Interactive History IV: Manstein's Woes

Cloak and Dagger

Both you and Hoth look at Student with surprise... For a few seconds silence hangs in the air, then Hoth smiles and you blurt out, "my dear Kurt, that is brilliant!"
The three of you quickly organize the troops and tanks needed, but it will take hours before they can be concentrated at the point of LAH. A lot of Russian Hiwis (volounteers) and troops of the Liberation Army are put into the unit, about the size of a reinforced battalion, along with Russianspeaking Germans. But the core of the unit is still purely German.

For hours T-34s cross your front from their various commands to the new one, but at 1 o'clock you don't dare wait any longer, despite the fact that only the equivalent of two reinforced companies have arrived. You send Student to take charge, he of course tries to argue against it, but his subversive skills and his experience with paratroopers is vital to the success, with him he has a panzer advisor in case decisive action needs to be taken.

The Russian troops simply let the formation through as it speeds towards the northeast, they take a few prisoners here and there but nothing important can be learned from them.
At Prokhorovka they capture the railwaystation attendant, for the moment he just says that he only know 'the Steppe' outside his windows.
As the unit advances it is more and more engaged in small scale fighting with MPs and various inquisitory units, but to their great relief no coordinated effort has been made and it seems they are still unknown to the enemy.

At 3:30, nearing the edge of the big empty space, Student and his men encounters a fairly large tank collumn, as they pass each other, the leading German T-34 breaks down. The other collumn drives on as several crews feverishly labours to get the tank working again, but suddenly a Russian mechanics truck halts and offers help. A few Hiwis try to shoo them away, but they want to talk to the crews and small scuffle breaks out, and before long a number of MPs arrive with unpleasant questions asked. Time is up. Student having paid careful attention to the action up front orders the troops to open fire over his radio. Surprised Russians flee to all sides but are gunned down, their tanks are blown apart at the short range, their trucks set afire and a number of are captured.
The glow of the fires clearly illuminates the crosses on the tanks, instead of red stars. The broken down T-34 is pushed aside and the formation speeds on. In a village the report of Germans within their lines (and the nearby action of tanks) causes significant panic and when the Hiwis claim that the Germans are everywhere the Russians simply flee their positions.

At sunrise the formation is deep inside the empty space, but there is nothing there. The civilians claim that only once in a while does soldiers come by, usually mounted on horses, seldomly in armoured cars. It is clear that there indeed isn't anything here. Student prudently orders his troops to move into a nearby little grove and hide, low on fuel and deep inside enemy territory he would have no chance if found.

You feel that you need to save Student and the LAH, reinforced by numerous T-34s is orderedto join up with him, 3 Panzer Corps will guard the flank and GD will fly north into 52nd GR and 375th Rifle divisions, while Totenkopf will try to keep 31st Tank Corps occupied.
Resistance to LAH is confused and several positions are abandoned or is in a hedgehog state. Student and his men have greatly undermined the Russian morale in the sector. Before long Prokhorovka is taken.
GD makes great headway against the two disjoined divisions, the last complete remnants of 6th Guards Army. The lack of fortifications and most of their heavy gear takes a great toll on them, but again they fight with a determination like never before. Losses among the infantry is significant.
The resistance to 3rd Panzer Corps from the unconfused parts of 2nd GT Corps is very fierce and they make little headway along the Donets. Kempf calls off his attacks as he was supposed to guard the flank of your advance, not create it, or become too weak to protect it.

By late afternoon, the rains intensify once again, making further advance slow and costly. You call off the attacks. Today a few sorties were made by both airforces, but were rather limited to very small tactical instances. The lull has given the airmen wellearned restperiods and the effectiveness of the few attacks were quite visible. But the Russian attacks on your rear areas has caused you some concern. Most of your mobile AA is among the tanks up front to cover them, but that has left your rear areas woefully low on air protection. Today the attacks were few and scattered, and easily dealt with by the fighters and few guns. But tomorrow with the coming broken overcast, you can expect a lot more air attacks. This concerns you.

GD made it across the Psel some 5 miles east of Oboyan, on its advance it pushed into the link between 52nd GR and 375th Rifle, sending the latter all the way to the Donets (as it was also pushed out of the way by LAH).
In typical SS manner did Totenkpf advance into the area belonging to the remains of 3rd Mech, advancing steadily on GD's side. Now it is just 4 miles from Oboyan, while 3rd Panzer Division has covered its flanks from attacks from 31st Tank Corps. The day saw the Russian defenders strongly defend their positions, but they were very uncorordinated and lacked a response to breakthroughs. Obviously the capture of Vatutin and the loss of his entire staff is having an effect now.

