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26-june-1920
''Minor bombardments have begun in the vicinity of Gluchow. A large Russian formation is advancing in the direction of Kiev'' one of my officers reported while we tried to prepare for the Russian offensive.
''They are following a road that leads directly toward Kiev, but that entire area is surrounded by swamps and forests. Order the First Jägerkommando Regiment to head there and not stop harassing the Russian officers. Also inform our vanguard forces that they must blow the railway lines. We will leave nothing standing that the Russians can use against us'' I ordered while observing the map of the combat zone.
I had established my headquarters in Poltawa for one reason: the city was close to the two main concentrations of Russian troops.
From what our reports indicated, the Russians had limited themselves to deploying border guards opposite Ruthenia and the Baltic Duchy, while concentrating almost all their forces against Ukraine.
Apparently, they were trying to protect their international reputation.
To a certain extent, the British had recognized us as their supposed buffer State against Russia, so London had probably spoken with the new Tsar about us. Perhaps they had forgiven old loans, offered trade concessions or handed over some other compensation so the Russians would leave us in peace.
It was also possible that Russia simply preferred to attack Ukraine first.
In the eyes of the rest of the world, Ukraine was a sovereign country that was not under my control or under that of the British. It looked like a small and isolated State that had just suffered a foreign invasion, whose troops had supposedly withdrawn and left it weak and in the middle of reconstruction.
Therefore, the most likely thing was that the Russians expected to find little or no resistance.
They must have been quite surprised to discover that they were facing a considerable force, both in organization and in number.
Manstein was in charge of defending the region where most of the Russian forces had been concentrated: the Donbass.
Our aircraft had observed the frequent arrival of several trains, although what abounded most were enormous columns of horse-drawn carts transporting men, ammunition and equipment toward the front.
That demonstrated the deficient motorization of Russian logistics, as well as the shortage of trains available to move troops and supplies. Even after winning the civil war, they continued to depend on the most traditional means to keep their military machine operating.
So it was possible that the invasion had not been properly planned and was merely an attempt to impose themselves through brute force, trying to imitate what I myself had done not long ago in Ukraine.
The difference was that now the Russians would find bunkers, machine-gun nests, abundant artillery and a large number of armored cars.
We also had our first tanks. They were few and still prototypes, but there was no better testing ground than a real battle.
We had worked using the French tank as a base, since it was, in a certain sense, the vehicle that most resembled what I considered a true tank among all the models used during the war. However, we had introduced considerable changes.
Our prototype was designed for a crew of five men and included a radio. We were still working on obtaining a stable system that would allow communication between the tanks and with command posts located in other areas.
The armor had been manufactured through forging, so its construction was slow and tedious. Each section was produced from the beginning with a specific shape to avoid the use of rivets, since those damned things could become deadly projectiles inside the vehicle when the armor received an impact.
For the moment, we had opted to manufacture the pieces directly in the forge and use vertical plates. Sloped armor increased the weight too much, considerably reduced the interior space and worsened the crew's comfort. Besides, it had originally been only a prototype and had not been designed to enter combat immediately.
Even so, it had fifty millimeters of frontal armor and twenty-five millimeters on the sides.
The main problem was the engine.
We had installed one more powerful than the one used by the French, since ours weighed almost three times as much, but that remained the least developed area of the project. The engineers were working on a much more powerful engine, since for the moment we had only adapted a system different from the French one.
We were also trying to use diesel instead of gasoline.
As a consequence, the speed left much to be desired. The engine had to make an enormous effort to move a vehicle whose weight approached twenty tons.
We had armed it with the 3.7-centimeter anti-tank gun we already used in our units, as well as one of the machine guns we had stored in large quantities.
A periscope system had been installed in the cupola, allowing the commander to observe in all directions without having to expose himself. With that, we intended to solve one of the greatest problems of the tanks used during the war: the terrible lack of visibility suffered by their crews.
Although they were only prototypes and transporting them to the front would take time, in addition to the fact that they could suffer mechanical failures during the journey, we would have the opportunity to test them against the French and British tanks possessed by the Russians.
Those vehicles had been sent by their former allies to help them fight against the Mensheviks and now they could end up facing our own machines.
''We have a report from the Generalfeldmarschall, mein Herzog. The Russians are carrying out two coordinated attacks, trying to execute a pincer maneuver against the troops defending the east. There is an offensive against Luhansk and another Russian force is advancing from the south, attempting to take Rostov am Don. At the same time, a vanguard is trying to advance toward Donezk, but for the moment it has become stalled during the attempt to cross the river'' an officer reported while handing me the telegram.
''Is he requesting anything or only reporting what happened?'' I asked the officer.
''He is only reporting the situation. Apparently, for the moment there are only skirmishes and some brief bombardments against our defenses to try to open a breach'' the officer replied.
''Good. Keep me informed of everything'' I ordered while running a hand through my hair and observing the battle map spread out before me.
