Rhinelander (Kirov Series Book 40)

by Schettler, John

  Part II

  Gladiators

  “Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.”

  —Julius Caesar

  Chapter 4

  The second windfall to arrive in the Aachen sector would be a gift from the Hermann Goring Division. Goring had been very pleased with the way his division had held the line against the British, buying valuable time for the SS to crush at least one of the two bridges on the Rhine the Allies tried to steal. When those paratroopers at Rees had been dealt with, the Germans slowly folded back their line, intending to shorten it so that units could be freed up for other assignments.

  This was what had sent both the 59th and 85th Divisions south, and now the Hermann Goring Division was the next mobile unit to pull a vanishing act. It would be taken off the line to begin its next transformation, from a Panzergrenadier division to a full-fledged Panzer Division. Goring had stuck his fat hand into Guderian’s pie, and grabbed a fist full of armor for the task. Since his division would transition to the better VK-Löwe-88’s, he relinquished his two Tiger-I battalions, marching them to the sound of the guns.

  The Tigers moved south into the heavy woodland behind Roermond, and vanished beneath the forest canopy. That forest, a conglomeration of many smaller woods, was now to become a mustering point for Operation Rhinelander . West of those woods, the Germans had held onto a small salient at Roermond on the Meuse, (which the Dutch called the Maas). In that area, a considerable buildup of defensive works had been constructed, and two German infantry divisions held out in the salient, Kluge’s 226th to the north of the city behind the Meuse, and the Eberding’s 64th in Roermond itself, with its lines then occupying a fortified line to the southeast along the edge of the woodland.

  After retreating from the Antwerp-Brussels battle, both divisions had time to slowly rebuild, receiving scattered recruits that had streamed east. Neither division was strong enough to consider any offensive, but there were enough squads to man those fortifications, and their mission was now to screen those woods. General Guderian had eyed that woodland as a perfect place to move troops arriving at the big industrial cities of Munchen-Gladbach and Rheydt, about 20 kilometers to the to the east. Units would arrive there by rail, and then move by road at night, and under the cover of those woods. That was, in fact, the designated assembly point for the newly forming 5th Panzer Armee under Steiner.

  At the moment, no SS formations had moved forward to the staging zone, and the only heavy units at all were those two Tiger battalions. Guderian’s plan, which he now presented to von Rundstedt, was to see all the infantry that had been holding south of Roermond along the Meuse withdraw to the Siegfried line. He wanted the Americans to follow, moving their forces east of the river.

  “Once the reach the Westwall,” he explained, “they will most likely begin operations to penetrate it. That is what we want. We will fight for the line, of course, but we want them engaged there as much as possible.”

  “Be careful what you wish for,” said von Rundstedt. “What if they break through? They could then surround Aachen.”

  “That is why I am sending you this new Panzer Brigade. Use it as a ready reaction force to counterattack any breakthrough and prevent such an envelopment of Aachen.”

  “One brigade? We had 16th and 17th SS, 2nd Panzer, and the Lehr Division in that role behind the Brussels line, and look what happened. Now only the 16th SS is still on the line, and I have had to split it into two Kampfgruppes, just to get something to hold as a mobile reserve.”

  “This brigade should help. Don’t worry, we are about to begin staging for Rhinelander soon. 5th Panzer Army comes in right there behind Roermond, and 6th Panzer Army begins moving to join the 17th SS south of Liege.”

  “Still dreaming of Antwerp?” von Rundstedt folded his arms.

  “Not at all,” said Guderian. “The operation planned is the double envelopment of Patton’s 3rd Army, as we discussed earlier with Manstein. 6th Panzer Army strikes north across the Meuse from Liege to Huy, but we are not running for Antwerp. Himmler has taken care of that with his Wunderwaffe . Instead, it swings up through Tongres to Maastricht. This army will have 2nd, 7th and 116th Panzers, the Lehr division, 17th SS, and two more heavy brigades built by Himmler.”

  “And 5th Panzer Army?”

