Between Giants (39 page)

An exhausted lull descended on both armies. Soviet losses had been shocking, especially given the minimal progress that had been made. Nevertheless, III SS Panzer Corps was also badly weakened, with battalions reduced to barely company strength. On 1 August, Fediuninsky brought forward two divisions to raise the strength of his battered army, and resumed his attacks on 2 August. Once more, each assault was preceded by a powerful artillery bombardment, but although the Soviet troops repeatedly advanced up the slopes of the central hill, they were unable to hold it in the face of German counter-attacks. Finally, on 10 August, Govorov ordered Fediuninsky to stop his attacks.

Soviet casualties had been terrible. Divisions were reduced to a few hundred men, and the Germans claimed to have destroyed over 160 tanks. It is estimated that the Red Army lost perhaps 35,000 dead and 135,000 wounded, compared with total German losses of about 10,000. Fediuninsky and Starikov had little space in which to manoeuvre, with only a narrow strip of open ground between the hills and the coast, and almost impassable swamps to the south; consequently, they were forced to launch a series of costly frontal assaults. Even in these circumstances, their failure to break through the German lines – it is estimated that the balance of power in terms of manpower alone gave the Red Army an advantage of greater than 11 to 1 – is remarkable. One reason for the success of the Germans was their very effective use of artillery. Several batteries that had originally been used to bombard Leningrad had been brought back to Estonia, and Steiner devised intelligent fireplans that allowed the collective weight of all the artillery at his disposal to be brought to bear in a single strike. In addition to Germans, the SS troops who defended the Tannenberg Line included men from Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway, and the fighting has sometimes been described as the ‘Battle of the European SS’. It should be remembered, though, that many of the troops, and particularly most of the officers, were still Germans.
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Army Group North was now isolated in Estonia and northern Latvia, with most of Lithuania in Soviet hands. The following weeks would see a determined attempt by the Wehrmacht to restore contact, and further Soviet offensive operations in the Baltic States.

When the tanks of Bagramian’s 1st Baltic Front reached the Gulf of Riga, they effectively represented the high tide mark of the great Soviet offensive that tore the Eastern Front apart during the summer of 1944. For a few days, the German authorities in Latvia, both military and civilian, waited for further blows. The German line to either side of the corridor established by the Soviet 51st Army consisted of the thinnest of screens – for large parts of the front line to the west, the only defenders consisted of Latvian farmers and local landowners, hastily grouped together into some form of home guard. In northern Courland, close to the coast, was a small group of SS units, assigned the name
SS Panzer Brigade Gross
; it amounted to perhaps ten tanks and two companies of infantry, created from SS training units in Ventspils. About 25 miles to the south was
Gruppe Hierthes
, consisting of two battalions of Latvians reinforced by anti-aircraft units, and a similar distance south of Sturmführer Hierthes’ battalions were the remnants of
Gruppe Mäder
, with two infantry battalions, an artillery battalion, a small group of paratroopers, and a number of Latvian police and paramilitary units, again with anti-aircraft guns in support.
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Between these units, and between Oberst Mäder’s southern flank and 3rd Panzer Army’s IX Corps, there were large stretches of open territory.

The presence of just two or three relatively fresh rifle corps would have resulted in major gains for the Red Army. Much of Courland could have been overrun, and there was also the possibility of a thrust towards Riga from the west. But the lunge to the coast represented the last effort of a force that, despite its huge successes, was approaching exhaustion. The front line had moved over 350 miles since 22 June, and supply lines had been stretched far beyond what was sustainable. Casualties on the German side were severe, with nearly half a million men killed, wounded or taken prisoner – probably sufficient to ensure the eventual defeat of Germany – but Soviet losses, as was almost invariably the case in the great battles of the Eastern Front, were even heavier, at over 770,000. Bagramian’s front alone had lost over 41,000 men killed.
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Soviet armour losses, too, had been enormous, with over 2,900 tanks and assault guns knocked out.
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Many of these would be returned to service in a relatively short time, but the task facing the repair teams, and the logistics units that attempted to keep up with them and bring forward supplies at the same time, was enormous.

