Quote:
Originally Posted by ExNavyAmerican
Well, the Germans nearly won the Battle of Kursk. The Russians could easily have won that battle because their commanders knew the plan of battle before the German regimental commanders knew it!  Instead, the Russians nearly lost. This story is a rare exception in a bad record for the Red Army. |
How did the Germans almost win, and how did the Soviets almost lose? The 9th Army was entirely stopped in the North, and as I said in my last post, Manstein's offensive had become more or less a stalemate and attrition affected the Germans more than it did the Soviets. Entire Soviet
fronts had not yet been engaged, and Red Army offensives in late July and early August had virtually stolen the initiative from the Germans (forcing the Germans to withdraw from the Orel Salient, the Kharkov offensive against Manstein.
The battle was lost strategically for the Germans from the start, and almost lost tactically, as well. By then the German Luftwaffe had lost irreplaceable losses in the Mediterranean, and the Red Air Force had grown beyond the night fighters of late 1942. By the time of Kursk the German Luftwaffe could only guarantee local superiority if enough aircraft were put into the operation.