The Kursk Battle

January 16, 2008

I noticed much interest of my visitors to the battle at Prokhorovka. Really, its one of the most interesting, and most arguable battles in the history of the World War II. I found a very interesting paper, devoted to this battle. So, I'd like to present you an article based on it. Sorry not to provide you fulltext translation, as it is too large, but promise to omit only inessential details. Besides, I provide you original text.

All numbers of German Corps for convenience are given in Arabic numerals.

I'll cite the literature sources as they are given in original to avoid errors while back translation of foreign sources names given in Russian.

The value of this paper increases the fact of personal participation of the author - General-Major G.A. Oleinikov in this battle (of course, that time he was only a platoon commander)

AMVAS

The Battle at Prokhorovka (a brief translation of G.A. Oleinikov's paper [2])

(As this article is very large, it may be edited and corrected later)

Originals are given in PDF format. To read them you need Acrobat Reader.

• The Battle at Prokhorovka. Myths and Reality (Original)
• Situation on the End of July 09, 1943 (Original)
• Battle
• The Day Before. July 9 - night on July 10 (Original)
• The First Day. July 10 (Original)
• The Second Day. July 11. The 5th Guards Tank Army's Engagement (Original)
• The Third Day. July 12. Culmination! The 5th Guards Tank Army's Engagement (Original)
• Final. July 13-16. (Original)
• The Battle at Prokhorovka. Results and Conclusions (Original)
• Detention (Original)
• Appendixes (Original)
• Index (Original)
• Tables (Original)
• Maps (Original)

• Composition of the Soviet Troops in the Kursk Battle (July 1, 1943)
• Composition of the Soviet Troops in the Kursk Battle (Aug. 1, 1943)
• The Battle at Prokhorovka (after www.volk59.narod.ru)
• Maneuver scheme of the Soviet units in the Kursk Battle in Oboyan, Prokhorovka and Korochan directions [1]
• Lend-Lease AFVs. The Kursk Battle & Ukraine

Data of V. Zamulin [3]

• Strength of the 69th Army on July 10
• Strength of the Rifle Units Involved in the Prokhorovka Battle on July 12
• Armored Strength of the 5th Guards Tank Army on July 11
• Strength of the 5th Guards Army on July 10
• United Losses Report of the 5th Guards Tank Army on July 12
• Tank Strength of the 1st Tank Army, which took part in the counter-blow on July 12
  

Literature:

1. Moskalenko K.S., "Na Yugo-Zapadnom Napravlenii", vol. 1, Moscow, Nauka, 1969 (cited from http://militera.lib.ru)
2. Oleinikov G.A. Prokhorovskoe srazhenie (Iyul 1943 goda). Chto deistvitelno proizoshlo pod Prokhorovkoy: (Voenno-Istoricheskiy ocherk), St. Petersburg, Nestor, 1998
3. V.Zamulin, "Zasekrechennaya Kurskaya Bitva", Moscow, Yauza, Eksmo, 2007