Eastern Front
Situation Report August 5th 1943 Turn 38
Army Group South
In the Belgorod area heavy tank battles erupt as 3rd Guards Army and 27th Army ( Steppe Front ) clash with Hun 2nd Army and 2nd Armee for control of the towns of Stary oskol, Olshanka, Novy Oskol and Volokonovka on the Oksol river, The Red Army committing 4 tank Corps into the fight.The towns being part of a major rail network running from Tula in the North to Stalino in the Don Bass region, controlling this line would be vital for Axis North / South supply lines and troop redeployment's.
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Operation Fischreiher : The Don Offensive
For almost 5 months Axis and Soviet forces have been engaged in major actions across the entire front, from Leningrad to Baku, with some of the heaviest fighting at Moscow, Orel, Kursk, Kharkov and Voroshilovgrad in the central sector, in the South where major battles unfolded in the kuban region, The Caucasus and Stavropol as 1st Pz Armee and 6th Armee battled against repeated Soviet offensives.
While fighting had be taking place on both flanks, Gen Hermann Hoth's troops had remained on the defensive his Armee dug in along the Don and Sal rivers had seen little action apart from Gen Schlemmer's Pz Korps and the 62nd Infantry Div at Voroshilovgrad.
Rail and road bridges had been destroyed as our forces fell back from Stalingrad during the Red Army's offensive to force Army Group B back into The Ukraine and cut off Army Group A in The Caucasus, now infrastructure needed time to be repaired, rail lines made operational so supplies and munitions could be brought to forward supply depots and the Armee needed to be built back up to full strength.
On the 4th of August The Soviets launch an Air and artillery barrage on the 62nd Infantry Divisions lines as a prelude to a Soviet offensive by Southwestern Front's 40th and 51st Army's planned for the 5th.
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4th Pz Armee engineers building pontoon bridges across The Sal River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deC6LD3 ... L&index=10
German Intelligence intercepted radio traffic warning of Soviet intentions, forewarned Hoth launches his own offensive and 4th Pz Armee strikes first, the Soviets are taken completely by surprise, Schlemmer's XXXXVIII Pz Korps on the right flank crossing the Sal River and capturing Martynovskoe followed by Inf of XXXXII ArmeeKorps ( Gollnick ), the Panzers then crossed The Don, on the left flank III LW Korps (Odebrecht ) and XXIX Armeekorps ( Obstfelder ) crossing at several places along the Don River, both arms of the pincer movement closing the trap on Southwestern Front at Konstantinovsky.
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Schlemmer's XXXXVIII Pz Korps on the move as the Don Offensive kicks into high gear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fischreiher
