Ironfall (Kirov Series Book 30)

by Schettler, John

  That river crossing near Urupskiy has unhinged everything. Now I must either leave 3rd Army there to die, or try to save it. Maykop is lost, but Hitler won’t have it. I’ll see it burn first. Maykop is lost, but 3rd Army might still live, and I might still be able to keep Groznyy.

  When he spoke again, his voice was dark and serious. “Hitler wants my oil, does he? Get a message to fat Gorsov and tell him to take everything he has to Nevinomyssk and hold that place. Then signal General Timalov with 3rd Army. He is to withdraw immediately, across the Urup River and along the road to Cherkessk. Inform him of that river crossing operation and see if he can stop it. Then I want all the rigs, wellheads, pipeline and drilling equipment at Maykop completely demolished. Understand? He is to burn the wellheads.”

  He who controls a thing, can destroy a thing, thought Volkov. So before control of Maykop slips from my hands, I will destroy it. The only way I can get Hitler to negotiate again is if I can deny him what he wants. I can sacrifice Maykop, but perhaps I can stop them and save the rest. I was foolish to deploy forward as I did. I should have done what the Russians did in the real history, and so now I learn a hard lesson. This German Army is not to be underestimated.

  3rd Army was a large formation, following the model for all regular armies of Orenburg. While typical Soviet Armies might have five to seven divisions, those of Orenburg had nine regular rifle divisions, a mech corps consisting of three brigades, an armored car regiment, engineers and artillery. All those divisions would now begin a general retreat, which could be quite messy. They would also be joined by the three remaining rifle divisions in the Kuban Rifle Corps, and Gorlov’s remnants of the 3rd Kazakh army that had been on this side of the Kuban. So now the mad rush was on, all his troops stampeding towards the line of the Urup River, and it burned his neck to think he could have withdrawn them there five days earlier in good order, and with his relations with Germany still intact… But without the Kuban; without the Taman Peninsula; without Maykop. Hitler would still take them all now, he knew, which was the hardest blow.

  Sergei Kirov would not make peace, but Volkov might still wheedle a deal with the Siberians. They might give him a cease fire for Omsk, and then perhaps he could take four divisions from the 8th Army and send them to Astrakhan. That, too, was a matter of some concern to him, for Astrakhan was the big supply and depot center for all his operations on the Volga, and the gateway to the Tengiz and Kashagan oil fields. Where would this fast moving German mobile force go next? He had to be ready to oppose any thrust it might make.

  Think, Volkov! He chided himself. “What do I need, and what can I live without? I need Groznyy and Baku, that much is certain. I desperately need Astrakhan. As for Volgograd, as much as it was a point of pride to take that place, and a long held objective, the city is actually worthless at the moment, a pile of rubble. So I no longer need Volgograd, and if I abandon it, then I can simply fall back on my original fortification lines east of Beketova. 2nd Kazakh can hold that, along with the Turkomen Corps. Then I can pull all of 2nd Army out of the Don Bend. Kirov’s troops won’t bother me, because they still have the Germans to worry about. So off we go…

  “That is not all,” he said to the Adjutant, and slowly dictated his orders. “Send to Rybolkin and the 2nd Army. The bridges at Kalach, Nizhne Chirskaya and Golubinskaya are to be destroyed. His army is to move east of the Volga to the rail depots at Volkovskiy. All divisions in the Turkomen Corps will move to positions along the old fortification line south of Beketovo. There will be no changes to 5th Army dispositions, but all airfields and rail stations west of the Volga should be demolished and mined. This withdrawal should be covered by massed volley fire of all artillery, including all the Volga River forts.”

  That last bit was just to stick a thumb in Sergei Kirov’s eye as he broke the long held clinch the two of them had been in over Volgograd. He was giving up everything he had fought for and gained since the outbreak of the war, and all in the hope that he might still keep everything he possessed before this conflict started. Whether the Siberians made peace or not, he would trade the rubble of Volgograd for the 2nd Army of Orenburg, and bring it to the Caucasus.

  The 1st of April was a very long day.

