Nexus Deep (Kirov Series Book 31)

by Schettler, John

  “Very well,” said Katukov, his blood up with the new day, and ready for a brawl. As he moved south, 3rd Mech Corps was used to screen the western approaches to Berezovka, while 31st Tank Corps attacked Verkhopenye. The east was being covered by 8th Guards Army, and as their first divisions reached the main road to Oboyan between Pokrovka and Verkhopenye, they met the Grossdeutschland Division. Behind that front, both 5th Shock and 5th Tank Armies were now in a pocket, a great circle on the situation map, with a diameter of about 16 kilometers.

  Yet the decision made by Rokossovsky did have a strong effect on the offensive as a whole. Instead of seven panzer divisions advancing north, Balck’s 11th was now widely deployed on the left flank against 21st Army and elements of Katukov’s 3rd Mech. On the left, most of Dietrich’s 1st SS was holding against 5th Guards Army. In the center, the bulk of Hausser’s 2nd SS and Scheller’s 9th Panzer were just north of the pocket. This left only three divisions now in the advance, 6th Panzer, Totenkopf, Grossdeutschland . That was only 40% of the initial offensive power that began the operation, and meeting two new strong Soviet armies brought the advance to a standstill.

  All of 42nd Infantry Korps was wrapped around those two trapped Soviet armies, but it wasn’t quite enough, unless the enemy position could be compressed. The defense being weakest in the north led to the decision to use 9th Panzer and Das Reich to attack there instead of moving north. The plan was to drastically compress that pocket, which would allow it to be invested by the infantry, then freeing up the panzers to continue north.

  The 2nd SS was tightly concentrated, and it fell like a hammer on the northern edge of that pocket, with the second blow delivered by 9th Panzer. The perimeter began to buckle like a dented shield, collapsing inward towards the center of the pocket. They would continue the attack until well after sunset, and into the early morning hours of May 27th.

  Rokossovsky’s decision to expose 5th Shock and 5th Tank to the possibility of rapid destruction was a gamble that had at least done what he anticipated. If those troops had pulled out, then the infantry of the German 42nd Korps would be holding on the shoulders instead of Balck and Dietrich. And the Germans would still have all seven Panzer divisions available to continue to prosecute their attack. He did so because he knew one thing that Katukov did not know, Vatutin was preparing another massive counterblow in the south with 1st and 2nd Shock Groups—exactly what Manstein had predicted and feared.

  That night another cable was sent to General Nikolai Vatutin, the dour faced commander of the newly established “Donets Front.” It read simply—ENEMY FORCES WELL ENGAGED – ADVANCE HALTED AND OUR LINES STABLE.

  That sent a one word message to General Yeremenko of the 1st Shock Army, which rippled down the line between the Donets and Oskol Rivers—RUMYANTSEV. It was the code name for the Soviet counterattack aimed at unhinging the German Kursk offensive. In application, this started rifle regiments probing forward to come adjacent to the German front, marking their positions, and reconnoitering for potential weak zones. Messages were sent to Popov and Malinovsky to begin making final preparations to advance.

  The sound of artillery fire was the first dull rumble of distant thunder that would soon become a raging storm in the south, but this time it was on the Middle Donets. Another diversionary operation would be launched there, a mission given to Shumilov’s 7th Guards Army.

  The Germans had been digging in on that front, fortifying their line on the Upper Donets, but that work had not extended all the way south. West of Shebelkino, the Russians had identified a weaker segment of the line, and in the early hours before sunrise, the men of 73 and 78th Guards Rifle Divisions, and all the armor attached to that army, struck across the river against the lines of the German 111th Infantry Division.

  The large bridgehead on the Donets bend above Chuguyev was being held by both 3rd Guard and 3rd Shock Armies, and the former launched an attack near Bolshaya Babka, backed up by the 3rd Tank Corps. At the same time, 3rd Shock attacked further south with the support of 7th Tank Corps sent over the river the previous night by General Popov. These three attacks were not strong enough to pose any serious threat to Kharkov, but were instead designed to attempt to lure German reserves to this segment of the line—away from the main offensive being readied in the south….

