Dietrich gave him a dark eyed look. “Keep listening,” he said, and then he told the driver to go a little faster.
It was the only unit of the Brandenburg Division that was not operating with its parent formation, one bird that had flown the nest when it was caught refueling at Surovinko during the Soviet Mars offensive. It participated in the successful defense of that key supply center, and helped drive the Russians north again when the offensive was called off. After that, it had been in a gap just north of the hamlet of Kirov, between the 3rd SS and the 299th Infantry Division on its right. The battalion was never relieved, and so it continued to stand its watch until it received orders to the contrary, which never came.
It had three companies, mostly armored cars, with a few Marders, mobile flak and 75mm guns mounted on halftracks, and a platoon of engineers. It heard that movement Fuchs was picking up on his radio, and the alert recon troops were quick out of the trenches and into their armored vehicles when the first sign of enemy attack started.
3rd Company had five SdKfz 233s, the squat eight wheeled Schwere Panzerspähwagen with a short barreled 7.5cm main gun on top. It also had eight SdKfz 234/2 vehicles, eight wheeled, but with a modified light tank turret on top, the same one used for the new light tank Germany was calling the Leopard. It mounted a 50mm main gun, good enough to penetrate the armor of most lighter tanks and other vehicles, but rapidly losing its punch against the newer Soviet T-34s and KV-series tanks. Three older Austrian made ADGZ armored cars were also in the unit, with a 20mm cannon and a pair of 7.62 MG-34s. Two light scout cars, a single SP mortar and one 7.5cm gun mounted on a 251/9 halftrack rounded out this company.
The company was just west of hill 636, some of the highest ground around, where the 299th infantry had two battalions posted. A stream ran down from that height, marshy at the outset, but there was a secondary road there that the company was watching, and something was moving on it. The 299th was the unlucky division that night, for all along its front the Russians were sending up their crack 2nd Guards Rifle Corps, composed of three divisions, the 3rd, 5th and 7th Guards. On either side of that three division front, roads led south towards Steiner’s forward HQ at Surovinko, and along those roads the Soviet heavy mechanized units were now rumbling forward in the darkness.
The guardsmen were up front, marking the road to lead the mech units on. There was no artillery barrage to soften the enemy line. Instead it would be the shock of those three experienced rifle divisions hitting the line like a big wave, and then the double envelopment by the heavy armored formations. On the right would come the newly reformed 24th Tank Corps, with Kolypov’s tank brigade in the lead. On the left would come the 1st Guard Tank Corps, right into the gap between the 299th Infantry and the 3rd SS Division. It was beefed up with the addition of two independent heavy tank brigades, each with two dozen of the very newest tanks the Soviets had produced. These were the all new SK-Is, the initials standing for ‘Sergie Kirov.’ They would be the equivalent in power to the JS-I Stalin tank that would now never be built, and every single tank that had been squeezed out of the factories in the last six months was here, a total of 120 in all, spread over five heavy tank brigades.
The Kirovs had heavy armor at 110mm, and a powerful new 85mm main gun that was being field tested for the first time. Work was already underway to upgrade the design with an even more powerful 122mm main gun, but none of those had entered production yet. There was also a new SU series assault gun on the field that did have a 122mm gun, but it was the M-30S howitzer and not the anti-tank variant that would be built into the Kirov tanks soon. The 33 ton SU-122s were mated with a few SU-152s in the heavy assault gun brigade with 1st Guard Tank Corps. Unfortunately for Hauptmann Beck, the armored cars of the Brandenburgers were in their way.
At the outset, the companies of armored cars held their own against the infantry. Their cannon and MG weapons put out good suppressive fire, and the armor on their vehicles was just good enough to stop small arms fire and shrapnel. But a fresh Guards Rifle Division is well equipped, and soon the Russians were getting 45mm AT guns and a few of the newer 57mm guns into action. The lone 88 in Beck’s 1st Company on a mobile halftrack was hit and knocked out, and with that, the recon unit realized they would not be able to hold their positions any longer when all that heavy enemy armor began to grind its way forward through the ranks of the Soviet guardsmen. Hauptmann Beck got on the radio and immediately notified Steiner that they were under heavy attack.
“We got hit with a full division, and there are a lot of tanks right behind it. They’re coming right through the gap east of Totenkopf—right towards the village of Kirov on the stream behind us. We’ll have to fall back and try to hold there, but the best we can do is buy you a little time. You’ll need a full panzer division here!”
Steiner didn’t have a panzer division in reserve. He had sent 5th SS into the Golubinskaya operation early the previous morning, and it was now heavily engaged. What he did have is a single Stug Battalion with 12 STG IIIs and six Marders. He ordered it up the road through Osinovka and past Hill 495 to approach that river line position at Kirov. Now he could hear the distant rumble of artillery, a roll of thunder from the north, and he knew that the Russians had probably mounted another spoiling attack. He had worried about this, expressing his concerns to Manstein.
“Balck is turning over his positions outside Rostov to infantry,” the General told him. “Would you feel better if his division were back in theater reserve?”
Damn, thought Steiner. I wish I had that division at hand now. The Russians found the one weak point on our line, the Kirov Gap. But what to do here? Reports were coming in rapidly. Totenkopf was also under heavy attack. And more enemy tank units were on the main road to Oblivskaya. The division had also been hit on its left flank, prompting Eicke to send most of the panzer regiment there to counterattack. Now it seemed that was nothing more than a flanking maneuver intended as a diversion. The main attack was coming right down that road.
Now Steiner looked for any reserve he could find. There was a pioneer battalion at Kalach, and he sent for it immediately, ordering it west on the road to Surovinko. Yet that single battalion and the Stugs he had just sent to Hauptmann Beck would not be anywhere near enough. Beck was correct. He would need a full division, and the only way to get one would be to call off his offensive towards Golubinskaya. He notified General Gille in the 5th SS and told him to suspend operations immediately and get back to the main road.
“But were just outside the town now. They are blowing the bridges as we speak!”
“Good enough. Turn that operation over to the 75th Infantry. I need your division back here as soon as possible, and bring the heavy guns with you from 11th Army. This is serious. Now move!”
“Alright, we’re coming. I’ll have my division on the road south to Kalach by first light.”
Part X
Echos of Fire
“No earthly act escapes its eternal echoes, echoes more substantial than the acts themselves.”
Chapter 28
Eicke’s 3rd SS Division had been holding a wide segment of the line extending just over 20 kilometers when the main weight of the Russian offensive finally struck the division like a great wave. As Zhukov had predicted, Totenkopf stood like a rock resisting the initial surge until the front curved and bent around it. On the left flank, three rifle divisions and supporting light tanks and cavalry pushed down the road past Aleksandrov. It finally reached a tributary stream some ten kilometers south of the top arc of the division front. On the right flank, the 1st Guard Tank Corps reinforced by three heavy tank brigades was attempting to bypass the division in the gap that had been screened by Hauptmann Beck and his armored cars.