Man took me forever to get this done, even longer once I started forgetting to upload it, but no worries now it is up!
Jan 10, 1946
0800
Brunswick, Germany
A German reconnaissance soldier of Kamfgruppe Berger put his binoculars to his eyes and looked out from his position in the bell tower of the church; he held a commanding view all around the city and could see for miles in all directions.
When he looked out to the North-east, he could see dozens of Soviet tanks coming in from the North-eastern direction where the city of Wolfsburg was and had apparently been surrounded by Soviet forces two days ago. He turned to the South, and a similar sight greeted him, dozens of Soviet tanks moving North-west in the direction of Hanover.
He radioed the sighting to the Kamfgruppe's headquarters in a café just a short distance away.
As he received the report, Johann began busily marking out positions on the map spread out on the table in front of him; he was astounded that so far, the plan seemed to be working in their favor, for the moment at least.
Jan 8, 1946
1200
Outskirts of Hanover,
7th Panzer Division Headquarters
"Can you give me the numbers for fuel?"
"Yes general, according to my estimates the proposed drive behind the lines to encircle the enemy would require a drive at least 50 km. Our fuel supply is barely enough for 30 km."
"Just drive on quickly and fiercely, and then you will not need fuel."
"But we won't have enough fuel General! Our fuel supply was just barely enough to get us all the way here! We have little left after the skirmishing! There is no way we will be able to pull off such an audacious maneuver without fuel!" Oberst Berger argued loudly.
"There will be fuel! Just use the enemy's when you find it." Rommel dismissively said.
"And where shall we find that?"
"Wherever you find it!"
"But we cannot plan on such assumptions-" Johann started but was immediately cut off.
"This is a direct order Oberst, once we have drawn the Soviets into the area South of Hanover, you will breakout from the city and advance deep behind their lines to cut off and surround their vanguard, then we will crush them from both sides."
Before Johann could protest any further, Rommel continued.
"If you cannot follow these orders I will be forced to relieve you of command." He stated flatly.
That statement hit Johann like a tank going full throttle, the thought of being relieved and sidelined just as he had started fighting was completely unthinkable, he had heard of the rumors of the General being a difficult person to work with but had never up until this point realized how true those rumors might have been.
"Understood General." Was all he could muster in response.
The same day,
A few kilometers North-West of Magdeburg,
4th Guards Tank Corps staging area
When the call went out to assemble, Sergeant Alexzy Lazarev was resting in his cot after finishing up the maintenance checks on his tank, so far he had had a comfortable war since being part of the reserve force had its perks for the moment, with minimal resistance being put up he could afford to lay back and let the vanguard push on without worry of having to be sent to the frontline.
That was all about to change.
"Listen up men! Our comrades of the 51st Tank Regiment have had one of their vanguard battalions mauled in an ambush by those cowardly Germans; we are to be attached to their regiment until such time as their battalion can recuperate, we are to join up with their position 90 km to the North-West near the city of Wolfsburg so prepare to move out!" said Major Voronin, the commanding officer of 'A' company of the 110th Tank battalion.
Alexzy grit his teeth as he prepped his tank for the trip, he certainly was not eager to be getting into a fight anytime soon, but he was not about to show it, not when there was a potential NKVD spy in their midst.
A few weeks before the start of the offensive, Alexzy's platoon has received a new arrival to replace another fellow –Private Sergei Kosov- who had been injured in a training accident. Private Vladimir Andreyev has been quite interested in learning about the lives of other men in the platoon and had been exceedingly friendly and integrated easily with the platoon, almost a little too friendly and interested. It was not long before some began to suspect him of being a spy from the dreaded People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, sent by them to report on potential "unpatriotic and treasonous thoughts" that could earn any one of them a death sentence if they were lucky, or a remote gulag if they were not. Some even postulated that Sergei's accident had been no accident, so the rest of the platoon kept up a friendly appearance while remembering to watch every word they uttered in his presence, even the slightest slip could mean death for the whole platoon.
At least he's not a part of my crew, he thought as he eyed Vladimir out of the corner of his eye.
The trip from Magdeburg to Wolfsburg was a rather short and uneventful affair, less than 2 hours.
