Rhinelander (Kirov Series Book 40)

by Schettler, John

  “Gerow has V Corps covering the front from Roermond down to Kerkrade just north of Aachen. Truscott is behind him with three Armored Divisions, one already on the line. Then Collins takes over to cover Aachen and the Stolberg Corridor, and I’ve assigned 2nd Armored to his Corps. Eddy still has the front from Huy to Liege, Verviers, and over as far as Eupen. Abrams is in reserve.”

  “Sounds adequate,” said Ike. “We’ll do what we can to replace tank losses, but that will take time. The Germans have backed off. Their Lehr Division, the Herman Goring Division, and the Reichsführer Division have moved back east of the Rhine. 2nd Panzer went to the Monschau Gap. 17th SS is behind Verviers and Liege. The 116th and 7th have disappeared again, probably into the Eifel. They might have sent one to slow you down, Brad. Frankly, I don’t think they’ll want to keep their frontage on the Meuse between Huy and Liege much longer. It sticks out like a sore thumb. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see further withdrawals in that sector on their part.”

  “Then we’re looking at October before we can crank operations up again?” Patton wanted to know the score.

  “At least that long,” said Ike. “In that interval, you have the next three weeks to submit plans, Simpson too, as to how you think you want to proceed when we can get the Army sorted out. Have them on my desk by October 1st, and we’ll hash them out. And gentlemen, no airborne operations. I’ve had my fill. That corps stays in strategic reserve. To give you my thoughts, I don’t think the British are going to break out at Emmerich any time soon—would that be fair to say, General O’Connor?”

  “They’ve laid it on thick, Ike. I’ve put 15 Scottish Division and 1st Airlanding Brigade in to hold the bridgehead, with two Armored Brigades and Erskine’s 7th Armored waiting for an opportunity to break out—which I hope to give them with my Nordland operation. At the moment, the Germans seem fixated on the bridgehead. The Brandenburgers are lingering in that area, and my guess is that Lehr is east of the Rhine to stand as a reserve. So I’m putting my chips on Operation Nordland , and we’ll see if we can push through to the Ijssel River. That’s actually a branch of the Rhine itself, so we’re still pushing for the Rhine. Once we get there, then the prospects for flanking Emmerich look good.”

  “Pushing for the Rhine,” said Eisenhower. “Come to find out, that radio traffic we picked up just before the start of that German counterattack that Georgie sniffed out was the code name for their offensive—Rhinelander . Well gentlemen, we’re all going to be Rhinelanders now. That is what I want you to focus on. I want a general movement from our present lines, up to control the west bank of the Rhine on a broad front. I want to maximize our opportunities for getting across. General O’Connor is already there, and its will likely be another lonesome month before we can come up to join him. Once we’re there, then we plan the crossing operations. In the meantime, I’ll want your plans for how we get there.”

  “I’m a long slog from the Rhine where I am now, Ike,” said Bradley.

  “Your situation is different, Brad. You tell me what you need to get into Bastogne, and the Eifel Country. In fact, if the Germans get stubborn, and stay where they are now, then you and Georgie can work up a plan to pinch off that sore thumb I mentioned. Eventually, you’ll be given Koblenz as a long term objective, but first things first. We need Bastogne, It controls the whole road net in there. Any other questions?”

  No one was in doubt as to what they had to do. Patton was already planning to send Muller, his supply officer, off on a safari to get him artillery rounds and fuel. Bradley was finally glad he pushed up to approach Patton’s right flank, instead of having to wait for the Germans to give up the ground he took from them. O’Connor had his eyes north, where Crerar and the Canadians were about to be strongly reinforced to go for Apeldoorn.

  “Alright then,” said Eisenhower. “One last thing. It’s altweibersommer in Germany now, the last days of relatively mild temperatures. We can figure to see low temperatures just under 50 degrees Fahrenheit the rest of September, but that will drop ten degrees in October, and we can expect it to be down near freezing at night by November. December lows will be in the mid-twenties, and colder than that in January, with daytime temperatures no higher than 40 degrees. So, if you haven’t requisitioned your winter kit and overcoats for the troops, get to it now. To make it simple, winter is coming, and we need to be ready. My hope is that we can be on the Rhine come November 1st, Rhinelanders all.”

