Third Battle of Kharkov

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Date	February 16 1943–March 15 1943
Location	Kharkov, USSR
Result	Axis victory

Combatants

Soviet Union

Axis powers

Commanders

Filipp Golikov
Nikolay Vatutin

Erich von Manstein
†Theodor Eicke

Strength

300,000 men

160,000 men

Casualties

Voronezh Front: Army of Popov:
3,000 KIA
11,000 WIA
Southwestern Front: 20,000 KIA
90,000 WIA
9,000 POWs
Final battles: 25,000 KIA
80,000 WIA
10,000 POWs
(total=48,000 KIA, 180,000 WIA
19,594 POWs)

Unknown; reported as "moderate"

Eastern Front
Barbarossa – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – 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 – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague

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, and is considered to be among the most outstanding military accomplishments of the 20th century. Kharkov had originally been captured on October 25 1941, but had fallen to the Soviets in February 1943, following the German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad. Led by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, the Germans counter-attacked and after destroying Soviet spearheads, retook the city in bitter street fighting.

The II SS Panzer Korps, equipped with heavy Tiger tanks, played a significant role. It was comprised of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and Das Reich divisions, which had been resting and refitting for a long period of time and were at full strength. Under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser, it checked the Soviet advance on Kharkov, despite odds of six to one, but, threatened with encirclement, Hausser withdrew against explicit orders from Hitler. The act so infuriated Hitler, he refused to award Hausser after the battle.

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 Leibstandarte division then retook Kharkov, for which Hitler renamed the central square "Leibstandarteplatz". The battle is often regarded as the last successful German offensive in the USSR and is still studied in military academies as a textbook example of mobile defence.

The city remained 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 front must rank as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) achievements of World War II. He had executed a successful withdrawal, then launched a masterly counterattack that inflicted on the Russians immense losses in men and material. Most importantly, he re-established the front from Taganrog to Belgorod as a virtually straight defensive line and, at little cost, retook the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, all this while his opponent possessed a considerable numerical advantage.

Despite its significance, the battle has been the subject of minimal post-war academic study.

[edit] References

The Battle of Kharkov, by Jean Restayn, J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing. ISBN 0-921991-48-7
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 0-9657584-2-7
Last Victory in Russia: The SS-Panzerkorps and Manstein's Kharkov Counteroffensive February - March 1943, by George M. Nipe, Jr., Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 0-7643-1186-7