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

While the Stavka and Front commanders were trying to determine what to do in the wake of Vatutin’s defeat, von Manstein was quickly redeploying his forces against Kharkov before any new Soviet units could arrive. Golikov’s decision to shift to the defence allowed Raus to pull the Großdeutschland out of the line to rest for a few days and, fortuitously, the II./Pz. Regt. Großdeutschland arrived from Germany at Poltava on 17–26 February with a welcome infusion of armour (95 tanks including nine Tigers, 10 Pz III, 42 Pz IV, 28 Flammpanzer IIIs and six command tanks). Oberst Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, recovered from his wounds at Stalingrad, was given command of the new Panzer-Regiment Großdeutschland.

Rybalko’s two tank corps headed due south on 1 March, straight at the SS-Panzerkorps, and bumped into their vanguards east of Krasnograd. In a rather inelegant action dubbed the ‘Kegichevka Kessel’, both the 12th and 15th Tank Corps were quickly surrounded by LSSAH and Das Reich and were destroyed as fighting units by 3 March. Parts of four Soviet rifle divisions were also destroyed. However, Zinkovich led a successful breakout with part of his 12th Corps, but Koptsov was killed. A good portion of Rybalko’s men escaped northward, where they were reorganized and provided 24 repaired tanks, just enough to reconstitute a single brigade.

With Rybalko’s 3TA effectively out of the fight, von Manstein now prepared to begin the second phase of his grand counter-offensive. All three divisions of the SS-Panzerkorps were assembled southwest of Merefa and for the first time they would be committed to battle together. The LSSAH was the strongest formation, with 74 operational tanks and 16 StuG IIIs, while Totenkopf had 64 operational tanks and 16 StuG IIIs. However, the Das Reich was battle-weary and had only eight Pz IIIs still operational. Altogether, Hausser’s SS-Panzerkorps would advance upon Kharkov with fewer than 200 tanks and assault guns left. Hoth also brought in the XXXXVIII Panzerkorps and Großdeutschland to support the offensive; this was a vital lesson learned from Operation Wintergewitter, that a minimum of two Panzerkorps were needed to maintain operational momentum.

On 5 March, the LSSAH led the advance toward Kharkov, while Armee-Abteilung Kempf mounted fixing attacks against the 69th Army to prevent it from transferring troops to the threatened sector. Four Tigers from LSSAH were assigned to lead their division’s attack in the direction of Valky, on the Mzha River, and fulfill the tank’s intended breakthrough role. On the morning of 6 March, Sturmbannführer Max Wünsche’s II./SS-Pz. Regt. 1 conducted an attack with two of his Panzer-Kompanien, supported by two Tigers and troops from Sturmbannführer Kurt Meyer’s SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung LSSAH, against the village of Sneschkov Kut (Snizhiv) 10km south of Valky. The battalion adjutant described the movement to contact: