Word: mansteins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Road Back. In that winter of disaster, the Germans retreated some 400 miles, lost (according to Moscow) 1,200,000 men and 5,000 planes, gave up Vyazma, Rzhev, Kharkov, Belgorod, Rostov, a foothold in Voronezh. Manstein, retreating along the southern fringe of Russia, shrewdly caught advanced Russian tank columns in the March mud and out of fuel, recaptured Belgorod and Kharkov, subsequently wrote a sometimes brilliant, sometimes mistaken, always futile chapter in the tactics of retreat...
Sick with "armor fever," Manstein and his teammates brought up huge 60-ton "Tiger" tanks (Mark VI) and 70-ton "Ferdinand" self-propelled guns. Smaller tanks were given an extra skin of armor. In all, 17 tank and 18 infantry divisions were massed for the summer drive, Russians said this was history's highest ratio of tanks to infantry...
...Manstein, retirement behind the Dnieper was inevitable. But he had to hold on until the Dnieper Line was ready, until his men had pulled out of the dangerous southern pocket. To achieve this he used hedgehogs-well-placed, well-fortified strongholds. The hedgehog at Stalino held until Manstein's units withdrew from the Don. The Poltava hedgehog held until the Germans reached the Dnieper...
...retreat was costly; all retreats are. But none of Manstein's units was trapped; the army was battered, but it was still an army. Now Manstein wanted to fatten and rest it behind the Dnieper, build defenses, perhaps prepare a new counteroffensive...
...command would give him no respite. At high cost, Russian troops pressed across the river, struck blows so well dispersed that Manstein's thin reserves could not plug all holes. Zhitomir and Korosten fell. It was then that Manstein again displayed his tactical brilliance...