Jan 10, 1946
0830
7th Panzer Division Headquarters
It was an incredibly risky yet somehow simple gamble, a number of phantom units had set up Just South of Hanover, nothing more than small squads with radios broadcasting repeatedly that the Germans were trying to set up a defensive line around the city and were calling on all available units in the area to that position. Together with numerous hastily knocked together mockups of tanks and assorted vehicles, and coupled with the Luftwaffe "letting" 1 or 2 Soviet recon planes slip by their radar screens, it presented the effective illusion of a German force assembling in the area near Hanover.
From the reports he was receiving, it seemed like they were falling for it, dozens, possibly hundreds of tanks were swarming into the area aiming right for the city of Hanover to crush what they thought was a German formation before it could establish an effective defense.
In reality, the defense had already been set up, the 7th Panzer Division had scattered itself amongst the many small forests, towns and villages that dotted a triangular area with its corners at Hanover, Brunswick and Hildesheim. Numerous tanks and assault guns hid themselves under wooden boards in these towns and villages, ready to swarm into the rear of the Soviet attack once it reached the outskirts of Hanover. A strong defensive position had been created just South-East of Hanover to act as the blocking force as well as the phantom military formation.
At the same time, an independent Kamfgruppe would surge from Brunswick towards Helmstedt where the Luftwaffe believed a supply dump of fuel was present, not only cutting off the retreat of the Soviet forces but also potentially obtaining valuable supplies. In order to facilitate this speed, any civilians who had not been called up for service were ordered to stay in their homes and keep the roads as clear as possible for the movement of their own forces.
It was an extremely audacious gambit, success could mean a halt to the Soviet advance for a few weeks, and failure meant that Germany would be completely overrun.
Jan 10, 1946
0915
Brunswick,
"Commander, they are beginning to enter the outskirts of the city!" Major Voss reported as he pointed put with his finger the Eastern approach into the heart of the city.
"Damn, it's too early to move." Johann grimaced as he checked his watch.
"Are they moving fast or slow?"
"Forward observers report that they are moving slowly and cautiously, should we ambush them in the city while we still can?" Voss asked.
"No, it might just turn into a quagmire and then the plan will go to pieces."
"So what do you suggest we do?"
"Pin them down, use sniper fire but do not deploy in strength, we need to keep up the deception for just a little bit more I imagine, when we get the signal to commence the attack I want you and Hauptmann Schultz to drive straight for Helmstedt. Do. Not. Stop for anything, if we can penetrate deep enough into their lines we can throw their entire force into disarray." Johann took a breath before continuing.
"Everyone else will hold Brunswick, try to capture as much supplies as you can and torch the rest, fuel is especially important."
"Understood."
"Are there any reports on where their vanguard has reached?"
"They have moved past Peine, reports are coming in that they are trying to sweep through the towns with motorized infantry, the militias are holding them off and they don't appear to have discovered the deception…for now at least."
0945
Several kilometres outside Hanover
For the Soviet captain at the head of the vanguard company, things for looking good, despite scattered gunfire he had suffered no losses at all; the entire formation was driving at the head of the central advance from Magdeburg to Hanover where they were tasked with crushing a possible German staging area before they were able to gather their forces.
It had not been many days since Soviet intelligence had picked up the communications broadcast, the silly Germans had apparently went full tilt on their frequencies, and now they would pay the price for their obtuseness.
Inside Hanover,
Rommel himself watched from a tall building at the approaching Soviet tanks, his plan was working!
He turned to his communications officer, "Send out the signal, all forces are to move out and engage any and all Soviet vehicles they can find."
He remembered his own words to his subordinates, be swift and mobile, do not get drawn into a pointless engagement, attack by surprise, destroy what you can and retreat, then repeat the process until the Soviets are finished.
He looked up for a moment at the greyed out sky and the snow falling.
A small town South-East of Hanover
"Major, we have the signal!" The radioman looked up from the radio in the small shed as gunfire echoed through the town.
"What does it say?"
"All forces…move out…engage all targets." The radioman said, the Major turned to his crews, anxiously sitting on their tanks in a big wooden warehouse that had been knocked together within a few hours in the dark by the locals to provide rudimentary cover.
"You heard him! Start up your tanks, today we will show these Bolsheviks how a German fights!" He shouted, the men cheered loudly as they jumped into their tanks, within minutes the first burst out of the house and onto a street, completely surprising a squad of Soviet soldiers taking cover across the street, the coaxial machinegun opened fire and hacked them to pieces before they could get away.
In a triangle with the cities of Hanover, Brunswick and Hildesheim as its corners, German tank and vehicle crews leapt into action, the metallic beasts burst out of sheds and warehouses and from camouflage nettings where they had been hidden while the main Soviet advance passed by, despite fears of discovery by advancing motorized infantry the militia had done well in keeping them away until Rommel had given the signal.
