On the right, Etterlin’s 17th Panzer was perhaps the strongest division in reserve, for the 504th Schwerepanzer Battalion had been added to give it three full battalions of armor. 2nd Shock Army was hitting the 336th Division, its lines anchored on the Oskol River. The 29th Panzergrenadier Division was there at Berezovka to stabilize that sector, and his division would have to mind the center. Should he attack at once, in an effort to stop the blood flowing as soon as possible and hold the line? Something told him that this attack was too massive for his single division to ever master.
If he waited, the enemy might soon break the infantry front, but then he might have the chance to attack the flank of anything that came through. That was what Manstein had done earlier…. But Manstein had five divisions, including Steiner’s entire Korps and Grossdeutschland. That thought gave him a chill, and he realized that if this was as great a torrent as it seemed, he would be swamped if he rushed in now.
So, he waited. In fact, he got on the radio and told General Muller of the 198th Division that he should fold back his lines towards the stream that ran south to the scene of the last great clash between these gladiators, the blackened town of Volkov Yar. Etterlin thought he could make that thin water barrier the line of his shoulder defense, for the enemy was coming through. It was only a matter of time.
This time, he thought, we are not waiting south of the Donets with Manstein and Steiner, in just the perfect position to strike the enemy flank in great strength. No, this time Steiner is over a hundred kilometers to the north, half way to Oboyan, and locked in a death grip with the entire Voronezh Front. And I am sitting here alone, the Panzerkorps scattered about with no real force to do anything until the bull is out of the pen.
So… He wants Volkov Yar back as a point of honor, and after that, the Donets….
That was what Manstein knew implicitly. When the reports came in to his headquarters in Kharkov, he swore aloud, so completely frustrated with Hitler’s insistence that the threat in the south could be safely ignored. It was clear to him that they were now fighting a very different war. The Soviets could still be moved. When sufficient force was concentrated against them, they could be hurt. But gone were the days when the Wehrmacht would rampage through their lines, trapping hundreds of thousands in massive pockets and gobbling up huge amounts of their homeland in the process.
Three days of hard fighting had produced results in the north, but the enemy continued to amaze by producing yet another army to throw in Steiner’s path. This time the formation was designated 8th Guards.
We lined up seven good divisions, he thought, and the offensive took us 40 kilometers in three days. Now, however, I’m afraid I must do everything in my power to see that it does not go one step further.
He was on the telephone to Knobelsdorff immediately. “Trouble in the south,” he said flatly. “I am going to send OKW a strong recommendation that Zitadelle be canceled. The Panzers are going to be needed elsewhere.”
“Cancelled? I Just got Balck moving north again, and with 9th Panzer back, we’re making some progress. Steiner took Pokrovka last night.”
“Well let me put it this way. Before we ever get to Kursk, the Russians will be over the Donets again, and may even have Kharkov. There’s been a major breakthrough in the south, and Kirchner does not have the resources to handle the situation, just as I warned.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I must present Hitler with a fait acompli. I want you to begin a fighting withdrawal. See if you can get back by using only two divisions on your front. Send the third against that pocket. We’ve swallowed the rat, now we have to digest it. As for Steiner, I will ask him to do the same. Our goal now is to restore the front along a line Belgorod, Tomarovka and on to Model’s front. But I want to kill what we’ve caught in the process.”
“What about the south? Will you need my troops there?”
“Not yet. I’m going to move Steiner to the Middle Donets and pick a suitable place to cross. We cannot get south to try and stop this attack, so we will strike into its rear area communication zone. Unfortunately, that is not Kursk. Oh… One more thing. I’ll need Grossdeutschland.”
“I understand… Should I wait for authorization from OKW?”
“There’s no time for that. I am the theater commander, and I will take full responsibility. Now move.”
The message Manstein would send to OKW was forming in his mind, but he realized he should be in no great hurry to send it. He knew what Hitler’s reaction would be—a stand fast order in the north, or worse, an order that the attack must continue. He needed to get a credible force south as fast as he possibly could, and without interference from the Führer. To do this, without either consulting or obtaining the blessing of OKW, was perhaps the riskiest thing he had done in his long struggle to determine the strategy of this war. Yet if he did not act, the consequences could be very grave.
To try and cover his withdrawal, and confuse the enemy as to his real intentions, he ordered a staff radio operator to send out a message in the clear that the enemy pocket must be destroyed, and units would be detached from the front to complete this mission at once. It would have an unintended consequence as well, instilling the Soviet front line units with the fervor to reach their comrades before that could happen.
The withdrawal began after midnight on the 27th, and the following morning, he sent a terse statement to OKW indicating that strong enemy counterattacks have materialized along the upper and middle Donets, and that certain units had to be detached to deal with them. He asked OKW to closely monitor the situation in the south, wanting to focus their attention there, where he knew the more astute Generals would not fail to appreciate the danger that thrust now represented.
The Soviets finally realized what was happening on the morning of the 28th. Their patrols indicated that the German heavy units were nowhere to be found, and the front was now only being held by a screen of AT guns and small delaying forces. Rokossovsky smiled inwardly, and gave orders to Katukov to push hard to relieve the trapped 5th Shock Group. Chiukov was ordered to retake Pokrovka, and put strong pressure on the enemy front wherever he found it.
Pulling out of a major offensive and assembling the divisions to move south was no small task. Grossdeutschland Division was the first to move, reaching the vicinity of Belgorod mid-day on the 28th. Both 1st and 2nd SS pulled out, with Totenkopf standing as rearguard, and now they were organizing into march columns. Hermann Balck had moved his elite 11th Panzer Division near Tomarovka, ready to attack the pocket or move elsewhere if so ordered. The heavy brigades of KG Decker, and the Ferdinands, were able to reach the rail line near Belgorod, and a train was waiting there to move them south.
The situation on the Middle Donets was far from secure. Several of the spoiling attacks made there had developed into serious penetrations. 7th Guards Army had pushed all the way into the town of Murom, 10 kilometers from the river. 3rd Guards Army had forced a big inroad near Stary Saltov, pushed the Germans out of Bolshaya Babka, and was grappling with both Reichsführer Brigades and a strong KG from 3rd Panzergrenadier Division. South of the big bend in the Donets, it was disaster.