Breakout (Kirov Series Book 38)

by Schettler, John

  Patton was impatient on the night of the 7th, riding forward with a small column of jeeps to speak with Truscott and Gerow in the western pincer. When he saw how far Truscott had pushed his armor, he wasn’t happy.

  “Goddammit, what the hell are you doing up here? Can’t you see that wooded high country there? It will likely be crawling with Krauts by now. You were supposed to be down near the Sarthe, keeping the river on your right. You ought to be at Le Mans by now.”

  “We were going to turn and use this road here, sir,” said Truscott. “6th Armored was off to the northwest watching the flank near 21st Panzer, so I threw Bug Oliver’s 5th Armored at them, but they put up a good fight for this town.”

  “To hell with that town! Throw everything you have further south , here, at Brulon. Once you get through there its good open country almost all the way to Le Mans. So you get 6th Armored turned around tonight. You don’t use armor to watch the goddamned flanks. Gerow!” Patton looked for his infantry commander. “Where’s the 45th?”

  “Sir, I have one regiment up here covering those woods, and the other two were in position to push for that town where we got hung up today.”

  “Well you get your men ready to follow up this attack on Brulon. Hit them with everything you have there. Damnit, they can’t hurt us, so don’t worry about that northern flank. Your division is for assault and exploitation. Do you realize that 2nd Infantry crossed the Sarthe tonight and pushed a reconnaissance all the way out to Noye? Ran right up on the headquarters for the Kraut 132nd Division and caught the sons-of-bitches at the dinner table. Needless to say, they high-tailed it out the back door. That’s ten kilometers to the east, and right on the river, down where you were all supposed to be. Now you two get this mess sorted out—tonight. I’ve got to drive another 30 miles and go see what’s holding up Lucas.”

  He had given them a good tongue lashing, but it was partly the fear of Patton’s hot temper that kept his Major Generals and Brigadiers rolling. Truscott knew he had come too far north, and he had tried to correct that by turning that day, but 7th Panzer was tougher than they expected. Patton looked the two men up and down, taking a long drag on his cigar. Then he softened his tone. “Alright,” he said. “I gave you a good kick in the pants here, but if you fellas beat Lucas and Collins to Le Mans, I’ll get you a case of the finest cognac in France, XO, Extra Old. You won’t find a barrel-aged whiskey anywhere that’s half as good—not bourbon, rye, or even Scotch.” He gave them a wink, and then stormed out, a trail of that cigar smoke in his wake.

  Hours later he would find Lucas, and did not have to mete out the same treatment. Seeing the arrival of Panzer troops in the Beaumont wood near St. Hubert, Lucas had unleashed 2nd Armored, and Hell on Wheels was already up through Mayet and another eight kilometers north to the village of Ecommoy. Reports came back that they hadn’t seen a single German on the road all night. The surprise night move had flanked the German 50th Division to the west, and slipped right passed Panzer Lehr .

  “Good job,” he said. “Now don’t stop. Keep rolling in the morning and get up that road to Le Mans. I was just over with Truscott, and he says he’s going to beat you there, come hell or high water. There’s a case of fine Cognac riding on the deal.”

  “Nothing doing,” said Lucas. “My road north is wide open. But sir, that’s Panzer Lehr on my right in those woods, and the Hermann Goring Division to the south.”

  “Hell, we beat Goring’s troops from pillar to post in North Africa. Leave a combat command to take St. Hubert if you think it’s necessary. Otherwise, it’s hell-bent for leather to Le Mans.”

  Patton’s marching orders were not to be trifled with.

  It was this attack by Lucas that caught the attention of von Rundstedt that same night. He could see that the arrival of the 77th and 91st had sealed off the American drive towards Alencon. Now it had turned and attacked east towards Le Mans, which was where he thought it was going in the first place. He could not know that Truscott had bungled his breakthrough and ran too far north, only to be reined in and redirected by Patton. The Americans in the eastern pincer had reached Ecommoy, just 20 kilometers south of Le Mans, and so that is where he finally decided the Greyhounds had to go. He spoke directly with the division commander, a skillful and talented officer, General Hasso von Manteuffel.

