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It started raining in the late afternoon, the clouds were low and it was getting very misty. Oberst von Balck decided that, since everyone was ready, they'd start moving immediately. Oster's battalion was detailed to bring up the rear and make sure that no one was following them.
Oster had told Lang to keep Krafft occupied at the rear.
"Seems an odd request, Herr Hauptmann."
"For one thing, Unteroffizier Lang, it's not a request, you understand, ja?"
Lang nodded, "Aber natürlich, Herr Hauptmann, but you don't do anything without a reason. I'm just curious, that's all."
Oster looked around, "Oster is not in the habit of explaining things to his subordinates, but I will, this one time. We have a prisoner, an American."
Lang's face lit up, "Ah, the bastard who gave me my newest scar."
"Precisely, as Stabsfeldwebel Krafft isn't really himself lately, I thought that keeping him out of sight of the man who nearly killed you and Frau Schmitz might be smart."
Lang nodded, "Understood, Sir. I'll keep Dieter occupied."
Von Balck had explained to Oster that they were leaving two of the Panthers and their remaining trucks and halftracks behind. Fuel was an issue and they only had enough to keep five of their armored vehicles running. And leaving the Flak wagon behind wasn't an option.
"Besides. both of those Panthers have been having mechanical issues. What I wouldn't give for a couple of Panzer 4s right now."
"You don't like the Panther?" Oster had asked in some surprise.
"The beast is too damned finicky, the 4 is more reliable."
Von Balck had also pulled his map out to show Oster what they were facing. Von Balck's map was marked up with colored pencil, he spread it out and began explaining his plan.
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"It's all in the open, a dangerous stretch." Oster observed.
"We might be subjected to Ami artillery fire. I know their spearheads are on the Elbe, but I have had no intelligence that they've closed up along the entire river. I plan to do that orange stretch at night. We'll abandon any remaining vehicles before that. Panzers attract attention and ..."
"We'd rather avoid that." Oster finished for him.
The column stepped off, Oster's battalion bringing up the rear. Though they had tried to dissuade the civilians in the area from accompanying them, they wouldn't be put off. About 500 meters behind the soldiers was a motley collection of civilians, pulling carts, pushing strollers and wheelbarrows, anything which might allow them to keep something of their old home. A place few ever expected to see again.
Goebbels had, in one of his propaganda broadcasts, let the German people know that most of Germany would be left to the Soviets. He was guessing of course, as that hadn't been decided upon just yet, nor did the German government have any intelligence regarding that. Goebbels hoped that the German people would rise up and fight off the "Bolshevik hordes" as he called them.
Most people would rather flee to the west than rely on the tender mercies of the Communists. "No better, and probably worse, than Himmler's SS thugs," one old man had grumbled. So the civilians fled.
"We've seen this before, Kurt." Krafft muttered as he watched the civilians following as best they could.
"The forest to the east of Vietz, I remember it well." Kurt said.
Krafft turned to Liesl, "I wonder how your old Prussian is doing these days."
She smirked, "If he was fool enough to stay, he's probably dead. I doubt the Russians would put up with him for long."
"I, for one, hope not, I rather liked the stubborn old bastard." Lang offered.
Krafft, for the first time in a while, smiled and pointed at Lang, "It's birds of a feather, you two. You're both stubborn bastards."
Liesl smiled, it was good to hear Lang and Krafft get back to needling each other. She wondered if they could keep it up, a Hermann Goering solder had told her that they had some sixty five kilometers to travel before reaching Tangermünde. They had a long way to go to safety and that depended on the bridge still being there.
And whether or not the Amis would accept their surrender.
Von Balck's plan was a long shot.
But it was their only chance.
My daily read, almost with dread of what's going to happen to our Germans. A collapsing world and seeking shelter and maybe a future at the hands of those that will kill them if they cannot arrange a surrender (takes both sides to accept and decent luck). Then comes the mostly forgotten history of living within a destroyed economy.
ReplyDeleteThis period of history is being looked at a lot more than I remember from years back. It's important, at least to me, that we study what happens when catastrophe destroys a society. As you may well imagine why.
