Preface
In the summer of 1943, a "Tank Decisive Battle" that shocked the world took place on the Great Plains of Kursk. The Soviet Red Army and the German Army invested a total of 6,000 (some say more than 8,000) tanks in the competition.
In the end, the Soviet army paid a huge price in casualties and crushed the German offensive, forcing the German army to completely switch to defense on the Soviet-German battlefield.
This battle is the famous-Kulsk Battle.
So are there any unknown stories behind this battle?
html What kind of spectacular scene will there be if more than 26,000 tanks participate in the same battle?
Picture | Battle of Kursk
1. The background of The Battle of Kursk
In June 1941, Nazi Germany brazenly launched the "Barbarossa Plan" and unilaterally tore up the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact", one after another Open up battlefields on both the east and west fronts.
In the initial stage of on the Eastern Front battlefield, the Soviet Union was losing ground. By early 1942, Hitler felt that attacking Moscow would completely disintegrate the Soviet Red Army, so Nazi Germany was preparing for a final decisive battle against the Soviet Union.
On the advice of his staff, Hitler gave up attacking Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, and planned "Operation Blue" to capture the important Soviet city of Volgograd ( Stalingrad) before the winter of 1942.
Subsequently, the Battle of Volgograd broke out between the Soviet Union and Germany .
The result is obvious. The Soviet Red Army defeated Nazi Germany miserably, forcing Hitler to give up part of the initiative.
Stalin made a decisive decision and decided to take advantage of the victory to attack and regain a large amount of Russian Federation land.
Judging from Germany's situation at the time, with the successive failures of the North African battlefield , and the European battlefield being dealt a blow by the Soviet Red Army, Hitler and his staff believed that the German army was about to face a two-front battle on its homeland.
During this period, the Soviet Red Army formulated the "Mars Plan". Stalin and Zhukov were preparing to annihilate the main force of the German Army Group Center in one go, laying a solid foundation for the next attack on Smolensk.
By the end of December 1942, due to the increasingly heavy casualties of the Soviet Red Army, Zhukov ordered the termination of the offensive plan.
In the following months, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany each shifted to defensive operations, replenishing each other's military resources and urging factories to produce tanks, aircraft, and artillery. Behind the seemingly peaceful situation of
, a great war is coming quietly.
At the beginning of 1943, the Soviet Union and Germany conducted several tentative battles.
At the end of February 1943, the commander of Nazi Germany's Southern Army Manstein quickly assembled the main forces such as the "Hitler Armored Division" and the "Gross Deutschland Division" to lay a trap for the Soviet Red Army.
By early March 1943, Manstein severely damaged the Soviet Southwest Front.
On March 5, the main force of the German army completely destroyed the Soviet Third Tank Army and the Sixth Guards Cavalry Army. On March 14, the German army captured Kharkov. This battle was the famous "Battle of Kharkov" in World War II.
Due to the insufficient armor strength of the German army, although it achieved partial victory, it did not cause fundamental damage to the Soviet Red Army.
According to post-war statistics, the Soviet Red Army suffered 100,600 killed and missing people, and more than 139,300 injured; 1,345 tanks self-propelled artillery , 5,291 cannons, and 417 aircraft were seriously damaged and had no repair value.
The failure of the Battle of Kharkov poured cold water on the Soviet Supreme Command.
Since the end of the Battle of Volgograd, Zhukov, Stalin and others were blindly optimistic, thinking that they could quickly regain all the lost ground and reach Berlin, Germany in one fell swoop.
The result is that although the German army has given up some of its battlefield initiative, its strength cannot be underestimated.
For the German army, the victory in the Battle of Kharkov swept away the shame of the failure in the Battle of Volgograd last winter. Manstein then planned a large-scale operation against the Soviet Union in the summer of 1943.
This battle aims to eliminate the Soviet army's effective forces to the maximum extent and regain the initiative on the battlefield.
Manstein had just reported his plan to Hitler, which aroused "Mustache"'s strong uneasiness.
