Episode 541-German Surprises Vs Soviet Tenacity

Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II podcast, episode 541. German surprises versus Soviet tenacity. Last time, on July 5, 1943, Operation Citadel was launched. When Hitler had little faith in its outcome, meant nothing now. This had to work. Or the counterattack by the Soviets would be Stalingrad-esque in its intensity. By 5.30 a.m., both Russian fronts, central and south, were engaged. To the north or Soviet right flank on the central front, the 13th Army was resisting enemy infantry and panzers. On the Soviet left or southern flank, the 6th Army was resisting as well. Besides the infantry and panzers, the 13th Army to the north was being bombed and strafed by Luftflot 6, starting at 5.10 a.m., but all of this was only a preliminary. At 5.30 a.m., a German attack 30 miles wide commenced, made up of one panzer and nine infantry divisions. General Moldal, in command of 9th Army and the northern attack, wanted his infantry to go in first to clear lanes for his panzers. And his hope was that the weeks of practice on older Soviet minefields to their rear would give his men confidence and speed, but what they were facing now this morning made previous defensive lines look like child's play. As the German assault engineers ran forward and then crawled through the fields of corn or rye, they found the crop growing, good camouflage. What it would not do was stop a bullet. Besides, when the crops or plants were so small, the Russians had moved in and placed wooden cigar box anti-personnel mines with trip wires all over the place. Now the growth of the spring covered these up. Hence, as explosions started going off and German men thrown into the air, the survivors realized their training had only half prepared them for this day. For the German assault engineers who had to run out in more open fields, the Soviets not killed from the earlier bombings or artillery had clear fields of fire. German troops started falling. The bullets were joined by mortar shells, still the Germans, well-practiced and professional, got on with clearing lanes, that is, until a hot piece of metal stopped each individual. So no surprise, General Motel's first attempt did not get very far, or rather the gains were not justified by the losses just sustained. Thus, he would hit the enemy 13th Army's left flank, but only after an hour-long artillery bombardment, this German assault started at 8.30 a.m. Here, a 15-mile wide section was only covered by two defending rifle divisions, the Soviet 15th and 81st. Against this, Motel launched five divisions, a Panzer Division, with Tiger and Elephant support. No surprise, after an hour, the town of Bobrik, just a mile away, was taken. This was achieved by the 20th Panzer supported by the 58th Grenadier Regiment of the 6th Division, which had captured another town to the left or east of Bobrik. And with this break in the 1st enemy line, Grossman, commander of the 6th Division, let loose his Tigers of heavy Panzer Battalion 505. Also within 505 was a platoon of a new weapon, the Goliath, a miniature unmanned demolition tank, four feet long, two feet high, two feet wide. Its job was to detonate mines or destroy enemy strong points with its 200 pounds of high explosive charge. Behind these Goliaths were platoons of the 38th Pioneer Battalion of the 37th Grenadier Regiment waiting for the order to move forward. The good news was that the Tiger Panzers, once they were on the move, were able to brush aside scattered T-34s and eliminate anti-tank teams. German infantry followed the Tigers, and once the Tigers had crossed the Oka River, they found themselves in the open flank of the Soviet 676th Rifle Regiment, which forced it to fall back. And the way the ground lay, this thrust was coming east of the already captured Bobrik at the town of Borupki. As Grossman was soon with the Tigers, he could see before him collapsing, chaotic defenders. At this moment, he thought and wrote, "If the tanks had rolled through then, we could have, perhaps, have reached the objective of Kursk because the enemy was completely surprised and still weak. Valuable time was lost, which the enemy used to rush in his reserves." This last part was certainly true, as for the former, the simple fact was that this heavy Panzer Battalion 505 had gone further, faster, than modal thought possible. So he planned to release three other Panzer divisions, but only after 24 hours of fighting. At the moment, they were not ready to deploy. What might have been? When the Tigers were beyond the first defensive line, the trailing Mark IVs of 20th Panzer Division now approached the enemy. Here the Russians, well, the ones still alive, gathered themselves and made suicidal charges at the smaller Panzers. Whether it was with petrol bombs or satchel charges, the Russians here fought until they were all, no more. Word of this got back to Raskozowski, who knew he had a serious problem. His 15th and 81st Rifle Divisions had been separated, and the entire right wing of the 70th Army to their left was in danger of collapsing. Even worse, Raskozowski's plan had involved anticipating where the main German thrust would come at. So he could use the 13th Army to hold them up enough for the 2nd Tank Army on Day 2 to hit the Stahl Germans in their flank or rear, but that's not what was happening. The German drive was a bit west