Nexus Deep

Chapter 10

“Zitadelle would require Steiner to move north,” said Manstein, “but a little deception would be in order here. The enemy watches Steiner’s Korps like a hawk. If that hawk looks like it is forming up for the northern pincer of Habicht, and 57th Panzer Korps gets positioned in the south near Kupyansk, perhaps that would convince them we are going to attempt that pincer operation. Knobelsdorff can move in tight behind Model and appear to take up a defensive posture, and if Zitadelle is the final decision, then Steiner finds his Korps in a very good place to quickly move north.”

And so it was decided, the history leading down the same familiar pathways as it did in another telling of these events, but it left Manstein with more than a few misgivings. First off, the enemy strength between the Donets and Oskol Rivers was considerable. What if that force were used to stage a strong counterattack while the Zitadelle operation was pushing north? He voiced this objection again, but Hitler batted it aside.

“Once they see what we are reaching for, the enemy assault groups in the south will have no choice but to retreat north if they wish to intervene, and so we solve two problems in one throw.”

“You assume their counterattack would be aimed directly at the base of our offensive towards Kursk,” said Manstein. “If they do what you suggest, all the terrain east of Belgorod that I mentioned earlier will be a strong shield against such a counterattack, and for this reason I do not think they would do this. A more indirect approach would serve them better. They could just attack towards the Middle Donets again, or even Kharkov.”

“Nonsense. They will retreat, I am certain of this.”

“Then they remain unfought,” said Manstein, “a sword the enemy still has to use against us…. Somewhere.”

“We know where they will be going,” said Hitler. “Why must everything be so complicated? They will try to stop Zitadelle, and then Steiner will deal with them when they do.”

“Against five more armies? And you expect he will still have the strength to take Kursk?”

“They will not be able to withdraw all their forces. Half will have to stay behind to hold that front. Do not worry yourself with this unnecessary speculation. You had no difficulty compelling the enemy to retreat from Kharkov, when they were within a hair’s breadth of taking it. This will play out much the same way.”

Manstein was still uncomfortable, but no one else came to his support. Kluge will not get anywhere from his side of that bulge, he thought. Steiner and Knobelsdorff, when side by side, will have tremendous power, but can they do this alone?

Hitler could see the displeasure on Manstein’s face, and so he decided to throw his Field Marshal a bone.

“You may prepare for Habicht to launch on four days’ notice,” said Hitler. “We will also prepare for Zitadelle, with Steiner instead moving north as we have discussed. Will that satisfy you, General Manstein? Target June 1st for the start date of both operations. I will give you my final decision four days before that start date. Now… We must discuss other matters, and how to reinforce the West. The loss of 5th Panzerarmee was a very hard blow—150,000 German troops!”

No one said anything, fearing Hitler would bemoan that for the next hour and begin a long litany of what went wrong there. Instead, he stayed on topic—how to reinforce the West.

“I have had to recall divisions committed to operations in the early spring, in spite of the fact that they might continue to bear good fruit. Guderian worked wonders in Syria and Iraq, and your own Operation Edelweiss was masterful, General Manstein. Yes, we have a new enemy now, but Volkov was a do nothing Ally all along, worse than the Italians! That said, we must consider how to keep Mussolini in the fold, and what to do should he falter. I need troops for that, so I have recalled the Brandenburg Division from Guderian, and all of Student’s troops. This means that Guderian will not go to Basra as I hoped.”

“And the fact that I needed to withdraw 57th Panzerkorps and all of Hollidt’s Infantry also means that I will not be going to either Astrakhan or Baku.” Manstein wanted that point understood early on.

“I realize that now,” said Hitler. The shock of losing 5th Panzerarmee had sobered him. “Maykop and Groznyy will suffice, along with Baba Gurgur. We will concentrate our efforts now on getting as much oil as possible from those fields, but this means that our position in the Caucasus is essential, which makes the lower Don Region, and the line of the Donets, areas which we must hold at all cost. For Baba Gurgur, Turkey is essential. All our communications to Iraq and Syria go through that country. The British are probably already scheming on how they can woo Turkey to their side of this war, and that is also a contingency that we must address. What if they succeed? What if Mussolini loses his nerve and attempts an armistice? We have Operation Alaric to flesh out for Italy, but what about Turkey?”

“You are suggesting we devise a similar plan to disarm the Turkish Army and occupy that country? Turkey has an army of 45 divisions! They are scattered all over the country, and the terrain is murderous.”

