The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest Armoured Defeat

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German domination of the Prokhorovka air space occurred for several reasons. During the initial stages of the battle it was Soviet tanks that were hit and burned, obscuring the battlefield which made it difficult for Soviet commanders to develop a clear picture of the situation. Added to that was the failure to provide air liaison officers with Red Army forces, who were then unable to call for air support when the German assault formations first appeared. Whereas the German 8th Air Corps assembled powerful concentrations over the Prokhorovka battlefield, the 17th Air Army spread its forces thinly, to support other sectors; the Soviets dominated the air over the 4th Panzer Army's flanks, leaving the skies over Prokhorovka clear. The 2nd Air Army's fighter aviation had been reduced to 266 aircraft, and this force was used in the fighter escort, not the air superiority role. [6] The battle of Prokhorovka absorbed the 8th Air Corps' combat power to the extent it was unable to intervene to support the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps, enabling Soviet defences to defeat the attempted breakthrough in that sector. [6] Ben Wheatley joins a very select crew of superb historians who have turned the received wisdom on its head. He has transformed what we thought we knew about history's greatest tank battle. This is a fearless commitment to scholarship, to analysing the evidence wherever it may lead. Prokhorovka was certainly an important clash and one of the largest tank battles ever, but it might be time to retire its description as the biggest — a claim which has been seriously questioned in recent years by historians with access to Soviet archives opened since the end of the Cold War. Zamulin, Valeriy (2012). "Prokhorovka: The Origins and Evolution of a Myth". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 25 (4): 582–595. doi: 10.1080/13518046.2012.730391. S2CID 144132258. Dunn, Walter (1997). Kursk: Hitler's Gamble, 1943. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-275-95733-9.

Prokhorovka: the greatest tank battle in history? | The Past

Any chance that the German forces could have built on, and acquired momentum from, their tactical victory in the tank battle was thus lost. Von Manstein protested vigorously and pressed for a modified version of Citadel, ‘Operation Roland’, which would take advantage of the heavy Soviet armoured losses. But in vain. There have been various estimates of the geographical extent of the battle as a whole, but the tank battle was not only at the heart of Prokhorovka, but the very reason for the fame and mythology attached to it, and there seems no reason not to accept Frieser’s revisionism, supported by Wheatley’s close analysis of the Luftwaffe photographs. This raises the question of why generations of Western historians have repeated Soviet claims as to the number of German tanks destroyed.Wasting firemen. Hitler's influence on Post-Prokhorovka armoured strength prior to the defense of Kharkov Glantz, David M.; Orenstein, Harold S. (1999). The Battle for Kursk 1943: The Soviet General Staff Study. London: Taylor & Francis (Frank Cass). ISBN 0-7146-4933-3. – This report, commissioned by the Soviet General Staff in 1944, was designed to educate the Red Army on how to conduct war operations. It was classified secret until its declassification in 1964, and was later edited and translated to English by Orenstein and Glantz. Its original title was Collection of Materials for the Study of War Experience, No. 11 (Russian: Сборник материалов по изучению опыта войны № 11, romanized: Sbornik materialov po izucheniyu opyta voyny № 11). Today in Russia there are three official sacred Kulikovo, where the Mongols were defeated in 1380; Borodino, where Russian troops slowed Napoleon's Grande Armée before Moscow in 1812; the third is Prokhorovka. This is widely described as the most critical tank battle of the Second World War, which saw the annihilation of Hitler's elite Panzer force in the largest armoured clash in history and left Hitler with no alternative but to halt Germany's offensive against the Kursk salient. Victory, on 12 July 1943, at Prokhorovka over Hitler's vaunted SS troops has traditionally been described as a turning point in the Second World War. The seven German tanks stood no chance. Four were hit. Ribbentrop’s and two others got away, covered by clouds of dust, which made it difficult to tell a T-34 from a panzer. The third is at Prokhorovka. it was here on 12 July 1943 that the most critical tank battle of World War II took place. The battle saw the annihilation of Hitler's elite Panzer force in the largest armoured clash in history, a defeat that left Hitler with no alternative but to halt Germany's offensive against the Kursk salient (Operation Citadel). This victory at Prokhorovka allowed the Soviet troops to turn the tide of the war and ultimately march on Berlin.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest

Dr Wheatley achieves his mission. He does this producing a very data intensive analysis of the losses of German tanks, using previously unpublished photographs of the battlefield, and access to German military archives, which show that the losses to the German armoured capability of II SS Panzer Corps were not as catastrophic as always claimed. This particular engagement was a tactical defeat for the Soviets, but the charge inflicted enough damage to help stall — and eventually halt — the German army’s Citadel offensive. Glantz also noted in When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler that the battle contributed in a small way to Germany’s later defeat on the Eastern Front by drawing away German troops intended for the advance on Moscow.A document prepared on 17 July 1943 by the 5th Guards Tank Army headquarters summarised the combat losses incurred by the formation from 12 to 16 July inclusive for all of its five corps, as well as smaller units directly subordinated to the army headquarters. [195] The document reported the following irrecoverable losses: 222 T-34s, 89 T-70s, 12 Churchills, 8 SU-122s, 3 SU-76s, and 240 support vehicles. [195] The document reported damaged vehicles still under repair as 143 T-34s, 56 T-70s, 7 Churchills, 3 SU-122s, and 3 SU-76s, with no figures for support vehicles. [195] The document reported personnel casualties as 2,940 killed in action, 3,510 wounded in action, and 1,157 missing in action. [195] This totals 334 irrevocable losses in tanks and self-propelled guns, [187] with another 212 tanks and self-propelled guns under repair, and 7,607 casualties. The historian Karl-Heinz Frieser argued that the majority of the losses reported in the document must have occurred on 12 July. [196] Wilson, Alan. "Kursk and Prokhorovka, July 1943 (maps)". Archived from the original on 20 April 2012 . Retrieved 19 June 2013.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka, by Ben Wheatley The Panzers of Prokhorovka, by Ben Wheatley

Bauman, Walter (1998). Kursk Operation Simulation and Validation Exercise – Phase II (KOSAVE II) (Report). Bethesda, MD: US Army Concepts Analysis Agency. Archived from the original on 20 June 2013. – A study of the southern sector of the Battle of Kursk conducted by the US Army Concepts Analysis Agency (under the US Army's Center for Strategy and Force Evaluation) and directed by Walter J. Bauman, using data collected from military archives in Germany and Russia by The Dupuy Institute (TDI). The 23rd Guards Rifle Corps bore the brunt of the German offensive from the very first day. Its subordinate units present at the Battle of Prokhorovka were already depleted ( Glantz & House 2004, pp.94, 167). The battle took place some six months after the surrender of German forces at Stalingrad had dealt a massive blow to Hitler’s aim of complete victory on the Eastern Front. But it was failure to prevent the subsequent Soviet advance at Kursk that threatened German hopes of holding on to the bulk of their conquests.

Töppel, Roman (2021). "The Battle of Prokhorovka: Facts Against Fables". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 34 (2): 251–270. doi: 10.1080/13518046.2021.1990559. Molony, C. J. C.; Flynn, F. C.; Davies, H. L. & Gleave, T. P. (2004) [1973]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Vol.V: The Campaign in Sicily 1943 and The Campaign in Italy 3rd September 1943 to 31st March 1944. London: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-069-6. Bergström, Christer (2007). Kursk– The Air Battle: July 1943. Hersham, UK: Chevron/Ian Allan. ISBN 978-1-903223-88-8.