Picture | Manstein
Hitler believed that - The German army had certain battlefield advantages at the time, and there was no need to confront the Soviet Red Army head-on. It should be considered in the long term.
Manstein believed - As time went by and the United States entered the war, the Soviet Union had an advantage over Germany in terms of manpower and material resources, and the two sides would inevitably fall into a war of attrition.
In order to overwhelm the Soviet Union, it was necessary to take advantage of the fact that the Soviet army had little advantage and severely inflict heavy losses on the Soviets through a war or a series of annihilation battles, undermine their confidence in fighting, and make Stalin continue to return to the negotiating table.
Hitler felt that what he said was reasonable. Since he wanted to fight, he must defeat the Soviets and even take all important cities such as Volgograd and Moscow as his own.
However, the Nazi German High Command has never formulated a detailed combat plan.
The time was delayed until mid-to-late April 1943. In order not to delay the fighter plane, Manstein successively proposed two combat plans to Hitler.
The first item is that the German army voluntarily abandons the Donets Basin , shortens the front line, lures the Soviet army deep into the lower reaches of the Dnieper River, , and then concentrates its forces to outflank the main Soviet army from both directions.
has learned a lesson from the Battle of Harf, and this style of play has a relatively high success rate.
However, the Donets Basin is rich in coal, and Hitler was unwilling to give up this "geomantic treasure".
At the same time, he was also worried that the German army's successive abandonment of the Donets Basin and the middle and upper reaches of the Dnieper River would cause resentment among its allies Turkey and Romania .
Moreover, Manstein seemed to have underestimated the Soviet people's IQ. Because they suffered a loss in the Battle of Kharkov last time, if the Soviets were not fooled this time, the German army would be passive.
This plan failed, and Manstein offered another plan.
The purpose of this combat plan is to use more than 70% of the German army's belongings to conduct a " blitz " against the Soviet Red Army. The battle location is set to be Kursk Oblast in the Central Federal District at the southwest foot of the Russian Highlands. .
Kursk Oblast is located in a mixed area of forest and grassland, with a suitable climate and relatively flat land, suitable for tanks and other heavy artillery vehicles to launch attacks.
In addition, Kursk is a very important strategic location. From the map, it looks like a deep wedge, extending from the Soviet front to the junction of the German central and southern fronts.
Since Kursk is so important, Manstein proposed that the German army should launch an attack here, and Hitler basically agreed with the battle plan.
I still have a question - Kursk is so important, the Soviet Red Army will definitely send a large number of troops to defend it, how can the German army carry out a "blitzkrieg"?
Manstein reported to Hitler after the inspection - The Soviet troops stationed in Kursk basically retreated from the Battle of Kharkov.
The implication is that the Soviet Red Army did not station a large number of troops here, which dispelled Hitler's last doubt.
All said and done, the battle plan proposed by Manstein was supported by Hitler, Marshal Kruger , commander of the Nazi Army Group Center, and Zeitzler, , chief of the Army General Staff.
Only another famous German general Guderian opposed Manstein's plan.
In order to fully support Manstein, Hitler transferred Guderian to the German Armored Forces Headquarters.
The combat plan has been formulated, and the next step is to mobilize tanks, aircraft and other heavy weapons to launch a "blitzkrieg" against Kursk.
On April 15, 1943, Hitler issued Combat Order No. 6.
Picture | Guderian
This order stipulates that starting from April 28 of that year, the German army will launch a joint offensive with Army Group Center and Army Group South to destroy the Soviet army in Kursk. The earliest time for the offensive to be launched is 5 On March 4, the operation was codenamed "Acropolis".
On May 3, 1943, Hitler held a high-level meeting of the German army. At the meeting, in addition to Guderian's strong opposition to this combat plan, General Model of Army Group Center also disagreed with launching the Kursk Battle against the Soviet army.
was boycotted by two generals, and Hitler was hesitant. At this time, Manstein said in the meeting that the "Acropolis" operation had missed the best time to launch. It was better to postpone the battle and update and supplement the German tank equipment.
