The Central Front, with the right wing strengthened by the Thirteenth Army and Seventeenth Army, was to defend the northern sector. Rokossovsky, and the Voronezh Front, led by General Nikolai F. General Joachim Lemelsen's XLVII Panzer Corps planned to drive toward Kursk and meet up with Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Army Group South, the Fourth Panzer Armyand the Kempf Army.įacing the German forces were the Soviet Central Front, led by General Konstantin K. Field Marshal Günther von Kluge's Army Group Centerwould attack from the north flank, with the Ninth Armyleading the effort, the XLVI Panzer Corpson the right flank, and the XLI Panzer Corpson the left. The Germans' main aim during Citadel was to secure a large salient in the Eastern Front that extended 70 miles toward the west. Here again, historians hailed Prochorovka as a victory of improved Soviet tactics over German firepower and heavy tanks, relatively new evidence shows the events at the 'gully of death' in a somewhat different way. The most discussed battle was the one that occurred at Prochorovka (also spelled Prokhorovka as many of you will recognize), which began on 12 July. German penetration during the Battle of Kursk As an example, the Waffen SS formation records were not declassified until around 1981, by which time many so-called ‘historical reports’ had already been produced. Even now, new information is being found as new archives are unearthed that have previously remained buried and hidden. There are massive differences between historians over the events of this time, and it still remains a slice of history surrounded by myth and speculation. The climax of Operation Citadel, the Battle of Kursk, involved as many as 6,000 tanks, 4,000 aircraft and 2 million fighting men, and is remembered, rightly or wrongly, as the greatest tank battle in history. The Battle of Kursk – “The Gully of Death”įollowing their defeat at Stalingrad during the winter of 1942-43, the German armed forces launched a climactic offensive in the East, known as Operation Citadel,on 4 July 1943.
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