“Yes, but then we can just tip our hats and hand him back over to Bradley. It will be his problem after that.”
O’Connor was wrong.
The Brandenburgers did not move to Bellegarde as he had expected. Instead they took the best supplied battalions they had and sent them to set up blocks on the roads leading north. Bellegarde had other visitors that morning, the German 319th Division, an old school unit with three full regiments that had once been out on the Channel Islands. If fought in the west briefly, before being sent east. Now it was detached again by Guderian and sent to try and backstop this weakening and increasingly dangerous segment of the front.
The area around Orleans was backed by the heavy Dorl Forest, and some of the most defensible terrain in France. Yet here the Germans were scrambling to hold the expanding bridgehead, against increasingly steep odds. The British advance pushing due north from sully towards a break in the woods was stopped by four battalions of the Brandenburgers , but the greater mass of the fresh reinforcements Montgomery had brought to the fight simply rolled northwest along the north bank of the river, liberating Chateau sur Loire. This allowed Leclerc to finally cross there with his 1st Armored Division, adding even more mass to the advance.
General Kurt Student was now the senior officer on site, with his HQ in Orleans. He had 1st and 2nd Para divisions west of the city, watching the Loire until it flowed south of German lines. His 3rd Para Division had been deployed in the woods south of the river and city, holding a wide bridgehead there. Now the great pressure rolling in from the east forced him to order 3rd Fallschirmjager Division to give up that bridgehead and retire through Orleans. He reasoned that he could probably hold the city with a single regiment, freeing up the other two to move east and support the sagging line there.
That front was held by the 148th, 111th and 98th divisions, the latter two badly battered by the British onslaught. Student had the foresight to see that this was going to get difficult, and telephoned von Rundstedt to see if he could offer any more support.
“I’m told the two brigades of the Brandenburgers were the only thing that held the front together, but they have been fighting day and night. Herr General, if you don’t find something to support them, you’re going to lose them…”
That night, with Patton stalled and waiting for fuel and supplies, von Rundstedt sent orders to the Freiburg and Duren Brigades on his front. They were to pull out and get to the nearest rail center where trains would be sent to move them east. The General was robbing Peter to pay Paul, but there was nothing else he could send.
Chapter 21
Three days… That’s how long Patton sat idle after running into Berg’s Brigade, backed by the Brandenburgers . But his mind never quit working in all that time. Deep within, he was pushing forward, planning, imagining the breakthrough that he was determined to achieve. Supply was down to a trickle now, but he had basically been emptying the fuel tanks of support vehicles to keep his tanks and halftracks running. Hobbled, and chastened again by the new German heavy tanks that could hit his own vehicles at ranges exceeding 3000 meters, he stewed on how to break the log jam in front of him and get rolling again.
In that three day interval, he cooked up some more lightning from Operation Thunder . First he withdrew 2nd Armored, covering its front with the 2nd Infantry. He had the advantage of interior lines on the enemy, a good road running down through Sees. So forsaking Argentan for the moment, he assembled a new strike force northeast of Sees, intending to try again, this time on the roads that would lead him through L’Aigle, the Eagle. Taking Argentan would have been a feather in his cap, but redirecting the momentum of his attack northeast was turning him where he really needed to go, the River Seine.
It would be a three division attack with Abrams’ Provisional Armored Division, Hell on Wheels, and the 5th Infantry Division. Behind them he had the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment ready to exploit any breakthrough, and virtually every piece of artillery he could get his hands on, even stealing all the Corps level artillery from Collins on his left. He was going to pound the enemy with 24 battalions, and there, its lines stretched to span a 20 kilometer front when the Brandenburgers pulled out, sat the new 10th Panzer Division.