In reserve you have no less than 11th Panzer (relatively fresh), 332nd Infantry (relatively fresh but lacking equipmen and men) and the 167th Infantry (quite fresh).

LAH didn't make to Student, who has occupied the nearby village to have a strongly defended position in case the Russians come by with strong forces. But a unique situation has presented itself to LAH. The aborted assault by 3rd Panzer Corps left the 2nd GT Corps on the western side of the Donets, while LAH has driven parallel with it. Inside this unclosed bag is of course 2nd GT Corps, but also 375th Rifle and 96th GR Division. To close the bag LAH only needs to attack to the river as there is no bridges inside it. But Student is still alone and he is quite anxious for the men a they are not used to this kind of situation.

You are drawn in several directions for the coming events.

A: Operational directive
1) Orders for the morning: Ignore 2nd GT Corps, let 3rd Panzer Corps deal with it, it is Kempf's job now that LAH is getting ahead. LAH is to try to join up with Student still. The other formations are to to on the offensive directly. Browbeat the Russians!

2) Continue to attack through the night with LAH towards the Donets to cloes the bag on the 2nd GT Corps and its consorts. Let 11h Panzer take point the next day as LAH reduces the pocket and gets reorganized.

3) Try the same but instead let the LAH resume the attack while the two Infantry divisions in the reseve deals with the pocket.

B: AA considerations
1) Let it be as it is. The Russians only attacked the static guns because they are easier to hit in bad weather.

2) Move a majority of the AA back to cover the softer units and the roads. The Russians are obviously interested in blunting you where they can hit you the easiest.

3) Even it out. Neither place should get priority. Danger is obvious everywhere, and you should try to meet it all.

It is given that Dessloch's fighters will try to cover the weak part, but they might not be able to because of their jobs at protecting airfields and the bombers.

A. 3 and B.1.

I believe we need to reduce that pocket, but at the same time we need to get to Student. So three is the best choice for that matter.... ~;)
Again when it comes to AA, the importance is to not allow them to concentrate on your fighting forces. ~:)

A.3 and B.3. You need to use all of your forces and keep the armoury mobile. And the air threat needs to be addressed at all points...

3 / 3
Now we have to pay the price for not having attacked the Soviet airbases so far. We have to do it at once!

Kraxis, what the hell is Kluges group doing?

A.3 put the infantry into work they now best.B.3.Where is your Armygroups artillery?Is it far behind,because if they are in supporting range their own AA should cover your forces.

3 and 3. I'd like to send some supplies to to 332. Division, though...well, there'll be time for that after those Russian forces are crushed.

A ruse well played so far.

A few pointers:

von Kluge is the one in command of Model's forces, but unlike you he lets Model play it alone. He has after all a very long front that is anything but secure. You have the stronger forces so you can more safely expect a general stagnant front elsewhere. So he won't actively do anything unless Model manages to get himself into stuff he couldn't get out of again. That is highly unlikely.

The heavy artillery has been evened out a bit, but the day has seen substantial advances, so it has been left behind. It should though get into position during the night (yup, the artillerymen doesn't sleep, shoot at day and move at night). In any case we are talking about the mobile artillery, mostly 20mm, 37mm, a few 40mm, captured Russian 25mm and some dual HMGs such as 13mm and 15mm. There are of course 88s but even these lack the range to cover the frontroops properly (at extreme ranges they will be hard pressed to hit anything the size of Russian close air support planes).

The airforces have not neglected to hit Russian airfields, but the Russians are masters of maskirovka, deception. Many false fields abound in the Russian hinterland. Besides the numbers involved have been problematic. Your own forces are too few to hit the fields properly, while the Russians for once have been spread out rather thinly themselves, so finding them have not been easy (until they begin to near the front).
Obviously Dessloch have concentrated on your forces' pleas for cover and support, the easy and logical approach.

You have no supplies unused to send 332nd per se. It will have to wait until the offensive is over. Also any daily reinforcements will of course go to the main units. The infantry is not likely to get much right now.

Thanks for the info Kraxis. I cant wait to see what happends next.Great Thread. :bow:

I'd actually go with A1. As tempting as that pocket is, if we let something bad happen to Student, then we might have trouble getting clever officers to suggest and lead risky maneuvers in the future. We have to take care of our talented men. Kempf can handle the bag until we have more units on hand that can help him finish it off.

