A visual examination of the battle of Prokhorovka

ABSTRACT

The battle of Prokhorovka was steeped in Soviet legend (and myth) for many decades. This remained the case until post-Soviet era research revealed the reality of a Soviet armoured disaster. Building on this knowledge this article explores Luftwaffe reconnaissance photographs taken in the days and weeks immediately following the battle of Prokhorovka. The photographs provide visual confirmation across the battlefield of the demise of the 5^th Guards Tank Army’s 18^th and 29^th Tank Corps’. The battle’s most famous locations are visualized (many for the first time) in wartime photographs; these include the notorious anti-tank ditch, Hill 252.2, Oktiabrskiy state farm, Storozhevoye Woods and the site of Tiger tank duels on and close to Hill 241.6.

KEYWORDS:

• Prokhorovka
• kursk
• operation citadel
• eastern front
• nazi germany
• soviet union
• second world war
• luftwaffe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 130. For an account of the research that led to this study see the author’s article ‘In Pursuit of Prokhorovka’, in Defence in Depth (2019) https://defenceindepth.co/

² The photographs used in this article are located at the US National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD and can be found in the Series RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. See specifically photographs relating to the battlefield of Prokhorovka: for 14 July (tactical reconnaissance by a Bf 110 from NAG 6 2.(H)33) see; GX-2696-SK-23, GX-2696-SK-24 and GX-2696-SK-52. For 16 July (strategic reconnaissance by a Ju 88 from 2.(F)11) see; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA). For 7 August (strategic reconnaissance by a Ju 88 from 2.(F)100) see; GX-3942-SK-69, GX-3942-SD-124.

³ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 130.

⁴ The Leibstandarte made a limited attack on 13 July in an attempt to find a weak spot in the soviet defences. The attack was aborted as soon as the panzers were met by anti-tank fire. In any event the advance was away and forward of the original battlefield of 12 July, i.e. from the anti-tank ditch, Hill 252.2 and the Oktiabrskiy state farm as a result the battlefield around these sites was largely preserved until the Germans withdrew on 17 July – which of course is visually significant in terms of the content of GX-3734-SK-61 which is dated 16 July. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 130 & 136n. For the direction of this German attack see Glantz, David & House, Jonathan, The Battle of Kursk (London: Ian Allan 1999), 214–15.

⁵ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 129. See also Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 376–77.

⁶ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–194, 162.

⁷ Ibid., 177.

⁸ NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. GX-3734-SK-61 (16 July 1943).

⁹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 124.

¹⁰ I can highly recommend the work of cartographic researcher Susan Strange. Email: [email protected].

¹¹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 182.

¹² For an excellent summary of the evolving historiography of the battle of Kursk see Lak, Martijn. ‘The Death Ride of the Panzers? Recent Historiography on the Battle of Kursk’, in Journal of Military History, 82:3 (2018) 909–19. See also Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 132.

¹³ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis (London: Frank Cass, 2000), Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative (Solihull: Helion 2011), Töppel, Roman, Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War (Solihull: Helion 2018) & Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944.

¹⁴ Kroener, Bernhard, Management of Human Resources, Deployment of the Population, and Manning the Armed Forces in the Second Half of the War (1942–1944) in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume V/II, (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2003), 1018–20. See also Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 168–69.

¹⁵ Wegner, Bernd, From Stalingrad to Kursk in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 62.

¹⁶ Ibid., 69–72.

¹⁷ Forczyk, Robert, Kursk 1943: The Southern Front (Oxford: Osprey 2017), 30.

¹⁸ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 168–69.

¹⁹ Wegner, Bernd, From Stalingrad to Kursk in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 76.

²⁰ Glantz, David, Soviet Military Intelligence in War (Oxon: Frank Cass 1990), 185–99.

²¹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 100.

²² Ibid, 117.

²³ Ibid., 113–14.

²⁴ Ibid., 115.

²⁵ This paragraph is used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 117.

²⁶ The XXXXVIII Panzer Korps and the II SS Panzer Korps were to be attacked from four directions: From the west by 1st Tank Army, including 5^th Guards Tank Corps and the newly arrived 10^th Tank Corps, reinforced by infantry and artillery units; From the north-west by units of 6^th Guards Army; From the north-east by 5th Guards Army, newly brought in from Steppe Front. From the east by 5th Guards Tank Army, also brought in from Steppe Front, reinforced by 2^nd Tank Corps and 2^nd Guards Tank Corps, plus a number of attached units. Further to the south-east 7^th Guards Army had the task of breaking through the front on III Panzer Korps right flank and advancing its rear towards Razumnoye (in the direction of Belgorod). Ibid, 119–20.

²⁷ This and the subsequent paragraph are used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 121–22. See: Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 106 & 187. See also Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 375.

²⁸ Jentz, Thomas, (ed.) Panzer Truppen II (Atglen: Schiffer 1996), 52.

²⁹ Guderian, Heinz, Panzer Leader (Penguin: London 2009), 295–98.

