Kharkov '43 Grand Campaign AAR

[Arkan]

As the commander of GD i can say that tanks had only a minor influence in the destruction of russian units.

The Fusilier Rgt didn't fought with 161st RIfle Div and immediatly go to the south, in thez gap between 161st and the advancing 219th Div. The biggest part of the job has been made by GD recon btl who go through this gap and attacked russians from behind. Tanks where only used in the south of the pocket to stop russian reinforcements and make the junction with elements of the recon btl.
The tank Rgt was recovering during the entire first day and this was his first fight. As you can see his btl have between 40% and 60% strenght.
In this situation i dont think that a 2% recovery rate would change anything. The main cause of the pocket was the open gap between 2 russian divisions and the highest speed of german units alowing them to withraw from one fight (with 161st Div) to heavily push in an other fight (219th and later destroyer brigade + mixed tank btl as reinforcements)