“Sir, they were engaged with that very same Panzer Division, but the Germans broke off that attack four hours ago.”
“And they cross the damn river,” said Volkov. “They move like quicksilver! Armavir cannot be held, which means 3rd Army’s supply line is cut, and the entire position around Maykop is useless….”
Volkov simmered with that for some time. 3rd Army was being enfiladed from the east at Armavir, and soon the German mountain troops would attempt another flanking maneuver to the south. He briefly passed through the option of sending a message through the German lines to request a cease fire. He might get far better treatment from his former ally than he had just seen meted out by his fellow Russians in Leningrad.
But then again, they don’t see us as Russians, do they? We are nothing more than Kazakh scum to them. Sergei Kirov sits there in the General Staff building overlooking the courtyard where the Tsar’s men would promenade. Now he is the new Tsar, but not here, and not in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. Would Hitler entertain further negotiations at this late hour? No, not while his armies are still making steady progress like this. We’ve kept them out of Belorchensk and Maykop, but that 11th Army infantry has been fighting for a long month, and is most likely tired and understrength.
That river crossing near Urupskiy has unhinged everything. Now I must either leave 3rd Army there to die, or try to save it. Maykop is lost, but Hitler won’t have it. I’ll see it burn first. Maykop is lost, but 3rd Army might still live, and I might still be able to keep Groznyy.
When he spoke again, his voice was dark and serious. “Hitler wants my oil, does he? Get a message to fat Gorsov and tell him to take everything he has to Nevinomyssk and hold that place. Then signal General Timalov with 3rd Army. He is to withdraw immediately, across the Urup River and along the road to Cherkessk. Inform him of that river crossing operation and see if he can stop it. Then I want all the rigs, wellheads, pipeline and drilling equipment at Maykop completely demolished. Understand? He is to burn the wellheads.”
He who controls a thing, can destroy a thing, thought Volkov. So before control of Maykop slips from my hands, I will destroy it. The only way I can get Hitler to negotiate again is if I can deny him what he wants. I can sacrifice Maykop, but perhaps I can stop them and save the rest. I was foolish to deploy forward as I did. I should have done what the Russians did in the real history, and so now I learn a hard lesson. This German Army is not to be underestimated.
3rd Army was a large formation, following the model for all regular armies of Orenburg. While typical Soviet Armies might have five to seven divisions, those of Orenburg had nine regular rifle divisions, a mech corps consisting of three brigades, an armored car regiment, engineers and artillery. All those divisions would now begin a general retreat, which could be quite messy. They would also be joined by the three remaining rifle divisions in the Kuban Rifle Corps, and Gorlov’s remnants of the 3rd Kazakh army that had been on this side of the Kuban. So now the mad rush was on, all his troops stampeding towards the line of the Urup River, and it burned his neck to think he could have withdrawn them there five days earlier in good order, and with his relations with Germany still intact… But without the Kuban; without the Taman Peninsula; without Maykop. Hitler would still take them all now, he knew, which was the hardest blow.
Sergei Kirov would not make peace, but Volkov might still wheedle a deal with the Siberians. They might give him a cease fire for Omsk, and then perhaps he could take four divisions from the 8th Army and send them to Astrakhan. That, too, was a matter of some concern to him, for Astrakhan was the big supply and depot center for all his operations on the Volga, and the gateway to the Tengiz and Kashagan oil fields. Where would this fast moving German mobile force go next? He had to be ready to oppose any thrust it might make.
Think, Volkov! He chided himself. “What do I need, and what can I live without? I need Groznyy and Baku, that much is certain. I desperately need Astrakhan. As for Volgograd, as much as it was a point of pride to take that place, and a long held objective, the city is actually worthless at the moment, a pile of rubble. So I no longer need Volgograd, and if I abandon it, then I can simply fall back on my original fortification lines east of Beketova. 2nd Kazakh can hold that, along with the Turkomen Corps. Then I can pull all of 2nd Army out of the Don Bend. Kirov’s troops won’t bother me, because they still have the Germans to worry about. So off we go…
“That is not all,” he said to the Adjutant, and slowly dictated his orders. “Send to Rybolkin and the 2nd Army. The bridges at Kalach, Nizhne Chirskaya and Golubinskaya are to be destroyed. His army is to move east of the Volga to the rail depots at Volkovskiy. All divisions in the Turkomen Corps will move to positions along the old fortification line south of Beketovo. There will be no changes to 5th Army dispositions, but all airfields and rail stations west of the Volga should be demolished and mined. This withdrawal should be covered by massed volley fire of all artillery, including all the Volga River forts.”
That last bit was just to stick a thumb in Sergei Kirov’s eye as he broke the long held clinch the two of them had been in over Volgograd. He was giving up everything he had fought for and gained since the outbreak of the war, and all in the hope that he might still keep everything he possessed before this conflict started. Whether the Siberians made peace or not, he would trade the rubble of Volgograd for the 2nd Army of Orenburg, and bring it to the Caucasus.
The 1st of April was a very long day.
Part IV
The Hammer
“It’s better to be the hammer than the anvil.”
Map
Chapter 10
The events in the Middle East had already had a dramatic effect on the campaign in Algeria and Tunisia. With O’Connor stripped of both 7th and 1st Armored Divisions, as well as 50th Northumbrian Division, his ability to launch an attack capable of pushing through the multi-lined defenses of the Mareth position was neutralized. In effect, his presence at Mareth served only to compel the Germans to deploy several divisions of their own there to keep the back door to Tunisia firmly closed. To do this the Germans had to leave their 90th and 164th Light Divisions dug in on that line, backed by three Italian Divisions.
While Patton had stopped Operation Sturmflut with his brilliantly aggressive moves, he soon found himself suffering from the eventual dispersion of his forces. His six divisions were now reorganized into two operational corps. Patton had the 34th, and 1st Infantry Divisions, and 2nd Armored, and he kept his promise to Truscott, giving him command of 3rd and 9th Infantry, and the 1st Armored Division.
Truscott now would hold the center of the American position, which stretched from the vicinity of Souk Ahras, east through the highland country to Le Kef, and then touched Patton’s Corps around Bouz Aziz. The fiery commanding General had taken that place with CCA of his 2nd Armored Division, pronouncing it the gateway to Highway 4 to Tunis. Yet Patton had been unable to push on up that highway with just that single combat command at his disposal. The road there led through high mountains, and he would need infantry, which was well dispersed.