{"id":37185,"date":"2013-07-12T22:28:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T03:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=37185"},"modified":"2013-07-12T22:29:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T03:29:53","slug":"37185","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=37185","title":{"rendered":"Cracks in the Armor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the carnage of the massive Kursk offensive, on the morning of July 10th, the\u00a01st SS Panzergrenadier Division\u00a0Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler\u00a0<\/em>set out to create a small bridgehead as part of a larger advance on the settlement of Prokhorovka. \u00a0The Leibstandarte<\/em>, once Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguards, were an elite SS unit, often spearheading attacks in the East. \u00a0Despite two days of tough fighting, the Leibstandarte<\/em> made no progress against the Soviet\u00a052nd Guards Rifle Division.<\/p>\n

With such elite units gaining no ground, both German and Soviet local commanders believed the solution to breaking the stalemate at Prokhorovka was more armor. \u00a0Little could they have known they were setting the stage for one of the largest (if not the largest) tank battle in history.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Armor All: 300\/400 German tanks squared off against maybe as many as 870 Soviet tanks in the largest mobile armored battle in history<\/p><\/div>\n

By the summer of 1943, the tide of war could be felt slipping away from the Axis. \u00a0Stalingrad had consumed 850,000 German, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Croatian troops, not to mention nearly 1,000 aircraft and 1,500 tanks. \u00a0The North African campaign had seen 300,000\u00a0casualties to shore up a failing front, only to see Sicily invaded on July 9th. \u00a0The Allied bombing campaign was beginning to dominate the skies over Germany, while American and Soviet industry began to seriously outpace German production. The Axis hadn’t just lost manpower and territory but the strategic initiative.<\/p>\n

For\u00a0Generalfeldmarschall<\/em> Erich von Manstein, widely regarded as one of Germany’s best commanders, and placed in charge of the Southern Front in the East after Stalingrad, the solution was to assume a defensive position against the Soviets – let them bleed themselves out in offensive operations. \u00a0Hitler\u00a0demanded Germany go back on the attack. \u00a0Hitler remained\u00a0deeply distrustful of the\u00a0Wehrmacht<\/em>\u00a0and Manstein in particular, believing Manstein’s requests for\u00a0“unrestricted operational freedom” was nothing more than Prussian code for retreat.<\/p>\n

A “compromise” of sorts was developed. \u00a0A limited offensive against the Kursk salient, created by the collapse of Axis forces following Stalingrad, would occur in hopes of robbing the Soviets of any offensive ability. Unternehmen Zitadelle<\/em>\u00a0(Operation Citadel) would be a grand-style\u00a0pincer movement, encircling the entire Kursk bulge.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Loose Tiger: the epitome of German tank engineering, the Tiger I was, for a time, the king of the armored jungle. Its 88mm gun gave it superior distance, but its cost (2x as much as a Panzer IV & 4x as much as a StuG III) made them irreplaceable on the front<\/p><\/div>\n

Over 900,000 men and nearly 3,000 tanks would be involved in this “limited” offensive. \u00a0Against them stood 1.9 million Soviet troops, 5,000 tanks and a commander structure that knew when and where the Germans were coming. \u00a0Soviet intelligence had been tipped off about Kursk from the German anti-Nazi\u00a0“Lucy” spy ring<\/a>\u00a0in addition to the Soviet mole at the British decoding effort at\u00a0Bletchley Park. \u00a0In response, the Soviets built a six-layered defense at Kursk, planting nearly 1 million mines before Operation Citadel began on July 5th, 1943.<\/p>\n

By July 12th, the Soviet advantages of preparation and numerical superiority seemed to be at their breaking points. \u00a0The 2nd SS Panzer Corps, the major corps attacking from the south of Kursk, had broken two defensive rings and was in the process of getting through a third. \u00a0Soviet resistance was bitter, but had made some critical early mistakes. \u00a0Soviet commander\u00a0Georgy Zhukov, newly made Marshal of the Soviet Union for his victory at Stalingrad and breaking of the siege at Lelingrad, had convinced Stalin that a defensive position at Kursk could open up the opportunity for a major Soviet offensive. \u00a0But only one day into the German offensive, and against the wishes of his commanders, Stalin ordered a counterattack. \u00a0Instead of Zhukov’s crushing blow, tank units were slowly fed piecemail into the teeth of 2nd\u00a0SS Panzer Corps.<\/p>\n

