Kursk - Myths and Reality of a Battle

Historical research on the battles at the Eastern Front in the summer of 1943 has made considerable progress in recent years. It became possible to refute many of the old myths of the "Great Patriotic War" since the opening of the Russian Military Archives. Yet due to the focus on Soviet legends, it is easy to overlook that German accounts are full of misrepresentations as well which were intended to conceal one's own wrong decisions and weaknesses. Moreover, a new kind of glorification is evident in the latest German publications: While in the older literature the Soviet point of view was predominant and the Battle of Kursk was described as a crushing and decisive defeat of the Wehrmacht, the new interpretation is the opposite: Allegedly the Wehrmacht won a tactical victory with just minimal losses and only the Anglo-American landing operation in Sicily (Operation "Husky") prevented the Germans from expanding their success to a complete operational triumph. Both strength and loss ratios as well as operational decisions are being depicted in a distorted fashion. This is demonstrated in the present article by examining the latest German publications on the Battle of Kursk.