Ironfall (Kirov Series Book 30)

by Schettler, John

  “These new troops change everything,” Hitler began, finding fresh wind in his sails.

  “But it is only one division,” said Manstein, “even if it is well padded.”

  “It is an SS division,” Himmler reminded him.

  “In name only,” said Manstein. “I propose that this new Kampfgruppe be sent to relieve Dietrich, and then I can use a real SS division to check the central pincer.”

  Himmler had no objection. “How the troops are used is an operational matter I will leave up to you.”

  “Good,” said Manstein, his eyes looking over the map. Now he had to recompute a new firing solution on the fly, for it was clear that Hitler had seized upon this unexpected reinforcement as a reason to buttress his insistence that Model and Heinrici should hold their ground. That could soon spill over to Paulus, so Manstein had to press his attack here before he could ever hope to do so on the field.

  “In light of this new development, this is what I now propose. Do not send KG Wagner to Kharkov, but instead send it here, to Chuguyev. That is where they must cross the Donets if they want Kharkov. Very well, let Model stand his ground. I will use Leibstandarte for the counterattack if it can be freed up, but I will still need to have General Heinrici adjust the lines of his 4th Army to do what I plan. He should consolidate his line in this heavy wooded country around Volchansk. Dietrich cannot stop that second pincer alone, not even with the assistance of the Reichsführer Brigades and this new division from Himmler.”

  “Then I will get you more panzers,” said Hitler, prompting the general to raise an eyebrow.”

  “More panzers? From where?”

  “Armeegruppe A will be a good start. OKW tells me the situation near Bryansk has stabilized. I have allowed them to move in infantry from Armeegruppe Nord as a temporary holding measure. So I will detach the 48th Panzer Korps and send it along with this new SS division from Himmler.”

  “Knobelsdorff? That is a very good start,” said Manstein.

  “He has several divisions,” said Hitler, “but OKW insists that only two can be sent. Do you have a recommendation?”

  “11th Panzer.” Manstein did not hesitate one moment. These were resources from Armeegruppe Mitte that he had not expected to be available. “Balck would be just the man I need here, and any of the other divisions will do well enough. Send the 9th under Scheller. Those two fought well together in the Don region last winter.”

  “Very well,” said Hitler. “I will see that the orders are given immediately, and I have already done one more thing. The 6th Panzer Division has been in Germany for the last two months refitting, but it is now ready for operations. I was going to add it to Armeegruppe Nord, but it would seem the need is greater here at the moment. It is very strong, with all the new Lions and Panthers, and I gave it orders to move here before I left OKW.”

  Hitler had come with things in his pockets. His position as Commander of the entire Army meant that he could place these new chips on the table any time he chose, and he would use them to spin the wheel and get his way in the arguments he had been having with Manstein. Model and Heinrici could then be ordered to stand fast, as he wished.

  Chapter 24

  Manstein was elated—Knobelsdorff, and with two good Panzer Divisions, and now a fresh unit from Germany! Now he had his sword back for the left flank. Counting 1st SS and Himmler’s new division, that would make five mobile divisions at his command there—six with the 22dn Panzer—and Steiner would bring three more after the Lower Don operation. It was nothing like the real history of this battle, where the Germans could barely scrape up the troops to hold the line and the Russians nearly went all the way to the Dnieper before Manstein’s counterattack.

  The discussion would go on another two hours that morning, mostly fiddling over timetables, the lines Manstein wanted to assume with Henrici’s troops, and Hitler’s meddling right down to the Division and sometimes even the battalion level. The Führer’s surprise gift would end the arguments over Model’s situation, and there would now be no more talk of any major withdrawals by the 2nd Army. Heinrici would be permitted to adjust his lines as Manstein wanted to allow him to screen Belgorod and help defend Volchansk. The Reichsführer Brigades would be used in conjunction with Leibstandarte as a defensive foil until Knobelsdorff could arrive.