In the next two months, Nazi Germany and its "servant states" factories were in full swing, producing a large amount of weapons and equipment.
By the end of June 1943, Germany had added 1,607 tanks and self-propelled artillery to the Eastern Front.
In the end, the German army finally set the start of the war on July 4, 1943.
Before the Battle of Kursk broke out, the German army supplemented the Eastern Front with 2,398 tanks and 1,036 self-propelled artillery pieces.
At that time, the German main battle tanks were Tiger , Panther, and the bulky Ferdinand tank.
These new tanks are generally modified with more powerful 75mm tank guns, which can penetrate the armor of the Soviet main battle T-34 tank frontally, and their protection capabilities have been improved. This series of additions to
makes the German army full of confidence.
The Soviet army also carried out a major change of blood. Before the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Union organized five front forces and invested them directly in the Kursk area.
The Soviet Central Front is fighting in the front, and the Southern Front and Steppe Front are defending.
According to data released in 1990, compared with the number of tanks and artillery invested by Germany, the Soviet Red Army manufactured approximately 5,000 T-34 tanks and nearly 2,500 self-propelled artillery in a short period of time.
Both sides are well prepared, and the tank battle is about to break out.
2. A battle of 6,000 tanks, who will have the last laugh
At 3 pm on July 4, 1943, Manstein led the German Army Group South to launch an attack. In order to deceive others, Manstein ordered the infantry to take the lead in attacking.
By the morning of July 5, a coordinated force composed of self-propelled artillery and German infantry successfully penetrated the Soviet Sixth Guards Army's defense line.
At the same time, the German Eighth Air Force and the Soviet Air Force were fighting for air supremacy.
The German troops on the northern front launched an offensive later in the evening on July 5, under the command of General Model.
Unlike Manstein who retained his strength, Model invested a large number of armored forces at the beginning of the battle.
60,000 German troops, led by 400 tanks and self-propelled artillery, rushed towards the Soviet Red Army like a torrent of steel.
After a day of fierce fighting, the German troops in the north advanced about 8 kilometers and captured some positions. They suffered losses of more than 12,000 people.
The joint attack from the north and the south caused the Soviet Red Army to fight and retreat, relying on fortifications to carry out tenacious resistance to the German army.
Picture | The tenaciously resisting Soviet army
saw the heavy casualties of the German northern army. Manstein, who had always been calm, could not sit still and gradually played his trump card.
On the evening of July 5, Manstein commanded Army Group South to launch a fierce attack to the north. At the same time, he sent a large number of tanks and self-propelled artillery to form a dense armored formation and completely smashed into the Soviet positions.
Like the German army in the north, Manstein's Southern Army only advanced 4 kilometers before being stubbornly defended by the Soviets.
10 hours passed, and Army Group South lost 36 Panther tanks and finally broke through the first Soviet defense line.
According to statistics, on July 5, 1943 alone, the German Army Groups in the north and south used thousands of tanks and self-propelled artillery. At the cost of losing 300 tanks, they only broke through the Soviet first line of defense, and even The Soviet second line of defense has not been seen yet.
The Soviet Union also suffered heavy losses. The Supreme Command urgently transferred Katukov's First Tank Army to sit in the Sixth Guards Army to respond to German breakthroughs at any time.
On July 6, the German Northern Army Group commanded by Model made certain progress and launched an attack on the Soviet second line of defense.
What Model never expected was that the Soviet army regarded the north as an important strategic defense core from the beginning. The number of tanks and self-propelled artillery in Model's hands was far lower than that of Manstein's Southern Army Group.
This battle had only been fought for three days, and Model had almost no cards to play. Facing the tenacious resistance of the Soviet army, he was already at the end of his strength.
In order not to delay his teammates, Model could only try to use superior force to attack a certain point or a single line of Soviet defense to see if he could buy time for Manstein.
