The Battle of Kursk has reached its climax on the 9th Army/Central Font axis. Rokossovsky troops have stopped Model cold for the past four days, and Model’s forces are now spent. Model and Kluge call off the attack.
In the south, von Manstein and Vatutin have not yet reached the climax of their fight. XXXVIII Panzer Corps and II SS Panzer Corps have just about broken the Soviet resistance. Vatutin is scrambling and shuffling his forces to try to stem the tide. He is inflicting casualties on the Germans, but he is not stopping them. At this point, Vatutin has asked for help from the Stavka, and he receives it.
The Soviet strategy to defend Kursk was to have the dug in infantry and anti-tank guns do all the heavy work, and both Central Front and Voronezh Front were allocated one tank army to act as an operational reserve to counter the German panzers as needed. Behind Central Front and Voronezh Front, the Soviets had Konev’s Steppe Front as a strategic reserve. The most powerful formations of Steppe Front were Rotmistrov’s 5th Guards Tank Army and Zhadov’s 5th Guards Army. These forces were intended to be committed once the Germans had been blunted, and begin the Soviet counter-offensive.
Rokossovsky had the services of 2nd Tank Army. Even though it was parceled out among his infantry units and not kept as a cohesive force, it was sufficient to blunt Model. Vatutin is not so fortunate. He had Katukov’s 1st Tank Army as his operational support, as well as other independent tank corps. as you can see from the map. These forces have been chopped up and more or less destroyed by Hoth’s panzers.
Vatutin’s call for help, endorsed by Red Army Chief of General Staff Vasilevksy, was answered by the detachment of Konev’s two best armies, and their assignment to Vatutin to use them to stem the German tide. Vatutin is concentrating them in the Prokhorovka area before committing them. In the meantime, II SS Panzer Corps found a weak spot in the Soviet lines; the road through 2nd Guards Tank Corps leading to Prokhorovka. SS Divisions Liebstandarte and Das Reich exploit this weakness, while the majority of Totenkopf works on establishing a bridgehead over the Psel for the advance northward into open county.
These events set the stage for the Battle of Prokhorovka, about which many legends and myths have grown. But suffice to say, the Soviets have thrown all they have available on this sector of the front, and have committed their last tank reserves. Meanwhile, Manstein still has not committed XXIV Panzer Corps, consisting of 17th, 23rd and SS Viking Panzer divisions.
Oh, the maps I attached account for 1st, 2nd and 5th Guards Tank Armies. Anyone care to guess the whereabouts of the other two, 3rd Guards and 4th Tank Armies?