Sherman tanks carrying infantry wait for the order to advance at the start of Operation 'Goodwood', 18 July 1944.Wikimedia Commons Thus, the momentum swung to the side of the Soviets, who eventually won the Battle of Kursk Operation Goodwood: July 18 – 20, 1944 The Germans were unable to take Prokhorovka, and although it was not destroyed (the original goal of the Soviets), the II SS-Panzer Corps was exhausted, and prevented from continuing their offensive. German tank losses were smaller by comparison, up to 80 tanks and assault guns destroyed. The Soviets lost around 400 tanks, more than half of their force. The Untold Story of a Fighting General and His Spearhead Tank Division's Charge.The fighting was some of the most intense in the history of armored warfare. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The Battle of Kursk, involving some 6,000 tanks, two million men, and 5,000 aircraft, ends with the German offensive repulsed by the Soviets at heavy cost. Maurice Rose : World War II's Greatest Forgotten Commander, 290-292. In early July, Germany and the USSR concentrated their forces near the city of Kursk in western Russia, site of a 150-mile-wide Soviet pocket that jutted 100 miles into the German lines. The German attack began on July 5, and 38 divisions, nearly half of which were armored, began moving from the south and the north. However, the Soviets had better tanks and air support than in previous battles, and in bitter fighting Soviet antitank artillery destroyed as much as 40 percent of the German armor, which included their new Mark VI Tiger tanks. In the beginning of August, the Soviets began a major offensive around the Kursk salient, and within a few weeks the Germans were in retreat all along the eastern front.Īfter six days of warfare concentrated near Prokhorovka, south of Kursk, the German Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge called off the offensive, and by July 23 the Soviets had forced the Germans back to their original positions.
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