Third Battle of Kharkov

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Axis-Soviet War
Barbarossa – Finland 1941-44 – Leningrad and Baltics 1941-1944 – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans 1944 – Hungary 1944-1945 – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague – Manchuria 1945

Axis-Soviet War
Barbarossa – Finland 1941-44 – Leningrad and Baltics 1941-1944 – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans 1944 – Hungary 1944-1945 – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague – Manchuria 1945

Operation Blue to 3rd Kharkov
Blue – Voronezh – Edelweiss – Stalingrad – Uranus – Winter Storm – Saturn – Tatsinskaya Raid – 3rd Kharkov

Operation Blue to 3rd Kharkov
Blue – Voronezh – Edelweiss – Stalingrad – Uranus – Winter Storm – Saturn – Tatsinskaya Raid – 3rd Kharkov

The Third Battle of Kharkov was the last major strategic German victory of World War II. Led by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, the Germans retook the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting. The II SS Panzer Corps, equipped with heavy Tiger tanks, played a significant role. This German victory is considered one of the most outstanding military accomplishments of the 20th century.

The II SS Panzer Korps originally comprised the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and Das Reich divisions, both of whom had been resting and refitting for a long period of time and were now at full strength with new highly-trained recruits. Under the command of Paul Hausser, it checked the Soviet advance despite odds of 1:6, but, threatened with encirclement, was withdrawn against explicit orders from Hitler. The act infuriated Hitler who refused to award Hausser after the battle. After this withdrawal, the II SS Panzer Korps (now reinforced with the Totenkopf division) was attached to Manstein's counter-thrust, which destroyed the Soviet spearheads and saved Army Group South. The SS completed this victory when the Leibstandarte retook Kharkov, for which Hitler renamed the central square "Leibstandarteplatz" in honour of the victory. The battle is often regarded as the last successful German offensive in the USSR and is still studied in military academies as a text-book example of mobile defence.

Kharkov had originally been captured on October 25 1941, but had been retaken by the Soviets in February 1943 following the German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad. The Third Battle of Kharkov left the city only temporarily in Axis hands; on August 22 1943, in the aftermath of the Battle of Kursk, the Germans were driven out once again. However, it must be noted that after the German disaster at Stalingrad, von Manstein's achievement in stabilizing the German front must rank as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) achievements of WWII. He had executed a successful withdrawal, he had then launched a masterly counter-attack that caused the Russians immense losses in men and material. Most importantly, he had re-established the German front from Taganrog to Belgorod as a virtually straight defensive line and, at little cost, had retaken the fourth largest city in the whole Soviet Union. All this while his opponents possessed a considerable numerical advantage.

References

The Battle of Kharkov, by Jean Restayn, J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing. ISBN 0921991487
Platz der Leibstandarte: The SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division "LSSAH" and the Battle of Kharkov January - March 1943, by George Nipe & Remy Spezzano, RZM Imports. ISBN 0965758427
Last Victory in Russia: The SS-Panzerkorps and Manstein's Kharkov Counteroffensive February - March 1943, by George M. Nipe, Jr., Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 0764311867

Third Battle of Kharkov

References

See also