There were similar problems elsewhere along the Soviet front line. The Red Army reached the eastern outskirts of Warsaw, triggering the uprising in the city by Polish resistance fighters, and although it was most convenient for Stalin to sit and wait for the Germans to destroy the anti-communist Home Army, the reality was that the armies outside Warsaw were as exhausted as Bagramian’s troops. In addition to their losses and overstretched supply lines, they had suffered a setback at the hands of the German XXXIX Panzer Corps, whose main strike power was provided by 4th Panzer Division. Acting with their old speed and flexibility, the German forces took advantage of the increasing lack of coordination of the Soviet spearheads and launched a counter-attack east of Warsaw, smashing 3rd Tank Corps and greatly reducing the strength of 8th Guards Tank Corps.
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Coming at the end of a summer of unprecedented disasters for the Wehrmacht, the isolation of Army Group North was a huge setback. Armies had been isolated before – most notably when 6th Army was surrounded and eventually destroyed in Stalingrad – but this was the first time that an entire army group was separated from the Reich. Restoration of contact was given a high priority, and the Wehrmacht began to scrape together a strike force capable of breaking through to Schörner’s army group.

Slowly, the German front was stabilising again. Following the fall of Kaunas, Cherniakhovsky’s 3rd Belarusian Front continued to push on towards the East Prussian frontier. An armoured force reached the German town of Schirwindt before being driven back by elements of Panzergrenadier Division
Grossdeutschland
on 5 and 6 August. Nevertheless, for the next three days, Cherniakhovsky urged forward his 33rd Army to attack again towards Schirwindt, and a little further north elements of 39th Army and 5th Guards Tank Army attempted to force their way towards Tilsit along the northern bank of the River Niemen. However, German counter-attacks made good progress.
Grossdeutschland
beat off all attacks towards the East Prussian border, while 7th Panzer Division, which had fallen back into south-west Lithuania, was extracted from the front line and replaced by 252nd Infantry Division. Bitter fighting raged between the infantry division and the two tank corps of 5th Guards Tank Army, leaving the town of Raseiniai, the scene of the momentous tank battle of 1941, in ruins. The mobile forces of 7th Panzer Division were thus freed up to probe towards the north, establishing firmer contact with
Gruppe Mäder
. It was even possible to start pulling
Grossdeutschland
out of the front line.

Meanwhile, at the northern point of the front line, Standartenführer Gross started to probe forwards. His armour reached within two miles of Tukums, though an attack on the town itself was abandoned. Reconnaissance units were able to filter forwards and establish the most tenuous of contacts with Army Group North to the east of Tukums. 4th Panzer Division began to move north from Poland on 11 August. The trains carrying the division crossed East Prussia; for many of the soldiers of the division, it was their first sight of their homeland for several years, and it roused mixed feelings. On the one hand, there was joy at seeing Germany again, but on the other hand, their journey highlighted the proximity of the front line to East Prussia.

As had been the case since the end of 1941, Army Group North consisted of 16th and 18th Armies. In order to facilitate better coordination of all German forces north of the German frontier, Raus’ 3rd Panzer Army was temporarily assigned to Army Group North. Plans were rapidly drawn up for establishment of a strong link between 16th Army and 3rd Panzer Army, and were presented to Hitler on 8 August. The proposal was to move
Grossdeutschland
to the front opposite Raseiniai, to give the appearance of a threatened push to retake both Raseiniai and Šiauliai. Further north, there would be two thrusts, one with one or two panzer divisions and an infantry division towards Šiauliai, and another with three or four panzer divisions towards Jelgava. The following evening, the proposal was assigned the codename
Doppelkopf
, the name of a card game that was popular with German soldiers at the time. Perhaps as a result of Hitler’s influence, the plan had developed somewhat more grandiose aspects. After restoring contact with 16th Army, the attacking panzer divisions would then turn south towards Kaunas, with the intention of thrusting into the rear of the Soviet forces facing 3rd Panzer Army. It seems that this additional aspect of the plan was ignored from the outset by the division and corps commanders involved as entirely unrealistic.
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Prior to its move north,
Grossdeutschland
launched a further assault in its current sector on 9 August, recapturing the town of Vilkaviškis in a surprise attack. The advance began before first light, and taking advantage of misty conditions, the assault group bypassed the Soviet defences south of the town before turning north; they had effectively surrounded Vilkaviškis to the west, south and east before they were even spotted. Heavy fighting erupted as German units penetrated into the town, but by nightfall, only a few isolated pockets of Soviet troops remained, and they slipped away during the darkness.
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Intelligence reports reaching 3rd Panzer Army suggested that the Red Army was indeed exhausted after its long offensive, perhaps even overextended; prisoner interrogations revealed that 5th Guards Tank Army had only 40 operational tanks left, out of an establishment strength of over 500.
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It therefore seemed an ideal moment to launch the counter-attack towards Šiauliai, and the planning for
Doppelkopf
gained pace. XXXIX Panzer Corps would launch the main assault, with 4th, 5th and 12th Panzer Divisions forming
Gruppe Libau
and attacking in two thrusts from the area north-east of Telšiai, with the intention of pushing through to Jelgava. Meanwhile, the 101st Panzer Brigade, created from what remained of 18th Panzergrenadier Division, was placed under the command of Oberst von Lauchert and dispatched by sea to reinforce
Gruppe Gross
in northern Courland. From here, the combined force, under the energetic command of Hyazinth von Strachwitz, would drive through Tukums to reach Riga. Further south, XL Panzer Corps, with
Grossdeutschland
and 14th Panzer Division, would advance on Šiauliai from the south-west. 7th Panzer Division would reinforce the attack at a later date.

