2nd Battle of Kharkov 1942

The Soviets started the 2nd Battle of Kharkov of May 1942 but the Germans finished it. The Soviets lost a quarter of a million troops and the Germans only about 20,000.

Setting: Kharkov region, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union; 12-28 May 1942

On 12 May 1942 the Soviet Southwestern Direction under Marshal Timoshenko launched an offensive to encircle and recapturing Kharkov. The main attack was from the Barvenkovo bridgehead (near Izium) with a secondary attack from the Staryi Saltov bridgehead (near Volchansk). Although the attacking shock groups made headway counter-attacks by the German 6th Army held the Soviets and won time to form a Panzer strike force in the south.

On 17 May Kleist’s 3rd Panzer Corps and 44th Army Corps began a counterattack on the Barvenkovo bridgehead from the area of Aleksandrovka in the south. On 19 May the German 6th Army struck from the area of Merefa in the north of the bulge and on 24 May the pincers met. The advancing Soviet troops of the Southern Shock Group were cut of. They made largely futile attempts to break out but were crushed by 28 May. The Soviets lost a quarter of a million troops and the Germans only about 20,000.

My interest is the Soviet northern shock group.

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