"That's the city!" The Soviet commander grinned, now where were those Germans?
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life, "Captain! What's your status? We have enemy tanks in our rear!" His battalion commander demanded with a frightened tone.
"What? But we haven't seen any-" The captain was cutoff when one of his platoon tanks exploded in a shower of fire and metal.
"What? Where'd that come from?" He demanded from his crew, just as another tank exploded, this time though, he saw the flash coming from a forest to their right.
"They're in the trees! All tanks turn right and charge those bastards!" He yelled into his radio as the tank swiveled right and into the snow.
Another tank went up in flames as the tank's loader shoved a high-explosive round into the gun.
"Target the muzzle flash! …There!" But he was too late; he saw a momentary flash before everything went dark.
Across a long field, an anti-tank gun crew was working as fast as they could; they were part of a small battery of four watching one of the approaches to Hanover.
"Good hit, keep firing!" The crew commander cheered.
By now the Soviet tanks were firing back with their own cannons, one of the anti-tank guns was zeroed in by the tanks and took a direct hit exploding and killing its crew.
"Dammit, they will pay for that! Target tank 11 o' clock, fire when ready!" The gun went off with an ear-splitting *bang* and threw up snow around them.
It was all over within the next few minutes, thirteen burning Soviet tanks for the price of one of their own guns.
0950
Brunswick
"Go go go! Don't stop for anything!" Major Voss shouted, Wolfgang and Deinhard were back in their armored car spearheading the breakout from the city towards Helmstedt. They rushed down the main road with a convoy of halftracks behind them, scattering Soviet soldiers right and left. Wolfgang hesitated to open fire freely with the autocannon in a German city; he would let the machinegunners on the halftracks clean out the Soviets instead.
As they exited the city, they were surprised to find the road ahead of them mostly empty, there were however several trucks with soldiers moving steadily towards the city, Wolfgang wasted no time firing, and soon scores of trucks were burning and exploding as they drove past stunned and bewildered Soviet soldiers.
"Good thing there are no tanks around today." He muttered grimly.
"Please don't jinx the mission like that…" Deinhard growled back.
Behind them, Hauptmann Schultz decided to leave the raid on Helmstedt in Major Voss's hands, at the last minute Oberst Berger had also ordered Major Adler's motorized company into the attack as well. Instead, Schultz swung out Northwards after exiting Brunswick to cutoff the main advance of the Red Army and get into their rear.
As his company rounded a set of woods they found themselves looking at numerous trucks lining a road with dozens of soldiers milling about as well as what looked like a makeshift repair station set up on the outskirts of a small town that was filled with a number of tanks.
The tanks spread out and began engaging anything that looked even vaguely dangerous, machineguns opened up on the trucks in the open while the main guns of the tanks reached into the repair station. None of the Soviet troops at the repair station or at the trucks had time to figure out what was happening, they had been warned about potential air attacks and were looking skywards for enemy aircraft, not for tanks forty kilometres in their rear. Within ten minutes the repair station and truck column were smoking ruins, the Germans had not suffered a single loss.
"Hauptmann, do you think we should have captured those supplies instead?" One of his subordinates asked over the radio.
"No, we don't have the means to transport them, besides we have enough fuel for now, let's turn back for now, we need to make sure Major Voss is not cut off."
"Soviet aircraft! Watch out!" One of the company screamed as a pair of tanks exploded, an aircraft flew right over them as it did and began circling for a second run.
"Quickly, into the woods! We can shake them there!" Schultz ordered, the drivers of the tanks floored their accelerators and sprinted for the trees, the aircraft turned around and was able to make one more pass at the tanks, destroying one more before the company made it into the woods.
"Dammit! Where is the Luftwaffe? Those things could kill all of us if we don't have fighter support." Schultz gnashed his teeth.
1030
Magdeburg
Soviet 2nd Tank Corps Headquarters
"How does the attack go?" The commander of the 1st Guards Army General Alekseyev asked his counterpart, 2nd tank corps commander Lieutenant General Beregovoy.
"So far initial signs appear to be promising; we should have reached the reported staging point and captured it by now, if we are lucky Hanover might be in our hands within a few days." Beregovoy replied.
"We took them by total and complete surprise, except for Berlin; I must admit I had a few misgivings about the original plan." Alekseyev admitted.