The thunder of the artillery heralded the flood, and that attack went in like a tidal wave. It rolled over the extended lines of 10th Panzer, through any gap, assaulting any strongpoint, enveloping, smothering, annihilating. Battalions were cut off and surrounded on all sides. There was nothing behind the torrent but a single company of Berg’s Brigade from 1st Rifle Battalion. It had nine of its original twelve squads left, one Eurospike ATGM, three Wiesels with TOW missiles, a single grenade launcher and eighteen light and medium IFV’s, mostly Boxers, but only three had the 20mm autocannon. They charged in, trying to break through to 1st Battalion, 10th Panzergrenadiers.
Berg had just sent the unit there to recon that area of the front, not intending that it should get engaged. The rest of his brigade was twenty kilometers to the west, and now he knew instinctively what Patton had done.
“He’s shifted away from Argentan,” he told Kluge. “Do you want me to get over there and stop this attack?”
“We have nothing else to send,” said Kluge. “The two Brandenburg Brigades pulled out to march east and rejoin the rest of their division. You are now our only reserve.”
“Very well, then we’ll get moving.” He tapped his command screen, signaling the remaining two companies of KG4 to immediately rejoin the lost sheep. Then the rest of his brigade began to jog east to the sound of the guns. They dispersed on a wide front, about nine kilometers, but that would seal all the gaps in the line. Then they immediately began attack the infiltrating units of the Provisional Armored Division, fighting to reach the surrounded islands of 10th Panzer.
Yet that was just the first wave of the attack. 2nd Armored was nursing its fuel supply, waiting to go forward at dawn on the 27th, and Patton was ordering the artillery to fire in response to the arrival of this new German reserve force. For Abrams, it was like hitting a brick wall.
As Berg counterattacked, breaking through to the trapped battalions of 10th Panzer, the beleaguered Panzer troops took heart. Who were these amazing young troops with their odd uniforms, and equipment like they had never seen? They knew that the Brandenburg Division had been in the area, and thought that was what they were seeing, astounded at the way they fought, and the new weapons they deployed. At one spot, a battalion of infantry from 5th Division had been in a hot firefight, until one of Berg’s rifle companies lit off with their 40mm grenade launcher, which ended that fight in a matter of minutes.
Effective as they were, the sheer mass of the attack was difficult to stop. The Americans were flowing like water, through any gap or weakly defended sector of the line. While the bulk of Berg’s troops stopped Abrams in his tracks, CCA of 2nd Armored broke through further east, with 3rd Armored Cav racing up the road to St. Colombe. From there, the main road and rail would lead directly to Patton’s distant objective, L’Aigle. It was basically a tactic of ‘hit ‘em where they ain’t.’
That night, after heavy fighting, Berg’s 5th Company of the 1st Rifles had three squads left, and they had lost a Wiesel and three Boxers. Three Leopards had been lost under that artillery fire, with two more damaged and towed for repair. Berg left his Engineer Battalion in reserve behind 10th Panzer, and began moving companies east towards St. Colombe. They would come to the road approaching St. Andre first, and then there was a small river flowing through the town of Plancnes before they would get to the road the Americans were using. Unfortunately, the GI’s were using both roads, and Berg’s night vision sensors soon spotted heat signatures on the road to St. Andre.
Six Leopards came up, and attacked US tank destroyers, picking them off like chickens with a 410 shotgun, and scattering them south in the dark. Another action was underway up near St. Andre, where more tank destroyers had taken the lead up that road, meeting a most unwelcome night attack by Berg’s troops
. Yet his men would not make it to St. Colombe that night, another five kilometers southeast of that action. Kluge informed him that a reserve infantry Division, the 709th, had come down the road from Caen, and was now able to help watch parts of the front.
It would not matter. 3rd Cav was on the road, and sped to within three kilometers of L’Aigle. They would get there by nightfall on May 28th, sending the radio signal back that Patton had been waiting for: “Able three is in the nest.”
The eagle had landed, and Patton had reached his first objective, but now his problem was fuel for the weary armored divisions. 2nd Armored should have been able to swing through that gap to follow up that breakthrough, but it did not have the fuel. A heavy division like that in active combat could burn up to 100,000 gallons of gasoline in a single day. Patton’s last allocation had been 32,600 gallons, and that was five days ago. Many of his tanks were running near empty now, running on vapors. To make matters worse, he was running out of ammunition for his artillery. So he was only able to get one combat command moving, and put it on the road behind 3rd Cav.
