Tuesday, March 2, 2021

The Rhine

The Rhine River, Near Oberwinter
(Source)

The oath resounds, on rolls the wave,
The banners fly high, proud, and brave,
The Rhine, the Rhine, the German Rhine
We all shall stand to hold the line!¹

The trip over the Rhine to the eastern side of the river at Remagen, then to Köln and over another bridge back to the western side of the river had been tiresome to say the least. Both bridges had been clogged with refugees going one way, troops going the other, sometimes there were men of obvious military age mixed in with the refugees trying to blend in with those unfortunates. The Feldgendarmerie had their hands full this close to the front.

Major Jürgen von Lüttwitz and his two company commanders Leutnant Manfred Sauer and Oberfeldwebel Georg Eichmann had worn themselves down to a nub trying to herd their column of two tanks, one assault gun, numerous halftracks, multiple Kübelwagens, and more trucks than von Lüttwitz expected to still be running through these crowds. At one point the lead Panther, commanded by Leutnant Ralf Heinrich, had accelerated straight towards a Luftwaffe truck blocking the road. The truck had veered into a ditch, where it promptly got stuck.

"Are you insane man!" A disheveled and very drunk Luftwaffe colonel screamed as he climbed out of the passenger side of the truck. "This truck is under the personal orders of the Reichsmarschall himself!"

The two Panthers, the sole remaining StuG IV and a number of infantry-laden halftracks continued down the road, ignoring the soused colonel. Eventually Major von Lüttwitz's Kübelwagen arrived on scene, his driver pulled over and von Lüttwitz stepped out.

Von Lüttwitz saluted then said, "Is there a problem here, Herr Oberst²?"

"Do you command this column, Major?" The irate colonel got close enough to von Lüttwitz that the Major could feel flecks of the colonel's saliva hitting his face. So he stepped back.

"Yes, it is. We've been ordered over the river to defend the approaches to Köln? I suppose you have a very good reason for attempting to impede the movement of a combat unit?" von Lüttwitz spoke quietly.

The colonel began to sputter, he had assumed that using the name of Reichsmarschall Herman Göring would have been sufficient to cow these common soldiers. Having spent the war at a series of comfortable headquarters jobs, the colonel was unused to the brutal reality of the front and the areas just behind the front.

Before the colonel could say a word, Leutnant Manfred Sauer had pulled up in his Kübelwagen, trailed by a Feldgendarmerie Kübelwagen carrying three men. The senior of those three men stepped from his vehicle.

"Herr Oberst, I need to see your papers." Ordered the senior Feldgendarm.

"Now look here, Feldwebel..." the colonel sputtered.

"Now. Herr Oberst." He said with a voice like ice.

Then turning to his two submachine gun-armed men, he ordered. "Gefreiter Zielinski, check the truck's contents, Feldgendarm Schreiber, detain the driver of the truck."

The colonel hesitated for a moment, then said, "My movement orders are in the LKW, let me..."

"Schreiber, have the driver show you the truck's papers as well."

After a moment, the two lower ranking Feldgendarmerie came back to their sergeant. "Feldwebel Weber, there are no papers in the truck, the driver says the colonel ordered him away from his Flak unit without proper authorization." Feldgendarm Schreiber reported.

"The back of the truck seems to be loaded with art, at least that's what the crates are labeled. I think I saw a Rembrandt back there." Gefreiter Zielinski reported.

"Very well." Turning to von Lüttwitz, Feldwebel Weber said. "Sorry for the inconvenience Herr Major, we don't require your services at this time. We have ample evidence to convict the Herr Oberst."

At the word "convict," the colonel began to plead his case. His pleas fell on deaf ears.

(Source)

Through his field glasses Leutnant Ralf Heinrich spotted a column of vehicles emerging from out the ruins of a village some thousand meters away. They were advancing slowly, they were obviously expecting resistance. There was a halftrack in front followed by one of the Ami Shermans. Heinrich was certain they were Americans as the Tommies were further north.

