The forces assembled here were much better suited to the city fighting, lighter equipped, but able to move through the rubble strewn streets, and into all the buildings and cellars. Furthermore, many of these divisions had fought during the reduction of the Kirov Pocket and Bryansk, where they got a good taste of what street fighting was like. Now they were putting that experience to very good use.
There were good penetrations at many points. 24th Infantry was able to drive the enemy from the Airfield Settlement about six kilometers north of the Kirov Flight School. 305th Infantry pushed about 1000 meters into Yelshanka. The 336th just to its north was now fighting in the outskirts of Novo Kirovka, but it was the elite Brandenburg Division, the specialist, commando teams, demolition squads, and gritty veteran Sergeants that made the difference.
1st Regiment had cleared all the neighborhoods around Resurrection Plaza, controlling that place before they ran into a very tough battalion of the 154th Naval Brigade. Elements of the 2nd Regiment had almost regained the last of the ground formerly taken by Grossdeutschland Division, and they were now about a thousand meters from the 1st of May Plaza. Yet the most dramatic breakthrough of the day came from 3rd Brandenburg Regiment.
That storm group had fought its way into Mamayev settlement, battling Soviet Tanks supporting the remnants of the 196th Rifle Division. They swept through most of that neighborhood, and the commandos found a way though and over a balka running along the western knees of Mamayev Kurgan. On they went, the assault teams leading the way as they climbed, and then they realized the vital central hill was not yet heavily garrisoned.
Hauptmann Behrmann radioed for support, and the fast moving Motorcycle Recon Company raced to the scene, waved through the gap that had been cleared by the commandos. The men dismounted, moving up to join the sections that had already scaled the heights, and as darkness fell, they reached the top, gunning down a few surprised artillery observation posts. There they stood on Hill 102, the men gazing out at the long agony of the city stretching north and south. There was no electricity, except in one small segment of Novo Kirovka to the south. But fires raged all through the city, and the evening sky was glowing red, the smell of burning wood thick on the air. They could make out the outlines of the battle lines, seeing the wink of gunfire, and the explosions of grenades and small mortar rounds. It seemed from that high point that they had just captured the whole of the city, but their mastery of that promontory would be brief.
The field phones rattled and rang in Chuikov’s headquarters and Borzov, the commander of the hapless 196th Rifle Division, was soon bawling on the line.
“They have got around my division to the north,” he exclaimed. “I think they have men on Mamayev! The road into the Tsarista Gorge is completely open!”
“Alright, alright,” said Chuikov, trying to calm the other man down. “I sent Special Brigade 124 that way late this afternoon. They should be approaching the north slope of the hill by now, from the Kirov Flight School. Don’t worry. I have a solution to the problem.”
That solution was going to be the 137th Tank Brigade again. It had fallen back to a reserve position and received new tanks from the factory. Now all three battalions were rolling through the thickening darkness towards the blackened bald height of Mamayev. A battalion of the 154th Naval Brigade had to spread out along a two kilometer front to try and screen the gap Borzov had warned about, and another regiment of the 13th Guards was ordered to leave its reserve position in the Red October Factory and prepare to counterattack that hill the following morning.
Chuikov’s immediate solution was more direct. He had big guns in fortified positions all along the shore from that factory to Central Volgograd to the south. There were batteries in the Mill near the 9th of January Square, in the old Railroad Bureau building, in the Metalworks near the Locomotive Depot and in the Steel Plant at the heart of the winding curve of rail lines known as the Tennis Racquet. Minutes later they were all given orders to blast the top of that hill, and the men of that recon company were soon diving for any cover they could find. The Germans had snuck into the pantry and raided a cupboard they should not have been able to reach that day. It was only the skill of those infiltration teams that allowed them to slip through and put men on that hill, but now they would have to pay the piper. Some of the howitzers in those batteries were as big as 305mm.
The Germans could not stay on that high, exposed hill under that fire, and the MC Company withdrew, making contact with the commandos about a thousand meters down the west slope of the hill. Along the way they had briefly engaged worker troops from the 124th Special Brigade, but they were special in the wrong way, mostly untrained and ill-armed men from the Red October Settlement. Yet they were good for filling gaps in the line with human flesh and bone, and the enemy did not know what their caliber was yet.
Studying his map, Chuikov could see how bold this German attack was. The unit that had reached that hill was special in the right way, and he knew he had to send the very best units he had to secure that position. He was planning a swift right cross with the 137th Tank Brigade, which swung up through the Kirov Flight School to hit the enemy flank and attempt to cut that incursion off. Then three battalions of the 13th Guards assembled near the water cisterns on the eastern slope of the hill, ready to attack. Meanwhile, his men on the hill were now directing fire from those heavy guns along the river.
When that attack came, the Russian Guardsmen rushed up the hill with a shout, cresting the scorched and barren crown, where not even snow could blot out the burning laceration of war. They leapt to the attack, charging down the far side of the hill, submachineguns chopping in the cold air. The German Recon Company was quickly pushed back, and within 20 minutes, Chuikov was again the master of Mamayev Kurgan, with the enemy clinging to positions on the lower western slopes
That crisis at least addressed for the moment, Chuikov took in the rest of the reports from his staff. 193rd Rifle Division was having trouble near the Barrikady Worker’s Settlement and was requesting reinforcements. The 10th NKVD sector was quiet so he ordered them to send over a machinegun battalion, but it would not be enough. Five companies of the 41st and 46th German Pioneer Battalions had stormed into the settlement, overrunning a battalion of the 193rd Divisional artillery, and a company of mortars. The men of the103rd were too slow to react, the German Pioneers too precise in their attacks, and too determined. It was yet another crisis point that would grow in the hours ahead.
Then the real trouble started. That heavy German Assault Pioneer group west of Spartanovka was finally breaking through on the rightmost flank of the Samara Rifles. The Germans had put together a big kampfgruppe there, with units from the 72nd Infantry, three assault gun companies, and a lot of engineers. They had reached the edge of the cemetery just outside the western edge of the town, right where Chuikov had moved the artillery of the 13th Guards Division. Now those guns would have to move again, which meant there would be no supporting fires from them for at least the next few hours.
The regiment of the 13th Guards he had sent to stop Volkov’s Guardsmen had stood like a stone wall north of Spartanovka for three days, but now their positions were slowly being flanked to the west. He reluctantly sent them an order to withdraw 500 meters, and said goodbye to Volkov’s men with a good barrage from the powerful Guards Mortar Battalion. The Volga Rifles still held all of Rynok, but now the gap between them and the rest of the defenders was another 500 meters wider, and over ground he never expected to see his men set foot on again. There were too many men coming over that bridge from Volkov’s 5th Army each night after dark. So by day he had his artillerymen register their fire with spotting rounds, so he could saturate the bridge with punishing fire that night.