Hitler Moves East, 1941-1943 (65 page)

Krüger and Wenck were amazed at so much optimism. Blaurock summed up their astonishment in the cautious question: "And what, Herr General, have you brought us for this operation?"

Model calmly regarded his Army chief of operations and said, "Myself." Then he burst out laughing. With a great sense of relief they all joined in the laughter. It was the first time in many days that loud and happy laughter was heard in the map room of Ninth Army headquarters in Sychevka. A new spirit had moved in.

It was a strange thing, but the moment Model assumed command of the Army the regiments seemed to gain strength. It was not only the crisp precision of the new C-in-C's orders —but he also turned up everywhere in person. While Colonel Krebs, his chief of staff, was in Sychevka, looking after staff affairs, Model was at the front. He would suddenly jump out of his command jeep outside a battalion headquarters, or appear on horseback through the deep snow in the foremost line, encouraging, commending, criticizing, and occasionally even charging against enemy penetrations at the head of a battalion, pistol in hand. This live-wire general was everywhere. And even where he was not his presence was felt.

It was largely that presence which decided the impending battle. To understand it one must know what led up to it.

As early as 8th lanuary Colonel-General Strauss had tried to close the breach in the north. Units of the replenished SS Cavalry Brigade Fegelein under the command of Obersturmbannführer [Rank in SS equivalent to Colonel.] Zehender had been switched east from the Neli-dovo area and had mounted the attack via Olenino. Units of VI Corps from Rzhev had thrust westward to meet them. But the Russians were much too strong in the penetration area, and the German forces too weak. The counter-attack of the combat group Zehender was utterly paralysed for several hours by a frightful blizzard, and subsequently unable to succeed in the face of several Soviet brigades. East of Olenino the attack ground to a halt. The attempt to close the gap had failed.

In order to repeat the attempt with stronger forces, Army Group Centre had withdrawn 1st Panzer Division from the Ruza line and dispatched it to Rzhev. It was a lucky move. For as a result the division could now be quickly redirected

and switched to Sychevka in order to redeem the critical situation there.

But mere defence in the areas held did not lead anywhere. "Attack, regain the initiative, impose your will on the enemy." That was Model's recipe. The Thuringian 1st Panzer Division from the ancient central German towns of Weimar, Erfurt, Eisenach, Jena, Sondershausen, and Kassel made a virtue of necessity: since they lacked tanks, the tank crews transformed themselves into infantrymen on skis.

Lieutenant Darius, whom we met earlier on the Duderhof Hills, was now in charge of a noiselessly operating "ski company." By daring thrusts and patrol operations his men gave cover to the railway engineering detachments who were continually busy repairing the track between Sychevka and Rzhev, a favourite target of Russian sabotage units.

But it was rather a long stretch of line. Major Richter, commanding 2nd Battalion, 4th Flak Regiment, therefore thought up an unconventional method of protecting the vital railway traffic to Rzhev. He got his men in Rzhev to build a kind of mobile "AA battery": on a number of flat-cars two 8-8-cm. AA guns, four machine-guns, and two light 2- cm. AA guns were installed, the wagons were hitched to an engine, and the home-made "armoured train" was manned by a crew of forty under the command of First Lieutenant Langhammer.

This train ran a shuttle service between Rzhev and Sychevka. First of all, at the urgent request of the duty transport officer, it steamed to the south to pick up an ammunition train. When he received his first assignment Lieutenant Langhammer is quoted as having asked doubtfully, "You don't think a U-boat would be more suitable?" But the AA gunners of the "armoured Flak train," which soon became famous throughout the sector, discharged their task admirably.

Physically, service on board the unprotected "armoured train" was torture. The headwind caused the temperature on the surface of the weapons and on the open flat-cars to drop to 50 and even 58 degrees below zero. The muffled lookouts on the locomotive wore leather masks on their faces because otherwise their noses and cheeks would have frozen off within minutes. In front of it, the locomotive pushed several goods wagons to act as "mine detectors."

Time and again the "armoured" train dispersed strong enemy sabotage detachments which had made their way up to the railway embankment. Moreover, the battery on wheels brought up the supply trains to Rzhev, following in convoy behind it, and thus ensured vital supplies during the first, most difficult days.

Things were by no means rosy for the Soviets who had broken into the German lines. This is shown by a glimpse at the other side of the front.

Sergey Kambulin, a twenty-six-year-old lieutenant in command of the machine-pistol company of a rifle regiment in 381st Rifle Division, was hustling his men onward. "Davay," he shouted: "get a move on, don't dawdle!"

Grumbling, the men put their shoulders to the wheels and pushed two captured German infantry guns forward. The horses had died of hunger and cold. As for the men of the company, two, three, or sometimes four and even more would drop out every day.

They were advancing along a wide snow-track packed hard by the tanks. The caterpillar tracks had made the snow as firm as concrete. But they had also made it as smooth as a skating-rink in a Leningrad park. Painfully the men struggled forward. One'of them asked, "What's the name of that village over there, Comrade Lieutenant?"

Kambulin looked at his map. "Solomino," he said. With thumb and forefinger he measured the distances on the map. "We're already 20 miles west of Rzhev, moving in a southerly direction. You know what that means? It means we are striking at the fascists' rear!"

At Solomino was the westernmost breakthrough point of the big gap through which Kambulin's company was advancing to the south. The penetration point was covered by anti-tank guns and heavy 15-2-cm. field howitzers. A hundred yards on the company's right a horse-drawn supply column was moving along the road. The field kitchens were steaming. Longingly Kambulin's men looked across. They had not had any hot food since the previous evening. The time was 1100 hours.

The day before, on 21st January, Second Lieutenant Kambulin had at last received a pair of felt boots. He had refused to accept a pair until every single man in his company had been issued with them. The thermometer stood at 45 degrees below zero Centigrade.

