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

Hitler had grudgingly authorized the creation of the Panther Stellung (line) on 11 August, directing it to be a line of fortifications running behind the Dnepr and extending all the way up to the Baltic, intended as a bulwark against further Red Army advances westward. However, the Panther Stellung was primarily a propaganda soundbite at this point and in the Heeresgruppe Mitte sector engineers were only just beginning to lay out defences west of Smolensk, centred on the cities of Mogilev, Orsha and Vitebsk. Von Kluge needed to buy time for the engineers to actually begin work on the Panther Stellung, so he took measures to reinforce Heinrici’s AOK 4. He ordered Model to transfer the s.Pz.Abt.505 from his AOK 9 to reinforce AOK 4 as soon as possible, although the battalion did not actually arrive until 17 September. However, before the Tigers could reach the front, Sokolovsky resumed the offensive. Having penetrated the outer defences of AOK 4, the Stavka now wanted Sokolovsky to push on to the main objectives – Smolensk and Roslavl. On 14 September, the Kalinin Front attacked first, followed by the Western Front on 15 September. This time, the Soviet shock groups made much better progress and it was clear that AOK 4 was no longer able to repulse large-scale Soviet attacks. Yartsevo was captured on 15 September, followed by Dukhovshchina on 17 September. On the same day, the Bryansk Front recaptured Bryansk from Model’s AOK 9. By 19 September, Heeresgruppe Mitte’s centre had been pierced and AOK 4 was in retreat. Von Kluge ordered Heinrici to fall back to the Panther Stellung, even though construction had just begun. On 25 September, the Western Front’s 5th Army fought its way into Smolensk and later in the day Roslavl was also liberated. It was only the fact that the Western Front’s forces were severely depleted and that there was no large mobile exploitation force available that prevented Suvorov from leading to the collapse of Heeresgruppe Mitte in 1943. Instead, von Kluge’s forces were able to withdraw to the putative Panther Stellung and established a new defensive line around Vitebsk, Orsha and Mogilev, which were heavily fortified during the winter of 1943/44.

Operation Suvorov accomplished its primary objectives of liberating Smolensk and pushing Heeresgruppe Mitte back over 150km. Sokolovsky’s Western Front used armour primarily in an infantry support role and had only two large armoured units available for exploitation. Nevertheless, the Red Army had lost 863 tanks during Operation Suvorov, about 63 per cent of the total engaged.¹⁷¹ Although Soviet progress through the Heeresgruppe Mitte defensive belts was slow and costly, it did teach them a number of valuable lessons that would improve tank-infantry-artillery coordination for the 1944 campaigns. On the German side, von Kluge and Heinrici only had limited amounts of armour available and they used it in small but powerful local counter-attacks to restore the AOK 4’s deteriorating HKL. The problem was that there were fewer and fewer infantry to man the HKL, even if it could be restored.

Advance to the Dnepr, 24 August–6 November 1943

After the fall of Kharkov, any thoughts that the front might stabilize again vanished as the Soviets began a series of multi-front attacks against Heeresgruppe Süd from the Sea of Azov up to the Sumy sector. For two weeks, von Manstein tried to hold with his much-depleted forces but he was astonished by the Red Army’s ability to quickly replenish its own combat units and resume the offensive, almost without let up. Mladshiy Leytenant Yuri M. Polyanovski, a tank platoon leader in the 24th Guards Tank Brigade of 5 GMC, was one of the Soviet junior tank officers at the tip of this spear. Polyanovski had already survived having his first T-34 knocked out by enemy fire at Kharkov and was provided with a replacement tank a few days after the city’s liberation. Once outfitted with new tanks and crews, the 24 GTB moved out southward: