Panzer Battles - Kursk Version 1.01 released

[ComradeP]

It's a curious battle, Prokhorovka isn't the most interesting part of it in my opinion. Most of us seem to play pre-Prokhorovka scenarios as well and I'm very happy the game covers the majority of the interesting action (Gresnoye fills one of the largest remaining gaps) from the start of the offensive to the stalemate at Prokhorovka.

Aside from XXXXVIII Panzerkorps' poor performance, it remains strange that the Germans attacked across the Donets, which from a military perspective didn't serve much of a purpose.

Not only is the Panzerkorps attacking into terrain very unsuitable for mobile warfare with their backs to a major river, but it's also attacking away from the target of the penetration. Even if it had succeeded, even a small redeployment of Soviet forces from the greater Izyum area to the north would've made the flank of the Panzerkorps untenable. If the Panzerkorps would've attacked 3 abreast, possibly with a Panzer division in reserve with the Donets at their flank, that would have made German progress to the north much more likely.

It's all hindsight, but on paper I'm never sure how the Germans envisioned this operation would succeed with such a high chance that one or more of the Panzerkorps would quickly find itself unsupported with open flanks. It's a very different plan than most people would try in a wargame. The attack across the Donets was imaginative to a certain extent and might have caused confusion if the Soviets had not expected it, but considering all the delays in when the operation would be launched, it was pretty much guaranteed that it wouldn't go anywhere fast enough to help the SS in a way that couldn't be accomplished otherwise.