Battle Of Prokhorovka Essay

In the winter of 1942-1943, the Soviets won the battle of Stalingrad and Germans suffered in a disastrous defeat. After losing about 400,000 casualties in the battle, Germans seeked revenge and launched an offensive force against Soviet Union called Operation Citadel. Their initial goal was to take over a salient in the Eastern Front that extended 70 miles toward the west. The salient was a bulge in the Soviet lines that stretched 150 miles from north to south and extend 100 miles westward into the German lines. This battle came to be known as the largest tank battle in history. This battle was also Germany's last grand offensive on the Eastern Front and it took place from July and August of 1943.

Germany had two plans to approach the taking off the lands from the city of the Kursk. The two plans were supported by different German field commanders. The first plan was supported German field commanders; Gudarian and Manstein. Their goal was to pinch off a large salient in the Eastern Front of the Soviet Union then cut off the rest of Soviet territory. He wanted
to fight the large Russian army with maximum offensive forces with superiority amounts of soldiers in tactics, command, and fighting. Ideally, the idea was to stop and delay the Russians reinforcement then continued fighting. However, Hitler didn’t agree to the plan but rather motivated his war staff to prepare for more tanks. In one of the events, Hitler had confessed to his commander, Gudarian, “Whenever I think of this attack my stomach turns over.” The delaying of time led the Soviets to prepare for armies and organize the troops to defend against Germany.

The other option was supported by the chief of staff of the German army, General Zeitzler. He suggested to put all German tanks to a major defensive forces against the Russian armor and then destroyed them and to regain the initiative. The goal is to launch the classic Blitzkrieg from North to South in order to encircle and destroy the Soviet forces on the fourth day of battle. Hitler chose this plan and it was given the codename, Operation Citadel. It was employed with the best Wehrmacht generals and it was divided into 50 divisions (including 26 tank and motorized divisions) and units such as 9th and 2nd Armies of Army Group Center, 4th Army and Army Detachent Kempf of Army Group South. It was also supported by the 4th and 6th Air Fleets. Overall, the entire operation was composed of 900,000 men, about 10,000 artillery, 2,700 tanks, and about 2,500 aircrafts. Therefore, Germans’ hope for a blitzkrieg victory, and hoped for an easy battle that would had been over in a short period.

On the other hand, Soviets got intelligence about the intentions of the Germans which in parts was offered by the British intelligence and by Lucy spy ring (anti-Nazi operation) headquartered in Switzerland. Thus, Soviets withdrew their troops prior to the Germans attack saving Russian soldiers’ lives and energy. Then, they built a line of defense up to 200 miles deep, stretching over 3,800 miles. Hundreds of anti-tank guns were put in place, half a million mines were laid in the first trench alone. About 1.3 million men were waiting on the Soviet side, while many others were in reserve. Leading the defense of Soviet was Georgi Zhukov, defender of Moscow and Leningrad. The Soviets were ready for the massive counter-attack to follow.

The German force was primarily made up of two groups; one positioned in the north and one positioned in the south. The first group was Generaloberst Walter Model’s 9th Army which was situated in the north and Generaloberst Hoth’s 4th Army was situated in the south. These forces composed of several latest tank models including Tiger Tanks and Panther Tanks. On July 5th, 1943, the Germans went to launch the attack to only bumped into deep antitank defenses and minefields that the Soviets had placed in the anticipation of these German attacks. The Germans only advanced 16 km north and 48 km south into the bulge but they lost several of their tanks. Once settled, German Army moved in with armor to fight against Soviets. However, they were faced with anti-tank guns from Soviets. Many soldiers were severely wounded and killed which further delayed the advancement of Germans troops into the city of Kursk.

On July 12, the Nazis broke the south salient, but faced with a resilient counter-offensive.
The Soviet command a counterstroke with the forces of the Fifth Guards Tank Army under General Pavel Rotmistrov. This marked the beginning the battle of Prokhorovka, one of the best-known of the many battles on the Eastern Front in WWII. A total of 500 to 700 German tanks, including dozens of Mark V Panther medium tanks with 75mm guns and Mark VI Tiger heavy tanks with deadly 88mm cannons, launched forward while hundreds of nimble Soviet T-34 medium tanks raced into the midst of the battleground which threw the Germans into confusion. The Germans were attacked from various spots with powerful self-propelled, tank-killing destroyers. The 4th Panzer Army was so close to being destroyed completely. By the end of it all, the exhausted Germans were in retreat and the Soviet Army could lay claim to this decisive
victory.

Hitler’s misperception of the Red Army and its ability to mobilize for a massive counter offensive would drastically hurt the German forces chance for recovery. This, combined with Russian preparation, turned a counter attack at Kursk into a general Soviet offensive. Once the Russians held off the German attack on Kursk, Zhukov knew that the counter offensive was just around the corner as his plans were falling into place. Before the battle took place, Russian high command saw the Kursk salient as their springboard for their massive counter offensive. By July 9th, the German forces had extended themselves as far as they possibly could go. The Russian counter offensive was timed for July 12th, and when it was launched, the German attack crumbled. On July 13th, Hitler officially cancelled Operation Citadel. Zhukov and Vasilevsky then activated their plan, which was titled Operation Kutuzov. The object was to destroy German concentrations around Orel and Briansk, which would unhinge the whole German central front. The Russians were also able to launch an effective counter offensive because of their ability to repair their T-34 tanks. The Red Army did sustain heavy damage from the German attack, but they were able to repair lightly damaged tanks by the end of July. On July 5th, they had 3,800 tanks at their disposal. With heavy fighting, by July 13th, they only had fewer than 500 active tanks. This was a considerable loss, but by August 3rd with repairs, they were able to bring the number of tanks back up to 2,750. The Soviets finally had the advantage in the war, and on August 25th, Zhukov was summoned to headquarter to discuss further objectives with the Soviet offensive, which was gaining significant momentum.