Breakout (Kirov Series Book 38)

by Schettler, John

  Just northwest of Tours, Another of Corlett’s divisions, the 91st, would put in an attack against the lines of Panzer Lehr , again to try and fix that powerful mobile unit in place. Kicking off two hours before the main event, the men of those two divisions could hear the drone of hundreds of heavy bombers overhead, all vectoring in on their aiming point further northwest. There, against the lines of the 352nd Division, the powerful III Armored Corps with 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions was ready to strike after the carpet bombing subsided. So the pressure on Tours was only a diversion, a pinning attack, so the armor would have every chance of breaking through to the northwest.

  The thunder of those heavy bombers was stupendous. The long sticks of bombs lumbered through the woods, snapping trees, blasting hedges, unearthing buried corpses in cemeteries, leveling barns and farm houses, throwing livestock sky high. A grey smoke hung over the entire scene, lit only by tongues of yellow flame where fires had started from the deadly new weapon being used, napalm, a witches’ brew of jellied gasoline.

  The 352nd Division had suffered the worst of that storm. Its lines stretched from the village of Le Lude in the northwest, to Chateau Valliere to the southwest, a distance of about 16 kilometers. The ground around that chateau was very good for defense, with lines of trees broken by several small lakes, and thicker woods on the eastern flank of the town. There the battered infantry, some dazed, others deaf, and many mercifully dead, would meet the attack of 34th Infantry and 3rd Armored Division. In some ways, the men were relieved to finally see their attackers, something they could take aim at and fight back against, as opposed to the hours of helplessness under that bombing. A single heavy bomber can deliver the explosive power of 100 field artillery pieces, and there were nearly 1800 bombers pounding the real estate 352nd infantry had been unlucky enough to inherit.

  There were just enough survivors to make the push through that difficult terrain an all-day affair for the Americans. By nightfall, one battalion of the 352nd and a flak company still held the chateau. 3rd Armored was bypassing it to the west, and 1st Armored had taken the road skirting the forest to the east, and fell instead on the 16th Reichsführer Division. Between those two armored fists, the 34th Infantry would have to take that chateau, and clear those woods. They would get support from the attached 760th Tank Battalion. The armor moved around the enemy strongpoint like a steel tide on the morning of May 6th and made good gains, their spearheads breaking out and racing seven or eight kilometers by mid-day. The bulk of the 352nd was still fighting from their original positions, but the American armor had simply rolled right over them.

  Progress on the northern pincer was equally auspicious. The German 708th Division had been hit and rolled back, and 6th Armored moved on the town of Ballec, only to meet the 21st Panzer Brigade. If they had been Berg’s troops, their advance might have come to a halt, but this was the fledgling division that had never fully formed under General Berlichingen. It had two battalions of Panzergrenadiers, one of pioneers, a flak battalion, recon elements and two tank companies fielding 28 tanks between them. The brigade was able to hold the 6th Armored up in a sharp meeting engagement, but it was already being bypassed to the east by fast moving US cavalry units, and behind them came the whole of 5th Armored Division.

  So the German resistance was like rocks in the torrent of a fast flowing river. It might impede the advance, but it could not stop it, and it was soon clear to higher level officers that a breakthrough was imminent. Von Rundstedt called Guderian, who had been watching the British sector, and informed him of the situation.

  “They are coming through,” he said flatly. “It is a two-pronged attack. They batted the 708th aside in the northwest, and 21st Panzer could not put a finger in the dike. In the southeast, they ran right over the 352nd after that terrible bombing. The situation is about to get very fluid now. I will need all the reserves still uncommitted.”

  “I SS Korps has already been sent north to the Pas-de-Calais, but I will recall the 116th Panzer from Paris immediately,” said Guderian. “What can you get from Normandy?”

  “I took the liberty of pulling out of the Cotentin Peninsula yesterday. I left a garrison at Cherbourg, and that freed up the 77th and 91st Infantry Divisions. They will try and stabilize a shoulder on the enemy left. Local reserves are thin. 21st Panzer Brigade is very weak, and Goring’s troops not much stronger. We’ve identified six enemy armored divisions, and we just don’t have anything strong enough to stop them.”

  “Then you must clinch with the infantry, and dance with the Panzers,” said Guderian. “Do everything possible to get Panzer Lehr off the line, even if it means you must give up Tours. It’s imperative that we get some real fighting power on the move, and quickly. If you can catch them strung out on the roads, we might be able to disrupt this advance.”

  “I will do what I can, but things look fairly grim at the moment.”

  “What about 7th Panzer?”

  “It was at Le Mans, and I have summoned it. Hopefully that division can buy me some time to get those two divisions from Normandy into decent positions, but even this may not be enough.”

  “You must hold on. Kluge informs me that he will go to Aachen to supervise the movement of any reserves available in Germany. In the meantime, you must move. Remember, Hitler is gone. The ground means nothing, except insofar as it provides us a strong defensive position. If need be, we can move all the way back to the Seine, but avoid losing anything in a pocket. We need every division we have. It is time for elastic defense now, as much as the enemy fighters will permit us.”

  That was always the dilemma now. The necessity of movement at a time like this was crucial. The Germans had excelled in the art of mobile warfare with their Panzers moving fast and hitting hard. Yet now every movement, even on secondary roads, invited the Jabos to swoop down and savage a column of men and vehicles. Divisions would sustain casualties that they could ill afford any time they moved.

  Von Rundstedt looked at the map for a very long time. The enemy offensive was all happening northwest of Tours. From that city east, his line was solid, with some of the best defensive ground on the map. The enemy would first have to get over the River Cher, through dense woodland in many areas, and then would be faced with crossing the Loire. He had the 276th and 361st Divisions just east of Tours, and beyond that, the line of the Cher was now held by the reliable I Fallschirmjager Korps under Kurt Student.

  Of the two rivers, the Loire was by far the greater obstacle. The Cher was about 300 feet wide on average, but even in its narrowest crossing points, the Loire was twice that, and in many places its width extended to 1200 feet. There were also many small, tree-covered islets in the stream that would be obstacles. The enemy might reach them easily from the south bank, but then they would have to haul their boats across through the trees. Panzer Lehr was just northwest of Tours, but not on the Loire. It was holding in a scattering of light woods, preventing the city from being flanked and cut off. East of Tours, the 276th was on the Cher, but he reasoned that if that division was withdrawn behind the Loire, it could hold the line with fewer troops.

  That would be his next order, all in an effort to free up Panzer Lehr as Guderian had advised. The move could not be accomplished without abandoning Tours itself, but that was the price he would have to pay—the greatest city on the Loire for the best division then under his command as a mobile asset in that swift moving battle he now envisaged. He gave the orders to move the 276th north of the Loire and blow all bridges.

  Bayerlein got the order to prepare to move on the morning of May 6th, as soon as units from the 276th arrived to take up his positions. He had been glued to the radio, listening to the reports concerning the landing in the Pas-de-Calais, so this new offensive made perfect sense. He was able to free up two units, his recon battalion and II/902 Panzergrenadiers, and when he started them north he got a forecast of what was going to happen to his division now. The Allied fighters swarmed over any column on the ground, “hazing the Hun
,” punishing that movement with bombs, rockets, and slashing strafing attacks. His troops moved northwest, following the road and rail connections to Chateau du Loir, as the Americans seemed to be heading for that town.

  The region was famous for a series of “troglodyte caves” where residents built the outer wall of a home, with everything behind it hidden within a hillside cave. The position offered many obvious defensive virtues. The Germans did not have to build bunkers, as they were already there, serving as storage areas, wine cellars, and underground dwellings. Bayerlein soon learned that Conrath had also moved his Herman Goring Division in that direction, and in fact, those two companies of Tigers that Goring had commandeered for the division were already there. Some of those massive tanks simply opened an arched barn door, and backed into the cave behind it. There they sat, a steel monster in an earthen bunker, waiting for the Amis to show up. Many of these caves were also linked by a network of subterranean tunnels, which opened onto other underground rooms.

