“Can’t we send in specialists trained for this type of city fighting?” he suggested.
“Yes,” Hitler echoed. “Richthoven suggested the same thing to me days ago. What about the Pioneers, the Engineers? Are they not specially trained in demolition and urban warfare?”
“A very good point, my Führer,” said Halder. “Such units could be combed from the ranks and assembled into a special Sturmpioneer Brigade. In fact, such a unit already exists in Steiner’s SS Panzer Korps.”
“And it will be left behind, along with perhaps one of the Divisions presently there,” said Manstein. “My preference would be Brandenburgers, though they should be reinforced and reorganized as an infantry division. Armored vehicles are no good in that rubble, nor can we take them into the sewers. 1st and 2nd SS should be withdrawn immediately, and the entire SS Panzer Korps reassembled for mobile operations west of the Don. This brings us back to the infantry. Assault Pioneers can be the tip of the spear, but we must have men to take and hold captured ground, especially on the shoulders of salients driven into the city. At times, good divisions like Grossdeutschland had to assign fully half their combat units to such work, limiting troops available at the Schwerpunkt of the attack. So I say again—if you must have that city, then we must have the infantry, and no less than ten divisions.”
“How many are available in Army Group Don?” asked Hitler.
“Nine, and they are strung out for 120 kilometers between Surovinko and Morozovsk. I presently have them in two Korps groups under Hollidt and Fetter-Pico. Initially I have earmarked one division from each to go to Stalingrad, the 305th and 336th. Four others are already there, but that leaves a shortfall of four divisions. If Halder can find them for me, then I am prepared to prosecute that battle to a successful conclusion. If not, then I question even trying. What good is the city in any case? Now that we have the Volga Bridge, nothing gets in or out of the place. Why not just allow Volkov to invest it, strengthened by a few of our own infantry divisions, and then forget about it?”
“What?” Hitler flashed a disapproving glance. “Herr General, there are also political considerations here.”
“Political considerations? Are they worth what it will cost us to take that pile of rubble? There are certainly no economic considerations. We have bombed and blasted all their factories. The city is nothing but a massive concrete millstone around the neck of Sergei Kirov. Why he decided to try and defend it is beyond my understanding.”
“He decided to defend it because I decided to take it,” said Hitler, “just as I directed the Army should also take Moscow. We must show them that nothing can stop us, not their men, their steel, nor their will to resist. Once we take Volgograd, they will be completely broken in morale. You will see.”
“My Führer,” said Manstein, and with a sidelong glance at Halder now. “The city we should be thinking about now is not Volgograd, nor even Rostov. The former is of no use to either side, and the later will fall in good time, sealing the fate of all Soviet forces in the Kuban. No, the city we should be thinking about is Leningrad. Yes, I can hear you already, General Halder. I argued strongly for the southern approach, and it will achieve all its ends in due course. Now, however, particularly for the coming spring, we must look north to Leningrad. That city is presently their arsenal and major production site. It is also the heart of the relocated Soviet Government, and the principal economic engine of their nation. Leningrad… That is where the Army should now be directed.”
“With the Donets Basin not yet secured?” said Hitler.
“I will see to that as soon as we resolve this nonsense concerning Volgograd—that and the Kuban, they will both be on my dance card. As for Rundstedt, serious thought should now be given to a shift in gravity to the northern front.”
“I never thought I would hear you say such a thing,” said Halder.
“I say it now, because the time is ripe. All things in good time, Herr General. And I will say one thing more—if they do hit us again this winter, I predict that is where they will come from, the north, against Smolensk. At present, almost every panzer and motorized division we have is east of Voronezh! Where are you going, to Saratov on the Volga to fight another battle like we already have at Volgograd? Further operations in that direction will lead us nowhere.”
“Yet we could pocket all the forces you have been struggling with if we made such an attack,” said Halder. “We could destroy all those Siberian Shock Armies that now plague you.”
“Pocketing them is one thing, destroying them quite another. Have you forgotten the six months we sat outside the Kirov Pocket? We have already linked up with Volkov, and now it is time we let him shoulder some of the burden in the south so we can finish the job elsewhere. The decisive battle of this war will not be fought at Volgograd—it must be fought at Leningrad.”
Both men fell silent, for they knew that Hitler would be the one to make the decision here, and Halder could already see the stiffening of his posture, as if his inner resolve was hardening the lines of his body, his eyes narrowing, the festering anger that was always there beginning to waken.
The Führer leaned over the map table, his eyes alight.
Part X
Führerbefehl
“Volgograd is no longer a city. By day it is a cloud of burning, blinding smoke. When night arrives, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to the other bank. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long. Only men endure.”
Chapter 28
“Leningrad,” said Hitler, as if he were spitting out the word like some vile phlegm in his throat. “Oh, my Generals are all so clever, so reasonable. In 1941 you tell me I must take Moscow to win the war, and we burned half that city to the ground! Then, in 1942 you tell me I must take Volgograd to win the war, and now that we reach the place, you want to chew on it like a dog with a bone and then throw it to Volkov! Now you tell me I must take Leningrad to win the war in 1943. Where does it end? When will my Generals finish something they start? The Russians are still in Moscow, they are still in Volgograd, and I will see both cities completely destroyed! Understand? I will not leave them to the enemy.”
It was really the first time Manstein had seen the rage in Hitler. In the past he had always been able to impose calm on these meetings, using a combination of flattery and reason to manage the Führer’s volatile nature. This time he could see that Hitler would not be mollified or reasoned with.
“Leningrad,” said Hitler, coming to some inner decision. “That is all well and good for the spring. As for Volgograd, we will find the troops required to finish the job, for that city will be taken this winter. This is a Führer Order! Look how they struggle to defend it? Can’t you see? It is a point of honor for them now, just as their stand at Kirov was last year. In Volgograd, they have invested all their foolish notions of duty, and their patriotic zeal to that decrepit Soviet State, the whore they call their motherland. Well I will have that city! I will destroy it completely, if for no other reason than the fact that Sergei Kirov, desperate as his situation is, still fights to keep it from falling into our hands.” Hitler smashed his fist down onto the map table, as if to hammer and crust the stubborn enemy he detested
He was breathing heavily now, then straightened, slowly composing himself, an unsteady hand running through the fall of dark hair on his brow. “Send for the transcribers. I will compose new orders, to be carried out immediately, and there will be no further discussion."