After sunset, the Germans seemed to vanish. They were only found on the main road to Krasnograd, where a sharp engagement was underway with the 1st SS, but that was only a rearguard. Steiner had pulled everything out and was rolling south under cover of darkness. In the morning, he wanted to appear somewhere else and regain the momentum afforded by surprise. With a wolf like that prowling in the dark, Manstein knew the Russians would not make any aggressive moves, or ever contemplate a movement towards Poltava. They would hunker down, consolidate, and seek information on the enemy movements.
Kuznetsov was taking no chances with this situation. He had pulled his best unit, the 1st Guards Tank, out of the attack on Kharkov, and that night it would move south to Novaya Vodolaga. This would give him his entire 1st Guard Tank Army to operate against the flank of any German offensive. Given the axis of attack the previous day, he was expecting the Germans to continue to drive east towards Taranovka, and the engagement on the Krasnograd road reinforced this belief.
Elsewhere, a stony silence had settled over the front. After five days of fighting, Rumyantsev had been brought to a halt. The only real progress that had been made in the last two days was a minor bridgehead near the twisting course of the Donets northwest of Izyum. The 2nd Shock Army had crossed at Zaliman, and slowly carved out a nest in the bend of the river, pressing against the left flank of Hollidt’s 50th Infantry Division. The Siberians could only move in one direction, west, for the river made a big U-turn, doubling back on itself and the way south was now blocked by that water barrier and thick, heavily wooded hills. Otherwise, a calm settled over the front. Even Katukov had been forced to accept a stalemate in his duel with Knobelsdorff’s four mobile divisions in the north.
The action was in the center, and both Manstein and Kuznetsov knew that the outcome of the battle rested there. That bridgehead was the major strategic advantage obtained by the Russians. The advance on Kharkov had been the magnet to pull in German forces, but the lodgment south of the Donets could deliver far more than that single city. It had opened the way to the Dnieper. Now Manstein was battling to destroy it, and Kuznetsov realized he must do everything possible to prevent that from happening.
To that end, he called General Leylushenko of the 3rd Guards Army, the sledgehammer that was operating north of Kharkov. That army had been reinforced with the addition of Mostrovenko’s 3rd Tank Corps, and Obukhov’s 3rd Guard Mech. He wanted them both, and was willing to accept a draw in the battle for the city until the issue was settled in the breakthrough zone.
The engagement on the road was only Steiner’s rearguard, meant to do exactly what it had accomplished and draw in the Soviet mobile units to that sector. All that night, Totenkopf and Grossdeutschland moved south, reaching the Brerstovaya River flowing southwest to Krasnograd, and then turning northeast at midnight. That watercourse ran parallel to a secondary road that led through a series of small towns, Melekhova, Okhochaye, and finally Manstein’s objective, Taranovka. In doing so they had joined up with the Wiking Division, and by 03:00 they would be close enough to support the attack of Kirchner’s 57th Panzer Korps, which was pushing due north toward that same target.
Manstein was lining up his chariots.
* * *
Zhukov flew to the front to meet with both Rokossovsky and Vatutin and assess the situation. He praised them for the progress made, and then got down to business.
“The momentum has stalled,” he said frankly. “How can we regain it?”
“They gave ground and reformed their line,” said Rokossovsky. In fact, they deliberately allowed us to get close to the city, and now they are dug in deep. This is what allowed them to pull out most of the SS, and now they are operating against our bridgehead.”
“The city is a figurehead,” said Zhukov. “Taking it will make the headlines, but the real business at hand is protecting this bridgehead and getting to the Dnieper. I do not want to be rolled up and pushed back over the Donets. Have we been hurt there?”
“One of our bears took a bite on the front paw,” said Rokossovsky. “1st Guards Army lost a good rifle division, but they have tightened their lines, and 4th Guards Army is secure.”
“And the base of the left shoulder?” Zhukov looked at Vatutin now, and the heavy-set General nodded.
“Trefimenko’s 27th Army crossed at Andreyevka and reinforced the Siberian Motor Rifle Corps. The Siberian units can hold a lot of frontage, but they are not as strong as a field army. The German 57th Tank Corps has been very aggressive there. They pushed back Kuliev’s 1st Guard Cavalry Corps, but the arrival of the 27th allowed the Siberians to move west and relieve them. The line is still solid.”
