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Battle of Kursk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Battle of Kursk
Operation Citadel
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Panzergrenadiers with a Tiger I of the 2nd SS Panzergrenadier
Division Das Reich advance through the southern Voronezh Front
Date
Location
Result
German offensive phase: 5 – 16 July 1943
Soviet offensive phase: 12 July – 23 August
1943
Kursk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Decisive Soviet victory[nb 1][nb 2]
Belligerents
Germany
Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Erich von Manstein
Georgy Zhukov
Günther von Kluge
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Hermann Hoth
Nikolay Vatutin
Walther Model
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Hans Seidemann
Ivan Konev
Robert Ritter von Greim
Strength
820,900 men[3]
1,680,361 men[6]
2,928 tanks[3]
5,128 tanks[7]
9,966 guns and mortars[4]
25,013 guns and mortars[4]
2,110 aircraft[5][nb 3]
2,792 aircraft[8][nb 4]
Casualties and losses
Operation Zitadelle:[nb 5]
Operation Zitadelle:[nb 5]
58,800 men
177,847 men[15]
350 tanks and assault guns[10]
1,614[16] – 1,956[17] tanks and
159 aircraft[11]
assault guns
~500 guns[12]
459[16]
3,929 guns
Battle of Kursk:[nb 6]
203,000 casualties[13]
Battle of Kursk:[nb 6]
1200 tanks and assault guns
863,303 casualties[nb 7]
681 aircraft[14]
6,064 tanks and assault guns[nb
guns unknown
8]
1,626[16] aircraft
5,244 guns[16]
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Eastern Front
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Battle of Kursk
The eastern front at the time of Operation Citadel. Orange areas show the destruction of an earlier Soviet breakthrough that ended with the Kharkov offensive operation.
Green areas show German advances on Kursk.
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city
of Kursk, (450 kilometers / 280 miles south of Moscow) in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes,
including the Battle of Prokhorovka, and the costliest single day of aerial warfare 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 the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.
The Germans hoped to shorten their lines by eliminating the Kursk salient (also known as the Kursk bulge), created in the aftermath of their defeat at
the Battle of Stalingrad. They envisioned pincers breaking through its northern and southern flanks to achieve a great encirclement 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 and Panther tanks,[20][21] gave the Red Army time to construct a series of defense lines and gather large reserve forces for a strategic
counterattack.[22]
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 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—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.[23]
When the German forces had exhausted themselves against the defences, the Soviets responded with counter-offensives, which allowed the Red Army to
retake Orel and Belgorod 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.[nb 9][24] The Battle of Kursk was the first battle in which a Blitzkrieg offensive had been defeated before it
could break through enemy defenses and into its strategic depths.[25]
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
o
1.1 Soviet plans
o
1.2 State of the Red Air Force
o
1.3 Opposing forces

1.3.1 Wehrmacht

1.3.2 Red Army
2 Sub-operations and nomenclature
3 Preliminaries
o
3.1 Ground
4 Main operations — the northern face
o
4.1 German onslaught
o
4.2 The end of Zitadelle in the north

4.2.1 Northern analysis
5 Main operations — the southern face
o
5.1 German attack

o
5.1.1 Prokhorovka
5.2 The end of Zitadelle in the south

5.2.1 Southern analysis
6 Hitler cancels the operation
o
6.1 Reasons for the failure of Zitadelle
7 Soviet counterattacks
o
7.1 In the north: Operation Kutuzov
o
7.2 In the south: Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
8 Results
o
8.1 Casualties

8.1.1 German

8.1.2 Soviet
9 Notes
10 Citations
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
[edit]Background
In the winter of 1942/43 the Red Army conclusively won the Battle of Stalingrad. About 800,000 German and other Axis troops were lost, including the
entire German Sixth Army, 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 Erich von Manstein 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 Soviet forces, notably Armored Group Popov.
The ensuing attack left the front line running roughly from Leningrad in the north to Rostov in the south. In the middle lay a large 200 km (120 mi) wide by
150 km (93 mi) deep Soviet-held salient, or bulge, centered round the town of Kursk between German forward positions near Orel in the north,
and Belgorod in the south.
The spring thaw 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 panzer divisions.
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, 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.[26]
At the top of the German High Command (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, the Voronezh and Central Fronts, occupied the ground in and around the
salient, and pinching it off would trap almost a sixth 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, located on the main north–south railway line from Rostov to Moscow.
In March, the plans crystallized. Walter Model's 9th Army would attack southwards from Orel while Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army and Army
Group Kempf 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.