Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945: Red Steamroller

On 11 August, Katukov fought his way across the Merchyk River despite desperate efforts by Totenkopf’s Panzergrenadiers to stop him. Then he sent the lead elements of 6 TC and 3 MC south to Kovyagi, which was a station on the Polatva-Kharkov rail line. Getman’s tankers, with some attached sapper squads, succeeded in blowing up several sections of rail track.¹⁵⁷ Priess committed Edwin Meiderdress’ I.SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 to counter-attack Polkovnik Vladimir M. Gorelov’s 1st Guards Tank Brigade, which had just stormed its way into Kovyagi. The result was another vicious meeting engagement and this one went very badly for Totenkopf; one company commander was killed in his tank and two others were badly wounded.¹⁵⁸ However, Meiderdress had better luck against the 22nd Tank Brigade, which only had seven tanks left and its commander, Major Aleksei A. Laptev, was killed in action.¹⁵⁹ Altogether, Totenkopf knocked out 18 Soviet tanks in its counter-attack. However, Polkovnik Aleksandr F. Burda’s 49th Tank Brigade and the 17th Tank Regiment succeeded in slipping past Totenkopf’s reconnaissance battalion’s screen and some tanks headed west along the rail line to Vysokopol’ye. Burda was one of the most experienced tankers in the Red Army and not afraid to plunge deep into the enemy’s rear areas. Yet Totenkopf’s advance had isolated Burda’s brigade and other forward elements of Katukov’s 1 TA.

Breith’s III. Panzerkorps had significantly slowed the advance of 1 TA and 5 GTA between 7–11 August, but it had not stopped them and Hoth was desperate to stabilize the front. He had been trading space for time while trying to bring up more reinforcements, but time was running out. Hoth wanted to launch a coordinated pincer attack by III. Panzerkorps and XXXXVIII Panzerkorps, but the later would not be ready for days, so he decided to launch it only with Breith’s forces. The one bright spot for Hoth was the arrival of SS-Brigadeführer Herbert Otto Gille’s Wiking, which would give Breith three Waffen-SS divisions.

Rotmistrov’s 5 GTA actually kicked off 12 August by continuing its attack in the Zolochev-Olshany sector, which made it difficult for Wiking to deploy. Hoth began his counter-attack that morning, even though his divisions were not fully deployed. Altogether, Hoth had 130 tanks and 23 assault guns at his disposal: Totenkopf (36 tanks, including 3 Tigers), Das Reich (48 tanks, including 3 Tigers), Wiking (33 tanks) and s.Pz.Abt.503 with 13 Tigers. Katukov’s 1 TA had 268 tanks still operational and 5 GTA had 115, giving Vatutin’s forces a 2.4–1 local numerical superiority in armour.¹⁶⁰ Totenkopf began the attack by rolling up Katukov’s units south of the Merchyk River and recapturing Vysokopol’ye, but this proved costly. The six Tigers in the lead bumped into a very strong anti-tank defence that knocked out one Tiger (possibly by an 85mm round from an AA gun) and damaged four more. Seven tankers in Totenkopf’s Tiger company were killed in the action.¹⁶¹ A number of Soviet tanks, probably out of fuel, were knocked out or abandoned, but many of the tankers retreated to the river. When Katukov tried to rush reinforcements forward in the afternoon he was shocked to find that Totenkopf had already reached the river and blocked his crossing sites. Das Reich contributed to Katukov’s problems by attacking Krivoshein’s 3 MC near Gavrishi around 0930 hours, which threatened to split the boundary between 1 TA and 5 GTA. Rotmistrov sent a brigade from the 29 TC to stop this German armoured drive, resulting in a large tank battle. Honours were about even and Das Reich had over 20 tanks disabled, although 29 TC was badly hurt, as well. Hoth was able to get some Luftwaffe close air support to assist his counter-attack, but Vatutin managed to push two rifle divisions from 6 GA forward to stiffen Rotmistrov’s vulnerable right flank.