"Oh? And what-" Beregovoy started but was suddenly cutoff when the Army intelligence officer suddenly shouted.
"Comrade general! I have a report of German mounted infantry and vehicles at Helmstedt! He…he just went off the air."
"What! Where the hell is Helmstedt?!" Beregovoy quickly moved to the table in the center of the room with a map on it, "that's fifty kilometres behind our main line of advance! Confirm that report!"
A thunderous explosion rocked the area.
"That was our radio transmitter!" the communications officer reported.
"Hurry up and switch to the alternate! Helmstedt is about sixty kilometres from here, we can send reinforcements quickly." Alekseyev said.
"I'll dispatch one of the rifle brigades to the city." Beregovoy said as he began giving directions to the communications officer.
"And also Beregovoy…" Alekseyev began.
"What?"
"We'd better move a little further to the rear no?"
Helmstedt
Ordinarily, the two combined motorized and mechanized companies would not have amounted to more than five hundred-odd men, hardly enough to retake the city. But the element of speed and surprise as well as the aid of several hundred more militiamen from both the surrounding countryside and from within the city ensured that task was much easier. Attacking all throughout the city the Soviets were completely caught off-guard by the ferocity of the attack, some ordinary citizens even joined in, hurling stones and forcing the Soviets from the city amid gunfire.
The Luftwaffe was also proving support, the previous night, infiltrators that had remained in Magdeburg and Helmstedt to report on key positions had left the city, and these locations were fed to the Luftwaffe who targeted them accordingly.
It had not been that easy though, a small infantry battalion that was in the city put up surprisingly fierce resistance, although their positions eventually crumbled as they were completely surround and under heavy fire. Their commander, realizing his position was lost, had his staff burn all his papers just as a squad of panzergrenadiers stormed the building, firing their submachineguns.
Meanwhile, a fuel dump just North-west of the city had been found and taken by a group of militiamen from the city, soon Major Adler was requisitioning and rounding up as many vehicles as he could to carry as much of the fuel as possible to the rear.
"Faster faster! We need to get these supplies moving before the Soviets counterattack!" The Major cried out as he waved his hands furiously while barrels of fuel were loaded onto trucks. At this point, the radio crackled to life.
"Major Adler report, what's your status." Oberst Berger asked.
"We've just secured a fuel dump, we're bringing it back up the road."
"Well hurry it up! Hauptmann Schultz is having a hell of a time holding back your flank, move before you are cutoff!"
"Understood commander."
A little while later, dozens of trucks were fully laden with fuel and were beginning the journey back to Brunswick. A rearguard of militia had agreed to stay behind to check any Soviet counterattack.
"C'mon Wolfgang, let's go we're moving back to Brunswick." Deinhard began remounting the armored car.
"Yeah, we're done here," Wolfgang replied before he turned around and faced the direction of Magdeburg.
He put his hands to his mouth and yelled, "Until next time Bolsheviks!", he spat and gave a small laugh, Deinhard merely rolled his eyes.
The convoy immediately set off, many of the trucks were overladen and dangerously unstable, without their trucks many of the soldiers had to walk with them, a few lucky ones rode in the halftracks, but most were on foot.
Wolfgang blinked back tired eyes, they had been up all night precisely planning their route through Brunswick and then into Helmstedt, and then he heard a low humming noise coming from the sky and looked up. He immediately woke up as he realized what it was.
"Watch out! Enemy attack plane incoming!" Wolfgang shouted as he saw the plane dive to make a pass at them.
"Shit! We're sitting ducks!" Deinhard panicked, the road was jammed with trucks full of captured fuel supplies, if they went up all of their efforts over the last few days would have been for nothing. At the same time Wolfgang opened the hatch of the armored car and pulled himself out, Deinhard shortly followed.
The loud hum of an engine sounded as the plane neared, German soldiers were scattering left and right of the road in a panic, trying to find whatever cover they could.
"Here it comes, everyone get down!" Someone shouted.
Wolfgang and Deinhard dived into a small ditch at the side of the road and put their hands over their heads, Wolfgang cautiously peered up at the approaching plane.
"Here goes…"He trailed off, closed his eyes and placed his face into the snow-filled ditch.
A short thunderous explosion sounded, surprising Wolfgang as he expected a much longer and drawn out series of explosion, he looked up shortly but quickly put his head down again as the flaming wreckage of the Soviet plane flew right over him and exploded in a field a short distance away, overhead a plane with the recognizable iron cross symbol went right over the convoy.
