When the Wiking Division returned from Syria, it was needing fresh equipment, with orders to build up to a full panzer division. They would inherit some of the surviving tanks and APCs from the 24th Panzerkorps, but these new additions came directly from Germany on a train from the Porshe and Krupp factories.
Porsche had worked with the Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz Magirus AG firm in Ulm on what was now being called the “Entwicklung” series, or simply the “E-Series” standard AFV project. It had been conceived by Chief Engineer Heinrich Ernst Kniekamp, as a series meant to create improved vehicles to replace the battle tested tanks produced in the early years of the war, including many of the self-propelled guns. The idea was to use standardized parts across the whole line, greatly simplifying production.
There were a few prototypes, and a test batch run of the E-10, a new light tank with a hull mounted gun and very low profile. Its bigger cousin was the E-25, a similar design that had been meant to replace the Pz-IV tanks, and it was later envisioned as a heavy Panzerjager tank, like the “Hetzer.” Perhaps the best of the lot was the E-50, which looked very much like the tank it had been designed to replace, the Panther and Tiger series tanks, but there were only three of these. There were also some Panzerjagers, like the Waffentrager 38D, mounted with a turreted 88mm Pak 43 L/71 gun. It was given 60mm frontal armor, and that gun had real penetrating power at very long ranges.
Other designs existed, like the super heavy jagdpanzer “Krokodil,” on a chassis that would have seen it approach 100 tons in weight when fully loaded. That monster had not yet been born, but the small E-series prototypes and test batches were all released to the Wiking s.
Kuznetsov knew he had to cobble together some defense on his left flank. There was very little left in his barn, as all his primary formations had been committed to the envelopment operation. Aside from that recon battalion he had sent to Novaya Vodolaga, there was a flak unit 8 Kilometers to the northeast, and the 76th heavy SPG Regiment was another six kilometers beyond that on the main road to Kharkov. That had 10 SU-122’s, five more heavier SU-152’s, and a few armored cars with light infantry. Yet it was the heaviest unit he had in that sector, and he gave it orders to go to the town and reinforce the recon battalion.
The General knew that would not be enough, so he detached the 186th Tank Brigade from 10th Tank Corps to move southwest. Then he ordered his real defense to get ready to move, the Guardsmen of his infantry divisions. These troops had cleared the Donets bend south of Zimyev, and were now mopping up some Luftwaffe battalions west of that town. He wanted them to continue west and see if they could develop a blocking defense in case anything with real power was coming up that rail line. If he had known about the steel menagerie coming his way, and in the hands of veteran troops like the Wiking SS, he would have thought twice about trying to press his envelopment forward.
Events to the east would soon play in his favor. It was the Nordland SS Division again, now a month after its baptism of fire, and much worse for the wear. It had learned a great deal in the field since April Fool’s Day, but the 3rd Siberian Shock Army was relentless. The lines of Wagner’s troops were buckling, with more crisis points than he could manage. The Grenadiers of Grossdeutschland had gone to shore up the flagging Reichsführer Brigades, and Nordland was on its own again.
Manstein was realizing that he would simply have to fall back on Kharkov. The city was a warren of heavy concrete and brick buildings, and he had troops that could turn it into another Volgograd if the enemy wanted a street fight. Nordland was in trouble, half the reserve was off trying to shore up the line, Dietrich’s Leibstandarte was badly overextended, and he knew he had to concentrate to build a stronger defense.
The only segment of the line that was solid was the area being held by Das Reich and Balck’s 11th Panzer. The former was in a line running parallel to the main road from Stary Saltov to Kharkov, which was screened by a small minor river that flowed into the city. He quickly gave orders that the river line would now become the new main line of resistance, and told Hörnlein to pull back the Grenadiers.
“I want your hounds back in the city,” he said. “I am bringing the fight here. If the Nordland SS can get back to this river, all the better, but if they get hung up making the withdrawal, your men should lend a hand. Otherwise, I want them in the city before sunrise.”
“What news from the north?” asked Hörnlein.
“The usual. They are hitting the line between Belgorod and Tomarovka again, and Knobelsdorff’s Korps is missing 11th Panzer. They will get through again, and that will raise the whole question of 4th Army’s position on the upper Donets. Hitler will want to stand fast, but I will not order it. There will be no ‘Festung Belgorod’ this time around, for all that would do is hand the enemy another good division or two to file away with Oppenlander’s 305th that died at Prokhorovka. I foresee having to order all of 42nd Korps to withdraw in a matter of hours.”
“I thought Salmuth’s 10th Korps went north.”
“It did, and it will likely be out of the frying pan and into the fire in another few hours as well. That may buy us another day. I just received notice that 9th Panzer is disintegrating west of Tomarovka. The 6th is holding the line closer to Belgorod, but I think they will bypass that city and put the question to us. I already have given you my answer. I see the 10th Korps as nothing more than a delaying force now. I intend to get our men out of Belgorod, and start peeling back that front from the Donets in short order. As for Model, he’s going to have to fold back as well, and Hitler will have his fits.”
“This could get serious,” said Hörnlein. “You saw what happened to Heinrici.”
“Generals are Generals,” said Manstein. He was a Field Marshal, and perhaps the most highly regarded strategist in the Army. Hitler once listened to him like a school boy before the head master, but that time was long passed. The Führer would quibble with him now, as that marathon session in Zaporozhe had shown the previous month, but Manstein was not going to allow that this time. His loyalty was unquestionable, but he had to do what he knew was right, not for himself, but for the salvation of the Army.
“Papa, let me put it to you this way,” he said to Hörnlein, using the nickname he knew the men often called him. “This front is shielding the Donets Basin—the fabled ‘Donbass’ and the heart of the coal mining center of the Ukraine. That is shielding Rostov, the gateway to the Caucasus, and all of Efendi’s dreams of endless oil. If we lose here—if this front collapses, or is fatally compromised by Hitler’s nonsensical interference, then it all comes tumbling down—everything. We’ll have to pull out of the Caucasus and get Hansen and Kleist back through Rostov, and then order Paulus to fall back behind the Donets where it meets the Don near that city. This little war Hitler wanted with Volkov will be as good as over. Volkov will end up getting exactly what he wanted when he fumed at Ribbentrop. The Kuban will be his once more—until Sergei Kirov comes for it again.”
“I see….” Hörnlein could clearly hear the warning in Manstein’s voice and tone, and knew there would be a good deal of trial and travail ahead for his favored sons, the soldiers of the Grossdeutschland Division.
“It is going to be a very long year,” said Manstein. “For the first time, I am beginning to realize that we could lose this war. We broke into this farmhouse, booted out the sleeping farmer and wife, all easily accomplished. But now his sons have learned what we have done, and they are coming home to settle matters. This is not the army we beat from pillar to post in 1941, and I don’t have to remind you that even that army stopped us at Moscow, and then pushed back—very hard.”