of his anticipated point at another town, meaning the 2nd Tank's counterattack was in the wrong spot. He yelled orders for their redeployment. While these Soviet tanks were dashing all around, at least three tank corps worth and infantry and artillery moved up from reserve positions. These reinforcements did not reach the Germans per se, but were close enough to be a threat, but far enough away to still have time to reform their lines and get a sense of what the enemy was going to do next. As for the Germans, they kept coming and still had a few aces up their sleeve. The town of Ponri, from the German perspective, centered left, was now attacked, around the same area as a bit east of this, the German penetration had been less, meaning the enemy was closer here. The Germans pulled out another new invention, the B-4, a low-tracked vehicle which weighed 2 tons and carried a 1,000-pound high-explosive charge which could be jettisoned and then controlled remotely. But there was a downside. The driver of the B-4 had to drive the vehicle into position, turn on the remote control, and then hop out and run back to his side as fast as he could, hoping that the enemy would not… 8 B-4s were deployed, but only half of those men made it back to their lines. Further to the west, where the Germans were having their greatest penetration, at this point about four or five miles, the elephants were bringing their 200-millimeter-thick heavy armor plating and large guns to bear. But when these beasts had advanced about two miles, they were separated from their smaller, faster tanks that were protecting their flanks. And with that, the Soviets, still in the area, hiding in foxholes, leapt out, climbed to top these beasts and aimed their flame-flowers at the elephant's ventilation slants. The men inside were silenced, but only after screaming. Guderian, soon getting reports of this day, wrote, "Once they had broken into the enemy's infantry zone, they literally had to go quail-shooting with cannon, in other words, inefficient and a waste of precious resources." Model's attack plan was quickly melting like ice on an early spring day. Worse, as quickly as the German engineers had cleared lanes in the minefields, Russian engineers ran out and laid new tracks of mine. Before the day was out, 6,000 new Russian mines in this area were put out, but in front of and behind the enemy's penetration points. As for the attacks, Model had already lost 100 tanks and self-propelled guns to enemy mines so far. Even more were taken out by anti-tank artillery, because again, the Soviet minefields, like in so many other battles, had channeled the enemy's advances. And waiting for them was a plethora of Soviet artillery teams. After the panzers and guns were taken out, Soviet machine guns would rush forward and focus on the enemy infantry. However, the Germans to the north did make progress this day. On the German right, the 20th Panzer drove five miles in, past the initial Soviet line, just right of center from a German perspective, which allowed the 86th Infantry Division to race through the shattered second line and reach the third Soviet defensive line. This represented a penetration of almost 10 miles, yet there was a part of Model's plan that did not come to pass. In so many other battles on the Eastern Front, normally after such breakthroughs, the Russian soldiers, barely trained and peasants or factory workers, would panic and retreat. Not this time. When a Soviet position was lost or overran, there were survivors and they knew they had been beaten. But instead of panicking and rising up only to die, they would hide and when the Tigers or other heavy tanks passed by, they would then rise up and take on the enemy's infantry or smaller tanks. Thus, the Germans were tearing huge chunks into enemy territory, making it theirs, but they were also losing much of what was making this happen. That night of July 5th, Model met with his staff. In essence, much of his 9th Army was engaged with the enemy. Unfortunately, most of his Tiger Panzers had outpaced their infantry support, which was trying to catch up. But instead, they kept running into Soviet patrols or survivors of that day, thus denying them further advancement. Of concern was the German far left flank. Much armor had been held back there, waiting for a Soviet counterattack to hit them from the southeast, thus at an angle, not exactly due east or due south, but somewhere in between. So it was decided then to finally move these tanks out tonight into the salient, for they would surely be needed on the morrow. And besides, there was no use in fighting for the same territory, twice. Of all of this fighting, the carnage in the skies was just as intense. The Soviets claimed 106 kills for 98 losses. These numbers are probably enhanced, but reflect the attritional nature of the battles up there, whereas the German claims could not even see reality from where they were. Point is, both sides lost heavily, with only one of them being able to sustain such losses. What was true was the still learning curve for the Soviet pilots. More times than not that day, they were lured away so German ground support planes could attack Soviet armor. They would learn in time, but for now, their ground war suffered. As for the air battle in the south, what happened there in the early morning hours, dwarfed anything that modal could have