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2. 2. Waffen-55 Panzer Battles on the Eastern Front 1943-1945 Tifil Ripley ~ DTpublishing 1VUICompany
3. 3. This edition first published in 2000 by MBI Publishing Company, 729 Prospect Avenue, PO Box 1, Osceola, WI 54020-0001 USA 2000 Brown Partworks Limited All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purpose of review no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Publisher. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or publisher, who also disclaim any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specified details. We recognize that some words, model names and designations, for example, mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. This is not an official publication. MBI Publishing Company books are also available at discounts in bulk quantity for industrial or sales-promotional use. For details write to Special Sales .Manager at Motorbooks International Wholesalers & Distributors, 729 Prospect Avenue, PO Box 1, Osceola, WI 54020-0001 USA. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available. ISBN 0-7603-0937-X Printed in Hong Kong For Brown Partworks Limited 8 Chapel Place Rivington Street London EC2A3DQ Editor: Peter Darman Picture research: Antony Shaw Design: Brown Partworks Maps: Mark Walker Production: Matt Weyland
4. 4. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Key to maps Map list 7 8 9 Introduction: Hitler's Guard 10 Chapter 1: Winter Tempest 18 Chapter 2: Wallen-55 - Panzer Elite 28 Chapter 3: Kharkov 48 Chapter 4: Kursk 76 Chapter 5: Death Ride of the Totenkopf 112 Chapter 6: The Fuhrer's Fire Brigade 126 Chapter 7: Death on the Dnieper 140 Chapter 8: Kessel Battles 152 Chapter 9: Holding the Line 166 Chapter 10: Spring Awakening 176 Chapter 11: The Bitter End 194
5. 5. Appendices Waffen-SS ranks 200 Waffen-SS divisional insignia 201 Armoured fighting vehicle and artillery capabilities 202 I SS Panzer Corps' order of battle 206 Army Group South average tank strength February 1943 208 Soviet order of battle in the Ukraine, February 1943 209 II SS Panzer Corps' order of battle, July 1943 210 Soviet forces at Prokhorovka, 12 July 1943 211 German Sixth Army order of battle, July 1943 212 Soviet order of battle, Mius Front, July 1943 213 German forces in the Kharkov sector, August 1943 214 Soviet order of battle west of Kharkov, August 1943 215 German XXXXIV Panzer Corps' order of battle, November 1943 216 German orders of battle, Cherkassy Pocket, February 1944 217 Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg Divisions orders of battle 218 I SS Panzer Corps LSSAH and Hitlerjugend orders of battle 219 Bibliography 220 md~ ll1
6. 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is dedicated to the heroes of the Red Army's XVIII and XXIX Tank Corps, who first engaged II SS Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka in the titanic tank battle on 12 July 1943. For the next two years, brave Soviet tank crews of these two fine units would be in the vanguard of driving Hitler's Waffen- SS panzer elite back into the heart of the Third Reich, so freeing Europe of Nazi tyranny for good. The author would like to thank the following people for their help during the researching and writing of this study. Neil Tweedie of The Daily Telegraph, for his unique insights into Nazi mentality; the Imperial War Museum records staff in London for their help with research into German World War II documents; the British Army Staff College, Camberley, for allowing me access to rare German World War II records in their possession; Stewart Frazer for proof-reading my text; Pete Darman, of Brown Partworks, for at last giving me the opportunity to fulfil my long-held ambition to write about the Eastern Front; and finally, Mr McAlpine, my history teacher, for begin- ning my interest in World War II history.
