Operation Zitadelle: Casualties and losses

SS-Pz.Gren.Div. Das Reich south-west of Prokhorovka

Waffen-SS Panzer men during a break in the Kursk fighting

Waffen-SS battlefield grave at the Kursk salient

The Battle of Prokhorovka has been hailed by Soviet as a great victory. Soviet propaganda claimed more Tigers destroyed during the battle than the actual number engaged in the whole Operation Citadel. Soviet Chief Marshal Rotmistrov's alleged comment "The Tigers are burning!" is definitely a wild exaggeration. According to microfilm at the U.S. National Archives in Washington 15 Panzerkampfwagen Tigers were damaged on July 12 1943; 7 Tigers at Prokhorovka and 8 elsewhere on the Southern Front. All were returned to service by July 18 1943. According to Russian military historian Grigoriy Krivosheyev Soviet casualties at Kursk during Citadel were 177,874 including 70,330 killed. According to German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units suffered 54,182 casualties, including 10,996 killed and missing. Despite the remarkable efforts of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS Panzer Divisions during July and August 1943, the Third Reich found itself in a strategic retreat for the remainder of the campaign in the east. Total casualties and looses in the whole Battle of Kursk, which includes the subsequent Soviet counterstrikes that followed the German offensive Citadel, can be studied at the post Faces of War. Top image: Das Reich Tigers manoeuvre on the Russian steppe west of Yakhontov in the Belgorod Oblast during the Kursk Offensive. Tiger Commander SS-Oscharf. Johann T. Doroschuk can be seen to the left of the picture in the cupola of Tiger S14. Photo by SS-Ostuf. and KB Friedrich Zschäckel. c. Bundesarchiv. Middle image: an SS-Hstuf. and his tank crew during Citadel in July 1943. They are all wearing the Waffen-SS tanker's Eichenlaub camouflage coverall. Credit: Karl Mensburg. FU. Bottom image: battlefield grave of an SS MG gunner.