Despite all odds, the Germans were winning the Battle of Kursk.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kitty Can Scratch: the Panther was cheaper than the Tiger but packed a similar punch. Unfortunately (for fortunately for history), the Panthers at Kursk had barely been field tested when they went into battle and broke easily<\/p><\/div>\n

The early German successes were also in spite of the new weapons they were fighting with. \u00a0Kursk had been postponed to await the arrival of the two newest tank designs in the\u00a0Wehrmacht<\/em>\u00a0– the Tiger I and Panther. \u00a0Both were massive tanks, the product of fine German engineering, and were devastatingly effective on the battlefield…when they worked. \u00a0The Tiger I was the epitome of German “over-engineering.” \u00a0Complicated and expensive to build (only 1,300 were made), the Tiger I consumed gas at an alarming rate and broke its trends quickly. \u00a0The Panther was cheaper and more reliable, but hadn’t been tested by its crews before it went into battle. \u00a0Experienced German tank units suddenly looked like recent draftees.<\/p>\n

Opposing them, the Soviet T-34 was neither pretty nor meticulously produced. \u00a0Inferior\u00a0transmissions created frequent mechanical failures and the poorly ventilated interior “create an inhuman harshness for the driver.” \u00a0But T-34s were well-armored, fast, durable, and could be produced quickly. \u00a0Nor did it hurt that their tank crews were increasingly veteran by the time of Kursk. \u00a0They \u00a0would need to be. \u00a0The T-34s 3-inch guns couldn’t penetrate the Tiger I or Panther armor, while German 88mm’s could easily rip through even the thickest Soviet armor. \u00a0The result was that Soviet tank commanders had to be nimble and practice encirclement tactics – not unlike the Germans who were now weighed down with gigantic, gas-guzzling vehicles that lacked the ability to maneuver quickly.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Soviet T-34: called the “deadliest tank in the world” by German Gen. Heinz Guderian. Over 84,000 were built during the war, and some 27 countries still use T-34 models today.<\/p><\/div>\n

54 miles to the south of Kursk, all of these factors combined in the Battle of Prokhorovka. \u00a0The 2nd SS Panzer Corps and the 5th Guards Tank Army would collide as both sides had been instructed to go on the offensive and either capture or relieve the tiny settlement of Prokhorovka and the third ring of the southern Soviet defense of Kursk.<\/p>\n

Despite the fame the battle would later take, there are no exact figures for the scale of the fighting. \u00a0Woven amid the larger Kursk battle, Prokhorovka’s human cost disappears into the background. \u00a0Estimates of armor present at Prokhorovka range around 300-400 to as high as 700 German tanks and assault guns versus 600-870 of the same on the Soviet side. \u00a0Prokhorovka would end as the most intense tank battle in history but maybe only the second largest. \u00a0The second Battle of El Alamein in November of 1942, with a confirmed 1,500 tanks between the British and the Germans\/Italians, might have been the largest.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the exact scale of the battle, Prokhorovka was a living hell for any tank commander on July 12th, 1943. \u00a0Russian tanks, underestimating the armor of the Tiger I’s, rushed their opponent in the hopes of closing the distance and avoiding being destroyed before their guns could hit the German Panzers. \u00a0It was a deadly mistake as the Russians discovered that the T-34s couldn’t pierce the Tiger I and Panther armor even at close range. \u00a0Worse, German anti-tank units turned the defense lines the Soviet had once dug into positions for themselves and picked off Soviet tanks with ease.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Laughing at Death: a Soviet tank crew laughs about a near fatal hit to their vehicle. 144 other Soviet tank crews on July 12th alone weren’t so lucky<\/p><\/div>\n