  Named for a Russian General of the 18th Century, the buildup for Operation Rumyantsev proceeded at a methodical pace. Then, in the early grey hours of May 27, the guns were elevating on the rear area breakthrough artillery, the heavy steel barrels rising to meet the dawn. There would be no less than nine heavy gun regiments, an equal number of Katyusha regiments, and several mortar regiments to make the initial opening barrage. The Germans would hear the movement of tanks and troops, vehicles rumbling in the grey, but no attack would come before sunrise.

  General Vatutin was a very patient man that day. His would be the first of two planned counterblows, designed to envelop Kharkov and halt the German attack in the north.

  * * *

  When General Hoth was informed of the attacks, he nodded his head, as if he expected them. “Is anything serious?” he asked.

  “Only in the sector west of Martovaya, near Bolshaya Babka. There’s a lot of armor reported there—at least two Corps.

  “Which is why I have positioned the two Reichsführer Brigades right behind the line there. They should be able to handle that. Send them in. And what about the attack further north?”

  “The only serious area is with the 167th, but General Trierenburg believes he can use local reserves to hold the line.”

  “Very well. Let me know if anything changes.”

  “There is one more thing, sir.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve received three separate reports of enemy movement on the southern front between the Donets and Oskol.”

  “Fighting?”

  “No sir, just movement.”

  Hoth thought about that. The enemy might be pulling something out to send north. Then again, this could be a buildup for the counterattack Manstein warned me about.

  “Where is 502nd Schwerepanzer Battalion?”

  “On the road southwest of Kharkov, sir.”

  “Send it to Chuguyev. The 503rd Battalion is already there with 3rd Panzergrenadier Division. Tell General Graser that I have just upgraded his outfit to a full Panzer Division.” Hoth smiled, a spark in his close-set eyes, and then he adjusted his officers cap, picked up his gloves and headed for his staff car. He was driving into Borisovka to confer with the 42nd Infantry Korps commander, General Dostler. Hermann Balck had called him to request infantry support so he could move his division north, and he wanted to see if the enemy pocket could be held in place with thinner lines.

  “The attack last night by Hausser compressed that pocket considerably,” he said to Dostler. “2nd SS needs to get up north, along with 9th Panzer. So now I want your infantry to secure the entire perimeter. As for Gebhard’s 72nd Division—send it to relieve Balck on the left shoulder.”

  As a further precaution, Hoth sent word to the other two mobile divisions in 57th Panzerkorps, 17th Panzer and 29th Panzergrenadier. They had been positioned near the Oskol River south of Kupyansk, and he ordered them to tighten up and deploy for possible offensive operations.

  “You want me to attack?” asked von Etterlin of the 17th Division.

  “Not in accordance with the Habicht Operation. No, prepare for defensive counterattacks in the event we get any trouble down there. They’ve been building up in the center of the line. If anything happens, it will start with the artillery. Keep me informed.”

  Yes, it would start with the artillery….

  Part V

  Rumyantsev

  “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid

  and deeds left undone.”

  —Harrier Beecher Stowe

  Chapter 13

  On the Morning of May 27th, the real Soviet answer to Operation Zitadelle began with that rain of steel. The bombardment
lasted an hour, and to infantry, even in prepared positions, there is nothing more fearsome. Enemy infantry could be engaged with rifles and machineguns, and tanks could be seen approaching and fought with Panzerfausts and PAK AT guns. But artillery fire seemed to come from nowhere, unseen, yet presaged by the roar of the distant guns, and the closer whine of falling shells. Then chaos visited, and the only thing an infantryman could do was scramble for any cover he could find.

  The shock and din of such a bombardment is earth-shaking, mercifully loud to smother the screams of the men unlucky enough to receive a heavy round close enough to kill, or worse, to maim for life. Human bodies are tossed into the air like the earth, and steel shrapnel flays and eviscerates anything in its path. Tanks provide some refuge, unless they receive a close or direct hit. But a 152mm round can even lift a 40-ton vehicle from the ground with the sheer force of the explosion. Shock and fire, blood, dismemberment and death, rule the hour.