“But it is anchored very close to the bridges at Andreyevka.”
“We have crossed further east,” said Vatutin.
“That small bridgehead might be of some use,” said Zhukov, if we only had another field army to cross there. Luckily, this 57th Tank Corps has not chosen to attack the base of your bridgehead. A push of no more than five kilometers would close that bridge.”
“True, but that would only affect 27th Army. We have depots at Taranovka in the bridgehead itself, and another behind the river east of Zimyev. The bridgehead armies would remain in supply.”
“Where is Steiner?”
“He has been very cagy,” said Vatutin. “After slipping out of Kharkov two days ago, Kuznetsov thought he was going to push for Taranovka, so he pulled out all of 1st Tank Army to block him.”
“Which ended our assault on Kharkov,” said Zhukov.
“For the moment,” said Rokossovsky.
“And what is Kuznetsov doing now?” Zhukov seemed impatient.
“There is fighting on the road to Krasnograd, and now we are getting reports of assaults all along the line of 1st Guards Army.”
Zhukov gave them a knowing nod of his head. “They are attempting to roll back our bridgehead.”
“The road to Poltava is only lightly screened,” said Rokossovsky.
“Indeed,” said Zhukov, “and that is exactly where Manstein wants us to go. Yet we cannot do so with Steiner on the loose out there. Don’t forget Popov in April, and the Fighting at Volkov Yar. He has managed to line up Steiner with this other mobile Korps in the south, and that could mean trouble. We must kill this wolf before we can count any more sheep with this offensive.”
“Kuznetsov wanted the mobile elements of 3rd Shock Group,” said Rokossovsky. “I approved the request.”
“Good.” Now Zhukov looked at the map. “Order Kuznetsov to continue his battle on the enemy left. That is the road to Krasnograd, yes? As for the mobile forces from 3rd Shock Group, send them to Taranovka. He is clenching his fist, and so we must do the same. How many divisions are in this enemy 57th Corps?”
“Three, but only one has tanks.”
“And Steiner has only three of the SS divisions,” said Vatutin.
“So that will give us five corps against his six mobile divisions.” Zhukov was thinking. “We still need more. I see that 3rd Shock Group’s front ends right at the city. Can they extend any farther south?”
“I believe they could.”
“Very well. Kuznetsov still has two Mech Corps west of the city. They are just holding the shoulder of that attempted envelopment. I want them pulled out and return to 1st Guard Tank Army. If that means we give up a little ground there, so be it. Have 3rd Shock army extend its front to cover the city. Then send the two Mech Corps to Taranovka as well. That will be the center of the wheel. We will have interior lines, and can therefore respond easily to any sector of the bridgehead defense that needs support. Once we have everything in place, then we can attack.”
Zhukov wanted every piece he could find focused on the center of the board. The pawns would have to hold on the flanks. Of course, ordering these things and seeing them carried out promptly and efficiently were two different things. Uncertain of where Steiner had moved that night, Kuznetsov decided not to blunder about in the dark, waiting for daylight to give
him a better picture.
3rd Shock Army did move, for darkness was a friend when attempting to disengage from its positions close to the enemy at the edge of the city. An enormous army, it had six rifle divisions, three cavalry and six independent rifle brigades, with three supporting armored regiments. This was more than enough to extend its front southwest from the city to the Udy River, and the wooded terrain beyond. This allowed both of Kuznetsov’s mech corps to pull out of the frontage where they had been holding off the German 7th Infantry Division, and they moved south to rejoin 1st Guard Tank Army.
At the same time, the mobile elements of 3rd Shock Group started moving south towards the bridgehead as well, heading for Zimyev. If all these forces could be concentrated near Taranovka, the Soviets would have a force more than capable of taking on the German threat—a force that might finally meet and defeat the arch nemesis that had frustrated one offensive after another for the last year of the war—Steiner’s SS Korps.
Arriving at just the right time, general Georgie Zhukov had surmised the enemy’s intent and did exactly what was necessary to counter it. The Russians had their own master strategist as well, and after seeing so many of his advances stopped by Manstein, Zhukov now had something to prove.
