Battle of Kursk

July 4–23, 1943 · Eastern Front Theater

Phases

1. 1Jul 5 — Citadel Strikes the SalientJuly 5–11, 1943
2. 2Jul 12 — ProkhorovkaJuly 12, 1943
3. 3Jul 12–23 — The Tide Turns for GoodJuly 12 – August 23, 1943

July 5–11, 1943

Both sides have watched the Kursk bulge all spring: Hitler delays for the new Panthers and Tigers, and the Soviets — reading his intentions — turn the salient into the most fortified ground in history: eight defensive belts, 5,000 mines per mile, a million men dug in. Model’s northern pincer grinds six miles in five days and sticks fast at Ponyri; Hoth’s southern pincer, led by the SS panzer divisions, bites twenty miles deeper — toward a rail halt called Prokhorovka.

• ➤9th Army (Model) — The northern pincer — stopped at Ponyri
• ➤4th Panzer Army (Hoth) — The southern pincer — II SS Panzer Corps leads
• ●The defensive belts — 5,000 mines per mile of front
• ●Ponyri — “the Stalingrad of Kursk”