Chapter 30
The Wikings had successfully pulled out of the arc defense they had north of Surovinko, and now they were heavily concentrated in and around the town itself. They destroyed the first Russian units to penetrate to the town center, the Motor Rifle Regiment of 1st Guard Tank, but now they were again facing strong armored attacks on both sides of the town. 24th Tank Corps, with the 81st Motorized Division, was trying to break through at Zirkovskiy, about 5 kilometers northeast of Surovinko. The main road east looped just south of that hamlet, and they were aiming to cut that vital artery by any means.
At the same time, the three tank Brigades of 1st Guard Tank, along with its heavy assault gun regiment, were now pushing into Surovinko from the west. It was like a steel vise, and the Wikings, with no tanks to speak of, would not have to rely solely on their infantry AT weapons and a few AT guns. The 501st Schwerepanzer Brigade Steiner had promised the division never reached Gille’s position, and it was still fighting along with the Reichsführer Brigade, just east of Oblivskaya.
A decision had to be made as to whether the division should continue to fight for the town, and Gille wasted little time. “Here we make our stand,” he said firmly. “The Chir runs southeast from this town, and the banks are very marshy. It will not be easy for an armored force to envelop us on that flank, and the infantry is better off fighting in the town here than in the open ground east. So dig in, and fight!”
The boom of the division artillery pool thundered out a second as he said that, firing at the heavy regiments of the 3rd Guards Division. Had it just been that, the infantry of the Wiking Division against Russian ground troops, Gille had every confidence that his men could hold. But it wasn’t just that. The enemy had over a hundred tanks to his west, and now he learned that Zirkovskiy had been taken and the main road east to Kalach was already cut. He would have stayed and fought, but Steiner radioed to see what was going on, and immediately ordered him out.
“I need you to swing up and cover the left flank of the infantry, otherwise I will have visitors here in Kalach tonight for dinner, and it won’t be you! Now move!”
General Gille reluctantly countermanded his stand fast order, and now he called on his men to make a difficult withdrawal under heavy enemy pressure. That was not the only thing on Steiner’s mind. He still had the 75th, 87th and 129th Infantry Divisions, the 54th Korps in Hansen’s 11th Army. They were holding in a wide arc from the hard won Golubinskaya on the Don, and then west and south as far as Surovinko. That town was lost, and he could see no reason to hold all the ground between that place and Kalach. He rubbed his brow, thinking.
Infantry, he thought. That’s what I need here for street fighting. And my SS Divisions should be west of the Don smashing this Soviet offensive. They only have a few tank corps, but they have concentrated them between Surovinko and Oblivskaya, and that was enough. We fought hard for Golubinskaya, and yet, now that we control the east bank of the Don opposite those bridges, our purpose is still achieved in isolating Volgograd. If I pull Hansen’s men east of the Don, I have much more force here, and can probably then assign just one of those divisions to watch the river crossing points. The rest can mass for my attack on Volgograd.
Then again, that is more mouths to feed here, and no trains will get through if I yield that ground—they won’t get through even now, not unless Balck can master the situation, which could take weeks. Totenkopf is still screening Oblivskaya with Balck’s help, but now I am told the enemy is threatening Morozovsk. That rail line west we labored so hard to rebuild will soon be useless, and for months. So I must consider my situation carefully here.
He turned to an aide. “Get Goring on the phone at Luftwaffe Headquarters.” He was going to see what the Reichsmarschall could do in terms of supply deliveries to the airfields he now controlled east of the Don. Then he would contact Gorodin, the head of Volkov’s troops, which was something he never wished to do. The man was a Russian, and worse yet, a traitor to his own people. While Germany needed the windfall alliance with the Orenburg Federation, Steiner did not like dealing with Volkov’s men, and did not want to make this call either. But he had to do so now, the supply situation was the key thing on his mind.
Volkov could keep the trucks and vehicles running with gasoline, and he can even send us food. He controls that rail line from Krasnoarmeysk south of Beketova all the way to Astrakhan. That is our life line now, at least for the next few months. So then if I can get Goring to deliver the ammunition we need, this situation can be resolved favorably. I will call it Festung Volgograd, and so now I give the order to pull in that outlying infantry behind the water walls of the Don. We will hold a strong bridgehead west of Kalach—the Castle gates, so I can sortie with my armored knights once Hansen relieves them here. This isn’t a defeat. I will beat the damn Russians here one way or another. It is only a redeployment to make best use of the circumstances and terrain.
He could tell himself that, but even as he did so, another voice was whispering that he was now moving pieces on the board simply to save them from destruction by an enemy he should have defeated long ago.
The second division Manstein had counted on was now making a very timely arrival at Morozovsk. The shortage of rolling stock saw only one regiment pull into the train station the morning of October 20th, along with the division artillery. The rest was on the road to Tatsinskaya, and would likely arrive before noon that same day. This would allow him to secure a front from Morozovsk all the way to Oblivskaya. Better yet was the news that KG Herr from the13th Panzer Division had tangled with the enemy 2nd Shock Group column, and forced a good portion of it to engage him. Then, as that fight began to thicken, General Scheller arrived with the 9th Panzer Division.
Good, he thought. This will force Ivan to look over his shoulder and realize that his right flank and rear must now be defended. He can’t very well continue pressing 3rd Shock Army southeast with Scheller’s division nipping at his heels.
The Russian 30th and 60th Light Tank Brigades had been probing the makeshift defensive arc north of Morozovsk, but they soon learned that the main road behind them had been cut, and that significant reinforcements were arriving in the town that had been their objective. Had they come here a day earlier, they might now be fighting inside that city, but 2nd Shock group was a day late due to the little ambush KG Herr had staged 30 kilometers to the northwest. That group was now on the defensive, and soon the Germans would be pushing on the exposed right flank of the 3rd Shock Army.
Now the Russians passed a moment of indecision as to how to proceed. Three tank corps had stormed south, encircled Surovinko, driving Steiner and Hansen out with their HQs, and then forced the Wiking Division out as well, looting all the supplies that the Germans had failed to take with them. 1st Guard Tank was still west and now south of the town, its HQ in the 25 kilometer gap between Surovinko and Oblivskaya, but that latter town had not been taken. 24th and 25th Tank Corps were east of Surovinko, along with the bulk of the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps with three infantry and one motor rifle divisions.
It was now clear that the Germans were abandoning the ground west of the Don which was slowly being occupied by advancing Russian infantry from the 9th and 11th Rifle Corps, and Rokossovsky’s 24th Army. Zhukov had three major objectives along the Chir, and considered that if even one were taken and held, his operation would be deemed a success. That he had done, but how to proceed?