By the evening of 3 July, II SS Panzer Corps was deployed in its assembly areas and final orders were issued for the initial assault. On the left was the Leibstandarte, in the centre was Das Reich and the Totenkopf was deployed on the right. All were to attack simultaneously to batter through the Russian defences.

The attack was to start just before midnight on the evening of 4 July, with battalion-sized infantry assaults going in to seize a number of key Soviet positions to allow artillery observers to be sited so they could call in fire to cover the attack against the main Russian defence line. Soviet artillery barrages started to fall on the Waffen-SS divisions' assembly areas just after dusk, causing minor casualties and confusion, but they were not intense enough to stop the main attack. The first attacks went in on schedule, with small groups of panzergrenadiers infiltrating through minefields and rushing the enemy trenches. In two hours of hand-to-hand combat, the outposts were captured and the main attack of the Leibstandarte Division was ready to roll at just after dawn - 04:05 hours - on 5 July.

The German offensive begins

Each of the division's panzergrenadier regiments was given a major Russian strongpoint as an objective. The Waffen-SS panzer regiments and armoured troop-carrier battalions were kept in reserve to exploit any breakthrough created by the panzergrenadiers. For 50 minutes before the attack the massed artillery of the corps blasted the objectives, and in the final five minutes of the barrage Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers joined the attack. The bombardment demolished whole sections of trench line and scores of anti-tank guns, stunning the Russian defenders. Once the Leibstandarte's attack was under way, the artillery and Stuka support was switched to "soften up" the defences in front of the Das Reich Division, which was due to attack at 08:15 hours.

A sluggish advance

Tiger Is, StuG IIIs and Marders then rolled forward with the first wave of panzergrenadiers to give them close support as they moved into action. This was the so-called panzerkeil, or wedge, tactic. The presence of the armoured firepower was the key to the success of the assault, with the Tigers and other vehicles acting as mobile pillboxes. They destroyed scores of machine-gun nests in quick succession to allow the panzergrenadier assault teams to move in to clear out the trench lines with hand grenades and flamethrowers. Dozens of anti-tank guns were destroyed by the giant tanks, which were impervious to Soviet fire. These assault operations took until well into the afternoon, and cost the Leibstandarte Division some 500 casualties alone. The close-quarter fighting was vicious and few Soviet soldiers showed any inclination to surrender, with just over 100 being captured by the Waffen-SS during the day. By mid-afternoon, the Leibstandarte and Das Reich Divisions were ready to start the next phase of the operation: launching their panzer reserves forward. Das Reich's panzers got stuck in a previously undiscovered minefield, and the Leibstandarte's surged ahead until they ran into the pak-front of the Soviet 28th Anti-Tank Brigade. Two Tigers were damaged by the expertly dug-in anti-tank guns, before the Leibstandarte's commanders ordered the advance halted until infantry could be brought up during the night to clear out the enemy's second-line defences.

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