Totenkopf Attacks 213.9 (Updated for V5)*
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Date: July 30, 1943*                     
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Battle Type: German Assault vs Soviet Defend*
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Design: CB Blackard*
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Battle Description: With the loss of the strategic initiative following the breaking off of the Kursk offensive, Germany was reduced to reacting to the operations of the Russian Army for the rest of the war.  Counterattacks became the rule and it was the Waffen SS Panzer Divisions which were most often called upon to seal off an endangered area of the front.  The first battle of the Waffen SS units in this new role was the counterattack of Hollidt's 6th Army against Tolbukhin's South Front which had broken through the German lines along the Mius river.  On July 27, 1943, the three panzer divisions of II-SS Panzer Korps (the 3rd Panzer Division, the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich", and the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf") arrived in the Mius sector, having traveled straight from the battlefield of Kursk.  On July 30, 1943, the counterattack opened with the "Totenkopf" Division, under the leadership of SS Brigadefuhrer Hermann Priess, attempting to capture Hill 213.9, the most important position of the entire sector.*
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Source:  Nipe, "Decision in the Ukraine Summer 1943", pp. 181-191*
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