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

Ginzburg was removed from his position and sent to the front as deputy commander of the 32nd Tank Brigade, where he was killed in action two months later. Salzmann was forced to resign, but was reassigned as a director at Chelyabinsk. Malyshev was brought back to head the NKTP, which he remained in charge of until the end of the war. First, he resolved the problems with the SU-76, which was reissued as the SU-76M. Although still a problematic design, Malyshev ensured that it was built in great quantities and that its main faults were corrected. Next, he began lobbying Stalin and the NKO to approve an up-gunned version of the T-34 as well as a new heavy tank. The whole experience of the SU-76 program ably demonstrates the level of stress and micro-management that Soviet tank industry operated under; engineers and program managers who made mistakes would not remain in their positions. Stalin’s bullying tactics were cruel but effective in getting the desired results within the Soviet industrial system.

Chapter 2 Armoured Operations in 1943

Retreat from the Caucasus, 1 January–2 February 1943

Operation Edelweiss, the German attempt to seize the Caucasus oil fields with Heeresgruppe A, culminated in October 1942 after having only seized the sabotaged oilfields around Maikop. When Generalfeldmarschall Ewald von Kleist’s 1. Panzerarmee (PzAOK 1) entered the Caucasus in July 1942, it had over 600 tanks and assault guns and it was initially able to route the ill-equipped Soviet North Caucasus Front. However, the Soviets managed to hastily improvise a strong defensive line along the Terek River with the 9th Army, which brought von Kleist’s pursuit to a halt. Although von Kleist succeeded in conducting an assault crossing of the Terek on 2 September, Soviet reinforcements and German fuel shortages brought his panzers to a halt 85km short of the Grozny oil fields. In early November, von Kleist made one last desperate effort to achieve a breakthrough, but the 13.Panzer-Division was encircled and nearly destroyed near Ordzhonikidze.¹ Thereafter, the 1.Panzerarmee settled into a positional defence along a nearly 200km-wide front, with the III Panzerkorps in the west, three infantry divisions of the LII Armeekorps in the centre and the XXXX Panzerkorps in the east. The Kalmyk Steppe between Heeresgruppe A’s flank in the Caucasus and Heeresgruppe B’s flank along the Don was screened by small detachments. Von Kleist moved up to take command of Heeresgruppe A and General der Kavallerie Eberhard von Mackensen took over PzAOK 1.

General-leytenant Ivan A. Maslennikov, an NKVD officer, commanded the Northern Group of the North Caucasus Front, which consisted of the 9th, 37th and 44th Armies. As soon as Maslennikov realized that von Kleist had shifted to the defensive, he began probing actions to find weak spots in the German line and the most dangerous area for the Germans was the area north of the Terek River held by General der Panzertruppen Sigfrid Henrici’s XXXX Panzerkorps. Here, Generalmajor Franz Westhoven’s 3.Panzer-Division held an extended 30km-wide front from Stoderevskaya on the Terek River to Aga Batyr on the Kalmyk Steppe.² On Westhoven’s left flank, Korps z.b.V. Felmy, an improvised brigade-size formation led by Luftwaffe General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy screened PzAOK 1’s open northern flank. By doctrine, Panzer-Divisionen were offensive formations and unsuited for protracted defence, but von Kleist had no alternative and the situation grew even worse after the Soviet offensive at Stalingrad threatened Heeresgruppe B. On 21 November 1942 the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) ordered von Kleist to transfer his strongest formation, the 23.Panzer-Division, to Heeresgruppe Don in order to participate in Operation Wintergewitter, the attempt to relieve the trapped 6.Armee at Stalingrad.³ In mid-December, the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking was also transferred to Heeresgruppe Don, leaving PzAOK 1 badly outnumbered by Maslennikov’s northern group.

Disposition of German Panzer-Division and Soviet Tank/Mechanized Corps on 1 January 1943. Most of the major armoured formations are deployed on the Rostov–Stalingrad axis and around the Rzhev salient.