He watched, then slid back down into his hatch, leaving only his head exposed.

"Hans?" He queried his gunner.

"I make the range to be 975 meters Herr Leutnant. Engage the Sherman first?"

"Aber natürlich, my lad. If you destroy the Sherman, just continue down the column. We'll take, I don't know, five shots, then we scurry before their artillery starts up. Stand by." He then got on the radio to Feldwebel Willi Schreiber in 115. "Willi, engage the halftracks, we'll kill the panzers. Five rounds each then back to the alternate position."

"Jawohl, Herr Leutnant!"

The big 7.5 cm cannon on Heinrich's Panther barked and sent an anti-tank round screaming at the American Sherman. Schreiber's tank fired half a heartbeat later. Heinrich was watching through his field glasses and saw sparks fly from the front of the Sherman, near the driver's position.

The American tank jerked to a stop and Heinrich could see smoke issuing from around the vehicle's turret ring. He was then distracted as Schreiber's round slammed into the halftrack which had been leading the column. That vehicle simply came apart at the seams, spilling its burning occupants along the side of the road.

Heinrich watched, not needing to intervene, his crew was very good. The first five vehicles in the column, three halftracks and two tanks, were hit in rapid succession. He watched through his field glasses as the crew of the tank his gunner had hit scrambled to escape from their vehicle. He could see flames licking out of the hatches as he counted three men jump from the tank. Which meant two were still inside.

The second tank exploded almost immediately after being hit, its turret flipping end over end to land ten meters from its parent vehicle. He saw no one get out of that tank. Moments later he heard the screech of an incoming high velocity round pass uncomfortably close overhead.

"Gentlemen, I think it's time to leave the party. Willi, do you hear me?"

He looked towards 115, that Panther was already reversing out of its firing position at speed.

"What say you Friedrich, ready to go?" He asked his driver.

Without a word from Panzerschütze Friedrich Pfeiffer, Panther 111 began to back away. Soon they were behind a fold in the terrain, had turned about, and were accelerating towards their secondary firing positions. He wasn't worried about his rear, he could hear Gefreiter Schantz's StuG IV going into action. Major von Lüttwitz had positioned Schantz further south, towards Berrenrath, in order to flank the Americans.

The plan had been for the Panthers to destroy the head of the Ami column, then the StuG would fire as the Americans tried to deploy. In the confusion they could fall back to the main line of resistance. Heinrich was sure that the Amis would be slower, more cautious. It would give the defenders of Köln the time they needed to complete the city's defenses.

For once, the plan went exactly as scripted.

The situation before Köln, 02 March 1945
(Source)

"Ausgezeichnet³! Good job Ralf! Report in when you reach your alternate firing position." Major von Lüttwitz was pleased. It wasn't often lately that something went right. He turned to Sauer and Eichmann. "Our Panzer boys have drawn blood. They claim four Panzers and seven halftracks destroyed on the road from Türnich."

"That's a platoon of infantry and one of tanks!" Eichmann exclaimed.

"Heinrich reports that the American artillery is shredding the small wood where his Panzers were positioned. Something to bear in mind before getting too excited about this small victory. We need to delay the Amis at least a day, then we need to fall back into Köln." von Lüttwitz continued.

"Do they expect us to help defend the city? Our halftracks won't be much use in those city streets. I'd like to be on the move as soon as it gets dark." Sauer was not excited about their prospects of re-crossing the Rhine. He knew that as soon as things got dicey, the defenders would blow the bridges. Stranding them on the wrong side of the river.

At least the overcast was low enough to keep the Jabos occupied elsewhere, but he thought he detected the clouds starting to break up to the west. They were dangerously exposed here.

"Will we move tonight, Herr Major?" he had to ask.

"Probably, once the less mobile units have fallen back, I intend to make a dash for the bridge. I want to be on the other side tomorrow. The Amis will be howling for blood after this nasty little setback."

