German Active Defense
Against WWII Russian Breakthroughs

Defensive Pincers

Since defensive pincers are the most effective countermeasure against an enemy break-through, they should be applied whenever the tactical situation permits and the necessary forces are available. If these forces have sufficient striking power and mobility, the application of defensive pincers will reverse an unfavorable situation very quickly and decisively. The immediate objective is to seal off the enemy penetration by flank attacks launched simultaneously from both shoulders. Ideally, this maneuver should lead to a "Cannae"-the encirclement and destruction of the enemy force which has broken through.

The jaws of the pincers must attack simultaneously, overcome the hostile flank protection, and link up before enemy countermeasures can become effective. If the jaws do not strike at the same time, the enemy will be given an opportunity to reinforce that interior flank which is not under attack and the maneuver may easily fail. A typical example for such a failure was the Russian pincers attack which was launched during the summer of 1941 in an attempt to eliminate the German bridgehead at the Porechye on the Luga.

Another indispensable prerequisite for the success of defensive pincers is the close co-ordination of all participating units under one command. In minor actions the exercise of unified command will not meet with any particular difficulties. Complications arise during large-scale operations when some of the participating divisions are separated by long distance and belong to different armies or army groups. In such instances it is expedient to make a single army or army group command responsible for the entire operation. A similar procedure must be followed even in minor actions if the enemy attempts to break through at a sector boundary-a common practice with the Russians.

Defensive pincers can eliminate even comparatively major breakthroughs. During the course of such an operation several divisions or corps may regain their freedom of maneuver as, for instance, after the Russian break-through near Belgorod in 1943. At that time the armored wedge which the enemy had driven to a depth of 100 miles was pinched off at the base of the penetration, and his thrust was checked by a pincers movement carried out by two panzer corps, starting from the two opposite shoulders.

When the jaws of the pincers are too weak or the terrain too difficult to tie off the enemy forces that have broken through, protracted fighting involving many critical situations and the formation of curiously shaped front lines will result. In the Russian campaign this occurred for the first time during the battle along the Volkhov in the winter of 1941-42, when the city of Leningrad came close to extinction, one million civilians being starved or frozen to death. Even the Russian soldiers were inadequately fed and equipped and by the end of the winter half of them were dead.

Faced by this situation, the Soviet leaders decided that Leningrad must be relieved at all cost. For this mission a new command staff was formed under General Merezkov, and the Fiftyninth and Second Assault Armies, moving up with strong, fresh forces, were integrated into the front line built up along the Volkhov River. At the same time six divisions from the Leningrad sector were shifted farther east to strengthen the Russian Fifty-fourth Army. After the German spearheads had been withdrawn from Volkhovstroy, fighting continued along a broad front extending from Novgorod to Lodva. Although the German forces dug foxholes and trenches in the frozen swampy forests and snowdrifts, they lacked adequately prepared positions and supply routes.

In this situation, between 10 and 13 January 1942, the Second Assault Army, led by General Vlassov, achieved a break-through across the Volkhov. Five divisions and one ski brigade reached the Novgorod-Chudovo highway and railroad line and pushed back the German screening force along a twenty-mile front. The Germans attempted to re-form their lines along the highway. Islands of resistance in encircled Mostki and in Spasskaya Polist prevented a German rout, but a fifteen-mile gap was opened in the German line, leaving the Russians free access to the rear of the Eighteenth Army. The Second Assault Army struck across no man's land through the forests to the northwest. The attack plan called for cutting the Tosno-Chudovo Rollbahn [Ed.: road designated as a main axis of motorized transportation] and the disruption of the other German supply routes in conjunction with frontal attacks along the Leningrad sector. If the Russians succeeded, most of Eighteenth Army would be lost with only a few remnants escaping to the west. The Russian spearheads advanced 50 miles, meeting virtually no resistance.

The German command and troops performed extraordinary feats during these weeks of extreme danger. Battalions, combat teams, even entire divisions were improvised and thrown into battle. No task was left undone; virgin territory was explored; new expedients were developed. All service forces were employed in combat, troops of other arms suddenly becoming infantrymen. This was a struggle for survival waged simultaneously against an enemy superior in manpower and material and against the terrors of a fierce winter. Besides struggling against a cunning enemy, the Germans also had to steel and conquer themselves. Yet the impossible was accomplished. Only 12 miles separated the enemy spearheads from their objectives when they were suddenly stopped, repelled, and shattered.