imagined. At this time of the year, dawn arrived around 2.30am, and it looked to be a clear day coming. Like against the central front, Menstein's more southern forces were to move out at 3.30am, but first preceded by an artillery barrage. But more than that, practically every aircraft of the 8th Air Corps, some 800 planes, which strike against Soviet artillery positions, airfields, fortifications, and trenches. The bombers would take off first and form up, and then the fighters would lift off, and altogether they would head for enemy territory. But there was just one problem that morning. The aircraft of the Luftwaffe were not the first in the air that morning. General Seidemann, commander of the 8th Air Corps, knew the Soviets knew what he had. There was nowhere to hide his "Geschfather of Bombers." All he could do, and intended to do, was be the first one to strike. But as the first bombers were about to lift off, he was told of air traffic, and the voices were Russian. Clearly, the Soviet 17th Air Army was already aloft, and coming at them. Then the Freya early warning radars picked up hundreds of enemy planes. And as Seidemann's aircraft were literally wingtip to wingtip, they were about to be destroyed while on the ground. Shouting orders, the bombers were told to move aside so the fighters could take off first and now, or this, would all be over before it could start. But when the Soviet aircraft, a mix of bombers and fighters, flew over his position at Mikoyanskova, about 7 miles or 11 kilometers southwest of Belgorod, and did not attack, he assumed they were on their way to Kharkov. But what the Soviets could not know was that those airfields would all be empty of planes as they were ordered to take off. Had the Soviets just made their first big mistake? It was then that the Measureshmet Bf109Gs engaged the Soviet formations. As they had done countless times before, first the Russian formations were busted up and then chased down individually. Meanwhile, German AA fire went after what enemy planes they could. As Seidemann looked up, the sky was thick with dueling aircraft. He would write of this moment, "It was a rare spectacle. Our planes were burning and crashing. In no time at all, 120 Soviet aircraft were downed. Our own losses were so small as to represent total victory, for the consequences was complete air control of the 8th Air Corps sector." So though it had not been planned this way, the skies in the southern sector now belonged to the Germans, as at least 100 Soviet aircraft were destroyed. Those that had made it through dropped bombs on empty airfields. At 3.30 a.m., Mannstein's forces moved out. Their goal was to meet up with Modul's 9th Army, but only after passing through Obeyon first. But thanks to Air Reconnaissance General Hoth, who would be in local command new, first he had to go through General Katukov's 1st Tank Army, which was reinforced, as well as watch out for several other tank corps that would be to his east, as he neared Obeyon, meaning if he went too far north, his right flank and then his rear would be open to counterattack, a massive one, as nearby was also the 5th Guard's Tank Army. Thus, if Hoth did as exactly as the OKH had ordered him to do, his 4th Panzer Army would have to take on and defeat three reinforced Soviet Tank Armies. The math was not mathy, so on his own, Hoth decided to change the attack plan. Instead of engaging the 1st Tank Army, he would swing more to the northeast and go around them. This would allow him to not fight fairly of what seemed to be the 1st of three battles, and he would be able to attack the 1st Tank Army from behind. Next, as Army Detachment Kev would be starting out to Hoth's right flank, they could meet up with him sooner, which would help Kev protect Hoth's right flank. Thus, one Soviet Tank Army could be destroyed, while the others were either kept at bay or were too far away for an immediate clash. Not unbeknownst to Hoth, he was also helping his cause in another way. As Hoth had decided to alter his course without telling anyone superior to him, certainly not the OKH, there was no message about this for Ultra, aka Pletchley Park, to pick up and decipher, which meant London could not inform the emigre Rosler in Switzerland who could then not tell the Swiss Intelligence Service, which Stalin had access to. However, that was happening. Meanwhile, General van Tutten did not know everything about the German attack about to come at him, and the enemy already controlled the skies. This week, I don't have any new members, so I'm going to randomly pick three people and thank them. Let's see here. For the first person, Kate Walters at Kanadega, New York. Thank you very much. Hope I got that name right. The next one, the next member, Paul Leonard from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Thank you very much, Paul. And for the third one, I'd just like to pick names that I can't pronounce. Netsaberak Zwaid from Derbyshire, UK. Thank you very much. It's much appreciated. I did have one donation from Brian Tillman. Thank you very much, Brian. Greatly appreciated. So yeah, so we'll burn through, no pun intended. We will go through the Kursk War, set up what's going on, how that affects the rest of the Eastern Front, and then bring the Americans in in Morocco and other locations, and get a glimpse of the one, the only, General Patton. Take care, everyone.