“Yes, but it would not be necessary to occupy and control the entire country. Taking Istanbul; perhaps Ankara, and then positioning strong troops along the rail line to Baghdad would be sufficient. What would that take?”

Zeitzler thought for a time. “No less than two full corps, mostly infantry, but with enough mechanization to have some clout if needed, perhaps one or two Panzer brigades. There are presently four Turkish divisions along the Syrian border, and those would have to be confronted and disarmed. The same for eight to ten divisions around Istanbul and the Dardanelles Fortified Area.”

“Ridiculous,” said Manstein. “Then we will get a guerilla war all along that border, and the rail line as well. It would take very little to disrupt traffic on that rail line, and if we do this, do not count on getting long lines of volatile oil cars through Turkey. That will all have to go by sea, which means we must rebuild the pipeline from Maykop to Novorossiysk, and from Groznyy to Rostov. That will take months. As for Baba Gurgur, all the pipelines from those fields flow to Tripoli and Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. In my mind, that field is useless to us. We certainly cannot use the existing pipelines, and we would have to build a new line north from Kirkuk to Mosul and then ship the oil through Turkey to Istanbul, a rail journey of a thousand miles, which could be interdicted by a single determined squad with a few demolitions. Don’t forget Lawrence of Arabia! He gave the Ottoman Turks fits by tearing up their rail lines through Syria in the First War. Frankly, this problem might have been avoided if we had chosen to negotiate with Ivan Volkov instead of making him an enemy. Now we are talking about making another enemy of Turkey. The end of this will be disaster. Where do we even get two infantry korps for such consideration? I cannot spare a single division.”

Hitler considered all this, his eyes shifting over the map, as if the answer was there, some solution that would finally allow him to reap the harvest of all his campaigns—operations Phoenix, Eisenfall, and Edelweiss. What were the merits of keeping so many divisions in Iraq and Syria? Rommel’s old command was still a threat to Palestine and Egypt, even if the loss of the Wiking Division meant those forces had lost a good deal of their offensive power.

“We can go over to the defense in Syria,” he said. “General Kübler can stand on defense there now, which will free up 2nd and 16th Panzer Divisions. I will leave the 101st Panzer Brigade with Kübler, and send those panzers to Ankara and Istanbul—or Italy.”

“Send them to Italy, if you must,” said Manstein. “But I beg you, do not make an enemy of Turkey, by any means. As for Volkov—Make peace! Offer him the return of all his provinces in the Caucasus in exchange for an agreement that the Todt Organizations can rebuild that pipeline to Rostov. Then I can pull Hansen’s Army out of there, and use it to make certain the Russians never get to Rostov, because if they do, then the whole affair would be lost.”

“Make peace with that conniving slackard, Volkov?” Hitler seemed aghast.

“Why not? And do so before he thaws things out with Sergei Kirov. When that happens, and it will, then the Soviets can pull another three or four Armies off their Volga Front, and I do not have to tell you where they will go. They will come to the lower Don and Donets Basin.”

“Do you honestly think Volkov would agree to peace with Germany now?”

“You have showed him what the consequences of war are,” said Manstein. “Unless he makes peace with Sergei Kirov, he will sit on his oil fields at Astrakhan and Baku, and do little more. At least if he returns to the Axis, we can make some use of him. And you must do nothing to convince Turkey they may be in danger from us. The minute they see troop movements into Bulgaria, they will get very nervous, and do what you fear—they will join the Allies. I have already shown you how useless Baba Gurgur is to us. Kübler will not go to Suez, and Guderian will not go to Basra. That is the fact of the matter. So why keep ten divisions tied up in Iraq and Syria?”

“To keep ten British Commonwealth Divisions there,” said Hitler. “If we go, then they have all those troops available to put against us somewhere else.”

“Not so. They had other fish to fry. Many of the divisions now in southern Iraq will return to Burma, or be used to carry out plans they must surely have to retake Ceylon from the Japanese. So do not worry about those forces. As for what they have in Palestine, they took most of the armor from O’Connor’s 8th Army, and one good infantry division, and we have worn them down in the fighting in Syria. Most of the infantry will probably just stay in Palestine as a garrison, as it was before. I know how inimical the loss of hard won terrain is to you, but I state now that neither Iraq nor Syria will be in any way useful to our war effort. On the contrary, the ten or twelve divisions there will be very useful—elsewhere.”

