June 14th, 1944
The art of using Slovaks
Operation Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front, on the Galician front - Unfortunately for the Germans, who are still struggling on these wooded hillsides, the sun has returned and the Sturmoviks are out this morning, adding to the difficulties of the defenders.
On the left flank of the XVII. ArmeeKorps (Otto Tiemann), the 389. ID (Walter Hahm) still contains - but with increasing difficulty - an exhausted 61st Army (Pavel Belov). It is only advancing behind a rolling barrage of more or less mobile artillery... but it is advancing. The small village of Duplín falls, isolating Svidník and threatening to cut the German division in two. The road to Chotča can only be held under the tracks of the Hetzers of the 277. StuG Abt (Major Wolfgang Ernst).
And on the right, the 1st Shock Army (Andrei Vlassov) has finally pushed aside the 218. ID (Viktor Lang) and approaches Breznica and Pakostov. If the Axis does not find reinforcements very quickly, the overrun of the defences seems imminent.
Hungary, whatever the cost
Operations Schwabenwall and Cluj-Debrecen
Schwabenwall (1st Magyar Army and German tanks), Guruslau depression - Sânmihaiu Almașului falls. Cleared of the remnants of the 47th Army - fleeing towards Cluj-Napoca, for those not already there, the men of the 1st Hungarian ID (Gusztáv Deseö) begin to advance towards Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) via Kerelőszentpál (Sânpaul), where the 19. Panzer (Hans Källner) and the 502. schw. Pz Abt (Major Horst Richter-Rethwisch) await.
German steel is struggling with the remnants of Ivan Lazarev's 2nd Armoured Corps. The latter is now very worn out, but it is more often than not relieved by the 8th Mechanised Corps (Vladimir Baskakov), which now receives support on its right from the 16th Armoured Corps (Andrei Getman) of Kravchenko's 5th Tank Army. As a result, the assault stalls. The panzers advance to the outskirts of Magyarnádas (Nădășelu)... but they need reinforcements.
At the same time, on Källner's left, the 17. Panzer (Karl-Friedrich von der Meden) and the 10th Hungarian Infantry Division (Frigyes Vasváry) - which should have supported the 19. Panzer - come up against the rest of the 5th Tank Army towards Vechea: the 4th Armoured Corps (Mikhail Fomichkov) and then the 9th Mechanised Corps (M.I. Savelyev). And it hurts... Especially with the rain falling everywhere, flooding the optics and preventing reconnaissance. More than once, Leopards in too much of a hurry are ambushed by platoons, companies - or even an entire regiment! - of T-34s.
Meanwhile, safe in Cluj, Ivan Bagramian plans to launch his 59th Army (Ivan Korovnikov) and 38th Army (Kyrill Moskalenko) against enemy lines tomorrow. With a bit of skill, who knows whether they might not even break through through Tihău towards Baia Mare (Nagybánya, Neustadt) and lock up the advanced German left at Dej in a vast new cauldron?
The Armenian doesn't know it, but his project is in trouble. Not because of his troops, but because of German reshuffles! Hermann Breith's III. Panzerkorps begins to disengage and retreat towards the Mesteacăn Pass, leaving behind the troops of the 8th Hungarian Corps (Major-General Jenö Halmaji Bor): 8th ID (Árpád Maltary) at Dés (Dej), 1st and 2nd Mountain Brigades around Bethlen (Beclean) and 5th ID (Zoltán Algya-Papp) at Nagyiklód (Iclod).
On the other hand, the 6th Hungarian AC (Major General Kornél Oszlányi) is to support the 8th CA: its 10th ID is already in front of the former positions of the 8. Panzer and its 27th ID (András Zákó) marches quickly towards Doboka (Dobeschdorf, Dăbâca) to help the 10th.
On the way, the Panzermänner retreating in the rain count many of the smoking carcasses from the previous day, and sometimes (often...) the hastily dug graves of their late Kamaraden. All for nothing! The Magyars, for their part, are hardly reassured by the German explanations of a necessary intervention in the Lake Balaton region and even less by the vague promises of imminent reinforcements. They suspect, with the sagacity born of habit, some Teutonic trickery. Yet Greater Hungary has to be liberated!
Front of the 11. Armee, Apuseni Mountains - Georg-Hans Reinhardt largely shares von Arnim's thoughts. His poor 11. Armee, martyred during the retreat from Brașov, is once again under assault!
In the valley leading up to the Bucium Pass, near Galați*, the 225. ID (Ernst Riße) and the 215. ID (Bruno Frankewitz) of the XXX. ArmeeKorps (Philipp Kleffel), barely arrived and significantly weakened, are attacked by the 9th Army (Vasily Glagolev), supported by the machines of the 12th Mechanised Corps (Dimitri Ryabyshev). Further north, the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow) is itself under attack from the Romanians under Petre Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Avramescu. Nothing insurmountable... but nothing easy to solve either, except by preparing to send in the army's only two reserves, the 376. ID (Herman Frenking) and the 12. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Herbert Kettner) - two remaining units that would probably not be enough to tip the balance in the event of determined enemy action.
