much as we move south. 3rd Guards Army is up near Samara, but I plan no offensive action there for some time.”

  “Then move it here,” said Kirov. “We’ll deal with Volkov later. I want everything we can muster here for this offensive, and it still amazes me that you suddenly have all these armies available when only two months ago you were telling me your Operation Uranus was everything you had saved for this winter offensive.”

  “It was,” said Zhukov. “That is where these shock armies in the Southern Group came from. The new mobile formations were a long time building, and 60 days ago I could not use any of them as they were being formed. They were only just starting to build up their brigades with good armor deliveries. Now we have them, and so now we will use them. Mister General Secretary, I have every hope to take Kharkov within 30 days.”

  “What about the SS? What about all those new German Tiger tanks? They have been a real nemesis.”

  “The SS? Tiger tanks? Not this time. The forces I have assembled in these two shock groups are massive. We have two tigers of our own out there, Timoshenko and Rokossovsky, about to meet and be harnessed to Jupiter’s mighty chariot. And if Steiner gets in my way, I will deliver his head on a platter.”

  Part XII

  The Cauldron

  “Round about the cauldron go;

  In the poison'd entrails throw.”

  — William Shakespeare: Macbeth

  Chapter 34

  Christmas Day, 1942

  The first German counterattacks were still defensive in nature, aimed at trying to blunt or simply slow down the Soviet advance on Prokhorovka. Model had shifted 10th Panzergrenadier Division towards Kursk, largely to stave off being surrounded on that flank. The 60th Panzergrenadiers were already fighting there against 1st Shock Army, and now the 13th Panzer Division arrived from the south and went right into action alongside those other two divisions.

  The Russian armies that had closed around Model’s 2nd Panzerarmee like a vise relented that day, though there was a good deal of hooting and gibing from their lines directed at their enemy. They had taken a pounding all summer, and now they were returning the favor.

  In defiance, just before dawn, every German squad that had a weapon with tracer rounds chambered one, and fired it straight up into the sky. To the pilots in German planes who saw it, the sight created a breathtaking outline of the massive pocket that had been formed by the Soviet offensive, stretching from Voronezh west, nearly all the way to Kursk, which was now taken by the Russians. Model’s new HQ was at Stary Oskol, in the very center of that pocket, where the rail line came up from Kharkov.

  That was Model’s lifeline, and it was now being guarded by a very powerful force. It had taken Steiner all of ten days to pull his divisions together near Rostov and find enough rolling stock to get them on the trains. Now, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd SS were finally assembling near Belgorod, and the Wiking Division was already posted further east on the river near Novy Oskol to assist the Reichsführer Brigade opposing the Siberian 5th Shock Army. With Hitler fretting and fuming, Manstein flew to Belgorod to confer with Steiner and plan the defense.

  “Do you have enough to stop them?” he asked Steiner.

  “I have my full Korps up now, though twenty-five percent of it has already been pulled into the defense against their southern pincer. And remember, I left Grossdeutschland and the Brandenburgers with you, so this isn’t the hammer we used to beat them senseless last summer. That said, with the three divisions I have at Belgorod, I am confident I can save Kharkov.”

  “Well, I have some good news for you. I’m pulling Grossdeutschland from its reserve position in the south, and the Brandenburgers are coming too.”

  “Indeed?” Steiner smiled. “That is good news. Then who will take that city for Hitler?”

  “It will be up to the infantry divisions. The Brandenburger Division is now mostly that, but it has four brigades—good motorized infantry. We’ll mate it with some of the special tank units we’ve been building and it will remain a formidable force.”

  “How soon will these additional troops be here?”

  “Two or three days. In the meantime, I’d advise staying right where you are. Let them keep pushing, but when you attack, it will likely be towards Kursk. We need to throw Hitler a bone. He’s been howling like a mad dog at OKW. But what we need even more is something on the other side to attack in conjunction with your offensive.”

  “Is there anything available?”

  “24th Panzer Division has been rebuilding at Odessa for the last 30 days, and a few of the divisions we sent to the North Front might be combat ready. Getting permission to use them is the key. I may have to fly to OKW and make another personal intervention.”

