The tank battle - Kursk 1943

1943

It has been recorded in history as the largest battle with armored personnel carriers. The Battle of Kursk began on July 4, 1943, in the city of the same name, and ended on August 23, 1943 with a Soviet victory over the Germans.

This is a decisive event in the development of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War, as with this defeat the balance changed and the Germans lost the initiative of the movements they had until then. 6,200 German and Soviet tanks were involved in the tank battle, most of which were destroyed.

Rightly so, it takes the designation of the bloodiest conflict involving tanks ever fought in the history of world warfare. Preparations for the battle had already begun since the end of March of the same year when a red army patrol caught a Wehrmacht officer with his driver, who was carrying secret documents showing the major offensive that fascist Germany was preparing on the Orel front and the southernmost that of Bielgorod.

Indications of a Nazi counter-attack predated the defeat of the largest Wehrmacht army in February 1943 at Stalingrad, after Hitler had declared total war against the USSR. Thus, the first station of this war was the city of Kursk where the war conflict took place and marked the end of the empire of the Third Reich.

The Germans had decided to create a group that would include 50 divisions (18 armored and motorcycle units, 5 tank armies and 8 artillery armies). In total, according to Soviet sources, the number of soldiers comprising these 50 divisions was 900,000 soldiers. Gunder von Kluge (Army Group "Center") and Erich von Manstein (Army Group "South") would be in command. On the other hand, the Soviets had decided that the Central Front of the Red Army would defend Kursk from the north and the Voronezh Front from the south.

These troops would be based on the Steppe Front (commanded by Ivan Koniev). Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilievsky were in control of the movement of Soviet forces. The key, however, to the outcome of the battle was Russian spies as Joseph Stalin and the Kremlin had in their possession information on the place, time and manner of the battle.

Stalin is said to have had a copy of the Chitandele plan in his hands three days before it was signed by Hitler. The dead period of April-June 1943 worked positively for the USSR as it gave them the space to prepare three defensive lines in Kursk and achieve the final victory.

After the USSR prevailed, supremacy passed into the hands of the Red Army, the Dnieper was liberated in the ensuing battle, and for the first time Stalin launched a systematic offensive against Germany. The Germans, after their defeat in this battle, lost the possibility to undertake an offensive operation in the USSR and in other Allied countries, and their expulsion from the territory of the USSR began.

According to Soviet historians, the losses of both adversaries amounted to 500,000 dead, 1,500 tanks and 3,700 aircraft. However, German sources stated that the Wehrmacht during the period July-August 1943, across the Eastern Front, lost 537,533 soldiers, while the Luftwaffe lost, in the same period, 1,696 aircraft.'

The Battle of Kursk in World War II was the largest and fiercest armored conflict in history and directly influenced conventional warfare for the next half century. It marked the end of German offensives on the Eastern Front and opened the way for operations that eventually brought the Soviets to Berlin.

After their defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-3, the Germans were desperate for a victory to regain an advantage over the Soviets. This would allow them to transfer troops from the eastern front to face the expected Allied invasion of Italy and perhaps break the coalition between east and west. Hitler's generals drew up several plans of action, which included stopping major attacks by forces that were already severely overworked.

Hitler disagreed and sided with Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel who stated: "We must attack for political reasons."

On April 5, 1943, Hitler ordered the implementation of the planned offensive against the Kursk Heights, a mountain mass on the lines around this western Russian city, which stretched 250 kilometers from south to north and penetrated 150 kilometers into German-held territory. An attack from the south and north would cut off the Soviets, who would either be killed or captured.

In the summer of 1943 the German Army was preparing for Operation CITADEL, the major offensive against the Kursk salient.

By employing the successful tactic of the circling movement, the Germans aimed to eliminate the Soviet salient, quickly crush the enemy forces deployed within it, and create the conditions that would allow the Soviet Union to be taken out of the war. For their part, the Russians took advantage of the time until the German offensive began and turned the Kursk salient into a massive fortress. In the decisive clash that followed the Russians exhausted the enemy with their defensive activity, destroyed their armor and, finally, took the initiative of the movements.

The Soviets had the upper hand in all parameters that determined the outcome of the Battle of Kursk. They dictated to the Germans the field of battle, the nature and type of hostilities. It is true that the Soviets made mistakes during the battle, which they themselves admitted in their post-war recounting of events. Nevertheless, the Red Army assimilated knowledge in a very short time.

After all, it was none other than Hoth who made the most apt remark about the “millions of Belgorod casualties,” who told von Manstein: “Since 1941 the Russians have learned a lot. They are no longer uneducated peasants. They have been taught by us the art of war."

The Germans committed about 50 divisions (16 of them armored or grenadier), consisting of 900,000 men, with 10,000 guns and 2,700 armored. About 100 divisions were lined up on the Soviet side, with 1,300,000 men, 20,000 guns and 3,500 armored and self-propelled guns. Later, the forces of the Steppe Front were added to the battle, i.e. another 573,000 men and 1,551 armored. The main theater of the battle, the Kursk salient, measured 240 kilometers from north to south and 120 kilometers from west to east.

The most important gain for the Soviet Union from its victory over the Germans at Kursk was the fact that it took the initiative of movements at the strategic level. After Kursk the Germans did not launch any more attacks on the Eastern Front. From the end of July 1943, when the Soviets began to retake with their counter-attacks the limited territories that the Wehrmacht had managed to occupy within the Kursk salient, the advance of the Red Army was continuous and ended only when the Red Flag was raised on the German Parliament, Berlin, May 1945.

Bonus Photos:

Tanks T-IV (PzKpfw IV) moving to the battlefield. In the summer of 1943 obsolete tanks such as T-III and T-IV still formed the backbone of German armored forces, especially in the northern sector of the front.

Soviet snipers lie in camouflaged trenches and wait for the kill. The Red Army had a lot of snipers, who were often ex-hunters.

German machine-gunners move to new positions

The battle of Kursk Cinematic Movie

Artillery fire by Russians on German positions . The multiple barrel launchers were useful when firing on a large area

A German soldier, taking advantage of the lull, writes letters. Note that the position is well concealed. The machine-gun in the foreground is of Czech make

Destroyed German tanks

The Russians used American made Sherman tanks

British Tank Matilda, received several hits from enemy tanks. "Matilda" was too slow and poorly armed to resist the latest models of German tanks.

A German unit fires mortars

This "Tiger" belongs to the SS Division "Das Reich. The German "Tigers" were to play a major role in the clash of armored vehicles, which would determine the outcome of the battle of Kursk. Hitler thought so. He was wrong.

German Nebelwerfer being loaded with 300 mm shells to fire on Russians

A Russian fighter pilot goes on a bombing mission. The Luftwaffe initially had a slight edge but the Russian air force soon had the upper hand

A Russian tank crew takes orders

Distribution of letters and newspapers for the Soviet soldiers. In the center of the photograph - the son of the regiment.

Between July 10 and July 12 the German advance in the west and southwest of Prokhorovka forced the Soviet command to send forces from the Steppe Front under General Konev to defend the city.