Kursk 1943 by Robert Forczyk

Author:Robert Forczyk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Kursk 1943: The Northern Front
ISBN: 9781782008217
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

A PzKpfw IV medium tank with Schürzen side skirts during the opening days of Zitadelle. By mid-1943, the improved PzKpfw IV models had finally gained the ability to reliably defeat the T-34, but their battlefield life was increasingly at risk from improved Soviet anti-tank defences. Although AOK 9 only lost 35 PzKpfw IV tanks as ‘totally destroyed’ during Zitadelle, many more were rendered non-operational due to battle damage. (Ian Barter)

A battery of Soviet 122mm M-30 howitzers, dug in on a hillside and camouflaged. While Soviet artillery posed little direct threat to German tanks, their heavy shells could destroy German SPW half-tracks and other light vehicles in the German kampfgruppen. Again and again, massed Soviet artillery prevented the Germans from achieving real mass on the battlefield. (From the fonds of the RGAKFD in Krasnogorsk via Stavka)

Major Sauvant’s Tigers (of which six had been damaged by mines) opted to bypass Zhukov’s encircled strongpoint, letting 6.Infanterie-Division mop them up. Sauvant focused on pressing south towards Podolyan, seeking to overrun 15th Rifle Division’s second echelon positions before the Soviets recovered their balance. Pukhov was surprised by the sudden collapse of 15th Rifle Division’s left flank and ordered 237th Tank Regiment and 1441st Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment to move immediately to Soborovka to block the German armour.

Meanwhile, the broken troops from 47th Rifle Regiment retreated south to Soborovka, through the positions of Polkovnik Aleksandr T. Prokopenko’s 321st Rifle Regiment, with German panzers and panzergrenadiers hard on their heels. 20.Panzer-Division captured Podolyan against feeble resistance. Two small combined-arms kampfgruppen attacked Prokopenko’s positions, which were also in danger of envelopment by 1100 hours. However, Lemelsen opted to bypass Prokopenko’s regiment and continue south as far as possible. Generalmajor von Kessel, leading 20.Panzer-Division, was an odd choice to form the tip of the spear since he had been head of the Army’s Personnel Department between 1939 and 1942 and had no recent command or combat experience – hardly one of the ‘best commanders’ that Hitler had envisioned in the Zitadelle plan. At any rate, 20.Panzer-Division succeeded in achieving the biggest German coup of the first day by capturing the village of Soborovka. Two tank companies and some panzergrenadiers approached Soborovka at 1800 hours. Although the village was an anti-tank strongpoint with five well-camouflaged anti-tank guns, a combined-arms attack from two directions quickly overran the village. The capture of Soborovka marked the deepest German penetration on the first day of Zitadelle – a total of 8km.

On the western end of AOK 9’s designated breakthrough zone, General der Infanterie Hans Zorn’s XXXXVI Panzerkorps attacked the right flank of the Soviet 70th Army with the 7., 31. and 258. Infantry divisions at 0634 hours. The main effort was made by Generalleutnant Friedrich Hoβbach’s 31.Infanterie-Division, which attempted to seize high ground around Tureika and Gnilets, held by General-Major Timofei K. Shkrylev’s 132nd Rifle Division. After advancing 3km in three hours, Hoβbach’s division encountered heavy resistance at Hill 244.9. Kluge and Luftflotte 6’s Ritter von Greim arrived at Zorn’s command post to watch the beginning of the offensive.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.