Orel fell on December 19th, but strangely, the Russian mobile units then turned almost due south and did not persist west towards the large industrial center of Bryansk. While Model had skillfully refused his northern left flank, the Russian attack kept trying to flow around it. At the same time, as if on cue, the southern group of forces that had broken out of the Boguchar Bridgehead abandoned their westward drive towards Kharkov and turned northwest.
Manstein received the reports with a knowing nod of his head, for the Northern attack had forsaken Bryansk and Kirov when it turned south. Both groups were now heading for another city that had become famous in the war, where another great turning point battle had once been fought.
The Russians were heading for Kursk, and if they could meet there, all of the 2nd Panzer Armee would be sitting in the largest German pocket to form since the battle for Moscow in the winter of 1941.
Chapter 33
On the night of December 20, 1942, the leading unit in the Northern Group of Forces came to a halt just outside the frozen airstrip on the outskirts of Kursk. 20th Guard Tank Brigade was leading the 5th Guard Tank Corps south, eager to be the first to reach the assigned objective of Operation Jupiter. This northern pincer had every reason to claim bragging rights. It had broken through at Tula and then raced just over 185 miles in the first five days of the offensive, an average of 37 miles per day.
In Poland, the German Panzers had advanced at an average rate of 11 miles per day, and in Barbarossa they improved this to about 19 miles per day. So this lightning quick movement of a heavy mechanized force was quite astonishing, for both the Russians and Germans alike. By contrast, the Southern Group of Forces had advanced about 100 miles, or still a respectable 25 miles per day. They had faced defensive opposition the entire time, while the northern pincer had done little more than broken field running after the fall of Orel and that fateful turn to the south.
In spite of this achievement, the bag was far from closed on Model’s 2nd Panzer Armee. The Southern pincer was still 125 miles from Kursk, so Zhukov gave orders that the Northern Group should continue south towards Belgorod. That route would take them through an insignificant town with a name that also rang through Fedorov’s history, Prokhorovka.
Model realized the significance of what was happening, and while his inclination was to make a rapid withdrawal towards Kharkov, the volatile Adolf Hitler had exploded when he got news of the Russian offensive. With Both Tula and Orel now in enemy hands, Bryansk threatened, Voronezh and the lines north and south under heavy pressure, he issued one of his infamous stand fast orders, forbidding Model to withdraw. In effect, he was insisting that 2nd Panzer Armee stay in the trap the enemy was laboring so hard to close. For Hitler, the loss of Voronezh was unconscionable, the fruit of all that effort in the German Summer Offensive now about to be spoiled. He issued another Führerbefehl that demanded the city be defended to the last man, and the last bullet.
Model complained bitterly to von Rundstedt. “I still have nine divisions east of the Don! They will have that river behind them, no good bridges, and only two suitable crossing points where I can move in supply. The ice is thickening, but it still can’t take the weight of the tanks, and we will have to build pontoon bridges to cross that obstacle, coming or going. Beyond that, Kursk is virtually undefended, as is Kharkov. They can waltz in and take those cities for the cost of the petrol!”
“I understand everything you are saying,” said von Rundstedt. “But I cannot allow you to withdraw west of the Don. The Führer has forbidden any such movement. As for Kharkov, Manstein is seeing to that. I don’t know what is happening at Kursk yet, but it will be Halder’s problem.”
“Do you realize that if they get behind me I have nothing to send to that sector? It is all I can do to hold the line as it is. We remain under very heavy pressure.”
“They knew they had to lean on you heavily,” said von Rundstedt. “They needed to keep you engaged to prevent the exact same kind of sensible withdrawals you are now proposing.”
“Well we could have saved them the trouble,” said Model, the anger apparent in his voice. “Hitler has seen to that for them. Do you have any idea what Halder is sending for Kursk?”
“Not at the moment. There has been some discussion about returning some of the divisions that were moved to Armeegruppe Nord, but that will take some doing.”
“Then I certainly hope Manstein has something in his pocket. God help us if he doesn’t act swiftly.”
Manstein did have something in his pocket. He had General Felix Martin Julius Steiner, four SS Divisions and the Reichsführer Brigade. That was the first unit to go, but the trains did not stop at Kharkov. Manstein told them to move right on up to Belgorod. The 5th SS Wiking Division was next in line, with three infantry regiments, and another of tanks that had been inherited from the Brandenburg Division. Yet that was all that could be moved that day with the available rolling stock, including the tanks of the 502 SS Schwerepanzer Battalion. General Gille’s Wikings were told to assemble at Volchansk, southeast of Belgorod. The only other things that moved were some massive siege guns dubbed Karl and Dora, both bound for Volgograd.
Frustrated and angry, Model took a chance and ordered the 41st Regiment of 3rd Panzergrenadier Division to go to Kursk. It arrived at dusk, just as the Russian tankers were lining up on the frozen airfield north of the city. The place would soon become a magnet for steel, with forces on every side of the compass bearing down on the city, and using every road or rail that led to that place.
Behind that leading tank brigade was a torrent of mechanized corps, formations that had been building in reserve areas for most of the second half of 1942. Zhukov had held the line with the rifle divisions, losing more and more ground to the Germans in the summer and autumn of their offensive. Operation Blue had been a great success, and with it they had largely destroyed the old Red Army they had first engaged in 1941. The survivors formed the nucleus of new divisions, like a hard nut in the center of the fruit, and new conscripts fleshed out the peach.
Now, by late 1942, it was an all-new Red Army, more heavily motorized, better equipped, and now with hordes of fast new proven tanks. They were still outclassed by the better German designs. The old T-34 shock had long since been dispelled by the arrival of the Big Cats, and by men like Kurt Knispel and Hermann Balck who knew how to use those tanks. But now the Russians finally had mass in their mobile formations, the force to challenge the German panzers on almost equal terms, though a single German division would be the equal of a Soviet Tank Corps.
Zhukov’s fast moving Guards Mech Corps reached Kursk in great strength on the morning of the 21st of December, and when Model received the report from that one Panzergrenadier regiment he had sent there, he ordered it to get out while it still could.
Halder was at his wits end. His immediate reaction to the crisis was to reach for all the divisions that had been sent to Armeegruppe Nord, but he realized that most had been badly depleted during the long summer offensive, and much of their equipment was left behind to build up the divisions Model retained. It would be at least another month before any of them were fit for combat, and to use them now would only court their complete destruction.
His first and greatest need, however, was for more infantry to reform the ruptured front line. In the north, the line along the Oka was secure, and no longer under attack. That had obviously been a chosen stopping point for the offensive there. Model’s army was still holding, yet in grave danger of being cut off and pocketed. Manstein was secure in the south, but a lot of infantry had gone there, and now the entire 17th Army was pushing south of the Don for the Kuban Operation.