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

By early November, Hoth’s PzAOK 4 had established a perimeter around the Lyutezh bridgehead with four badly-depleted infantry divisions (68, 82, 208, 327) from the XIII Armeekorps and the 88.Infanterie-Division from VII Armeekorps.¹⁹³ Nearby, in reserve, Hoth had positioned Oberst Gottfried Frölich’s 8.Panzer-Division, which was a sad indication of what poor condition the Heer’s once-mighty Panzer-Divisionen had been reduced to by three years of near-continuous combat. Although Frölich’s division had a paper-strength of 13,665 troops on 1 November, he only had a total of 610 infantrymen in his four Panzergrenadier-Bataillonen and the pioniers, reconnaissance troops and Panzerjägers added another 545 troops. His sole tank battalion, I./Pz.Rgt.10, had 14 tanks, including seven Pz IV with long 7.5cm. The 8.Panzer-Division’s Panzerjägers were equipped with seven 7.5cm Pak, two 5cm Pak 38 and five 3.7cm Pak 36, while divisional artillery support consisted of three self-propelled Wespe (10.5cm), two 10cm cannons, two 15cm howitzers and nine 10.5cm howitzers. On the plus side, Frölich still had 64 SPWs and 828 trucks, so his remaining troops were fairly mobile. Frölich deployed Kampfgruppe Neise (all the Panzergrenadiers) and Kampfgruppe von Mitzlaff (I./Pz.Rgt.10, reconnaissance and one artillery battalion) as tactical reserves for the XIII Armeekorps.¹⁹⁴

At 0800 hours on 3 November, General-leytenant Kirill S. Moskalenko’s 38th Army began a massive 40-minute artillery preparation against the German infantry positions around the southern side of the Lyutezh bridgehead. Vatutin had also moved the 7th Artillery Corps within range of the bridgehead, as well as numerous Katyusha rocket batteries. The German front-line infantry in this sector were not expecting a major enemy assault and had not built deep fieldworks in the marshy ground near Lyutezh; consequently, the Soviet artillery bombardment wreaked havoc. At 0840 hours, six Soviet rifle divisions surged forward, supported by tanks from the 5 GTC. Sappers proceeded in front to remove enemy mines. Although dazed, the German infantry put up a tough fight and limited the initial Soviet push to a 3km advance.¹⁹⁵ Frölich’s 8.Panzer-Division was slow to react and then managed only a few local counter-attacks. As the 38th Army committed its second-echelon forces, including additional armour, the German 68. and 82.Infanterie-Divisionen began to collapse, yielding another 4km. In an unusual move, Rybalko’s 3 GTA (6 GTC, 7 GTC, 9 MC) entered the battle at dusk and continued to advance forward during the night. On the second day of the offensive, drizzling rain deprived both sides of air support but also helped to conceal the fact that the Red Army had committed three tank and one mechanized corps to the breakout operation. Pounded relentlessly, the German XIII Armeekorps collapsed and the Soviet 51st Rifle Corps reached the outskirts of Kiev by the evening of 4 November. While 5 GTC followed Moskalenko’s 38th Army into the city, Rybalko’s 3 GTA swung to the southeast to cut the enemy road and rail links into the city. In order to conduct continuous operations, Rybalko ordered his tanks to drive through the night with headlights on, which enabled 7 GTC to cut the main road into Kiev before 8. Panzer-Division could block them.

By 5 November the 88.Infanterie-Division was virtually obliterated and the 8.Panzer-Division had been shoved rudely aside by Rybalko’s armoured mass. Hoth quickly realized that defending Kiev was now a hopeless task and focused instead upon saving the rail station at Fastov, where the 25.Panzer-Division was just arriving. He deployed the 7.Panzer-Division to block the 6 GTC, but it arrived too late and the Soviet tankers occupied the station. During the early morning hours of 6 November, a motorized infantry company fought its way to the centre of Kiev and raised the Red flag. Once the Germans realized that Soviet units were in the centre of the city they brusquely retreated to the south. Vatutin’s use of Rybalko’s 3 GTA to liberate Kiev demonstrated a vast advance in the Red Army’s practice of mechanized warfare and von Manstein was left chagrined at his failure to anticipate enemy actions. The fall of Kiev was the culmination of the Soviet Lower Dnepr offensive, which had seen Hitler’s plan to transform the Dnepr River into an impregnable bulwark completely frustrated. In the process, Heeresgruppe Süd had suffered crippling losses, amounting to about 170,000 personnel (including over 48,000 dead or missing) and over 500 tanks. Furthermore, only 44 per cent of German tanks on the Eastern Front – about 600 vehicles – were still operational.¹⁹⁶ Nevertheless, this Soviet operational triumph did not come cheap, costing the Red Army at least 450,000 casualties and 1,800 tanks.

German counter-attacks near Kiev, 7 November-24 December 1943