Major General Robert W. Grow of the 6th Armored had been at Lucky Forward to deliver reports from Truscott, and Patton collared him. “Bobby,” said Patton. “How are you fixed for gasoline? Can you move?”
“Yes sir. Truscott pulled us into reserve two days ago, and we’ve been pirating anything we could get our hands on.”
“Good. Well you fire up the Super Sixth and get up here as quick as you can. I’m going to put you on that road to the Eagle’s Nest. I’ll inform Truscott, just get moving tonight.”
That nest was, of course, L’Aigle, where 3rd Armored Cav would roost that night. CCB of 2nd Armored was flat out of gas, but Abrams reported he could put together a strong task force and get it moving. So Patton was mustering anything he could keep rolling, and funneling it all into that narrow gap, about six kilometers wide, a spear driven into the heart of the enemy front.
Senior commander on the scene, and with excellent information from Berg on what the Americans were doing, Field Marshal Kluge took it upon himself to issue some sweeping orders. The 709th was to come down and create a northern shoulder on the flank of that breakthrough, basically taking over the ground Berg was occupying, so the Schwerepanzers could maneuver. They would go north, to the road from Gace to L’Aigle, but it was a difficult move. They were hunted by the P-47’s the whole way, attacked at least fifteen times.
South of the breakthrough, the 232nd Infantry Division fell back from that shoulder, basically widening the gap another six kilometers. Kluge had no other choice, for that was the only way he could issue his last order to Bayerlein—he was to pull Panzer Lehr off the line and approach L’Aigle from the south, even as Berg closed in on the town from the west.
He was planning a classic German counterattack, and with the two best units he now had in this sector. It was to be all or nothing, and if nothing, the road to Paris would be wide open. The Americans continued to flow up that road until midnight, and by 02:00, the Germans were in position to try and pinch off the advance. Berg attacked the road near the river flowing to L’Aigle, about six kilometers west of the town. Bayerlein had KG’s southeast of the town, and began driving back small detachments of enemy recon units. Berg’s Leopards hit hard, catching a defensive position still being set up by CCA of the 6th Armored, just north of the road, and lighting it up with devastating main gun fire.
The 3rd Cav had pushed another 10 kilometers up the road to Rugles, where C-Troop sat with its armored cars in an otherwise silent town. Yet they could hear vehicles moving, which added fuel to the fire in their minds after listening to the frantic radio calls from units under attack. Out on a limb, they wisely decided to backtrack to join the rest of the regiment screening L’Aigle to the south and east. They could still hear fighting behind them on the road leading west, and see the fires of burning vehicles, not knowing they were Shermans lit up like bonfires. That was where Berg had teamed up three companies of Leopards to catch the Super Sixth as it came up in column, but now the American artillery started to find their position north of the river.
Further down the road, CCA of the Provisional Armored Division was riding like cavalry to the rescue. Three battalions of the new Pershing tanks were coming, and behind them was the entire 442nd Regiment, the most decorated unit that ever served in the US Army in the old history. It was going to be the best the Germans could ever hope to field, against the A-Team for the Americans. Twenty Leopards held the line, their long guns blasting at the American tanks. In one instance, a round hit the side of a Sherman, and blew clean through the tank to exit on the other side!
The Americans could not hope to match that firepower, but their artillery would be a saving grace. Berg had never seen anything like it, for in his time, modern weapons used the precision of the sword, and not the bludgeoning mass of the war hammer. But that was what it was like. The big rounds came whistling in, some short and falling in the river to send up tall splashes of shrapnel laden white water. The greater mass walked up the far bank and right over his positions. The shock and sound of a hundred 155mm rounds going off in the space of a few minutes was terrible. Several Leopards took direct hits and many more saw rounds falling too close for comfort, the crews rattled by the concussion.