"They say the Germans are still running about in tight leather boots—some of them even in cloth boots," remarked one of the soldiers, a young village schoolmaster. "I hope the bastards freeze to death," Kambulin grunted.

"Enemy aircraft!" a man shouted. Everybody scattered and flung themselves into the snow. A German fighter-bomber was already opening up at them with its cannon. In the distance German aircraft were wreaking havoc among the Soviet supply column.

Shortly afterwards Soviet fighters appeared. But German fighters arrived almost simultaneously and chased off the Soviet machines.

From the west came the thunder of German artillery. The shell-bursts were a little short of Kambulin's company, but presently they got nearer, straddled the platoons, and continued to creep forward, to the east. The worst was over.

Kambulin straightened up. What on earth was happening? The supply column was hastily retreating. Machine-guns rattled. From the west came infantry, in line abreast, wearing snow smocks. Between them lumbered massive tanks without cupolas.

"Those are German assault guns—German self-propelled guns," Kambulin realized. The village schoolmaster too was shouting: "Those are Germans, Comrade Lieutenant!"

Calmly Second Lieutenant Kambulin made his dispositions. The sections dispersed. And already the first machine- pistol salvos swept over the enemy. The two light guns which they had captured from the Germans were barking.

The Germans on the other side flopped into the snow. They were seen waving and signalling to their rear. They were calling up their infantry guns. Model's battle for the big Soviet penetration area west of Rzhev had begun.

The new C-in-C Ninth Army had launched the second phase of his operation against the Soviet Armies which had broken through the German front. He had done so in 45 degrees below zero, a temperature which froze a man's breath.

Regimental and divisional commanders had asked Model to postpone the date of attack because of the frightful cold. Model's reply had been: "Why, gentlemen? To-morrow or the day after won't be any warmer. The Russians aren't stopping their operations."

Attack—that was Model's element. His great achievement in January 1942 consisted in leading Ninth Army from a hopeless situation of desperate all-round defence all along the front into a liberating counter-offensive with clearly defined centres of gravity.

Model's plan was simple. From Sychevka he made the reinforced 1st Panzer Division and units of the newly brought up "Reich" SS Division drive towards the north-west, in the direction of Osuyskoye, in order to strike at the flank of the most forward Soviet formations.

Twenty-four hours later, on 22nd January, Model ordered VI Corps to attack from the area west of Rzhev, striking in a westerly direction at the Soviet break-through zone, the main weight of this operation being borne by 256th Infantry Division, reinforced by battalions of four other divisions, by artillery, Panzerjägers, and AA guns.

Simultaneously XXIII Corps—cut off at Olenino—attacked from the west with 206th Infantry Division, the SS Cavalry Brigade Fegelein, and Assault Gun Battalion 189, in order to break through aed link up with the formations of VI Corps coming from the east. The men who were thus unexpectedly facing Second Lieutenant Kambulin belonged to the SS Combat Group Zehender: in fact, horsemen employed as infantry, together with some self-propelled guns of the "Ritter Adler Brigade"—the 189th Brigade. In vain did Kambulin try to stop them. Two days later a German patrol found him dead in the snow, surrounded by his shot-up company.

Kambulin, gravely wounded, had frozen to death. Shortly before he died he made a last entry in his diary: "The German assault guns are a deadly weapon. We've got no defence against them."

The German two-pronged thrust against the Soviet penetration area between Nikolskoye and Solomino, an operation mounted with the very last ounce of strength, had succeeded. The VIII Air Corps under Air Force General Wolfram von Richthofen smashed Soviet AA and artillery positions in the penetration area. Heavy mortars shattered the Soviet anti-tank guns. At 1245 hours on 23rd January the spearheads of XXIII Corps and of Combat Group Recke of VI Corps were shaking hands.

XXIII Corps was able to restore physical communications with Ninth Army, even though, for the time being, only across a narrow strip of ground. The two "snow roads" laid by the Soviets across the Volga had been severed, and the Soviet Corps belonging to Twenty-ninth and Thirty-ninth Armies had been cut off from their rearward communications and from all supplies.

It was a great hour for Model. He had regained the initiative on the battlefield between Sychevka and the Volga, and he had no intention of surrendering it again. The first thing the new C-in-C did was to reinforce the newly gained land connection between VI and XXIII Corps. For naturally the Soviets tried desperately to break through the barrier again and to restore communications with their nine divisions which had made the original penetration. That had to be prevented.

For this task Model chose the best man. As always when he had a particularly difficult operational assignment, Model succeeded in picking the best man for the job—in this case Obersturmbannführer [Rank in the Waffen SS corresponding to colonel.] Otto Kumm, commanding the "Der Führer" Regiment of the "Das Reich" SS Division. With his regiment Kumm was dispatched to the Volga, to the exact spot where the Soviet Twenty-ninth Army had crossed the frozen river.

"Hold on at all costs," had been Model's order to Kumm. "At all costs," the general had repeated emphatically. Kumm saluted. "Jawohl, Herr General!" Would he be able to hold on, with just one regiment?

On 28th January, while he was reinforcing hi» barrier in the north, Model launched his encircling attack in the south against the Soviet units which had broken through. The attack was made from the Osuga-Sychevka area with all available troops: 1st Panzer Division, 86th Infantry Division, the bulk of the "Reich" SS Division and of 5th Panzer Division, as well as 309th Infantry Regiment and the Combat Group Decker of 2nd Panzer Division, had all been united in XLVI Corps under the command of General von Vietinghoff and were pressing towards the north-west. The Russians knew what was at stake and resisted desperately.

There was much bitter fighting. In the deep snow of the forests every wooden shack became a fortress; in the villages every wrecked house was an inferno.