  Chapter 20

  O’Connor’s XXX Corps under General Horrocks had not participated in the defense against the German Rhinelander offensive, so the British remained flush with supplies and ready to operate. Eisenhower approved the transfers O’Connor wanted to make, and told him he could launch his attack when he was ready. That happened on the 25th of September.

  The operation would begin in the south, where 43rd Wessex Division had mustered near Renkum, about 14 kilometers west of Arnhem on the Nieder Rhien. Their mission was to punch through to Oosterbeek, and push into Arnhem, so the history had conspired to make those quiet fields and woodlands a battlefield yet again. Assisting this attack from the north, 32nd Guards Brigade of Adair’s division was on the road from Arnhem to Ede.

  The attack would fall on the rag-tag assortment of odd battalions that had been collected under the headquarters of General von Tettau—SS training battalions, security personnel, convalescent troops. The Germans were enduring a wet night under moderate rain, when the British guns cracked the morning open an hour before dawn. The barrage walked across the fields into the woodland, snapping trees, starting fires, and killing anyone caught in the open. It was a short, but intense bombardment, finishing with smoke, as the thick armed men of the Wessex Division started forward.

  On the road to Oosterbeek, they were quickly followed by the division recon battalion, with Humbers and AEC-III armored cars. So the lesson was a hard one that morning for the SS Training School recruits. The British broke through the thin German lines, and the armored cars pushed boldly up the road, right into Oosterbeek. Once there, they began to shoot the place up like a troop of desperados that had ridden into an old western town, pistols blazing.

  The Hamshire and Dorsetshire battalions of 130 Brigade had opened the way, and to their north, 4th Wiltshire Battalion was storming through the small settlement of Wolfheze. It would lay in ruins within the hour, the burning houses filling the air with the smell of wood smoke. KG Spindler was smashed, and when it was found that field wire had been shredded by the British artillery, runners were hastening through the woods and rain to the east, bearing news of the attack that was already quite apparent to all the citizens and troops at Arnhem. Looking out of their windows towards the darkness to the west, it seemed that the sun was rising in the wrong place that morning, for the horizon was lit up with the glow of that artillery fire.

  Oberleutnant Kuhne’s battalion was next in harm’s way, stationed on the far west end of Arnhem. Companies of the Mattusch SS Battalion were coming north towards Oosterbeek from their positions on the river, but Kuhne was the reserve for that entire regiment, and he had nine Sturm III’s to help stiffen the morale of his troops. KG Allworden was in the city itself, von Tettau’s ace in the hole. They were the best of his troops, trained by good NCOs of the SS and mounted in halftracks, with a few armored cars and mobile flak units. They started up the road to Ede, taking up a blocking position on the right flank of Kuhne’s battalion.

  The famous Arnhem bridge had been dynamited weeks ago, when a brigade of the 49th West Riding Division approached the city from Nijmegen. The beautiful span had not been totally destroyed, but a big hole had been blown in the roadbed, wide enough to prevent any vehicle from crossing. General von Tettau had been awakened by the rumble of the enemy artillery, knowing immediately that the long months of quiet after the British parachute operation was now over.

  Von Tettau had spent most of his time in the Army inspectorate, his combat experience limited, until the British came north with O’Connor’s push to ta
ke Utrecht. He had organized his “division” into a formation he now called the Westgruppe , but his troops would not impede that attack for long. If Allworden could not stop the British, he knew the enemy would be rousting him out of his hotel and claiming control of Arnhem before noon.

  Fortunately for von Tettau, professional soldiers were at hand, more SS troops, and not men from the recruitment and training schools that had been set up in Holland. Obersturmführer Harzer’s entire 9th SS Panzer Division, rebuilt and still quite strong after Rhinelander , was on the road from Doetinchem. Von Tettau telephoned Harzer there, and asked for support.

  “They are coming through Oosterbeek as we speak,” he said excitedly. “And there is trouble up at the Deleen Airfield as well.”

  “Don’t worry,” Harzer said coolly. “We’re coming.”

