It was a general's ultimate challenge - to fight the decisive action of the war by the seat of his pants.

On the morning of the 12th, II SS Panzer Corps was preparing to attack with more than 700 tanks and SP guns towards Kursk. Unknown to them Rotmistrov was sending his 850 tanks and SP guns towards them in two great echelons. With the Soviet tankers was 5th Guards Army. The two iron hosts collided near Prokhorovka in the greatest single armoured engagement in history. At the same time Vatutin threw his tired armies into the attack all along the line. By the end of the day both sides were exhausted and the great tank battle had essentially been a draw. But the Germans had shot their bolts; their tank reserve had been spent.

Next day, the 13th Hitler abruptly cancelled 'Zitadelle'. Two new crises had seized his attention. The Allies had landed in Italy on the 10th, and he desperately needed reserves to contain them. The Soviet counter-offensive 'Kutuzov' had sucked the life out of Army Group Centre's attack and was threatening the army group's entire deployment. On the 15th Hitler forbade any further offensive operations by Army Group South; that order was unnecessary because Army Group Centre, already reeling from 'Kutuzov', was now being hit by Central Front's own energetic offensive. Soviet armies were attacking now throughout the theatre. The eastern front was now moving westwards and would only stop when the Red Army's tide broke over Berlin.

Losses on both sides at Kursk were enormous. Zhukov claimed that the Germans lost 1,500 tanks, 3,000 gun, and 1,500 aircraft. Soviet losses are harder to gauge. Army Group South claimed to have taken 32,000 prisoners, inflicted 85,000 other losses and destroyed about 2,000 tanks and an equal number of guns on Voronezh Front. After the tank battle at Prokhorovka, Soviet operational tanks may have fallen as low as 1,500 from the almost 4,000 when the battle began. But control of the battlefield is one of the great dividends of modern warfare. The Red Army was able to recover and repair large numbers of its tanks while depriving the Germans of that same opportunity. Two weeks later the number of Soviet operational tanks had climbed to 2,750.

The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka

'The tanks were moving across the steppe in small packs, under cover of patches of woodland and hedges. The bursts of gunfire merged into one continuous mighty roar. The Soviet tanks thrust into the German advanced formations at full speed and penetrated the tank screen. The T-34s were knocking out Tigers at extremely close range, since their powerful guns and massive amour no longer gave them an advantage in close combat. The tanks of both sides were in closest possible contact. There was neither time nor room to disengage from the enemy and reform in battle order, or operate in formation. The shells fired at extremely close range pierced not only the side amour but the frontal amour of the fighting vehicles. At such range there was no protection in amour, and the length of the gun barrels was no longer decisive. Frequently, when a tank was hit, its ammunition and fuel blew up, and torn-off turrets were flung through the air over dozens of yards. At the same time over the battlefield furious aerial combats developed. Soviet as well as German airmen tried to help their ground forces to win the battle. The bombers, ground support aircraft, and fighters seemed to be permanently suspended in the sky over Prokhorovka. One aerial combat followed another. Soon the whole sky was shrouded by the thick smoke of the burning wrecks.

right: After Kurst the German Army for the first time felt the fury of the new Soviet air offensive. Here a German transport column is savaged by II-2 Shturmoviks on the approaches to Belgorod. During the attacks on Orel and Kharkov, three Soviet air armies, 16th, 2nd and 5th, supported the ground operations of Central, Voronezh and Steppe Fronts, employing 1,450 aircraft against 900 German.

On the black scorched earth, the gutted tanks burnt like torches. It was difficult to establish which side was attacking and which defending. The 2nd Battalion, 181st Tank Brigade, of l8th Tank Corps, attacking on the left bank of the Psel, encountered a group of Tigers which opened fire on the Soviet armoured fighting vehicles from a stationary position. The powerful long-range guns of the Tigers are exceedingly dangerous, and the Soviet tanks had to try to close with them as quickly as possible to eliminate this advantage of the enemy. Captain P.A. Skripkin, the battalion commander, ordered: 'Forward, follow me!' The first shell of the commander's tank pierced the side of a Tiger. Instantly another Tiger opened fire on Skripkin's 's T-34. A shell crashed through its side and a second wounded the battalion commander. The driver and wireless operator pulled their commander from the tank and took him to the cover of a shell crater.

As a Tiger was making straight for them, Aleksander Nikolayev, the driver, leapt back into his damaged and already smouldering tank, started the engine and raced up to meet the enemy tank. Like a flaming ball of fire the T-34 raced over the ground. The Tiger halted. But it was too late. The blazing tank rammed the German Panzer at full speed. The detonation made the ground shake.'

- General-Lieutenant Pavel A. Rotmistrov

Right: A T-34 is followed into action amid German artillery fire by a Soviet recovery vehicle, a turretless T-34. The Soviets produced no custom-built recovery vehicles during the war, but did modify some T-34s for recovery work, usually those that had sustained too much damage to be repaired as combat vehicles.

Published by Greenhill Books. © Greenhill Books. All rights reserved. Reproduced on MagWeb with permission of the publisher.

Table of Contents
The Greatest Battle in History: Kursk - 1943, Part 1

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