Battle of Kursk
Encyclopedia
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the vicinity of the city of Kursk
Kursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...
, (450 kilometres (279.6 mi) south of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka
Battle of Prokhorovka
The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War as part of the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union . Principally, the German Wehrmachts Fourth Panzer Army clashed with the Soviet Red Army's 5th Guards Tank Army...
, and the costliest single day of aerial warfare
Aerial warfare
Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift...
in history. It was the final strategic offensive the Germans were able to mount in the east. The resulting decisive Soviet victory gave the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.
The Germans hoped to shorten their lines by eliminating the Kursk salient
Salients, re-entrants and pockets
A salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. The salient is surrounded by the enemy on three sides, making the troops occupying the salient vulnerable. The enemy's line facing a salient is referred to as a re-entrant...
(also known as the Kursk bulge), created in the aftermath of their defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. They envisioned pincers breaking through its northern and southern flanks to achieve a great encirclement
Encirclement
Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces. The German term for this is Kesselschlacht ; a comparable English term might be "in the bag"....
of Red Army forces. The Soviets, however, had intelligence of the German Army's intentions. This and German delays to wait for new weapons, mainly Tiger
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
and Panther
Panther tank
Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as...
tanks, gave the Red Army time to construct a series of defense lines and gather large reserve forces for a strategic counterattack.
Advised months in advance that the attack would fall on the neck of the Kursk salient, the Soviets designed a plan to slow, redirect, exhaust, and progressively wear down the powerful German panzer spearheads
Armored spearhead
An armored spearhead is a formation of armored fighting vehicles, mostly tanks, that form the front of an offensive thrust during a battle. The idea is to concentrate as much firepower into a small front as possible, so any defenders in front of them will be overwhelmed...
by forcing them to attack through a vast interconnected web of minefields, pre-sighted artillery fire zones, and concealed anti-tank strong points comprising eight progressively spaced defense lines 250 km deep—more than 10 times as deep as the Maginot Line
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
—and featuring a greater than 1:1 ratio of anti-tank guns to attacking vehicles. By far the most extensive defensive works ever constructed, it proved to be more than three times the depth necessary to contain the furthest extent of the German attack.
When the German forces had exhausted themselves against the defences, the Soviets responded with counter-offensive
Counter-offensive
A counter-offensive is the term used by the military to describe large-scale, usually strategic offensive operations by forces that had successfully halted an enemy's offensive, while occupying defensive positions....
s, which allowed the Red Army to retake Orel
Oryol
Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...
and Belgorod
Belgorod
-Twin towns/sister cities:Belgorod is twinned with: Wakefield, England, United Kingdom Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Opole, Poland Vyshhorod, Ukraine Kharkiv, Ukraine-External links:...
on 5 August and Kharkov on 23 August, and push the Germans back across a broad front.
Although the Red Army had had success in winter, this was the first successful strategic Soviet summer offensive of the war. The model strategic operation earned a place in war college curricula.When the week of combat around Kursk had ended, the perceived infallibility of Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
was destroyed, along with the hopes of the German Army for victory or even stalemate in the east. Kursk announced to the world that for every offensive theory there is a suitable defensive one available to those who devote enough thought to develop it. The Battle of Kursk was the first battle in which a Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
offensive had been defeated before it could break through enemy defenses and into its strategic depths.
Background
In the winter of 1942–43 the Red Army conclusively won the Battle of StalingradBattle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. About 800,000 German and other Axis troops were lost, including the entire German Sixth Army
German Sixth Army
The 6th Army was a designation for German field armies which saw action in World War I and World War II. The 6th Army is best known for fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, during which it became the first entire German field army to be completely destroyed...
, seriously depleting Axis strength in the east.
During the months of November, 1942 to February, 1943, the German position in southern Russia became critical. With the encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, a huge hole opened up in their lines. Follow-up Soviet forces pushed west, threatening to isolate Army Group A in the Caucasus as well.
German Field Marshal
Generalfeldmarschall
Field Marshal or Generalfeldmarschall in German, was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire; in the Austrian Empire, the rank Feldmarschall was used...
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces...
was reduced to desperate measures. Divisions were scraped up by thinning nonthreatened sectors. Noncombat personnel were pressed into service, along with tanks in rear area workshops. Ad hoc units were formed which blunted the Soviet advance spearheads.
In due course, the SS Panzer Corps arrived from France, fresh and up to strength. Other mechanized units such as the 11th Panzer Division arrived from Army Group A, along with the 6th and 17th Panzer Divisions. By February 19, enough German armor was concentrated to launch a pincer-style counteroffensive against the overextended Russian forces, notably Armored Group Popov.
The ensuing attack left the front line running roughly from Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in the north to Rostov
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
in the south. In the middle lay a large 200 km (120 mi) wide and 150 km (90 mi) deep Soviet-held salient, or bulge centered round the town of Kursk between German forward positions near Orel
Oryol
Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...
in the north, and Kharkov in the south.
The spring thaw now turned the countryside into a muddy quagmire and both sides settled down to plan their next move.
General Manstein initially believed that the German Army should go on the strategic defensive and deliver strong counterblows with their mobile reserves. He was convinced that the Red Army would deliver its main effort against Army Group South. He proposed to keep the left strong while retreating on the right to the Dnieper River
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
, followed by a massive counterblow to the flank of the Red Army advance. This idea was rejected by Hitler, as he did not even temporarily want to give up so much terrain.
At the top of the German High Command
Oberkommando des Heeres
The Oberkommando des Heeres was Nazi Germany's High Command of the Army from 1936 to 1945. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht commanded OKH only in theory...
(OKH), Colonel General Kurt Zeitzler and others did not approve of Manstein's defensive strategy and instead turned their attention to the obvious bulge at Kursk. Two Red Army Fronts
Front (Soviet Army)
A front was a major military organization in the Soviet Army during many wars. It was roughly equivalent to an army group in the militaries of most other countries except Germany...
, the Voronezh
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
and Central Fronts, occupied the ground in and around the salient and pinching it off would trap almost a fifth of the Red Army's manpower. It would also result in a much straighter and shorter line and recapture the strategically useful railway city of Kursk
Kursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...
, located on the main north-south railway line from Rostov to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
In March, the plans crystallized. Walter Model
Walter Model
Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...
's 9th Army
German Ninth Army
The 9th Army was a World War II field army.The 9th Army was activated on May 15, 1940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz in command.-1940:The 9th Army first saw service along the Siegfried Line when it was involved in the invasion of France...
would attack southwards from Orel while Hermann Hoth
Hermann Hoth
Hermann "Papa" Hoth was an officer in the German military from 1903 to 1945. He attained the rank of Generaloberst during World War II. He fought in France, but is most noted for his later exploits as a panzer commander on the Eastern Front...
's 4th Panzer Army
German Fourth Panzer Army
The 4th Panzer Army was, before being designated a full army, the Panzer Group 4 , a German panzer army that saw action during World War II. Its units played a part in the invasion of France, and then on the Eastern Front.-Early history:The 4th Panzer Group's predecessor was the XVI Corps formed...
and Army Group Kempf
German Army Detachment Kempf
German Army Detachment Kempf ' was a Wehrmacht formation on the Eastern Front during World War II. Part of Army Group South, Detachment Kempf saw action during Operation Citadel , the German attempt to cut off the Kursk salient and crush the large part of the Russian army...
under the overall command of Manstein would attack northwards from Belgorod. They planned to meet at Kursk, but if the offensive went well, they would have permission to continue forward on their own initiative, with a general plan to re-establish a new line at the Don River, several weeks' march to the east.
The German commanders favoring the attack were confident and guided by the facts that the distance to Kursk was short, the attacking forces strong, and the Wehrmacht's history was one of always shattering Soviet front lines where it chose to.
Contrary to his recent behavior, Hitler gave the OKH considerable control over the planning of the operation. Over the next few weeks, they continued to increase the scope of the forces attached to the front, stripping other areas of the German line of anything useful for deployment in the operation. They first set the attack for 4 May, but delayed in order to allow more time for new weapons to arrive from Germany. Hitler postponed the offensive several more times. On 5 May, the launch date became 12 June. Due to the potential threat of an Allied landing in Italy and delays in armor deliveries, Hitler set the launch date to 20 June. On 17 June, he further postponed it until 3 July, and then later to 5 July.Source: German Nation Archive microfilm publication T78, Records of the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was part of the command structure of the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.- Genesis :...
) Roll 343, Frames 6301178–180 confirms Hitler's teleprinter messages to Rommel about reinforcing southern Italy with armored forces destined to be used for Zitadelle.
The concept behind the German offensive was the traditional (and for the Germans usually successful) double-envelopment
Pincer movement
The pincer movement or double envelopment is a military maneuver. The flanks of the opponent are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion after the opponent has advanced towards the center of an army which is responding by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks, in order to surround it...
, or Kesselschlacht (cauldron battle). The German Army had long favored such a Cannae-style
Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, which took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...
method and the tools of Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
made these types of tactics even more effective. Blitzkrieg depends upon a mass of armor concentrated at some weak point, followed by rapid breakthroughs where columns of tanks and mechanized infantry penetrate forward and then curve inward toward each other, trapping the enemy forces in between. Essential to such operations is control of the air space so that one's tanks are not subject to aerial bombardment, but those of the enemy are. Upon encirclement of a portion of the opposing force, defeat follows through disruption of command and supply rather than continuation of a pitched battle
Pitched battle
A pitched battle is a battle where both sides choose to fight at a chosen location and time and where either side has the option to disengage either before the battle starts, or shortly after the first armed exchanges....
.
Such breakthroughs were easier to achieve by attacking in unexpected locations, as the Germans had done in the Ardennes
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in 1940, Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in 1941, and towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
in the summer of 1942.
The OKH plan for the attack on the Kursk salient, "Operation Citadel", violated one crucial principle of war: the element of surprise. As the Germans moved in more men and equipment, it became increasingly obvious what was happening.
A number of German commanders questioned the idea, notably Guderian
Heinz Guderian
Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II. He was a pioneer in the development of armored warfare, and was the leading proponent of tanks and mechanization in the Wehrmacht . Germany's panzer forces were raised and organized under his direction as Chief of Mobile Forces...
