In Kursk in 1943, a battle took place that decided the future fate of the Soviet Union and GermanyThis was the largest tank battle in human history, the Battle of Kursk.
This battle was the last strategic offensive launched by Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union。After the Battle of Kursk, the German army no longer had the strategic initiative, and could only be passively beaten, and was pushed to Berlin by the Soviet Red Army step by step. But in fact, in the whole battle, Germany annihilated more than 800,000 Soviet Red Army, so why was it still defeated?
The Battle of Kursk took place in July 1943, a few years before the end of World War II.
But in fact, Nazi Germany at this time still controlled a large amount of Soviet land, and they were able to be strategically equal to the Soviets. If I had told you that the Germans would have been defeated in less than two years, I'm afraid no one would have believed it. And the Battle of Kursk was precisely the beginning of Germany's total military defeat.
The Battle of Stalingrad ended at the beginning of '43, during which Nazi Germany lost more than 1.5 million men. The elite German 6th Army, led by Field Marshal Paulus, was completely annihilated by the Soviet Red Army. Then the German Army Group South was violently pushed by the Soviet Red Army.
But at this time, the Germans still had the strength to fight back, and in the third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943, the German ** team eliminated more than 50 Soviet Red Army divisionsThe southern Soviet towns of Kharkov and Belgorod were reconquered.
Elite German Army) But at this time, Germany had actually shown its decline, as one of the fascist allies, Italy was about to withdraw from the war, and the United States and Britain deployed hundreds of thousands of troops in the English ChannelIt is not known when a landing operation will be launched against France.
If such a thing really happens, Germany will have to fight on two fronts, or even three fronts. So Germany, at this time, was in a hurry to destroy the main forces of the Soviet Red Army, so that in turn to clean up the United States and Great Britain.
Under the influence of this idea, the Germans planned the Battle of Kursk。The Germans mobilized nearly 800,000 troops, including Army Group ** and Army Group South, 3,000 tanks, 10,000 artillery pieces and more than 2,000 fighters.
German Panzer Forces).
And the Soviet side also felt the intentions of the German armyTherefore, nearly 2 million combat troops and more than 5,000 tanks, including the ** Front, the Voronezh Front, and the Steppe Front, were dispatched to deal with the German attack.
Combined, the number of troops participating in the war is close to 3 million, and the number of tanks used by both sides is about 8,000. This was for us at that timeIt can be called a fairy fight, but this is also the full strength of the Soviet Union and Germany.
After the official start of the campaign, the Luftwaffe dispatched more than 1,000 fighter sorties in one day to frantically compete with the Soviet Red Army for air supremacy. It took only one day for the Germans to suppress the Soviet Air Force. Although the Luftwaffe was still unable to provide large-scale air support to land combat unitsBut at least the German armored forces did not have to worry about the planes flying overhead.
German Panzer Forces).
At the same time, the Germans also made a lot of preparations for the land offensive, such as transferring several rear armored divisions to the front line, and also equipped the offensive troops on the front line with a large number of advanced tanksIncluding Tiger and Leopard tanks.
And the elite armored forces of the German army did achieve a lot of results in the land offensiveIt even annihilated the Soviet Red Army in a structured way.
Soviet troops who surrendered)
But soon the German units lost the ability to move on. Because at the same time as the mass annihilation of the Soviet Red Army, Germany's own ** was also very large. In the middle and late stages of the campaign, after Germany lost its offensive capability, the Soviet Red Army launched a large-scale **,Almost all the positions lost in the early stages of the campaign were recaptured.
On the twentieth of August,The Germans had already been pushed back to the front before the start of the campaign by the Soviet Red Army.
In the whole battle, the German ** team with 360,000 ** people, annihilated 860,000 Soviet troops, destroyed 6,799 Soviet tanks, and shot down more than 2,200 Soviet aircraft. If this is to be replaced by Japan, it will be ruined.
Elite German Army) But this was not a big loss for the Soviet Union at that time, and after the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Red Army was quickly replenishedAt the beginning of 1944, the pre-campaign establishment was largely restored.
But when the Soviet Union exploded, the German ** team was already at the end of the crossbow. In the winter of '42, as well as in the battles of Greatlingrad, Moscow and Leningrad, the German ** team suffered heavy losses.
And the soldiers who died in battle are basically veterans who have been trained for a long time and have been on the battlefield many times. Elite veterans who were originally trained in the process of blitzing Poland and attacking France, which was basically lost by the time of the storming of these cities。Therefore, the soldiers who were later replenished by the Germans were all recruits who had only undergone simple training.
captured Germans) and the Soviet Union, although the situation was similar to that of Germany, and they were all supplementary conscripts, but the population of the Soviet Union was several times that of Germany. At that time, the Soviet Union also rebuilt the industrial system that had been destroyed in the early days of the warTheir production capacity has come up, and they have even surpassed Germany.
But the Germans sent out their last elite heavy army group during the Kursk offensive. Therefore, the Soviet-German battlefield after Kursk has changed from the original German elite troops, chasing the recruits of the Soviet Red Army to running around, to the recruits of the two countries pecking at each other. At this time, what is fighting has become the production capacity and strength of the military industry。And on these two points, the USSR completely destroyed Germany.
After the battle of the Soviet Red Army, the German ** team no longer had the ability to attack, and could only helplessly withstand the tide of the Soviet Red Army, constantly attacking their porous defense line. In more than a year after the battle, the Soviet Red Army reached Germany itself.
Towards the end of World War II, the Soviet and German armies were directly reversed from when the two countries first went to war a few years ago. The Soviets had a large number of tried and tested fighters,And the Germans are already dragging even twelve or three-year-old children into battle
Elite Soviet Army) So the defeat of the Germans in the Battle of Kursk was not a command error, and a general like Manstein still had a strong command ability. Then there is only one reason why Germany will lose, because the national strength is inferior to others. War is not only about military command, but also about who has the stronger national strength.
The Soviet Union had a larger population, stronger industrial production capacity, and a larger territory, which determined that as long as the pace of the German offensive was delayed by the SovietsThe defeat of Germany in the subsequent war of attrition was inevitable。At Kursk, even if Germany could fight another siege of Kiev as it did at the beginning of the war, it would be difficult to turn the tide of the war.
Soviet Army)