  “Steiner will have a very strong force in the north. He will have all five of the SS Panzer Divisions now held in reserve, and you know damn well what he was able to do with them in Russia. His mission is to strike south, with two divisions crossing the Meuse to move down one bank of the river, while other three move southwest along the east bank. When the two pincers meet near Maastricht, we will have the big cat in the bag, and we’ll be sitting on the superb defensive terrain of the Meuse line again.”

  “You know they will move mountains to defeat this envelopment. The British will send their heavy divisions down to strike anything we have west of the river.”

  Yes, but as our forces move southwest, Steiner seizes all the bridges and ferries to communicate with those troops. They could either be reinforced, or withdraw behind the Meuse, and then I would like to see the British try to fight their way across against those SS divisions.” He smiled.

  Von Rundstedt, nodded, raising his eyebrows, his misgivings dispelled. He liked the plan. In fact, he had been working on something very much like this, which he called “Plan Martin,” and he intended to use it to try and prevent any big offensive pushing further west of the Meuse toward Antwerp.

  “It might be better if all our troops stay east of the Meuse, but I will leave that consideration up to Steiner. Other than that, I like this plan. It is limited, realistic in its aims, and the force seems more than adequate.”

  “Now you see why I have been holding the Panzers on a tight leash,” said Guderian.

  “But what about Patton?” asked von Rundstedt. “You know damn well he will fight like a hellcat.”

  “I expect that he will react with his armored divisions, pulling them off their own offensive thrusts and rushing them west to try and stop one or both pincers. That is when we stage the final push out of the Hurtgenwald. That will have mostly infantry, but it will certainly add to his misery.”

  Von Rundstedt nodded. “You realize the entire war rides on this offensive. If it fails, we will have shot our bolt, and have no further mobile reserves in the west, and just at a time when they may need to move back to the Ostfront to try and stop the Russians.”

  “I am well aware of the risks,” said Guderian. “Yet it was agreed that if we have any chance at all, it is here in the West. If we hurt them, we could at least set them back another six months.”

  “Yes, six more grueling months of misery for the troops in the field. It will be a hard winter this year.”

  “Perhaps,” said Guderian, “But how could it be worse than the winters of ’41 and ’42? You asked me when the withdrawals stop. Now you have my answer. They stop on the Siegfried Line. Once the enemy engages us heavily there, then it is only a matter of the weather. We will want to launch the offensive in the rain, to minimize their air power. And we will want it finished before the snows come, for yes, then we must certainly look east.”

  Hitler’s death and removal from the tree of command had been the one thing that made this excellent plan possible. Similar alternatives had been argued, by von Rundstedt, Mödel, Guderian and others. Even Steiner had been recruited to try and persuade Hitler that the old Autumn Mist plan aiming for Antwerp was not possible. Hitler had stubbornly rejected every alternative, and demanded his plan be followed to the letter.

  Now only one thing would remain to be overcome—the obstinate and determined character of General George Patton, and the caliber of the troops he commanded in the 3rd Army. This time, he would not be riding to the rescue of Bradley, nor would Monty be involved in any way. This time it would be up to Bradley to muster the relief force, and wit
h O’Connor doing what he could to repay the favors bestowed upon him by Eisenhower.

  Yet first Guderian wanted his enemy to push further east. And now the growing battles for Aachen and the Hurtgen Forest loomed ever more important in the scheme of things. While Patton was pushing on, his mind set on the Rhine, he would be driving ever deeper into the trap that Heinz Guderian was setting for him. Yet 3rd Army was no mouse. It was indeed a tiger, with the sharpest teeth and claws in the entire Allied order of battle.

  * * *

  The afternoon of August 6th saw Abrams make his first attacks against the pillbox line behind Lammersdorf. If he could break through there, the ground beyond was open farmland, with the settlements of Rollersbroich, Simmerath, Kesternich and Stekenborn. There would be no trees frowning down on his troops, or impeding his armor, and once through, he could pass the infantry of the 442nd Regiment on towards the ridgeline that covered Schmidt. Then he could turn his armor south behind the Siegfried Line towards Monschau, unhinging that whole line of fortifications as he did so.

