The attack from the eastern bridge span was gruesome, as the leading troops were mowed down by machinegun fire. Then, special engineers came forward bearing steel shields, crouching low as they pressed forward like a phalanx of ancient warriors, the long metal tubes bearing explosives jutting from the squad sections like pikes. Inside the bunkers, light 45mm cannon took the place of machineguns, blasting the assault teams time and again. Yet there was a full division behind the tip of that spear, and Volkov’s troops kept coming.
One section with a flamethrower team immolated a gun port, allowing an engineer squad to get close enough to get its demolition charge placed. The resulting roar of the explosion shook the bridge, knocking men off their feet, and three fell to their doom into the river below. The 45mm gun was silenced, but the solid structure remained intact. As the next rifle squad rushed forward, a submachine gun challenged them and the entire play began to repeat itself, with the dead mounting higher. At one point, an assault squad had to literally crawl forward over the bodies of their fallen comrades, one man dragging a dead soldier on his back for cover.
On the night of October 29th, that sturdy redoubt finally fell. Its heavy walls were battered and blackened by smoke and fire, its great metal doors bruised and dented, though they still barred the way. There was simply no one inside still alive, and so one by one, the riflemen of the 12th Orenburg Guard climbed through the gun portals to claim that battered tomb. There were still Soviet troops in the two adjoining redoubts to the north and south, and the fighting was far from over, but the bridge over the Volga was now technically in enemy hands, the black eagle banner scored by that dramatic red V was draped over the far end of a battered steel girder.
While this drama had played itself out, Hörnlein’s Grossdeutschland Division had pushed out from the cover of that balka, and in heavy fighting that lasted all through the 27th and 28th, they managed to get 2500 meters south into the outskirts of the central city. There, the enemy had rushed in every available reserve, their 56th Tank Brigade, men of the 97th Special Workers Brigade, the whole of 39th Guards Regiment from the Provisional Division, and a battalion from the 154th Naval Marines.
The grenadiers had fought their way right to the edge of the 1st of May Plaza, and beyond it were two shattered smoke towers of the Nail Factory, jutting like broken teeth against the pallid sky. Just beyond that, was Hörnlein’s objective, The Gorki Theater, overlooking the river. But then, strangely, word came to suspend operations. Similar orders went out to the Brandenburgers.
There was some confusion as to what was happening until Steiner found Hörnlein in the shattered Hospital that had been fought over so bitterly near those cemeteries. “A change of plans,” he said. “Manstein has Surovinko, and they are pushing for Kalach even now. We are to form a strong assault force there to break out and restore communications. No more 200 kilometer truck rides to get in supply.”
“I see,” said Hörnlein. “Well, do you want that damn theater or not?”
“At the moment, all operations except those involving Das Reich at the Volga Bridge are suspended. In fact, we may be pulling out.”
Chapter 27
“What? We are leaving the city to them? The Führer will not be pleased, to say the least.”
“We will not give up the fight here, but Manstein tells me he has spoken directly with Volkov requesting stronger support, and Volkov then made a personal appeal to Hitler, with a pledge that he will commit all of his 5th Army, and new forces coming up from Khazakstan.”
“Volkov had ten years to try and take this city, and he could never do so.”
“Yet now he will have our help,” said Steiner. “At the moment, he is moving up more troops from Beketova in the south to take over positions presently held by the Wiking Division. It galls me to do so, leaving the city to Volkov like this, but orders are orders, and so I am sending 5th SS west to Nizhne Chirskaya, and I will want the whole of your division to go to Kalach. Under the circumstances, the salient in which you now find yourself is somewhat hazardous. You should make arrangements to pull out and then establish contact with the Brandenburgers.”
“Give back all the ground we’ve fought for these last two days?”
“It can’t be helped. Manstein doesn’t want the mobile divisions here.” There was a harried look in Steiner’s eyes now. “I told him I had promised this city to the Führer before Christmas, and we have ample time to finish the job, but he is set on pulling the entire Korps out. He wants the infantry here in our place.”
Hörnlein nodded, and with a smile. “No offense, General Steiner, but thank god someone is using his head. We should never have crossed the Don without adequate infantry support.”
“Well enough,” said Steiner. “So now we will correct the situation. You are going to Kalach; the Wikings further south where the engineers have scouted good crossing points, and back to the railroad bridge. The Russians pulled out of that sector last night.”
“Then they know what we are planning,” said Hörnlein, “or at least they are smart enough to see the threat. General, they have fought very well here, better than any of us ever expected. The operations they mounted west of the Don were quite a surprise, and in more than one way. Let us not forget what happened last winter. It is only going to get colder here, the snows deeper, the roads more and more impassable.”
“All the more reason to take Volgograd for winter quarters.”
Again Hörnlein smiled. “There won’t be much of a city left if we do take it,” he said. “These last five kilometers took me nearly three days of very hard fighting. Casualties have been heavy; supplies are never adequate. This place will soon be hell frozen over. We will do much better west of the Don, believe me.”
That difficult but correct decision was now going to change the entire complexion of the battle, at least for the SS. Manstein had the wisdom to see what had gone wrong, and the backbone to take appropriate action. Enlisting the direct support of Ivan Volkov himself was much akin to having Mussolini make a direct appeal to Hitler, but when mated with Manstein’s strongest possible endorsement, Hitler let go of his initial resistance to the idea. Anything that remotely looked like a withdrawal was an anathema to the Führer, but even Halder and all the Generals at OKW had sided with Manstein, stating that the situation west of the Don had to be resolved before the city could be reduced. And if Volkov could help provide the much needed infantry for that fight, all the better.
On the morning of All Hallows Eve, the combined forces of Orenburg and Germany crossed the Don near Tormosin and Nizhne Chirskaya to establish a new front south of the main road between Kalach and Surovinko, and the Wiking Division would become the centerpiece of that thrust. Bridging engineers worked tirelessly, and that evening, the recon battalion of 5th SS was over the river and moving north, the infantry of the Nordland Regiment lining up to begin moving over the newly constructed pontoons.
At Kalach, the 129th Infantry moved up its reserve regiment and began the attack there under a thunderous artillery barrage from hordes of guns Steiner had assembled. They were able to punch a hole in the lines of the Soviet 84th Rifle Division, which had a chilling effect on 24th Army headquarters, particularly when the long column of the Grossdeutschland Division was spotted on the road heading west away from the city. Confusion reigned, as it does in any major tectonic shift of the battle fronts like this. Rokossovsky was soon on the telephone to Zhukov.