, who asked Hitler:
The German force numbered fifty divisions, including 17 Panzer
Panzer
A Panzer is a German language word that, when used as a noun, means "tank". When it is used as an adjective, it means either tank or "armoured" .- Etymology :...
and Panzergrenadier
Panzergrenadier
is a German term for motorised or mechanized infantry, as introduced during World War II. It is used in the armies of Austria, Chile, Germany and Switzerland.-Forerunners:...
divisions. Among them were the elite Wehrmacht Großdeutschland Division
Großdeutschland Division
The Großdeutschland Division was an elite Heer combat unit of the Wehrmacht. The Großdeutschland was considered to be the premier unit of the German Army and as such it was one of best-equipped unit of the German Armed Forces, receiving equipment before all other units.- Early history -...
as well as three battle-hardened Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
divisions; the 1st SS Panzergrenadier Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into a divisional-sized unit...
, 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich and the 3rd SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf
3rd SS Division Totenkopf
The SS Division Totenkopf , also known as 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke...
, which were all grouped into the II SS Panzer Corps
II SS Panzer Corps
The II SS Panzer Corps was a Nazi German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II.- Formation - Kharkov :...
.
Soviet plans
Pinsk Marshes
The Pinsk Marshes or Pripyat Marshes are a vast territory of wetlands along the Pripyat River and its tributaries from Brest, Belarus to Mogilev and Kiev ....
.
However, these ideas were abandoned as Moscow received warning of the German build-up through the Lucy spy ring
Lucy spy ring
In World War II espionage, the Lucy spy ring was an anti-German operation that was headquartered in Switzerland. It was run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee and ostensibly the proprietor of a small publishing firm, Vita Nova...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Additional information came from John Cairncross
John Cairncross
John Cairncross was a British intelligence officer during World War II, who passed secrets to the Soviet Union...
in the UK who forwarded decoded Lorenz cipher
Lorenz cipher
The Lorenz SZ40, SZ42A and SZ42B were German rotor cipher machines used by the German Army during World War II. They were developed by C. Lorenz AG in Berlin. They implemented a Vernam stream cipher...
data from Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
. Marshal
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ....
Georgiy Zhukov had already predicted the site of the German attack as early as 8 April, recommending to Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
(the Red Army General Staff) a defensive strategy. Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
wrote in his memoirs that he was notified about the attack in general details by Stalin on 27 March.
The pattern of the war up until this point had been one of German offensive success in spring and summer. Blitzkrieg had worked against all opponents, including the Red Army. On the other hand, Soviet forces had attacked with success only during the winter. Although Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and some Stavka officers were eager to strike first, the majority along with Zhukov advised a more cautious approach. In a letter to Stalin on April 8, 1943 he wrote:
Hitler delayed the launching of his offensive which gave the Red Army two months in which to turn the salient into one of the most heavily defended areas in history. They evacuated most of their troops from the outer bulge leaving a crust of defending infantry there. But at the base of the bulge on both sides, two fronts
Front (Soviet Army)
A front was a major military organization in the Soviet Army during many wars. It was roughly equivalent to an army group in the militaries of most other countries except Germany...
, the Central on the north face and Voronezh
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
in the south manned the lines, with Steppe Front
Steppe Front
The Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
in nearby reserve.
To meet the German attack, the Central and Voronezh fronts created several main lines of defense in their sectors. Protecting the infantry in each line were enormous mine belts and anti-tank ditches in front.
The preparation of the battlefield by Red Army military engineer
Military engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...
s was thorough. Reports indicate 503,993 anti-tank mine
Anti-tank mine
An anti-tank mine, , is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles....
s and 439,348 anti-personnel mines were laid. On average, 1,500 anti-tank and 1,700 anti-personnel mines were laid per kilometre of front. In the sectors eventually attacked, densities were never lower than 1,400 per kilometre and sometimes reached as high as 2,000 per kilometre.
Further supporting the Soviet infantry were 6,000 76.2mm anti-tank guns which were skillfully camouflaged. Gunners were instructed to concentrate their fire on the more vulnerable Panzer IV
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
tanks which formed a majority of the Panzer division strength. The Russian howitzers, mortars and machinegun posts had as their mission to eliminate German infantry attempting to close in on the anti-tank guns. The density of artillery in the salient was unusual. There were more artillery regiments than infantry regiments. The Red Army was determined to grind down the advancing Panzer formations with artillery and anti-tank obstacles in order to slow, stop, and counterattack them.
Further buttressing the Russian infantry were independent armored brigades. Some of these tanks were dug into hull-down positions and used in a static role.
Waiting in reserve for the Germans if they should breach the Soviet lines was the Steppe Front consisting of 4th and 5th Guards, 27th, 53rd and 57th Armies, and the 5th Guards Tank Army.
The Russians massed some 1,300,000 men, 3,600 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces, and 2,792 aircraft. This amounted to 26% of the total manpower of the Red Army, 26% of its mortars and artillery, 35% of its aircraft, and 46% of its tanks. The Germans received reports of powerful Soviet concentrations in the Kursk area and delayed the offensive to allow for more Panther tanks to reach the front line.
Many of the Soviet forces assigned to the defense of the salient were recent veterans of the Battle of Stalingrad. But the Red Army also added over one million new men in the first half of 1943. Hence the Red Army was comparatively stronger in 1943, while the German army was smaller.
State of the Red Air Force
In the early stages of the war, the Red Air Force, while numerically superior, suffered from an abundance of obsolete designs and insufficient training. Many Soviet pilots learned to fly as civilian members of air clubs set up by the Osoaviakhim.By 1943, more formal training was introduced and modern aircraft such as the Yakovlev Yak-9
Yakovlev Yak-9
The Yakovlev Yak-9 was a single-engine fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union in World War II and after. Fundamentally a lighter development of the Yak-7 with the same armament, it arrived at the front at the end of 1942. The Yak-9 had a lowered rear fuselage decking and all-around vision canopy...
fighter, Petlyakov Pe-2
Petlyakov Pe-2
The Petlyakov Pe-2 was a Soviet dive bomber aircraft used during World War II. It was regarded as one of the best ground attack aircraft of the war and it was extremely successful in the roles of heavy fighter, reconnaissance and night fighter...
light bomber and Ilyushin Il-2
Ilyushin Il-2
The Ilyushin Il-2 was a ground-attack aircraft in the Second World War, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers...
ground attack aircraft
Ground attack aircraft
Ground-attack aircraft are military aircraft with primary role of attacking targets on the ground with greater precision than bombers and prepared to face stronger low-level air defense...
were available in large numbers.
Consequently, the Red Air Force had greatly improved by the Battle of Kursk, to the point where neither side gained ascendancy in the air. Both German and Russian armored columns suffered from bombing attacks.
Wehrmacht
| Order of battle: Army Group Center (Field Marshal Günther von Kluge Günther von Kluge Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | Commander | Note | Corps | Commander | Divisions |
| 9th Army | Walter Model Walter Model Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism... |
XX Army Corps | R. von Roman Rudolf Freiherr von Roman Rudolf Ernst Philipp August Joachim Freiherr von Roman was a German general who commanded several corps during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves... |
45th 45th Infantry Division (Germany) With the annexation in 1936 of Austria by Nazi Germany, what was once the 4th Austrian Division was incorporated into the Wehrmacht and re-designated the 45.Infanterie-Division... , 72nd 72nd Infantry Division (Germany) The 72nd Infantry Division was created on 19 September 1939 in Trier from Grenz-Division Trier, which was a border security unit. It was destroyed on the Eastern front 25 March 1944 and reformed June 1944.-Commanding officers:... , 137th, & 251st Infantry Division |
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| XLVI Army Corps | H. Zorn Hans Zorn Hans Wilhelm Karl Zorn was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme... |
7th 7th Infantry Division (Germany) The 7th Infantry Division was a formation of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was formed 1 October 1934 in Munich from the Artillerieführer VII staff and renamed 7. Infanterie-Division with the disclosure of German rearmament on 15 October 1935... , 31st, 102nd 102nd Infantry Division (Germany) -Organisation and history:The division was formed on 15 December 1940 in Wehrkreis II , in the 12th mobilisation wave, using elements of the 8th Infantry Division and the 28th Infantry Division.... ,& 258th Infantry Division |
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| XLI Army Corps | J. Harpe Josef Harpe Josef Harpe was a German Generaloberst who served during World War I and World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords... |
18th 18th Panzer Division (Germany) The 18th Panzer Division was a German World War II armoured division that fought on the Eastern Front from 1941 until disbandment in 1943.- Commanding officers :*General der Panzertruppen Walther Nehring, 26 October 1940... Panzer Division & 86th, & 292nd 292nd Infantry Division (Germany) The 292nd Infantry Division was a German infantry formation which fought during World War II.-History and organisation:The division was formed on 6 February 1940, in the 8th mobilisation wave, in Wehrkreis II , with the following organisation:*Infanterie-Regiment 507*Infanterie-Regiment... Infantry Division |
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| XLVII Panzer Corps | J. Lemelsen Joachim Lemelsen Joachim Hermann August Lemelsen was a German general during the Second World War. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves... |
2nd, 9th & 20th Panzer Division & 6th Infantry Division | |||
| XXIII Army Corps | J. Frießner | 216th 216th Infantry Division (Germany) The 216th Infantry Division was created on 26 August 1939 by reorganizing several Border Defense and Army Reserve units from Lower Saxony, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Hannover... , & 383rd Infantry Division & 78th Sturmdivision |
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| Army Reserve | 4 & 12th Panzer Division & 10th Panzer Grenadier Division | ||||
