I have shaken my head..........GD had a huge Pz Brigade, plus Tigers. They did not have rivers to cross, or any major obstacles to contend with so GD along with 3 Panzer Corps are the problems. 3 Panzer Corp had 45 functional tigers yet split them up( major major error there, ) A second error was not attacking full bore. The 3rd PanzerCorp had 3 panzer divisions 6, 7 and 19 along with the 503(book not handy) against primarily foot bound infantry and antitank batteries. So there you have it. I know that they had to establish bridgeheads but waiting until 6th Pz div to relocate behind 7th Panzer wasted valuble time. I would have centralized the 3 divisions and once several bridgeheads were made then swamped the russian front line units. The tigers would have gone first along with the divisions. I think the real reason was the German high command failed their own Moral checks, and failed to really look at their operational plan. They knew the plan was not a good plan but went along with the concept that any plan is better then none. They wasted their resources in a plan that did not have an end game plan.
I give the kudos to the Russians they knew that :
1) Their infantry was primarily foot sloggers
2) Their armor was outclassed, but numerous.
3) And their command structure is rigid.
So they chose the terrain to fight on, they made the right preparations wrt obstacles and training. Trained the infantry how to fight and confidently destroy tanks. And the most important part was their trust in their moral and sheer stubbornness to do what was neccesary. In terms of comparison the Russian had the perfect operational plan with a solid end game phase.. Destroy by attrition the German armor capability, then counterattack with over wealming forces.
Numbers,numbers,numbers! Ivan had a massive advantage there, link that with the points Shane has highlighted and you have a force that no matter how much you batter & kick it will not break. This is borne out by the very low numbers of Russian POW, During Zittadelle Ivan preferred to die in place or displace on orders to the next defensive line.
Now having said that you have to look at and in some ways be fairly impressed with how deep some of the German units tore into this deep defence line. Initially SS Liebstandarte was only facing reinforced elements of the 52nd Guards Rifle Division (reinforced with Anti tank battalions and regiments and the 230th Tank Regiment in reserve). They were angled towards point 243.2 which was roughly 4.5 miles North of their start line, by the end of the day SSLAH had managed to break into and through the 1st line of defence and was sat just in front of the 2nd defence line roughly 14 Km inside the main defensive belt. This cost them 97 Officers & Men KIA, 522 WIA.(including 17 Officers) &17 missing, the Panzergruppe lost very little as they did not get into action until late afternoon just before SS-Standartenfuhrer Theodore Wisch halted the Division advance for the day, the Tiger Kompanie and Stug Abtielung however lost a bit more due to the fact that they lead the attack from the early morning supporting the 1st & 2nd SS PanzerGrenadier Regiments, the Tiger Kompanie (13th Kompanie) had 1 Tiger as a complete loss & 3 others knocked out & in need of repair at the Divisional workshops.
Fast forward to the high water mark (morning of the 13th July) when Totenkopf finally stop trying to cross the Karteschewka to Prokhorovka road the Korps as a whole had either put out of action or severely mauled the best part of the following:
51/52/95/97th Guards Rifle Divisions
183rd Rifle Division
9th Guards Airborne Division
2/10/18/29/31st Tank Corps
2nd Guards Tank Corps
5th Guards Mech Corps
And a host of smaller independent Tank Brigades and Regiments.
Add to this the plethora of Anti Tank Battalions/Regiments & Brigades that the Russians used to bolster the defensive line and even the most anti SS person could not fail to be anything but impressed by how fair they got. Zittadelle was doomed from the start, we all know that, I am amazed even now that the likes of Von Manstien did not see this, or that they convinced themselves that they could do it and the faith they had in the ability of the German soldier was so high.
Ivan fought with such bravery as they so often did and paid such a high price to stop Zittadelle,
Voronezh front (the one that faced the attack in the south) lost from 5-23rd July 73,892 men & women in total, of which 27,542 were KIA.
The front lost also 1,397 AFV of all types total write offs.
4th Panzer Army lost 13,461 during the offensive period only, of which 2,309 were KIA.
4th Panzer Army lost roughly 126 Panzers as total write offs during the offensive period.
The total of AFV lost on both sides only includes total write offs, the actual number is far higher due to repaired AFV returned to combat etc, 4th Pz Army for example had 629 AFV of all types damaged ( in need of workshop repair) during the offensive period.
Will we ever know the whole story of Kursk, I doubt it, but what I do know is that we have I feel the best knowledge we will ever have on the battle now, and both sides paid a high price during a very short period, after it the Russians knew they would win no matter what, it was not the ‘Death ride’ Of popular myth of the Panzers, but damn it sure as did hurt them.
All the best
Perry