[Dan History]

Gentlemen, I am glad to see that you are interested.

Originally Posted by Richard Aigner

Roman Töppel, "Kursk 1943 Die größte Schlacht des Zweiten Weltkrieges" comes to a similar conclusion

Richard, there is in fact a body of work concerning this battle, the most important text from the Russian side being Lev Lopukhovsky's 2005 book, Prokhorovka: not classified secret. Lopukhovsky is a retired Strategic Missile Force colonel born in 1930, who lost his father in the during the destruction of the Soviet Western front at Viazma in October 1941, in the first stage of Operation Typhoon. Lopukhovsky's history of that battle has been translated into English:

The Viazma Catastrophe, 1941. The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viazma-Cata...dp/1908916508/

There is also an English translation of another important work by Lopukhovsky, which highlights that contemporary official Russian figures of Soviet losses during the Second World War are very suspect:

The Price of Victory: The Red Army's Casualties in the Great Patriotic War
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Price-Victo...dp/1473899648/

The first major German work on Kursk combining German and Soviet sources was Karl-Heinz Frieser's chapter in the 2008 volume of the German official history of the war - Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg - Band 8. Die Ostfront 1943/44: Der Krieg im Osten und an den Nebenfronten
https://www.randomhouse.de/Buch/Das-...ch/e227084.rhd

The battle has also been the subject of an exceptionally thorough study by Chrstopher A. Lawrence, head of The Dupuy Institute, who compiled a database of German and Soviet primary source information over the course of many years. His 2015 book, Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka, is one of the longest books ever published.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kursk-Battl...dp/0971385254/

Originally Posted by sidney

The point, as I see it, is that the Red Army took the strategic initiative on the eastern front, while the German Army was never again able to mount an offensive of the scale of the Battle of Kursk.

Sinisa, it is true that the Red Army went over to the offensive after Kursk, but this simple statement of fact misses the reasons for this turn of events. The majority of Germany's military resources in the second half of 1943 was absorbed by the effort involved in holding the Italian mainland following the collapse of Mussolini's regime, as well as defending against the massive Allied offensive in the air. I briefly discussed some of these issues to set the context of events in July 1943 for my article about the loss of a Fw 190 now flown by the Flying Heritage Collection - https://www.afhistory.org/wp-content...-Issue_All.pdf

Originally Posted by leonventer

I'll be making a trip to Kursk and Stalingrad in the not-too-distant future, so this material will be an invaluable guide to the Prokhorovka battlefield.

p.s. The Russian response is priceless!

You are very welcome, Leon. I hope you will enjoy your trip and also get to understand a little bit of what modern Russia is like. I imagine you will travel through Moscow, there will be quite a contrast between the capital and the provincial towns.

The Russian response is not just a cause for ridicule, or the loose talk of a minor official. Alexander Nikolaevich Sherin is the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (Parliament) Committee on Defence since October 2016. He is also a retired Airborne Captain, who was wounded in the Second Chechen War. It is a matter of concern that a senior member of Russia's Parliament feels himself free to issue threats as a rejoinder to an academic article.

Kind regards,

Dan