On 25 February one enemy force that had penetrated close to the Rollbahn west of Lyuban was cut off from its rear communications and annihilated. A new inner front extending over 120 miles was built up around the Volkhov pocket and connected with the outer front. It ran straight across the marshes north of Lake Ilmen, followed the course of the Oredezh and the railroad tracks connecting Divenskiy with Chudovo. The danger had not yet been overcome.

In view of the latest setback, the Soviet command reduced its objectives, but its new intentions presented an even greater danger. For several weeks the Russian Fifty-fourth Army had attacked the thinly held German line in the swamps south of Lake Ladoga. These attacks were repelled by the 269th Infantry Division and units of XXVIII Corps. The Fifty-fourth Army received additional forces and was given the mission of breaking through at Pogostye and thrusting toward Lyuban. At the same time the Second Assault Army in the pocket stopped its westward drive and assembled its forces south of Lyuban. Strong elements of the Fifty-second and Fifty-ninth Armies followed into the pocket to cover the rear and the flanks of the Russian forces. The Fifty-fourth and Second Assault Armies were to launch a pincers attack, cut off the German I Infantry Corps, and encircle and annihilate it. Once this was accomplished, the road to Leningrad would be open again.

By now the Volkhov pocket held fourteen Russian infantry divisions, supported by three cavalry divisions, seven cavalry brigades, one tank brigade, and five GHQ artillery regiments. The Fifty-fourth Army had reached a strength of twelve divisions. Its striking power centered in an armored force of 200 tanks, most of which were T34s capable of operating under winter conditions. The German defense forces had no equivalent material to oppose them. Jumping off on 9 March, the Fifty-fourth Army therefore had no difficulty in penetrating the German lines and widening the gap until it reached ten miles in width and twelve miles in depth. The German infantry formed a human wall in an attempt to stop the enemy. Although its number was at no time more than 3,500, it withstood the onslaught of 90,000 Russians. The German forces yielded ground, lost some engagements, but final victory was theirs because the Russians were denied the opportunity to exploit their local penetrations. The enemy was finally forced to discontinue the offensive three weeks after he had launched his first attack in this sector.

The encircled Second Assault Army was even less successful when it hurled its forces against the German lines forming the northern boundary of the pocket. During several weeks of fierce struggle, the Russians were incapable of overcoming the German resistance. What finally paralyzed them was the disaster that took place to their rear.

On 15 March, elements of I Corps with the SS Police Division in the lead went over to the attack west of Spasskaya Polist and struck at the enemy supply routes. Elements of the XXVIII Corps converged from the south. After great hardships, the German spearheads linked up on 19 March. Even though this ring around the Volkhov pocket could not be fully maintained in the face of incessant counterattacks by superior Russian forces, the escape gap was kept down to approximately two miles. The Russians laid the tracks for two narrow-gage field railways through the gap. but their capacity was insufficient to supply the 180,000 men within the pocket.

When, after a series of attacks and counterattacks, the front was stabilized, the German lines formed a "finger" cutting across the Russian axis of movement. It was twelve miles long, but in no place more than two to two and a half miles in width. There was not a single point within this finger which could not be swept by enemy heavy weapons fire from the east or from the west.

At first the Soviets made some vain attempts to envelop the finger through the swamps in the rear and cut it off at its base. In April the Russians decided to make an extreme effort. On 29 April the Fifty-ninth Army threw seven infantry regiments and two armored brigades into an attack along a narrow front. Thrusting westward from positions north of Mostki, they were to link with four divisions attacking eastward. This Russian attack had to succeed. Two gaps, each two miles in width, were torn open on either side of the finger which was lacerated to the bone. During the next few days the fortunes of war changed frequently. Finally, undaunted courage and supreme devotion triumphed. By 13 May the Russian regiments which had penetrated the German lines were encircled and shattered, and the former main line of resistance was re-established.

