"By noon of the first day of the Sandomierz-Silesian Offensive Operation, Soviet infantry penetrated the first line of German defenses and hit the second. Quickly realizing the situation, Marshall Konev, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, played the ace up his sleeve: several hundred tanks and SPGs. Thanks to them, Soviet forces were ready to assault the second line by the second half of January 12th, 1945.
Seeing the threat of a breakthrough, the Germans decided to deliver a powerful counterattack with General W. Nehring's 24th Tank Corps on January 13th. Success would allow them to encircle a portion of the Soviet forces and bog down D. Lelyushenko's 4th Guards Tank Army in drawn-out battles. Documents of the 4th GTA called it the Battle of Kielce-Chmielnik. The engagement at the small Polish village of Lisow marked the beginning of the end of this battle.
Flexing Muscles
Nehring's corps was not just a weighty tank fist with 250 tanks and SPGs. His fist had brass knuckles: the 424th Heavy Tank Battalion, including 29 Tigers and 23 King Tigers. The corps commander planned two converging strikes: from Chmielnik from the south and Kielce from the north. On paper, Lelyushenko had a triple advantage, but his 750 tanks and SPGs were spread out across the front of the offensive, so Soviet tankers had it tough.
The Germans did not manage to coordinate the offensive to hit with all forces at once. Nevertheless, Lelyushenko's army engaged German tank reserves across the entire front on January 13th. The fiercest fighting was done by the 10th Guards Tank Corps. German infantry and tanks attacked it from three sides: south, north, and center. The corps commander, Colonel N. Chuprov, had to apply all his skills to not only defeat the enemy, but continue his offensive…"
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