Chapter 24
Kirchner had attacked all night, throwing 17th Panzer and his two Panzergrenadier Divisions against the 1st Siberian Motor Rifle Corps. He had beaten off the cavalry, which was regrouping to the rear, and now he ploughed right into this relieving force, hoping to make further headway before the Russians could dismount and get to good positions on the ground.
A dour faced man of 56 years at this time, Kirchner had joined the Royal Saxon Army at the age of 14, and had risen to command 1st Panzer Division at the outset of the war. Now he had the Korps that he would command for the duration of the conflict, and he had been driving for the town of Velikaya Bereka, about 5 kilometers north of his spearheads. He was slowly breaking up the enemy battalions, forcing them back, but his troops were becoming exhausted from the long three-day action without rest.
To the west of that town, Kuliev’s 1st Guard Cavalry Corps had been resting all night after losing their battle with the Germans the previous day. Now they would be called to action again. Their brigades were mixed bags; predominantly mounted cavalry, but with a company of motorcycle troops, another of T-40 light tanks, and a few Gaz 37mm AA guns on halftracks. There were nine brigades in all, and now they lined up for a charge reminiscent of the sweeping Cossack attacks in the Russian Civil War. Many in those ranks had come from Karpov’s best horsemen in Siberia, and now they would ride to the rescue of the crumbling lines of their brothers.
It would be trumpets and sabres at dawn, a rare event, for the Soviets had been re-training those troops to simply think of their horses as transportation, and to fight as dismounted infantry. Now, however, the urgency of the hour saw them mount up and charge, the rolling drumbeat of the hooves seeming an anachronism on a battlefield where it was tanks and APC’s that now ground up the turf. The Italian Savoia Cavalry had mounted a desperate charge like this in late 1942, much bigger than the British charge at Omdurman in 1898 that Churchill had seen. This one would eclipse them both, and rewrite the history on that score—the last great charge of mounted horsemen in the war. The sabres would gleam in the early light, yet it would not be those blades that would do any damage, but the grenades the soldiers would fling wildly about if they reached the German line.
First they had to get through the MG-42’s, and the fire from armored cars and tanks. They soon found that no matter how brave, mounted men on horses were no match for the steel of modern weapons. Kirchner called in his artillery, and the lethal rounds wreaked havoc on the charging cavalry, sabers and all. 17th Panzer had a full battalion of Lions, and they calmly lined up, the big turrets swiveling to bring those long barrels to bear on the enemy like a line of lethal pikes. But these pikes spit fire and death.
One gallant rider actually made it through the machineguns and when he found himself staring at the long 88mm barrel of a Lion, and with no more grenades, he beat upon that cold steel with his sabre in a gesture of futile bravery. Seconds later he was gunned down by a Panzergrenadier.
Weary or not, Kirchner ordered his men to continue their attack, for he knew that Steiner had appeared far to his left and that he was now attacking the enemy bridgehead. Hermann Balck had coined the phrase: ‘night marches are life savers,’ and perhaps that would be proved true again. Kirchner had done the job of engaging and weakening the lines of the Siberians, and now Steiner was bringing a hammer to 1st Guards Army.
That battle would prove to be much more difficult than Manstein expected. The dogged Guardsmen held on, giving ground stubbornly, and in the north of that attack, Leibstandarte found that it was tangling with both 7th and 10th Tank Corps. In the midst of this fight, up came Mikhail Panov with the whole of 1st Guards Tank Corps. It was quickly staged to join the fight, and now Dietrich found he was triple teamed on the left of the German attack.
On his right, Grossdeutschland Division had been making good progress against the enemy Guards infantry, driving them out of the woodland and back towards the winding flow of a wandering stream. The Soviets were pouring on the army artillery, three full regiments, in an effort to halt the German attack.
Zhukov suspected Steiner was moving to counterattack somewhere, but when the news came that the SS had engaged on a wide front, he was not surprised. If they had concentrated, he thought, they would have surely penetrated the outer defense of our bridgehead, but it would have been like driving a sword into mud. The reinforcements I have sent will surely stop them, and then where does Manstein go? Yet he could not help but be impressed with what Steiner’s troops had done.
