However, only six weeks later, the exhausted Soviet remnants fled under the crushing of powerful German tiger tanks. ......
What happened in the middle of the reversal of the war?
The famous third battle of Kharkov took place.
1from mid-February to mid-March, 943, the German Southern Army Group counterattacked the Soviet Red Army Jedi in Kharkov with unexpected maneuver tactics, wiped out more than 65,438+10,000 Soviet troops at the cost of 20,000 casualties, and recaptured Kharkov and Belgorod.
This battle was the pinnacle of Marshal Manstein, then commander of the Southern Army Group, and was also placed by Hitler's hope to turn the tide. If the battlefield is a stage, then the Battle of Kharkov is a report performance of manstein's lifelong study and personal talent.
Unfortunately, after the curtain fell, the Germans continued to struggle at the end of the road, and the brilliant victory failed to change the trajectory of the war.
Military strategists must argue: Why Kharkov?
Kharkov was the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union at that time and was called the "second capital" of Ukraine. If you look at its geographical location, you will find that it is the transportation hub of the Ukrainian plain, with direct access to Moscow in the north, Crimea in the south, Dnieper River in the west, Stalingrad and Caucasus in the east. For the Soviet Union, this place is a key position to ensure the traffic line in the south wing.
As a battleground for military strategists, Kharkov is somewhat similar to Jinzhou or Xuzhou in China.
In addition, it is also an important industrial zone and military production base of the Soviet Union, with a large population. A generation of famous car T-34 was born here. Hitler once said that the industrial areas scattered around Kharkov are the foundation of the Soviet economy, and once controlled, the Soviet economy will suffer heavy losses.
On the Soviet-German battlefield in World War II, the two sides fought four battles in Kharkov, some of which were similar to the four Changsha battles in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. The first time was the German army's battle to seize the city, the second time was1May, 942, when the German army smashed the Soviet offensive, the third time was the battle in manstein, and the fourth time was in1August, 943. The Soviets finally won once and recovered Kharkov.
Manstein: Only a genius can win in failure.
If there is a moment when the Germans are in urgent need of a genius to realize the almost impossible counterattack after the defending battle of Stalingrad, it is the spring from the end of 1942 to 1943. From Barbarossa to Stalingrad's collapse, the Germans had a nightmare-at the beginning of the Blue Plan, Hitler assured his men that "the Russians were finished", but the Russians were on the rampage instead of finished.
Don't fight back, or die! At this moment, the Fuehrer put his treasure on the most talented commander of the whole National Defence Force, and this moment will belong entirely to Von manstein.
Manstein has full confidence. He came from a military family, his father was a Prussian artillery general, his grandfather was also a Prussian general, even his uncle was a general, and he was still with Feng? Marshal Hindenburg is his next of kin.
After graduating from the Berlin Military Academy, Manstein served in World War I and was seriously injured. Later, he was promoted to deputy chief of staff of the army, and his immediate superior was General Baker, who was later shot and killed for plotting against Hitler. Unlike guderian, Rommel and others, Manstein has served in the Committee of Chiefs of Staff for a long time. He is not only proficient in tactics, but also has a strategic vision that ordinary generals do not have.
After the beginning of World War II, Manstein made a white plan to invade Poland. In the French campaign, he modified the "Schrieffen Plan" with genius, and the armored cluster crossed the Ardennes and swept north first, pushing the main forces of Britain and France to Dunkirk.
Manstein is a modern soldier who keeps pace with the times and knows the use of tanks very well. He sometimes studies every move of his opponent like a chess player-in fact, he is really a chess fan. Some German generals believe that Manstein "can study what others can study in a few weeks in one night."
/kloc-at the beginning of 0/943, the Soviet army advanced westward and successively recovered Kursk and Kharkov. Hitler can't sit still. On February 17, he was parachuted to the headquarters in manstein, only 60 kilometers away from the Soviet front, and asked the Southern Army Group to recover Kharkov as soon as possible. Hitler's personal visit to the front should have happened twice, both during the third battle of Kharkov, and both met with manstein.
