Anthony Tucker-Jones - The Battle for Kharkov 1941 - 1943

Introduction

U kraines capital Kiev and its second city Kharkov proved to be major battlegrounds during the bloody campaigns fought on the Eastern Front during 19411945. Kharkov was the scene of four critical battles during the Second World War. Crucially, in the aftermath of the initial success of Adolf Hitlers Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht was not quick enough to prevent the relocation of Kharkovs vital armaments factories, including a key tank factory. The city was the birthplace of the Red Armys T-34 medium tank, which ultimately would give it a much-needed edge over Hitlers panzers.

At the outbreak of war Kharkov was swiftly captured following the Red Armys defeat at Kiev and subsequent withdrawal. A second battle occurred when the Red Army launched a disastrous counteroffensive in the spring of 1942. The third engagement occurred in early 1943 when the Red Army launched a second counteroffensive that was similarly crushed after Field Marshal von Manstein conducted a brilliant tactical withdrawal only to reoccupy Kharkov. The fourth battle finally saw the city liberated once and for all by an operation launched in the wake of Hitlers catastrophic defeat at Kursk in the summer of 1943. Such was the Wehrmachts waning power that it could no longer hold Ukraines second city and the fighting moved ever westward.

Despite its strategic significance, Kharkov never loomed large in Hitlers planning for the invasion of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Stalins Red Army. Moscow and Leningrad were always seen as the competing prizes, followed by the Caucasian oilfields. Major General Erich Marcks, working under the auspices of General Halder, the German Army Chief of Staff, envisaged allocating the bulk of the German forces to an army group that would strike east across occupied Poland to Moscow via Minsk and Smolensk, while another group attacked southeastwards towards Kiev.

Marcks advocated subsidiary flanking operations conducted against Leningrad and a southern advance against Kiev by GermanRomanian forces striking from annexed Bessarabia. The central army groups objectives of Moscow and Kiev were the key, which would ensure the Red Army was trapped and destroyed between the Dvina and Dnieper in nine to seventeen weeks.

In fairness, the Marcks plan was just that: a planning study rather than a fully fledged operational plan. However, it laid down the fundamental strategy for Operation Barbarossa, though it was to be much amended and Hitlers and the Armys strategic views were to diverge considerably. Most notably, Hitler would see the capture of Leningrad not as a third primary objective, as advocated by the Army, but as an essential factor before the crucial drive on Moscow.

Marcks assumed that although the Wehrmacht would have only a small advantage in men, it would make up for this with a distinct superiority in armoured units and quality of equipment. European occupation forces aside, Marcks calculated that the Germans could muster 110 infantry divisions, 24 panzer divisions and 12 motorised divisions against 96 Soviet rifle divisions, 23 cavalry divisions and 28 armoured brigades.