Chapter 9
It was a week before Hitler could throw off the pallor of anger and frustration that the demise of 5th Panzer Army had caused. He had lost North Africa, and knew that German forces could never fight there again. Now the Allies in the west were surely planning new offensives. Sicily would likely be the next objective, and to defend there he now had to find fresh divisions to send into Italy. Mussolini had seen all his colonial ambitions in Africa defeated, and was now a very shaky partner. Would his army continue to fight to defend their homeland? Would his navy fight?
In the event they would not stand with Germany any longer, and attempted to sign an armistice with the Allies, Hitler had ordered planning to begin for the occupation of the entire Italian peninsula, and the seizure of the Italian fleet. It would be called Fall Achse, or “Case Axis,” but was now a working plan under the codename “Operation Alaric.” It would be a plan to rapidly disarm the Italian Army in Italy, and gain control of that vital terrain.
The wolf was let in the front door by the Italians after Tunisia, for Hitler immediately promised Mussolini that he would send German troops to insure the defense of the Italian mainland. Herman Goring was rapidly commandeering new equipment from the factories, and collecting units from his Luftwaffe ground units to rebuild his Panzer Division. He promised the Fuhrer it would be ready to send to Sicily before the Allies could invade. Hitler then ordered that the collective forces that had been transferred to Sicily before the final demise of the 5th Panzer Army would be used to begin rebuilding one of the divisions lost, the 15th Panzer, only lack of ready equipment would see this division rebuilt as a Panzergrenadier Division.
The bulk of the personnel that had once made up 7th Panzer Division was already in France, rebuilding as it received new equipment, and Hitler gave orders that the 10th and 21st Panzers would also be rebuilt there, though only one of those, (the 21st) was rebuilt in the real history. But none of those forces would be ready, except Goring’s division and the new makeshift 15th Panzergrenadiers.
There were also a lot of men that had been rehabilitating in France from the vanquished Army, and Hitler ordered that they should be collected to rebuild the 90th Light Infantry Division that had been lost in Tunisia. New recruits would have to flesh out those ranks. The need to suddenly reinforce the West, in both the Balkans and in Italy, was happening at a time when OKW was trying to devise its strategy for the next phase of the war against the Soviets, and it led to a conference at OKW that would be the German equivalent of the Allied TRIDENT meeting.
The successful defensive action initiated by General Manstein in April had restored the front in the south and punished the Russians by nearly destroying two full armies, the 63rd and 1st Guards. Only the Mechanized elements of the latter had the means to evade the trap that Manstein launched with Steiner’s Korps, augmented by the 57th Panzer Korps, which he transferred from the Caucasus. The remaining rifle divisions assigned to 1st Guards Army perished in the counterattack put in by von Knobelsdorff’s 48th Panzer Korps, which then advanced on Belgorod to relieve the German units that had been cut off there when Hitler declared it to be a Fortress.
In this action, the deep salient north of Kharkov achieved by 5th Tank Army and Katukov’s 1st Tank Army was abandoned by the Soviets. Then Knobelsdorff’s Korps, supported by 1st SS and the Reichsführer Brigades, sealed off that breach and relieved Belgorod. Unfortunately, the enemy resistance thickened north of that city, and efforts to again reach Prokhorovka and rescue Oppenlander’s 305th Division were called off.
Both sides took losses, though those of the Soviets were more severe. In exchange, they gained all the ground between the Oskol River and the Upper Donets, preferring to see their operation Red Star as a minor victory for pushing the Germans off their front along both the Psel and Oskol Rivers. They had, at one point, a very large bridgehead over the Middle Donets, and clear roads to the Dnieper, coming within 15 kilometers of Kharkov as well.
After the action was concluded, the new front extended from the western Psel above Sumy, down to Tomarovka, which was still held by Model’s 2nd Army. It then ran east to Belgorod, held by Korps Raus, before turning south along the line of the Upper Donets, with Kempf now commanding the 4th Army all the way to the big bend near Chuguyev. General Heinrici had become one of the casualties of the operation when Hitler went looking for scapegoats. He was relieved for withdrawing from his positions at the secret urging of OKW Chief Zeitzler. Knobelsdorff’s Korps remained in the north as the ready mobile reserve, with 6th, 9th and 11th Panzer Divisions, but Dietrich’s 1st SS Division would now rejoin Steiner’s Korps.
The Soviet 3rd Guards Army still retained a large bridgehead north of Chuguyev, but the Germans retook that city, and drove Kuznetsov’s 1st Guard Army, the Popov Group, and Malinovsky’s 2nd Shock Group to a line between Pechengi on the Donets bend, and Kupyansk on the Oskol River to the east. This front was anchored on the Donets Bend by the Nordland SS, deemed to be a division suitable for stubborn defense, but not one having offensive strength required to become a part of Steiner’s Korps. East of the Nordland division, the Germans placed the infantry of Group Hollidt, and 54th Korps under Fetter-Pico, backstopping that line with the 57th Panzer Korps, containing 17th Panzer, and 29th and 3rd Panzergrenadier Divisions.
Both those last two units had been send to Italy in the real history, but now they would have to remain on the Ostfront, for this area was deemed to be the most vulnerable to any new Soviet offensive. The bulk of their mobile formations had been driven back into the region between the Donets and Oskol Rivers, and there the Germans identified the mobile elements of Kuznetsov’s 1st Guard Army, with the 1st Shock Army providing the infantry to complete this 1st Shock Group. Then Popov’s mobile units joined Malinovsky to form the new 2nd Shock Group, which also contained 2nd Shock Army.
These were powerful forces, which still had offensive capability, and Manstein stated that the German front opposing them would need to be strongly buttressed by the retention of the 57th Panzer Korps in that sector. The Queen on the board, Steiner’s Korps, would become the German Strategic Reserve, and it would be placed near the major objective the enemy had sought with Red Star, the great city of Kharkov.
A meeting was now convened with Zeitzler, Model, Kempf, Kluge, and Manstein in attendance, all meeting with Hitler to decide the German strategy for the late Spring and early Summer. The decision whether or not to launch Operation Downfall in May was also riding in the balance as that conference began. That was all part of the real overriding concern, the need to gain and retain the initiative on the field in the east for the remainder of 1943. The Soviet Operation had convinced both OKW, and Hitler himself, that the Soviets were slowly developing offensive capability of an alarming strength. They could be expected to try again wherever they had failed, and now the Generals had to decide what to do. Zeitzler made the opening remarks, hoping to cement the idea the Generals had agreed upon.
“It is my belief, and that of General Manstein as well, that we should wait for the enemy to strike first, and then conduct counteroperations similar to the successful attacks made by Manstein in April.”