For B, #3 looks good. I don't like the thought of leaving either end of the army exposed.

Advance and Reverse

The attacks on the artillery during the day troubles you... Greatly. Again Hoth is there to offer his opinion, he thinks that it was just because of the weather, and you are inclined to believe him. But what if he is wrong, what if you are wrong, this could turn out very sourly. Against you own gutfeeling you give the order to transfer a lot of the mobile AA back to the rear areas.

Though Hoth was dismayed by that fact he gets a bit more optimistic when you order that the LAH should continue its advance through the night towards the Donets where it will cut off the strong 2nd GT Corps and the two independant divisions. This is action by his tastes.
As the two of you talk, you mention that you want LAH to keep up the attack in the morning and let the two infantry divisions along with 3rd Panzer Corps deal with the pocket. "The Leibstandarte is simply too good to leave behind."
"Agreed, but Erich isn't it going too far? We run a risk of confusion when it leaves while the infanty arrives."
"Yes, that is a serious risk, but as with everything else we have to take chances. You are normally in favour of odd chances."
"Quite right" Hoth says sipping on a glass of cognac. "But I do prefer my chances to be taken when no other options are ready. 11th Panzer?"
"They have figured heavily in my mind, but they aren't as sharp as our prime SS division. A good reserve."

In a short while LAH manages to reach the Donets, pushing into the pocket the now exhausted 375th Rifle Division. While the 2nd GT Corps tries several attempts at breaking up north through LAH, 332nd and 167th move up. 332nd taking the much easier part due west of the bulge while 167th taking up positions at the north.
Thus in the small hours LAH finally begin to move out as the first infantry arrives to take over. In the beginning it all goes well, but soon the two divisions overwhelm the poor roads and long lines of trucks, tanks and artillery gets tuck as one unit tries to get out while the other tries to get in through the same venue.

You are blissfully unaware of this until you ask Hoth when LAH is ready to assume its advance to get to Student. While you reform the supplies of ammo and fuel, he contacts Theodor Wisch, commander of LAH. You only hear the early conversation with half an ear, until Hoth yells "WHAT?!?!? What is going on?!?! Theo, this can't go on!" You grab the phone from Hoth. "Theo, tell me what is going on."
The flustering voice of a man near panic answers you. "My boys are totally locked in place, we can't get anywhere. Those damn 167th troops are clogging the road."
"Give me Meyer!!!"
The competent and strong voice of Kurt Meyer announces the arrival of his strong persona. "Meyer, dismount all infantry, move cross country in line. The tanks should follow you soon afterwards, hopefully this will open up the road enough for some sort of movement. And for the sake of all good, deploy whatever AA you have left."
"Yes, Field Marshall! But we haven't got that much left. Most went away last night and most of what remained was the first out. They are almost clear of 167th."
"What on Earth were the two of you doing?!?!? Why didn't you contact us?!?! We could have gotten in contact with Wolf (Trirenberg, of 167th)."
"Sorry, we were trying ourselves, and of course trying to get this done in a hurry. It didn't seem that bad, but it only got worse all the time."
With a growl you finish. "Well, just get it done... NOW!"
You quickly contact Wolf Trirenberg of 167th and give him an oral beating for his carelessness, then you give him orders of what to do as well, especially regarding the AA.
Then you contact Dessloch, and demand a strong defence of the area, but to your dismay he can't supply you with much as most fighters are tied down escorting bombers going for deep interdiction and rail attacks. But he does call off a few fighter sweeps of various airfields.
Finally you into comtact with Wend von Wietersheim of 11th Panzer and orders him to attack where LAH was supposed to have gone.
This situation gives you the creeps. It is almost the exact duplicate of the Russian situation that sparked the entire offensive, and when the Russians find out... You hit the big map on the operational table. Damn... I risk losing a whole lot here. Why did I send the AA to the rear?! There will be no breakfast this morning.

The sun slowly begins to send rays across the Russian steppes, another day of bloody battles await. But first the morning sorties have to be carried out. Since the sky is dotted with clouds, but none dense enough for rain or close enough to each other to impair visibility, it is perfect weather for ground attacks. Furious attacks on 3rd Panzer Corps and GD inflicts losses, while a few other places are hit, including the big jam.
Within the hour waves of Russian planes arrive. The two staffeln of JG52 put up a wall of destruction, but the numbers are them too much, and many Russian bombers and ground attack planes get free. The fair amount of AA fire does little to stem the tide, numbers were needed to cover this. Death and destruction moves up and down the road. Tanks, halftracks, movers, trucks, cars and all kinds of other vehicles and equipment is destroyed of damaged.
For several hours this carries on, until finally the fightercover returns in force to drive the Russians away.