  While this open area would allow him to maneuver his combat commands, the objectives he had been assigned, Schmidt and the Roer River Dams, would have to be work for the infantry. Heubner’s 1st was now lapping up against the Scharnhorst Line northeast of Roetgen, the troops getting their first look at the real forest, foreboding ranks of conifers standing like a phalanx of enemy troops to hinder their advance. 16th RCT was close to Roetgen, and on its left, the 26th RCT was fighting its way through an extension of the woods known as Waltheimerwald.

  When the fortified town of Schmidthof fell there the previous day, CCA of 2nd Armored smashed on through Waldheim. That afternoon, they pushed another four kilometers up the Stolberg Corridor, all the way to Zweifall and Breinig. This put them just two kilometers from the Schill Line that fronted Stolberg itself, and then ran on southeast into the Hurtgenwald near Zweifall. If ever there was a time for one of Guderian’s armored chariots, this was it.

  That afternoon the newly rebuilt 105th Panzer Brigade detrained at Julich and began moving out. They would reach the town of Eschweiler just before sunset, an old coal mining center since the time of the Romans. That was about five kilometers north of Stolberg, and now the question was whether Brigadier White’s CCA could reach and compromise the Schill Line before the Panzers could intervene.

  One more unit was to weigh in on the matter, a makeshift battalion that had been hastily formed by the non-commissioned officer’s training school in the city of Duren. It had formed three companies of NCO candidates, and left Duren the previous day, marching through the northernmost portion of the Hurtgenwald on a secondary dirt road. That morning they had emerged from the forest and marched another two kilometers to take up positions on the Schill Line just north of the town of Vicht. Their line extended from the edge of the forest, to the outskirts of lower Stolberg, blocking the main road to Duren.

  At that moment, those three companies of NCO candidates were all that was manning that line, even as TF White was pushing through two understrength companies of the Fusilier Battalion of 12th Volksgrenadiers. The Americans pushed into Kornelimünster and Dorff, set up a flank guard on the right near the forest, but otherwise did not advance further after dark. They were waiting for the 101st Armored Cav Regiment, which had been screening the Aachen State Forest. 35th Infantry arrived to relieve them, and that night they would rest behind the line, intending to move into the Stolberg Corridor the next morning.

  The 35th was also taking over positions in the 3rd Armored sector northwest of the State Forest, and Patton had notified Rose that he wanted the 3rd Herd moving in the morning as well, southeast to follow up that Armored Cav and press his opportunities in the Stolberg Corridor. Otherwise, night imposed its darkness and silence on the land, as a light rain began to fall.

  At the small town of Dorff, C-Company of III Armored Battalion, was just settling in on point, ever watchful for trouble. It was not far off. Major Heinrich Volker of the 105th Panzer was not going to wait out the night. He reasoned that darkness and the rain were his friend, and that the enemy might be scattered and loosely organized in their advance. So in keeping with Guderian’s training, he took his brigade south to Dorff. There he rumbled out of the rain with three companies of Panthers, 27 in all.

  The Shermans opened fire, encouraged when two tanks hit the same panther and saw it go up in flames. That lit up the scene, and the rest of the Panthers opened up. The American tank company had been set up for assault and infantry support, with six M4’s with the 105 main gun, six more M4A3E2 Jumbos, three M8 75mm SP guns, and two lighter Chafee M24’s. Those M4-105’s were not built for this fight. Their guns were powerful, but these were not carrying any AP rounds, and their turrets had no power traverse installed, which made them slow to react and train on new targets in a fast, confused battle like this. However, the Jumbos were brawlers, also slow, but the most heavily armored Shermans made. That said, these were mounting the 75mm gun, and more often than not, any hit they obtained on the frontal armor of the German Panther would bounce.

  It was rare to be hit with a German armored attack like this, and the Shermans were used to having a big advantage in numbers. They would normally encounter enemy tanks in twos and threes, and then maneuver those superior numbers to get side shots. Even the 90mm gun on an M36 tank destroyer had trouble penetrating if it hit the front glacis of a Panther. This time the shock and surprise of Volker’s night attack left the Shermans grinding about the rubble of the town, outnumbered, and definitely outgunned.

