The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest Armoured Defeat

Product Information

In that sense, this book is not a “book”. It is an extremely detailed analysis of the evidence to support his argument. Whilst convincing, and no doubt authoritative, it has the feel of a thesis, more than a book. It pays limited attention to the wider strategic issues affecting the battle, the history and context leading up to the battle and does not offer the reader much in the way of analysis in command structures, intent, tactics and logistics. Barbier, Mary Kathryn (2002). Kursk: The Greatest Tank Battle, 1943. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-7603-1254-4. Rupert Hague-Holmes is a military historian, currently writing a biography about the life and career of Lieutenant General Sir George Lea KCB, DSO, MBE, one of the leading post WW2 British counterinsurgency warfare experts. Review of Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis". Archived from the original on 30 April 2015 . Retrieved 17 July 2015.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka - Osprey Publishing

Even Zamulin, who still sees the battle as a Russian victory, has commented: ‘It is incomprehensible why our brigade and battalion commanders did not know of this barrier or the crossing,’ and, he continues, Dr Wheatley is on a mission. His mission is to disprove the long articulated Russian stance that the tank action at Prokhorovoka was an annihilation of the elite SS II Panzer Corps by the Soviet Army in the southeast corner of the Russian Front in July 1943. Whilst the tank action at Prokhorovka was a victory, the Soviet military narrative has historically placed the Battle of Prokhorovka as one of the most important battles in Russian military history, on a par to that of the defeat of Napoleon’s army outside the gates of Moscow at Borodino in 1812. Zamulin, Valeriy (2012). "Prokhorovka: The Origins and Evolution of a Myth". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 25 (4): 582–595. doi: 10.1080/13518046.2012.730391. S2CID 144132258.Prokhorovka battle (July 1943)] (in Russian). 1998. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015 . Retrieved 17 July 2015. The present academic consensus has it that the cream of Hitler’s armoured formations, the thuggish paramilitary SS Panzer Divisions, were smashed in this battle, losing hundreds of tanks, and never recovering their former capabilities. In reality, diligent archival research reveals that only 16 tanks from the SS formations were lost. In fact, by the end of the Kursk fighting, these units had more tanks than they started with. It was a desperate venture, for it drew on the greater part of the German operational reserve. Former general and then historian Friedrich von Mellenthin has called it a ‘veritable death- ride’.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest

Molony, C. J. C.; Flynn, F. C.; Davies, H. L. & Gleave, T. P. (2004) [1973]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Vol.V: The Campaign in Sicily 1943 and The Campaign in Italy 3rd September 1943 to 31st March 1944. London: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-069-6.Attempts to rewrite immutable historical facts, falsify the events of those years, play down the decisive role of the Soviet people in defeating Nazism and freeing Europe from the “brown plague” look unworthy and insulting,’ the ambassador said. The battle took place some six months after the surrender of German forces at Stalingrad had dealt a massive blow to Hitler’s aim of complete victory on the Eastern Front. But it was failure to prevent the subsequent Soviet advance at Kursk that threatened German hopes of holding on to the bulk of their conquests.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka : Benjamin William Wheatley The Panzers of Prokhorovka : Benjamin William Wheatley

Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan (1995). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0899-7.The battle which developed and then concluded on June 30 was a confusing morass that swallowed 2,648 Soviet tanks out of a total force of 5,000 versus some 1,000 German tanks. It’s unclear how many tanks of the 1st Panzer Group were destroyed in the battle, but the force did lose 100 of its tanks during the first two weeks of the war. Maps of the Battle of Prokhorovka, July 1943". Archived from the original on 5 January 2014 . Retrieved 17 July 2015. Showalter, Dennis E. (2013). Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk, The Turning Point of World War II. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-9465-0. Though Valeriy Zamulin, a Russian military historian and former curator of Prokhorovka, Museum, suggests a more modest figure for German losses, he still concludes that they lost as many as 80 tanks – against some 400 Russian losses. Losses in dispute Wave after wave of T-34s, the greater part of the Soviet 25th Tanks Corps, now came down the hill, forming, in Ribbentrop’s words, ‘an unimaginable mass of armour approaching at top speed.’ All seemed lost for the panzer companies below.