To sweeten the broth when he sent his message to OKW, he indicated that he was now moving to implement “Operation Donnerschlag, ” (Thunderclap), and he intended this as a means of throwing a bone to Hitler. If the Führer thought a counterattack was imminent, he might be less likely to interfere with the troop movements Manstein had ordered. That was the final risk he was taking—that all of this could be reversed at the whim of Adolf Hitler.
If that could be avoided, he hoped to have three infantry divisions in Kharkov before nightfall on June 2nd, and then he would begin pulling Steiner’s troops out and offer the enemy the city-fight they seemed intent upon. That night, the trains flowed in Kharkov, the grey infantry disembarking with well-practiced efficiency, their officers collecting companies, building battalions, and then marching them off to their assigned post in the city. Manstein was creating another Volgograd, but just as in that battle, he would not fight there with Steiner’s Korps.
That same night, Hitler would arrive at OKW after his long plane ride, and thankfully, he would retire for the evening to rest. That gave Zeitzler time to collect all the latest situation reports, and he noted the arrival of three infantry divisions at Kharkov. With Steiner there as well, that would secure the city and at least remove that topic from the next day’s discussion. As to Operation Donnerschlag, he sent a message asking for details to be forwarded ‘as soon as feasible.’
The General knew enough to know that Manstein had something in the oven, and he was not going to pull it out and stick his thumb in it until he knew more. At the very least, this would keep Hitler out of the decision loop for another twelve hours, and by then he believed he would learn what was happening.
He smiled inwardly. The old fox is up to something again, he thought. I did not think he would get away with things as he did, cancelling Zitadelle, ordering both Model and Kempf to withdraw, not to mention Hollidt as well. So now he is planning a counterattack? That can only mean one thing. He is going to move Steiner, and that explains the movement of Korps Raus and the 7th Division into Kharkov.
General Zeitzler could read a map.
Part VIII
The Road to Taranovka
“The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat.”
Chapter 22
By the early morning of June 3, the front had stabilized. The Germans had given up a good deal of ground, all in the effort to shorten their lines, and the arrival of six new Infantry Divisions had filled in the line where the 10th Korps had been smashed in the north. It’s 167th and 168th Divisions now had to combine their remaining troops into one formation, and even that was weaker than a single line infantry division should have been. Knobelsdorff had been informed that 3rd Panzergrenadier Division was being sent to him, and now he might do even more to stop Katukov from regaining any momentum.
Balck had stopped the powerful 5th Mech Corps, skillfully using both 11th and 6th Panzer Divisions in the two-day battle. In the center, there were places where the advancing Soviet troops in 5th and 8th Guards Armies had simply lost contact with the retreating German infantry of 4th Army. North of Kharkov, there was heavily wooded terrain, and Kempf was wise enough to fall back on that natural defensive advantage to strengthen his lines.
Closer to the city, Das Reich was still under heavy pressure from 3rd Guards Army, and so Manstein lined up 32 heavy Lions in the 502 Schwerepanzer Battalion as a defensive screen, and pulled 2nd SS off the line. 3rd SS had already concentrated in the city, ready to move at first light. Grossdeutschland Division and Leibstandarte were still on the line south of the city, buying time for Korps Raus to get into good defensive positions. Just before sunrise, the SS would begin pulling out under the cover of heavy grey skies.
With a wave of his cape, the wily master strategist of the Wehrmacht had pulled off his sleight of hand, and deftly extricated Steiner’s divisions all along the front. The cost had been three kilometers, as Raus had to form his line up right at the edge of the city behind the SS. The Russians would gain this extra thin slice of the apple, advancing towards the shadowy grey city that morning, and wondering whether the Germans had given it up. They would be quite mistaken. Korps Raus, which had once been holding a frontage over twenty kilometers with its two divisions, was now nicely concentrated on an eight-kilometer line that ran all along the southeast edge of the city. Furthermore, it was reinforced with the addition of the 7th Infantry Division.
The only SS units that would be left behind were Wagner’s Nordland Division, because of its preponderance of useful infantry, and the two Reichsführer brigades. Both Ferdinand battalions would remain for AT support, but Manstein ordered the faster moving Panthers of the 51st and 52nd Battalions to move out with Grossdeutschland.
That morning, he took the main road west, which passed just north of Yubotin, and then swung around a large woodland, following the rail line to Poltava. After a time, it diverged southwest towards Valki, eventually reaching Poltava by running south of the Komag River, while the rail line ran north of that watercourse.
German defensive tactics against Russian breakthroughs of this scale usually mandated an attack on the flank of the enemy advance. This was what Manstein had tried to do when he launched Steiner from Kharkov, and 57th Panzer Korps towards Andreyevka, but in both cases, the attacks encountered enemy strength too thick to penetrate. In effect, the shoulders of the breakthrough were too secure, and were, in fact, zones where the enemy was still concentrating the bulk of his offensive forces. The Russians were not pushing aggressively in the center of the breakthrough, where the roads to Poltava beckoned them to advance. Instead they were fixated on Kharkov, attacking it from the northern shoulder with 1st Guard Tank Army, and then busy reinforcing their crossing at Andreyevka with the two Siberian Motor Rifle Corps.
“If they really had the strength to do so,” said Speidel, “then they would have advanced towards Poltava.”
“Not while Steiner was at Kharkov,” said Manstein. “Kuznetsov could not push on with a force that strong on his right shoulder. This is why he tried to envelop the city from the south, but he could not even do that while Steiner was heavily concentrated. The risk of a counterattack, just as we tried on the 1st, was simply too great. So he had no choice but to turn for the city early, and see if he could win the battle against Steiner.”
“Well, we stopped him,” said Speidel. “A pity Kirchner could not make any progress against the southern shoulder.”
“The arrival of their 27th Army doomed that attack,” said Manstein.
“Yes,” said Speidel. “What is strange here is that they sent their Guards infantry divisions out into the center of the breakthrough. They are strong, but slow moving, and that is not the kind of force I would have expected to see there.”
“I think it was happenstance,” said Manstein. “When the Wiking Division appeared there, it challenged the advance they were making with their 10th Mech Corps. I think they got a bit edgy. The Wiking Division came up very quickly by rail from the Dnieper, and they were not certain what else we had in the cupboard. Their Guardsmen were clearing the Luftwaffe out of the Zimyev area, and they were the closest reserve to call in when the Wiking Division made their spoiling attack. So yes, now that Guards infantry force is holding the center of their breakthrough, and Kuznetsov has not moved all his mobile forces there.”