  Now one tank after another was being hit by those powerful KwK-40 long-barreled guns, the M8’s toasted, four Sherman 105’s wrecked in minutes, and the fight falling on the broad metal shoulders of the Jumbos. They were getting hits, but on frontal armor. Two more Panthers were knocked out, one by a track hit, the second with a lucky hit on the main gun itself. Then the Jumbos were triple teamed and blasted. Four of the six were burning wrecks, the company commander dead, when the rest of the force put it into reverse. They backed though the town, still firing, one tank crashing right into a house. It was a very bad night for C-Company.

  500 meters to the right, A-Company was just outside the town, when they saw a burning Chafee come careening out of the rubble and turn over into a ditch. That company was built the same way, and had five Jumbos, five more Sherman-105s, and the same lighter vehicles, but there was a full company of infantry, with four bazooka teams. Behind the Panthers, the entire battalion of Panzergrenadiers was coming in their wake, all mounted according to Guderian’s doctrine. The fight would roll up on the outskirts of Kornelimünster, and there would be no sleep for anyone in that town that night.

  Chapter 5

  The attack at Dorff triggered a violent response from 2nd Armored. 101st Armored Cav came up to relieve units on the right side of the penetration up the corridor, and units there all raced west to Dorff, pistols drawn and spoiling for a fight. Two more companies of tanks arrived, one with the M4-76, and several companies of armored infantry came up in support. The division had been rudely evicted from the town, and now they were going to shoulder their way back in.

  Six more Panthers were knocked out in that heavy counterattack, but Volker rallied his Panzergrenadiers and launched an immediate counterattack. It was one of those small battles in the grand scheme of things, with two sides fighting over what amounted to a pile of rubble. Virtually every building in the village had been destroyed. Its only significance was that to the northwest, five kilometers on, lay the bigger town of Eilendorf, which lay astride a major road and rail line to Aachen, and to the northeast, lay the mining town of Stolberg, gateway to the Roer Valley.

  At the same time, a battalion from the Reichsführer Division had been rushed to the scene, and they were attacking Kornelimünster, a little southwest of Dorff. The Germans surged back into Dorff, the infantry fighting mounted on their halftracks, with their MG’s blazing away. The pioneer company followed them in, and as the sun rose on the 7th of
August, the Germans were back in possession of the town. It would be a very short lease, and the rent would be high.

  Moving that night after being relieved by 35th Infantry, 3rd Armored began to stampede up the Stolberg Corridor in force. Two battalions reached Kornelimunster to join the fight there, and two others bypassed the battle, passing through the lines of 101st Armored Cav. They ran right into a company of Panzergrenadiers from the 105th Brigade, all mounted in halftracks, and the American Shermans would prove to be a foe the grenadiers could not match. The surprise night attack had given way to the dawn, and Volker realized he was now facing at least two full enemy combat commands. Admonished not to get embroiled in a pitched battle, he ordered his troops north to cover the unmanned fortifications just outside Stolberg.

  Over these last two days, the German withdrawal from the line of the Meuse had finally been completed. General Kurt Chill worked his magic again and got his division safely back to the Westwall just above the point where the double belt joined again, north of Kerkrade. South of that town, the 48th Volksgrenadier Division occupied the line south towards the Aachen State Forest. [1]

  These withdrawals enabled the Reichsführer Division to be pulled off the line, and soon it was divided into several kampfgruppes to address emergency situations. One stayed on the line to back up the 31st Festung MG Battalion, another was behind Caspar’s 48th, and two others had been rushed towards the battle in the Stolberg Corridor.

  As the Americans advanced north of the State Forest, it was 5th Armored that launched an immediate attack to try and penetrate the line of fortifications, breaking through in a weaker spot just west of Horbach. That quickly pulled in Reichsführer KG Wolf to counterattack and hold the line. The Americans had occupied a kilometer wide breach in the line near Horbach, but KG Wolf had formed a strong line to prevent further advance.