Hitler frowned, his eyes on the map. Manstein was telling him that all his aspirations in these spring operations were folly. “Do you think I have sent my Generals and troops into these places for mere sport? Now you suggest I simply give Iraq and Syria back to the British—I will not! What we have taken, we will hold. The pipelines will be built! The oil must come to the Reich, and all those troops must stay where they are to make certain that happens. There will be no peace with Ivan Volkov either. In fact, if I must postpone Operation Untergang, and then send all those troops to Astrakhan and Baku to destroy his little empire, so be it!” He pounded the map over Astrakhan, and silence fell heavily on the room.

“As for Sergei Kirov, wait until he sees Operation Zitadelle unhinge all his plans for another offensive. I have made my decision. Launch that operation as soon as possible! Make some good use of yourself, General Manstein. These notions of handing the enemy Iraq and Syria will addle your mind. Go and take Kursk!”

That final decision was the deep reverberating echo of the real history—Operation Zitadelle. Yet it would be a much different battle. Kluge would be much weaker with his thrust from the north, yet the Soviets would not be as well prepared, still contemplating offensive action of their own.

“What might they do next?” Asked Sergei Kirov. “Surely they have plans for an offensive.”

“Frankly,” said Zhukov, “I was surprised they stopped where they did in April. I expected them to continue to try and push us off the upper Donets.”

“Perhaps they did not have the strength. Steiner had only three divisions this time in their main attack.”

“But they could have reorganized and continued, particularly after they relieved Belgorod.”

“Yet they did not do so,” said Kirov. The question is, what will they do now?”

“Their aim will be to try and upstage any further offensive plans we have for the early summer, and dissipate our offensive strength. They could confront us directly again in the south, or move their assault divisions elsewhere—perhaps to the Orel sector.”

“Yet we have seen no sign of that kind of movement,” said Intelligence Chief Berzin. “In fact, the latest reports show Steiner consolidating at Kharkov, and we have learned there are orders for him to move to the Donets near Volchansk.”

“Volchansk? Then they mean to force a crossing there?”

“Possibly. Their three mobile divisions in the south have moved towards Kupyansk, but I doubt if they would try to take that city unsupported. This is why we think they are planning an imminent operation.”

“A pincer operation against our 1st and 2nd Shock Groups,” said Zhukov, pointing out their positions on the map. “This would be the safe choice for them now. It confronts our main strength in the south, threatens an encirclement operation, and serves to expend our use of that force in any offensive role.”

“Then we must beat them to the punch,” said Kirov. “Can’t you use those two shock groups to attack now?”

“Where? Towards the Middle Donets again? We would have the same battle that we just lost. Steiner would simply cross the Donets at Chuguyev and cut us off. In fact, I believe this is exactly what their General Manstein would like us to do—attack towards the Middle Donets. He would fold back his line and graciously let us go there. And then he would cut us off again. No, I think we should wait and receive whatever offensive they have planned. Then devise an appropriate counterattack.”

“This pincer operation—is that what they will do?” Kirov looked at Berzin.

“We have picked up a lot of traffic, logistical orders and such. Something is brewing. The code word is Habicht —Hawk. Yet we have also gotten wind of another operational code: Zitadelle —Citadel.” Both Berzin and Kirov knew of these operations from the Material they still held secret, and now they would seek to plant certain information in the mind of Zhukov to prepare him for things they saw looming on the near horizon. Neither man could be certain that the Germans would do what they did in the Material, but if they did choose such a plan, Kirov wanted Zhukov to have a way to answer it.

Chapter 11

“Where is this Citadel operation?” asked Zhukov.

“A plan to strike at Kursk. There has been some unusual activity in Model’s 2nd Army zone. Stores and munitions are being moved closer to his front lines, and the rail lines feeding that area are all being repaired.”

“Any sign of a buildup?”

“Not yet. A Panzer Division, number twelve, was sent to their Army Group Center last week, but their 48th Korps remains in defensive positions behind Model.”

“Watch Steiner,” said Kirov. “Those divisions will always be at the heart of any major offensive they plan. General Zhukov, we believe there may be more than meets the eye here. What is your plan for defense in the north?”

“5th Shock Group is still there, and fairly strong. Katukov is there as well with his 1st Tank Army, but I was considering moving him to join Kuznetsov and rebuild his Shock Group in the south to an all mechanized force. The rifle divisions he had were badly mauled in the enemy counterattack, and most have now been disbanded.”