³⁰ Jentz, Thomas, (ed.) Panzer Truppen II, 52–53.

³¹ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, p.46. See also Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 160, and Niehorster, Leo, German World War II Organization Series, Volume 5/III (Milton Keynes: The Military Press 2005), 47.

³² Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 122. See also: Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 187 and Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 375.

³³ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 236–237, and see also 225 & 38.

³⁴ Niehorster, Leo, German World War II Organization Series, Volume 5/III, 31.

³⁵ Ibid., 46–47.

³⁶ Ibid., 32–33.

³⁷ Ibid., 31.

³⁸ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 30, and see also Niehorster, Leo, German World War II Organization Series, Volume 5/III, 31.

³⁹ This and the two subsequent paragraphs are used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 123–24. Regarding the timing of the Soviet attack see: Töppel, Roman, Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War, E-book locations: 3077 and 3082.

⁴⁰ Glantz, David & House, Jonathan, The Battle of Kursk, 182–85, see also Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–194, 124.

⁴¹ This and the subsequent paragraph are used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 125–26. See also; Zamulin, Valeriy. ‘Soviet Troop Losses in the Battle of Prokhorovka, 10–16 July 1943’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 32:1 (2019), 118–19.

⁴² NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. For 16 July see; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA). For 7 August see; GX-3942-SK-69, GX-3942-SD-124.

⁴³ NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. 16 July GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA).

⁴⁴ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 129n. Ribbentrop and Walter Schule (Ribbentrop’s driver) offer slightly conflicting testimony of the fate of the four disabled Panzers, the interpretation of which is open to question. See Månsson, Martin, Prokhorovka – Verdens største panserslag in Ostfronten (2017) https://bokasin.no/prokhorovka-verdens-storste-panserslag/(accessed 7 April 2019); See also Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 376–77.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. Compare 16 July; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA) with 7 August; GX-3942-SK-69, GX-3942-SD-124.

⁴⁷ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 124. See Månsson, Martin, Prokhorovka – Verdens største panserslag in Ostfronten (2017) https://bokasin.no/prokhorovka-verdens-storste-panserslag/(accessed 7 April 2019); See also Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 376–77.

⁴⁸ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 130. See also; Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 376–77.

⁴⁹ NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. Compare 16 July; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA) with 7 August; GX-3942-SK-69, GX-3942-SD-124.

⁵⁰ Overy Richard, Why the Allies Won (Pimlico: London 1995), 95–96. For an excellent summary of the evolving historiography of the battle of Kursk see Lak, Martijn. ‘The Death Ride of the Panzers? Recent Historiography on the Battle of Kursk’, in Journal of Military History, 82:3 (2018) 909–19. See also Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 132.

⁵¹ NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. Compare 16 July; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA) with 7 August; GX-3942-SK-69, GX-3942-SD-124. See also; Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 187. see also; Schneider, Wolfgang, Tigers in Combat II (Winnipeg: J.J. Fedorowicz 1998), 106.

⁵² NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. Compare 16 July; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA) with 7 August; GX-3942-SD-124.

⁵³ For example it is quite straightforward to pinpoint the location of a destroyed German SPW close to Hill 252.2’s summit which is depicted in a photograph taken on 21 July 1943 that appears in; Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative (Solihull: Helion 2011). It is possible to locate this halftrack by using the beginning of the railway embankment in the background and the Storozhevoye Woods beyond as points of reference. Most emerging pictures of the battlefield should be able to be treated in the same way.

⁵⁴ NARA RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. Compare 16 July; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA) with 7 August; GX-3942-SD-124.

⁵⁵ This paragraph is used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 126.

⁵⁶ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, pp.126–27 and 127n. See also; Zamulin, Valeriy. ‘Soviet Troop Losses in the Battle of Prokhorovka, 10–16 July 1943’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 32:1 (2019), 118–19.

⁵⁷ NARA Series RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. See specifically photographs relating to the battlefield of Prokhorovka: for 14 July see; GX-2696-SK-23, GX-2696-SK-24 and GX-2696-SK-52. For 16 July see; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA). For 7 August see; GX-3942-SK-69.

⁵⁸ Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, E-book locations: 7804 & 7951.

⁵⁹ NARA Series RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA). For 7 August see; GX-3942-SK-69.

⁶⁰ Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, E-book location: 7804.

⁶¹ Forczyk, Robert, Kursk 1943: The Southern Front, 85. See also; Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, E-book location: 14,637, See Map of the battlefield. (I believe some elements of this map to be incorrect, for example in reference to 25^th Tank Brigade, however, the 170^th Tank Brigade’s route is correct).

⁶² Forczyk, Robert, Kursk 1943: The Southern Front, 78. See also; Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, E-book location: 7891.

⁶³ Glantz, David & House, Jonathan, The Battle of Kursk, 185.

⁶⁴ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 127.

⁶⁵ NARA Series RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA). For 7 August see; GX-3942-SK-69.

⁶⁶ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 160.

⁶⁷ Zamulin, Valeriy, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, E-book locations: 8035, 8041 and 8055 and See also Forczyk, Robert, Kursk 1943: The Southern Front, 78.

