1943. Before the battle The aftermath of Kiev After the Battle of Kiev, the German Army high command (OKH) ordered Army Group Center to redeploy its forces for the attack on Moscow, and so the 2nd Panzer Group turned north towards Bryansk and Kursk. Army Group South, and in particular Walther von Reichenau's 6th Army and Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel's 17th Army took the place of the panzer divisions. The main offensive formation of Army Group South, Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist's 1st Panzer Group, was in the meantime ordered south for a drive to Rostov-on-Don and the Caucasian oilfields, following Führer Directive No. 35. The burden of processing Kiev's 600,000 Soviet prisoners of war fell upon the 6th and 17th Armies, so while the 1st Panzer Group secured the German victory in the battle of Melitopol, these two armies spent the next three weeks regrouping. Stavka (Soviet High Command), needed to stabilize its southern flank and poured reinforcements into the area between Kursk and Rostov, at the expense of its forces in front of Moscow. The Southwestern Front, which had been destroyed during the battle of Kiev, was re-established under the command of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, one of the more capable Red Army commanders. The 6th, 21st, 38th and 40th Armies were reconstituted almost from scratch. Approaching Kharkov With the Battle of Moscow under way, the Germans had to protect their flanks, and on 6 October von Reichenau advanced through Sumy and Okhtyrka in the direction of Belgorod and Kharkov. On the same day, the 17th Army commenced its offensive from Poltava towards Lozova and Izyum to protect the lengthening flank of the 1st Panzer Army (formerly the 1st Panzer Group). The Soviet 6th Army (Rodion Malinovsky) and 38th Army (Viktor Tsiganov) were beaten back in disarray. As the Battle of Moscow approached, the Soviet Red Army suffered a big defeat at Vyazma and Bryansk, with 700,000 casualties. The few reserves available were desperately needed to defend the Soviet capital, not the Southwestern Front. With no reserves to plug the breach, the Soviets were forced back to Voronezh to prevent the collapse of the southern flank. The main objectives of the German Army before the fall of winter were to capture Leningrad, Moscow and the approaches to the Caucasian oilfields, but Kharkov was an important secondary objective. Besides the need to protect the flanks of its motorized spearheads, the Germans