  Then, after what seemed like an interminable deluge of high explosive madness, the barrage lifts. The last rounds fall, and the heavy smoke drifts on the wind, the smell of death thick on that pallid veil of fear. Men who lay buried in soot and debris, crouching in any depression in the ground they could find, slowly begin to move, like reanimated corpses, groping for weapons, lost helmets, blinking bleary eyed in the acrid smoke, some with blood running down from their ruptured eardrums.

  They do not hear the distant shout of tens of thousands, deep throated voices rising with the dawn—Urahhhhhhh ! It is a sound that others spared from deafness have heard for years on the Ostfront , the battle cry of their enemy as he came rushing over the sodden, shell pocked fields. Behind them comes the grind of heavy metal tracks—tanks!

  Between the Donets and the Oskol Rivers, four German divisions, the Nordland SS, 50th, 198th and 336th Infantry, held a front of about 55 kilometers. That was a little over 40,000 men, perhaps half that number on the front line, which was a density of about 350 men per kilometer on the outer crust of the defense. Another 30,000 men were in reserve. On the left flank at Chuguyev was Graser’s reinforced 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, and on the right near Kupyansk the remaining two divisions of 57 Panzer Korps waited behind the infantry, seven German divisions in all, some 70,000 troops with 330 tanks. On the other side were six Soviet Armies, the entire Donets Front, totaling 25 divisions and 225,000 men under arms, with just over 600 tanks and another 120 assault guns.

  At Chuguyev, General Graser had informed Hoth of the bombardment, and now he had to decide what to do about it. There was a strong attack developing north of that city, and the SS Nordland , the first division on the line in the gap, was also going to need help. He had no choice but to divide his forces into two Kampfgruppes, sending one to each sector.

  On the right, Etterlin’s 17th Panzer was perhaps the strongest division in reserve, for the 504th Schwerepanzer Battalion had been added to give it three full battalions of armor. 2nd Shock Army was hitting the 336th Division, its lines anchored on the Oskol River. The 29th Panzergrenadier Division was there at Berezovka to stabilize that sector, and his division would have to mind the center. Should he attack at once, in an effort to stop the blood flowing as soon as possible and hold the line? Something told him that this attack was too massive for his single division to ever master.

  If he waited, the enemy might soon break the infantry front, but then he might have the chance to attack the flank of anything that came through. That was what Manstein had done earlier…. But Manstein had five divisions, including Steiner’s entire Korps and Grossdeutschland . That thought gave him a chill, and he realized that if this was as great a torrent as it seemed, he would be swamped if he rushed in now.

  So, he waited. In fact, he got on the radio and told General Muller of the 198th Division that he should fold back his lines towards the stream that ran south to the scene of the last great clash between these gladiators, the blackened town of Volkov Yar. Etterlin thought he could make that thin water barrier the line of his shoulder defense, for the enemy was coming through. It was only a matter of time.

  This time, he thought, we are not waiting south of the Donets with Manstein and Steiner, in just the perfect position to strike the enemy flank in great strength. No, this time Steiner is over a hundred kilometers to the north, half way to Oboyan, and locked in a death grip with the entire Voronezh Front. And I am sitting here alone, the Panzerkorps scattered about with no real force to do anything until the bull is out of the pen.

  So… He wants Volkov Yar back as a point of honor, and after that, the Donets….

  * * *

  That was what Manstein knew implicitly. When the reports came in to his headquarters in Kharkov, he swore aloud, so completely frustrated with Hitler’s insistence that the threat in the south could be safely ignored. It was clear to him that they were now fighting a very different war. The Soviets could still be moved. When sufficient force was concentrated against them, they could be hurt. But gone were the days when the Wehrmacht would rampage through their lines, trapping hundreds of thousands in massive pockets and gobbling up huge amounts of their homeland in the process.

  Three days of hard fighting had produced results in the north, but the enemy continued to amaze by producing yet another army to throw in Steiner’s path. This time the formation was designated 8th Guards.