  Part IV

  The Hammer

  “It’s better to be the hammer than the anvil.”

  — Emily Dickinson

  See Maps of “Operation Hammer” 1 thru 3

  Available on the book page for Ironfall at Writingshop.ws

  Chapter 10

  The events in the Middle East had already had a dramatic effect on the campaign in Algeria and Tunisia. With O’Connor stripped of both 7th and 1st Armored Divisions, as well as 50th Northumbrian Division, his ability to launch an attack capable of pushing through the multi-lined defenses of the Mareth position was neutralized. In effect, his presence at Mareth served only to compel the Germans to deploy several divisions of their own there to keep the back door to Tunisia firmly closed. To do this the Germans had to leave their 90th and 164th Light Divisions dug in on that line, backed by three Italian Divisions.

  While Patton had stopped Operation Sturmflut with his brilliantly aggressive moves, he soon found himself suffering from the eventual dispersion of his forces. His six divisions were now reorganized into two operational corps. Patton had the 34th, and 1st Infantry Divisions, and 2nd Armored, and he kept his promise to Truscott, giving him command of 3rd and 9th Infantry, and the 1st Armored Division.

  Truscott now would hold the center of the American position, which stretched from the vicinity of Souk Ahras, east through the highland country to Le Kef, and then touched Patton’s Corps around Bouz Aziz. The fiery commanding General had taken that place with CCA of his 2nd Armored Division, pronouncing it the gateway to Highway 4 to Tunis. Yet Patton had been unable to push on up that highway with just that single combat command at his disposal. The road there led through high mountains, and he would need infantry, which was well dispersed.

  Patton’s lines stretched down west of the mountain passes on the Western Dorsal leading to Sibiba, Sbeitla and Kasserine, which were all still in German hands. CCA of 2nd Armored was still facing off against the bulk of 21st Panzer Division at Kasserine Pass, the 1st Infantry Division was deployed to screen and defend Tebessa, and the 34th was still in its defensive position well south astride the road leading to Ghafsa.

  The American Army was now like a great wave that had rolled eastward, expanding in a wide crest as it went, until all its divisions were in line abreast, with no real reserve in hand to allow for a concerted offensive anywhere. The arrival of the 337th Division had done much to allow the Germans to stabilize their line in the center, and now Kesselring felt that he could finally hold.

  As for Montgomery, he still had his 6th and 10th Armored Divisions trying to take Souk Ahras, but was foiled by the stubborn defense of the Hermann Goring Division and most of 10th Panzer. On the coast, he had forced the Germans to give up the port of Bone, but they had done so only to shorten their lines and consolidate their defense. Kesselring’s boast concerning Montgomery was true. Anything the British general could claim as a conquest had been given to him by the Germans. Try as he might, Monty could not make any further progress either.

  Then the rains of late February and early March came in one deluge after another, and the roads became ribbons of mud. It was a stalemate, which was exactly what Kesselring had been trying to achieve, like a skillful chess player, knowing he could not beat his opponent, but playing for the draw. After of few weeks of inconsequential probing attacks and artillery duels along the line, a meeting was called by Eisenhower to assess the situation and see what could be done to get the offensives rolling again. Patton, Bradley and Montgomery were in attendance, and for the first time Patton had to voice the same complaint that had been on the lips of the Germans for so long.

  “The front is now so broad that we’ve had to keep both armored divisions right on the line. I’ve got no Sunday Punch I can throw—nothing in
reserve.”

  “In one sense,” said Eisenhower, “that has also forced the Germans to spread out their panzer forces on defense as well. We know what they can do if they concentrate two or three of those divisions on the attack. Now it looks as though the Germans are playing defense.”

  “And they’re damn good at it,” said Bradley. “Ike, we could use another infantry division or two. Then we could pull the two armored divisions off the line, and have something substantial in hand to pick one point on the German front and punch right through.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” said Patton.

  “Well gentlemen, you may just get your wish,” said Ike. “We’ve been training up Troy Middleton’s outfit for the Sicily operation, but if we don’t shake things loose here, that will never happen. So I’ve got authorization to move the 45th Infantry here to Algeria now, and I can also get you Matt Ridgeway’s 82nd.”

