Tank Battles, El Alamein to the Volga
The story of tank warfare during World War II.
Hitler's trail to glory was blazed by Panzers: In Poland, Western
Europe, North Africa and Russia, they repeatedly overcame enormous odds by
combining radio communications, tanks and Stuka dive-bombers to wage
blitzkrieg - lightning war.
Using such revolutionary tactics, commanders like Erwin Rommel rewrote
the rules of tank warfare. But Rommel's reverse at El Alamein was the
first indication that the tide was turning - and on the eastern front the
German defeat at Kursk was to confirm it.
The Nazi armoured advance had seemed unstoppable - would Hitler succeed
where Napoleon himself had failed? The Panzer was a potent symbol of
German invincibility, but it was tactics - not technology- that brought
success.
In mounting Operation Citadel against Kursk, Hitler set up the greatest
tank battle in history. He needed an unqualified triumph " to shine
like a beacon" and avenge the humiliation of Stalingrad. But he had
reckoned without the Soviet T34, built in half the time of a Panzer and
easier to maintain in inhospitable conditions.
The German pincer movement was finally mounted in early June 1943, but
after a week both northern and southern armies were at a standstill.
Soviet Packfront tactics - rockets and artillery, backed by tanks and
infantry- proved a costly but effective answer to Blitzkrieg. The world's
biggest ever tank battle at Prokhorova saw 1,500 tanks on the battlefield
- but as the dust settled, it was the Germans who licked their wounds. The
action ground on 20 weeks more - but Citadel was doomed, and with it
Hitler's chances of remaining in Russia.
Russia was the anvil on which the war machine was broken and the
Panzers had finally lost their myth of invincibility.
