Following their disastrous defeat at Stalingrad, the German armed forces launched a climactic offensive in the East known as Operation Citadel. The Germans' goal during Operation Citadel was to pinch off a large salient in the Eastern Front that extended 70 miles toward the west. If their plan succeeded, the Germans would encircle and destroy more than five Soviet armies. Such a victory would have forced the Soviets to delay their operations and might have allowed the Germans some desperately needed breathing room on the Eastern Front.
As we know from the historical record, the Germans never came close to breaking the Soviet defenses and they soon became deadlocked in a war of attrition that they could not win. The major problem with their plan was that the Russians had built dense fortifications in order to counter such an attack and most of the Russian tanks had been moved deeper behind the front line to deal with any break out attempts by the Germans. Instead of an open battlefield Blitzkrieg, it was going to be a direct charge into dense anti-tank defenses. The general staff warned that such a direct attack will be a "Totenritt", a ride to the death, for the German tanks. Hitler himself admitted that whenever he thought about the planned attack, his guts turned. After the battle of Kursk, the war in the eastern front was a long Russian advance, in which the Russian army regained all the territory it lost to the Germans, conquered all of Eastern Europe and reached all the way to Berlin to win the war.
I am interested to see if some “minor changes” to the order of battle can result in a different outcome for the Germans. The Germans did delay the start of the operation to allow some Tiger tanks to reach some of the panzer divisions. Those that did reach the battle field were only of company strength and only made it to a few of the panzer divisions.
I have decided that in this “alternate history” campaign, that each panzer division will be provided with a battalion of Tiger tanks. Additionally, I have increased the engineer capacity of each of the panzer divisions to aid with mine and obstacle clearing. This based on the knowledge that the German intelligence services certainly had about the defensive lines that the Russians were preparing.
For the task at hand, I will command a formidable German mobile armored force with great offensive potential. In total, there are 50 divisions, including 17 armor and mechanized divisions as well as air and artillery units. Included are the most powerful and best equipped German divisions, such as Gross Deutschland, Leibstandarte, Totenkopf, and Das Reich. I will concentrate all of the armor on the north and south attach points.
On the northern flank, the armored spear-head will consist of 6 panzer divisions (2nd, 4th, 9th, 12th, 18th and 20th) and 1 panzer grenadier division (10th).
On the southern flank, the armored spear-head with consist of 8 panzer divisions (1st SS, 2nd SS, 3rd SS, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 11th and 19th) and 1 panzer grenadier division (Groß Deutschland).
The overall strategy is to use the armored spear-heads to envelop all forces inside the Kursk salient and then destroy them !!
I’ll be using a kick ass simulation game to perform this historical re-enactment. The game is known as Panzer Campaigns – Kursk ‘43. This historically accurate game covers the gigantic German Summer Offensive in 1943, when they attempted to cut off the huge bulge in the Soviet lines near the town of Kursk. I’ll be playing the complete grand historical campaign lasting 121 turns!
Game features include …
• 1-kilometer hexes
• Each turn represents 2 hours
• A master map measuring approximately 380 by 300 kilometers
• Over 4,700 units representing the German and Soviet forces, mainly at battalion and company level.
• Players control tank, reconnaissance, artillery, infantry, parachute, engineer, remote controlled demolition vehicles, antitank, flak, rocket, headquarters and a wide variety of other specialized units
The image at the top of this post is the actual game jump screen map of the battlefield. I will be using this to show my progress (or lack or it !) during the course of the game. The German forces are indicated with RED. The Russian forces are indicated with BLUE. As you can clearly see, I have my work cut out for me!
Now on to the game …
As we know from the historical record, the Germans never came close to breaking the Soviet defenses and they soon became deadlocked in a war of attrition that they could not win. The major problem with their plan was that the Russians had built dense fortifications in order to counter such an attack and most of the Russian tanks had been moved deeper behind the front line to deal with any break out attempts by the Germans. Instead of an open battlefield Blitzkrieg, it was going to be a direct charge into dense anti-tank defenses. The general staff warned that such a direct attack will be a "Totenritt", a ride to the death, for the German tanks. Hitler himself admitted that whenever he thought about the planned attack, his guts turned. After the battle of Kursk, the war in the eastern front was a long Russian advance, in which the Russian army regained all the territory it lost to the Germans, conquered all of Eastern Europe and reached all the way to Berlin to win the war.
I am interested to see if some “minor changes” to the order of battle can result in a different outcome for the Germans. The Germans did delay the start of the operation to allow some Tiger tanks to reach some of the panzer divisions. Those that did reach the battle field were only of company strength and only made it to a few of the panzer divisions.
I have decided that in this “alternate history” campaign, that each panzer division will be provided with a battalion of Tiger tanks. Additionally, I have increased the engineer capacity of each of the panzer divisions to aid with mine and obstacle clearing. This based on the knowledge that the German intelligence services certainly had about the defensive lines that the Russians were preparing.
For the task at hand, I will command a formidable German mobile armored force with great offensive potential. In total, there are 50 divisions, including 17 armor and mechanized divisions as well as air and artillery units. Included are the most powerful and best equipped German divisions, such as Gross Deutschland, Leibstandarte, Totenkopf, and Das Reich. I will concentrate all of the armor on the north and south attach points.
On the northern flank, the armored spear-head will consist of 6 panzer divisions (2nd, 4th, 9th, 12th, 18th and 20th) and 1 panzer grenadier division (10th).
On the southern flank, the armored spear-head with consist of 8 panzer divisions (1st SS, 2nd SS, 3rd SS, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 11th and 19th) and 1 panzer grenadier division (Groß Deutschland).
The overall strategy is to use the armored spear-heads to envelop all forces inside the Kursk salient and then destroy them !!
I’ll be using a kick ass simulation game to perform this historical re-enactment. The game is known as Panzer Campaigns – Kursk ‘43. This historically accurate game covers the gigantic German Summer Offensive in 1943, when they attempted to cut off the huge bulge in the Soviet lines near the town of Kursk. I’ll be playing the complete grand historical campaign lasting 121 turns!
Game features include …
• 1-kilometer hexes
• Each turn represents 2 hours
• A master map measuring approximately 380 by 300 kilometers
• Over 4,700 units representing the German and Soviet forces, mainly at battalion and company level.
• Players control tank, reconnaissance, artillery, infantry, parachute, engineer, remote controlled demolition vehicles, antitank, flak, rocket, headquarters and a wide variety of other specialized units
The image at the top of this post is the actual game jump screen map of the battlefield. I will be using this to show my progress (or lack or it !) during the course of the game. The German forces are indicated with RED. The Russian forces are indicated with BLUE. As you can clearly see, I have my work cut out for me!
Now on to the game …
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