Luftwaffe liaison officers allotted to German ground forces were able to guide the close air support units to carry out pinpoint attacks. On 17 July the Soviet Southwestern and Southern Fronts launched a major offensive across the Mius and Donets Rivers against the southern wing of Army Group South, pressing upon the 6th Army and 1st Panzer Army. Later that afternoon, tanks from the 31st Tank Brigade and the 53rd Motorised Brigade overran elements of the 1st SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion and reached Komsomolets State Farm, threatening Leibstandarte 's lines of communication and the division's command post located at Hill 241. Beginning on June 23 between Dubno, Lutsk and Brody in far western Ukraine, six Soviet mechanized corps under Gen. Once the link was achieved and the Soviet forces encircled, Prokhorovka would then be attacked shortly thereafter by the combined forces of the II SS-Panzer Corps and III Panzer Corps.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The myth of Hitler’s greatest

This, in fact, is the biggest tank battle in World War II,” Glantz said regarding the Battle of Brody during a 2007 lecture available via the U. The III Panzer Corps met with stiff resistance as well and had great difficulty creating and maintaining a bridgehead across the Northern Donets River. The arrival of the 5th Guards Tank Army just days earlier was detrimental to it in two major ways: the tank unit commanders did not have an opportunity to reconnoitre the terrain they would be travelling across, and the supporting artillery was unable to site and spot their fire. To give the prospective reader a feel for the structure of the book, the appendices full of tank loss data start at page 184 of 320. A number of tanks crashed into the 15-foot deep ditch while others moved along the edge looking for a way to cross.But after meeting with Manstein, Hitler countermanded the XXIV Panzer Corps' deployment to the Kursk salient, sending them on 14 July to support the 1st Panzer Army to the south. Nonetheless, the panzer corps' penetration caused great concern among Soviet commanders, [30] compelling Vatutin to commit almost all of the Voronezh Front's operational reserves by the end of the first day. In actuality there were no Ferdinands with the 4th Panzer Army or Army Group South, [77] as they were all deployed on the northern side of the Kursk salient with the 9th Army.

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

As Ribbentrop's tanks spread out, he and the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment were suddenly confronted by Soviet tanks of the 29th Tank Corps' 31st and 32nd Tank Brigades: [123] "About 150–200 meters in front of me appeared fifteen, then thirty, then forty tanks. The II SS-Panzer Corps reported 842 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing for 12 July, and 2,672 for 12 to 16 July inclusive. As he saw it, with his III Panzer Corps about to link up with the II SS-Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka, and with the XXIV Panzer Corps available as his operational reserve, they would be halting the offensive just at the moment when victory was in hand. For example, Rotmistrov in his postwar accounts of the battle stated that the Germans lost 350–400 tanks, including 70 Tigers, and 3,500–10,000 soldiers on 12 July, [104] and a Soviet General Staff study of the Battle of Kursk reported that the Germans lost 300 tanks, 20 assault guns and over 4,500 soldiers in the battle from 12 to 16 July inclusive.

Leibstandarte 's advance had disrupted Rotmistrov's preparations, as the assembly areas he intended to use for the tank army's 18th and 29th Tank Corps were in German hands by the end of the day, forcing him to hastily revise his plans and select new positions. Mikhail Kirponos launched a counter attack into the advancing 1st Panzer Group advancing toward Kiev.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka by Ben Wheatley | Waterstones The Panzers of Prokhorovka by Ben Wheatley | Waterstones

The 5th Guards Tank Army suffered significant losses in the attack, but succeeded in preventing the Wehrmacht from capturing Prokhorovka and breaking through the third defensive belt, the last heavily fortified one.a b Two of the 5th Guards Mechanised Corps' four brigades – the 10th, 11th and 12th Guards Mechanised Brigades, and the 24th Guards Tank Brigade – were sent south to block the III Panzer Corps, leaving only its 10th Guards Mechanised and 24th Guards Tank Brigades near Prokhorovka on 12 July ( Clark 2012, p.

Book sends tale of Soviet tank victory up in smoke

Heavy fire was exchanged between the Soviet tanks and two companies of a panzergrenadier battalion on the opposite side of the ditch. On July 12, 1943, counter-attacking Soviet tanks charged across open terrain, taking heavy losses to German tank fire, including from heavily-armored Tiger Is with 88-millimeter guns. After the conclusion of the battle for the Donets, as the spring rasputitsa (mud) season came to an end in 1943, both the German and Soviet commands considered their plans for future operations.Rotmistrov's tactic to close at high speed disrupted the control and co-ordination of the Soviet tank formations and also greatly reduced their accuracy. As a result of the frontal attack, the army's corps fought heavy battles against large enemy tank forces during which they were forced to assume defence. On the southern side, the German 4th Panzer Army, with Army Detachment Kempf on its eastern flank, attacked the Soviet defences of the Voronezh Front. Consequently, the reviewer would recommend The Panzers of Prokhorovka for serious students of the Eastern Front, and those with a detailed understanding of armoured warfare, and in particular the German SS Panzer capability in World War II.