Morozovsk was cleared of enemy infestation by the tired 3rd SS Division. 1st SS relieved the Wikings to fill the hole in the north, and the supply corridor would reopen by August 3rd. Manstein considered the affair nothing more than a spoiling attack, as massive as it was. His troops had even counterattacked to retake Kursk and change the headlines there once again, and all this news reaching Hitler restored his hopes and calmed his mood considerably. Manstein had done what he said he would do, and the outcome only increased the Führer’s confidence in his strategy, much to Halder’s displeasure. What might have happened if Manstein had not wrangled away the 14th Panzer Korps as he did, was not discussed, nor was there any mention of the fact that now there was no mobile reserve anywhere else on the front.
In the meantime, Ivan Volkov was elated that his troops had finally made contact with the Germans at Tormosin. He ordered his bridging engineers to improve that crossing, expecting visitors soon, though none came. Then, knowing the Germans were in a fight to cross the Don at the Kalach Bridgehead, he gathered the disparate elements of two Army Korps and committed them in a drive north along the south bank of the Don towards Nizhny Chirskaya, a small town about 45 kilometers south of Kalach in a very marshy region of the Don bend. That was where the rail line from Morozovsk crossed the river before running up to Volgograd.
A regiment of the Brandenburgers had taken that bridge, and now his troops cleared the southern and eastern banks of the Don to enable German bridging engineers to get to work on repairing the span. So the Germans had two bridges over the Don, and it was now only a matter of resting their shock troops, resupplying, cleaning up Zhukov’s mess, and bringing up the rest of Wietersheim’s 14th Panzer Korps. The 13th Panzer Division arrived on August 6th, moving up to finally seal off the massive breach those Shock Armies had torn in the German line. Balck moved his division, and other elements of the 48th Panzer Korps into reserve, and went off to look for von Knobelsdorff.
Back at OKW, Halder was determined to get his hands on fresh troops for Armeegruppe Center. The collapse of the Kirov Pocket provided a massive pool of infantry that had been tied up there for over six months. He immediately began sorting through the available divisions, and sending them east towards the big operation by Model and Hoth. They had been the missing element there, as Manstein had correctly pointed out. There had been nothing to hold the shoulders of the German breakthrough, and so as it advanced, the Panzer Divisions had been roped into that duty, stopping their advance. It was only the commitment of Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Armee that allowed the drive to get as far as it did. Now the job was to get infantry east, move them into the shoulders of the breakthrough, free up those Panzers and get moving again.
Both the 6th, 8th and 9th Infantry Korps would be sent, slowly arriving by rail and feeding into the line to relieve positions held by 2nd Panzer Armee. Hoth was already consolidating his divisions and front loading the tip of the spear, the most advanced positions attained after the initial breakthrough. If seen on a map, the German penetration was like a vast arm, reaching for Lipetsk, but there was no southern pincer moving on Voronezh. Halder had to settle for half an offensive, counting on the sheer mass and mobility of his Panzers. As long as he got up additional infantry support, he was ready to strike southeast yet again. It was going to produce another dramatic blow to the front.
With the infantry relieving 2nd Panzer Armee, Model shifted the bulk of his divisions south, right at the junction of the Soviet 49th Army and the 1st Red Banner that had been sent up to form the southern shoulder of the initial penetration. Five Rifle Divisions were smashed, the headquarters of the 49th Army overrun, artillery positions decimated and the Germans were suddenly through, and pushing for Livny. At the same time, Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Armee broke through at the Schwerpunkt of the drive where he had been forced to stop weeks earlier, and his divisions came barreling into Yelets. By the 13th of August he had advanced elements 25 kilometers beyond the city. Halder finally had something to crow about at OKW.
From the Russian Perspective This was yet another disaster, but one which Zhukov had anticipated. Where were all the Tank Armies? There was only one formed officially, composed of 22nd, 23rd and 24th Tank Corps. All the other Tank Corps were operating independently, but these three combined as one under General Kusnetsov. They had been positioned behind Lipetsk, the apparent objective of Hoth’s drive weeks ago. And now, with the Germans on the move again, they crossed the upper Don River there and moved northwest of the city, preparing to strike at the German flank should the enemy attempt to take the city itself. Only one Motor Rifle Regiment of the as yet unformed 21st Tank Corps was posted in the city.
In the meantime, the last surviving units of 17th Siberian, and all of Yeremenko’s 1st Red Banner Army, were being swarmed over by Model’s 2nd Panzer Armee. Any unit that was not pinned down in combat began a massed stampede south away from the onrushing tide of German steel. The axis of this new German breakthrough was going to take it behind Berzarin’s 27th Army, and the 40th Army under Podlas defending near Kursk. Behind the great bulge in the line created by those two armies, about 100 miles east northeast of Kursk at a small town on the rail line, sat Zhukov’s Central Front Reserve, the 11th Army under Morozov. It was a small force composed of four Rifle Divisions, an independent Rifle Brigade, a security regiment and supporting artillery. The first desperate refugees from the front were already straggling down from the north, and the 1st Heavy Artillery Division was in full retreat.
It was a tense hour when Zhukov got the news. He had to decide quickly whether to commit his reserves to try and blunt this attack, or to attempt to extricate the 27th and 40th armies. His instinct warned him of the terrible danger he was facing. He could lose both armies, or see them trapped in a pocket, while the Germans pushed down towards Voronezh, and Morozov’s infantry was all he could put in their way. If Voronezh fell, then the whole line from Kursk to Boguchar on the middle Don was essentially cut off. It was either block the breakthrough in the north and hope the front could hold, or attempt to withdraw all six armies between the breakthrough zone and Boguchar, and fall back to the line of the Don running through Voronezh. Without consulting Sergei Kirov, he ordered the retreat.
At least I’ll save something from this wreck, he thought. If I can get the bulk of the rifle divisions back to the Don, and hold in front of Voronezh, then we’ve got that city as a good supply center, and we can stop them from using this offensive to unhinge my entire front on the lower Don. 2nd Guards Army was trying to get to Valuki during my offensive. Of course it could not get there, but now it remains intact, reasonably well equipped, and still mobile. I will relieve it with the 11th Rifle Corps, and get it back to the nearest rail line. It can hold Voronezh for me. It must hold that city. This is all or nothing. If I don’t stop them and stabilize the front by September, then God only knows what might happen. I have nothing else in reserve—nothing!
A day after he ordered that retreat, in walked a heavy set man, balding, round faced, and with a prominent mole near his nose under his left eye. He claimed that he had been sent directly to Zhukov’s HQ at Voronezh to determine what was happening and report to Sergei Kirov.
“And you are?” asked Zhukov curtly.
“Commissar Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev.”
“Ah,” said Zhukov. “Then you are here to check up on me as well, eh Commissar?”
“You might see things that way. We are abandoning Kursk, and losing a good deal of terrain with those orders you issued yesterday. Care to explain yourself, or should I simply tour the front and come to my own conclusions before I return to Leningrad with my report?”