  Hitler eventually relented, allowing Manstein freedom to move Paulus and his 6th Army to facilitate his planned counteroffensive with Steiner. It was a compromise that promised to save the front in the south while actually losing all the territory it had been screening and defending, but it promised to stabilize that sector quickly, and with that, to free up the divisions needed to save Kharkov. This was uppermost on Hitler’s mind. Manstein had only won half the battle in this long conference. Time was flying, and now he had to get back to his headquarters at Rostov and win the real battle on the field.

  His prospects were darkening by the hour. When the last remnants of the trapped 17th Korps finally retreated towards Millerovo, there was nothing but artillery. It’s rear area posting had enabled it to escape the trap that savaged the rest of the Korps. By the time he reached his headquarters again, he had Grossdeutschland and Totenkopf finally assembled at Millerovo, and Das Reich was about 25 kilometers northeast of Star O’blesk. He had hoped to have all three of those divisions together at Millerovo, but the lack of train transport had forced 2nd SS to move by road, and with that time lost, the Soviets got between the two German groups. So now instead of the scythe like attack he had planned to launch, the best he could do was a pincer operation against the enemy spearhead formations, the mobile corps of Katukov’s 1st Tank Army.

  Furthermore, 51st Korps had been slow to withdraw, and though it reached Bolshinka, it was in no shape to turn about and attack north as planned. As an expedient measure, he called General Hollidt at Novorossiysk, and canceled any planned attack along the coast towards Sukhumi. He needed infantry, and Hollidt had four good divisions available, so he ordered him to send three divisions north through Rostov to Voroshilovgrad. His Chief of Staff was told not to send the position update to OKW for 48 hours. Manstein was taking no chance on Hitler intervening again and meddling with his plans. The question now was whether to attack, or wait? How strong was the enemy? Could the three strong mobile divisions he had do the job?

  That afternoon he finally gave the order, telephoning General Hausser of the 2nd SS at Star O’blesk and telling him to move. “Meet me at G7,” he finished, “if you can get there.” That was the grid map designation for the village of Kantimirovka, about 85 kilometers northeast of Star O’blesk. Then he got on the radio to Papa Hörnlein and said simply: “Stage One. Move now.”

  Operation Unterhöhlen (Undercut) had begun, but it was just a sideshow, intended by Zhukov to do exactly what it had accomplished. It had forced Manstein to move three of his best divisions to the scene, and well away from the main attack he had pushed across the Oskol River. The Germans would find the Russians beginning to fall back even as they mustered for the attack, a game of cat and mouse played by Zhukov on the Don Front.

  He had smashed a small segment of the line, creating the appearance of a dangerous threat to Rostov that Manstein simply had to answer. His divisions had halted their advance and started to withdraw, sending out delaying groups to draw in the German attack. In fact, he wanted to make it seem like his troops were taken by surprise and on the run, but he had planned this operation to punch and fade long ago. Mikhail Katukov had become a master of hit and run tactics at Mtsensk against Guderian’s drive for Tula. Now he seemed to simply vanish, taking his 1st Tank Army with him, because Zhukov had no intention of pushing for Rostov, at least not with this offensive. He had bigger fish to fry.

  He wanted Kharkov…. And all that lay beyond.

  * * *

  No matter how strong, an offensive dissipates with each successive hour it rolls forward. Even the greatest waves break upon the shoreline and race inland, to eventually slow and fade into the sand. In military
parlance, this was known as the Law of Overstretch. As the offensive forces move forward, they create new flanks which must be screened and guarded while the spearheads proceed. This slowly pulled offensive units into defensive roles, weakening the strength of the attack. Units also become scattered and spaced out, some racing ahead, others slower and more cumbersome in the advance.

  Manstein knew this well enough, and so his principle strategy on defense was to simply assemble his counterattack force somewhere on the flank of the enemy advance, and then let them push forward into thin air, showing him what they really wanted, and where their terminal objective was. The terrain involved meant nothing, except in key areas like Rostov, or other major communications centers the Army relied upon for its supplies. Otherwise, the whole of the Donbass meant nothing, nor did he see any value in the Donets Basin, aside from the vital rail lines that passed through that sector to cross the Donets and feed his troops.

  Where Hitler was obsessed with holding hard won ground, Manstein would hand it back to the enemy without a moment’s hesitation, and then lay a carefully planned ambush to tear into his scattered flank and roll up the offensive in a sweeping counterattack. In doing so, he would eventually get back all the terrain he had yielded, restoring the front as he had already done several times. This “Elastic Defense” was something simply beyond the grasp of Hitler’s mind, which was why Heinrici would see his army slowly exposed to the danger of being pocketed.

  Yet Hitler’s intransigence concerning Model and the holding of Prokhorovka had a good deal to do with the dissipation of 5th Shock Group in the northern pincer. 5th Shock Army had to leave its 87th, 300th and 315th Rifle divisions behind. Zhadov also detached his 39th Guards Division, and these forces had invested Prokhorovka, where Oppenländer’s 305th Division sat in a walnut shaped pocket, completely cut off. Then, on the western shoulder of the northern pincer, the remainder of Zhadov’s 5th Guards army had been deployed to hold that flank. This removed eight divisions that had been in the breakthrough attack, leaving only four rifle divisions and the mobile forces of 5th Tank Army to continue the drive south.

  Those troops were 12 kilometers north of Belgorod when they ran into Model’s hastily deployed defensive screen near the village of Ternovka. Model now had the whole of Friesner’s 102nd Division, and he had scraped together every Sturm and Panzerjager battalion he could find from Korps and Army level units. The three Soviet Tank Corps built up like water behind a thin dam, taking some time to reorganize after the drive south and start their attack. Just as it seemed that that levee would be breached, Model got news that his 22nd Panzer Division was finally arriving by rail at Belgorod.

  “So, one of my lost sheep returns to the fold,” he said. “A most timely arrival. Now I have the strength to hold here, and save both Belgorod and Tomarovka.” Both were supply depot cities for the Germans, and the rail line from Belgorod also ran northwest to support the rest of 2nd Army. He did not want that rail line cut, for then he would have to rely on the rails through Lebedin and Sumy to feed the western portion of his position.

  By contrast, the withdrawal of Heinrici’s 4th Army towards the Donets and Volchansk had allowed the string of Soviet Field Armies that had been opposing him to also advance. The Soviets were cracking the whip, slowly jogging west to try and create some snap near the spearheads of the northern pincer. As their line rippled west, it eventually freed up elements of the 5th Shock Army that had been watching that flank of the advance, allowing them to move west to the fight developing north of Belgorod.

  Meanwhile, the attack over the Oskol River had completely overrun the Luftwaffe Korps and Osttruppen units, and it was surging southwest like a great tide, unopposed. The long columns of men and machines darkened the steppe and farmland east of the Donets. The whole region between that river and the Oskol was empty space, and the Soviet attack was flowing into it like a great waterfall of iron. The only obstacle between Zhukov’s troops and the city of Kharkov was the swollen course of the Donets, and to that barrier the Germans were rushing every available unit they could find.

  KG Wagner and his new Nordland Panzer Division had disembarked from the trains west of Kharkov, and on the morning of April 12 they were marching proudly through the sullen grey streets of the city. Hermann Balck’s vaunted 11th Panzer Division was scheduled to arrive there the following morning. To the north, the Stone Man, Sepp Dietrich, had his 1st SS Division dug in east of the river, carving out a sizeable bridgehead between Volchansk and Stary Saltov. Heinrici’s 4th Army continued its withdrawal, and was now arriving at the heavily wooded zone east of Belgorod. Model’s line in the north was still on its old front, but it fish-hooked at Oboyan, bending almost due south. He made several requests to Manstein for permission to pull out of that city, which would allow him to close a big gap in the front northwest of Belgorod. If the enemy had another army, they might have swept right into 2nd Army’s communications and supply zone, but the Russians had only one more Army in reserve, and it was not in that sector.

