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The Kursk
Defense: a blueprint to defeat the Blitzkrieg
by Justin 'LooseCannon' Riggir
One of hundreds of shattered Pzkw III's the Germans left on the battle
field of Kursk
The Soviets being aware that their primary task was to stop the Panzer
thrust, prepared a series of defensive lines within the Kursk salient,
composed principally of anti-tank obstacles, mines and anti-tank guns.
The Soviets utilized a system of ‘zone’ defense, which acknowledged the
fact that German attacks came in three stages. First there was reconnaissance
by light armour, intended to explore the Soviet defenses and locate weapons.
Second came ‘Preparation by Fire’, a mixture of air support dive-bombing
and strafing of the discovered positions and artillery bombardment of
the forward positions. Finally came the main attack, either while the
preparation by fire was still in progress or immediately after it had
finished. This attack was led by armour, with accompanying infantry, their
task being to occupy the gains made by the armour and to engage and destroy
the anti-tank weapons.
The Soviet defense thus became primarily an antitank defense. The method
of achieving this was to arrange the artillery in ‘zones’ behind the front
line. The first zone, in the front line, contained artillery sited so
as to fire directly at approaching armour. These guns were grouped in
mutually supporting strong-points and were protected by infantry. In the
sectors which appeared to be well suited to armoured attack, battalions
of field artillery and designated as ‘tank-destroyers’ were sited to cover
the lines of approach thoroughly and smother them with gunfire. These
tank-destroyer units were committed to this role and were excluded from
the general artillery command system and were thus incapable of receiving
any orders for indirect fire missions, their target being armour and exclusively
armour.
Behind the forward zone was the ‘zone of field artillery’ in which the
normal field guns for indirect fire support were sited. Behind this was
the ‘zone of medium artillery’ and behind this was the ‘zone of heavy
artillery’. Finally in the rear areas was a massive reserve of all types
of guns and howitzers which could be moved forward to reinforce any threatened
area or used as replacements for weapons damaged during battle. Having
zoned their defensive area, the Soviets now applied the same system and
divided the enemy’s area into corresponding zones. From the front line
to the nearest skyline was designated the zone of direct fire. The next
zone, corresponding to the ‘zone of field artillery’ on the Soviet side,
was reserved for the fire of field artillery, and similar zones of fire
were delineated for the medium and heavy artillery.
When the attack developed, the first to go into action was the heavy artillery,
firing into its own zone on the enemy side with the object to break up
the attack in its early stages. As the attack moved forward and came into
the medium fire zone, the medium artillery would come into action and,
likewise the field artillery would engage targets as they came into their
zone. Finally, as the assault came over the skyline the tank-destroyer
battalions and direct-fire artillery in the front line would go into action.
Thus the strength of the defensive fire increased as the attack came closer.
Additionally in the initial stages of the attack, when the Germans were
probing for information, only the heavy and medium guns would engage from
their positions in the rear of the front line, and the forward weapons
would remain silent and thus not give away their positions prematurely.
When the Germans were checked, the Soviets counter-attacked.
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