The die was cast. The Volkhov pocket had become untenable for the Russians, and their withdrawal began about 15 May. The cavalry corps farthest to the northwest was withdrawn, the concentration south of Lyuban was dispersed, and medium artillery as well as supply units were pulled out. The Germans soon recognized the enemy intentions. On 22 May German forces launched the pursuit from north and west across mud and slush and reduced the pocket to a twelve-mile square by 30 May. On that day the Germans also sealed the small escape gap and established a blocking position across the Soviet supply route in the vicinity of Myasnoy Bor.

The struggle entered its final phase, a phase which was to last four more weeks. While the German spearheads steadily narrowed the enemy-held territory, the Soviets, with courage born of desperation, furiously sought to extricate themselves from the pocket. In their quest for safety and escape from death, elements of eight divisions repeated their daily attacks in waves of four to six regiments. The Russians pinned their main hope on the Fifty-ninth Army which was to break through from the east. Without interruption this army attacked 2-26 June, delivering a crescendo of fire and hurling ever increasing masses of infantry and tanks into the battle.

The carnage reached tremendous proportions. At times it seemed as if the Russians might achieve a break-through after all, but the Germans always succeeded in hurling them back. Only small groups escaped. The encircled forces were split into several smaller pockets, and all organized resistance of the Second Assault Army ceased by 25 June. The Russian casualties in the pocket amounted to 60,000 dead and prisoners, among the latter General Vlassov and numerous high-ranking commanders and staff officers. Six infantry divisions and six brigades were annihilated. Nine additional divisions were either totally or partially destroyed. The Soviets had suffered terrific losses, expended more than twenty divisions, and spent themselves in a vain, six-month effort to break the ring around Leningrad.

Another incomplete pincers movement led to curiously shaped front lines during the fighting near Rzhev in January 1942, where a German pocket separated the main body of enemy forces from a Russian pocket. In this instance the Russian forces in the pocket had only supply routes at their disposal, and more than 100,000 men had to subsist for several months under the most precarious circumstances. The Russian cavalry corps, trapped in the swampy forests southwest of Sychevka after its pocket was reduced by the Snail Offensive was in such a pitiful situation that the men first ate the meat and later chewed the hides of their horses to keep from starving. Despite their plight, the Russians refused to consider abandoning their pocket.

Two additional incomplete pincers movements are worthy of mention. In March 1944, First Panzer Army formed a roving pocket when its pincers attack failed to liberate the encircled German forces near Cherkassy. Finally, during the battle near Lvov in July 1944, the Germans were forced to hold simultaneously two parallel fronts, twenty-five miles apart. The forward front line had a gap which was narrowed to three miles by a pincers attack, whereas the other line was open on the flanks. This extraordinary synthesis of defense lines, as well as the interlocking pockets, were caused by German and Russian pincers, the jaws of which were not completely closed.

Defensive pincers are the preferred method of eliminating an enemy bridgehead. German experience shows that then are no safer tactics for wiping out bridgeheads and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.

The most effective pincers attacks are those which, instead of being directed against both flanks, simultaneously envelop the enemy's front and rear. However, the jaw of the pincers that is to strike the hostile rear area is in danger of being attacked in its own rear, as happened, for example, during the Russian defense against the German breakthrough of the Leningrad line. In this operation, the Germans executed two simultaneous pincers attacks. The forward claws pinched off the Russian front line, and shattered it while the rear pinchers enveloped and inflicted heavy casualties on the armored reserves which had been thrown in to lend assistance.

By some extraordinary circumstance it may occasionally be feasible to strike at both enemy flanks and simultaneously envelop his front and rear. This double pincers maneuver will nearly always lead to the complete encirclement and annihilation of the enemy forces. For in March 1943 in the lower Dnepr bend, the pulverizing jaws of a double pincers movement destroyed the Third Russian Tank Army.

The success of pincers attacks is contingent upon the size of the forces available in a given situation. Whenever the tactical situation offers an opportunity for the use of defensive pinchers but available forces are insufficient, it will prove more advantageous to assemble all available units and launch a powerful flank attack.

German Active Defense Against Russian Breakthroughs Part 2

German Active Defense Against Russian Breakthroughs Part 1

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