7. 7. Key to maps Military units - types infantry armoured motorized infantry/ panzergrenadier Military units - size xxxxx D army group/front xxxx D army xxx D corps xx D division III D regiment Military movements ....... Soviet attack I I I ~ Soviet retreat ....... German attack I I I ~ German retreat General military symbols Soviet frontline Soviet defensive line Soviet pocket or position German frontline German defensive line Military unit colours Geographical symbols D Soviet Germany o German pocket or position Road River Urban area U Urban area Country boundary
8. 8. List of maps Eastern Europe and the western Soviet Union 15 The German summer offensive of 1942 20 The offensive of the Soviet Don, Stalingrad and Southwest Fronts, November 1942 24 Strategic situation in the Kharkov area, January 1943 52 Situation east and south of Kharkov, 10-13 February 1943 54 Soviet advances to the north and south of Kharkov, 15 -February 1943 59 Soviet and German attacks south of Kharkov. Position on 24 February 1943 64 Offensive operations of the Grossdeutschland Division, I SS Panzer Corps and XXXXVIII Panzer Corps against Kharkov, 7-10 March 1943 72 Soviet defensive belts in the Kursk salient, July 1943 87 Waffen-SS and German Army assaults south of Kursk, 4-7 July 1943 95 II SS Panzer Corps approaches Prokhorovka, 9-11 July 1943 102 Prokhorovka on 12 July 1943 - the high watermark of Operation Citadel 108 Eliminating the River Mius bridgehead, July 1943 119 The Soviet offensive in_ the Kharkov sector, early August 1943 129 Situation in the Belgorod and Kharkov sectors, 11-12 August 1943 135 Situation in the Kharkov area, 23 August 1943 137 Leibstandarte operations near Radomyschl, November 1943 146 The recapture of Radomyschl, 26 November to 23 December 1943 150 The Totenkopf Division stabilizes the front near Kirovograd, 10-16 January 1944 155 The breakout from the Cherkassy Pocket through the Lyssinka bridgehead, 11-20 February 1944 158 German units in the Kamenets Podolsk Pocket, March 1944- 162 Operation Bagration, June 1944 169- IV SS Panzer Corps' attempt to relieve Budapest, January-February 1945 180 Soviet offensives in Hungary, Czechosl~vakia and Austria, March-April 1945 192
9. 9. INTRODUCTION: HITLER'S GUARD The ethos of the Waffen-SS and the war on the Eastern Front. T he Eastern Front was the decisive theatre of operations during World War II. The pivotal point came in mid-1943, when the Red Army and Nazi Germany massed the largest tank forces in the history of modern warfare for a titanic clash of armour. At the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, millions of troops and thousands of tanks clashed in an epic engagement. The Red Army's ~efences held and Adolf Hitler's panzer armies were stopped in their tracks. Over the next 21 months, having gained the strategic initiative, the mighty Red Army surged forward into the heart of the Fuhrer's Thousand Year Reich. Standing in the way of the Russians was an increasingly belea- guered and battle-weary Wehrmacht, its divisions understrength and its reserves largely spent. When crises threatened, Hitler turned to the elite panzer divisions of the Waffen-SS. Time and again they were thrown into desperate holding actions and counterattacks to plug gaps in Germany's Eastern Front. As a result, they soon became known as the Fuhrer's "Fire Brigade". As the war progressed, these actions became more forlorn until even the die-hard Waffen-SS commanders could see that their cause was lost. This book tells the story of the actions of the Waffen-SS Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Totenkopf, Wiking, Hitlerjugend, Hohen- staufen and Frundsberg Divisions on the Eastern Front between 1943 Left: Two young crew members of a Hummel self-propelled howitzer belonging to the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen. The average age of the division, including officers, was 18.
