The Cancellation of Operation Zitadelle

Ernst August Krag as SS-Obersturmführer

Waffen-SS with captured Red Army soldier at Kursk

On the morning of July 15 1943, the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich linked up with the elite 7.Panzer-Division to close the ring around several thousand Soviet Red Army soldiers of 48th Rifle Corps and 2nd Guards Tank Corps. As the Das Reich battled forward, the Leibstandarte SS and the Totenkopf prepared themselves for another push northwards to finish off the 5th Guards Tank Army for good. They were not to get the opportunity. Feldmarschall Erich von Manstein also had a significant unit that remained unused during the Battle of Kursk containing of two highly experienced divisions: SS-Panzer-Gren.Division Wiking under command of SS-Brigadeführer Herbert Otto Gille and 17.Panzer-Division under command of Generalleutnant Walter Schilling, which, like all the others at the beginning of Kursk, were at full strength in men and material. The corps had moved up from the Kharkov area to the vicinity of Belgorod on July 10 1943. Von Manstein, however, had not employed them before Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler redirected the corps back to Isyum on July 16 1943. Because of Hitler's decision, von Manstein lost the availability of a powerful mobile formation that could have been very useful in the battle. The final nails in the coffin of Operation Citadel were new Soviet offensives near Orel and far to the south along the Mius Front on July 17 1943. II.SS-Panzerkorps were pulled out of the battle for the Kursk salient and sent southwards to neutralize this new threat. Unternehmen Zitadelle was officially over. The German Reich could not recover from the losses incurred during the previous two years of campaigning, and Soviet resources seemed limitless. Soviet industrial output was several times that of the German war industry, and the Germans were at a significant manpower disadvantage even after the horrendous Soviet losses from the previous years of fighting. The Soviet advantage in tanks, aircraft, artillery, and men would only get worse for the Germans in the remaining years of the war, especially after the Western Allies landed in Normandy on June 6 1944. Credit: historian Valor Dodd and Col. and Prof. Jon Klug. Left image: SS-Obersturmführer Ernst August Krag of SS-Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 2 of the Das Reich during the Kursk battle in July 1943. Krag survived the most epic tank battle in history and in June 1944, almost a year after Citadel, he took command of the SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 2 Das Reich, which he led on the invasion front in France. By war's end Krag had earned the prestigious Oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross. He ended the war with the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer and died aged 79 on May 24 1994 in Niedernhausen. Bottom image: the photo shows two SS men and a captured Soviet POW standing in a shallow trench. It is believed to have been taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Max Büschel at the Kursk salient in July 1943. Credit: Johannes Dorn. c. Bundesarchiv.