The climax of the Battle of the Kursk Bulge is the Battle of Prokhorovka. Then, on July 12, 1943, on a narrow section of the front (8 km wide) several hundred German and Soviet tanks met head-on. The field of the Oktyabrsky state farm in the Belgorod region, where the largest tank battle of World War II took place, has become the Kulikovo field of the modern history of Russia.
In April 1943, Hitler signed Directive 6 authorizing Operation Citadel. During the summer campaign of 1943, the Wehrmacht command assumed that two powerful blows from the north and south would surround and destroy the Soviet troops in the Kursk region. The Germans prepared many surprises for the Soviet command for the start of Operation Citadel. Among them were new models of military equipment. Tank subunits received heavy Tiger and Panther tanks, and the Luftwaffe received Focke-Wulf-190 fighters and Henschel-129 attack aircraft. Preparations for Operation Citadel lasted four months and were carried out with purely German thoroughness and punctuality.
True, the Red Army carried out no less thorough preparation for the coming battles. Our intelligence was able not only to get information about the plans of the Nazis in time, but also to establish the date for the start of Operation Citadel. The headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to exhaust the enemy in defensive battles, inflict maximum losses on him, and then launch a counteroffensive.
On the Kursk Bulge, defensive lines were created, consisting of eight fortification zones, with a total depth of up to 300 km. All tank-hazardous areas were mined. But, as it turned out later, all the measures taken to repel the German offensive were clearly not enough.
Paul vs. Paul
The Battle of Kursk began on the morning of July 5, 1943. The most dramatic events unfolded in the southern sector of the Kursk Bulge, where the 2nd SS Panzer Corps under the command of SS Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser was advancing.
The SS divisions "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler", "Das Reich" and "Totenkopf" were new heavy tanks Pz. VI and "Tiger" with thick armor and a powerful 88mm cannon. There were not many of them, but each "Tiger" cost several Soviet T-34 tanks. By 10 July, 2nd SS Panzer Corps was targeting Prokhorovka station. Having captured it, the Germans could turn north and go to the rear, bleeding to the rear in the defense of Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army. In order to fend off the blow of the SS Panzer Corps, the Headquarters decided to launch a counterattack, introducing strategic reserves into the battle - Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank Army. She was urgently transferred to Prokhorovka. In the course of advancing to the front line, the Soviet command did not have time to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance and ensure the supply of the required amount of fuel and ammunition.
Promotional video:
Fatal hour and a half
The commander of the Voronezh Front, General Nikolai Vatutin, first intended to bring the 5th Guards Tank Army into battle at 10 a.m. on July 12, 1943. But then, for some reason, he decided to postpone the start of the counterblow to 8:30. This was a fatal mistake! The fact is that the German offensive was to begin at 9:00! If Paul Hausser had started first, the German tankmen would have had to storm the Soviet trenches under the fire of the tanks of the 5th Guards Tank Army. And so 190 medium tanks T-34 and 120 light tanks T-70 went into a frontal attack on 50 prepared for battle "Tigers" and long-barreled medium tanks Pz. IV division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler", which shot the advancing Soviet tanks, as if on a training ground.
But, despite the huge losses, the tanks of the 5th Panzer Army by noon managed to break through to the positions of the Germans. And at that very moment, German dive bombers dealt a powerful blow to them. The fact is that, despite the superiority in the number of aircraft, the Soviet Air Force did not manage to achieve air superiority. Soviet tank crews fought heroically. Having used up ammunition, they rammed enemy vehicles. But what could the T-70 light tank do to the heavy Tiger?
Here is what the tanker Grigory Penezh-ko, Hero of the Soviet Union, who survived in that infernal "cauldron", recalled: "… There was such a roar that the membranes pressed, blood flowed from the ears. The continuous roar of engines, the clanking of metal, the roar, explosions of shells, the wild rattle of bursting iron … The towers collapsed from point-blank shots, armor burst, tanks exploded … Hatches were opened, and tank crews tried to get out … we lost the sense of time, did not feel any thirst, no heat, not even blows in a cramped tank cabin. One thought, one aspiration - while alive, beat the enemy. Our tankers, getting out of their wrecked vehicles, looked for enemy crews on the field, also left without equipment, and fired from pistols, grabbed hand-to-hand …"
Then we began to count wounds …
On the afternoon of July 12, the Germans themselves went on the offensive. SS Panzer Division "Toten-Kopf" struck north of Prokhorovka. Here she was met with well-aimed fire from 150 tanks of the 5th Guards Tank Army and anti-tank gunners. They managed to repel the onslaught of the Germans.
By evening, the battle died down. According to the calculations of the headquarters of the tank army Rotmistrov, it turned out that three hundred tanks and self-propelled guns were lost (more than half of those available at the beginning of the offensive). The huge losses aroused the wrath of Stalin. Rotmistrov was even going to be removed from the command of the army and brought to justice. But Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, a representative of the Headquarters on the Voronezh Front, stood up for him. And the Germans, who had suffered considerable losses by that time, also suspended their advance on Prokhorovka.
The offensive of the Western and Bryansk fronts on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge finally buried Operation Citadel. To repel it, the Germans dismantled the strike groups aimed at Kursk and tried to stop the Soviet offensive.
But it was already too late. Under the blows of the Red Army, the Germans left Oryol, Belgorod and Kharkov. The Wehrmacht lost the battle of Kursk outright.
The Battle of Prokhorovna 1943-12-07
RED ARMY
5th Guards Tank Army and 5th Guards Army: 597 tanks and self-propelled guns, 80 thousand people. Commanders: Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrov and Lieutenant General Alexey Zhadov.
Losses: tanks and self-propelled guns - 340 vehicles; killed, wounded and missing - more than 7 thousand people.
GERMAN TROOPS
2nd SS Panzer Corps: 311 tanks and self-propelled guns, 70 thousand people. Commander: SS Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser.
Losses: 70 tanks and self-propelled guns; killed, missing and wounded - 5500 people.
"Long arm" "Tiger"
With the advent of the new German heavy tank Pz. VI "Tiger" Soviet T-34/76 tank lost all the advantages it had over enemy tanks. The Tiger turned out to be a formidable opponent. It had thick armor and, most importantly, a long-barreled powerful 88mm cannon. Optical sight "Tiger" made it possible to fire at armored vehicles without preparation at a distance of 1200 meters. After zeroing in, the "Tiger" could hit a stationary tank at a distance of 2500 meters. The design and excellent quality of the sight made it possible to fire at dusk. In addition, the "Tiger" could shoot not only accurately, but also quickly. The rate of fire of 7 rounds per minute was provided by a semi-automatic shutter and the exceptional convenience of ammunition storage.
At distances up to two kilometers, when a heavy steel blank from a Tiger cannon broke through the armor of any Soviet tank, the Tiger itself was almost invulnerable. Only 85mm cannons could penetrate its 100mm frontal armor. Soviet instructions on fighting German tanks of that time recommended hitting the Tigers in the side and stern from shelters.
New German tanks "Tiger", "Panther" and the self-propelled gun "Elephant" ("Ferdinand") instantly made the main Soviet T-34/76 and KV tanks obsolete. Either a longer arm or a thicker skin was urgently needed.
To some extent, only the T-34/85 with a new 85-mm cannon became such a "long arm", which entered the troops en masse only in 1944. Its projectile pierced the Tiger's forehead from a kilometer, and the side and stern - even farther, but the reservation still did not allow joining artillery pieces with "thick-skinned" German "cats".