Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt

After knocking out a troublesome KV-1 and some T-26 light tanks in Uzlovaya, Panzer-Regiment 35 occupied Stalinogorsk late on 22 November. Guderian had only intended that this town be occupied to screen his right flank while he enveloped Tula, but the Soviets had other ideas. They mounted a major counterattack from the east on 26 November that retook the town, forcing von Schweppenburg to divert Schneider-Kostalski’s III/Pz.Regt 6 to restore the situation, but for once the ensuing tank battle went very badly for the Germans. Schneider-Kostalski was wounded and the 1.Kompanie was virtually destroyed after losing its commander and eight tanks (five Pz.III, three Pz.IV). The Red Army was learning.

The 17.Panzer-Division pushed on to the town of Venev. Unteroffizier Erich Hager, a Pz.IV driver in the 6./Pz.Regt 39, recorded his experience of the actions near Venev in his diary:

Now the fun starts… 52-tonner [KV-1] on fire. Great to watch. A bit further on another 2 down. We attack 13 tanks. One tank destroyed. LKWs [trucks] on fire. Lots of Russian infantry destroyed. Run over by the tanks. Then the best bit. We attack two 52-tonners [KV-1] and start a real hare hunt. He couldn’t turn his turret after the first direct hit and took off. We were after him with force, 20 meters behind him. Half an hour the hunt went on for until he lost a track and fell into a ditch. We fired 30 shots into him. Nothing got through. That day our vehicle fired 110 rounds… Have no more rounds.¹³²

Although Hager’s kampfgruppe destroyed a large number of Soviet tanks south of Venev, Soviet 85mm anti-aircraft guns knocked out several German panzers approaching the town on 24 November. There was heavy tank versus tank fighting in the town itself, with at least three KV-1 and one T-34 knocked out against two German tanks. After seizing the town, the 17.Panzer-Division pushed toward Kashira, but Panzer-Regiment 39 was down to only thirteen operational tanks and had reached the end of its combat effectiveness. Probably due to a combination of the cold and wear and tear, Hager’s Pz.IV broke a torsion bar, which caused further damage to the suspension; however, due to the desperate situation, Hager’s tank operated in ‘degraded mode’ for another week. Even more disconcerting, the 17.Panzer-Division discovered that the lead elements of Polkovnik Andrei L. Getman’s 112th Tank Division, with about 200 T-26 light tanks, were arriving at Kashira from the Far East.

Boldin’s defense was temporaily disrupted by Guderian’s attack and the 4.Panzer-Division and Infanterie-Regiment Grossdeutschland managed to get behind Tula and briefly severed road and rail links to the city on 2 December. However, the offensive had over-extended Guderian’s depleted forces and he was now unable to hold the terrain that had been captured. Furthermore, von Kluge’s 4.Armee failed to press their part of the attack with vigor, so Guderian could not completely encircle Tula. Very few tanks were still operational by the end of November and the infantry was increasingly useless due to to the freezing temperatures. Yet it was not until 3 December that Guderian finally admitted that he could not take Tula and ordered his forces to shift to the defense. It was too late.