They were facing a formidable task as the area was defended by the 7th Guards Army under the command of Lt Gen M. S. Shumilov. This was the former 62nd Army which had defended Stalingrad and Shumilov was a good Army commander who would command the Army for the rest of the war. The Army occupied strong defences along the line of the river and the outskirts of the city with the 81st and 78th Guards Rifle Divisions in the First Belt and the 73rd Guards Rifle Division in the Second Belt supported by 2 Tank Regiments and 2 SU Regiments. The 7th Guards Army was part of the Voronezh Front which had the 69th Army in reserve in the 3rd Belt and Front Reserves of the 35th Guards Rifle Corps and 2nd Guards Tank Corps in the area ready to support the 7th Guards Army. On the western bank of the North Donetz river the 6th Guards Army deployed the 375th Rifle Division, with the 89th Rifle Division and 96th Tank Brigade in reserve.

The point of interest is that Army Detachment Kempf would be pitting its panzers against a defence made up of Rifle Divisions backed up by infantry support tanks. The big Soviet armoured reserves would all be committed further west against II SS Panzer Corps’ attack.

The German Plan

The plan of attack was for the 6 Panzer Division to attack out of the Belgorod bridgehead along with the 168 Infantry Division and head along the line of the North Donetz river. The 19 Panzer Division would attack the southern part of Belgorod and the 7 Panzer Division would cross the river south of the city and clear the river bank before all three divisions headed along the east bank of the North Donetz river to Korotscha. The Soviet plan was to fight the Germans within each defensive Belt and to move reserves forward to reinforce the point of penetration. The reserves would include tanks, heavy AT guns and heavy artillery units to back up reserve Rifle Divsions. This would mean Rifle Divisions manoeuvring in front of Panzer Divisions but within a defensive belt they would be safe enough.

The opening moves of the Operation