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Battle of Kursk

Battle of Kursk
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

German penetration during the attack on the Kursk salient and Soviet counter-offensive in the northern sector
Date5 July 1943 (1943-07-05) – 23 August 1943 (1943-08-23)
(1 month, 2 weeks and 4 days)
Location
Kursk, Kursk Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
51°42′N 36°06′E / 51.7°N 36.1°E / 51.7; 36.1
Result Soviet victory
Territorial
changes
  • Soviets regain territory along a 2,000 km (1,200 mi) wide front after the battle.[1]
  • Soviets regain initiative to strike in southern Ukraine
Belligerents
 Germany  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • Operation Citadel:
      • 780,900[2]
      • 2,928 tanks[2]
      • 9,966 guns and mortars[3]
  • Soviet counter-offensive phase:
      • 940,900[2]
      • 3,253 tanks[2]
      • 9,467 guns and mortars[4]
  • 2,110 aircraft[5]
  • Operation Citadel:
      • 1,910,361 (including 1,426,352 actual combat soldiers)[6]
      • 5,128 tanks[6]
      • 25,013 guns and mortars[3]
  • Soviet counter-offensive phase:
      • 2,500,000[6]
      • 7,360 tanks[6]
      • 47,416 guns and mortars[4]
  • 2,792[7][a] to 3,549[8][b] aircraft
Casualties and losses
  • Operation Citadel:[c][9]
  • Battle of Kursk:[e]
      • Per German medical data: 165,314 (54,182 during Operation Citadel and 111,132 during the Soviet counter-offensives) [18][f] – 203,000[19]
      • Per German strength data: ~380,000–430,000 combat casualties[20]
      • Soviet claim: 500,000+[21]
      • At least 2,952 tanks and assault guns destroyed or damaged[22] (of which, 760[g]–1,200[24] tanks and assault guns destroyed)
      • 681 aircraft (for 5–31 July)[25][h]
  • Operation Citadel:[c]
  • Battle of Kursk:[e]
      • 254,470 killed or missing [31]
        608,833[32][i] (74% wounded and 26% sick[33])[31] wounded or sick
      • Total: 863,303 (including 710,000 combat casualties)[34][35]
      • 6,064[36][j][13]–7,000[37] tanks and assault guns destroyed or damaged
      • 1,626[29]–1,961 aircraft[38]
      • 5,244 guns and mortars[29]

The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943; the Battle of Kursk was the single largest battle in the history of warfare,[39][40][41] including being the largest tank battle in history and resulted in a Soviet victory.[42] It, along with the Battle of Stalingrad several months earlier, are the two most oft-cited turning points in the European theatre of the war.[43][44] It was one of the costliest and fiercest battles of the entire Second World War,[45][46][47][44][48] with it being the single deadliest armoured battle in history[49] and the opening day of the battle, 5 July, being the single costliest day in the history of aerial warfare.[50][51] The battle was also marked by fierce house-to-house fighting and hand-to-hand combat.[52]

The battle began with the launch of the German offensive Operation Citadel (German: Unternehmen Zitadelle), on 5 July, which had the objective of pinching off the Kursk salient with attacks on the base of the salient from north and south simultaneously. After the German offensive stalled on the northern side of the salient, on 12 July the Soviets commenced their Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of Operation Kutuzov (Russian: Кутузов) against the rear of the German forces on the same side. On the southern side, the Soviets also launched powerful counterattacks the same day, one of which led to a large armoured clash, the Battle of Prokhorovka. On 3 August, the Soviets began the second phase of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of the Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation (Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev, Полководец Румянцев) against the German forces on the southern side of the salient.

The Germans hoped to weaken the Soviet offensive potential for the summer of 1943 by cutting off and enveloping the forces that they anticipated would be in the Kursk salient.[53] Hitler believed that a victory here would reassert German strength and improve his prestige with his allies, who he thought were considering withdrawing from the war.[54] It was also hoped that large numbers of Soviet prisoners would be captured to be used as slave labour in the German armaments industry.[55] The Soviet government had foreknowledge of the German intentions, provided in part by British intelligence's analysis of high-level German army radio messages. Aware months in advance that the attack would fall on the neck of the Kursk salient, the Soviets built a defence in depth designed to wear down the German armoured spearhead.[56] The Germans delayed the offensive while they tried to build up their forces and waited for new weapons,[57][58][59] giving the Red Army time to construct a series of deep defensive belts[60] and establish a large reserve force for counter-offensives,[61] with one German officer describing Kursk as "another Verdun".[62]