  So even as the 352nd slowly crumbled under the oncoming tide, the Germans were maneuvering two good Panzer divisions toward the breakthrough of III Armored Corps under Lucas. Whether they would have the power to stop the scrappy US tank commander was another matter, but terrain would now become a big factor in this advance. The German position at Chateau du Loir sat to the south of increasingly tortuous ground, and the large Beaumont Forest, which stretched some 20 kilometers wide. This was right in the path of the American offensive, and a decision had to be made as to where to direct the advance.

  Moving due north, following the rail line through Mayet, was the most direct route to Le Mans. Striking through Chateau du Loir would send things to the east of that rugged country, up through Grand Luce to eventually send the spearhead 25 kilometers due east of Le Mans. But taking that route would also leave the attackers the option of shifting the advance northeast towards St. Calais, a route that would point it right at the ancient city of Chartres, the gateway to Paris. That was certainly something in the back of Patton’s mind, the grand breakout that would see him deliver the French capitol.

  First things first was Eisenhower’s order of the day. He wanted Le Mans, and then the two spearheads could combine to move on their next objective as the situation warranted. So on the night of May 6th, Patton ordered Truscott to put tanks north of the Loir (not to be confused with the much larger river Loire.) Having smashed the German 352nd, this would now send Old Ironsides, 1st Armored Division, rolling north to come up behind the 2nd Armored spearhead. The advance would renew the following morning to push for Mayet, putting all that high country and the Beaumont Forest on their right, between the attack and the positions the German mobile divisions had been setting up. It would mean that the attack into Chateau du Loir was cancelled, and the Americans would not meet those Tigers lurking in the troglodyte caves. Hermann Goring would cluck that his division had stopped the American advance, and forced them to divert west, but that was an empty boast.

  Chapter 5

  Further northwest, a problem would now face Lucian Truscott’s II Armored Corps. He had brushed aside the 708th Division, and in that sector, the small 21st Panzer Brigade could not redress the imbalance. 6th Armored would act like a good lineman on a football running play, shouldering into Berlichingen’s brigade, while the halfback, 5th Armored, ran behind him to find a hole and look for yardage. Here it was up to 7th Panzer, coming down the road from Le Mans, to find good blocking positions. It’s lead elements with the recon battalion had reached the town of Brulon, very near the point of the breakthrough. To the north of that there was hilly, wooded country, and the Americans would not find it well suited to armored exploitation. General Mauss of the 7th Panzer knew where his enemy had to go, and that was where he sent his Kampfgruppes on the night of May 5th to set up blocking positions. The next day they would be strengthened as the Panzergrenadiers came up and the artillery got situated to the rear.

  Truscott was bypassing Sable sur Sarthe, on the River Sarthe, and pushing for Brulon. Von Rundstedt got the reports, pleased with the movement of 7th Panzer in that direction, but he saw that the 132nd Infantry Division, south of the River Sarthe, would now need to be pulled back. All but one battalion would get safely back, though the bite of enemy fighters harried that move. These withdrawals by the 708th and 132nd were the shoulders of the American penetration slowly folding back, but it would be up to those panzers to hold the center.

  When Truscott learned of the new German blocking position on the evening of the 6th, he called on Major General Lunsford Oliver and his 5th Armored Division. “Bug,” he said, using Oliver’s nickname. “They’re setting up tonight here, right in front of Brulon. Tiger Jack Wood just made contact at dusk with the 4th Armored, so I want you to bypass that town to the west.”

  Oliver looked at the map. “That’s lousy ground for armor,” he said, pointing out the obvious.

  “I know it,” said Truscott, “but swing right into this little hamlet here. What the hell is the place? I can’t see in this light.”

  “Joue en Charnie,” said Oliver, squinting.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean? In any case, take it tonight, then turn right. See these two roads? They’ll take you east, away from that bad ground and up behind this Kraut blocking position at Brulon. If you can move tonight, we can be behind the bastards tomorrow morning.”