"Little, Herr Major? Five dead tanks, that's 25 men out of action, and another 60 or 70 in the halftracks. Probably dead or badly wounded, I'd say they'll wait a day before trying again. Die Daumen drücken!4" Eichmann protested.

"There are many more where those came from Georg, I wouldn't get too excited." von Lüttwitz said, then concluded with, "Let's get back to our positions. I expect we'll receive orders soon. Hals-und-Beinbruch meine Herren!5"





¹ The 6th stanza of "Die Wacht am Rhein", in the original German:
Der Schwur erschallt, die Woge rinnt
die Fahnen flattern hoch im Wind:
Am Rhein, am Rhein, am deutschen Rhein
wir alle wollen Hüter sein. (Source)
² Colonel
³ Excellent
4 German equivalent of "Keep your fingers crossed," literally "Press the thumbs."
5 German equivalent of "Break a leg!" literally "Break a neck and a leg"

Link to all of The Chant's fiction.

52 comments:

  1. Looks like somebody left of the Panther flushed a duck or a grouse, or sumpin'.

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    1. I think it's just a clump of leaves from the foliage attached to the turret.

      But it does kinda look like a bird.

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    2. Little screen and aging eyes...Yeah, I copied the pic out and zoomed it, and it looks like yer right.

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    3. It isn't the clearest picture either.

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  2. "The second tank exploded almost immediately after being his...." "hit"? More suspense Sarge, who got ambushed?

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    1. D'oh! Fixed it.

      Ah yes, who got ambushed? We'll have to wait and see, I'm not clear on that myself. The Muse likes to play her cards close to her chest.

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  3. Industrialized mayhem. No matter how sharp you are, if you play that game long enough, the odds will get you. It makes sense to me now why so many Whermacht wound up in the Foreign Legion. So little remained of their home land...

    My first job at about 14 was mixing feed. They had this M model Farmall hooked up to a John Deere grinder. It ran off the M's power take off (pto). It would sit there, with the internals whirring and spinning, while I shoveled in 100 scoops of cotton seed hulls, 250 scoops of milo, 25 bales of alfalfa... Every scoop or block of hay would start that thing rocking and grinding and groaning, while the M just swayed around, struggling to keep rpm while it powered that mixer. If I had fallen in, it wouldn't have known the difference. I hated feed hay into it. Too close to the auger...

    That grinder reminds me of this story at times... inexorable, unstoppable, dangerous and remorseless.

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    1. Industrialized mayhem, grinder, all good terms to describe the end.

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  4. Terms truly apropos.
    Like Nylon I wondered if the ambush was against "our" guys in Second Platoon and immediately realized that they were "our guys" regardless. A slight insight into the combat practice of not learning names of replacements or watching "somebody else's war" in the distance. Some psychological isolation is required to maintain sanity.
    Love that Manfred sicced the Kettenhunden on the Oberst.
    Boat Guy

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    Replies
    1. You've spotted something I was trying to get across, that sense of anxiety when you wonder if it was someone you know who just died. When you find out that it wasn't you feel relief, immediately followed by a sense of guilt. It wasn't someone you know, but someone knew them. (Happens in aviation all the time. I've been there, done that.)

      I also wanted to show that the Kettenhunde could be useful.

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    2. You've done an excellent job of keeping the anxiety up throughout this whole affair.

      And now... what happens with the paintings? Hopefully the Kettenhunde has them secreted in a church somewhere safe, in their catacombs.

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    3. I'm familiar as well; it happens in SOF, Sarge, even in "peacetime"
      Boat Guy

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  5. Good the Major finally gets a lick in as good has he's been getting. Can I say that?

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  6. And thus the Panther earns its reputation. An excellent sniper, with great optics and a very powerful gun. Shoot and scoot definitely are the proper techniques for the day.

    Too bad there were no Jabos around or even a Bird-Dog to do spotting.

    As much as I want 'our' Germans to survive, I am deep down rooting for the 'good' guys, that being the Americans. Still rooting for our Germans being cut off one more time and being forced to surrender.