Mann's "backhand counterattack", the Soviet Union lost.
Manstein faces many challenges, with less than 6,543,800 troops and about 500,000 troops from several Soviet fronts. He believes in his tactical advantage! This is not crazy, but he is more keenly aware than others that there is a subtle dynamic change behind the disparity between the two armies-the Soviet offensive is turning from prosperity to decline, while the German troops are increasing.
Wa Tuting, then commander of the Soviet Southwest Army, had previously made a critical misjudgment. He thought that the Germans would retreat to the west of Dnieper River under the pursuit of Soviet troops. So he made a "Great Leap Forward" and cut off the retreat of the southern army group of Manstein before the Germans retreated to the Dnieper River. At the same time, the Japanese army in Voroney was on the front line of Kharkov in the northern wing of the German army, and the southern army was also advancing to the southern wing of the German army ... Look, a battle is bigger than the battle of Stalingrad.
However, under the heavy pressure, Manstein remained calm and thoughtful. He found that the southwest army in Tuting was progressing too fast. Starting from Stalingrad, Soviet troops have crossed two big rivers and marched more than 500 kilometers to the west. This is one of the most successful military operations since the outbreak of the war, but this round of counterattack has basically reached its limit. After the energy * * * point, the combat effectiveness drops, and the supply of materials and fuel is also unsustainable.
After taking Kharkov, the Japanese army in Voroney also suffered a serious decline in combat effectiveness, with fewer troops and fewer tanks.
Just then, the German army grew stronger and the supply line was greatly shortened. After the defeat of Stalingrad, the Germans did not have a nervous breakdown. They are brave, calm, tenacious and loyal to their duties. At this time, although there were few people, the Southern Army was elite and well-equipped.
After seeing manstein, Hitler gave him more self-reliance, which can be said to be a rare unconditional support, asking people to give people and planes to planes. "Adolf? Hitler Division, Imperial Division, Skull Division, SS three trump cards and tiger tanks were all transferred to Manstein. It can also be seen that Hitler's counterattack against Kharkov is close to the gambling mentality of putting all your eggs in one basket.
Manstein has a plan with a bigger appetite and a bigger pattern-since Kharkov is so important to both sides, if we fight first, it will inevitably cause the Soviets to mobilize to Kharkov all the way. Why don't we attack the southwest army to the south, and then take a right hook to the north to recover Kharkov? As long as the southwest army was defeated, the Voronezh army lost its support and the whole left wing was exposed. At that time, I had no worries about taking Kharkov.
This can't help but remind people of his revision of Schrieffen's plan-after rushing out of Ardennes, he was not in a hurry to go south to Paris, but drove the British and French Coalition forces into the sea in the north.
/kloc-in February of 0/9, Kharkov's counterattack was launched according to manstein's idea. When the SS Skull Division's Tiger Tank suddenly rushed south to the vanguard of the Southwest Army, there was no response from Wa Tuting to Stalin. I thought it was a partial counterattack to cover the main retreat of the Germans, and the Soviet frontline troops should continue to advance to the Dnieper River. Soon, the Soviet troops in the southwest began to break up under the strong attack of the German army.
On February 28th, the 4th German Panzer Corps took the lead in going north and headed for Kharkov. This is a way of playing with the head pinched first and then the tail removed. On March 6, the general attack began. After bitter street fighting, the Soviet army was forced to abandon Kharkov at 65438+ in March 2004. On March 18, the Germans rallied to recover Belgorod. It was not until March 27th that manstein's offensive stopped at 150km north of Kharkov, and the two sides formed a confrontation situation, that is, Kursk.
The battle of Kharkov made the Germans on the southern line breathe a sigh of relief, and almost everything was as the Fuehrer wished. Although the Soviet Union lost to some extent in overconfidence, the amazing reversal was mainly attributed to Manstein's bold and creative command art.
