July 12, 1943 - Kursk, USSR Today, the Red Army launches a massive counter-attack in response to the German Army’s “Operation Citadel, an attempt to cut off the Soviet forces in the salient (a bulge) in their line around the city of Kursk. The German attack which began on July 5, had been delayed several times, giving the Soviets additional weeks to strengthen their already formidable defenses and bring up additional reinforcements. In what became known as the “Battle of Prokhorovka”, two Soviet Tank Corps slammed into several Panzer (tank) divisions, which had been struggling to advance through belts of Red Army defense works to reach Prokhorovka. This was the beginning of the end of the German offensive, which had involved over 900,000 men, 10,000 artillery pieces, 3,000 tanks, and over 2,000 supporting aircraft. In what became the largest tank battle in the history of warfare, they went up against over two million Soviet troops, supported by over 25,000 artillery tubes, 5,100 tanks, and 2,700 aircraft. Although the Red Army lost far more men and material than the Germans (870,000 men killed, wounded, captured or missing, as opposed to 200,000 for the Germans; 3,000 tanks, 7,200 guns, & 1,800 aircraft lost compared the German’s 760 tanks & guns, and 680 aircraft) they heavily crippled the ability of the Germans to conduct further major offensive operations in the East. The Allied invasion of Sicily on July 10 convinced Hitler that he needed to move Panzer forces from the Eastern Front to reinforce the West, and all further Operation Citadel offensive plans were curtailed (an action that was strongly opposed by his field commanders) and ended by July 23.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 15:43:42 +0000
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