“I see… Perhaps you had best wait on that order to Katukov, at least until we let Berzin chew on this business concerning the German Citadel plan. Leave 1st Tank Army in general reserve in the north.”

“As you wish.”

“What would your response be to the other German plan—Hawk.”

“If it is a pincer operation aimed at 1st and 2nd Shock Groups, they will bite off more than they can swallow. Those forces remain very strong. We lost Ermakov’s Motor Rifle Division, and learned a good lesson when battling their armor. We still have good tank strength there, but more of the newer models are needed, and quickly.”

“We have additional Kirov-1 shipments heading your way,” said Berzin. “Some will go to Katukov, the rest to Kuznetsov.”

“That will help. To answer your earlier question, Mister General Secretary, it is my opinion that our southern group has the strength to repel any attempt to conduct an envelopment operation. I have also moved up the 47th Army from Steppe Front to stand as a general reserve and replace 63rd Army, which will need to be rebuilt. The new army is moving by rail to Kupyansk.”

“Very well, I will take your word that the south is secure. If they should instead strike us in the north, then what?”

“As Katukov is being retained there, I am confident we can hold long enough to evaluate that situation and make an appropriate response. Should the south remain stable, I would consider transferring a Shock Group to reinforce the north if necessary. However, our best option might be to simply counterattack in the south.”

“Explain,” said Kirov, thinking.

“If they strike us in the north,” said Zhukov, “then they want Kursk back. To have any chance of getting there, they will need Steiner’s troops on the line. So while they are trying to take Kursk, I will be free to attack again in the south. I could threaten Kharkov, or drive on the Middle Donets in this case. Once they look over their shoulder, I believe that would put an end to any operation against Kursk. Then we go over to general counterattack.”

“Very well, General. You have not failed us in the past. We will do what we can to redress the shortfall in heavier tanks, and please keep me informed of the general situation on the field.”

Zhukov had handed the General Secretary the old Napoleonic maxim that the best defense was a good offense. He saw his armored Shock Groups as capable of repelling any German attack, and launching another offensive if the situation warranted that. It was the very same assessment that Manstein had surmised, yet the German General could not overcome the real obstacle to German strategic planning—Adolf Hitler.

The battle fought in late April was the first real field test of the new Soviet heavy mobile forces against the best the Germans had to oppose them. The enemy had prevailed, and now Zhukov was inwardly hoping the factories could get him more tanks capable of standing with the alarmingly potent new German models in Hitler’s shock divisions.

The battle that was coming would be another test of steel versus steel. The Germans were well ahead in terms of heavy tank production. In the real history, over 80% of the tanks fielded by the Germans at Kursk were Pz-III and IV models. There were only 200 of the new Panther Pz V, 147 Tigers and 90 Ferdinands. In this history, the Panzer II had been largely phased out and replaced by the German Leopards with a 50mm main gun. Almost all the Pz IIIs were gone, sent off to HQ companies, and rear area depot garrisons, or delivered to the Hungarians, Rumanians and Italians. Only 75 Pz-IIIN tanks were on the field in late May of 1943 in the south, with 30 more Flampanzer models. There were still 402 Pz IV’s, mostly F1 and F2 models, but the new Lion-75 was vying to become the standard medium tank, and there were 342 of those on the field.

The real difference was in the heavy tank category, the legacy of Brigadier Kinlan and his Challenger II’s. The shock had been so severe, that it had spurred the German effort to increase both armor and hitting power for its panzer force. As a result, there were now about 250 Lion-88 models in the south, with 46 more Tiger I’s and 243 Panthers. They also had 80 Ferdinand ‘Elephants’ arriving by rail that very week.

This monster was built on unused chassis designed by Porsche when they were competing for the contract to build the Tiger tank. Henschel got the contract for the Tiger, so Porsche had about 100 unused chassis and designed a new tank destroyer mounting Krupp's newly developed 88 mm Panzerjägerkanone 43. It was meant to replace the lightly armored Nashorn, and when it came to armor, this 65-ton beast was given a full 200mm, a full 80mm thicker than the Tiger.

All in all, the heavy metal the Germans were wielding was much stronger than in the real history. The plan was to line up six panzer divisions abreast, the 9th, 6th and 11th on the left, backed by Grossdeutschland Division, and Steiner’s three SS divisions on the right. The ground they would attack into was not traversed by networks of trenches and minefields, nor was there a strong anti-tank line established yet. The thick layers of concentric defensive lines that had proved so impenetrable in the real battle did not exist here. That said, the forces deployed near the point of attack were still very strong.

