Manstein had to smile inwardly at that, for his troops were in the Caucasus only to wage war on a former “Ally,” and all for oil that might have been easily obtained by negotiation. Hitler was back on his old rhyme again.
“There are political considerations here beyond the military realm,” he said waving his arm. “There are economic considerations as well. If you let the Russians into the vacuum left behind by removing Paulus to the west, and if they cross the Don as I have described, then it will be all the more difficult to get to Astrakhan. That is where the really good fields are now. Astrakhan and beyond.”
The discussion had just come full circle and was back where it began, with Hitler eyeing those distant economic objectives. Nothing he had in hand would satisfy, and yet he wanted to hold on to it with all his might. The solution to his war was ever just beyond his reach. First it was Moscow, then Volgograd, and now he had substituted Astrakhan and Baku for the fruit too high on the tree. When would it end?
Chapter 23
“This cloud has a little silver in it,” said Manstein, pointing at the message he had received. “The good news in this dispatch is that Hansen has taken the oil fields at Groznyy, and largely intact. There is your oil in the short run. With Maykop, Baba Gurgur and Groznyy, we will have all the oil we need. So now will you kindly let me take charge of this battle and win it?”
“Not if you wish to yield the entire Don bend! Some other strategy must be devised.”
Manstein sighed. He had come to know Hitler as a tenacious defender of his own ideas and viewpoints on strategy, but he also knew the one time Corporal, that he had privately come to call “Effendi,” had no conception of the art of elastic defense and battle of maneuver. In Hitler’s mind, all attacks were to be defeated by stalwart defense. The army had to stand firm, and he would substitute his own iron willpower for the lack of anything needed by way of divisions on the ground. Discussions of this nature could go on for hours on end. Halder had been at his wits end, eventually resigning in utter frustration over Hitler’s interference. Now Zeitzler would spend days trying to convince Hitler on the real military requirements for all the new offensives he had concocted in the last several months. This was only round one, Manstein knew, and he had to do a little dancing and jabbing himself.
“My Führer,” he began again. “What I propose is just a temporary maneuver intended to provide me with the infantry necessary to make my counterattack. I want Paulus to move his 8th Korps here, screening Morozovsk, with Strecker’s 9th Korps on his left. Seydiltz-Kurzbach’s 51st Corps is the largest, but it is now being flanked by this Boguchar offensive on the left. So I want to move it here, to Bolshinka. Then, when Steiner finishes concentrating at Millerovo, both those Korps strike north.”
“North? Not northwest? How can they stop the enemy attack if they do not confront it directly? This counterattack makes no sense.”
“On the contrary, it makes perfect sense. A small thrust can be blocked and then rolled back. Yet an attack on the scale of this one in the south must be defeated by an indirect approach. If Steiner tries to block this attack, he only becomes embroiled in a static grind. I have selected Millerovo as Steiner’s assembly point because the terrain around it makes it very defensible. So I expect the enemy will bypass it to the north and west, most likely through Belovodsk, between Millerovo and Star Oblesk. They want to cross the Donets near Voroshilovgrad. I propose to let them try.”
“What? A moment ago, you claimed this could not be permitted. From there they can go to Rostov.”
“Only if they can cross in force, and stay there,” said Manstein calmly. “This is why my counterattack will swing around the enemy advance and cut it off, and to do that, I move north before I turn northwest. I would have preferred to concentrate three strong mobile divisions at Millerovo, but there wasn’t sufficient rolling stock to move them all at once. Kruger had to move Das Reich overland on the roads, and it is presently here, at Star O’blesk. So it will attack towards Kantirmirovka, to the northeast, while Steiner takes the other two divisions right up this road. That is why I need 51st Infantry Korps on the right, to cover that thrust. We defeat this attack by striking through its communications zone, not by trying to block its advance on objectives. They want to get over the Donets, but that will be their undoing if they go there now.”
“Shouldn’t Steiner attack immediately?” asked Hitler, “before the enemy gets anywhere near the Donets?” It was as if he had not heard a word Manstein had uttered.
“An attack now would be premature,” said Manstein. “He would have to make a frontal counterattack, which is a tactic normally employed against minor breakthrough where the shoulders of the penetration are still strong. In this case, the breakthrough is too wide, and the shoulders too weak because of your insistence that Paulus must defend in place. Instead, I want to let them advance, and stick their head right in the noose I am knotting up. When they have extended themselves, then we strike at their line of communications, and cut them off. That approach stops their advance without having to confront it directly as you propose. It also offers us the opportunity to destroy the forces they advance, because they will be unable to retreat. And once I do so, then you have back again all the ground you moan about losing while we maneuver.”
“Why not simply crush their spearheads as they advance?” Hitler persisted, completely overlooking everything Manstein had said about frontal counterattacks.
“Because the enemy is strongest at the outset of any breakthrough. A frontal counterattack can only be launched after the advance had dissipated and exhausted itself.”
On and on it went, for two long hours. Hitler tacked from his own ill-advised military assessments, then back to the necessity for protecting the Donets Basin, the coal mining region, the thick web of rail lines there. Manstein would argue that any enemy incursion there would only be temporary, subject to imminent destruction, and that rail lines could be repaired easily enough. Hitler wanted to stand in the center of the ring and punch from the clinch. Manstein wanted to move and dance, jabbing all the while, and then deliver his blistering right cross. Hitler could simply not understand that you could win by giving the enemy what he wanted. He could not see the series of intricate maneuvers Manstein wanted to conduct, where timing was essential to coordinate the plan. The two men would discuss and argue the matter until the break for supper, and then on into the late evening, whereupon a new and unexpected arrival would come on the scene the following morning.
In walked Himmler, his uniform fresh and well pressed, black leather gloves tight on his fists where he clutched a riding crop, and shining boots hard on the wood floors of the dining room. He snapped his heels together and offered a stiff-armed salute as Hitler turned, very surprised to see him.
“My Führer,” said Himmler. “It has come to my attention that troops are needed for an emergency situation on the front. Troops from my 3rd SS Korps can be made available, and I have come to offer their services.”
Manstein turned, a puzzled look on his face. “3rd SS Korps? I have heard nothing of this.”
“That is because the headquarters itself has only recently been established under command of Gruppenführer Jurgen Wagner—a good man. He had a battalion in the Leibstandarte before moving on to command regiments in both Das Reich and the Wiking Division, and he comes highly recommended by Steiner himself.”