That morning on the 15th of April would bring a major complication to everything Knobelsdorff was planning. Model had been chafing to wriggle his way out of the necessity of holding Oboyan. It was another fortified town, like Prokhorovka, that was the north end of a big salient, but thus far, OKW was silent on his request to redeploy and shorten his lines by eliminating that bulge.
The Soviet 5th Tank Army had been dueling with 22nd Panzer for the last two days north of Belgorod, but on the night of the 15th, it seemed to simply evaporate. German troops on the line reported no activity, and experienced NCOs and officers soon realized that the Soviet armored units had simply withdrawn. But that force had to go somewhere, and that somewhere was Tomarovka, 25 kilometers to the east. The Russians had pulled out of their fight with the 22nd Panzer, and they made a night march due east to push for Tomarovka the following morning.
Model had moved his headquarters down the road to Borisovka, and when he got the news he hardly had the time to digest it when the telephones were ringing again. It was a Lieutenant in the Pioneer Battalion of 102nd Infantry Division near Tomarovka reporting that a small column of Soviet Armored cars had been seen on the road to the town. He was 2 kilometers behind the front line….
A very strong attack had opened in the predawn hours, mostly infantry at first, but now tanks from the 29th Corps were being introduced, with waves of fresh infantry behind them. It was the 7th Guards Army, the old 64th Army now redesignated as a guards unit, with freshly rebuilt divisions. It had two Corps of three Guards Rifle Divisions each, three organic tank brigades, and a lot of artillery. Model knew the Guards were always used in the breakthrough role, and that they seldom came alone. There had to be something more behind this attack, and there was.
It was Mikhail Katukov.
The mail he was delivering that day was a good chunk of the 1st Tank Army, which he had discretely pulled out of the feint towards Millerovo after roughing up the German 17th Reserve Korps. He was one of the very few tank leaders the Soviets had who could have pulled off such a maneuver—to attack, withdraw, make a quick night march to waiting trains at Boguchov, which then took his Corps swiftly by rail to Stary Oskol and on down to the outskirts of Prokhorovka. But it had not come to reduce that pocket. Instead the troops detrained with lightning speed and began moving south to file in behind 7th Guards Army, a reserve unit that had been sent over from the Central Front. It would be remembered as “Katukov’s March” in the written history of these events, and it was going to be a big headache for the German 2nd and 4th Armies.
It was already bad enough that Model had the 305th Infantry surrounded at Prokhorovka. Now the sudden shift of 5th Tank Army to Tomarovka made perfect sense. This new attack was intending to break through there and extend the deep salient achieved by 5th Tank Army, and the enemy’s intentions were perfectly clear. It was also pushing for Kharkov, and if it got there, it would well behind the 2nd Army on the Psel.
Model again sent an urgent request directly to OKW asking for permission to abandon the Oboyan salient, but got no response. It was clear to him what was happening. Keitel, Zeitzler and the other generals were most likely huddled around the situation map haggling with the Führer. After permitting Manstein to pull back Paulus and his 6th Army, and allowing 4th Army to fall back and readjust its lines, Hitler was digging in his heels. It remained to be seen whether the Generals could persuade him that this salient was of no immediate military use, and instead had become a tremendous liability for the Army.
“Look at the 305th!” Hitler would fire back. “It stands like a rock at Prokhorovka—six days now. Do not tell me that Model’s troops cannot do the same.”
Chapter 26
Zeitzler shrugged, clearly frustrated, but he resolved to try again.
“My Führer,” he persisted. “It requires five divisions to hold that salient, but this line, across its base, could be held by three. That would free up two divisions that Model would put to very good use. This is only reasonable.”
“Do not presume to lecture me,” said Hitler. “My grasp of the situation is far superior to that of any man here. Who stopped the Russians in the Winter of 1941? I did, with an iron will and enough nerve to stand my ground when it looked like the situation was on the verge of collapse. I have read all of Clausewitz, and Moltke, just as you have, General Zeitzler. So I am well aware that we will free up units if we withdraw as you suggest, yet the price is Oboyan, and all the ground between the Pena River and that city. How long do you think we can give them such terrain without having to fight for it? My Generals have been very generous—oh so very generous. You all wanted to give them back Moscow last year, but I put a stop to that, and so that city remains under our thumb.”
Exasperation. Sideward glances. The Generals had been dealing with this for hours. Every time Zeitzler would bring the discussion to the point requiring a definitive decision, Hitler would launch into a diatribe like this, and then seize upon the next situation report to simply change the subject to some other area of the front.
Unfortunately, those reports kept coming in, one crisis after another, and Hitler move the topic of discussion to another point in the line. So Model would get no permission to withdraw that day. Events would have to conspire to force the matter, and that was what was now underway at Tomarovka.
The position was right on the seam between 4th and 2nd Armies. Hunten’s 39th Division was on the right, a part of 12th Korps in the 4th Army, its lines reaching for Tomarovka from a position north of Belgorod. On the left was Friesner’s 102nd Division, now attached to 5th Korps in the 2nd Army, and its line was near vertical, reaching north along the right side of the initial Soviet Breakthrough. The Pioneer Battalion that reported those armored cars was just about the only unit in the gap between those divisions, and it was about to get a lot of bad company.
When news reached Model, he asked Heinrici if he could send the 22nd Panzer to Tomarovka, even if it meant he would have to move his infantry east to cover the ground it was holding. That was what was decided, so it was almost like a defensive back shifting laterally to follow a receiver on the football field…. But this receiver had protection, the full power of six Guards Rifle divisions pushing into the breach.
Model knew that this attack was not something a single panzer division could master, and he was sending any reserve unit he could get his hands on, which included two military police companies, and the Stug Battalions from his 6th Korps further east, moving quickly by rail to the threatened sector. General Rodt of the 22nd Panzer had no hope of attacking with any success, but he could throw his division at the left shoulder of the breakthrough zone and see if he could at least impede its progress.
Frustrated to still have four infantry divisions strung out from Tomarovka north to Oboyan, Model again sent an urgent message to OKW. “Strong new enemy attack has developed at Tomarovka. Requesting immediate permission to consolidate front along the River Pena. Situation very serious. Enemy breakthrough imminent.”
That was true almost everywhere.
The Russians were over the Donets on a wide front south of Volchansk. Their 3rd Guards Rifle Corps had obtained a bridgehead 10 kilometers wide between Stary Saltov and Verkhne Saltov, and it had become Sepp Dietrich’s first order of business after he withdrew from Volchansk west of the river. Further south, the rest of 3rd Guards Army stormed over the river in an even bigger attack and now Himmler’s new SS Division was trying to hold back that attack as well as the push by 3rd Shock Army in the big river bend to the south. Elements of that army were also mustering near Chuguyev to try and gain a bridgehead for the 1st Guards Tank Corps. This sector was being held by the 106th Division of Korps Raus, and they reported that there was also considerable movement south of Chuguyev, and that area was only being held by Luftwaffe Field Division battalions.