Osprey Campaign 16 : Kursk 1943 : The Tide Turns in the East

After the successful battles around Kharkov in early 1943 the German army stood poised for a major offensive in the summer of 1943. This attack was aimed at the Kursk salient, a large bulge in the front which the Germans intended to pinch off, thus trapping large numbers of Russian troops and breaking the front open for the decisive campaign to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. Soviet intelligence was well aware of German intentions however, and the Red Army had turned the salient into a mass of defensive positions. In the decisive clash of steel that followed, the Soviets bled Germany's vital Panzer forces white and finally took the initiative. The counter-offensive which followed began an advance that would finally end in the ruins of Berlin. This then, was the deciding confrontation of World War II. Mark Healy details the individual actions that took place and explains why Stalin and Zhukov were prepared to lose fifty per cent of the Soviet tank force in this encounter. He also examines the reasons for the German defeat in spite of the fact that they had a technological edge over their opponents for the first time since the beginning of Operation 'Barbarossa'. Furthermore, not only are the armoured forces of each side investigated, but air power and the role that this played in the battle is also examined.

Contents

• The Origins of the Battle
• The Opposing Commanders
• The Opposing Armies
• Opposing Plans and Preparations
• The Battle of Kursk
• The Aftermath
• The Chronology
• A Guide to Further Reading
• Wargaming Kursk