  “Well,” he said, “you’re riding the last horse in the barn, and your division has the bulk of all the armor I have now in 7th Army. I need you to stop this attack coming up from the south. Move tonight, because I think tomorrow morning will be too late.”

  “Very well, General,” said Manteuffel. “Don’t worry, my men are ready, and we’ll handle this.”

  The 116th was on the roads heading south that very hour, and with orders to prepare for an immediate attack from march. They would hit the point of 2nd Armored just north of Ecommoy like a hammer, falling on a task group composed of two battalions of the 41st Armored Infantry, with a recon company attached. It was chaotic fighting in the darkness, but soon fires in the town lit the field of battle, and thickening smoke added its char to the black night above.

  But the Americans held. The division had fought its way from Casablanca to Tunis, and then pushed hundreds of kilometers across Southern France. It was a veteran unit, through and through, and it would not budge under the enemy attack. The troops hunched behind low stone walls, giving as good as they got from the enemy. The infantry moved like shadows, silhouetted by the burning buildings in the town. They fought for three hours, with bazookas, mortars, BAR’s and hand grenades. Then the growl of tanks was heard behind them, and at first they thought the enemy had flanked them in the night. A Sergeant looked and saw what was coming, the white star on the side of the tank, and the telltale silhouette of a Sherman.

  “Hot damn!” he shouted. “They’re ours. Come on, we’ve got tank support now!”

  That they did—in droves.

  There were two full armored regiments in that division, six battalions of tanks amounting to over 250 Shermans and M5 Stuarts, and they moved to the sound of the guns. It was an armored cavalry charge, the Shermans grinding up, all guns firing. They would outnumber the German tanks by better than two to one, but the Panthers and Lions were far better, when they were present.

  It would come down to simple attrition, where the superior numbers of US tanks simply wore down the defenders, and there were two US divisions, with 1st Armored on the right adding even more steel to the fire.

  The Germans could see that a breakthrough was only a matter of time, and because a pocket had formed with their infantry to the west, a withdrawal had to be ordered immediately. Two rivers flowed down from the northeast to Angers, and then into the Loire as it headed for the coast. The Sarthe River was in the north, and below it, was the Loir. Between these two rivers, a German infantry Korps composed of 50th, 132nd and 111th Divisions was now in danger of being trapped south of the Sarthe. It was slowly being cut off by the US advance north of the Sarthe aimed at Le Mans, and now it would be cut off to the east unless the Greyhounds could hold back the tide.

  Not willing to lose any good infantry under his command, von Rundstedt gave the order for those three divisions to withdraw north of the Sarthe on the night of May 8th. There were only a few bridges, and the lines of trucks and infantry were all well harried by the Jabos as they marched north in the darkness, for now the Americans were flying both day and increasing night operations, especially on a night like this, with a full moon up.

  The following morning, the US made another concerted effort with each spearhead, and they hammered the German lines with all the artillery they had, from division up through corps to army level battalions. Having taken Brulon the previous day as Patton wanted, the 6th Armored was now swung south and west. Close to the north bank of the Sarthe, where 4th Infantry had made dramatic gains.

  Patton could feel the enemy resistance weakening, sense more confusion in their lines, and he knew that this was the hour and day where he had to push wit
h everything he could muster.

  Chapter 6

  The Allied fighters were merciless that morning, their attacks so heavy that a full battalion of the 111th was all but destroyed on the march to get north of the Sarthe. On the night of the 8th of May, the 116th Panzer Division had 88 operational tanks. On the morning of the 9th, it had 70, losing 18 tanks in confused fighting in the darkness. The entire weight of the offensive was largely being held at bay by the two German Panzer Divisions, the 7th against the western pincer, and the 116th against the eastern thrust.

  Yet as that eastern attack pushed north, the presence of Panzer Lehr on its right had forced Lucas to hold the ever lengthening flank by detaching a combat command from both 1st and 3rd Armored, in spite of Patton’s admonition that armored divisions do not hold flanks. Lucas would have been a fool to try and screen off a division like Panzer Lehr with light armored cavalry. He had to keep enough strength on the line to prevent a German counterattack.