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    1. The weather has been spotty as of late for our lads.

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    2. what a few panthers with veteran crews in good situation can do:
      https://youtu.be/86K0ncTkAkA

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    3. A good tank in my view, over-engineered, but as you say, in the hands of veteran crews, deadly.

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    4. The Piper Cubs flew in all kinds of weather. The pilots were a lot closer to the Guys on the ground.

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    5. But that doesn't mean there was a Cub in the neighborhood, of course.

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    6. StB#1 - Yes, they did, the guys dropping the ordnance did not.

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    7. StB#2 - Doesn't mean there wasn't either.

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    8. Those guys will be on scene shortly. I detect a break in the weather.

      Poor Germans...

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  7. I sure hope that all of this is going to eventually compiled into a novel.

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    1. Seconded. I am already waiting in line so I can make my purchase.

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    2. Comrade M., that's the goal.

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    3. Coffee Man, I appreciate that!

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    4. Bunch of us willing to que-up for the paper tome. You could do advance sales.
      Boat Guy

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    5. Is this where we yell "shut up and take our money"?

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  8. Captured that sense of confusion from the German side pretty well. Wonder what will happen with the Oberst 😁

    Amazing right up to the end Goring was intent on his looted artwork.

    Have you ever read the book the monuments men? I found it a little too dry and academic, i.e., the author wanted you to know every little friggin detail.

    Still an amazing achievement from about 100 soldiers, some of whom were PhD‘s and privates.

    They found a lot of them in caves in Bavaria and Austria.

    Goring just think after the war he can retrieve his loot from the caves?

    The monuments men would just go to little villages and start asking around.

    They saved Europe’s cultural history

    It would be a story in itself how they catalogued it and it got back to the rightful owners.

    Those who were alive.

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    1. There was an excellent movie made about them a few years ago starring George Clooney. "The Monument Men" Highly recommended.

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    2. Movie was good - there was also a great documentary that I believe was on PBS

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    3. Saw the movie. They did well to recover as much as they did.

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    4. There are a handful of things never found - a few paintinkgs from the Masters, and the biggest mystery - the Amber Room.

      http://amberroom.org/history.htm

      With all of the caves that were used, some undoubtedly sealed with bombing - you have to wonder how much is still there never to be found?

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  9. 5 Shermans and 2 Halftracks. After a string of Ami victories over the past week or two, I should have expected it. I guess the fight hasn't been taken out of all of the Krauts, despite the surrender you scheduled for 67 days from now.

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    1. Many would fight to the bitter end.

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    2. Like Leutnant Ralf Heinrich? After today, he may not make it 6 or 7 days- Amis howling for blood indeed.

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    3. Hard to say, he might make it...

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  10. AFSarge, if you do do the book, has anybody added an appendix of the best comments from each installment to an historical novel? It would add to the depth of the prose to have active feedback on each section for the new readers to enjoy.

    Spin Drift

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    1. Don't know if that's ever been done before. It would be neat, but a logistical nightmare to put together.

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    2. If you were to pursue that, I suggest you assign, say 5 others to read through the comments with the task of taking no more than, say five comments from each episode. Then you assign one or two to further cull. Of course, your decision overrides all others to make the final cut. Delegate, delegate, decide.

      I suggest only those comments which include some form of historical accuracy to be worthy of consideration. Yes, this is a work of fiction but can be associated to some degree with actual history. The idea is towards compelling, introspective comments.

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    3. I'd need to ask for volunteers.

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  11. It is odd how things look when things fall apart at the end: troops moving, civilians fleeing, and others already planning for what they think will happen after the war.

    As I read the account (as always, excellent!) of the attack, I can only reflect back on The Last Stand of The Eggersheim Volkssturm, except the roles are reversed this time.

    War is a terrible thing, even for the best of causes.

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    1. I wanted to show two things: 1) victory, while certain at this point, still has a cost, and 2) people on both sides are dying, it's not one-sided.

      War is something to be avoided, that's for sure. But not at all costs.

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