Rokossovsky, the overall Voronezh Front Commander, had the entire 5th Shock Group, (5th Tank Army, 5th Shock Army, 5th Guards Army), and they were right on the line between Tomarovka and Belgorod, with the mechanized forces poised to make swift counterblows. Behind them, at Oboyan, was Mikhail Katukov’s 1st Tank Army, and more strong infantry forces were available in theater if needed, another full army.

Though the concentration of German forces was impressive, and would be intimidating under any circumstances, Manstein nonetheless had strong reservations about this attack. Hitler had rejected his preferred operation, Habicht, and that was going to leave not one, but two strong enemy shock Groups in the south unfought.

We are making a serious mistake here, he thought. We should have dealt with the threat in the south first, but the Führer sees no gain of territory in such a battle. He does not yet realize that this whole affair is not about occupying the Soviet Union, but defeating its army! Now he wants Steiner to lead the charge all the way to Kursk.

This attack should not be made….

It was 9th Panzer in Knobelsdorff’s 48th Panzerkorps that opened the attack to the left of Tomarovka, and it rippled west through the lines of 6th Panzer, and then Balck’s 11th. They would be attacking Gorodov’s 21st Army, a large formation of nine rifle divisions, four of those being Guards, and three tank brigades in support. But these stronger divisions had been positioned well to the west, near Proletarsky, where they had been planning to make an attack against the German infantry front. That meant that Knobelsdorff’s attack would fall mainly on the line of Rifle Divisions in the Army, the 243rd, near Tomarovka, and the 279th, 259th, 78th and 195th extending along the line to the west.

The 279th Division was all but smashed in the shock of the initial attack made by 9th Panzer Division. As the line buckled when the 6th and 11th Panzers joined the attack, Gorodov was sluggish in his response, but he managed to get one tank brigade, the 59th, moving to the point where Balck’s 11th Panzers were driving north through the lines of the 78th Rifle Division. It had 16 T-34’s and nine T-60’s with a few SU-57’s, but had the misfortune of running right into 2/501 Schwere Company, which had a dozen Tigers. The Germans engaged from long range, and cut the Soviet brigade to pieces before it could close to attack at ranges that could hurt the Tigers.

Of the three tank Corps that were placed behind 5th Shock Army on the right, only one moved in the pre-dawn darkness, Burkov’s 29th. Gorodov had called Rybalko to ask for help, and so that Corps moved west across the Vorskla River, which flowed down from the north into Tomarovka. Reaching the far bank, it began to deploy for a counterattack against the breakthrough zone for 9th Panzer. General Burkov was moving into a firestorm, for the Grossdeutschland Division was already advancing through the breach forced in the line, even as 9th Panzer began to engage the recon elements of 29th Tank Corps.

That sudden clash forced the Russians to stop and reorganize a stronger formation, waiting for their motorized infantry to come up in support of the armor, but in that interval, the bulk of the Grossdeutschland Division swept around the flank of the 29th Corps, driving for Cherkasskoye north of Tomarovka. There they would find front level artillery deploying to begin fire missions, and put those guns to rout.

The situation was rapidly moving from bad, to worse, to disaster for the eastern segment of 21st Army’s line. 279th Division was destroyed, the 259th surrounded and badly disrupted, as was the 78th. The Germans had smashed a hole in the line that was 12 kilometers wide.

Gorodov now began to order his better Guards divisions to move east, but for that he needed the cooperation of 6th Army Commander Kharitonov, asking him to extend his lines eastward so the 8th Guard Para could be pulled out to move to the breakthrough zone. The 80th Guards Rifle Division had been in reserve, and it now moved to the left flank and began organizing a defensive shoulder position. The Germans immediately began to put heavy artillery on that sector, and elements of 11th Panzer and the 72nd Infantry Division continued to keep up the pressure. Meanwhile, Hauser’s recon battalion moved quickly to exploit that gap, moving to try and cut the main road between Tomarovka and points west.

Balck would swing 11th Panzer to force open the left shoulder of the penetration, while Scheller’s 9th Panzer attacked the 29th Tank Corps on the right shoulder. 6th Panzer continued to mop up the divisions that had been surrounded, and this allowed Grossdeutschland Division to drive right through the center, bearing right towards Steiner’s attack closer to Belgorod.

