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The Soviet defenses, which was aided by the labor of over 300,000 civilians constructed massive fortification belts with each having several different zones. The Soviets would build up their defenses, allow the Germans to attack, then bleed their armor forces dry while bringing fresh armies from the east to initiate a massive counterattack The Soviet commander Marshal Georgi Zhukov had the same basic plan that von Manstein had. The Soviets, meanwhile, thru their “Lucy” spy ring in Switzerland with agents at Bletchley Park in England, reported that the Germans were planning a major offensive aimed at Kursk in early March. Hitler postponed it again stating that the offensive would begin on 5 July. Hitler waffled and the operation kept getting pushed back first from May until early June then 23 June. He told Hitler that the Germans should go on the defensive, let the Soviets come to them and then use the mobile battle operations that the German Army excelled in. Model went to Hitler in April and asked to cancel Citadel, citing massive Soviet buildup in the area with defenses up to 110 miles in depth.
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Meanwhile, the main attack from von Manstein would drive into the center of the Soviet line from Hoth’s forces in the south. The 4th Panzer Army in the south under General Hermann Hoth was to drive north and link up with Model’s forces in Kursk. Walter Model’s 9th Army would drive from the north and take the rail lines in Kursk. The Germans planned a double envelopment of the Soviet salient. It was perhaps the best tank of the war, but its’ teething troubles in the early transmissions would prove to be problematic at Kursk. He was also against the rushing into action of the new “Panther” tank. General Heinz Guderian, brought back to be the Inspector General of the Panzer Forces was adamantly against the move at Kursk as he knew the Soviets were preparing for the assault. Plans of Both Sides: The Germans spent the spring beefing up their Panzer forces for the upcoming assault. They lost their advantage of speed while both sides prepared for the huge battle that was to follow. The Germans had a great opportunity during the winter when, after the debacle at Stalingrad, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein won big victories by crushing the Russians at Belgorod and Kharkov, he was in the position to move against the salient. The land area of the Kursk salient was approximately half the size of England.īoth the Germans and Soviets saw Kursk as the key figure in the summer of 1943. There was a bulge in the German lines of about 250 miles across but only about 70 miles at its base. The Germans turned their attention to the area around Kursk. The planning staff of the OKH was hoping for an outcome in 1943 that would force the Soviets to a draw and where a political solution to the war. They were beginning to believe that a long war against the Soviet war machine with endless supplies of men and equipment was a losing proposition. The German officers knew that the summer of 1943 would hold the key to the war in the east.
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The exhausted German and Soviet armies took the respite to rest and refit. Prelude to the Battle: After the brutal winter of 1942-43 and the Battle of Stalingrad where the German Sixth Army was annihilated, the spring of 1943 turned the melting snow in a sea of mud and the rivers, frozen over during the winter, were now virtually impassable. And their Panzer Armies were smashed with losses they could ill afford to replace. The Germans would never again seize the initiative. After the devastating defeat at the hands of the Soviet Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad, it was the last chance to get the initiative back on the Eastern Front.ĭespite horrendous casualties, the Soviets not only held the Germans from advancing but pushed them back and by battle’s end had taken the German positions from which they launched their attacks. Operation Citadel, which resulted in the Battle of Kursk took place in July 1943 around the Soviet city of Kursk in western Russia, as Germany launched their last great offensive of the war.