  “An Airborne Division?” said Patton, with a dubious look on his face.

  “It was training for Sicily as well,” said Eisenhower, so we got this crazy idea. Montgomery wanted that port at Bone, and it didn’t look like the Germans would give the place up. Well, he sent in two Commando units for an end around on the coast, and it shook things up. The Germans gave up the port and fell back to consolidate their lines. So we got to thinking about Ridgeway. We’ve got the transports, and we can protect them. What do you two think about an operation where we plop down the 82nd behind enemy lines—the whole damn division?”

  There was a light in Patton’s eyes. “I like it, Ike,” he said quickly. It’s audacious, and I’ve always said that audacity was good for a first down if you put some guts behind it. You give me the 45th and I can pull the whole of 2nd Armored back. The 82nd will be out there like a good wide receiver, and then I’ll run the damn football with Hell on Wheels—right up the middle. You pick the spot, and I’ll gain ground for you. I’ll get you that touchdown.”

  “Good enough,” said Eisenhower. “Let me show you what we have in mind.” He walked over to the map. “I’m sending in the 45th to Truscott so he can take over this segment of the line here, relieving all of 1st Armored and also CCB of 2nd Armored. George, both those divisions go back to you again, and I want you to move down here. There’s a secondary road through this narrow mountain spur northeast of Kasserine. That’s your axis of attack for 2nd Armored. Then I want Old Ironsides up here on this road to Sbeitla, which is right where we want to drop Ridgeway and the 82nd. He’ll cut the main road and rail to Kasserine, and if you can punch through these mountain passes quick enough, we’ll put both their 15th and 7th Panzers out of a job. What do you think?”

  “It’ll be dangerous,” said Bradley. “We’ll have to make a night drop, and we’ll need clear weather. What do you think, George?”

  “Magnificent. I wish I had thought of it. Then again, if I had Ridgeway and Middleton last month I might already be in Sbeitla, and then some.”

  “I’m sure you would,” said Eisenhower. “The way we figure this is that if we can grab Sbeitla, the Germans will have to give up Kasserine, Thelepte, and probably Ghafsa right along with them. From Sbeitla, we could go right up this road towards the pass at Faid to threaten Sfax, or take Highway 3 northeast towards Kairouin and Sousse. We could cut the German position right in two.”

  “Will we have enough to do the job?” asked Bradley.

  “We’ll get a little help from the British. They’ll bring in an independent infantry brigade to relieve our 3rd Infantry on Monty’s right flank and allow Eddy to move it towards Le Kef. We figure that Truscott could then pose a credible threat in that sector, which will force the Germans to keep it well defended. That’s when we drop the 82nd and then you get rolling, General Patton. We want to kick this thing off by Saint Patty’s Day, so I’ll be moving a lot of new units in. We’re building out this command as 7th Army, and it’s all yours George. I can also give you two more Ranger Battalions, two independent tank battalions, a tank destroyer battalion and engineers, so you’ll have something in the cookie jar. And we’ll beef up the artillery with seven more battalions at the Army level. That’ll give you some clout for that breakthrough operation.”

  Patton was elated. Just when things looked to be slowing down in the mud and rain, the promise of all these reinforcements, and an operation sanctioned by Eisenhower himself, buoyed his spirits. “Ike,” he said, “you’re a man after my own heart. But I’d like to make a little request if I might. You say there’s a couple armored battalions at the Army level? Well I’d like to mate them up with some armored infantry, and throw in some of that artillery to boot. That would create another independent combat command—a nice little running back that I can push through any hole we find in the enemy line, and I know exactly who I want for it—Creighton Abrams. If there any man who loves the armor like I do, its old Colonel Abe.”

  “Abrams? Isn’t he with 4th Armored in the UK?”

  “A damn waste of a good officer if he is. Let someone else do the training. I need men like Abrams here on the battlefield. Now, we’re rooting out the slackards. I don’t know what you decided to do with Fredendall, but now we’ve got our money on some really good numbers. Truscott is top notch and so is Harmon. You get me that infantry and Creighton Abrams, and I’ve got my A Team ready to roll. We’ll get to Sbeitla, and all the way to Faid Pass.”