  Graebner’s Recon Battalion was out in front, and Harzer radioed to send him to Deeleen Airfield to see what was going on there and report. The rest of his division had spent the rainy night along the road from Doesburg on the Ijssel River and southeast towards Doetinchem. It would take some time to get the battalions formed up in road column again, but by sunrise, they would all be moving.

  Further north it was quiet, and deliberately so, as O’Connor wanted to see what the Germans had in their hand before playing out that attack. Harzer took the liberty of notifying Bittrich that he was going to Arnhem, and the senior commander approved. As for Harmel’s 10th SS, it would get instructions to be ready to move to Apeldoorn. Willie Bittrich was a veteran commander, and he could read a map easily enough. If the British wanted to push east from their present lines, then they needed to take and hold both Arnhem and Apeldoorn, otherwise they would serve as strongholds at the center of all the good roads, a threat to the communications of any troops attempting to move east beyond them.

  The general had every reason to be optimistic about the battle that was being joined that morning. North of von Tettau’s Westgruppe , there were hardened Fallschirmjagers of Student’s 1st Para Division. Von Tettau’s rabble might be easily broken, but not Heidrich’s Paratroops, some of the best infantry in the German order of battle.

  * * *

  Kapitan Klaus von Allworden wasn’t as good as von Tettau thought he was. Yes, his men had halftracks, old equipment that had been left in the Arnhem area by 9th SS Panzer Division before it was rebuilt. Yes, he had some well trained SS men, pioneers and men combed from the PzJager companies. But he had fleshed out the rest of his small group with naval personnel, having about 410 officers and men all told. Yet at least it was a battalion, even if it was one that looked more threatening than it actually was.

  Von Allworden himself had studied his craft at the SS-Junkerschule in Bad Tölz, and eventually earned the rank of Hauptsturmführer while serving with SS-Feld-Ersatz-Battalion 9. In February of 1944 he got a chance to be with the SS Panzer Regiment, 9th Panzer Division, but was soon shunted off to the Panzerjager Battalion. Hence, a good number of the men he “recruited” for his KG had come from that old unit, again, troops left in the Arnhem area when Harzer took the division to Germany to refit. Now he was hoping to show his stripes to earn a promotion to SS- Sturmbannführer , and what better way to do that than by saving Arnhem from British occupation.

  Von Allworden didn’t like it when his cohorts got folded into von Tettau’s Westgruppe , still thinking he was rightfully part of Harzer’s Hohenstaufen Division. Now he would find himself wishing that the rest of Harzer’s division was right there with him at Arnhem. The British cleared von Tettau’s troops out of Oosterbeek by 10:00, and just as Allworden got his men into position, up came a company of British armored cars supported by infantry. It was time to earn his stripes, but Klaus Allworden did not yet know what was in front of him. Right behind the incoming edge of the British line, another entire brigade of infantry was crowding up the road from Renkum in lorries, ready to deploy and pass through the leading 130th Brigade.

  Buoyed by the imminent arrival of Harzer’s troops, Allworden decided to attack, mounting his men up and swinging through the open fields just north of Mariendaal. He would fall on B-Company, 7th Hampshire Battalion with heckling MG fire and the crump-crump-crump of the few 37mm mobile flak guns he had on halftracks. The British must know that they could not come here without his license, and it was not being given.

  Allworden was the one man in all of von Tettau’s Westgruppe who had the impudence to think that way. All the rest of von Tettau’s men were falling back away from the advancing British line, and only Allworden’s battalion was on the attack. Things started off well enough, but he could soon see the thickening masses of British infantry in front of him, and Piat fire started to pick off his halftracks. South of his position, he could hear heavy fighting at Marienberg, and he knew his gallant charge would be fruitless. He might stop those armored cars for a time, but not all that infantry. In the end, he knew his was but a small part in the play that was now in its opening act. Arnhem would not be won or lost because of his exploits that day. Other events were happening north at the airfield near Deeleen that would be far more decisive.

  * * *

  The British 156th Brigade of the 52nd Lowland had opened a hole in the defense north of the Schaarsbergen woodland, and it led right to the Deeleen airfield. 5th Guards Brigade was right behind that attack, and a stream of armored cars, followed by tanks, reached the northern edge of the airfield just after sunrise.