At the same time, on the southern battlefield, Manstein suddenly sent heavy troops and achieved a major breakthrough from July 7 to July 9, advancing hundreds of kilometers.
By July 10, 1943, the southern group army commanded by Manstein made significant progress.
At this time, a piece of heavy news came from Munich - Allied forces successfully landed in Sicily on July 10th.
This news cast a huge shadow on all German troops participating in the war. If the German army cannot achieve a decisive victory in Kursk and enter into peace negotiations with the Soviets, then the German army will at least be unable to achieve victory in the European battlefield.
The experienced Manstein was a little surprised when he learned that the Allied forces had landed in Sicily, but overall he was calm.
He believes that since has reached this point, we must try our best to fight. If we don't fight, our previous efforts will be in vain. Moreover, it is not certain who will win before the last step is reached.
html From July 11th to 12th, the entire Battle of Kursk was performed by Manstein alone. He led Army Group South to continue to concentrate troops to launch a fierce attack on the Soviet defense line.On July 12, a battle broke out between the Soviet Fifth Guards Tank Army and the German Second SS Panzer Corps in the Prokhorovka area of Kursk.
Both sides actually invested about 900 tanks, including about 300 tanks by the German army and more than 600 tanks by the Soviet army.
This encounter lasted for nearly two days.
At about 8:00 in the morning on July 12, 300 Soviet T-34 tanks launched a fierce attack on the German army. The Germans were unequivocal and relied on the power of the Tiger tank's 88mm gun to continuously hit T-34 tanks at long distances.
The Soviet army relied on its numerical superiority in weapons and equipment to continuously attack, forcing the German army to retreat while fighting.
Waiting until it stabilized slightly, the German army used their skillful tank driving skills and the Tiger's excellent equipment and firepower to inflict heavy damage on the Soviet army.
The Soviet army knew very well that the Soviet army was a rough-skinned "soldier", while the German army was a high-damage, agile "assassin" with long hands and short hands. They had to rush in front of the Soviets and engage in hand-to-hand combat with them. Take advantage of the T-34 tank.
Picture | The Soviet Army launched a charge
Thinking of this, the Soviet tanks rushed over like "crazy" and closed the distance with the German Tiger tanks.
By noon on July 12, the Soviet army had lost more than 200 tanks and put more than 100 tanks into the second echelon. The German army had lost about 100 Tiger tanks and was basically unable to fight anymore. Two days after
, the two sides launched a small-scale encounter, which was basically piecemeal.
3. The Soviet army suffered a tragic victory, and the German army completely lost its strategic initiative.
The battle ended. The entire sky above Prokhorovka was filled with black smoke, and hundreds of German and Soviet tanks were in flames. From a distance, it looks like there are many bonfires lit in the wilderness, which is spectacular.
Post-war statistics show that in the Prokhorovka encounter, the Soviet army lost nearly 300 tanks and self-propelled artillery, and the German army lost 150 Tiger tanks.
At the end of the battle, the Soviet and German troops were all furious. The tank soldiers had their vehicles destroyed. They crawled out of the tank on their knees, picked up pistols, bayonets, and hand grenades to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
To be fair, the Tiger tank's long-range strike capability far exceeds that of the T-34 tank.
But Manstein had to face a cruel fact. His most elite ace troops were almost wiped out and could not be replenished at all in a short period of time.
Ever since, the scale of victory slowly began to tilt towards the Soviet army.
On July 13, Hitler issued the latest order to Manstein- to immediately stop the Battle of Kursk and transfer some of the SS armored units to the direction of Italy to stop the Allies.
Manstein still wanted to argue with reason. He believed that although his side suffered heavy losses, the same was true for the Soviet army. As long as they continued to grit their teeth, they could win this victory.
Perhaps there was dissension within the top brass of the German army. Marshal Kruger, who had always supported Manstein, actually turned against him and suggested to Hitler that the German army could no longer attack and needed to conserve its strength to fight in Italy.