The battle was the final strategic offensive that the Germans were able to launch on the Eastern Front. Because the Allied invasion of Sicily began during the battle, Adolf Hitler was forced to divert troops training in France to meet the Allied threat in the Mediterranean, rather than using them as a strategic reserve for the Eastern Front.[63] As a result, Hitler cancelled the offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy.[64] Germany's extensive losses of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war. The Battle of Kursk was the first time in the Second World War that a German strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences and penetrate to its strategic depths.[65][66] Though the Red Army had succeeded in winter offensives previously, their counter-offensives after the German attack at Kursk were their first successful summer offensives of the war.[67] The battle has been called the "last gasp of Nazi aggression".[68]

  1. ^ Taylor & Kulish 1974, p. 171.
  2. ^ a b c d Glantz & House 2004, p. 338.
  3. ^ a b Glantz & House 1995, p. 165.
  4. ^ a b Frieser et al 2007, p. 100.
  5. ^ Bergström 2007, pp. 123–125: Figures are from German archives. Bundesarchiv-Militararchiv, Freiburg; Luftfahrtmuseum, Hannover-Laatzen; WASt Deutsche Dienststelle, Berlin.
  6. ^ a b c d Glantz & House 2004, p. 337.
  7. ^ Bergström 2007, pp. 127–128, figures are from Russian archives; Russian aviation trust; Russian Central Military Archive TsAMO, Podolsk; Russian State Military Archive RGVA, Moscow; Monino Air Force Museum, Moscow..
  8. ^ Zetterling & Frankson 2000, p. 20.
  9. ^ U.S. Army Concepts Analysis Agency, Kursk Operation Simulation and Validation Exercise – Phase III (KOSAVE II), pp. 5–14 through 5–15.
  10. ^ Frieser et al 2007, pp. 153, 200.
  11. ^ a b Beevor 2012, p. 485.
  12. ^ Glantz & House 2004, p. 276.
  13. ^ a b Frieser et al 2007, p. 200.
  14. ^ Askey, Nigel (June 2013). Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation, Volume I. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-304-03818-0. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  15. ^ Searle 2017, p. 80.
  16. ^ a b Frieser et al 2007, p. 154.
  17. ^ Clark 2012, p. 408.
  18. ^ Frieser et al 2007, pp. 197, 200.
  19. ^ Zetterling & Frankson 2000, pp. 117, 116, and endnote 18: For all participating armies in the Kursk area, there were 203,000 casualties for July and August.
  20. ^ Цена Курской битвы – часть II. Красная армия победила, потому что воевала лучше. Владимир Литвиненко. Опубликовано в выпуске № 33 (746) за 28 августа 2018 года. Quote: "According to Stephen Newton, as of 5th July, the average number of infantry divisions in the 4th Tank Army and OG "Kempf" was 17,369, while the tank and motorized divisions were 18,410. On 30th August 1943, the average number of infantry divisions in the 4th Tank Army and OG "Kempf" was 8,269 men, and the tank and motorized divisions – 10,745 men. Then the average loss of personnel in the Battle of Kursk (excluding replenishment) is the same for infantry divisions were 9,100 men (52%), for tank and motorized divisions were 7,665 men (41%). At the same time, the losses of Army Group Center in the Battle of Kursk can be estimated by extrapolating the above estimate of the losses of the 4th Panzer Army and OG Kempf to the losses of Army Group Center. It should be considered that the losses of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk were 380,000 to 430,000 men"
  21. ^ Glantz & House 2004, p. 279.
  22. ^ Glantz & Orenstein 1999, p. 230.
  23. ^ Frieser et al 2007, p. 201.
  24. ^ Töppel 2017, p. 203.
  25. ^ Bergström 2008, p. 120.
  26. ^ Krivosheev 2001, p. Kursk.
  27. ^ Krivosheev 2001, p. Weapons and military equipment. Production and loss.
  28. ^ Frieser et al 2007, p. 150.
  29. ^ a b c Krivosheev 2001.
  30. ^ Koltunov & Solovyev 1970, p. 366.
  31. ^ a b Glantz & House 2004, p. 427–428.
  32. ^ Krivosheev 1997, pp. 132–134.
  33. ^ N. Ivanov, A. Georgievsky and O. Lobastov. "Soviet health care and military medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945". p. 205
