February 1943

Eastern Front

The 40th Army captures Grayvoron and Bogodukhov as the Soviets push out from Kharkov. The 69th Army takes control of the Bogosukhov sector from 40th Army as it redeploys. As the rifle armies push west and northwest, the 3rd Tank Army advances to the south and southwest, striking the Grossdeutschland and 320th Infantry Divisions of Corps Raus. Slavyansk falls to 1st Guards Army as the offensive from the Donets penetrates deep toward the Dniepr.

With the Soviet position increasingly over extended, Manstein consults with Hitler The Führer has arrived in Zaporozhe early in the day, meeting Manstein at the headquarters of Army Group South. Manstein reports that Army Detachment Hollidt has been forced back to the line of the Mius River, closely followed by South Front but will be able to maintain an effective defense on this position. The 1st Panzer Army has halted the Soviet advance at Grishino but is involved in heavy fighting around Kramatorsk. To the north Army Detachment Kempf continues to fallo back to the southwest, nearing Poltava and the Mozh River. During discussions on the 17th and 18th Manstein outlines his plan. Using his meager forces in concentration, he proposes to bite off the Soviet spearheads and cut their lines of communication. Swiftly regrouping the Germans will then push north, rolling up the Soviet salinet that protrudes toward the Dniepr. In cooperation with Army Group Center, Manstein's panzers will finally isolate the forward elements of the Voronezh, Central and Southwest Fronts, shortening the combat line and destroying large elements of the Soviets' strike forces. Such a victory will give the Ostheer the chance to restructure and rebuild its armies for the campaign in the summer. After protracted debate Hitler finally agrees to the plan and give Manstein the freedom of maneuver he has been calling for since November 1943.

Quickly deploying his forces Manstein aime to begin the counterattack almost immediately. Army Detachment Hollidt holds firm on the Mius, anchoring the German right wing against the sea, while 1st Panzer Army, with III and XL Panzer Corps and XXX Corps, deployed behind Hollidt south of Krasnoarmieskoye. This army is ordered to penetrate the rear of 1st Guards Army and Group Popov. To the west, Hoth's 4th Panzer Army will hit 1st Guards Army and 6th Army, now only 30 miles from the Dniepr, Hoth has assembled the 3 panzer and 2 infantry divisions of the LVII and XLVIII Panzer Corps before Zaporozhe at Boguslav to cover the river crossing and protect the lines of communication to the German forces in the Donbas. To the north the SS Panzer Corps, having fallen back upon Krasnograd from Kharkov, will strike southeast to trap the advancing Soviet armies between itself and the XLVIII Panzer Corps. The gap between SS Panzer Corps and 2nd Army, far to the north, is covered b Army Detachment Kempf's Raus Corps. The XL Panzer Corps is to attack at Krasnoarmieskoye and push north to Barvenkovo to link up with the SS Panzer Corps and XL Panzer Corps. The III Panzer Corps is to counterattack south of Slavyansk in order to retake Krasnoarmieskoye and Grishino.

The continueation of the Soviet offensive after Stalingrad had rolled th Germans back from the Don to the Donets, but in the process had over extended the exhausted Soviet armies. Yet again, the Stavka refuese to believe its own intelligence information and deludes itself into thinking that German redeployment was a sign of the continuing evacuation of the southern Ukraine. Manstein was about to deliver a sobering lesson in the military art.

Kharkov had changed hands for the second time as the Red Army had pushed west after its victory at Stalingrad. It was again to prove the focal point for the massed armies surging across the Ukrainian steppe. Field Marshal von Manstein, Germany's foremost general, was about to deliver a lightning counterattack with his carefully mustered reserves, an attack that woudl push the Red Army to the east once more.