The other card was a good high numbered spade, the 36th Infantry Division, which was the old 36th Motorized after converting to a leg infantry division. It would come by rail from Armeegruppe Center, and deploy just west of Kharkov to screen that flank. So Steiner’s entire Korps, five divisions including Grossdeutschland, was now assembled near the city, and it would be facing off against the equivalent of four Soviet armies.
Eicke’s 3rd SS was coming down from the north, but was diverted towards the bridgehead achieved by 7th Guards near Murom. The enemy was coming through the lines of 111th Infantry with a lot of tanks and SU’s, so the bulk of 3rd SS went into action there to stop them. They went about it with methodical efficiency, the infantry deploying from halftracks in the woods on the northern flank of their attack. They waited for the panzers to come up, and then advanced behind them in close support, crouching low.
The tank battle in the woodland was a wild affair, with tree limbs being shattered, other’s being hewn down by the high velocity rounds. A fire started, and heavy smoke rolled through the forest as the Tiger company ground its way forward. When there was not room to advance between trees, the heavy tanks simply bull-dozed them down and then rolled over the fallen trunks. The Soviets had a number of heavy SU-122’s, and soon the duel looked like herds of war elephants battling in the forest.
The Germans called a halt, seeing that the Russians had backed off several hundred yards to try and regroup. Then came the rumble of distant guns and the whooshing sound of a rounds falling. The entire division artillery pool, all four battalions, had unleashed a barrage called in by the leading SS troops. It fell like blistering death. Many of the rounds bursting in the air to shred and flay the tree limbs and send a hail of shrapnel and splinters in all directions. There wasn’t much Soviet infantry in the attack, but they would have been cut to pieces if they had been under that ironfall. An SU-122 was struck by a very near miss, the explosion enough to blow the heavy 30-ton vehicle onto its side.
Basically an armored howitzer, the SU-122 was not a match for the German tanks on its own. It was an infantry fire support weapon, but the Soviets had deployed these in mixed regiments, with platoons of SU-76 tank destroyers. Even that was not going to help, as the SU-76 only had 33mm of frontal armor, and the “Sukas,” or “little bitches” as the Russians called them, simply could not stand against the better armored Pz-IVF2’s the SS were driving, which had 50mm armor. The Russians were, quite literally, getting ‘bitch slapped.’ They began to fall back under that artillery barrage and were soon pushed out of the woodland into open fields beyond.
The Soviet heavy howitzers could kill a German tank if they could hit one with a HEAT round, but knowing this, the German tanker simply engaged at longer range. Though the SU-122 looked like a formidable armored beast, it actually had only 45mm of frontal armor, less than the German Pz-IV’s. The German tankers pulled up to the edge of the trees, and started blasting away. It was the very definition of the phrase “target rich environment,” and brought the attack by 7th Guards Army to a complete halt.
The arrival of 3rd SS, and 11th Panzer from the north had therefore done much to shore up the lines and contain the pressure from 7th Guards and 69th Army. To the south of that battle, Hausser’s 2nd SS was slugging it out with the 3rd Guards Army, which was strong enough to take on that division, and both of the Reichsführer SS Brigades at the same time, and still make headway.
Hausser’s main attack was solid, but on his southern flank, the Russians found a weaker sector held only by two companies of the recon battalion, and a pioneer company. That battalion sized KG was then hit by the whole of the 40th Guard Rifle Division, and it could not stop them. This forced Hausser to detach units from his stronger sector, and try to close that breach.
Yet it was the weary Reichsführer Brigades that were having the most difficulty. Many of their battalions were weakened by the five days of near non-stop fighting, and the Soviets found a hole between their southern flank and the lines of the Nordland SS Division. It wasn’t a serious breakthrough yet, but two brigades of Soviet cavalry had raced through, and they were causing havoc with the Werfer battalions attached to the Reichsführer Brigades in the rear.
Then Sepp Dietrich called Manstein to report on the deteriorating situation on his own front. “I’m fighting two Mech Corps and a Tank Corps just came up on my western flank. This is no good. We can’t hold them much longer.”
“Deckard’s KG wasn’t enough?”
“That helped, but he reports that another strong armored formation is flanking him to the west as well.”
“Alright, 36th Infantry has just arrived on the rail line south of the city,” said Manstein. “I’m moving it to support your flank. If you can hold out until tomorrow morning, I think we’ll have a nice little surprise for General Kuznetsov. Gille is back with his Wiking Division, and they are coming up from the south.”
“The prodigal son,” said Dietrich. “That is good news. “Alright, I’ll stand my ground. But you’d better look after that Nordland outfit. They are fighting hard, but there’s a lot of pressure on them too.”
“I’ll have Hornlein put together a KG.”
Manstein’s surprise came up on the train from the Dnieper, reaching Novaya Vodolaga, about 45 kilometers southwest of Kharkov. There the first train found a small blocking force, the recon battalion of 1st Tank Corps that had been sent to scout that sector and look for just this sort of arrival by the enemy. That would give the Russians something to think about. Then Manstein got on the radio to find Balck, learning that his 11th Panzer Division had just formed up behind 3rd Panzergrenadiers.
“I want you to roll south and relieve 2nd SS on the line. I need Hausser elsewhere.”
“Very well,” said Balck. “But I could punch right through the Russian line and go all the way to the Donets.”
“Yes, but another time. Stop 3rd Guards Army for me, and I will use Das Reich further south. We have a small breakthrough to contend with there.”
“I’ll move immediately.”
That was going to improve the situation on the road to Kharkov considerably. Balck found a battalion of heavy SU-152’s, and his tankers quickly chopped them to pieces, knocking out eight of twelve in ten minutes. The KG from Grossdeutschland ran into the enemy cavalry that had broken through, and put them to rout. There were several holes in the lines of the Nordland SS, but Manstein was confident that their brethren in Das Reich would soon arrive to stabilize the situation, allowing him to recall the Grenadier regiment to his nest in Kharkov. Grossdeutschland Division was his last reserve, and he wanted it as fresh as possible.
He was going to need it.
Far to the north, things were about to gear up another level. Mikhail Katukov had decided to send in Rodmistrov’s rebuilt 5th Guards Tank with two of its three Corps to test the enemy line west of Tomarovka. It was but a prelude to the main attack, which he had scheduled for that night, a midnight surge of two Guards armies and five tank corps against the lines of 42nd Korps, holding from Belgorod west through Tomarovka and on to Model’s right flank.
The second Phase of Operation Rumyantsev was about to begin.