  34. ^ Töppel 2017, pp. 203, 229.
  35. ^ Frieser, Karl-Heinz (2017). Germany and the Second World War: The Eastern Front 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts. Vol. VIII (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-19-872346-2.
  36. ^ Krivosheev 1997, p. 262.
  37. ^ Töppel 2017, pp. 203–204.
  38. ^ Frieser 2007, p. 150.
  39. ^ Clark 2012, pp. xv, 228: "The Battle of Kursk was the greatest land battle the world has ever seen on a fighting front that epitomized ‘total war’ . . . It was time for the largest set-piece battle in the history of war to begin."
  40. ^ Töppel 2017, pp. 233–234: "At Kursk, however, no less than 3.5 million soldiers, 12,000 tanks and self-propelled guns and 57,000 guns and mortars were ready for battle. Thus, defined by the number of men and material involved, the Battle of Kursk was without doubt not only the biggest tank clash of the Second World War, but indeed at the same time the largest battle of the Second World War."
  41. ^ Frieser, Karl-Heinz (2017). Germany and the Second World War: The Eastern Front 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts. Vol. VIII (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 83, 200. ISBN 978-0-19-872346-2. The battle of Kursk is considered the biggest land battle of the Second World War, indeed the biggest in all of military history. During the fighting the two sides deployed more than 4 million troops, 69,000 cannon and launchers, 13,000 tanks and self-propelled guns, and almost 12,000 aircraft. Even the battle of Stalingrad seems small-scale in comparison . . . As the Red Army had massed a large part of its forces in the Kursk salient, the outcome was the greatest land battle of the Second World War, indeed the greatest in all the history of war.
  42. ^ Roberts, Andrew (2012). The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. HarperCollins. pp. 418, 422. ISBN 978-0-06-122860-5.
  43. ^ Edele, Mark (13 July 2018). "The Battle of Kursk: 75 years on". Pursuit. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  44. ^ a b McGovern, Sean C. (2021). The Battle of Kursk: A Comparative Analysis to Stalingrad, Study on Memory, and Russian Environmental Preservation. East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (Thesis). pp. III. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  45. ^ Cross, Robin (2002). The Battle of Kursk: Operation Citadel 1943. Penguin Publishing. pp. vii. ISBN 9780141391090.
  46. ^ Showalter 2013, p. 269.
  47. ^ Никитенко, Евгений (5 July 2013). "Геополитическая победа в Курской битве". russiancouncil.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  48. ^ "Memories of Soviet generals and marshals of the Battle of Kursk". Presidential Library. 23 August 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  49. ^ Hanson, Victor Davis (2020). The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won (Reprint ed.). New York: Basic Books. p. 3. ISBN 978-1541674103.
  50. ^ Cross, Robin (2002). The Battle of Kursk: Operation Citadel 1943. Penguin Publishing. p. 182. ISBN 9780141391090.
  51. ^ Roberts, Andrew (31 August 2013). "WWII's Greatest Battle: How Kursk Changed the War". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  52. ^ Glantz & House 2004, pp. 84, 174, 186, 220–221.
  53. ^ Glantz & Orenstein 1999, p. 1.
  54. ^ Healy 2010, p. 42.
  55. ^ Healy 2010, p. 90.
  56. ^ Healy 2010, p. 65.
  57. ^ Newton 2002, p. 12.
  58. ^ Dunn 1997, p. 94.
  59. ^ Kasdorf 2000, p. 16.
  60. ^ Glantz & House 2004, pp. 64–67.
  61. ^ Glantz 1989, pp. 149–159.
  62. ^ Roberts, Andrew (2012). The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. HarperCollins. p. 415. ISBN 978-0-06-122860-5.
  63. ^ Dunn 1997, p. 191.
  64. ^ Atkinson 2007, p. 172.
  65. ^ Glantz & House 1995, p. 167.
  66. ^ Glantz 2013, p. 184.
  67. ^ Glantz 1986, p. 66.
  68. ^ Roberts, Andrew (2012). The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. HarperCollins. p. 427. ISBN 978-0-06-122860-5.


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