Meanwhile, what was to be his armoured reserve begins to move towards Cluj-Napoca from Huedin, with the XLII. AK (Frank Mattenklott)... Misery! In short, the nightmare begins onceagain.
Front of the 17. Armee, Iron Gates region - Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's instincts have not deceived him, accustomed as he was by now to close calls and other worries of fate. His 17. Armee is once again targeted by the Soviets!
They attack the Mureș gorges. Despite their fatigue, the topography and the rain, they charge headlong like a herd of cattle, but a big herd! This sector is defended by the XI. ArmeeKorps (Joachim von Kortzfleisch) - or more precisely, by two of its three divisions, the 342. ID (Heinrich Nickel) and the 83. ID (Theodor Scherer). Two divisions, then, but only worth a normal one.
For the moment, of course, the exhausted, hirsute but still motivated Landsers hold out. The assault is on Mintia, the north bank of the Mureș, with the logical aim of isolating Diemrich (Deva, Déva) and the 83. ID, while opening the door to the rear of the 11. Armee. The problem, once again, is that Fyodor Tolbukhin is sending in a lot of men: the 6th Guards Army (Pavel Batov) plus the 14th Army (Valerian Frolov), with the 18th Army (Andrei Gretchko) and the 6th Guards Armoured Corps (Alexander Shamshin) still behind... to start with. And in the face of this rising tide, Nickel and Scherer's infantrymen can count on little more than the 14. Panzergrenadier under Erich Schneider, a few StuGs and a large mordeau from the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps (Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach).
That's still better than Gustav Gihr and his 95. ID - perched on the Transylvanian Iron Gate pass, the latter sees Vladimir Kolpakchi's 62nd Army, supported by a number of armoured vehicles, advance from Hațeg towards Peșteana. And behind the 95. ID, for dozens of kilometres, nothing to support it, apart from the...captured T-34 of the 20. Panzergrenadier under Georg Jauer. A bad feeling runs through the minds of a few classically trained officers: we are all close to Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa, the Roman colony that grew out of the Dacian capital, destroyed by Drajan's hordes in 102 AD. The barbarian invasions begin again...
Arad - Faced with a substantial - albeit still relative - deterioration in the situation on the Transylvanian front, Gotthard Heinrici obtains from the Waffen-SS the immediate activation of the 17. SS-Freiwilligen Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresa (Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SS August Zehender). Although not yet fully operational, the unit moves camp towards the Deva sector, in order to lend a hand to the 17. Armee. They're certainly not well trained or equipped - but they seem really motivated. What's more, it has had a good reputation since April 13th.
Poland in despair
New friendship (to be consolidated)
Lublin - Marshal Zhukov does not appreciate General Nikolai Bulganin's friendly proposal at all - not at all. Busy as he is with all the tasks he has to accomplish, the rugged Russian has absolutely no desire to burden himself with a unit of little military value - from his point of view - and of perfectible, even dubious, loyalty. So, taking advantage of the fact that he still retains an undeniable aura and authority in the ranks of the Red Army, he says, definitively: ‘Let this... 1st Polish Army go north, to good Rokossovski. He'll know what to do with it’.
Having said that, Zhukov returns to his desk, his maps, his coat, his car and looked at his calendar. One date often catches his eye: June 22nd. A date recently confirmed during a trip to Moscow, with Stalin, the Stavka and Vassilevsky - who has definitively handed over his 1st Ukrainian Front to Ivan Petrov. Fortunately, Zhukov thinks, gets got on well with Aleksandr, despite all the... prejudices. Because the stakes are high. A few figures on his desk: 2,203,000 men, 4,529 tanks, 2,517 assault guns, 13,763 artillery pieces, 14,413 mortars, 4,936 anti-tank guns, 2,198 Katyusha and over 5,000 aircraft. Even shared with that scumbag Konev, that's a lot of people.
Tankist (Evgueni Bessonov)
Ongoing training
There are signs that can't be mistaken: our commanders have us ferociously polishing our No. 33 ‘Stalingradskiy traktornyy zavod’, as well as all the regiment's carts. Between overhauls and ammunition loads, we were shown a film about the heavy Löwe tanks (some call them T-VIII Super-Tigers), which caused a few problems last March. These heavyweights withstand almost all frontal hits, except for the latest IS - and even then!
Fortunately, they're slow, their mechanics seem fragile and they can be drilled fairly closely on the mantlet, under the turret, behind the turret, or even right on the flank - if you're really close! - Preferably after they have been stripped. The comrades of the 53rd Guards Brigade destroyed four of them just like that, without even realising what they were. One of them was taken almost intact - we're shown it from every angle.
Unimpressed, Andrei comments: ‘Iron, it's iron, nothing more than ours!' Me: ‘Keep it anyway, just in case.' Him: ‘Sasha, Nikita, are you up for it?' Approval. ‘Then we won't shoot any more. Fyodor, all you have to do is zigzag!'
* Nothing to do with the port in Romanian Moldavia, on the lower reaches of the Danube, which is much better known!