Steiner’s three SS divisions ground against the much stronger lines of the 5th Guards Army, strengthened by five regiments of engineers, and it was a difficult battle. 3rd SS made some initial progress against 5th Shock Army on the left near Tomarovka, but the Soviets counterattacked with Mechanized Cavalry brigades, pushing back the probing German recon companies and preventing any serious breakthrough on that front.

Further east it would take the combined strength of 1st and 2nd SS to break the line of 5th Guards Army. The fighting was intense all morning, but the Germans had a massive steel battering ram that they brought into action in the afternoon, two very strong battalions of new Panther tanks in KG Denker, and the Ferdinand battalion, all combined to smash the 66th Guards Rifle Division, and 13th Guards to the west was now completely surrounded and under heavy attack by both SS divisions. It was sheer muscle and steel, an overwhelming force that beat down the valor of the Soviet Guardsmen, no matter how dogged their defense.

To make matters worse, Steiner ordered Eicke to pull out of his attack against 5th Shock Army, moving up the infantry of 42nd Korps to hold that front. Now 3rd SS would swing east into the breach being forced by Dietrich and Hausser’s divisions, and the Germans had the makings of a massive pincer operation that threatened to take the whole of 5th Shock Army within its grasp.

The only thing preventing that was Rybalko’s last two Tank Corps, which had remained in reserve behind 5th Shock Army. Now he had no choice other than to commit those units to try and stave off the closing of those iron jaws. 24th Corps moved west against Grossdeutschland, and 25th Corps had just been engaged by elements of 2nd SS. Neither Corps was anywhere near a match for the enemy divisions they were now facing.

Chapter 12

Word came to General Katukov in his headquarters north of the attack at Oboyan, and he soon gave orders to the 31st Tank Corps, telling it to prepare to move down a secondary road to Berezovka, where German recon troops had entered the town an hour earlier. This was a new Corps, with three brigades of the new T-34/85’s, with 28 tanks each, so that put 84 tanks on the road south, with three battalions of motor rifle infantry in support.

As the full scope of the German attack became apparent, it was clear that some decision had to be made about 5th Shock Army. Katukov spoke with Rokossovsky via telephone, wanting to know if he needed to form his troops for a counterattack, or build a defensive position north of Berezovka.

“5th Shock is in danger of being cut off,” said Rokossovsky. “It has held on to Tomarovka, but the pressure from 3rd SS Division eased up three hours ago. We now believe they are moving that division into the penetration achieved by the other two SS units. If we allow that army to be pocketed, they might have a nice big stone in their belly that will force them to envelop and reduce it.”

“That’s a lot to sacrifice,” said Katukov. “There are three other fish in the barrel. Rybalko’s entire 5th Tank Army could be pocketed, all three corps.”

“Yes, but this must have the effect of slowing down this offensive. They want Kursk. There can be no other objective for an attack on this scale.”

“And if they simply screen off the 5th Shock Army and continue? My army would be hard pressed to stop them if those two pincers unite. And once they close the trap, Rybalko will have perhaps another day’s worth of ammunition—maybe two.”

“I am taking further defensive measures,” said Rokossovsky.

“Defensive? We will need to organize a counterattack to make sure we establish contact with those armies.”

“All in good time,” said Rokossovsky, which frustrated Katukov. Yet the front commander was aware of bigger events in the offing which he did not wish to discuss on the telephone. “Move towards Berezovka, and take it if the opportunity presents itself. That will bring your army close enough to reach the others when we counterattack. I am bringing up additional reserves.”

Rokossovsky could have ordered 5th Shock to pull out under cover of darkness, but he was opting to stand his ground. An army of that size, particularly with 5th Tank included, could not be defeated quickly. It had staying power to last as long as the General needed in this situation, and now he got on the telephone to Stary Oskol where the 8th Guards Army was waiting in reserve.

The man who answered that phone call was one Vasily Chuikov, the stone-faced defender of Volgograd. The survivors of his 62nd Army had formed the root and stem of a new formation, which was now composed of six rebuilt Guards Rifle Divisions, with two heavy tank brigades and a regiment of SU-122’s. It was ordered to begin boarding the trains for movement to Prokhorovka. Zhukov was taking no chances that Steiner would finally break through and begin a rampage toward Kursk. And so the ‘Man of Iron Will,’ as Chuikov was now known, was moving on the steel rails after midnight, his first major movement to battle since Volgograd. He would reach Prokhorovka that night and establish his headquarters there, but the troops would continue on south along the rail line to Belgorod.