Losses are immense. Most of LAHs support units have been severely mauled, in fact all the field hospitals have been destroyed and the mechanic shops are wrecked. Losses among the tanks are lower, but Sturmoviks hunted them down in the surrounding fields and plumes of smoke mark the site of each dead tank. Only the infantry managed to get through this relatively unscathed, hiding away from the vehicles they were not very visible, and their own weapons did fairly well at putting up some ad hoc AA fire.
The 167th suffered much the same, but being an infantry division it was less serious, though its artillery was very hard hit.

For all effects LAH has been reduced to two SS infantry regiments with some vehicular support. Trying to make up for his percieved failure Wisch went into the midst of the chaos, and began close-in redirections of vehicles. In the first attack he was injured and is now on his way to the army field hospital. Josef "Sepp" Dietrich has taken over command of the remnants.

As the event unfold you can only sit back and shake your head while Hoth runs around controlling the advance of the other units. This was not how you had hoped the day would start, with the destruction of one of your best units. At least the artillery to the rear was safe. The few attacks on your rear was indeed blasted from the skies by the new concentration of AA. Meanwhile the advancing units suffer continual attacks fom the air. But the Russian losses in the air have been very high. The two JG52 staffeln of some 26 planes was credited with no less than 131 kills for only 6 losses. On this very day Erich Hartmann has brought up his kills for the offensive to a massive 22, while Walter Krupinski still leads with 28 kills. Sadly most of these were escorting fighters.
You pull out LAH and put it into reserve, its infantry should come in handy later on.

The other units advance fast and hard, GD is soon far beyond Oboyan heading for the railroad towards Kursk. 11th Panzer is abit slower because of its recent change of plans, but it too drives hard at the enemy. At about noon, advance elements of it accidentally get into a firefight with Student's detachment, advancing on them (to link up and perhaps catch Russian forces in the rear), because of the quite Russian look of the unit. But soon Student is on his way to your HQ with his prisoners and info.
Totenkopf encircles Oboyan itself while 3rd Panzer manages to keep its place at the flank. For some reason 31st Tank Corps fell back before Totenkopf's attacks. Possibly because of the great interference made by the airforce. It seems it is in fact running out of supplies, but nothing is certain.
The breakthrough has been achieved, and the remnants of both 5th GT Corps and 3rd Mech Corps melted away on this day. Most fleeing to fates unknown, but significant numbers surrendering.

Late in the evening the report from Kempf and the infantry divisions informs you that 2nd GT Corps shouldn't bother you anymore. During the day the entire force tried to cross the river on barges, boats and even swimming. It was slaughter as 3rd Panzer Corps drove up the bank. In the end it captured more than 100 tanks and 20,000 troops.

During the day you order the AA back to its original positions. You realize thatthe Russians might like to destroy the soft belly, but right now they are far too scared about the sharp claws.

Model reports that his troops has advanced well today, but that several reserve formations have headed him off. Also, this have meant that he hasn't been able to encircle any significant enemy formations. Also on this day he finally brought his panzers into action, but the reserves blunted their attacks greatly. Model expects that he will need some time to deal with this.

While talking to Student about everything more or less, an orderly arrives with a manifest, apparently captured at the Prokhorovka train station by Student's men. In it is the list of arrivals for and entire week. What is interesting is the notes for tomorrow. There was supposed to have been an arrival of several very large trains with tanks, infantry and supplies. Several hundred armoured vehicles in all. Of course they won't land there now, but it will come off further east. You believe it is 'the Steppe', finally found, now that the big empty space, was indeed empty. Hoth agrees to an extent, but is less affected by it.

What are you going to do?

1) Now that the most important obstruction to the east has been cleared away, attack with Kempf's forces to the east to head off the enemy reserves obviously on their way (or already here). Support with the two infantry divisions.

2) Send Kempf's forces on a headlong attack north alongside 11th Panzer, while LAH, Kampfgruppe Heidekamp (well rested and mostly back up to strength) and the two infantry divisions take up protective positions towards the east

3) Halt 11th Panzer and GD, have Totenkopf clear its rear, and in general turn to face the new threat. It is strong, it is big and it will hit hard to save Kursk.

4) Ignore the new enemy force. It is far too big to be able to get into action properly for days. By that time you should be able to respond to it.