  The only defense there was a line of 88mm flak guns that the Germans had been trying to move under cover of the woods just south of the field, and an enterprising British officer thought that the time was ripe for a good old fashioned charge. Producing a bugle, he sounded off and shouted to the armored cars to either side. “Come on lads! Let’s get at those guns before they can deploy.”

  What followed was a classic race across the open ground of the airfield, the Humber scout cars leading the charge, followed by a group of AEC-III’s and then three companies of tanks, a mix of Shermans, some Fireflies, and 16 of the new Centurions. The armored cavalry swarmed over the tarmac, and right down the airstrip, guns firing as they went to harry the Germans at the edge of those woods. Those 88s might have been a powerful defense against such a charge, but the guns were not ready. Seeing the oncoming tide of armored vehicles, some gun crews frantically tried to get the big 88’s ready to fire, but others simply broke and fled beneath the eaves of the woods. Their morning had started with drumming artillery fire, and now this was entirely too much before breakfast to be endured.

  It was then that Hauptmann Graebner arrived with his own troops of Pumas and halftracks. He tried to intervene, but the whole weight of the 5th Guards Armored Brigade was now finding that gap in the line, and the field was soon clotted with the clanking rattle and cracking gunfire of enemy tanks. Graebner was able to rally his companies and fall back to the town of Deeleen, just northwest of the airfield, but he had the uncomfortable job of getting on the radio to tell Harzer the British were breaking through at the airfield, and it would need Panzers to have any chance of stopping them.

  The Panthers were on the way, moving along the narrow forest roads in the Hunkerbosch, an arm of woodland that extended towards Deeleen. They reached the edge of the woods near a prominent hill called the Wolfdelsberg, and took up positions at the edge of the trees. Before them lay a broad forest clearing, broken only by the small hamlet of Gagenberg. Some five kilometers to the west, the British had overrun the airfield and continued surging into what would be called the Deeleen Gap.

  Faced with what now looked to be two battalions of British tanks. Graebner abandoned Deeleen that afternoon, falling back to the Deelerwoud Forest to the northeast. There, to his great relief, he would be met by 1st Battalion of the Panzer Regiment, with 36 Panthers. Thinking he finally had a fair fight, he immediately began organizing for a counterattack towards Deeleen.

  The rest of the 9th SS was coming up to the low ridge line between Wolfdelsberg and another small hill called the Velperberg. It
was a thin band of trees, no more than a kilometer wide, and behind it was another broad open area that would allow the British to get all the way to the Neider Rhine near the town of Rheden. That would essentially cut off Arnhem, along with all of von Tettau’s Westgruppe , and so Harzer was determined to make that thin tree-sewn ridge his firewall.

  19th Panzergrenadier Regiment was already counterattacking the recon company of the Irish Guards, which had led the charge all the way to the Velperberg. Now Harzer ordered up the 20th Panzergrenadier Regiment to insure success. Then he ordered the divisional artillery to begin harrying that Deeleen Gap.

  The British replied with the thunder of their own guns, the barrage falling heavily on the German line building up on the Velperberg ridge. As far as Adair could see things, that was where his battle for Arnhem would be won or lost. If he could break through, and flood into that open ground above Velp and the Tonberg woodland, the Germans would either have to accept investment at Arnhem, or withdraw.

  Dusk would find the British firmly in possession of Deeleen, and the village and hill at Gagenberg. But the Germans held the Wolfdelsberg, and had pushed a company of Pioneers onto the low rise of the Velperberg. They consolidated their position there, and all along that narrow ridge, while General Adair summoned disparate elements of his Guards Armored division, mustering in the Deeleen Gap.

  Chapter 21

  That same day, General Theo Wisch had his 1st SS Panzer Division mustered near Xanten. To the west lay a stretch of rugged woodland known as the Hochwald, and to the British, the position was referred to as the “Hochwald Layback.” If the Germans were ever to make an effort to neutralize O’Connor’s prize at Emmerich, that was where the attack would likely come from, and that was exactly what Wisch had been asked to do—strike through the Hochwald to Calcar, and cut off British access to that bridge.