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

Despite rain, General der Panzertruppen Rudolf Veiel advanced 30km on 29 June and the 24.Panzer-Division managed to overrun the command post of the 40th Army, causing a further degradation of Soviet C². Meanwhile, Katukov’s 1st Tank Corps approached the left flank of the XXIV Panzerkorps from Livny as Pavelkin’s 16th Tank Corps moved to strike it from the east. General der Panzer-truppen Hermann Balck’s 11.Panzer-Division, on the corps’ left flank, was about to be squeezed between two on-rushing Soviet tank corps. However, the clash of armour – which began prematurely late on 29 June – was a disaster for the Red Army, in spite of a favorable tactical situation and a 2–1 numerical advantage. Balck’s division had 110 of the improved Pz.IIIJ and 12 Pz.IVF2 tanks and had attached 8.8cm flak guns to Oberstleutnant Max Roth’s Panzer-Regiment 15. Pavelkin committed only two of his three tank brigades and was roughly handled, losing about eighty tanks in two days, including most of his KV-1s. Since the two Soviet tank corps were not coordinated, Balck was able to deal first with Pavelkin, then with Katukov.

Although Katukov would not admit it in his memoirs, his corps conducted a meeting engagement and apparently ran straight into a well-planned anti-armour ambush.³⁹ The terrain around Volovo was open agricultural land, providing Balck’s troops with excellent observation and fields of fire. Katukov’s corps advanced with Major Aleksandr F. Burda’s battalion in the lead – these were some of the most experienced and skilled tankers in the Red Army of mid-1942. Suddenly, Burda’s battalion came under intense tank and anti-tank fire – they were surprised that the new Pz.IVF2 tanks could successfully engage T-34s at ranges out to 1,000–1,200 meters. Hidden in the tall grass, the Pz.IIIJs and Pz.IVF2s methodically slaughtered Burda’s tanks, while the T-34s had difficulty identifying the German tankers. The Soviet tankers were not expecting or prepared for a long-range gunnery duel. One of the casualties was Ivan T. Lyubushkin, awarded an HSU for knocking out five German tanks during the Battle of Mtensk, but now just another victim in a burning T-34. After extracting his survivors, Katukov turned his corps around and broke off the counterattack.

Golikov tried to make a stand at Kastornoye behind the Olym River, 70km west of Voronezh, by committing General-major Ivan P. Korchagin’s 17th Tank Corps and the 115th and 116th Tank Brigades, which briefly halted the XXIV Panzerkorps. Elements of the 4th and 16th Tanks Corps were also nearby. General-leytenant Yakov N. Fedorenko, commander of all the Red Army’s tank forces, arrived at Voronezh as Stavka representative to coordinate the armoured counterstroke. From Moscow, Stalin exhorted Golikov to smash the German penetration, noting that he had 1,000 tanks between Hoth and Voronezh, against fewer than 500 German tanks. However, the new Soviet tank corps commanders and their staffs proved unable to effectively control their own forces or coordinate with their neighbors. Korchagin’s staff failed to provide enough fuel for the movement to Kastornoye, resulting in impaired tactical mobility. Rather than attack straight into a mass of Soviet armour – which was spotted by the Luftwaffe – Hoth used maneuver tactics by sending the 11.Panzer-Division to bypass Kastornoye to the north and 9.Panzer-Division to the south. Korchagin was befuddled by the German maneuvering and failed to react, allowing his corps to be defeated piece-meal; the 17th Tank Corps lost 141 tanks in a few days and fell back in disorder. Panzer-Abteilung Grossdeutschland had its baptism of fire, with its Pz.IVF2 tanks knocking out sixteen T-34s in the tank skirmishes around Kastornoye.⁴⁰ Petr I. Kirichenko, a radio operator in a T-34 in the 116th Tank Brigade was in one of the tanks that was ‘brewed up’:

A shell hit the turret, and the tank filled with smoke. One of the commander’s arms was torn off and his side was shredded. He screamed with pain. It was terrible. We tried to bandage the wound, but we were unable to help him. He’d lost too much blood, and died inside the tank.⁴¹

Tank battles west of Voronezh, 28 June–6 July 1942; Hoth’s 4.Panzerarmee versus multiple Soviet tank corps.

Likewise, General-major Vasily A. Mishulin’s 4th Tank Corps attempted to block the path of the XXXXVIII Panzerkorps near Goreshechnoe, but was repulsed by 24.Panzer-Division. Golikov’s armoured counterstroke was a disaster, which inflicted only twenty-four hours delay on Hoth’s 4.Panzerarmee, but resulted in four tank corps being mauled.