“De Führer,” said Zeitzler, and he did not need to say anything more. Then he made plain the reason for his call. “If you stay put, there is a good chance that the entire northern half of your army will be cut off in another day or so. The 167th may not be able to stop what’s happening behind you. Furthermore, Korps Raus cannot hold much longer. This could all be academic soon. The Russians are pushing very hard for Kharkov, and they are now only 15 kilometers from the city. That too, would cut your entire army off and make a withdrawal an absolute necessity—one the Fuhrer would simply ignore. Understand? Now… I have freed up the Reichsführer Brigades to try and clear your lines of communication, but you will remain in a dangerous position if you stay where you are.”
“Well, if I could simply pull back we could stop this entire northern offensive! Model and I could pinch it off easily enough. Stuck where I am, with my troops anchored on the Donets, we can do very little. This is ridiculous!”
“Agreed,” said Zeitzler. “Getting the Führer to agree is the problem. And yet…. If you found that enemy pressure on your lines was so great that the troops simply could not hold….” He let that hang in the silence, the meaning of his suggestion evident to Heinrici.
“I see… You propose we hand the Führer a fait accompli, and then blame it on the Russians. Heads could roll if Hitler ever found out we had this discussion.”
“I am prepared to lose mine, if you are prepared to lose yours,” said Zeitzler. “What I am not prepared to lose if the 4th Army. General, I think you should send me a report that strong enemy attacks have developed all along your front, and the line is simply too thin to hold…. But do so only after you have made some judicious redeployments. I can keep things off the situation map at OKW for 48 hours, but no longer.”
“I understand,” said Heinrici. What about Festung Belgorod?”
“Who is there?”
“Ludecke and the 56th”
“Gekreuzte Säbel,” said Zeitzler, Crossed Sabres, the Divisional insignia. It was fated to be dissolved in September of 1943 in the real history after suffering heavy losses, and would not be rebuilt for another year. “If we throw the dog a bone, it will likely sit like the 305th in Prokhorovka. This is a lot to get done, General. I will place 22nd Panzer under your direction as well, and do what I can to stop that attack behind you. Good luck….”
This little conspiracy was going to reshape the front, and cause a major row at OKW when it was finally clear that the line of the upper Donets had been lost. But it was the only chance the Germans had to save that army, and both Zeitzler and Heinrici knew that, even if Hitler would have to accept the agony of yet another “withdrawal,” undertaken by his unreliable Generals.
Heinrici ordered the 56th Infantry Division to adopt hedgehog defense around Belgorod, then he folded back the two divisions on either side of that city to build a new line about 12 kilometers to the south. His plan was to slowly peel his divisions away from the Donets, sliding them west as he did so, to build up strength near the farthest point of Katukov’s advance.
As the Reichsführer Brigades moved toward the Udy River as Zeitzler had promised, they ran into trouble immediately. The enemy had already slipped south of Shetovka where the 167th had deployed, and they were 15 Kilometers southeast of the Udy River, now crossing the next minor river barrier, the Lopan, at the town of Kazeya Lopan. Katukov’s 3rd Mech Corps was there, with heavy tank support from the 6th Tank Corps. They had already cut the rail line to Belgorod, and were just two kilometers from the main supply road as well. Heinrici’s little conspiracy with Zeitzler was enacted just in time to stave off disaster.
Chapter 29
Balck ordered his 11th Panzer Division to pull out and move north when he learned that Knobelsdorff himself had to use his Headquarters company to aid in the defense of Kharkov. The situation at Borovoye south of Kharkov was now stable, and he could not see his division sitting there head butting Kuznetzov’s 1st Tank Army for very much longer. So he got with Scheller and they conspired to have his 9th Panzer take over defensive positions, ending the combined offensive the two divisions had been engaged in. The 11th was needed elsewhere.
“Hauser!” Balck got hold of his Recon Battalion. “I need you to pull out fast and get up north to the main road into Kharkov from Chuguyev. A Soviet tank brigade has broken through and Knobelsdorff has been using his Korps assets to try and stop it. Be aggressive. I’m bringing up the rest of the division right behind you.”
“Very good, General,” said Hauser. “I’ll move immediately.”
And he did.
His battalion was quite strong, with an armored car company, a second company in halftracks, and a heavy recon company, also mechanized. They could move fast and hit hard, which is exactly what Hauser did, arriving to find the 48th Korps Pioneers trying to stop 15th Guards Tank Brigade. It had slipped through a hole in the line like a good running back and boldly raced another 10 kilometers up the road from the village of Rogan to Kharkov. That has sent off alarm bells in the city, and the reaction was now bringing one of Germany’s best Panzer Divisions into that action. But by the time Balck arrived on the scene, Hauser had smashed that brigade, the 75mm guns on his armored cars just good enough to do the job, particularly when he caught them from behind.
Balck was also moving north because the 3rd Shock Army was making increasing inroads in the lines of Korps Raus. It was now only 16 kilometers due east of the city, and Wagner’s Nordland SS Division had to fall back to straighten its lines and free up units to send in support.
This crisis so near the city had the effect of fixating Hitler’s attention, and Zeitzler seized upon it to focus the Führer’s attention, personally intercepting position reports concerning his little conspiracy with Heinrici. The net effect was that the belated arrival of 6th Panzer Division was finally resolved. Hitler had equivocated over actually sending the division from Berlin, now he ordered it to Kharkov with all haste.
Then word came from Manstein: “Beginning counteroffensive operations, effective 04:00.”
While General Popov was contemplating the meaning of his orders, and equivocating, the west wing of 63rd Army was being ground under the heavy steel tracks of Grossdeutschland Division. The 346th Division was mauled and pushed back, reorganizing its defense as close to the river as possible to try and prevent a breakthrough. The 266th Rifle Division on its eastern flank was also giving up ground, along with the 203rd. General Shurkin of the 63rd Army began shifting units west to try and reinforce the threatened sector, but Grossdeutschland Division was not going to be stopped.
Behind it, Kirchner’s 57th Panzer Korps was finally arriving from the Caucasus. The lead unit was the 17th Panzer Division, followed by 3rd Panzergrenadier. The 29th Motorized was coming as well, for after the fall of Groznyy, Volkov’s forces retreated to Makhachkala, and the line was compressed considerably. This allowed Kleist to order 17th Army to that sector, freeing up Hansen’s entire 11th Army. Some divisions would be used to relieve those two mobile divisions, and other would also be made available to send north.
Kirchner would throw his two divisions in to the right of Grossdeutschland, and Shurkin soon found his line was being stormed along an 18-kilometer front, with numerous regiments already surrounded by the fast moving German forces, surging through any gap to envelop the defenders. The smoke and fire of the battle obscured the sun and made for a blood red dawn on the 17th, an ominous portent of what was now happening.