  We lined up seven good divisions, he thought, and the offensive took us 40 kilometers in three days. Now, however, I’m afraid I must do everything in my power to see that it does not go one step further.

  He was on the telephone to Knobelsdorff immediately. “Trouble in the south,” he said flatly. “I am going to send OKW a strong recommendation that Zitadelle be canceled. The Panzers are going to be needed elsewhere.”

  “Cancelled? I Just got Balck moving north again, and with 9th Panzer back, we’re making some progress. Steiner took Pokrovka last night.”

  “Well let me put it this way. Before we ever get to Kursk, the Russians will be over the Donets again, and may even have Kharkov. There’s been a major breakthrough in the south, and Kirchner does not have the resources to handle the situation, just as I warned.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I must present Hitler with a fait acompli. I want you to begin a fighting withdrawal. See if you can get back by using only two divisions on your front. Send the third against that pocket. We’ve swallowed the rat, now we have to digest it. As for Steiner, I will ask him to do the same. Our goal now is to restore the front along a line Belgorod, Tomarovka and on to Model’s front. But I want to kill what we’ve caught in the process.”

  “What about the south? Will you need my troops there?”

  “Not yet. I’m going to move Steiner to the Middle Donets and pick a suitable place to cross. We cannot get south to try and stop this attack, so we will strike into its rear area communication zone. Unfortunately, that is not Kursk. Oh… One more thing. I’ll need Grossdeutschland .”

  “I understand… Should I wait for authorization from OKW?”

  “There’s no time for that. I am the theater commander, and I will take full responsibility. Now move.”

  The message Manstein would send to OKW was forming in his mind, but he realized he should be in no great hurry to send it. He knew what Hitler’s reaction would be—a stand fast order in the north, or worse, an order that the attack must continue. He needed to get a credible force south as fast as he possibly could, and without interference from the Führer. To do this, without either consulting or obtaining the blessing of OKW, was perhaps the riskiest thing he had done in his long struggle to determine the strategy of this war. Yet if he did not act, the consequences could be very grave.

  To try and cover his withdrawal, and confuse the enemy as to his real intentions, he ordered a staff radio operator to send out a message in the clear that the enemy pocket must be destroyed, and units would be detached from the front to complete this mission at once. It would have an unintended consequence as well, instill
ing the Soviet front line units with the fervor to reach their comrades before that could happen.

  The withdrawal began after midnight on the 27th, and the following morning, he sent a terse statement to OKW indicating that strong enemy counterattacks have materialized along the upper and middle Donets, and that certain units had to be detached to deal with them. He asked OKW to closely monitor the situation in the south, wanting to focus their attention there, where he knew the more astute Generals would not fail to appreciate the danger that thrust now represented.

  The Soviets finally realized what was happening on the morning of the 28th. Their patrols indicated that the German heavy units were nowhere to be found, and the front was now only being held by a screen of AT guns and small delaying forces. Rokossovsky smiled inwardly, and gave orders to Katukov to push hard to relieve the trapped 5th Shock Group. Chiukov was ordered to retake Pokrovka, and put strong pressure on the enemy front wherever he found it.

  Pulling out of a major offensive and assembling the divisions to move south was no small task. Grossdeutschland Division was the first to move, reaching the vicinity of Belgorod mid-day on the 28th. Both 1st and 2nd SS pulled out, with Totenkopf standing as rearguard, and now they were organizing into march columns. Hermann Balck had moved his elite 11th Panzer Division near Tomarovka, ready to attack the pocket or move elsewhere if so ordered. The heavy brigades of KG Decker, and the Ferdinands, were able to reach the rail line near Belgorod, and a train was waiting there to move them south.

  The situation on the Middle Donets was far from secure. Several of the spoiling attacks made there had developed into serious penetrations. 7th Guards Army had pushed all the way into the town of Murom, 10 kilometers from the river. 3rd Guards Army had forced a big inroad near Stary Saltov, pushed the Germans out of Bolshaya Babka, and was grappling with both Reichsführer Brigades and a strong KG from 3rd Panzergrenadier Division. South of the big bend in the Donets, it was disaster.