| 2nd Panzer Army | Erich-Heinrich Clößner Erich Clößner Erich-Heinrich Philipp Karl Albert Reinhard Clößner was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who held commands at the divisional and corps levels. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross... |
XXXV Army Corps | L. Rendulic Lothar Rendulic Generaloberst Lothar Rendulic was an Austro-Hungarian and Austrian Army officer of Croatian origin who served as a German general during World War II. He commanded the 14. Infanterie-Division, 52. Infanterie-Division, XXXV Armeekorps, 2. Panzer-Armee, 20... |
34th 56th 262nd & 299th 299th Infantry Division (Germany) The German 299th Infantry Division was a World War II infantry formation, which fought in France and the Russian Front until February 1945.The 299th Infantry Division was formed in March and April 1940 from men from Hesse and Thuringia. The 299th Infantry Division first saw action in the 1940... Infantry Division |
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| LIII Army Corps | F. Gollwitzer Friedrich Gollwitzer Friedrich Gollwitzer was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the LIII. corps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or... |
208th, 211th & 293rd Infantry Division & 25th Panzer Grenadier Division | |||
| LV Army Corps | E. Jaschke Erich Jaschke Erich Jaschke was a General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II, and one of only 882 recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or... |
110th, 134th 296th & 339th Infantry Division | |||
| Army reserve | 112th Infantry Division | ||||
| Army Group Reserve | 5th & 8th 8th Panzer Division (Germany) The 8th Panzer Division was a panzer division of the Wehrmacht Heer. The division was only active during World War II, and came into existence after 3rd Light Division was reorganized in January 1940... Panzer Division |
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| Order of battle: Army Group South (Field Marshal Erich von Manstein Erich von Manstein Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | Commander | Note | Corps | Commander | Divisions |
| 4th Panzer Army | Hermann Hoth Hermann Hoth Hermann "Papa" Hoth was an officer in the German military from 1903 to 1945. He attained the rank of Generaloberst during World War II. He fought in France, but is most noted for his later exploits as a panzer commander on the Eastern Front... |
LII Army Corps | E. Ott Eugen Ott (general) Eugen Ott was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded several corps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross... |
57th, 255th & 332nd Infantry Division | |
| XLVIII Panzer Corps | Otto von Knobelsdorff Otto von Knobelsdorff Heinrich Otto Ernst von Knobelsdorff was a German general who commanded armored Panzer units and served during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords... |
3rd & 11th Panzer Division & 167th Infantry Division und Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland | |||
| II SS Panzer Corps II SS Panzer Corps The II SS Panzer Corps was a Nazi German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II.- Formation - Kharkov :... |
P. Hausser Paul Hausser Paul "Papa" Hausser was an officer in the German Army, achieving the high rank of lieutenant-general in the inter-war Reichswehr. After retirement from the regular Army he became the "father" of the Waffen-SS and one of its most eminent leaders... |
1st 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into a divisional-sized unit... , 2nd & 3rd 3rd SS Division Totenkopf The SS Division Totenkopf , also known as 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke... SS-Panzer Grenadier Division |
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| Army Detachment Kempf German Army Detachment Kempf German Army Detachment Kempf ' was a Wehrmacht formation on the Eastern Front during World War II. Part of Army Group South, Detachment Kempf saw action during Operation Citadel , the German attempt to cut off the Kursk salient and crush the large part of the Russian army... |
Werner Kempf Werner Kempf General Werner Kempf was a Panzer General in the German army during World War II who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves .... |
III Panzer Corps | H. Breith | 6th, 7th, & 19th Panzer Division & 168th Infantry Division | |
| Korps Raus | E. Raus Erhard Raus Erhard Raus was a Austrian Colonel General during World War II. He commanded the 6th Panzer Division during the early years of the war on the Eastern Front before taking Army and Army Group commands.... |
106th & 320th Infantry Division | |||
| XLII Army Corps | F. Mattenklot | 39th, 161st & 282nd Infantry Division | |||
| Army Group Reserve | XXIV. Tank corps | 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was one of the elite Panzer divisions of the thirty eight Waffen SS divisions. It was recruited from foreign volunteers, from Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, The Netherlands, and Belgium under the command of German officers... & 17th Panzer Division |
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Red Army
| Order of battle: Central Front (Army General Konstantin Rokossovsky Konstantin Rokossovsky Konstantin Rokossovskiy was a Polish-origin Soviet career officer who was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Marshal of Poland and Polish Defence Minister, who was famously known for his service in the Eastern Front, where he received high esteem for his outstanding military skill... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | Commander | Note | Corps | Division | |
| 13th Army 13th Army (Soviet Union) The 13th Army was a name given to several field armies of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first created during the Russian Civil War... |
N. Puchow | 17th Guards Rifle Corps | 6th, 70th & 75th Guards Rifle Division | ||
| 18th Guards Rifle Corps | 2nd, 3rd & 4th Airborne Guards Rifle Division | ||||
| 15th Rifle Corps | 8. 74 & 148. Rifle Division | ||||
| 29th Rifle Corps | 15th, 81st & 307th Rifle Division | ||||
| 48th Army | P. Romanenko | 42nd Rifle Corps | 6th, 70th & 75th Guards Rifle Division | ||
| 73rd Rifle Corps | 2nd, 3rd & 4th Airborne Guards Rifle Division | ||||
| 60th Army | I. Tschernjachowski | 24th Rifle Corps | 42nd, & 112th. Rifle Division | ||
| 30. Rifle Corps | 121st, 141st & 322nd Rifle Division | ||||
| Independent | 55th Rifle Division | ||||
| 65th Army | I. Tschernjachowski | 18th Rifle Corps | 69th, 149th & 246th Rifle Division | ||
| 27th Rifle Corps | 60th & 193rd Rifle Division | ||||
| Independent | 37th Garde Rifle Division & 181st, 194th & 354th Rifle Division | ||||
| 70th Army | I. Galanin | 28th Rifle Corps | 132nd, 211th & 280th Rifle Division | ||
| Independent | 102nd, 106th, 140th & 162nd Rifle Division | ||||
| 2nd Tank Army | A. Rodin | 3rd Tank Corps | |||
| 16th Tank Corps | |||||
| Front Assets | 9th Tank Corps | ||||
| 19th Tank Corps | |||||
| Order of battle: Voronezh Front (Army General Nikolai Vatutin Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin was a Soviet military commander during World War II.-Before World War II:Vatutin was born in Chepuhino village near Valuiky in Voronezh Governorate , into a Russian peasant family. Commissioned in 1920 to the Red Army, he fought against the Ukrainian peasant partisans... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | Commander | Note | Corps | Divisions | |
| 6th Guards Army | i. Tschistjakow | 22nd Guards Rifle Corps | 61st, 71st & 90th Guards Rifle Division | ||
| 23rd Guards Rifle Corps | 51st & 52nd Guards Rifle Division & 375th Rifle Division | ||||
| Independent | 89th Guards Rifle Division | ||||
| 7th Guards Army 7th Guards Army The Red Army's 7th Guards Army was re-designated from the Soviet 64th Army on April 16, 1943.64th Army had originally been formed from 1st Reserve Army in July 1942, and alongside the 62nd Army, fought the German offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad to a standstill, for which it was raised to... |
M. Schumilow | 24th Guards Rifle Corps | 15th, 36th & 72nd Guards Rifle Division | ||
| 25th Guards Rifle Corps | 73rd, 78th & 81st Guards Rifle Division | ||||
| Independent | 213th Rifle Division | ||||
| 40th Army 40th Army (Soviet Union) The 40th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was an army-level command active from 1941 to 1945 and then again from 1979 to circa 1990.It was first formed, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had commenced, from elements of the 26th and 37th Armies under the command... |
K. Moskalenko | 47th Rifle Corps | 161st, 206th & 237th Rifle Division | ||
| 52nd Rifle Corps | 100th, 219th & 309th Rifle Division | ||||
| 69th Army | W. Krutschenkin | 48th Rifle Corps | 107th, 183rd & 307th Rifle Division | ||
| 49th Rifle Corps | 111th & 270th Rifle Division | ||||
| 1st Guards Tank Army | M. Katukov Mikhail Katukov Marshal of the Armored Troops Mikhail Efimovich Katukov served as a commander of armored troops in the Red Army during and following World War II. He is viewed as one of the most talented Soviet armor commanders.-Pre-War:... |
6th Tank Corps | |||
| 31st Tank Corps | |||||
| 3rd Mechanized Corps | |||||
| Front Assets | 35th Guards Rifle Corps | 92nd,93rd & 94th Guards Rifle Division | |||
| Independent | 2nd & 3rd Guards Tank Corps | ||||
| Order of battle: Steppe Front (Ivan Konev Ivan Konev Ivan Stepanovich Konev , was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin.... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | Commander | Note | Corps | Divisions | |
| 5th Guards Army | A. Zhadov | 32nd Guards Rifle Corps | 13th % 66th Guards Rifle Division 6th Airborne Guards Rifle Division | ||
| 33rd Guards Rifle Corps | 95th & 97nd Guards Rifle Division & 9th Airborne Guards Rifle Division | ||||
| Independent | 42nd Guards Rifle Division & 10th Tank Corps | ||||
| 5th Guards Tank Army | P.Rotmistrov | 5th Guards Rifle Corps | |||
| 29th Tank Corps | |||||
| German offensive phase (Zitadelle) | Men | Tanks | Guns | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soviet | Ratio | German | Soviet | Ratio | German | Soviet | Ratio | German | ||
| 1,426,352 | 2.8:1 | 518,271 | 4,938 | 2:1 | 2.465 | 31,415 | 4:1 | 7,417 | ||
| 1,910,361 | 2.5:1 | 780,900 | 5,128 | 1.7:1 | 2,928 | |||||
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For their attack, the Wehrmacht used three armies and a large proportion of their tanks on the eastern front. The 9th Army in the north had 335,000 men (223,000 combat troops), the 4th Panzer Army had 223,907 men (149,271) and Army detachment Kempf had 100,000 men (66,000) for a grand total of 778,907 men (518,271).
The Red Army used two Fronts (Army groups) for the defence and one Front as a reserve. The Central and Voronezh Fronts fielded 12 armies. Central Front had 711,575 men (510,983 combat troops), Voronezh Front had 625,591 men (446,236) and Steppe Front had 573,195 men (449,133) for a grand total of 1,910,361 (1,426,352).
| Soviet offensive phase | Men | Tanks | Guns | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soviet | Ratio | German | Soviet | Ratio | German | Soviet | Ratio | German | ||
| 1,987,463 | 3.2:1 | 625,271 | 8,200 | 3:1 | 2,699 | 47,416 | 5:1 | 9,467 | ||
| 2,500,000 | 2.7:1 | 940,900 | 7,360 | 2.3:1 | 3,253 | |||||
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When the Red Army launched their counteroffensive in the north, the German 2nd Panzer Army was attacked by two Soviet Fronts: Brijansk and West. The 107,000 men of the 2nd Panzer Army and some reinforcements in the south brought the Wehrmacht troops to approximately to 950,000 men (approximately 650,000 combat troops). The two Soviet Fronts brought the Red Army to 2,629,458 men (1,987,463 combat troops).
Sub-operations and nomenclature
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Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
's OKH, the Battle of Kursk was a part of the strategic Operation Citadel Offensive .