From the outset, there were tensions between the various German commands. 3rd Panzer Army was of the opinion that the assault should start on 17 August, as it would take at least that long for all elements to assemble. By contrast, due to the perilous plight of 16th and 18th Armies, trapped north of the Soviet breakthrough to the coast, Army Group North pressed for an earlier start to the attack. There would have to be an unhappy compromise between waiting until sufficient forces had been gathered to have maximum effect, and the pressing need to break through to the trapped armies.

Meanwhile, the Red Army reshuffled its forces. 1st Guards Rifle Corps, part of 51st Army, was the main force in the Soviet-held corridor that ran from Jelgava to the Gulf of Riga. To the south, 5th Guards Tank Army received badly needed reinforcements in the shape of 100 new T34 tanks, and was ordered to prepare to drive north-west from its current positions around Kelmė to the area west of Šiauliai, while 4th Shock Army was transferred to 1st Baltic Front. Its 3rd Guards Mechanised Corps was deployed south of Jelgava, while 1st Tank Corps, weakened by the summer fighting, remained in reserve in the area east of Šiauliai. The German counter-attack would face formidable resistance.

The Red Army also detected the northward movement of German armour. Its assessment of the power of the Wehrmacht, though, was somewhat wide of the mark; the overall strength of Army Group North was reported to be 700,000 personnel, more than 1,200 tanks and assault guns, about 7,000 artillery and mortars, and 400 combat aircraft. The Leningrad Front and the three Baltic Fronts, by contrast, had 900,000 troops, over 3,000 tanks and assault guns, about 17,500 artillery and mortars, and about 2,650 combat aircraft, under the collective command of Marshal Vassilevsky, the Deputy People’s Commissar for Defence.
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Even if the Soviet assessment of German strength had been accurate, the Wehrmacht would have faced a formidable struggle.

On 13 August, Vassilevsky reported to Stalin that ‘it is possible that the enemy intends to cut off the salient that we have pushed to the Gulf of Riga from both sides’. In order to hinder this, orders were issued to 1st Baltic Front to attack towards Riga with 4th Shock Army and 6th Guards Army, to tie down forces of the German 16th Army. 43rd Army would hold its positions to the south of Jelgava, facing towards Riga, but would join the attack as it developed. In the corridor to the Baltic, 51st Army would establish strong defensive positions, with 2nd Guards Army to its south.

Bagramian took the German preparations seriously:

The greatest worry for us was the tip of the salient that we had pushed forward to the west of Riga … it was 40 to 60km wide. The front was held by four rifle divisions from 1st Rifle Corps and 63rd Rifle Corps. It was clear to us that we could not hold the front with four battle-weakened divisions. But we had no more forces at our disposal. It was certain to us that the enemy would try to cut off this salient at its base, and this would be made all the easier for the enemy as we transferred more forces to the Gulf of Riga. In short, there was no doubt that the Fascists would attack. But unfortunately, until just before the beginning of the attack, we did not know from which direction, and with what forces.
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