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

It is also important to note that while Heersgruppe Süd was engaged in a protracted armoured battle of attrition around Kharkov, Hitler had decided to send four Panzer-Divisionen (16, 24, 26 and Hermann Göring) and five Panzergrenadier-Divisionen (LSSAH, 3, 15, 29, 90), which had a combined total of 572 tanks and 184 assault guns, to Italy to oppose the Anglo-American landings.¹⁶⁴ If Hitler had sent most of these forces to von Manstein and opted to abandon southern Italy to the Allies, Heeresgruppe Süd probably could have fought Rumyantsev to a standstill.

Rumyantsev contained a series of punishing, indecisive tank battles because both sides’ armoured forces were approaching relative equality in terms of efficiency. The Germans often still enjoyed a small tactical edge, but this was being undermined by excessive losses of junior leaders. The tank battles around Bogodukhov were among the last occasions on which three Waffen-SS divisions attacked together, and although they inflicted great damage and showed a ruthless tenacity, they failed to accomplish their mission of destroying either 1 TA or 5 GTA. This time, there was no ‘backhand blow’. The Red Army had demonstrated the ability to smash a German fortified line and exploit to 50– 60km depth within a matter of days, which caught von Manstein completely by surprise. However, the failure to reinforce this success with more resources, and the tendency to try and reduce every German Stützpunkt rather than bypassing them, led to the main effort loosing too much combat power, too fast. In terms of C², Rotmistrov’s handling of 5 GTA was clumsy and, coming on the heels of his humiliation at Prokhorovka, his days as a front-line leader were numbered. Katukov’s forces had been tactically defeated, but demonstrated great pluck in staying in the fight. Even when units were isolated, they did not just dissolve into the woods as they had in the past.

Operation Suvorov : the Smolensk Offensive, 7 August–2 October 1943

In addition to Kutusov and Rumyantsev, the Stavka had also been planning to mount a major summer offensive toward Smolensk once Operation Zitadelle was defeated. General Vasily D. Sokolovsky’s Western Front had already contributed its 11th Guards Army and a good portion of its armour to Operation Kutusov in mid-July, but the Stavka wanted to use the rest of this front’s resources against the centre of Heeresgruppe Mitte’s line. General-Polkovnik Andrei I. Eremenko’s Kalinin Front would also make forces available for a push toward Smolensk. Stalin took great interest in the planning of the Smolensk offensive and it was named Operation Suvorov after one of Russia’s greatest generals to indicate the importance of the task. Since Zhukov and Vasilevsky were supporting Kutusov and Rumyantsev, Marshal of Artillery Nikolai N. Voronov was sent as Stavka representative to coordinate Suvorov.

With his two tank corps committed to Operation Kutusov, Sokolovsky’s only remaining large mechanized formation was General-leytenant Mikhail V. Volkhov’s 5th Mechanized Corps (5 MC), but he also had five tank brigades and four tank regiments that could be allocated for Suvorov. Since many of these units were well under-strength from previous combat, Sokolovsky received 298 new tanks in July to replenish his armoured units. Eremenko contributed a heavily-reinforced 39th Army with three tank units to Suvorov, so he received only 70 tank replacements. Altogether, the Western Front committed about 1,280 tanks and 45 self-propelled guns to the offensive and Kalinin Front committed 110 tanks. Both fronts were still using considerable numbers of Lend-Lease tanks (Matildas and Valentines) as well as older tanks like the T-60. In order to clear enemy obstacles, the Western Front received four sapper brigades and two more went to the Kalinin Front. The only serious deficiency in the preparation for Suvorov was in logistics; although 3–5 basic loads of tank and artillery ammunition had been stockpiled, the amount of fuel available was only 1.3 loads, which was grossly inadequate for a breakthrough operation.¹⁶⁵ Given that the Western Front quartermasters had been primarily supporting positional warfare for the past 18 months, they do not appear to have been ready to shift to supporting mobile operations.