For Soviet historians the series of operations conducted as part of the Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1943 (1 July – 31 December) include:
- Kursk Strategic Defensive Operation (5–23 July 1943)
- Orel-Kursk Defensive Operation (5–11 July)
- Belgorod-Kursk Defensive Operation (5–23 July)
- Denial air operations over the Kursk Bulge (5–23 July)
- Air superiority operations in Operation Kutuzov
- Orel Strategic Counter-Offensive OperationOperation KutuzovOperation Kutuzov was a military operation by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was named after Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, the Tsarist General credited with saving Russia from defeat during the invasion by Napoleon in 1812.The Operation began on 12...
(codenamed Operation Kutuzov) (12 July – 18 August 1943)
- Orel Strategic Counter-Offensive Operation
- Volkhov-Orel Offensive Operation (12 July – 18 August)
- Kromy-Orel Offensive Operation (15 July – 18 August)
- Air superiority operations in Operation Rumyantsev
- Belgorod–Kharkov Counter-Offensive Offensive OperationOperation Polkovodets RumyantsevOperation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was a code name for the Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation conducted by the Red Army between 3 August 1943 and 23 August 1943 against the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf during World War II. The operation was conducted by the Voronezh...
(codenamed Operation Rumyantsev) (3–23 August 1943)
- Belgorod–Kharkov Counter-Offensive Offensive Operation
- Belgorod–Bogodukhov Offensive OperationBattle of BelgorodThe Belgorod-Bogodukhov Offensive Operation was a combat operation executed as part of Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev by the Red Army against the Wehrmacht forces...
(3–23 August) - Belgorod–Khar'kov Offensive Operation (3–23 August)
- Battle of ProkhorovkaBattle of ProkhorovkaThe Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War as part of the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union . Principally, the German Wehrmachts Fourth Panzer Army clashed with the Soviet Red Army's 5th Guards Tank Army...
(12 July 1943)
- Battle of Prokhorovka
- Zmiyev Offensive Operation (12–23 August)
The exact definition of the operations varies. The Germans saw it only as the Operation Citadel offensive, while the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Russian historians continue today to combine Citadel and the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive
Counter-offensive
A counter-offensive is the term used by the military to describe large-scale, usually strategic offensive operations by forces that had successfully halted an enemy's offensive, while occupying defensive positions....
s, Operation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov was a military operation by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was named after Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, the Tsarist General credited with saving Russia from defeat during the invasion by Napoleon in 1812.The Operation began on 12...
and Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was a code name for the Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation conducted by the Red Army between 3 August 1943 and 23 August 1943 against the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf during World War II. The operation was conducted by the Voronezh...
, as a single strategic event.
Ground
Elefant
The Elefant was a "schwerer Panzerjäger" of the German Wehrmacht used in small numbers in World War II. It was built in 1943 under the name Ferdinand, after its designer Ferdinand Porsche. In 1944, after modification of the existing vehicles, they were renamed Elefant...
Panzerjäger
Panzerjäger
Panzerjäger was a branch of service of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War which were the anti-tank arm-of-service who operated anti-tank artillery, and made exclusive use of the tank destroyers which were also named Panzerjäger...
s (the total number produced as such), all 79 flyable Henschel Hs 129
Henschel Hs 129
The Henschel Hs 129 was a World War II ground-attack aircraft fielded by the German Luftwaffe. Its nickname, the Panzerknacker , is a deliberate pun—in German, it also means "safe cracker"...
ground attack aircraft
Ground attack aircraft
Ground-attack aircraft are military aircraft with primary role of attacking targets on the ground with greater precision than bombers and prepared to face stronger low-level air defense...
, as well as 270 Tigers
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
, late model Panzer Mark-IVs
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
and even a number of captured T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
s. In total, they assembled some 3,000 tanks and assault guns, 2,110 aircraftfigures from German archives. Bundesarchiv-Militararchiv, Freiburg; Luftfahrtmuseum, Hannover-Laatzen; WASt Deutsche Dienststelle, Berlin. and 435,000 men. It formed one of the greatest concentrations of German fighting power ever put together. Even so, Hitler expressed doubts about its adequacy.
By this time, Allied action in Western Europe was beginning to have a significant impact on German military strength. Although actions in North Africa
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
hardly constituted the Red Army's longed-for second front, the operation there did begin to tell on the Germans, and in the last quarter of 1942 and the first half of 1943, 40% of Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
losses occurred in the battles over Malta and Tunisia
Tunisia Campaign
The Tunisia Campaign was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces. The Allies consisted of British Imperial Forces, including Polish and Greek contingents, with American and French corps...
. German air superiority was no longer guaranteed. The Soviet Air Force outnumbered the Luftwaffe and was gaining in technological quality as well. Both air forces possessed very effective ground-attack aircraft types capable of destroying armor: the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik
Ilyushin Il-2
The Ilyushin Il-2 was a ground-attack aircraft in the Second World War, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers...
and the German Junkers Ju 87
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
G Stuka (Initially Ju 87D-3/5 with a pair of added Bordkanone 37 mm gunpods).
The start date for the offensive had been moved repeatedly as delays in preparation had forced the Germans to postpone the attack. Finally, on 1 July, the orders were issued to attack on 5 July. The following day, Marshal
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ....
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky was a Russian career officer in the Red Army, promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1943. He was the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces and Deputy Minister of Defense during World War II, as well as Minister of Defense from 1949 to 1953...
warned the Front commanders (N. F. Vatutin
Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin
Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin was a Soviet military commander during World War II.-Before World War II:Vatutin was born in Chepuhino village near Valuiky in Voronezh Governorate , into a Russian peasant family. Commissioned in 1920 to the Red Army, he fought against the Ukrainian peasant partisans...
, Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Rokossovskiy was a Polish-origin Soviet career officer who was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Marshal of Poland and Polish Defence Minister, who was famously known for his service in the Eastern Front, where he received high esteem for his outstanding military skill...
and I. S. Konev
Ivan Konev
Ivan Stepanovich Konev , was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin....
) that the long-awaited German offensive would begin sometime between 3 and 6 July. For months, the Soviets had been receiving detailed information on the planning of the offensive from the Red Orchestra spy ring (German: Rote Kapelle), and the "Lucy Group
Lucy spy ring
In World War II espionage, the Lucy spy ring was an anti-German operation that was headquartered in Switzerland. It was run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee and ostensibly the proprietor of a small publishing firm, Vita Nova...
" espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
organization, whose sources allegedly included officers in Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
's aviation ministry and other parts of the Nazi administration.
Preliminary fighting started on 4 July 1943 in the south, as 4th Panzer Army elected to try to take Soviet outposts prior to the main assault on 5 July, sacrificing tactical surprise. Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin
Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin
Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin was a Soviet military commander during World War II.-Before World War II:Vatutin was born in Chepuhino village near Valuiky in Voronezh Governorate , into a Russian peasant family. Commissioned in 1920 to the Red Army, he fought against the Ukrainian peasant partisans...
, having received reports that the German offensive was imminent, ordered Voronezh Front to bombard German positions on the night of 4 July.
In the afternoon Stuka dive bombers
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
attacked the Soviet front lines on the north, and then returned to their airfields while the German artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
opened up to continue the pounding. Kempf's armored spearhead
Armored spearhead
An armored spearhead is a formation of armored fighting vehicles, mostly tanks, that form the front of an offensive thrust during a battle. The idea is to concentrate as much firepower into a small front as possible, so any defenders in front of them will be overwhelmed...
, the III Panzer Corps, then advanced on the Soviet positions around Zavidovka. At the same time, the Großdeutschland Division attacked Butovo in torrential rain and the 11th Panzer Division
German 11th Panzer Division
The 11.Panzer Division was a German Panzer division which saw action on the Eastern and Western Fronts during the Second World War. The unit emblem of the 11'th Panzer was a ghost...
took the high ground around Butovo. To the west of Butovo the going proved tougher for Großdeutschland and the 3rd Panzer Division; they met stiff Soviet resistance and did not secure their objectives until midnight. The II SS Panzer Corps
II SS Panzer Corps
The II SS Panzer Corps was a Nazi German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II.- Formation - Kharkov :...
launched preliminary attacks to secure observation posts and again met with strong resistance, until assault troops equipped with flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s cleared the bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
s and outposts.
At 02:30, the Red Army hit back with an artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
bombardment in the north and south. This barrage by over 3,000 guns and mortars expended about half of the artillery ammunition for the entire operation. The goal was to delay and disorganize the German attack. In the northern face, the Central Front artillery fired mostly against German artillery positions and managed to suppress 50 of the 100 German batteries they attacked, resulting in much weaker German artillery fire on the opening day of the attack. This bombardment disrupted German units and caused them to attack at different times on 5 July. In the south, the Red Army chose to fire largely against the German infantry and tanks in their assembly areas. This was partially successful in delaying the German attack but caused few casualties.
German onslaught
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Goliath tracked mine
The Goliath tracked mine - complete German name: Leichter Ladungsträger Goliath - was a remote controlled German-engineered demolition vehicle, also known as the beetle tank to Allies....
and Borgward remote-controlled engineering vehicles were available to clear lanes in the minefields, they were not generally successful. Even when the vehicles cleared mines, they had no on-board marking system to show following tanks where the cleared lanes were. Red Army units covered the minefields with small arms and artillery fire, delaying German engineers clearing manually; German losses were high.
For example, the German 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion began the attack with 49 "Ferdinand" (known in the West as "Elefant
Elefant
The Elefant was a "schwerer Panzerjäger" of the German Wehrmacht used in small numbers in World War II. It was built in 1943 under the name Ferdinand, after its designer Ferdinand Porsche. In 1944, after modification of the existing vehicles, they were renamed Elefant...
") heavy tank destroyers
Tank destroyer
A tank destroyer is a type of armored fighting vehicle armed with a gun or missile launcher, and is designed specifically to engage enemy armored vehicles...
; 37 of them were lost in the minefields before 17:00 on 5 July. Although most of the lost vehicles were mobility kill
Mobility kill
A mobility kill in armoured warfare refers to a weapon or vehicle that is immobilized, or the act of immobilizing such a target. Typically this term is used to refer to tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles that have their engines, tracks, or running gear damaged...
s rather than permanent losses, they were out of action until they could be repaired. They were also easier for Red Army artillery to knock out permanently. However, since the Germans were advancing, any repairable vehicles could be recovered, repaired, and put back into action. After the first day of attack, the German units penetrated 8 km deep into the Russian lines for the loss of 1,287 killed and missing and 5,921 wounded.
