The Eleventh Commandment ETO (id:#58239)

Lone Canuck Publishing (Leibstandarte Pack 3 - Clash at Kharkov! ID: LSSAH 17)   [next]   [previous]

Ziglerovka, Russia 1943-02-19 (3 others)

Overview:

Having been ordered back from France in late January 1943, Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler arrived in Russia in early February and was immediately thrown into the defenses of Kharkov. The adhoc SS-Panzer-Korps, under the command of SS-Obergrüppen-fuhrer Paul Hausser, went into combat on 11 February with specific instructions from Hitler to hold the city at all cost. Within two days, Hausser was requesting to be released from this condition as the city was been increasingly outflanked to either side. It was a request that fell on deaf ears, as Hitler insisted that "his" SS above all others should follow his orders to the letter and without question. When only a single road linked Kharkov to German lines, however, Hausser chose to save his divisions, ordering them out of the city. citing an order from the Fuhrer is not the Eleventh Commandment. Now freed Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler captured Beresovka and was setting up defensive positions when the III Panzer-Grenadier Battalion, under Sturmbannfuhrer Peiper, received orders to move forward and seize the town of Ziglerovka. In their first night attack, Kompanie 13/III Panzer-Grenadier SPW Battalion spread out and felt its way slowly toward the shadowy buildings of Ziglerovka.

Defender: Russian (Elements of Third Tank Army)  

Errata (source)