3

Threats of this magnitute should be given high priority.

1. The Steppe seems like it only just arrived. It shold stil be rather disorganized by the transit. Hit for it hard, hit for it now, before they are ready to fight.

I almost cired when I read about he traffic jam(well sort of....). Terrible. But at least it was an SS unit.

3.) The Steppe has probably been here for days, weeks perhaps. It needs to be given our full priority.

That and try to patch up, rest and re-form some of LAHs units. LAH is a very good, solid formation, with plenty of experienced tankers and infantry still alive. The replacement of lost equipment, esp. tanks, should make LAH good again.

Meanwhile, bring Das Reich back up out of reserve duty, and task them with flanking The Steppe.

Btw, what is the strength of the 3rd PzKorps?

Still, they still seem to be getting their stuff into position. Surely some portion of it are still disorganized by transit? Attack it now, before the entire force is ready to fight.

Wow. After rereading it I think that the better part of the force(several hundred armored vehicles? how many are armored cars? how many tanks?) was suppose to come in the next day. attack to the east, they wil be very disorganized from the unloading

1, avenge the SS even though they deserve to die. The possible benefits greatly outweigh the risks of a bold attack.

Hmm...where is Das Reich and how is it doing?

Anyway, I must, with risk, choose choice 1. The traffic jam was a major setback, but the "Steppe" would overwhelm us if we do not take the initiative at attack them before they're in place. At least that will buy us some valuable time for reinforcements and maneuvering. LAH suffered a lot, though. Don't let it take the spearhead; not alone, at least. Oh, and make sure the artillery will be able to support the divisions quickly in case of encounter with the Russian "Steppe," and not somewhere far behind the line.

Indeed, the Russians might not expect us to be so bold and aggressive after the incident today. They could be taken by surprise.

Sorry to jump in the middle, but I just found this thread.

Go with option 1. Even if a large portion of The Steppe has deployed, it is preparing for a counterattack, and its commanders do not expect to be thrown on the defensive, especially after the success against a major attacking force.

Try to imgaine, if you will, what wouls have happened at Herbestnebel, if the Allied forces had just attacked 2 days before the offensive began. The result would be complete chaos amongst even the most experienced Heer divisions; it would take days to recover, and by then the Allies would have pushed well into the line. The situation is the same here.

Then again, I operate mainly on instinct in these circumstances- and that has led to some major setbacks, when I try to simulate a situation like this.

1). This Steppe army is still a ghost.Maybe it is simply a propaganda trick. We do not know where they are, how strong they are ... . First priority is to push north. Encircle the enemy in the west. Do not care too much in killing smaler formations on your way. Once we did this we can deal with the counterattack.

Russian attack will come soon, now that we finally broke their lines. Let Kempf attack their Bereitstellungsräume. This will slow them down.

Do we have some small but fast units left, maybe recon units? They could try to take some airfields. Soviet air power is becoming a problem!

1.Keep the initiative.Kempfs troops and those infantry divisions can suprise the enemy at first,but they cant destroy it themselves.So they are your anvil and your best divisions wich are now back at strength(liebstandarte excluded,take care of them).Will be the hammer that crushes the "Steppe".

Heh... To think I almost forgot about Das Reich... I did think "hmm, something is missing". Well Das Reich is resting, so it will be available to all cases.

#1, will send it along the northern flank of 3rd Panzer Corps (to keep in contact with 11th Panzer).

#2, will have it at ready stations behind the lines, ready to react to any development, be it 31st Tank Corps or any attack from the east.

#3, logically it will be placed very close to the front towards the east to be ready to react at once. If the situation demands it, it will take its place in the line.

#4, as your forces advance they will drive away from each other. At such breakups you will insert Das Reich.

3rd Panzer Corps, consists of 6th, 7th and 19th Panzer divisions, and the 168th Infantry, though it has remained at the back, guarding Belgorod.
It is a rather strong formation, but far from as strong as your SS corps. They lack both infantry and tanks. A total of tanks would be around 210, though quite a few are obsolete. Total strength of manpower is about 33,000. But they are highly motivated and extremely confident.

Go with 1. And the Das Reich should get close to the front lines but should not engage just yet...

And also direct all reserves to the LAH. Germany needs it.

About the deployment of Das Reich,number two.There is your hammer. ~;)

I go for three. We will face a counter attack coming from the east soon. A stretigic reserve ready to stop it is what we need right now!

Wait a moment... Das Reich hasn't got its own choice here. I merely presented what it would do in each case, since I had been so bright as to leave it out of the original choices.