10. 10. Right: Two officers who had a major influence on the development of the Leibstandarte Division: 55- Oberstgruppenflihrer und Panzer Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (left) and SS-Brigadeflihrer Fritz Witt. and 1945. These include their dramatic suc- cesses during the German counteroffensive after the surrender at Stalingrad, along with the preparations for the Kursk Offensive. The key role in Operation Citadel, the codename of the German attack, of the Waffen-SS panzers is explained using newly available original sources which throw fresh light on the course of the battle. During the eight months after the failure at Kursk, the Waffen-SS panzers were deployed again and again to try to prevent Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Army Group South from being overwhelmed by thousands of Soviet tanks. In battle after battle, the Waffen-SS destroyed hundreds of T-34s, only to encounter scores of new Red Army tank brigades on the winter battle- fields of the Ukraine. While the bulk of the Waffen-SS panzer force was pulled back from the East to counter the D-Day landings in France in June 1944, the Totenkopf and Wiking Divisions remained behind to help defend Poland during the summer and autumn of 1944. After the failed Ardennes Offensive, Hitler ordered the Waffen-SS panzers to mass in Hungary during January 1945 in a bid to break the Soviet siege of Budapest. The subsequent offensive was the death ride of the Waffen-SS panzers, and within a few weeks the morale of the once proud elite
11. 11. armoured force was broken for good. Shattered, they headed west to escape Soviet vengeance. In their brief existence, the Waffen-SS panzer divisions established for themselves a reputation as some of the most formidable formations in the history of armoured war- fare. While some historians have tried to att'ribute their battlefield success to their abundant supplies of the best tanks and other material, this is a simplistic analysis. The Waffen-SS panzer divisions may have been new to armoured warfare in early 1943, but their men learnt fast and were soon able to execute many complicated and difficult battlefield manoeuvres. The key to their success was undoubted- ly their unique esprit de corps, which enabled them to absorb thousands of casualties and still keep on fighting in the face of over- whelming odds. Time after time, Waffen-SS divisions were rebuilt after suffering some- times in the region of 75 percent casualty rates. This amazing feat was due to a num- ber offactors. Principally, it was down to the dynamic leadership of a cadre of junior and senior commanders. Key Waffen-SS compa- ny, battalion and regimental commanders were all in their late twenties or early thir- ties. These men were almost all fanatical pre- war Nazi Party members who believed in the racial superiority of the German "master race", and many were proteges of Hitler himself or other senior Nazi leaders. Waffen-SS officers were a breed apart. They were charismatic and vigorous, gener- ating loyalty and unwavering obedience from subordinates. At the same time, they made a point ofnot displaying fear or nerves in public. Most had been wounded several times in battle, but they managed to gener- ate an aura of indestructibility. No matter how many tight scrapes they got into, these men still made their troops feel that no harm would come to them as long as they stuck close and did not waver. In Nazi INTRODUCTION Below: Superb shot of a Leibstandarte Division Tiger I on the Eastern Front in 1944. It is covered in zimmerit anti- magnetic paste to stop antitank charges being placed on the hull.
12. 12. Left: Infantry and panzer officers of the Wiking Division on the Eastern Front in 1944. The division, which contained a substantial number of Scandinavian and West European volunteers, maintained a consistently high combat record under commanders such as Felix Steiner, Herbert Gille and Johannes- Rudolf Muhlenkamp. Junior Waffen-SS officers held the power of life and death over the populations of occupied countries Germany, being an officer in the Waffen-55 brought with it immense power and privi- leges. Even junior Waffen-55 officers held the power of life and death over the civilian pop- ulations of occupied countries, and they were not afraid to use that power if the occasion merited. The mere sight ofan 55 uniform was enough to turn even the most defiant Russian civilian into a cowed slave. Away from the frontline, Waffen-55 officers and soldiers lived the high life. Their Fuhrer may have been a tee-total vegetarian, but his elite troops knew how to live life to the full. Nazi propaganda broadcasts, newsreels and magazines turned Waffen-55 officers into celebrities, which further fuelled their egos. The result was a heady mix of super confi- dence, verging on arrogance. The Waffen-55 panzer leaders learned their trade during the Blitzkrieg years of vic- tories in 1939-41, so that by the spring of 1943 they were battle hardened from earlier campaigns in the West and Russia. Key com- manders moved up the ladder of promotion between the various divisions, and so got to know each other well. Although this meant rivalry, it also resulted in senior commanders knowing their subordinates' strengths or foibles before units entered battle. This meant that, in the heat of battle, Waffen-55 panzer units could be quick- ly combined or placed under the command of different divisions with the minimum of disruption or confusion. The ability to regroup at short notice on a battle- field to meet a new threat, or begin a new offensive, was often a decisive factor in bring- ing victory. Thus by the summer of 1943, the Waffen-55 panzer divisions had grown into well-oiled professional fighting machines. The elite Waffen-55 divisions soon proved themselves to be skilled practitioners
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