The only reason he had acted as he did was to appease Hitler. He knew the loss of the city would send the Führer into a terrible rage, moaning over the political ramifications, particularly after the demise of 5th Panzer Army in Tunisia. It would be a very hard blow to Army morale as a whole, but he held fast to the belief that he could correct the situation, just as he had done the previous month. He had been Hitler’s magician, always coming up with some plan and countermeasure for every crisis. But one must first have a hat in hand to pull out a rabbit, and he needed to concentrate his forces, build something to fight with, and quickly.
He had hoped the enemy would take their breakthrough and reach for the lower Donets again. That would have made things so much easier. Instead, they had opted to envelop Kharkov from the south, and with each hour the gap between Dietrich and Hollidt would grow ever wider. If they were to suddenly produce yet another reserve army to exploit that gap….
There is only one other reserve I can call upon now. Hitler cancelled Operation Eisenfall and pulled the 5th SS out of Syria a month ago. It was reassigned to Steiner, but with orders to convert to a full Panzer Division. Nothing was available from the factories by the time it arrived, but the 24th Panzerkorps left a good amount of older equipment on the Dnieper when it was recalled home to rebuild. General Gille has had his division picking over that equipment for some weeks now, and getting some much needed rest after their visit to Damascus. Now I think I must call home Steiner’s lost sheep. I will also need to recall 3rd SS from the northern segment of my front. If that means Kempf must fall back on Kharkov, then that is what I will order. Should Hitler interfere to prevent this, then I will have to tender my resignation. I will fight the way I know I must, come what may.
Only God help the Army if it comes to the moment when I hand the Führer back this Field Marshal’s baton. I wonder how it will feel in his feeble hand?
Chapter 15
Manstein had good reason for his misgivings, for Operation Rumyantsev was planned to have two phases. Vatutin’s new Donets Front would lead in the south, and it had achieved a great breakthrough, halting the German offensive in the north, and forcing Manstein to recall Steiner to the defense of Kharkov. While this was going on, Rokossovsky liberated all he could of the trapped 5th Shock Group, and then began to prepare his armies in that sector for renewed offensive operations.
Katukov’s attack was halted and his three mobile corps began to regroup. The surviving 29th Tank Corps was reorganizing and waiting for fresh supplies, and STAVKA was releasing new formations from general reserve to build up for the attack. Some would begin to introduce new concepts debated and adopted by the Soviet army, which was rapidly adapting as they learned the deadly art of maneuver warfare.
A great deal of discussion was dedicated to the lessons learned from the Battle of Volkov Yar. The Soviets analyzed both their strengths and weaknesses, particularly within their armored corps. They realized that the German technology curve for tank design had caught up and surpassed their own efforts. The German Lion was now a proven and highly effective tank, with the VK-75mm model a match for the T-34, and the VK-88mm model superior to the newest T-34/85 when it came to engagement range and protection. Only the Kirov-I was a match for it, and the German Tiger. The same could be said for the German Panther, which was another strong medium tank capable of matching and often besting all models of the T-34.
The Soviets had the advantage of mass, with most line Tank Corps fielding three tank brigades, with two battalions each, with the Guards Tank Corps and latest Line Corps (29th and 31st) having three tank Brigades with three battalions each. Yet the weak point of the current Tank Corps structure was its lack of adequate infantry support. Even though it had a full brigade of motorized infantry attached, in actual practice, the Soviets found that the truck mounted infantry could not keep up with the tanks, particularly in cross country movement and definitely in winter conditions. This saw the tanks outpacing the infantry, and then finding themselves alone when facing the combined arms formations of the German Panzer Divisions.
The first attempt to redress the need for infantry in faster moving formations was the concept of the Motor Rifle Division. This was an effort to emulate the German Motorized Divisions, but it was soon deemed to be ineffective for the kind of shock and exploit armored warfare the Soviets were now contemplating, a doctrine that would be known as Deep Operations.
It had three regiments of motorized infantry, but in the older trucks which were often roadbound, its mobility was limited. General Mikhail Katukov, perhaps one of the best practitioners of the Mobile Art the Russians had, never liked the formation, claiming that it was too slow, and too weak to fight with the tank corps, or make any real contribution to a tank army. He was proven correct at Volkov Yar, where the 2nd Motor Rifle Division, under Ermakov, had been savaged by the German counterattack, and largely destroyed. The infantry had been too sluggish in cross country movement, and lacked adequate AT support for defense. It was basically just a faster rifle division, but was not suitable for the role of exploitation, and could only be deployed in a support role if assigned to a tank army.
Katukov had made his arguments long before Ermakov paid the price on the field of battle. In early 1942, seeing the sluggishness of the Soviet Army, its inability to react to the fast-moving German Panzer Divisions, Katukov spoke up.
“We need mobile infantry that can maneuver and operate with our tank corps. This is what the Germans have in their Panzer Divisions. We must do the same.”
“We already have the Motor Rifle Division,” said Zhukov.
“They are ineffective, nothing more than a fast rifle division. I need something that can give me cross country infantry support when I run with my T-34s. We need to put the infantry into a halftrack, or better yet, a fully tracked vehicle.”
The Soviet answer to that problem had been the development of the Mech Corps, of which there were now eight in the Army, often designated “Guards.” This saw all the infantry mounted in halftracks using the new ZIS-42M Cross Country truck, with its rear propulsion being tracked. Some models even mounted a potent 37mm Open Topped AA Gun, which could also be used as an infantry support weapon. Very fast, and with good cross country movement capability, the Mech Corps was the perfect exploitation force, and so the Soviets built their Tank Armies with two Tank Corps for the breakthrough, and one Mech Corps to exploit and breach in the enemy line. The only liability was that the Mech Corps did not have as much armor support, fielding only one tank brigade, but at least it was given the better T-34/85, and sometimes even had a company of the newest Kirov-I’s added. Katukov argued that all the existing Motor Rifle Divisions should be converted to Mech Corps.
“Even if we can provide enough ZIS-42M’s to make the conversion,” he said, “that formation will still lack anti-tank support. Why not try a new concept in the way we add that armor protection to the Mech Corps?”
“What do you mean?” asked Zhukov.