The Germans noted a fundamental flaw in their armored vehicles, particularly the Elefant. Although excellent against any Soviet tank at long to medium range, they lacked secondary armament and were vulnerable to attacks from Soviet slit trenches, once they were separated from the heavy machine gun protection of the lighter tanks, vehicles and infantry. Guderian noted in his diary:
On the second day, the Central Front under Rokossovsky started a counter-attack against the German 9th Army, particularly the XLVI Tank Corps. The Red Army attacked with the 2nd Tank Army and the XIX Tank Corps, but this operational counter-attack was launched too early. Soviet tanks sustained heavy losses in their first combat with Tiger tanks of 505th Heavy Tank Battalion. The 107th and 164th Tank Brigade lost 69 tanks and the Soviet attack was stopped. After the encounter with German Tigers, Rokossovsky decided to dig in most of his tanks and use them as static anti-tank guns.
The next two days of the attack saw heavy fighting around the strong point of Ponyri (on the Orel–Kursk railway), which was one of the most fortified positions in the northern sector. Both sides saw this area as a vital point; a very intense battle took place. The German tanks were awaited by 70 antitank guns per km. On 7 July the 86th and 292nd German Infantry Divisions attacked Ponyri and captured the town after intense house to house fighting. The Soviets counter-attacked and forced the German troops to withdraw temporarily; many counter-attacks by both sides followed and the town changed hands many times. Not before the evening of 8 July did the German units capture most of the town. The heavy Ferdinands were called into action to take Hill 253.5 and succeeded on 9 July. It developed into a battle of attrition with heavy casualties for both sides; Keegan called Ponyri "the new Douaumont
Fort Douaumont
Fort Douaumont was the largest and highest fort on the ring of 19 large defensive forts protecting the city of Verdun, France since the 1890s. However, by 1915 the French General Staff had concluded that even the best protected forts of Verdun could not resist bombardments from the German 420mm ...
". German units were exhausted, while Russian reserves were committed.
Model decided to pause to rearrange his units. On 10 July, he renewed his attack with additional air support, but his gains were minor. Fresh Soviet formations repelled German attacks and only limited penetrations were achieved; the diary of the 9th Army describes the heavy fighting as a "new type of mobile attrition battle". Model canceled the new attack.
The cancellation of the attack changed German plans; Model accepted that his forces did not have enough power to advance directly through the Soviet strongpoints. He decided to bypass the heights of Ol'chovatka and shift the schwerpunkt to XLVI Panzer Corps. He also decided to use the uncommitted 12th Panzer Division. For the first time in the northern sector, a heavy concentration of tanks was planned. Model's hesitation to use the concept of concentration, which is described as the decisive element of an armored attack, led to a slow advance of the 9th Army. Because of the limited action of the tank units, only 63 tanks and assault guns were written off by 12 July.
Soviet formations, including the 3rd Tank Army and the 11th Guards Army, attacked the German 2nd Panzer Army, positioned in the rear of 9th Army. The outnumbered 2nd Panzer Army had trouble with the Soviet attack. Soviet formations made a deep penetration and threatened German supply routes. With their advance on Orel the encirclement of the 9th Army was possible.
The end of Zitadelle in the north
The 9th Army had to withdraw and used an opportunity created for them by the Luftwaffe. Their part in the offensive was over. Because the German armor was not concentrated and used with the same intensity as in the south, the German armor losses were comparatively light — 143 vehicles were total losses between 5 and 14 July. Central Front losses were 526 tanks. This failed to keep up with the steady influx of new soldiers and matériel arriving for the Red Army. Few Red Army guns were captured and those Red Army units that retreated did so on orders. The German attack failed to break through the main Soviet defence zones, and stalled. The Soviet counter-offensive compelled Model to withdraw or risk the destruction of both German Armies.Northern analysis
A number of factors explain the 9th Army's lack of progress, mainly the combination of Soviet defensive planning and German lack of concentration of force. German armor was committed piecemeal rather than in strength and often without sufficient infantry support. Soviet defensive preparation was also a major factor. The Central Front under Marshal Rokossovsky had correctly anticipated the likely areas of German attack and had fortifiedFortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
those areas very heavily, holding other areas more thinly. The 13th Army
13th Army (Soviet Union)
The 13th Army was a name given to several field armies of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first created during the Russian Civil War...
, which bore the brunt of the German attack, was far stronger in men and anti-tank guns than the other Central Front units and held the strongest defensive positions in the salient.
Model's army had fewer tanks than Manstein had in the south and the German 9th Army committed major units piecemeal because Model was afraid of the Bryansk Front, which stood ready for counterattack to the north of his army. Model decided to place his most powerful corps, Gruppe Esebeck (2 Pz. Div and 10 Pz. Gren. Div), far behind the frontline to use it as "fire brigade" against a possible onslaught by the Bryansk Front. Model's decision not to use his Panzer divisions as a concentrated force can be seen as the most significant reason for the poor penetration of the northern pincer. Finally, the 9th Army led with reinforced infantry divisions that were already in the line facing the Red Army, rather than attacking with uncommitted units.
Review of attack frontages and depth of German penetration clearly shows the success of the Red Army defensive tactics. While it began with a 45 km wide attack front on 5 July, the next day the German 9th Army's front was reduced to 40 km. This dropped to 15 km wide by 7 July and to only 2 km on 8–9 July. Each day, the depth of the German advance slowed: 5 km on the first day, 4 on the second, never more than 2 km each succeeding day. By 10 July the 9th Army had been stopped.
Much of the Soviet defensive success is attributable to its method of fire control, known to the Germans as Pakfront
Pakfront
The Pakfront was a defensive military tactic developed by the German forces on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. It was named after the phonetic pronunciation of the acronym nomenclature for German towed anti-tank guns, PaK...
. This relied upon a group of 10 or more anti-tank guns under a commander, which would fire at one target at a time. These positions were protected with heavy concentrations of mortar and machine gun nests, which were ordered to fire on German infantry only.
German attack
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The 4th Panzer Army (Hoth
Hermann Hoth
Hermann "Papa" Hoth was an officer in the German military from 1903 to 1945. He attained the rank of Generaloberst during World War II. He fought in France, but is most noted for his later exploits as a panzer commander on the Eastern Front...
) attacked in two directions with the 48th Panzer Corps and the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. The flanks of the spearheads were protected by the 52nd Corps
LII Army Corps (Germany)
German LII. Corps was a corps in the German Army during World War II. The LII. Armeekorps was destroyed during the Jassy–Kishinev Offensive .-Commanders:...
on the left and by Army Group Kempf on the right. The XLVIII Tank Corps was to be the lead spearhead so they were reinforced with 200 Panthers. Their opponent was the Voronezh Front
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
.
At 04:00 the attack began; nearly all units advanced with good speed despite encountering well prepared defensive positions and minefields. Manstein's tanks were much more successful than their northern counterparts. The main reason for this was his better use of tanks in concentrated spearheads. In the south the Red Army had not been able to pinpoint the German attack sectors; this forced them to spread out their defenses evenly. Three of the four armies of the Voronezh Front had about 10 antitank guns per kilometre of front, whereas in the Central Front, guns were distributed twice as heavily in the active sectors. The Voronezh Front made the decision to hold the tactical zone thinly, leaving a higher proportion of units in deeper positions than in the Central Front. The Voronezh Front was weaker than the Central Front, and it faced much stronger German forces.
In the first two days the 2nd SS Panzer Corps penetrated 25 km into the Russian lines and took Jakovlevo. The 200 Panthers of the 48th Tank Corps to their left spent more time in the workshops than fighting the enemy. Army Group Kempf, which was to assist the 2nd SS Panzer Corps, was outnumbered and had problems crossing the Donets River.
The steady progress of the German units forced the Russian leaders to commit some of their strategic reserves, as nearly all operational reserves were in action. The Steppe Front
Steppe Front
The Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
had been formed in the months leading up to the operation as a central reserve. As early as 6 July, Stavka decided to send the 2nd and 10th Tank Corps and the 5th Guards Tank Army to the southern sector; a day later, other formations got their marching orders. Vatutin planned an operational counterstrike against the German units but decided to cancel it after the failure of the northern counter-attack. Instead of seeking open battle against the German tanks, Vatutin let his tanks dig in, as Rokossovsky did in the north. Zhukov protested against this use of the tanks but Vatutin's decision stood.
German officers reported that they were slowed down by the "silent tanks" (Schweigepanzer), because it cost much time to overcome these camouflaged "bases". Despite the order to dig in many of their tanks, the Soviet units still had enough tanks to launch some counterattacks. On 7 July a German Tiger I
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
commanded by SS Unterscharführer Franz Staudegger
Franz Staudegger
Franz Staudegger was a Oberscharführer in the Waffen-SS and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.As a Unterscharführer Franz Staudegger was the first member of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Tiger tank commanders to win the Knight's Cross On 7 July 1943, a single...
met a group of about 50 T-34s. In the ensuing battle, Staudegger knocked out 22 T-34s; he was the first Tiger commander to be awarded the first Knight's Cross.
The Germans' advance was slowed. On the 9 July the first German units reached the Psel River
Psel River
The Psel is a river, a left tributary of the Dnipro River, which flows through Russia and Ukraine.The Psel has a length of 717 km and a drainage basin of 22,800 km². The river's right bank is high and steep, unlike the low, left bank...
. The next day the first infantry units crossed the Psel. By 10 July German units in the south had lost 166 tanks. Despite the deep defensive system and minefields, German tank losses were remarkably low. The 11th of July was a successful day for German units; Army Group Kempf achieved a breakthrough and its 3rd Panzer Corps (6th, 7th and 19th Panzer Divisions) penetrated deep into Russian lines. The next night the 6th Panzer Division took a bridge over the Donets with a swift surprise attack. The 3rd Panzer Corps then advanced to Prokhorovka from the south and the 2nd SS Panzer Corps from the west, almost trapping the Russian 69th Army. At this moment Manstein thought the final breakthrough was achieved and now free of the minefields, could operate freely and destroy the Russian armored reserves in the open. The Russians, indeed, began moving their tank reserves toward the spearheads of Army Group South.
Prokhorovka
Accounts of this battle are controversial. The original Soviet account of a brave but reckless, although ultimately successful, massive Red Army assault on heavy German armor is now generally discounted; the most recent revisionist accounts suggest a Soviet debacle, with the Soviet charge on German armor being disrupted not by German tanks but because many T-34s fell into a Soviet anti-tank ditch.What is generally not disputed is that the Red Army did enough, at great cost, to stop a German breakthrough. In that sense Prokhorovka remains a crucial turning point of the battle and indeed of the Great Patriotic War: here the German army was stopped.