Kraxis.When you write a number in your post we react. ~D

Kraxis,
I lost the overview. What day do we have now?

The intial choices. Those I wrote in the last chapter.
The later numbers were just what Das Reich would do in each case.

Bulwark

The manifest from Prokhorovka is too much to dismiss for you, you realize that you have a major force on your flank, and to ignore it would be foolish. You pace the room. This is not the time to overreact, the way to Kursk is open, yet a massive force of tanks and troops are on their way it seems.
You call up Dessloch, and give him orders to begin a more thorough recon of the area along the Prokhorovka railroad. You need to know what might be out there.
Then you turn to Hoth. "We can't just drive on, however much we want to."
"You can't be serious... We are on the verge of success. We could be in Kursk tomorrow or the day after that."
"Yes, I know that, but it is a huge risk in case we get hit in the flank. Besides it will still take Model some time to resume his own advance. We can't cover the entire area ourselves, and riving on would only mean that the Russians would stream out of the bulge."
"Then at least let me attack this new force. They are bound to be disorganized."
"We don't know what we face, or where we face it. You could stumble into something you couldn't defeat."
Hoth grumbles something under his breath, but says nothing further.
"Halt the advance, turn 11th Panzer and GD to face east. Have Totenkopf clean up Oboyan and the surrounding areas. Move up 3rd Panzer and 255th Infantry to cover the western flank. Make sure LAH gets protection from 332nd and 167th Infantry. Das Reich and Kampfgruppe Heidekamp should remain near the eastern fron ready to react to any attacks. It should present a very strong front to any attackers."
When Hoth doesn't answer but does begin to contact the divisional commanders you call up Kempf and order his troops be ready to react to attacks but remain in place.

Reluctantly your spearheads turn and redeploy during the night. The troops are not very pleased that they are now about to go over to the defensive, now that they are rapidly advancing. And yet another change of setup once again disrupts the rear areas, but in time ofr the sun to rise your forces are in place.

The early recon missions deep across the area of the railroad, reports that there are indeed heavy forces arriving by rail, and it seems that they are just the last of an immense force. But so far it is not advancing on you.
You let your divisions send out strong recon elements to scout out the nearby territory. Their finds are surprising, the entire front seems to be abandoned. This gets Hoth up from his lethargy.
"We must advance!"
"And spread ourselves even thinner?"
"Are we just going to sit still today? What about tomorrow... And the next day? We are giving up our initiative!"
You don't answer him...

At least the airforces are doing better today, and the returned AA does much to impede the Russian attacks. The many attacks are far less successful than yesterday, while your own attacks hit the incoming trains and collumns at the railroad. The gun-Stukas catches a force of tanks in the open and rip them apart, leaving dosens of rising dark plumes of smoke.

You use the day to reform the lines to a more solid state. The three weakened divisions are put at the head of a point while the stronger forces guardtheir flanks, ready to swing around an advancing enemy. But you still don't know the extent of the enemy forces, what their composition is or who commands them. This bothers you, especially now that you have halted your advance.

Model reports that his advance is slow but sure, though he is suffering heavier and heavier losses, and it seems that by afternoon the Russians got more reinforcements. He is still confident that he will break through at the latests the day after tomorrow.

What will you do?

1) Stay still and await the attack. You are prepared and ready. It shouldn't be able to deeat you. Yo have even laid a plan to trap the enemy forces.

2) Make a limited advance to the north, consisting of Das Reich and Totenkopf, while the rest stays in place.

3) Have the three weakened divisions advance north while the strong forces attack towards the enemy forces in the east.

4) Have Kempf's 3rd Panzer Corps do a limited advance east to get into contact with enemy and acertain his strength, size and command. A recon in force.

number four.Lets think this a little bit.The "Steppe" has unloaded itself now and are hiding and waiting us to advance in the Kursk,so they can hit us in the flank.We dont want to play their game but we cant just stand still and wait for Stavka to deploy new forces in the area.So lets go and pick a fight with them on our terms.

#4 and #3 at the same time.

Reconnaisance by fire is the most effective form of reconnaisance. Just make sure that the 3rd PzKorps doesn't lose any of its good tanks to the Soviets.
Also, bring a few planes along to cause some serious havoc among the Russians and delay them where they are.

Hoth is right though, you can't just sit there. The Russians can use this opportunity to run around your flanks and cut you off (Ouran offensive anyone?). You have to smash the Russians ASAP, even if it means advancing too far.