  “Alright, George,” said Eisenhower, “I’ll see if I can pull some strings.”

  Patton would take the old “Blade Force” units that he had been using as a kind of armored cavalry unit, and then move in those two medium armored battalions, the 70th and 753rd. Then all he needed was some mechanized infantry, and Eisenhower would wheedle away the 10th Armored Infantry from 4th Armored in the UK and have them shipped over while the army waited out the rains. Patton found an engineer battalion, and he already had three new armored artillery battalions at the Army level with the newly arriving 5th Armored Artillery Group. When he rolled all that together, he had his new Combat Command, and Creighton Abrams was going to be the quarterback.

  The only concern Eisenhower still expressed was whether the mechanized forces could get through those narrow mountain passes all along the Western Dorsal. “We’ve got good aerial photography of the whole area,” he said. “Job one is to get to Sibiba with a two-pronged attack. I want you to hit them from the north along this road through Rohia, and then hammer at them from the west on the road to Thala. Once we get Sibiba, a detachment can continue down Route 71 towards Sbeitla, and that will put them behind any German defense of Kasserine Pass. The main effort, however, will be to continue east, but that’s where I get worried.”

  “Looks like some tough country that way,” said Bradley.

  “It is. This big mountain spur here is impassible to armor, but there is a gap you can use between Ket el Amar and El Bechita.” He fingered the area on the map. “Now this northern spur here, Djebel Abiod, can be crossed by infantry if need be. The Hathob River flows north around that, and there are some tracks that could be passable to light armor.”

  “Sounds like we’ll need infantry there,” said Patton. “I know I’ve robbed Truscott of 1st Armored again, but maybe I could talk him out of an RCT of the 45th Infantry. They could sweep that area and find routes for the armor.”

  “I’ll see about that,” said Ike. “But getting that gap at El Amar will be the main thing. Once you get through there to El Bechita, you’ve got good open ground to the passes at Faid. There are two of them. See this long narrow ridge running north and south? This pass at the north end is called Sidi Faid. That’s the rail gap to Sousse. The one down south here is Faid proper, on the main road to Sfax.”

  “Won’t we want Fondouk?” said Patton.

  “If you can take that, all the better,” said Eisenhower. “Once we get through the Western Dorsal, we’ll have another meeting to discuss where we make our main thrust.” He looked directly at Patton when he said this. “And George, before you get to running off into the blue, I wan
t to know about it.”

  “Well hell,” said Patton. “Once you complete a good long pass, you don’t have your receiver stop and ask which way he ought to go. If we get to either port it’s a touchdown.”

  “I understand what you’re saying, but you stay near a radio just the same.”

  “Fair enough, Ike.”

  “Alright, there’s a lot more that goes into this. We’re dredging the port at Philippeville so it can receive liberty ships there, and opening up Bone to receive supplies and equipment. Tank replacements for our forces will come in through Philippeville and load onto transporters to move to Tebessa. GQ thinks we can move over 90,000 tons through Philippeville this month. Beyond that, we’ve received a lot more rolling stock for the rail lines. We can move 40 trains per day now through Constantine, with 10,000 tons each. We also just received 4,500 new trucks through Casablanca and Oran, and we’ll get another 2000 per month from this point forward. That should keep you rolling, gentlemen, so have at ‘em.”

  It was a logistical base that would have had the Germans drooling. They barely had that many trucks scattered through all their divisions, and their use of the rail lines remained limited to available rolling stock, which was scant. This tremendous logistical advantage would be the real hammer that would smash the German defense in Tunisia, not Patton’s tanks, no matter how gallant and aggressive they were. The Allies could use even a minor port like Philippeville and move 90,000 tons through it, and this was vastly augmented by shipments to Oran and Algiers. By contrast, in the month of February, the Germans received no more than 25,000 tons through the much larger ports of Bizerte and Tunis, a shortfall of 55,000 tons.