⁶⁸ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 127n.

⁶⁹ Ibid., 182.

⁷⁰ NARA Series RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. See specifically photographs relating to the battlefield of Prokhorovka: for 14 July images see; GX-2696-SK-23, GX-2696-SK-24 and GX-2696-SK-52.

⁷¹ NARA Series RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. See specifically photographs relating to the battlefield of Prokhorovka: for 14 July images see; GX-2696-SK-23, GX-2696-SK-24 and GX-2696-SK-52.

⁷² Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 127 & 127n.

⁷³ Zaloga, Steven, Armoured Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books 2015), 3–4 & 221.

⁷⁴ The contents of this paragraph is used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 127.

⁷⁵ RG 373: German Flown Aerial Photography, 1939–1945. See specifically photographs relating to this area of the battlefield: For 16 July see; GX-3734-SK-61 (incorrectly dated as 15 July by NARA). For 7 August see; GX-3942-SK-69, GX-3942-SD-124.

⁷⁶ Glantz, David & House, Jonathan, The Battle of Kursk, 185–87. See also Niehorster, Leo, German World War II Organization Series, Volume 5/III, 31.

⁷⁷ Töppel, Roman, Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War, E-book locations: 3115, 3121 and 3126.

⁷⁸ Compare GX-3734-SK-61 with GX-3942-SK-69 & GX-3942-SD-124.

⁷⁹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 182.

⁸⁰ This and the subsequent paragraph is used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 127–28.

⁸¹ For example images GX-2696-SK-23, GX-2696-SK-24 and GX-2696-SK-52 clearly show the route of advance of SS Panzer Regiment 3 on 12 July. While images GX-3734-SK-61 &; GX-3942-SK-69 provide evidence of Das Reich’s operations on the division’s left flank.

⁸² Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017), 129. See also; Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), 376–77.

⁸³ Cross-reference information from the following pages in Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 136 & 151.

⁸⁴ Ibid., 130 & 136n.

⁸⁵ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 130 & 136n. For the direction of this German attack see Glantz, David & House, Jonathan, The Battle of Kursk, 214–15.

⁸⁶ Cross-reference information from the following pages in Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 124–25 & Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 151.

⁸⁷ Ibid.

⁸⁸ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 129. and See also Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 375.

⁸⁹ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 187.

⁹⁰ Ibid., 46.

⁹¹ Töppel, Roman, Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War, E-book locations: 3115, 3121 and 3126. See also; Forczyk, Robert, Kursk 1943: The Southern Front, 70–72. and Töppel, Roman, ‘Kursk – Mythen und Wirklichkeit einer Schlacht’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 375.

⁹² Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 187, and see also 46.

⁹³ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 46, 124. See also Niehorster, Leo, German World War II Organization Series, Volume 5/III, 47.

⁹⁴ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 187.

⁹⁵ Ibid., 181–83.

⁹⁶ Cross-reference information from the following pages in Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 124–25 & Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 151.

⁹⁷ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 182.

⁹⁸ Cross-reference information from the following pages in Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 124–25 & Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 151.

⁹⁹ Forczyk, Robert, Kursk 1943: The Southern Front, 18–19.

¹⁰⁰ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 124–25.

¹⁰¹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 182.

¹⁰² Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 124–25.

¹⁰³ Ibid., 207.

¹⁰⁴ This and the subsequent paragraph is used with permission of OUP. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 2017) 130–31. See also Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 108–09 and; Zamulin, Valeriy. ‘Soviet Troop Losses in the Battle of Prokhorovka, 10–16 July 1943’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 32:1 (2019), 118–21.

¹⁰⁵ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 133.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 131.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid., 151–52.

¹⁰⁸ Guderian, Heinz, Panzer Leader, 308–09 & 312.

¹⁰⁹ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 199.

¹¹⁰ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 138–43. See also Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 137–39.

¹¹¹ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 221.

¹¹² Ibid., 187–88.

¹¹³ See ‘Technological and Tactical Balance-Sheet: The Qualitative Turnaround in Favour of German Armour’ in Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 157–68.

¹¹⁴ Ibid., 84.

¹¹⁵ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 121. See also Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 175–76.

¹¹⁶ Glantz, David & House, Jonathan, The Battle of Kursk, 238–40.

¹¹⁷ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, The Battle of the Kursk Salient in The Research Institute for Military History, Potsdam, Germany, Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII – The Eastern Front 1943–1944, 186–87.

¹¹⁸ Ibid., 141–42.

¹¹⁹ Ibid., 199.

¹²⁰ Ibid., 197–98.

¹²¹ Zetterling, Niklas & Frankson, Anders, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis, 135.

¹²² Jentz, Thomas, (ed.) Panzer Truppen II, 110.

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Notes on contributors

Ben Wheatley

Ben Wheatley is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History at the University of East Anglia and a former Teaching Fellow with the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. Dr Wheatley is the author of British Intelligence and Hitler’s Empire in the Soviet Union, 1941-1945 (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017).