Hitler originally maintained a non-committal attitude towards the Battle of Kursk. After Marshal Kruger's instigation, he immediately ordered Manstein to withdraw his main armored forces to support Italy.
On the evening of July 14, 1943, the southern German forces led by Manstein suffered heavy casualties, especially the armored forces that were basically exhausted.
public information shows that the Battle of Kursk ended on August 27, 1943. In fact, it ended in mid-July.
According to post-war statistics, the Soviet army lost 800,000 men, more than 6,000 tanks, more than 3,000 self-propelled artillery pieces, and more than 1,600 fighter aircraft in this battle.
Picture | Tiger tank
The German army lost 500,000 people, 1,500 tanks, 5,200 various artillery pieces, and more than 1,000 fighter planes.
It seems that the losses of the Soviet army are definitely greater than those of the German army.
However, the Soviet Union's financial resources are stronger than those of Germany, and the T-34 tank is not as sophisticated as the Tiger tank, so the Soviets use production to overwhelm quality.
In other words, the Soviet army destroyed all its troops and lost a large number of tanks and aircraft. They were able to obtain supplements in a short period of time and continue to launch wave after wave of fierce attacks on the German army.
Although the losses of the German army were smaller than those of the Soviet army, the production of its Tiger and Panther tanks was seriously insufficient, and its manpower was almost completely wiped out. Even Hitler began to recruit young men in the country.
As the battle continues, the German army simply cannot afford to consume the Soviets.
The most important point is that the essence of the Battle of Kursk was that the German army wanted to launch a lightning attack, but Hitler wasted his time in vain and gave the Soviets two more months to prepare.
Before the Battle of Kursk broke out, the Soviet army had invested 1.33 million people, nearly 20,000 artillery pieces, and 3,500 tanks. There are 570,000 reserve troops and 1,639 tanks in the rear, ready for battle at any time.
The Soviet army had a 2.4:1 advantage in terms of military strength, and a 1.9:1 advantage in tanks.
Before the war began, the Soviet army built three defense zones around Kursk.
The first line is the main defense zone, with a depth of three miles and five trenches, and a large number of mines and anti-tank guns are deployed.
The engineering structure of the second and third lines of defense is similar to that of the first line of defense. Each line of defense is connected with each other by communication trenches, and the total length is hundreds of miles. A total of 500,000 landmines are laid under the three lines of defense, with a density of 2,400 anti-tank mines and 2,700 anti-infantry mines per mile.
Facing the Soviet army, which was armed to the teeth, numerous anti-tank and anti-infantry mines blocked the progress of the German armored troops. The heavy artillery units in the rear kept firing, accidentally injuring their own people. The infantry was also blocked by these three defense zones.
Combining various factors, the German defeat in the Battle of Kursk seems a bit "upset", but in fact it is reasonable.
Picture | T-34 tank
Conclusion
In 1943, the German military's national strength was not as strong as before, and the Soviet Union was not a "soft persimmon" like France and Poland .
The " blitzkrieg " that the German army is famous for is actually a sneak attack when people are unprepared. Once the opponent's combat power cannot be quickly annihilated, when the opponent reacts, it will eventually fall into a protracted war and a war of attrition.
Looking back at the Battle of Kursk, the German army basically determined the time and place of the frontal battle. The superior kinetic energy of the frontal attack was gradually consumed by the Soviet army's deep defense.
In addition, although tigers and leopards are brave, they are difficult to defeat a pack of wolves.
Even if the exchange ratio is 1:5, the Soviet Army is still the most cost-effective. The T-34, which is simple and easy to produce in large quantities, is the most suitable tank for the Soviet army.
After the Battle of Kursk, the German army completely lost the initiative on the battlefield and switched from strategic offense to strategic defense. The Soviet Red Army began to regain large areas of lost territory and at the same time launched an attack on the German mainland.
People all over the world have seen the dawn of victory in "World War II".
