Kharkov May 19, 1942
Another T-34’s turret was blown off the hull. A German 88 millimeter gun had hit the tank in the flank a moment ago and ammunition stored inside started to cook off. This was not the first tank that was now turretless on the Ukrainian plain and it was not the last as another pair of flak guns reached out and hit another tank that was unknowingly exposed and without cover.
The dirty, tired, bloodied general looked at his staff, or those who remained after the headquarters was shelled last night for ten minutes. A few men had been with him since Smolensk and they were still trying to keep the under strength regiments on the line and fighting. The quartermaster’s assistant was a hero of the revolution as another half a dozen carts of ammunition went forward to a hastily preparing infantry battalion that was grappling with another German probe.
The division was on the northernmost edge of the attack and it was not the focus of the German counter-attack. From what little the general was being told by the Army commander, the attack was mainly a thrust into the southern edge. The messages over the radio were still positive but the lack of friendly fighter bombers and flaying tanks in the enemy dominated skies was not a good sign. Nor was the fact that the division was being held in place by probing attacks of German units that the Army commander thought his men and his divisions had reduced to remnants and rabble. The tank brigades attached to the northern drive were being ground into the fine powder in futile local counter-attacks. German infantry was too good at finding cover, calling in artillery and air support and then allowing the now unsupported tanks to run into minefields covered by flanking heavy flak guns. The general had seen that play out too many times. Now there was at least five full strength German battalions defending the front that his exhausted division was still attacking into.
The NKVD commisar had died the night before. He had been encouraging one of his regimental commanders to fight harder. The general would not have been surprised if the zampolit would have suffered from a nine millimeter artillery barrage at some point, but at least the fascists were useful for something as a section of ME-109s strafed his staff car. That at least made a decision slightly easier.
The division would start digging in instead of advancing. This was a plausibly defensible position. Once the army commander could give him orders to attack or defend, he could from here. Trying to push forward without support meant the division would die for no reason.
He could keep contact with the division on his north flank and he barely had to worry about keeping contact with the division on the south as it had effectively disappeared several hours ago as a German panzer brigade chewed through it. Soon the word went out that shovels were more important than rifles and the division began to dig in as runners and radio messages both streaked for the rear asking for instructions and foretelling of the upcoming disaster as the Germans were about ready to squeeze the offensive into a compressed pocket.