Balck kept attacking that night as well, wanting to push back the line of 21st Army and secure the left flank. Hopefully, there would be infantry coming up to relieve him soon, but in the meantime, he ordered Hauser to scout out the situation north in the event the enemy had strong reserves at hand.

General Chmienko of the 31st Tank Corps would not get to Berezovka that night. The town had already been bypassed by the 6th Panzer, its mop-up mission complete. Hunnersdorff then moved quickly north to Verkhopenye, the new vanguard of the drive towards Kursk. That same night, as Katukov had feared, the Grossdeutschland Division turned east to meet 3rd SS, which had now exploited the work of its brother divisions and took the lead position in that pincer. The jaws closed sometime after midnight, and when the news reached OKW that the offensive had already encircled two Soviet armies in the Tomarovka Pocket, Hitler was elated.

General Katukov could not understand why Rokossovsky reacted the way he did. This was obviously a major German offensive, as big as the Backhand Blow that had defeated 1st and 2nd Shock Groups the previous month, and drove them well north of the Donets. But he did not know about Chuikov’s 8th Guards Army arriving until the Morning of the 26th, and so now he moved his 3rd Mech Corps into blocking positions north of Berezovka, glad to know that the Stone Man had something up his sleeve after all.

He wanted to get to Berezovka, but the Germans were already there, so he moved on Verkhopenye, where reports of fighting were soon on the radio. He could hear the distinctive sound of 88s firing in the dark, and being answered by the 85mm guns of his own tanks. His enemy had moved much faster than anticipated, and he quickly got on the radio to inform Rokossovsky.

“I could not get to Berezovka as ordered,” he said, “The Germans are already north of there, as far as Novenkoye, and we are fighting in Verkhopenye. I’m going to try and push them out.”

“Do so,” said Rokossovsky. “Bring your entire 1st Tank Army there. Here is your chance to march to the sound of the guns. You must keep them there. Keep fighting. If they pull out, I want to know which direction they go, immediately.”

“Very well,” said Katukov, his blood up with the new day, and ready for a brawl. As he moved south, 3rd Mech Corps was used to screen the western approaches to Berezovka, while 31st Tank Corps attacked Verkhopenye. The east was being covered by 8th Guards Army, and as their first divisions reached the main road to Oboyan between Pokrovka and Verkhopenye, they met the Grossdeutschland Division. Behind that front, both 5th Shock and 5th Tank Armies were now in a pocket, a great circle on the situation map, with a diameter of about 16 kilometers.

Yet the decision made by Rokossovsky did have a strong effect on the offensive as a whole. Instead of seven panzer divisions advancing north, Balck’s 11th was now widely deployed on the left flank against 21st Army and elements of Katukov’s 3rd Mech. On the left, most of Dietrich’s 1st SS was holding against 5th Guards Army. In the center, the bulk of Hausser’s 2nd SS and Scheller’s 9th Panzer were just north of the pocket. This left only three divisions now in the advance, 6th Panzer, Totenkopf, Grossdeutschland. That was only 40% of the initial offensive power that began the operation, and meeting two new strong Soviet armies brought the advance to a standstill.

All of 42nd Infantry Korps was wrapped around those two trapped Soviet armies, but it wasn’t quite enough, unless the enemy position could be compressed. The defense being weakest in the north led to the decision to use 9th Panzer and Das Reich to attack there instead of moving north. The plan was to drastically compress that pocket, which would allow it to be invested by the infantry, then freeing up the panzers to continue north.

The 2nd SS was tightly concentrated, and it fell like a hammer on the northern edge of that pocket, with the second blow delivered by 9th Panzer. The perimeter began to buckle like a dented shield, collapsing inward towards the center of the pocket. They would continue the attack until well after sunset, and into the early morning hours of May 27th.

Rokossovsky’s decision to expose 5th Shock and 5th Tank to the possibility of rapid destruction was a gamble that had at least done what he anticipated. If those troops had pulled out, then the infantry of the German 42nd Korps would be holding on the shoulders instead of Balck and Dietrich. And the Germans would still have all seven Panzer divisions available to continue to prosecute their attack. He did so because he knew one thing that Katukov did not know, Vatutin was preparing another massive counterblow in the south with 1st and 2nd Shock Groups—exactly what Manstein had predicted and feared.

That night another cable was sent to General Nikolai Vatutin, the dour faced commander of the newly established “Donets Front.” It read simply—ENEMY FORCES WELL ENGAGED – ADVANCE HALTED AND OUR LINES STABLE.

