After Action Report #4
July 11th, 1943
Battle of Kursk

Analysis of the Battle of Prokhorovka

The winter campaign on 1942-1943 did not develop in Germany’s favor. After stubborn defense on the Volga river banks, the Soviet troops inflicted a crushing defeat on the Germans at Stalingrad, rebuffed the offensive in the Caucasus, launched a counterattack in the South, broke through the encirclement of Leningrad in the North, and re-conquered Kharkov and Kursk.

Having lost the strategic initiative after severe failures, the German command was desperately seeking opportunities to regain it. Germany and its allies found themselves facing a real threat of defeat. Moreover, part of the German troops was tied up in at the North African theater of operations. In spring 1943, Chief of the Army General Staff Zeitzler offered Hitler a plan of attacking the Kursk salient, where the Soviet troops shaped their frontline as a broad arch. Double envelopment from flanks by means of a simultaneous tank breakthrough was the main strategic expedient in the beginning of the Great Patriotic War – this was the way how all major encirclements were made. But by 1943 this had become an old trick, Georgy Zhukov pointed out at the danger of Kursk salient encirclement yet in May (this was the time when the German General Staff started considering Zeitzler’s plan), and the Soviet command took this warning seriously. Later on, yet before the beginning of the operation, numerous intelligence reports made the Soviet General Staff aware of an imminent summer offensive near Kursk. Germans concentrated about 50 divisions for the breakthrough, two tank brigades, three detached tank battalions and eight assault gun battalions reporting to the 9th and 2nd armies of Army Group Center as well as to the 4th tank army and Kempf operations group of Army Group South. The force totaled about 900,000 men, 10,000 guns and mortars, about 2,700 tanks and assault guns, and over 2,000 airplanes. Moreover, the Germans now had ot in their possession a new weapon, the formidable Tiger tank, but the Soviet command knew about it, too, because such tanks were earlier spotted during service tests near Leningrad. The events that followed the beginning of the attack on the southern side of the Kursk salient went down in history as the biggest tank battle of World War II…

July 11, 1943. Units of the 2nd SS Tank Corps and 48th Tank Corps, blasted through the stubborn resistance offered by units of the 6th Guards Army, and have begun an offensive towards the Prokhorovka railway station. Our unit is assigned to stop the enemy’s advance and defend Prokhorovka at all costs!

At our disposal is a battery of three ZIS-2 57-mm antitank guns and two antitank platoons. Not that much, but high command has said that advanced units of the 5th Guards Army are heading our way  to help repulse the attack. We must hold our ground until they arrive.

These are our positions, where we will either stop the German tanks or die.

Approaches to the station are protected by antitank and wire obstacles. Let’s hope they will contain the enemy at least for a while. Artillery is positioned on the other slope of the hill near the station, and the enemy will not see our guns until he comes under their fire. However, three guns will simply not have enough time to hit a large group of tanks at such a short distance, and there is a risk that the enemy will simply run down our positions at a high speed. The line of trenches also includes two blockhouses armed with DShK machine-guns that can sweep the entire area in front of them with fire. Their mission is to cut off the infantry from tanks.

The beginning of the battle. An artillery strike.

Luckily, not a single gun was destroyed. Here are the first German tanks! We are getting ready for the battle. At enemy tanks, with an armor-piercing one, fire!

Two more vehicles with ZIS-3 guns have arrived and started deploying at the station, forming the second echelon of our defense.

Fresh enemy forces – tanks and infantry – are in sight. I have asked for artillery support, and the shells staddle the attack enemy.

The dronning noise of bombers approaching does not promise anything good. Bombs started falling down on our positions, making everyone squeeze himself into the ground.

The strike was not very massive, and all guns survived it. Meanwhile, our Anti-Tank gun crews began the combat score – Gun No. 2 sets a German panzer on fire.

The crew immediately shifted fire to the next target.

Meanwhile, the crew of the right-flank gun noticed that enemy tanks are cutting behind our positions using a small ravine to conceal their flanking attack. Turn the gun quickly! At the tanks, fire!

Another enemy tank is spotted, but there is no time to turn the gun…

The crew dies in an unequal engagement. Too many targets for three guns. The crews are working like crazy, but there are too many tanks, and they have come too close. The crew of Gun No. 1 dies.

Only one gun with a crew of two is still in battle. But what is that? The roar of tank engines and characteristic snapping of tracks – here are T-34s! A vanguard of five tanks arrived and immediately entered the battle, attacking the enemy tanks that had bypassed us from the right. A head-on battle emerged.

One more enemy tank is damaged, the turret disabled.

It is now our tankers that are taking the enemy in flank, destroying infantry and making the Germans stop and assume a defensive posture.

On a hill to the right, two German Nashorn self-propelled guns are firing at our positions and suppressing our defense. We must destroy them!

A T-34 darts forward, obeying the order.

Our T-34s took the self-propelled guns in the flank, firing at them point-blank.

More tanks are coming! The enemy’s main forces have entered the battle.

Some new vehicles are spotted among German tanks, much bigger than Mark III and IV's. These are new German tanks,Tigers.

New units join both sides, entering the battle for a tiny piece of land. T-34s and SU-122 self-propelled guns join the fray.

Firing at each other, the two tank forces collided in the middle of the field, piercing each other with teeth of steel, just like in a village eyeball-to-eyeball scuffle. Our tank crews tried to take Tigers in flank to fire at a thinner side armor. A close-in tank duel ensued.

Tigers with their thick frontal armor and a dreadful gun are facing more maneuverable and lighter T-34's.

Dozens of tanks intermixed in an area of less than one square kilometers. The earth was shaking, tanks and self-propelled guns moved in the smoke of burning fellow vehicles, destroying each other.

The fewer tanks are moving and firing, the more deformed and shell-pierced frames are burning on the battlefield. We have only one operational SU-122 self-propelled gun left, armed with less than a dozen shells. The crew drove the vehicle forward, eliminating everything that bore a cross on the hull and seemed undamaged. Two motionless Tiger's failed to notice the self-propelled gun coming from behind and got a high-explosive shell in the rear hull each.

Two motionless Mark III and IV tanks got a shell each, which finally laid them to rest.

The mission is accomplished. The enemy is stopped, but at a high price. Nearly all tanks and self-propelled gun crews perished. The battlefield turned into a cemetery for people and hardware. Tanks and self-propelled guns are everywhere, burnt-out, pierced by shells and deformed byinternal ammo explosions. Bodies of the killed tankers surround them.