''Karl, the advance from the east is intensifying. Apparently, there is already an complete Russian division in the area and its men have begun entering some villages'' another of my officers reported.
''The region has already been evacuated. They will find nothing of value, not even food. If they waste time searching the villages, all the better for us. Have our forces fall back toward the bottlenecks and have the snipers prepare to eliminate the officers. That is what matters most. We have to force the Russians to open diplomatic channels so we can show them what we truly have under our control'' I replied while imagining the Russian division advancing along the road that led directly toward Kiev.
The minutes continued passing while I tried to grow accustomed to acting more like a commander than a soldier.
I could no longer keep running to the front to personally command a division. I had to accept that now it was my place to issue orders from the rear and, when possible, establish myself as close to the fighting as I could in order to receive information with the least delay.
The Russians had advanced without too many precautions and, as expected, ended up smashing head-on into fierce resistance.
They managed to penetrate some border villages, but when they reached our fortified zones, their advance stopped abruptly. They could no longer continue directly toward their objectives.
They quickly tried to go around our defenses, which forced me to use our best division to contain them.
I sent two infantry divisions, a mobile artillery regiment and the First Baltic Division against the Russian vanguard, which had dispersed while trying to bypass the fortifications.
Our forces managed to force them back until they were trapped between the overwhelming fire of the machine guns mounted on the armored vehicles and the Jägerkommandos that remained in their rear.
The Russians had ignored those areas during their advance and now our men were attacking them from the flanks, eliminating soldiers and officers before disappearing once again into the forests and swamps.
However, the Russian division that had advanced alone did not take long to receive support from new units. Several enemy divisions began pursuing my Jägerkommandos while using their numerical superiority to pressure our defenses.
Our artillery began falling over the area. Both the guns installed in fixed positions and the self-propelled artillery regiment were participating, using every available cannon.
The regiment had been divided between Manstein and me, so neither of us had its full firepower.
Manstein sent reports every hour and, on occasion, every thirty minutes. For the moment, he had managed to keep the Russians static, as they tried to flank his positions without success.
However, Manstein had more men than I did.
The Russians had still not thrown all their strength into the fighting. According to our scouts and reconnaissance flights, they had concentrated something equivalent to two or three armies in the region.
In general terms, the numerical difference was not yet too great. However, because of the way we had organized the defense, I found myself at a clear numerical disadvantage, while Manstein maintained a number of men relatively similar to the enemy's.
''Mein Herzog, Manfred von Richthofen confirms that his Jastas have shot down sixteen Russian aircraft so far. He also reports that many of the enemy machines are British and French'' one of my officers said while we continued transmitting instructions to resist the Russian offensive.
''Tell him that, if he can carry out some low-level strafing runs against the Russian formations, we would appreciate it, especially when they are marching along the main road toward Kiev''.
''I will inform him immediately, mein Herzog'' one of the officers replied before leaving the building while I continued directing the defense.
''The Russians are deploying British tanks near Altyniwka. They are Mark Vs and have been sighted advancing slowly from the border, accompanied by several French Renault FT tanks'' another man reported.
''Warn our tank crews to try to participate in the combat. However, if they cannot respond quickly enough, deploy the anti-tank guns and destroy those vehicles as soon as possible, before they begin striking our machine-gun nests'' I ordered while observing the map and trying to anticipate the enemy's next movements.
My instructions continued circulating through the telegraph. We were also testing the sending of messages through different radio nodes to determine which system worked best, since the telegraph was still too slow to transmit all the necessary information.
Finally, we received the news that the Russian offensive in our sector had stopped and was beginning to retreat toward the border. I hoped the Jägerkommandos would be able to seize the opportunity to harass them all along the road back.
Manstein's message did not take long to arrive. It confirmed that the Russians were also retreating in his sector and that his forces had completely recovered Rostov am Don, a city the enemy had managed to seize from him during the most intense phase of the fighting.
The Red Baron also reported shortly afterward that the Russian forces were returning to their camps. Our pilots had observed that they were preparing numerous artillery pieces and sending more aircraft to try to shoot down our reconnaissance missions.
For the moment, the air combats had ended only in our victories. Our aircraft could climb to greater altitude and, on many occasions, used the clouds to hide before attacking.
The Russian aircraft could not do the same so easily. If they entered the clouds, the humidity soaked their pilots and could cause structural problems.
I began sending groups of Jägerkommandos on reconnaissance missions to determine the range of the Russian artillery and discover where they were installing their batteries. We needed to locate their positions before they began a general bombardment and prepare our own counter-battery fire.
At the same time, we continued supplying the front through the trains that had recently arrived. Ammunition, food, fuel and medical material were distributed among the different units.
We also began deploying even more barbed wire, since a good part of the previous barriers had been destroyed during the bombardments and the Russian attempts to break through our positions.
Meanwhile, the wounded were withdrawn, along with the dead, as we prepared to carry out counter-battery fire and destroy the Russian artillery pieces.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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