That sent a one word message to General Yeremenko of the 1st Shock Army, which rippled down the line between the Donets and Oskol Rivers—RUMYANTSEV. It was the code name for the Soviet counterattack aimed at unhinging the German Kursk offensive. In application, this started rifle regiments probing forward to come adjacent to the German front, marking their positions, and reconnoitering for potential weak zones. Messages were sent to Popov and Malinovsky to begin making final preparations to advance.

The sound of artillery fire was the first dull rumble of distant thunder that would soon become a raging storm in the south, but this time it was on the Middle Donets. Another diversionary operation would be launched there, a mission given to Shumilov’s 7th Guards Army.

The Germans had been digging in on that front, fortifying their line on the Upper Donets, but that work had not extended all the way south. West of Shebelkino, the Russians had identified a weaker segment of the line, and in the early hours before sunrise, the men of 73 and 78th Guards Rifle Divisions, and all the armor attached to that army, struck across the river against the lines of the German 111th Infantry Division.

The large bridgehead on the Donets bend above Chuguyev was being held by both 3rd Guard and 3rd Shock Armies, and the former launched an attack near Bolshaya Babka, backed up by the 3rd Tank Corps. At the same time, 3rd Shock attacked further south with the support of 7th Tank Corps sent over the river the previous night by General Popov. These three attacks were not strong enough to pose any serious threat to Kharkov, but were instead designed to attempt to lure German reserves to this segment of the line—away from the main offensive being readied in the south….

Named for a Russian General of the 18th Century, the buildup for Operation Rumyantsev proceeded at a methodical pace. Then, in the early grey hours of May 27, the guns were elevating on the rear area breakthrough artillery, the heavy steel barrels rising to meet the dawn. There would be no less than nine heavy gun regiments, an equal number of Katyusha regiments, and several mortar regiments to make the initial opening barrage. The Germans would hear the movement of tanks and troops, vehicles rumbling in the grey, but no attack would come before sunrise.

General Vatutin was a very patient man that day. His would be the first of two planned counterblows, designed to envelop Kharkov and halt the German attack in the north.

When General Hoth was informed of the attacks, he nodded his head, as if he expected them. “Is anything serious?” he asked.

“Only in the sector west of Martovaya, near Bolshaya Babka. There’s a lot of armor reported there—at least two Corps.

“Which is why I have positioned the two Reichsführer Brigades right behind the line there. They should be able to handle that. Send them in. And what about the attack further north?”

“The only serious area is with the 167th, but General Trierenburg believes he can use local reserves to hold the line.”

“Very well. Let me know if anything changes.”

“There is one more thing, sir.”

“Yes?”

“I’ve received three separate reports of enemy movement on the southern front between the Donets and Oskol.”

“Fighting?”

“No sir, just movement.”

Hoth thought about that. The enemy might be pulling something out to send north. Then again, this could be a buildup for the counterattack Manstein warned me about.

“Where is 502nd Schwerepanzer Battalion?”

“On the road southwest of Kharkov, sir.”

“Send it to Chuguyev. The 503rd Battalion is already there with 3rd Panzergrenadier Division. Tell General Graser that I have just upgraded his outfit to a full Panzer Division.” Hoth smiled, a spark in his close-set eyes, and then he adjusted his officers cap, picked up his gloves and headed for his staff car. He was driving into Borisovka to confer with the 42nd Infantry Korps commander, General Dostler. Hermann Balck had called him to request infantry support so he could move his division north, and he wanted to see if the enemy pocket could be held in place with thinner lines.

“The attack last night by Hausser compressed that pocket considerably,” he said to Dostler. “2nd SS needs to get up north, along with 9th Panzer. So now I want your infantry to secure the entire perimeter. As for Gebhard’s 72nd Division—send it to relieve Balck on the left shoulder.”

As a further precaution, Hoth sent word to the other two mobile divisions in 57th Panzerkorps, 17th Panzer and 29th Panzergrenadier. They had been positioned near the Oskol River south of Kupyansk, and he ordered them to tighten up and deploy for possible offensive operations.

“You want me to attack?” asked von Etterlin of the 17th Division.

“Not in accordance with the Habicht Operation. No, prepare for defensive counterattacks in the event we get any trouble down there. They’ve been building up in the center of the line. If anything happens, it will start with the artillery. Keep me informed.”

Yes, it would start with the artillery….