Rokossovsky, the overall Voronezh Front Commander, had the entire 5th Shock Group, (5th Tank Army, 5th Shock Army, 5th Guards Army), and they were right on the line between Tomarovka and Belgorod, with the mechanized forces poised to make swift counterblows. Behind them, at Oboyan, was Mikhail Katukov’s 1st Tank Army, and more strong infantry forces were available in theater if needed, another full army.
Though the concentration of German forces was impressive, and would be intimidating under any circumstances, Manstein nonetheless had strong reservations about this attack. Hitler had rejected his preferred operation, Habicht, and that was going to leave not one, but two strong enemy shock Groups in the south unfought.
We are making a serious mistake here, he thought. We should have dealt with the threat in the south first, but the Führer sees no gain of territory in such a battle. He does not yet realize that this whole affair is not about occupying the Soviet Union, but defeating its army! Now he wants Steiner to lead the charge all the way to Kursk.
This attack should not be made….
It was 9th Panzer in Knobelsdorff’s 48th Panzerkorps that opened the attack to the left of Tomarovka, and it rippled west through the lines of 6th Panzer, and then Balck’s 11th. They would be attacking Gorodov’s 21st Army, a large formation of nine rifle divisions, four of those being Guards, and three tank brigades in support. But these stronger divisions had been positioned well to the west, near Proletarsky, where they had been planning to make an attack against the German infantry front. That meant that Knobelsdorff’s attack would fall mainly on the line of Rifle Divisions in the Army, the 243rd, near Tomarovka, and the 279th, 259th, 78th and 195th extending along the line to the west.
The 279th Division was all but smashed in the shock of the initial attack made by 9th Panzer Division. As the line buckled when the 6th and 11th Panzers joined the attack, Gorodov was sluggish in his response, but he managed to get one tank brigade, the 59th, moving to the point where Balck’s 11th Panzers were driving north through the lines of the 78th Rifle Division. It had 16 T-34’s and nine T-60’s with a few SU-57’s, but had the misfortune of running right into 2/501 Schwere Company, which had a dozen Tigers. The Germans engaged from long range, and cut the Soviet brigade to pieces before it could close to attack at ranges that could hurt the Tigers.
Of the three tank Corps that were placed behind 5th Shock Army on the right, only one moved in the pre-dawn darkness, Burkov’s 29th. Gorodov had called Rybalko to ask for help, and so that Corps moved west across the Vorskla River, which flowed down from the north into Tomarovka. Reaching the far bank, it began to deploy for a counterattack against the breakthrough zone for 9th Panzer. General Burkov was moving into a firestorm, for the Grossdeutschland Division was already advancing through the breach forced in the line, even as 9th Panzer began to engage the recon elements of 29th Tank Corps.
That sudden clash forced the Russians to stop and reorganize a stronger formation, waiting for their motorized infantry to come up in support of the armor, but in that interval, the bulk of the Grossdeutschland Division swept around the flank of the 29th Corps, driving for Cherkasskoye north of Tomarovka. There they would find front level artillery deploying to begin fire missions, and put those guns to rout.
The situation was rapidly moving from bad, to worse, to disaster for the eastern segment of 21st Army’s line. 279th Division was destroyed, the 259th surrounded and badly disrupted, as was the 78th. The Germans had smashed a hole in the line that was 12 kilometers wide.
Gorodov now began to order his better Guards divisions to move east, but for that he needed the cooperation of 6th Army Commander Kharitonov, asking him to extend his lines eastward so the 8th Guard Para could be pulled out to move to the breakthrough zone. The 80th Guards Rifle Division had been in reserve, and it now moved to the left flank and began organizing a defensive shoulder position. The Germans immediately began to put heavy artillery on that sector, and elements of 11th Panzer and the 72nd Infantry Division continued to keep up the pressure. Meanwhile, Hauser’s recon battalion moved quickly to exploit that gap, moving to try and cut the main road between Tomarovka and points west.
Balck would swing 11th Panzer to force open the left shoulder of the penetration, while Scheller’s 9th Panzer attacked the 29th Tank Corps on the right shoulder. 6th Panzer continued to mop up the divisions that had been surrounded, and this allowed Grossdeutschland Division to drive right through the center, bearing right towards Steiner’s attack closer to Belgorod.
Steiner’s three SS divisions ground against the much stronger lines of the 5th Guards Army, strengthened by five regiments of engineers, and it was a difficult battle. 3rd SS made some initial progress against 5th Shock Army on the left near Tomarovka, but the Soviets counterattacked with Mechanized Cavalry brigades, pushing back the probing German recon companies and preventing any serious breakthrough on that front.
Further east it would take the combined strength of 1st and 2nd SS to break the line of 5th Guards Army. The fighting was intense all morning, but the Germans had a massive steel battering ram that they brought into action in the afternoon, two very strong battalions of new Panther tanks in KG Denker, and the Ferdinand battalion, all combined to smash the 66th Guards Rifle Division, and 13th Guards to the west was now completely surrounded and under heavy attack by both SS divisions. It was sheer muscle and steel, an overwhelming force that beat down the valor of the Soviet Guardsmen, no matter how dogged their defense.
To make matters worse, Steiner ordered Eicke to pull out of his attack against 5th Shock Army, moving up the infantry of 42nd Korps to hold that front. Now 3rd SS would swing east into the breach being forced by Dietrich and Hausser’s divisions, and the Germans had the makings of a massive pincer operation that threatened to take the whole of 5th Shock Army within its grasp.
The only thing preventing that was Rybalko’s last two Tank Corps, which had remained in reserve behind 5th Shock Army. Now he had no choice other than to commit those units to try and stave off the closing of those iron jaws. 24th Corps moved west against Grossdeutschland, and 25th Corps had just been engaged by elements of 2nd SS. Neither Corps was anywhere near a match for the enemy divisions they were now facing.
Chapter 12
Word came to General Katukov in his headquarters north of the attack at Oboyan, and he soon gave orders to the 31st Tank Corps, telling it to prepare to move down a secondary road to Berezovka, where German recon troops had entered the town an hour earlier. This was a new Corps, with three brigades of the new T-34/85’s, with 28 tanks each, so that put 84 tanks on the road south, with three battalions of motor rifle infantry in support.
As the full scope of the German attack became apparent, it was clear that some decision had to be made about 5th Shock Army. Katukov spoke with Rokossovsky via telephone, wanting to know if he needed to form his troops for a counterattack, or build a defensive position north of Berezovka.
“5th Shock is in danger of being cut off,” said Rokossovsky. “It has held on to Tomarovka, but the pressure from 3rd SS Division eased up three hours ago. We now believe they are moving that division into the penetration achieved by the other two SS units. If we allow that army to be pocketed, they might have a nice big stone in their belly that will force them to envelop and reduce it.”