DeleteI would rephrase that last sentence. …the consequences of what happens when the catastrophe your government started…
Deletejuvat
And I would not object to such a re-phrasing. As it's true.
DeleteI liked the dig against the Panthers. Both them and the Tigers were monsters when running properly, but they were nightmares to maintain. Don't know if the PzIV was as reliable as the Sherman, but I'm sure the maintenance crews were much happier to see it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anything was as reliable as the Sherman. That tank got a lot of bad press. I remember reading Death Traps by Belton Cooper who was an ordnance officer with 3rd Armored in the ETO. Gave me the impression that the Sherman was useless, which was the wrong impression entirely. When I read other accounts stating how good the Sherman was and how it met its intended purpose, I realized that the Sherman was a damned good tank.
DeleteNo German vehicle, even their Ford-based trucks, were as reliable as American equipment. The Germans just had to 'improve' even the best systems to make them 'better.' Sound familiar?
DeletePart of the problem with the Panther and both late-period Tigers were that the slave laborers were subtly sabotaging the German production of everything. Put that on vehicles that were rushed in production and you get the issues with Panthers and Tigers.
Rush any complex systems into production before getting all the kinks out is going to have issues with said systems. Heck, our vaunted B-29s weren't really combat ready and truly reliable until after WWII, and all the kinks really didn't get out until the B-50 was introduced.
Good points all.
DeleteAnother comparison was the halftrack. German ones used the same arrangement of individual track segments and precision bearings at each link. American ones had easily manufactured rubber belts with treads and reinforcing cables molded in. They would wear out faster, but as a cynic noted, the halftracks themselves weren't expected to last too long on a battlefield either.
DeleteNot long at all.
DeletePanzer IV was definitely more reliable than Panthers and Tigers.
DeleteEarly Panthers were nightmare, more of them were lost to mechanical malfunctions than enemy fire.
Some of the kinks were ironed out in later versions, but still it was maintenance intensive beast.
Sure, nothing was in Sherman league, but thats different comparison.
On another note, this is the final stretch. Go fast!
I hope they wont run into some veteran Soviet unit with best gear, racing to cut off Berlin from the West, more from allies than any German counterattack...
You are prescient, Paweł. Or you're a good guesser.
DeleteRe: subtle sabotage. https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/citroens-genius-act-of-sabotage-against-the-nazis-in-world-war-ii/
DeleteAh, the famous dipstick sabotage. Brilliant.
DeleteLiving in uncertain economic times with increasing civil and political strife one looks for hope somewhere Sarge, your carefully crafted tale is compelling.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nylon12.
DeleteI am reading "Death Traps" now OldAFSarge. It is a good book and I know what you mean about the author "hating" on Shermans. Though most of the criticism of the tank itself is lack of power, etc. and from a post design/trial period tested in actual combat. What he reiterates again and again, is the propaganda in training touting to young recruits that American tanks were just as good as German tanks, etc. That simply was far from the truth. The Germans boasted thicker armor and more powerful main guns. Had the Americans not of had the industrial capabilities to overwhelm the Germans, things would have been different. It is a good book based on the observations of a man who was there. It took Americans till the middle of the 1950's to produce a tank that could match all the capabilities of the Panther (Pkw V).
DeleteWhat the writer of "Death Traps" failed to take into consideration is the 'Attacker vs Defender' equation. It's been known, since before Greek times, that a successful attack upon a dug-in defender usually requires at least 4 times the number of defenders.
DeleteIn this case, WWII Europe, the Germans had a lot of anti-tank guns, rockets and panzerfausts. And they had lots of time to do things like build defenses, site in guns into kill pockets, flood fields and such.
And the author definitely had an anti-American bias. "Oh, look at all the American tanks we are having to rebuild because they got hit!" "So where are the British tanks being rebuilt?" "Oh, we don't rebuild them, we just salvage parts..."
Jeffery - Actually the Pershing, which did see action in WWII, was a pretty capable tank. Was it superior to the Panther? It's 90 mm gun could, and did, reliably puncture the Panther's frontal armor.
