Prokhorovka was a “meeting engagement” between two armored forces. SS Divisions Leibstandarte and Das Reich are attacking in the direction of the town, while Rotmistrov’s 5th Guards Tank Army, and two additional tank corps, are planning a counterattack against the German spearheads. The SS Divisions beat Rotmistrov to the punch, and attack first. They overrun Rotmistrov’s planned tank assembly areas, so Rotmistrov’s attack has to go in without being as prepared as he wishes.
Prokhorovka is also the subject of a number of myths:
1. The Germans assembled most or all of their panzers on the southern face of the salient for this big showdown battle. Not so. Only the panzers of the two SS Divisions are involved. Totenkopf is busy fighting in their bridgehead over the Psel, and XXXXVIII Pz Corps has troubles of their own on the left flank of II SS Pz Corps. Breith’s III Pz Corps never makes it to the battlefield. The total panzer strength of the two divisions is 135 operating tanks plus assault guns and various self-propelled anti-tank guns.
2. As part of the German panzer armada, they scraped together “about 100 Tigers” as I have seen quoted in several sources. Also not true. Leibstandarte and Das Reich by this point in the battle have only 5 operating Tigers between them. From the German standpoint, this is mostly a battle fought with the PzIV(H) and StuG III.
3. The German tank forces included Panthers. Not so. No Panthers took part in the fight. All of the Panthers on the southern face of the salient were with 10 Panzer Brigade attached to Grossdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division with XXXXVIII Pz Corps.
4. The Soviet tanks charged into the Germans and engaged in a close quarter melee the deprived the Germans of the benefit of their long-range guns and the armor of their Tigers. Well, that was Rotmistrov’s plan, anyway. In reality, for the most part, his tanks never got there. When Rotmistrov attacked, the Germans went on the defensive and fought this battle much in the same way the Soviets had been defending against them; with dug in infantry and anti-tank guns. A number of Rotmistrov’s tanks were picked off as they approached, and then were taken out in close combat with the German infantry. There was plenty of tank-on-tank fighting at Prokhorovka, but that wasn’t the only part of this battle.
5. The Soviets inflicted catastrophic losses on the German panzer units; it was the “death ride” of the elite panzer formations, who never recovered. Also not true. Yes, the Germans did lose tanks at Prokhorovka, but not like the Soviets did. Rotmistrov’s memoirs talks about a battlefield covered with burned out smoking hulks. As David Glantz points out in “The Battle of Kursk,” what Rotmistrov didn’t mention was the vast majority of those hulks had been his tanks, not Hausser’s panzers. The after-action reports for the two SS Panzer Divsions for the following day, July 13, shows that the panzer strength of these divisions was almost the same as it had been on the day before.
In reality, Rotmistrov’s 5th Guards Tank Army had been gutted. This was the tank equivalent of the “Marianas Turkey Shoot” where American naval aviation shot down hundreds of Japanese carrier planes with little loss of their own. As George Nipe, in “Decision in the Ukraine” points out, the Soviets have exhausted their supply of tank forces, but Manstein still has an uncommitted panzer reserve, XXIV Pz. Corps with three fresh panzer divisions. The situation is ripe for Army Group South to finally break through to open country.
So what then was the real result of Prokhorovka? If the Germans “won,” why did they not march onward?
Several reasons. First, after seven days of continuous combat, culminating with Prokhorovka, the German soldiers were simply physically exhausted. They didn’t have another battle in them. They were the boxer who landed punch after punch on the guy who just would not go down, and they had punched themselves out. Second, the operational situation on the rest of the Eastern Front is going badly. Model’s attack in the north has failed, the Soviets have opened an attack on his rear flank northeast of Orel, and other Soviet forces are attacking along the 6th Army lines along the Mius River. The uncommitted panzers of XXIV Panzer Corps are needed elsewhere. Also, strategically, there is the invasion of Sicily.
Hitler and his eastern commanders will meet tomorrow to discuss all of this. At this conference, von Manstein will argue strenuously to continue the offensive. But with the invasion of Sicily, and fires breaking out elsewhere along the Eastern Front, Hitler has to call off the battle. The Battle of Kursk is over.
Great stuff!
The German infantry were well trained in the use of
various anti-tank weaponry.
See the video Manner Gegen Panzer or Men against
tanks, every thing from satchel charges, cluster
grenates, shaped charges, magnetic explosives,
gasolene and jelly inflamitory agents,
and the early Panzerfaust and Panzershreck.
The scene of infantry vs tank from “Stalingrad”
ia an eye opener.
And yet some of them were sent to blunt the invasion of Italy??
BTW, one of those "physically exhausted Germans" is 89 & lives in Fishers, IN.