  In an effort to shake things loose, he shifted CCA of 3rd Armored slightly west of the main attack on 116th Panzer, into the lines of the 50th Infantry Division. That division had proven a good anchor in the east when von Rundstedt had ordered that withdrawal, slowly swinging back its line while keeping an arm linked to 116th Panzer.

  A full days fighting on May 9th still failed to achieve the desired breakthrough, as the German Panzers were fighting a tenacious and skillful defensive battle, but at considerable cost in casualties and equipment losses. Soon the 116th had only 55 tanks in operation. The 50th Infantry now began to extend its line east astride the main road to Le Mans to support the Greyhounds.

  Frustrated, Patton looked over the map. Trying to find a way to get more combat power into one area. Now he saw that the River Sarthe was going to bisect the offensive, as it ran due north through Le Mans, continuing in that direction for many miles. Beyond the town of Beaumont, some 30 kilometers north of Le Mans, that river thinned out, but until then, it would represent a significant water obstacle to tanks and vehicles.

  “Brad,” he said to General Bradley. “We’ve got these bridges behind our front, over the Sarthe at Noye and Malicorne. If we keep II Armored Corps where it is, they’ll have to eventually fight their way over that river near Le Mans. But if I swing to the south, using those two bridges, they could come in right behind Lucas and give that attack a real push.”

  That’s pulling a lot of troops off that flank. You might do it by degrees, but I don’t think we could pull it off trying to move the whole corps.”

  “Alright, 5th Armored is still way north around St. Denis. I’ll start with that. Let’s put 45th infantry there to watch those two Kraut infantry divisions, and then roll 5th Armored down this road here. They can cross at Noye, and swing in behind Lucas. Then we’ll follow up with 4th Armored.”

  “You might consider leaving it where it is, George, and backing up 6th Armored. Otherwise we give up that whole push north of the Sarthe.”

  “Good enough. We’ll roll a little thunder east with 5th Armored, and see if we can get some lightning out of this offensive.”

  Patton’s plan would have added just the force to tip the balance east of the Sarthe, but Guderian had a gift for von Rundstedt, and help was on the way. Withdrawals further east in the British and French sectors had freed up two very valuable Panzergrenadier divisions, the 15th and 90th, and the first of those two divisions had snuck in by rail to a point about 25 kilometers east of Le Mans before they found the line cut by Allied air strikes. So General Rodt of the 15th, ordered his troops off the train, and the division formed up for a night march on the 12th. They would arrive just as 2nd Armored was finding cracks in the enemy line and sending armored cars through.

  By this time, both US spearheads were no more than ten kilometers from Le Mans. In the west, it was now 4th and 6th Armored pushing heavily on the enemy 111th Division. The 132nd had all but disintegrated in the last three days fighting, and the 111th was now the only shieldwall keeping Truscott’s armor out of the city. It was going to pay a heavy price for its defense there.

  In the east, the first arriving regiment of the 15th Panzergrenadiers was a most unexpected, and welcome reinforcement for the enemy. The 115th Panzergrenadiers were now tangling with CCA of 3rd Armored, and the 104th Panzergrenadiers engaged 2nd Armored, its attack now diverting northeast to face that new threat. A little south of that, on the road east to Grand Luce, the 5th Armored had completed its redeployment and was lined up nuts to butts on that narrow thoroughfare, which was right on the northern edge of the lines of Panzer Lehr .

  Now von Rundstedt wanted to get that excellent division off the defensive line it had been holding the last three days, and reestablish a mobile reserve. He therefore ordered the 90th Panzergrenadier not to join the main battle, but instead to take the road through Grand Luce, and head into the Beaumont woodland, which was now well behind the American Schwerpunkt. Being mostly motorized infantry, they would dismount, and form a line behind Panzer Lehr , freeing up that division to move after dark. But the urgency of this daylight move exposed the 90th to punishing air attacks along the whole route.

  The pressure had built up terribly behind the enemy front, and as darkness fell, Patton was urging his men forward. Holes were appearing in the enemy line, and he hastened to get small task forces through. One was able to penetrate the thinning lines of 7th Panzer west of Le Mans, and found itself coming up on the division HQ and artillery pool. The German self propelled guns were forced to depress their barrels and engage Sherman tanks and M8 armored cars in a desperate night action, but a direct hit, even by HE rounds, would certainly do the job against most tanks. The problem was that the enemy was firing back….