DeleteBut as with aircraft, it ain't always the machine, the crew makes a huge difference. Also the Sherman was never designed to fight other tanks, the idea was that the tank destroyers (M10 etc.) were meant to defeat the enemy's armor. But of course, combat never turns out the way you expect. Also bear in mind that Mr. Cooper didn't fight in the Sherman, he only got to see the aftermath of those vehicles which were defeated in combat.
The Panther's mechanical unreliability made it something of a debit, rather than a credit. Rushed into production far too soon, it never reached its full potential.
The Sherman did.
Beans - Casualties among Sherman crews weren't as bad as some think. There are statistics supporting that but if you're the guy who got hit, and the other four made it out, that's not much of a consolation. And again, Mr. Cooper's job was recovering the tanks, not operating them.
DeleteHaving an invading army come into your town & neighborhood is not something I can imagine. that's a good thing!
ReplyDeleteNo fun at all!
DeleteThanks for the map Sarge, eminently helpful for the geographically challenged.
ReplyDeleteI also recall maintenance for Tigers and Panthers being a thing.
Not to mention that manufacturing standards were down at this stage of the war. Slave laborers won't get you a quality product.
DeleteAnother great installment, Sarge! I hope the Muse is feeling kindly toward Unser Volk; I've become fond of them.
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
Thanks, BG. I've grown fond of them myself.
DeleteWe have a plan!
ReplyDeleteIs this when Murphy shows up with an enemy to contact and mess up said plan?
I guess we shall soon see.
JB
The best laid plans ...
DeleteA plan. That helps. Even if they end up doing something else entirely, it gives them a focus and HOPE. Hope is a force multiplier. Or at least enhancer. "By GAWD! We can do this!" Probably worth 5 hours of sleep. Another excellent instalment.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe. We'll have to see what happens when the ersatz rubber meets the road.
DeleteSarge, I appreciate the map. Seeing how they are about 60km SW of Berlin, I wonder just how much they have to worry about Ivan.
ReplyDeleteAllied aircraft, German stalwarts dying fur der fuheur, and American shelling would be their greater concerns. That plus too little rations and too much fatigue.
I've been thinking about that fatigue and their dwindling rations.
DeleteAs they approach their own western front lines from the rear, I reckon friendly fire could result.
ReplyDeleteAlways a possibility.
DeleteRain. Rain is good. Rain keeps the Jabos away. Rain keeps spotters hunkered down. Rain covers sound. Okay, that last one cuts both ways. Did I just foreshadow an upcoming episode? Hope not.
ReplyDeleteRain can also turn roads and fields into seas of mud. Which really slows things down.
DeleteAlways top notch photos and maps. Makes it feel like I'm there, with you, with them,with all my fellow readers. It's raining here too..
ReplyDeleteSometimes the weather outside triggers my Muse. It rained most of Monday.
DeleteHey Old AFsarge,
ReplyDeleteYeah the Tigers and Panthers were complicated, the Panther in my mind was a better tank than the Tiger I and II. But the Mark IV was a good all around tank, I recall hearing that the Israeli's had some Mark IV's during their war of Independence along with allied tanks and that is what they fought off the Arab armies in 1948. I saw the mention of "Deathtrap", a funny story, back when I was working at Ford on the assembly line, we were taking a break and my foreman, an old guy saw me reading that book and commented that his Dad was a TC of a Sherman and his Dad told him of a story shortly he had passed , they were going through a German village right after crossing the border into Germany from France and a German soldier appeared with a panzerfaust and his dad grabbed the pintle mounted .50 to shoot him, but the guy was too close and inside the arc of the machine gun. he knew that they were toast, the German had the drop on them, and he squeezed the trigger of the panzerfaust and the damm thing blew up killing the German soldier. I commented" Yeah, they used slave labor from operation Todt to build the weapons and the people who were building the weapons would try to sabotage any weapon they could despite the huge risk to themsleves if the guards caught them, it would instant execution." He replied that he never knew that and appreciated the background on that story, and it made sense. I got chills when he told me that one.
That was close!
Delete