Prokhorovka
Prokhorovka is an urban locality and the administrative center of Prokhorovsky District of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located along the Psyol River southwest of the city of Kursk. Population:...
. At the same time the 5th Guards Tank Army launched a series of attacks as part of multi-front counteroffensive in an attempt to catch the Germans off balance. The SS and Guards units collided west of Prokhorovka in country punctuated by farms, rolling hills and gullies.
In stifling heat, an eight-hour battle began. The German units had 494 tanks and self-propelled artillery pieces in the attack, 90% of them operational. The German force found itself heavily outnumbered by the 5th Guards Tank Army, who, moving mainly at night, had brought 593 tanks and 37 self-propelled artillery pieces into position at Stary Oskol. They had not yet been committed to battle, so they were fresh.
The Soviet 31st Guards Tank Corps and the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps fought the 3rd SS Totenkopf
3rd SS Division Totenkopf
The SS Division Totenkopf , also known as 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke...
to a standstill by getting in close to the German armor and attacking the vulnerable sides of the Tigers. The 2nd SS
II SS Panzer Corps
The II SS Panzer Corps was a Nazi German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II.- Formation - Kharkov :...
was soon forced onto the defensive. Although the German formation held, it lost half its armor in a prolonged engagement. By the night of 11–12 July, the only success the Germans had to show for their losses was a captured bridgehead over the Donets river at Rzavets. The 1st SS Division Leibstandarte
1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into a divisional-sized unit...
had been stopped by the Soviet 18th Tank Corps, while the 3rd Panzer Corps and 2nd SS Panzer Division were checked by the 2nd Guards Tank Corps
2nd Guards Tank Corps
The 2nd Tatsinskaya Guards Tank Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. After the war it continued to serve with Soviet occupation forces in Central Europe. It was originally the 24th Tank Corps...
and two other Soviet reserve corps.
The air battle was also intense. Von Manstein had intended it to be the decisive blow against the Red Army forces to prevent a breakthrough to Oboyan and Kursk. Sturmoviks from 291 ShAD attacked the 2nd SS Panzer Division throughout the day, causing significant damage to German armored formations. Simultaneously, waves of Hs 129s and Ju 87s inflicted losses on the 69th Army and 5th Guards Army. Although Soviet tank losses are unknown, a report from the 29th Tank Corps reported "heavy losses in tanks through enemy aircraft and artillery". Losses were so heavy that the advance had to be halted and a switch to the defensive ordered.
The Luftwaffe had complete air superiority over Prokhorovka, due to the VVS being concentrated over the flanks of the 4th Panzer Army.
The battle can best be described as a costly tactical loss but an operational draw for the Red Army. Neither the 5th Guards Tank Army nor the 2nd SS Panzer Corps accomplished their missions that day. After the battle was over, the Soviets held the area and were able to recover their disabled tanks and wounded crews.
Tank losses in the battle have been a contentious subject. Red Army losses have been given from 200 to 822 tanks, but the records show about 300 complete losses and as many damaged. German losses have been reported to be as low as 80 and as high as several hundred. The Soviets claim the Germans lost 400 tanks in this battle and 3,500 soldiers killed, but newer research suggest only about 500 lost men and much lower tank losses, with only a few tanks completely destroyed and about 40-80 damaged. In any event, the losses of both the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and the 5th Guards Tank Army in what has been called the greatest tank battle of all time were not of the epic proportions sometimes attributed to the Prokorovka engagement.
The end of Zitadelle in the south
While the German offensive had been stopped in the north by 10 July, in the south the overall situation still hung in the balance, even after 12 July. German forces on the southern wing, exhausted and heavily depleted, had breached the first two defensive belts and believed that they were about to break through the last belt. In fact at least five more defensive zones awaited them, although they were not as strong as the initial belts, and some of them did not have troops deployed. Red Army defenders had been weakened, and major parts of their reserve forces had been committed. Still, the available uncommitted Red Army reserves were far larger than the few available German reserves.On 16 July, German forces withdrew to their start line. Severely depleted, the Germans then had to face Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was a code name for the Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation conducted by the Red Army between 3 August 1943 and 23 August 1943 against the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf during World War II. The operation was conducted by the Voronezh...
, an offensive launched to smash the German forces in the Belgorod–Kharkov area on 3 August. Belgorod fell on 5 August, and on 23 August, Kharkov fell, despite fierce resistance from German forces. With the capture of Kharkov, the Soviets considered the Battle of Kursk over.
Southern analysis
The German forces made steady progress, but, as in the north, attack frontage width and penetration depth tended to drop as the attack proceeded. The trend was not as marked as in the north, however. A 30 km wide attack frontage on 5 July became 20 km wide by 7 July and 15 km by 9 July. Likewise, the depth of penetration dropped from 9 km on 5 July to 5 km on 8 July and 2–3 km each day thereafter until the attack was cancelled.Red Army minefields and artillery were successful in delaying the German attack and inflicting losses. The ability of dug-in Red Army units to delay the Germans allowed their own reserves to be brought up into threatened sectors. Over 90,000 additional mines were laid during the operations by small mobile groups of engineers, generally working at night immediately in front of the expected German attack areas. There were no large-scale captures of prisoners nor any great loss of artillery, indicating that Soviet units were giving ground in good order.
German losses can be seen in the example of the Großdeutschland Division
Großdeutschland Division
The Großdeutschland Division was an elite Heer combat unit of the Wehrmacht. The Großdeutschland was considered to be the premier unit of the German Army and as such it was one of best-equipped unit of the German Armed Forces, receiving equipment before all other units.- Early history -...
, which began the operation with 118 tanks. On 10 July, after five days of fighting, the division reported it had 3 Tigers, 6 Panthers, and 11 Pzkw-III and Pzkw-IV tanks operational. XLVIII Panzer Corps reported, overall, 38 Panthers operational with 131 awaiting repair, out of the 200 it started with on 5 July.
Hitler cancels the operation
On the night of 9–10 July, the Western AlliesAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
mounted an amphibious invasion of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. Three days later, Hitler summoned Günther von Kluge
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
and Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces...
to his Wolfsschanze
Wolfsschanze
Wolf's Lair is the standard English name for Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters, one of several Führerhauptquartier or FHQs located in various parts of Europe...
headquarters in East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
and declared his intention to "temporarily" call off Operation Zitadelle. Von Manstein attempted to dissuade him, arguing that Zitadelle was on the brink of victory: "on no account should we let go of the enemy until the mobile reserves which he had committed were decisively beaten". In an unusual reversal of their roles, Hitler gave von Manstein a few more days to continue the offensive, but on 17 July, he ordered a withdrawal and canceled the operation. He then ordered the entire SS Panzer Corps to be transferred to Italy.
Hitler's decision to call off the operation at the height of the tactical battle has since been strongly criticized by German generals in their memoirs, and by some historians. For example, it has been pointed out that the SS Panzer Corps would have taken three months to be transferred to Sicily, and thus could not possibly have affected the outcome there, while its contribution to the Kursk operation was vital.
Only one German division, the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, departed for Italy, without their equipment. The remainder stayed to face the Red Army counteroffensive launched in the wake of the failed German offensive.
Reasons for the failure of Zitadelle
Historian Karl-Heinz Frieser points out these reasons for the failure of Operation Zitadelle:- The Soviets had numerical superiority. Frieser points out that the biggest problem of the OKW was the shortage of infantry. The OKH had no operational reserve while the Red Army could field an entire frontFront (Soviet Army)A front was a major military organization in the Soviet Army during many wars. It was roughly equivalent to an army group in the militaries of most other countries except Germany...
(Steppe FrontSteppe FrontThe Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
) as reserve. That the Red Army had more tanks than the Wehrmacht had less influence on the outcome according to Frieser.
- Repeated delays by Hitler gave the Red Army enough time to fortify the bulge around Kursk to an enormous fortress. High officers like Manstein and Zeitzler pushed for a fast attack to catch the Red Army unprepared and low on morale after the third battle of Kharkov. The overlap with the Allied invasion of SicilyAllied invasion of SicilyThe Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...
made Hitler's date for the attack the "most adverse possible".
Military historian and Soviet military expert David Glantz
David Glantz
David M. Glantz is an American military historian and the editor of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies....
draws these conclusions:
- The German defeat at Kursk did not come about by the "often-exaggerated numerical superiority" of the Soviet armed forces. The principal factor at Kursk was the revolution in Soviet command, staff, operational and tactical techniques. The General Staff had learned lessons from previous battles and disseminated "war experience" based on "exhaustive" analysis of battles, operations and campaigns. These lessons were added to Soviet doctrine (Soviet deep battle), producing new procedures. Glantz and House have asserted the tank strength was even, between 1:1 and 1.5:1 in the Soviets' favour.
- The Soviets introduced new operational and tactical techniques, and had solved many of the problems of integrating arms and services into "a true combined armsCombined armsCombined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different branches of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects...
operation". He emphasises "sophisticated understanding of intelligence, deception, and anti-tank defence". Similar improvements were made in the combined use of artillery, tanks, engineers, and infantry to break German defences on a narrow front. At Prokhorovka and in the Kutuzov operations, the Red Army gained experience with mobile armored formations and mechanized corps that became the hallmark of Soviet deep operations. These formations demonstrated their ability to match the best efforts of the German Panzer force. Operations still needed to be perfected to reduce huge casualties. Nevertheless, the German command recognised that at Kursk they faced an entirely new and more competent Red Army.
- Defensive tactics had improved. Skillful use of anti-tank artillery in strong points and the use of separate tank brigades, tank regiments and self-propelled gun units to support them offered mobile defence support. These units participated in wearing down tactical attacks against enemy spearheads. The transitional year of 1943 was decisive for the Soviet war effort. Operational and tactical techniques tested and smoothed out in 1943 would be refined further and perfected in 1944 and 1945. "The elementary education the Red Army received in 1941–42 gave way to the secondary education of 1943. In 1944 and 1945 the Soviets would accomplish university-level and graduate study in the conduct of war".
Military expert Steven Zaloga
Steven Zaloga
Steven J. Zaloga is an American historian, defense consultant, and a well-known author on military technology. He received a bachelors degree cum laude in history from Union College and a masters degree from Columbia University....
offers these insights about the Red Army at Kursk:
- The popular perception of Soviet victory "by numbers" was a myth created by German generals in their memoirs written in the 1950s. He rejects the caricature of the Red Army relying on mass rather than tactical skill, but accepts that at the tactical end (the platoonPlatoonA platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
and companyCompanyA company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
level), the Red Army was not particularly impressive and received significantly poorer training. Zaloga points out that there were still many tactical lessons to be learned; however by 1943 the gap between Soviet and German tanker training had "narrowed greatly", and the Soviets were soon at a comparable level with the Germans.
