The Wehrmacht Retreats by Robert M. Citino

Author:Robert M. Citino [Robert M. Citino]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780700623716
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 2016-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Planning for the Southern Front: Manstein’s War

If 1943 had seen merely the Kursk and Orel operations, it might be tempting to call it a draw, or perhaps award the advantage to the Soviets. In fact, the rest of the year would show how hopeless the Wehrmacht’s position on the Eastern Front had become. Operation Citadel represented a single throw of the dice for the Germans. There were no other options and no other offensive operations. For the Soviet Army, however, Operation Kutuzov was merely the beginning of a seemingly endless series of offensives that would last for the rest of the year, pick up again in 1944, and then extend to the end of the war. The leading Western authority on the Soviet Union in World War II, David M. Glantz, has analyzed no fewer than eight separate Soviet operations planned for 194367:

1. The defense of the Kursk salient, successfully completed by July 12.

2. Operation Kutuzov against the Orel salient, launched on July 13 and successfully completed by August 15 with the salient cleared and the German defenders now ensconced in the Hagen position.

3. Operation Rumiantsev, to be launched by the Voronezh and Steppe fronts toward Belgorod and the group of German forces around Kharkov.

4. Operation Suvorov, a thrust in the north by the Kalinin and Western fronts against the German forces in front of Smolensk and Roslavl.

5. An operation in the Donbas by the Southwestern and Southern fronts to smash through the German line along the Mius.

6. The Chernigov–Poltava operation, to be conducted by the Central, Voronezh, and Steppe fronts, a continuation of Operation Rumiantsev intended to drive the Germans back to the Dnepr.

7. The Bryansk operation, an assault by the Bryansk Front against the German forces at Bryansk, a follow-up to operations Kutuzov and Suvorov; and

8. The Novorosisk–Taman and Melitopol operations, offensives by the Southern and North Caucasus Fronts.

In other words, the Soviet operational scheme for the rest of 1943 had the army on the offensive everywhere. Once the Southern and North Caucasus fronts had joined in, this would be an offensive across the entire length of the southern front, “from Velikiye Luki to the Black Sea,” as one Soviet staff officer put it.68

If there is a kernel of genius in Soviet war making at this point, this was it: the fully realized vision of consecutive operations. All of these campaigns would be hard fought against a Wehrmacht that could still defend itself skillfully. All of them would fall short of complete strategic breakthroughs into open space. All would turn, at some point, into grinding struggles of attrition. Yet the very Soviet ability to run them, one after the other, presented the Wehrmacht with an insurmountable problem. The German command structure could only react to so many emergencies before it failed to react altogether. The limited number of reserve divisions could only plug so many holes, and the Wehrmacht ran out of divisions before the Soviet army ran out of offensives.

It is possible to criticize this schedule of operations.

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