  Oliver was a gritty veteran from Tunisia, and he would do everything possible to carry the ball. But he wouldn’t get to that hamlet that night. General Mauss of the 7th Panzer had set up that position, and he had the way covered by two battalions of Panzergrenadiers backed by Panzers. All Oliver could do that night was get his division into position where it might attack that town in the morning. At the same time, General Wood of the 4th Armored Division would throw his division directly at Brulon. It was going to be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for.’ General Mauss had positioned his troops well, but now he was going to face an attack by two US Armored divisions in tandem on the morning of May 7th.

  * * *

  That night, three fresh German divisions would arrive. The 77th and 91st Infantry coming from Normandy would now appear on the left of Truscott’s advance. The left shoulder continued to fold back, with 708th Infantry and the 21st Panzer Brigade withdrawing under cover of darkness. The 77th came up on their left, reaching the town of St. Suzanne before dawn. It had two regiments of three battalions each, and a fusilier battalion, all relatively fresh and up to strength after fattening up in Normandy these many months.

  Further north, the 91st Division was stronger, with two grenadier regiments and a fusilier battalion like the 77th, but it had been strengthened with an attachment of the 6th Parachute Regiment, a most welcome addition. This division took the road heading towards Sille Guillaume, which would then continue on straight for Le Mans. Its line of march would put it in a good blocking position in another day, and von Rundstedt took heart with the arrival of these much needed troops.

  The western American spearhead was now about 35 kilometers due west of Le Mans, and planning to make the turn Truscott had ordered in the morning. The other high face card in von Rundstedt’s hand was the 116th Windhund Division, moving by rail through Chartres that night to arrive at Le Mans just before dawn. The Germans could clearly see where the Americans were going, and they meant to make a fight for that city, come what may.

  At noon, General Mauss learned that the 77th Division was moving into the heavy woods north of the American penetration, and that the first elements of the 91st were on the road to Joue en Charnie from the north. If they could get there that night, he could then tighten the lines of his division closer to Brulon, and the Germans would have put the lid on the kettle, at least for the time being.

  * * *

  South of Le Mans, Lucas was moving to bypass the bulk of the Beaumont woodland by driving on Mayet. 2nd Armored found the outlying village of Verneil defended by part of the 50th Infantry Division, and they soon surrounded the haml
et, attacking from all sides. At Mayet itself, there was nothing but a flak unit, which was engaged by Armored Infantry, while the tanks bypassed the town to the east. Their right flank was well guarded, for General Harmon had the whole of his 1st Armored division picking its way along a narrow forest trail near the edge of the Beaumont woods.

  There was one good road through the forest, but it ran southeast to northwest, and the Germans had Panzer Lehr on it, heading for St. Hubert, at the northern edge of those woods. Lucas could read a map, and he knew that if the Germans had anything that might impede his drive on Mayet, it would be on that road. So he ordered Watson’s 3rd Armored to send a task force to skirt the edge of the woods and cut that road. That ended up becoming two battalions of the 36th Armored Infantry, and one of Armored Engineers. The division was already engaging blocking units thrown out by Herman Goring’s troops, and soon they would make the acquaintance of Bayerlein’s Panzer Lehr .

  The German recon battalion had found a secondary road to St. Hubert, following the rail line north a few kilometers, and then turning due west into the Beaumont Woods. They followed it to St. Hubert, getting there just as the point of Harmon’s column arrived, and the Germans moved into blocking positions.

  So as dusk came on the 7th of May, Truscott’s II Armored Corps was 35 kilometers due west of Le Mans, and meeting stiffening resistance, and Lucas with III Armored Corps was 25 Kilometers due south of Le Mans and finding itself in a thickening duel with Panzer Lehr . At the city itself, like a spider at the center of its web, the 116th Panzer Division was off the trains and fully assembled, but von Rundstedt gave it no marching orders. He would wait to see if his defense could stop those two pincers, keeping his “Greyhounds” on the leash as a last reserve. Unless Guderian sent him something, or Kluge found something still in Germany, he had nothing else at hand.