Battle of Brody and Battle of Kursk: Death and Destruction in the Biggest Tank Battles of The Second World War

By History Unleashed

World was a dark place in the period between 1939 and 1945. And it never got darker than when the machines made of steel full of destruction went head to head. This book covers two of the largest tank battles in the Second World War, The Battle of Brody, and The Battle of Kursk. We analyze the events leading up to these battles, and how each side approached the battlefield, adapting and learning about the new age of warfare

 

These men stepped into the darkness to fight the long battles that changed the course of both the war and the history in general. There's no knowing what would've happened if there weren't for these two major battles led by the death machines on both sides.

Get this book now to learn all about the biggest tank battles of the Second World War!

• Language: English
• Publisher: History Unleashed
• Release date: Jun 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393666127

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Many studies, books, and documentaries have taught us that the Battle of Prokhorovka in 1943 was the biggest tank battle ever. This battle signified a collision of Soviet tanks and the German 2nd SS Panzer Corps which resulted in huge losses in manpower and weapons. Truth be told, the significance of the battle of Prokhorovka is great and must not be diminished. Precisely 978 tanks took part in the battle, 306 German and 672 Soviet. Germans lost only 80 tanks, while the Soviets lost an unbelievable number of 400 tanks. It is time for historical facts to come alive and drop light on the real truth. Prokhorovka was big, but not the biggest tank battle. A far bigger one, but also a more infamous and unknown tank battle was the one for Brody and it happened two years earlier.

When Wehrmacht forces attacked the USSR on June 22nd, 1941, Western Ukraine was the first to be hit. Opposing forces concentrated around the cities of Brody, Dubno, and Lutsk in the form of six Soviet mechanized corps of General Mikhail Kirponos, which retaliated with a counterattack by the rapidly advancing first Panzer group marching towards Kyiv.

The battle, which began on June 23rd and ended on June 30th, swept 2,648 Soviet tanks out of a total of 5,000 and 100 German tanks from the battlefield. The numerical situation shows how large this battle is in terms of the percentage of losses ahead of the one in Kursk.

The battles in the bloody triangle Brody-Dubno-Lutsk were preceded by extensive preparations, but neither the course itself nor the results of the clash are negligible.

CHAPTER 1:

German-Soviet Relations on the Verge of World War II

Although he signed a non-aggression pact in 1939 with USSR, Adolf Hitler did not renounce the idea of ​​destroying communism, which would later prove to be the main occupation during the second year of the war.

The Soviets wasted no time, and in June 1940 they conquered the Baltic, northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, and moved their troops closer to Romanian oil. This meant approaching Hitler's sources of supply and another reason for the German destruction of Soviet forces. Hitler's obsession with the destruction of communism led to intolerance of everything that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did. It has become certain that Germany will not wait for the end of the war on the Western Front before launching a new attack on Eastern Europe.

France fell under the German military boot in 1940. The offensive in the UK did not look encouraging. Therefore, Hitler decided to attack the USSR. The short-term goal of the attack on the Soviet Union was to conquer the area west of the Astrakhan-Arkhangelsk line. What is important to emphasize is that by conquering this area, Hitler would expand territorially, but also get a fertile land rich in coal in Ukraine and oil in the Caucasus, and other valuable ores. That would give a boost to the German industry and a priceless advantage in the war.

The long-term goal of Nazi Germany was born long before Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. It was necessary to make a space suitable for the life of the superior Aryan race. Besides, Hitler would gain territorial supremacy by expanding towards British India, taking into account the fact that then-Iran and Iraq were under pro-fascist-oriented leadership.

Hitler's last reason for launching Operation Barbarossa was to think that this would not be an offensive but a defensive, preventive war, since the USSR would sooner or later attack Germany, and the current forces of this enemy state were in disarray as best seen during the Soviet era of the Finnish War 1939-1940.

The Soviet government expected an attack by Germany, but also felt that this would not happen in 1941 due to a series of non-aggression agreements signed and due to certain German military operations during the spring of 1941. Despite the signed agreement, Stalin remained suspicious and knew very well that war would break out, so his policy was to buy time to strengthen the army forces.

In early 1941, when Russian intelligence services began to report on the movements of German forces towards the border with the USSR, Stalin found confirmation in his suspicions. German reports consisted of the necessity of moving forces out of range of British aircraft and launching operations Harpoon and Haifisch which were to simulate military preparations for the invasion of Great Britain. Despite this, Stalin ordered limited mobilization, although he still refused to believe the reports of his informants, whom he accused of believing that London made up stories to drag the USSR into the war, just after Yugoslavia. It is known today that during the spring of 1941, the highest military leaders of the Soviet Union discussed a possible Soviet attack on Germany after the secrecy was removed from the proposal of Marshal Zhukov, who discussed it on May 15th, 1941, with the Minister of Defense.

CHAPTER 2:

The Blitzkrieg on the Eastern Front

The German military tactic named blitzkrieg was, at the time, the most advanced way of conquering. The synchronized operations of aviation and land tropes helped Hitler at the beginning of World War II. Now, it was time to continue the strategy and move on to the Eastern front. Russia was next. The mission was to avoid Napoleon’s mistakes and, finally, defeat the mighty empire on the East. The plan was simple, and copied from the war tactics of the Great War; attack with all disposable forces the enemy's military bases, destroy their equipment and weapons and cut off the communication lines. After constant synced attacks from land and the sky, it was planned to use the tanks, infantry, and transporters to finish what’s left and take over the land. The theory sounds easy, but what happened, in reality, was completely different. The point of the Blitzkrieg was in lightning-fast military actions based on an extraordinary military and technical background. The weakest points of the defense were