Chapter 23
Volgograd was, after all, a city where people lived. Though the advancing German troops had seen tens of thousands evacuate before the battle, there were still too many to be consumed by Richthoven’s rain of bombs. But the bombing wasn’t as severe here as it had been in Fedorov’s history. The German 8th Air Corps was matched by a growing Soviet presence in the sky, a fact that darkened Steiner’s thinking like a shadow over his right shoulder when he would stare down at the city map.
In spite of the initial breakthrough, particularly in the south where his old Wiking Division proved to be a whirlwind of fighting, Das Reich had not yet reached Rynok, so the Russians were still getting in much needed supplies along that road, and over the river at night. Now, on the third day of his opening offensive, Steiner was already beginning to receive reports from artillery battalions attached to his five elite divisions, all requesting more ammunition.
Ammunition… That was his real problem. The loss of Surovinko was beginning to matter now, for no trucks had reached him since his hasty retreat to this place. He had only those supplies he had trucked in from the forward depots at Oblivskaya and Surovinko, and no way of knowing how long that supply route would be closed. Volkov used guns of a completely different caliber, 76 and 100, 152 and 203mm shells. The Germans used 75, 105, 150 and 210mm. Volkov made no bullets that would fit into the new German MG-42 machinegun. He had no Panzerfausts to send, and no replacement ammo for any of the panzers.
All that had to come by air now. The route that was open through Tormosin provided a small bridge near the confluence of the Askay River with the Don, and some supplies were getting in that way from the depot at Chern, a roundabout journey of over 200 kilometers one way. Steiner was gambling now, thinking that if he threw the full wrath and ire of his crack SS Panzer Korps at the city, he could storm it before the defense there could calcify. For any long battle here, he needed that supply route through Kalach open again, and then he needed that rail line restored to the bridge at Nizhne Chirskaya. So every moment now was like a candle burning for him. Each day of fighting was going to bring him that much closer to a point of depletion, and the flights of bothersome Shturmovik overhead weighed heavily on him. If the Luftwaffe could not make regular deliveries….
So much depended on events west of the Don, where Manstein had officially christened his offensive counterattack towards Kalach as Operation Wintergewitter—Winter Storm. It came as the first snows of an early winter had fallen, freezing the shallow streams that laced through the rolling landscape. His attack had been led by Hermann Balck’s 11th Panzer Division, which had swept around the right, falling on State Farm 79 like that winter storm, and driving back the ill-prepared 5th Guards Rifle Division. On his left, 9th Panzer had broken through the lines of 7th Guards, and the full weight of the division was pouring through. Now the Soviet defense astride the road to Surovinko was completely flanked, and by mid-day on October 23rd, elements of both German Panzer Divisions were within three to five kilometers of Surovinko.
Yet there sat a great spider, the 1st Guards Tank Corps that had been refueling and rearming all this time. It had responded sluggishly to the crisis, not realizing the gravity of the situation. Then, one by one, it began dispatching units to shore up threatened sectors. The Motor Rifle Brigade deployed astride the main road, and several tank brigades crossed the Chir only to run directly into that winter storm.
9th and 11th Panzer Divisions had effectively pinched off and encircled the Guards Rifle Corps, catching many of the Soviet brigades out in the open, advancing, and not in any prepared defensive positions. Units that might have been very difficult to move if properly deployed were instead steam rolled by the fast moving German panzer units, the infantry following in halftracks right on their heels. It was a lightning swift blitzkrieg attack by two full panzer divisions, and it broke through all the way to the banks of the Chir a kilometer south of Surovinko.
At the same time, the Totenkopf Division was grinding up the main road on a concentrated front, and it had both the Schwerepanzer Battalions in the attack. It had smashed the 81st Motor Rifle Division, and now it was systematically destroying 25th Tank Corps. Just as it seemed the newly designated 5th Tank Army was about to deliver the coup de grace by enveloping Oblivskaya, Manstein and his able Lieutenants had delivered yet another stunning counterblow, like a fighter leaning on the ropes suddenly landing a flurry of punches. Hermann Balck was the stinging jab, 9th Panzer the right cross, and Totenkopf the thundering uppercut. 5th Tank Army was staggered, driven back, and now on very unsteady legs.
The bewildered commander of that army, General Romanenko, had but one last reserve intact, the 24th Tank Corps. It had been positioned along the main rail line, which ran north of the Chir into Surovinko. While his 2nd Guard Rifle Corps had been shattered by this sudden unexpected attack, he still had the three divisions of the 3rd Guard Rifle Corps to the right of 24th Tank Corps, facing off against the newly arrived German 3rd Motorized Division that had relieved 3rd SS to enable their participation in the German offensive. He considered launching 24th Tank Corps in an attack right over the Chir, aimed at cutting the main road and stopping 3rd SS, but that would only put his last mobile reserve in the bag. The Germans were already fighting at the southern fringes of Surovinko!
Romanenko passed his problem up the line to Rokossovsky, who had now been given overall local command of Soviet forces west of the Don. He looked at the map and selected the simplest solution—do nothing. Leave the 24th Tank Corps right where it was, but deploy it north of the Chir on defense, and send anything left over to help defend Surovinko. The offensive in that area was involuntarily suspended, and the Chir River itself would now become the new defensive front line. The 9th Rifle Corps that had been deploying towards Nizhne Chirskaya was to pull back so as to establish contact with Surovinko.
The decision boldly highlighted the differing capabilities of each side at that time. Rokossovsky knew that if assembled in mass as they had been at the outset, well supplied and fueled, Zhukov’s Shock Armies could bull their way through the German defense to deliver this first stunning victory and cut the main supply line Steiner needed. The question now was whether they could keep that line shut tight.
While the German reaction had been to circle and dance with those hard hitting Panzer Divisions, Rokossovsky knew that Romanenko’s tankers could not fight a battle of maneuver now, not at the end of their long offensive drive, even while the Tank Corps had been trying to get fuel and ammunition. The best they could do would be to try and hold the line of the Chir. His real response to Winter Storm would have to be Operation Saturn, which was only now beginning to move into the early stages as the 1st Tank Army and 5th Shock Group began to move forward to their assigned jumping off points.
The offensive began by first taking all the units on the line and easing them forward into closer contact with the German front. Desultory mortar and artillery fire began to come in, aimed at pinning down the German infantry divisions, sending their riflemen into their trenches and revetments. The Germans responded by forming up the newly arrived 23rd Panzer Division, and repositioning a few battalions to shore up their line. 24th Panzer Division had already been placed on the line at the seam between the 2nd and 3rd Shock Armies, and this deployment allowed the 336th Infantry to be pulled off that line into reserve. It was already in road march column, approaching Chern on the main road where it had been ordered to begin moving towards Surovinko to bolster the push there. The division was eventually slated to cross the Don to support Steiner, but now that was by no means a certain prospect.