The danger zone was near Kursk, where strong enemy mobile forces had arrived in great strength. He had a division left in Prague, another in Warsaw, and then went looking as far away as Wein in Austria for more troops. Then, and without even forming Hitler, He quietly ordered the Baltic coast garrison division at Memel to board the trains, replacing it with a security regiment. He did the same for the 290th Infantry Division, a reserve unit behind the 10th Infantry Korps in Latvia.
All these divisions joined those of Army Group Center’s reserve, moving by rail to the region southwest of Kursk. He then looked for a headquarters, and tapped Hans von Salmuth and the 2nd Army, which had been withdrawn into OKW reserve for possible assignment to the Leningrad operation in the spring. He needed it now.
By raiding these far off pantries, Halder had cobbled together a new army that would soon have all of ten infantry divisions. Knowing it would soon be facing a lot of enemy armor, he then ordered in several of the Schwerepanzer Brigades that were still in the German order of Battle, refitted after the heated action of 1941. The 106th and 107th Brigades would be the first to arrive, having been in reserve for Army Group Center. There were five more behind Army Group Nord, and he stole away the 105th from its reserve posting near Minsk, again saying nothing to Hitler about this. Finally, he called Manstein and asked if there was anything more he could spare. Knowing he had a few debts to pay for his own larceny, Manstein immediately detached the 60th Panzergrenadier Division and ordered it to Prokhorovka.
When Hitler learned that the enemy had already reached Kursk, be was fuming himself up into a tirade when Halder walked in, determined to try his own hand at being a miracle worker.
“Do not be overly concerned,” he began. “Yes, this is a serious setback, but it will be managed.”
“Managed? I see nothing on the map there at all? What is to stop the Russians from going all the way to Kharkov? I should have Rundstedt taken out and shot!”
“Not yet please,” said Halder, reaching for a pen. Then he simply leaned over the map table and began sketching in a defensive line, from a point near Orel and running south parallel to the enemy line of advance on Kursk before jogging east towards Prokhorovka. To save von Rundstedt’s head, he decided to give him the credit.
“There,” he said. “Von Rundstedt is now assembling his reserve 2nd Armee under von Salmuth. And from the South front, their operation at Rostov concluded, Manstein is sending the entire SS Panzer Korps. Steiner is coming, my Führer. You can be assured he will deal with this situation in short order.”
“Steiner?” Hitler brushed the hair from his brow, his other hand hidden behind his back, the one with the palsied tremor that became worse whenever he was agitated. “I thought he was in the Kuban?”
“Manstein saw fit to pull him out, and Rouff’s 17th Army will now do the job there. They have already crossed the Don and are south of Rostov… about here I expect.”
Hitler lean in, squinting. “And where is Steiner?”
“He will assemble here, near Belgorod. It will put him in a perfect position to stop the enemy pincer operation. It would be better, of course, if Model could use his 47th Panzer Korps to strike this southern pincer from the east while Steiner crushes it from the west. Unfortunately, due to your stand fast order, that will not be possible. A pity, because this stretch of river here has only a very few decent crossing points, and Model now has it at his back. If he were on the west bank, he could hold that line with far fewer troops, and then use his panzers to attack. As it stands, there they sit, and likely for some time. A shame to see those divisions stuck east of the river like that. They were all fattened up nicely with the equipment from the other divisions we sent to Armee Group Nord.”
“Who ordered those panzers to remain east of that river?” Hitler gave Halder an indignant look. “Get them out of there immediately! Move them to assist Steiner, just as you have described it to me a moment ago. After he smashes this southern pincer, then both forces will turn north and smash the other.” He took the pencil from Halder’s hand, leaning to draw an arrow on the map, as if this whole scheme had been his design all along.
“A much better use of those divisions,” said Halder. “I have no idea who gave that order, but I will see that it is corrected immediately.” He looked at Keitel, who nodded and then quickly withdrew to get the order off to Model before Hitler changed his mind.
“But remember,” said Hitler, “Voronezh will be held. You will make certain of that.”
“Model has posted three infantry divisions there,” said Halder.
The sudden appearance on the map of a complete army that had not been there before had been a balm to Hitler, and his mood had quieted. Yet there was still a restless sense of urgency about him, and he looked about him as if the other officers had stolen something from him, slipping it back into the living room while he wasn’t looking. The threat to the hard won gains of the long summer gave him great anxiety. He had hoped that offensive would finally break his enemy, and now, seeing the Russians still had the strength to mount such an attack, was most unnerving.
On the 22nd, Kursk was firmly in the enemy’s hands, though the southern pincer had made only 20 kilometers progress against a stubborn by hopeless defense put up by the 29th Panzergrenadier Division. Only a hundred kilometers now separated the two pincers, and while elated that he was finally given permission to extract the 47th Panzer Korps, the order had come only in the nick of time for Model. Getting back over that river would not be easy, and the engineers were the first units to move, given any transport they needed.
“Get them to the crossing sites and prepare pontoons,” Model told his Chief of Staff. “The rest of the Korps will follow as soon as we can disengage, which may not be easy.”
“Then we will not take Kharkov?” Sergei Kirov was in high spirits, and to think that he now had that option before him was something he still struggled to realize.
“First things first,” said Zhukov. “Rokossovsky was a little slow with the southern pincer, so I have adjusted the planned meeting point for both groups to this town here, Prokhorovka. That puts the enemy 2nd Tank Army in the bag, and after that we will have a massive mailed fist to turn southwest towards Kharkov. Yet I propose a double thrust. Rokossovsky is going to be reinforced by the addition of 3rd Shock Army and all the mechanized forces assigned to it. They were east of Voronezh, but the Germans have finally come to their senses and started falling back towards the river. It makes no sense to leave those shock troops there. Once they redeploy south through Pavlovsk they can approach the upper Donets. This will leave the forces presently constituting that group free to drive on Kharkov.”
“And the other thrust?”
“Timoshenko’s Northern Group could reorient and drive on Bryansk, but that would see both forces taking divergent paths. My judgment would be to let them continue southwest, with the River Desna on their right.”
“Kiev?” Kirov was amazed. “I had no idea that might be within our reach this soon.”
“It may not be. Logistics will be very difficult, and we must have Kharkov first. I have surged supply deliveries to keep the mobile troops moving, but we cannot do that indefinitely. In any case, if we send Timoshenko in that direction, it would cover the flank of the Southern Group as it advances on Kharkov, and also be available to support that attack should Kiev prove to be an impractical objective, as it likely will.”