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The Battle of Kursk- III: Day One - Extra History (Patreon)

Published:
2016-03-21 14:27:14
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

On July 5, 1943, the long-awaited German assault on the Soviet defense at Kursk began.

Files

Previews only

The Battle of Kursk- III: Operation Citadel - Extra History

*Sponsored* by Wargaming! Download World of Tanks: http://bit.ly/1Rw5DNz On July 5, 1943, the long-awaited German assault began. Despite the arrival of the powerful new German tanks, the Soviets ground their advance down to a crawl thanks to the stiff fortifications they'd had time to lay in place. --- (Episode details below) Support Extra History on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Watch the full Kursk series: http://bit.ly/1TL1FWr Grab your Extra Credits gear at the store! http://bit.ly/ExtraStore Play games with us on Extra Play! http://bit.ly/WatchEXP Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: http://bit.ly/ECCurator ____________ Why doesn't this series use the Nazi swastika symbol? James explains: http://bit.ly/1Pzy1k5 ____________ The Germans planned their assault for July 5, 1943 but a defector warned the Soviets and denied them the element of surprise. Even without the warning, General Zhukov had found plenty of time to fortify Kursk with layer upon layer of pillboxes, minefields, and more. He planned to bloody the Germans with this staunch defense and weaken them for later. The new German tanks, such as the Tiger, arrived only to find themselves outnumbered by numerous Soviet T-34s and ill-supported by maintenance crews who were stretched too thin by the number and variety of new tanks being deployed. General Manstein ordered his strongest tank unit to push through, targeting the small town of Oboyan, but although he made the most progress along the line of the assault, even he had not expected resistance on this scale. By the next day, the Germans had barely reached the second line of Soviet defenses, and while they hadn't been forced to retreat anywhere, they were distinctly behind schedule. Hitler needed them to win. It wouldn't win the war, but he hoped that it would force the Soviets to withdraw, leaving him free to concentrate on the Western front and the threats from the United Kingdom and the United States. ____________ ♫ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H ♫ Outro music provided courtesy of Wargaming! "Reading 'Stars and Stripes'" by Sergey Khmelevsky http://bit.ly/1Oak2wZ

Comments

barefoot James

Well done! I'm looking forward to the next presentation.

Sean Sarff

It's ironic that the German army's use of a single tactic was it's downfall not only here in World War 2, but with the von schlieffen plan in World War 1. Since the attack on Poland, the Russians were able to safely observe the use of blitzkrieg and devise the most cunning counter to it. Layered defense. The great strength of the blitzkrieg was it would circle the defenses of a single point and starve them out until either the Germans could easily roll over the opposition or they surrendered. But, if you circled a single line, only to find another line behind that one, then you've just allowed yourself to be flanked. And this was the issue that the Germans encountered. Their dogmatic dedication to a single overall strategy was their truest failing at Kursk.

Sean Sarff

It's ironic that the German army's use of a single tactic was it's downfall not only here in World War 2, but with the von schlieffen plan in World War 1. Since the attack on Poland, the Russians were able to safely observe the use of blitzkrieg and devise the most cunning counter to it. Layered defense. The great strength of the blitzkrieg was it would circle the defenses of a single point and starve them out until either the Germans could easily roll over the opposition or they surrendered. But, if you circled a single line, only to find another line behind that one, then you've just allowed yourself to be flanked. And this was the issue that the Germans encountered. Their dogmatic dedication to a single overall strategy was their truest failing at Kursk. On an additional note, because of the massive number of men that were fighting on this front, when the western forces finally were used, because in the beginning they barely numbered over 100,000, Hitler assumed it was merely a probing force and held back the military he had in France while he waited for the real offensive force to arrive.

Aaron hutchinson

I got a good chuckle from James juggling the knives.

Jim McGeehin

One of the big problems with the German war engine was how much it required early success to snowball, using their momentum to carry forward to victory, and fronts that stood fast against the Germans could be quickly flanked when the Germans rolled through gaps in the line. Layered defense and gradual withdrawal bogged down the German war machine and left them exposed to (relatively) cheap counter-attack with artillery. Couple that with the Soviet Union's manpower, and the highly-mechanized German forces found their doctrine counteracted at the fundamental level. Attrition warfare is a very real strategy, and the Russians being on the defensive meant their cost of waging war was much lower (from a financial standpoint, not a casualty standpoint) than the Germans. With shorter supply routes and plenty of men to use, the Soviet leadership picked a devastatingly effective strategy against the Germans, one that played directly into key weaknesses of German military doctrine.

ExtraCredits
>>1532063

Odd to think that a battle involving millions of people and tons of equipment (from tanks to war planes) could lull you into a false sense of security. "Oh, that measly little force of 100,000 - we can worry about that later."

De

I don't know why, but I've had more trouble following what's going on in this series than I ever have had in any other Extra History series. Maybe it's just too much information too fast? Maybe I'm getting too old for this.

Sean Sarff
>>1532063

Well yeah. Why worry about 126,000 when 3 million Russians are rushing you.

ExtraCredits
>>1541288

I wonder if that's because we've spread them out so widely? There were three weeks between Episode 2 and Episode 3. That was due to a localization delay, not intentional, but even I had to go back and re-watch the first two episodes to get my bearings on this narrative again.