Studying the history of manstein's war, it is not difficult to find that his focus has never been on the gains and losses of one city and one place, but on keenly capturing the dynamic changes of the forces of both sides, giving full play to the characteristics of high quality and strong mobility of the German army as much as possible, boldly making circuitous and interspersed, concentrating superior forces in unexpected links of the enemy and destroying the effective strength of the enemy.
1943 in the first half, the two sides flashed stars-guderian, Wedges, Holt, VaTuting, Tymoshenko, rokossovsky, Aleksandr Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Golikov ... and Manstein is undoubtedly the best one, and the whole play has its own leading role aura.
Perfect victory, that's all.
Historian Alan Clarke believes that in the Second World War, there were few more complete and dramatic counterattacks than the Battle of Manstein. The Germans repaired the front line, wiped out the Soviet pioneers and boosted morale. After the victory, Manstein was overjoyed, and Hitler even called it "the turning point of the war".
Unfortunately, although Manstein completed an impossible task, he could not achieve a higher level of turning point. Kharkov was not as famous as Stalingrad and Midway Island in history, and the battle eventually turned into a stunning fireworks show.
Failed to achieve offensive and defensive conversion
Fighting at the turning point can change the offensive and defensive roles of both sides. For example, after the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans were forced to rest and the Soviets began to attack from the defensive. However, Kharkov's counterattack was only a partial victory, and the situation on the southern line was also a temporary change. After that, manstein's situation of "hitting whoever he wants" did not appear again in this war.
After Kharkov's counterattack, both the Soviet Union and Germany turned to defense at the same time and entered a stalemate in Kursk. Now it seems that the later battle of Kursk may be the real opportunity for the Germans to turn around, but they failed to seize this last opportunity, and the battlefield initiative was completely in the hands of the Soviets.
Will not cause devastating damage.
According to statistics, the Axis forces lost more than 6,543,800 people (casualties and captured) in Stalingrad, and the Germans lost more than 200,000 casualties in the Battle of Kursk, losing thousands of tanks, armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery. These are the essence. In the battle of midway in the Pacific battlefield, the US military killed four main Japanese aircraft carriers at one time, plus a large number of Japanese carrier-based aircraft and pilots with actual combat experience. Although the Japanese army still maintained a strategic offensive after midway, the price of winning has been destroyed.
Kharkov's counterattack wiped out 654.38 million Soviet troops, which was a great achievement for the Germans at that time, but it was a loss that the Soviet Union could bear. 1943, Germany's human resources were exhausted, and even the conscription law had to be revised to expand the age of conscription.
Failed to break the morale of the enemy.
Although Kharkov's counterattack boosted the morale of the Germans, it was still not enough to shock the Soviets. At that time, the international war situation gradually became clear. Outside Stalingrad, the Allies have won the Battle of Midway and the Battle of El Alamein, and the Battle of Guadalcanal in the same period is also known. In this big competition of comprehensive national strength, the outcome of a battle has been difficult to control the overall situation.
1943 Soviets are not the Soviets who fought in Kiev two years ago. After the Soviet troops retreated to Kursk, they could still quickly stabilize their defense lines and never retreat again. This is very critical. After several months of confrontation, the two sides tried their best to fight the battle of Kursk, and the Soviet army was defeated.
In Kharkov, Manstein showed that he was the master of the battlefield and made the impossible possible. But no matter how much we admire the acumen of famous soldiers and the courage of today's soldiers, war should not be the first choice for human beings to solve problems.
After the war, Manstein wrote the book "Lost Victory", which did not reflect too much on the cruelty of war and the fate of failure, but rather regretted a series of "mistakes that should not have happened". He still seems to be stuck in the limitations of the war machine and still believes that failure could have been avoided.
History has honestly proved that the Battle of Kharkov failed to turn decay into magic. For the Third Reich, it was just a life-long battle, not a turning point. When it comes to Kharkov, people will first think that it was the final victory of the Germans on the Eastern Front.