Third Battle of Kharkov: Street-to-street and house-to-house fighting

SS-Kampfgruppe Kunstmann

SS-Untersturmführer Hermann Dahlke

Several days of bitter street fighting ensued after the SS-Panzerkorps entered Kharkov on March 11 1943. The Corps were forced to fight their way into the city in indescribably fierce street-to-street and house-to-house combat against fanatical resistance. Soviet forces struggled desperately for several days to break out of the German trap before being cut to pieces. The merciless fighting in the city's apartment-complex death-traps is vividly described by American professor emeritus of history James J. Weingartner in Hitler's Guard. Left image: after the fierce battle with the Soviet Red Army the Waffen-SS panzers cautiously move down the streets of Kharkov, while mounted Panzergrenadiers hold their rifles at the ready, keeping a sharp watch for Soviet snipers. According to the author of The Battle of Kharkov Jean Restayn these battle hardened Panzergrenadiers belong to SS-Kampfgruppe Kunstmann of SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf. SS-Sturmbannführer Eugen Kunstmann himself was killed after his command tank came under heavy antitank gunfire at Kursk on July 8 1943. Standing man with binoculars is SS-Sturmbannführer Georg Bochmann, battalion commander and future regimental commander of the Totenkopf Division's panzer regiment. Credit: Jiří Macháček. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: SS-Untersturmführer Hermann Dahlke of the Leibstandarte SS was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on March 3 1943 after his platoon threw back the numerically superior enemy in hand-to-hand fighting and thus made a decisive contribution to the successful advance of the whole battle group during the battle of Kharkov. Hermann Dahlke was killed in action on July 5 1943 near Belgorod in the opening days of Operation Citadel. He rests on the Kriegsgräberstätte in Kharkiv. Photo: SS-KB Johan King. Credit: Ghermán Mihály. Commons: Bundesarchiv.