"It's the Luftwaffe!" Someone cheered loudly, others joined him, waving and cheering as the German plane took off back into the skies.
"Alright enough cheering, we need to get these trucks back to headquarters now!" Major Voss barked loudly.
Skies over central Germany,
Erich Hartmann did not have time to think about his third kill of the day and his fifteenth kill overall as he yanked the stick back hard and sped up back into the sky, the Soviet had attempted to dive in order to escape the ambushing Luftwaffe squadron but Erich had kept on his tail and with a burst of machinegun fire, had sent the Soviet flaming out into a field.
The skies were now filled with the drone of fighter aircraft in a furball as the Luftwaffe and the Soviet air force attempted to support ground forces while denying the airspace to the opposing side. The Luftwaffe, bolstered with Polish and Czech pilots, was now making headway and gaining ground against the Soviets.
As he levelled off at high altitude, he spotted one Soviet chasing a German at low altitude in a hard turn, the Soviet was quickly gaining ground on the German and firing short bursts at him, Erich made his decision and dived again. His plane screamed through the air as he watched his gunsight carefully, he dropped down just above the Soviet and at close-range, opened fire.
The Soviet never saw it coming, his plane was peppered with shots and one wing was torn off while the rest of the plane spun out of the sky.
Four kills for the day, sixteen in total, and the battle raged on.
By mid-afternoon, the battered and beaten Soviets had withdrawn to their original positions while the Germans withdrew to their own. The Soviets had been taken by complete surprise with the stunning ferocity of the German attack, instead of finding a large singular group that they could crush easily; the Germans had many smaller groups all over the place, Swarming to attack and cutoff entire Soviet units.
As the main Soviet vanguard withdrew to positions near Magdeburg to lick their wounds, their commanders were incensed.
"You bastard! You told us that the Germans were gathering and were not ready for a fight! Where the hell did that information come from?!" Beregovoy shouted at the rapidly shrinking intelligence officer.
"You're lucky I have sense not to immediately send you to a firing squad! Where the hell has our beloved intelligence service put their heads in? Their asses?" He continued ranting to no one in particular as he paced back and forth.
"My god! More than six hundred casualties for some stupid intelligence fuckup, and compared to how many on their side? Three hundred? Four hundred? We won't be able to make such advances and expect to be able to succeed often!"
"General, the Germans locked down far more tightly than we expected, we weren't able to confirm-" The officer tried to explain but was rapidly cutoff.
"Confirm my ass! Why then was the report so confident of a disorganized and confused German force! They sure as hell knew how to disorganize us, entire companies isolated and picked to pieces in the open! Apparently the Germans like to target officers first, so now I have to deal with companies being led by sergeants, a battalion led by a captain and a regiment led by a major!" He huffed and puffed while the officer stood as rigid as he could.
"Now get out of my sight, I have more important matters to deal with." He dismissed the officer and went back to a table on which a map of the area had been laid.
The map showed the Germans spread across a large area, apparently centered on the cities of Hanover, Brunswick and Hildesheim, with multiple small markers indicating the rash of contacts all over the place, added to this was the fact that the German Air Force seemed to have suddenly gained a renewed vigor, and had halted attempts at stopping the attack with savage dogfighting.
He looked down at all of the numerous minor towns and villages that dotted the area, if the Germans were so spread out they would each have to be isolated and crushed one at a time.
1800
Outskirts of Hanover,
7th Panzer Division Headquarters
Against all odds, it had gone better than expected, there was now a far more available supply of fuel –although still lacking- and the Heer had given the Red Army a bloody nose for its trouble. Casualties were estimated to be roughly equal on both sides by Rommel's staff, not a good thing considering the Red Army had far more available and Rommel did not even have any reserves.
Rommel released a held breath, the latest report from Guderian asked him to hold for just a little while longer until a defensive line could be established on the Eastern bank of the Weser river.
The first day was over, German positions had held for the most part, but the same trick would not work twice, he had ordered a general retreat to a line around the city of Hanover, the roads had been mined and explosives placed. The population had been ordered to disperse as far as possible but not to evacuate as that would result in a mass crisis with nowhere to place them.
I know I'm breaching the realm of plausibility at some points here and there, but I'm admittedly no strategist or tactician.
Also, thanks for the submission of all your characters, the next chapter is a note on the positions filled and the remaining positions to be filled.