  “General, I wish you good luck. Frankly, pulling my Korps out of that hell hole at Volgograd did me and the men a great service. I couldn’t see that then, but I know it now.”

  “Correct. This is the best mobile Korps on the field, and you must always think that way. Blitzkrieg, Steiner, blitzkrieg. Never accept a battle of attrition when you can find a way to maneuver, even if it means you must temporarily yield ground to the enemy. This is something Hitler simply cannot grasp. He is still fighting the last war, where every trench line was fought over day and night. At times, yes, we must be stubborn. Look at Model! That man is a master of defense. He should have pulled out seven days ago, but Hitler would not permit that. Yet he held when he had to, and that has given us the situation we face at this moment. So you will strike towards Kursk, but the good thing here is that we still have a decent road and rail line from Prokhorovka up to Model. He isn’t cut off yet, and he can still fight. You can take that road right towards his headquarters and then swing west towards Kursk, a backhand blow when you do so. Slap that northern pincer right across the face, and see how they like it.”

  Saying and planning were one thing, doing those things on the field of battle another. The Russian forces were still in high gear, and Zhukov’s statement to Sergei Kirov concerning the strength of the two pincers he had in motion was no idle boast. Steiner was probably correct in his assessment that he could stop that northern pincer with the three SS divisions he already had preparing to attack. Taking Kursk would be another matter. The great northern bear claw was now composed of no fewer than six tank corps, with a seventh on the line and pushing west instead of south to pose an additional threat.

  As for the southern pincer, its main problem now was the lack of bridging equipment. Most of that was still back at the Don, and there were not enough bridging units to come forward with the advance. The Oskol River was now the main obstacle, but 4th Guard Tank Corps used its organic bridging engineers to shore up the ice and get a brigade across. More pontoon regiments were on the way, but the rail lines could not get them close enough to arrive easily. They had to disembark east of the Don, then cross that river and move by truck, and that would take several days.

  In spite of all this, the Christmas pause was short lived. The Soviets waited out most of the day, the men eating deliveries of special rations, but the fuel trucks were still working overtime. Then, as midnight approached, Zhukov ordered the attack to resume. Just to irritate his enemy further, he also ordered a small spoiling attack at Moscow, where the Germans had sat on their side of the burned
out city all summer, that portion of the front completely static.

  The Soviets took Oboyan north of Prokhorovka, though 13th Panzer was still counterattacking in a desperate attempt to hold. West of that town, a hole had developed, and Steiner could not ignore it. He had the Brandenburgers on the trains just west of Belgorod, and the Russians were getting too close. He could not allow them to plow into those trains and interfere with that division’s assembly operation. So, with 1st and 2nd SS divisions formed up and ready, he turned them loose. It was not the backhand blow that Manstein had suggested, not the sly uppercut aimed at Kursk from within the neck that fed Model’s pocket. Instead he was going to punch the Russians right on the nose of that northern pincer, and bring it to a complete halt.

  He could do that, but this bear had two massive clawed paws, and the situation on the Oskol River, which had been stable for the last five days, suddenly exploded. It had taken Rokossovsky all that time to sort out the massive mess of his crossing sites on the Don south of Voronezh, and get bridging equipment up. Now his troops surged over The Oskol River, swarming around the one rock in their path, the Nordland Regiment of the Wiking Division. Some units then moved due west towards Prokhorovka, others northwest towards Kursk.

  If Steiner had deployed as Manstein wanted, they would have run right into three SS Panzer Divisions, but that had not happened. The massive buildup of troops from the southern pincer now began flowing over the Oskol River like water over a dam, from Valuyki in the south, as far north as Stary Oskol, where the Soviet 234th Rifle Division had already cut the rail line behind Model’s headquarters. The Wiking Division, with the Reichsführer Brigade had been relying on that river obstacle, and they could in no way hold such an extended front. The Nordland Regiment was cut off from the rest of the division, and began falling back, but to the northwest. Even Gille’s HQ was under attack, and had to retreat south away from Novy Oskol.