- The Soviets, in terms of operational art, were adept at using mobile tank formations. Zaloga asserts that Soviet operational methods were superior, allowing Soviet field commanders to bluff, baffle and overwhelm their opponents.
Historian Richard Overy
Richard Overy
Richard Overy is a British historian who has published extensively on the history of World War II and the Third Reich. In 2007 as The Times editor of Complete History of the World he chose the 50 key dates of world history....
makes the following interpretations:
- The quality of the two air forces were even. The Soviets had introduced air-to-ground communications, radar, a proper maintenance system, and depots for forward fuel reserves. This allowed aircraft to fly twenty missions in the heat of the battle (while the Luftwaffe suffered shortages).
- The Soviet tanks were not inferior in quality. Although the T-34 model (with its 76 mm main gun) was out-ranged by German Tiger ITiger ITiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
and PantherPanther tankPanther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as...
tanks, it was faster and more manoeuvrable than the Tiger and the latter had too many mechanical difficulties at the Battle of ProkhorovkaBattle of ProkhorovkaThe Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War as part of the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union . Principally, the German Wehrmachts Fourth Panzer Army clashed with the Soviet Red Army's 5th Guards Tank Army...
. To counter the Tiger tank, the Soviets used their tanks in a "hand-to-hand" combat role. Crews were ordered to close the range so that it would not become an issue. According to Glantz and House the Soviet tanks pressed home their initial attacks despite significant German advantages: the range of the German tanks' 88mm gun, German air superiority, and attacking a well dug-in enemy while covering flat rolling terrain. Even so, the loss ratio was less than 2:1, 320 German and 400 Soviet AFVs.
Sir Harry Hinsley
Harry Hinsley
Sir Francis Harry Hinsley OBE was an English historian and cryptanalyst. He worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War and wrote widely on the history of international relations and British Intelligence during the Second World War...
, a WWII historian who worked at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
during the war, has said:
- Information decrypted by UltraUltraUltra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
was given to the Russians, which helped them prepare for the offensive. The Russians had a spy at Bletchley ParkJohn CairncrossJohn Cairncross was a British intelligence officer during World War II, who passed secrets to the Soviet Union...
, who was giving them decrypts of German Military communications. Hinsley said that some speculate that without Ultra, Germany would have won at Kursk, and "Hitler could have carved up Russia". Ultra decrypts were also given to the Russians concerning German plans for Stalingrad.
In the north: Operation Kutuzov
Operation KutuzovOperation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov was a military operation by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was named after Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, the Tsarist General credited with saving Russia from defeat during the invasion by Napoleon in 1812.The Operation began on 12...
was launched on 12 July against the southern wing of Army Group Centre. The counterattack was launched before the Germans had stopped their attack, so Operation Kutuzov had a bigger effect on the outcome of Zitadelle when compared to the southern counterattack, which was launched after the cancellation of Zitadelle.
The Bryansk Front
Bryansk Front
The Bryansk Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War.General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it first formed in mid-late August 1941, comprising, in Erickson's words, 'on paper two armies, 50th and 13th, with eight rifle divisions each, three...
(commanded by Markian Popov
Markian Popov
Markian Mikhaylovich Popov was a Soviet military commander, Army General , and Hero of the Soviet Union .- Life :During the German-Soviet War at various times he commanded a number of Armies and a number of Fronts. His career was uneven....
) and parts of the Western Front (commanded by Vasily Sokolovsky
Vasily Sokolovsky
Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky was a Soviet military commander.Sokolovsky was born into a peasant family in Kozliki, a small town in the province of Grodno, near Białystok in Poland . He worked as a teacher in a rural school, where he took part in a number of protests and demonstrations against the...
) attacked the largely undefended German north flank of the 2nd Panzer Army on 12 July. The 2nd Panzer Army was diminished as many tanks were transferred to other armies before Zitadelle. On 12 July the attacking forces numbered 487,111 combat troops supported by 1,401 tanks and 15,109 guns. Three days later the second phase of Operation Kutuzov started with the attack of the German 9th Army by several Russian armies. The combined troops deployed for Kutuzov now numbered 1,286,049 men supported by 2,409 tanks and 26,379 guns.
The operations of the Bryansk Front marked the beginning of the Russian summer offensive. The artillery barrage was heavy and the first German lines were overrun. German defensive lines were deeper than expected and many Russian spearheads were slowed and sustained heavy casualties, but in some areas the Russian units achieved deep penetrations. The Germans lacked reserves to block these penetrations, so the situation became very dangerous for the 2nd Panzer Army. On 13 July Army Group Centre gave command of the 2nd Panzer Army to Model, who already commanded the German 9th Army. Model now was in control of all German units in the Orel area.
The situation for the Germans worsened as Russian breakthroughs threatened the entire 9th Army. Model sent nearly all of his Panzer units to aid the 2nd Panzer Army whose northern front was about to collapse, while the 4th Army in the north sent the 253rd Infantry Division. German units achieved a temporary stabilization of the front but meanwhile the 9th Army started to withdraw from the captured ground. Initially, the Russian Central Front followed hesitantly, but then started attacking in earnest with heavy air support. On 18 July the 9th Army was at the same position as on 5 July, before the start of Zitadelle.
Russian tank formations failed to achieve an operational breakthrough despite their numerical superiority. Red Army tank armies repeated their attacks against the same positions with the same methods and suffered heavy casualties in men and tanks. For example, the 4th Tank Army lost 84% of their T-34s and 46% of their light tanks within a few days. After two weeks of fighting the 3rd Guards Tank Army had lost half of their 800 tanks. The German armies conducted a fighting withdrawal to Hagen-Stellung.
Organized by the Red Army, approximately 100,000 partisans supported the Russian operations. German movements were hampered by partisans disrupting German supply routes, especially railway lines. On 3 August partisans launched a large operation against the German rear, the so called "Railway-war".
By shortening their line the Wehrmacht freed 19 divisions, which could be used elsewhere or held as reserves. Nevertheless, the Soviets achieved a complete breakthrough. The Soviets massed a concentration of artillery and tanks on small narrow fronts and used sophisticated artillery techniques to defeat German fortified positions despite tenacious German defences. Operation Kutuzov "was a perfect example of the newly sophisticated Soviet way of war". On 5 August the 3rd Guards Tank Army entered Orel and by 18 August, the Bryansk Front had reached the city Bryansk, "completely eliminating the German salient in the region".
The battle was the bloodiest of the three major operations during the Battle of Kursk. The German overall losses were 86,064 men; the Red Army lost 112,529 men and 317,361 were wounded. The losses for the Red Army were particularly high for tanks and assault guns: 2,586 of them were written off during Kutuzov. German tank losses are not available for this battle, but Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Center) lost 343 during both Zitadelle and Kutuzov.
Some of the Soviet commanders were displeased, complaining that an even greater victory might have been won. Marshal Rokossovsky said, "Instead of encircling the enemy, we only pushed them out of the bulge... The operation would have been different if we had used our force for two heavy punches which met at Bryansk". Zhukov held a similar opinion. Stalin instead thought encirclement tactics could wait: "It is our task to push them from our territory. We can trap them when they are weaker".
In the south: Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
To the south the Red Army needed time to regroup after the losses sustained in July, and could not launch another offensive until 3 August, when Operation Polkovodets RumyantsevOperation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was a code name for the Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation conducted by the Red Army between 3 August 1943 and 23 August 1943 against the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf during World War II. The operation was conducted by the Voronezh...
commenced. Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
planned Operation Rumyantsev as the major thrust of their summer offensive. The aim was to destroy Manstein's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf and later the southern wing of Heeresgruppe Süd (Army Group South). The German 1st Tank Army and newly formed 6th Army were to be trapped by an advance to the Black Sea. The Russian Southern Front and the Southwestern Front attacked as early as 17 July.
The Voronezh Front and the Steppe Front deployed about 1,144,000 men supported by 2,418 tanks and 13,633 guns and rocket launchers for the attack. At the start of "Rumyantsev" the Germans fielded only 237 tanks and assault guns. Manstein believed that the Soviets were incapable of launching an offensive in the southern sector, and dispatched his reserves (II SS Panzer Corps, XXIV Corps and XXXXVIII Panzer Corps) southward to deal with Soviet offensives aimed at the Dnieper and Mius Rivers. The Soviet operations in those regions were actually carefully planned diversion operations. The Soviet plan worked; German reserves were removed from the critical Kharkov axis (conforming to Maskirovka: military deception). The tactical operations across the Mius were unsuccessful, but achieved their primary aim of diverting German forces further away from Kharkov, although by Soviet accounts, the Stavka had wished for more.
For the Kharkov offensive the Red Army focused enormous firepower on a 30 km front. The 5th and 6th Guards Armies, two elements that had borne the brunt of the German offensive, and the Soviet 53rd Army took part. The artillery concentration was necessary to puncture the first five German defence lines between Kursk and Kharkov. The 1st Tank Army and 5th Guards Army, supported by two additional mobile corps, would act as a mobile operational unit to encircle Kharkov from the north and west. To the west, four separate tank corps would support the 27th and 40th Armies would make supporting attacks. To the east and south-east, the 69th and 7th Guards Armies, followed by the 57th Army of the Southwestern Front, would also support the attack.
On 3 August the initial attack demonstrated the growing sophistication of Soviet tactical art. Heavy and long-range artillery bombarded German positions, supported by anti-tank shock groups, ready to repel counter attacks. The German defence was tenacious, and two tank armies had to enter the battle to secure a penetration. By 5 August the Soviets had broken deep into the German rear and captured Belgorod
Belgorod
-Twin towns/sister cities:Belgorod is twinned with: Wakefield, England, United Kingdom Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Opole, Poland Vyshhorod, Ukraine Kharkiv, Ukraine-External links:...
, advancing some 60 km into German lines. Each combined-arms army pressed the German defences from the north and east.