  Further south, the weight of 4th Armored, now joining 2nd infantry, was simply rolling right over what was left of the once proud 7th Panzer division. At the same time, 6th Armored broke through the 111th Infantry Division, and behind it Patton sent in the fast moving 3rd Armored Cavalry. He could feel the battle reaching its decision point, sense that the enemy had put everything they had into the line and that it was still not enough to stop his intrepid armored captains. News on the road to Grand Luce was equally encouraging, and there, the 5th Armored had found the seam between Panzer Lehr and the arriving 15th Panzergrenadiers, and they had busted right through.

  That night, the defense east of Le Mans had collapsed. Artillery from both the 111th and 132nd was streaming back, over the Sarthe bridges and into the great city, running for cover. 7th Panzer was now a ragged brigade sized formation, if that, and what was left of the 111th was trying to throw up makeshift defensive positions just west of the city.

  Le Mans had been the headquarters for all of 7th Army, and von Rundstedt was in the city that night, hearing the rumble of battle, and growing signs of chaos thickening with the night. The Amis rarely fight all night like this, he thought, wondering what was happening. Reports had been scattered, but that long column of guns from the shattered infantry front was testimony enough to the trouble that lay ahead. Only the 50th Division still maintained some cohesion, holding the line about seven kilometers south of the city.

  The only other good news for the Germans was that the 90th had reached the Beaumont Wood, and that night, Panzer Lehr was pulled off the line and was mustered at Grand Luce. Only one company of Panzers had been caught up in the enemy attack and cut off. Yet that was a case of ‘who knows what’s good or bad’ for the Germans. The division had been relatively safe from air strikes under the thick cover of the Beaumont Wood. Now the elite troops would be in road columns again, and very exposed. He ordered Bayerlein to bring the division north, behind Le Mans, and to move while the darkness was still their friend.

  On the 12th of May, the water was flowing heavily over the dam, on both sides of Le Mans. In fact, there was now no defense at all from the edge of the city and a full 12 kilometers to the west and north. A troop of American armored cars reached the small town of Notre Dame, right in the center of that gap, and rad
ioed back that the place was completely empty. At St. Aubon, a little northwest of Le Mans, another troop found that town abandoned as well. The last remnant of the 111th, a single regiment, fell back into Le Mans itself to try and hold the bridges over the Sarthe, but there was nothing to stop Truscott from flanking the city to the north.

  That night, 3rdArmored Cav would find a bridge on the Sarthe north of Le Mans, and elements of 6th Armored crossed a little after midnight. Bradley had ordered them not to enter the city, but for the purposes of deciding who would get that case of Cognac, the laurels would go to Truscott’s II Armored Corps. That decided, Patton pulled out five of the twelve bottles, and he would give one to each of the three division commanders in III Armored Corps, and one to Lucas. The last one he kept for himself to share with General Bradley when the time was appropriate.

  South of Le Mans, the 50th Infantry still held in scattered woodland just outside the city, with the 15th Panzergrenadiers reorganizing to the east. All that was left of the 116th Panzer Division had pulled out, behind that infantry screen. When Manteuffel took a nose count, he found that he had lost half his Panzergrenadiers, the entire 156th Regiment wiped out, along with two of his eight companies of tanks. The Americans had now punched through south of the 15th Panzergrenadiers, and they were moving east towards Bouloire and St. Calais.

  Patton’s next problem was all too familiar—fuel and supplies. His tanks could not run on fine French Cognac, and the divisions had been fighting for seven days. He would order units that had the fuel to exploit those gaps on either side of the city, and then got on the phone to Eisenhower. Obsessed with the Calais landings at that time, Ike handed the matter off to Bedell Smith. He would be harangued by Patton for gasoline time and time again in the days ahead.

  The general situation was that the enemy was badly hurt, unable to now maintain a cohesive front, but not yet put to rout. Panzer Lehr was still available behind Le Mans, and those fuel and supply problems would hinder Patton’s ability to completely envelop the city. But it was clear that Operation Thunder had been a great success thus far.