The Battle of Kursk

By Hayden and Hope

Background

In the winter of 1942-1943 the Soviets won the battle of Stalingrad. After loosing one of their armies and over 800,000 troops, Hitler wanted to strike back. This is what led them to the eastern front of Russia where the Battle of Kursk took place.

German Plans

In March Germany’s plans were made. Germany’s ninth army would attack southwards while their fourth army

and “Kempf” would attack northwards. They planned to meet near Kursk and if the offensive was successful they planned to create a

new line at Don River far to the east. Hitler gave the general staff a lot of

control over planning the battles. They pushed the date of the battle until July 4th so they could order more time for

new weapons, especially the new Panther tanks.

Soviet PlansThe Soviets had made a plan that mirrored the Germans. They would attack in front of Orel and Kharlov, the same areas where Germans planned to attack. The locations of all previous German attacks caught the soviets by surprise but this time Kursk was the obvious target. The German’s delay in launching their offensive attack gave Soviet’s nearly four months to prepare. The area of Kursk became one of the most heavily guarded points on earth with two fronts (central and Voronezh) and the Steppe front acted as a reserve. There were thousands of trenches, about a million land mines and thousands of artillery, tanks and aircraft. Stalin took the advice of his professional intelligence and staff officers, unlike Hitler. The ability of the Soviet forces to move from defensive to offensive operations due to better staff work, larger reserves and better planning made the battle of Kursk a turning point in the war.

Operation CitadelInitially the battle was fought in the North and South. During the battle of the North, Germans only advanced 10km into the Russian lines in 2 days, the Germans lost 25,000 soldiers and 200 tanks. A week into the battle with Germany suffering big losses, General Hoth, the German commander in the south, decided to concentrate their remaining tanks about 600 of them, and push past the last line of Russian defence, and into Prokhorova which was a more suitable terrain for tank warfare. However General Hoth didn't know that at this point Russian high command had already predicted this since the Germans had fallen so easy in the North. The Russian sent all of their remaining tanks and soldiers to the South to meet the German advancement. The Russians also ordered their entire 5th Guards tank army which so far hadn't been in battle to head to the South. When the Russians and the Germans met, their was a thick cloud of smoke and dust, which made it hard to see, this almost meant the Russians also advanced to surround the Germans. This resulted in about 1500 tanks fighting in a very short distance, this worked in the Russians advantage because the Germans could not use their technological superiors in such short distances. The Germans lost more than half of their remaining tanks.The Battle was decided, and Hitler announced the end of Operation Citadel

The Aftermath

After the Battle of Kursk, the war in the eastern front became one long Russian advance, where the Russians went on to all of the territories they lost to the Germans and re conquered it. The Russians advanced all the way to Berlin and won the war because of the Germans inability to stop them due to their huge losses.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-FwkUQ7m1I

References

• http://www.2worldwar2.com/kursk.htm• http://war.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk