Tankwaffe battle of prokhorovka july 5 1943

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As a result, they suffered terrible losses in wave after wave of assaults against positions that were protected by MG 42 machine guns. A new weapon in the German arsenal, the MG 42 had a rapid rate of fire and a deafening noise. The Soviets referred to it as 'Hitler's Saw'. German panzer and artillery units also wreaked havoc upon the Red Army attack.

Despite these high casualty rates, the Soviets used their seemingly limitless supply of manpower to push the SS divisions back closer to Kharkov.

Vastly outnumbered and severely depleted, the Germans relied upon their discipline, training, dedication and courage to keep the Red Army from collapsing their lines and sending them into a panicked rout. Although he had been ordered by Hitler to hold the city at all costs, Hausser found this task increasingly difficult when the Soviets seized Belgorod and were now moving north-west of the SS corps: the Germans were threatened with another possible encirclement.

To the north-east, the Russians were punching holes in the perimeter around Kharkov. By the evening of the 14th February, they had pushed into the suburbs and were penetrating rear echelon areas of the SS Panzer Corps. To buy more time, a group of battle tanks from the Das Reich Division launched a punishing counter-attack in the north-western part of the city. Although this action brought a temporary halt to the Soviet offensive on Kharkov, it seemed as if Hausser's troops were slipping into another pincer.

Suggested withdrawal Determined to see his division survive this ordeal. Hausser advised his superior officers in Army Group South to allow him to pull his corps out of Kharkov. To dramatize the futility of remaining in the city, he predicted that the Soviets would take it within two or three days, even if he sacrificed every man in his command. In response to this plea, the Wehrmacht strategists merely reiterated to Hausser that the order to hold Kharkov had come from Hitler himself. Thus, in order to save his command from annihilation, Hausser had to defy his Fuhrer and, on 15 February, order an evacuation.

With Soviet troops closing in on Kharkov, the withdrawal from the city became a harrowing experience. Although Das Reich panzer units had repulsed an enemy attack north-west of the city, Russian armoured groups managed to seize part of Rogan and thus tighten the gauntlet that seemed to be ensnaring the SS divisions. With the SS corps now confined to a narrow 1.6km(1 mile) wide corridor run82/205