Zhukov gave them a knowing nod of his head. “They are attempting to roll back our bridgehead.”
“The road to Poltava is only lightly screened,” said Rokossovsky.
“Indeed,” said Zhukov, “and that is exactly where Manstein wants us to go. Yet we cannot do so with Steiner on the loose out there. Don’t forget Popov in April, and the Fighting at Volkov Yar. He has managed to line up Steiner with this other mobile Korps in the south, and that could mean trouble. We must kill this wolf before we can count any more sheep with this offensive.”
“Kuznetsov wanted the mobile elements of 3rd Shock Group,” said Rokossovsky. “I approved the request.”
“Good.” Now Zhukov looked at the map. “Order Kuznetsov to continue his battle on the enemy left. That is the road to Krasnograd, yes? As for the mobile forces from 3rd Shock Group, send them to Taranovka. He is clenching his fist, and so we must do the same. How many divisions are in this enemy 57th Corps?”
“Three, but only one has tanks.”
“And Steiner has only three of the SS divisions,” said Vatutin.
“So that will give us five corps against his six mobile divisions.” Zhukov was thinking. “We still need more. I see that 3rd Shock Group’s front ends right at the city. Can they extend any farther south?”
“I believe they could.”
“Very well. Kuznetsov still has two Mech Corps west of the city. They are just holding the shoulder of that attempted envelopment. I want them pulled out and return to 1st Guard Tank Army. If that means we give up a little ground there, so be it. Have 3rd Shock army extend its front to cover the city. Then send the two Mech Corps to Taranovka as well. That will be the center of the wheel. We will have interior lines, and can therefore respond easily to any sector of the bridgehead defense that needs support. Once we have everything in place, then we can attack.”
Zhukov wanted every piece he could find focused on the center of the board. The pawns would have to hold on the flanks. Of course, ordering these things and seeing them carried out promptly and efficiently were two different things. Uncertain of where Steiner had moved that night, Kuznetsov decided not to blunder about in the dark, waiting for daylight to give him a better picture.
3rd Shock Army did move, for darkness was a friend when attempting to disengage from its positions close to the enemy at the edge of the city. An enormous army, it had six rifle divisions, three cavalry and six independent rifle brigades, with three supporting armored regiments. This was more than enough to extend its front southwest from the city to the Udy River, and the wooded terrain beyond. This allowed both of Kuznetsov’s mech corps to pull out of the frontage where they had been holding off the German 7th Infantry Division, and they moved south to rejoin 1st Guard Tank Army.
At the same time, the mobile elements of 3rd Shock Group started moving south towards the bridgehead as well, heading for Zimyev. If all these forces could be concentrated near Taranovka, the Soviets would have a force more than capable of taking on the German threat—a force that might finally meet and defeat the arch nemesis that had frustrated one offensive after another for the last year of the war—Steiner’s SS Korps.
Arriving at just the right time, general Georgie Zhukov had surmised the enemy’s intent and did exactly what was necessary to counter it. The Russians had their own master strategist as well, and after seeing so many of his advances stopped by Manstein, Zhukov now had something to prove.
Chapter 24
Kirchner had attacked all night, throwing 17th Panzer and his two Panzergrenadier Divisions against the 1st Siberian Motor Rifle Corps. He had beaten off the cavalry, which was regrouping to the rear, and now he ploughed right into this relieving force, hoping to make further headway before the Russians could dismount and get to good positions on the ground.
A dour faced man of 56 years at this time, Kirchner had joined the Royal Saxon Army at the age of 14, and had risen to command 1st Panzer Division at the outset of the war. Now he had the Korps that he would command for the duration of the conflict, and he had been driving for the town of Velikaya Bereka, about 5 kilometers north of his spearheads. He was slowly breaking up the enemy battalions, forcing them back, but his troops were becoming exhausted from the long three-day action without rest.
To the west of that town, Kuliev’s 1st Guard Cavalry Corps had been resting all night after losing their battle with the Germans the previous day. Now they would be called to action again. Their brigades were mixed bags; predominantly mounted cavalry, but with a company of motorcycle troops, another of T-40 light tanks, and a few Gaz 37mm AA guns on halftracks. There were nine brigades in all, and now they lined up for a charge reminiscent of the sweeping Cossack attacks in the Russian Civil War. Many in those ranks had come from Karpov’s best horsemen in Siberia, and now they would ride to the rescue of the crumbling lines of their brothers.
It would be trumpets and sabres at dawn, a rare event, for the Soviets had been re-training those troops to simply think of their horses as transportation, and to fight as dismounted infantry. Now, however, the urgency of the hour saw them mount up and charge, the rolling drumbeat of the hooves seeming an anachronism on a battlefield where it was tanks and APC’s that now ground up the turf. The Italian Savoia Cavalry had mounted a desperate charge like this in late 1942, much bigger than the British charge at Omdurman in 1898 that Churchill had seen. This one would eclipse them both, and rewrite the history on that score—the last great charge of mounted horsemen in the war. The sabres would gleam in the early light, yet it would not be those blades that would do any damage, but the grenades the soldiers would fling wildly about if they reached the German line.
First they had to get through the MG-42’s, and the fire from armored cars and tanks. They soon found that no matter how brave, mounted men on horses were no match for the steel of modern weapons. Kirchner called in his artillery, and the lethal rounds wreaked havoc on the charging cavalry, sabers and all. 17th Panzer had a full battalion of Lions, and they calmly lined up, the big turrets swiveling to bring those long barrels to bear on the enemy like a line of lethal pikes. But these pikes spit fire and death.
One gallant rider actually made it through the machineguns and when he found himself staring at the long 88mm barrel of a Lion, and with no more grenades, he beat upon that cold steel with his sabre in a gesture of futile bravery. Seconds later he was gunned down by a Panzergrenadier.
Weary or not, Kirchner ordered his men to continue their attack, for he knew that Steiner had appeared far to his left and that he was now attacking the enemy bridgehead. Hermann Balck had coined the phrase: ‘night marches are life savers,’ and perhaps that would be proved true again. Kirchner had done the job of engaging and weakening the lines of the Siberians, and now Steiner was bringing a hammer to 1st Guards Army.
That battle would prove to be much more difficult than Manstein expected. The dogged Guardsmen held on, giving ground stubbornly, and in the north of that attack, Leibstandarte found that it was tangling with both 7th and 10th Tank Corps. In the midst of this fight, up came Mikhail Panov with the whole of 1st Guards Tank Corps. It was quickly staged to join the fight, and now Dietrich found he was triple teamed on the left of the German attack.
On his right, Grossdeutschland Division had been making good progress against the enemy Guards infantry, driving them out of the woodland and back towards the winding flow of a wandering stream. The Soviets were pouring on the army artillery, three full regiments, in an effort to halt the German attack.