“I think we’ve made our point here,” he said to a Lieutenant. “But they seem to be arguing about it in any case. I don’t want my people under artillery fire like this. We’re losing irreplaceable equipment. We’ll fall back 5000 meters and reestablish the firing line there.”
He gave the order via software, tapping units, and then selecting the point where he wanted them to go, which produced a green dot on their map screens. Then the Phantom Brigade would vanish behind a wall of covering white smoke, to wait and fight again if the Americans continued to press their bold advance.
* * *
Far to the southeast, O’Connor and Montgomery had been expanding their bridgehead mercilessly, with relentless pressure, even using the infantry to push into the woods by night to clear the road ahead for the armor. The German line bulged, the eight battalions of the Brandenburgers shifting from one crisis point to the next, but there was simply not enough infantry, to man the entire front, even after the arrival of the 319th Division.
The British secured Vitry Loges in the center of their bridgehead, and from there a fan of three roads could take them northeast. One led to Bellegarde on the right. The center road led to Beaune Rolande, and the third on the left swung up and over the heavy woodland before turning north to Pithviers.
Monty’s corps was on the left, with the Northumbrians and Highlanders slowly fighting their way through those woods. Once they forced the Germans away from that road, ‘Bobby and the Rats’ (Erskine’s 7th Armored) forced the position, cutting right through the 319th Division and opening a gap. Half of the Jaeger Brigade of the Brandenburgers died to a man in those dark woods that night. The last MG-42 team stood its ground for over three hours, holding up the 1st Hampshire Battalion. The other two battalions pulled out and tried to get to Pithviers to set up a blocking position. That would be the rallying point for all the other battalions of the division in this sector, which pulled out and motored north, harassed and strafed by P-47’s.
O’Connor was on the right, with 5th and 43rd Divisions pushing for Bellegarde. Behind that gap, O’Connor had a well-rested 10thArmored Division, and it went piling up that narrow road, the tanks clattering their way through the dark woodland to emerge on the far side. They were now 30 kilometers north of the Loire.
The front was breaking open, and there was nothing in reserve to answer that call. The beleaguered battalions of the Brandenburgers had been scattered all along the line, trying to close holes, rally retreating infantry, or simply hold the line. Now they were pulling out to answer that call to reform at Pithviers. 15th Panzergrenadier Division, which had been fighting on the east lower shoulder of the bridgehead, had no choice other than to pull out and race north to Bea
une Rolande. The battle of rifle butts and bayonets in the woods was now becoming a contest of movement, which inherently favored the British. The German Army had to either march, or die, and the entire southern shoulder had to get north, with the new defensive line to be anchored at Montarois.
* * *
As Kluge looked at the map, he could now see what looked like a classic pincer operation underway. The bulk of the army was arrayed in a wide arc, with Chartres at its center. Patton was now pushing northwest of Chartres, and the British breakthrough saw them advancing southeast of the city. The entire line west of this latest breakthrough by Patton was becoming a liability. It had to be swung back like a gate, its far end reaching the coast near Caen. Otherwise, if the battle continued moving northeast, they would be cut off. He knew what had to be done, but thought it best to at least telephone von Rundstedt at Versailles and consult with him before issuing the order for a withdrawal. Both Generals were of the same mind on the issue.
“Herr General,” he said to von Rundstedt. “We have to get back to the Seine. Otherwise, we will be sitting in a nice fat pocket and hoping there is enough bread and cheese in Chartres to feed the army.”
Part VIII
Breakthroughs
“There was no miracle moment. Although it may have looked like a single-stroke breakthrough to those peering in from the outside, it was anything but that …. Rather, it was a quiet, deliberate process of figuring out what needed to be done to create the best future results and then simply taking those steps, one after the other, turn by turn of the flywheel. After pushing on that flywheel in a consistent direction over an extended period of time, they'd inevitably hit a point of breakthrough.”
Breakout (Kirov Series Book 38) Page 18