Objective Kharkov - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Kharkov: [Best played as Axis] In a twenty-one day battle that raged through February, Manstein's armored formations won a fantastic victory in the snow-covered hills and fields south of Kharkov. The Soviet Sixth Army and Armored Group Popov had been wiped out or badly mauled. But most importantly, the threat of total annihilation for the Germans on the eastern front was averted, and the consequences of the defeat at Stalingrad were eliminated. All that remained to complete the victory was the recapture of Kharkov. The task fell to General Hausser and the II SS Panzer Corps with its three battle-weary panzergrenadier divisions, which had abandoned the city four weeks earlier. By the second week of March, the Panzer Corps had swung to the west and north and was in position to penetrate into the Ukrainian metropolis. All that the Russians had left to face the wrath of the SS were the shattered remnants of the Russian 69th and Third Tank Armies.