  The quiet that evening belied the storm that was coming, but with the arrival of all these new Panzer Divisions, the Germans were more than ready for a fight. The question was whether to launch an immediate counterattack, or to wait and assume defensive positions.

  * * *

  Sepp Dietrich had moved his 1st SS Division into the woodland south of Volchansk along the river. It was an old town, dating back to 1684 when it became the stronghold of Cossack leader Vovchi Vody, and in modern times it was called Vovchanck, partly for after its founder, and also for the river Vovcha that ran through its domain.

  48th Panzer Korps Commander Otto Knobelsdorff arrived there to confer with Dietrich, the rain heavy that night on the roof of the hotel chosen for the HQ.

  “So, we finally have some clout,” said Dietrich as he shook Knobelsdorff’s hand.

  “What’s the situation?” asked Knobelsdorff.

  “Manstein sent me Rodt’s 22nd Panzer, and it arrived this morning. I asked them to get up north and screen Belgorod. I assume you’re coming with some steel in hand.”

  “Balck will be at Kharkov in the morning.”

  Hermann Balck and his 11th Panzer Division was fast earning a reputation as a fire Brigade for any crisis on the front. His division moved through Bogodukhov on the trains that night, intending to stop at Kharkov and use the bigger rail yards there to unload the heavy equipment and tanks.

  “Balck is a life saver,” said Dietrich. Now that his division is on hand, we have a real Panzer Korps here. Manstein has placed my division under your general control.” Dietrich smiled, preferring a slight bow of his head.

  “What’s this talk about another SS Division coming in?” asked Knobelsdorff.

  “Himmler’s little legion,” said Dietrich. “He’s thrown together a makeshift Panzer division he calls Nordland. It has a lot of volunteers from the Low Countries and Belgium, and to that he added the Wallonian Regiment. He got his hands on some IV-F2’s, and so now he’s calling it a panzer division. Good for him. I’m not sure when they arrive, but I expect we’ll hear about it. Himmler flew all the way to Army Group South and horned in on the Führer’s meeting with Manstein to get permission to send us his latest creation. I’m told some of the men from the Wiking Division went over to seed the regiments. If they can fight half as good as Gille’s Division, all the better for us here.”

  “And the Russians?”

  “Oh, they’ll be here soon too. They pocketed the 305th at Prokhorovka and drove for Belgorod, but Model had stopped them. They may be no more than 25 kilometers north of our lines now, but it’s the attack coming from the east that we need to worry about.”

  “How strong are they up north?”

  “Model tells me it’s a Shock Army backed by several tank corps. Siebert folded his lines back, opening the gate for the bull. Now we just have to find a way to skewer the damn thing.”

  Knobelsdorff was quiet for a moment, nodding his head as he took off his gloves. He had s
pent the last months of that severe winter beating off a strong Soviet offensive aimed at Bryansk. Now he had another one on his hands.

  “And this attack from the east?”

  “They blew through the Oskol River line between Novyy Oskol and Valuki—four or five armies. They’ll be here in a day or two.”

  “Five armies?”

  “At least that many, and first line troops. There are two shock armies, Guards thick as fleas on a mule, and at least four or five mobile formations have been spotted.”

  “Good lord… It seems I’m out of the frying pan and into the fire here. I’d better get word to Balck to work quickly. We’ll also get 9th Panzer, but it may be another day getting here from Bryansk. If they hit us with five armies, they mean business.”

  “Manstein thinks they want Kharkov.”

  “Apparently….”

  “Anything more I should know?”

  “Only that the Führer wants Kharkov too, so we’re here to restore order and make sure he keeps it.”

  “Very well,” said Knobelsdorff. “Are your men in good positions?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then we’ll wait and see what they throw at us. But be ready to move to a fast operational counterattack on my order. Will we have any infantry freed up?”

  “The Luftwaffe Korps that was hit on the Oskol River line has all but evaporated, and most of the Osttruppen as well. Raus is at Poltava with two divisions, and he’s been told to get his men ready to move by rail, but I’ve heard nothing further about that.”