For a long time, people have always believed that the Soviet army won a decisive victory in the battle of Kursk, and called this battle an important milestone for the Soviet army to finally defeat the German fascists. However, some historians have recently put forward different views based on the latest declassified historical materials. They think that the German army did not suffer heavy losses in that battle, so that it was weakened.
On the contrary, the Germans still retained a large number of effective forces in the late stage of the campaign. These experts believe that the real reason why the Germans finally lost the strategic initiative and turned into a total rout was not the defeat of the Germans in this battle, but the command error caused by Hitler's lack of self-confidence.
The main reason why the Germans retreated was not that they lost their fighting capacity, but that Hitler lost the courage and confidence to continue fighting with the Soviet Red Army. With Hitler's decision, the last chance for the German army to win the strategic initiative in the Eastern Front went up in smoke.
Historians point out that the newly disclosed archives give people a more accurate understanding of the battle that took place more than half a century ago, but this cannot change the doomed fate of German fascists in World War II. The Battle of Kursk, which lasted more than 50 days, ended in the final victory of the Soviet Union on August 23rd, 1943.
After the war, the Soviet army completely grasped the strategic initiative and turned to the strategic offensive. In evaluating this hard-won victory, Stalin said: "The victory of the Soviet Union in the Battle of Kursk marked the imminent collapse of German fascism."
First of all, the statistical caliber is really problematic, especially the loss of tanks. The loss data of German tanks is always only "absolute loss", that is, it is absolutely impossible to continue repairing. However, most of the "destroyed" tanks can actually be repaired, so the "tank loss" calculated by Germany is quite different from the actual damage. In fact, many repairable tanks and self-propelled guns were lost on the battlefield and on the way to defeat because the Germans lost control of the battlefield.
Take "Ferdinand" self-propelled artillery as an example. Self-propelled artillery has extremely strong firepower and extremely heavy armor. Soviet tanks could not destroy it from the front and side. Most of the damaged Ferdinand was blown up by infantry or broke down due to failure. In theory, almost all the damaged Ferdinand can be repaired and should not be counted as a loss.
But in fact, Ferdinand's 40 vehicles, with a total output of only 90 vehicles, were completely lost in Kursk, because the Soviet army finally controlled Ferdinand's main battlefield after fierce fighting and failed to let the Germans tow away these chariots.
Therefore, the primary factor for the failure of the Germans was that they did not gain control of the battlefield. Unreasonable "statistical caliber" led future generations to ignore the key details of the battle.
Also around the "battlefield control", due to the tenacious resistance of the Soviet Union, although the casualties were several times higher than those of the German army and the total loss of tanks was more than four or five times, the strong toughness of the Soviet defense in depth made the German attack lose momentum. In this way, the Soviet army can ensure that it can firmly grasp the final battlefield control, which is a key to determine the outcome of tank confrontation.
Later, it was pointed out that Hitler was forced to announce the termination of "Operation Fortress" because the United States and Britain landed in Sicily, which made the Soviet Red Army win by luck. But this is an empty conclusion based on some superficial figures.
On the surface, only 300 tanks and self-propelled guns were lost in the German attack, but this is only the so-called "absolute loss" figure. In fact, more than half of the tanks have lost their combat effectiveness because of damage or failure. For example, 90 Ferdinand and 200 Panthers, who played for the first time, have mostly lost their ability to act.
Manstein had opposed Hitler's order to end the attack and demanded to continue attacking the Soviet defense. From the perspective of "controlling the battlefield", this is a correct proposition, but this proposition does not take into account the durability of German armored forces.
The Germans invested more than 2,900 tanks and self-propelled artillery in Kursk, which is almost the territory of the Germans on the Eastern Front. Although the "literal loss" of the battle was not great, thousands of injured and faulty tanks were towed to the rear for repair, and it was impossible for more tanks to be put into subsequent battles. This incident was undoubtedly exposed when the Soviet Union counterattacked in the second half.
The so-called statement that "the main German armored division was transferred to the western line because the allied forces landed in Sicily" completely ignores the fact that some German armored divisions transferred to the western line were completely composed of bare-handed personnel, and almost all the tanks were left in the stretched eastern line.
On the other hand, despite heavy losses, the Soviet army still maintained a strong strategic reserve and reinforcements. In addition, the level of support and repair has also made great progress, and the badly damaged fifth tank army of Guards quickly recovered most of its combat effectiveness.
When the Soviets counterattacked, the number of tanks invested reached more than 4,000 (initially 5 100), while the number of tanks that the Germans could mobilize did not exceed 1000 (initially 2,900). The contrast between the two sides has changed from the initial 2: 65,438+0 to 4: 65,438+0 or even more. It can be seen that the Soviet army correctly played its numerical advantage and strategically made itself invincible.
The strategic attack launched by the German army on the Soviet Union was to attack from the north and south of the central government, encircle the Soviet Red Army in the prominent part of the central government, and regain the strategic initiative. However, due to the tight defense of the Soviet Red Army, the number of troops stationed was extremely large, and the German attack was slow and suffered heavy losses. Because southern Italy was landed in Sicily by allied forces, troops had to be deployed to defend Italy and forced to retreat.
After this campaign, the Soviet Red Army launched a series of massive offensives, wiped out a large number of German effective forces and drove them out of Soviet territory. The Germans have been unable to pose a fatal threat to the Soviet Red Army, and the Soviets have completely mastered the initiative of the Soviet-German battlefield.