Winter Offensive 1942 – Kharkov 4

Just when it seemed that the Soviet attack was losing momentum, this sight greeted General Kempf as he flew over his hard-pressed Panzers in his Fieseler Storch:

A hastily assembled Kamfgruppe was thrown into the path of the advancing Soviet breakthrough tank army in the hope that this would give the infantry divisions time to consolidate their positions in KHARKOV and DNEPROPETROVSK.

The assault on KHARKOV was renewed by a regrouped 270 Guards Rifle Division, reinforced with breakthrough artillery. At this point, after five hours play, spread over two evenings, the game drew to a close. The Axis forces had hung on to the key cities of KHARKOV and DNEPROPETROVSK …. just! Soviet armour was about to burst through the insubstantial screen thrown into its path.

Readers will have noticed the heavy and erratic hand of Soviet photographic censors throughout the pictoral coverage of this report, so I leave you with evidence that the occupiers of DNEPROPETROVSK had stripped the countryside bare and were furiously laying in supplies for a winter siege as the evening drew to a close.

For the German view of the battle, see Phil’s excellent Festung KHARKOV report here. For a more idealogically correct official history of the Great Patriotic War, see Graham’s considered report here. Don’t worry if the two reports are incompatible; it’s why they’re fighting!