Valeriy Zamulin - Demolishing the myth: the tank battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: an operational narrative

THE TANK BATTLE AT PROKHOROVKA, KURSK, JULY 1943: AN OPERATIONAL NARRATIVE

Valeriy Zamulin

Translated and edited by Stuart Britton

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Published by Helion & Company 2011

Text Valeriy Zamulin 2010. English edition translated and edited by Stuart Britton, Helion & Company 2010. Maps Barbara Taylor 2011. Photographs as individually credited.

Originally published as Prokhorovka neizvestnoe srazhenie velilkoi voiny (Moscow: AST, Tranzitkniga, 2005). This English edition is based upon a revised and updated text from the author and also includes specially-commissioned maps and additional photographs and appendices.

ISBN 978 1 906033 89 7

eISBN 978 1 912174 36 2

Mobi ISBN 978 1 912174 36 2

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Front cover: The 5th Guards Tank Army attacks! (RGAKFD). Rear cover: Armor of the German XXXXVIII Panzer Corps in the vicinity of the main road to Oboian. (RGAKFD).

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The commander of Army Group South, E. von Manstein, issues orders to one of his staff officers, July 1943. (RGAKFD, Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents)

A group of officers of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Panzergrenadier Division. In the front row, second from the left, is SS Obergruppenfhrer Sepp Dietrich, who on 4 July 1943 turned over command of the division to SS Oberfhrer T. Wisch, who appears over Dietrichs left shoulder. (RGAKFD)

Colonel General H. Hoth, commander of the Fourth Panzer Army, observes the battlefield through scissor binoculars. (Private collection)

SS Obergruppenfhrer Paul Hausser, commander of the II SS Panzer Corps. (Private collection)

SS Sturmbannfhrer (at the time of the Kursk battle SS Oberfhrer ) W. Ostendorff, chief of staff of the II SS Panzer Corps (a captured 1942 photograph). (RGAKFD)

Commander of the Voronezh Front General of the Army N. F. Vatutin at his observation post, July 1943. (RGAKFD)

Commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army Lieutenant General P. A. Rotmistrov (center) studies a map of the operational situation brought to him by a staff aide. On the left is N. S. Khrushchev. Photo taken in the area of Prokhorovka Station, 12 July 1943. (Authors personal archive)

Dawn, 5 July 1943; sappers from one of the Fourth Panzer Armys divisions prepare a passage through a belt of the Soviet defenses. (RGAKFD)

A German Marder self-propelled anti-tank gun in battle. On the left is the smoking wreckage of a Soviet M3 tank obtained through Lend-Lease. (RGAKFD)

Major General N. T. Tavartkiladze, commander of the 51st Guards Rifle Division (1945 photo). (TsAMO, Central Archives of the Russian Federations Ministry of Defense)

Germans assault a burning Russian village. (RGAKFD)

Major General A. S. Kostitsyn, commander of the 183rd Rifle Division (February 1943 photo). (Authors personal archive)

The gun crew of a German 105mm field howitzer conducting fire on the positions of Soviet forces. A captured photo. (RGAKFD)

Colonel K. I. Ovcharenko, commander of the 5th Guards Stalingrad Tank Corps 21st Guards Tank Brigade (May 1943 photo). (TsAMO)

Burning armor of the 5th Guards Stalingrad Tank Corps in the area of the Kozinka wooded ravine (a captured photo, 6 July 1943). (RGAKFD)

Colonel A. S. Burdeiny, commander of the 2nd Guards Tatsinskaia Tank Corps (1944 photo). (Authors personal archive)

One of the brigades of the 1st Tank Army attacks a hamlet on the Prokhorovka axis that had been seized by the enemy, July 1943. (RGAKFD)

SS officers examine several knocked out T-34s. (RGAKFD)

During the 8 July 1943 counterattack. Deputy commander of the 6th Guards Army Major General P. F. Lagutin (extreme left) and commander of the 5th Guards Tank Corps Major General A. G. Kravchenko (second from the left) report on the operational situation to a member of the Voronezh Fronts Military Council, Lieutenant General N. S. Khrushchev (second from the right). (RGAKFD)

A crew manning a 50mm anti-tank gun from a grenadier regiment of the 167th Infantry Division repels a Soviet tank attack, 8 July 1943. (RGAKFD)

Commander of the 2nd Tank Corps Major General A. F. Popov directing the fighting of his tank brigades over the radio. (RGAKFD)

Colonel I. Ia. Stepanov, commander of the 2nd Tank Corps 169th Tank Brigade. (TsAMO)

An Il-2 squadron of the 1st Storm Aviation Corps prepares for a sortie, 8 July 1943. (RGAKFD)

The 2nd Tank Corps attacks in the area of the hamlets Storozhevoe and Iasnaia Poliana. (RGAKFD)

A Soviet aerial reconnaissance photo of the battlefield in the area of Luchki and Teterevino. In the foreground is a knocked-out German Pz IV tank, July 1943. (RGAKFD)

A gun crew manning a 152mm howitzer fires on the attacking enemy. (RGAKFD)

Armor of the German XXXXVIII Panzer Corps in the vicinity of the main road to Oboian. (RGAKFD)

Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky. His report spared the commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army from execution after the heavy losses at Prokhorovka. (RGAKFD)

Major General (at the time of the Kursk battle Colonel) S. A. Solovoi, assistant commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army for maintenance and supply (1944 photo). (TsAMO)

Medical officers of the 5th Guards Tank Army pose for a photograph before moving out toward Prokhorovka, July 1943. (Authors personal archive)

Motorcyclists of a reconnaissance battalion of one of the tank corps of the 5th Guards Tank Army on the march to Prokhorovka Station. (RGAKFD)

Colonel General (at the time of the battle Major General) B. M. Skvortsov, commander of the 5th Guards Zimovniki Mechanized Corps (1941 photo). (TsAMO)

Lieutenant Colonel L. I. Malov, commander of the 2nd Tank Corps 99th Tank Brigade (1941 photo). (TsAMO)

Positions of the 183rd Rifle Division southwest of Prokhorovka Station shown in a photo taken by a Soviet Po-2 reconnaissance plane, June 1943. (RGAKFD)

Major S. I. Orzhezhko (who at the time of the Kursk battle was a senior lieutenant), commander of the 5th Battery of the 183rd Rifle Divisions 623rd Artillery Regiment (1945 photo). (Authors personal archive)

Chief of the Red Army General Staff Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky (seated second from the right) and member of Voronezh Fronts Military Council Lieutenant General N. S. Khrushchev (seated on right) interrogate a prisoner at the Front command post in the area of Rzhava Station, 10 July 1943. (RGAKFD)

Colonel A. M. Sazonov, commander of the 9th Guards Airborne Division. (TsAMO)

Regiment commanders of the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps of the 5th Guards Army and its command. Front row, center is Corps commander Major General I. I. Popov. To his right is the commander of the 42nd Guards Rifle Divisions 136th Guards Rifle Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel M. A. Shkunov (1944 photo). (Authors personal archive)