KURSK
The wwii battle of Kursk
The Russian campaign
The greatest ww2 tank battle
After the 1943 winter Russian offensive the german and allied armies managed to stop the Russian offensive. In that point of world war II the germans had the last chance of taking the offensive again in the eastern front. The chosen point for this offensive, was Kursk, which was the ideal front location to intend a surrounding movement and isolate the soviet armies. The offensive called for 2 simultaneous assaults on the northern and southern sectors of the Kursk salient to destroy the soviet armies and in the best scenario advance to the Don river. The germans spared no effort and amassed a huge army including 2700 tanks and introduced to battle the new Panther and Tiger tanks to spearhead the assault. Unfortunately for the germans Stavka, the russian high command, knew their plans in anticipation. The soviets prepared a very good defensive system in depth. The soviet armies in Kursk where composed as follows:
1.300.000 troops
3.600 tanks
2.400 aircraft
a huge amount of artillery and anti tank guns
On 5 July 1943 the german assault begun after preliminary bombardment. On the southern sector the assault was commanded by Manstein and in the northern sector the assault was led by Model. Heavy figthing took place on both sectors and the greatest tank battles of world war 2 took place. On July 12 the germans lost 350 tanks in the greatest tank battle of wwii near Prokhorovka. While this battle took place in the south, in the northern sector the russian army begun a counteroffensive that very soon expanded to the southern sector. In a few days the german armies where pulled back to their original positions. By 5 August the Soviet army had captured Orel and Belgorod, opening the way for the Autumn offensives, while in the south the germans lost Kharkov on 23 August. After this battle the german forces lost all the initiative in the eastern front, only a few local wehrmacht counterstrikes took place until the end of the ww2.
Maps of the battles
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