German reserves were rushed from the Orel sector and north from the Donbas regions (where Soviet maskirovka operations had diverted them) and tried to break up Soviet attacks. The only success was achieved by the Grossdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division, which succeeded in delaying the 40th Army from 6–7 August. Four infantry divisions and seven Panzer and motorised divisions were assembled under the III Panzer Corps. Manstein tried to repeat the success of the Third Battle of Kharkov
Third Battle of Kharkov
The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of offensive operations on the Eastern Front of World War II, undertaken by the German Army Group South against the Red Army, around the city of Kharkov , between 19 February and 15 March 1943...
, where the Soviets had been over-extended and defeated. This time the Soviets were alert to the danger, and it was the German forces that were worn down. On 12 August, units of the newly arrived 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich and 3rd SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf started a counterattack against two Soviet Armies near Bogodukhov, 30 km northwest of Kharkov. The Waffen-SS units trapped and annihilated many Soviet units during the following maneuver battles. To assist the 6th Guards Army and the 1st Tank Army, the 5th Guards Tank Army joined the battles. All three Soviet armies suffered heavily and the tank armies lost more than 800 of their initial 1,112 tanks. After the counterattack of the two German divisions, the Soviet tank armies were no longer capable of offensive actions. The Soviet advance around Bogodukhov was stopped so the German units now tried to close the gap between Achtryrka and Krasnokutsk. The counterattack started on 18 August and on 20 August Totenkopf and Großdeutschland met behind the Soviet units. Parts of two Soviet armies and two tank corps were trapped, but the trapped units heavily outnumbered the German units. Many Soviet units were able to break out while suffering heavy casualties. After this setback the Soviet troops focused on Kharkov and captured it after heavy fighting on 23 August. The battle is usually referred to as the Fourth Battle of Kharkov by the Germans and the Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation by the Soviets.
Soviet casualties in the Belgorod–Kharkov sector during this operation were 71,611 killed and 183,955 wounded; 1,864 tanks and 423 artillery guns were lost.
German losses were 10,000 killed and 20,000 wounded. German tank losses are estimated at least 8 times lower than Soviet tank losses of 1,864.
Results
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
, although preventing the Germans from achieving their goals, lost considerably more men and matériel than the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
.
Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
, diverting some of Germany's resources and attention. Both sides had their losses, but only the Soviets had the manpower and the industrial production to recover fully. The Germans never regained the initiative after Kursk and never again launched a major offensive in the East.
The loss convinced Hitler of the incompetence of his General Staff. His interference in military matters progressively increased, so that by the end of the war he was involved in tactical decisions. The German Army went from loss to loss as Hitler attempted personally to micromanage the day-to-day operations of what soon became a three-front war. The opposite was true for Stalin. After seeing Stavka's planning justified on the battlefield, he trusted his advisors more, and stepped back from operational planning, only rarely overruling military decisions. The Red Army gained more freedom and became more and more fluid as the war continued.
German
According to German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, who interpreted German archives, the Wehrmacht suffered 54,182 casualties in total during Operation Citadel (4–16 July). Of these 9,036 personnel were killed in action, another 1,960 were reported missing in action, and 43,159 wounded in action. The German 9th Army (under the command of Army Group CentreArmy Group Centre
Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
) suffered 23,345 casualties while Army Group South
Army Group South
Army Group South was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.- Poland campaign :Germany used two army groups to invade Poland in 1939: Army Group North and Army Group South...
suffered 30,837 casualties.
For Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was a code name for the Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation conducted by the Red Army between 3 August 1943 and 23 August 1943 against the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf during World War II. The operation was conducted by the Voronezh...
Frieser states between 1–20 August, the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS units suffered 25,068 casualties, including 8,933 killed and missing. For Rumyantzev he estimated ~30,000 men lost with 10,000 killed and missing. For Operation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov was a military operation by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was named after Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, the Tsarist General credited with saving Russia from defeat during the invasion by Napoleon in 1812.The Operation began on 12...
Frieser gives 86,064 casualties with 14,215 killed, 11,300 missing and 60,549 wounded. Total casualties for the Battle of Kursk were ~170,000 men.
According to Frieser, the Wehrmacht lost 252 tanks and assault guns during Operation Zitadelle (until 20 July). Army Group South admitted losses of 161 tanks and 14 assault guns by 16 July. The German Ninth Army reported the loss of 41 tanks and 17 assault guns up to and including the 14 July. Among these were ten Tiger
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
tanks, 42 Panther
Panther tank
Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as...
and 19 "Ferdinand" or "Elefant" heavy tank destroyers. Other losses included 109 Panzer IV
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
s, 38 Panzer III
Panzer III
Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and...
s, 3 flame tank
Flame tank
A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles...
s and 31 assault guns.
The number of lost tanks for Zitadelle and the Soviet counter offensives is hard to establish. Frieser gives the number of 1,331 tanks destroyed for the entire Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
for July and August. Frieser estimates the number of tanks destroyed during the Battle of Kursk as 760. Frieser explains that many of these tanks were beyond repair and abandoned.
David Glantz
David Glantz
David M. Glantz is an American military historian and the editor of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies....
gives a total of 49,822 casualties. Glantz asserts German losses during the Soviet counter offensives are unavailable.
Glantz estimates that 1,612 tanks and assault guns were knocked out and/or damaged, of which 323 were destroyed. Tank losses from counterattacks are uncertain according to Glantz.
Aircraft losses, according to Frieser, totaled 524. For Zitadelle (5–20 July) 159 were lost, while 218 were destroyed during the Soviet Operation Kutuzov and a further 147 during Polkovodets Rumyantsev.
According to Christer Bergström, the Generalquartiermeister der Luftwaffe reported 97 aircraft lost between 5–8 July (Fliegerkorps VIII
8th Air Corps (Germany)
VIII. FliegerkorpsFor more details see Luftwaffe Organization was formed 19 July 1939 in Oppeln as Fliegerführer z.b.V. The abbreviation z.b.V. is German and stands for zur besonderen Verwendung . Fliegerführer z.b.V was renamed to VIII. Fliegerkorps on 10 November 1939...
58 and Luftflotte 6
Luftflotte 6
Luftflotte 6 was one of the primary divisions of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. It was formed on May 5, 1943 from Luftwaffenkommando Ost in Central Russia...
39). For the period 5–31 July, Generalquartiermeister der Luftwaffe gives figures of 681 lost from the two air fleets (335 for Fliegerkorps VIII and 346 for Luftflotte 6). Of this total 420 were written off; 192 from Fliegerkorps VIII and 229 from Luftflotte 6.
According to Soviets claims the Red Army smashed thirty German divisions, inflicting the following casualties between 5 July and 23 August 1943: 500,000 dead, wounded, and captured soldiers; 1,500 tanks and 3,700 planes destroyed.
Soviet
David Glantz quotes Grigoriy Krivosheyev as the most reliable source. According to Glantz' interpretation of Krivosheev's work, which interpreted Soviet archives, Soviet losses at Kursk during Citadel (known to the Soviets as the Kursk strategic defensive operation, 5–20 July) amounted to 177,874 casualties. The Central Front suffered 15,336 killed and 18,561 sick or wounded for a total of 33,897 casualties. The Voronezh FrontVoronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
suffered 27,542 killed and 46,350 sick or wounded for a total of 73,892 casualties. The Steppe Front
Steppe Front
The Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
suffered 27,452 killed with 42,606 sick or wounded for a total of 70,085 casualties.
Glantz estimates Soviet losses during Operation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov
Operation Kutuzov was a military operation by the Red Army in its fight against the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was named after Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, the Tsarist General credited with saving Russia from defeat during the invasion by Napoleon in 1812.The Operation began on 12...
at 112,529 killed and 317,361 wounded for a total of 429,890 casualties; the Western Front as losing 25,585 killed and 76,856 wounded and sick; the Bryansk Front
Bryansk Front
The Bryansk Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War.General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it first formed in mid-late August 1941, comprising, in Erickson's words, 'on paper two armies, 50th and 13th, with eight rifle divisions each, three...
suffered 39,173 killed and 123,234 wounded and sick. The Central Front lost 47,771 killed and 117,271 wounded and sick. Total casualties for the "Battle of Kursk" were 863,303 men.
The Soviet losses during Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was a code name for the Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation conducted by the Red Army between 3 August 1943 and 23 August 1943 against the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army and Army Group Kempf during World War II. The operation was conducted by the Voronezh...
(3–23 August), according to Glantz and official Soviet sources, were 255,566 casualties, including 71,611 killed and 183,955 wounded. The Voronzeh Front lost 48,339 killed and 108,954 wounded for a total of 157,293 casualties. The Steppe Front lost 23,272 killed and 75,001 wounded for a total of 98,273 casualties. Soviet material losses for Citadel (5–20 July) amounted to 2,586 tanks and Self-propelled artillery
Self-propelled artillery
Self-propelled artillery vehicles are combat vehicles armed with artillery. Within the term are covered self-propelled guns and rocket artillery...
out of 3,925 committed to combat (well over 50 percent). Roughly, this was seven times the number of German losses. The number of losses in the Polkovodets Rumyantsev operation were also heavy. Glantz quotes Krivosheyev's numbers of 1,864 tanks and self-propelled artillery guns out of 2,439 engaged, well over 50 percent. The loss ratio was roughly 5:1 in favor of the Germans.
Frieser also supports Krivosheyev's casualty figures for men and armor.
According to Christer Bergström, Red Air Force losses amounted to 677 on the northern flank and 439 on the southern flank of the bulge during Citadel. In the north, 5–11 July, Soviet losses amounted to 430 destroyed aircraft. The 2nd Air Army
2nd Air Army
The 2nd Air Army was a formation of the Aviation of the Red Army as part of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Second World War...
suffered 433 casualties in total in the north during July 1943. Total losses for the 17th Air Army were 244 during the same period. Other unit casualties are uncertain. Bergström's research indicates total Soviet air losses were 1,104 between 12 July and 18 August, covering Operations Citadel and Kutuzov.
Further reading
- irbergui (YouTube id), German newsreels showing the Battle of Kursk, YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, Retrieved 2008-09-19 - Licari, Michael J. The Battle of Kursk: Myths and Reality, Mike Licari's Home Page, Retrieved 2008-09-19
- Licari, Michael J. A Review Essay: Books on the Battle of Kursk, Mike Licari's Home Page, Retrieved 2008-09-19
- Staff. Sixth Scale Battle
- Vázquez, Rodolfo Torres, rtvmodeler.com, Retrieved 2008-09-19
- Wilson, Alan Kursk – Raw Data to Download, 6 February 1999. —Information from the US Army KOSAVE II study on the southern face battle
- Wilson, Alan The Kursk Region, 5 July 1943 (map), 27 October 1999