Compounding matters was the presence of the\u00a0Luftwaffe<\/em>. \u00a0While the Red Army Air Force had begun to hold their own, and even surpass, the\u00a0Luftwaffe<\/em>\u00a0on the Eastern Front, Soviet air-to-ground communications were nonexistent at Prokhorovka. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Many T-34s had improperly installed radios, and those that were installed correctly lacked armored protection. \u00a0Coupled with the Russian tactic of charging into German tank formations, which made coordinated assaults difficult as Russian losses mounted and units retreated in disorganized fashion, the Soviet Air Force didn’t know it was needed and thus was rarely seen over Prokhorovka.<\/p>\n

By nightfall on the 12th, the Germans were now positioned to the north of Prokhorovka, through the third defensive line, and positioned to turn the flank of Soviet forces in the southern section of the Kursk salient. \u00a0German losses had been heavy, but nothing by comparison to the Soviets. \u00a0Over 3,000 Germans had been killed or wounded, but almost 26,000 Russians had suffered the same fate. \u00a0The Germans had lost less than 150 tanks; the Russians an estimated 478.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (right): the reluctant architect of Kursk, Manstein might have produced a German victory if not for Hitler’s sudden cold feet<\/p><\/div>\n

A battle that had seen more than its share of inference from political leaders saw one last blunder. \u00a0Despite their roles leading up to Kursk, Hitler and Manstein now switched views. \u00a0Manstein believed victory at Kursk was within sight; Hitler believed they had to retreat. \u00a0The Allied invasion of Sicily and counter-offenses by the Soviets elsewhere on the Kursk front shook Hitler’s nerves. \u00a0On July 13th, Manstein was ordered to conclude the Kursk offensive, with some exceptions on the southern front. \u00a0Thus, Provkhorovka, which had been a German tactical victory, ended up looking more like a strategic defeat.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of Kursk, Manstein believed he had won a broader victory. \u00a0The Soviets had been bled white for the summer, and while Manstein had not recaptured the strategic initiative, neither had the Soviets. \u00a0At the expense of over 1 million lives, Manstein viewed the Eastern Front now as a “draw”, awaiting whichever force could muster the resources to regain the offensive. \u00a0He was sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Face of Defeat: the Germans lost over 200,000 men in the overall Battle for Kursk and an estimated 760 tanks. The Russian losses were much larger (863,000) but much more replaceable<\/p><\/div>\n

The Soviets seized the initiative after Kursk and never gave it back, mounting an offensive into Kiev by September. \u00a0Kursk also solidified the opinions of the two major political leaders warring on the Eastern Front. \u00a0Stalin, who had famously purged the Soviet military, had placed his trust in Zhukov and other generals and had been rewarded with significant victories. \u00a0Hitler, despite having ordered and then canceled Kursk against the wishes of the German General Staff (both times), blamed the outcome on his generals. \u00a0For the remainder of the war, Hitler would become increasingly involved in tactical planning while Stalin did not.<\/p>\n

Although the Germans would attempt several other minor offensives on the Eastern Front until the end of the war, Kursk represented the last German effort to shift the strategic momentum of the war. \u00a0Even the famous Ardennes Offensive (the “Battle of the Bulge”) was little more than an attempt at a temporary tactical advantage. \u00a0Few could have imagined at the time, but Germany was now set on the road to defeat.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Advance Continues: “Stalingrad was the end of the beginning, but the Battle of Kursk was the beginning of the end.”<\/strong> \u2014 Winston Churchill<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid the carnage of the massive Kursk offensive, on the morning of July 10th, the\u00a01st SS Panzergrenadier Division\u00a0Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler\u00a0set out to create a small bridgehead as part of a larger advance on the settlement of Prokhorovka. \u00a0The Leibstandarte, once Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguards, were an elite SS unit, often spearheading attacks in the East. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-ringer","category-ww2-fact-and-myth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37185"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37246,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37185\/revisions\/37246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}