The Germans had moved 150 kilometers in 2 days, the men catching any sleep they could get during that marathon march. Pausing to engage 3rd Guards Army in a sharp six-hour battle before rolling out this broad front attack. It was a move akin to Rommel’s mad dashes across the Libyan desert in 1942. The General shook his head, determined to put a stop to this enemy counterattack. His own steel chariots were not far off, concentrating at Taranovka about 25 kilometers to the north. Once that concentration was complete, he would be holding a ball of steel that he could fling in any direction, and that decision would determine the outcome of this battle.
Zhukov walked slowly to the nearest signalman. “Notify General Trefimenko of 4th Guards. Tell him his Army is being compressed from two sides, and he should pull back to shorten his line immediately. I want no encirclements.”
Zhukov had fast moving mobile units as well, and by nightfall on the 5th of June, 2nd Guards Mech reached and passed through Taranovka in the center of his bridgehead. The Germans had shocked him by marching completely around the massive bulging bridgehead, effecting a linkup with 57th Corps, and now they were attacking towards that same town.
Kuliev’s Cavalry shattered against the cold steel of those German tanks, now a disorganized mass that was merely a physical obstacle, and not much of a fighting force. The Germans had been punching through 1st Motor Rifle Corps, but the tough Siberians were counterattacking. Combat took time, he thought, and 25 kilometers is not far for a mechanized force to go. Soon he would be mounting a charge of another kind, not with horsemen and sabres, but with swift moving iron steeds, and wave after wave of tanks.
* * *
The 3rd SS Totenkopf hit the line like an iron bolt. Its main attack would fall on the 3rd Guard Tank Corps. On its left, Grossdeutschland would surge against the tank brigades of 1st Guards Army, relentless in the attack. Steiner was coming through. The Germans drove through the hamlets of Kofano and Medvedovka, buildings on fire, smoke everywhere. By nightfall they had secured both and pushed another three kilometers, finally taking a brief pause to bring up ammunition to the forward units. There could be no stopping for darkness. Manstein knew he had to ask his men to fight all night again after their long march, and Steiner’s hardened veterans w
ere fully prepared to do so.
But on the German left, Sepp Dietrich had to report he could make no further progress. “I’m fighting the entire 1st Guard Tank Army! They must have 500 tanks here. It’s all I can do to hold the line now.”
Manstein took the report with the grim realization that his enemy was now simply too strong to sweep off the field as he had done in the past. His men were tired, the battalions worn down, though the armor was holding up well and the reliability of the Lions was superb.
We’ve pushed them back ten or fifteen kilometers, he thought, but they will not run this time. They simply straighten their lines and reform to the rear. Luftwaffe recon flights show several motorized columns coming south towards Taranovka, so they are also moving units from the Kharkov front to try and stop us…. And they will.
They’re going to stop Steiner, and I have nothing else to throw at them. If they do this, it still leaves the road to Poltava very lightly defended. I will have to pull Das Reich out of the city and send it that direction now. Dietrich is covering the road to Krasnograd, but how much longer can he hold?
He realized, with a sinking feeling, that his thoughts were now turning to the defense, the image of a grand counterblow to delight Efendi now slowly dissipating like smoke in his mind.
We have hurt them, but they will not give way. They fought for this bridgehead, and now they are going to keep it. The darker implication was now quite apparent to him—the line of the Donets had now been fatally compromised. It was still solid at the base. Hollidt was still well forward of the river between the Oskol and Andreyevka, but the Donets now belonged to the Soviets from that city all the way north to Belgorod.
Kirchner could not take that bridge, but even if he had done so, it would not matter. They have more than adequate supply from the depots they built when they tried to envelop Kharkov from the south. I might have continued this mad dash around the bulge of their bridgehead, and even taken the bridge at Andreyevka, but then what? We would have left four armies on our flank, undefeated, and if I had crossed the river, I would have to drive another 25 kilometers to pose any serious threat to their communications and supplies. And these columns now approaching Taranovka would be converging southeast of Zimyev instead. We just do not have the strength to do what must be done.
Nexus Deep (Kirov Series Book 31) Page 20