The enemy’s command pinned his hopes especially on the use of new military equipment - heavy tanks "Tiger" and "Panther", assault weapons "Ferdinand", fighters "Focke-Wulf-190 A" and attack planes "Henschel-129." The operation plan provided for sudden converge shocks in the general direction of Kursk in order to encircle and destroy the group of Soviet troops and, if successful, to continue the offensive far inland. In total, the group of German troops numbered over 900, 000 men, 10, 000 guns and mortars, about 2, 700 tanks and assault guns, and over two thousand aircrafts. To implement the operation, the enemy involved the most capable troops, numbering a total of 50 divisions and a large number of individual units. For this, the enemy chose the Kursk salient, formed during the winter-spring offensive of the Soviet troops, which went deep into the lines of his armies. The Battle of Kursk, which lasted until the end of August 1943, was decisive in making the turning point in the Great Patriotic War.Īfter the defeat of the enemy forces in the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943) and during the winter offensive of the Soviet Army, the German command planned to hold a major attack on the Soviet-German front in the summer in order to regain the strategic initiative. July 5, 1943, German shock troops according to the plan of "Citadel" began an offensive of Kursk moving from Orel and Belgorod, which marked the beginning of one of the key battles of the Second World War, the Battle of Kursk.
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